Earlier this week, on the topic of persecution of Messianic Jews in Israel, I described how Ami Ortiz, a 15 year old Messianic boy was critically injured by an explosive package sent to the family's home by a Jewish extremist.
15 year old Amiel Ortiz, a Messianic Jew who was critically injured in a bomb delivered by Jewish extremists
Today I received an email today forwarded from Ami's mother regarding the health status of the now-recovering boy.
Ami Update from his mother Leah- May 27, 2008
Ami had another appointment this week with a hand specialist. He has severe pain in his hands, especially the left, which is a result of nerve damage. The doctor told us that he needs operations in both of his arms as the nerve damage begins quite high up, above the elbow, at least on the left side. We were told that one of the major nerves is torn and another is damaged. If the torn one can't be reconnected, they'll have to do a graft from another nerve somewhere else in his body. In which case, it will have to grow and could take a year to see results. She said that nerves grow at the rate of 1 cm. a day!! He has very long arms, so he has about 1/2 a meter of nerves to grow in!! However, it could be that the existing nerves can be repaired and reconnected. So let's pray for that and for continued miracles for Ami. The surgery on the left hand is scheduled for this Monday, June 2.
I have to say that Ami took the news better than I did - because he's anxious for the pain to be relieved.
We also have to see the foot specialist, as he has tendons that need to be reattached in his right foot. I am in touch with a very well known plastic surgeon who also wants to see Ami to see what can be done for the left foot and the skin graft scars.
Please pray that we will be able to stay faithful and full of faith through this ordeal. I often feel overwhelmed by what Ami is going through. Every so often, Ami is weakened by the pain to the point of tears. David and I are grateful though, the bottom line is he's with us and we can be going through what we're going through. We are also grateful, because even in the natural, there are solutions for all of his problems. We are grateful that we have all of you so faithfully praying and believing for us. We are also grateful that we have a great God who loves us and has never left us or forsaken us for a moment.
I ask for prayer for our criminal lawyer, Yossi Graiver, who is representing us. He is not a believer, but an extraordinary person with a heart for what has happened to Ami and a desire to see justice served. We also have a Messianic lawyer who has helped us from the beginning, Calev Myers, who represents the Messianic community here in Israel in matters concerning the faith and the law of the land. We are extremely blessed. Please pray for the legal case, that the criminals will be caught, and that a full sentence will be served with no plea bargains.
Thank you. I will try to keep you updated as to the results of the operation as soon as I can get to my computer.
Yours in the Messiah, Leah Ortiz
I can't find any words but the famous religious cliche: please pray for this boy. I mean that. Please pray for Ami, his family, the perpetrators, and the whole situation in Israel. Father, bless your name, show your compassion and shalom towards this family and the whole people of Israel.
SamsonBlinded is a blog by an Israeli Jew, Ovadiah Shoher, whom many would call a Jewish extremist because of his policies for an undivided, Jewish Israel. Ovadiah writes about the problems in the Israeli government and humanistic secularism that is creeping over Israel. Moreover, he writes about the problems with modern Judaism in Israel and abroad. The man is not a Messianic Jew; indeed, in the past he has written essays against Y'shua as the Messiah.
Nonetheless, I've found his blog a thought-provoking read with shake-things-up kind of ideas.
In his latest post, From Orthodoxy to Fundamentalism, Ovadiah writes something quite profound through his frustration with modern Judaism, saying,
Religious Jews shamefully concentrate on technicalities, however important, rather than the big issues. I find it scandalous with religious parties in the Knesset scream over the court’s refusal to fine a handful of establishments which sold leavened bread on Pesach in Jerusalem, but stay in the government which admits to negotiating the giveaway of Jerusalem to Arabs and has actually abandoned the Temple Mount to Muslims.
In one reformer’s words, “Hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin [which the Torah does not require], but neglected the weightier matters of the law.” He saw it correctly that many religious Jews concentrate on the easy rites of superfluous observance instead of going through with the really hard issues of core Judaism. It is obscene for a religious Jew in Jerusalem to wrap his kitchen with foil on Pesach to avoid the microscopic crumbs of leavened bread, while his Knesset representatives do nothing about the daily shelling of Shderot.
I share Ovadiah's sentiment; how many religious Jews focus on the outward rituals but forget the great, deep mitvot of Torah, like mercy and justice. There is a great focus on minute technicalities in Judaism, which by itself is not evil, but at the neglect of the weightier matters of the Torah, is absolutely shameful.
The reformer mentioned by Ovadiah had it right on. Ah, how wise was that reformer!
This year, a state-wide teen Bible knowledge competition, initially promoted by rabbis, was soon boycotted by many rabbis as they found that one of the winners was a Messianic Jew.
Also earlier this year, the Israeli Ministry of Interior was revoking the citizenship of Messianic Jews in Israel, forcing them to leave the country.
In March of 2008, a young Messianic Jewish teen, Amiel Ortiz, son of a Messianic pastor, was critically injured as he opened up an exploding package delivered to their home. The blast of the bomb shattered the windows of their home and the nearby automobiles, sending nails and over 100 pieces of shrapnel to permeate the boy's body. Amazingly, if not miraculously, the boy remains alive. The security cameras which Amiel's father installed on their home after an anonymous firebombing last year caught a well-known Jewish extremist delivering the explosive package to their home.
15 year old Amiel Ortiz, a Messianic Jew who was critically injured in a bomb delivered by Jewish extremists
Today, CNN is reporting that Jewish students from the city of Or Yehuda, near Tel Aviv, rounded up New Testaments in the city and burned them en masse.
The man responsible for organizing the students was Deputy Mayor of Or-Yehuda, Uzi Aharon. Uzi Aharon claims he did not intend to burn the New Testaments, he only meant to round them up to prevent missionizing in his city.
Uzi Aharon is a member of the Shas political party in Israel, an Ultra-Orthodox party that currently holds several seats in the Israeli Knesset.
Fortunately, many Conservative and Reform rabbis are condemning this New Testament burning. Derek Leman cites an excellent piece from a Conservative Jewish leader condemning the burnings.
Understanding the Persecution
I do not write this to villify Orthodox Jews. So many Orthodox Jews are zealous for Torah and for God; I understand where Orthodox Jews are coming from. To them, a Messianic Jew is a Christian, a member of a religion foreign to Torah; an idolatrous religion. Becoming a Christian means abandoning Jewish identity, Jewish culture, Jewish religion -- even Hitler could not make Jews lose their Jewish identity; how much worse, then, is converting to Christianity!
(To this day, in some Jewish circles, if an Orthodox Jew comes to believe in Y'shua as Messiah, family members will recite traditional prayers reserved for his or her death; to these Jews, faith in Y'shua is the death of a Jew.)
The reality of the matter, however, is not as the Orthodox Jews perceive it. Nor as the Christians perceive it, for that matter. The reality is that Messianic Judaism is not a Jewish flavor of Christianity.
