Jeremy Rosen
Making Sense of the Bible: Can its Ancient Text be Relevant Today? Deuteronomy 16, Justice and an Eye for an Eye

Jeremy Rosen | Making Sense of the Bible: Can its Ancient Text be Relevant Today? Deuteronomy 16, Justice and an Eye for an Eye

- I want to start this week at Deuteronomy 15. I realised that I had jumped and was in danger of jumping too far into the legal system and there were a couple of subjects and issues that I really thought that I need to make sure that I clarify because they raise interesting issues, not just the legal ones. And the first chapter, 15:1 raises the issue of the Shmita. Now the Shmita is technically the seven-year release. The term Shmita really derives from the roots, which means to let things go, almost to abandon things. And it was the idea of the sabbatical. But not the academic sabbatical that we think of, but an agricultural sabbatical. Now, we haven’t been an agricultural society for a very long time and therefore, one is bound to ask, why is this idea of Shmita so important? Really, it’s not relevant. But the background to it is that the laws of the Torah are predicated on charity. Charity is a very, very important issue. And this idea of the seventh year release on the one hand is an agricultural law, but on the other hand is a law to do with charity concern for other people and avoiding the notion of permanence. That nothing is permanent and we have to adjust to the fact that there are changes in nature and changes in ourselves and the world that we’re living in. So let’s start with chapter 15:1. , the end of seven years, , you must have this release. Now the English says remission of debts. And remission of debts is part of the issue, but it’s much wider than just debts as we will see. , and what I mean in verse two of the Shmita of what this release is, is . Anybody who first of all, happens to have a debt outstanding. And so he has lent money, he’s a creditor , despite the fact that the other person owes him money, he should not be oppressive, he should not make life difficult. He should not take advantage of the fact that he or she has the upper hand.

Because the Shmita, this release is something that God has ordained that people should not carry on being in debt as so often happens in our society, almost to the point of destruction. This is a specific law for members of the society. And remember, anybody can join the society. So this is not referring to anybody outside. And that’s why in verse three it says, look, . It’s true you are allowed to deal in, shall we say, lending for interest to non-Jews who also lend for interest. So I’m not stopping you doing what is done elsewhere in other societies. But in your society, because you have an obligation to take care of the poor, you have to focus on this. So if you look at verse four, . It’s possible, it’s possible that there may be a time when there are no people who are poor, unlikely, but theoretically, it’s possible. that God may bless you which God gives you as an inheritance. So we are tying this to the land and saying one of the conditions of having the land is that we don’t oppress our citizens. Verse five. But you must listen to the voice of the Lord of God, in order that you should keep the commands which he commands you today. , Verse six. God will bless you. and you will be able to offer lend and loans and trade and deal with other peoples and that’s very good. And you shouldn’t be closed into your sounds. but when you extend loans to them, you should not extend loads to your own people. Verse seven. If there is anybody poor in your family or in the gates in your land, which God gives you law to don’t harden your hearts. And say, “It is not my problem.

I don’t need to lend something else can lend.” Don’t close your hand but open your hand. from the poor. Now what does that mean? It doesn’t necessarily mean give money, but it means lend money. Give him or her the opportunity to be independent. Verse eight. You should open your hand to somebody who needs you to lend money or help. , you must lend whatever he needs or whatever his need is, . That may be a small amount, but it may be a very large amount. Verse nine. Knowing human nature, be very, very careful. That you have some bad thoughts. You have, how shall we say? You become insensitive. And you say, . Listen, . Why should I lend this guy money now in the year before the Shmita? Because the Shmita is going to cancel all debts. All debts are going to be cancelled by the seventh year. So no debts in the community to the poor or the needy can extend and therefore, you are going to say, “Well listen, we’re not going to lent him now because comes the Shmita that loan will be cancelled. And that means your attitude to the poor person is a negative one. and you will not give because you are worried about it. and he will call out to God in his pain and his suffering and you’ll be the guilty person for not lending. You must give. In verse 10. And don’t be bad or negative in your hand and don’t do it reluctantly. Here you are, I don’t really want to, but here you are.

