Building A Jewish religious movement for Yeshua

 

In seeking to be a Judaism, a Jewish religious movement for Yeshua within the Jewish people and for the Jewish people we will ask Jewish questions, seek to give Jewish answers and credibly live out our lives as Messianic Jews as a part of the Jewish community, rather than the missionary model as one who goes into the Jewish community as an outsider to target the “unsaved Jews” for conversion to Christianity. We see the Jewish people as “us” and not “them” and therefore our desire is to live credible Jewish lives that we can make the Messiah seen within Israel as the Messiah followed by Torah honoring, Jewishly connected, Messianic Jews. Our hope is to be a light for Messiah within the Jewish world.

In this identity we embrace our oneness with all of the Jewish people as an act of faithfulness to God and to His Torah and not some act of “seeking man’s approval”. We seek God’s approval by living as he intended as a Torah community that follows the Jewish Messiah.

Yeshua is central to the building of a mature Messianic Judaism, because he is the Messiah that we honor. Our desire is to make him known within the People of Israel and this can only be done by seeing the Jewish community as our community of reference and living within Jewish life embodied in our respect for Jewish tradition and Torah living as we seek to be organically connected within the Jewish community as the Jews who follow Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah.

Yeshua can only be properly seen by the Jewish people as he really is as the Jewish Messiah, by being made known by a credible Messianic Judaism that reflects a love for all Jewish people and with a vital connection to the People of Israel.

May we live lives that make Yeshua known within a Judaism, Messianic Judaism.

The Law of the Lord is Good – Understanding Paul

 

Though it may seem to be a huge endeavor to deal with the difficult issue of understanding the words of Paul/Rav Shaul as it deals with issues related to the Torah, but this endeavor is guided by a simple axiom that I was taught by Dr. Mark Nanos, one of the premier scholars of the writings of Paul, including the books The Mystery of Romans and The Irony of Galatians.

First off in understanding Paul you must realize that he was writing primarily to Gentile churches.

With the first understanding clear then when reading Paul’s writings telling believers that they were not bound to Torah commands like circumcision and Jewish rituals then each of these statements per Nanos add “for non-Jews” to each statement.

In so doing it helps to clarify the point that Paul was telling the non-Jews that he was writing to that they were not bound to the Torah.  This is the same opinion that any mainstream Rabbi will give that non-Jews are not required to observe Torah and more to Paul’s stand should not observe Torah.  The special place of Torah as the Jewish people’s rights and privilege can be seen that potential converts to Judaism are to do one act that violates Shabbat so as to keep them from completely observing Shabbat before they were Jewish.

But for Paul himself as a Jew, A life observing Torah was his responsibility and the only way for him to live, even in his final speech Paul declared himself to be “as in relation to the Torah, a Pharisee”. This showing that even at the end of his life he still considered his life of Torah observance to be living to the standards of his Pharisaic training with the sage Gamaliel.

So then if we understand that Paul in addressing his non-Jewish audiences was saying that the non-Jews are not bound to the Torah’s commands (which is the same thing understood in Judaism today) this should help in understanding his philosophy. Paul as a Jew lived a life of Torah faithfulness, even after becoming a follower of Yeshua.  His harsh words in Galatians being pointed at those non-Jews who came to believe in Yeshua and were told that their new faith was inadequate without becoming Jews or becoming “super-believers” by observing Torah.  Both these views are wrong and were rightly condemned by Paul.

Hopefully this will be of help in understanding Paul/Rav Shaul…

Leading Like Yeshua – Servanthood

 

In Yochanan 20:17-28, we read about the important topic of leadership and we get some important lessons on leadership from our Messiah.

