Comments on "The Great Divide" Post

"Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him.  This is the rule I lay down in all the churches.  Was a man already circumcised when he was called?  He should not become uncircumcised.  Was a man uncircumcised when he was called?  He should not be circumcised.  Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing.  Keeping God's commands is what counts.  Each should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him."  
- 1 Corinthians 7:17-20


Occasionally I have shared different articles that I have written on other websites.  On one of these websites, I received the following comments regarding my article entitled "The Great Divide."  Unfortunately, I had a limited number of characters to respond, so I have taken this opportunity, since it is my blog, to expound (below).

Here is a link to the original article:  The Great Divide

Here are the comments I received:

Rose Marie:

Shalom !

Thank you for your article ... I agree with your remarks and would like to add something personal :

It is not so much the content of the Messianic Faith in the Jewish roots, it is not either the diverse Jewish practices that I find problematic as a Messianic Jewess myself,
NO, the problem is too often a problem of attitude. Messianic Judaism in Israel is generally Nationalist. Nationalism is not to be found in the New Covenant, except as a negative feature. To love one`s country of adoption or birth, especially Israel, to serve and be faithful to this country is one GOOD thing. To become a nationalist on the other hand is a decision taken at the exclusion of diverse minority groups of people in the Land.

This is not right according to Torah -particularly in the light of the Book of Deuteronomy-, and it is not right according to New Covenant theology either -early believers were not zealots. And it is also not right according to the Prophets !

Our Messiah is the Messiah of all nations ... He came to the Jews first, but also to the Gentiles. All the people of the earth are called to be blessed in Him. Let us not be so exclusive, please ....

Rose-Marie


Hannah:

Hi Michael,

You wrote:

"I want to start out by addressing Messianic Jews and believers, and explain how we sometimes offend Gentiles."

I wasn't sure about how you defined the offense. Do we as Jewish disciples of Yeshua offend Gentile believers when we teach that some Torah commands are covenant obligations for the Jewish people, while other commands are obligations for both Jews and Gentiles? (ie, is this what you called "a double standard"?) Or do we offend only when we allow those different obligations to separate us?

The reason I'm asking is mostly Paul's command in I Cor.7:17-20...
"Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk. And so I direct in all the churches. Was any man called when he was already circumcised? He is not to become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? He is not to be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God. Each man must remain in that condition in which he was called."

If the Corinthians were all supposed to keep one set of "the commandments of God", Paul wouldn't have had to tell the mixed group to keep the distinction between the Jews (circumcised) and the Gentiles (uncircumcised). OTOH if they could stay unified while "each man remained" either Jew or Gentile, it seems we should be able to do that too.

I guess that leads to another question... what kinds of separation should we consider offensive? For example, should Titus have been offended when Paul and the Jerusalem elders refused to circumcise him (Gal.2:1-3), which made him different from Paul's other partner Timothy? (Acts 16:3)

Thanks for putting your thoughts into writing.

Hannah



Michael:

Hi Hannah,

Thank you for commenting. BTW, this is Michael [Daniel].

So I can better understand your question, which Torah commands are covenant obligations for the Jewish people only? Circumcision? Or is Paul only saying that grown men who come to faith should not feel obligated to get circumcised, but they should still circumcise their children? For me this question is easy, because my wife is Jewish, therefore my children are Jewish. When God makes the covenant with Abraham, doesn’t he also include “those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner - those who are not your offspring (Genesis 17:12)?” Does this include Gentiles? Have we been bought by the blood of Yeshua? Are we to be considered a part of Abraham’s household as Paul says in Galatians 3:29, “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

In Acts 15, when the Council of Jerusalem tries to decide what should be required of Gentiles, they conclude in verse 21, “For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.” Is the implication that Gentiles should know the basics and will learn as they mature in their faith? Don’t the commandments include “whether native-born or an alien living among you?”

If we say that there are separate commandments for Jews and Gentiles, how do we define Jews? As the orthodox do, those with a Jewish mother or those who have converted? In that case, aren’t Gentile believers converting to a type of Judaism called Christianity? Or are you referring to only “literal” descendants of Jacob? In that case, how do we know if my wife, or any Jew, is actually a literal descendant or the descendant of someone who converted to Judaism a hundred or a thousand years ago? David was a descendant of Ruth and Yeshua a descendant of David. Yes, I understand, Ruth converted, but that goes back to my original question, haven’t believing Gentiles “converted” in coming to faith, even if in their ignorance they do not comprehend this? Aren’t Gentiles saying to the Jews, as Ruth said to Naomi, “your God will be my God?”

