parashah toledoth (generations), genesis 2:4-3:21

We study the Torah according to the triennial cycle every Sabbath. (Why?)

We must understand the paragraph divisions in Torah, which are inspired by the Spirit and preserved by Moses and the Jewish scribes (but discarded by the English translators), are key to help us understand what God is trying to tell us. He wants to be understood, and has provided these helps to aid us! We must also understand how the Spirit teaches through Torah by common theme.

Today is the 2nd Sabbath of the triennial cycle: parashah (Torah portion) Toledoth / Generations, Gen 2:4-3:21. (Read at Bible Gateway or the Hebrew Bible in English.)

Additional readings for this week:
Prophet: Eze 28 / Psalm: Ps 2 / History: Job 3-4 / Gospel: Mat 4:1-11 / Apostolic: Rom 5

The first teaching device which the Holy Spirit placed in Torah are His paragraph divisions! In Torah scrolls, copied without change from the original which Moses wrote on Sinai, there are two different types of paragraph divisions - a strong division and a weak division. Last week we learned about the first paragraph division, the strong paragraph division. This week we will learn about the second paragraph division, the weak paragraph division, marked by the Hebrew character stumah. (I mark the ends of these paragraphs in my English Bible with a penciled- in “s”.)

Gen 2:4-3:15 ends with a parsha (paragraph) stumah, a weak paragraph division.

Every portion of Scripture that ends in a stumah division indicates a continuation of a theme or topic.

That such a long passage ends with a stumah, means that God considers the entire passage from Gen 2:4-3:15 a single paragraph with its own main idea - and that the paragraph is a sub theme of a greater topic.

Gen 3:16 ends with a stumah.
This means God considers this single sentence its own paragraph, teaching its own sub theme of a greater topic.

Gen 3:17-21 ends with a parsha p'tuchah, a strong paragraph division.
This means that God considers this section to be its own paragraph with its own sub theme; furthermore, that the entire passage from Gen 2:4-3:21 is teaching an overarching theme, with three sub themes (as the end of Gen 2:3 was where the last p'tuchah was found).

Right away in the beginning of this Torah portion, there is the establishing of a new pattern, which is different from the pattern established in the previous section. In last week's Torah portion, every time God is mentioned, the Hebrew word used is Elohiym, a masculine plural noun meaning Supreme Being; i.e., He who created the heavens and the earth. This name reveals Elohiym’s plurality of being, His might and creative power, and His character of righteousness, justice, and sovereignty.

But in this week's Torah portion, in almost every place that God is mentioned, it is translated as LORD God. The Hebrew for this is YHVH Elohiym. We are introduced to the four letters, the tetragrammaton, the personal name of Elohiym, meaning “I AM,” the self- existent One; also He was, He is, and He will be, or the eternal One. The personal name of Elohiym is pronounced Yehovah or Yahweh.

So why the change? Last week we saw that the second teaching tool God uses in order to instruct us is to establish a pattern in His Word (the first tool is the paragraph divisions of p'tuchah and stumah). This week we see a third teaching tool God uses in His Word - breaking a pattern previously established. Whenever we see a break in a pattern, we should ask ourselves, “Why the change?” Because the change is there deliberately; God is trying to tell us something!

My theory is that there has been a change of author. In Gen 2:4, “This is the account of the heavens and the earth,” the word “account” is the Hebrew toledoth, meaning generations, or history, or even, book. That this section of Genesis is a very ancient written record, and not an oral record until the time of Moses, has been proven by clues embedded in the Torah scroll. Who was the one who wrote it down? Well, the only man alive to witness the events recorded in this section was Adam. He is the author, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (thus it still remains the Word of God).

