Yeshua, Prince of the Presence

The Yehi Ratzon of the Shofar Blasts

See the next to the last page for Yeshua in the Orthodox Jewish Machzor and here is the article where a University professor in Israel proves that this is in fact Yeshua of Nazareth.

Yes. This is a very important connection, and the particular wording in the Hebrew Publishing Company Machzor Rosh Hashanah v’Yom Kippurim k’minhag Sefarad deserves close examination.

The striking thing is that Hebrews 6–9 and the Jewish mystical tradition surrounding Metatron/Sar ha-Panim use remarkably similar heavenly-priestly and “goes before” imagery — but they are not simply the same figure in the two traditions. The comparison becomes especially interesting when the Machzor actually places Yeshua Sar ha-Panim alongside Metatron.

The Metatron connection

This is precisely the terrain scholars like Alan Segal (Two Powers in Heaven) and Daniel Boyarin have mapped: Second Temple and early rabbinic Judaism had a live tradition of a "principal angel" or vice-regent figure bearing the divine Name and functioning as an extension of God's own presence — Metatron being the crystallized rabbinic form of it. The rabbis, confronted with early Messianic Kehillah use of exactly these texts to argue for a divine-yet-distinct figure, moved later to suppress "two powers" readings as heretical — which is part of why later, more cautious rabbinic literature works hard to subordinate Metatron strictly to creaturely status (the "sixty lashes of fire" story in Sanhedrin 38b exists precisely to slap down Elisha ben Abuyah's "two powers" inference). So the OJB choice to render Hebrews 6:20's prodromos as "metatron" is, read this way, not a random flourish — it's reaching back into exactly that pre-suppression layer of Jewish angelology where a Name-bearing, presence-extending figure and identity-with-Hashem weren't yet suppressed, and using it to say: this is the same figure the Tanakh's Angel-of-Hashem texts already gestured toward. In this exhibit we are going to take into consideration what Yehuda Liebes of Hebrew University of Jerusalem says and compare that to the Yiddishkait and true Kehunah Judaism with the true pre-named Moshiach we find in the book of Hebrews and in this ancient Orthodox Jewish Machzor.

mahzorA.pdf
mahzorB.pdf
mahzorC.pdf
mahzorD.pdf
mahzorE.pdf
mahzorF.pdf
mahzorG.pdf
mahzorH.pdf
mahzori.pdf
mahzorJ.pdf MAKE SURE YOU LOOK AT THIS ONE!
mahzorK.pdf
mahzorL.pdf
mahzorM.pdf

1. Hebrews Calls Yeshua the Forerunner

Hebrews 6:19–20 says:

“...within the veil; where a forerunner has entered on our behalf, namely, Yeshua, who has become a cohen gadol forever...” (Bible Gateway)

The Greek is:

πρόδρομος — prodromos — “forerunner,” “one who goes ahead,” “one who precedes.”

And notice where this Forerunner has gone: ἐντός τοῦ καταπετάσματος — “inside the veil.” That is unmistakably sanctuary/Mishkan imagery.

Then Hebrews identifies the destination even more explicitly:

“Messiah is not entered into the holy places made with hands... but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.”Hebrews 9:24

So the Hebrews picture is: Yeshua → goes ahead → through the veil → heavenly Holy Place → into God's Presence → on our behalf.

See the note on Yehuda Liebes, who in his 24-page Hebrew article, says the following, here summarized:

יהודה ליבס, "מלאכי קול השופר וישוע שר הפנים"
Yehuda Liebes, “The Angels of the Shofar Blast and Yeshua Sar ha-Panim.”

One important point before the translation: Liebes is making a historical argument, not presenting his conclusion as Messianic theology. His thesis becomes quite explicit: he argues that Yeshua Sar ha-Panim represents a Jewish-Messianic tradition in which Yeshua was understood as an exalted angelic figure closely associated with Metatron and Elijah.

Below is a readable translation of the central portion, preserving the Hebrew names and technical terms so we can analyze it afterward.

The Angels of the Shofar Blast and Yeshua Sar ha-Panim — Yehuda Liebes

It surely has not escaped the notice of worshipers on Rosh Hashanah that, in the order of the shofar blasts, traditional prayer books contain prayers concerning various strange and unusual angels. These angels are asked to assist in raising up the different sounds of the shofar or to embroider them upon the curtain (yeriah), that is, the pargod standing before the Holy One, blessed be He.

Among these prayers is the following, usually printed after the tashrat blasts:

“May it be Your will before You that the blowing of tashrat which we are blowing be embroidered upon the curtain by the appointed one (Tartia'el), just as You received [it] through Elijah, of blessed memory, and Yeshua, Sar ha-Panim, and Sar Metat [Metatron], and may You fill us with mercy. Blessed are You, Master of mercy.”

