Coming to faith - The story of an Orthodox Jew

Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.  For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.  Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
Romans 10:1-3 (NIV)

Earlier this week, my wife and I were reading the testimony of an Orthodox Jew who came to faith.  Or to be more correct, my wife was translating a testimony for me while I stared blankly at the computer screen.  I have included an English Translation of the testimony below and the link to the original testimony is here:

מי אתה?

As I was reading this testimony, I felt this man gave a clear example of how Jewish people view Christianity.  Christianity is a serious threat to Rabbinic Judaism.  Yeshua spoke against the teachings of the Pharisees, which are the same teachings the Rabbis teach today.

The Rabbis teach Jews about the antiemetic Church.  They teach them all the things the church did in the name of Jesus, in the name of the cross.  They teach how the New Covenant scriptures are the poison that teaches Christians to hate Jews and forbid them from reading them.  If you have time, here is a great article from the Jerusalem Post about how the New Covenant Scriptures were sent to all the members of the Knesset:

Missionaries in the Knesset?

Recently, I have been sharing with you a lot of information about the history between Christians and Jews.  I am not sharing it to make Christians feel guilty, but so that you can understand what is being taught to religious Jews.  I am trying to help you see the Jewish roots in the scriptures, not to change how you live, but so that you can show Jewish people their Messiah in the scriptures written by their people.  Perspective makes all the difference in the world. 

Here is the testimony: 
 

Who are you?
(posted with permission from http://www.oneforisrael.org/)

My name is Yaron. I have been married for 11 years with 3 children. I was born into a religious family; "knitted skullcaps [kippot, yarmulkes or yamakas]", but religion did not fit me at a young age.  I remember myself as a child in primary school, muttering prayers without any conviction.  When I muttered them, too often I never really said them, but it was enough to convey the appropriate amount of devotion to please the teachers.

At that time I knew only the less beautiful portrayals of God and religion. I grew up learning more about the vengeful and punitive, and less about the "merciful God." There was a lot of hypocrisy around me which was very disturbing.  The term "appearance" (it is forbidden to do certain actions which in themselves are not sin, but appear as if they sin, while other actions that are sinful are allowed) was for me the embodiment of the established religious hypocrisy.  It bothered me that there was too much irrelevance in many of the mitzvot, such as: What is the connection between the prohibition of work on Saturday and electrical lighting?  You drag yourself up and down four flights of stairs instead of using the elevator.

Another issue that bothered me was the prayers in the synagogue. How are you going to talk with God and mean every word I say, if half of what I'm saying I do not understand, and the other half I'm not fast enough to complete because the Cantor is in such a hurry to go home.  I'm still on the "Shema" and he has already finished the "Eighteen [Blessings]."

I mustered the courage at age 17 or so, and I confessed to my father that I did not want to have his religious life.  I also left the yeshiva to go to a secular school. My father took it hard and wouldn't talk to me for a year and a half, from twelfth grade, until joining the Army and not much after that. My mom did not take it as hard as my father and she continued to speak with me.  The only thing my father would say to me was "the food is ready,” and other basic things, but he never talked to me.  It was a period of lawlessness for me.  I would go to a restaurant specifically to eat pork and other unclean food.

The turnaround happened at the end of the basic training.  After the induction ceremony, my father approached me and asked to make an agreement.  He said, in light of the situation, that he understands that I am an adult, so he gets my decision regarding the secular life. The agreement was simple: "As long as you are at home - you obey the custom of the house; you wear a skullcap on your head, you do not turn the light on during the Sabbath and you eat only kosher food at home.  Out of the house, you do what you want."  After this we became best friends and the agreement lasted until I was 25 years old, until my wedding.

Genesis 2:24 reads, "… so he left his father and mother, to cleave to his wife, and they become one flesh."  This made me the head of a family and as such I received the authority to act as an "adult."  But the truth is, in the last decade I felt this lack of faith and spirituality.  I looked for it in the arts and all sorts of Eastern religions – New Age.  I even returned to the religion of my father (for real this time) for a few months in late 2008.  I had a great feeling of safety under God and felt His warmth, but again those things from my childhood bothered me.  The Cantor in the synagogue again hurried through the prayers and I quickly looked around and wondered how all the other men thought they could "really talk to God” in their prayers.

