Great new blog post by friend Miri. Seeking to understand what kashrut means is essential to building a mature Messianic Judaism.
Thanks for your contribution to this discussion, Mirela!
Six Things I Wish I Knew Before I Went Kosher | Biblically Kosher | Biblical Eating.
This simple concept is so important being that doing the mitzvot plays such a vital role in living out Judaism. So often Torah observance is presented as an all or nothing proposition, either you are Torah observant or you’re not. This approach can turn a lot of people off to pursuing a Torah life.
So then wherever you are in your Torah journey you can find a new mitzvah to add to your life and over time add one more and so on and so on (there are 613 mitzvot so there is a lot of on and on and on).
So this is our task find some new way to walk Torah and honor God this week:
1. Lighting Shabbat candles
2. Helping those in need
3. Studying Torah
4. Davenning
5. Giving to your synagogue
6. Buying kosher food
7. Putting a mezuzah up
These are simple acts and baby steps in infusing holiness into our lives.
So then let’s get doing our mitzvot, one mitzvah at a time!
In John 8:12-20, Yeshua gives us a picture of his identity as the light of the world. Yeshua is speaking with the religious leaders; he leads with his identity as the “light of the world.” Yeshua makes the point clear that by following him that he offers “light” which brings life, unending life. The religious leaders question Yeshua’s authority to make this statement because he was speaking on his own. In response Yeshua makes it clear that his words are not his alone but the words of his Father also. We then read these words in verse 19:
They said to him, “Where is this “father” of yours?” Yeshua answered, “You know neither me nor my Father; if you knew me, you would know my Father too.”
In Yeshua’s response we see an interesting teaching, that to recognize Yeshua, the Son, involves acknowledging God, his Father. In acknowledging Yeshua we are drawn deeper into connection with the Father. What then can we learn from this?
In Isaiah, we read of Israel’s growing weary of God and not honoring him by offering the Torah’s required sacrifices and observances. This neglect of covenant faithfulness leads to estrangement from God and even words of condemnation and curse. In this we see that relation to and more importantly intimacy with God is derived through obedience. The lack of covenant faithfulness demonstrated in this passage led to estrangement between Israel and her God, the flipside is that faithfulness to the covenant draws us closer to God.
In a picture of the Messianic Age given by Ezekiel in chapter 37, we read: “My servant David will be king over them, and all of them will have one shepherd; they will live by my rulings and keep and observe my regulations.” As Ezekiel sees the future reign of Messiah, the Davidic king, ruling over Israel as her rightful monarch, inextricably tied to the Messianic Age is that part and parcel of the Messianic Age is a Jewish people committed to the rulings and regulations laid out in the Torah. The eternal, ever presence of Yeshua is also a time of ever present Jewish covenant faithfulness.
If the Messianic Age, our daily hope and longing is characterized by a renewed Jewish people surrounding a returned Messiah and walking in Torah ways, if we live for this glorious day, why don’t we now begin living in the reality of the Messianic Age by drawing near to the LORD’s Torah and being drawn deeper into connection to God the Father and to Yeshua, his Son and our righteous Messiah?
As we draw near to the LORD by walking lives of Torah faithfulness, we go beyond just acts of obedience to acts of deep connection to the God who gave us this Torah. As we draw nearer to the LORD, we are given a new experience of God and Messiah and begin living now in the reality of the Messianic Age today.
http://www.towardblog.com
One of the fruits of the discussions among Messianic rabbis over the issue of Messianic Jewish conversion is seeking to answer the question:
The answer to this question is: to Judaism, has led to further questions over the issue of what standards of practice these converts will be called to live and what Messianic Judaism’s halacha will be.
This is an exciting fruit of the Messianic Jewish conversion development process that there is actual discussion and development of a Messianic Jewish halacha and this is an important part of the further maturation of our movement as a Judaism.
This is a vital step in our development to be the Judaism for Yeshua in the 21st century and beyond!
