God's Generals- A Rosh Hashana Sermon

There is a midrash that focuses on one word of the Akedah- “nah”, which means “please”. God says to Avraham, “Kach na et bincha…el eretz ha-moriah…” Please take your son… to the land of Moriah.

Is this a command or a request? The word “Kach” is in the imperative form, and yet He uses the word “please”.

The midrash likens it to a king who has a general that has fought many wars for him. He says to him, “You have won many battles for me, win this last one so that my generals cannot disparage me.” Similarly, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, said to Avraham, “I have tested you with 9 tests and you have withstood them. Now please stand this last test for me, so that they cannot say the others have no substance.”

The parable given in this midrash is clear. The king is God and Avraham is the general, and the wars are the tests of Avraham. What are these tests? It is mentioned in Pirke Avot that Avraham underwent ten trials, but it does not say what they were. There have been many attempts to enumerate them over the centuries. Here is the list by the Rambam:

• Leave his land
• Famine in the land
• Egyptians capture Sarah
• Fights battle with 5 kings
• Marries Hagar
• Circumcises himself in old age
• King Gerar captures Sarah
• Sends Hagar away
• Ishmael becomes estranged
• Sacrifice of Isaac

(I am not sure why marrying Hagar was a trial. Maybe she was a real gem of a wife! But then why is sending her away a trial?)

We can ask some questions of this midrash.

And what is at stake here? It doesn’t seem that the king is concerned about losing land, or treasure. He is concerned about his prestige. We can hear pleading in his words to his general. “Please don’t let my name be dishonored.”

And who are these generals mocking the king? It seems odd that his generals would do this. Should they not be loyal retainers? There are many theories about who they represent. Some say that they are the young men waiting at the foot of Mount Moriah. Others that it is Avraham’s household. Yet others say that it is the pagan nations of the world who are watching this drama unfold and are mocking God that Avraham will not be able to bear this last test. Finally, some say that the generals are God’s angels. But why would they want to mock God?

My take on this is that the generals indeed are the angels, but they are the fallen angels. It is ha-Satan and his legions that used to be God’s loyal generals who are now mocking Him. They are declaring that God’s grand experiment with Israel will fail. They are claiming that humanity is not trustworthy, that they cannot overcome their yetzer hara (evil inclination). Avraham is God’s great warrior who is showing them up.

But Avraham only points forward to that greatest of Generals, Yeshua ha-Mashiach! It is he who succeeds with the greatest of tests and dies for the sins of Israel and the nations. In Colossians it says “Stripping the rulers and authorities of their power, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by means of the stake.” This is meant to create the image of a Roman triumphal procession where the victorious general includes captives in parade to display to all his victory. With his resurrection, Yeshua marches his captives before the world, mocking those who mocked the King!

And in the Book of Hebrews it says “he became like them and shared that same human nature; so that by his death he might render ineffective the one who had power over death (that is, the Adversary) and thus set free those who had been in bondage all their lives because of their fear of death.”

Yeshua wins the war for Hashem and destroys the ability of the generals to accuse, mock, and disparage. In fact, he puts them on public display of shame in the heavenly realms!

We, too, are God’s generals. Every time we resist temptation and sin, we win a battle for Him. We declare to the rulers and authorities that we can indeed overcome the yetzer hara! That we can indeed be holy! And by doing so we thereby preserve and enhance God’s glory!

Our Sages tell us that shofar we about to hear not only is a call to repentance but it is also to announce the coronation of the King. We crown Him King with the blast of the shofar. But we also crown Him King when we win our own tests; when we resist temptation and sin! As we hear the shofar today, let us remember that we are His warriors, following our Great General Yeshua ha-Mashiach! And with him, we put on public display the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms who would disparage our King. May the blast of the shofar call us forth to win many battles in this New Year. Shana Tova.  

