WORD STUDY THE DOGS DID NOT לא יחרצ כלב לשׁנו BARK Exodus 11:7: But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that you may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. I saw a photo on the internet not too long ago of what was considered the most emotionally moving photo of the year. It was a picture taken of the casket of a fallen Navy Seal and lying before the casket was his service dog who had accompanied him in Afghanistan. He was lying down with his head in his paws looking oh so sad. Many people have found a deeper understanding of God through the faithfulness of their pet dog (Sparky my neighbor s pet bull dog excluded). They see how a dog will love unconditionally, regardless of one s race, occupation or appearance. He doesn t question who or what you are, he will just love. It is said that a dog has a sixth sense. They
believe that a dog can sense when someone is dying, is aware of impending danger, and can almost read their master s mind. Sometime ago soldiers were testing a dog s ability to navigate a minefield. They strapped a radio receiver around the neck of the dog while his master stood on hill almost a mile away and observed his dog through a telescope. He whispered directions through a radio. The dog obeyed each one of his master s command to turn, back up, move forward etc. When the dog returned they discovered that they had failed to put the batteries in the receiver. There was no way the dog could have heard his master s commands except through some sixth sense. This is likely how the Hebrews communicated with the dogs in Exodus 11:7 There is a sort of love/hate relationship between Jews and dogs. Some aspects of Judaism view dogs as dirty, scavengers and others give great honor to dogs. Many orthodox Jews today so honor dogs that they will feed their dogs before they feed themselves. This respect for dogs is the result of this verse in Exodus 11:7. Exodus 11:7 tells the story about the time that the Jews fled Egypt. You see the Jewish men who worked as slaves under the Egyptians numbered up to 600,000. In order to keep the slaves in line the Egyptians employed guard dogs. If any slave attempted to escape the dog would bark out a warning or even attack the slave. What happened at the time of the Exodus is explained in Exodus 11:7. The Lord was going to show the difference between the Egyptians and Israel by the fact that the dogs would favor the Hebrews and not their masters, the Egyptians. They would not bark out a warning or attack the Jews when they sought to
escape from the Egyptians. The Talmud teaches that the Jews were actually able to speak and have a conversation with the dogs and the dogs listened and followed their instructions. In Genesis 1:26 God gave man dominion over the animals. If you have been following my blog you probably remember an earlier study over the debate of the root word for the word that is rendered as dominion. Christians say the root word is radah which means to subdue. The sages. however, teach that the root is yadah which means to come down to. They believe the ability to speak to the dogs comes from this understanding of yadah, that you come down to their level and their world. That is they speak not with their lips, but with their heart. There is also a spiritual understanding here. The ancient sage Chazal, which is really the initials for three sages Chochmenu, Zichrona and Levaracha, teach that the Holy Scriptures were given without any vowels and thus you are allowed to assign each vowel as you wish according to the idea behind your personal revelation from God. The Hebrew word for dog is a good example. You see the word for dog is kalev. This is a play on words. For kalev also means like your heart. The Kap could be the preposition as or like before the word lev which is the word for a heart. The literal understanding of this passage in Exodus is that the dog would not wag his tongue or bark out a warning and thus the Jews could escape from slavery. The ancient teaching is that there is a double meaning in this passage. One is that the dogs did not bark and the other is the alternative rendering like their heart was their tongue. The difference that God showed between the Egyptians and Israel is that their heart was like their tongue. What they said with their speech
was what was in their heart. The Egyptians speech was filled with falsehood and unbelief. This led to their destruction. Israel s speech was filled with truth and faith, this led to their deliverance. When one s speech is filled with truth and faith, judgments are eliminated. By the way, I think many dog lovers can appreciate the play on the word Kalev as meaning both dog and like a heart. That does not apply, of course, to Sparky. Anyways, the sages try to teach that to exercise yadah (dominion) over a dog; one s speech must be as ones heart. A dog does not listen to the words you say. He does not understand your speech. However, he pays close attention to you facial expressions, your movements and the tone of your voice. These are all expressions of your heart. He cannot discern if you are fearful or angry, he is just able to discern if you are a threat to him and if you are, he will react accordingly. Sparky knows I am a definite threat and so he barks a very unfriendly bark when I pass by. You don t fool a dog. The same way you do not fool God. God does not hear the words you pray. You may say some very pretty words, but they are meaningless to God. You can go on and on with a prayer, Lord, help old Charlie, he is in a tough way, he has that cancer you know, he wants to be healed, so Lord go ahead and heal him. The Bible tells us that God knows our needs before we even ask Matthew 6:8. Like Sparky, He listens to our hearts, not what we say. The Bible also says we worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). You are not going to fake out God any more than you will fake out Sparky. God knows your heart, you motives, and He knows if you really care about old Charlie or you just care about making an impression on people with your pious prayer and words.
