Questions & Commentary on Parashat Shofetim

1. This week's Haftara reading is the fourth in a cycle of seven Haftarot of consolation following Tisha B'Av. In the midst of this week's vision of comfort for Israel, God, through the prophet, promises "my people shall learn my name." What does it mean for the Jewish people to know God's name?

Rabbi Jonathan Kaplan

This week's Haftara reading contains four sections. First, the prophet reiterates the promise of divine comfort Israel lacked during the destruction of Jerusalem and the Exile (Isaiah 51:12-16). Second, the prophet invites Jerusalem to rise up and be renewed because God has acted on her behalf and removed the cup of wrath (Isaiah 51:17-23). Third, Zion is called upon to awaken herself from her sorrow and expect God's return, whose advent is heralded by the announcement of coming peace (Isaiah 52:1-10). Fourth, the prophet describes Israel's return to Zion from exile and God's protective care of them on their journey (Isaiah 52:10-12).

In the midst of this third section, God makes a stunning announcement:

Assuredly, my people shall learn my name,

Assuredly [they shall learn], on that day

That I, the one who promised,

Am now at hand.

Isaiah 52:6

This announcement is in concert with the prophecies in the latter half of Isaiah which contend that Israel's redemption is contingent upon the return of God's presence in their midst.

What, however, does it mean for Israel to learn God's name? Ibn Ezra understood Israel's knowledge of God's name as a sign the prophecies of redemption are being fulfilled and God is manifesting himself as redeemer. Building upon the Targum Rashi understood this phrase as referring to when the people shall know that God fulfills divine prediction. Kimchi took this one step further and suggests these predictions are spoken on behalf of God by the prophet. The contemporary Jewish commentator Michael Fishbane concludes from these analyses that "The expression is thus a variant of ‘and all mankind shall know that I the LORD am your Savior' (Isa. 49:26)" (Fishbane, Haftarot, 300). Thus, the common thread of traditional interpretation of this passage is that Israel's knowledge of God's name is intrinsically connected to their redemption.

Why is it important that Israel learn God's name before they are redeemed? Is it not merely enough for God to show up and bring them from the midst of their exile?

Interestingly, the revelation of God's name before Israel's redemption is fundamental to that other great act of redemption in the Hebrew Bible, the Exodus from Egypt. When Moses is in the midst of receiving his divine commission to lead the people from Egypt, he and God have the following interchange.

Moses said to God, "Behold, when I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors sent me to you,' and they ask me, ‘What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "Eyheh-Asher-Ehyeh. Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘Ehyeh sent me to you.' And God  further said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This shall be my name forever and my remembrance in every generation."

Exodus 3:13-15

In this case the redeeming God who reveals himself to Moses and ultimately to Israel is the God who previously revealed himself to Israel's ancestors: Abraham (and Sarah), Isaac (and Rebekah), and Jacob (and Rachel and Leah). This teaches us an important lesson - to know God's name is to know the history of God's relationship with Israel and for ourselves to be in relationship with God. Thus, for Israel to know God's name in the midst of Exile meant that they would not only remember again God's relationship with and redemptive work on behalf of Israel; it also meant that they themselves would be swept up into that work.

Knowledge of God as a precursor to redemption is a theme that is also present in the Brit Chadasha. As Yeshua reminds his followers in the besora of John,

I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.

John 14:6-7

Indeed, through knowing Yeshua, Jews and non-Jews alike encounter the fullness of God's ongoing relationship with Israel and God's redemptive work on their behalf. For Jews they now have the opportunity to be renewed in that relationship like Israel in the midst of the Exile. For non-Jews they have the opportunity to enter into that relationship, continuing to be non-Jews but knowing God's name and participating in God's redemptive work through Yeshua on behalf of Israel and indeed the whole world.

2. Rabbis and Scholars alike debate whether Deuteronomy 18:18-19 refers to the Messiah specifically or only about the prophetic office in general. Which do you think is the correct interpretation and why? What light does Acts 3:23-24 shed on this issue? In what ways is this prophet to be like Moses?

Rabbi Jason Sobel

In order to arrive at a messianic interpretation of this passage, we must read it in light of the greater context of Deuteronomy and the Brit Chadasha. Deuteronomy 18:18 is clearly understood by Kefa in Acts 3:22-23 as referring to Messiah Yeshua.  Often however, the writers of the Brit Chadasha are accused by their detractors as taking passages from the Hebrew Bible out of context. Is there any support from the Torah itself for reading this passage messianically? Yes, commenting on this point, Sailhamer writes,

It should be noted that even within the OT itself this passage was taken to refer to a specific individual and not merely to the succession of prophets who were to arise after Moses. In Deuteronomy 34:10, for example, the final words of the book recall the promise of Moses in 18:18 and look far into the future to a single individual for its fulfillment. Thus by the time the last verses of Deuteronomy were attached to the Pentateuch, these verses in Deuteronomy 18 were already understood eschatologically and messianically.

Pentateuch as Narrative, 456

When read in context of the entire Bible, Deuteronomy 18:18 is clearly referring to the Messiah.

Another important question is how is this prophet going to be like Moses? Deuteronomy 34:10-11 also sheds light on this question. It says, "Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the LORD sent him to do in Egypt." Thus the first way this prophet is going to be like Moses is that he will know God "face to face." The Prophet-like-Moses will have an intimate and unique relationship with the Lord.  God revealed himself and spoke to Moses differently then he did all other prophets. The Lord spoke to them in dreams and visions but God spoke to Moses directly (Numbers 12:6-8).  

Part of the compositional strategy of the Book of Yochanan is to demonstrate that Yeshua is the Messiah (20:13). One way he does this is by portraying Yeshua as the prophet like Moses. This is seen in Yochanan 1:1, which can be translated "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was face to face with God." A few verses latter a more direct comparison is made between Moses and Messiah when he writes, "For the Torah was given through Moses but grace and truth come through Yeshua the Messiah. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has made him known" (1:17-18). Moses only got to see the back of the Father while Yeshua saw him face to face from the beginning.

The second thing that set Moses apart was the unique signs he performed. It is no wonder that the book of Yochanan records seven unique signs of Yeshua found nowhere else in the Brit Chadasha. Yeshua's unqiue relationship to the Father and the mosaic like signs clearly demonstrate that he is the promised Prophet of Deuteronomy 18:18.