Lead Tidbit

[KO AMAR HASHEM] squared!

Although the whole Torah is the prophecy of Moshe Rabeinu, we were introduced to the topic of PROPHECY in last week’s sedra, R’ei. (Actually, we have met it before, when the people asked Moshe not to hear G-d’s voice directly anymore and he, Moshe, would tell us what G-d wants of us.) But the parsha in R’ei was a negative one - it deals with false prophets, people who try to turn us towards idolatry. R’ei contains the warning against being impressed with the supposed performance of miracles, wonders, and signs. Beware the false prophet.
But what about true prophecy? This week’s sedra answers that question. In Sho-f’tim too, the Torah starts with things we must shun. The various black arts, as they are called, the occult in its various forms - these are not for us. We are to have a straightforward relationship with G-d.

But not THAT straightforward. We had our chance for continued direct communication with G-d… and we lost it. We panicked. We ask Moshe to tell us what G-d wants of us, rather than hearing straight from Him. G-d agreed, so to speak, with a major set of strings attached.

“In your midst, God will set up for you a prophet like me from among your brethren, and it is to him that you must listen.” This is G-d’s reply to our “hesitation” to hear Him directly. This is what we wanted. And G-d’s answer to Moshe when he forwarded the people’s “request” to Him was: “They have spoken well. I will set up a prophet for them from among their brethren, just as you are. I will place My word in his mouth, and he will declare to them all that I command him.” This is KO AMAR HASHEM #1.
There are some details we do not have to get into now. How to identify a true prophet. How to test him. Not to over test him. For this Lead Tidbit we are interested in the NAVI’s statement of KO AMAR HASHEM, thus says G-d, and our requirement to listen to him.

Also in Sho-f’tim, we find the other kind of KO AMAR HASHEM - different but remarkably similar. The Sage. The Torah Scholar. The Rabbi. The Teacher - those people who transmit the Oral Torah to us.
May one cook beef in goat’s milk, where the goat from which the milk came isn’t even the same kind of animal as the source of the beef, let alone being its mother.
The answer is found in halacha. The answer is part of the Oral Law. The answer is No, it is forbidden to cook beef in goat’s milk and this prohibition is D’Oraita, from the Torah. Says who?
Well, Moshe received the Torah - including this law - from G-d. Moshe transmitted it to the next generation, the generation of Yehoshua. Yehoshua transmitted it to the Z’keinim to the Nevi’im, and they to the Men of the Great Assembly. And they to the generations of the Tana’im, and they to the Amora’im… And so many et ceteras from generation to generation.
The earlier part of the Chain of Tradition contained many prophets. But the bulk of the chain, the majority of the links were - and are - not prophets. Yet each of our teachers, and each of their teachers said the equivalent of KO AMAR HASHEM.

Yes, when Moshe Rabeinu said it the first time to Aharon, and then to Elazar and Itamar, and then to the 70 Elders, and then to the people at large, he was transmitting G-d’s word to them with the power of prophecy behind his words. He said - or could have said - KO AMAR HASHEM. According to Rambam (for example), During the first 40-day period that followed Revelation at Sinai (Matan Torah), G-d said to Moshe that the Torah which he will be writing from His (G-d’s) dictation, will contain the words, LO T’VASHEIL G’DI BACHALEIV IMO, and that Moshe was to explain to the people all the details of G-d’s explanation of the Laws of Meat in Milk.

But the Rambam was not a prophet. He was a Torah scholar who transmitted the Words of G-d to many generations after him - including our own. But when we study the portion of Rambam in his introduction to his Mishna commentary, the part paraphrased above, about the transmission of the Oral Law, and - perhaps more significantly, the halachic ramifications of his teachings, we can hear him saying KO AMAR HASHEM. And we “hear” those same words echoed by our own Torah teachers, from early childhood through our formative years and hopefully for the rest of our lives. This is a major aspect of our Torah lives.

• Other Lead Tidbit
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• Remembering in Tandem
• The Middle Matza