True Prophets

“'I will establish a prophet for them from among their brethren, like you, and I will place My words in his mouth; He shall speak to them everything that I will command him. And it shall be that the man who will not hearken to My words that he shall speak in My Name, I will exact from him. But the prophet who willfully shall speak a word in My Name, that which I have not commanded him to speak, or who shall speak in the name of the gods of others – that prophet shall die. When you say in your heart, “How can we know the word that HASHEM has not spoken?” If the prophet will speak in the Name of HASHEM and that thing will not occur and not come about – that is the word that HASHEM has not spoken; with willfulness has the prophet spoken it, you should not fear him. (Deuteronomy 18:18-22)”

HASHEM gives guidelines for determining a true prophet. In Deuteronomy 18, two types of prophets are presented and contrasted in order to prepare the Children of Israel. They need only heed a prophet whose prophecy comes true, not fear those prophets who speak falsely. Many Christians derive three supposed prophecies from Deuteronomy 18 in an attempt to prove their beliefs. They believe that this passage predicts one true prophet, elevated to Moses’ status, which will be their deity. They assert that their deity speaks HASHEM’s word and those who don’t follow Christianity will be punished for sin.

The word prophet is being used in this passage with a general implication. Many prophets will come, both true and false. There will be prophets that have certain qualities like Moses, but none of them will reach Moses’ level of intimacy in their relationship with HASHEM.

“Never again has there arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom HASHEM had known face to face. (Deuteronomy 30:10)”

This verse specifies what sets Moses apart from other prophets. He knew HASHEM with unique closeness that will not be matched. True prophets will indeed be like Moses, in the sense that HASHEM will place His words in the prophet’s mouth and each one speaks what HASHEM commands. Many prophets have fit this description such as Elijah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Daniel, along with more mentioned in the Tanach. Numerous prophets will communicate HASHEM’s word like Moses, yet there will never be another prophet like Moses in the sense that he knew HASHEM “…face to face.”

Deuteronomy 13 gives more detail for discerning true prophets, one specification being that HASHEM’s Torah should never be changed. Also, if a prophet tries to convince Jews to follow a god they didn’t know, even having proof of miracles, they should not fear him or adhere to the prophet’s teachings.

“The entire word that I command you, that shall you observe to do; you shall not add to it and you shall not subtract from it. If there should stand up in your midst a prophet or a dreamer of a dream and he will produce to you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes about, of which he spoke to you, saying, “Let us follow gods of others that you did not know and we shall worship them!” – do not hearken to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of a dream, for HASHEM your G-d, is testing you to know whether you love HASHEM, your G-d, with all  your heart and with all your soul. HASHEM, your G-d, shall you follow and Him shall you fear; His commandments shall you observe and to His voice shall you hearken; Him shall you serve and to Him shall you cleave. And that prophet and that dreamer of a dream shall be put to death, for he had spoken perversion against HASHEM, your G-d – Who takes you out of the land of Egypt, and Who redeems you from the house of slavery – to make you stray from the path on which HASHEM, your G-d, has commanded you to go; and you shall destroy the evil from your midst. (Deuteronomy 13:1-6)”

The Christian deity does not qualify as a true prophet of HASHEM. Christian scriptures record him performing miracles as proof of his teachings. An explicit warning is issued in Deuteronomy 13 to never rely on miracles to verify a prophet’s message. A true prophet's words must support exclusive worship of HASHEM and observance of Torah. Christian scriptures attempt to change the Torah in Mark 7:19 by declaring all foods clean. Many more such declarations exist. This subtracts from and contradicts Torah, and would be "...the word that HASHEM has not spoken." The Christian deity is a god unknown to the Jewish people. The message of Christianity does not originate from a true prophet.

Copper Snake

Moses made a serpent of copper and placed it on the pole, and it will be that anyone who was bitten will look at it and live. (Numbers 21:9)”

The Children of Israel were punished with fiery serpents for speaking against G-d and Moses. After the people came to Moses and admitted their sin, Moses prayed and HASHEM instructed him to make a fiery serpent and place it on a pole. When the people looked up at the pole they were healed from their snake bite.

Christians claim that the serpent of copper represents their deity’s supposed redeeming death on a pole (the cross). They insist that those who want to be saved from physical and spiritual death have to look to the cross to be saved as the Children of Israel looked up at the pole. By default the Christian deity is thus compared to a snake, the most cunning and corrupting of creatures, the creature that enticed Eve to disobey HASHEM. The snake on the pole is not an object to be worshiped. It isn’t the serpent or pole that gives life or death, but that they look upward and subject their hearts to HASHEM to receive healing.

