From: "Root & Branch
Association, Ltd.
Subject: Prophecy/Commentary: The Prophetic
Reading for Shabbat
Deuteronomy
11:26-16:17; Prophets: Isaiah
11:17-55:1-5)
Prophecy/Commentary: The Prophetic Reading for Shabbat Parashat Re'eh --
(Torah: Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17; Prophets: Isaiah 54:11:17-55:1-5),
by Yosef Ben Shlomo HaKohen
Yosef Ben Shlomo Hakohen is the author of "The Universal Jew," published by
Feldheim, and serves as the editor of the Shema Yisrael web site: "Hazon -
Our Universal Vision".
"Hazon - Our Universal Vision" is a study-program based in Jerusalem
which explores the universal vision of the Torah for Jews, humanity,
and all creation.
Each Shabbos we read a section from the Torah which is followed by a
reading from the Prophets, known as the "haftorah".
Between the Fast Day of Tisha B'Av and Rosh Hashana, the haftorah portion
of each Shabbos is from the Book of Isaiah. The common theme of these
readings is the Divine promise of comfort and redemption. In the portion
that is chanted on this Shabbos, we find the following proclamation:
"Ho, everyone who is thirsty, go to the water..." [Isaiah 55:1]
To whom is the Prophet Isaiah speaking?
According to the classical biblical commentator Radak (Rabbi David Kimche),
the Prophet Isaiah is addressing the peoples of the earth at the dawn of
the Messianic Era.
In the Messianic Era, states Radak, all peoples will recognize that G-d
alone rules over the earth and that there is no other. They will then come
to Jerusalem to learn the social laws and teachings of Hashem (G-d) -- the
Compassionate One.
Radak explains that in this verse, the Prophet Isaiah is "calling upon them
[all peoples] to learn Torah and wisdom, which he compares to water, for
just as the world cannot exist without water, neither can it exist without
wisdom; moreover, just as the thirsty yearn for water, so does the wise
soul yearn for Torah and wisdom, as it is stated in the prophecy of
Amos: 'Behold, days are coming...when I will send a hunger into the land;
not a hunger for bread nor a thirst for water, but to hear the words of
Hashem' [Amos 8:11]"
The above teaching of Radak reminds us that there are wise and sensitive
souls among the peoples of the earth who yearn for Torah -- the Divine wisdom.
This prophecy is therefore not just a prophecy of comfort for Israel; it is
a prophecy of comfort for all the peoples, as it conveys the Divine promise
that the spiritual thirst within the human soul will be "quenched" through
Torah, as it is written:
"They will neither injure nor destroy in all My sacred mountain; for the
earth will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem as water covering the sea
bed." [Isaiah 11:9]
Shabbat Shalom from Yerushaliyim,
Yosef Ben Shlomo Hakohen
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From: Judean Voice
To: judean-voice@juno.com
Subject: Parshat Re'eh
PARSHAT RE'EH
DOES ANYONE CARE? (by Binyamin Zev Kahane)
In one of Yirmiyahu's few prophecies of comfort to Israel, he says the
following (30:17): "For I will restore health to thee, and I will heal
thee of thy wounds, says the Lord; because they (the gentiles) called
thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, no one cares about her!" In
other words, the gentiles taunt the Jewish People for not caring about
the ruined Temple.
How Can We Remain Idle?
On the tail-end of the verse, our sages teach us a great lesson in
Tractate Succah (41): "No one cares about her - from this it follows
that one must care!" That is, through the lamentations of Yirmiyahu
over the fact that the goyim taunt us for not caring about the
building of Zion, we learn out that we must care about it.
The sages are teaching us that we must not sit idly by and turn this
situation of non-caring into an established fact. Such behavior
constitutes a coming to terms with a Hillul Hashem of the highest
magnitude, and makes us partners to it. This is why the sages teach us
that our mission is to care, to take an interest, to make an effort to
stop the disgrace, so that Israel, Jerusalem, and the Temple won't be
forsaken.
In the beginning of Parshat Re'eh, as well, we see the verse "you
shall seek out His Presence and come there (to the Temple)",
demonstrating to us once more that the Temple is something one must
care about, or seek out. For more than any other mitzvah, it has
always been the most difficult to fulfill. It requires a steadfast
effort. This effort is expressed by the term "caring", which expresses
the concept of a stubborn determination to accomplish the task of
building the Temple, despite the hardships.
