You are the Salt of the Earth

Covenant of Salt
R Yaakov Kamenetsky, The Stone Ed. The Chumash p.552

During the second day of creation, God created a division between the heavenly waters above the firmament and the earthly waters below (Genesis 1:7). The Midrash records that the earthly waters protested that they, too, wished to be close to God. To comfort them, God made a covenant that the water would have a share in the temple service, for salt, which comes from the sea, would be placed on sacrificial parts that go on the Altar, and fresh water would be poured on the Altar every Sukkot.

If the salt was assuaged the wounded feelings of the lower waters as it were, then why wasn't water poured on the altar with every offering? The answer maybe found in how salt is taken from the sea. The water is boiled off or allowed to evaporate, leaving the salt behind. Thus, even the "lower water" rises to heaven in the form of condensation. The only component that is "condemned to remain" in the lower world is its salt, and in this verse God declared that it, too, is needed for His service. This is a lesson to all people in their everyday lives. A Jew can and should find spirituality not in the obviously holy and heavenly pursuits, but even in his seemingly mundane activities.

The salt of the covenant as an allegory finds company in Yeshua's parable of the salt and the light.


Commentary on Matthew 5:13-16
Torah Club Volume 4 The News of the Messiah, First Fruits of Zion

Yeshua calls His disciples the salt of the earth. Just like salt adds the flavor to food, we are to add the flavor to the earth. A little bit of salt can make an otherwise bitter taste palatable. We disciples are to be the force for good and righteousness that balances the bitterness and ugliness of the world and all that is evil and wrong and wicked. Salt is used as a preservative. We are to be that which preserves the world; that which repairs the world.

In the same way He tells us that we are the light of the world. One little lamp can dispel a lot of darkness. Just as a lamp on a stand gives light to the whole room, so too we are to be the force that dispels the darkness from the earth.

In Judaism, the concept of preserving the world (like salt) and illuminating the darkness (like light) is expressed as tikun olam, fixing the world. As disciples of Yeshua we are to be busy fixing the world, preserving and repairing a broken and hurting world.

But He also warned us not to let our lamp be concealed under a bowl. If we do, our light will be useless. He warned us not to lose our salty flavor. If we do, we will be useless. Consider the following comment from the Talmud. The Sages asked Rabbi Yehoshua, “When salt becomes unsavory, how can it be made salty?” He replied, “With the afterbirth of a mule.” They asked, “And does a mule have an afterbirth?” He replied, “And can salt become unsavory?” (Berakhot 8b)

Rabbi Yehoshua cannot resist taking a little poke at the Gospel. Mules don’t reproduce. They are sterile and have no afterbirth. In the same way it is impossible for salt to lose its saltiness. Rabbi Yehoshua pokes a little fun at our expense, but his point is that salt cannot lose its salinity. His point is also Yeshua’s point. Salt cannot lose its saltiness... but we can! In our job as disciples, that is as salt of the earth, it is possible, even likely, that we will lose the essence of character that makes us salty. What good would unsalty salt be? When we lose our saltiness, we are worthless to the kingdom, no longer good for anything. So how do we stay salty? What is our saltiness?

In the two analogies, salt and light correspond. Being the salt of the earth is equivalent to being the light of the world. So too, losing our saltiness is equivalent to hiding our light under a bowl. What is the saltiness? What is the light? How can we be salty? How can we give light to everyone in the house?

The answer is in verse 16 where He says, ”in the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Could it really be so simple? Our saltiness (that we are in danger of losing and therefore being worthless to the kingdom) and our light (that we are in danger of concealing and therefore being worthless to the kingdom) are our good deeds, our mitzvot (commandments).

Salt = Disciples
Saltiness = Obedience to the commandments
Lamp = Disciples
Light = Obedience to the commandments

In Judaism the term “good deeds” is always idiomatic for the commandments of Torah. If we keep the commandments, we will keep our saltiness; if we keep the commandments, our light will shine before men.

