towardblog year 1: the first post

This last Saturday, October 24, 2009, was the five-year anniversary of the beginning of towardblog!

It’s hard to believe that it’s been five years since the beginning the blogging journey. So with a blog going into its sixth year, I thought it be interesting for those just finding towardblog to experience the first post that I made back on October 24, 2004 (in actuality this is the second post, being that the first was just ” welcome to towardblog”  posting.

This first post on the question of Gentiles and the messianic movement, and specifically the issue of the committed non-Jew is actually a reprinting of a paper I wrote on the subject which I later presented in a discussion forum at a Young Messianic Jewish Scholars Conference.

Being that I had not yet adopted the style of posting only 3 to 5 paragraphs as I began doing on the blog, this is a long form  paper presented as a blog post.

Shalom,

yochanan

Messianic Judaism and the Committed Non-Jew

(10/24/2004)

Will Messianic Judaism be the only expression of Judaism that excludes from full participation the Committed Non-Jew?

This is a question that faces us as we look to forming a true Messianic Judaism. This question is irrelevant for a “Messianic Movement”, which is really just Hebrew Christianity under a new name. This is an issue for a Judaism to deal with and in our discussion vital for a Messianic Judaism. As a Judaism we must ask Jewish questions and be prepared to give Jewish answers.

As a Judaism, we face a problematic issue, namely Non-Jews in Messianic Judaism and in the life of Messianic Jewish synagogues. This may seem to be a disturbing concept to many that see Messianic Judaism as the “Jewish Church” and the place of Messianic Judaism being the Jewish cultural form of the Universal Christian Church. But we have to deal with the issue of Non-Jews in our midst, are they a part of synagogue life or merely supportive attendees? Below I will categorize some types of Non-Jews in our midst:

1. The Pro-Israel Christian
2. The “Anti-Church” Christian
3. The Supporter of the “Jewish Church”
4. The Involved Synagogue Attender
5. The Committed Non-Jew

• The Pro-Israel Christian attends a Messianic Synagogue on Shabbat and a Christian Church on Sunday. They support Israel and the Jewish People. They also enjoy the music and dancing that is a part of our Movement. But their theology and faith commitment is to Christianity. They may at times comment that we are being “too Jewish”. These Non-Jews make up a part of our Movement, yet their commitments lie within the Church.

• The “Anti-Church” Christian is a Gentile Christian who out of a protest or rejection of the Church attends a Messianic synagogue. They pose a problem to Messianic Judaism because their involvement in our Movement is not for us, but as a protest against their problem with the Church. They are not committed to a Jewish life and over time will find something about Messianic Judaism to turn them against us. These are the most problematic Non-Jews.

• The Supporter of the “Jewish Church” is a Gentile Christian that sees Messianic Judaism as the “Jewish Church” akin to Hispanic and Korean Churches. They support us as a cultural form of Christianity. This is the place of understanding of my own mother. She has attended services and Seders at the various congregations that I have attended yet she sees us as like the Hispanic and Vietnamese Churches that meet on the grounds of her Baptist Church. These Non-Jews support our existence, though their understanding of us is flawed. These Non-Jews make up the bulk of Christians that support the Messianic Jewish Movement.

• The Involved Synagogue Attender is the Non-Jew that makes up a large part of the Non-Jews in Messianic Synagogues. They have taken to the synagogue and to aspects of Jewish life. Though much of the expression of Judaism is based in the synagogue. They have a commitment that is more than mere attendance. They observe Shabbat and the Festivals in synagogue life and study Jewish books, but they are content as they are as Non-Jews in a Messianic synagogue.

• The Committed Non-Jew is the Non-Jew that has been called to Messianic Judaism and has been drawn to a Jewish life. Beyond the commitment of the Involved Synagogue Attender, they seek to follow Torah in all aspects of daily life, including Shabbat and Kashrut. The Committed Non-Jew’s commitment to Messianic Judaism and the larger Jewish world marks a clear distinction in their commitment and calling. They like the Egyptians that left Egypt and with Israel stood at Mt. Sinai have been drawn to the G-d of Israel and to the People of Israel in a unique way. This commitment can lead to “conversion” or “commitment” to Judaism in Rabbinic Judaism. Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and even Humanistic Judaism have a mechanism/process for The Committed Non-Jew to cast their lot with Israel. Though many conversions to Judaism in Rabbinic Judaism is for marriage to a Jewish person, of those in Messianic Judaism the prime desire of many is a commitment to Judaism and the Jewish people.

