Moving Day

This is a little sooner than I thought it would happen but I've been pondering creating my "next-phase-of-life" blog, I read a quote this morning from Rabbi Freeman titled Morning Meditation and then suddenly, I was on WordPress.com creating my new blog.

Welcome to Morning Meditations.

I hate "hello world" first blog posts, so I replaced the generic WordPress "verbage" with a blog thanking God for His abundant faithfulness to me and to all of us.

Although I'm not formally leaving my congregation and the life it represents until June 18th, my transition is happening in stages. Moving from the blog you're on now to my new blog is one of those stages.

At first, my content on the new blog will probably be fairly close to what you're used to reading here, but eventually, as my transition progresses, those changes will be reflected in what I write. I've already changed the wording of the "about me" page at the new blog to illustrate my evolving perspective:

I’m just a guy humbly walking a path of faith and trying to understand my relationship with God. I’m a Christian husband married to a Jewish wife. Part of this blog has to do with the joys and challenges of being intermarried. A lot of this blog has to do with how a Christian can look through a Jewish lens and get a better perspective on life, love, and the God who made us all.

How things will look after a month or a few months or a year, I can't say. All I can say is that I'm slowly closing the door on one part of my life and at the same time, opening the door on another. That doesn't mean I'm closing the door on the people. I want you to come along. I want you to participate. If we are friends (and I really want my friends to continue to talk with me and share my experiences) or if you just consider me kind of interesting, please, follow me along the path and see what happens next.

I decided to leave the current blog up rather than deleting it. I won't post any new content here. This is the very last post for "Searching". However, there are quite a few blog posts that receive a lot of hits, so apparently folks out there are interested in some of the things I've written. As long as those stories are useful, then they should remain available.

Leaving this blog active does bother me a little, since I've changed since last July and some of the ideas and angst I expressed in my early writings no longer quite tell the tale about who I am. On the other hand, they are mileposts along the road, marking my progress from who I was to who I am becoming in faith, grace, and trust.

For those of you who are following this blog via blogger and for anyone who just peeks in occasionally or happens to surf in, if you're interested in what I'm going to be doing or how my journey is progressing, please bookmark Morning Meditations or put the URL in your favorite RSS reader.

Feel free to comment here on my last blog post if you like or better yet, comment on my Meditations blog, since that's where I'll be "living" from now on.

Thank you. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read what I've written. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time, the energy, the thoughtfulness, and the passion to comment about something I've chronicled. As a writer, what I put in a blog doesn't mean much unless someone reads it, though I do get some benefit from the writing. Of course, feedback is like gold, even if it's to say "I think what you said is totally wrong". I'm not here just to spew out thoughts and feelings, I'm here to communicate, interact, and learn.

Thanks most of all to God who is faithful and who has been with me, even when I've felt alone, traveling in the dark. May He continue to travel with me on my journey to draw closer to Him and may He be with you all.

When you awake in the morning, learn something to inspire you and mediate upon it, then plunge forward full of light with which to illuminate the darkness.

Are you looking for me? Find me at Morning Meditations.

Who is My God?

One of the reasons for the destruction of ancient Jerusalem was that fellow Jews held to the letter of the law. Furthermore, they tried to get whatever they could out of each other legally. As the Talmud states (Bava Metzia 30b), we were exiled because fellow Jews failed to raise their standard of behavior "lifnim mishurat hadin" - beyond the letter of the law. In other words, people wouldn't cut each other any slack. This is something that God cannot tolerate among His children for very long. Focusing on technical legalisms can destroy a society. Adherence to halacha (Jewish law) is extremely significant, but it cannot become the be all and end all. Something can be legally justifiable and not morally correct.

from "Halacha is Not Enough"
at the Lev Echad blog.

I have a deep appreciation for the Jewish teachings and often find more wisdom and inspiration in them than in the standard Christian commentaries. I also sometimes find remarkable parallels between the wisdom of the Jewish sages and the teachings of Jesus. Consider this:

Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But now as for what is inside you - be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.

“Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone. -Luke 11:39-42

Jesus was teaching toward the end of the Second Temple Era, within mere decades of the Temple's destruction and the mass exile of the Jewish people from what was then Roman Judea. It's not surprising that he should teach on the very topic that we see in Bava Metzia 30b. And when Jesus was supposedly "making all foods clean" (Mark 7:1-13), he was actually teaching again on the tyranny of the "letter of the law". He was teaching how we must live out the morality that the Torah represents, rather than blindly serving words and letters on paper.

The writer of the blog I quoted above cites a modern example of this:

I know a man who helped bring a secular Jewish woman back to the faith. When they bumped into each other some time later, she told him that she was no longer ritually observant. Surprised, he asked her what had happened. She explained that shortly after becoming Orthodox, she was attending synagogue on Shabbat with her young child, who happens to be mentally handicapped. After the services were over, she walked outside with her son in her arms. A rabbi who passed by told her that there was no eruv in the neighborhood and that she could not lift her child. She was deeply offended by his lack of sensitivity. Was the rabbi halachically right in his observation? Yes. But was he morally right in his conduct? Absolutely not.

This "letter of the law" without a lived moral expression may be what Peter was trying to say here:

Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? -Acts 15:10

This can be interpreted not as a condemnation of Torah but of Naval Birshut HaTorah which is living within the confines of Torah without courtesy, compassion, and civility toward other people. You can be technically and "religiously" correct and still deeply hurt other people without any moral justification.

Christianity often has the opposite problem in that the church tends to enjoy a "freedom from the law" by allowing a rather liberal interpretation of the Bible and holding to very few (if any) behavioral standards of morality or ethics. Being "covered by the blood of Jesus" tends to be an excuse for Christians to sin now and repent later. Of course, that's not what Paul taught:

The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? -Romans 5:20-6:2

You'd think that Christianity would know better (and a lot of churches do) than to play fast and loose with grace. It seems though, that you can find two different kinds of churches out there (besides the occasional ones that are fairly well balanced): the "loose grace" churches and those that have their own version of a strict "halacha". Churches such as the Westboro Baptist Church go about displaying their bizarre and extreme "standards" that have no association whatsoever with morality and Godliness, but there are congregations not registering quite as high on the radar, yet still holding an unhealthy amount of control over their parishioners and insisting on a strict "halacha" of their own.

There was a man in his 60s in the class I just finished teaching who was raised a Catholic. He had always been taught that God was a harsh and strict taskmaster who punished every little infraction or sin. He left the Catholic church decades ago and refused to have anything to do with religion. His wife coaxed him into attending some of my classes and just last week, he said he appreciated what I taught (not that I'm such a great teacher) because I showed him a God who truly cares for people and who wants the best for us; a God who is like a just but patient father (Numbers 14:18, Psalm 86:15, Psalm 103:8) and who is compassionate to His children.

The Christian church in all its expressions is sometimes full of inconsistencies. Judaism in all of its expressions is sometimes full of inconsistencies. That's because human beings in all our expressions, varieties, and incarnations are inconsistent. God is not inconsistent.

Yet the Word of God and the will of God is filtered through human interpretations and human frailty. The Rabbi who said that the mother couldn't carry her handicapped child on Shabbat because "there was no eruv in the neighborhood" wasn't being evil and in fact, he believed he was saying the right thing. According to halacha, he was, but according to the moral will of God, he was absolutely wrong.

Who is God? What does He want? The answer seems like it should be simple. It seems like all the answers should be in the Bible. I wish it was that simple, but if it was, we wouldn't struggle all our lives to try to find the answers to all of our questions. Yet, in some sense, the core of who and what God is and what He wants out of us is staring right at us:

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God. -Micah 6:8

Asher, who wrote the Lev Echad blog article I've been referencing, ends his blog post with a quote from the book This is My God (First Edition, 1959) and it seems appropriate that I should do the same:

"The sensible thing is to use hard thinking to find the right way to live and then to live that way, whether many other people do or few do. If a Jew concludes to enter upon his heritage and make it part of his life, he does an obviously reasonable thing. The chances are that–at least today–he will seem a mighty freakish non-conformist in some neighborhoods; but that is changing too, and anyway, what does it matter? What matters is living with dignity, with decency, and without fear, in the way that best honors one's intelligence and one's birth."