These prayers raise considerable questions in the mind of the worshiper: because of their corrupt or obscure language, their incomprehensible content, and the strange names of many of the angels; and also because of the origin of the prayers — which mystics introduced them into the liturgy, and when and how did they succeed in doing so?

Their character is clearly quite different from the passages of Kabbalah that were also incorporated into the prayer books.

Most striking of all is the name Yeshua Sar ha-Panim. Who has ever heard of an angel with this name? And could this perhaps be none other than Yeshua the Messianic?

For all these reasons I turned to examine the ancient Machzorim available to me. I learned that the prayers originated in the lands of Ashkenaz and from there spread throughout the Jewish world.

The spiritual context of these prayers is found elsewhere: in Ashkenazi literature, and more precisely in the Sefer ha-Ḥesheq and its circle.

This book is also called “The Seventy Names of Metatron.” As its name indicates, it is a list and interpretation of seventy — or more — names of Metatron, the chief of the angels in Jewish mysticism.

The book was written, according to Joseph Dan, at the end of the twelfth or beginning of the thirteenth century. Its author belonged to the circle of the Ḥasidei Ashkenaz, although he did not belong to the central circle associated with Rabbi Judah the Pious and Rabbi Eleazar of Worms.

A characteristic feature of the Sefer ha-Ḥesheq and its circle is the extensive place they give to the ritual functions of their angels. These angels are principally occupied with raising the prayers of Israel before the throne of the Holy One, blessed be He, or with embroidering them upon the curtain before Him.

Here begins the connection between the Sefer ha-Ḥesheq and the prayers concerning the shofar blasts.

I do not mean merely the general resemblance of their angelic liturgy. There are precise parallels in terminology and names. For example, the word yeriah, “curtain,” appears in the prayer quoted above and is preferred in the Sefer ha-Ḥesheq and its circle to pargod, the term more usual in the Hekhalot literature.

The names of all the angels appearing in the prayers have their counterparts in the Sefer ha-Ḥesheq.

Is Yeshua Sar ha-Panim Yeshua?

There are numerous parallels of this kind, and the names of the angels sometimes remain unchanged and sometimes vary.

What, then, is the status of Yeshua Sar ha-Panim? Is he the Messianic Yeshua? Can we learn anything about this from the parallels?

Without the parallels, certainly, we would have Yeshua before us, as many scholars and students of these prayers have already suggested.

Rabbi Yehuda Avideah followed these parallels carefully. He concluded that the prayer as it now appears in the prayer books is badly corrupted.

According to his reconstruction, the original prayer concerned the qaraq series of shofar blasts, and the names of its angels were adapted to the numerical values (gematria) of those signs.

Thus, instead of Yeshua, Avideah proposed readings such as Yeshayah (“Isaiah”), believing that Yeshua was a corruption.

I cannot agree with this last conclusion.

The proposed reconstruction requires corrections to virtually every name and every sign in the text. Moreover, the forms actually found in the prayer are quite reasonable.

Most strikingly, this is true of Yeshua Sar ha-Panim.

The reading Yeshayah has neither sense nor justification here and is not even readily pronounceable. There is indeed a name Yeshayah among the seventy names of Metatron in the Sefer ha-Ḥesheq, but it has no connection whatsoever with the shofar. The extra heh was apparently added merely to make the name fit the gematria of qaraq.

It is much more likely that an editor who was uncomfortable with the suspicious name Yeshua replaced it with the nearest name he could find in the Sefer ha-Ḥesheq, namely Yeshayah, and then added the final heh to make the numerical value fit.

Therefore, in order to determine the originality and meaning of Yeshua Sar ha-Panim, we must take another route.

We must investigate not the form of the name but the content of the tradition.

Was this tradition concerning Yeshua Sar ha-Panim, associated with Metatron and Elijah, part of the teaching of the circle of the Sefer ha-Ḥesheq?

Even if the explicit name Yeshua is not found in every manuscript, that does not end the investigation.

In my opinion, the triad contained in the prayer — Elijah, Yeshua Sar ha-Panim, and Metatron — may once have constituted the essential opening of the Sefer ha-Ḥesheq. This opening has become corrupted in the versions that have reached us. It is missing from the printed book but survives in manuscripts.

Yeshua, Elijah, and Metatron

The precise relationship among these three is not entirely clear.

On the one hand, the names Elijah and Va'elahi — which I understand to refer to Yeshua — are presented as variations of Yehuel, one of the first names of Metatron.

Yet it is difficult to think that they are simply identical with the angel Metatron, because they are names of famous and recognizable human figures. It is difficult to identify them completely with Metatron, who is Enoch.