The Messianic Jewish Rabbinical Council (http://www.ourrabbis.org) has made the huge step of working out the bounds of Messianic Judaism life via their Standards of Observance which is a document detailing the development of communal Torah values for Messianic Judaism.
You can read more on the development of Messianic Jewish Halacha and download a copy of the Standards at:
http://ourrabbis.org/main/halakhah-mainmenu-26/introduction-mainmenu-27/sources-mainmenu-28
In a statement on the Torah desecration incident at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, Ralph Messer makes clear in his own words that both he and his community are not a part of Messianic Judaism.
See below video at 9:45.
3300 years ago on Mt. Sinai, Moses received the Torah from God, 2000 years ago the Messiah came and brought a renewal and ratification of the Torah in His life of Torah observance and his atoning death on the stake. We now stand in the beginning of the third millennium since the coming of our Messiah to live amongst us and the question that we must ask is, what have we done with His Torah and how are we living out the Torah in our day-to-day lives, and specifically for our discussion here, what about Messianic Judaism? Though many talk about Messianic Judaism and Torah observance in our day, what are we as individuals doing to live out a Torah observant Messianic Judaism and on a corporate level, being that Judaism is corporate rather than individualistic, where is the Messianic movement in the progression toward being a Torah observant Messianic Judaism? Is there a move or not? I will put forward some thoughts that I have personally been working through individually and also in concert with others. This is hopefully a beginning of dialogue and debate and I hope that the reader joins the discussion.
The issue of non-observance by individuals and in congregational policies I believe is based on some factors detailed below:
• Torah negative views from the Church that influences individuals and congregational leaders.
• Pragmatism that sees Torah observance as “too hard”, so then not observing Torah commands is alright if it’s too much work or an inconvenience.
• Liberal views, not unlike the Reform movement, that sees the Torah as a past document and only adds back into Jewish life those aspects that are “meaningful and life-giving”.
On the issue of Torah negative views from the Church, this is an evident problem. We have many people that may wear kipot and talitot in our synagogues but their core philosophy ranges from aversion to the “Law” to an outright “anti-Torah” attitude. For the last 1800+ years the Church has defined itself as against legalism and against the Law (Torah) and this is well ingrained in the thinking of many Messianic Jews and Gentiles that have come from Church backgrounds. This poses a great trouble in that this aversion to the Torah is not quelled even by those leaders who refer to themselves as “Torah observant” or “Torah positive”, even though this is one of the greatest of errors of Christianity-the belief that Torah is done away with by the coming of Yeshua. This error has caused much suffering physically for the Jewish people through pogroms, the Holocaust and other persecutions, but this also has brought a spiritual suffering in that these errors have kept countless Jewish people from the message that their Messiah has come. We cannot allow for this Torah-negativity to grow, it must be brought to and end if we are going to have a Messianic Judaism. Though many people have been drawn to Messianic Judaism via the Church, we have to realize that the anti-Torah attitudes fostered in the Church cannot be a part of our corporate life.
Secondly, comes the issue of the problem of pragmatism, that sees Torah observance as “too hard”, so then not observing Torah commands is alright if it’s too much work or an inconvenience, like for example taking the effort to buy only kosher food, rather than going to the local Taco Bell or McDonalds. The issue of pragmatism I believe is a major problem in that it is not ideological like Torah-negativity or the next issue liberalism, but a philosophy based on doing what is easy rather than what is right. Living a Torah life is not an easy life but it’s not too hard to be undoable. Our American worship of convenience has spilled into our synagogues and has made living out a Torah life something that clashes with our convenience mindset. Buying kosher food takes discipline and some effort, fortunately in Los Angeles it is easier than other areas to find kosher butchers and kosher restaurants, but the extra effort to buy kosher food clashes with a convenience mindset. Sadly obeying God is made secondary to doing whatever is easier and more convenient. We need to see that this view of Torah observance or lack thereof, that is based more on laziness than any other perspective is not coated in a palatable way to be an option for those who for the sake of convenience violate God’s Torah. I believe that many people in our movement fall into this category, not based on an ideological aversion to the Torah fostered in the Church but fueled by a desire to live like everyone else in society while outside the synagogue walls. Though most people live their life of Torah neglect based in laziness and neglect they can find a spiritual grounding in the following viewpoint to reconfigure Judaism as a “Choose your own Mitzvah” religion.