It's like what is important to God is to "check off" this morning’s prayers, not whether you prayed from the depths of your soul or had a deep talk with God.  I'm sure I am aggravating an entire religious community who do pray with sincerity, but I can only speak from my own 30 years of experience.

I first learned about Jesus, almost against my will, during my undergraduate studies.  I am studying for a BA in history.  About six months ago I took a course on the "History of the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages."  By the way, this is a dark time period, in religious terms, for Orthodox Judaism.  But the point is, the first thing I had to do was read the New Testament, since you can’t learn about the Catholic Church without knowing the basic concepts of New Testament Christianity.  Lo and behold, my ignorance was lifted, I learned, to my great surprise, that the New Testament was written by the Jewish disciples, about a Jew named Jesus and the events that happened in the Jewish community in Israel.

I must here stop a moment and interrupt my train of thought, to admire the elaborate mechanism of self-preservation that has been instilled in us by the rabbinic tradition for over 2000 years.  Rabbis have no problem reading the Koran, but the New Testament is an abomination.  It is a book we should not touch, let alone read.  It is taboo in the religious community, and rightly so.  “Do not read the New Testament!  This book is dangerous!  You may find the knowledge (you may insert your religious faith here) doesn’t want you to know!”  Who knows, maybe the people will start to believe that the rabbis hid their obvious concerns from you, that the Messiah has already arrived, and no one bothered to tell you.

I realized that Jesus preached right up against all the things that had troubled me about religion from when I was a teenager.  “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.  So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.” Matthew 6:1-2

“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.” Matthew 6:16

I still hide my faith underground, leading a double life.  My wife does not know about my faith (although at any given moment there is at least one "new covenant" book in every room in the house, and a lot of Christian literature on the tables.)  I’m not going to bring up the conversation and tell her: "You see, I wanted to tell you that ...", I'm waiting for a question, for the door to open for me to tell her.  At least one of my brothers already knows, but it really does not interest him.  It would be difficult for my parents.

I have had lots and theological debates with my dad recently.  He even agrees with me that there are things that do not make sense (like not being able to use an elevator on Shabbat) but he said he was already used to living like that and he’s not going to change.  My grandmother also told me this, but they do not know that my opinion was not merely secular, but came from somewhere else – from something better.  The guys at work know and it does not bother them.

Jesus sacrificed himself for me, and for you.  He took my sins (which are many) and now, I am saved.  I believe as he taught us.  It's not easy.  Jesus sets before us a much higher standard than that set by the rabbis for themselves.  But this is a subject for another time.

This American Goy is not your Shabbos Goy

“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”  Genesis 2:2-3 (NIV)

In previous posts, I mentioned that understanding Jewish culture helps us to understand the Bible.  Also, knowing Ancient Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek would be of great benefit.  Admittedly, I am not fluent in any of these languages as they were spoken thousands of years ago, but living in Israel, I do have some familiarity with Modern Hebrew.  Many Hebrew words were formed by the use of root words, which usually, but not always, consisted of three Hebrew letters.

If you look at your wall calendar, most likely you will have the days of the week listed, toward the top, starting with Sunday and ending with Saturday.  In Hebrew, Sunday is called “Yom Rishon,” or the first day.  Yom, meaning day, and Rishon, which has the same root as the Hebrew word for “head,” resh-aleph-shin, meaning first.  Monday is then called the “Second Day,” Tuesday is called the “Third Day,” and so on through Friday, the “Sixth Day.”  Shabbat is the seventh day of the week, and although Shabbat sounds similar to the Hebrew word for seven, “sheva,” the root for Shabbat, “shavat,” is spelled differently:  Sheva, seven, is shin-bet-ayin, and shavat is shin-bet-tof.  The root of Shabbat, shavat, means “to cease,” or to stop doing.  On Shabbat, we cease to work, just as God ceased to create on the Seventh Day as His work was done.  The Hebrew word for “sit” and the word for “strike” or “work stoppage” also come from this root.  That is to say, that although sitting can be seen as “resting,” which is how most people view a “Sabbath Day,” the more important foundation of the word for Shabbat is “ceasing,” as in ceasing to work.

