![Heretics Like Us](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/anchor-generated-image-bank/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Heretics Like Us
By William (Bill) Bruce
Somebody who doesn't believe the right things?
That's me!
www.hereticslikeus.com since 2008, echoed in podcasts from 2022
![Currently playing episode](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Heretics Like UsJun 27, 2022
![Pep Talk - Deuteronomy 01-03](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Pep Talk - Deuteronomy 01-03
At the beginning of a long weekend, prepare for a reading of Deuteronomy. It took us 6 months to read the first 4 books of Torah this year, and this last book 'second book of the law' may seem like a remake of a familiar movie. What's the editorial ax being ground this time?
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Women's Choices - Numbers 36](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Women's Choices - Numbers 36
Did the daughters of Zelophehad lost their hard-won property rights here - or were they preserved? Is that a footnote, or another contrast that throws the rest of the covenant in relief?
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Exceptions Prove Rules - Numbers 35](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Exceptions Prove Rules - Numbers 35
Is it just a digression, a footnote, to lay out 4 dozen towns for Levites, 6 of them to be cities of refuge? Or does the exception prove the rule, both in the priestly role, and in the sanctuary offered accused in the face of vengeance?
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Tribal Turf - Numbers 34](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Tribal Turf - Numbers 34
Get out your maps, and track the claims of ancestral homelands for the 12 tribes in Palestine. Is this simply an early land claim for the 21st century state of Israel? God forbid!
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Balanced Equities - Numbers 34-36](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Balanced Equities - Numbers 34-36
As we wrap up the wandering, we start negotiating the patrimonies of the tribes entering the promised land - with the exception of the Levites and their cities and those of refuge - and a footnote about those daughters of Zelophehad. Footnotes?
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Recap by Stages - Numbers 33](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Recap by Stages - Numbers 33
How did it take us so long to wander in the wilderness? Let's sum up the trip once more, retrace our steps, and wonder....
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Straddling a Line - Numbers 32](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Straddling a Line - Numbers 32
What do you make of the 2.5 tribes across the Jordan in the Transjordan? Have they got the same 'skin in the game' as the others? Do we have such in-laws and cousins, in ecumenical and ethnographic terms?
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Vengeance - Numbers 31](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Vengeance - Numbers 31
The wandering refugees get permission to hit back against the dominant Midianites - read too often since as justification for genocidal wars by dominant nations against weaker ones...
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Woman's Word - Numbers 30](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Woman's Word - Numbers 30
A woman's word can bind the household, the clan, in buying and selling. In a change of relationship, a new patriarch must get notice, and disown or accept the obligations she has undertaken on our behalf. Easy?
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Festival Reminders - Numbers 29](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Festival Reminders - Numbers 29
Now the big 'high holidays', the pilgrimage festivals, in the annual cycle - and what are yours in comparison?
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Time Well Wasted - Numbers 28](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Time Well Wasted - Numbers 28
So, compare this worship life of sacrifice to our own - lavish, communal, complex?
notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Prepare to Party - Numbers 28-33](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Prepare to Party - Numbers 28-33
The daily, weekly, monthly sacrifices are only the underlying rhythm - the foundation for the great festivals. Rather than deride their complexity, we might reflect on our anemic observances?
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![When Daughters Count](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
When Daughters Count
Daughters of Zelpophehad - without brothers - get to keep the clan's allotment of land.
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Re-Mustered Counts - Numbers 26](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Re-Mustered Counts - Numbers 26
Counting the ranks again, including the clans within the tribes - collective shared benefits and burdens
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Phineas the Cop - Numbers 25](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Phineas the Cop - Numbers 25
More than an individual romance, assimilating to the dominant host culture is an existential threat to the people. Phineas enforces separation.
