Shemini 2022: The Real Story of Nadav and Abihu

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Ok. This is called the Real Story of Nadav and Abihu.

The deaths of Nadav and Abihu are mysterious and brutal. What did they do that warranted YHVH burning them in an instant in their priestly attire? What does “strange fire” mean? What was this ritual on the 8^th day, anyway? Let me give you some background to this account.

This incident is directly related to the golden calf in which the Israelites had resurrected Apis, the calf of the cow goddess Hathor, after YHVH defeated and killed all the gods and goddesses of Egypt. The Israelites worshiped the image in the manner of the Egyptian fertility cults. In the way that they do it. Apis’ mother, Hathor, was a goddess of sky, women, fertility and love very much like the queen of heaven. The result of her fertility was Apis. The account says the Israelites “rose up to play” (Exodus 32:6). That’s a euphemism for having public sex during a fertility ritual.

Along with fertility rituals was drunkenness. Sex and drunkenness went together in these cults. An ancient Egyptian pot has been found with this inscription (by the way, I’m putting links to the various pages of information I’m quoting from): “Let them drink and let them have sex in front of the god.” And that is exactly what they did with the golden calf!

It should not surprise anyone to find out that the Israelites had participated in the cults of Hathor, Apis (whose most ancient name was Hapi) and Astarte, the Canaanite goddess whose Egyptian name was Ishtar. Of the bull cults, Apis was the most popular in Egypt at that time. That’s probably why he was resurrected for the Israelites to worship. Ishtar/Astarte was a fertility goddess, the “queen of heaven”. The same nonsense of drunkenness and sex applied to her rituals.

The Passover lamb’s blood is what they put on the doorposts of their houses to cover up the names and symbols of the Egyptian gods which the rulers of the homes, including the firstborns, had put there because the Israelites had been practicing Egypt’s many religions. The ritual in Exodus 9 and 10 was YHVH’s special provision for the congregation’s participation in the golden calf.

This is the religious background of the Israelites which led to the golden calf and what happened with Nadav and Abihu. The golden calf incident happened in the 4^th month of the new Israelite calendar, the month of Tammuz on the 17^th of that month. Aaron’s ordination happened on the 1^st day of the 1^st month of the 2^nd year (Exodus 40:17). The Tabernacle was now erected and ready for use. Aaron’s ordination came on the 1^st of Nissan. Seven days pass and the atonement for Aaron would be over, and then we have the account now goes to the 8^th day. The congregation, take note, is approaching Passover on Nissan 14.

Leviticus chapter 8 tells us that Aaron and his sons were atoned for (Leviticus 8:34). But atonement, as I have been telling you, was not part of the ritual given before the golden calf in Exodus 32. The ordination ceremony in Exodus 29. The ritual was only to be a purification ritual of the altar and Aaron and his sons in Exodus 29.

The account now in Leviticus 8 – 10 moves forward past the several months it took to build the Tabernacle to the 1^st month of the 2^nd year (Exodus 40:17). Now we need to find out is happening on the 8^th day in Leviticus 9 and 10.

This is the congregation’s day of atonement for their participation in the golden calf. Just as Aaron was atoned for in Leviticus so they will be atoned for in Leviticus 9 and 10. YHVH was extending mercy to them that they didn’t even ask for. Moses had asked for it on their behalf, remember? In Exodus 33-34.

This ritual will be the only time this combination of animals – a male kid of the goats, a calf/bullock and a lamb – was ever or would ever be used together. This ritual was not given to Moses on Mount Sinai. It just suddenly appears as the 8^th day in Leviticus 9:1. It was a unique ritual given to Aaron to atone for the congregation now that he had been atoned for.

Leviticus 9:3 And speak to the sons of Israel, saying, Take a kid [‘saiyr’ (H8163)] of the goats [‘ezim’, male goat (H5795)] for a sin [‘chata’ (H2403)] offering, and a calf and a lamb [‘kebes’(H3532)] (that’s “lamb” – ‘kebes’) of the first year, all without blemish, for a burnt offering.