Their status in the book therefore seems to be special. They are discussed in the introduction in connection with the name Yehuel, which itself is not simply one of the seventy names but a distinctive name of the angel.

Nevertheless, it is possible that these two figures were understood, in one way or another, as manifestations of the same angelic power.

There may be a memory of such a conception in the writings of Rabbi Joseph Karo, who, in his Maggid Mesharim, identifies through the transmigration of souls (gilgul) Joshua son of Nun, Metatron, and Elijah.

Is the Yeshua Mentioned Here the Messianic Yeshua?

It is very difficult to argue otherwise.

First: who else could it be?

Second: no other figure is as appropriate to stand as the third alongside Elijah and Enoch, that is, Metatron.

Like them, Yeshua is a well-known human being who, after his death, was elevated to the status of an angel.

Furthermore, ancient Jewish-Messianic tradition established additional connections between Yeshua and the figures of Elijah and Enoch.

But we shall discuss this later, when we consider the ways in which the name of Yeshua entered the writings of the Ḥasidei Ashkenaz.

The Jewish-Messianic Background

This identification has subsequently received considerable reinforcement from Moshe Idel's research into the writings of Abraham Abulafia.

Idel discovered that the passage concerning Yehuel, Elijah, and the “Son” reached the Spanish kabbalist Abraham Abulafia. In Abulafia it is said that these names also have the numerical value of “he is the redeemer.”

Idel suggests that this wording may already have existed in Abulafia's Ashkenazi source. His research therefore strengthens the ancient connection between Yeshua and Metatron/Yehuel, and points toward the messianic role of Metatron.

There are other confirmations as well.

In the passage quoted above, Yehuel–Elijah–Va'elahi is designated by the names “Son” and “Dog.”

These terms themselves became established in medieval Hebrew literature as references to Yeshua, and they reached a particularly developed form in the writings of the seventeenth-century Ashkenazi kabbalists Rabbi Nathan Shapira and Rabbi Samson of Ostropoli.

The writings of these kabbalists are filled with traditions of the Ḥasidei Ashkenaz, especially those of Rabbi Nathan Shapira. In his Megalleh Amuqot, the figure of Metatron, who occupies such an important place in the Sefer ha-Ḥesheq tradition, frequently appears together with Elijah the Prophet.

The Messianic Conception of Yeshua as an Angel

The attitude toward Yeshua in these writings is completely negative. Nevertheless, I have already suggested that what we have here may represent a reversal of Messianic conceptions.

This is easy to see with the designation “Son,” which is fundamentally positive and is used of Yeshua in Messianic faith.

In one of his writings he mentions an angel named Joshua. The task of this angel is to protect the righteous who descend into Gehinnom in order to repair and raise up the souls of the wicked.

The Messianics had assigned to Yeshua the role of descending to the underworld to save the righteous — or to bring salvation to the dead. It is therefore easy to suppose that this tradition concerning Yeshua has been transferred here as well, and that he is called by his name, Joshua.

This role of Yeshua was well known among Jews and was one of the standard subjects of Jewish-Messianic controversy.

The Crucial Conclusion of Liebes

The argument now becomes extremely explicit.

Liebes argues that the name of Yeshua did not enter this Jewish mystical material through a medieval Messianic missionary who inserted it into Jewish prayer books.

Rabbi Chaim Elazar Shapira of Munkatch had suggested that if Yeshua Sar ha-Panim was not a scribal error, it had deliberately been inserted by a missionary.

Liebes rejects this.

The reason is particularly important: the tradition already exists in manuscripts of the Sefer ha-Ḥesheq, before the name appears in the printed Machzorim.

Therefore, he argues, the name cannot simply have been a missionary interpolation into the printed Jewish prayer book.

He adds another argument: medieval Messianics did not normally call Yeshua Yeshua in Hebrew; they used Yeshu. And Messianics certainly did not regard Yeshua merely as an angel. Calling him “Yeshua Sar ha-Panim” would actually diminish Yeshua from the Messianic point of view.

Liebes therefore concludes:

“Yeshu the Messianic, in the name ‘Yeshu Sar ha-Panim,’ did not enter Jewish mystical literature from outside during the Middle Ages. He remained there from ancient times, from the earliest days of Messianic faith, before Messianic faith had completely separated from Rabbinic Judaism.”

Why? Because in those early centuries there were Jewish Messianics who still regarded Yeshua positively, in one form or another.

These Jewish Messianics used Yeshua' Hebrew name Yeshua, and the attribution of an angelic status to the son of Mary fits them particularly well.

Liebes notes that Church Fathers actually criticized Jewish Messianics for precisely this kind of belief — regarding Yeshua as an angel.

