Heeding Jesus the Righteous Prophet

The 172nd mitzvah is that we are commanded to obey each of the Prophets, may they rest in peace, and to fulfill all their instructions. Even if his instructions contradict one or many of these commandments, [we are commanded to obey him] as long as his instructions are temporary. This does not apply, however, if he permanently adds or subtracts [from the commandments], as we explained in the Introduction to our Commentary on the Mishneh.

The source of this commandment is G-d's statement (exalted be He), "To him you must listen." In the words of the Sifri: "The verse, 'To him you must listen,' means that even if he tells you to temporarily transgress one of the commandments of the Torah, you must listen to him."

Sefer Hamitzvot in English
Heeding a Prophet
Positive Commandment 172
Chabad.org

What?

This is very confusing. Why, if the Torah of God is perfect, would a Prophet be commanded (Prophets don't speak on their own authority; they speak the words of God, otherwise, they're false Prophets) to temporarily contradict or override one or more of the commandments?

The commentary I quoted from above contains a footnote with the answer:

See Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah 9:3, where the example is brought of the prophet Elijah, who brought an offering on Mount Carmel, in spite of the prohibition to bring offerings outside the Temple in Jerusalem. Since it was a temporary measure — only to disprove the idolatry of Baal — it was permitted.

What this says to me is that, under certain circumstances, a Prophet may, as directed by God, temporarily override or disobey a commandment to uphold a higher commandment or to "make a point", so to speak.

That brings me to the class I taught last night.

Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. -Matthew 12:9-14

Jesus (Yeshua) could have waited until the next day to heal the man's shriveled hand. The fellow had probably lived with it for years and waiting one more day wouldn't have made much of a difference. Even in Israel today, on Shabbat, such a disability probably wouldn't be treated by observant Jewish doctors, and only injuries and illness where the person was suffering would be attended to. Christ's example, ("if any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath") doesn't seem to be a good comparison, because a sheep falling into a pit could be injured and might die (or at least suffer terribly) if not rescued from the pit immediately. Not so with this man's shriveled hand.

So why did Jesus heal the man's hand on the Shabbat, especially when he knew the group of Pharisees present were just looking for an excuse to bring charges against him? Why did Jesus (apparently) violate the Shabbat?

While it's passages such as this one that traditional Christianity use as a "proof text" to illustrate that the Shabbat, along with the rest of "the Law", was done away with by Jesus, it's more likely (this presupposes the authority of the ancient Jewish sages to render opinions based on Torah and Oral Law) that the Jewish Messiah was acting in the role of a Prophet. Certainly as the Lord of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:8), he would know precisely what is and isn't permitted Shabbat behavior, but using the example of the 172nd mitzvah, we see that he could also temporarily suspend or weaken a portion of his Shabbat observance to obey a higher commandment or to "make a point". In this case, (my opinion), I think Jesus is saying that doing good is upholding the spirit and intention of the Shabbat, as opposed to manipulating the commandments in order to snare someone (which seems to be what the Pharisees were up to).

The Shabbat isn't a straight jacket that God uses to restrict us and to frustrate us. It's a protection from the troubles and problems we must endure the rest of the week. It's a "protected zone" where we are more free to pursue our experiencing God and to behave more completely out of His desires, including "loving our neighbor" (Mark 12:31), which is an extension of the commandment to love God (see Mark 12:28-34 for the complete context). The behavioral restrictions associated with the Shabbat are there to guide us and to help us structure how to observe the Shabbat, not to provide a list of "thou shalt nots".

Keep in mind that Jesus, as a true and righteous Prophet, as well as the Messiah, could not permanently override any of God's Torah because to do so, would have made him a false Prophet...and we know there is nothing false about the Jewish Messiah.

We are told to heed the Prophet because he speaks in the Name of God and not on his own authority (Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does." -John 5:19). We are also told in the 6th mitzvah to "cling to the Sages" (based on Deuteronomy 10:20), imitating them in their "good and upright ways" because heeding and imitating a tzadik (righteous person) brings us closer to clinging to God.

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark.

Carrying Water

"Ben (the son of) Zoma said: Who is wise? He who learns from all people, as it is said: 'From all those who taught me I gained understanding' (Psalms 119:99). Who is strong? He who conquers his evil inclination, as it is said: 'Better is one slow to anger than a strong man, and one who rules over his spirit than a conqueror of a city' (Proverbs 16:32). Who is rich? He who is satisfied with his lot, as it is said: 'When you eat the toil of your hands you are fortunate and it is good for you' (Psalms 128:2). 'You are fortunate' -- in this world; 'and it is good for you' -- in the World to Come. Who is honored? He who honors others, as it is said: 'For those who honor Me will I honor, and those who scorn Me will be degraded' (I Samuel 2:30)."