That’s why I’m commanding you , open up your hand to your brother to the poor, to the needy, and notice the three. There’s , family member who’s somebody in a permanent state of poverty and somebody who at this moment, happens to be needy. And it’s interesting that when we go into the Talmudic law, then you have this whole idea of differentiating between people’s needs and accepting the idea that some people need more. And so the Talmud gives an example. If somebody is used to riding on a donkey. And now they need some form of transport, you give the transport that they are used to, the donkey. And if somebody is used to travelling on a horse and they need help, you give them the horse because of their particular needs, which is in one sense, an open hand. And in one sense, might not make a great deal of sense if somebody’s very, very wealthy and comes to you for a million, are you supposed to give them a million? But it’s means that you have to judge the nature of the needy and what it is that they want. Now this whole question of lending money and of in a sense, using interest has been already mentioned previously in the Book of Exodus. This of course, was fine within an agricultural society, but when agriculture was superseded to a large extent by commerce, by the time you get to the Greek Roman period, they have a serious problem. And their serious problem is, but look, you know, sort of everybody is lending money with interest. It’s a way we manage to survive. Can’t imagine a society such as ours without interest in it.

And so what are we going to do? And the great Rabbi Hillel who lived 2,000 years ago before the common era came up with a way of getting round the question of lending. Lending for money and the release in the seventh year of all debts. And his solution was that you transfer the debt to the courts. We’re going to deal with courts shortly. But a debt which is a private debt is different from a debt which is a national debt. The nationals have to get money to build aqueducts and public utilities and necessities. So if you transfer your debt to the courts, then they hold it for you and they can exact the payment whenever the payment is due after the seventh year. And so you won’t worry about not getting your money back during the seventh year. Now many people look at this and say, "Look, this is a typical rabbinic fiddle. This is not what the law of the Bible says.” But as we are going to see the Bible gives a great deal of authority to judges and to the authorities to make decisions that enable normal life at the time to continue. And so this act of Hillel became known as the Prozbul which is an Aramaic phrase for take my document. And it was very controversial at the time.

But then as things got more complicated from a financial point of view, you could lend money but you couldn’t charge interest on the money. This became a problem and they had to find a way of getting round that. And by the time you get to the Middle Ages, the rabbis had come up with another solution. And the other solution was to say, you lend somebody money but you don’t ask for interest back. You ask for a partnership fee. Now you may say again, this is a typical example of getting round something. And in Jewish law using Aramaic term, this is called . is business in Aramaic. is a Hebrew and Aramaic. which means allows him to do business. And that was part of the system which was actually adopted by Islam who had a similar problem because they also outlawed interest. And so they had what is known to the world today as sort of a way of getting round the laws of interest according to Sharia and doing that with Islamic arrangement to get round the problem. These are examples of getting round a problem. Why don’t we do it more? And isn’t this betraying in a way the law itself? In one sense, it’s necessary for any legal system to progress. The question is can you find a way of meeting two fundamental issues? Issue number one is we don’t want to destroy the original constitution. We want to keep this as an important record and as an important foundation. But at the same time, we want to be able to find ways of dealing with new situations, of being innovative and creative. And so these two examples I give you are examples where the rabbi said, “Look, the idea originally to lend simply because somebody needs is very good, but we see it’s not happening in our society.”