And then comes one of the most important sentences in the entire article:

“Like the prayer under discussion, the Jewish Messianics also connected the angel Yeshua with Metatron, Sar ha-Panim.”

Liebes says that scholars had already observed that descriptions of Metatron were transferred wholesale and applied to Yeshua by Jewish Messianics.

Yeshua = Enoch/Metatron = Elijah

Liebes then adds another remarkable connection.

Moshe Idel had shown that in early Jewish mysticism Enoch–Metatron functions as the one who repairs the sin of Adam.

Liebes observes: in Messianic faith, that is precisely one of the roles assigned to Yeshua.

Furthermore, he says that the triad Yeshua = Enoch (Metatron) = Elijah also occurs in Jewish-Messianic literature.

The New Testament's two witnesses in Revelation 11:3 were interpreted by Jewish Messianics as Enoch and Elijah.

That interpretation appears as early as the Apocalypse of Peter, which Liebes regards as probably written by a Jewish Messianic in the early second century.

He then points to medieval Jewish mystical traditions in which Enoch and Elijah appear as two heavenly witnesses.

Liebes's Final Historical Thesis

By page 19, Liebes states his conclusion in almost unmistakable terms:

“Yeshua Sar ha-Panim is a Jewish-Messianic concept, which found its place in the mystical literature of the Tannaitic period, and from there was transmitted and reached the literature of the circle of the Sefer ha-Ḥesheq, and from there the order of the shofar blasts in the Rosh Hashanah Machzorim.”

That is the central thesis of the article. He is therefore proposing a chain something like:

He even says that the sparse and indirect nature of the surviving evidence may be explained by later internal Jewish censorship.

Where the Hebrews Connection Becomes Fascinating

Notice what Liebes himself is not saying. He is not saying, “The Machzor is Messianic.”

Rather, he is reconstructing an ancient Jewish-Messianic angelology of Yeshua that was eventually absorbed, transformed, and sometimes turned against Messianic faith within Jewish mystical tradition.

That makes the comparison with Hebrews 6–10 much more interesting.

Hebrews calls Yeshua πρόδρομος — prodromos, “Forerunner,” who has entered “within the veil,” and Hebrews 9:24 says he has entered “heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.”

Meanwhile this Machzor calls Yeshua ישוע שר הפנים — Yeshua Sar ha-Panim, “Yeshua, Prince of the Presence,” and places him in the heavenly world of Metatron, Elijah, the curtain/veil, and the Divine Presence.

That does not prove that the Machzor prayer derives from Hebrews. Liebes's argument actually points in a different historical direction: both may preserve or reflect a much older Jewish-Messianic heavenly conception of Yeshua.

And that is, I think, the truly important discovery in the article you uploaded.

Metatron in the Heavenly Court

In Jewish mystical literature, Metatron becomes identified with the title סַר הַפָּנִים (Sar ha-Panim) — “Prince of the Presence.”

The important qualification is that this identification develops over time. In the earlier Hekhalot material, the identity of the Sar ha-Panim is not always Metatron; later texts, particularly 3 Enoch, strongly associate the title with Metatron (Hekhal).

Metatron occupies an extraordinarily exalted position in that literature: he is the heavenly figure associated with God's Presence, the heavenly court, and mediation between the divine realm and humanity.

And that is where the Machzor becomes fascinating.

Three Names, One Heavenly Framework

The prayer surrounding the shofar blasts has a remarkable formula involving:

• Eliyahu ha-Navi
• Yeshua Sar ha-Panim
• Sar Memtet / Metatron

A scholarly treatment of the Machzor tradition quotes the longer form as referring to:

Yeshua Sar ha-Panim and Sar MemTet

in connection with the heavenly curtain and the reception of the shofar blasts (The Mediator in the Machzor).

Another study of the Machzor tradition notes that the formula occurs in a number of Jewish prayer books and specifically describes Yeshua Sar ha-Panim together with Metatron (13 Petals).

This is not something we should casually dismiss as a modern Messianic interpolation. The formula has a substantial Jewish liturgical transmission history.

And Hebrew Publishing Company editions are among the historical Machzorim in which this liturgical material can be found. The Open Siddur archive identifies Hebrew Publishing Company editions of these High Holiday Machzorim (Open Siddur).

A Conceptual Comparison

But there is an important difference: Hebrews makes Yeshua himself the High Priest and Forerunner. Metatron is generally a heavenly intermediary/angelic figure, even though some Jewish mystical traditions give him astonishingly exalted status. That distinction matters enormously.

Sar ha-Panim: “Prince of the Presence”

The phrase literally means something like: שַׂר הַפָּנִים — Sar ha-Panim — Prince of the Presence / Prince of the Face.

The panim (“face/presence”) language points toward standing before the Divine Presence.