HEBREW WORD STUDY THE MARK OF CAIN Genesis 4:15: And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. Exodus 11:7, But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. To protect Cain from being killed, a dog was given him, who accompanied him and protected him against all comers. Mishnah Genesis Rabba 22:12 There has been a sort of love/hate relationship between the Jews and dogs throughout the centuries. On the one hand we
find dogs are often referred to in a negative light in the Bible. Yet, we find a passage like Exodus 11:7 where the dogs did not bark when the Jews left Egypt after the last plague. In some Jewish circles they will not even own a pet dog because of the negative light that Scripture places on dogs and yet there is a positive light in Scripture and in Jewish tradition. As a dog lover myself, Sparker to the exception, I would like to focus on the positive light that is presented on dogs. The ancient Egyptian word for dog was iwiw, which is really a reference to the dog s bark. From ancient drawings of the dogs in Egypt their dog of choice seemed to be the salukis or greyhounds. A greyhound is after all a hound dog that is used for tracking and the Egyptians would not only use them for hunting but as guard dogs and police dogs. They were used in military actions and as household pets. Thus the iwiw, the very thing that the dog was prized for by the Egyptians that they gave it such a name to reference their bark, did not bark when they were supposed to in Exodus 11:7. They were to either alert the Egyptians that the Jews were leaving the land or to track down the first born of the Jews to slaughter them in revenge for the deaths in the final plague. We are not too sure the importance of their not barking but if they were anything like my neighbor s pit bull, Sparky the Wonder Dog, not barking would be nothing less than a miracle. As a result the Midrash in Shmot Rabbah 31:9 teaches that dogs were to be rewarded for not barking by being fed the meat that was not kosher. You can be sure Sparky deserves no such reward. Many Jews will even feed their pet dog before they feed themselves as a symbol of this reward.
But in digging through Jewish tradition I find that the word used to express one s affection for a friend, or a lover is kalavi. Kalavi means like my heart or one who is close to my heart. Yet this is also a play on words for the word in Hebrew for a dog which is Kalav. The word is spelled Kap, Lamed and Beth. When the Kap is used as a preposition is means like or as and the following word is lev which means a heart. Even the Hebrew word for a dog represents something with affection. But I even found more of a positive spin in Jewish tradition regarding the dog. I was reading in the Midrash the other day and discovered that there is a teaching by the sage Rev that the mark of Cain was a dog. We have no idea what the mark of Cain was. The Hebrew word for mark is simply oth or Aleph Vav Taw. It begins with the first letter of the Hebrew Alphabet and ends with the last letter. It could mean a mark, it could also mean a sign or a token. The Jewish Midrash tends to look at the word as a token. God was showing mercy to Cain and as an act of mercy God gave Cain a dog. Of course we have no way of knowing for sure what this oth was but I like the idea of God showing his mercy to Cain by giving him a dog to be a companion, friend, and a protection. After all Cain would be an outcast and so God gave him a companion. Of course if that dog happened to be Sparky it would have probably been just another punishment. I have a friend who had a dog that she raised from a puppy. She developed a real connection with her furry friend. He proved to be everything that Cain s dog would have been if this were the oth God gave him. Her dog, that she named Autumn, was not only her constant companion, but her protector, her comfort in her grief and something much more. She told how when she would take Autumn for a walk and when she did she could hear the still small voice of God.
Why did God give us animals in this world in the first place? Some were meant to provide food for us, but many were not, many were meant for something else, to show us God s beauty as in the galloping or running of a horse, his majesty in the lion, His tenderness in the mother s car of her young, His joy in the singing and dancing of a bird or His reaching out to us in the presence of a little squirrel who runs up to you and twitches his nose looking for that daily peanut you give him. The Bible makes it very clear that we are to treat animals humanely, we are not to make animals suffer and we are to treat them with respect. God gave us his creation as a reminder of who He is, what He is and that He is always near. Autumn passed away not too long ago. My friend said that since his passing she found it very hard to hear the voice of God. I am confident she will find a new friend among God s creation that will help her hear the voice of God once she has worked through her grief. I am confident because she has learned the purpose of God s creation, our animals friends have been given to us by God as a gift as Cain s oth was a gift to be a constant reminder of the presence of God and they can offer us the gift of helping us hear God s still small voice. I took a vacation day from work today to take advantage of my season pass to Brookfield Zoo. So what is the attraction of a zoo? Go figure. I think people go to the zoo to relax, find a sense of peace and somehow being around God s creation does that for them. It is almost as if you can hear that still small voice of God as you God uses his creation to entertain us.