P’kudei (Accounting) Exodus/Sh’mot 38:21-40:38

P’kudei(Accounting)Exodus/Sh’mot 38:21-40:38

Haftorah Reading: I Kings 7:40-8:21

Tonight we finish the book of Exodus. Let’s take just a moment and think of how far this book has taken us. We began this book seeing Jacob and his children going down to Egypt. Then we read tonight about the people leaving Egypt behind and beginning their forty year boot camp in the desert. This forty years was school for these former slaves. This time of learning was not just for them but for us as well. Even with all their failures G-d never gave up on them nor does He give up on us. He called them His prized possession. Think of that whenever you fall. Our G-d is a loving G-d and wants the best for each of us. All He requires is our faith and our obedience to follow Him each day.

Noah B’resheet/Genesis 6:9-11:32

Torah Portion: Noah B’resheet/Genesis 6:9-11:32

Haftorah Reading: Isaiah 54:1-55:5

Today we read the second portion from the book of Genesis. In this portion there are many subjects we can cover. I will try to pick two or three for our time together.

To begin, I want to look at Genesis 7:2, 8. In these two verses we see Noah is commanded by G-d to take seven pairs of clean beasts and one pair of unclean beasts. What are we to make of this? Why did G-d specifically tell him to bring seven pairs of clean animals and only one pair of unclean? Remember, this is 400 years before we will see this again appear in Torah in Leviticus chapter 11. In Leviticus the scripture goes into more detail about what animals are clean and which ones are unclean.