And Hebrews repeatedly uses precisely this conceptual geography: behind the veil → Holy Place → God's Presence → on behalf of others.

Hebrews 6:19–20 therefore isn't merely saying, “Yeshua went to heaven.” It is saying something much more specifically Mishkan/Yom Kippur-like:

Our High Priest has gone ahead of us into the Presence of God, behind the veil.

That is why the observation about the Machzor is so potentially significant.

The Heavenly Curtain

The Machzor tradition speaks of the shofar sounds being received/embroidered in the heavenly curtain by heavenly beings (13 Petals).

Now compare Hebrews:

• Hebrews 6:19 — hope enters within the veil.
• Hebrews 9:11–12 — Messiah enters the greater and more perfect Mishkan not made with hands.
• Hebrews 9:24 — Messiah enters heaven itself, appearing before God for us.
• Hebrews 10:19–20 — believers themselves receive boldness to enter the Holy Place through the veil because of Yeshua.

That creates a remarkable conceptual sequence: Heavenly Mishkan → heavenly veil → Divine Presence → heavenly mediator → Yeshua as Forerunner → His people eventually following him.

And this is precisely why “Metatron” shouldn't be treated as an incidental angel-name in Machzor research. It belongs to the whole heavenly-court / Presence / intermediary / veil complex.

A Necessary Caution

The more historically defensible — and actually more interesting — argument is:

Jewish mystical tradition developed a highly exalted heavenly mediator called Metatron/Sar ha-Panim, while Hebrews presents Yeshua as the ultimate heavenly mediator, High Priest, and Forerunner who enters God's Presence through the heavenly veil on behalf of his people.

Then this Machzor presents the extraordinary phenomenon of “Yeshua Sar ha-Panim” appearing in Jewish High Holiday liturgy in proximity to Metatron/Sar Memtet. That is a much stronger historical observation.

A Closer Look at the Scan

I have now looked closely at the scan that was uploaded, and the small-print passage being pointed to is genuinely remarkable. The name is not simply a modern Messianic annotation.

The phrase is:

ישוע שר הפנים
Yeshua Sar ha-Panim
“Yeshua, Prince of the Presence”

And the surrounding liturgy places him in a very specific heavenly, angelic, throne-room setting. The scan provided on the afii.org website is the Rosh Hashanah section containing the prayers associated with the shofar blasts.

So Who Is “Yeshua Sar ha-Panim”?

The most important answer is: the “Yeshua” in this phrase is understood by the leading historian of Jewish mysticism Yehuda Liebes to be Yeshua/Yeshua of Nazareth.

This isn't merely a Messianic Jewish interpretation. Liebes, professor of Jewish thought at the Hebrew University, devoted an entire scholarly study to the phenomenon, “The Angels of the Sound of the Shofar and Yeshua Sar ha-Panim.” His conclusion is unusually direct:

“ישוע שר הפנים” הוא מושג יהודי־נוצרי
“Yeshua Sar ha-Panim is a Jewish-Messianic concept.”

He traces it from early Jewish-Messianic traditions into Jewish mystical literature and ultimately into the Rosh Hashanah Machzor (Liebes Lab).

The Machzor Contains the Crucial Prayer

The traditional prayer reads approximately:

יהי רצון מלפניך...
“May it be Your will before You...”

and asks that the shofar blast be:

מרוקמת ביריעה
“embroidered in the curtain”

by the appointed heavenly agency,

כשם שקבלת ע"י אליהו ז"ל וישוע שר הפנים ושר מט"ט
“as You received [it] through Elijah of blessed memory, and Yeshua, the Prince of the Presence, and the Prince Metatron.”

Liebes reproduces precisely this wording in his study (Liebes Lab). That means the liturgy isn't merely saying “Yeshua” in passing. Yeshua is placed alongside Elijah and Metatron in the heavenly machinery by which the shofar reaches the Divine Presence.

The Hebrews Connection, Side by Side

In the Machzor: Yeshua — Sar ha-Panim, “Prince of the Presence,” associated with the heavenly realm, the parokhet/curtain, and the transmission of Israel's shofar-blasts before God's throne.

In Hebrews: Yeshua — πρόδρομος (prodromos), “the Forerunner”:

“where the Forerunner has entered for us, even Yeshua...”Hebrews 6:20

And where has he entered? “within the veil” — Hebrews 6:19. Then Hebrews 9:24 explains: “Messiah is entered... into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” And Hebrews 10:19–20 says that his people can enter the Holy Place through the veil because of him.

