8 Iyar, 5785

Leviticus 17:8-16

Say to them further: If anyone of the house of Israel or of the strangers who reside among them offers a burnt offering or a sacrifice, and does not bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting to offer it to the LORD, that person shall be cut off from his people. And if anyone of the house of Israel or of the strangers who reside among them partakes of any blood, I will set My face against the person who partakes of the blood, and I will cut him off from among his kin. For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have assigned it to you for making expiation for your lives upon the altar; it is the blood, as life, that effects expiation. Therefore I say to the Israelite people: No person among you shall partake of blood, nor shall the stranger who resides among you partake of blood. And if any Israelite or any stranger who resides among them hunts down an animal or a bird that may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth. For the life of all flesh—its blood is its life. Therefore I say to the Israelite people: You shall not partake of the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood. Anyone who partakes of it shall be cut off. Any person, whether citizen or stranger, who eats what has died or has been torn by beasts shall wash his clothes, bathe in water, and remain unclean until evening; then he shall be clean. But if he does not wash [his clothes] and bathe his body, he shall bear his guilt.

Leviticus 18:1-21

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: I the LORD am your God. You shall not copy the practices of the land of Egypt where you dwelt, or of the land of Canaan to which I am taking you; nor shall you follow their laws. My rules alone shall you observe, and faithfully follow My laws: I the LORD am your God. You shall keep My laws and My rules, by the pursuit of which man shall live: I am the LORD. None of you shall come near anyone of his own flesh to uncover nakedness: I am the LORD. Your father’s nakedness, that is, the nakedness of your mother, you shall not uncover; she is your mother—you shall not uncover her nakedness. Do not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is the nakedness of your father. The nakedness of your sister—your father’s daughter or your mother’s, whether born into the household or outside—do not uncover their nakedness. The nakedness of your son’s daughter, or of your daughter’s daughter—do not uncover their nakedness; for their nakedness is yours. The nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, who has born into your father’s household—she is your sister; do not uncover her nakedness. Do not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s flesh. Do not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister; for she is your mother’s flesh. Do not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother: do not approach his wife; she is your aunt. Do not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law: she is your son’s wife; you shall not uncover her nakedness. Do not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is the nakedness of your brother. Do not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter; nor shall you marry her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter and uncover her nakedness: they are kindred; it is depravity. Do not marry a woman as a rival to her sister and uncover her nakedness in the other’s lifetime. Do not come near a woman during her period of uncleanness to uncover her nakedness. Do not have carnal relations with your neighbor’s wife and defile yourself with her. Do not allow any of your offspring to be offered up to Molech, and do not profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.

Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures, published by JPS
Copyright: JPS, 1985

Psalms 44

For the leader. Of the Korahites. A maskil. We have heard, O God, our fathers have told us the deeds You performed in their time, in days of old. With Your hand You planted them, displacing nations; You brought misfortune on peoples, and drove them out. It was not by their sword that they took the land, their arm did not give them victory, but Your right hand, Your arm, and Your goodwill, for You favored them. You are my king, O God; decree victories for Jacob! Through You we gore our foes; by Your name we trample our adversaries; I do not trust in my bow; it is not my sword that gives me victory; You give us victory over our foes; You thwart those who hate us. In God we glory at all times, and praise Your name unceasingly.Selah. Yet You have rejected and disgraced us; You do not go with our armies. You make us retreat before our foe; our enemies plunder us at will. You let them devour us like sheep; You disperse us among the nations. You sell Your people for no fortune, You set no high price on them. You make us the butt of our neighbors, the scorn and derision of those around us. You make us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples. I am always aware of my disgrace; I am wholly covered with shame at the sound of taunting revilers, in the presence of the vengeful foe. All this has come upon us, yet we have not forgotten You, or been false to Your covenant. Our hearts have not gone astray, nor have our feet swerved from Your path, though You cast us, crushed, to where the sea monster is, and covered us over with deepest darkness. If we forgot the name of our God and spread forth our hands to a foreign god, God would surely search it out, for He knows the secrets of the heart. It is for Your sake that we are slain all day long, that we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Rouse Yourself; why do You sleep, O Lord? Awaken, do not reject us forever! Why do You hide Your face, ignoring our affliction and distress? We lie prostrate in the dust; our body clings to the ground. Arise and help us, redeem us, as befits Your faithfulness.

