Shoftim - Yeshua in the Torah

“Shoftim,” the name of this week’s Torah portion, means judges. This week we are told the commandment of appointing judges. There are supposed to be local judges that rule over small cases, and higher courts which rule over bigger and more complex cases. The higher court eventually ended up in Jerusalem, the place that God chose for the higher court. As it says in Deuteronomy 17:8,:

The Torah gave the higher court permission to rule over homicides, capital offenses, and questions of Torah. Whenever someone was unsure about a law, they’d let the higher court decide for them. In Deuteronomy 17:11 it says:

Many traditions and practices in the Oral Torah come from the rulings of the higher court.

In Yeshua’s time, there was a respected rabbi called “the prince” in english, or “nasi” in Hebrew. This rabbi presided over the Sanhedrin, the name of the higher court in those days. In the Messianic age, Yeshua will reside as “the prince” over the higher court. He will be the final judge. It says in Isaiah 11:3-4,

It also says, in Micah 4:3:

The first time Yeshua came, he didn’t come as a judge, but when he returns, he will be the supreme judge. It says in 2 Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all appear before the Messiah’s court of judgment, where everyone will receive the good or bad consequences of what he did while he was in the body.”

For some reason, conventional Christianity teaches that Yeshua crossed out the Torah. It teaches that Yeshua did away with the “old” laws of the Bible, and that he encouraged his followers to do whatever they pleased, so long as they believed in him.

This is simply not true. If Yeshua is supposed to be the final judge, how can he judge righteously without the Torah, God’s rules for being just? Yeshua himself taught that he didn’t abolish Torah! Just as it says in Matthew 5:17-19:

The Midrash Rabbah has a passage that seems to be the source of what Yeshua said. The Torah states that a king is supposed to write a copy of the Torah for himself, so he’ll follow the laws of the Torah. In Exodus Rabbah 6:1 it says that as Solomon was writing his copy of the Torah, he changed a single letter, a yud, to an aleph. This was in the verse where it says, “He shall not multiply wives for himself or else his heart will turn astray.” Solomon changed the word “Yirbeh” Which is spelled Yud-Resh-Bet-Hey, and Changed it to “Arbeh”, Which is spelled Aleph-Resh-Bet-Hey. This small change changed the entire meaning of the verse, and now verse read, “I shall multiply wives for himself and his heart will not turn astray.”

The Midrash states that Solomon did this because he didn’t think that he would be led astray by multiple wives. He thought that God gave him a reason to have just one wife, but because Solomon thought that that reason was invalid, so he didn’t have to keep that commandment.

Then the Midrash says that the letter yod from the word “yirbeh” went up to God and made a complaint. He said, “Master of the Universe! Didn’t you say that no letter shall ever be abolished from the Torah? Behold, Solomon has now arisen and abolished one. Who knows? Today he will abolish one letter, tomorrow he will abolish another until he has abolished the whole Torah!”

Then God replied, “Solomon and a thousand like him will pass away, but the smallest tittle will not be erased from you.”

We well know what happened to Solomon and his many wives. It is written in 1 Kings 11:4, “For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.” Solomon thought he could change the Torah and still be faithful, but he was wrong.

It says in Ecclesiastes 2:12, “And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly.” The Midrash says that Solomon said, “Because I tried to be wiser than the Torah and persuaded myself that I knew the intention of the Torah, did this understanding and knowledge turn out to be madness and folly.”

People today often assume that a law or rule from the Torah does not apply to them because they know the reason for it. They believe that the law only applies in concept, to other people, not they themselves. But this isn’t true. Those who think that they don’t have to follow the Torah are practicing lawlessness. It says in Matthew 7:22-23,