The ritual used a bull for Aaron’s sin, a lamb reminiscent of the Passover lamb and a male goat called H5795 ‘etzim’ which comes from H5810 ‘azaz’ and H5799 ‘azazel’, which you may recognize now, for the congregation’s sin.

But in the original instructions in Leviticus 4, the bull was the sin sacrifice for both the priests who sinned (Leviticus 4:3-12) and the congregation who sinned (Leviticus 4:13-21). The male goat was the sacrifice for rulers who sinned (Leviticus 4:22-26).

But now, the congregational sacrifice becomes a goat.

Leviticus 9:15 And he brought the people’s offering. And he took the he-goat, the sin offering for the people, and killed it and offered it for sin as the first.

So here we see that it is the goat that is the sin offering for this ritual. The lamb returns the people to the memory of what they had been through coming out of Egypt just 9 months earlier when they had to put that blood over the names of gods they had been worshiping and the goat in this sacrifice ties Yeshua’s sacrifice to both Passover and Yom Kippur.

Leviticus 9:7 And Moses said to Aaron, Go to the altar, and offer your sin offering and your burnt offerings, and make an atonement for yourself and for the people. And offer the offering of the people, and make an atonement for them, even as Jehovah commanded.

Leviticus 9:8 Aaron then went to the altar and killed the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself.

So here again, we see that this offering is an atonement, a special atonement for Aaron and the people. And when we read about the calf being killed here, perhaps we ought to read ‘golden calf’ there.

Leviticus 9:15 And he brought the people’s offering. And he took the he-goat, the sin offering for the people, and killed it and offered it for sin as the first.

So again, this goat is the sin offering and not the bull. The 1 goat for the sin offering of the people speaks a message of stubbornness to YHVH and to them, and it is, I believe, part of YHVH hinting at the two-goat system for Yom Kippur, the annual atonement for the sin of the golden calf.

He must use 2 goats at Yom Kippur because He has to give His people a way out of their sin with the other goat, the scapegoat. Here in Leviticus 9, only one goat dies, which represents the penalty for spiritual adultery, idolatry, over which YHVH wanted to destroy the entire congregation!

But you see, YHVH is always reaching out to His people. He also has His Word to uphold so just as He told Isaiah, He does not bring us back for our sakes, but for His.

Isaiah 48:9 For My name’s sake I will put off My anger, and for My praise I will hold back for you, that I do not cut you off.
Isaiah 48:10 Behold, I have refined you, but not with silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
Isaiah 48:11 For my sake, for My sake I will do it; for why should My name be defiled? And I will not give My glory to another.

For His sake, He makes a way but He first tells us why there are 2 goats at Yom Kippur by letting one goat’s death represent the congregation’s fate that He had in mind! This was a message to them.

That was a lot of introduction, but it was necessary for us to understand why Nadav and Abihu died, and why they deserved to die, in the manner in which they died.

In the middle of Aaron atoning for the congregation’s sin of the golden calf, Nadav and Abihu committed a heinous crime against YHVH.

Leviticus 10:1 Nadav and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered strange fire before Yahweh, which he had not commanded them.

Nadav and Abihu performed the incense ritual according to the instructions. The manner in which incense was burned in the censers is described in Exodus 30:7, Leviticus 16:12 and Numbers 16:17. Fire was taken from the bronze altar (where the sacrifices were burned), put into the censer and two handfuls of incense was put on the coals (Leviticus 16:12). The procedure is correct. Something else is wrong.

Some commentators say they used their own, unconsecrated censers and that is why YHVH killed them. This view does not stand the test since 250 personal unconsecrated censors of Korah and the princes who were with him were used to put coals from the bronze altar and the Tabernacle’s incense on the coals without them being killed by YHVH’s fire (Numbers 16:6-7, 18).

Is it possible that YHVH withheld their punishment in the Korah incident? Yes, but when we are finished with this study, it will become evident that Nadav and Abihu did not die for using their personal censers. It is improbable they used their personal censers, anyway, since the Tabernacle censers were already there and ordained for their use and they would have no reason to bring personal censers from their tents into the Tabernacle. There was something else going on.

