OVERVIEW / OUTLINE
- Offering First Fruits (26.1-16) - still associated with do not steal/ do not covet
- Is poowad "the uncovetables", the rejects?
- Declaration preceding the ceremony
Formal Declaration of Shift in Identity and Status within this New Covenant
Deuteronomy 26:17 (LEB)
17 Yahweh you have declared today to be for you as your God, and to go in his ways and to observe his rules and his commandments and his regulations and to listen to his voice.
- "be for you as your god" ...
- For Yahweh to be your God = following him (i.e. "going in his ways", which entails you observing his movement and thus you track him).
- For Yahweh to be your God = observing/guarding his regulations, commands, and his rulings.
- For Yahweh to be your God = listening to his voice
- Two of the three clauses seem to require eyewitness, sapiential, direct localized contact with Yahweh.
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(17) You have affirmed this day that the LORD is your God, that you will walk in His ways, that you will observe His laws and commandments and rules, and that you will obey Him.
Genesis 17:7 (LEB)
7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you, and between your offspring after you, throughout their generations as an everlasting covenant to be as God for you and to your offspring after you.
(7) I will maintain My covenant between Me and you, and your offspring to come, as an everlasting covenant throughout the ages, to be God to you and to your offspring to come.
Leviticus 26:11–13 (LEB)
11 And I will put my dwelling place in your midst, and my inner self shall not abhor you. 12 And I will walk about in your midst, and I shall be your God, and you shall be my people. 13 I am Yahweh, your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from being their slaves; and I broke the bars of your yoke, and I caused you to walk erectly.
Deuteronomy 26:18–19 (LEB)
18 And Yahweh has declared you today to be for him as a people, a treasured possession, as he promised to you, and that you are to observe all his commandments, 19 and that he then will set you high above all the nations that he has made for his praise and for fame and for honor and for you to be a holy people to Yahweh your God, as he promised.”
- "a people holy to Yahweh" should be read in light of vs 15 "Look down from the dwelling place of your holiness from heaven"... this is based on a metaphysical, altitudinal cosmic geographical model. they are holy to Yah because they have been exalted and set high above other peoples, thus having been brought to a more proximal position to Yah himself. The fulcrum of this proximal position is the inhabited holy of holies.
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(יח) וַֽיהוָ֞ה הֶאֱמִֽירְךָ֣ הַיּ֗וֹם לִהְי֥וֹת לוֹ֙ לְעַ֣ם סְגֻלָּ֔ה כַּאֲשֶׁ֖ר דִּבֶּר־לָ֑ךְ וְלִשְׁמֹ֖ר כָּל־מִצְוֺתָֽיו׃ (יט) וּֽלְתִתְּךָ֣ עֶלְי֗וֹן עַ֤ל כָּל־הַגּוֹיִם֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָשָׂ֔ה לִתְהִלָּ֖ה וּלְשֵׁ֣ם וּלְתִפְאָ֑רֶת וְלִֽהְיֹתְךָ֧ עַם־קָדֹ֛שׁ לַיהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר דִּבֵּֽר׃ (ס)
(18) And the LORD has affirmed this day that you are, as He promised you, His treasured people who shall observe all His commandments, (19) and that He will set you, in fame and renown and glory, high above all the nations that He has made; and that you shall be, as He promised, a holy people to the LORD your God.
(ג) וְלֹֽא־נָתַן֩ יְהוָ֨ה לָכֶ֥ם לֵב֙ לָדַ֔עַת וְעֵינַ֥יִם לִרְא֖וֹת וְאָזְנַ֣יִם לִשְׁמֹ֑עַ עַ֖ד הַיּ֥וֹם הַזֶּֽה׃
The heart = to know.. the function of the heart is to know (לָדַ֔עַת)... to know intimately. to know, as the other. the heart is akin to an enclosure that represents identity, selfhood, ontological autonomy. that which is separate from others, the individual.
this corresponds to the tabernacle. the gut, which is a not-full enclosure , an in-between, a hybrid faculty, both sequestering and open to the outside simultaneously, corresponds to the courtyard screen.
this is why compassion is an act of the gut, an act of the courtyard. the courtyard is the only place that non-priests can enter. compassion = they enter you, but simultaneously they do not enter you. compassion = they enter Adonai's house, and simultaneously they do not enter Yahweh's house.
it is a semi-permeable membrane that we get to pass "data" from the "other" that we are sharing space with (and via the gut, thus somewhat symbiotically connected).
this is like spatially proximate social mammals knowing via proximity and touch, and nearness, that someone is suffering. a dog comforting someone who is depressed. an elephant caressing another that is sick or in pain.
READING 1: 26:1-11 (11 p'sukim)
READING 2: 26:12-15 (4 p'sukim)
READING 3: 26:16-19 (4 p'sukim)
READING 4: 27:1-10 (10 p'sukim)
READING 5: 27:11-28:6 (22 p'sukim)
READING 6: 28:7-69 (63 p'sukim)
READING 7: 29:1-8 (8 p'sukim)