While alone I cannot speak for all, I can say that many see Christianity as a Roman-led departure from the Hebrew faith. While many beautiful things have come from the Christian religion, and while God has used it to bring 1/3rd of the whole gentile world to the God of Israel through the Messiah of Israel, we must still contrast Christianity with the Hebrew faith.
The early believers in Y'shua as the Moshaich of Yisrael were initially known as Nazarenes, members of the Way community of Jews; they were not part of a new religion. Indeed, they kept the Torah as any God-fearing person ought to, received instruction at Beit HaMikdash (Temple), and were standing members in the Jewish community.
What happened in 325 CE was the official creation of a new state religion, and what came out of that has become what we know as Christianity today. This Roman religion in numerous ways is a departure from the Hebrew faith. It is indeed idolatrous in its praying to saints, in praying to Messiah's mother, in its claims of an infallible human being elected by the College of Cardinals, in its replacing Israel with an unclean people, in its replacement of God's Feasts with holidays of pagan origin, and most of all, its rejection of Torah.
When Constantine severed the Hebrew origins of this faith in Messiah, a new religion was officially created. It is this religion that Orthodox Jews fear their relatives and friends becoming members of. Many Orthodox Jews are zealous for God and do not wish to see Jewish folks severing their Jewish culture, identity, religion.
Ditto.
It is with earnest conviction I say that Messianic faith does not wish a loss of Jewish culture, a loss Jewish identity, especially not a loss of Jewish religion. There is no need to be baptized into Christianity. (Indeed, if one is already following Torah, a regular mikvah for outward cleansing is already prescribed!) There is no need to go to a Christian Church. There is no need to convert. Messianic faith requires one thing alone: faith in Messiah. Trust that the Jew from Natzeret, Y'shua ben Yosef, is the Moshiach foretold by the prophets in the Tenakh. As Rabbi Hallel once said, "Everything else is details."
I do not excuse this persecution by the Orthodox. One must not confuse understanding for agreement. Unfortunately, I suspect that the Orthodox will not see Messiah until he reveals himself in the flesh, again. Perhaps this time around, it will be the gentiles, with their idolatrous religion, who stumble on the stone laid in Tziyon. Or perhaps God's plan is that Jews and gentiles alike will finally be united in their faith in the God of Israel through Messiah.
At this time, however, it looks like many Christians will refuse to give up ties to the idolatry in their religion and that will be their stumbling block, just as it was for many of the devout Jews in Messiah's day.
We will see. Whatever the plan, I hope we see it come to fruition in our day, and soon; things sure are heating up down here on planet earth. Father help us.
Male sexuality is something that men don't feel comfortable talking about and women don't want to hear. But the truth of the matter is that all men battle their sexual natures day to day, just as women battle aspects of their emotional nature. All men are recovering adulterers, even if they haven't committed adultery. Our own nature tells us to horde women; monogamy is not something that comes naturally.
When Judaism demanded that all sexual activity be channeled into marriage, it changed the world. The Torah's prohibition of non-marital sex quite simply made the creation of Western civilization possible.
Among the consequences of the unchanneled sex drive is the sexualization of everything -- including religion. Unless the sex drive is appropriately harnessed (not squelched -- which leads to its own destructive consequences), higher religion could not have developed. Thus, the first thing Judaism did was to de-sexualize God: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" by his will, not through any sexual behavior. This was an utterly radical break with all other religions, and it alone changed human history. The gods of virtually all civilizations engaged in sexual relations. In the Near East, the Babylonian god Ishtar seduced a man, Gilgamesh, the Babylonian hero. In Egyptian religion, the god Osiris had sexual relations with his sister, the goddess Isis, and she conceived the god Horus. In Canaan, El [or Ba'al], the chief god, had sex with Asherah. In Hindu belief, the god Krishna was sexually active, having had many wives and pursuing Radha; the god Samba, son of Krishna, seduced mortal women and men. In Greek beliefs, Zeus married Hera, chased women, abducted the beautiful young male, Ganymede, and masturbated at other times; Poseidon married Amphitrite, pursued Demeter, and raped Tantalus. In Rome, the gods sexually pursued both men and women.
Judaism placed controls on sexual activity. It could no longer dominate religion and social life. It was to be sanctified -- which in Hebrew means "separated" -- from the world and placed in the home, in the bed of husband and wife. Judaism's restricting of sexual behavior was one of the essential elements that enabled society to progress. Along with ethical monotheism, the revolution begun by the Torah when it declared war on the sexual practices of the world wrought the most far-reaching changes in history.
The Hebrew Bible, in particular the Torah (The Five Books of Moses), has done more to civilize the world than any other book or idea in history. It is the Hebrew Bible that gave humanity such ideas as a universal, moral, loving God; ethical obligations to this God; the need for history to move forward to moral and spiritual redemption; the belief that history has meaning; and the notion that human freedom and social justice are the divinely desired states for all people. It gave the world the Ten Commandments, ethical monotheism, and the concept of holiness (the goal of raising human beings from the animal-like to the God-like). Therefore, when this Bible makes strong moral proclamations, I listen with great respect. And regarding male homosexuality -- female homosexuality is not mentioned -- this Bible speaks in such clear and direct language that one does not have to be a religious fundamentalist in order to be influenced by its views. All that is necessary is to consider oneself a serious Jew or Christian.
To the ancient world which divided human sexuality between penetrator and penetrated, Judaism said, "You are wrong -- sexuality is to be divided between male and female." To a world which saw women as baby producers unworthy of romantic and sexual attention, Judaism said "You are wrong -- women must be the sole focus of men's erotic love." To a world which said that sensual feelings and physical beauty were life's supreme goods, Judaism said, "You are wrong -- ethics and holiness are the supreme goods." A thousand years before Roman emperors kept naked boys, Jewish kings were commanded to write and keep a sefer torah, a book of the Torah.
Derek Leman is on fire. The man's recent post dissects Christian Replacement Theology, showing it to be the self-defeating, empty, boastful theology it is.
Replacement Theology, also know as Supersessionism, is the theology that states Christians have replaced Israel as God's people.
Paul, in his letter to the Romans in the New Testament, warned against this kind of theology:
If some of the natural branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
Replacement theology is boastful -- it is saying, "Ha, we Christians are God's people now! You Jews, well, you had your chance, and you blew it."
This is precisely what Paul was warning against when he had said, "Don't be arrogant - he didn't spare natural branches; by all means he won't spare you in-grafted branches!"
Derek has some insight into this:
Like a house of cards built where there is a gentle breeze, this way of reading the Bible is self-defeating.
It is self-defeating because the Bible is constantly contradicting and challenging an anti-Judaic reading.
You read in Genesis 12, “I will bless those who bless you . . . and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
And you repeat over and over the mantra, “The Bible is the inspired word of God.” But when you read this verse you are forced to say, “This verse, inspired by God, is no longer true. There is no way God’s vehicle for blessing is the Jews. It has to be the Christians.”
You read in Isaiah 54, “This is like the days of Noah to me . . . I have sworn that I will not be angry with you and I will not rebuke you.”
And you think, “God’s word is true but this verse does not mean what it says. God is angry with the Jews. He has rejected them.”