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Balaam's Vindication - Numbers 24](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Balaam's Vindication - Numbers 24
Balaam sticks to his brief, and knows who's his boss - bless Israel, don't curse
Notes from www.hereticslikeus.com
![Balaam's Showdown - Numbers 23](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Balaam's Showdown - Numbers 23
Balak wants him to curse, God says bless - Balaam is caught between -
Notes from www.heresticslikeus.com
![Balaam's Ass - Numbers 22](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Balaam's Ass - Numbers 22
The donkey outthinks the prophet - for now
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Barak on the Brink - Numbers 22-27](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Barak on the Brink - Numbers 22-27
Barak and Balaam, and mustering on the banks of the Jordan, Israel's migrants are coming to the end of wilderness wandering - are we the xenophobic locals, or the fee-for-service pundits, or allies and advocates for the raggedy band?
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Snake on a Stick - Numbers 21](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Snake on a Stick - Numbers 21
Sure, this magic is 'snake on a stick'. -the story is the detour around Edom, to come at the promised land from the east rather than from the south.
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Water From a Rock - Numbers 20](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Water From a Rock - Numbers 20
A replay of the waters of Meribah, complaining still after nearly 40 years - and given water from a rock still
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Red Heifer Law - Numbers 19](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Red Heifer Law - Numbers 19
When it's this weird, just do it! The response to contact with a dead body includes water with ashes of the red heifer...
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Korah Took - Numbers 18](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Korah Took - Numbers 18
Aaron won, but owes a tithe back on his tithes, reminder of the risks of self-serving over-reaching priesthood in the shadow of Korah's rebellion - do you really owe the commonwealth before your personal gratification? Yes.
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Sprouting Stick - Numbers 17](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Sprouting Stick - Numbers 17
Reinforcing Aaronic claims, left with 11 other tribal leaders' sticks in the hoy place, his staff sprouts fresh buds, blossoms, and almonds. Someday, the Messiah will hold that stick, eh?
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Incense Stops Plague](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Incense Stops Plague
The Korahite rebellion gets some swallowed up, a plague stopped by incense after 17,400 deaths, extablishing the legitimate authority of Aaronic priesthood - or does it?
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Magic Moments - Numbers 16-21](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Magic Moments - Numbers 16-21
Crossing the midpoint of Numbers, the end of wilderness wandering, including bits of magic: ground opening to swallow rebels, red heifer law, water from a rock, snake on a stick - what will you make of it all?
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Golus, Galut - Numbers 15](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Golus, Galut - Numbers 15
Applying the 'if-then' rules 'as if', even though in a state of 'not yet' or 'no longer', might still provide moral guidance for choice - and the apparently draconian punishments can be 'read down' by Talmudic reasoning, eh?
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Minority Dissent - Numbers 14](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Minority Dissent - Numbers 14
Caleb and Joshua alone resist the majority report of the other 10 consultants - and counsel courage
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Consultants' Reports - Numbers 13](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Consultants' Reports - Numbers 13
10 out of 12 spies, scouts, or consultants get cold feet and warn the people away from the Promised Land, with tales of superhuman giants.
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Sibling Rivalry - Numbers 12](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Sibling Rivalry - Numbers 12
Aaron and Miriam claim equality with Moses - God demurs, and dooms all 3 to die in the desert - after giving Miriam a case of tzara'at and quarantine outside the camp.
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Whiners - Numbers 11](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Whiners - Numbers 11
Some of us are whining and whinging, and craving, but not construing our needs and appetites - angering God
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Pacing in Order](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Pacing in Order
Imagine 12 tribes arrayed around the tent: 3 on each of 4 sides. Which leads out when they break camp and relocate, which escort the holy things, and which act as rearguard? Imagine then the re-enactments for millennia since, if only between ears and behind foreheads!
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Spies and Rebels - Numbers 10-15](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Spies and Rebels - Numbers 10-15
From the south, 12 spies are sent to scout the Promised Land - 10 report back scared, to advise against entering.
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Passover Plans](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Passover Plans
Who can participate, if their unclean status is not within their control? Who should be invited beyond 'us'?
