For the week of March 21, 2026 / 3 Nisan 5786

Click image to view video version

Vayikra
Torah: Vayikra/Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26 (English 1:1-6:7)
Haftarah: Isaiah 43:21 – 44:23
Originally posted the week of March 12, 2022 / 9 Adar II 5782 (revised)

The LORD called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of you brings an offering to the LORD, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock.” (Vayikra/Leviticus 1:1-2)

The directives in Torah regarding sacrifices and offerings are far more concerned about the “what” than the “why.” God, through Moses, was speaking to a culture where animal and other sacrifices were the expected norm. In the Bible, sacrifice dates back to at least Cain and Abel, the sons of Adam and Eve. Some think it goes back further, when God himself provided animal skins to cover Adam and Eve, replacing the skimpy fig leaf “clothes” they made. Regardless, the Bible assumes sacrifice as a primary human activity without explaining why. The lack of a why has not prevented it from being central to many societies throughout human history, and it continues today.

Similar to the “why” question, what does sacrifice do? It appears that many cultures understood it to be a way to appease the gods. It was believed that the gods were behind the challenges of nature. Somehow, the offering up of an animal, often through burning it, transferred it to the domain of the gods. If the gods accepted it, good things would happen. If not, you continued to be a victim of their wrath through drought, famine, floods, and so on.

There are some hints that biblical sacrifice worked in a similar fashion. For example, God speaks of receiving an acceptable sacrifice as a pleasing aroma (e.g., Vayikra/Leviticus 1:9). Vayikra/Leviticus 17:11 teaches that blood is imbued with a certain quality that makes sacrifice effective. Yet, it is very clear that the Bible rejects any sort of mechanical dynamic regarding sacrifice. For if a person’s attitude toward God wasn’t one of humility and genuine honor, the sacrifices would accomplish nothing (e.g., Hosea 6:6). It was never the sacrifices themselves that made the difference. It has always been (and still is) more about how people personally relate to God. Biblically speaking, rituals were always intended to be an outward expression of an inner, personal reality.

The great exception to this is the Messiah. His sacrifice actually made a practical difference by breaking the power of sin in the world. A case could be made that every other genuine, godly sacrifice is a sort of symbolic gesture reflecting the uniqueness of Yeshua’s selfless death.

The call to sacrifice continues despite the effectiveness of Yeshua’s sacrifice. I am not referring to the Old Covenant sacrifices established through Moses, for they are now obsolete in light of the New Covenant prophesied in Jeremiah 31:31-34 and clarified by the Book of Hebrews. Under the New Covenant, the focus on sacrifice shifts from giving up what we own to giving up our very lives. We read,

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship (Romans 12:1).

Far from attempting to court favor from the gods in order to reap benefits, we give our whole selves out of gratefulness to the one who graciously restored us to himself.

Yeshua called his followers to a lifestyle of sacrifice. He said:

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (Matthew 16:24-25).

And yet, these words are often misunderstood to refer to the need to reckon with the great difficulty of following him, as in something like, “Oh, what a heavy cross I bear!” That misses the point. Instead, Yeshua’s directive aligns with the call to be a living sacrifice. Yeshua is saying that his followers must be ready to do God’s will, even if it means giving up our lives, just as he did.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

For the week of March 14, 2026 / 25 Adar 5786

Click image to view video version

Vayakhel & Pekudei
Torah: Shemot/Exodus 35:1 – 40:38; & Shemot/Exodus 12:1-20
Haftarah: Ezekiel 45:16-46
Originally posted the week of March 25, 2017 / 27 Adar 5777 (revised)

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. (Shemot/Exodus 40:34-35)

This week’s parsha (English: Torah portion) is a high point in Scripture. After many chapters describing the design and construction of the mishkan (English: tabernacle), it is finally completed. God responds to this by filling the mishkan with his kavod (English: glory). God’s glory in this context refers to a visible manifestation of himself, denoting his presence in a very real way. God was tangibly showing the people of Israel that he was with them. While God is everywhere in the universe in one sense, this demonstrated that he was uniquely making himself known in and through Israel alone.

Every aspect of the development of Israel’s national life, as revealed by God through Moses, had to do with maintaining his glory among them. From the sacrificial system to personal intimacy; from agricultural techniques to hygiene; from business practices to treatment of people with special needs—everything that God commanded was because he, the Master of the Universe, dwelt among them.