Colossians 2:16-17 (NIV).  “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.”   

In light of this verse, the following may therefore be considered as a purely intellectual exercise.

Many Christians celebrate their Sabbath day on Sunday, instead of Saturday because that is the day that Yeshua was resurrected.  Some even claim that Yeshua himself intended this change so that the nations would know His salvation is for everyone.  Mark 2:27-28 (NIV) is given as evidence for this:  “Then he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.’”  Their claim is, being Lord over the Sabbath, Yeshua changed the day of the Sabbath.  However, the context of this verse only suggests that He did not agree with the Pharisees claim that it is unlawful to pick grain from the field in order to eat on the Sabbath.  The Pharisees seeing this as a violation of the command not to work by plowing a field, however, no plow was being used here as Yeshua and his disciples were merely picking heads of grain.  There is no reference in this passage which might imply Yeshua means to change the day on which we observe Shabbat.  

Further evidence is given by some Christians as Paul meet with the people of Troas on Sunday in Acts 20:7 (NIV):  “On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight.”  Of course, it is mentioned earlier in Acts 2: 46 (NIV) that “every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.”  Acts 20:7 simply mentions it was the first day of the week because that is the day it happened to be and does not place any special significance to it, nor does he say that this was their usual meeting day.  To me it only seems significant they met on this day because Paul intended to leave the next day.

Another verse used to argue Shabbat should be observed on Sunday is Corinthians 16:2 (NIV):  “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.”  Paul is merely making a suggestion to make a collection on the first day of the week and not saying this should be their Sabbath day.  On the contrary, although the Torah does not prohibit the exchange of money on Shabbat, it has been condemned by the rabbis due to its association with business.  Although it can be argued that Paul was trying to express both the change of the Sabbath day as well as the freedom to exchange money on Shabbat, it seems highly unlikely that Paul would try to make a point so discretely, given his usual lack of subtlety in expressing his opinions.  To me, it goes against Paul’s nature as a Pharisee to tell people to violate the Sabbath by taking a collection on it.

The early Christians actually continued to observe the Shabbat on Saturday until the second half of the fourth century when the Council of Laodicea outlawed this practice.[1]  

So, you are asking, "how does one observe the Sabbath?  What are we really talking about here anyway?"  Well, I'm glad you asked.  We know from the verses quoted above from Genesis that God ceased from His work on the seventh day, He blessed it and made it holy.  In Exodus 20, Moses is given the Ten Commandments, and here is what God says about Shabbat in verses 8-11 (NIV):

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.  For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Here we are simply told not to do any work on the seventh day, and again in Exodus 23:12 (NIV) we are reminded not to do any work, with particular attention given to our animals and our servants:

Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed.

In Exodus 31:12-17 (NIV) we are told the Shabbat is to be a sign between God and the Israelites, so they will know He is holy, and this covenant will last forever:

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy.

“‘Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death; those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people.  For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death.  The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant.  It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”

In Exodus 34:21 (NIV) we are told that we must even cease working on the seventh day during the most crucial times of the year for a people who depended on the food gathered from the fields they planted:

Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.

In Exodus 35:2-3 we are told not to light a fire in our dwelling on Shabbat:

For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a day of sabbath rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death.  Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.

Even before the Ten Commandments were given, while the Israelites were given Manna to eat, they were told to prepare for the Shabbat, and to gather twice as much manna on Friday.  Exodus 16:21-30 (NIV):

Each morning everyone gathered as much as they needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away.  On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much—two omers for each person—and the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses.  He said to them, “This is what the LORD commanded: ‘Tomorrow is to be a day of sabbath rest, a holy sabbath to the LORD. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.’”

