EXOD350 [Continued from [[934]] Deuteronomy 18:22 prophet DORFFDRAG 40-1]. This practical problem of distinguishing a true prophet from a false one, coupled with the conviction of several prophets that God's punishment of the people for disobedience would include not only the destruction of the Temple but also the cessation of prophecy, (Amos 8:11-12; Micah 3;4,6,7; Jeremiah 18:18, 23:29-40; and Ezekiel 7:26) together meant that by the end of the biblical period prophecy was no longer seen as the vehicle for knowing God's will. Indeed, the prophet Zachariah already foresees a time when “every ‘prophet’ will be ashamed of the ‘visions’ [he had] when he ‘prophesized,’” and the prophet's own mother and father will say to the prophet, “You shall die, for you have lied in the name of the Lord” and they themselves “will put him to death when he ‘prophesizes.’ (Zekhariah 13:3-4). This, however, did not remove the statements of God as the objective criterion that would determine the true and the good. The way that we would know God's will, however, changed: It would now be through the interpretation and application of the Torah, the one text that all Jews accepted as true Revelation from God. Study, in other words, became the post biblical form of God's revelation, (B. Bava Batra 12a) making it a religious experience as well as an educational and legal one. It is for this reason that Jewish law obligates Jews to study the Torah throughout their lives, even if they are poor and even if such study involves them in debates with their teachers or parents, for nothing less than knowing God's will is at stake. Rabbis, who gain their authority at least in part from their expertise in the texts and traditions of Judaism, would often differ with each other in discerning the will of God, and that might be frustrating at times; but one must learn to live with that indeterminacy and open one's mind to the multiplicity of meanings inherent in both the law and lore of the Torah: Lest a person say, “Since some scholars declare a thing impure and others declare it pure, some pronounce it to be permitted while others declare it forbidden, some disqualify an object [as ritually fit] while others uphold its fitness, how can I study Torah under such circumstances?” Scripture states, “They are given from one Shepherd” (Ecclesiastes 12:11): one God has given them, one leader [Moses] has uttered them at the command of the Lord of all creation, blessed be He, as it says, “And God spoke all these words” (Exodus 20:1). You, then, should make your ear like a grain receiver and acquire a heart that can understand the words of the scholars who declare a thing impure as well as those who declare it pure, the words of those who declare thing forbidden as well as those who pronounce it permitted, and the words of those who disqualify an object [as ritually fit] as well as those who uphold its fitness. ... Although one scholar offers his view and another scholar offers his, the words of both are all derived from what Moses, the Shepherd, received from the One Lord of the universe. Avot d-Rabbi Natan 18:3; T. Sotah 7:7; B. Hagigah 3b; and Numbers Rabbah 14:4.