#43 — Parshat Shoftim
Devarim 16:18-21:9
Overview
In Parshat Shoftim, Moses gives Israel multiple instructions. In the midst of it, we find a promise of a special prophet. Here are some highlights from this week’s Torah portion.
“Justice, justice you shall pursue,” Moses says. Israel is to appoint judges who must judge righteously (Deuteronomy 16:18-20).
Setting up an ashera tree next to one’s altar or installing idolatrous pillars is forbidden (Deuteronomy 16:21-22). Blemished sacrifices are an abomination to the L-RD (Deuteronomy 17:1). Worship of other gods is an evil that must be purged from Israel. Such an abomination is punishable by stoning after careful investigation (Deuteronomy 17:2-7).
Cases too difficult for local judges should be brought to the place the L-RD will choose, to be judged by the priests and a head judge. Their verdict in difficult cases will be final (Deuteronomy 17:8-13).
Israel may set a king over themselves but only one whom G-d chooses. A king: 1) must be an Israelite; 2) is not allowed to acquire many horses, wives, nor excessive wealth for himself; and 3) is to write and read his personal copy of the Torah (Deuteronomy 17:14-20).
The inheritance of priests and Levites is the L-RD and His sacrifices (Deuteronomy 18:1-8).
Participation in occult practices of the Canaanites, such as divination and necromancy, make the participant an abomination to the L-RD (Deuteronomy 18:9-13).
G-d gave Israel a promise to raise up for them a special prophet like Moses; to him Israel must listen or face divine consequences. A false prophet on the other hand, shall die (Deuteronomy 18:15-22).
Cities of refuge are to be set apart as a safe harbor for those who kill someone unintentionally (Deuteronomy 19:1-11).
Changing the landmarks of a neighbor’s inheritance is prohibited (Deuteronomy 19:14).
In addition, Moses gives laws about witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15-21) and warfare (Deuteronomy 20) as well as prescribing a special ritual of atonement for unsolved murder cases (Deuteronomy 21).
Who speaks for G-d?
The court or the prophet?
“And you shall be careful to do according to all that they direct you” (Deuteronomy 17:10).
This commandment from our parsha is often used within Orthodox Judaism to justify the authority of the rabbis. Considering them to be the authoritative bearers of the so-called Oral Law leads to the conclusion: the rabbis speak for G-d.
When the commandment is read in context, however, it is very questionable if it can bear this authoritative weight applied to the rabbis. G-d’s instruction to Israel here is to faithfully obey the verdicts of a court of referral of Levitical priests when verdicts are handed down on criminal and civil cases too difficult for local judges.
To say that this instruction in Deuteronomy is establishing a Sanhedrin which has supreme authority in all matters of halacha (as is described in the Mishna and the Talmud) is making the text say more than it means in context. The “Torah” or “instruction” which our verse talks about is not an already complete oral law; rather it references the verdicts in specific civil and criminal cases which will arise.
In addition, it is fair to ask how straight the connecting line really is from this divinely ordained court of referral overseen by Levitical priests to the later rabbis (who weren’t all levitical priests but are foundational for the rabbinic Judaism which developed centuries later). [1]
But then who does speak for G-d? Our parsha speaks about someone who indeed speaks fully for G-d. The L-RD your G-d will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers — it is to him you shall listen (Deuteronomy 18:15). The L-RD said: “I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him” (Deuteronomy 18:18). The great tragedy is that many Jewish people miss this voice of ultimate authority.
A High Bar
A promised prophet like Moses is not something to take lightly. G-d said, “with my servant Moses…I speak mouth to mouth, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the L-RD” (Numbers 12:7-8). God’s communication to Israel through Moses is the direct continuation of His speaking from amidst the fire and smoke of Mount Sinai. Through the prophet like Moses G-d promised to speak to His people in like manner. That’s a very high bar to meet.
That’s why we read at the end of Deuteronomy, “There has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the L-RD knew face to face” (Deuteronomy 34:10).