King Hezekiah destroyed many items that were functioning as idols during his reign, one of them being the copper snake. People were revering something from the physical world as if it were divine. It was eliminated when corrupted in this manner. It was not the intended purpose of the copper snake to be worshiped as a god.

“He removed the high places, shattered the pillars, and cut down the Asherah-trees; he [also] ground up the copper serpent that Moses had made – for until those days the Children of Israel used to burn incense before it… (II Kings 18:4)”

Broken Bones

“They shall not leave over from it until morning nor shall they break a bone of it; like all the decrees of the pesach – offering shall they make it. (Numbers 9:12)”

The Jews who were unable to bring an offering on Pesach because they were spiritually contaminated are instructed to bring an offering the following month. They are expressly reminded to keep the bones from breaking. Christians believe this commandment predicts a human sacrifice without broken bones that will redeem them from sin as they believe the pesach offering redeems the Jews from slavery. They claim this human sacrifice is a physical manifestation of G-d.

Humans have used items from the physical world to represent divinity almost since the beginning of time. Egyptians elevated the created world in this way. When the Jews were instructed to kill a lamb, they were demonstrating that an Egyptian idol is not worthy of their worship. They were declaring publicly that creation is not to be worshiped, only HASHEM. They were also demonstrating their trust that HASHEM will protect them from the Egyptians.

"Moses said, "it is not proper to do so, for we will offer the deity of Egypt to HASHEM, our G-d -- behold, if we were to slaughter the deity of Egypt in their sight, will they not stone us? (Exodus 8:22)"

All of the plagues, including this one, reveal HASHEM’s sovereignty over creation. Worshiping anything in creation is idolatry. Contrary to the Christian teaching that the pesach offering represents a god to be worshiped, the Torah teaches that it is an idol not worthy of devotion. Jews are instructed to beware of images and not to worship things in the physical world.

“HASHEM spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you were hearing the sound of words, but you were not seeing a likeness, only a sound. He told you of His covenant that He commanded you to observe, the Ten Declarations, and He inscribed them on two stone Tablets. HASHEM commanded me at that time to teach you decrees and ordinances, that you shall perform them in the Land to which you cross, to possess it. But  you shall greatly beware for your souls, for you did not see any likeness on the day HASHEM spoke to you at Horeb, from the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly and make for  yourselves a carved image, a likeness of any shape, a form of a male or a female; a form of any animal that is on the earth; a form of any winged bird that flies in the heaven; a form of anything that creeps on the ground; a form of any fish that is in the water under the earth; and lest you raise your eyes to the heaven and you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars – the entire legion of heaven – and you be drawn astray and bow to them and worship them, which HASHEM , your G-d, has apportioned to all the peoples under the entire heaven! (Deuteronomy 4:12-19)”

“From heaven He caused you to hear His voice in order to teach you, and on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire, because He loved your forefathers, and He chose his offspring after him, and took you out before Himself with His great strength from Egypt; to drive away from before you  nations that are greater and mightier than you, to bring you to give you their land as an inheritance, as this very day. You shall know this day and take to your heart that HASHEM, He is the G-d – in heaven above and on the earth below – there is none other. (Deuteronomy 4:36-39)”

“beware for yourself lest you forget HASHEM Who took you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. HASHEM, your G-d, shall you fear, Him shall you serve, and in His Name shall you swear. You shall not follow after gods of others, of the gods of the peoples that are around you. (Deuteronomy 6:12-14)”

 Jews should only follow HASHEM, not the gods of the nations they are sent to reside in. He warns the Jews of their future exile and what type of idolatrous enticement they will face.

“HASHEM will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where HASHEM will lead you. There you will serve gods, the handiwork of man, of wood and stone, which do not see, and do not hear, and do not eat, and do not smell. (Deuteronomy 4:27-28)”

Wood and stone are metaphors for Christianity, the cross, and Islam, kabaa.

“From there you will seek HASHEM, your G-d, and you will find Him, if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. (Deuteronomy 4:29)”

Hashem alone provides forgiveness at His discretion, bringing the Jews back to the Land of Israel and forbidding devotion to anything in the created world. It was the obedience to HASHEM’s commands in Egypt that freed them from Mitzraim, not the offering itself.

Some commandments are given without clear reason; these are called chukim and are followed simply because HASHEM commands. Many different opinions arise to explain the command to keep the bones of the pesach offering intact. Sefer hachinuch notes that as freed people, sustained by HASHEM, the Jews don’t need to chew on the bones, so they are left intact to display HASHEM’s abundant provision for His people. Another opinion, offered by Maimonides, is that the Jewish people were leaving in a hurry. They were not lingering in their state of slavery, but eager and hurrying to become servants of HASHEM and receive His Torah.