Shavuot and Pentecost

Martha Stern painted a beautiful picture of what Messianic Bible Scholars have been attempting to describe in words. Above is illustrated by Allan dela Rama copying the black and white version of the original shown to us by Ariel Berkowitz.

THE RUACH AND THE TORAH
Pentecost is Jewish by Danny Litvin

The similarities between the events surrounding the giving of the Torah and the giving of the Ruach HaKodesh are quite astounding. Look at a few examples in the passages below:

A COMMON SCENE

Exodus 19:16, "On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with thick cloud over the mountain, and very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled...(18) Mount Sinai was covered in smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire...(19) and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder."

Acts 2:2, "Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting...(3) They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that came to rest on each of them...(6) When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment...(15) It's only nine in the morning!"

The parallels are many: the time of day, the type of sound that was heard, the reaction of the people, the fire representing the presence of God, and the location -- the focal point for the Jewish people. The tribes that surrounded Mount Sinai when they heard from God. Once Israelites were in the Land, the Temple Mount - God's chosen dwelling place - was seen as the umbilical cord that joined earth to heaven. In addition to this, there is the tradition that both both events took place on the same day. All of this can be seen as God drawing the attention of His redeemed people (and all who would subsequently read about these events) to the much deeper theological parallels between the two events.

MIRACLES OF SHAVUOT
Torah Club Volume Four, First Fruits of Zion

According to the Midrash, the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai was accompanied by additional wonders, two of which are significant to our reading of Acts 2.

On the occasion of the Giving of Torah, the Children of Israel not only heard the Lord's voice, but actually saw the sound waves as they emerged from the Lord's mouth. They visualized them as fiery substance. Each commandment that left the Lord's mouth traveled around the entire camp and then came back to every Jew individually. (Weissman, Moshe. 1995. Shemos. pg 182 citing Midrash Chazit.)

The second miracle the Midrash preserves is the voice of God speaking in every language known to man. In Rabbinic lore, there are 70 mother languages.

The Torah says, "And all the people saw the voices." Note that it does not say "the voice," but "the voices"; wherefore Rabbi Yochanan said that God's voice, as it was uttered, split into seventy voices, in seventy languages, so that all the nations should understand. (Shemot Rabbah 5:9 quoting Exodus 20:18)

Rabbi Yochanan said: "What is meant by the verse, 'The Lord announced the word, and great was the company of those who proclaimed it.'? - Every single word that went forth from the Omnipotent was split up into seventy languages." (Shabbat 88b quoting Psalm 68:11)

The School of Rabbi Ishmael taught the meaning of the verse: "and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces," just as hammer is divided into many sparks, so too every single word that went forth from the Holy One, blessed be He, split up into seventy languages (Shabbat 88b quoting Jeremiah 23:29)

Whether or not these traditions preserve actual historical memories of the Mount Sinai experience is not important. It is important to remember that the disciples and followers of Yeshua were all well aware that of the Shavuot Legends. They knew the stories of the giving of the Torah on Shavuot. They knew the story of the words of fire resting on each individual on Shavuot. They knew the story of God's voices speaking to all mankind in every language on Shavuot. Therefore, the miracles and signs and wonders that came upon them in Acts, chapter two, carried deep significance. The tongues of fire and the speaking in every tongue were both directly allusions to the Mount Sinai experience and the receiving of the Torah. God was underscoring a connection between His Holy Spirit and His Holy Torah!

The Spirit and the Torah

Shavuot draws a line of connection between Exodus 19 and Acts chapter 2. The Festival superimposes the giving of the spirit in Jerusalem over the giving of the Torah at Sinai. The two events are forever inseparably linked. The Torah and the Holy Spirit are substantially of the same essence. (Read Jeremiah 31:31 and Ezekiel 36:27)

According to these prophets, the Holy Spirit was given in order to place the Torah within the believer's heart. Thus, the spirit within us and the Torah of God must agree. Both are from the same God, and God is One. The spirit and Torah work in concert to direct the believer's life.

