THE ORAL TORAH AND THE MESSIAH
In the Babylonian Talmud, tractate Sanhedrin 4b, the sages are discussing the issue of whether primacy is assigned to the written or pronounced form of words in the Scriptures. During the course of this discussion the case of Exodus 23:17 is brought up. There we read: “Three times in the year shall all thy males appear before the Lord Hashem, (the God of Israel).” And in Hebrew: שלש פעמים בשנה—יראה כל זכורך אל פני האדן יהוה
The vowel points traditionally given to, אראה, in the Hebrew text make it to read, יֵרָאֶה "shall be seen". As it is written, without vowel points, אראה, can be given vowels making it read either "will be seen" or "will see".
Yochanan ben Dahavai says in the name of Rabbi Yehudah ben Teima, A person who is blind in one eye is exempt from (the commandment of) appearing. For it is stated, (according to the written form), [every male] shall see (God). But according to the pronounced form (as given in the Hebrew above) [every male] shall be seen (by God). The Talmudic discussion here observes that, In the manner that God comes to (the Temple) to see, so does he come to be seen. Just as God comes to see with his “two eyes”, so also must he be seen with two eyes.
In the Sermon On The Mount, Yehoshua, the now concealed Messiah, teaches, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Many interpreters try to interpret this statement in the broadest possible context, but it should first and foremost be interpreted in the context of the commandment given in Exodus 34:29 that every male in Israel should three times a year go up to Jerusalem, to the Temple, to be seen by or to see God.
In dialogue with this open question of the sages of Israel as to whether the primacy should be given to the written form or the read form of Scriptures in cases such as this case of the word, אראה , Rabbi Yehudah ben Teima would come to teach that as one was seen by God with whole vision so should one see God with whole vision. To make this point, he taught that someone who was blind in one eye was exempt from the commandment. This teaching showed how the written and the read forms of the Scripture, in this case, might be reconciled in one. To understand how this is so, look at Yehoshua’s teaching, which was that it is through a pure heart that one is seen by and sees God, (as when they come up in obedience to the commandment to meet with him in Jerusalem).
It is recorded that with great passion Yehoshua, himself, desired to go up to the appointed festivals in Jerusalem. If one went up to the festivals but without a pure heart of obedience to the commandment the Presence of God would not meet them there. Here in this teaching it is not simply that the written and the read forms of the word are reconciled but that it is not possible to understand the blessing of the commandment at all without equal primacy being given to both the written and the read forms of the word at once. Here is the key to understand how Messiah reconciled the written and oral Torah for the sages. For they are always one except where they come to the edge of this world. And Messiah showed the way to union with his pure heart there at the edge of the world, in the Temple in Jerusalem, himself being seen there by and seeing there, together with all Israel, the Lord HaShem, the God of Israel. Here is the key to understanding Messiah’s faith by which he reconciled all things unto God.
“And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of a book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The humble also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the neediest among men shall exult in the Holy One of Israel”. Isa 29: 18-19
Here in brief is prophetically represented the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount. The day spoken of is the day of the Messiah. This is the day in which he turns the key of David in the Door of Service to Hashem, the key by which David united all the tribes of Israel into one kingdom. Understand this well.