So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it.  “Eat it today,” Moses said, “because today is a sabbath to the LORD. You will not find any of it on the ground today.  Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”

Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none.  Then the LORD said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions?  Bear in mind that the LORD has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where they are on the seventh day; no one is to go out.”  So the people rested on the seventh day.

From these verses, as well as Isaiah 58:13-14 (NIV), the Rabbis tell us we are commanded not to travel on the seventh day:

“If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”  For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Personally, I think it is a bit of a stretch to say these verses forbid us from travelling on Shabbat, but apparently this is how the Rabbinut interpret it.

In Leviticus 23:3 (NIV) we are told the Sabbath is a day of sacred assembly:

There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a sabbath to the LORD.

In Numbers 15:32-36 we are told of a man who is stoned for gathering wood on Shabbat “as the LORD commanded Moses.”  In Numbers 28:9-10 we are told of the offerings that the priests need to make every Shabbat, but since we are not Temple Priests, I will not quote it here.  In Deuteronomy 5 the Ten Commandments are repeated, with the commandment to keep the Shabbat in verses 12-15.  There is an addition to commandment as it is written in Exodus, that we are to “remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.  Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.”

In Jeremiah we are reminded to keep the Shabbat because the people were carrying loads through the gates of Jerusalem on Shabbat.  Jeremiah 17:21-22 (NIV), “This is what the LORD says:  Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem.  Do not bring a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors.”

Shabbat Shalom?

If you know any Orthodox Jewish families, or have seen movies with Orthodox Jews, you may be thinking that there are a few more observances we haven’t covered yet.  So, let’s take a look at the Shabbat from an orthodox point of view.

The word for work used in the Torah, in relation to Shabbat, is “melachah” (mem-lamed-aleph-kaf-hay).  The only other time this word is mentioned in the scriptures, outside of Shabbat and Holy day observances, is in relation to the building of the Sanctuary while the Israelites were in the wilderness.  The rabbinut have therefore decided that anything that the Israelites did in preparation of the Sanctuary and its articles should therefore be included in the definition of work.  Thirty-nine categories of work were created, from which one must abstain during Shabbat.  They are as follows:  Sowing, Plowing, Reaping, Binding sheaves, Threshing, Winnowing, Selecting, Grinding, Sifting, Kneading, Baking, Shearing wool, Washing wool, Beating wool, Dyeing wool, Spinning, Weaving, Making two loops, Weaving two threads, Separating two threads, Tying, Untying, Sewing two stitches, Tearing, Trapping, Slaughtering, Flaying, Salting meat, Curing hide, Scraping hide, Cutting hide up, Writing two letters, Erasing two letters, Building, Tearing a building down, Extinguishing a fire, Kindling a fire, Hitting with a hammer, Taking an object from the private domain to the public or transporting an object in the public domain.  I think it may be easiest to see examples of what is and is not permissible, according to the Orthodox, by going through a typical Shabbat.

Orthodox Jewish families begin preparing for the Shabbat on Friday afternoon.  In case I have not stated it earlier, according to Jewish tradition, a new day starts when the sun sets.  This is based on the Genesis 1:5 (NIV); “God called the light ‘day’ and the darkness he called ‘night.’  And there was evening, and there was morning – the first day.”  Notice the second half of the verse says “there was evening,” before “there was morning.”

Modern Orthodox preparation includes the setting of timers for lights as it is forbidden to turn on and off lights.  An Orthodox family that we are friends with actually tapes light switches so they (along with their children) do not forget, and accidentally turn on or off a light.  The light bulb in the refrigerator, and other appliances, is usually unscrewed or turned off to keep it from going off and on.  In some families toilet paper is torn beforehand and put in a basket so that there is no need to tear it.  My wife still remembers the first time she went to an Orthodox friend’s house on Shabbat and found the toilet paper pre-torn into small squares for her already.

Preparation also includes doing all the cooking for the evening meal, which is usually more elaborate than weekday meals, and eaten in a more leisurely manner.  Candles are lit, approximately 18 minutes before sunset as to not break the command of kindling a fire on Shabbat.    