A Messianic Jewish conversion process would be an outward affirmation by the Messianic Jewish community of an inward commitment that many have made years ago. These Committed Non-Jews have walked a Torah life and meet the Torah’s requirements of Shabbat and Passover observance, only lacking brit milah or dam brit to complete the process.

As a Judaism we have to deal with this issue of The Committed Non-Jew, if we are going to truly be a Judaism. This does not discredit the other Non-Jews in our Movement, of which the Involved Synagogue Attender plays an important role, but it marks out a process or rite of passage for The Committed Non-Jew, to complete the process of commitment to Judaism that has begun in their life.

There is a concern about a possible “bandwagon effect” if Messianic Judaism established a conversion process. This fear is unfounded if the Rabbis and leaders follow strict guidelines. Of the Non-Jews that I know in my synagogue only 2 or 3 would seek this conversion process and all have been involved in Messianic synagogues for many years. These are people who have a calling to sojourn with Israel and who as Non-Jews seek to make Torah their life.

So then, how can we hold back the “bandwagon effect or “mass conversion” of Non-Jews to Messianic Judaism?

First off, like in Rabbinic Judaism the Rabbis and leaders must rebuff those seeking conversion, so as to test their commitment to the process. This rebuffing is also a test of the calling and commitment to the whole of Jewish life.

Also important is education in that the prospective convert must be committed to a Jewish life and to their connection to all of Israel not just “saved Jews”. The prospective convert must be actively a part of the life of a Messianic synagogue and have training and knowledge of Torah and Jewish practice. They should also stand before and be examined by a Beit Din made up of recognized Messianic Jewish leaders in which there commitment to Jewish life will be examined. Also of great importance is that for prospective male converts brit milah or dam brit must be done. Circumcision is the sign of the Covenant in the flesh and this must be a part of the conversion process. At least for men this will be a real sign of commitment to Judaism and a Jewish life. The prospective convert should also go through immersion as the final act of commitment to Messianic Judaism. Also important in the process is the taking of a Hebrew name, as they become son or daughter of Abraham and Sarah.

We stand in an awkward place in that the writers of the Brit Chadasha expected the Messianic Age in their lifetime and they did not address the issue of the Non-Jew within the Messianic synagogue. They did not foresee the two millennia that would pass since the time of Yeshua and we stand to define ourselves without direct guidance from the early Messianic Jews. Though the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, addresses required conversion to Judaism of Non-Jews before joining the Messianic community, the Council did not rule on voluntary conversion of which the concluding phrase “Moshe is preached in all the synagogues every Shabbat” leaves open a deeper commitment and even a “conversion” of the Messianic Non-Jew to Judaism. The requiring of Non-Jews to convert to Judaism is clearly forbidden by the Council and we should seek to speak out against any “Messianic” group that begins conversion as a requirement for affiliation. This conversion to Messianic Judaism is for those who have a calling and commitment to Judaism and to the Jewish people and is truly an external confirmation of an internal “conversion” experience.

If we are going to be a Judaism, a true Messianic Judaism, we have to deal with the issue of the Non-Jews in our synagogues and to especially deal with the issue of the Committed Non-Jew.

Messianic Judaism Future – Yeshua’s Passing the Torch

It was around that time that Yeshua went out to the hill country to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to G-d.

When day came, he called his talmidim and chose from among them twelve to be known as emissaries:

Shim`on, whom he named Kefa; Andrew, his brother; Ya`akov; Yochanan; Philip; Bar-Talmai; Mattityahu; T’oma; Ya`akov Ben-Halfai:

Shim`on, the one called the Zealot; Y’hudah Ben-Ya`akov; and Y’hudah from K’riot, who turned traitor.

Then he came down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his talmidim was there with great numbers of people from all Y’hudah, Yerushalayim and the coast around Tzor and Tzidon; they had come to hear him and be healed of their diseases.

Those who were troubled with unclean spirits were being healed; and the whole crowd was trying to touch him, because power kept going out from him, healing everyone.