Parshat Devarim: The Defeat of Idolatry

Traditionally Western Christianity has understood Yeshua’s death as an atonement for sin. But this is not the only view. I read a book years ago about a woman who converted from Protestantism to Greek Orthodoxy. She explained this view of his death to her priest and he was surprised by it. He explained that from an Eastern Orthodox point of view, Yeshua’s death wasn’t so much about atonement but of conquering death. From their point of view, the efficacy of Yeshua’s death was that he entered in and conquered death. You may have seen these very popular icons of Christ standing on the broken doors to hell. Rabbi Mark gave a beautiful midrash a few years ago where Yeshua’s death was a culmination of an exchange of gifts between God and Abraham. Just has Abraham was willing to offer up his beloved son to God, God offers up His son, Yeshua.

These do not need to be competing views. All of them may be simultaneously true. There are many facets to Yeshua’s sacrifice. I have another to propose to you today.

In Devarim, Deuteronomy, we have Moses’ final words to Israel; it is his departing speech before he dies and they enter into the Land. He retells the story of the Exodus and enjoins Israel to obey Torah. Part of that story is the Exodus and the death of the firstborn, the final plague visited upon Egypt.

In this story, God commands Israel to place blood of a lamb on the doorposts of their homes. Our Sages argue about whether the blood was to be applied to the inside or the outside of the doors. The text does not tell us. In the Mikhilta de Rabbi Ishmael, which is a halachic midrash on Exodus, we have a record of this argument. Rabbi Natan says that it was to be applied to the inside of the doors. He notes that God says “And the blood on the houses where you are staying shall be a sign for you.” (Ex 12:13). Since it was a sign for Israel and not others the blood was to be applied to the inside of the doors.

Rabbi Isaac disagrees. He says that it was to be applied to the outside of the door so that the Egyptians would see it and be horrified.

Maimonides agrees with Rabbi Natan. He says that Israel was worshipping Egypt’s gods, which includes a sheep god, Amon. It was a sign for Israel that they had to give up idolatry in order to merit redemption.

Hezekiah ben Menoah agrees with Rabbi Isaac. He notes that Israel was to bring the sheep into their homes for four days in order to show the Egyptians that their god was being humiliated. Furthermore, God commands them to kill the sheep towards evening. Hezekiah says this was so that when the Egyptians were coming home from work, during rush hour so to speak, they would see the representation of their god killed and its blood smeared on the doorposts. Israel was also commanded to roast the sheep whole and this was so that it was still recognizable as a sheep to the Egyptians to further drive the point home that their god was impotent. In contrast to Maimonides, Hezekiah argues that it wasn’t to convince Israel of the futility of idolatry, but to convince the Egyptians.

Essentially God brings judgment down on the gods of Egypt, which He explicitly says in Exodus 12:12, “I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment down on the gods of Egypt.”

This viewpoint leads us to another way of viewing Yeshua’s death; another facet of his death.

I have always been puzzled that Rav Shaul (Paul) calls Yeshua our Passover Lamb, because this lamb was not a sin offering. We can look at this as God bringing down His wrath down upon the Perfect Lamb. He brings judgment upon all that stands against God; idols or self-worship. God brings down judgment upon all Avodah Zerah (idolatry). Our Sages tell us that the First Temple was destroyed because of Israel’s idolatry. Likewise, Yeshua, the Living Temple, was destroyed because of idolatry!

Every day we pray the Alaynu, that idolatry will be brought to an end and God’s kingship be recognized by all the earth. Yeshua is the down payment from God that all idolatry, all that stands against God will indeed be defeated; that the Alaynu will come true.

Yochanan the Immerser (John the Baptist) cried out “Behold the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world”. Normally we think of this statement as his declaration that Yeshua would atone for sinners. But we need to remember that in the Bible sin is a tangible entity. It is a defilement and contamination that has almost a physical reality to it. Yeshua is the sacrifice that removes all more defilement from the world. Midrashically we interpret "the sin" as not all all sin but a specific one. What is "The Sin" that is taken away? It is the sin of idolatry, our rejection of Hashem!

Yeshua did indeed die for our sins and made atonement for us. He indeed entered into death and conquered it. His death was indeed an exchange of gifts of love between Hashem and Israel and the whole world. But we can also view his death as God bringing judgment down on all that is anti-God; against all avodah zarah.