If you are Jewish, that is a part of your identity, and nobody is trying to take that away. If you want to continue Jewish traditions, because they are a part of who you are, that’s great. If however, you use those traditions, or your identity as a Jew to keep you from fellowshipping with non-Jews, yes that is offensive. OTOH, if you find a particular church to be antisemitic, then that is a legitimate reason not to attend those services, but it shouldn’t keep us from fellowship with them. But in our interactions with them, shouldn’t we be a light, forgiving them as our father has forgiven us?

As Rose Marie said in her comments, “let’s not be exclusive.”

Blessings,

Michael


Upon further reflection:

The bible is full of metaphors and symbolism.  Sometimes it is not so clear when the bible should be taken literally or symbolically.  Adding to this difficulty is the centuries of manuscripts being copied, and the text being translated to different languages from people in different cultural contexts. There are many instances where a play on words is lost in translation.


When I read the verse Hannah quoted, 1 Corinthians 7:17-20 (above), I read it literally.  I believe Paul is telling Gentiles who come to faith in the Jewish Messiah should not become physically circumcised, and Jews coming to faith should not go through a surgical procedure where men would appear to never have been circumcised.  Many Jews were forced to have this procedure done around the time of the Maccabees.

That being said, I don't feel this verse is saying that Jews and Gentiles should act differently after they have come to faith.  Only they should be who they are, who God called them to be and keep the commands.  The verse does not separate commands for Jews and Gentiles as Hannah suggests.


Last week I started my post with the following verse from 1 Corinthians 9:19-23: “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.”  


God called Paul to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.  My wife and I were called to Israel, and even though I am not Jewish, I have become "as a Jew, in order to win Jews."  Meaning, I do not allow the lifestyle I live to interfere with my witness.  My brother-in-law, who is Jewish, chooses not to live a Jewish lifestyle as he was not called to live a Jewish lifestyle at this time.  He does not hide the fact that he is Jewish, but like Paul he was called to the Gentiles and he does not let his lifestyle interfere with his witness.  I do not think either of us are in sin because of the lifestyles we have chosen.  On the contrary, I believe these are the lives that God has called us to regardless of our ethnic origin.

Heart-to-Heart

“For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.”  1 Corinthians 9:19-23


I am not Jewish.  Although this should be obvious from the title of this blog, I felt it should be stated once again.  I say this because the opinions that are stated in this blog need to be read as my opinions.  These are not the opinions of Jewish people or even Messianic Jewish people.  They are my opinions only.  Others may chose to agree or disagree, in whole or in part with anything I have to say.


I wanted to share with you some of the tragedies that have happened throughout history to the Jewish people, but I found that in my presentation of these tragedies I have become too emotionally attached. Therefore, I decided it would be best to share some links with from the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance.  I found their website to be very concise and informative.


The reason I want to share these tragedies is not to suggest that Jewish people resent Christians as individuals.  They do not.  But I feel many resent the religion of Christianity, to the point where they do not wish to be associated with this religion, due to the multitude of tragedies done in the name of our Savior.  Perhaps, if it was one or two incidents in the last two thousand years, these incidents could be labeled as merely the political agenda of one or two corrupt individuals in history, but as you will see from these links, antisemitism has been a continual and ongoing part of the “Christian” world.  

I put Christian in quotes because I need to define what I mean by the term Christian.  Judaism is not only defined by one’s religion, but by one’s ethnicity.  Similarly, many people have considered themselves “Christian” if their parents were “Christian” or even if they celebrate the secular versions of Christmas and Easter.


I will give an example.  In 1933 the catholic church, in fear of the spread of communism, made an agreement with Hitler not to get involved in his politics, and in return he would leave the catholic church alone.  This agreement was broken by Hitler in 1937 when he began arresting catholic priests.  The protestant church, on the other hand, was split over their views of Hitler. Ludwig Muller, who believed any church member with Jewish ancestry should be expelled, became the “Reich Bishop” or leader of the new Reich Church with the swastika as its symbol and Mein Kampf as its bible. Martin Niemoller, on the other hand, lead a group that called themselves “confessing Christians,” which opposed Hitler and Muller’s beliefs.  Niemoller was arrested by the Gestapo and put in solitary confinement at a concentration camp for 7 years while many other confessing Christians suffered similar fates.


While most of us associate with the catholic or confessing Christians who were persecuted in Nazi Germany, the world also recognizes the Reich Church or German Church, which the majority of Germans belonged to, perhaps in fear of persecution, as being part of Christianity.  I mention this only to share that the world sees all of these people who call themselves Christians, as Christians (and why shouldn’t they), even if a lot of us view many of these so-called Christians as Christians in name only.    


Although the history of the “church” does not affect individual relationships (hopefully if you are reading this blog you know someone who is Jewish who understands you, as a christian, are not anti-Semitic), it does affect how Jews view Christianity as a religion.  For those of us in Jewish ministry, or for anyone who wants to share the Gospel with a Jewish friend, we need to understand the history of antisemitism in the church in order to understand how to share our faith in a meaningful way. 


