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…