That begs the question, then who wrote last week's Torah portion, from Gen 1:1-2:3? The answer must be, logically, the only one alive to witness the events recorded therein - God. He gave the history from Gen 1:1-2:3 to Adam, and Adam, beginning in 2:4, added his own eyewitness account, or toledoth. This is why the creation account in Gen 2 seems to differ from the creation account in Gen 1. They are not contradictory, but just the same events witnessed from two different perspectives. God relayed His account chronologically; however, Adam relayed his account according to a different criteria - thematically. We get in trouble when we expect every narrative in Scripture to be chronological. Understanding this eliminates half the charges of contradictions in the Bible out there. :)

Back to the paragraph stumah from Gen 2:4-3:15. What is the point of this paragraph, the main idea? Whenever we are faced with a section of Scripture bounded by the Lord's paragraph markers, we should ask ourselves, “Why is this section a single paragraph?” What is the point God is trying to get across, by including all these verses (or limiting to these verses) in this paragraph? There is no right or wrong answer. The Holy Spirit will reveal things to us as we seek Him and ask (Joh 16:13).

The topic that I came up with, is that Disobedience to YHVH's Command is the definition of Sin. For it is this incident, the Fall of Man, by which Sin is introduced into God's perfect Creation (as we can see by reading the Apostolic portion of Scripture that accompanies this Torah portion). Notice that God does not end the paragraph, however, until He has given the promise of the Seed of the Woman, who will crush the head of the serpent! Even now, at man's worst moment, God is extending grace and hope to him!

The theme of the paragraph stumah from Gen 3:16 is the curse on the woman. The theme of the paragraph from Gen 3:17-21 is the curse on the man. The word translated “pain” for the woman in verse 16 and the word translated “toil” for the man in verse 17 is the same word in Hebrew: itstsabon. They received the same curse as a result of their sin: toil, or work. The woman's work, I believe, is moreover lifelong, just as the man's is. Her work is in not only bearing children, but rearing them, in making the home for her and her husband and her children to dwell in. His work is in provision - he goes out from the home, and procures by toiling the food (or material things) necessary to sustain himself and his family.

Notice that in the woman's curse, she is also placed in submission to her husband. In Torah portion Bereisheet, both the man and the woman were given equal dominion over the creation. Neither of them were subservient to the other. Now God creates a hierarchy: man, then woman, then creation. Creation is still subject to the man and the woman, but woman is now subject to her husband (not just any man). Who is the man subject to? YHVH, and all mankind and creation is also subject to YHVH through the man's dominion. He exercises dominion in order to bring his wife, his children, and the creation into obedience to YHVH.

The men and women (and children) who understand God's authority, order, and plan, and who order their lives in cooperation with Him and not in opposition to Him, will bring blessings upon themselves (see Psalm 1 from last week)!

So now that we have main ideas for the weak paragraphs, let's see what the main idea is for the strong paragraph, from Gen 2:4-3:21.

Gen 2:4-3:21 ends in a p'tuchah.
a. Gen 2:4-3:15 (stumah) Sin is disobedience to God's command.
b. Gen 3:16 (stumah) The curse on the woman - work (painful toil).
c. Gen 3:17-21 The curse on the man - work (painful toil).

What comes to my mind for the main idea of the entire section is that Sin Brings the Curse of Work. Can it be that sin brings the curse of works on mankind as well - working in order to earn righteousness before God? And here is another instance of the Lord's grace: He established the seventh day as a day of rest, holy to YHVH, before sin, the curse, or work ever entered God's perfect world. Yes, we have been cursed with work as a result of our disobedience. But every seventh day, God lifts the curse of work on our lives, and allows us to rest from our painful toil, as we remember that YHVH is our gracious and loving Creator, to whom we owe worship; to whom we bow the knee!

Finding Messiah in Torah

This week Messiah leaps off the page. He is the Seed of the Woman promised in Gen 3:15, who crushes Satan's head and restores mankind to the perfection, communion with God, and rest we experienced in the Garden before the Fall of Man. He erases the effect of sin on His perfect Creation! There is an entire book in the fact that God chose to represent Messiah as the seed. In fact, my Hebrew teacher, Brad Scott, did write a book about it: The Principle of the Seed. It is fascinating and life- changing and I recommend it!

how we celebrate passover

Even though we have celebrated Passover for ten years now, we are still very much learning how to celebrate the Passover. We do not celebrate it exactly as the Jews do; we try to excise the traditions of men and include the fulfillment of Jesus (Yeshua). So we are developing our own way of celebrating the feast to fulfill its purpose of a memorial for ourselves, and to teach the children. It is subject to change as the Lord continues to teach us. But the following is what we have done so far. This is our understanding to date, subject to change as God reveals more from His Word to us. I encourage everyone to search out the Scriptures for themselves do as the Word reveals!

