Living with Smicha

“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” – 1 Corinthians 4:20 In Jesus’ day, there were two types of rabbis: the Torah rabbis, who were the teachers of the law, and the smicha rabbis, who held authority from God. Although we tend to think of our Savior as the first miracle-working teacher, there were others who preceded Him in certain aspects, such as the laying on of hands for healing. Since the goal of a rabbi was to have students who followed him and did the same things that he did, Jesus expected his disciples to exercise miracle-working power, just like any other rabbi with smicha would have. While we imagine it was a stretch for our Savior to tell Peter to come to Him by walking on the water, as a pupil, it was natural for the disciple to follow his teacher’s