(Luke 6:12-19)

In this besorah reading Yeshua chooses his talmidim, those who would be with him throughout his work on earth and then to be his emissaries to take his message out after Yeshua leaves to return to the Father.  Yeshua chooses twelve men to fill these roles to be his students and companions, but also to be the ones that will have to take the message of Yeshua to future generations and to “the uttermost part of the Earth”.

Yeshua gives us an important lesson in leadership by like Moses before him, he as a leader knew that leadership involved sharing the responsibility and finding gifted individuals to assist, this can be seen in Moses’ appointing of the 70 elders to assist him in his role of leading the People of Israel in the desert.  Yeshua shows us the importance of a leader in preparing future leaders.  Yeshua knew that his time was short and a Roman stake soon awaited him, so for his message to continue he needed those prepared to take his message forward, hence he chose the twelve talmidim to mentor and then to send out to bring his message to future generations, of which we are beneficiaries of their faithful service.

What can we learn from this besorah reading for the future of Messianic Judaism?  One thing is the importance of current leaders choosing future leaders and preparing them for their important task of building Messianic Judaism for the future.  Secondly, like the talmidim those “young leaders” who are called to be mentored and prepared for future leadership must share Yeshua’s talmidim’s willingness to take up the task of being prepared to be a future leader and take forward the vision.

This can be seen by the analogy of passing a torch from one generation of leaders to the next.  This passing of the torch involves the current leaders preparing future leadrrs to receive the torch and for them to pass it on to them and then for those future leaders to accept the torch and their responsibility to take their awesome role of being the ones in which the future of Messianic Judaism will rest and also the opportunity that they can play a role in changing our world for G-d like Yeshua’s first talmidim did in their world by their faithful service.

Beyond just our movement we can change the course of human history as we build a mature Messianic Judaism and reunite the breach of Jewish life from faith trust in Yeshua, the Messiah of Israel. This is both a joy and an overwhelming responsibility but it is our job and we must do it, if we are truly focused on living G-d honoring lives and playing our role in G-d’s plan of the ages.

So then the time has come for us to step up and follow the example of our righteous Messiah and play our role in the building up of the next generation of leaders. We must do what is needed for them to be prepared to take the torch and for those current leaders they need to do their part to train them and then to give them the torch and allow them to enter their role to play in the future of our movement.

This is a group project and we all must do our part!

So then let us begin doing what needs to be done so that we can magnify and sanctify the name of our G-d by building a mature Messianic Judaism for the future.

www.towardblog.com

MJ Future – Joshua takes Moshe’s mantle…

In a discussion among some 20somethings on why Joshua was the one chosen to be Moshe’s successor the below came to me:

Joshua along with Caleb were the only 2 spies to see the Promised Land with all of the various peoples (Canaanites, Jebusites, etc.) and difficulties ahead of them and said “G-d is with us, let’s take the Land!”

This willingness to do what needed to be done with a trust in G-d to be with him showed Joshua as a man to be used by G-d in a profound way.

For us in our role in building a Messianic Judaism for the future we face opposition from the larger Jewish world, those in the Church that see us as “under the Law” and even other Messianic Jews that are opposed to us for our move toward building a true Judaism and away from our Hebrew Christian past.

But like Joshua we need to do what G-d desires for us to do and build a Messianic Judaism for the future!

Despite the opposition and difficulties ahead of us, G-d is with us! We are doing a holy task by making Yeshua known as the Jewish Messiah within a Torah faithful community.

We can change the world, we can change the course of human history and I will say we must do this work!

May we inspired by the example of Joshua believe in G-d and do what He desires and make a mature Messianic Judaism a reality.

www.towardblog.com

Shabbat – An island in time…

Shabbat the great gift from G-d that comes every seventh day is the subject of one of the classics of Jewish literature, The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel.

In The Sabbath, Heschel lays forward the view that holiness in Judaism is not set in place or places which is common for other peoples and religions, whether they be temples, shrines, holy places but in Judaism holiness resides in time. Chief among what Heschel calls “islands in time” is the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath. In so doing Heschel sets forward that time is of great importance and in that holiness resides in time and specific time like the weekly Shabbat, we need to take seriously these holy times.