This feast is the only one where part of the menu is commanded: roast lamb, bitter herbs, and unleavened bread (Exo 12:8-9). Before the Feast of Firstfruits, we do not eat fresh produce, but stored (Lev 23:14). Therefore our appetizers, sides and desserts for Passover are made with root vegetables, frozen or canned vegetables from the previous harvest, and dried or stored fruits (such as apples).

Now the 15th day is a High Holy Sabbath – the 1st day of Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:6-7). It can fall on any day of the week, not necessarily a Saturday. It is always a day of rest. The 14th day is the Day of Preparation, to get ready for the rest on the High Holy Sabbath. I do my deep cleaning beginning with the sighting of the new moon (so that I can remove the crumbs thus swept up on the 15th day, which is the 1st day of Unleavened Bread; Exo 12:15); I spend the 14th day cooking the Passover meal that night, and prep work for the next day, the 1st day of Unleavened Bread.

We have our Passover meal of roast lamb, bitter herbs, and unleavened bread at sundown or in the evening of the 14th day, the Day of Preparation.

Passover is about our deliverance and redemption out of one kingdom, the kingdom of darkness, which is the spiritual Egypt (Rev 11:8), of slavery to sin (Col 1:13-14, Rom 6:14), so that we can be brought in to another kingdom, the kingdom of heaven (Mat 4:17), where we live in freedom (Gal 5:1 - not freedom from righteousness, which the Law defines, but freedom from sin, Rom 6:18-19). It is about changing citizenship (Phi 3:20-21, Heb 11:13-16, 12:28)! The history telling and Scripture reading which follows is designed to remind us of this.

Begin while the food finishes cooking. Mom lights the seven candles, and Dad pours the wine, blessing it, and breaks the unleavened bread, blessing it. As we begin our meal with wine, bread and appetizers, Dad reminds us that the Last Supper which instituted Communion was a Passover supper, and that when we eat the bread and drink the wine tonight, we will be partaking in the body and blood of our Lord. Dad notes to everyone that the bread is striped and pierced, just as Jesus was for us (Isa 53:5, Psa 22:16) - He is the true Bread which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world (Joh 6:32-35)! – and that the wine is the cup of the New Covenant in His blood (Luk 22:15-20). Dad warns us (1 Cor 11:23-29) not to eat or drink without examining ourselves. The two weeks we just spent examining the house and cleaning every scrap of leaven out of it (Exo 12:15) is an object lesson from God for us, His children, that we are likewise not to let the leaven of sin find a foothold or a home in us, but to diligently sweep it all away.

Mom brings the food to the table. Dad blesses the food; and everyone eats.

During the meal, Dad reads (or tells, or has the family take turns reading) the Exodus story from Exo chapter 12, then the story of Jesus’ crucifixion from Joh chapters 18 and 19. He reminds us that Jesus is our Passover Lamb (Joh 1:29, 1 Cor 5:7), who has delivered us from the angel of death (Joh 11:25-26) and has set us free from slavery to sin (Rom 6:14).

Mom gets the dessert ready to serve. Dad explains that by the blood of Jesus, we have been adopted as sons into God’s family (Gal 4:4-5); we have changed our citizenship from the world to the kingdom of heaven (Phi 3:20-21, Col 1:13-14), where Jesus is not only Savior, but also King (Rev 17:14). Now that God has redeemed us, or bought us back, we are no longer our own, since we have been bought with a price (1 Cor 6:19-20). God is at work in us every day, through His great love and grace, to accomplish our sanctification (Phi 1:6, 2 The 2:13), or set-apartness from the world and all its ways.

Can we just stop at this moment and break down into tears of joy for all that God has done for us? And then we eat dessert!

We conclude our meal looking forward to the coming kingdom of Yeshua when He will eat and drink the Passover with us (Luk 22:15-16).