Update: I just finished reading Kenneth Seeskin's Maimonides: A Guide for Today's Perplexed and the following quote from his book seems to dovetail nicely into today's topic:

On the surface, a person obsessed with ritual may seem to take a demanding approach to religion; but ritual, too, can be a shortcut, a mechanical way of courting favor with God. For some people, it is easier to participate in highly regimented activities than to engage in reflection and study, easier to cook milk and meat in separate pots than to consider alternative accounts of creation. If a person lacks the aptitude for philosophy, Maimonides sees nothing wrong in obeying the commandments and living a traditional Jewish life; the problem arises when we look on such a person as an ideal, suggesting that nothing further needs to be attempted.

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark.

Seeing Like a Ben Aliyah

We can explain in light of this statement that the bloods do not cancel each other out. A Jew who ascends in the ways of Hashem—a ben aliyah symbolized by the olah—does not nullify his friend. Instead he sees only the good in others and often praises them.

Stories off the Daf
You Are Called Adam
Menachos 22
Daf Yomi Digest

I read these "Stories off the Daf" every day (or almost every day) and sometimes they really get my attention. From yesterday's Daf, Rav Yehudah Freund, zt"l teaches us that we can learn something from the Olah offering in the combining of the blood of the bull and the goat on Yom Kippur (I know this may seem obscure, strange, or even bizarre to some of you, but the great Rebbes were able to see many moral lessons illustrated by God in the study of the Oral Law). In this case we learn that, even though more of the blood of the bull is used than the blood of the goat in the two separate Olah offerings, they do not nullify each other and particularly, the majority (bull) blood does not nullify the minority (goat) blood being offered.

The Rav continues:

My brother Yaakov taught a profound lesson from this halahcah, based on the famous words of the prayer of Rav Elimelech of Lizhensk, which many recite before the morning prayers: "May we only look upon the good qualities of our friends and not upon their weaknesses."

In the reality of our lives, even in the lives of disciples of the Jewish Messiah and worshipers of the one, true God of Israel, we find this practice, though ideal, somewhat elusive. A few days ago, Judah Himango posted a blog about the difficulties in forgiving others, and some of the comments made on one of the recent blogs I wrote for my congregation, show a less than gracious reply to some challenging remarks.

As human beings, our first response is to build ourselves up by tearing the other guy down. While the anonymous sage relates, "blowing out someone else's candle doesn't make yours burn any brighter", we nevertheless expend a great deal of our breath extinguishing the flames of those around us in the (vain) hope that our light will provide greater "illumination" (though often, we find ourselves sitting in the dark, instead).

The Rav concludes his lesson this way:

When a person acts as he should, he takes the blood of his body and binds it to Hashem, the "Aluf or Master of the world," But when one is on a low level he is merely dam, blood that is not connected to Hashem. People who are on this level of blood nullify each other. They tend to focus on the weaknesses of others, not on their good points.

We can almost imagine that Paul was making a commentary on Rav Yehudah's teaching with these words:

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. -Romans 15:1-4 (quoting Psalm 69:9)

We bear the weaknesses of others, overlooking them and only seeing their strengths, because this has also been done by the Jewish Messiah for us:

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. -2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Good Shabbos.

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark.

