A New Moses

Friday, August 21, 2009
Rabbi Seymour Rossel

     So much happened at Mount Sinai; and in this week's portion, Shoftim, Moses explains to the new generation of Israelites who were not born in slavery the reasons that things are as they are. Two weeks ago, I spoke about the fortieth anniversary of astronauts walking on the moon. Last week, I spoke about the fortieth anniversary of the Woodstock music festival. And, ironically, this week, I am speaking about what Moses said to the Israelites at the end of forty years of wandering. Forty is a magic number in the Bible and in seems to be a magic number in life, in general.

     Moses remembers that the people at Sinai behaved like frightened children. God tried to speak directly to them, but when they heard God's voice, they ran away. They begged Moses, "Let us not hear Adonai's voice any longer or see this wondrous fire any more, lest we die." How did God react to this rejection?

     Moses tells the new generation that God was understanding. God said to Moses, "The people are correct." But if the people would not listen, how would God's commands reach the people? God told Moses,

I will raise up a prophet like yourself for them from among their own people. I will put My words in his mouth and he will speak to them all that I command him; and if anybody fails to heed the words he speaks in My name, I Myself will call him to account. But any prophet who presumes to speak in My name an oracle that I did not command him to utter, or who speaks in the name of other gods -- that prophet shall die.

     From a human point of view, God proposed a very complex solution. When will God raise up a prophet like Moses? In what way will the prophet be like Moses? Has this new Moses already come and gone? Or is this new Moses still expected? Will this new Moses speak to all Israelites? Will all Israelites recognize the new Moses? It is simple enough for God to say, "I will raise up a prophet from among the people and he or she will be like you, Moses." But when we hear folks carrying on conversations with God, we consider them abnormal and we often medicate them or incarcerate them.

     God commands us to keep an open mind. We should never assume that we know what is going on in the mind or in the heart of another person. Instead, God gives us a simple test to know whether a person speaking in God's name is a new Moses or a crank. God tells Moses,

If the [new Moses] speaks in the name of Adonai and the oracle does not come true, that oracle was not spoken by Adonai; the prophet has uttered it presumptuously: do not respect or fear him.

     Everyone who claims to know what God commands is entitled, in the first place, to the benefit of the doubt. But, if his or her predictions come true -- and that sometimes means after the prophet dies -- only then will you know that he was a true prophet.

     This is not a very satisfactory test. Imagine that a prophet arises today and tells you that God is sending a hurricane. If you follow God's advice, you say, "Okay. We'll wait and see." But how long will you wait? Did the prophet mean that a hurricane is on the way in a few days, in a few hours, in a few years?

     Another thing: we all know that a hurricane is always on the way. Is every prophet who tells you that God is sending a hurricane worth believing? If you decide to wait and see -- while you are keeping an open mind, the hurricane may come and sweep you away. According to God, as soon as you are swept away by the hurricane, that's a good time to start believing in that prophet. Nevertheless, at that point, it's a little late for you to begin believing in that prophet.

     So the test God has given us -- if the words come true, the prophet is true -- is a conundrum. Why would Moses leave these instructions to the people? There is only one possible explanation and it is not so strange, after all.

     Think about it this way: The words of this sermon were written long after the death of Moses, specifically in the time of the prophet Jeremiah. And Jeremiah was a new Moses, giving us what amounted to a new Torah. It was Jeremiah and his followers who composed the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses' final sermons, and also the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, and more. Considering the enormous number of words they wrote, their teachings far outstrip what is found in the first four books of the Torah. And none of these words were spoken by Moses and all of these words concerned things that happened long after Moses died.

     That may be the clue explaining why Moses preaches about a new Moses that is coming. These words could very well be placed here, in the mouth of Moses, to teach the Israelites of Jeremiah's day to trust the prophet Jeremiah. God said to Moses, "I will raise up a prophet like yourself" -- and Jeremiah was certainly a prophet like Moses. So God's words were true. It was equally obvious that Jeremiah's words were true, too. Jeremiah was the real thing according to this passage because he predicted the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple. Anyone who had not listened to Jeremiah had been taken by surprise when the Babylonians came. Jeremiah had warned them.

     So, it is possible that this dialogue between God and Moses was intended to promote trust in Jeremiah. On the other hand, it may also have been intended to promote trust in the prophet Samuel. Samuel, too, was a "new Moses" in his lifetime. The people wanted a king and Samuel warned them against choosing a king -- he said that their new king would not be like God, a king would tax them and enslave their children, and waste their nation's wealth on horses and women; and everything he said came to pass when Solomon became king over Israel. And why bring up Samuel right now? It is because his very words of warning about the dangers of having a king are also included in this week's portion.

     The plain truth is that we can never know who will be a new Moses, we can only know that God's truth is always given to us through prophets. And no one Moses, no matter how great, will ever be enough. New times and new conditions require new prophets and every new prophet is a prophet like Moses.

     And the extraordinary insight in this week's portion is that we should look for each new Moses not from some mysterious source, but from among the people all around us. You need to give respect and deference to every person around you -- no matter how great or how lowly they may seem in your eyes -- because anyone you know may hear God's word and take up God's teaching. Anyone you know may prove to be God's messenger; and, in a deep and mystical sense, since there is a voice of God in every one of us, everyone you know is God's messenger. Forty years before this speech, the Torah tells us that Moses took the elders of all Israel up the mountain and God placed a part of the spirit of Moses in each of them. But two of the elders remained in the camp of the Israelites and when a part of Moses' spirit fell on them they started to prophesy to the Israelites. A young fellow ran to Moses to say that these two were acting like prophets in the camp of the Israelites and that Moses should come down at once and stop them. But Moses was not jealous of his role as leader. He said to the young fellow, "Wouldn't it be great if all of us were prophets, if all of us had the spirit of God in us?" There couldn't be a more profound truth than that: Every new Moses always comes from among us, because each and every one of us is gifted with the potential to hear God's words in our minds and in our hearts.

     And let us say: Amen.