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)

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.