We Are Living Torahs

The deepest longing, therefore, of the genuine Chasid is to become a "living Torah." The keeping of the Law is to him only a means to an end: union with God. For this reason he tries to keep the Law scrupulously, for "God's thoughts are embodied in it."
-Paul Philip Levertoff
Love and the Messianic Age

One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’ Then the scribe said to him, ‘You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that “he is one, and besides him there is no other”; and “to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength”, and “to love one’s neighbour as oneself”,—this is much more important than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.’
-Mark 12:28-33 (NRSV)

Hillel said: "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn"
-Shab. 31a

I know people who refer to Jesus as "the Living Torah"; the only being in human form who perfectly obeyed the will of God and did not sin. According to the early 20th century sage Paul Philip Levertoff, the true desire of a "genuine Chasid" is to imitate the Master and also exist as a living embodiment of the Torah; the will of our Creator. For a Jew, this means continual, scrupulous study of the Torah and Talmud and also living out that "knowledge" in one's day-to-day existence, striving to improve obedience with each passing moment.

But is obedience to the commandments the goal?

If a man is worthy, the Torah becomes for him a medicine of life, but if he is not, it is a deadly poison. This is what Raba explained. "If he uses the Torah properly it is a medicine of life unto him, but for him who does not use it properly, it is a deadly poison." -b.Yoma 72b

The aforementioned quote of the Talmud is taken from the commentary to Levertoff's book and may illustrate something for those of us who are non-Jewish disciples of the Jewish Messiah.

Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law. You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love. -Galatians 5:2-6 (NRSV)

Paul seems to be contradicting both Christ's and Levertoff's perspectives on the Torah, but look at what Levertoff's source, the Talmud, is saying. What is it to use or misuse the Torah? The Chasidic Jewish tradition teaches that it's not enough to mechanically obey the commandments. Your intention must be correct. It not only matters what you do, but why you do it.

The Gentiles Paul is criticizing, as recorded above, most likely weren't desiring to convert to Judaism for their love of Torah or even for their love of God, but rather, because they had been convinced by outsiders, that they must convert to Judaism and take on the full weight of the yoke of Torah, in order to be disciples of Jesus; in order to be "living Torahs", just as the Master is our "living Torah."

However, it's not wearing tzitzit or laying tefillin that allows a Gentile disciple of Jesus access to God, but rather the desire within us to reach up to God through faith and trust in Jesus, and out of that desire to offer ourselves as "little Messiahs" to the rest of the world, by doing deeds of compassion, charity, and kindness.

I'm not drawing a conclusion at this point regarding the level of Torah observance that is proper for a Jewish Messianic disciple vs. a Gentile Christian disciple, but it seems clear from what we can read of Paul the Apostle and Paul the Chasidic disciple of Yeshua, that our approach to the Torah must be more than obedience for its own sake (although there is some merit in this if our desire is to also honor God). We must approach the Torah as if we are approaching the living essence of God, with a motivation not to take, but to give. Just as Jesus gave everything for us, including his own life, we must strive to be like him, "living Torahs" in the world, giving back to others the things we have so graciously received.

I don't want to end today's blog post without reminding everyone that the nation of Japan is in dire need of our help. Whatever you can do by donating funds or goods, please extend yourself to those who need you. Be a hero. Act in the Spirit of Jesus. Pray for Japan.

Hope is Burning Like a Candle

I sit before my only candle, 
like a pilgrim sits beside the way
Now this journey appears before my candle
As a song that's growing fainter, the harder I play
That I fear before I end, will fade away
I guess I'll get there, but I wouldn't say for sure

from Song for Adam
Jackson Browne

I dusted off a very old CD, Jackson Browne's debut album from 1972 called Saturate Before Using which contains a number of "soulful" songs from my youth. Listening to tunes such as "Song for Adam", "Doctor My Eyes", and "Looking Into You" during my commute into work, brought back memories from many decades ago. Some of those songs also function as a counterpoint to my journey of faith and the general state of "religion" in the world around me.