Or the idea of not taking interest is very good ‘cause interest can be a terrible burden and it can get worse and it can grow exponentially and put people in debt forever. So we have a problem with this and we want to solve this problem. And therefore, the way to solve it is by, if you like, developing a mechanism for keeping the law on the books and studying it to know what the ideal is, even if in practise, we have to move on. So there, we have the first definition of the law of Shmita in terms of debts. Now we look at Shmita from another point of view, in verse 12. If a Hebrew male or female is sold to another Hebrew male or female, they have to serve for a maximum of six full years. , and in the seventh year, you have to let them go free. Now what was a Hebrew slave? They’re called eved but it’s a different kind of eved. Eved Ivri as opposed to Eved Kenaani. Hebrew eved as opposed to Canaanite. So here we are, Deuteronomy 15:12. They’re sold for one of two reasons. Reason number one is they may have committed a crime, they may have done something wrong and the punishment might be what would be the equivalent of community service. You pay off your crime by doing something positive, by serving somebody, helping somebody. The other possibility is simply they’re so poor. That they are asking another family to take care of husbands, wife and children to house them and to feed them. And in exchange, they’ll work for them in the house as a maid, as a chef, as a cook, or whatever it is they need.

So this is serving quite common, but they can only serve for a maximum of six years. And in verse 13, when you release them at the end of that period of time, don’t send them away empty handed naked. Verse 14. provide provisions for him or her. From your storehouses, from or your wine vat. from whatever it is that God has blessed you. Wherever you have all the money that you are able to employ slaves, you must provide support for them so that they’re not just left out of the door with nothing and destitute. You’ve got to make sure that they are provided for. Now, this is a law that did not occur in Exodus. So here, you have an example of in Exodus, the law given by Moses at Sinai at the beginning of the 40 years. And now by the time you get to the end of it, he’s saying, “Look, I want to add a little bit.” Or to clarify however you want to take it. And this idea of , of provision is so important. It’s like the current term of, “Don’t just give him a fish, give him a rod and a line and a hook so that he can fish for himself or set up his own business.” Setting up his own business means that that person will contribute to society. So these are such important principles that by and large, our modern society pays no attention to. Doesn’t consider, doesn’t reckon it. We’re not talking now about slavery in the sense in which it’s used in Africa by Africans against Africans and elsewhere and Muslims against Muslims and Americans against Americans. We are talking here about the structure of society and helping those who are of common hard times. And that’s why we repeat for, they’re altogether, 26 times in verse 15 of Deuteronomy 15, , you must remember.

You were servants in the land of Egypt and God redeemed you. Therefore, I command you this thing. Verse 16. Now what happens if the servant says, “I want to stay, I’m happy here. I don’t want to go free.” Verse 16. if the servant says, “I don’t want to leave you.” “I love you and your household.” “Because it is good for him with you.” The Talmud says, the fact that it says that it is good for him with you when he is a servant means that you must treat him absolutely equally. You must be good with him in terms of how he lives, what kind of pillows and bed he has, what kind of food he eats, whatever you have, he or she has. Now this is an amazing idea that the Talmud clarifies and understands this was always the law. And that’s what it meant. That you have to treat them, not by shoving them in a hut at the bottom of your garden somewhere or giving them their your cast over rotten clothes or leftovers from the meal. You have to treat them in the same way. It’s an amazing statement. And no wonder sometimes a person will say, “I want to stay.” And look how the Torah guards it. Initially, you are going to be shocked and I understand you’re going to be shocked, but there is more. In verse 17, you should take the tool you use for piercing cattle’s ears or noses or piercing your ear for earrings. And you place his ear against the doorpost and you pierce the ear. he’ll be a servant to you for as long as he lives, whether it’s a male or a female. Now you might say, “Well, big deal. Many of us wear piercings in our ears nowadays.” Although according to Jewish law, this goes against the law because one shouldn’t be doing this. Although people now do it for cosmetic reasons. But why they ask. What’s the ear got to do with it and why are you piercing the ear? What’s this all about?