You read in Jeremiah 29, “For I know the plans that I have for you, plans for welfare and not evil.”
And you think, “The Bible is verbally inspired but these words need to be reinterpreted. They should be a promise for Christians and not for Jews. After all, they are on posters in the Youth Room of our church.”
And you read Paul in Romans 11, “God has not rejected his people . . . as regards the gospel they are enemies for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved.”
And you think, “Dare I tinker with Paul? I mean, Isaiah is one thing, but Paul? Yes, to keep my anti-Judaic theology alive I must follow the trend and interpret this verse too as being a blessing for Christians. I know it strains all manner of principles of interpretation. I don’t read the newspaper this sloppily, but, man, I have a theology to defend.”
"I have a theology to defend" is a terrible way to go about interpreting Scripture!
I must admit, I had a little chuckle when I read Derek's point of Jeremiah 29. My son's Christian school has that citation -- "I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you." -- plastered all over the halls, reinterpreting it to apply to young Christian students, rather than to whom Jeremiah was prophesying: Israel.
This kind of re-interpretation of Scripture is afflicting Christianity and leads to anti-Judaic doctrines, which are not only bad theology, but they have also led to anti-Jewish sentiment, even to the point of 75% of German Protestant preachers being anti-Jewish during the Nazi Holocaust.
This is how serious it is, folks. Your theology leads to action, actions lead to consequence. Don't brush this off.
Here's a little story you might find interesting. I was recently listening to Protestant preacher, a kind of cowboy-sounding southern Christian, over the "Full Gospel" radio station here in Minnesota. The preacher was teaching on Paul's letter to the Romans in the New Testament. He got to the part where Paul says, paraphrasing, "The uncircumcised are set right with God through Messiah."
Predictably, The pastor used that as an opportunity to slam the Torah, saying how it is of no use to us, the Torah has passed away, abolished, having been "nailed to the cross", since it's prescription of circumcision makes us no closer to God.
But the next verse from Paul was, "What do we say then? Do we abolish the Law through our faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law." The pastor squirmed, "Well... he's not talking about the Law here. Not that Law. He's talking about this new grace law."
Oh boy.
This anti-Judaic bias and theology shined true for him and his congregation; he had to tinker with Paul to make it work.
It's this kind of Scriptural acrobatics that must be performed when seeing "Israel" and reading "Christianity" or "Church". Thank goodness we're seeing this Christian doctrine go the way of the dodo more and more in our day. Good riddance. The world's Jewry will be better off, if not our theology.
Derek said it best, folks:
It is time to deconstruct the Christian, anti-Judaic house of cards. You will feel so free when you do. And the Bible will become an open book to you instead of a mere support system for a handful of Pauline texts quoted out of context. Try it and see.
[This is a pre-recorded message. Judah is gone on vacation this week.]
A memorable story from the Talmud, one which touches on how men's traditions tend to eventually trump God's revelations as time passes from the revelation. So true for both Judaism and Christianity...
One day, a Rabbi named Eliezer was arguing with the other rabbis in a Jewish study hall over a minutia of Torah regarding whether an oven could become unclean.
Rabbi Eliezer stated, "If the law is as I say, may the aqueduct prove it." The water in the aqueduct began to flow backwards. But the other rabbis retorted, "One cannot prove anything from an aqueduct."
Said he to them: "If the law is as I say, then may the walls of the house of study prove it." The walls of the house of study began to cave in. Rabbi Joshua rebuked them, "If Torah scholars are debating a point of Jewish law, what are your qualifications to intervene?" The walls did not fall, in deference to Rabbi Joshua, nor did they straighten up, in deference to Rabbi Eliezer. They still stand there at a slant.
Said he said to them: "If the law is as I say, may it be proven from heaven!" There then issued a heavenly voice which proclaimed: "What do you want of Rabbi Eliezer -- the law is as he says..."
Rabbi Joshua stood on his feet and said: "'The Torah is not in heaven!' ... We take no notice of heavenly voices, since You, G-d, have already, at Sinai, written in the Torah to 'follow the majority.'"
Rabbi Nathan subsequently met Elijah the Prophet and asked him: "What did G-d do at that moment?" Elijah replied: "He smiled and said: 'My children have triumphed over Me, My children have triumphed over Me.'"
[This is a pre-recorded message. Judah is gone on vacation this week.]
Remember that little jingle to help you remember Columbus?
In Fourteen Hundred Ninety-Two Columbus sailed the ocean blue
Well here's another one for you
On May Fourteenth of Fourty-Eight Israel became a state
After nearly 2000 years of dispersion, after the Crusades, after the Inquisition, after the Holocaust, after all the persecution of the Jewish people, often at the hands of Christians and Muslims, the United Nations declared the creation of the state of Israel.
After millenia of longsuffering, Jews around the world wept with unspeakable joy and rejoicing as the ancient Jewish homeland -- the only homeland for the Jewish people -- was re-established at long last.
ERETZ-ISRAEL [(Hebrew) - the Land of Israel] was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.
After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom.
The catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish people—the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe—was another clear demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem of its homelessness by re-establishing in Israel the Jewish State, which would open the gates of the homeland wide to every Jew and confer upon the Jewish people the status of a fully privileged member of the community of nations.
Survivors of the Nazi Holocaust in Europe, as well as Jews from other parts of the world, continued to migrate to Israel, undaunted by difficulties, restrictions and dangers, and never ceased to assert their right to a life of dignity, freedom and honest toil in their national homeland.
Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned in their masses.
Pioneers… and defenders, they made deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages and towns, and created a thriving community controlling its own economy and culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend itself, bringing the blessings of progress to all the country's inhabitants, and aspiring towards independent nationhood.
In 1897, at the summons of the spiritual father of the Jewish State, Theodore Herzl, the First Zionist Congress convened and proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in what it claimed to be its own country. This right was supported by the British government in the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917 and re-affirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations which, in particular, gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and Palestine and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home.
An audio recording of the UN vote to re-establish the Nation of Israel:
Immediately upon its creation by UN mandate, Israel -- a tiny nation the size of New Jersey -- was simultaneously invaded by Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon in an attempt to destroy the new nation.
On the day after the UN vote to create Israel, a spate of Arab attacks left seven Jews dead and scores more wounded. Shooting, stoning, and rioting continued apace in the following days. The consulates of Poland and Sweden, both of whose governments had voted for the creation of Israel, were attacked. Bombs were thrown into cafes, Molotov cocktails were hurled at shops, a synagogue was set on fire.
The Arab League also planned punitive measures against Jews living in Arab countries, many of which were subsequently implemented by individual states.
On December 3, at the instigation of the Arab leadership, a large mob ransacked the new Jewish commercial center in Jerusalem, looting and burning shops and stabbing and stoning whomever they happened upon. The next day, some 120–150 armed Arabs attacked Kibbutz Efal, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, in the first large-scale attempt to storm a Jewish village.
All this in an attempt to wipe out the Jews from Israel.