The First Temple - They Didn't Care
The Ramban brings down a surprising explanation as to why David's
generation was punished (Shmuel 2, Chapter 24) following David's sin
of counting the people of Israel: "And I hold that the punishment
against Israel was caused by their procrastination in building the
Temple. For the ark was going from tent to tent, like something
transitory, and the tribes did not awaken to say: Let us seek out
Hashem and build Him the Temple, as it is written, 'you shall seek out
His Presence and come there'.. And behold, David was prevented by G-d
from building the Temple...and the building of the Temple was delayed
until Shlomo became king. And if the Jews wanted it enough and woke up
from the beginning, it could have been done during the times of one of
the Judges or Saul, or even David. Because if the tribes of Israel
were concerned about it, then he would not have built it, but rather
Israel would have built it.. and for this delay, Hashem poured His
wrath upon them.."
The Ramban is giving us a huge "chidush". We are used to thinking that
the Almighty desired from the beginning that Shlomo build the Temple.
But here we see that while He prevented David from building it, any of
the Judges preceding David could have built it. And even the Jews
during David's kingdom could have taken the initiative and done it!
But since they did not care about it all those years, they were
punished.
The Second Temple: Couldn't Care Less
Before the Second Temple was built, we read the chastisement of the
prophet Haggai. The words speak for themselves (Chapter 1): "Is this a
time for you yourselves to sit in your paneled houses, while this
House is in ruins? So now, thus said Hashem, Master of Legions: Set
your heart to consider your ways! You have sown much but bring in
little; eating without being satisfied, drinking without quenching
thirst, dressing, yet no one is warmed; and whoever earns money earns
it for a purse with a hole...Therefore, because of you, the heavens
withhold from giving dew, and the land withholds its produce..." We
see that Haggai, too, attributes the national deterioration to the
fact that the Jews "forgot" about the Temple, preferring to sit in
their posh living rooms.
Caring About the Third Temple
And today, despite the fact that G-d has miraculously returned Jewish
sovereignty to Jerusalem, Jews have come up with a long list of
excuses why we should not rebuild the Temple. Indeed, we again run
into the sin of Jews not caring for the Temple. To our disgrace, this
lack of caring has compounded into an even greater Hillul Hashem, for
it has caused us to relinquish authority of the Temple Mount to our
enemies.
The greatest shame of all is that while the city of Jerusalem is being
built up in spectacular fashion - bridges, tunnels, fancy buildings -
no one is concerned about the fact that Jerusalem's most important
building remains in ruins.
Relatively few care about the Temple and the Temple Mount today. In
any case, we are witness to an awakening of many religious camps and
rabbis who sense the void, and understand that the Temple Mount and
the Temple are the key to a speedy redemption.
**********************************************************
From: "Yeshivat Har Etzion's
Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash"
Subject: Introduction to Parsha 46:Re'eh
YESHIVAT
HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH (VBM)
INTRODUCTION TO
PARASHAT HASHAVUA
by
Aytan Kadden
PARASHAT
RE'EH
Sefer Devarim deals with the
issues that the
Israelites must contend with as they enter the Promised
Land. On the one hand, they must understand
their
history and how they have arrived at this point. On the
other hand, they must begin to conceive of their future.
This is a nation that has lived in relative isolation for
40 years. Their existence and sustenance have been of a
miraculous nature. They now must deal with the realities
not only of creating a new society for themselves but
also of living with the nations around them, as well as
the nations currently inhabiting the Land of Canaan.
Although the Torah clearly instructs the nation how to
deal with the individual people of the Land of Canaan,
the Torah seems much more concerned with the spiritual
remnants of these prior inhabitants. Beginning with the
second half of Leviticus (also in smaller
sections
towards the end of Exodus) the Torah warns several times
against adopting the idolatrous practices of the nations
of Canaan.
In parashat Re'eh we are warned of a situation where
not only do the other nations lead us astray, but even
Jews will rise up and attempt to lead us to idolatry.
These are the portions of the false prophet, the inciter,
and the wayward city (13:2-19). We will focus
our
discussion on the false prophet (13:2-6).