The answer that’s normally give is that slavery, even this kind of benevolent slavery takes away a person’s initiative. And takes away a person’s responsibility for themselves, for their family. It’s not a good thing. It may be necessary sometimes, but it is not an ideal and therefore because it’s not an ideal, we make some mark. Now there’s an argument as to what kind of mark it is and what part of the ear it’s on. But let us assume that it is just in the load, which isn’t most people’s opinion, but it’s a possibility. If it is, then that isn’t noticeable when they go out in public. It’s only to remind oneself that really in a sense one is choosing to stay in servitude. And the Torah has said, “I don’t want you to be slaves, I don’t want you to be in a state of servitude. If you have to, it should be as short as possible and you should try to get out of it as quickly as you possibly can.” So this is an interesting attitude towards people in Hebrew slavery. But it carries on and you can learn things from this to apply to the wider world and the wider situation. Thank God slavery is on the decline, but it still hasn’t disappeared thousands of years later. Verse 80. But going back to the original law which you send somebody out six full years is the maximum. And the answer is, well, what happens if you only come in halfway through? Well, the answer is in those days, yeah, you only serve for three years and four years. Or if as we’ve mentioned before, a member of the family wants to redeem you, they redeem you at any stage during that period and pay accordingly, either less or more. In verse 18, . don’t take it hard that you are sending him free. Because the whole arrangement was only going to be for six years. So don’t get upset about it. That’s what it is. That’s the law. Just think God is blessing you that you’re in a position to do this and to help people and therefore, God will be happy about you being kind to other people. Now we move on to the question of the role of the firstborn.

And I don’t want to spend too much time on that particular issue of the firstborn. And so I’m going to jump and I’m going to jump to 16:1 in which we’ve left this behind and we are coming to the festivals. The only thing that I want to mention in the path that we’ve done is that there are different laws regarding to the Canaanite slave. That is to say the who was in those days, bought and sold on the open market. And unfortunately, there was hardly a time when Jews were not captured and sold on the market right until the 19th century. So this other question of the Canaanite slave is something that in fact was only in theory in Jewish society during the early period of the two kingdoms. But in that area, and although in some people, claim it carried on beyond in practise. The problem of course in all these things was that after we lost our kingdom in 70 CE, we were no longer in charge of our own laws and therefore, we had to adhere to laws that applied in society in general for better or for worse. But essentially, when you bought a slave, you bought this slave and he was Canaanite slave, he was your property and could be passed on to the next generation. But that didn’t mean to say that you had to be harsh with the slave. And so the Torah for a Canaanite slave, lays down certain laws of protection. For example, if you injure them, they may go free. That you can release them at any time. And if they want to, they can become part of the Jewish community. Because Canaanite slaves were expected to adhere to certain basic rules and laws of the Torah. The similar, the simple seven basic Canaanite laws. So they had certain, shall we say, opportunities. And if you look both at Greek, Roman, Ottoman and Jewish society, and Talmud gives examples of these. Slaves became important members of the family, important members of society had very senior positions were often advisors politically, socially.

You could just think of Abraham’s servant, Eliezer, who was in one sense at one stage not only responsible for the whole of his estate, but also possibly going to marry his daughter and inherit when he died. So there is a clear distinction between the two. But even so, there were very strict laws that determined how you should treat a Canaanite slave, but you always had the option of freeing them when you felt you wanted to. Now we come to the festivals and to a slight variation in the festivals to the Exodus version. Verse one of chapter 16 says, keep the month of Aviv. Now Aviv is not one of the months that we have now. We have months, and these months are all Babylonian non-Jewish names. You can find them if you look at Babylonian calendar, all the names are that may be a little bit slightly different like . There are variations that go through. But nevertheless, Aviv is not the name of a month, even though it says it. Technically, Aviv means the spring. So Aviv is when things begin to blossom and come out. The corn, begins to ripe. And therefore, you make the Pesach Festival for God at the time of Aviv. God took you out of Egypt at night. And therefore, the celebration initially in the Bible was in verse two, to sacrifice the Pascal lamb, the Pesach. Whether it is a sheep or an ox. Doesn’t have to be a sheep, it can be an ox. but you should do this in the place which God chooses to put his name there. Now this is very strange. What place? We are not told what place. This was taken to me later on the temple, but it doesn’t say what place. It implies anywhere where God decides or you decide there will be a sanctuary. And so for hundreds of years after coming into the land of Canaan, they had the tabernacle and the tabernacle moved from place to place.