Ralbag
The famous medieval French philosopher and commentator Rabbi Levi ben Gershon (“Ralbag” in shorthand, also known as Gersonides) recognized the Torah is stating that the promised prophet like Moses hadn’t come yet as no one was really like Moses. Ralbag points out that this ultimate servant of the L-RD has to be the Messiah who will not only be like Moses but even greater than him. In his commentary on Deuteronomy 34:10 Rabbi Levi ben Gershon wrote:
This is the prophet who will prophesy among Israel and the rest of the nations. He is the King Messiah as we have read in Parashat Balaam (Numbers 24). And he is the one about whom the prophet says “his delight shall be in the fear of the L-RD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his eyes hear. But by his signs and wonders will HaShem change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech that all of them may call upon the name of the L-RD and serve him with one accord (Zephaniah 3:9). [2]
Ralbag is right in seeing Messiah as even greater than Moses. Because in this ultimate servant of the L-RD even the ends of the earth will put their hope and find salvation (see Isaiah 42:4 and 49:6.).
Why Israel was right
In our parsha itself we also find a strong indication how special the prophet like Moses is, which indeed makes it likely this is a promise of the Messiah. Moses himself tells us that the L-RD made the promise of the prophet like Moses at the very moment when Israel was overwhelmed by the display of G-d’s holiness and asked, “Let me not hear again the voice of the L-RD my G-d or see this great fire anymore” (Deuteronomy 18:16).
The L-RD’s reaction here is really noteworthy. He did not rebuke Israel for this request; rather He said, “They are right in what they have spoken” (Deuteronomy 18:17).
Why was Israel right? Because the prophet like Moses is G-d’s intended continuation of His communication with Israel. It always was the L-RD’s plan to come nearer to His people. His ultimate plan is to come in the person of Immanu-El – G-d with us (See Isaiah 7:14, 9:5).
Moses temporarily fulfilled the role of mediator between G-d and Israel. He became G-d’s first mouthpiece, but he is not the ultimate mediator of G-d’s revelation. That role was reserved for the prophet like Moses who was still to come.
Of that One it is true to the uttermost: “I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him” (Deuteronomy 18:18).
Validated by Resurrection
We are convinced this ultimate servant of the L-RD is Yeshua of Nazareth, Jesus the Messiah. When He came as Israel’s ultimate prophet and king, He came humbly (Zechariah 9:9). But don’t be misled by this humility. The Servant’s humble appearing was the fulfillment of Israel’s request that the L-RD would not overwhelm them anymore with His holiness.
That no “smoking mountain” is mentioned in Jesus’ time on earth doesn’t mean there is no validation of His legitimacy by other means. Not only does Jesus perform many extra-ordinary miracles but ultimately God raises Him from the dead! And that proved it: His words are indeed nothing less than a continuation of the voice from Sinai.
A Warning and an Invitation
Because of who he is, Messiah’s direct emissaries repeated the L-RD’s strong warning: “And whoever will not listen to My words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him” (Deuteronomy 18:19). They coupled this strong warning with an invitation:
And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people. All the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and those who came after him also proclaimed these days. You are sons of the prophets and of the covenant that G-d made with your fathers, saying to Abraham “And in your Seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. G-d having raised up his Servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness” (Acts 3:23-26).
In Jesus we can be truly blessed. Moses often interceded for the people. The prophet like Moses is the ultimate intercessor for sinners; He gives us eternal peace (Isaiah 53:12; 54:10).
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During the Second Temple Period there was indeed a Sanhedrin as noted in the Mishna, which was written about 130 years after the destruction of the temple. But earlier historical sources (such as Josephus and authors of the New Testament who lived when the Sanhedrin existed) give us a different picture than what we find in the later Mishna and Talmud. The Sanhedrin was not so much a body which ruled on religious law (halacha); rather, it served as a political and judicial council. Further, this Sanhedrin was dominated most of the time by the Sadducees who interpreted the Torah differently than the Pharisees (whose traditions the rabbis continue today). The more contemporary sources also depict a Sanhedrin that was presided over by the high priest and not by the so-called zugot (pairs) whom the rabbis saw as their forebears. It appears that the authors of Mishna and the Talmud projected the function of the later post-70 CE Sanhedrin, with which they were familiar, back on the Sanhedrin which existed before the destruction of the Temple.
Ralbag Beur HaMilot:
והנה זה הנביא שיתנבא בישראל ובשאר האומות הוא מלך המשיח כמו שזכרנו בפרשת בלעם והוא מי שאמר עליו הנביא
והריחו ביראת ה' לא למראה עיניו ישפוט ולא למשמע אזניו יוכיח ועל ידי מופתיו ונפלאותיו יהפוך השם יתע' אל העמים שפה ברורה לקרוא כלם בשם ה'