Shoftim
Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9

This week’s Torah for Today is by Russ Resnik, Executive Director of the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations

For a few days after hurricane Katrina devastated America 's Gulf Coast and flooded almost the entire city of New Orleans , tens of thousands of survivors were stranded, without food, water, or adequate shelter. People found their way to abandoned stretches of interstate highways that were dry and safe from the flood waters or to the crowded shelter of a stadium or convention center and just wait. But rescue was slow in coming. Response to the disaster was delayed, and the cries of the stranded were captured by the media-cries for food and rescue. One cry was particularly plaintive. A man said, "No one is telling us what's happening, where we should go or what to do." Added to the physical suffering was disorientation and anarchy. Some commentators contrasted President Bush's performance in the days following 9/11, when he provided direction for a bewildered nation, to his absence for the first few days following Hurricane Katrina.  The great need in time of crisis is for someone to stand between the awesomeness of the event and the people affected by it. Otherwise we become "weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd" (Matthew 9:36).
   
        Scripture recognizes this need for a mediator, not just in times of crisis, but also in face of the awesomeness of the divine. Thus, at Mount Sinai, all Israel stood before the Lord, saw the glory cloud upon the mountain, and received God's word. Rambam [Maimonides] writes that the Ten Commandments "reached [ Israel ] just as they reached Moses our Master and that it was not Moses our Master who communicated them to them" (in The Guide of the Perplexed, II-33).  Yet, at the same time, the Sinai narrative involves Moses as an intermediary. Only by ignoring this major element of the story could one say that Israel needs no mediator with  God. Thus, just before the passage cited above in The Guide of the Perplexed, Rambam writes, It is clear to me  that at the Gathering at Mount Sinai, not everything that reached Moses also reached all Israel . Speech was  addressed to Moses alone. and he, peace be on him, went to the foot of the mountain and communicated to the  people what he had heard. The text of the Torah reads: I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to  declare unto you the word of the Lord (Deut. 5:5) [emphasis mine].

        At Mount Sinai, Israel encounters Hashem "face to face," according to Deuteronomy 5:4, but in the next verse Moses "stands between" Hashem and Israel to mediate the divine word. The Lord himself, Creator of heaven and earth, appears to all Israel , but only Moses is able to receive the complete revelation and transmit it to the people. Indeed, this is Moses' unique place within the story of the Jewish people. He alone communicates with the Lord "face to face" and brings the report of this communication back to the people. It was after they had heard that first voice that they were terrified of the thing and felt a great fear, and they said: And ye said, Behold the Lord hath shown us, and so on. Now therefore why should we die, and so on. Go thou near and hear, and so on. Thereupon he, who was greater than anyone born of man, went forward a second time, received the rest of the commandments one after the other, descended to the foot of the mountain, and made them hear these commandments in the midst of that great gathering (Guide, II-33).  Moses serves as mediator between God and Israel . In this week's parasha, he contemplates the end of his life, which means the end of his mediatory work. Was this mediation only necessary for the first generation, those who received the Torah at Mount Sinai ? Can Israel now meet with God face to face with no one to stand between them and Him? No, Moses says that when he is gone, The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die' (Deut. 18:15-16). This prophet will be a mediator in the same way that Moses was a mediator. Like Moses, he will hear the voice of Hashem and see the great fire of God's presence, and then he will speak to the people. Through him, God will reveal himself to Israel .

Deuteronomy, and the Torah as a whole, concludes with a statement that the prophet like Moses had not yet appeared. "But since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face." (34:10). For Messianic Jews, of course, this Prophet arose many centuries later, in the person of Yeshua. Based on our text, Kefa urges the Jews of Jerusalem to heed the message of Yeshua. "But those things that God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Messiah would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Yeshua the Messiah, who was preached to you before. For Moses truly said to the fathers, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you'" (Acts 3:18-20, 22).  The identity of the Prophet-like-Moses is an all-important question, and we are confident that it is resolved in Yeshua the Messiah. But we cannot neglect another question, one implied by the ambivalence within the text. Why do we need a mediator at all? All Israel stood before God at Mount Sinai . All Israel has a share in Torah and the riches of its heritage. These things are not the province of a priestly caste, but of all the people.  Why do we need a mediator? The Torah presents our need not as an endorsement of priesthood or the basis for a superior religious class, nor ultimately even in terms of humankind's helplessness and depravity. Rather, it is a comment on the ineffable holiness of our God. He draws near in mercy, yet His purity and splendor are so great that a vast gulf remains between Him and us.

        The God of Israel is gracious and merciful, full of grace and truth (Ex. 34:6), yet he is far more awesome than the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina. God's inapproachability may not jibe with our modern, consumer-centered sensibilities that would expect a divine connection to be available to all 24/7, but the picture is clear. Between the holy God of Israel and humankind, even the best of humankind, is a vast gulf. Thank God that He has sent the Prophet like Moses to bridge that gulf!