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ETERNAL TWIN

Month 6 Day 11 6005-6-7?

Sermon Shabbat August 28, 2004

By Rabbi/Brother Moshe Yoseph Koniuchowsky

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Devarim 21:10-This week’s Torah portion states: "When you go forth to war against your enemies," teaches that war is an integral part of our national mission. Seven out of the 613 mitzvot of the Torah deal with war. YHWH Himself is called "The Master of War." Shemot 15:3

Man was born to labor, not to sit back and wait for a miracle to occur and solve the problem. Therefore the Torah states that sometimes it is necessary to "wage war against your enemies" (Deuteronomy 21:10). Do not, says the Torah, just sit back and wait for YHWH’s great salvation. Take to the battlefield and fight. Yet, this is only one side of the coin; there is another side as well: "And YHWH shall give them into your hands." It is not the might and strong hand of Yisrael which brings about the victory. YHWH’s blessing is what ultimately determines the battle's outcome. Complete human effort on the one hand, and unswerving faith in YHWH on the other as seen in verse 10.

Verse 11-14 is the chuk addressing woman prisoners of war. No doubt, this phenomenon is very negative from an ethical point of view. Devarim 21:10-13 teaches that not only are we not to mistreat women prisoners of war, but Yisrael is to give them comfort, haven and even marry them! And we are not to misuse them, or sell them as property! How different from the heathen! Also in Devarim 24:5 when Yisrael is in a war the wife shall have her husband all to herself for 1 year, and not lend him to the military. Torah teaching on war is that it must be conducted only in self-defense, and with the highest standards and respect for human life by both the fighters and towards the captives.

The Torah chooses to teach us the great value of human dignity at the moment of man's greatest humiliation. "When a man is legally sentenced to death and executed, you must then hang him on a gallows" (Deuteronomy 21:22-23). The Torah is not discussing a righteous person here, but a sinner.

Yet it is precisely via this undeserving corpse that the Torah chooses to teach us the great value of the dignity of man, YHWH's creation. "You may not allow his body to remain on the gallows overnight… since a person who has been hanged is a curse to YHWH"

Two explanations are given for this law in the Talmud. According to the majority of sages, only one who actually blasphemed YHWH, or performed idol worship is hanged. These two types of people are "a curse to YHWH."

Yahshua our Moshiach was accused of these 2 crimes. Matt. 26: -64-66 by mentioning YHWH’s Name, He was found guilty of blasphemy. The idolatry charge against Yahshua is found in John 10:31-37. He never claimed to be the Father, but the Son and the charge was false. As was the charge of blaspheming the Name, because according to Torah and not the sages, the blaspheming of the Name is the misuse of it, or the cursing towards it, or with it as seen in Wayiqra 24:11-16. So based on the misapplication of Jewish law Yahshua was hung. The trial was illegal!

YHWH allowed himself to be hung as if He had violated these two Torah prohibitions, but in fact he had not. Moreover, he was hung by YHWH the Father for totally 2 different reasons. The first is found in 2 Corintyah 5:17-21. First to restore the sinners of the world back to Himself. And secondly as seen in Galutyah/Galatians 3:13-14 Yahshua was hung that the promises of Avraham being the chosen spiritual and physical father of all believers, would come upon Ephraim through the hanging of Yahshua.

There is an important allegory in the Talmud that goes like this: The hanging of sinner who commits blasphemy, or is engaged in idolatry is comparable to identical twins, one of which became an important minister/servant/suffering servant, while the other was caught as a bandit and hanged. All who saw the bandit said, 'The minister/servant/suffering servant has been hanged! BUT IT WAS REALLY THE RIGHTEOUSS SERVANT, BUT YISRAEL THOUGHT IT WAS THE BANDIT!

In other words, man - even when he sins and transgresses to the point where he becomes deserving of hanging by the courts - was created in YHWH's image. Thus, It is as if he the bandit is the "identical twin" of YHWH even when the masses mistake the servant for the bandit! Thus every Yisraelite hung on a tree was seen as the IDENTICAL TWIN OF YHWH, despite his sin, since all humanity is made or BROUGHT FORTH in YHWH’s image! So in light of Renewed Covenant revelation, we see Yahshua being hung as the exact Twin or replica of YHWH. Turn to Ivrim 1:1-3, even when all Yisrael thought He was a blaspheming idolatrous bandit!

From this episode - which teaches us the importance of man's dignity via the dignity of none other than a sinner - we are made aware of just how important man's dignity is. If an ordinary individual being given basic dignity had been the Torah's subject of discussion, how much more Yahuwah’s Son? Yahshua was not a sinner, but a perceived sinner. What final lesson can Yahshua hanging teach us…?

Close-That mankind and man are sinners and Torah breakers; so what dignity does he deserve? The same dignity of being viewed as YHWH’s twin dying. From this, we learn that it is not the personal merit of an individual that obligates us to honor him, but the honor of His Creator. Even in death Yahshua was still teaching Yisrael the dignity and value of human life, whether saved or unrepentant.

The curse of tree hanging was a graceful message sent to those surviving, that even the person being hanged deserved dignity. More dignity than Yahshua ever received though he was surely YHWH’s true and eternal twin!

 Read Kepha Alef 2:24.