One of the jobs of the high priests is to determine the dates for the festivals, as well as to ensure each month corresponds to the New Moon.  Since Shabbat is a weekly occurrence, every Saturday, there is no need for the high priest to proclaim the day of the Shabbat.  Therefore, the rabbinic interpretation of the command to “remember the Shabbat and keep it holy,” is for the individual, or the head of each family to sanctify the Shabbat.  The Hebrew word for sanctification is Kiddush (kuf-yud-dalet-vav-shin), which comes from the Hebrew root kaddosh (kuf-dalet-vav-shin) which means holy.   Although most modern Christian Bibles translate the term mikra kodesh to mean “holy assembly,” the Talmud interprets it as a “proclamation of holiness,” thus referring to the Kiddush prayer.

According to Talmudic tradition, Moses issued a decree that allowed people to leave their employment in order to assemble for the reading portions of the Torah, supposedly the same Torah portions read on Shabbat in Synagogues today.  For those who labor during the week, the day is to be set aside for prayer and scriptural study.  For the scholar who spends the week in study, the day is to be set apart for joy and relaxation.  Tell me that determination wasn’t made by a Rabbi who spent his week studying the scriptures.

Cars are not used on Shabbat as they burn fuel, which is considered a violation of kindling a fire, and because they transport objects in a public domain.

Orthodox apartment buildings have special elevators for Shabbat.  During Shabbat, the elevator will go from the very bottom floor of the building, to the very top, stopping at each and every floor, all day, so that the tenants will not have to push any buttons.

Please note, I am not suggesting that any of us keep Shabbat as the Orthodox do, I am merely trying to give you a picture of what they do and why.  In fact, Bart D. Ehrman, a New Testament Scholar, interprets Mark 2:27-28 this way:  “Then he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  So man is Lord even of the Sabbath.’”  Apparently, the same word is used in Greek for Man and Son of Man [need reference from Bart D. Ehrman].  The Sabbath is for our rest, and not to be a burden for us.

That being said, I think this is a good place to cease working [on this blog post] for the week.

---

[1] Abraham P. Bloch, The Biblical and Historical Background of Jewish Customs and Ceremonies (KTAV Publishing House, Inc. New York, 1980)

Paul's perspective on the law

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.  Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.  For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

- Matthew 5:17-20

Reading the scriptures can be confusing at times.  In the above verse, Yeshua himself says that he has not come to abolish the law and that those “who break one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be the least in the kingdom of heaven.” But we all know from reading the letters Paul wrote that we are saved by grace and therefore we are not under the law.  We can read this in several ways, and I am not here to debate the scriptures, but to give a different perspective.

Judith and I went to a party, not long before we got married, where we met a young Jewish girl who was having a hard time understanding exactly what Messianic Judaism was.  We tried to explain, that since Jesus was Jewish, it only made sense that we live a Jewish lifestyle.  To which she replied, “If you want to believe that Jesus was Jewish, that’s your problem.”  Judith and I were both speechless, but unfortunately, there are actually people out there that don’t know Yeshua was Jewish.  Perhaps this is because Christianity seems so different from Judaism.  Yet, early Christianity was considered a sect of Judaism, so how did the two religions become so different?

Many people read the book of Acts as a history of the early church.  The first non-Jewish believer, Cornelius, doesn’t enter the book until chapter 10, and the Jews weren’t exactly sure what to do with him.  After hearing Peter’s story of how these uncircumcised Gentiles were baptized in the Holy Spirit, the other Apostles and brothers from Judea praise God saying (Acts 11:18), “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.”

As more Gentiles came to faith, some brothers from Judea were teaching (Acts 15:1), “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.”  In verse 5, we see this idea repeated from “some of the brothers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees,” who added that the Gentiles should also be required to obey the law of Moses. The decision was made that they should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God, and not to burden them with anything more than abstaining from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.