Thirdly comes the most polished ideological viewpoint namely liberal views, not unlike the Reform and Reconstructionist movements, that sees the Torah as a past document and only adds back into Jewish life those aspects that are “meaningful and life-giving”. Under the mantra, “meaningful and life-giving”, this philosophy grounded in liberal Jewish thought, basically throws out the Torah in total as a binding document on the Jewish people for all time and allow each generation and by extension each individual to be the one who decides what in Torah they want to observe or ignore based on whether they consider it “meaningful and life-giving”. I am one to not be as concerned with what someone says as much as what he or she mean by what they say and what their statement or philosophy means in extension. The “meaningful and life-giving” philosophy rather than uniting our community truly fractures us into many individuals. The outworking of this philosophy is that there is not one Torah being taken around the synagogue during the Torah service-the one Torah given to Moses at Mt. Sinai, but it makes for 10, 25, 50, 100, 200 or more Torahs, based on the size of the congregation, dependent on how each individual slices up their responsibility to the Torah based on what they found to be “meaningful and life-giving”, rather than living out the words of the people at Mt. Sinai:
“And all the people, answering together, said, “Whatever the Lord has said we will do. “And Moshe took back to the Lord the words of the people” (Ex 19:8)
This makes for disunity in that each individual will have his or her own Torah. This is fine for Christianity, which is a faith, based on the individual, but Judaism, as a communal faith needs community for survival. Torah observance under this philosophy is no longer a matter of obeying God’s Word and living a life of holiness in service to God, but it builds up a “Messianic Judaism” that is truly just “playing Jewish” without having the soul of Jewish life and that is obeying God and living out Torah. The issue of Torah observance is an issue of obeying or disobeying God and not just merely doing “Jewish” practices. If we are doing “Jewish” practices and having Torah services detached from observing Torah then we are truly deceiving our ourselves, by thinking that we are being “Torah observant” if we observe only the Torah commands we find to be “meaningful and life-giving” and also we are being deceptive to the larger Jewish world to have Torah services and call ourselves “Torah observant” or even “Torah positive” if we are only observing and honoring the Torah of our own design, rather than the Torah that God gave to Moses. We need to see that this philosophy is challenged and seek to live Torah lives that show forth that living Torah is not just external “Jewishness” but an internal walking in God’s ways and a life focused on God, infused by the Messiah who gives us life.
This philosophy is bound up in an ideology that has swept over much of the American Jewish world, being that Orthodox Jews make up only 5-10% of Jews in the United States. But rather than emulating the falling away from the Torah and obeying God that is epidemic in the larger Jewish world, should we not stand for Torah and obeying God? The fact that the larger Jewish world is not Torah observant leads to the push to make this philosophy normative in Messianic Judaism for the sake of “outreach” in that we will reach our communities because we are being like the community in which our congregations are located. Are we going to start having séances at our Messianic synagogue because that was done at a local synagogue or start embracing homosexuality as acceptable because of acceptance of homosexuality in the Reform and Reconstructionist movements, including having gay and lesbian Messianic rabbis? Are we going to violate the Torah to draw people into our synagogues? This makes as much sense as Rav Shaul’s rhetorical phrase, “should we sin that grace may abound?” both questions have an implied “NO”. We cannot sacrifice Torah observance to fit into a secular Jewish community or fit into Christian society or to amalgamate into secular society and become “Americans of the Jewish persuasion”. The Torah is not a pick-and-choose document and it’s not alright to violate it’s commands for fitting in or making our congregations more appealing to secular Jews or to meet the approval of Christian denominations that give funding or organizational support to our synagogues.