And it wasn’t until King David that the tabernacle was brought into Jerusalem and then it wasn’t until King Solomon that the temple was brought as the place where all sacrifices took place. So this is unique to the book of Deuteronomy that it mentions for the first time, HaMakom, the place. Which Makom here simply does mean a specific place. But in the Talmud, after the temple was destroyed, the rabbis decided to add that as a name for God, Makom. And so when we comfort people after they’ve had a loss, we say in Hebrew , may Almighty, may God comfort you. So Makom as a name for God is a huge movement away from the biblical names of a Elohim and so forth. It offers an option. And what they meant by that option was to say that Makom means a place, but it can mean any place. So wherever you bring God in, wherever you are standing, whether it’s an east in the west or the north and the south, God is there. It’s not as though he’s only hanging around the temple. That was the symbolic focal point. But it wasn’t the only place where God is or was. God is everywhere. And I happen to like this idea of Makom for God because it’s not sexist. It doesn’t distinguish between male and female. It doesn’t use in translation names that we find difficult, Lord, mighty one. All these words that are very often used, it gets round that. It’s not king or queen or anything like that. So I love this use of Makom to describe God. But this is, as I mentioned before, the problem that existed with the Samaritans who said, “Look, there’s only reference to two places.” There’s the Mount Brasil and Mount Ebal and those have got to be the places that God meant. So carrying on, you should go to sacrifice the Pascal lamb, which was an idea of getting everybody together for the festival to come together as a community. verse three. Don’t eat any .

Don’t eat any leavened bread. but for seven days, you should eat Matzah. And Matzah is . Literally the bread of poor people. The term can have two meanings. It can mean a poor person, it can also mean somebody who is afflicted with poverty or distress. So bread Matzah symbolises the bread of minimalism, of limitation. That’s all we can get. And we do this because we had to go on eating it longer than we expected to because in a hurry. And is a strange word of in one sense, distress and in another sense, urgency. You came out of Egypt and therefore, you have to remember that you were slaves and remembering you were slaves should give you sympathetic sympathy to other people. In verse four. And you shall have no leavened bread or leavened food in your house for seven days. And the term that’s used here is . There should not appear to you, you shouldn’t be able to see anything. That is the origin of removing all the from the home, all the leavened stuff, all from the house. Because unlike anything else, it doesn’t say let’s say with tray for food. You mustn’t see it. I mean, you might have it in your house, feed the dog or something like that. But where it comes to , you may not have any. It may not be seen at all. That’s one of the uniquenesses of the festival of Pesach and why we treat it so much more strictly with rituals than we do any other one. But then in verse five, reiterating. That whereas you may, if you like, kill for food, for meat anywhere, when it comes to the Pesach, you can’t do it outside the main sanctuary. So the whole idea is to get the people together, we need to have this jamboree, or you might even call it a , to come all together. In verse six, but only to the place where God chooses to have as his place, so to speak, the house of God. Then you sacrifice this on the evening. sunset. when you came out of Egypt, Verse seven. The third point, which is three again. Three times remembering the same thing.

You shall eat it there and you go out in the morning back to tents. And for six days, you’ll eat matzah. And on the seventh day, there is a final day of Pesach, an and a gathering. Don’t do any work. So this indicates you don’t do any work. So it’s like a Kabbalat Shabbat the first days and the last days, but there’s room in between. And again, there’s ambiguity here. On the one hand, it says, “Seven days, you should eat,” and here it says, “For six days.” But that’s only because we’re leading up to the extra last day of Pesach. So that’s the law of Pesach. And now we come to the next law of seven weeks from Pesach to Shavuot. You should count for seven weeks. Seven, seven of 49, 49 days. from when the sickle begins to attack the grain. When they start cutting down the grain. And that’s when you should count seven weeks. But hold on, hold on. This doesn’t say that you do it from Pesach. It merely says from when you cut the corn, harvest time. So this raises another question of when exactly do we count the seven days for the seventh of the 49 days from? And that was also one of the issues where during the Talmud era, there was a massive disagreement between the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the Dead Sea sects. And the Samaritans, and indeed in due course, the Christians, because Passover was very important for Christianity because that was the festival that led to the death of Jesus according to their tradition. And therefore, when exactly Easter was is still debated amongst the different Christian sects. And when exactly the court case took place or whatever it was, has been lost in the midst of time. If it ever did exist, we don’t know. Verse 10.