We read throughout the rest of the New Covenant how Paul took the Gospel message “first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” preaching first in the synagogues and then to others, in many of the provinces of the Roman Empire in the area of the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas.  It is believed that during Paul’s life, which ended a few years before the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem (Paul is believed to have been martyred around 67 AD while the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD) Christianity was still considered a sect of Judaism, although, as we read in Acts, many Jewish leaders strongly opposed this movement.  Some historians believe there was a power struggle between Pharisaic/Rabbinic Judaism and the followers of Yeshua which eventually lead to the formation of these two separate religions [source needed].

After the destruction of the Temple, and the end of the Jewish revolt, the Roman Emperor Vespasian placed a tax on Jews throughout Roman Empire in place of the “tithe” Jews used to pay for the upkeep of the Temple [source needed].  Domitian expanded the tax during his rule to also include anyone who observed Jewish customs [source needed].  Naturally, Christians petitioned the Emperor to recognize Christianity as a separate religion so they would not have to pay the tax [source needed].  Nerva, Domitian’s successor, limited the tax to those who openly practiced Judaism, allowing Christians to avoid the tax by disassociating themselves from Judaism [source needed].

In 303 AD Christians were again persecuted in the Roman Empire under the Emperor Diocletian [source needed]. Christians pushed themselves further from Judaism at the Synod of Elvira in 306 AD when they banned marriages, sexual relations and community contact between Christians and Jews [source needed].  In 313 AD Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan officially recognizing Christianity as a separate religion.  Finally at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, the complete separation was made official when the church declared; “we desire dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews.” 

Part 2

While Judith and I were dating, we attended a college and career group.  The teaching one night, perhaps for our benefit, was on the question of differentiating between the “law” and “sin.” A leader of the group explained the law could be separated into different categories; moral law (as in the ten commandments), ceremonial law (as in the sacrifices) and civil law (as in an eye for an eye).  He argued that Yeshua and others who uphold obedience to the law were referring to moral law, while Paul, in arguing against the law, was referring to the ceremonial and perhaps the civil law. Perhaps, but that really ignores who Paul was.

Who was Paul?  In Acts 22: 3, Paul says; “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city.  Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.”  Paul was a Pharisee.  As I mentioned in my earlier post, Judges, Pharisees and Rabbinut, during the first century, there were two types of law in Israel, the written Law, or the Mosaic Law, and the Oral Law, which would become the Rabbinic Law.  The Pharisees believed that their interpretation of the Mosaic Law, through the Oral Law which had been handed down to them, was to be held in higher regard than the scriptures themselves, for without the rabbinic interpretation, the meaning of the scriptures is unclear.  As Christians have separated themselves from Judaism over the centuries, they also separated themselves from the rabbinic law as we are told from the scriptures not to be under the law, which coming from a Pharisee would mean, not to be under the law of the Pharisees.

Take a look at what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9:19-21: “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.”  Here, Paul specifies that he is outside of the law, “not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ."

Popular thinking is that Paul is referring to Jews when he refers to “those under the law.”  But if you read this as a Pharisee living in the first century (as Paul was), you read those under the law as those who live according to the interpretations of the Pharisees.  Remember, the Pharisees were not the only religious leaders at the time, there were also the Sadducees who believed the Law of Moses should be read literally, and does not need the interpretation of the oral law.

It is written in Matthew that Yeshua says “not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”  There are no pen strokes in the oral law, a point which surely wasn’t lost on the Jews listening to Yeshua.

Christians seem to like to call everything that is “Jewish” living “under the law.”  If you keep any type of kosher, keep Shabbat or celebrate Jewish holy days then you are living under the law.  Although Christians can back up decisions not to keep the above commands with other scripture, I would argue that we cannot just throw away everything Jewish by saying it is living under the law.  I would argue that we are taught not to be under the oral law and the rabbinic interpretation.  That when we read the scriptures, keeping kosher, keeping the Shabbat and celebrating the biblical feasts look very different from what Orthodox Judaism makes these commands look like.  Am I telling you that you need to start keeping kosher, keeping the Shabbat and the biblical feasts? Certainly not as the Orthodox Jews do today.  I would like to see what the scriptures say (Old and New Covenant) about these ideas, but we’ll deal with those scriptures another week.