Let’s look at the instructions for the altar of incense:

Exodus 30:7 Aaron shall burn [which has to be done with fire from the bronze altar, Leviticus 16:12] incense of sweet spices on it [the altar of incense] every morning. When he tends the lamps, he shall burn it. 
Exodus 30:8 When Aaron lights the lamps at evening, he shall burn it, a perpetual incense before Yahweh throughout your generations. 
Exodus 30:9 You shall offer no strange [‘zur’ (H2114) incense on it, nor burnt offering, nor meal offering; and you shall pour no drink offering on it.

The instructions for burning incense were straightforward and simple. It was Aaron’s job (Exodus 30:7-8) to be done at the time he trimmed the menorah in the morning and evening, or alternatively, the job could be delegated to one of his sons (Exodus 27:21). It is highly unlikely that Aaron delegated this job on this day to Nadav or Abihu given that this was the first official ritual after their ordination and it was for special atoning for the sin of the congregation which also required him to atone for himself again, so they had no business offering incense at all on that day! But there’s more!

The problem of the strange fire is related to the use of strange incense. Exodus 30:37-38 says the incense was a particular formula which can only be used inside the Tabernacle and no one else may use or make incense like it for personal use. Exodus 30:9’s “strange incense” is ‘zur’ (H2114) and it is any incense that is not made according to YHVH’s formula which is prohibited for use inside the Tabernacle.

Nadav and Abihu took their censers made for this purpose and put fire in them from the bronze altar and some incense on that, but it was strange incense (Exodus 30:9 [“zur” (H2114)]). It was strange [“zur” (H2114)] incense that made strange fire, ‘zur aysh’ (H784).

“Zur” (H2114) means: To turn aside for lodging by foreigners and strangers, people who are not your people. It also means ‘profane’ and ‘committing adultery’ (having another who is not your own, a foreigner or stranger connected to your body). It also means ‘woman’.

Remember what I told you earlier that Hathor the cow was a woman’s fertility ritual. She was also a goddess of the sky, or the heavens. Astarte (Ishtar) was the Canaanite and Egyptian queen of heaven but Hathor was worshiped for that also. Hathor, Apis, Ishtar are ‘zur’! This word is a reference to “that kind” of foreigner or stranger. There are other Hebrew words for foreigner such as ‘toshab’ (H8453) and ‘nokriy’ (H5237).

There are other words for stranger, too, such as ‘ger’ (H1616), ‘magur’ (H4033) and ‘nekar’ (H5236). But ‘zur’ is used in the scripture for “strange incense” and for “strange fire”.

These other words also have implications for lodging of foreigners so we can’t say that it was because foreigners need a place when they come visit. I submit to you that YHVH used ‘zur’ to indicate at particular kind of lodging, one that involved the lodging of fertility goddesses which did not belong there. And I submit that the incense used by Nadav and Abihu was not the Tabernacle’s formula. It was an Egyptian formula used in goddess ‘zur’ worship.

If we investigate the scripture, we will find that Nadav and Abihu likely were trying to give unlawful lodging (‘zur) to one or more Egyptian fertility gods and goddesses inside YHVH’s Tabernacle dwelling, in His Tabernacle, most particularly related to Astarte (Ishtar) the queen of heaven! I’m going to show you those scriptures.

The only other incense that would have been available to them was from Egypt. Ezekiel and Jeremiah both reported that the Israelites never left Egypt with their hearts and continued to worship the Egyptian queen of heaven throughout their history. I believe it started with the golden calf and Nadav and Abihu.

Eze 23:1 The Word of Jehovah came again to me,
Eze 23:2 Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother.
Eze 23:3 And they fornicated in Egypt; they whored in their youth, their breasts were handled, and there their virgin nipples were worked.
Eze 23:4 And their names were Oholah, the oldest, and Oholibah, her sister. And they were Mine, and they bore sons and daughters. And their names: Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem is Oholibah.

Eze 23:7 So she [Oholah, Samaria, the House of Israel] bestowed her harlotries on them, the choice sons of Assyria; with all of them, and with all whom she lusted after; she defiled herself with all their idols.
Eze 23:8 Nor did she [Oholah, Samaria] leave her fornications from Egypt…

The northern tribes added Assyrian idolatry to their Egyptian idolatry practiced from their time when they lived in Egypt to the time of the golden calf and forward.