For those of you who do not have time to read the following links, I want to share a quote from the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance’s article titled “Christian Apology for the Crusades:”

Among many Jews and Muslims, the term crusade evokes visions of genocide, mass murder, and mass extermination of innocent people. However, among many Christians it has become a positive term, frequently used to refer to mass rallies and campaigns to win converts - as in the Billy Graham Crusades. Out of respect for the victims of the "first holocaust [12,000 Jews in the Rhine Valley alone were killed as the first Crusade passed through]" we recommend that the term be only used to refer to the wars of the Middle Ages.

Here are the links to the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance:

• Anti-Judaism: 70 to 1200 CE
• Christian Apology for the Crusades
• Anti-Judaism: 1201 to 1800 CE
• Anti-semitism: Racially-based persecution of the Jews: 1800 to 1946

Recent Articles on Antisemitism:

• France sees ‘shocking surge’ in anti-Semitic violence
• Poland’s Jews watch and wait
• Neo-Nazis praise German mayor for Israel boycott
• Anti-Semitism climbs worldwide

The Great Divide

Breaking The Wall Photograph

Angel Jesus De la Fuente

“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two [Jew and Gentile] one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.”  Ephesians 2:14

As we can see from Paul’s words, there has always been a “wall of hostility” between Jews and Gentiles. Even though Paul says this wall is destroyed by the peace of Yeshua, the hostility continues to interfere with our relationships to this day. 

The only way to break down this wall is though the peace of Yeshua.  We need to knock it down, brick by brick, with communication and understanding.  We need to learn to walk a mile in our brother’s shoes.  I am attempting to accurately portray the bricks that make up this wall from both sides, Jew and Gentile.  If we are going to work together to break down this wall, it is going to take some tough sacrifices on both sides.  Unfortunately, one of the biggest obstacles to breaking down this wall is first getting people to recognize it really does exist.

Although I had wanted to write a book about Messianics for a long time, two events spurred me to finally get started and began to give me an understanding of what it was that I needed to say.

The first came from reading a post on Facebook.  I had “liked” a number of pro-Israel pages on Facebook, some of which were Christian or Messianic, and some of which were Jewish (created by non-Christian, religious Jews in the States or in Israel).  Upon the death of a Rabbi in Israel who was known to be Anti-Missionary (there are a number of anti-Christian groups in Israel that harass believers in Yeshua), one of the Jewish pages on Facebook posted an article mourning his death.  From the comments that were written in response to this post it was obvious that I was not the only believer who had “liked” this Jewish, pro-Israel page.  Unfortunately, many of the comments were unintentionally offensive to Jews, even from those Christians who claim to love Israel.  There were those who did not seem to understand that this Rabbi was anti-missionary or that he would have harassed them if they wanted to live in Israel, while there were others that didn’t seem to understand that they were posting on a “Jewish” page and wrote things that were very offensive to religious Jews.  Perhaps they were trying to “witness” to these non-believing Jews, but comments seemed to reflect anti-Semitism more than they reflected the love of Yeshua.

I wanted to write a response that would enlighten these people, without being offensive to the Jewish owners of the page.  I began writing, but after a couple of sentences I decided to write offline so I could see everything I was writing more clearly instead of trying to scroll up and down in one of those tiny text-boxes for comments.  As I wrote several paragraphs, I realized I still hadn’t even begun to scratch the surface.  That is when I decided I should turn those paragraphs in to the start of the book I wanted to write.

Many years ago, when I first got the idea to write a book, I spoke with my congregational leader in Philadelphia about my ideas.  At that time he suggested I start by reading some of the books that are already out there.  Here in Israel I have more than a few books about Messianic Judaism sitting on my bookshelf so I decided I should read the books I hadn’t gotten to yet before I started writing my own.  That’s when I was reminded why many Christians today are turned off by Messianic Judaism.

I had read about 25 pages from a book when I had to put it down.  I couldn’t read it anymore.  As a non-Jew, this book was offensive.  I felt like the book was saying, “Messianic Judaism is for Jews only.”  It did not actually say that, but if you looked closely enough, I’m sure it was there somewhere written between the lines. 

So, where does that leave me?  I am not Jewish.  But I am married to a Jew.  My children are Jewish.  I celebrate the Jewish holidays.  I don’t eat pork or shellfish.  Heck, I live in Israel.  Not that any of these things make me more "Jewish."  I am content to be the American Goy that God created me to be.  I felt if I were to say these things to the author, he would say, “that’s nice for you, but it’s not important.  You aren’t Jewish.”    

