Beth Yeshua Messianic Congregation

1. Beth Yeshua Messianic Congregation Shabbat Service, Saturday May 4, 2013 An Introduction to Up Coming Bible Studies at Beth Yeshua Torah, Haftorah and B’rit Chadasha http://www.bethyeshua-idaho.com/

2. Before We Go to Our New Studies of the Scripture Readings It would be important for me first to define the terminology of what I will be saying before I give a “drash” on the “parsha.”

3. We MUST Realize: The Bible AS A WHOLE is a Hebraic Work – from B’resheet, to Revelation! The Autographs Were ALLPenned by Hebrews (except perhaps the Books of Luke and Acts who were penned by Luke, a historian, who was possibly not a Hebrew, but initially a convert to Judaism).

4. Therefore to Understand the Entire Bible, We MUST approach it from the Hebraic perspective…

5. Even Rabbi Sha’ul’s (Paul’s) EVEN the Writings of Shaliach Sha’ul (Apostle Paul) – who was trained by Rabbi Gamliel, the grandson of Rabbi Hillel of the Pharisaical school of Hillel! Acts 22:3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.”

6. He Wrote His Epistles to NON-Jewish (Greek) Ecclesiae in Koine Greek That is: As a Hebrew writing from a Hebrew World-view (Hebrew thinking) to Greeks to their Greek World-view (Greek thinking).

7. Whenever there is a Translation From one World-view to another OR from one Language to another, there is ALWAYS “Something lost in the translation.”

8. We Shall See This as We Go Through the Study of the Word! The message today is NOT about subject…it is to define the terminology and approach that we shall be using as we go through the D’rash of the Parshot each Shabbat.

9. Those of You Who Have Attended… …Messianic or Traditional synagogues or our Wednesday Evening Torah Studies before probably know these terms, but for those who have not, I must do this before I go any further.

10. Please be Patient With Me… I am asking those who know the following material to please be patient as I define these terms for those who don’t.

11. To Those Who Are Hearing These Things for the First Time… I am NOT Saying, “Just Trust Me…” I am saying that I’ll be able to answer the questions you may have in time and you won’t be disappointed.

12. BUT, We HAVE to Define Terms FIRST Or, I shall lose people at the very beginning when I begin to use Hebrew Terms!

13. The Words “Parsha” (singular) or(“Parshot” –plural) Are transliterations of the Hebrewwords into English, so it can be spelled differently. They can also be spelled – parashah (sing.) and parashot or parashiyot (pl.)

14. Definition of a “Parsha” Formally means a section (portion) of a biblical book in the Masoretic text of the TaNaKh.

15. The Word TaNaKh… …Is an Acronymmade from the First Letters of Three Hebrew Words. (An acronym is an abbreviation formed from the initial components in a phraseor a word.)

16. We use Acronyms in our own language: for example - IBM for International Business Machines or CEO for Chief Executive Officer of a Corporation.

17. TaNaKh T = Torah – “Instruction/Teaching” – NOT “Law” N = Neviim – “prophets” K = Kethuvim – “writings”

18. Yeshua Speaks of These Three Divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures Luke 24: 25 He said to them, “Foolish people! So unwilling to put your trust in everything the prophets spoke! 26 Didn’t the Messiah have to die like this before entering his glory?” 27 Then, starting with Moshe and all the prophets, he explained to them the things that can be found throughout the Tanakh concerning himself.

19. Luke 24:44 Yeshua said to them, “This is what I meant when I was still with you and told you that everything written about me in the Torah of Moshe, the Prophets and the Psalms had to be fulfilled.”

20. Divisions oftheTaNaKh The division of the text into parashot for the biblical books is independent of chapter and verse numbers, which are not part of the Masoretic tradition. Parashot are not numbered, but have special names.

21. You Will See the Hebrew Names of the Biblical Books In the Complete Jewish Bible, by Dr. David Stern, and perhaps versions, you will see TWO NAMES for EACH BOOK of the Hebrew Scriptures (known by many Christians as the “Old” Testament) – I prefer the term “Older” Testament.

22. The Hebrew name of the Book… …is derived from a Hebrewwordor words generally found in the first paragraph of that Book.

23. For Instance: The First Book of the Bible is the Hebrew word B’resheet (B’rayshith), meaning “In (B’) the Beginning(resh from rosh - head).”

24. Alongside of the Hebrew word B’resheet/B’rayshith is the word Genesis - from the Latin Vulgate, in turn borrowed or transliterated from the KoineGreek word(meaning “origin”).

25. In The Christian Bible The Hebrew Scriptures (“Older” Testament Books) are entitled by their names which originated from the Septuagint (LXX - KoineGreektranslation of the “Older” Testament).

26. The Septuagint - LXX …is an ancient translation of the Hebrew Bible and some related texts into Koine Greek, dated as early as the late 2nd century BCE.

27. Meaning of the Word Septuagint The Septuagint derives its name from the Latinversio septuaginta interpretum, “translation of the seventy interpreters,” or simply “translation of the seventy.”

28. The Septuagint - LXX The traditional story is that Ptolemy II sponsored the translation by seventy or seventy-two Jewish scholars for use by the many Alexandrian Jews who were not fluent in Hebrew but fluent in Koine Greek, which was the lingua franca of Alexandria, Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE (before the Common Era) until the development of Byzantine Greek around 600 CE (Common Era).