We read first of Ya’akov and Yochanan, the sons of Zavdai and their desire for a prominent role of leadership in the Messianic kingdom:

Then Zavdai’s sons came to Yeshua with their mother. She bowed down, begging a favor from him. He said to her, “What do you want?” She replied, “Promise that when you become king, these two sons of mine may sit, one on your right and the other on your left.” But Yeshua answered, “You people don’t know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They said to him, “We can.” He said to them, “Yes, you will drink my cup. But to sit on my right and on my left is not mine to give, it is for those for whom my Father has prepared it.” (vv. 20-23)

Yeshua’s response demonstrates that Ya’akov and Yochanan were not aware that leadership, as Yeshua demonstrated it was a path of sacrifice.

In the next verses we get some important words from Yeshua on what a leader should be:

But Yeshua called them and said, “You know that among the Goyim, those who are supposed to rule them become tyrants, and their superiors become dictators. Among you, it must not be like that. On the contrary, whoever among you wants to be a leader must become your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave! For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve — and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (vv. 25-28)

The path to follow to be a leader like Yeshua is not the path of seeking power or position for selfish motives to be a tyrant or to be a leader without taking into account that there is sacrifice required. Yeshua lays out here that leadership requires one to be a servant and to like our Messiah demonstrate a life of leading by serving others.

With Passover just about a month ago, I am reminded of Yeshua giving his talmidim an important lesson in leadership which took place at Passover:

Yeshua was aware that the Father had put everything in his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God. So he rose from the table, removed his outer garments and wrapped a towel around his waist. Then he poured some water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the talmidim and wipe them off with the towel wrapped around him. (Yochanan 13:3-5)

In this lesson on leadership we see our Messiah taking on the role of a slave and washing the talmidim’s feet, in this Yeshua’s teaching on leadership became a visual demonstration.

As we look to the future of Messianic Judaism we must seek to build up the next generation of leaders. For those of us in their 20’s and 30’s who will have to be these next generation leaders we must follow our Messiah’s example and grow as servant-leaders. For our mentors and teachers we need your support and help to stay on the right path and if we stumble off the path like Ya’akov and Yochanan did, like Yeshua did point us back to the right path.

So then let us seek to be like our Messiah and follow his example and lead by serving and may we each play our role in building a mature Messianic Judaism for the future!

Doing the Shema – A How to from Jewish Tradition

שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יי ְאֱלֹהֵינוּ יי | אֶחָד: וְאָהַבְתָּ אֵת יי אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּכָל־לְבָבְךָ וּבְכָל־נַפְשְׁךָ וּבְכָל־מְאֹדֶךָ: וְהָיוּ הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ הַיּוֹם עַל־לְבָבֶךָ: וְשִׁנַּנְתָּם לְבָנֶיךָ וְדִבַּרְתָּ בָּם בְּשִׁבְתְּךָ בְּבֵיתֶךָ וּבְלֶכְתְּךָ בַדֶּרֶךְ וּבְשָׁכְבְּךָ וּבְקוּמֶךָ: וּקְשַׁרְתָּם לְאוֹת עַל־יָדֶךָ וְהָיוּ לְטֹטָפֹת בֵּין עֵינֶיךָ: ט וּכְתַבְתָּם עַל־מְזֻזוֹת בֵּיתֶךָ וּבִשְׁעָרֶיךָ:

Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord; And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart; And you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them upon the posts of your house, and on your gates.

Along with being our statement of belief in the God of Israel and accepting “the yoke of heaven”, as it is commonly referred to in Judaism, we also get commandments to do certain things in response to God.

1. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and might.

2. Keep these words in your heart.

3. Teach them to your children.

4. Speak about them at home and when you travel.

5. Speak them when you go to bed and when you rise in the morning.

These above don’t need a great deal of asking “How do I do these?”

But the next show us the need for our Jewish tradition to help us obey God and honor His commandments.

6. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand.

7. They shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

8. You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates.

The Torah just gives us these commandments with none of the how to do them. From these commandments we get:

 

TEFILLIN
and
MEZUZAH

To fulfill the commandment to bind God’s words on your arm and forehead our tradition developed tefillin. The tefillin consist of two cube-shaped leather boxes, one worn on the head, the other on the arm, with leather straps fixed to them for attaching them to the head and the arm. Into these boxes, known as batim, “houses,” the four passages, written by hand, are inserted.

