Congregation Shema Yisrael

Judaism: the monotheistic religion of the Jews having its spiritual and ethical principles embodied chiefly in the Torah and in the Talmud.
http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=judaism

Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Tanakh, and explored in later texts such as the Talmud.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism

Judaism: A world religion tracing its origin to the Hebrew people of the ancient Middle-East, as documented in their religious writings, the Torah or Old Testament.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/judaism

Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. -Acts 11:25-26

There seems to be a tremendous effort being generated by a number of Messianic organizations to try and get our movement accepted as a “Judaism”, by the other more traditional Judaisms (Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform). The question is, since the Messianic movement is the only “Judaism” containing a large number of non-Jews who feel no requirement to convert, can we say we are a sect or subset of the larger Jewish world? Further, if the Messianic movement started out Jewish, at what point did the world stop viewing the movement as Jewish?

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Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’ -Luke 13:22-27

That’s a rather daunting statement. In fact, it’s even more interesting and perhaps a little nerve wracking when you consider how many people believe they are “saved” and already inside the gate. Yeshua (Jesus) seems to be saying in the passage from Luke 13 that there will be many who will consider themselves saved but, when they try to enter the Master’s house, he will send them away. What does that mean for us?

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I was having a conversation this morning with my wife about the merits of the Oral Law and how, in Orthodox Judaism, ample proofs seem to exist to fully support the validity of all of the Oral Law precepts. While we don’t always agree on this and a few other points, I’m not an expert in Judaic and Biblical studies and am not in a firm position to contradict her (and certainly not the Chabad Rabbi she studies under) and say she’s absolutely wrong. She believes the Oral Law is required to clarify points in the written Torah that seem to be missing or at least aren’t completely clear. Before you think otherwise, consider this:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. -Genesis 1:1 (NIV Bible)

This single verse can also be translated as “When God began to create heaven and earth”, “In the beginning of God creating the heavens and the earth”, and even (mistakenly) “In the beginning, God destroyed the heavens and the earth.” Clearly, Bible translation, let alone interpretation, isn’t the simple, straightforward task we’d like to believe (see Wikipedia for additional translations).

Depending on which source you consult (and I haven’t found one that seems completely authoritative as yet), there are anywhere between tens and hundreds of different translations of the Bible just in English! Some of these translations have relatively minor differences but others render certain passages in very different ways. How did this happen and what does it mean?

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Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the LORD’s divisions left Egypt. Because the LORD kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the LORD for the generations to come. -Exodus 12:40-42

After leaving Succoth they camped at Etham on the edge of the desert. By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people. -Exodus 12:20-22

I honestly thought I was done writing about the Passover, but then my wife sent me an email containing a very simple but very compelling commentary. While the Passover celebration may be over for this year, we are still in the 49 day period of counting the Omer. And while this article is not on Omer counting as such, there is a message in the journey from Egypt to Sinai to Canaan written in the Passover and the events that followed, not only for the Jewish nation, but for all of us.

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I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people – not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.” -1 Corinthians 5:9-13

First of all, I’m going to pose a very difficult situation and not have an absolute answer to offer at the end of this article. Sometimes it’s important though, to ask tough questions, not because we always will know the answer, but because we need to face the hard questions about faith. Here’s what happened to start this article off today.

Someone asked me that very special hypothetical question, “Will someone in the 5th century B.C. living on an island in the South Pacific, who never heard of the God of the Jews or Jesus, go to hell?” In some ways, that’s like asking, “If a car was travelling at the speed of light and it turned on its headlights, what would the driver see?” It’s definitely a “can of worms” question, but one that believers are usually asked by unbelievers when unbelievers want to establish that we’re either wrong or that God is cruel. After all, if everyone must hear and accept the Gospel message in order to be saved (i.e. not be sent to hell without an electric fan and a cold beer), doesn’t that mean the entire human race pre-First Century Israel is doomed to fry for eternity? Didn’t God just set up all those people unfairly? How could God condemn them utterly without giving them at least a chance to decide if they’d accept Yeshua (Jesus) or not?