Eze 23:11 And her sister Oholibah, [Jerusalem, the House of Judah] saw, she [Oholibah, Jerusalem, the House of Judah] was more corrupt in her lustfulness than she [Oholah, Samaria], and her [Oholibah, Jerusalem, the House of Judah’s] fornications were greater than her sister’s [Oholah’s] whoredom.

Eze 23:19 Yet she [Oholibah, the House of Judah] multiplied her fornications to recall the days of her youth, in which she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

Do we now have a clear picture of what the Israelites – not just the Jews – were doing? All 12 tribes! The Israelites never left their love of Egypt from the day they came out to the time Ezekiel was given this word from YHVH. Nadav and Abihu were trying to re-establish inside the Holy Place on the altar of incense what YHVH had killed in the Exodus and they were about to burn Egyptian incense to the queen of heaven on it! This was the second attempt to bring Egyptian religion into YHVH’s new Kingdom. The golden calf had been the first.

There would be other attempts throughout the 1500 year history of the Kingdom to re-establish Egyptian gods in Israel. One such incident happened within decades just before the Israelites crossed over to the Promised Land. Zimri, the Simeonite prince brought Cosbi the Midianite priestess into the interior confines of the Tabernacle to fornicate, perform ritual sex, in honor of the goddess. Throughout the history of Israel, Kings and Priests openly worshiped Egyptian and other gods and goddesses at YHVH’s Tabernacle and in His Temples.

Ezekiel and Jeremiah were contemporaries. Ezekiel prophesied from Babylon when Jeremiah was forcibly exiled by the Jews escaping their Babylonian fate by running to the place of their spiritual origins: Egypt (Jeremiah 43). In chapter 44, Jeremiah was given a word of rebuke for those Jews in Egypt which included denouncing their continued worship of the queen of heaven.

This was Egyptian ’zur’ strange incense, a foreign incense which created ‘zur aysh’, “strange fire” in their censers with which Egyptian gods and goddesses were worshiped!

Remember, the word ‘zur’ has, as one of its meanings, adultery! This was more than adultery. It was idolatry brought into the Tabernacle on the first day of their public operation after their ordination.

The priests were officiating at a special one-time-only atonement ritual given to Moses by YHVH to atone for the congregation’s golden calf sin (of which Aaron and his sons were part). And what did they do? They insolently in an “in your face” manner to YHVH, breaking the commandments against idolatry and having other gods before Him, defied Him to institute the queen of heaven worship in the Tabernacle!

And they had it planned, too. Do you know how we know this? They had to bring the incense into the Tabernacle with them. No such incense was in the Tabernalce already. That incense was not found inside the Tabernacle. Only YHVH’s incense was there. They had to connive and plan with each other in outrageous defiance and rebellion against YHVH because they wanted the queen of heaven over Him! They made a plan for the first day of the altar’s operation to overthrow YHVH in His own Tabernacle and before His own people! They had waited for this moment! Do you now understand why they were burnt to a crisp?

Leviticus 10:2 Fire came out from before Yahweh, and devoured them, and they died before Yahweh.

The destruction of Nadav and Abihu foreshadows the same kind of destruction of the end times beast and his false prophet by unquenchable fire in Revelation 19:20. Defiance and rebellion of this kind against YHVH continues to this day as Christians burn incense to Mary and other male and female saints! It is god and goddess worship regardless that they use the word “saint” instead of “god” or “goddess”. Incense burnt to anyone besides YHVH and in any other place than in the Holy Place is idolatry. And I now submit to you that the Judeo-Christian beast and false prophet will offer strange incense to the first beast who gives them authority just like Nadav and Abihu did.

Leviticus 10:3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what Yahweh spoke of, saying, ‘I will show myself holy to those who come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified.’” Aaron held his peace.

Nadav and Abihu were glorifying not only the queen of heaven or another Egyptian deity, but themselves! They were going to be heroes before the people for undoing all that YHVH had done for them. But there is one thing they did not understand about YHVH: He will not share His glory with another (Isaiah 42:8).