Our section introduces the prophet as follows:
"If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of
dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the
sign or wonder comes to pass about which he spoke to
you saying: 'Let us go after other gods, which you
have not known, and let us serve them.' You shall
not listen to the words of that prophet or
the
dreamer of that dream: for the Lord your God
is
testing you to know whether you love the Lord your
God with all your heart and all your soul ... And
that prophet or dreamer of dreams shall be put to
death for he has spoken to turn you away from the
Lord your God ..." (13:2-4,6)
There are many questions that arise out
of this
portion. First, assuming that this is a false prophet
(seeing as he calls for idolatry) how does he have the
power of to produce miracles? Second, what is
the
meaning of the passage that God is testing us? If God is
omniscient, He surely knows our beliefs and should have
no need for us to prove ourselves to Him. Third and more
broadly, what is the entire nature of prophecy? What is
the value of prophecy if there are false
prophets
together with truthful ones? How are we to decipher
between two such prophets?
The Talmud in Sanhedrin (90a) records
a debate
regarding the nature of the prophet in these verses:
"It was taught: R. Yossi Ha-Gelili said: The Torah
understood the full intent of idolatry, therefore the
Torah afforded it the power that even if it could
make the sun stand still in the sky, one should not
listen to it.
It was taught: R. Akiva said: God forbid that the
Lord should make the sun stand still on behalf of
those who transgress His will. Rather this portion
is dealing with those who are originally
true
prophets and then change to false prophets."
In this passage it is clear that the earliest sages
were disturbed by our first question. How can a false
prophet possess miraculous powers? R. Yossi Ha-gelili
contends that there is no problem; God after all can
bestow powers on whomever He wishes. R. Akiva, however,
is very bothered by the ethical problems presented by
that possibility. Therefore, he concludes that the signs
mentioned in this portion were performed at a time when
this individual was a true prophet. Then, after
he
soured and became a false prophet, he relied on his
previous miracles as signs that the people
should
continue to trust him. For R. Akiva it is unthinkable
that God should bestow such powers to a fake. It is
worthwhile to point out that R. Akiva is willing to
completely change the simple meaning of the text (where
it is clear that the sign is used as a proof towards the
prophecy of idolatry) in order to retain the sanctity of
the role of the prophet and the miracle.
The medieval commentators to the Torah quote
this
talmudic passage and many of them take sides with either
Sage. The Rashbam states unequivocally that the prophet
is a false one who knows how to predict events through
"the impure spirit, idols" and other ancient idolatrous
practices. The Chizkuni, meanwhile, quotes the position
of R. Akiva that this was indeed at one time a true
prophet who has gone bad. It seems as if the Ibn Ezra
attempts to find a middle ground by noting that the
wonder or miracle presented by the prophet need not be of
miraculous nature. The Ibn Ezra provides other sources
where the words used here, "ot" and "mofet," are used to
denote a sign. Other prophets had performed certain non-
miraculous actions to prove the validity of
their
prophecies. Through this interpretation we would not be
forced to discuss the power of the idolater.
Whichever way one chooses to
understand this
prophet, one would still be bothered as to why this
prophet is given a voice. As the Chizkuni puts it, if
God knew that this prophet would ultimately sour, why did
He reveal Himself to him originally? The text tells us
that this was in order to test the people and
the
resiliency of their love of God. How is this to
be
understood? There is a wide discussion on this topic
amongst the medieval commentators. Maimonides, in his
Guide to the Perplexed (3:24), notes that a prevalent
belief at that time was that the test is in order to
provide the tested with ample reward upon completion. He
rejects this view quoting a verse which implies that God
would not "play games" with someone. What, therefore, is
the meaning of the test? Many commentators have followed
the lead of the Sa'adia Gaon who asserts that the test is
to exhibit the faithfulness of the Jewish people in front
of the other religions. With this interpretation, the
phrase "the Lord your God is testing you to know" in our
context does not reflect God's knowledge but that of
other nations: God tests you so that it will be known how
much you love God. In a similar vein many (Maimonides,
Radak, Chizkuni) have interpreted the test of the binding
of Isaac as the setting of a standard of devotion to God
from which subsequent generations could learn. So it
seems that this prophet is not sent to trip us up, rather
he is sent to build us up in the eyes of the world. As
the Ramban notes in the story of the binding of Isaac, in
the Scripture we find that it is the righteous who are
tested, for God knows not to test the evil.
Having dealt with our first two questions, we must
consider the third one. What is the general concept of
prophecy? What are the methods for determining a true
prophet? Is preaching for idolatry
the only
disqualification?