Why Milk Foods are Eaten on Shavuot

SHAVUOT

Links to eternity;: Jewish holidays and festivals; homiletical essays by Harris L Selig

Various reasons are given for eating milk foods on Shavuot. "Ramo" (Rabbi Moses Isserles) said (494) It is everywhere the custom to eat milk foods the first day of Shavuot. "Shalah" added that it is customary to eat milk foods along with baked food made with honey, for the Torah is likened to milk and honey in the verse: Honey and Milk are beneath your tongue.

"Mishnah Berurah" says, in the name of a great sage, that the custom originated when the Jews descended from Mount Sinai after receiving the Torah and returned home, where only milk food was readily available, since meat food required too much preparation according to the law.

According to "Siftei Zaddikim", when the angels argued that the Jews were not worthy to received the Torah, God replied that they were even less worthy, for when they visited Abraham on earth, they mixed meat and milk. At this, the angels fell silent. Thanks to the question of milk and meat, therefore, the angels were refuted and the Torah was given to the Jews. Therefore, we eat milk foods on Shavuot, to show that we keep the law of milk and meat.

It is also the custom to eat three-cornered kreplach on Shavuot, because of the three-fold nature of the day, as the Talmud says: The Galilean preached before Rabbi Hisda: Blessed be the Almighty who gave a threefold Torah (Torah, Prophets, Ketuvim), to a threefold people(Priests, Levites, Israelites) to the third child Moses (Afted Aaron and Miriam) on the third day (of abstinence) in the third month (Sivan).

Operation Peace of the Galilee

מבצע שלום הגליל, or Mivtsa Shlom HaGalil

Israel became part of my consciousness, mostly because it's a regular fare in the prime-time news during my growing up years. This was more pronounced in June 1982 when Israel launched Operation Peace of the Galilee as a response to the assassination attempt against Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, by one of the Palestinian Terror Organization.

Once more Israel is hogging the headlines this June as the war-rhetorics gets heated up between Israel and Iran.

From the Autobiography of Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, we can have a glimpse of another fateful month of June for the beleaguered State.

That Friday, June 4, while I was visiting and talking in Bucharest, the Israeli cabinet met to decide what action should be taken in response to the shooting of Shlomo Argov... But the Argov shooting was merely the match that ignited the fuse. The real casus belli was the chain of terrorist attach(290 of them now) and the continuing buildup of long-range artillery in southern Lebanon - all of which had taken place during the eleven-month-long supposed cease-fire.

...At midday the cabinet approved the airstrikes unanimously. Shortly afterward the attacks were driven home against two military targets in the Beirut suburbs and nine others in the south. By five-thirty that afternoon, PLO artillery shells and rockets began to fall on the Galilee towns and villages. The terrorists had unambiguously declared their decision.

"Duchifat" (דוכיפת), Israel's New National bird

The trisyllabic song "oop-oop-oop", which gives rise to its English and scientific name Upupa epops of Family UPUPIDAE (Hoopoes)

The Hoopoe, or "Duchifat" (דוכיפת) was chosen as the national bird of the State of Israel in May 2008 in conjunction with the country's 60th anniversary.

President Shimon Peres announced the Hoopoe as Israel's new national bird. The Hoopoe won an election held by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, which concluded after months of voting. 155,000 people participated in the nationwide election.

Stirred up some Hoopoe's nest in the Media

Reuters headlined the news: Israel names biblically banned Hoopoe national bird. "It may not be kosher, but the Hoopoe was chosen on Thursday as Israel's national bird" it continues.

Meanwhile, Jerusalem Post banners: Dirty, treif, but fit for a king, the hoopoe is our national bird.

"It's not a very hygienic bird. It smells very bad," Jonathan Meyrav, a bird expert at Kibbutz Lahav in the Negev and quoted by the Post, said with a laugh. "It wasn't my personal favorite - but the people have spoken."

Hoopoe in the Torah

The Book of Leviticus groups the Hoopoe with birds such as the eagle, vulture and pelican that are "abhorrent, not to be eaten".

