Subject: Y'shua's Parables, Midrash & Torah
Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1998 23:39:48 +0000
To: "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
From: Avi Marcus
To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: Y'shua's Parables, Midrash & Torah
Shalom Everyone!
The Parable of the Ten Virgins / Wedding Banquet
What is so striking here is the parallel between these Rabbinic stories
and the parables Y'shua presents in Matattiyahu (Matthew) 22:2-14 and
25:1-13 (Invitations to the Kings banquet and the Ten Virgins,
respectively). Notice the similarities and centrality of Torah in these
stories compared to Y'shua's parables, where the same emphasis is made.
The redeemed community needs to wear the garments of Torah, and carry
their lamps filled with oil (Torah) for "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
and a light unto my path. -- Psalms 119:105.
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Midrash Rabbah - Ecclesiastes 9:7
LET THY GARMENTS BE ALWAYS WHITE; AND LET THY HEAD LACK NO OIL (9:8).
R. Johanan B. Zakkai said:
If the text speaks of white garments, how many of these have the
peoples of the world; and if it speaks of good oil, how much of
it do the peoples of the world possess! Behold, it speaks only of
precepts, good deeds, and Torah.
R. Judah ha-Nasi said:
To what may this be likened? To a king who made a banquet to
which he invited guests. He said to them, "Go, wash yourselves,
brush up your clothes, anoint yourselves with oil, wash your
garments, and prepare yourselves for the banquet,"but he fixed no
time when they were to come to it. The wise among them walked
about by the entrance of the king's palace, saying, "Does the
king's palace lack anything?"1 The foolish among them paid no
regard or attention to the king's command. They said, "We will in
due course notice when the king's banquet is to take place,
because can there be a banquet without labour [to prepare it] and
company?" So the plasterer went to his plaster, the potter to his
clay, the smith to his charcoal, the washer to his laundry.
Suddenly the king ordered, "Let them all come to the banquet."
They hurried the guests, so that some came in their splendid
attire and others came in their dirty garments. The king was
pleased with the wise ones who had obeyed his command, and also
because they had shown honour to the king's palace.2 He was
angry with the fools who had neglected his command and disgraced
his palace. The king said, "Let those who have prepared
themselves for the banquet come and eat of the king's meal, but
those who have not prepared themselves shall not partake of it."
You might suppose that the latter were simply to depart; but the
king continued, "No, [they are not to depart]; but the former
shall recline and eat and drink, while these shall remain
standing, be punished, and look on and be grieved." Similarly in
the Hereafter, as Isaiah declares, Behold, My servants shall eat,
but ye shall be hungry (Isa. 65:13).
Ziwatai said in the name of R. Meir:
He who stands without eating and drinking is like an attendant, but he
who reclines and does not eat suffers very much more vexation and
his face turns green.3 That is what the prophet says, Then ye
shall I sit4 and discern between the righteous and the wicked
(Mal. 3:18).
Bar Kappara and R. Isaac B. Kappara said:
It may be likened to the wife of a royal courier5 who adorned
herself in the presence of her neighbours. They said to her,
"Your husband is away, so for whom do you adorn yourself? "She
answered them, "My husband is a sailor; and if he should chance
to have a little spell of [favourable] wind, he will come quickly
and be here standing above my head. So is it not better that he
should see me in my glory and not in my ugliness? "Similarly, LET
THY GARMENTS BE ALWAYS WHITE [and unstained] by transgressions;
AND LET THY HEAD LACK NO OIL: [let it not lack] precepts and good
deeds.
It has been taught: Repent one day before your death. R. Eliezer
was asked by his disciples, "Rabbi, does any man know when he
will die so that he can repent?" He answered them, "Should he not
all the more repent today lest he die the day after, and then all
his days will be lived in repentance. For that reason it is said,
LET THY GARMENTS BE ALWAYS WHITE."
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(1) That the king must make long preparations for the banquet;
consequently we must be ready at any moment to be called in.
(2) By preparing adequately for the banquet.
(3) With longing.
(4) Yeshavtem (ye shall return) is read as viyshavtem (ye shall
sit). E.V.: "Then shall ye again discern."
(5) Who went on missions for his master which took him to foreign
lands.
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