“For inquire now regarding the early days that preceded you, from the day when G-d created man on the earth, and from one end of heaven to the other end of heaven: Has there ever been anything like this great thing or has anything like it been heard? Has a people ever heard the voice of G-d speaking from the midst of the fire as you have heard, and survived? Or has any god ever miraculously come to take for himself a nation from amidst a nation, with challenges, with signs, and with wonders, and with war, and with a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with greatly awesome deeds, such as everything that HASHEM, your G-d did for you in Egypt before your eyes? You have been shown in order to know that HASHEM, He is the G-d! There is none beside Him! (Deuteronomy 4:32-35)”

There is none beside Him!

Ein Od Milvado!

אין עוד מלבדו

Atonement

Teshuva enables those who have sinned to receive forgiveness from HASHEM. This is such an important aspect of Jewish life that an entire holiday is devoted to contemplation, introspection and repentance. Jews are required to review their deeds from the past year with extra care, to request forgiveness from man and G-d.

“For on this day he shall provide atonement for you to cleanse you; from all your sins before HASHEM shall you be cleansed. (Leviticus 16:30)”

 “For the soul of the flesh is in the blood and I have assigned it for you upon the Altar to provide atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that atones for the soul. Therefore I have said to the Children of Israel: “Any person among you may not consume blood; and the proselyte who dwells among you may not consume blood. (Leviticus 17:11, 12)”

Many Christians mistakenly assume that blood sacrifice is the only means of atonement. They claim that without the Temple sacrifices the Jews are not able to receive atonement for their sins. Some offerings made in the temple involve blood, but it has never been the only source of atonement. In the Babylonian exile there were no Temple sacrifices, yet those who served HASHEM, like Daniel, were able to communicate with HASHEM. G-d does not turn away sincere requests for forgiveness made by those unable to offer a sacrifice. HASHEM took away the Temple, but He did not take away forgiveness.

When there was no Temple standing, and the people were in exile, the prophet Hosea instructed the people to,

“Take words with you and return to HASHEM; say to Him, ‘May You forgive all iniquity and accept good, and let our lips substitute for bulls. (Hosea 14:3)’”

G-d responds with reassurance to these sincere requests of His people to forgive them based on the merit of their deeds and words,

“I will rectify their waywardness; I will love them gratuitously; for My anger has turned away from them. (Hosea 14:5)”

G-d will forgive without blood. He does not refuse to forgive those who sincerely repent. In the Temple, offerings are made that contain blood. This blood is not fit for human consumption, because “…the life of any creature is its blood (vs. 14). The blood is the part of the sacrificial animal that makes atonement. When one looks at the context of this verse, it is clear that the main intent and message is to communicate that since the life is in the blood it is not to be consumed. The verse does not say that the blood is the sole way of receiving atonement. There are examples in the Torah of atonement being provided through other means such as through silver, incense, and gold articles.

“You shall take the silver of the atonements from the Children of Israel and give it for the work of the Tent of Meeting; and it shall be a remembrance before HASHEM for the Children of Israel, to atone for your souls. (Exodus 30:16)”

“Aaron took as Moses had spoken and ran to the midst of the congregation, and behold! The plague had begun among the people. He placed the incense and provided atonement for the people. He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was checked. (Numbers 17:12, 13)”

“So we have brought an offering for HASHEM: what any man found of gold vessels, anklet and bracelet ring, earring, and clasp, to atone for our souls before HASHEM. (Numbers 31:50)”

The Jewish prohibition of drinking blood is found in Leviticus 17. This prohibition creates an ironic disparity between these two religions. Jews are forbidden to drink blood, while Christians engage in rituals where they believe they are either symbolically or literally drinking human blood.

Sin Offering

“The sin-offering bull and the sin-offering he-goat, whose blood had been brought to provide atonement in the sanctuary, someone shall remove to the outside of the camp; and they burn in fire their hides, their flesh, and their dung. (Leviticus 16:27)”

Many Christians utilize this verse as proof of their belief in a human deity. They make note that both he and the Yom Kippur sacrifice are taken outside the camp, ignoring the fact that he was not an animal sacrifice properly offered to HASHEM or burned as instructed above, nor was he slaughtered in the Temple as the true Yom Kippur offering would have been.

