Enter: Ezra, Scholar of the Laws of God in Heaven

Ezra 7:12

Seven chapters into the book that bears his name, Ezra enters centerstage, with an impressive entourage provided for by the Persian palace.

Before we focus on who he is and why he would become such a central figure in the formation of the Bible and in history - it’s important to understand the historical context.

A quick reading of this chapter will miss a monumental detail: Sixty years have passed since the last chapter, in which the Second Temple is dedicated - and this chapter, in which Ezra shows up in Jerusalem to take charge.

In chapter 6, the temple dedication occurs on 516 BCE, the sixth year on the throne of King Darius.

This chapter states that Ezra travels to Jerusalem on 458 BCE, the seventh year of the reign of, King Artaxerxes, Darius’ grandson and the fifth ruler of the Achaemenid Empire, who lived from 465 to December 424 BC.

The biblical authors don’t mention anything about this - but in the sixty years that passed between Darius’s sixth year and his grandson’s seventh year big changes occurred in the Persian empire - and in the Judean communities throughout the empire.

The Persian rulers went through upheaval, weak rule, brutal wars and the ascendancy of this new king continting his grandfather’s wise leadership. According to most scholars, the story of Queen Esther also occurred during those years, and the king to whom she was married, named in the Esther Scroll as Ahasuerus, is Artaxerxes’s father, Xerxes I.

There is little knowledge about what happened in Jerusalem and the provincial province of Yehud as it was then renamed during these years.

While the Jewish population in Persia proper seems to grow and prosper - with a queen to name their own - the local Jerusalemites struggled on with little to talk about, write about or account for. There are almost no archaeological artifacts of significance from the region that date back to these years.

By 458 BCE, his seventh year on the throne, Artaxerxes has already expanded the empire but also lost a major battle to the up and coming Greeks. He also managed to end the Egyptian rebellion against the Persian occupation, by sending a massive army to this southern border. This situation likely troubled him sufficiently to seek strategic solutions that will ensure the region is as docile and obedient as possible.

That’s when, where and why Ezra comes in: As the king’s emissary to the Yehud, he is sent with royal fanfare to serve as the guy in charge of the province, making sure there are no insurrections in the area of vital strategic importance between Egypt and Persia.

His main task is to ensure that the people do not rebel and that they follow the laws - both the Persian law and the laws of the Jewish people. This is why Ezra becomes such a big deal.

He is introduced in the first verses of this chapter with an impressive lineage that goes back 16 generations all the way to Aaron, the original High Priest.

His father is named as Seraya - the name of the last High Priest of Jerusalem, exiled by the Babylonians over a century earlier. While this doesn’t seem possible, it does indicate that his ancestry is of this prestigious priestly line.

But what’s important about Ezra is not just lineage - but how the chapter describes his professional attributes and labels. These are the reasons he was chosen by the king to be in charge of the province of Yehud.

Ezra is named as priest, scribe, and teacher. These are very different roles indicating distinct responsibilities. There would have been no role for him in Persia as a priest - the temple, by the time it was built - was in Jerusalem. Like other sons of Aaron he had to find other ways of spiritual leadership, including being a scribe - or in Hebrew - Sofer. This would become his most famous title.

Scribes, who were always part of the royal court in the ancient world, were the ones to supervise and organize the various archives, literatures and legal systems of society. In the vast Persian empire, writing was the essential way to enable the bureaucracy’s efficient means of communication. To be a scribe was to be someone who is immersed in the top technology of the time.

But Ezra is much more than a distinguished priest or a capable scribe. He is also credited with a title that will be a game-changer in the way Jewish scripture, law and religion will be realized and recognized from his day on. It has to do with a single word that offers a paradigm shift. The word is Midrash and it shows up here as a verb - Lidrosh - it is a pedagogy that during Ezra’s time becomes the defining characteristic of interpreting and transmitting the Jewish narratives, both legends and laws.