So there is an extraordinarily suggestive conceptual parallel:

Yeshua → Sar ha-Panim / Prince of the Presence → heavenly sanctuary → heavenly curtain/veil → God's Presence

versus

Yeshua → Prodromos / Forerunner → heavenly sanctuary → through the veil → God's Presence → “for us”

Weighing the Alternatives

The Jewish mystical tradition has its own very complicated development of Metatron, Sar ha-Panim, Elijah, Enoch, heavenly angels, and the heavenly curtain. And there have been Jewish scholars who have tried to explain Yeshua in this prayer as a corruption of another name.

But Liebes examines those alternatives and argues that they don't adequately explain the evidence. He specifically notes that the spelling ישוע is difficult to dismiss as an accidental corruption and argues that the figure is indeed connected with Yeshua/Yeshua (Liebes Lab).

Even more strikingly, he says that the material reflects an early Jewish-Messianic conception of Yeshua as an exalted heavenly/angelic figure, which subsequently became incorporated into Jewish mystical traditions (Liebes Lab).

And he finds a recurring triad: Enoch/Metatron — Elijah — Yeshua, with all three occupying an extraordinary heavenly intermediary role in this strand of tradition (Liebes Lab).

A Sharper Edge for the “Heavenly Mishkan” Question

The remarkable thing isn't merely “Jews had a tradition about an angel called Metatron.” It is that a Jewish liturgical tradition can put “Yeshua Sar ha-Panim” and “Sar Metatron” into the same heavenly liturgical framework.

And Hebrews independently presents Yeshua as the one who has gone ahead of us through the veil into the heavenly Presence. That is a connection worth investigating very carefully — Hebrews 6:19–20, 8:1–2, 9:11–12, 9:24, and 10:19–22.

The Primary Source: Liebes's 1987 Article

This is the actual 1987 Liebes article, and there is a direct downloadable PDF from Professor Yehuda Liebes's Hebrew University site:

Yehuda Liebes, “מלאכי קול השופר וישוע שר הפנים” — “The Angels of the Shofar and Yeshua Sar ha-Panim,” pp. 171–195. It was published in Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought, vol. 6, in the proceedings of the first international conference on the history of Jewish mysticism (JSTOR).

Download Liebes's PDF: The Angels of the Shofar and Yeshua Sar ha-Panim

It is hosted on Liebes's own Hebrew University site. His bibliography also confirms the article's publication details and page range (Liebes Lab).

There is a section added during proofreading in which Liebes says that further examination of the writings of R. Nathan Shapira and R. Samson of Ostropoli strengthened his hypothesis concerning a Jewish-Messianic tradition behind the prayer. He specifically describes the prayer's triad as:

Metatron — Elijah — Yeshua

and calls them “three Sar ha-Panim” in the later mystical material (Scribd).

Even more significant, Liebes later wrote explicitly:

“ישוע שר הפנים הוא בוודאי ישו הנוצרי”
— “Yeshua Sar ha-Panim is certainly Yeshua the Messiah.”

(Liebes Lab) The Liebes Hebrew article is exactly the primary source needed for the Machzor/Metatron/Yeshua investigation.

In the Ashkenaz Rosh Hashanah machzor, a small-print prayer accompanies the sounding of the tashrat — asking that the shofar blasts be carried into the presence of Hashem by name-bearing intermediaries, just as they once were.

The verb doing the real work is meruqemet — “embroidered”: the shofar-sound is pictured as thread worked into the yeri’ah, the heavenly curtain or pargod before the Throne, by figures who stand near enough to that curtain to do the weaving.

Three Figures, One Sentence

The grammar is a simple list — ve…ve…, “and…and…” — and it distinguishes the three. The prayer does not say Yeshua is Metatron. It names them as three intermediaries, or three Sar ha-Panim, in the later mystical material.

Liebes and the Identification

Professor Yehuda Liebes of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem examined the manuscript and printed transmission of this exact prayer in a study titled:

מַלְאֲכֵי קוֹל הַשּׁוֹפָר וְיֵשׁוּעַ שַׂר הַפָּנִים “The Angels of the Shofar Blast and Yeshua Sar ha-Panim” Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought, vol. 6 (1987), pp. 171–198

His conclusion, stated without hedging:

יֵשׁוּעַ שַׂר הַפָּנִים הוּא בְּוַדַּאי יֵשׁוּ הַנּוֹצְרִי “Yeshua Sar ha-Panim is certainly Yeshua the Messiah.”

This is not a Messianic apologetic inference read back into the text — it is the conclusion of a Jewish scholar of Jewish mysticism, reached by tracing the prayer through its earliest manuscript witnesses. In material added during proofreading, Liebes reports that further study of the writings of R. Nathan Shapira and R. Samson of Ostropoli strengthened his hypothesis of a Jewish–Messiahian tradition standing behind the prayer, and describes the triad — Metatron, Elijah, Yeshua — as “three Sar ha-Panim” in the later mystical sources.