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

Then following supper, it is my dream that we can leave our timidity behind and spend the evening praising and worshiping the Lord together for the great deliverance He has wrought for us, in song and dance, just as Israel did when God delivered them through the Red Sea (Exo 15:1-20). Let the joy of our salvation break forth, and overflow! Let the Redeemed of the Lord say so (Psa 107:2)! And not just in a church service!

Passover menu recipe index

when we celebrate passover

“On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover.” Lev 23:5

It seems fairly straightforward, but there are as many as twelve different calendars in use among the Jews and Messianic believers in Yeshua to complicate things! We do not have to worry about calendars; all we have to do is find out from Scripture when the first month is; and then when the first day of the month is; and by counting, we can always know with certainty when the fourteenth day of the first month is!

“Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.”” Exo 12:1-2

What month is “this month”? The month that the Lord brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, as can be clearly seen by reading all of Exodus chapter 12. This is the same month in which God was pouring plagues out on Egypt, culminating with the Passover, the 10th plague, in which all the firstborn of Egypt died on that night. The 10th plague, we know, took place on the 14th day of the first month, at about midnight. It just so happens that God built in an unalterable time clock into the narrative, so that no matter who tries to change the calendar, God's people would always know when the first month arrived.

Two weeks before the 10th plague, the death of the firstborn, the 7th plague was being poured out on Egypt, which was the plague of hail. The entire story of the plague is told in Exo 9:13-35. What is interesting, though, is this detail which Scripture records:

“Now the flax and the barley were struck, for the barley was in the head, and the flax was in bud.” Exo 9:31

When the plague of hail was poured out, the barley was in its head. The Hebrew word for this is aviv (or abib in some translations) - which just means, “ripening.” It wasn't in bud, nor was it fully ripe and ready for harvest - it was in the head, or ripening. That the month of ripening barley is the first month of the year for the Israelites, is confirmed over and over again in Scripture:

“On this day you are going out, in the month Abib.” Exo 13:4

“The Feast of Unleavened Bread you shall keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the appointed time in the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt.” Exo 34:18

“Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.” Deu 16:1

So, when the first day of the month occurs, in which the barley is ripening, or aviv, that month is declared to be the month of Aviv, and the Passover is kept 14 days later, at twilight. This means that no one knows for sure when the first month is going to be. It will be in the spring, all right - but you cannot print a calendar for 10 years from now and know whether that month will begin in March, or April - you have to be watching and paying attention. And the theme of watching for the (feast) day(s) of the Lord - His appointed time - appears all throughout Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation.

Now when is the first day of the month? From ancient days and throughout Scripture, the first day of the month was reckoned from the sighting of the new moon. The Jews themselves declare this to be the case, and the way they have always determined when the biblical months begin. The day following the sighting of the new moon was always celebrated as a feast day in ancient Israel (Num 29:9; 1 Sam 20:5; 2 Kin 4:23; Isa 66:23).

Furthermore, David shows us that the three set feast days fall at the full moon, which occurs 14 to 15 days following the sighting of the new moon:

“Blow the trumpet at the time of the New Moon, at the full moon, on our solemn feast day.” Ps 81:3

It just so happens that the feast days of Passover, Weeks, and Tabernacles (the three feast days in which the men were commanded to appear at Jerusalem) all fall on the 14th or 15th day of the month, at the full moon - which shows that the first day of the month was reckoned by the sighting of the new moon.

If you have ever watched the moon in its waxing and waning through the night sky, you know that the first sliver of the new moon appears on the western horizon after the sun sets, but then it sets too, anywhere from an hour to a few hours afterwards. The next night it rises 45 minutes to an hour later so that it sets an hour later - and 14 to 15 days later, when it is full, it rises in the east just when it is dark, so that for a few nights every month, the moon illuminates the night as the sun illuminates the day. But then it rises 45 minutes to an hour later every night, so that when it is waning, there comes a time when the moon is not seen in the night sky at all. It is mirroring the rising and setting of the sun, which means the brightness of the sun completely blocks out any chance of seeing the moon during the day. The next time the moon is seen after its waning - it is a sliver again, a "new moon" - really the old moon appearing to be "renewed," which is its meaning in Hebrew.