Let us praise the one who was willing to be that Perfect Passover Lamb. Let us praise the one who was willing to take on all of the condemnation and to be avodah zarah for us.

Tisha B’Av is before us. Let us look to the Living Temple who was destroyed for our idolatry.

Today is Shabbat Chazon, the Sabbath of Vision. Our tradition says that on this day we get a special glimpse of the Third Temple as we mourn the destruction of the first two temples. May we see it and may we see the one who will come to restore it!

Shabbat Shalom!

Parshat Balak: Master of the Moment

The Talmud discusses our Sages belief that God gets angry only once a day. It revolves around the scene of God’s anger at the Golden Calf incident. Moses tries to appease God, and God tells him to wait until His anger passes. Since Moses had already affected reconciliation between God and Israel over the incident, they conclude that this means that God has an appointed time every day in which He is angry. Our Sages then ask “How long does His anger last every day?” The answer is a moment. I am surmising that this is based on Psalm 30:5 which says “For his anger only lasts a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime.”

The Hebrew word for moment is “rega”. It means a wink, a motion so fast that one cannot actually see it. Our own English word, moment, has the same basis. It comes from the word momentum and has the connotation of the swift movement of the second hand on a clock. The Talmud goes on to define a rega in two ways. The first is that it is as long as it takes to say the word “rega”. But another authority defines it as 1/58,888 of an hour, basically one quarter of a second.

The Talmud continues by saying that Bilam knew when this moment was every day. It was because of this knowledge that King Balak sought him out so he could curse Israel at that precise moment and thereby bring God’s judgment down. It quotes our Haftorah reading from Micah where God says to Israel, “Remember my kindness when Balak and Bilam plotted against you”.

One could say that Bilam was a Baal Rega, a Master of the Moment. But he was thwarted by Hashem and instead is forced to bless our people instead of cursing us.

Yeshua, however, is the true Baal Rega; the true Master of the Moment. He dies at the precise moment of God’s anger and thereby takes on God’s judgment of Israel and the nations of the world. In Isaiah 54:8 God says to Israel, “In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment [rega], but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you.” While this is a message to Israel, we can view this midrashically to be a statement to Yeshua as the One-Man-Israel. Yeshua as he is dying is rejected by Hashem for a rega, a moment. And Yeshua cries out, “Eli Eli, lama sabachthani”, (My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?). But then God elevates him with everlasting compassion to sit at His right hand and rule as King Messiah!

The Talmud also asks, “What could Bilam have said in an instant?” In other words, what curse could someone utter in such a brief span of time. The answer given is that he could have said “Kalaym”, (Chaf-lamed-mem), which means “Destroy them!” But it goes on to say that God thwarted him by reversing the letters to “melech” (mem-lamed-chaf), which means “king”. It references Numbers 23:21 where it says “…and the shout of the king is among them”. The Hebrew translated as shout is actually the word “teruah” which is one of the sounds made by blowing the shofar.

We can create our own midrash using this and Rav Shaul’s (Paul’s) statement in 1 Corinthians 15:52, where he says, “It will happen in a moment [rega], in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet [teruah] is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed.” At the end of time, Yeshua, our Baal Rega, will return as King with a shout, a trumpet blast, a teruah. And in an instant, a rega, will usher in the Messianic Age!

As we march towards Tisha B’Av where we commemorate the destruction of the two Temples and also Yeshua’s death, let us have gratitude for God’s mercies. Let us be grateful that He sent us his only son to be our Baal Rega, our Master of the Moment. Let us praise and worship Messiah Yeshua for his mighty act of redemption. In a rega he died for the sins of Israel and the whole world. In a rega he reversed Kalaym to Melech, Destruction to King. And in a rega, he will return as King with a trumpet blast, bringing all to its final consummation. May Hashem bring it speedily and in our days. Shabbat Shalom!

The Desire of Our Eyes

Our Haftorah reading today tells the story of Shimshon, Samson. An angel appears to his mother who is barren and announces to her that she will have a son. He is to be a lifelong nazir (nazirite). Her husband is doubtful and asks to see the angle who upon her prompting reappears and confirms her story.

