*Leviticus 16:1 – 20:27

This week’s double portion of Acharei Mot/Kedoshim draws our attention to the balance between communal and personal responsibility. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, addresses both personal and communal sin, repentance, and atonement, publicly.

What is the lesson?

While there is great comfort in private confession, holiness is a communal endeavor, as the word, “you shall be holy,” “you” is plural – the community. This is the honing of personal ethics, based on the ethical norms of the Torah, by communal association.

As James writes, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (Jas. 5:16).

In this we find personal responsibility, as well as, communal accountability.

The beauty of our reading is that we recognize personal and communal shortcoming, while endeavoring to turn the page of renewal together, as we trust in the Messiah, Who is the “the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2).

Shabbat shalom.

The Lord commanded each tribe of Israel to bring one loaf of bread to be set before Him in the Tabernacle.

God didn’t need it; but He asked us to bring before Him, a portion of His supply to remind us of His daily provision. Showbread, לֶחֶם פָּנִים, literally “bread of the faces,” was this reminder.

Why “bread of the faces”? Each tribe was represented by a loaf of bread, and a tribe is formed by people. Every Israelite was to see themselves set before the Lord, in His presence, in the bread, as a reminder of the life, the care, and provision He has supplied … personally.

Then, something amazing happened, the Lord set living bread before us to remind us of His presence. Not bread behind a curtain, where only anointed priests may enter, but living bread. as Yeshua/Jesus said,

“I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world” (Jn. 6:51).

The Living Bread taught us to pray, “give us this day our daily bread,” reimagining the supply of manna, and the remembrance of Showbread, setting words of remembrance before us of His faithfulness, and His enduring presence wrapped up in something as common as bread, to show just how personal He is, and how He is the bread, and supplier, of eternal life.

So as you eat bread today, or it’s equivalent for you, remember Him, because He never forgets you.

Be well. Shalom.