Aaron stayed silent because he knew full well that Nadav and Abihu glorified Egypt’s religious practices that day! He had led the Israelites into resurrecting and worshiping the Egyptian cow god after YHVH had killed it. Now, his sons had done an even worse thing: Leading the congregation to overthrow YHVH’s rule over them and to replace Him with Egypt’s queen of heaven in the middle of the atonement for exactly the same sin of the golden calf!

I think I need a breather here. Can you imagine the defiance, the rebelliousness and hatred for YHVH that was in their hearts? I can’t even express the hideousness of what they did!

Leviticus 10:4 Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, “Draw near, carry your brothers from before the sanctuary out of the camp.”
Leviticus 10:5 So they came near, and carried them in their coats out of the camp, as Moses had said.

Nadav and Abihu were in front of the veil going into the Holy Place. Another of their blunders was to 1) offer incense at the wrong time of day, 2) interrupt YHVH’s special ritual to 3) go in together instead of just one of them. Always and only one priest officiates before the altar of incense.

Leviticus 10:6 Moses said to Aaron, and to Eleazar and to Ithamar, his sons, “Don’t let the hair of your heads go loose…

Don’t remove your turbans… in honor of the dead.

…and don’t tear your clothes; so that you don’t die, and so that He [YHVH] not be angry with all the congregation…

There would have been a revisiting of this burning to the entire congregation had they not followed Moses’ instructions.

…but let your brothers, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which Yahweh has kindled.

Do not mourn! Priests garments are not to be torn in mourning. The issue, Moses said, is not the deaths of Nadav and Abihu, but the “whole House of Israel”, those that are still alive. You need to carry on! They still needed to be atoned for and they could mourn.

Leviticus 10:7 You shall not go out from the door of the Tent of Meeting, lest you die; for the anointing oil of Yahweh is on you.” They did according to the word of Moses.

The priests are not permitted to simply leave their jobs no matter what is going on. Their anointing stays on them the entire time they are officiating and they cannot just walk out of YHVH’s presence with His anointing oil on them.

Leviticus 10:8 Then Yahweh said to Aaron,
Leviticus 10:9 “You and your sons are not to drink wine or strong drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die. This shall be a statute forever throughout your generations.

This verse right here is the reason people say that Nadav and Abihu were drunk when they rebelled. Yes, they probably were drunk! Goddess worship involves getting drunk! You’re not gonna do that in My House, says YHVH! Drunkenness to the point of stupor was and is part of god and goddess worship. Alcohol and drugs always accompany worship of other gods!

Why, oh why, didn’t Aaron or Moses stop them!?

Leviticus 10:10 You are to make a distinction between the holy and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean.
Leviticus 10:11 You are to teach the children of Israel all the statutes which Yahweh has spoken to them by Moses.”

The entire purpose of the priesthood is to teach people the difference between clean and unclean, the holy and profane and the Law! Of the coming Zadok line of priests, we read:

Eze 44:23 And they shall teach My people to discern between the holy and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean.

This is the same mandate which the Aaronite priesthood failed for 1500 years!

Leviticus 10:12 Moses spoke to Aaron, and to Eleazar and to Ithamar, his sons who were left, “Take the meal [grain] offering that remains of the offerings of Yahweh made by fire, and eat it without yeast beside the altar; for it is most holy;

One of the parts of ritual mourning is to not eat so Moses here required Eleazar and Ithamar to eat to show they were not mourning and could carry on where Nadav and Abihu left off. The entire priesthood, the entire congregation, could have been lost that day had Eleazar and Ithamar not carried on. Aaron’s lineage was on the line because of his two defiant sons!

Leviticus 10:13 and you shall eat it in a holy place, because it is your portion, and your sons’ portion, of the offerings of Yahweh made by fire: for so I am commanded.
Leviticus 10:14 The waved breast and the heaved thigh you shall eat in a clean place, you, and your sons, and your daughters with you: for they are given as your portion, and your sons’ portion, out of the sacrifices of the peace offerings of the children of Israel.
Leviticus 10:15 The heaved thigh and the waved breast they shall bring with the offerings made by fire of the fat, to wave it for a wave offering before Yahweh: and it shall be yours, and your sons’ with you, as a portion forever; as Yahweh has commanded.”

