Parashat HaShavua Emor / Speak
This Week's Reading List:
VaYikra / Leviticus 21:1-24:23
Yechezk’el / Ezekiel 44:15-31
Kefa Aleph / 1st Peter 2:4-10
Vayikra {24:5} You shall take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes of it: two tenths of an ephah shall be in one cake. {24:6} You shall set them in two rows, six on a row, on the pure table before HaShem. {24:7} You shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be to the bread for a memorial, even an korban (offering) made by fire to HaShem. {24:8} every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before HaShem continually; it is on the behalf of bnei Yisrael (the children of Israel), an everlasting brit (covenant). {24:9} It shall be for Aharon (Aaron) and his sons; and they shall eat it in a kadosh (separate / holy) place: for it is most kadosh to him of the offerings of HaShem made by fire by a perpetual statute.
The Bread of the Presence, as these twelve cakes were called, was to be placed before HaShem, fresh, every Shabbat. When the old bread was removed the new bread, freshly baked, would replace it. Then, as instructed, Aharon and his sons would eat the old bread.
Well, I’ve been asked, why HaShem would ask someone to eat stale one week old bread. In fact, if the bread was left out in the open, as it was, then there is a good chance that the flies got to it or that it had become mouldy. We know HaShem’s stance on mould or mildew, so how could this be? Some have said that the bread miraculously stayed fresh. Others have suggested that the pure frankincense, which was placed next to the bread on each row, kept the loaves fresh. However, after doing a search on the preserving properties of frankincense, I found that it has none. Frankincense was used by ancient Egyptians as an ingredient for eyeliner. It was also used in traditional medicine because of its various healing properties, but most of all frankincense was and still is used as a fragrance. So what is the answer, why were they asked to eat the old bread? Actually it is very simple.
Vayikra {2:11} No meal-offering, which you shall offer to HaShem, shall be made with yeast; for you shall burn no yeast, nor any honey, as a korban made by fire to HaShem.
If, therefore, nothing containing leaven or yeast was allowed to be included in any of the offerings made unto HaShem, then the Bread of the Presence was not bread at all, but matzah. This fact changes everything. Matzah, for those who do not know, is a type of crisp cracker composed of only flour and water. It is then baked within eighteen minutes of being mixed to insure that it did not rise, even naturally. Properly cared for matzah will not spoil. We have matzah, still in its box, which is leftover from last Pesach (Passover). It is still crisp and as fresh tasting as the day it was made. By the way, plain matzah is almost tasteless. The only thing that can damage the quality of matzah is humidity and, considering that the climate in Yisrael is quite dry, humidity is rarely a problem. Therefore, the Bread of the Presence would be as fresh at the end of the week as it was at the beginning of the week and, therefore, would still suitable for the Aharon and his sons to eat.
The twelve matzhot (plural of matzah) placed in the Holy Place represented the twelve tribes of Yisrael. Therefore, I believe, the matzhot, together with the frankincense, was a reminder before HaShem of who bnei Yisrael was because of the korbanot (draw near / sin offerings) that they made. The fact that the Bread had to be replaced every week, I believe, represented a fresh reminder before HaShem of who bnei Yisrael will be in the olam haba (world to come) – sinless like the matzhot. The frankincense is a sweet smell to HaShem nostrils, which reminded Him of how sweet a sinless Yisrael will be. The fact that Aharon and his sons had to eat the old bread in a kadosh place and were not permitted to take the old bread home and eat it with their meals during the week reminds us that anything used for HaShem’s purposes can not be treated in a common fashion. Aharon and his son’s eating this holy bread, I believe, has no significance other then it was their portion from HaShem.
Rabbinical teachings tell us that the Cohenim (Priests) took the instructions from HaShem that the Bread of the Presence had to be before HaShem continually so seriously that as the old bread was being removed by one Cohen at one end of the Table of Show Bread another Cohen inserted the new bread simultaneously.
As the bnei Yisrael of today, both Jew and non-Jew, one in Mashiach (Messiah) Yeshua, Yeshua is our constant and ever fresh reminder before HaShem of who we are and who we will be in the olam haba. Not only that, but we are Yeshua’s portion, we are given to Him by the Father.
Ivrim (Hebrews) {2:13} And again, "I will put My trust in Him." And again, "Behold, I and the children whom G-d has given Me."
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Baruch HaShem
Rabbi Ya'acov Farber
Hallelujah for our Lord, our Teacher,our Rabbi, "YESHUA" King Messiah for ever and ever!!!