We are now approaching another Shabbat and I am starting to get excited knowing that it is in this “island of time” that I experience G-d in such a powerful way. As I leave work on Friday afternoon I look at the sun barely above the horizon and I become overwhelmed and I breathe out the word “Shabbos”. This is a weekly time of encountering our G-d in such a powerful way and it is a great gift that we have been given. Along with the experience of G-d and the holiness of time there is the great gift that we have been given to congregate with friends and family to celebrate together this time with G-d and one another.

G-d is so good and He is given us such a great gift and that is Shabbat.

May you know the joy that is Shabbat this week and each week as we get a forestaste of “yom shekulo shabbat” the unending Shabbat when our righteous Messiah will again be with us…come L-rd Yeshua!

Shalom and blessings to all…

Why Messianic Judaism — The UMJC Statement Reviewed

As we look to answer the question “why  Messianic Judaism?”,  I thought it would be good to look at be UMJC’s statement, defining messianic Judaism, this being a formalized statement that was crafted by respected leaders in the UMJC and affirmed by the membership. The statement gives us a brief but a good jumping off point to  define the why of messianic Judaism and help us start defining the purpose of   Messianic Judaism.

Messianic Judaism is a movement of Jewish congregations and congregation-like groupings committed to Yeshua the Messiah that embrace the covenantal responsibility of Jewish life and identity rooted in Torah, expressed in tradition, renewed and applied in the context of the New Covenant.

In the Summer of 2002, at the annual conference of the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations the delegates approved the above statement that was written by Dr. Mark Kinzer and Dr. Daniel Juster. In a bold step that came with controversy then and continues today (and maybe for years to come) the UMJC’s leadership decided that as we seek to build a Messianic Judaism for the future that most basic to this process is a self-definition. There are hundreds if not thousands of definitions of what Messianic Judaism is or should be and as one of the larger mainstream voices in the mix, the UMJC put forward the task for a statement to be written and tapped two of the tested and respected thinkers of our movement to write a basic statement on what Messianic Judaism is or more appropriately what it should be. With the various voices out there putting forward misguided and outright anti-Biblical “Messianic Judaism” or “Messianic Movements”, like the Ephraimites and others, it is of great need for there to be a reasoned voice to step forward and say “This is what a true mature Messianic Judaism is” and our task is to make the statement a reality.

My first take on the basic statement is that if you are truly seeking to live in Messianic Judaism how can one find problem with above. Yet there are those who critique it. I say if you can’t deal with a Messianic Judaism made up of Jews (and Judaism-respectful non-Jews) that is firmly grounded in Jewish space, reflecting a desire for Torah living and seeking to honor Yeshua within an identifiable Judaism then there is an option (actually tens of thousands) for you to live as a follower of Yeshua and this is your local Church. Messianic Judaism is a Judaism, if you can’t deal with living within Jewish space then Messianic Judaism may not be the place for you.

Now to a little commentary:

Messianic Judaism is a movement of Jewish congregations and congregation-like groupings

The Messianic Jewish congregation and congregation-like groupings make for the great distinctive that we offer as a movement. Messianic congregations are living breathing Jewish faith centers that are in the midst of the Jewish community wherein our righteous Messiah is glorified within Jewish space where the Torah is honored and the G-d of Israel is worshipped. In contrast to the “missions model” that involves standing on street corners with tracts, the messianic congregation allows for both the message of Yeshua to be made known to the not-yet-Messianic Jews and even more it is an ongoing Jewish community that is part and parcel of the lives of those who attend. It is the messianic congregation that is the key vehicle for making our Messiah credibly known in the Jewish world. For the congregation-like groupings, I think that these are vitally important to play a role in extending the Messianic Jewish presence throughout our world. I think that we need to supplement our mostly regional Messianic congregations with home groups and chavurot and seek to build these congregation-like groupings into future Messianic congregations.

committed to Yeshua the Messiah that embrace the covenantal responsibility of Jewish life and identity rooted in Torah

This phrase sets out the two vital parts of what being a Messianic Judaism is and that is to understand that our identity is tied to a union of a life living within Torah faithfulness with faith trust in Yeshua, our righteous Messiah. Without the Torah, we may be a Messianic movement of which the Church is a Messianic movement. Without a faith trust in Yeshua as our Messiah, we may be another Judaism and then we would just be an independent movement of Jews. But as we should be we are Messianic Judaism, a Judaism that embraces covenantal responsibility and commitment to Yeshua. To unite our Torah and our Messiah as who we are is the only way we can truly live out a true Messianic Judaism.