Psalms 45

For the leader; on shoshannim. Of the Korahites. A maskil. A love song. My heart is astir with gracious words; I speak my poem to a king; my tongue is the pen of an expert scribe. You are fairer than all men; your speech is endowed with grace; rightly has God given you an eternal blessing. Gird your sword upon your thigh, O hero, in your splendor and glory; in your glory, win success; ride on in the cause of truth and meekness and right; and let your right hand lead you to awesome deeds. Your arrows, sharpened, [pierce] the breast of the king’s enemies; peoples fall at your feet. Your divine throne is everlasting; your royal scepter is a scepter of equity. You love righteousness and hate wickedness; rightly has God, your God, chosen to anoint you with oil of gladness over all your peers. All your robes [are fragrant] with myrrh and aloes and cassia; from ivoried palaces lutes entertain you. Royal princesses are your favorites; the consort stands at your right hand, decked in gold of Ophir. Take heed, lass, and note, incline your ear: forget your people and your father’s house, and let the king be aroused by your beauty; since he is your lord, bow to him. O Tyrian lass, the wealthiest people will court your favor with gifts, goods of all sorts. The royal princess, her dress embroidered with golden mountings, is led inside to the king; maidens in her train, her companions, are presented to you. They are led in with joy and gladness; they enter the palace of the king. Your sons will succeed your ancestors; you will appoint them princes throughout the land. I commemorate your fame for all generations, so peoples will praise you forever and ever.

Psalms 46

For the leader. Of the Korahites; on alamoth. A song. God is our refuge and stronghold, a help in trouble, very near. Therefore we are not afraid though the earth reels, though mountains topple into the sea— its waters rage and foam; in its swell mountains quake.Selah. There is a river whose streams gladden God’s city, the holy dwelling-place of the Most High. God is in its midst, it will not be toppled; by daybreak God will come to its aid. Nations rage, kingdoms topple; at the sound of His thunder the earth dissolves. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our haven.Selah. Come and see what the LORD has done, how He has wrought desolation on the earth. He puts a stop to wars throughout the earth, breaking the bow, snapping the spear, consigning wagons to the flames. “Desist! Realize that I am God! I dominate the nations; I dominate the earth.” The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our haven.Selah.

Psalms 47

For the leader. Of the Korahites. A psalm. All you peoples, clap your hands, raise a joyous shout for God. For the LORD Most High is awesome, great king over all the earth; He subjects peoples to us, sets nations at our feet. He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob whom He loved.Selah. God ascends midst acclamation; the LORD, to the blasts of the horn. Sing, O sing to God; sing, O sing to our king; for God is king over all the earth; sing a hymn. God reigns over the nations; God is seated on His holy throne. The great of the peoples are gathered together, the retinue of Abraham’s God; for the guardians of the earth belong to God; He is greatly exalted.

Psalms 48

A song. A psalm of the Korahites. The LORD is great and much acclaimed in the city of our God, His holy mountain— fair-crested, joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, summit of Zaphon, city of the great king. Through its citadels, God has made Himself known as a haven. See, the kings joined forces; they advanced together. At the mere sight of it they were stunned, they were terrified, they panicked; they were seized there with a trembling, like a woman in the throes of labor, as the Tarshish fleet was wrecked in an easterly gale. The likes of what we heard we have now witnessed in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God— may God preserve it forever!Selah. In Your temple, God, we meditate upon Your faithful care. The praise of You, God, like Your name, reaches to the ends of the earth; Your right hand is filled with beneficence. Let Mount Zion rejoice! Let the towns of Judah exult, because of Your judgments. Walk around Zion, circle it; count its towers, take note of its ramparts; go through its citadels, that you may recount it to a future age. For God—He is our God forever; He will lead us evermore.

Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures, published by JPS
Copyright: JPS, 1985

And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again. And again, as was his custom, he taught them.

And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” And Yeshua said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Yeshua saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Yeshua said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Yeshua, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

And Yeshua looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Yeshua said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Yeshua looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Yeshua said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Yeshua was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”

And Yaakov and Yochanan, the sons of Zavdai, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Yeshua said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be immersed with the immersion with which I am immersed?” And they said to him, “We are able.” And Yeshua said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the immersion with which I am immersed, you will be immersed, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at Yaakov and Yochanan. And Yeshua called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Yeshua of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Yeshua, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Yeshua stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Yeshua. And Yeshua said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” And Yeshua said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.

(ESV)