HASHEM clearly specifies when He wants the commandments done, what He wants done, where He wants them done and how He wants them done. In the following verses, He specifies the duration of the mitzvah of “the sin-offering bull and the sin-offering he-goat.” It is an eternal decree with clear instructions and a precise moment in time set aside to observe it each year. It is not to be fulfilled or completed as incorrectly asserted by many Christians. The day of Yom Kippur has inherent meaning and does not foreshadow human sacrifice.

“The one who burns them shall immerse his clothing and immerse himself in water; thereafter he may enter the camp. This shall remain for you an eternal decree: In the seventh month, on the tenth of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and you shall not do any work. (Leviticus 16:28, 29)”

“For on this day he shall provide atonement for you to cleanse you; from all your sins before HASHEM shall you be cleansed. (Leviticus 16:30)”

Yom Kippur

“He shall slaughter the sin-offering he-goat of the people, and bring its blood within the Curtain; he shall do with its blood as he had done with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it upon the Ark-cover and in front of the Ark-cover. Thus shall he provide atonement upon the Sanctuary for the contaminations of the Children of Israel, even for their rebellious sins among all their sins; and so he shall do for the Tent of Meeting that dwells with them amid their contamination. Any person shall not be in the Tent of Meeting when he comes to provide atonement in the Sanctuary until his departure; he shall provide atonement for himself, for his household, and for the entire congregation of Israel. (Leviticus 16:15-17)”

Many Christians believe that their deity became the final Yom Kippur sacrifice, even though his offering didn't occur on Yom Kippur, nor was he an acceptable sacrifice, being human and physically blemished, both forbidden by Torah law. Leviticus 16:29, 31, and 34 state that Yom Kippur is an eternal decree for the Jewish people. It is not for someone to take from them and do ‘once-and-for-all’ as Christians claim. They purport that this man died to take away everyone's sins. They claim that he was the ultimate culmination of Yom Kippur, the final sacrifice, the whole intent of the holiday. 

Yom Kippur is a time when all Jews have an opportunity to focus on repentance and closeness to HASHEM without distraction. It is meant for our benefit. An eternal decree does not become completed, so that one doesn’t have to fulfill Yom Kippur through individual observance. HASHEM expects us to perform the commandments, not hand them over to someone else to perform on our behalf. Every mitzvah given in the Torah is intended to draw us closer to HASHEM. We are blessed to have an opportunity to serve HASHEM and it would be such a loss to give up a chance for intimacy with G-d.

Miracles

“The Kohen who purifies shall place the person being purified along with them before HASHEM at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. (Leviticus 14:11)”

When the metzora is healed by HASHEM, he goes through an intricate ritual with the Kohen to purify himself before reentering the camp. This verse is cited by many Christians in an attempt to draw a connection between the Kohen and their human deity, whom they believe replaces the Kohen. In the Christian Bible, alleged miracles of healing sick people are recorded in order to prove Christian doctrine. The Christian Bible insists that miracles adequately prove their claims.

“[he] answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me. (John 10:25)”

“But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father. (John 10:38)”

“Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. (John 14:11)”

“Men of Israel, listen to this: [Christian deity] of Nazareth was a man accredited by G-d to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which G-d did among you through him, as you yourselves know. (Acts 2:22)”

“The things that mark an apostle—signs, wonders and miracles—were done among you with great perseverance. (2 Corinthians 12:12)”

“Does G-d give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard? (Galatians 3:5)”

An interesting warning is provided by HASHEM when He gave the Law to the Jewish people. He warns that witnessing miracles, wonders, and signs alone are not adequate to determine a prophet’s credibility. The prophet’s message has to line up with what is in the Torah. Since Christianity introduces a god previously unknown, negates the Torah by calling it obsolete, aging and soon to disappear and by declaring all foods clean, its message does not satisfy the requirements outlined by HASHEM.

"The entire word that I command you, that shall you observe to do; you shall not add to it and you shall not subtract from it. If there should stand up in your midst a prophet or a dreamer of a dream and he will produce to you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes about, of which he spoke to you, saying, “Let us follow gods of others that you did not know and we shall worship them!” – do not hearken to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of a dream, for HASHEM your G-d, is testing you to know whether you love HASHEM, your G-d, with all your heart and with all your soul. HASHEM, your G-d, shall you follow and Him shall you fear; His commandments shall you observe and to His voice shall you hearken; Him shall you serve and to Him shall you cleave. And that prophet and that dreamer of a dream shall be put to death, for he had spoken perversion against HASHEM, your G-d – Who takes you out of the land of Egypt, and Who redeems you from the house of slavery – to make you stray from the path on which HASHEM, your G-d, has commanded you to go; and you shall destroy the evil from your midst. (Deuteronomy 13:1-5)”