But God had other plans for his people; He's so faithful! The time to favor Zion had come, as the ancient prophets had foretold in Scripture. The time had come to restore His people to the land He gave them.
The result of this war waged on the newborn Israel is something Muslims refer to this day as Yawm al-nakba: Catastrophe Day.
Why is it called Catastrophe Day by Muslims? By the time the fighting finally ended on July 24th, 1949 with the signing of the armistice agreement with Syria, not only had Israel retained its independence and statehood, it actually increased its land area by almost 50%! Also, many of the Arabs living in the area -- the same ones that were attacking the newborn Jewish state, setting synagogues on fire, stoning Jews -- were driven out of the land.
(To this day, Arab nations, still bitter over their failed invasion, demand Israel give back this land won in Israel's War for Independence and the '67 War in return for peace. This is what the faulty "land for peace" deals are all about, folks.)
Here's to another 60 years of Israel. This time, may there be lasting peace in Jerusalem, the kind of peace only God himself can bring. God will prosper those that love her, so we bless her and say shalom aleichem Yerushalayim!
[This is a pre-recorded message. Judah is gone on vacation this week.]
I'm absolutely glued to Derek Leman's blog. His recent post, a review of Barry Horner's Future Israel book, manifests some somber realities for members of the Christian faith:
When those of us who love Israel and who call Christians back to the Jewish origins of our common Jesus-faith make statements like the above [speaking of the church's shift from its Judaic background to a Greco-Roman/anti-Judaic stream], I know that some people feel as though something they love deeply is being insulted. It is insulting to think that Christianity has strong roots in a kind of theological racism.
This is not to denigrate the beauty and grace brought to the world through Christian teaching, writing, and action. Absolutely there is beauty.
But there is far more to repent for than to rejoice about in Christian history. Sorry, but this is an indisputable fact.
Christianity may have brought to the world hospitals for treating lepers and other good things, but the larger legacy has been Crusades, Inquisitions, wars, and an evil blend of religion and state seeking power to rule and dominate.
I sometimes point out to people that Christianity’s record is not any better than Israel’s record in the Bible. I’ve heard plenty of sermons and talk about Israel’s very public failures, that Israel’s history is recorded to show us how NOT to live, and so on. I’ve heard almost no talk and definitely no sermons about Christianity’s failures.
Yes, once again I am going on vacation - this time a 1 week fishing trip with the family and relatives. Got a nice, beautiful cabin on a lake in northern Minnesota. Should be a blast.
"But Judah, I'm bored and have absolutely nothing better to do than peruse your blog and be offended at your vicious attacking blog posts! What am I ever going to do with my life while you're gone?"
Have no fear, dear reader. Blogger's new "post in the future" feature lets me write blog posts ahead of time. This week, Blogger's hamster-run machines will faithfully post fresh blogs in my absence, allowing you to live your life to the fullest. ;-) Ah, the wonders of technological age.
Shabbat shalom, fine blog readers. And enjoy the pre-recorded blog posts while I'm gone. See you in a week!
In the first part of our conversation, Aaron makes the assertion that Yeshua was a rabbi according to the house of Hillel, many of whom were called Pharisees. We all know from the gospels Yeshua was a rabbi; Aaron theorizes further Yeshua was a Pharisaical rabbi of the House of Hillel.
We talked about what a Pharisee really was, as opposed to the modern definition of a Pharisee, one often held by many Christians: a legalistic, outward-only Judaism teacher.
We discussed some Scriptures and some bits from the Talmud that suggest Yeshua was a Pharisee.
We theorized how it could be that Messiah, let us suppose him for a moment to be a Pharisee, argued with Pharisees, and why rebuking certain Pharisees did not necessarily mean he was not a Pharisaical rabbi himself.
In the next part of the conversation, we'll try to answer some of the tough questions: was Messiah really influenced by Hillel? Why is it that their teachings align so much, given Hillel lived before Messiah (dying ~10 years after Messiah's birth), is it possible Messiah was influenced by the teachings of this righteous rabbi? We will also discuss some of the questions you fine blog readers have raised: we've proved there were some righteous Pharisees, but where is the proof that Messiah himself was one? We'll go over the evidence.
And what if Yeshua was a Pharisee, why didn't Paul teach others to become Pharisees? Why didn't the Pharisees chide Messiah for not following Pharisee rules? (Or did they?) We'll answer this as well.
Aaron:
You could definitely say that Hillel instead aligned with Yeshua, since Yeshua is the Living Torah, and Hillel's teaching often aligned righteously with Torah. But, Yeshua definitely seemed to grow up in a Hillel household, which would be common for one who was raised in the Galili (Gallilee). No wonder he reiterated so many of Hillel's teachings.
It's also interesting to note that modern Orthodox Judaism bases its halacha on that of Rabbi Hillel's.
Yeshua's teaching of loving your neighbor/fellow (Israelite) as yourself was also stressed by Hillel. It's no wonder when a Hillel Pharisee came to Yeshua and asked him what the greatest mitzvah is. Yeshua responds, and in the Mark account, the Pharisee actually finishes off Yeshua's response. Yeshua then replies to him, "you are not far from the Kingdom of Heaven." Why does this so greatly contrast other statements Yeshua made to other Pharisees? Because many in the Shammai sect were unrighteously strict with unlearned Jews and converts, showing their pride in their knowledge, and doing things for show rather than in sincerity.
A number of Yeshua's comments also indicate that he interacted with the discussion between the schools of Hillel and Shammai. For example, the statement about tithing mint and dill (Mt. 23:23) reflects one of the things included for tithing by Shammai, but not by Hillel (here, as also with divorce, Yeshua sided with Shammai; Maaserot 1.1 cf. 4.6; Eduyyot 5.3; Demai 1.3). Yeshua's reference to enlarging the tzitzit (tassle) and tefillin (phylacteries) for the sight of men (Matt. 23:5) was a reference to the House of Shammai who wanted to make their tzitziyot and tefillin larger than those of the followers of Hillel (Menahot 4).
Judah:
Hillel's teachings may have influenced Yeshua, then? Interesting. How would you answer a Christian who asserts all Yeshua's teachings are straight from God and not influenced by men?
Can you sum up the arguments for Yeshua being a Pharisaic rabbi? A Christian commenter tells me the only thing we've discussed so far is how certain Pharisees were righteous. Can you restate the evidence that makes you believe Yeshua himself was a Hillel Pharisee?
(You must try to put yourself in the Christian mindset; while most of my readers are privy on the Jewishness of Messiah, still many Christians picture him not as the Jewish Rabbi Yeshua ben Yosef, but as a peace-loving Gandhi-like figure named Jesus Christ who started a new religion. These same folks look at the Pharisees as the "bad guys" in the gospel. To these people, saying Jesus was a Pharisee is bound to make heads explode!)