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This year, Yom Hashoah begins on Sunday, April 11th starting at sundown and continues through Monday, April 12th at sundown. The commemoration of Yom Hashoah is held on the 27th day of Nissan, one week after the seventh day of Passover. Passover celebrates the freedom of the Jewish nation from the harsh slavery of the Egyptians, while Yom Hashoah Ve-Hagevurah or Day of (Remembrance of) the Holocaust and the Heroism, grips our hearts with tremendous sorrow in memory of the enslavement and execution of 6 million Jews and a great number of other “undesirables”.

The world, or at least certain portions of it, would have us forget an event that they either say happened too long ago to care about or indeed, didn’t happen at all. The events of the holocaust occurred within living human memory and are systematically denied, while we continue to commemorate much older events, such as Columbus Day and Independence Day in this country without any doubt whatsoever.

For thousands of years, the Jewish people have been systematically attacked, exiled from the Land of Israel on numerous occasions, and been subject to a long list of pogroms, forced conversions to Christianity, rejection, condemnation, torture, and murder.

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You shall count for yourselves seven weeks, from when the sickle is first put to the standing crop shall you begin counting seven weeks. Then you will observe the Festival of Shavu’ot for the LORD, your God -Deuteronomy 16:9-10

The counting is intended to remind us of the link between Passover, which commemorates the Exodus, and Shavu’ot, which commemorates the giving of the Torah. It reminds us that the redemption from slavery was not complete until we received the Torah. -Judaism 101

Today is the last day of the week of unleavened bread. Tonight, just after sundown, we may once more resume eating and possessing products with leavening (this is true according to the Bible and is practiced in Israel, but in the diaspora, rabbinically, the week of matzah ends on Tuesday the 6th at sundown).

As many of you are aware, part of the commandments related to Passover and the Week of Unleavened Bread are to neither eat nor possess any product containing a leavening agent. Leavening, for this seven day period, represents sin. By removing it ceremonially from our lives we are, in essence, rededicating our lives to drawing closer to God by reducing the barriers between us and Him; namely sin. Passover also occurs during the beginning of Spring; a time of renewal for the world. It’s a time of renewal between people and God as well.

The day Yeshua (Jesus) died, observant Jews in Israel and all over the world were eating matzah, the bread of affliction, yet when he rose from the dead, that matzah took on the meaning of “the bread of life” to those who followed him and knew his teachings. How can we ever eat matzah again and not think of Yeshua’s death and resurrection after reading the Master’s words here:

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On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” Then they remembered his words. -Luke 24:1-8

Christianity considers today to be Good Friday, the day that Yeshua (Jesus) was crucified, and the church will celebrate his resurrection and the promise of eternal life this coming Sunday, Easter. There is no one in either Christianity or among Messianics who does not feel the power and glory of this time of year, and the certain hope we have in living eternally with God and the Lamb because of what Yeshua has done for us. That said, we have different traditions for marking this awesome and joyous occasion. Messianics celebrate the Passover to commemorate the crucifixion, and Christians celebrate Easter, to commemorate the resurrection. Is there a “right” or a “wrong” to our traditions and how we choose to recognize this time of year?

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There’s a tremendous amount of anticipation and excitement each year as Passover approaches. This is especially true if your congregation hosts a community Seder, as mine has done for the past ten years. Although the Feast of Unleavened Bread lasts for eight days in the diaspora (seven inside of Israel), a set of events is triggered by the beginning of Passover and the passing of the first Seder meal on the 15th of Nissan (sundown on Monday, March 29th, this year).

From the Gospel record, we know that Yeshua (Jesus) was crucified on the 14th of Nissan between the hours of 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; the times of the offering of lambs for the continual burnt offering in the Temple in Jerusalem. After he died, his body was removed from the execution stake, and Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate if he could have custody of the body. Joseph, with the aid of Nicodemus, took the body of the Master, wrapped it in linens, as was the burial custom, and placed it in a nearby tomb, just before sunset on the 14th. The stone was rolled in place, concealing the body of Yeshua as the sun dipped below the hills of Jerusalem.

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