10:16: Whoever listens to you,
listens to me, and whoever despises you despises me; but whoever despises me
despises the one who sent me.
Exodus Rabbah 32 (93C): “For if
you listen to his (the angel’s) voice and do all that I say” (Exod 23:22), here
it is not said, “what he says,” but rather “I say.” If you accept him (i.e.,
listen to him), it is as if you accept me, and if you do so, I will find your
enemies (Exod 23:22). ‖ Tanḥuma ויגש 52B: R. Simeon b. Yohai (ca. 150) said,
“God said to the Israelites, ‘Honor the commandments, for they are my
messengers. And the messenger of a man is like this man himself. If you honor
them, it is as if you honor me, and if you despise them, it is as if you
despise my glory.’ ” ‖ Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 110A: Rab Hisda († 309)
said, “If someone argues against one’s teachers (of a different opinion), it is
as if he were arguing against the Shekinah; see, ‘(Who quarreled against Moses
and against Aaron) when they quarreled against Yahweh’ (Num 26:9).” R. Hama b.
Hanina (ca. 260) said, “Whoever quarrels with his teacher is like the one who
quarrels with the Shekinah; see, ‘This is the hard water where the children of
Israel contended with Yahweh’ (Num 20:13).” R. Hanina b. Papa (ca. 300) said,
“Whoever murmurs against his teacher is like the one who murmurs against the
Shekinah; see, ‘Your grumbling is not against us but against Yahweh’ (Exod
16:8).” R. Abbahu (ca. 300) said, “Whoever thinks (or speaks) severely against
his teacher is like the one who thinks severely against Yahweh; see, ‘The
people spoke against God and against Moses’ (Num 21:5).” ‖ See also m. ‘Abot
4.12: R. Eleazar b. Shammuah (ca. 150) said, “May the glory of your disciple be
as dear to you as your own, and the glory of your companion as the reverence of
your teacher, and the reverence of your teacher as the reverence of God.” ‖ A
baraita in Num. Rab. 14 (174A): Where then is it said, “If a man has heard a
word (of the Torah) from the mouth of the least in Israel, it is to be in his
eyes as if he heard it from the mouth of the wisest in Israel?” The Scripture
says, “If you will earnestly obey my commandments which I command you this day”
(Deut 11:13). (The words of the Torah, which one hears from men, will be to him
like words which God commands him.) And not only as if he heard them from the
mouth of a wise man, but as if he heard them from the mouth of (all) wise men;
and not only as if he heard them from the mouth of wise men, but as if he heard
them from the mouth of the Sanhedrin; and not just as if he heard them from the
mouth of the Sanhedrin, but as if he heard them from the mouth of Moses; and
not just as if he heard them from the mouth of Moses, but as if he heard them
from the mouth of God.—On the final sentence clause, “whoever despises me,” see
§ Matt 10:40 B. (Hermann
L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, A Commentary on the New Testament from the
Talmud and Midrash, ed. Jacob N. Cerone, 4 vols. [trans. Andrew Bowden and
Joseph Longarino; Bellingham, Wash.: Lexham Press, 2022], 2:194-95)