Now I have another question. You mentioned how the Shammai were more strict than the Hillel sect of the Pharisees. It is the Hillel sect that "won", if you will; as you mention, Orthodox Judaism today is based on Hillel halacha. Here's my question: aren't the Orthodox (Hillel's descendants, if you will) unnecessarily strict today? It is difficult to imagine a religion more strict than Ultra Orthodox Judaism! Yet you say it is Shammai that was stricter yet? Has Hillel grown more stringent since Yeshua's day? They seem too strict today!
For example, a Jewish blogger acquaintance, who is perhaps not very religious, but believes in God, once told me she could never keep most of the Torah because she didn't have room in her apartment for 2 kitchens, 2 sets of dinnerware, etc. referring to the Orthodox practice of separating dairy and meat.
Isn't that an unnecessarily strict practice of Orthodox Judaism, and by extension, Hillel's halacha? Are some of the rabbinic rulings -- even from Hillel's followers -- a burden or even unrighteously strict, as were some of Shammai's halacha?
Aaron:
Yeshua upheld many of Hillel's teachings, because they were righteous. Yeshua had a problem with certain customs which somehow annulled the commandments, and with people equating them as equal status to Torah. Notice in the Mark account, that some of Yeshua's talmidim/students didn't wash their hands according to the custom. That means some did. The custom was not evil, but the certain Pharisees who upheld it as equal to a mitzvah/command of Torah were wrong.
So where is the evidence of Yeshua being a Pharisee? In Yochanan 1:26,27 Yochanan indicates that "among you (the Pharisees)... is the one coming after me (Yeshua)". As I stated, Yeshua wasn't physically there that day which is made clear in the next few verses. Instead, Yeshua was among the Pharisees - he was a Pharisee. Also, Nakdimon, who is recorded as a righteous Rabbi and member of the Sanhedrin in the Talmud, came to Yeshua and told him "we know you are a Rabbi from HaShem..." in Yochanan/John 3.
Do you ever wonder why Yeshua never interacted with the Sadducees much, instead he mostly dealt with the Pharisees, because this was his sect. And in his interaction with Pharisees, they discussed mostly Talmudic issues like issues of cutsom, tradition, halachot, etc, not clear cut unarguable issues of Torah. The things they argued about would be comparable to two Christian pastors arguing about the right way to baptize someone, or something to that effect.
It was to the Pharisees that Yeshua said they do not need a physician, because they are well (because they kept Torah; Matt. 9, Mark 2). Yeshua said he was there for the lost sheep of the House of Israel, both the dispersed Ephraimites who became goyim and the unlearned, non-Torah-observant, and/or Hellenistic Jew. Yeshua shunned mostly the Shammai Pharisees for being so strict and hard on new converts and the unlearned Jew - for loading upon them heavy loads they could not lift. Yet Yeshua himself performed Rabbinic customs, but it was because he was learned and capable...
-Yochanan/John 1:26,27 (as explained above) indicates Yeshua was a Pharisee.
-Yochanan/John 3:1-2 (as explained above) shows that a high-standing Pharisee believed in Yeshua, and said "we", i.e. at least some of the Pharisees, knew Yeshua was a "Rabbi from HaShem". (Also, Yochanan/John 19:38-40 tells of Nakdimon and Yosef burying their Moshiach/Messiah according to the Rabbinic custom)
-Luke 2:39-52 indicates Yeshua being brought up in the faith and traditions of his ancestors.
-Mark 6:41; 8:6 indicates Yeshua performing the Rabbinic custom of saying a bracha (blessing) over food.
-Mark 14:22-23,26 indicated Yeshua and his talmidim/students performing the custom of singing the Hallel after the Passover seder.
-In the Encyclopedia Judaica (vol.10, p.14) it says: "the gospels provide sufficient evidence to the effect that Jesus did not oppose any prescription of the Written or Oral Mosaic Law.
Many of Yeshua's teachings can be found in the Talmud as well. For example: "He who is merciful toward others will receive mercy from Heaven". This is found in the Talmud (Shabbat 151b) and in the Brit Chadasha (Matt. 5:7). "Do they say, 'take the splinter out of your eye?' He will retort, 'remove the beam out of your eye'" is found in the Talmud (Baba bathra 15b) and in the Brit Chadasha (Matt. 7:3). "Let your yes be yes and your no be no" is found in the Talmud (Baba metzia 49a) and in the Brit Chadasha (Matt. 53:7).
One final point, although there are many more examples I could get into. When Yeshua stood before the Sanhedrin (Mark 14:55-56), no fault could be found with Yeshua. No fault means the Pharisees and Sadducees in the Sanhedrin could find nothing wrong with Yeshua - meaning he lived flawlessly both to the Written Torah and to the customs.
An Orthodox scholar and Rabbi, Pinchas Lapide, wrote the following: "Jesus never and nowhere broke the Law of Moses, nor did he in any way provoke its infringement - it is entirely false to say that he did...In this respect you must believe me, for I know the Talmud more or less...This Jesus was as faithful to the Law as I would hope to be. But I suspect Jesus was more faithful to the Law than I am - and I am an Orthodox Jew."
Judah:
Good recap.
We've got several comments from first part of our conversation that I'd like to openly discuss. Let's take them one at a time to make it more readable.
A Messianic Israelite, Efrayim, asks,
"If Yeshua was a Pharisee, why would Sha'ul count being one as worthless, if his entire life's goal was to be as his Master? Wouldn't he have taught the Greeks to be Pharisees so they could be like their Messiah?
If He were really a Pharisee of the school of Hillel, wouldn't He be recognized as one by those very Pharisees? The answer comes from the Pharisees themselves. Not once did they ask Him why He was not keeping the teachings of the Pharisees (either school), nor did they complain about His choice of talmidim, not one of them a Pharisee."
It is interesting to note that Yeshua most certainly was deemed a rabbi in his day; we have evidence from the gospel of many folks calling him "rabbi", as well as him teaching in the Temple (acting as a rabbi, if you will). I'd also contend that Efrayim is wrong on one point: the Pharisees actually did ask Yeshua why he and his talmidim (followers) were not keeping the teachings of the Pharisees, for example, regarding the ritual washing of hands.
What do you say to Efrayim?
It is interesting that Encyclopedia Judaica states Yeshua never broke either the Torah of Moses or the Torah of the rabbis (Oral Torah). While this distinction is often lost on Christians today, to us it seems like an absurd statement; Yeshua most certainly broke some of the Oral Torah, did he not? The picking of grain on Sabbath, or rejecting the tradition washing of the hands prior to the meal, for instance. What do you say?
Aaron:
Rabbi Shaul didn't say being a Pharisee was worthless. He taught that (da'at) knowledge is nothing without cochmah and binah (wisdom and understanding), that is why the Chassidic sect of Judaism called Chabad has their name, which is an acronym for CHochmah, Binah, and Da'at (CHaBaD), wisdom, understanding, and knowledge.
In other words, Shaul's knowledge of the Torah would be useless if he did not hearken to the wisdom of HaShem - which is found in the Torah itself, but is cannot be gained if one does not keep the Torah with sincerity of heart - which is what Yeshua taught (the "letter" and "spirit" of the Torah go hand in hand).