29. A version of the legend is found in the Tractate Megillah of the Babylonian Talmud: “King Ptolemy once gathered 72 Elders. He placed them in 72 chambers, each of them in a separate one, without revealing to them why they were summoned. He entered each one's room and said: "Write for me the Torah of Moshe, your teacher." God put it in the heart of each one to translate identically as all the others did.” Tractate Megillah, pages 9a-9b. The Talmud identifies fifteen specific unusual translations made by the scholars, but only two of these translations are found in the extant LXX (Roman numerals for the number 70).

30. The Septuagint (LXX)is the Translation of the TaNaKh… …That is MOSTLY (if not always) quoted by the Writers of the Apostolic Writings (“Newer” Testament).

31. Weekly Torah Portion“Parashat ha-Shavua‎ (week)” Popularly known just as parashah (or parshah) As With Each Book of the Bible, Each weekly Torah portion adopts its name from one of the firstuniquewordsin the Hebrewtext.

32. Dating back to the time of the Babylonian captivity (6th century BCE), public Torah reading mostly followed an annual cycle beginning and ending on the Jewish holiday of SimchatTorah, with the Torah divided into 54weeklyportionsto correspond to the lunisolar Hebrew calendar, which contains up to 55 weeks, the exact number varying between leap years and regular years.

33. Annual Cycle of Torah Readings The annual cycle of parashot takes us all the way from B’rayshith (Genesis) 1:1 to Devarim (Deuteronomy) 34:12 in one year.

34. In a Strictly Solar Calendar We know there are 52 weeks in a solar year – with every 4th year (leap year) adding one day to the month of February.

35. But because there are always 54 Weekly portions, we will see some Shabbats that have TWO Parashot! As we would have today, since our assigned parashot readings are B’har (“on the mountain”) and B’chukotai (“By (“on” or “in”) My statutes”).

36. However, In Our Congregation Since Simchat Torah (“Joy of the Torah”) last year (2012) we have been following the triennial cycle. [There was also an ancient triennial cycle of readings practiced in some parts of the world.]

37. The Triennial Cycle Many congregations have implemented an alternative triennial cycle in which only one-third of each weekly parashah is read in a given year; the parashot read are still consistent with the annual cycle but the entire Torahis completed over a three year period.

38. In Other Words: We are STILL reading the SAME PARSHOT as those reading the Annual Cycle, BUT we are reading only the final 1/3 of that SAME Parsha, instead of the WHOLE Parsha!

39. So Today, We Read The LAST 1/3 of a Double Parsha. We Read the end of Parsha Bechukotai – V’yikrah (Leviticus) 27:1-34.

40. Since We Completed the Book of V’yikrah (Leviticus) It is Traditional, when completing any book of the Torah to say the words, “Hazak, Hazak, V’Nit’chazek” “Be Strong, Be Strong, and let us be Strengthened!”

41. As We Have Done Today, after the Reading of the Torah Portion On each Sabbath and on Jewish festivals and fast days in the Synagogue, the parsha reading is followed by the reading of the Haftarah.

42. The Word Haftarah or Haftoroh Which means "parting," "taking leave", plural haftarot) is a series of selections from the books of Nevi'im("Prophets") of the Hebrew Bible (TaNaKh) that is publicly read in synagogue as part of Jewish religious practice.

43. Thematically Linked Typically, the haftarahis thematically linked to the parasha(Torah portion) that precedes it. The theme may be based upon subject matter or on a “remez” (hint) found in the parasha. (We will investigate those terms when we talk about Hermeneutics in future Bible Studies.)

44. The Origin of the Haftorah Reading… …Is lost to history, and several theories have been proposed to explain its role in Jewish practice, suggesting it arose in response to the persecution of the Jews under Antiochus Epiphanes which preceded the Maccabean revolt, wherein Torah reading was prohibited.

45. BUT We DO KNOW that Our Lord Yeshua Read from the Haftorah In Luke 4:16-22 - Now when he went to Natzeret, where he had been brought up, on Shabbat he went to the synagogue as usual. He stood up to read, and he was given the scroll of the prophet Yesha‘yahu. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written…

46. “The Spirit of Adonai is upon me; therefore he has anointed me to announce Good News to the poor; he has sent me to proclaim freedom for the imprisoned and renewed sight for the blind, to release those who have been crushed, to proclaim a year of the favor of Adonai.” After closing the scroll and returning it to the shammash, he sat down; and the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him.

47. He started to speak to them (D’rash): “Today, as you heard it read, this passage of the Tanakh was fulfilled!” Everyone was speaking well of him and marveling that such appealing words were coming from his mouth. They were even asking, “Can this be Yosef’s son?”

48. Finally, We Read from the Apostolic Writings (“B’ritChadasha”): The traditional synagogue (those who don’t believe in Yeshua) does not have such a reading. They read only from the Torah portion and Haftorah portion.

49. We read from ALL Three: • The Torah, • Haftorah and • “B’ritChadasha” (Apostolic writings or “Newer” Testament)

50. We in the Messianic Community …have various Readings taken from the Apostolic Writings; but nothing that is universal among our Community at large.