expressed in tradition

This may be the most controversial part of the basic statement, the affirmation of Jewish tradition’s role in who we are to be a Messianic Judaism. We must understand that there is not a vacuum of Jewish life from 70 CE to today. Messianic Judaism may have some connection to the Judaism of the early Yeshua believers in that we serve the same Messiah and also like them we are familiar with the teachings of their communities as expressed in the Brit Chadasha, but we are not in all reality a reviving of 1st century Messianic Judaism, we are building a Messianic Judaism within the context of Judaism as it has developed over the last two thousand years. This being said, we need to look at how Jewish people have done Judaism and are doing Judaism today as we build a Messianic Judaism for the future.

renewed and applied in the context of the New Covenant

As the basic statement concludes we come to the role that the Brit Chadasha (New Covenant/New Testament) plays in our movement. Along with the development of Jewish life over the last two thousand years we also have the reflections and guidance of the Brit Chadashah to guide us and to inform our creation of a mature Messianic Judaism. So then we have both the Rabbinical sages and the New Covenant writers to inform us in our living out our lives within a Yeshua honoring, Torah living life within Jewish space. We in essence can build with multiple sources something that is both old, renewed and new all at the same time.

So then we are now seven years since the ratification of this statement.

Where are we in the process of making it a reality?

What have you done to make it a reality?

What are you going to do to make it a reality?

So now to our task, may we one day be living within a Messianic Judaism that will reflect this vision and this calling.

May G-d grant us the workers to make it happen and may each of us to do what is needed as we seek to build a mature Messianic Judaism.

Why MJ? — asking the question…

My good friend, mentor and coworker  in the cause of building a mature messianic Judaism for the future, Rabbi Joshua, yesterday in his blog, Yinonblog,  poses  what is considered the unasked question,  “so what’s our purpose?”. this is the big unasked question in  Messianic Judaism, what is our purpose?, why are we doing this? It would seem that our purpose would be fundamental to who we are and why we’re doing what  we are doing, but sadly most people don’t  ask this. question or even consider it.

Rabbi Joshua rightly notes that most messianic  congregation’s purpose, as stated on most websites and publications, is to be a worship center for Jews and Gentiles. Being that most churches have some Jews who believe in Jesus in them, this really is not a unique purpose for Messianic synagogues and the messianic Jewish movement. so then, what should Messianic Judaism be?  what should our purpose be?

In this new series of posts, I’m going to try to put forward what I see as an answer to this unasked question, that  fortunately for us Rabbi Joshua was willing to ask.

MJ Future – The Next Rabbi

As we look to the future of Messianic Judaism, we come to the next generation of rabbis.

As the current generation of rabbis begins to grow older, it is becoming more of an issue over the choosing of the next rabbi for our synagogues. This is important for our future to have a clear plan on who will be the next leader of your congregation and the one to lead the synagogue further into the 21st century.

This is an important decision and hopefully is something that is being considered by the current generation of leaders.

This also calls forth those men and women in their 20’s and 30’s to be available and preparing to be the ones called forward to take on this vital role, as congregational rabbi and leader of a Messianic Jewish community.

This is a group project, one being the current leaders finding and mentoring their successor and two for the 20 and 30somethings to be preparing to be available for being called to play this role.

May we see a great new next generation of Messianic rabbis with a passion for Torah and Jewish life and a deep desire to build a Messianic Jewish faith community that make Yeshua known as the long awaited Jewish Messiah.

May each of us do the work necessary for this important work!

A Taoist sage and a credible Messianic Judaism…

Woe to him who wilfully innovates
While ignorant of the constant - Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching 16b

These words come from a non Jewish source, namely Lao Tzu the author of Tao Te Ching, one of the primary texts of Taoism, the basic form of Chinese religion. You may wonder where do words from Taoism come into my thinking?