Is it no wonder everyone called Yeshua a Rabbi? Is it no wonder why a very notable Pharisaic Rabbi and Sanhedrin member confessed that THEY KNEW Yeshua was a Rabbi from HaShem? How can someone argue this? What more evidence do they need? It seems to me people are choosing not to believe this, because everything points directly at Yeshua being a Rabbi - heck, we even have a Rabbi, Pharisee, and Sanhedrin member of Yeshua's time who is even spoken of in the Talmud telling Yeshua that they know Yeshua is a Rabbi from HaShem. Do I have to reiterate it again!? What more could people ask for in evidence?
As for Rabbi Shaul of Tarsus... he was an admitted Pharisee after believing in Yeshua (Acts 26:3), and he was a Rabbi trained under Gamaliel II. I don't see how someone could really argue this.
Another fact to note is that the Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead, which Yeshua taught and even Christians today believe too (although they believe a different version of it, of course).
-Shaul tells us that there is only one true faith (the Faith of Israel which has become known as Judaism), in Eph. 4:3-6. Yehudah (Jude) tells us that this one true Faith was delivered to the tzadikim once and for all, in Jude 1:3.
-2 Maccabees 2:21 tells us that all the Jews who fought the Greeks were "those who strove zealously on behalf of Judaism."
-Shaul himself uses the term Judaism in Galatians 1:13 to describe his own faith (see Acts 23:6 for proof that he is comparing his old life in Judaism to his new life in Judaism).
-I would like to say to the Christians what Yeshua said to the Samaritan woman in Yoch./John 4:22-23.
-In the 4th Century, a "church father" named Epiphanius writes (Panarion 29): "But these sectarians do not call themselves Christians, but "Nazarenes"... however they are simple complete Jews... They have no different ideas, but confess everything exactly as the law proclaims it - and in the Jewish fashion..."
Now, about Yeshua "breaking" Rabbinic/Pharisaic customs... Here is one good example. One day, on Shabbat, Yeshua spat in dirt to make mud in order to heal someone. This was a violation of the Shabbat by some Pharisees' standards. Notice Yeshua's argument is not that he didn't break Shabbat - but instead he used a Rabbinic argument method called kal vachomer (the light and the heavy), which Rabbi Hillel was famous for using.
Yeshua made the argument that what was of greater important (heavier, if you will) was the healing of a human being...
And he took it further, follow this.
With Matt. 12:33b in mind: in Hoshea 6:6, it is stated that HaShem desires mercy over sacrifices. The High Priest, who performed the sacrifices were commanded by HaShem to perform them even on Shabbat - so that they broke Shabbat by doing these sacrifices, yet it was of greater importance to HaShem for them to do this. EVEN STILL, mercy is of greater importance that even the Sacrifices, which Hos. 6:6 tells us. So therefore, the mercy Yeshua had on a man as he healed him on Shabbat was of greater importance than keeping Shabbat in every detail.
So Yeshua's argument was: "Yes, I am breaking Shabbat by breaking this halacha which says making anything, even mud out of spit and dirt, is a violation of Shabbat (he agrees with this halacha), but it is for the MUCH GREATER purpose of mercy, since I healed this man of blindness. Therefore, because I have done the thing that is of greater importance to my Father in Heaven, I have been righteous and have not broken Shabbat."
Now, shortly, with regard to the hand washing. The answer is simple. It is a custom, not halacha of any Torah commandment. Therefore it is entirely optional to do this. Some Pharisees were setting this up as a mitzvah, which it is not.
In the next conversation, we'll discuss more about this breaking of a small commandment to do a greater commandment; many times I've heard from Christians, "Well, Paul didn't circumcise Titus, so he wasn't keeping the Torah. Therefore, we do not keep the Torah." Did this "light and heavy" play a role in Paul decision to circumcise Timothy, but not Titus? I'd like to discuss a little more this kal vachomer idea; I've never heard of this in Christian circles, and I suspect it is a point lost on the gentile world, if not an explanation for some of the "double standards" of Paul.
One thing that's really eating at me is this Shaul (Paul) stuff -- how can we say he was a rabbi and an observant Jew when he deliberately refused to circumcise Titus? On the other end of the spectrum, Christians will tell you Paul was "nailing the Law to the cross" and refusing to be "under it" -- but how does that reconcile with Paul's taking a Nazirite vow from Torah, or his circumcision of Timothy? And what does "under the Law" mean, anyways? Was Yeshua "under the Law"?
Before this post reaches its end, I must admit we've offend a lot of you, as I predicted before we began. I don't have regrets about that -- we throw around ideas and beliefs and theories in an attempt to better understand the Scriptures.
But one thing I've done that I must apologize for, something Gary Kirkham brought to light, is that too often I have mocked Christians; certainly in the past, if not in this conversation. The tongue is powerful and mocking is not from God; I apologize and repent for that. I will learn to more carefully watch my words. Thank you, Gary, for making that known in the soft-spoken way you always do, your behavior in these matters is from Messiah.
We interrupt these conversations to bring you Israel's Yom Hazikaron (Remembrance Day) which occurred yesterday.
It's sobering to watch: the whole country stops for 2 minutes as a siren is blast to remember the 22,437 victims of terror and soldiers who died in defense of Israel since it's founding 60 years ago:
May we always honor those that fought against evil; let history say of them, "Unlike the society of their time, these men had the courage and backbone to speak against, fight, and defeat evil for the better of their nation."
Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...
My younger brother Aaron is a zealot. :-) He's zealous for Torah, for Messiah, for the land of Israel. He has a deep understanding of the Scriptures that dwarfs my own knowledge and wisdom, but better still, he has a desire for yet more understanding.
This past sabbath, after a little Torah study, I had a conversation with him regarding Messiah, Judaism, Chabad Judaism, and the Pharisees -- the conversation was getting so deep, I stopped him in the middle and said, "I need to get a sound recorder and record this - this is good stuff!"
I didn't have a sound recorder handy, but we did decide to take this conversation online and post it publicly.
The result? The multi-part conversation below is a frank, unadulterated discussion and debate regarding belief in the God of Israel and role of Messiah in that faith. I hope you all find it challenging and thought-provoking; you'll hear things you won't hear in your church! Nor your synagogue for that matter. You might get offended! And you'll almost certainly disagree. Ready?
Without further ado, here is part 1, in which Aaron asserts Yeshua the Messiah was actually a Pharisee. We discuss how this could be and what the implications would be if Yeshua (Jesus) was indeed a Pharisee...
Yeshua the Pharisee?
Aaron:
So Judah... after some study of the religio-political atmosphere of the first century, I came to a conclusion that is far different than what most of Christianity and Messianism believes. And that conclusion is: Yeshua was a Pharisaic Rabbi. And in fact, he was a netzer (sprout) out of the House of Hillel. What say ye?
Judah:
You said your conclusion of your studies was that Yeshua was a Pharisaic rabbi. I can already hear Christians cringing and quickly rushing to quote something from the gospels where Messiah rebuked the Pharisees -- why would he rebuke a Pharisee if he were one himself?