Ramban, in his commentary on Parashat Shemini (Leviticus 11), explains that all the animals and birds that claw and catch their prey in this way possess the terrible trait of brutality (and we are what we eat...). Therefore the Torah wished to distance His people from these categories of animal life as a source of food lest our hearts acquire such a brutal nature.

In the Linear English Chumash (S.S.&R. Publishers) we find each of the described unclean birds with names we can recognize:

The nesher is translated as the "great vulture"; the peres as the "bearded vulture"; the da'ah as the kite; the ayah as the falcon; the orev as the raven; the bat haya'anah as the ostrich; the tachmas as the night hawk; the shachaf as the sea mew (seagull); the netz as the hawk; the kos as the "little owl"; the shalach as the cormorant; the yanshuf as the "great owl"; the tinshemet as the "horned owl"; the ka'at as the pelican; the racham as the "carrion vulture"; the chasida as the stork; the anafa as the heron; the duchifat as the hoopoe; and the atalef as the bat.

Hoopoes in the Rabbinic Writings

The duchifat is called nagar tura, carpenter of the mountain, by Targum Onkelos because of its characteristics, as our Rabbis explained in Tractate Gittin (68b):

The Gemara there discusses King Solomon's dilemma. He wished to build the Holy Temple but was restricted from using cutting tools to cut the large stones from the quarries into smaller building blocks. The Gemara relates how Solomon encountered the demon Ashmedai (Asmodeus), who told him of the shamir, a small worm that possessed the unique ability to cut stone. Ashmedai further said that the only creature that might bring him the shamir was the tarnegol habar, the wild rooster or wild cock (as translated by the ArtScroll Schottenstein Edition of the Shas.)

The key element of this description is that the wild rooster or duchifat utilizes its clawing ability to pick up the shamir.

Hoopoe in the Encyclopedia Judaica

We find here another aspect of this bird that makes it unfit for kosher consumption (Vol. 8:970):

"HOOPOE (Heb. duchifat; AV 'lapwing'), bird included in the Pentateuch among the unclean birds (Lev. 11:19; Deut. 14:18). The hoopoe was confused by Karaites with the chicken, for which reason they prohibited the eating of the latter (see Ibn Ezra on Lev. 11:19), even though the two are in fact distinguished from each other by many characteristics. Because of its crest, which is no more than an erectile tuft of feathers, the hoopoe is called 'the wild cock' in the Talmud (Git. 68b). Smaller than a dove, it feeds on insects, and is distinguished by its beautifully colored plumage. Its flesh exudes an offensive smell which is particularly strong near its nest and repels anyone trying to approach it. This perhaps was the reason certain legends associated with it, such as that it guards treasures in its nest, and was entrusted with transporting the shamir, the miraculous worm that split the stones of the Temple, the use of an iron tool for the purpose having been prohibited (Deut. 27:5; Hul. 63a)."

Thus we see that the duchifat is indeed considered a bird of prey, and as such we can begin to understand the reason that the Torah prohibited it to us.

Hoopoes in World Literature

* Once a man, Tereus was transformed into the form of a Hoopoe in Greek mythology. The character featured prominently in Aristophanes' Birds.
* In Islam, the Hoopoe is associated with King Solomon who spoke with animals, (in Arabic the Prophet Suleyman) and he tells him of the Queen of Sheba and her magnificent land. Quran 27:20-28.
* In classical Chinese poetry, the Hoopoe is depicted as a celestial messenger often bearing news of the spring.
* A hoopoe figures centrally in The Conference of the Birds, one of the central works of Sufi literature.

Jerusalem Day

The following is an account of Uzi Narkiss, the officer of Central Command during the Six Day War that liberated the Old City. The excerpt is from his book The Liberation of Jerusalem (London 1983) and compiled in the book The Jerusalem Anthology in honor of the three-thousandth anniversary of the city in 1996.

We beheld the huge paved courtyard, crowned against the blue sky of June 7th, 1967(the 28th of the month of Iyar in the year 5727), by the golden cuppola of the Dome of the Rock, gleaming, glistening, taking its gold from the sun.