The “meaningful and life-giving” philosophy is the most insidious of the three examples because it clothes sin in a coat of “reaching our community”. So then we can sin by violating Torah so that we can draw people to Yeshua, so they can then become Torah violators with a spiritual seal of approval? This needs to be remedied and sadly this philosophy is entrenched to the point that to live a life of Torah observance in a congregation whose organization is founded on this philosophy makes for a difficult situation for the one who truly seeks to live a Torah life and seek to honor God, because the one seeking to follow God has to deal with compromise and even to violate their conscience and sin to be a part of congregational life. Sadly I see the Messianic movement losing those who come to see Torah as life, but stand as rebels to the overriding philosophy of their congregation and for the Messianic movement as a whole. Those who seek to live Torah observant lives and seek to obey God are outsiders in most Messianic congregations, yet those who seek to be a Torah Observant Messianic Jew or Torah Observant Messianic Gentile, know that among Torah observant communities in the Rabbinic world they are also outsiders for being Messianic, and doubly if they are a non-Jew. So then those who live Torah have to live as a man or woman without a state, not able to be a full participant in either world.
Hopefully as the Lord draws more people to a true encounter with Torah, we may one day see truly Torah observant Messianic congregations that observe Torah in the context of Messianic faith. Sadly those congregations that have called themselves “Torah Observant Messianic Congregations” have for the most part denied the deity of the Messiah and are usually a part of the Netzrim movement, a movement that accepts Yeshua as Messiah yet denies that Yeshua is God. This is not mere heresy, but an apostate movement.
So then comes our quest, the desired outcome, a true Torah centered Messianic Judaism. I have sought to detail this important issue that needs to be dealt with in our movement so that we can be a legitimate expression of Torah observant Messianic Judaism. I have sought to address the problem of non-observance of Torah in our movement and how Torah violation is justified based on Christian anti-Torah values, pragmatic laziness and the philosophy of “meaningful and life-giving” commandments. Calling us a “Torah observant” or “Torah positive” movement while violating the Torah is dishonest and deceiving ourselves and deceptive to the larger Jewish world. The issue of Torah negativity exposes us to being seen as either ignorant of Judaism and Torah or an outright sham, that we are using Judaism and Jewish rituals in our Christian churches to draw in those Jewish people who fall for our trap. Sadly we can’t deny the charge of being inauthentic in expressing one thing with our mouths while violating it with our actions. Judaism is not something you can do however you want add in Yeshua and Messianic dance and oila it is Messianic Judaism.
In the book, The God of Israel and Christian Theology, by R. Kendall Soulen, Soulen lays out the argument that the Jewish people in their “No” to Yeshua were saying “Yes” to the God of Israel. Though a disturbing phrase at first glance, I personally did not like this phrase until over time I came to grips with his point that for over 1800 years the Jewish people have been offered or forced a Yeshua that was stripped of Torah and Judaism, out of fidelity to the Torah and the traditions of their forefathers the Jewish people have said “No” to this Yeshua and His gentile religion, Christianity.
Sadly this is where we are as the Messianic movement, in embracing a Torah apathetic or even Anti-Torah stance we are truly embracing the Christian tradition of presenting a “Torah-free” Yeshua and because of fidelity to the covenant the larger Jewish world can never take us seriously as being one with the Jewish people. We are packaging Christian beliefs and values with Kipot, Talitot and a Magen David necklace and the larger Jewish world sees that we are not truly dealing honestly with the encounter at Sinai. Even Reform and Humanistic Jews can criticize us for being outside the bounds of Jewish life without the Messiahship of Yeshua ever being an issue. We are coming off as confused about Judaism or even worse deceptive Christian missionaries trying to steal Jewish souls.
