Torah Parsha Ki Tisa Ex. 30:11-34:35
Haftorah: 1Kings 18:1-18:39
This weeks parsha covers many subjects, including that of the half-shekel Temple Tax:
11 And YHWH spoke unto Moshe, saying:
12 When you take the sum of the children of Yisra’el, according to their number, then
shall they give every man, a ransom for his soul unto YHWH, when you number them: that there be no plague among them when you number them.
13 This they shall give, every one that passes among them that are numbered, half a
shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: the shekel is twenty gerahs; half a shekel for an offering to YHWH.
14 Every one that passes among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and
upward, shall give the offering of YHWH.
15 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than the half shekel,
when they give the offering of YHWH–to make atonement for your souls.
16 And you shall take the atonement money from the children of Yisra’el, and shall
appoint it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may be a memorial for the children of Yisra’el before YHWH, to make atonement for your souls.
(Ex. 30:11-16 HRV)
The half shekel is symbolic of Messiah who makes atonement for our souls. Just as Messiah only redeems the souls of believers, the half-shekel can only be accepted from Jews, as the Mishnah instructs:
A gentile and a Samaritan who paid the shekel– they do not accept it from them…. but vows and freewill offerings they accept from them. This is the governing principle: Anything which is vowed or given as a freewill offering do they accept from them. Anything which is not vowed or given as a freewill offering they do not accept from them. And so is the matter explained by Ezra, since it is said, “You have nothing to do with us to build a house unto our Elohim.” (Ezra 4:3)
(m.Shekalim 1:5)
Just as the half-shekel could only redeem the soul of a Jew (including proselytes), so also the Messiah only redeems the souls of believers.
Once again the redemption of souls by the half-shekel gives us a picture of our Messiah in the Torah.
As many of you know, we were victims of the Texas Snow-pocalypse just a few days ago. The full story of how we survived the Texas Snow-pocalypose is in a blog I wrote here..
We took a big financial hit and are still recovering. We had to (ironically) replace a lot of groceries, our power bill is past due and with rent due today!
As I have said to you many times, I look on this work as a co-operative one with me, and all of you combining our resources together in order to get the job done of helping to teach this great truth to all in the world who will listen. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for your continued support, you are the ones who make it all possible by your contributions and your prayers for our work. I truly appreciate your help in every way.
If you can make a one time donation of $500 or $1,000 dollars to support this work.
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Donations can also be made out to “Nazarene Judaism” and sent to:
Nazarene Judaism
PO Box 471; Hurst, TX 76053