Now, they are taking the place of Nadav and Abihu.

Leviticus 10:16 Moses diligently inquired about the goat of the sin offering, and, behold, it was burned: and he was angry with Eleazar and with Ithamar, the sons of Aaron who were left, saying,
Leviticus 10:17 “Why haven’t you eaten the sin offering in the place of the sanctuary, since it is most holy, and he has given it to you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before Yahweh?
Leviticus 10:18 Behold, its blood was not brought into the inner part of the sanctuary: you certainly should have eaten it in the sanctuary, as I commanded.”

Moses saw that two important parts of the ritual were left undone – the eating of the sin offering and the blood sprinkled on the inner veil and put on the horns of the altar of incense as instructed for sins of the congregation (Leviticus 4:18).

In the burning of Nadav and Abihu, the congregational goat had also become burnt and not just a little. It was burned to a crisp and uneatable. This goat represented what YHVH wanted to do to the congregation in Exodus 32 over the golden calf incident. And they deserved it! And that was the message that (the burned goat) sent!

Even if it had not been burned so badly, no amount of eating it would bring back Nadav and Abihu nor would it atone for the congregation’s sin now. The goat mirrored what had happened to Nadav and Abihu and which is what YHVH had in mind for the congregation in Exodus 32, which turned it, literally, into an offering that could not atone for their or the congregation’s sin at that point. Its blood had not been put on the altar which means it no longer applied to the congregation as an atonement. Eating it was, at that point, moot, nebulous, beside the point.

Leviticus 10:19 Aaron spoke to Moses, “Behold, today they [Nadav and Abihu] have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering [their own bodies] before Yahweh; and such things as these have happened to me. If I [instead of Eleazar and Ithamar] had eaten the sin offering today, would it have been pleasing in Yahweh’s sight?” [Would it have made a difference for the congregation or Nadav and Abihu?].

It seems that Aaron understood what Moses, for the moment, did not. Nothing could be done for Nadav and Abihu and nothing could be done now for the sin of the congregation. Eating the burned up goat would not change anything. The golden calf sin of the congregation was thus not atoned for at that time and Nadav and Abihu died in their sin even though they had become their own burnt offering.

Leviticus 10:20 When Moses heard that, it was pleasing in his sight.

SUMARY: There is much more to Nadav and Abihu’s deaths than is normally understood. They used ‘zur’, foreign incense to make ‘zur’ strange fire by which they intended to overthrow worship of YHVH for worship of the queen of heaven and to reinstate worship of Hathor, Apis and Ishtar.

We will see deliberate sin being dealt with again when YHVH throws into the lake of unquenchable fire the beast and false prophet, Satan and those who are marked as Satan’s slaves, and death and hell (Revelation 19:20, 20:10, 14).

Now let’s switch gears.

KOSHER

We’re going to talk about “kosher”.

Leviticus 11 is our food list. Clean animals are food. Unclean animals are not food. People get confused, though, between kosher and kashrut. Kosher is from YHVH, kashrut is from rabbis. Avoid the rabbinic rules.

Here is an example of Jewish kashrut. One of the more well-known Jewish rabbinic prohibitions is to not mix meat and dairy, AKA no cheeseburgers. The rabbis debate how long after eating meat or dairy that one can eat the other thing. The advice is anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours depending on which rabbi you follow. There’s nothing in scripture about this or it would be much more precise.

Not only do kashrut observant Jews avoid cheeseburgers, they also don’t let their meat or dairy touch each other or place meat and dairy on the same table. Everything the foods touch must be kept completely separate. A fully kosher house has two or more different sets of everything – flatware, tableware, cookware, refrigerators and even dishwashers to make sure the meat and dairy do not touch.

This all comes from twisting Exodus 23:19, Exodus 34:26 and Deuteronomy 14:21 about boiling a kid, a baby goat, in its mother’s milk. This was a fertility ritual – we just got done talking about fertility rituals – this was a fertility ritual done by the Canaanites which became the basis of this prohibition in Jewish kashrut. Thus, YHVH was prohibiting this ritual for His Feasts and in His Tabernacle. But there is another possible reason for their kashrut given by Tim Hegg in his article titled, “Separating Meat & Milk: An Inquiry”.

