This parashah is about a talking donkey. As a child, I remember hearing about this donkey, but never understood the reason for his chattering. I knew there was an angel and some man hit his donkey a few times; however, no one in my years of Sunday school or even my early years as a believer taught the reasons for this event. Since Yeshua warns the Congregation in Pergamum about the teachings of Balaam, it is important to understand who this man was and what he did (Revelation 2:14-15).
Author: Yahulia
Parashah 39: Hukkah (Regulation)
Adonai instructed the Israelites to find a pure, undefiled parah adumah, red heifer, and bring it to Eleazar the priest. Unlike other sacrifices where a male animal was offered, the slaughter for the purification water was female. A heifer is a young cow that has never birthed a calf. The animal’s hair was to be entirely of one color: red. However, the word adumah and adamah (earth) have the same root so the color is more brownish red like the earth than bright red like a rose. Its hair was to be straight to ensure that the heifer had never worn a yoke.
Parashah 38: Korach (Korah)
Korach, from the Tribe of Levi and a cousin of Moshe and Aaron, decided that being part of the Levitical priesthood and ministering in the Mishkan was not enough of an honor. He wanted to be a high priest like Aaron. He wanted a democracy where the majority rules rather than a theocracy governed by those Elohim chooses. So he gathered a group of men, leaders of the community, and in their sin of arrogance and pride, they rebelled against Moshe.
Parashah 37: Shlach l’kah (Send on your behalf)
‘Men of great stature’ in the Hebrew text is Nephilim. These ‘men of great stature,’ the Anakim, descended from Anak who descended from Arba (Joshua 5:13). Arba founded a city named Kiriath Arba, south of Canaan near Edom and Moab. In Genesis 9:25, Canaan was cursed by Noach because his father had exposed Noach’s nakedness as he slept off a drunken state. Some believe that Ham’s wife, and therefore Canaan, carried the Nephilim gene which is how they (the descendants of Canaan) were on the earth ‘after the flood.’