February 3

top image is of the prayer shawl with long tassels. The tassels are also worn underneath shirts daily.
bottom images is a Phylactery. Imagine trying to lift someone else's burdens with that wrapped around your arm. They are worn when studying the Torah.
NT – In today’s reading, I kept coming back over and over to the first 12 verses in chapter 23. Jesus’ imagery especially of the heavy load that the Pharisees place is so vivid. I kept thinking of the overloaded donkeys and camels of the desert trips and how the pack animals plod along, so slowly, so very slowly. And supposedly, these were people that the Pharisees loved. Their own that they want to teach so that the people could draw nearer to God in their rule perfection. In my own little family, we call that ‘piling on’.
When I fight with Don or yell at the kids, I have a bad habit of saying ‘and another thing…’. Past hurts, slights I had let go by, beds unmade or bathtubs unscrubbed. Piling on is my way of evening the score. Putting all things back to right. Except, it isn’t right. If I let the tub go unscrubbed on Saturday, it is unfair to yell at Cole on Tuesday when I am in the midst of fussing about leaving the garbage can where Howler, the dog can get to it.
Same is true for the Pharisees. They deliberately pile on and make it impossible to follow the rules. There are too many variables, too many subsets. And the worst thing is, they want to spread their doctrine to all. Remember when our reading compared the Pharisees to yeast? Yeast is a bacteria that is activated by moisture, starch, and heat. Some Bibles translated it as ‘leaven’. In Bible times, there was no Baking Powder or baking soda. Leavening was yeast, carefully preserved so that wheat would rise. The bacteria permeate the bread mixture, you let it “sit” in a warm place and you get a poofy loaf of bread. Pharisee yeast gets a group of people who have to act a certain way or they are ‘not following the Law’. You are either an insider (Law follower) or out.
The Pharisees sat in ‘Moses’ seat’, the place of Jewish authority and legal wisdom. As a coincidence (?!?), our OT test today talked about the judges and officials that Moses appointed to handle the simple, uncomplicated disputes. They sat ‘in Moses’ seat’. But you couldn’t sit in that seat unless you were an upright man, full of the knowledge of the law. Jesus also says this about the Pharisees. Then the question becomes – is he being sarcastic when he says obey them or not.
I do not think sarcasm is here. I think he truly thinks you should do what the Law says. But I don’t think Jesus wants his disciples to emulate the Pharisees because Jesus didn’t think the Pharisees followed the Law. Just a few paragraphs earlier, Jesus had been asked, “Teacher (remember he didn’t want his disciples called Teacher or Rabbi), which is the greatest commandment in the Law? Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love you neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments”. Piling on is not loving your neighbors. Place of honor, the lovely long tassels (long tassels meant you could do no physical labor. They would get dirty and hence unclean….), important seats, etc. These are not taking care of others. These are taking care of self.
(As an aside, when this post was being proofread, the reader said, you can’t equate the love your neighbor stuff with the Moses seat stuff. They are in different chapters. Matthew did not write his gospels in chapters. The chapters and verses were added in the Middle Ages. Click here for a great tutorial in this. )
But back to the Pharisees.
If you truly loved your neighbor as yourself, wouldn’t you try to ‘lift’ their burdens? You wouldn’t ‘pile on’, you would simplify, you would take care of others. Maybe even others who were on the ‘out’.
Friends, don’t let us be the pilers. Let us be the encouragers, the simplifiers, the kind ones.
And for goodness sake, close the cabinet door on the garbage.

http://www.zianet.com/maxey/reflx284.htm