I struggle with some of the undercurrents I see in Christianity as it's currently expressed. I follow a number of Christian Pastors and other believers on twitter and even among professional clergy, the narrow focus of the faith I find is alarming. It seems like "the end times" is just consuming Christianity, fixing the gaze and attention of the faithful forward into a future when Jesus will come, faithful Christians will be raptured, and everything will be hunky dory. Here's a couple of examples:

They laughed at Noah #Tworship #endtimes

Then they will deliver u 2 tribulation, & will kill u, & u will b hated by all nations because of My name. Matt 24:9 #Tworship #endtimes

I've already addressed my "issues" with focusing on an "X-Files-like" fantasy of the future in a recent blog as well as trying to promote being an answer to prayer in the current age. Frankly, if we keep our hearts and spirits prepared and keep our actions focused on serving God and helping others, the "end times" will take care of itself. Are we to defer caring about others for the sake of stroking our own egos and our personal salvation?

Oh people, look around you
The signs are everywhere
You've left it for somebody other than you
To be the one to care
You're lost inside your houses
There's no time to find you now
Your walls are burning and your towers are turning
I'm going to leave you here
and try to get down to the sea somehow

from Rock Me On the Water
Jackson Browne

What are we doing? Either we ignore the needs of people in the present and focus on the future, or we continually defend our right to bad mouth people we disagree with while defending our right to do so. More than that, when people complain to us about our casual attitude toward others, we accuse them of being mean spirited.

When did the community of faith become so distorted?

To answer my own question, I think we always have been. God's people have a long history of struggling to find our focus and then being able to keep it. Exodus 32 chronicles the "sin of the Golden Calf", which we read about and studied last week, but that's only one small sample of how those of us who have answered God's call to faithfulness allow our humanity to get in the way of His Holiness.

Where is the joy we are to have in serving God and loving our neighbor? Where is the pleasure we find in the pages of the Bible? Why aren't we listening to those who are wise?

"What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn" -Shab. 31a

When was the last time you considered Hillel's words before blasting out a blog post or comment? Do we ever seek God and His will anymore, or do we just pander to our own desires and impulses? How does this make us any different than the world around us? Why should anyone care about our "witness" when we're no different than people who have no faith?

Well I looked into the sky for my anthem
And the words and the music came through
But words and music can never touch the beauty that I've seen
Looking into you
and that's true

from Looking Into You
Jackson Browne

If we can't find beauty in our own walk of faith, how can we expect anyone else to?

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. -Aesop

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark. The wind is coming up and threatening to put out the candle.

Pursuing a Worthy Life

Jewish unity is possible - really! It begins with acting decently toward one another; it follows with tolerating others as they pursue lives of goodness; it culminates with many different Jews, but just one heart.
From Lev Echad

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. -Ephesians 4:1-6

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. -Ephesians 4:29-32

If the Apostle Paul was a Messianic Jewish blogger and his letter to the congregation in Galatia had been posted on his personal blog, how would it be received by those who read his post? Well, what follows are the comments from readers in response to Paul’s inspired post, ahem “epistle”.
Gene Shlomovich in his blog post:
If the Apostle Paul was a Messianic Jewish Blogger
on Daily Minyan

Paul seems to have a difference of presentation between what he said in Galatians and the advice he offers to the Gentile Messianic disciples in Ephesians. Paul said some pretty rough things to the churches in Galatia including admitting that he accused Peter of hypocrisy publicly (Galatians 2:11-13), calling the Galatians foolish (Galatians 3:1), and wishing the "Judaizers" would cut off their own genitals (Galatians 5:12). So what's all this business about not letting any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths? Is this a case of "do as I say and not as I do?"

It's almost as if Paul had received a personality transplant between these two letters, or could this be an example of what some New Testament scholars have found to be inconsistencies in the New Testament text?

Of course other scholars have suggested that the inconsistencies in the different Gospel accounts represent different theological points the Gospel writers were trying to make to different audiences, so I suppose we could consider Paul's change in attitudes between Galatians and Ephesians in that light. Paul may have been trying to make a point to the Galatians by using "rough talk" knowing they'd be more likely to respond to that language, while approaching the Ephesians using a different method, knowing that would work better with them.

But what about us and how we talk?