Part of it is the transfer of Temple rituals to Jewish homes to preserve them after the Bar Kochbah revolt of 134CE in which Kochbah attempted to take back Jerusalem from the Romans and failed. Thus, the prohibition against doing this kind of sacrifice (in the Temple) was transferred to Jewish homes.

But there is more. According to Hegg, this also was a further development in the kashrut which made greater distinctions between the Jews and the followers of Yeshua. I quote here: “For in the emerging rabbinic Judaism, the need to mark distinctions between the synagogues and the emerging Christian church became increasingly important. The complete separation of meat and milk as an essential element of kashrut made social interaction with non-Jews via a table fellowship a near impossibility”.

In this way, the Jews were able to further separate Yeshua believers from themselves. Jews decry Christianity as anti-semitic. Uh uh. No. The Jews had replacement theology before there ever was Christianity starting back there in the 500 and 600s BC when Israel, the northern tribes, had been taken captive and had been exiled in Assyria! They just used it against Yeshua’s followers. Look what they did to Stephen and how they harassed Paul. It wasn’t about anti-semitism in those days. It was about hatred of Yeshua. They don’t worship the queen of heaven. True worshipers of Yeshua don’t worship the queen of heaven!

Hegg believes the separation of meat and dairy was not a standard of kashrut before the Temple’s destruction. In other words, Yeshua was not keeping that kind of kashrut.

Alright, the list of birds!

The List of Birds

The list of birds that must not be eaten does not mention chickens. This confuses people because chickens will eat the stuff that scavengers and predators eat. The prohibition is not about their food but about what they are. The prohibited list is of scavenger and predator birds. That’s the prohibited list of scavenger and predator birds. The reason chickens are kosher is because they are from the Galliformes family which includes quail. Quail are kosher.

Galliformes, according to Science Direct.com, are a diverse order of heavy-bodied, ground-feeding birds with short rounded wings for short-distance flight [which] includes approximately 290 species divided into five families distributed worldwide… [The] Phasianidae [family includes] (e.g., chicken, quail, partridges, pheasants, turkeys, peafowl, and grouse)…. Galliformes vary in size from the small king quail that weighs 28–40 g to the large North American wild turkey weighing up to 14 kg.

By the way, quail and partridges, even pigeons and doves who are not part of this particular family of Galliformes, will all eat stuff that the scavenger and predator birds eat. I’ve watched them do it. If you throw them out a piece of meat, they will eat it!

Some species have been domesticated and are raised for human consumption of meat and eggs. That is the class to which the clean birds that go in the Tabernacle, and chickens and quail and so forth, belong. They have been domesticated and are raised for human consumption of meat and eggs.

Touching the Carcasses

It can be confusing whether or not we are allowed to touch unclean living animals because of the way the scripture is worded in Leviticus 11:26. Let’s go back to 11:24.

Leviticus 11:24 And you shall be unclean for these. Whoever touches their dead body shall be unclean until the evening.
Leviticus 11:25 And whoever carries the carcass of them shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening;
Leviticus 11:26 even every living thing which divides the hoof, and is not cloven-footed, nor chews the cud, they are unclean to you. Everyone that touches them shall be unclean.

That makes is sound like even if they’re on the hoof, they’re still alive, you still can’t touch them. This is not about touching the living ones. It is about touching the dead carcass of these animals.

The context of this is established in verse 24 with the words “whoever touches their dead body shall be unclean” until the evening. Otherwise, YHVH’s people would not be allowed to ride living donkeys, mules and horses. Yeshua would not have ridden on a donkey.

Touching the carcass of a clean animal also makes one unclean.

Leviticus 11:39 And if any animal among those you may eat dies, he that touches its dead body shall be unclean until the evening.

If you kill a clean animal for food, you will be unclean until evening.

Kosher is YHVH’s royal food list for His royal family. Don’t let anyone complicate this for you.

And that concludes today’s teaching.