One Mitzvah at a time.

 

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!

Intentional Messianic Jewish Community – More than Saturday morning.

To obey is better than sacrifice

I want more than 

Sunday and Wednesday nights

‘Cause if you can’t come to me every day

Then don’t bother coming at all

(To Obey is Better Than Sacrifice by Keith Green)

 

As we continue to explore the building of a Messianic Judaism for the future we need to realize that intrinsic to living a true Messianic Judaism is that it is more than just something we do on Saturday mornings but a lifestyle done seven days a week guided by our Torah.

The above words written by Keith Green, of most blessed memory, who was a Jewish follower of Yeshua who left this world before the Messianic Judaism movement began, and therefore framed his Yeshua faith within the Christianity of his day, lays out that a life of following God is not just attending services but living everyday for God. I imagine that if Keith would be living today as a Messianic Jew that I imagine the lyric would be “I want more than saturday mornings…”.  One of my cherished memories was meeting Melody Green, Keith’s widow at a High Holyday service about 10 years ago and she shared that Keith would have loved to participate in Messianic Jewish life if he would have had the opportunity in this world.  He is now living each moment in the radiance of King Messiah.

Though we don’t have Sunday and Wednesday as our days of religious services (common in evangelical Christianity), the lesson we can learn is that there is more to a Messianic Judaism life, more to walking in the way of Torah, than just attending Shabbat services and doing Messianic Judaism for 2-3 hours on Saturday mornings. Messianic Judaism is a life of walking Torah everyday and is more than just being a Sabbatarian, but a Jewish life of walking a Torah life each day.

So how can we consciously build up a daily walking in Torah ways?

The key is community, being that Judaism is to be lived communally. We need to seek to build up chavurot, Erev Shabbat gatherings, home study groups and even seek to build intentional communities of Messianic Jews living together, either in shared housing, in the same apartment building or in houses in the same neighborhood. We need to be in community to fully live out our lives walking Torah in “the other 6 days”.

We have to move beyond the “commuter synagogue” model wherein are “community” is grounded in whatever people are willing to travel 20-50 miles to Saturday services and at 2pm, head back to their separate lives.  If we want Messianic Judaism continuity, we have to have Messianic Judaism community.

May we seek to walk in God’s Torah each day and seek to build living breathing 24/7 Messianic Judaism communities!

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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