We have been given a great gift, whether Jew or Gentile, God has brought us to understand Him in the context of Messianic Jewish faith. We can build a credible Messianic Judaism, built on Torah observance and faith trust in Yeshua and bring back together the breach between Torah life and Messianic faith that has kept the vast majority of Jewish people in history from knowing their Messiah and the life that He can bring. But with this gift comes the responsibility to live Torah, to walk in God’s way and stand tall for His Torah. We need this for our own relation to God, but also to be the light that we need to be to draw the Jewish people to their Messiah and to be a light to all the world that we are people who know the God of the Universe and we live as a distinct people, bound to our God by an eternal covenant made at Mt. Sinai and put on our hearts by the atonement of Messiah Yeshua. So then the challenge is for each of us to live this Torah and to seek God’s face to see that our movement may turn back to God’s Torah and that more people’s eyes will be opened to God’s Torah. The Messiah has come, we have found Him and now it is up to us make Him known by lifting Yeshua up before the world by living a life totally given to God and His Torah. May the Lord grant you his strength and shalom.
There is a youtube video going around recorded this last Sunday at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church shows a man named Ralph Messer, instructing two men to slowly wrap Bishop Eddie Long in a large scroll that’s purported to be the Torah.
Below is a link to the video but it appears to have been scrubbed from the internet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVkoQHCXSK8
I had to stop watching part way through because of what a desecration this act was, especially being led by a “self-ordained” non-Jew that was claiming his non-Biblical and non-Judaism activities were an established Jewish ritual and that he as a “Messianic rabbi” was performing them.
This horrible event does give us the opportunity to stress clearly that the Torah and other items of Jewish sancta like the talit, also used in this sham “Jewish ritual” are not props but holy objects, the Torah scroll being the very words of God handwritten with the holy language Hebrew. The talit is not just a “prayer shawl” but a garment designed to fulfill the Divine command to wear fringes on garments and a garment that denotes the wearers submission to a Torah life. This gives us pause and a conviction to make clear that Jewish sancta cannot and should not be seen as props and that the title of Rabbi is not something to be used without formal ordination by respected leaders and only conferred on Jews (it appears that Mr. Messer is a non-Jew from the Ephraimite error).
I was so heartened to see that the UMJC and MJAA (the two largest mainstream Messianic Jewish umbrella groups) came out today with a condemnation of this act and formally distanced Mr. Messer from having any connection to any respected Messianic Jewish group.
Below are links to the news article on the event and posts by respected Messianic Jewish leaders condemning this act of desecration of the Torah and allowing for lashon hara to be spoken against authentic Messianic Judaism.
NEWS ARTICLE:
JOINT STATEMENT BY THE UNION OF MESSIANIC JEWISH CONGREGATIONS/MESSIANIC JEWISH ALLIANCE OF AMERICA:
http://umjc.org/home-mainmenu-1/news-mainmenu-40/1-latest/746-umjc-mjaa-respond-to-messer-video
RABBI DR. STUART DAUERMANN:
http://www.messianicjudaism.me/agenda/2012/02/03/the-messer-mess-repudiating-a-disgraceful-act/
RABBI JOSHUA BRUMBACH:
http://www.messianicjudaism.me/yinon/2012/02/02/a-king-a-torah-and-ralph-messer/
RABBI DR. MICHAEL SCHIFFMAN
http://drschiffman.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/a-shonda/
RABBI DEREK LEMAN:
http://www.derekleman.com/musings/2012/02/02/ralph-messer-is-not-a-messianic-jewish-rabbi/
JONATHAN LASKO
http://gatherthesparks.blogspot.com/2012/02/no-messing-around-with-jewish-sancta.html
As we begin Shabbat may we offer ourselves more fully to glorifying the Name of our God and his Torah and outshine this desecration to God and Torah that happened last Sunday.
Shabbat Shalom…
