Today the Reactor Core Reference Library makes available the full text of Partner of Nature, by Luther Burbank (1939). Luther Burbank was famous for his experiments in plant breeding and hybridising. Luther explains his techniques and mindset. As you learn more about how plants are hybridised and their seed is "mixed", I hope you will understand the Bible better. The Biblical word for adultery actually means to mix seed, to pollute, to make something impure. Hybridising plants is adultery. Luther Burbank is one of America's most famous adulterers. Here is some recent correspondence on the topic of mixed seed:
From: Jeff
Hey Ted, Shalom.
Can you tell me where in Torah it says that I cannot plant to different crops in the same field? I have been searching and I cannot find anything that says that. Thanks.
From: Ted
Deuteronomy 22:9 and Leviticus 19:19 both say it. [ … ] Ciao.
Leviticus 19:19 Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.
Deuteronomy 22:9 Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled.
From: Jeff
Both of these seem to be saying that we are not to sow a field with seeds that have been crossbred. Not to cross-breed your animals seed, nor your crops seed and not to intertwine different threads together. This is what it seems to be saying. It does not appear to be saying not to plant olives next to grapevines. What you think? Agree or not? Jeff
From: Ted
Hi Jeff. You are right about the purpose being to not cross breed the plants. To understand what the real dangers of cross breeding are, I recommend this book by Luther Burbank. Luther Burbank was the plant breeder who got the whole hybrid plant movement started in the USA. He died almost 100 years ago. It describes his experiments and HOW he made dissimilar plants breed with each other. It sounds exactly like planting them in the same field. It will take a couple hours to read through, but I am not man enough to compress the book into a five minute internet message.
http://reactor-core.org/burbank.html
There is some science to it, but in general, plants that are close to each other do tend to cross breed.
There is also the issue of adulteration, or just weights and measures. If you mix barley in with your wheat seed, then harvest it; how can you separate the barley out? If you sell it as wheat, you are short-changing your buyer, because barley is a cheaper product.
But the verse was talking specifically about a vineyard. So it isn't just weights and measures that is being talked about. Let me know what you think about Burbank's book. The man was considered the inventor of plant breeding.
From: Ted
On the olives next to grape vines issue, I ask you to imagine the harvest time. If you are harvesting olives, how can you do so without damaging the grape vines? How can you harvest the grapes when they seek at every opportunity to climb up and choke the olive tree?
I believe God is teaching us about holiness, or separation, with this law. Keeping each field restricted to one crop keeps that field "holy". Also makes it easier to harvest and manage.
Lately a phenomenon called "companion planting" has entered vogue. It is popularized by a book called Carrots Love Tomatoes. I believe it violates God's law. Healthy plants on fertile soil don't need the help that "companions" are supposed to give. We keep soil fertile by not flushing our waste into the sewer, and by practicing land sabbaths and jubilees.
From: Jeff
Does this mean that I can't graze my sheep in the same pasture as the goats? I'm just using the same standard He made for animals on the crops. What do you think?
From: Ted
Drew Thompson up in Idaho has concluded that it does mean we shouldn't graze sheep together with goats. There are stories of goats mounting sheep when they are in heat. Sort of like encouraging black people to live in communities with white people. It can be done, but the sheep always suffer.
From: Jeff
But יהוה did not tell us not to graze sheep and goats together. יהוה said not to mate them. I think there is a danger in "inventing" sins. This seems to be the same thing the Pharisees did.
From: Ted
I view this as a matter of conscience. Without a specific command, we have to go on interpretation. And we are expected to interpret the Law, otherwise we must reject the writings of the prophets. By looking at the type of reasoning the prophets used to arrive at their conclusions, we learn how to reason upon the scriptures. Ezra, Nehemiah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. All these prophetic books are examples unto us of good Torah interpretation.
Until יהוה sends a prophet to correct us, we have to do the best we can. Looking more closely at Leviticus 19:19 and Deuteronomy 22, it looks like two separate commands. Leviticus 19:19 does seem to refer only to sowing hybridized seeds. But Deuteronomy seems to be talking about "companion planting", or planting the plants close to each other.
Some brothers with livestock have observed sheep, goats, and cows trying
to mate with each other. I myself watched a female cow mounting a ram in the
barnyard. 1 Corinthians 15:33 says Evil communications corrupt good
manners.
Or, another translation says: "bad association spoils
useful habits". You become like the people you are around. Proverbs 13:20
says He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of
fools shall be destroyed.
When Israel entered Canaan,
יהוה told them, "do not learn the ways of the people of the
land, nor of the people around you". (Exodus 23:32-33) The only way to avoid
learning their ways is to not be around them. (Proverbs 22:24,25; Jeremiah
10:2)
Exodus 23:32-33
32 Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.
33 They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.Exodus 34:10-16
10 And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of יהוה: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.
11 Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
12 Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee:
13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:
14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for יהוה, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;
16 And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.Deuteronomy 7:1-6
1 When יהוה thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;
2 And when יהוה thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:
3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of יהוה be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.
5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.
6 For thou art an holy people unto יהוה thy God: יהוה thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.Proverbs 13:20 He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
Proverbs 22:24,25
24 Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go:
25 Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.Jeremiah 10:2 Thus saith יהוה, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
1 Corinthians 15:33 Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
Why do we wear blue tassels? To remind us that God surrounds us and is our Shepherd. The color blue represents heaven. Also, the blue is a picture of holiness; it separates the strong, united cloth inside from the isolated, lonely fringe in the outer darkness.
When you keep your olive trees and grape vines separate, when you pasture your sheep separate from your goats, you are acting holy. When you act holy in one area of life, you are reminded to act holy in other areas of life. Our God is a Holy God. Anything we can do to be like him is good. I would not lay it down as a law upon a brother that he cannot pasture his sheep with his goats. But my current understanding is that this is now what יהוה wants us to do, so I will not.