But when you’ve counted whenever these 49 days are, you have the festival of Shavuot in verse 10. And Shavuot is the week in which, and at the time, when you give your voluntary contributions. And as much as you can give to you, to the community, that is the crucial element of Shavuot. There’s no mention here of Shavuot as a harvest festival, but that’s going to come. But the main thing is this idea of the devotion to community. And in verse 11 comes something which is very important. You have to be happy. Be happy. That’s what it says in black and white. You’ve got to be happy. There is no genuine religious obligation as shall we say, not specific but general because you can’t define joy then this idea of which is repeated several times. You should be happy, rejoice. Before God, your son, your daughter. your servant, your maid servant. in your gates. the stranger, involve the stranger in this. the orphan. in this place. Everybody should be coming together. Everybody should be happy together. You shouldn’t be saying, “I can be happy, but you can’t.” This importance of emotional involvement and responsibility for the community is so important. And once again, verse 12, . You should remember you were slaves in the land of Egypt. . You’ve got to keep these rules. And then finally, we come to and you’ll ask, what Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur?

Well, because Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are different categories of festivals. The main category of festivals as far as the Bible was concerned were the three so-called pilgrim festivals. When everybody came together at Jerusalem. And they were times of happiness. Rosh Hashanah is not necessarily happy time. Yom Kippur definitely is not a happy time. And happiness has got to be our motto. So in verse 13 of 16, you should have the festival of Sukkot, seven days. when you gather everything in from your storehouses, your grain, and your vas. So whereas if you like Shavuot, Pesach and Shavuot are harvest festivals for the beginning and the first phase of the harvest, autumn is where the final lock comes in and that’s where Shavuot is. So they were all harvest festivals in one way as well as having greater national and historical significance. And once again, verse 14. Be happy. You and your son and your daughter, any maid servant, any man servant, the Levite the stranger, the widow, and orphan. Hold on, where’s the wife in all this? You will ask. Well, according to the Talmud, . When something is commanded and the wife and the husband are one unit and that’s their way of getting out of it. But it does seem to me to be a bit of a problem. And I rather wish and his revision had included her as well, just for the sake of it and for our Me Too era. Anyway, in verse 15, for seven days, celebrate for God in the place where he chooses. Because God has blessed you with your produce or with your money or with your wealth. everything you do. And here we’ve got it again, , you’ve got to be very, very happy. Not just , but . So you’ve got it again. It’s going to come again too. This importance of joy, of being happy. It’s so important.

Three times in a year in verse 16. all your males are expected to appear in the place where they choose . And you should not appear empty handed. not your door. Everybody should give whatever they are able to give according to their blessings. Now this you might say, “Why only the men?” It didn’t mean to say women couldn’t. On the contrary, women did. And women played a very, very important part. And the Talmud records, examples of significant women donating and contributing and being part and doing everything in Jerusalem. But basically, it’s saying you can’t even try to oblige your women to come because women have to look after the babies, can’t travel with the babies, can’t go a long way. There are other obligations on them. And so in terms of actual obligation, it’s an obligation of man. In terms of the woman, it’s an option and available to them. So that’s where we’re going to close for today. And I will turn now to the question of whether we have any questions that need to be asked. Let me just open up. Stop share and let’s go to question and answer.

Q&A and Comments:

So. Whoever apologise for leaving early. That’s sweet of you. You don’t need to. I accept that people come and go for all kinds of reasons, but it’s very sweet of you to say that. Anyway,

Q: Romae. “Ideas of accountability seem to make sense, but doesn’t it seem an at odds with Torah concepts?”