In the centuries that followed, Israel risked losing God’s glory. Eventually, this tragically occurred during the Babylonian captivity, as recorded in the eighth through eleventh chapters of the prophet Ezekiel. Contrary to what many people think, the loss of God’s presence was not due to Israel’s moral imperfections. God had made provision in the Sinai Covenant for wrongs committed. The glory departed due to long-term rebellion against God as expressed mainly through idolatry. In other words, Israel had rejected God. But that is not the end of the story. Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the other Hebrew prophets predicted over and over again that God’s glory—his presence—would return to Israel. The restoration of God’s presence was guaranteed to Israel based upon his earlier unconditional and eternal promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

By the end of the writing of the Hebrew Scriptures, God’s glory had not yet returned. As prophesied by Jeremiah and decreed by the Persian King Cyrus, many Jewish people returned. They resettled the land and rebuilt both the temple and Jerusalem. But the nation continued in a state best described as tentative. On the one hand, during this period, God was with them—there would not have been a return otherwise—but not to the extent the prophets anticipated. For most of the time from the return until the destruction of the second temple in the year 70, Israel continued under foreign rule, a sure sign that all was not right between them and God. Where was the promised Messiah?

It was not until Yeshua’s coming that the light of God’s glory began to appear on the horizon again. Those who believed him to be the Messiah rightly understood that, according to the prophetic writings, Yeshua’s arrival indicated that God himself was returning to dwell among them.

This time, however, it would not be in the form of a cloud filling the temple, but something much greater. Through Yeshua’s sacrifice, his defeat of death by the resurrection, and his return to the heavenly temple to sit at God’s right hand, he poured out the Ruach Hakodesh, the Holy Spirit, upon those who placed their trust in him. Now the glory of God would not live in a tent or a building, but rather in people. The glory of the God of Israel has returned as promised, taking up residence in and among all those who truly entrust themselves to Yeshua the Messiah.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version

For the week of March 7, 2026 / 18 Adar 5786

Click image to view video version

Ki Tisa & Parah
Shemot/Exodus 30:11 – 34:35; B’midbar/Numbers 19:1–22
Haftarah: Ezekiel 36:16–38

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26)

This week’s haftarah (reading from the Hebrew prophets) is special because this coming Shabbat follows Purim (the Festival of Esther). Purim, which this year occurs on Tuesday, March 3, commemorates the rise of Queen Esther, who was willing to risk her life to save her people from extermination. It’s the most joyous of all Jewish holidays.

Purim reminds us of our God-given responsibility to speak up in the face of evil. And yet evil’s power, be it in Esther’s day or our own, can often intimidate us into silence. What difference can one person make, especially if that person is me? And yet, like Esther, we may find ourselves in the right place at the right time. We never know when God may choose us to take a stand against evil, not just for our own sake, but for purposes far greater than ourselves.

I believe we are living in a time when evil has become so widespread that the responsibility to speak the truth falls on anyone who possesses it. This evil has taken many forms, which I will not take the time to list here. But as someone who treasures the Scriptures, as many of my audience do, at the core of it all is the spirit of Haman from the Purim story. It’s the misrepresentation and misguided treatment of the Jewish people, commonly called antisemitism. Tragically, antisemitism is too often naively and not-so-naively displayed by those who, while claiming allegiance to the Jewish Messiah, adhere to what has been called Replacement (or Fulfillment) Theology, also known as Supersessionism — the idea that God’s promises to ancient Israel are either transferred to or fulfilled by the Church.

When producing TorahBytes, I always begin with a fairly short Scripture as I did here. But to make my point more effective this week, I am providing a wider context. Here is Ezekiel 36:22-32:

Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord GOD; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel (Ezekiel 36:22-32).

If the case against Supersessionism isn’t clear enough by my simply providing this passage, let me emphasize the following:

First, the Israel he is speaking to is whom we would call the Jewish people today, those in Ezekiel’s time, who, years earlier, had been scattered by the Assyrians and then exiled by the Babylonians.

Second, God’s own reputation is at stake here. Note his actions are not based on the people’s response, but upon his work among and within them.

Third, Israel’s return to both God and our ancient homeland is part of God’s restoration of his ancient covenant people.

And let’s also include verse thirty-six: “Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I am the Lord; I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.” God’s work among and within the people of Israel will have a great impact on the surrounding nations.

Obviously, there is so much here to unpack, but for now, let me say this: according to Ezekiel, the people who will experience the spiritual and physical renewal are the wayward people of Israel. Any transference of these promises to anyone else, any subtle or not-so-subtle interpretive twist that undermines what God is saying, any theological sleight of hand that suggests that God did not or does not mean what he says, not only robs the Jewish people of our God-given inheritance, but misrepresents the God of Israel himself, which is blasphemy.

The circumstances of Purim began when Esther’s cousin Mordecai would not bow to the Amalekite Haman, whose self-interest influenced the political powers in an attempt to destroy God’s chosen people. On this Purim, I call upon each and every person who values the Scriptures of the God of Israel to stand with the people of Israel against this same evil spirit that sought to destroy us centuries ago. Stand with the God of Israel by standing with the people of Israel, so that his promises through Ezekiel may be fulfilled sooner than later.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version