Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9 - Isaiah 51:12-52:12 - John 20:19-29

This week's edition of The Set Table contains:

Questions and Commentary on Shabbat Shofetim
Chayyei Yeshua - A Devotional Commentary on the Besora Reading
In Summary
Looking Ahead

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 (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 (52:1-10). Fourth, the prophet describes Israel's return to Zion from exile and God's protective care of them on their journey (52:10-12).

In the midst of the 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.

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. Who is the prophet "like Moses" mentioned in Deuteronomy 18:15-19? How do these verses answer an important theological question?

Nick Amic

"Why do I need Yeshua? I have Yom Kippur". This statement is one of the most typical responses to the assertion that Jews should believe in Yeshua. The argument, usually based on passages like Leviticus 17:11, points out that the Jewish people no longer have an atoning offering to receive forgiveness for unintentional transgressions and ends up in a nuanced discussion on the sacrificial service. Is there a different, more practical answer to this question? This week's Torah portion offers a much clearer and direct answer.

After admonishing Israel not to follow the religious practices of the Canaanite nations (Deuteronomy 18:9-14), Moses explains that God will raise up his own prophet "like Moses" (18:15, 19) that Israel must follow. Many Torah commentators have rightly interpreted this on the level of peshat (plain reading) to refer to Israel's succession of post-Mosaic prophets. However, when we connect this prophecy with the concluding words of the Torah: "And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face" (34:10) there seems to be a more an implicit hint that favors an eschatological/messianic interpretation. Let's explore this level of meaning to identify this prophetic figure.

The pre-1st century Qumran writings contain the earliest record of this passage in eschatological/messianic terms (see 4Q 175 Test. 5-8; cf. 1QS 9:10). Additionally, the Samaritan versions of the Decalogue (Exodus 20) mention a "prophet like Moses" in their unique account of the tenth commandment to worship on Mt. Gerizim. In one Medievel compilation of Rabbinic sources, Rabbi Akiba (ca. 90-135 CE) is attributed as drawing the parallel between Moses and the Messiah spending forty years in the wilderness (Tanchuma, Parashat Eqev 7). Similarly, in Kohelet Rabba, there is another fascinating parallel: "As the first redeemer was, so shall the latter redeemer be. [Both will be] ‘lowly and riding on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9)'" (1:8). One of the clearest messianic interpretations of Deuteronomy 18:15-19 + 34:9-10 appears in the works of later medieval commentator R. Levi ben Gershom (Ralbag):

Truly, the Messiah is such a prophet, as the Midrash states (quoting Tanchuma, Parashat Toledot): "‘Behold, my servant will prosper' (Isaiah 52:13)-by means of the miracles he performed Moses succeeded in getting only one nation to serve God, but the Messiah will cause all nations on earth to serve him."

How will this prophet be "like Moses"? Moses acted in three distinct roles: as prophet who spoke "face to face with God" (Deuteronomy 34:10); as priest who ordained the first High Priest (Numbers 8); and as king, as Deuteronomy 33:5 states: "He [Moses] became king" (see Shemot Rabba Parasha 52, and Maimonides on m. Shavu‘ot 2). It's interesting to note that the term "messiah" (literally "anointed one") was a title usedd for these three groups of people. Just as Moses held all three titles on a spiritual level, so too will the prophet "like Moses" hold all three titles.

Benjamin Ehrenfeld

Luke 24:33-49 The REAL-ness of Resurrection

For many, the idea of resurrection is a powerful "theme". It signifies a new stage of existence. It seems that much of the psychological draw to resurrection is that one who is resurrected holds on to his/her personality and body. It's not some vague transfer of soul into a new body/form with little-to-no memory of its origin. For the author of Luke, resurrection is not merely, a "theme". Resurrection is a reality that seems too good, and maybe even too frightening, to be true. It is not just a theological refutation of gnosticism that would compel the author of Luke to tell us of Yeshua's hand's, feet, and hunger.

Often missing in discussions of resurrection is the mentioning that one who is resurrected does not necessarily become the 2009/hybrid version of the 1992/Topaz one may be in this life. Now, most of us have not seen a resurrected person, but we have our models in the Berit Chadasha. Though cognitively aware of the distinctions between resurrection, transfiguration, and ascension, many people lump the respective images all into one. The truth is, there's a big distinction between resurrection and glorification.

In this week's besora portion, Yeshua asks the disciples to recognize that he has been resurrected by looking at his hands and feet. He says, "Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have" (Luke 24:39, NIV). To top it all off, he asks for food to eat. He shows them that he is hungry. It is his physical reality, and maintenance of that reality, that is the miracle focused on here. Interestingly enough, this miracle is not reserved only for Yeshua himself.

The Tanakh (as understood by our tradition) speaks of a corporate resurrection. This hope was not foreign to Yeshua's disciples. Furthermore, not all who are resurrected are destined for ascension, and the example of Eleazar shows us this. Yeshua, as the "One-Man Israel", points to the reality of resurrection for us, especially in his declaration of what his destiny is in Luke 24:46-49. What happens to him must corporately happen to us, as well. In the midst of such a profound miracle we are also taught something very profound, though quite subtly.

We who commit to God cannot escape our bodies. It is the return of our hands and feet that make resurrection REAL. It is the evidence of our hunger that will make it REAL. The REAL-ness of the resurrection places tremendous responsibility in our hands. In light of this week's portion, the following questions are worth consideration as we approach the month of Elul:

What are we building with our hands that will make them recognizable when our bodies return?

What paths are we choosing, and how will our experiences from those paths not only identify the feet we have, but the roads themselves?

When we become hungry, will we have learned from our time in this life how to be thankful for the sustenance we receive, and how to keep our appetites from controlling our lives?

What we do on this side of olam haba ("the coming world") will not be forgotten, not only because of our impact on the world and future generations, but because our very selves will return to face the reality of the permanence of creation.

NEXT WEEK'S READINGS - PARASHAT KI TETZEI