The Targum Pseudo-Yonatan is the ancient Aramaic translation and expansion of Torah.

As it relates to this Shabbat’s Reading called Ki Tavo, specifically where Moshe recites the curses in Deuteronomy/Devarim 28 (the consequences of covenant unfaithfulness), it postulates a tradition that our deceased patriarchs cried out in anguish upon Moshe’s recitation of the curses.

They cried out: “Woe to our children should they sin and bring these maledictions upon them. For how will they bear them, and there be no man to stand and intercede on their behalf?”

The question before us stands: How will they bear the curses with no one to intercede?

And then a Bat Kol, which is understood to be a heavenly voice, answered: “Fear not, ye fathers of the world. The covenant which I have confirmed with you shall not be annulled, but will still overshadow them.”

And there it is: The covenant will overshadow them. Even them that slip in their keeping of Covenant.

What this passage of the Targum is describing in the language of Jewish tradition, centuries before the full revelation of the Brit Chadasha (aka the New Testament) is the desperate human need for an intercessor (i.e. the Mashiyach). Someone who stands between the covenant people and the shame of of their covenant failures. The One whom the ancient promise to the patriarchs of old holds, even when their seeds’ obedience fails.

The patriarchs asked the right question, and the Bat Kol gave the prophetically correct answer. But neither names The One who makes that answer possible.

We, the chosen and elect of Yah, know this One. He is none other than our glorious Master, Yeshua.

The Hebraist wrote of this One, citing that “He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7.25). He always lives to intercede on behalf of His people.

The Apostle wrote to the Messianic Assemblies of Rome: “Who is the one who condemns? Christ/Mashiyach is the One who died, and more than that, Who was raised, Who is also at the right hand of God/Yehovah, Who also intercedes for us.”( Romans 8:34)

The question the patriarchs asked in this Targum passage is Who will stand and intercede when our children disobey and become unfaithful to Covenant? The Bat Kol presents a prophetic answer the Targum tradition could not speak to, but the Brit Chadasha clearly names.

Yahshua HaMashiyach is on duty in the Heavenly Mishkan interceding on behalf of Yah’s chosen and elect, especially during this traditional Elul season.

Not a onetime advocacy, mind you. But a perpetual one.

Abba Yah was clear: The covenant will not be annulled because the One through whom it stands neither slumbers nor sleeps; neither does His Mashiyach grow weary interceding on His beloved ones’ behalf.

This is the Gospel of Ki Tavo for this traditional month of Elul 6026.

The curses Moshe recited on the plains of Moab, Master Yeshua absorbed them: “Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the Torah, having become a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). The patriarchs’ fear that there would be no one to stand in the gap was undeniably answered at Calvary and confirmed by the reality of the empty borrowed tomb.

Roughly 21-days remain until Yom Teruah — the Day of Trumpets. Which means there remain roughly 21-days, traditionally, that our fields are traversed by our King and Intercessor, Yehoshua. And each of those 21 or so days, the powerful elements of the Renewed Covenant envelopes us: not because we earned Yah’s favor, but because our God is Faithful and our Intercessor remains on the job.🕊️

— Rod | The Messianic Torah Observer | 11 Elul 5786 | August 24, 2026