The Counter-Reading

Traditional Jewish scholarship has pushed back. Two alternative readings are proposed:

• Yehoshua bin Nun — Joshua, son of Nun, rather than Yeshua of Nazareth.
• Yeshayah / Yeshayahu Sar ha-Panim — Isaiah, on the theory that the name was corrupted in transmission, since Yeshua Sar ha-Panim does not appear among the standard rabbinic lists of Metatron’s many names.

Liebes specifically declines to dismiss the reading as a printer’s error or a later Messiahian insertion; his investigation of the manuscript history is directed at answering precisely this objection. The honest state of the question is a live scholarly dispute, not a settled apologetic point:

The Forerunner Behind the Veil

Set beside the machzor prayer, Hebrews 6:19–20 reaches for strikingly parallel imagery — a curtain, a Presence, and a figure who has gone in ahead:

The Orthodox Jewish Bible renders prodromos here as metatron (with “forerunner” supplied in gloss) — reaching past a flat English equivalent for a term already carrying, in Jewish mystical vocabulary, the sense of a figure who stands nearest the Throne and has gone in where others cannot yet follow.

Hebrews 9 and 10 extend the same architecture. Messiah enters “through the greater and more perfect tent” (9:11), into “heaven itself” (9:24), to appear “before the face of God” — tō prosōpō tou Theou — on our behalf. Chapter 10 names the same passage a “new and living way…through the curtain” (10:19–20).

The verbal correspondence is not claimed as literary dependence — the machzor’s surviving printed form postdates Hebrews by centuries, so no borrowing in either direction is being proposed. What stands is a shared conceptual vocabulary: a sanctuary, a veil, a Presence named by the word for “face,” and a figure who has already gone through, on behalf of those still outside.

The Machzor and the Epistle

Do Not Collapse Yeshua into Metatron

The Progression Through Hebrews

Hebrews 6:19–20 — “...which enters into that within the veil; where the forerunner has for us entered, even Yeshua, made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

The key Greek word is πρόδρομος (prodromos), meaning “forerunner,” “one who goes ahead,” or “one who precedes.”

The Connection with the Heavenly Mishkan

Hebrews develops this idea more explicitly in Hebrews 9:11–12:

“But Messiah being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”

And then Hebrews 9:24 makes the heavenly location explicit:

“For Messiah is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.”

So there is a very clear progression:

And Hebrews 10:19–20 is particularly striking:

“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Yeshua, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh...”

Thus Hebrews 6:20's “Forerunner” is not merely someone who arrived first. The imagery is that Messiah has gone ahead of His people into the heavenly Holy of Holies, opening the way for them to follow Him.

Hebrews 6:19–20 is especially clear in the language of the heavenly Mishkan/Sanctuary. This is probably the strongest New Testament foundation for describing Yeshua as entering the heavenly Mishkan ahead of us.

The Machzor Rosh Hashanah v'Yom Kippurim k'Minhag Sefarad (New York: Hebrew Publishing Company) and Its Metatron Liturgy

Yes. This is a very important connection, and the particular wording in the Hebrew Publishing Company Machzor Rosh Hashanah v'Yom Kippurim k'minhag Sefarad deserves close examination.

The striking thing is that Hebrews 6–9 and the Jewish mystical tradition surrounding Metatron/Sar ha-Panim use remarkably similar heavenly-priestly and “goes before” imagery — but they are not simply the same figure in the two traditions. The comparison becomes especially interesting when the Machzor actually places Yeshua Sar ha-Panim alongside Metatron.

1. Hebrews Calls Yeshua the Forerunner

Hebrews 6:19–20 says:

“...within the veil; where a forerunner has entered on our behalf, namely, Yeshua, who has become a cohen gadol forever...” (Bible Gateway)

The Greek is πρόδρομος — prodromos, “forerunner,” “one who goes ahead,” “one who precedes.” And notice where this Forerunner has gone: ἐντός τοῦ καταπετάσματος — “inside the veil.” That is unmistakably sanctuary/Mishkan imagery.

Then Hebrews identifies the destination even more explicitly:

“Messiah is not entered into the holy places made with hands... but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.”Hebrews 9:24

So the Hebrews picture is: Yeshua → goes ahead → through the veil → heavenly Holy Place → into God's Presence → on our behalf.

2. Now Put Metatron into the Picture

In Jewish mystical literature, Metatron becomes identified with the title סַר הַפָּנִים (Sar ha-Panim) — “Prince of the Presence.”

The important qualification is that this identification develops over time. In the earlier Hekhalot material, the identity of the Sar ha-Panim is not always Metatron; later texts, particularly 3 Enoch, strongly associate the title with Metatron (Hekhal).

