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This week we actually complete an entire chapter in one class!  Well actually to be totally accurate, part of the class is a review of the beginning of the chapter 24 which we began the week before.

Below you will find the relevant verses:  Exodus 24: 1-18

If you have any questions or comments about the podcast please be sure to share your thoughts below in the comment area.

Thanks for listening!

Exodus 24

1Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance, 2but Moses alone is to approach the Lord; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him.”

3When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the Lord has said we will do.” 4Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said.

He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. 5Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. 6Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed against the altar. 7Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.”

8Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

9Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up10and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. 11But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.

12The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”

13Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. 14He said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them.”

15When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, 16and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. 17To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. 18Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

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In this podcast we got into a good discussion regarding land ownership and rights.  We continue working through chapter 23 in Exodus and make it to chapter 24 verse 8.

Below you’ll find maps and the book I was referring to in the class.

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This week we are covering Exodus Chapter 23 and do some review of verse 20 – 23 and discuss angelogogy.  Then we continue covering the chapter.

Exodus 23 (NIV)

20“See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. 21Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. 22If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. 23My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. 24Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces. 25Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, 26and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span.

27“I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. 28I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way.

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This week we review some of last weeks class, and I discuss some topics brought up after class last week.

The book I mentioned is “The Harbinger”.  You can find it here.

Then we continue in Exodus Chapter 23 and make it through to verse 23.

Below are the relevant verses:

Exodus 23 (NIV)

13“Be careful to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips.

14“Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me.

15“Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt.

“No one is to appear before me empty-handed.

16“Celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field.

“Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.

17“Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord.

18“Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast.

“The fat of my festival offerings must not be kept until morning.

19“Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.

“Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

20“See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. 21Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. 22If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. 23My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out.

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This week we continue in Exodus chapter 23, starting around verse 8 and make our way through verse 17.  We discuss modern applications of these ideas (i.e. how bribery effects our judges today.)  Also we discuss laws of Shabbat and the Three Festivals (a.k.a. Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot.)

Exodus 23 (NIV)

8“Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the innocent.

9“Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.

10“For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, 11but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what is left. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

12“Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed.

13“Be careful to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips.

14“Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me.

15“Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt.

“No one is to appear before me empty-handed.

16“Celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field.

“Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.

17“Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord.

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Hooray! We start a new chapter in this class.  These verses are fascinating because they are so applicable to both our micro and macro world views.  Below are the relevant verses.  If you have any questions, you can share them below in the comments area.

Exodus 23 (NIV)

1“Do not spread false reports. Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness.

2“Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, 3and do not show favoritism to a poor person in a lawsuit.

4“If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to return it. 5If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help them with it.

6“Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits. 7Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty.

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This week we get more information regarding some verses from last week’s podcast.  We talk about the history of “7 days” in  a week.  Why the “8th day”?  Also, we discussing some meaningful ideas around kashrut.  Sorry, cannot find the Harvard.edu essay I referenced in the class.

The verses covered are Exodus Chapter 22 from about verse 27 through 31.  The verse numbers may vary depending on the publisher of the Bible you are using.

 

Exodus 22 (NIV)

 26If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, return it by sunset, 27because that cloak is the only covering your neighbor has. What else can they sleep in? When they cry out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.

28“Do not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people.

29“Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats.

“You must give me the firstborn of your sons. 30Do the same with your cattle and your sheep. Let them stay with their mothers for seven days, but give them to me on the eighth day.

31“You are to be my holy people. So do not eat the meat of an animal torn by wild beasts; throw it to the dogs.

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In this class there is a bit of a recap as well as some more information regarding the questions and challenges from last class.  Much of the explanation comes from Talmudic sources.  Eventually, we pick up where we left off and continue to verse 30.  Below are the relevant verses:

Exodus 22 (NIV)

(24 in JPS) 25“If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest. 26If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, return it by sunset, 27because that cloak is the only covering your neighbor has. What else can they sleep in? When they cry out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.

28“Do not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people.

29“Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats.

“You must give me the firstborn of your sons. 30Do the same with your cattle and your sheep. Let them stay with their mothers for seven days, but give them to me on the eighth day.

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One verse?  Yes, one verse is what we cover in this class.  Actually, one of the students sent an email regarding some information on magic and Judaism.  Here is a link if you’d like to read some of it.  I encourage you to purchase the book as you would benefit from contributing to the publisher or author’s trust.  This week the single verse covered is Exodus 22:20.

Exodus 22 (JPS 1917)

20And a stranger shalt thou not wrong, neither shalt thou oppress him; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

וגר לא־תונה ולא תלחצנו כי־גרים הייתם בארץ מצרים׃