But it is important to me, and many other like-minded non-Jewish believers.  People who want to know the Jewish roots of their faith.  People who want to bless Israel because they love Israel and the God of Israel.  I decided I had to write the book for these people.  These people who want to celebrate the Jewish holidays, or just learn about them but don’t know where to go to find reliable information.  Some of whom want to bless Israel but end up unintentionally offending Jewish people and don’t understand why.  After all, God blessed me with a Jewish wife and a Jewish congregational leader, both of whom freely shared their knowledge with me.

Next week I will discuss anti-Semitism in the Church and why Jewish people are reluctant to “convert” to Christianity, but I want to start out by addressing Messianic Jews and believers, and explain how we sometimes offend Gentiles.  I feel I need to start this way because most Messianic Jews recognized there is a wall of hostility, even if they fail to recognize that it is not one-sided.  Hopefully, it will also help Gentiles to understand where Messianic Jews are coming from. 

Most Jews, whether they grew up Messianic or otherwise, at some point in their life face anti-Semitism.  Every year Jews celebrate Passover and they are taught to do so in order to remember how God redeemed them from being slaves in Egypt.  Every time a Jewish boy is born, there is a ceremony on the eighth day so he can be circumcised as a sign of the everlasting covenant between God and Abraham.  Every year, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, they are told to never forget the Holocaust and remember who they are.  It’s the way Jews survived as a people group for 4,000 years.  Perhaps Gentiles want to argue, “but Galatians 3:28-29 (NIV) says ‘There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.’”  This verse not only says “there is neither Jew nor Gentile,” but also says “nor is there male or female.”  We know there is male and female, and there is Jew and Gentile, but the point of this verse is it doesn’t matter to our faith in Messiah.  Salvation is available to everyone who has faith in Yeshua.
 
This may sound redundant, but being Jewish is part of a Jew’s identity.  Sometimes, when Jews come to faith in Messiah, they feel like they are being forced to change a part of their identity that needn’t be changed.  During the Passover season while their family is having a Passover Seder, they remember their ancestors were slaves in Egypt.  Why shouldn’t they continue to take part in that?  When a boy is born to a relative, and they circumcise him on the eighth day, they remember God promised the Land of Israel to the descendents of Abraham.  Why shouldn’t they continue this tradition?   On Holocaust Remembrance Day, they remember how the Nazi’s tried to wipe their people off the face of the earth.  They remember their brothers and sisters, friends, parents, cousins, aunts and uncles who died needlessly.  None of that changes because they came to understand who their Messiah is. 

Because they were raised to always remember, and never forget, Jews want to hold on to their traditions after coming to faith.  We don’t ask Chinese to stop being Chinese when they come to faith.  And when Jews begin rereading the scriptures as believers in Messiah they notice a few things.  They notice Yeshua is Jewish.  His disciples are Jewish.  Together Yeshua and his disciples celebrated Passover, Chanukah and Shavuot.  Messianic Jews study the scriptures and realize that if you read them from a Jewish perspective, since for the most part even the New Covenant was written by Jews, that some verses can be interpreted differently than the way the Church has traditionally interpreted them. 

Messianic Jews keep their ethnic Jewish roots, as well as their spiritual Jewish roots.  Christians are not used to this.  They are used to bringing the Gospel to the tribal people of Africa and South America, where their religion is not based on the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  They are used to people having to give up their old religion to become Christian.  But what do you do when their “former religion” is the foundation for Christianity?  Why not build on that foundation, just as Yeshua did?  Instead, Christians started telling them they couldn’t be Jews anymore.  Now they have to be Christian.  But when did any of the New Covenant believers stop being Jewish? 

People started calling Messianic Jews “Judaizers,” to which David Stern replies in his book Messianic Jewish Manifesto, “encouraging Jews to live as Jews is not Judaizing – how could it be?”   I love this reply, but it kind of leaves us non-Jews hanging.  In truth, this is the second part of his explanation as to why Messianic Judaism is not Judaizing.  The first part simply points out what Judaizing is:  “Judaizing means requiring Gentiles to live or behave like Jews (see Galatians 2:11-15); the heresy is insisting they are not saved unless they do so.”  Messianic Judaism does not teach that Christians are not saved or that they need to be more Jewish in their practices in order to be saved.  For the most part Messianic Jews just want to be allowed to keep the traditions that are a part of who they are.  But as I said in my last post, sometimes when people try to hold on to their own traditions, others believe they are rejecting their traditions and feel they are telling them that we are doing something wrong.  And sometimes, when people do things differently, they feel they need to justify why they do things a certain way, prove that their way is right and any other way is wrong. 

Messianic Jews are stuck in this awkward position where they want to hold on to their traditions.  In doing so, others sometimes feel as if Messianic Jews are saying their way is the “right way” or a “better way.”  Some Messianic Jews try to get around this by saying, that the disciples kept Torah as Jews, so Jews should still keep Torah, but Gentiles are not required to, creating a double standard which then seems to indicate Messianic Jews think they are somehow “better” than other Christians.  They don’t fellowship with other Christians.  They don’t eat the same food or worship on the same day or even in the same way as other Christians.  In fact, many of them don’t even like to be called “Christians” at all.  We Christians feel we are being rejected and it is insulting to our delicate egos. 