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Lamps and Levites](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Lamps and Levites
Whose job is it to keep the home fires burning?
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Ante Up - Numbers 07](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Ante Up - Numbers 07
Here's a long (24 minutes) repetitive tale of a procession of 12 tribes in turn delivering the same set of gifts, regardless of their size or resources - to stay in the game as an equal tribal partner.
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Nazirites - Numbers 06](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Nazirites - Numbers 06
It's not just by birth - but also by voluntary vows - that you can belong to the elites. Remember Samson, or Samuel?
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Quarantine Jealousy - Numbers 05](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Quarantine Jealousy - Numbers 05
Separating out the people with unclean skin or contact with dead bodies is one thing - but dealing with a jealous husband without proof of his wife's infidelity demands a harder ritual!
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Elite Jobs - Numbers 04](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Elite Jobs - Numbers 04
Here are the job descriptions for the elites of the Aaronic priesthood, who would handle the holiest things, to pack them up to move.
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Counting - Numbers 04-09](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Counting - Numbers 04-09
From mustering to other ways of counting: us and them, clean and unclean, if this then that - from Passover to jealous husbands, enjoy the week!
www.hereticslikeus.com
![Levites Like Us - Numbers 03](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Levites Like Us - Numbers 03
Drilling down into the specific duties of the priests, particularly in breaking camp to move the people into the wilderness.
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Four-Square - Numbers 02](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Four-Square - Numbers 02
So line up those mustered men of military age, by tribes, on each of four sides of the tent in Sinai. Imagine, 603,500 arrayed in order - or the variety of re-enactments since, at in-gathering festivals.
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Census - Numbers 01](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Census - Numbers 01
Do you imagine 600 thousand military-aged men (let alone the complementary kids and women) arrayed in order In 12 tribal groups? Oh, yeah?
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Mustering - Numbers 01-03](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Mustering - Numbers 01-03
Is it a census or a military muster, or just a normative imaginary pageant desert? We start 3 days, 3 chapters of recitals of the tribes, assembled on the 4 sides of the tent - and implicitly, a model for the people organized around a first temple, exile, second temple, and diaspora since. Try it!
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Tax Planning, Real and Personal Property - Leviticus 27](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Tax Planning, Real and Personal Property - Leviticus 27
Almost like an appendix, hekdesh - what does it mean to 'redeem' a person by paying what's owed, according to Leviticus?
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Promises and Threats - Leviticus 26](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Promises and Threats - Leviticus 26
These are the consequences of infidelity, in the divine ecology of Leviticus. If you seek right relations, or if you maltreat creation, there will be outcomes.
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Sabbath for the Land - Leviticus 25](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Sabbath for the Land - Leviticus 25
Not just the people, but the land gets a break, standing in for God - leave it to volunteer enough for the humans...
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Jubilee Vision - Leviticus 25-27](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Jubilee Vision - Leviticus 25-27
Here's the subversive climax of the Leviticus approach to 'us' and 'ours'. Beyond sabbath and sabbatical, how about every 50 years we just redistribute all the land back - and let the land have sabbath, lest it vomit us up and out?
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Light and Bread, Eye-for-an-Eye - Leviticus 24](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Light and Bread, Eye-for-an-Eye - Leviticus 24
Keep your lamps lit, in routines and rituals - then the arguments of proportionate responses to offences, rather than escalating vigilante feuds - and a strange story of an offender being stoned - or was he, if witnesses had to stand before the stones with him?
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com
![Re-Creational Holy-Days - Leviticus 23](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/19857116/19857116-1638328567330-a6ad48a66a1cf.jpg)
Re-Creational Holy-Days - Leviticus 23
From our culture of 24/7/365, can we imagine this rhythm of festivals, mandatory in-gathering? Passover, Shavuot, in our spring, plus Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur through High Holidays in our fall, set a higher standard, eh?
Notes at www.hereticslikeus.com