The hand tefillin (in the Rabbinic tradition the “hand” here means the arm) contains all four sections written on a single strip of parchment. In the head tefillin there are four separate compartments, one for each of the four. The four sections are: (a) Exodus 13:1-10; (b) Exodus 13:11-16; (c) Deuteronomy 6:4-9; (d) Deuteronomy 11:12-21. Although the box (bayit, “house,” singular of batim) of the head tefillin has to be in the form of an exact square (in the part into which the sections are inserted; this part rests on a larger base), it is divided into four compartments for the insertion of the sections, care being taken that these should not be separated from one another in such a way as to interfere with the square shape. The box of the hand tefillin consists of a single compartment into which all four sections, written on a single strip, are inserted. The boxes have to be completely black as well as square-shaped.
(from http://www.myjewishlearning.com/daily_life/Prayer/Ritual_Garb/Tefillin.htm)

They are traditionally worn by men at the Shacharit or morning prayer service on weekdays. In Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Judaism there are also women who will wear tefillin at morning prayers.

The tradition of wearing tefillin can be seen back at least to Second Temple period from Yeshua referring to some of the Pharisees making extra large boxes for their tefillin:

But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their tefillin and lengthen the tzitzit of their garments.

(Matthew 23:5)

In these words Yeshua is letting us know that it was understood at this time that to fulfill the commandment to bind God’s words to the head and arm, that this was to be done by wearing the tefillin. We also see in this verse that Yeshua was critical of the Pharisees for seeking to fulfill the commandment by making the tefillin larger to be seen or wearing extra long tzitzit. In so doing we see that at least in the time of Yeshua that tefillin were known and used.

Also in the Dead Sea community, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, there were also tefillin found that is on display at the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem. So then this is an ancient understanding of the how to do these commandments.

When it comes to writing the words on the doorposts of the house and on the gates, our tradition came to develop the mezuzah. Originally the words of the Shema were actually engraved on the doorposts of homes later the mezuzah a box that contained a scroll with the Shema was attached to the doors of homes and businesses.

So in these brief examples we can see that Jewish tradition developed by the Rabbinic sages helps us to understand and do God’s commandments.

May we seek to walk in God’s ways and live His Torah daily.

It is incumbent to await the coming of Moshiach every single day…

It is incumbent to await the coming of Moshiach every single day, and all day long.. It is not enough to believe in the coming of Moshiach, but each day one must await his coming..

Furthermore, it is not enough to await his coming every day, but it is to be in the manner of our prayer ‘we await Your salvation all the day,’ that is, to await and expect it every day, and all day long, literally every moment!

- Chafetz Chaim, Chizuk Emunah

These words lays out another important principle for the building of a mature Messianic Judaism and that being the primacy of our righteous Messiah and the hope of His return to bring the Messianic age.

This is important in dealing with two potential problems:

1. That Yeshua gets lost in our practicing Judaism.

2. That we get so focused on the Messiah’s return that we don’t build a mature Messianic Judaism for the future.

The first point is seen by many critics of our movement to be our critical error, in that Yeshua is secondary to our Jewish practice. We need to realize that Yeshua is the one that is so ever present in the prayers of the siddur and embodies the hopes of Judaism, including the Judaism of today. As Judaism has developed since the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the messianic hopes of the Jewish people have sought for the coming redeemer. We who are followers of Yeshua know that this one that is alluded to each day in the prayers of the Jewish people is our righteous Messiah, Yeshua.

Whenever I consider the connection of Yeshua to my daily practice of Judaism the verse:

“If you love me you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15)

plays a significant role and was a part of a homily that I gave one Shabbat during Passover, relating the eating of matzo per the Torah’s command to an act of love for Yeshua. In living a life within Judaism, seeking to follow Torah we are also performing an act of honoring our Messiah. So then this is also another response to those who hold to a Yeshua-Judaism dichotomy.