And there becomes a wall of hostility.  But let’s be honest, this wall of hostility doesn’t exist just between Jews and Gentiles, Satan uses it all over the place.  Try telling the Irish there is no wall of hostility between Protestants and Catholics.  Many of the Protestants I know don’t even believe Catholics can be saved.  Many Catholics have a mutual belief, since they are the one true Church.  That doesn’t even begin to take in account the Eastern Orthodox denominations.  And what about those Pentecostal Christians who think they are speaking in tongues, or those non-Pentecostal Christians who don’t believe the spiritual gifts are for today (please note the entire preceding sentence was sarcastic).  Someone has to be right and someone has to be wrong!  Probably, but the Bible is the Word of God, so I think if these things were important for our salvation God would have made it a little-more clear, just so it couldn’t get misinterpreted by reasonable people.  Okay, I better abandon this line of thinking as I see it taking me down a dangerous path.  There are reasonable people in this world who believe the Bible says some very unreasonable things and I’ll leave it at that. 

These differences cause us to feel our beliefs are being rejected and therefore we are being rejected.  We need to learn to forgive our brothers and sisters for having a different opinion than our own.  We need to ask forgiveness and to forgive one another for our self-righteousness.  Admit we are not perfect.  Admit we make mistakes.  Messianic Jews need to forgive the Church and those who have acted hateful to them for being Jews.  We need to fellowship with our brothers.  Help them to understand our point of view without forcing our point of view on them.   And try to remember, Gentiles don’t always think it’s culturally acceptable to debate so passionately among friends. 

As I continue writing this blog each week, I will explain why I choose to believe what I believe and why I live a certain way.  That doesn’t mean I am insisting that my interpretation is 100% correct, and the only way the Bible can be interpreted.  I’m just sharing my point of view.  Hopefully, what I have to say will make sense and you will at least gain an appreciation for my point of view, even if you disagree with it.

Shavuot, Feast of Weeks, Pentecost

Chaim Topol as Tevye in the 1971

film version of Fiddler on the Roof

“Because of our traditions, we have kept our balance for many, many years. Here in Anatevka, we have traditions for everything: how to eat, how to sleep, how to wear clothes. For instance, we always keep our heads covered, and always wear a little prayer-shawl. This shows our constant devotion to God. You may ask, ‘How did this tradition get started?’  I'll tell you. I don't know. But it's a tradition. And because of our traditions, every one of us knows who he is, and what God expects him to do.” 
- Tevye, Fiddler on the Roof


As we celebrate Shavuot here in Israel, I thought it would be nice to write an article on this biblical feast.  When I began researching it, something became abundantly clear to me.  I am not the only one who feels there is inadequate information on this holy day.  There is very little written about it in the Torah, yet there seem to be a number of traditions associated with Shavuot.  This makes Shavuot the perfect time to talk about the role of “tradition” in religion.


I devoted an entire chapter to tradition in the rough copy of my book, and I would have copied and pasted it on my blog, but there is some information from early chapters that is essential to understanding my chapter on tradition.


As you have probably guessed from the title of this blog (“An American Goy in Israel”), I was born in the United States, and although, I am not Jewish, I am currently residing in Israel.  In 1998 I met a young, Jewish woman who had grown up in Israel and I fell in love.  Naturally, she wanted nothing to do with this American Goy, until she found out that I had more than just a passing interest in Judaism. I began attending a Messianic Synagogue with her in Northeast Philadelphia, where we would continue to attend for the next ten years, the last nine of which we attended as man and wife.  But before we got engaged, my future wife told me that God had promised her she would return to live in Israel, so if we were going to get married, I had to be willing to live in Israel.  I said, “If God calls us to be there,” which she joyfully accepted as an affirmation since she knew in her heart the promise He had already made.


My wife and I were relatively young when got married, I was twenty-six and she was twenty-three. She was just a couple years removed from the Israeli Army, and I was just a few years out of college when we met.  We had not had time to really develop our own traditions away from our parents. Since she grew up in Israel, we had come from different cultures, and although we had similar religious beliefs, the congregations we had attended while growing up had vastly different traditions.


One of the biggest obstacles to overcome in a marriage, especially if you come from different religious or cultural backgrounds, is deciding what family traditions to hold on to, which ones to sacrifice, and which ones you can blend together, as two become one.  Likewise, as Christianity spread throughout the world, we see that many of the pagan traditions the people had practiced before they were Christians were blended into Christianity.  Many of these traditions were given new meaning so those who observed these traditions could continue to practice them while still observing this new religion which was often being forced upon them.


