Illustration: "Thou shall not muzzle the ox...."Public DomainFor me personally, this is an important Torah portion for two reasons:
1) It clearly shows that the rabbinical ruling asserting: "Judaism passes thru the mother" is nonsense and that I am in absolutely no danger of having to pay out on the $100,000 prize I offered to anyone who could prove that, according to the written Torah, Judaism is based on matrilineal descent:
2) This Torah section uses practically all the major metaphors we have discussed in articles up to now and even one new one: the dog
First of all, we have discussed in other articles that “sex” is a metaphor for “seeking knowledge from God”, and we noted that the Hebrew word for: “sex” actually means: “to know”. We then went on to ask: “Why would a God of the spirit, care about physical beauty”? Our conclusion was that “beauty” and “sexual attractiveness” are metaphors for: “the power of the spiritual medium to attract men to seek knowledge from God”. We also concluded that “sons” were a metaphor for: “the word of God” or “the reply from God via the medium”. Hence, the “battle” between Rachel and Leah was not really about who was more sexually attractive to Jacob, but was a struggle to demonstrate to him which one was the more powerful medium. This is the reason Jacob screamed at Rachel that it was not him who was responsible that she had no fruit in her womb and we have discussed numerous times that: “fruit” is a metaphor for: “knowledge”.
Accordingly, what God is saying is that even the gentiles have powerful mediums within their population and if a Israelite wants to consult with one it is not forbidden, since it is the man who plants the seed of the idea and thus makes the request for knowledge from God.
What is interesting, however, is that the Torah says that she must first shave her head. This is not mentioned in a previous Torah portion where it says it is permissible to marry 16,000 Medianite virgins, but, at the same time, in this Torah portion it does not say the woman must be a virgin.
Regardless, I am not 100% sure what a finger nail symbolizes, but “hair” represents “devotion to God” and we can find this definition in both the stories of Samson and Samuel. Therefore, the woman, by cutting her hair, breaks the bond between herself and her people’s god. When the hair grows back, it shows she is now dedicated, or devoted, to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
In a previous article, we discussed the punishment of Moses not being allowed to enter the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and we demonstrated that the rabbis are clearly wrong in their assertion that Moses produces water twice from a stone and that the second time it was forbidden to hit the rock with his staff.
The incident only happened once and the “offence” of Moses was providing water to the Israelites when God clearly did not want them to have water. We concluded that the teachings of God should be associated with “dryness” and reinforced this interpretation by noting that the name: “Horeb” means: “dryness”; the Ark of the Covenant never touched water; and God floated over the “dark waters” in the Book of Genesis.
We then went on to assert that Moses had diluted or: “adulterated” the teachings of God with his own words in an attempt to make God’s teachings more comprehensible to the Israelites and this is the reason God forbade him from entering the new “school” he was establish in: “The Promised land” (We noted that, even today, the earth is considered a school and the Hebrew words for “earth” and “land” are the same. We then pointed out that: “adultery” is a metaphor for: “mixing religious doctrines” and supported this idea with the quote: “whoring after other Gods” found in Isaiah).
What we did not discuss in that particular article was that the Hebrew word for: “honor” is the same word for: “the human liver” and the purpose of the liver is to cleanse the blood. God tells Noah that: “the soul is in the blood”, therefore we can see clearly why the offence of Moses was so grave.
Instead of maintaining the purity of God’s spiritual message designed to educate the souls of the Israelites, Moses diluted and “watered down” the meaning of God's message by using his own words. Moses wasn’t killed outright because he was only responding to the insistent demands of the people, nevertheless, God clearly says that Moses did not “honor” his word and this is the reason he could not lead the people into the land (i.e. He could not be the headmaster of the new spiritual school being established there. A land of “milk” and “honey” where “milk” is a metaphor for: “easy to understand spiritual teachings” and “honey” is a metaphor “easy to understand religious texts” since the Hebrew word for: “bee” also means: “words” (i.e. words work together to form paragraphs and books).
Due to space limitations I will not go into detail about: “the ox” and: “the donkey” especially since we have discussed this subject in a previous article:
http://www.jpost.com/Blogs/Torah-Commentaries/Metaphors-in-the-Torah-The-Donkey-and-the-Ox-388356
Nevertheless, I would like to emphasize here that the Torah uses certain animals over and over again to prove a point because these animals had symbolic significance in ancient times. This is why Esau is always associated with both the color “red” and the “goat” (i.e. in Hebrew “red and “ground/dirt” are the same word and: “a goat” is a symbol for: “deception”).
This then shows why Moses said his words were like a “heavy rain”. The word Moses actually uses is different and is closer to “deluge”, nevertheless, the Hebrew word for “rain” also means: “materialism”, hence Moses was guilty of combining material or sense based ideas with spiritual ones.
In conclusion: the Torah introduces for the first time, I believe, the subject of: “a dog” and most commentators seem to feel this was a metaphor for: “a male prostitute”. In a previous article we have already discussed: “homosexuality”
http://www.jpost.com/Blogs/Torah-Commentaries/Metaphors-in-the-Torah-Homosexuality-412129
and our conclusion was that “homosexuality” was a metaphor for: “men seeking knowledge from men”. This is somewhat logical, since we have just discussed in this article that “women” are metaphors for: “spiritual mediums between men and God”.
In the New Testament the image of: “a dog” is used repeatedly by Jesus in a reference to gentiles, but, it is my opinion he is not saying they are homosexuals. What Jesus was saying is that “a dog” gets its religious knowledge and religious inspiration from men or man-made idols. Thus, when Jesus says: “don’t give what is ‘holy’ to the dogs…..” the meaning is nearly the same as what we see in this week’s Torah portion where it says it is forbidden for male prostitutes (i.e. “Sodomites”) to enter the temple.
In short: God is a teacher and we have noted that “God’s mountain” is referred to as: “Mount Moriah” and this Hebrew name means: “teacher”. Hence “a female prostitute” is one who: “will serve a medium between any man and any God or spirit”, whereas “a male prostitute” is one who serves as: “a medium between men and men”.