The second point and actually more direct to the words of Chafetz Chaim, is the prime duty to await the coming of Messiah. Yeshua is the long awaited Jewish Messiah that will come and establish Yom Shekulo Shabbat (A time of unending Shabbat). Though much of those in the Jewish world are expecting this to be the first appearing of Messiah, we know that this will be His glorious return. The coming of Messiah will be the full flowering of God’s consumation of history and the hope of the ages, yet this Messianic hope must not keep us from seeking to continue to build a mature Messianic Judaism for the future (for a more extensive posting on this see “Messianic Jewish Education and the End of the Age” on this blog).

We must as the words say “await the coming of Moshiach, every day, even every moment”, but while waiting we must be doing those things necessary to building our future, including establishing new Messianic syangogues, establishing educational programs, writing books, mentoring future leaders, writing children’s curriculum, dealing with formation of Messianic halakha and other vital tasks.

We need to see that our Messianic hope be tied to the work that will bring about this consumation of all things and to do our part to fulfill the words of Rav Shaul in Romans 11:26,

“On that day all Israel shall be saved”.

The salvation of the Jewish people is intrinsically tied to the work of our righteous Messiah and we as His followers must do our part to establish a place wherein the over 1800 year old breach of Yeshua from Jewish space will again be bridged and we can be the place where Jewish people can follow Torah, live in Jewish space and honor the Messiah of Israel and this can be done if we build a mature Messianic Judaism.

May we be worthy to see the coming of Yeshua, our righeous Messiah and if he tarries may we earnestly await His appearing and do our part in His service to establish Messianic Judaism for the future.

Living Torah – Experiencing the Messianic Age Now

 

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.

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Pesach – Concluding with the Messiah’s Feast

The Seudat Mashiach or “Messiah’s Feast” is a final meal of Passover that is focused on the Messiah and his role as bringing the final redemption.

The celebration of the Seudat Mashiach began with the Baal Shem Tov, founder of the modern Hasidic movement in Judaism. I was unfamiliar with this custom until just before Pesach in 2002, I saw and ad in the LA Jewish Journal for the local Chabad houses having Seudas Moshiach gatherings on the final day of Passover. I did some research and found out that the meal consisted of matzah and 4 cups of wine, like the Passover seder, with this seder focusing on the redemption to be brought by King Messiah.

As the description of the Seudat Mashiach from the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Schneerson says:

“The last day of Pesach is the conclusion of that which began on the first night of Pesach. The first night of Pesach is our festival commemorating our redemption from Egypt by the Holy One, Blessed be He. It was the first redemption, carried out through Moshe Rabbeinu, who was the first redeemer; it was the beginning. The last day of Pesach is our festival commemorating the final redemption, when the Holy One, Blessed be He, will redeem us from the last exile through our righteous Moshiach, who is the final redeemer. The first day of Pesach is Moshe Rabbeinu’s festival; the last day of Pesach is Moshiach’s festival.” (Cited in Likkutei Sichos, Vol. XXII, p. 34.)

I then began to construct an order of service for a final meal of Passover that focused on the predictions, coming and future return of our righteous Messiah, Yeshua. Using the Passover hagaddah as a guide I developed a Hagaddah Shel Seudat Mashiach. In it is a service that begins with Messianic prophecies foretelling the coming of Messiah, passages from the book of Yochanan and Luke telling of the first coming of Yeshua and concluding with readings from Revelation telling of the coronation of King Messiah. It is a great time of dwelling in the final hours of Pesach, a time of remembering redemption from Egypt, to focus on the redemption from sin that was brought by Yeshua.

It is a new and yet old practice, new in that I began working on it about 8 years ago and old being that the original practice began over 200 years with the Baal Shem Tov, it is better to call it a renewal.

May we all celebrate the redemption that Yeshua has brought us each day and may we be able to celebrate the Seudat Mashiach soon with our Messiah in Jerusalem, until then we will celebrate His great works here in exile as we await his appearing.

To download the most recent edition of the Hagaddah Shel Seudat Mashiach (click below):

Hagaddah Shel Seudat Mashiach