כִּ֤י עֶזְרָא֙ הֵכִ֣ין לְבָב֔וֹ לִדְרֹ֛שׁ אֶת־תּוֹרַ֥ת יְהֹוָ֖ה וְלַעֲשֹׂ֑ת וּלְלַמֵּ֥ד בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל חֹ֥ק וּמִשְׁפָּֽט׃

For Ezra had dedicated himself to study the Teaching of YHWH so as to observe it, and to teach laws and rules to Israel.

Ezra 7:10

The words ‘to study’ sometimes translated as ‘to seek’, or ‘to expound’ struggle to translate the Hebrew word ‘Lidrosh’.

This verse begins to portray Ezra as the first and foremost teacher of the Written Torah. Unlike Moses, Ezra does not see himself as one who conveys God's direct words from which the Torah is formed. Unlike the prophets, he does not deliver independent rebukes, nor does he speak as part of the written prophecy. He creates a genre that will be known as Midrash.

The Hebrew root D.R.SH appears frequently in the Bible and seems rich with meaning. God is the first darshan (interpreter/seeker) in the world and declares in Genesis 9:5 - post flood:
"And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it, and from man, from his fellow man I will require a reckoning for human life." The Hebrew ‘Lidrosh’ is translated here as ‘require’.
Here, the root D.R.SH implies a serious demand for accountability—a call to pay a price. The first derashah (interpretation/demand) in the Torah is a demand for blood in return for blood.

The first human to create Midrash - is a pregnant woman. In Genesis 25:22,
When Rebecca feels something wrong inside her womb and does not know that there are twins struggling within her "She asks 'If so, why is this happening to me?' And she went to inquire (lidrosh) of God."

Rebecca’s action becomes a biblical idiom—"to seek/inquire of God" —meaning to clarify the will of God and to receive an answer to a troubling question.

Genesis offers us two biblical meanings of the root D.R.SH: A demand for justice or accountability, or a spiritual or theological inquiry.

Prof. Ruhma Weiss suggests a fusion:

“If we blend these two meanings in a darshanic act, we find a unique interpretive form that amounts to a serious claim against God—asking for a response, for explanation, for resolution. The fusion of meanings turns religious inquiry into a kind of legal or moral confrontation with God…Ezra's innovation is that he seeks the Torah of God, not God directly. Ezra does not pursue divine will through prophecy, but through the study of the Torah.

In this verse, Ezra is marked as the trailblazer for all the Jewish interpreters and midrash-makers of later generations—those who relinquished prophecy and the direct search for God in favor of seeking meaning through the text. And through their Torah interpretations, they turned to God—often boldly and even audaciously—and demanded a response.”

Ezra the Scribe arrives in Jerusalem as a scribe carrying a scroll with a royal command to ensure the teaching of this Torah to the people throughout the province. This is a radical new role. The traditional role of the priests was to stay within the temple, keep the purity process and sacrificial system going, as pilgrims come and go. Ezra starts a revolution. This priest-scribse leaves the precinct of the temple to bring the sacred stories and laws to the people - wherever they are.

The king’s letter of employment, written in Aramaic, is detailed in this chapter, and it is addressed to Ezra with his new title and role:

אַ֨רְתַּחְשַׁ֔סְתְּא מֶ֖לֶךְ מַלְכַיָּ֑א לְעֶזְרָ֣א כָ֠הֲנָ֠א סָפַ֨ר דָּתָ֜א דִּֽי־אֱלָ֧הּ שְׁמַיָּ֛א גְּמִ֖יר וּכְעֶֽנֶת׃

“From Artaxerxes king of kings, to Ezra the priest, scholar in the law of the God of heaven, and so forth.”

Ezra 7:12

The king’s letter also includes a generous amount of money to ensure that Ezra’s way is padded in the province. He comes along with funds that will support the temple, alongside his own project, and an astounding tax break for every temple official and every one working under him - for life.

The journey takes four months. Ezra arrives in Jerusalem on the first day of the month of Av, the summer month on which, a century earlier, the temple and the city were destroyed by Babylon.

A new chapter is about to begin - and though many of the locals are not that excited to greet the new appointed official, Ezra will bring about changes that will impact not just their society but the way Jewish wisdom will be sought, thought, interpreted and understood - until today.

Like all pioneers, even with generous royal funding, he’s about to face, and overcome, some serious challenges.

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