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Numbers 15

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1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

2 "Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'When you have come into the land of your habitations, which I give to you,

3 and will make an offering by fire to Yahweh, a burnt offering, or a sacrifice, to accomplish a vow, or as a freewill offering, or in your set feasts, to make a pleasant aroma to Yahweh, of the herd, or of the flock;

4 then he who offers his offering shall offer to Yahweh a meal offering of a tenth part [of an ephah] of fine flour mixed with the fourth part of a hin of oil:

5 and wine for the drink offering, the fourth part of a hin, you shall prepare with the burnt offering, or for the sacrifice, for each lamb.

6 "'Or for a ram, you shall prepare for a meal offering two tenth parts [of an ephah] of fine flour mixed with the third part of a hin of oil:

7 and for the drink offering you shall offer the third part of a hin of wine, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.

8 When you prepare a bull for a burnt offering, or for a sacrifice, to accomplish a vow, or for peace offerings to Yahweh;

9 then shall he offer with the bull a meal offering of three tenth parts [of an ephah] of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil:

10 and you shall offer for the drink offering half a hin of wine, for an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.

11 Thus shall it be done for each bull, or for each ram, or for each of the male lambs, or of the young goats.

12 According to the number that you shall prepare, so you shall do to everyone according to their number.

13 "'All who are native-born shall do these things in this way, in offering an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.

14 If a stranger lives as a foreigner with you, or whoever may be among you throughout your generations, and will offer an offering made by fire, of a pleasant aroma to Yahweh; as you do, so he shall do.

15 For the assembly, there shall be one statute for you, and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner [with you], a statute forever throughout your generations: as you are, so shall the foreigner be before Yahweh.

16 One law and One ordinance shall be for you, and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner with you.'"

17 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

18 "Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'When you come into the land where I bring you,

19 then it shall be that when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall offer up a wave offering to Yahweh.

20 Of the first of your dough you shall offer up a cake for a wave offering: as the wave offering of the threshing floor, so you shall heave it.

21 Of the first of your dough you shall give to Yahweh a wave offering throughout your generations.

22 "'When you shall err, and not observe all these commandments, which Yahweh has spoken to Moses,

23 even all that Yahweh has commanded you by Moses, from the day that Yahweh gave commandment, and onward throughout your generations;

24 then it shall be, if it be done unwittingly, without the knowledge of the congregation, that all the congregation shall offer one young bull for a burnt offering, for a pleasant aroma to Yahweh, with the meal offering of it, and the drink offering of it, according to the ordinance, and one male goat for a sin offering.

25 The priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the children of Israel, and they shall be forgiven; for it was an error, and they have brought their offering, an offering made by fire to Yahweh, and their sin offering before Yahweh, for their error:

26 and all the congregation of the children of Israel shall be forgiven, and the stranger who lives as a foreigner among them; for in respect of all the people it was done unwittingly.

27 "'If one person sins unwittingly, then he shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin offering.

28 The priest shall make atonement for the soul who errs, when he sins unwittingly, before Yahweh, to make atonement for him; and he shall be forgiven.

29 You shall have one law for him who does anything unwittingly, for him who is native-born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner among them.

30 "'But the soul who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native-born or a foreigner, the same blasphemes Yahweh; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

31 Because he has despised the word of Yahweh, and has broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be on him.'"

32 While the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.

33 Those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation.

34 They put him in custody, because it had not been declared what should be done to him.

35 Yahweh said to Moses, "The man shall surely be put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside of the camp."

36 All the congregation brought him outside of the camp, and stoned him to death with stones; as Yahweh commanded Moses.

37 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

38 "Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them that they should make themselves fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put on the fringe of each border a cord of blue:

39 and it shall be to you for a fringe, that you may look on it, and remember all the commandments of Yahweh, and do them; and that you not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you use to play the prostitute;

40 that you may remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God.

41 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am Yahweh your God."

   

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Wine

  

Wine played a key role in the ancient world, where safe, reliable water sources were scarce. It could be stored for long periods of time; if lightly fermented it was rich in sugar content; it was high in mineral content; it tasted good and generally had intoxicating qualities. Thus it was a valuable commodity and treated with reverence.

Wine is, of course, made from grapes. Grapes – sweet, juicy, nutritious and full of energy-rich fructose – represent the Lord's own exquisite desire to be good to us. That's powerful stuff! But grapes have a short shelf life; you might eat a bunch for a burst of energy, but you can't exactly carry them around with you for long-term sustenance. And so it is with desires for good: They tend to come to us in energizing bursts, but fade away fairly quickly. We need something more stable and lasting.

At some point in the distant past people figured out that if you squeeze the juice from the grapes and let it ferment, the result is a liquid that offers that stability: wine. The spiritual meaning works the same way; if we examine our desires for good, try to understand and think about how to apply them, what we will get are concepts about what good really is, how to recognize it and how to make it happen. And just like the wine, these ideas offer stability and portability. For instance, finding a wallet full of cash on the sidewalk might severely test our desire to be honest, but the idea that "you shall not steal" is pretty hard to shake.

Wine, then, on the deepest level represents divine truth flowing from divine goodness – the true principles that arise from the fact that the Lord loves us and desires everything good for us.

Wine comes in many varieties, though, and is used in many ways. Depending on context it can represent truth that arises from a desire for good on much more mundane levels. You want your children to be healthy so you make them brush their teeth even though they complain and it's a pain in the neck; the truth that brushing their teeth is good for them is wine on a very day-to-day level.

In some cases wine can also actually represent good things that arise from true ideas, something of a reverse from its inmost meaning. This happens when we are in transitional stages, setting higher ideas and principles above our less-worthy desires in an effort to reshape our actions. In that case our principles are the things being squeezed, with good habits the result.

There is also, of course, a darker side to wine. There is a good deal of debate about just how much alcohol wine had in Biblical times, and some of it may indeed have been more like concentrated grape juice. But there are also many references to wine and drunkeness, so some of it, at least, was fairly potent.

On a spiritual level, getting drunk on wine represents relying too much on our ideas, taking logic to such an extreme that we forget the good things we were trying to achieve in the first place.

(Odkazy: Apocalypse Explained 376 [1-40], 1152; Apocalypse Revealed 316, 635; Arcana Coelestia 1071 [1-5], 1727, 3580 [1-4], 5117 [7], 6377, 10137 [1-10]; The Apocalypse Explained 329 [2-4]; The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 219)