I graduated in 2002, with my BA in Religious Studies from California State University Northridge. I with the guidance of my advisor who is the Coordinator of the Jewish Studies program was able to make my upper division work primarily in Jewish studies, though to complete the major I needed courses in two other religions. I was hoping to take Christianity and Islam, yet the Islam class was cancelled for lack of enrollments. I did take Christianity and of my other choices I opted for Taoism. To say the least dealing with a non-theistic religion was challenging to say the least, I fought on and eventually got a B+ in the class, based primarily on my 25 page paper that posited that Lao Tzu was a gentile prophet that spoke about the coming of the Messiah. I intertwined quotations from Tao Te Ching with similiar passages from Isaiah (a contemporary of Lao Tzu) and also tying in the Tao with the Word from John 1. It made for one of my most creative adventures in putting a Jewish Studies spin on one of my non-Judaism classes.

Though I was lost through most of the class, I did take the above phrase “Woe to him who wilfully innovates” as a phrase that shapes my view of building a mature Messianic Judaism. This phrase represents an ancient wording of the phrase my rabbi and mentor Stuart Dauermann told me and others in a class we had on Jewish prayer, “You cannot depart from where you have not been”. As both Lao Tzu and Rabbi Dauermann put forward it is of vital importance to be mindful of the past and traditional understandings and this is critical for building a Messianic Judaism for the future that is relevant and connected to both Judaism of today and mindful of the past.

Being that the liturgy and the siddur is a passion of mine and will be the focus of my further studies in my graduate programs, I am mindful of what has been done over the last 20 years in “Messianic liturgy” and for the most part much of the work has been to try to create a completely new “Messianic” liturgy that rewrites or reworks the traditional prayers of the siddur to make them more “Messianic” or more “Yeshua-focused”, as if the siddur is devoid on it’s own of Messianic hopes, calls for restoration and salvation and other themes relative to our life in Messianic Judaism. This can be seen in the “Messianic shabbat candlelighting prayer” that replaces “sanctified us by your commandments and commanded us to kindle the Shabbat lights” with “sanctified us by faith in Yeshua, the light of the world and in His name we light these candles”. In so doing we are trying to create our own Judaism from scratch and establising a Messianic Judaism that has no connection or relevance outside our synagogue walls. Other attempts have been to remove prayers, especially “mystical” prayers like Lecha Dodi and other prayers inspired by kabbalists and Jewish mystics.

This is not to say that we cannot create new liturgical prayers and liturgical services (which would be hypocritical on my part being that I created a “Seudat Mashiach” hagaddah for a final seder of Passover, which was inspired by the observance of a meal honoring the Messiah which was begun by Baal Shem Tov and is still observed at Chabad), yet when we do create new liturgies we need to be mindful of established practices and create new services in line with establsihed norms. In creating the “Seudat Mashiach” I used the Passover hagaddah as the guide for the flow of the service and added in Messianic readings and took the focus of redemption in the traditional seder and focused the story of redemption on the future Messianic redemption. So then it was new, inspired by the practice of the Hasidim and also tied to the Hagaddah as the basis for the service. This can be seen as an innovation that is “mindful of the constant”

I have been attending Friday Night Live, a contemporary Erev Shabbat service for 18-40 year olds for the last four years. This is a fairly complete Conservative service yet set to musical accompaniment and contemporary music which it makes it both contemporary and traditional. This is another example of an “innovation that is mindful of the constant” as our words detail.

We have so much in the siddur that we can draw from and Yeshua is so ever present throughout the siddur with prayers for the Messianic redemption, G-d’s salvation and other prayers. We can build a mature Messianic Judaism that reveals Yeshua in the very prayers that the Jewish people have been praying for the last 2000 years and we don’t need to “reinvent the wheel”. We have so much that we can draw from Judaism today to build a Messianic Judaism for the future. And when we make innovations they need to be thoughtful and made in line with norms of Jewish religious life.

This is a challenge for us to take up the task to work with the raw materials of the last 2000 years of Judaism, mindful of our righteous Messiah and seek to make Him known within Jewish space. We can honor Yeshua via the traditional liturgy where He is ever present and bring new presentations of this vital piece of our religious literature alive with the life that we have been given by G-d’s spirit. So then let us move forward, do new things yet always mindful of “the constant” and lift our Messiah up via these powerful words.