Many times people draw connections between Samson and Yochannan the Immerser (John the Baptist). In his birth story, the angel appears to the husband, but he doubts and is struck mute. The angel tells him that while his wife has been barren she will have a son. Yochannan is born and is consecrated to God for his lifetime as a nazir.

But I don’t want to talk about that today. Instead I would like to contrast Samson with Yeshua. Samson is dedicated to God by his parents but he is impulsive and lustful. He flies into rages, goes on killing rampages, and is a womanizer. (Samson liked the shiksas!) He violates his nazirite vows. He drinks honey from the carcass of a lion and has drinking parties with his buddies.

The Talmud says that Samson was blinded because he followed his own eyes. He says to his parents that he wants a Philistine woman because “she is pleasing to my eyes”. This is, say our sages, an example of middah keneged middah, measure for measure. Samson follows the lust of his eyes and therefore loses those eyes. Perhaps a fitting and poetic punishment.

Yeshua was also born after an angelic announcement and dedicated to lifelong service of Hashem. He was intended to be a redeemer just as Samson was. Samson was to redeem Israel from the Philistines, Yeshua the whole world from its sins. In contrast to Samson, however, he kept his eyes on Hashem, not his own desires. In the John 5 he says “I tell you that the Son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; whatever the Father does, the Son does too.” And in the Garden, just before his arrest, he tells God that he desires life but will do his Father’s will.

We are to be like Yeshua, not Samson. We are to keep our eyes upon God not upon our own desires. The Torah helps us to curb these desires, to know what is holy. It places boundaries on our behavior. We live in a society today where everyone follows his or her own desires. This is good to some extent, but it leads to people applauding greed, lust, envy, and the like.

Keeping our eyes upon Hashem takes work. We have to be attentive to our own impulses and recognize them for what they are. We have to cultivate a habit of awareness of God’s presence in our daily lives. Today is Day 46 of the Counting of the Omer. Its theme is Netzach of Malchut, Endurance of Divine Presence. This speaks to the need for us to practice God’s presence throughout our lives! The mitzvoth help us towards that goal. And kavannah, inner focus and attention, is key. We cannot experience God’s presence by rushing into things, or doing the mitzvot by rote.

The Torah tells us that Samson had seven locks of hair. These are called in Hebrew, machlefot; plaits or braids. (They could have been dreadlocks, which would be really cool since I am a Reggae music fan!) We have our own braids, our own machlefot. They are not made of hair but threads. They are our tzit-tzit. They remind us of the Torah and its commandments and how we are to behave. There is a story told, most likely apocryphal, about a man who saves money and goes to the most expensive prostitute in town. As he is undressing he looks upon his tzit-tzit and realizes what he knew all along, that this was a great sin he was about to commit. He tells her that he cannot and explains why. She is so impressed that she quits her profession and converts to Judaism. This story is told by the Rabbis to remind us the importance of our tzit-tzit as reminders to keep our eyes on God. In fact, we recite in our liturgy the words of the Shema, that we will look upon them and not follow the desires of our eyes!

Let us not be like Samson, chasing after every desire of our eyes.

Let us be like Yeshua, who kept his eyes on Hashem.

May we look upon our own machlefot, our tzit-tzit, and remember that there are boundaries to our behavior, regardless of our desires.

May we pray for Yeshua to empower us to live a life of a nazir; dedicated to God.

Shabbat Shalom!

  

Parshat Baha'alotecha: The Two Miryams

In our parsha this week we have the story of the rebellion of Miryam and Aaron. They spoke out against Moses and his Cushite wife. Why was Miryam the only one afflicted with tzaraat when they both spoke out? Our rabbis say it is because she was the chief instigator, Aaron only tagged along at her prompting. It was like a thief who steals food from a garden and then hands it to someone standing outside of the garden. Only the thief is pursued.

