This week we are studying Chapter 8 and believe it or not this is the section I have been looking forward to the entire study, Ezra’s public reading of the Torah.
The passage begins on the first day of the seventh month when “all the people gathered together into the square before the Water Gate” (8:1). On the Jewish calendar, the seventh month is jampacked with ceremonial holidays: the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. The builders finished the city wall just in time for the first holiday when the celebrants were heading to Jerusalem (6:15; 8:2). The Feast of Trumpets, also known as Rosh Hashanah, marks the beginning of the Jewish year and is associated with the blasting of shofars, reconciliation, and temple sacrifices (Lev. 23:25). Ezra and Nehemiah took advantage of the influx of Judeans for the High Holidays by calling for a national assembly.
Ezra’s public reading, and the people’s enthusiastic response, marks a permanent shift in the storyline. Ezra and Nehemiah until now focused on rebuilding the temple and the city. But they realized they also had to rebuild the people by centralizing the Torah in their hearts. What Martin Luther’s nailing up of the 95 Theses is to Protestantism, Ezra’s public reading of the Law of Moses is to Judaism.