The Messianic blogosphere tends to justify its "rough talk" with each other based on Paul in Galatians, but is Paul's example in Ephesians ever used? I'd like to think that some of bloggers in our little corner of the web do so by example.

For instance, Michael Schiffman's blog is pretty much a very friendly place to visit. Even when he has a strong point to make, he doesn't do so by denigrating other people or allowing an abundance of such talk to inhabit the comments section of his blog. There are a number of others who behave similarly in the Messianic blogosphere...and a number of others who do not.

I try to maintain a kind of peace on my blog without succumbing to a sort of "Pollyanna" environment where only a peanut butter and jelly on Wonder Bread type of interaction is entertained. However, it's hard to strike a balance between encouragement and brotherly (and sisterly) support, and dealing with the hard questions of faith. I certainly am not going to hold myself up as an example of being completely humble and gentle; being patient, bearing with others in love (Ephesians 4:2), but I'd like to think I'm trying to head in that direction.

This is yet another "can't we get along" blog post in my long list of similar missives, but I was studying ahead to next Shabbat's readings, and what Paul was trying to say to the Ephesians sort of jumped out at me. I know, based on last Friday's blog post that there's no shame in focusing on my own spiritual and educational needs, but I can't easily separate my personal experiences from those of the community of faith. I'm not only a part of my immediate fellowship group, but of the larger Christian and Messianic community (since both Jews and Gentiles in those communities share a Messiah in common).

The light of the Messiah shines on the path of faith before us, but our own shadows obscure that path. I have experienced plenty of darkness as I've tried to proceed, and while I take responsibility for the shadow I cast, I urge anyone reading this to stop for a moment and check on the nature of your own lamp. How much of a light or a shadow are you?

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. -Revelation 20:12

It matters what we do or fail to do in the here and now. Please don't think it doesn't.

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark. But there's always a light showing us the way. The Jewish Messiah called his disciples "a light to the world." Are we?

Forgiveness

We must remember as we approach Yom Kippur that in order to acheive atonement, we must ask all those who we have harmed for forgiveness. In order to truly repent, we must make a firm comittment to "be nice" to our neighbor - to be sensative to others' needs and situations, and act accordingly, in a way that will not necessitate a visit before the next Yom Kippur to ask for forgiveness. -from Torah.org.

There has been quite a conversation going on at the Kineti L'Tziyon blog post The Surprise Ending of the Frum Gentile Story. It's very difficult to keep an objective viewpoint when going over the report being given and particularly when reading the responses of a number of the post readers. One commenter has reminded everyone that with Yom Kippur not far away, we need to be thinking about our behavior and determining if we are acting to help or to harm others.

Even when you believe you're doing something right, it may be that in the process, you are behaving in a manner that not only damages your own reputation, but Hashem's. Even if you believe the other guy is in the wrong, trying to prove yourself right may not send the correct message...at least not the message that God would have us send, particularly at this time of year.

The "Messianic movement" is full of disagreements, debates, and occasionally even distrust. We all claim to worship the same God and the same Messiah, but look at how fragmented a single issue can make us appear. Read the comments on this blog and tell me we are all one flock with one shepherd.

I'm not trying to expand the problem and I'm not trying to take sides. Far from it, I'm trying to say that taking sides in this situation isn't going to do any good. First of all, there's no objective way to resolve the conflict and secondly, do most of us really need to be involved? Sure, if we had roles as peace makers, it would be one thing, but what if we're just commenting to, however unintentionally, fan the flames and pour more fuel on the fire?

As we approach the Day of Atonement, part of our responsibility to God and to other people is to try and make amends. As much as we are responsible, let us be at peace with others. Can we do this? Can we acknowledge that we are not always going to agree with every theological point, but still extend a friendly hand to the next person?

Let this be my hand being extended and to everyone I've offended including Judah, Derek, and others, I humble myself. Yom Kippur isn't a day when you try to be right. It's a day when you need to be right with God and reconciled with your fellow.

Let my soul be like dust to everyone.