The most relevant Messianic Judaism will be a Messianic Judaism that is a recognizable Judaism and an entering into Jewish space. We then have to be careful that we don’t establish a Messianic Judaism that is foreign to the larger Jewish world. This is not good for ourselves to be in our “Judaism” of our own design and also it makes us even more outsiders to the larger Jewish world.

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Another 1800 Years???

It has been over 1800 years since the breach between Torah faithfulness and Yeshua faith began to be forged by both the Church and the Synagogue.

We are now beginning to rebuild the connection between Jewish covenantal faithfulness expressed in a Torah life and the recognition that Yeshua is the Messiah of Israel in our midst. We have come so far from the Hebrew Christian roots of the Messianic Jewish movement as we now in the 21st century are credibly building a true MESSIANIC JUDAISM, a Jewish faith community that holds to Torah and to our righteous Messiah.

But with this we also need to keep the work up and not to allow for the vital work that we need to do to fall to the wayside. 1800 years is nearly 50 of my lifetimes! The move to a Messianic Judaism for the future is a task that we must continue.

Can the Jewish people wait another 1800 years or more for a future generation to build a credible Messianic Judaism, a true expression of Torah life and Yeshua faith? We must keep the move forward and we must all do our part to build a mature Messianic Judaism for the future, now.

For our own walking in G-d’s ways (by walking Torah and honoring Yeshua) and for the larger Jewish world to have a credible Yeshua that they can accept (the Torah faithful Jewish Messiah followed by Torah faithful Jews), we must do this work and build a mature Messianic Judaism.

We have come so far, now to continue toward the goal to build a mature Messianic Judaism, that is firmly grounded in Jewish space, that honors Torah, respects Jewish tradition and glorifies Yeshua, our righteous Messiah and in so doing we will magnify and sanctify the name of the G-d of Israel!

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21st Century Messianic Judaism – Beyond just lox and bagels.

Who are these Jewish people that G-d is still working through?
Who are these Jewish people whom G-d has not rejected and will someday restore?
Who are these Jewish people who are beloved for the sake of the patriarchs
and for whom Paul longed to see their salvation?    

Dr. Kinzer has helped me to see that they are people whose identity has been preserved, not by lox and bagels, but by a religion—Judaism. 

- Derek Leman 

 

 

In the above words from his paper, Judaism and New Testament Faith: Evaluating Mark Kinzer’s Post-Missionary Messianic Judaism, Derek Leman lays out an important item for us to consider and embrace as we seek to build a Messianic Judaism for the future.

Namely, that the Jewish People are here today and we have the ability to build a Messianic Judaism because of the divinely guided work of preserving the Jewish people brought about by G-d through Rabbinic Judaism.

At the bleak time after the destruction of the Holy Temple in 70 CE, specifically the work in Yavneh beginning in 90 CE, the choice to keep Judaism alive and the continuing existence of the Jewish People was hanging in the balance. It was by the vehicle of the post-Temple Judaism developed by the Pharisees and later developed fuller by the Rabbis, including Yochanan ben Zakkai and others. This Judaism is the way of living Jewish life and following G-d’s Torah that has kept the Jewish People these 1900 plus years as a dsitinct people and living testimony to the G-d of Israel.

More than bagels, lox, gefilte fish, Yiddish or any other cultural, custom or folkway the Jewish People are here today and we can even discuss building a Messianic Judaism because of the Rabbis who gave us modern Rabbinic Judaism and the Torah faithful Jews of the past (and present) that have held/hold to this G-d ordained life, walking Torah and living Torah.

Sadly much of the Missions culture and the remaining Hebrew Christians, espouse that Rabbinic Judaism is a “dead religion” or “false religion” and they see that “Messianic Judaism”, is just a name for a Jewish cultural style of Evangelical Christianity. The “Messianic Jewish movement” or “Messianic Judaism” that they espouse is more of bagels and lox than Torah and traditional Jewish living.

A true Messianic Judaism that I am calling for is to be a vital, living Torah faithful Judaism for Yeshua, not just Sabbatarian Baptist Churches with Jewish pastors. Messianic Judaism must be a part of 21st century Jewish life and a recognizable part of the modern Jewish world.

This is a call to move beyond a Jewish cultural form of Christianity and to become a Yeshua infused part of modern Judaism.

May G-d grant us the strength for this holy task!