A spectacle of legend.

We ran toward Motta Gur, standing on the Mount, where the flag of Israel flew. We were joined first by Moshe Stempel, Motta's deputy, and then by Rabbi Goren. We embraced and the Rabbi prostrated himself and genuflected toward the Holy of Holies. In a resonant voice he recited the ancient Prayer to Battle(Deut 20:3-4):

Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day into battle against your enemies; let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither ye be terrified because of them; for the Lord your God is He that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you!

We made our excited way through the streets to the Mugrabi's Gate, along a dim alley, turned right down a slight of steps, impatiently faced another right turn - and there it was. The Western Wall. I quivered with memory. Tall and awesome and glorious, with the same ferns creeping between the great stones, some of them inscribed.

Silently I bowed my head. In the narrow space were paratroopers, begrimed, fatigued, overburdened with weapons. And they wept. They were not wailing at the Western Wall, not lamenting in the fashion familiar during the Wall's millenia of being. These were tears of joy, of love, of passion, of an undreamed first reunion with the ancient monument to devotion and to prayer. They clung to its stones, kissed them, these rough, battle-weary paratroopers, their lips framing the Shema. Returned, it seemed to the temple...

But more exalted, prouder than all of them, was Rabbi Goren. Wrapped in a tallit, blowing the ram's horn, and roaring like a lion: "Blessed be the Lord God, Comforter of Zion and Builder of Jerusalem, Amen! Suddenly he saw me, embraced me, and planted a ringing kiss on my cheek, a signal to everyone to hug and kiss and join hands. The Rabbi, like one who had waited all his life for this moment, intoned the Kaddish, the El moleh Rahamin (O God, full of mercy...) in memory of those who had fallen in the name of the Lord to liberate the Temple, the Temple Mount and Jerusalem the City of the Lord: "May they find their peace in Heaven... and let us say Amen."

The restrained weeping become sobs, full throated, an uncurbed emotional outburst. Sorrow, fervor, happiness, and pain combined to produce this mass of grieving and joyous men, their cheeks wet, their voices unsteady. Again the shofar, was blown: tekiya (a short but unbroken sound), followed by the shevarim(a short but tremolo sound). And Rabbi Goren intoned, like a herald: "This year. at this hour, in Jerusalem!" (le-shana hazot, be-shaa hazot, beYerushalayim)

Until that moment I had thought I was immune to anything. Even the stones responded. "We shall stand at attention and salute! Attention!" I shouted. "And sing Hatikvah, came the choke voice of Haim Bar-Lev. We started to sing. To our voices were added those of the paratroopers, hoarse and distinct. Sobbing, and singing, it was as though, through the Hatikvas, we could unburden our hearts of their fullness and our spirits of their emotion.

We spent ten minutes in front of the Western Wall and at 10:55 were on our way back to the basement of Binyanei Ha'ooma. There was plenty of work to be done. The Old City had not yet been cleared of snipers, and the West Bank had not yet been taken.

Meanwhile, we learned, the Jerusalem Brigade had at the last minute made an improvised entry into the Old City through the Dung Gate. Amos, the G-Branch officer, having heard the 55th Brigade's announcement that Augusta Victoria had been taken, realized that the paratroops would immediately break into the Old City and determined that Zahal's Jerusalem Brigade, which for nineteen years had defended the divided city, must participate in that historic entry. Two companies of the battalion which took Abu-Tor were assembled at the Mount Zion and moved along the Walls to the Silwan stream to enter through the Dung Gate. They reached the Temple Mount shortly after 10 A.M. and from there turned westwards...

At Binyanei Ha'ooma an Order-of-the-Day was born:

"We are standing on you threshhold, Jerusalem. Today we entered your gates. Jerusalem, City of David and Solomon, is in our hands.

This morning, in the shadow of the Western Wall, we sang Hatikva, we mourned our dead, fallen in the battle for the city.

Troops of the Command, brave fighters, devoted warriors, this day and your valor shall be in our hearts forever.

- Major General Uzi Narkiss