What were they speaking out against? The standard understanding is that the Cushite woman was from Cush, south of Egypt. But another interpretation states that “Cushite” can mean simply a beautiful woman. One midrash says that Miryam spoke out against Moses (along with Aaron) because he was abstaining from relations with his beautiful (Cushite) wife, Zipporah. Her concern was that by doing so Moses was keeping her from bearing more children.

This is similar to another midrash about the birth of Moses. According to this text, since Pharaoh had commanded that the Hebrew baby boys be killed Moses’ father divorced his wife so as to not have any more children.  Miryam, a young girl at the time, reproached her father. She said, “Father, Pharaoh has eliminated half of the children, but you have killed all of the children.” For female babies could still be born but they could not because he left his wife. He heeds his daughter’s rebuke, returns to his wife, and thus Moses was born.

Miryam is thus depicted by the rabbis as being concerned with life, the life of her people.

It is fitting, therefore, that the Talmud tells us that Miryam was the source of life giving water in the parched desert of the wilderness. It says that Israel merited the Pillar of Cloud due to the righteousness of Aaron, the Manna due to the righteousness of Moses, and the Water from the Rock due to the righteousness of Miryam.  Aaron’s merit warranted the Pillar of Cloud because the Torah tells us that immediately after his death the king of Arad attacked Israel; the logic being that he did so because he saw that God’s protection (the cloud) had been withdrawn. Moses’ merit warranted the Manna, because the Torah tells us that they ate it until they reached the Promised Land, which they did immediately after Moses’ death. Miryam’s merit warranted the Water because the Torah tells us that immediately after her death they had no water.

In fact, a midrash tells us that the rock that Moses struck after the crossing of the Red Sea was the same rock as the one he was supposed to speak to but instead struck near the end of their wanderings in the desert. This Rock was referred to as Miryam’s Well, and it rolled along with Israel throughout the forty years in the desert and supplied water whenever commanded. Miryam was a prophet, a leader of our people, and a giver of life.

There was another Miryam, born centuries later. While not a prophet or a leader, she was a giver of life. She gave us, through her merit, the Source of Life, Yeshua ha-Mashiach. She gave us living water for Yeshua, himself, was The Living Water. When he was speaking with the Samaritan woman at the well, he said to her “If you know who was asking you would ask him and he would give you living water and you would never thirst again.” Later, while visiting the Temple during Sukkot, he declares plainly, “I am the Living Water, let anyone who is thirsty and come and drink!” Rav Shaul (Paul) explicitly connects Yeshua to Miryam’s Well in 1 Corinthians 10 when he says that the rock that accompanied Israel in the desert was the pre-incarnate Yeshua! It is his midrash on the midrash!

We can be like the two Miryams. We can be sources of life giving water. Living Water. In the same passage where Yeshua talks with the Samaritan woman he says “The water that I will give them [who ask for it] will become a spring of living water welling up to eternal life.” And at the Temple during Sukkot he says “Whoever believes in me will have fonts of living water gushing forth from within them.” You see, it’s not just about us receiving the living water, but us then becoming a source of the living water to those around us!

But what does “believe” mean? We are trained to think of this word as meaning intellectual assent. But its more correct meaning comes from the Hebrew word, emunah, which means faithfulness or a faithful abiding. We become wells of living water not through intellectual assent but by faithfully abiding in Yeshua and Torah! We can be like the two Miryams by living a life of regular and consistently drinking from the springs of living water and thus become life-giving springs of living water to those around us! And we do this not just for our benefit, but for the benefit of those who live around us! We drink of the sake of others!

We sang this song this morning, a song based on Psalm 36. It says, “How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.”

We drink from God’s “river of delights” (such a beautiful image!) and thus become fountains of life from the The Fountain of Life!

May we be like the two Miryams.

May we be fonts of living water; refreshing and life-giving to those around us.

May we live a life of emunah, faithfully and consistently drinking from The Well, so that we may tap into Him who is the Source of Life!

Shabbat Shalom.

Based on Acts 15 Should Christians Keep Kosher?

Your second question was should Christians keep kosher based on the decree in Acts 15?