The Torah continues in Sefer Devarim to discuss how
the nation must set up a just society in the land of
Israel. One of the institutions included in this vision
of society is that of the prophet (18:15-22). The Torah
describes how just as the people asked Moses to be their
emissary to God at Sinai and beyond, so too God would
appoint for them a prophet to bring God's message to the
people. In this context, the Torah reiterates
our
question:
"And if you say in your hearts: 'How will we know the
thing that God has not spoken?'" (18:21)
The Torah responds immediately:
"That which the prophet has spoken in the name of the
Lord and this thing shall not come to pass, this is
the thing which God has not spoken, the prophet has
spoken it spitefully, you need not fear him."
From a simple reading of the text, it would
seem
that each prophet must provide a sign to prove himself.
Only then wowe decide whether to follow him as we saw in
parashat Re'eh: if he were to preach idolatry regardless
of how dazzling the miracle was, this prophet is to be
killed, otherwise we would heed the prophet. Yet, there
seems to be a discussion amongst various commentators
about how crucial this miracle is in establishing the
prophet.
In Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Yesodei
Ha-
Torah (chapter 8) he states that the miracles Moses (the
paradigmatic prophet) performed were not to establish his
prophecy, rather they were needed at those times. (For
example, he had to split the sea to escape and drown the
Egyptians.) He goes on to say that anyone who believes
based on signs has false beliefs. He explains that Moses
held the people's faith as a prophet only because of the
prophetic vision that they witnessed and even shared with
him at Sinai. If the Rambam does not place any value in
signs and wonders of the prophet, how then does
he
understand our verse? He explains that we do not believe
the prophet because of signs, rather Moses has commanded
us that if the prophet should provide a sign that comes
to pass, then we must heed his word. Just as we trust
two witnesses in court since that is the law, eventhough
they could be lying, so too we trust the prophet who
provides a sign since this is the law. The Rambam strips
the signs of prophet of any deeper significance than the
fulfillment of a Mosaic law. The Ramban,
however,
following the simple understanding of this verse demands
that any prophet seeking validity must provide a sign.
The Sa'adia Gaon, meanwhile, escapes the debate
by
providing this verse with a new interpretation: if the
prophet seeks to permit something forbidden, this is the
false prophet. Based on this idea, many have noted that
only a prophet who has proven himself to be a worthy
individual may temporarily suspend a Torah law (except
for idolatry). An unproven prophet who does this is not
to be heeded. This teaches us how to distinguish a true
from a false prophet, but what is the role of a prophet?
In the description of the prophet in Devarim 18 we
find an interesting term. Moshe tells the people that
future prophets will be "like me." Many have
offered
interpretations to this. The Ramban writes that
to
appreciate this term we must understand the circumstances
under which Moses was appointed prophet. After hearing
the first two of the ten commandments from the voice of
God, the people turned to Moses and said that they could
not survive further divine contact and that he should act
as their middleman. According to the Ramban, we should
note that Moses was selected as a prophet by the people
specifically because he was already respected
and
accepted as a leader by them. So too, any prophet that
will speak to the people should be one from amongst the
people, someone whom they already know and respect.
Tanakh relates various stories dealing
with the
issue of false prophecy. One of the most famous stories
tells of the debates between Jeremiah and Hananiah ben
Azur. Jeremiah had predicted the downfall of Judea while
Hananiah prophesied the immediate salvation of Judea. In
that discussion (Jeremiah 28) Jeremiah provides
an
interesting measuring stick: the prophet who prophesies
good, this prophet is true only if his words come to
pass. Therefore, there need never occur doom in order to
validate the prophet of doom (see the story of Jonah and
the city of Ninveh). Such a prophecy may be seen as a
rebuke and a call to repentance. The one who predicts
peace, however, the one who does not rebuke the people of
teach them to improve their ways, his prophecy must come
true to be considered a true prophet.
In the days when prophecy and idolatry were common,
one can imagine that the temptation to follow a prophet
was great. The ability to predict the future, to produce
wonders could certainly lure many spiritual souls astray.
The Torah is very careful to place down very specific
laws. Anyone attempting to lead the people to idolatry
should not be heeded. There are no compromises with
idolatry. The Torah further teaches us the role of the
prophet. He is not only a liaison, but also a teacher
like Moshe. Lastly, as Jeremiah teaches, he is also one
who must rebuke the nation and seek out their betterment,
not just reassure them while they walk away from God;
rather, they were needed at those times.
YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH
ALON SHEVUT, GUSH ETZION 90433
Copyright (c) 1999 Yeshivat Har Etzion
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