If you asked someone to define ‘Israeli’ to you, they’d probably say something about someone who’s born in Israel or who has citizenship in Israel. That’s a good answer. But not if you’re asking them to define our Hebrew Word of the Week.
This parasha’s narrative detailing Yahweh’s appointed times and the maintenance of the internal tabernacle service is abruptly interrupted by two angry men slugging it out. Maybe they were getting bored of the details. Or maybe the steady diet of manna for breakfast, lunch, and supper was getting to them. Or, maybe the one guy had insulted the other guy because the other guy’s Dad was an Egyptian. I think it was probably the latter scenario, not that Israelites today would ever stoop to that level.
In giving the pedigrees of the two brawlers, a term pops up that isn’t used anywhere else in the whole Hebrew Bible. In Leviticus/Vayikra 24:10 we read that the guy with the Egyptian Dad had a Mom who was an Israelite woman, an ‘אִשָּׁה יִשְׂרְאֵלִית Ishah Yisraelit’. ‘אִשָּׁה Ishah’ is a pretty Hebrew word, and means woman. ‘יִשְׂרְאֵלִית Yisraelit’ is the other Hebrew word in this term and is the one that we’ll key in on this week. It means a female Israeli. The Torah then goes on to use the male counterpart of this term in describing the other guy as a ‘ְאִישׁ יִּשְׂרְאֵלִי Ish Yisraeli’, an Israelite man, or a male Israeli.
This is the only time that the terms Yisraeli and Yisraelit appear in the Torah. The more standard reference to the people of Israel is ‘בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל bnei Yisrael’, the sons of Israel. What’s so surprising about the usage of these terms in this context? These people weren’t born in Israel. These people had never even been to Israel. These people had spent their whole lives building the Egyptian Empire. But the God of these people was the God of Israel, and he was busy making good on his promises to their forefathers. Even though Egypt may have been these people’s past, Israel was these people’s future, and the God of Israel was these people’s present. And so they were called Israelis.
Perhaps it was based on the contextual usage of the terminology in this week’s parasha that Paul was able to write in his letter to the early Messianic community in Ephesus, and proclaim to believers from the nations in broad sweeping terms that these people were no lo longer aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, that they had been brought near. Why? Because the Messiah of Israel was their present. Because the covenant reality of the land of Israel, and the glory of the God of Israel, was their future. So it is with us today.
Of course, Paul’s theological foundations for his idea that believers from the nations were included in Israel reached far beyond this parasha. Paul had read the prophets. Paul had read Jeremiah 31:31, that exhilarating promise of the new covenant experience and its explicit statement of who the new covenant was to be made with: the House of Israel, and the House of Judah. Paul understood that these believers from the nations thus fell under the ‘roof’ of the Houses of Israel and Judah.
What are the practical applications we can draw from our Hebrew Word of the Week?
1. If you’re a believer in Messiah from the nations, then you are more than a Gentile. You are part of Israel. It’s time to reclaim your covenant inheritance, and start living it out! Read the Scriptures of Israel. Celebrate the Feasts of Israel. Practice the Biblical customs of Israel. After all, your Saviour is the Messiah of Israel, and he has brought you in!
2. Remember that sometimes conventional terms don’t mesh with Scriptural realities. It doesn’t matter where you were born. It doesn’t matter what country your passport says you belong to. If you are a man, then at the core of your soul you are an ‘יִּשְׂרְאֵלִי Israeli’. If you’re a woman, then in the depths of your heart you are a ‘יִשְׂרְאֵלִית Yisraelit’. Cherish your heritage, and prepare for your future.
3. If you’re like the guy with the ‘Israelite Dad’ and ‘Israelite Mom’, take a lesson from this story and be nice to those who aren’t. They’re part of Israel too. Mistreating the guy with the ‘Egyptian Dad’ doesn’t just misrepresent God, it places the aggressor in danger of causing the guy with the ‘Egyptian Dad’ such pain, confusion, or estrangement that he would actually blaspheme the holy name by which we have been called. Even though you may be from different backgrounds, remember the greater reality: that you have a common future.
Your friend,
Yisraeli Yisrael
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Holy Language Institute | Emblazoning the Holy Language of Hebrew on Your Heart | www.holylanguage.com | Office: 306.497.2794 | P.O. Box 88 Blaine Lake, SK S0J 0J0
Crown of Messiah | A Messianic Jewish Congregation in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan | www.crownofmessiah.com
Nice post! :)
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