One of the reasons Messianic Judaism has taken the form it has today is because many Jews coming to faith in their Messiah want to hang on to their Jewish traditions, and there is nothing wrong with that.  However, sometimes these traditions conflict with the traditions that have arisen in the Church, such as on what day to have weekly meetings.  It is important to separate the traditions, which we often hold to dearly, from those beliefs that are the foundations of our faith.  Whether we believe Yeshua was born on December 25 or during the biblical feast of Sukkot, we must recognize that no one but God knows the exact day of his birth.  Furthermore, since we were not told to celebrate the birth of Yeshua anywhere in the Bible, how we go about doing so is merely tradition, no matter how close we hold those traditions to our heart.


When my wife and I were first married, my grandfather had a hard time with the idea that we did not celebrate Christmas in the “traditional” way.  Truth be told, he seemed to have a hard time with a lot of Messianic ideas.  One day while I was helping him in his basement, he asked me, “If you believe in Jesus, how come you don’t have a Christmas Tree?”  To me, having a Christmas tree and believing Yeshua is the Messiah have absolutely nothing to do with each other, but to my grandfather, his belief in Jesus was tied to his tradition of having a Christmas tree (at this point in my life, I associate Christmas trees more with Jeremiah 10:3-4 than I do with Luke 2:1-7).  Many of us hold so strongly to our traditions that they become a part of our faith.  We mistakenly feel if someone rejects our tradition, then they are also rejecting our faith.


Although I usually like to start off with a verse from the Bible, I decided to buck tradition (pun intended) in this blog post and start with a quote from Fiddler on the Roof.  The last line of the quote is “because of our traditions, every one of us knows who he is, and what God expects him to do.”  The Bible is full of commands, according to the Rabbinut there are 613 commands in the Old Covenant, but there isn’t always a lot of information on how we are to go about fulfilling these commands.  So how are we to know the right way to fulfill God’s commands?  According to Tevye, we know what God expects from us from our traditions.  


It is part of the human condition.  We want to know how to do things so we don’t make a mistake.  Many of you may read this blog because you want to know how to observe the Jewish Holidays, or how to live a Messianic lifestyle.  And if indeed this is why you are reading this blog, I shall do my best not to disappoint you.  I will share with you many observances of Messianic and Traditional Jews, and I will also try to share with you what is Biblical, and what is the traditional way to go about carrying out what is written in the Bible.


So, when we read the Bible verses on Shavuot, what are we expected to do?  According to Leviticus 23 we are to make a bunch of sacrifices that most of us wouldn’t know how to begin going about.

Leviticus 23:15-21; “‘From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord. From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the Lord.  Present with this bread seven male lambs, each a year old and without defect, one young bull and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the Lord, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings —a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.  Then sacrifice one male goat for a sin offering and two lambs, each a year old, for a fellowship offering. The priest is to wave the two lambs before the Lord as a wave offering, together with the bread of the firstfruits. They are a sacred offering to the Lord for the priest. On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.’”

The only thing that makes a lot of sense for me is found in verse 21 where we are told, “On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.”  For those of you who do not celebrate any of the Biblical feasts, you may want to reconsider.  It does say this is to be a lasting ordinance, not just an ordinance until the Messiah comes.  So if you are willing, how do you do this?  We are not to do any regular work, which works out for most of us since, according to this scripture, we are to count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath.  The “day after the Sabbath” in Judaism is Sunday, and for those of you living outside of Israel, you don’t work on Sundays anyway.  For those of us in Israel, we get off for Shavuot (although it is not always a Sunday here – more on that later). And we are to hold a sacred assembly, kind of like a Church service.  Hopefully you all went to Church for Pentecost, and didn’t skip out because it happened to fall on Memorial Day weekend this year (this year being 2012).  If you did skip church, don’t worry, we have a merciful God.


Shavuot is also mentioned in Numbers.  Again, these verses tell us to “hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work,” but the focus in on offerings here too:

Numbers 28:26-31; “‘On the day of firstfruits, when you present to the Lord an offering of new grain during the Festival of Weeks, hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.  Present a burnt offering of two young bulls, one ram and seven male lambs a year old as an aroma pleasing to the Lord.  With each bull there is to be a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with oil; with the ram, two-tenths; and with each of the seven lambs, one-tenth.  Include one male goat to make atonement for you.  Offer these together with their drink offerings, in addition to the regular burnt offering and its grain offering. Be sure the animals are without defect. ’”

 I find the verses pertaining to Shavuot in Deuteronomy to be fascinating:

Deuteronomy 16:9-12; “Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain.  Then celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessing the LORD your God has given you.  And rejoice before the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name – you, your sons and daughters, your menservants, the Levites in your towns, and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows living among you.  Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.”