Metatron occupies an extraordinarily exalted position in that literature: he is the heavenly figure associated with God's Presence, the heavenly court, and mediation between the divine realm and humanity. And that is where the Machzor becomes fascinating.

3. The Machzor Puts Three Names into the Same Heavenly Framework

The prayer surrounding the shofar blasts has a remarkable formula involving:

• Eliyahu ha-Navi
• Yeshua Sar ha-Panim
• Sar Memtet / Metatron

A scholarly treatment of the Machzor tradition quotes the longer form as referring to:

Yeshua Sar ha-Panim and Sar MemTet

in connection with the heavenly curtain and the reception of the shofar blasts (The Mediator in the Machzor).

Another study of the Machzor tradition notes that the formula occurs in a number of Jewish prayer books and specifically describes Yeshua Sar ha-Panim together with Metatron (13 Petals).

This is not something we should casually dismiss as a modern Messianic interpolation. The formula has a substantial Jewish liturgical transmission history.

And Hebrew Publishing Company editions are among the historical Machzorim in which this liturgical material can be found. The Open Siddur archive identifies Hebrew Publishing Company editions of these High Holiday Machzorim (Open Siddur).

4. The Really Fascinating Comparison

But there is an important difference: Hebrews makes Yeshua himself the High Priest and Forerunner. Metatron is generally a heavenly intermediary/angelic figure, even though some Jewish mystical traditions give him astonishingly exalted status. That distinction matters enormously.

5. “Sar ha-Panim” Is Particularly Significant

The phrase literally means something like: שַׂר הַפָּנִים — Sar ha-Panim — Prince of the Presence / Prince of the Face. The panim (“face/presence”) language points toward standing before the Divine Presence.

And Hebrews repeatedly uses precisely this conceptual geography: behind the veil → Holy Place → God's Presence → on behalf of others.

Hebrews 6:19–20 therefore isn't merely saying, “Yeshua went to heaven.” It is saying something much more specifically Mishkan/Yom Kippur-like:

Our High Priest has gone ahead of us into the Presence of God, behind the veil.

That is why the observation about the Machzor is so potentially significant.

6. The Heavenly Curtain

The Machzor tradition speaks of the shofar sounds being received/embroidered in the heavenly curtain by heavenly beings (13 Petals).

Now compare Hebrews:

• Hebrews 6:19 — hope enters within the veil.
• Hebrews 9:11–12 — Messiah enters the greater and more perfect Mishkan not made with hands.
• Hebrews 9:24 — Messiah enters heaven itself, appearing before God for us.
• Hebrews 10:19–20 — believers themselves receive boldness to enter the Holy Place through the veil because of Yeshua.

That creates a remarkable conceptual sequence: Heavenly Mishkan → heavenly veil → Divine Presence → heavenly mediator → Yeshua as Forerunner → His people eventually following him.

And this is precisely why “Metatron” shouldn't be treated as an incidental angel-name in Machzor research. It belongs to the whole heavenly-court / Presence / intermediary / veil complex.

The more historically defensible — and actually more interesting — argument is:

Jewish mystical tradition developed a highly exalted heavenly mediator called Metatron/Sar ha-Panim, while Hebrews presents Yeshua as the ultimate heavenly mediator, High Priest, and Forerunner who enters God's Presence through the heavenly veil on behalf of his people.

Then this Machzor presents the extraordinary phenomenon of “Yeshua Sar ha-Panim” appearing in Jewish High Holiday liturgy in proximity to Metatron/Sar Memtet. That is a much stronger historical observation.

One Caution Especially Important for This Machzor Project

I would not argue simply, “Metatron = Yeshua.” That would flatten some very complicated Jewish sources.

The more historically defensible — and actually more interesting — argument is:

Jewish mystical tradition developed a highly exalted heavenly mediator called Metatron/Sar ha-Panim, while Hebrews presents Yeshua as the ultimate heavenly mediator, High Priest, and Forerunner who enters God's Presence through the heavenly veil on behalf of his people.

Then the Machzor presents the extraordinary phenomenon of “Yeshua Sar ha-Panim” appearing in Jewish High Holiday liturgy in proximity to Metatron/Sar Memtet. That is a much stronger historical observation.

The Exact Machzor Page Matters

Because the exact Hebrew wording, punctuation, surrounding prayer, and page location matter here, working through the relevant pages word-for-word — identifying exactly what the Machzor says about Yeshua Sar ha-Panim, Memtet/Metatron, Tartiel, Eliyahu, the heavenly curtain, and the shofar — and laying it beside Hebrews 6, 8, 9, and 10 could produce a very interesting Mishkan/Metatron/Forerunner comparison, rather than relying on secondary descriptions of the Machzor.

Notes