I think Yeshua was not a Pharisee by how the Western world defines a Pharisee. (That is, a corrupt, outward-only, legalistic teacher of Judaism.)
So here's the $64,000 question: how do you define a Pharisee? Before we can say whether Yeshua was a Pharisee, we must answer this question.
Aaron:
Good questions! I agree with you that Yeshua definitely was NOT the kind of Pharisee that is defined by the western Christians. And the problem itself is the misconception of the Pharisee.
As the House of Judah (the Jewish people) came back from Babylonian exile, only a very small fraction resettled in Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel). Those who did were the ones who were most zealous for Torah.
These Jewish returnees who came out of Babylonian exile and settled in Eretz HaKodesh (the Holy Land) eventually became divided into 3 groups. One of those groups/sects of Judaism were the Pharisees. The word Pharisee (Hebrew: P'rushi) comes from the Hebrew root word "parash" which means to be separated, to be distinguished, or to define. The Pharisees called themselves this because they separated from the many Hellenistic influences.
There arose two houses of Pharisaism headed by two opposing Rabbis. One was Hillel, the other Shammai.
Rabbi Shammai had much stricter halachot (ways in which to keep Torah). The House of Shammai had wealthier members than did the House of Hillel. In fact, the Talmud records that Rabbi Hillel was never wealthy - even when he had the opportunity to be. Rabbi Hillel, even after becoming a great Rabbi, decided to have very little.
Rabbi Hillel was also very lenient and accepting to the unlearned Jew and the gentile convert. There are many stories in the Talmud which show Rabbi Hillel's patience with people who came to him with questions and for help.
Rabbi Yeshua ben Yosef lived a life that greatly paralleled Rabbi Hillel's (Rabbi Hillel died when Yeshua was young). It was a life of righteous humility (not self-loathe), a life of elevating others at one's own expense - the hallmark of a righteous Rabbi.
Now for the Scriptural evidence to back up what was said above...
In Yochanan (John) 1:27, Yochanan/John HaMatbeel (the Immerser), who was from the Essene community (the Essenes being another sect of Judaism in the first century which produced many believers in Yeshua) was being questioned by some Pharisees about who he was. Near the end of the questioning, Yochanan tells them, in verse 26 and 27, "standing among you... is the one coming after me (Yeshua)". As you can read in the next few verses, Yeshua was NOT literally physically standing among the Pharisees that day... Yeshua was of the Pharisees.
Nakdimon (AKA Nicodemus), who is recorded in the Brit Chadasha ("New Testament") as a believer in Yeshua, and the man who met Yeshua at night to speak with him. He is also recorded in the Talmud as being a very righteous Rabbi (of the Hillel sect of Pharisees)!
Also, after his supposed "conversion", Rabbi Shaul of Tarsus (AKA Paul) makes the following statement: "I am a Pharisee, and the son of a Pharisee"-Acts 23:6
It is a documented fact that the Netzarim (Nazarenes), who were a sect of Judaism that believed in Rabbi Yeshua ben Yosef as Moshiach, were a coalition of Pharisees and Essenes. In fact, as you can read in the Talmud (which is a compilation of Pharisaic writings) and Essene writings that Rabbi Yeshua taught many Pharisaic and Essene principles and teachings - mostly Pharisaic, House of Hillel halacha and Essene spiritual teachings.
Also, after the destruction of the Temple, the only remaining sects of Judaism were the Netzarim and Pharisees. They lived in peace and harmony together, studied together, often times were literal blood brothers and sisters, and synonymous - all until the time of the Bar Kochba revolt, where a major split between them began to take place.
Hope that wasn't too long!
Judah:
Interesting. So our modern definition of a Pharisee is a misconception -- not all Pharisees were the outward-only, legalistic teachers we often think of. As evidence of this, you state how Paul called himself a Pharisee, how Nakdimon (Nicodemus) was a righteous Pharisee, and how Messiah's teachings aligned with the Hillel sect of Pharisees.Here's another thing to munch on: before Yeshua made the famous statement about the 2 greatest commandments of Torah, that is, the Sh'ma and to love your neighbor as yourself, before any of that, Rabbi Hillel made the statement,
What you yourself hate, don't do to your neighbor. This is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Go and study.
This statement was uttered at least 20 years before Messiah's birth, yet Hillel and Yeshua align.
You also mention Rabbi Hillel embraced humility, embraced the poor, was lenient and patient in Torah. This is also a staple of Yeshua: always humble, embraced the poor and lowly rather than the rich and haughty.
These cases show yet more alignment between rabbis Hillel and Yeshua, and this is what leads you to believe Yeshua was a Pharisee.
Can we say Messiah was influenced by Rabbi Hillel, as many other Pharisees were? Or do we say no man can influence Messiah, and that the reason Messiah and Hillel aligned was because Rabbi Hillel's teachings were righteous and perfectly aligned with Torah?
In part 2, we'll hopefully get an answer to this question: since Hillel and Yeshua had such similar teachings and lived very much paralleled lives, is it possible Yeshua was influenced by a righteous rabbi of his day? And what about the differences between Yeshua and the Pharisees of his day - what a contrast! How does that fit? Looking forward to these answers myself!
If any of you fine blog readers have questions, or think we're dead wrong, or have a different view, please say so in the comments! All feedback is welcomed. We love discussion and debate and may address them as the conversation progresses.
Paul, the brilliant Jewish intellectual who studied under one of the great rabbis and who also wrote much of the New Testament in the Christian Bible, wrote something quite profound in his letter to the Messiah-followers living in Corinth.
The statement about Messiah's sacrificial death is foolishness and silliness to the folks dying of ignorance or unbelief, those folks hellbent on doing it their own way. But to us, that statement makes perfect sense; it's the most powerful work God's ever done on our behalf.
You know the world thinks lowly of us. We're the dumb ones, the unintelligent ones who believe foolish rubbish, they'll tell you. It's ironic that this is exactly what God planned - remember when he spoke hundreds of years ago to Israel,
I'll destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the intelligence of the intelligent I will bring to nothing.
God has indeed chosen the foolish things of this world in order to confound and confuse those who think so highly of themselves. It's no wonder it's always the lowly and the broken-hearted folks who turn to God! Rarely do we see those who think themselves intelligent and higher than others turn to God. No, only after God breaks something in the core of their being and brings them to a humble place do we ever see them turn back to God.
In this masterful plan, God's made the wisdom and intelligence of the world into true foolishness, and folded man's supposed foolishness into his plan.
In this so-called enlightened day and age, is there really wisdom? Where is it? Is there really anyone truly intelligent? I considered myself such a man once, having studied under the great Rabbi Gamaliel and learned man's latest doctrines; an intellectual by all means.
Yet God exposed man's intelligence -- even my own! -- as pretentious nonsense. The world in all its wisdom and knowledge remains clueless when it comes to knowing God. God's delighted in choosing what the world considers foolish -- preaching, of all things! -- in order that the high and mighty be laid low, and the low and humble be made righteous and upstanding before God. Thus, the world does not understand God.