This verse starts by telling us to “count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain.”  This is not the traditional counting of seven weeks from Passover.  Looking back on the other verses about Shavuot, there is no mention of counting from Passover either.  So, why do the Rabbinut count from Passover?  Going back to Leviticus, we read “From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord.” Each time the Bible mentions Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, it always does so after the Feast of Passover, but there really is no direct reference to Passover.  Even in these verses to Leviticus, where there is a reference to a prior verse, “the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering,” the reference isn’t to verses about Passover, but is a reference to a day called Firstfruits in my NIV Bible.  Leviticus 23:10-11:

“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest.  He is to wave the sheaf before the Lord so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath.’”

These verses appear between those about Passover and those about Shavuot.  From this reading, Shavuot should be determined by counting seven weeks from an agricultural event:  “Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain.”  This would explain why we are told to count off seven weeks.  If it was determined by a set day during Passover as the Pharisees believed, then we would know the day, and wouldn’t need to count.  Of course, you could argue, if you count according to the Sadducees who count from the first Sunday of Passover, the actual day of the month could change and you would still need to count.  This may be true, but there is still no reference to Passover in any of these verses.  Also, basing Shavuot on an agricultural event where a farmer brings grain to the priest, gives the “honor” of determining when Shavuot is to be observed to ordinary farmers, not the religious leaders.


If we return to my previous blog post, we see there was a power struggle between the Sadducees, who represented the Priests, and the Pharisees, who would become the foundation of the Rabbinut.  Both Sadducees and Pharisees counted from Passover, but used a different interpretation of when to start counting.  In my opinion, neither group wanted to admit that this holy day should be determined every year without their control.  And just like modern Republicans and Democrats, if one group said it believed counting should be done a particular way, you could be sure the other group would come up with their own way.  The Pharisees count from the second day of Passover, since the first day of Passover is considered a Sabbath, and we are told in the bible to count from the day after the Sabbath.  For those of you who are thinking this way of counting contradicts the verse about counting up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, they have an explanation for that, but their explanation is beyond the scope of this blog.


If all the “religious” leaders say that you are to count from Passover, who will be bold enough to argue against this tradition?  Certainly not some poor Goy from America.


Maybe I’m reading too much into this, and since most of us don’t actually have new grain to offer as a sacrifice to the LORD, perhaps we should not waste too much time focusing on the agricultural aspect.  It is important to recognize “the counting,” often referred to as “the counting of the Omer,” is solely a determination of when Shavuot is to be observed, and any other traditions that accompany the “counting” are mostly tradition.  Nothing is mentioned in the Bible beyond this.  But if you are a Messianic or Traditional Jew who wants to keep the tradition of “The counting of the Omer,” there is nothing wrong with doing so, and I certainly will not argue with you if you feel it is beneficial to your relationship with God.   However, we must be careful not to include other traditions, such as the ban on marriages during the counting of the Omer, which I consider an unnecessary burden with no biblical basis (I think I will wait until next year to talk about the counting of Omer).  I truly believe it is these types of burdens Yeshua spoke against in the New Covenant, but unfortunately I think a lot of good, Jewish “traditions” were also pushed off by the Church as “burdens” because they did not fully understand the significance.  I will definitely be writing more about this in future blogs.


The counting of the Omer is considered by the Rabbinut to be a biblical mandate corresponding to the number of days it took the Israelites to reach Mount Sinai to receive the Torah after they departed from Egypt, but there is no direct biblical teaching concerning a celebration of the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai during this agricultural holiday.  This tradition comes from Exodus 19.  If you count seven weeks from Passover (starts on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month), that puts you in the beginning of the third month, the sixth day of the third month according to the counting of the Pharisees.  Exodus 19:1 (NIV) reads; “In the third month after the Israelites left Egypt – on the very day – they came to the Desert of Sinai.”  We could dissect the language in this verse and try to figure out what is meant by “on the very day,” but again, this is really beyond the scope of this blog. There is no written correlation between Shavuot and the giving of Torah at Mount Sinai in the Bible.  It is speculation and tradition, but a tradition that is the foundation for much of the rabbinical and church teachings on Shavuot and Pentecost we have today.


So what is Shavuot?  If we don’t have new grain to offer a sacrifice, what are we supposed to do? Let’s go back to the verses in Deuteronomy:  “Then celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessing the LORD your God has given you.  And rejoice before the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name – you, your sons and daughters, your menservants, the Levites in your towns, and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows living among you.  Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.”  That’s what is important.  Give a freewill offering to the Lord in proportion to what He has given you and rejoice before the Lord your God.  Hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.  Amen.  Otherwise, from any literal reading of the Bible, this holy day is related to agriculture.    