This is why I have the moon calendar on the sidebar of this site - so everyone can determine what month it is, according to God's timetable.

why we celebrate passover

Passover is coming up next week on Wednesday March 31.

We celebrate all of the Lord's seven annual feast days because by doing so, we bear witness of Jesus our Messiah until He comes!

Passover is the first annual feast day of the seven. We celebrate the Passover because it is an eternal commandment to do so (Exo 12:17-18) for all the generations who join themselves to the God of Israel (Lev 24:22, Eph 2:11-13) through Israel’s renewed covenant (Jer 31:31-34, 1 Cor 11:25). Israel's covenant has been extended to all Gentiles through the shed blood of Jesus! The opening of the covenant from just one nation, Israel, to every nation, does not then negate that covenant (Gal 3:15-18)! God's Word is eternal, even the Word He spoke in Exodus (Isa 40:8). (If God spoke this, then what is true of God's Word is true of Exodus and the other books of Torah as well!) Even Jesus said not one jot or tittle of God's Word would pass away, even of Torah (Mat 5:17-19)!

On top of that, it is prophesied in Scripture that in the kingdom of Messiah all nations would celebrate the Lord's feast days (if the vision Ezekiel sees in chapters 40-48 - especially see Eze 45:21 -is of the millennial kingdom, and since some of its description is repeated in Revelation, many think it is). And, at the Last Supper (a Passover supper), Jesus told His disciples He would eat the feast with them when He comes in His kingdom (Luk 22:15-16)! God has not developed an objection to His holy days.

Because of this, Paul exhorted the Gentile believers in Jesus to celebrate the feast (1 Cor 5:8)! The Corinthians were Greeks, not Jews.

Since Jesus was crucified on the day of Passover - He is our Passover Lamb (Joh 1:29, 1 Cor 5:7) - celebrating this feast is a significant way, for us, that we can commemorate this most important day every year. Not only that, but it is an object lesson, a visual aid God commanded fathers to employ to teach their children about God's deliverance and redemption (Exo 12:24-27). It is a God- ordained way to pass the faith, so to speak, from the generation of the parents to the generation of the children.

And that, dear family and friends, is why we celebrate the Passover every year (it is not to obtain salvation by works of the Law, just to put your mind at ease). We are grateful to our Redeemer and Deliverer!

parashah bereisheet (in the beginning), genesis 1:1-2:3

We study the Torah according to the triennial cycle every Sabbath. (Why?)

We must understand the paragraph divisions in Torah, which are inspired by the Spirit and preserved by Moses and the Jewish scribes (but discarded by the English translators), are key to help us understand what God is trying to tell us. He wants to be understood, and has provided these helps to aid us! We must also understand how the Spirit teaches through Torah by common theme.

Today is the 1st Sabbath of the triennial cycle: parashah (Torah portion) Bereisheet / In the beginning, Gen 1:1-2:3. (Read at Bible Gateway or the Hebrew Bible in English.)

Additional readings for this week:
Prophet: Isa 40 / Psalm: 1 / History: Job 1-2 / Gospel: Joh 1:1-28 / Apostolic: Col 1

The first teaching device which the Holy Spirit placed in Torah are His paragraph divisions! In Torah scrolls, copied without change from the original which Moses wrote on Sinai, there are two different types of paragraph divisions - a strong division and a weak division. This week we will learn about the first paragraph division, the strong paragraph division, marked by the Hebrew character p'tuchah. (I mark the ends of these paragraphs in my English Bible with a penciled- in “p”.)

Gen 1:1-5 ends in a parsha (paragraph) p'tuchah, a strong paragraph division.
Every portion of Scripture that ends in a p'tuchah division completes teaching an overarching theme.

Gen 1:6-8 ends in a parsha p'tuchah.
Gen 1:9-13 ends in a p'tuchah.
Gen 1:14-19 ends in a p'tuchah.
Gen 1:20-23 ends in a p'tuchah.
Gen 1:24-31 ends in a p'tuchah.
Gen 2:1-3 ends in a p'tuchah.