A: I don’t know Romae, what you mean? It sounds an interesting question, but I would be grateful if you come back at me and give me a little more information.

Q: Shelly, “If slavery can be about poor family, food and shelter in exchange for work, why on verses 12 and 13 phrased in the plural?

A: Let me just go back and see what you’re referring to. pages 15 and 16. 15 and 16. You were slaves in the land of Egypt. I’m not certain what you mean. . Why isn’t it? Oh, I see. Why isn’t it says , you, all of you. But when it says in single, it’s applying every one of you is important. I’m addressing this to you individually as being very important. Then we say, how could Eliezer marry Abraham’s daughter and inherit when Abraham didn’t have a daughter? Well, the truth is that Torah doesn’t say that he had a daughter. It is entirely a matter of rabbinic interpretation. And rabbinic interpretation says when it says that God had blessed Abraham, , with everything. He already had everything. Cattle and sheep and wives. Sons, what didn’t he have? He didn’t have a daughter. So to make his heritage and his happiness complete, he needed to have a daughter. Neither does the mid midwife say anything that names Eliezer at that moment. But Abraham turns to God and says, "I don’t have any children.” This is before he had a son. And my agent is going to inherit me. So that’s how we know that Eliezer was going to inherit Abraham. But we again sort of don’t know about this idea of marrying the daughter. They say that’s what he did. And that shows what a faithful guy he was because he went and found a woman for his son’s boss, Rivkah, and went out of his way to when really at heart, he was hoping not to find the right person.

Arthur says, “I thought seminar was about justice and concept of an eye for a night.” You are right, Arthur, I’m sorry. I made a mistake when Ray gave the subject matter and I will be dealing with justice over the coming weeks in great detail and dealing with all these things. So please forgive me, we’ll get back to it next week.

Q: Shelly, “Since the Israelites were given notice on the first of that they would be leaving Egypt, they didn’t have time to make provision. So why Matzah?”

A: Well, they obviously were catering for themselves. They had to cater and they made basic dough. And so they were ready all the time providing food for them and bread for them day by day like Peter and bread factories. It’s just that they hoped that because bread that had time to rise was the bread of free and wealthy people, they assumed they were going to be free and in this freedom have the good fluffy bread. But they were deprived because they were in a hurry and had to get out. Since the Israelites will give it.

Yeah, so Leonard, “In ancient days, Yom Kippur was a happy day with parties and betrothals.” Well that’s true that Talmud says that. The Talmud says that after they came out of the temple on Yom Kippur, they went dancing in the vineyards. And this was also an opportunity for , for finding partners. It doesn’t say they ate. Parties after Yom Kippur, that’s something which was a feature of Western society, not of our tradition. So definitely, they were dancing, they were happy because they felt that they had been forgiven and given a new opportunity. But the lead up to it was serious.

Q: Marcia, “Is there not a general theme of contrasting slavery, which presumably oppressive to the joy of freedom?”

A: Indeed, there was. And the importance of celebrating freedom and not taking it for granted and being happy that we are able to have freedom.

Carla likes the idea of Makom.

Rita, thank you. And iPhone, thank you.

And by the way, there a lot of people who are here that I don’t thank personally, but I should do. But if you don’t give my name, I can’t.

Q: Richard, could you mention again how many years in Canaan before the temple was built?

A: Well, very difficult to go exactly, but bear in mind that there was approximately 100 years of the period of judges after Joshua, and then there was the kingdom of Saul and David. And so we are looking at about 200 years, 150 to 200. Very difficult to tell within that range. And there are of course different opinions.

Richard, sorry, Clara. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you.

Q: Richard, “Was partnership fee ever extracted from Hebrews?”

A: You know Richard, I have no idea. I have no idea. I mean, the notion of a partnership fee really only begins in the common era as part of the Roman Greek economic structure. So I can’t imagine that anything was extracted from the early Hebrews.

So that I think is everything. Thank you and I will see you please God next week. And I will be dealing then with a question of justice, judgement , and changing the law and issues like that.