Many people are tempted to read scripture like it is a rulebook. I don't think that this is appropriate. We need to understand the context in which scripture was written and then derive principles from it. In Acts 15, the council is dealing with gentiles coming to faith and then living in largely Jewish communities. One of the main issues here is table fellowship. If gentile believers are eating with Jewish brethren, then they need to be considerate of them and their obligation to eat kosher food. This is the crux of the ruling. They were trying to find a minimum standard that would be acceptable to all.

So given this viewpoint, we should not expect Christians to keep kosher on a regular everyday basis because most modern-day Christians don't live in predominantly Jewish communities. If, however, you were to be visiting or attending a Messianic synagogue, or visiting a friend's home then you should take care to respect their practices.

Notice that the ruling in Acts does not forbid the eating of non-kosher foods such as lobsters, birds of prey, insects, etc... It only forbids food sacrificed to idols, blood (which most likely means meat with blood in it), and meat of strangled animals. (When an animal is strangled its meat is infused with blood).

It should also be noted that this list is very similar to what Rabbinic Judaism calls the Seven Noachide Laws. These are laws that God gave to Noah and thus are incumbent upon all humanity. They consist of six prohibitions and one requirement; idolatry, murder, theft, sexual immorality, blasphemy, eating flesh torn from a living animal, and to establish courts of justice.

Clearly lists like these were circulating around in Yeshua's day. The early church is basically saying that the minimal observance for Christians to to follow the commandments incumbent upon all humans.

How Much Torah?

My email friend sent back a couple of more questions, here is the answer to the first one...

****

Hi M,

Your next question was how much of the Law are Jewish Yeshua-followers expected to keep and is there new covenant grace for Jews trying to keep Torah.

Let me answer the second part of the question first. It is important to understand first of all that the Torah was not given as a means of salvation. You did not infer that in your question but it is such a common misconception that I wanted to mention it. God, out of His grace, chose and redeemed Israel from Egypt. Once that was done, He gave them His teachings (Torah means teaching not law) on how to live as His holy people. So to use Christian theological terms, Torah is about Sanctification not Justification.

God knew that Israel, as imperfect humans, could not possibly keep the Torah. He therefore included in His Torah the means by which one could restore the relationship. This is the sacrificial system. It is by God's grace that He accepts the offering and forgives the person.

If you read the text carefully you will discover that there are only offerings for unintentional sins. There is no sacrifice for one who intentionally violates Torah. The assumption is that an Israelite is attempting to live in fidelity to Torah. This caused much concern on the part of the rabbis, for clearly people do at times deliberately sin. What to do? Their conclusion was that if a person sincerely repents of deliberate sin, God changes it to be as if it was an unintentional sin and therefore can be atoned for. A rather clever way to address the issue. Yeshua becomes the ultimate sin offering that brings forgiveness to Israel and all of humanity. So we as Messianic Jews and Christians can see that this is also covered by his atoning sacrifice.

So I guess this is a long winded answer to say that grace existed within the Torah, indeed it is one of its foundations! Grace also, of course, exists with the new covenant as well. Yeshua's offering of himself is merely an intensification and perfection of grace, as this is no longer the blood of animals, but the blood of the Son of God (see Hebrews 9). So there was grace for Jews who failed to follow Torah prior to the advent of Yeshua, and there is a more perfect grace with Yeshua.

Let me also point out, as this is another common misconception, that the sacrifices were for more than just sin. Only 2 of the 5 types of sacrifices have to do with sin. The others are voluntary offerings expression devotion and fellowship with God. And of the 2, they do not cover all sins, just ones that are considered particularly offensive to God such as vain oaths, misuse of Temple objects, etc. But this is a topic for another time.

Now to the first part of the question. This is a more complicated issue. Some folks reject the rabbis and attempt to harken back to what they call "Biblical Judaism". Their argument is that Rabbinical Judaism was largely a development after Yeshua by Jews who had "rejected" him, and therefore we should not follow their laws. There are two problems with this. First, the Torah as given assumed a society of Jews living as a theocracy. Since Israel does not exist as such a community any more how could we even do this? And are we going to start stoning people again and such? Second, as Jews we are part of all of Israel, not just the parts that we agree with. Therefore, we have to at least wrestle with and take seriously rabbinic tradition as it is an important part of our inheritance.