Notice that in today's reading, each p'tuchah, each strong paragraph division, occurs at the end of each day of creation.

The chapter divisions and verse divisions in our English Bibles were added many thousands of years after the Holy Spirit set His paragraph divisions into the text. The chapter and verse divisions were added by medieval Catholics with an anti- Torah bias. Here we see the bias in play as the seventh day, the Sabbath, is cut by the chapter division from the first chapter outlining creation week, where it belongs. It was added to the second chapter of Genesis, which was held to be allegorical in the Middle Ages. This allowed the Church to ignore the command to celebrate the Sabbath without feeling guilty about it. The Protestant church inherited its anti- Torah bias from the Catholic church!

The paragraph divisions which the Holy Spirit has set into the text are the first device God uses to teach His Word to His people. Since each day is set into its own strong paragraph, we understand that God is teaching us that each day of creation is significant. Each day has its own work, its own purpose, and its own completion. He is the doer of the action of creating, in each day. All the paragraphs taken together reinforce that YHVH is God, the Almighty God, the Maker of heaven and earth. And since He is our own Creator, He is our own God, and no other. This is the historical understanding that we humans need in order to bow our knee to Him in submission to the 1st Commandment.

Something else that becomes apparent as we look at each section divided into its paragraphs: the days of creation are significant. There are Hebrew words for other lengths of time, such as years or eons, if those units of time were meant. But God chose the Hebrew yom - “day” - the regular 24 hour day. It sometimes comes as a shock to people that a day as a unit of time, is one of the few that do not depend on the sun or moon for marking it. Anyone can look up in any second- grade science textbook and see that a 24- hour day is the time it takes for the earth to revolve on its axis one revolution. No sun or moon is needed, even a light source is not needed - although God provided one (we are not told what it is; perhaps it was Himself and His Word? Psa 119:105). He created light (energy) on the first day. He also created the earth (matter), the day (time), and the heavens (space) on the first day - the building blocks of our physical universe.

Another thing which becomes apparent as we look at each section divided into its paragraphs: each day begins with the same phrase, “Then God said,” day after day, exactly the same. (This illustrates the second device the Lord uses to teach us His Word - patterns and repetition, to draw our attention to the pattern!) So we see that God brought into being, that which did not exist, by His Word.

“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,” 1 Cor 1:27-28

How does God bring a thing which is not, into being, so that He might bring to nothing that which is? He speaks His Word, and it happens. What was in Gen 1:2, when God began, was formlessness, nothingness, darkness, even vanity - one translation of the word “void.” He brought those things to nothing, by bringing into existence the things which were not: form, light, matter, energy, time, space, and life. He did this by speaking His Word.

What “is not” in our lives? Is there a reality that we wish was brought to nothing? We must speak God's Word to it. When God was faced with darkness, He said, “Light.” When He was faced with formlessness, He said, “Form.” When He was faced with emptiness, He said, “Life.” If we are faced with unbelief, we must speak the Word of God of faith to it. If we are faced with fear, we must speak the Word of God of love and peace. If we are faced with lack, we must speak the Word of God of provision. We must not let that which counters God's Word cross our lips! And the things which are not will bring to nothing the things that are.

Finding the Messiah in Torah

When we read the Gospel reading for this Torah portion in Joh 1:1-28, we discover that the Word that God spoke to create light and every other thing, is Messiah. It is through Messiah Yeshua that God the Father made every thing that has been made (Col 1:15-17) and He continues to uphold the universe by the Word of His Power, Messiah Yeshua (Heb 1:3)!

Admittedly, some of these things are mysteries. How can a person be a word and a person at the same time? But God is showing us, that He is what comes out of His mouth; that what He speaks is what He is and who He is. Words cannot be divorced from persona or character, because “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks,” (Luk 6:45). So when someone tells a lie, or speaks a curse, or mocks or ridicules, they are really shedding some light on the condition of their heart - which would be at best mixed with dross, unrepented sin, or impurities, and at worst completely unregenerate!