The world will call you weak, unintelligent, and foolish for following God. Don't worry about them. God's picked the foolish things in order to put the world's wisdom to shame.
We often think that this age is the most enlightened, the most scientific, reason-based society, ever. And we think this is a new phenomenon. But we see from Paul's letters, society has often thought so highly of itself! Even 2000 years ago, then-modern society called itself wise and enlightened, looking down on anyone who chose the "foolishness" of God. So it remains today.
Hallel l'Yah - Hebrew for "Praise to Yahweh" - His wisdom blows away the intelligence of this downward-spiraling, backwards culture.
Shhh... Don't tell anyone, but Messiah wasn't the Greek peacenik adonis we make him out to be. Can you keep a secret? Ok, I'll tell you: This one time, Jesus got mad, really mad. In fact, he got so mad, he was violent. Yeah. Don't tell the folks in the pews, but Messiah wasn't exactly a pacifist.
Here's the dirty little secret from the New Testament:
When he reached Jerusalem, Y'shua entered the Temple and found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the Temple, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market.
The chief priests and the Pharisees heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
Why was Messiah so angry? In our western mindset, we have it thoroughly ingrained into our liberated minds that most every act of violence is wrong, and that anger is wrong, and that intolerance is wrong.
Couldn't Messiah just have tolerated the beliefs of the money changers? Hey, they were just folks trying to make a living. How intolerant. What a bigoted, Jewish fundamentalist was this Jesus character. Look at that seething anger - how un-Western, how un-gentile of him! Somebody needs to free his mind to peace, love, and understanding. Religious nut-job with a violent streak, just another religious extremist!
It is no wonder Christian folks don't talk too much about this here in the Western gentile world, where anger will send you to a psychiatrist and violence will send you to prison.
We live in a world where even Christian preachers don't want to talk about this kind of thing. Recently, a Baptist Christian preacher awkwardly argued on his blog that the author of Psalm 137 was acting immorally when he pleaded with God for the destruction of Israel's captors. Here's Psalm 137, for the record:
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.
There on the poplars we hung our harps,
for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
How can we sing the songs of Yahweh while in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill.
May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.
Remember, O Yahweh, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. "Tear it down," they cried, "tear it down to its foundations!"
O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us-
he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.
Psalm 137 put to music by Lamb:
This Protestant preacher told me, "See? The psalmist was wrong for such a horrible thought. Infants dashed on rocks -- my God. This is not my religion."
If you're living in the Western world and you're a gentile, you may very well sympathize with the pastor's sentiment. Heck, even if you're a westernized Jew, you probably sympathize with the Protestant preacher's assertion. Our western culture and Hellenized thinking is spreading all over world. This kind of thinking is prevalent and infectious, because everybody wants peace and nobody likes to talk about fighting evil. Evil should be tolerated, not fought. Heck, who's to say what's evil? There is no good and evil in our world. Everything's grey. Maybe you're evil for thinking I'm evil. Maybe we're all a little evil. Maybe God is evil. Maybe there is no God.
That's the point were at in today's culture.
Already you're thinking in the back of your mind, "Boy, this Judah guy is a little crazy. He's a little out there. Red flags!"
I must confess to you, dear blog reader, I'm not Seeker-Sensitive. I concede, I am not living a purpose-driven life, my apologies to Protestant pastor Rick Warren.
Now that you're fully suspicious of my theology and have reported me to the proper authorities, let it be known this peacenik kind of thinking is evident not from just one anecdotal piece of evidence. The Reverend Jeremiah Wright, pastor of US Presidential candidate Barack Obama, says the same thing in this sermon to his church, demonizing the psalmist for his plea for justice:
The above YouTube video, in an attempt to clear Obama's name and his pastor's name by showing the infamous sermon in context, only further damns this thinking.
Of course, unlike the psalmist, the good Reverend Wright has already forgot Jerusalem, if not become one of its most vocal critics.
An atheist man and a pacifist will try to convince you of the evil nature your beliefs, pointing to the Tenakh (Old Testament) where God approves of King Josiah's violent intolerance of the Baal worshipers (destroying the altars, killing the prophets), or where God commands the Levites to slaughter those who bowed to the golden calf. Or where God commands Israel to go and take the land God gave to them, driving out the inhabitants. 3 examples in a sea of many more.
What is the deal with anger and violence? Obviously, we have waytoomany people committing acts of violence in the name of God. Yeah, it's bad. But is there ever a time for righteous anger? Righteous violence? Is there ever a time when you should be zealous for God to the point of action -- even violence?
Let's answer the question why Messiah was zealous in righteous anger for the Temple, even to the point of violence.
I've heard some bizarre teachings on this. A foolish secular man, in his understandable and predictable need to explain Jesus' actions in the context of today's culture, once told me Messiah was angry in Temple because sacrifices were going on; Messiah was only trying to save the poor animals who were victims of men's foolish, deprecated religion.
I find this explanation particularly absurd, it was the Lord Himself who instituted sacrifices for sin as early on as Cain and Abel. He had put it in writing at Mt. Sinai when the Torah was written, and finally he made this full and complete with the sacrifice of Messiah as atonement for the sin of all.
The answer to why Messiah was angry and violent is not because sacrifices were going on.
I think the answer to this question is straightforward: the money changers were selling goods in the place God lived among us, the house of God, if you will. The Tabernacle, and later the great Temple in Jerusalem -- both were built to the precise, detailed specifications God gave to Israel in the Torah, both are pictures of what's in Heaven -- these contained the Holy of Holies: the innermost part of sanctuary where God's presence dwelt above the Ark of the Covenant.
Therefore, having folks buying and selling dirtied the holiest place on earth. If they were buying and selling on the sabbath, they were also breaking one of God's commandments.
In your western mind, you may think little of dirtying the Temple -- as a Christian, you probably could care less! And breaking the sabbath, well, that is now part of your routine.
But in the Hebrew mindset, one that more properly aligns with God's ways, such acts were so abhorrent and so despicable, Messiah found it necessary to step up for God and violently set things straight.
This is what drove Messiah to righteous, zealous anger.
Too often Christians are told that all forms of anger and violence are wrong, so this passage comes across to us as out-of-character for this peacenik Christ we've painted him to be. We often forget the acts of righteous anger found in Scripture -- whether Messiah at the Temple, the Levites after the golden calf, Josiah after the pagan altars -- these are things God deemed righteous, even though they do not fit with our no-violence, no-anger politically correct society and modern Christian doctrines. We also tend to forget that Messiah is the Lion of Judah who will come back to judge the nations and wage war against the enemies of Israel, toppling the false religious systems and haughty governments of today's secular society. That will be a sight to see! What will you, a gentile pacifist Christian, think of the violent Jewish revolutionary who calls himself "Messiah"?
Messiah was angry and violent towards those turning the Father's house into a marketplace. Messiah, the same one who said, "Blessed are the peace-makers" acted in righteous violence when the time was right. He was zealous for the Temple, even more than the rabbis of his time. How many Christians today can say the same?