It is traditional in Judaism to read the book of Ruth on Shavuot.  This is due to the agricultural aspect of Ruth, among other reasons, which may change depending on what Rabbi you talk to.  It is also traditional to Study Torah because of the aforementioned tradition of the arrival at Sinai.  By the way, Jews celebrate the actual giving of the Torah after Sukkot, an Autumn Festival, on a day called “Simcha Torah.”  Shavuot may be more connected with the giving of the oral law, but it is hard to get a good reference for this.  


In Christianity Shavuot is called Pentecost, meaning fifty in Greek.  We read about Pentecost in Acts:    

Acts 2:1-12; When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.  Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans?  Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?  Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”  Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

In Christianity, Pentecost in always on a Sunday, seven weeks after Easter.  In many American Evangelical Churches, not too much is made of Pentecost, but in many denominations, especially Eastern Orthodox Churches, Pentecost in held high regard.  Many European countries have a work holiday on the Monday after Pentecost, although in many countries, such as England and Sweden, it was changed from a religious holiday to a civil holiday.  This work holiday may be due to the verse where we are told to “do no regular work” on the day after the Sabbath.  In Christian thinking, the day after the Sabbath may be interpreted as Monday, instead of Sunday.


Pentecost is most well known in the Church for the passage in Acts 2 above, and the church commemorates this day as the day the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples and other early followers of Yeshua in the Upper Room.  Many also celebrate this day as the birthday of Christianity, as the Gospel was heard by Jews, from all over the world, in Jerusalem for the Feast of Shavuot.  Each one heard the Gospel preached in their own native language as the Holy Spirit enabled those in the Upper Room to speak in many languages.  Thousands became followers of Yeshua on this day.  Shavuot can also be seen as the birthday of Judaism as tradition tells us this is the day when Moses arrived at Mount Sinai, where he would receive the Torah.  I think this is stretching it, but I have seen this parallel made in my research.  Other traditional Christian teachings on this Holiday include teaching about the fruit of the Spirit and Baptism.


In the Messianic tradition, the resurrection of Yeshua is celebrated on the first Sunday of Passover (or the day after the Shabbat), which is called HaBikkurim, or Firstfruits (1 Corinthians 15:20).  In this tradition, Messianic Jews use the same counting as the Sadducees do, so Shavuot would always fall on a Sunday.   I like this tradition, because it makes sense to me, but if I am going to be honest with myself, I must allow that there are other legitimate ways to interpret these verses.  Perhaps I will write more about my views on biblical interpretation in a future blog.  But this Messianic interpretation is also in line with Christian interpretation, with Shavuot falling on the Sunday seven weeks after HaBikkurim, or translated into church-speak, Pentecost falling on the Sunday seven weeks after Easter.


I also like this tradition because it falls in line with traditional Jewish thinking with the count beginning during Passover.  In taking away all of the tradition and just trying to understand the words in the Bible, I was left dizzy.  There was one verse that said you needed to start counting from Firstfruits (Leviticus 23:9-16) and in the next verse the bible said you needed to sacrifice your Firstfruits to God on Shavuot (Leviticus 23:17), which creates a circular logic that made my head spin.  But when we have tradition, we understand that Firstfruits, the “day” is during Passover and as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:20, God’s Firstfruit was the Resurrection of His Son, meaning Yeshua is the first of many who will be raised from the dead.  So we celebrate the Resurrection of Messiah on the Sunday of Passover and seven weeks later we have the gift of the Holy Spirit, when Jews from all over the world would be in Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks.  I like this tradition because it allows us to celebrate the resurrection of Messiah in a biblical holiday, instead of having to use the pagan traditions from Spring holidays.  I like to use a biblical name like Firstfruits instead of using the ancient word for Spring, Eastre (now Easter), which was also the name of a pagan goddess.  The name Easter may have also come from a Germanic word for sunrise, ostern, but in either case, I prefer to use the biblical imagery Passover; the lamb, slain for our sins, the unleavened bread made without yeast, representing Yeshua who was without sin, the freedom from bondage in Egypt representing freedom from the bondage of our own sin.

This Byzantine church on Mount Zion

is the traditional location of both

David's tomb and the Upper Room

You can choose to avoid traditions that may have ungodly origins, which are prevalent in both Christianity and Judaism.  I have already mentioned a few in Christian traditions that I choose not participate in, like having a Christmas tree, but there are Jewish traditions that I won’t participate in either, such as Lag Ba Omer (you can click on “Lag Ba Omer” to see a short article I wrote on the subject before I started this blog).  We each must choose which traditions we hold on to and which ones to let go of, but let’s not judge one another by the traditions we keep, as long as those traditions don’t go against God’s word.   


You are free to make a comment below.  I am always curious to see how people interpret what I have said or what the bible says. Perhaps I said something that was unclear or just plain wrong.  I may have contradicted myself (as I said, some of this left me dizzy).  If so, I am open to correction.