Pirkei Avot 4:1
quoted from Torah.org
Jewish Macho
by Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld

Who is rich? He who is satisfied with his lot may not be the sort of answer we'd like to hear when we consider our incomes, especially in a difficult economic climate. This is especially true based on an article I found at Mother Jones yesterday which states that the gap between the rich and the rest of us in the U.S. is the widest it's ever been in the history of our nation (complete with charts and graphs). While average incomes dropped (adjusting for inflation) from 1979 to 2009 for the majority of citizens, they actually skyrocketed for the top 1% of American earners.

I'm at an age where I have an increased interest in how or if I'm going to be able to retire someday (although everyone should start thinking in this direction from the moment they earn their first paycheck) and this is not happy news. But is there a difference between providing an adequate income and "financial security" (if such a thing exists) for my family and the ambition to "keep up with the Joneses", so to speak? In troubled times, should I, like many Americans or people in the west, continue the course to conspicuous consumption, faster cars, bigger boats, larger houses, and humongous debt?

I don't strive for these things personally, but with all the toys and goodies available on the market, it's hard not to be tempted and instead, to be "satisfied with my lot."

I read an article this morning published at Chabad of Mineola called Daily Judgment. I encourage you to click the link and read the entire write up (it's not long) but in part, the author, Rabbi Yerachmiel Tilles says:

A young scholar came to Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov with a question. He had discovered a contradiction in the teachings of the sages, and wanted to hear how the chassidic master would resolve it. On the one hand, the Talmud states that a person’s parnassah (income and livelihood) for the entire year is determined on Rosh Hashanah. On the other hand, it also declares that “a person is judged each day” for his livelihood. Was this not a contradiction?

In order to address the young Talmud scholar's question, the Baal Shem Tov used a local water-carrier as an example (think of him sort of like Tevye "with a pole across his back and a pail of water tied at each end"). While the Baal Shem Tov upholds the ruling that a person's income for the year is set at Rosh Hashanah, he uses two separate conversations with the water-carrier to illustrate that his attitude about how he receives each day's work changes, "depending on the daily judgment." This is the water-carrier's judgment of how he perceives his life and his toil, not God's.

This works for us, too. It doesn't necessarily mean we shouldn't try to get ahead, apply for better jobs, ask for a raise, and strive to provide a better living for our families, but there are many things about our lives and our work in our present situations that we can't always change. The water-carrier couldn't change how heavy the buckets of water were, how children teased him, or how he barely made ends meet at the end of each day, but he could change how he perceived his lot in life. So can we.

Last night I taught a class at my congregation based on my What Did Jesus Teach series. We're taking a look at the different lessons Jesus taught in the Book of Matthew and trying to see if any of them can be found or even alluded to in the Torah. We're using the list of commandments found in The Concise Book of Mitzvoth as compiled by the Chafetz Chayim, which has been determined to be the mitzvot that can be obeyed in the modern age, outside the land of Israel.

As part of the lesson, I mentioned that both the written and oral Torah are considered "the Torah" and that traditionally in Judaism, you cannot understand what the written portion is teaching without an understanding and study of the oral tradition. In other words, Talmud study, at least on some level, is a requirement for understanding written Torah. If studying the written Torah is necessary for understanding the teachings of Jesus, since this was his source material, it creates an additional dimension of learning to be more like Jesus for people who are called Christians.

That's a rather tough concept for my students to get. They seem pretty stuck on "man-made traditions" vs. the Word of God and see the former as fallible and the latter as absolute. Yet the Bible is a book that isn't so much read as it is interpreted. If we could read the Bible like a best selling novel, going through it one or two times would be enough for us to completely "get it" as far as God's intentions for our lives are concerned.

By posting a link to Rabbi Tilles's commentary on daily judgment, I'm hoping to illustrate that accessing the wisdom of the sages isn't in opposition to the Word of God, but instead, an illumination of what we can find if we only look. As I've said in the past, I don't think I could ever rely solely on Christian scholarly publications to define the limits of my understanding of what God is trying to teach. The Jewish people were the keepers of the Torah, the Shabbat, and the only worshipers of God when the ancient ancestors of modern-day Christians and Muslims were giving blood offerings to obscene pagan "gods". I tend to think they have the upper hand on understanding what it's like to try to puzzle through the lessons provided by the Creator.

Like the water-carrier, we are all looking for something, but it's how we choose to do the looking that defines what we'll discover.

Torah study at its highest level is the understanding of the application of the Torah's principles to real people and real life situations -- how do the Torah's eternal truths apply to the human condition. G-d's wisdom is eternal, yet no two people are precisely alike and relate to the Torah in precisely the same manner. Every one of us has his own perspective, his own life story, and his own unique personality. Each of us will see a slightly different message in the Torah, and will have his or her own fresh insight into its beauty and relevance.

Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld

I sit before my only candle, but it's so little light to find my way
Now the story unfolds before my candle
Which is shorter every hour as it reaches for the day
But I feel just like a candle, in a way

Song for Adam
Jackson Browne