Nadene Goldfoot
According to the Talmud, there were 48 male prophets and 7 prophetesses of Judaism. The last prophet was Malachi.
- The Temple, where the Cohens tried to teach about Judaism. Malachi is reading from the Torah.
The last Jewish prophet is believed to have been Malachi. In Jewish tradition it is believed that the period of prophecy, called Nevuah, ended with Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi at which time the "Shechinah departed from Israel."
The Shechinah/Shekhinah means in Hebrew, the divine Presence, implying that G-d's dwelling was in the midst of the children of Israel, and from there developed the noun signifying the presence of G-d in the world, in the midst of His people, or with individual men.
Jerusalem was in Judea. Assyria's Shalmaneser V(860-825 BCE) seized Samaria in and in 721 BCE Sargon(721-712 BCE) annexed the country and deported 27,290 Israelites to Assyria and Media. He replaced them with Syrian and Babylonian prisoners. The land was then made up of a mixture of some Jews and all those prisoners.
Babylonia's attack by Nebuchadnezzar II (604-561 BCE) who had inherited the Assyrian Empire and so conquered Judah, took them from Eretz Yisrael/Jerusalem in 597BCE and again in 586 BCE. They were given the offer to return by Cyrus about 70 years later, in 538 BCE, so Malachi should have been in Jerusalem. Many had grown comfortable in Babylonia, and didn't want to leave.
Malachi was our last prophet, living from 460 to 450 BCE. His name literally means, "my messenger", and may be an abbreviation of Malakhiah, but the rabbis early expressed the view that this was in effect a sobriquet (nickname), and some identified him with Ezra. Modern scholars also agree that it's not his proper name. He had a tough audience to overhaul. They were not interested in religion of the Jews. They were not all descendants of the Israelites on the Exodus. Even the Cohens in the group were not performing their jobs; certainly not with gusto.
Malachi was becoming very frustrated. He was teaching to people uninterested. No doubt he was a rabbi, a teacher even though rabbis were not created as yet.
He protests against transgressions in matters of sacrifice and tithes. The priest must turn the multitude from sin and maintain a high level of morality himself to set a good example. What G-d is saying through him is a threat to the Kohanim, the Cohens-direct descendants of Aaron, brother of Moses, to to honor G-d or he would curse them and scatter filth onto their faces. It's all of the tribe of Levi that he threatens. They were to teach only the truth. Offerings at the altar had to be made from their heart. They could not show disrespect by deriding the altar as only being full of blood and fats, explains Talmud teacher Radak.
Malachi also complains of mixed and broken marriages, as if he can see into the future! How perceptive! His eschatology ( the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind) contains an important and influential innovation: the vision of the "Day of the Lord" preceded by the advent of Elijah.
Different from Joel, Malachi's Day of the Lord preaching did not target the hostile nations; rather, only God's own people were marked out for judgement. (Malachi 3:14-15).
You have said, "It is useless to serve G-d! What gain is there for us that we have kept His watch, and that we walk submissively before Ha Shem, Master of Legions? So now we praise the wicked. Evildoers are built up; they have even tested G-d and escaped."said Malachi. People then were becoming atheistic or following Baal. Because they were living among another people, they were being influenced by their beliefs.
I have shown you [Israel] love, said the L‑rd. But you ask, “How have You shown us love?” After all—declares the L‑rd—Esau is Jacob’s brother; yet I have accepted Jacob and have rejected Esau.
This declaration conveys a fundamental principle of Jewish thought: While from a human vantage point it may appear that Esau and Jacob are brothers—equals—and that Jewish identity and Jewish destiny are not guided by Divine preference, Malachi informs us that the Jewish people were singled out by G‑d to be His people. Rabbi Yosef Albo explains that the love described by G‑d in these verses is supra-rational; it cannot be justified by logic alone. It is a love of choice.
Yet, there are many Jews who wonder about this as they were singled out for death by the Nazis who were taking over the world. We lost 6 million Jews to the Holocaust. These survivors lost their belief in G-d. Again, they became targets of Christians who planted themselves in kitchens on several kibbutzim and tried to convert them to their religion, where they were living in Israel.
Our own answer to such feelings is thus: Malachi also implies that G‑d’s immutability is what drives the eternal nature of the Jewish people (“And you are the children of Jacob—you have not ceased to be”). Even if worldly affairs seem to indicate that G‑d has abandoned His people, we are reminded by Malachi that G‑d does not change and His love for His people always remains intact. And just as it is impossible for Him to cease to exist, so will the Jewish people eternally endure.
Malachi prophesizes that "Behold, I send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of Hashem. And he will turn back to G-d the hearts of fathers with their sons and the hearts of sons with their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with utter destruction... "
Elijah is referenced in our traditions as one coming during Passover when we leave a cup of wine for him. A circumcision has a chair for him. He's our Superman, the one who will come to our aid when we are in distress. It is he who will clarify all obscurities in talmdic law upon his return. His reputation has even spread into Christian and Muslim legends. An early prophet; he does not have his own section in the Tanakh.
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Elijah of the 9th century BCE, known as "the Tishbite", was a prophet in the kingdom of Israel during the reign of Ahab (876-853 BCE)son of Omri and husband of Jezebel-daughter of king of Sidon; and Ahaziah (853 BCE) son of Ahab, denounced as an idolator by Elijah, suceeded by his brother, Jehoram., but Elijah's not listed with his own writings or as a prophet in the Tanakh. He had lived way before Malachi.
Elijah strove to restore the purity of Divine worship, and intensified his efforts when Ahab's wife, Jezebel, introduced the cult of Baal, the beginning of problems. His zeal aroused the opposition of the royal court which, for political reasons, tolerated the cults of the neighboring peoples in the country. Elijah was forced to get out of town, to flee, taking refuge in the desert. He turned to a group on Mt. Carmet and asked how long are you waiting between two opinions? (I Kings (8:21) and eventually, with the help of his supporters, slew the prophets of Baal.
The females were:
- Sarah – 1948 BCE; Biblical character, niece and wife of Abraham.
- Miriam – 1391-1271 BCE Sister of Moses and Aaron, got Pharaoh's daughter and mother together to take Moses.
- Deborah – 1150 BCE; Prophetess in the Bible, roused Israelite tribes to revolt under Barak against Canaanite King Jabin of Hazor and Sisera, his ally and commander (Judg 4)
- Hannah –11 century BCE: Biblical prophetess, traditional author of the Song of Hannah, mother of Samuel; vowed to give a son in service of G-d.
- Abigail – 1010-970 BCE; Wife of King David in the Bible but 1st husband was Nabal. She won David's pardon for Nabal's churlishness by her gifts and conciliatory words (I Samuel.25)
- Huldah – Biblical character; 7th century BCE at the time of Josiah, foretold the catastrophic fall of Judah and that Josiah would die prior to the calamity.
- Esther – Biblical Jewish queen of Persia and Medes; before 330 BCE, Purim
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