And the reality is that many of the laws cannot be followed even by Orthodox Jews as they have to deal with things like living in Israel and the Temple. I think that I read somewhere that the maximum number for Jews living outside of Israel is like 124 out of 613 commandments.

A group of rabbis within our movement have formed a rabbinical council and have started to define Messianic halacha (Jewish law). They have taken a sensible approach in accepting that many in our movement come from little or no Torah observance. So they have defined what they consider to be a minimum, expecting folks to start there and move their way upwards. (This is a very similar approach to Conservative Judaism). You can look at their site at www.ourrabbis.org.

So how much Torah should Messianic Jews keep? Well, certainly a starting point would be to focus on key identity markers such as keeping kosher, observing Shabbat, life cycle events, holy days, etc... Ultimately, it would be nice to have a movement that was very similar in its level of observance to that of the Modern Orthodox, but we are probably a few generations away from that developing fully.

Should Christians Keep the Torah?

I was asked in an email about this issue and here is my response. I thought that some of you might like to read it.
***

Hi M,

I would be happy to answer your question. When I am teaching about this topic I point out to people that there are two things to keep in mind when reading the New Testament. 

First, it would have never occurred to the early Jewish followers of Yeshua (Jesus) that God would expect Jews to stop obeying the Torah. Why would the God of Israel expect Israel to stop its faithfulness to the Sinai covenant? It does not make sense. In fact, we see quite the opposite. There was an expectation, or maybe assumption, that gentiles coming to faith in Yeshua would also convert to Judaism, because this was their paradigm. The radical and momentous decision made in Acts 15 is that God was doing something new with the gentiles and therefore they should not require gentiles to take on Torah observance. 

I am convinced that this was the reason for the giving of tongues. The Jewish followers needed a clear and outward sign from God that the gentiles were saved without first becoming Jews. This is why you see the repeated reaction of surprise (Acts 10:45; 11:18)

Paul, therefore, seems to argue against the Torah but what he is really arguing against is expecting gentile Yeshua-followers to take on these practices. He argues that if this is required then you are saying that the cross did not have efficacy to save; clearly in his view a great distortion of the Besorah (Good News).

Second, the traditions and rules of the Pharisees was a novelty in Yeshua's day. They had not been around for very long. They were very popular with the people, however, especially in Judea. What the Pharisees did was brought the ritual practices of the Temple to ordinary everyday Jews. Their argument was that all Jews were priests since Israel was a kingdom of priests and therefore all of life needed to be treated as holy, not just the priestly activities in the Temple. Their ideas were not held by all and there was much controversy about these practices. Consequently there is a mix of practices by first century Jews and hence among first century Jewish followers of Yeshua. Notice that Yeshua is asked why some of his followers do not wash their hands before they eat. This implies that some did, and it also implies that Yeshua did!  

Paul, therefore, seems to be arguing against Torah laws when in fact he is dealing with these issues of ritual purity in the context of a community made up of Jews from varying types of backgrounds and practices and gentiles. When he talks about clean and unclean food he is not debating whether Jewish believers should eat pork not, but whether people of these various backgrounds can come together in communal fellowship when some a very stringent in their table purity practices and others are not.

It is my contention, along with most in our movement, that Christians are not expected to take up Torah observance; in fact to require it would be against God's will. But neither are Jews free from this covenant. Christians are certainly free to take up some of the practices as long as they see that they are doing this out of freedom and desire to relate to their Jewish brethren and not out of obligation.

I hope that this brief explanation helps. If the book you are reading is by David Rudolph it is a good resource. I have not the read the book but have studied under him and he is very knowledgeable. Another book that I would highly recommend is "Post-Missionary Messianic Judaism" by Mark Kinzer. He lays these issues out in much more detail than I have done here.

Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Shalom,

isaac

How to Discern Bad Messianic Teaching

A friend recently asked me what I thought about a “Messianic” leader who is a very public figure. I had never heard of him but a quick search convinced me pretty quickly that he was probably a nut job. My wife called me on the carpet about being too uncharitable, and she is right. (She is going to make a great rebbetzin whether she thinks so or not!). But the reality is that there are numerous “Messianic” teachers out there who get a lot of attention from the church and they seem legit, when they really are not. These teachers prey on sincere Christians who don’t know any better. So I promised my friend that I would try to put together a list of items that are red flags for me when I encounter such folk. Hopefully this will be helpful to anyone who reads this.

 

Not all Messianic Jews would consider these to be red flags, so I am expressing views based on what I consider to be a mature Messianic viewpoint.

 

1. Teach that Christians should keep kosher, Jewish holidays, worship on Saturdays, etc…

Messianic Judaism holds that Jews who are followers of Jesus are still under the Mosaic covenant and are obligated to Torah observance. Christians are not. This was the decision in Acts 15 that Gentiles did not have to become Jews to join with Israel. Christians are certainly free to take on Jewish practices as a way of wishing to express solidarity with Israel, but they are in no way obligated to live as Jews. In fact, we applaud Christians developing their own traditions and practices that express their love of God in their own ways. Worshipping on Sundays, having Christmas trees, etc… are totally fine. Occasionally we get visitors to our synagogue who express this viewpoint and I tell them that they are thinking that they are being Jewish by holding such a position, but in fact they are the opposite. Judaism is an orthopraxic faith, and the traditions are valid if accepted and practiced by the community. Jews continue saying “mazel tov”, congrats, despite the fact that it comes from astrology (it means literally “lucky stars”). It has become an accepted phrase. Christians in like manner, should feel free to enjoy Christmas trees despite their pagan origins.

Some people of this persuasion will even tell Christians that they ARE Jews. This is categorically wrong and anti-biblical.

 

2. Dress like they live in Biblical times or just got off the boat from Eastern Europe.

There are a few, very few, Hasidic Messianic Jews. The vast majority of MJs come from Conservative, Reform, or entirely secular homes. Usually when people dress like this they are Gentiles who have become enamored with Jewish things and have no real concept of what it means to live as a Jew. (I was at a conference years ago where a guy dressed like a Hasid was eating a cheeseburger at McDonald’s!) It is because of this reality that some MJ leaders in our movement specifically do not sport beards in order to make the point. If you see someone dressed in these ways, you should be instantly suspicious.

A corollary to this is people who use Hebrew names like Nechamah or Yeshayahu. Unless they are from Israel, this should be a warning, especially if coupled with the above mentioned dress choices. Some sincere and level-headed MJs take on Hebrew names or Hebrew versions of their names. But all too often this is not the case. It is more due to a desire to sound “authentically Jewish”. This is one of the reasons that I prefer to go by “izi” instead of “Isaac”. (I am keeping my beard but am willing to modify my name!)

 

3. Excessively focused on End Times

Jews by and large are not focused on End Times. This is a signature Christian preoccupation. If a Messianic teacher is going on and on about End Times, they are either coming from their own Christian background or are catering to Christian interests. This is an immediate red flag for me.

 

4. Militantly Missionary

If a Messianic teacher is very focused on missions work, especially to Jews, this is a red flag to me. Messianic Judaism is not Jews for Jesus. The latter is a missionary organization that is focused on coverting Jews. Messianic Judaism is a congregational movement seeking to establish a home for Jewish followers of Jesus. These missionary groups are very appealing especially to evangelical Christians because of the focus on getting Jews “saved”. Much damage has been done by these groups because of their approach. MJ seeks to be an example of how to live both faithfully to Torah and to Yeshua (Jesus). Our message is that Jews can and should remain Jews as followers of Jesus. These missionary groups have little regard for the Mosaic covenant; many even teach that it is wrong. They are operating out of what we would call a “Hebrew Christian” mindset, rather than a Messianic Jewish one.

 

There may be some other ones, and I could go into more detail into each of these…