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.

A Tree of Healing or Poison

On a simple level this means that the sacrifices of the metzora must be brought in the proper sequence, in the sense that they must be in order. But we can learn a moral lesson from this as well. The word havayah can also mean that which has lasting existence. This teaches that the lesson of humility which a metzora is forced to learn in order to be healed must be interalized to effect a lasting cure. His repentance of his sin cannot be a temporary condition - it must become a part of his being. He must know that only through achieving lasting humility will his new state of health endure.

Daf Yomi Digest
Menachos 5
Stories off the Daf
The Metzora's Purification

I'm taking a small break from my ongoing review of Paul Philip Levertoff's Love and the Messianic Age to write about something more basic. In my studies this morning, I came across the quote I posted above, which states a simple truth for people of faith, but one we may not consider with sufficient seriousness.

Repentance, forgiveness, and grace are spoken of frequently in the church, and rightly so, but do we have a sufficient understanding of what is required of us to access God's mercy and grace? We know that, as often as we ask God's forgiveness, we receive it, but is that an excuse to take grace and mercy casually?

Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times. -Matthew 18:21-22 (NRSV)

This is sometimes translated as "seven times seventy" which, doing the math, is 490. Seven is symbolically a "perfect number" in Judaism and the Rabbinic commentary on forgiveness is that you are obligated to forgive someone only a limited number of times. If the person continues sinning against you, then they haven't really repented (sounds like the quote from the Daf I posted above). On the other hand, Jesus is saying that we should continue to forgive a person as long as they ask it, just as God forgives us (my assumption is forgiveness occurs as long as we are sincerely asking and not just blowing smoke). Jesus isn't saying that God limits His own forgiveness of humanity to 490 times (if He did, we'd all be toast), but rather, many times, a large number in the Bible represents an infinite (or at least, an extremely large) number of, in this case, opportunities to be forgiven.

Here's Paul's commentary on the matter:

What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. -Romans 6:1-4 (NRSV)

No, because grace has been freely made available to us isn't a license to take advantage of God's generosity and to abuse the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Only children take advantage of a parent's kindness and forgiveness to deliberately misbehave (this is different than a person who sincerely desires to repent and is struggling with a difficult issue or habit...it might take more than one time to permanently stop drinking, gambling, or ceasing some other compulsive ill). Jesus said during his temptations in Matthew 4:7 (quoting Deuteronomy 6:16), "Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.' "

This may go some ways to explaining the following as well:

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 Word of God, which in some sense contains the essence of God, is not a set of installation instructions or an owner's manual that we mechanically follow, but rather, it is something we incorporate into our lives, just as we incorporate food and drink to keep us alive. Even medicine, if taken at the wrong time or misused, can make us sick rather than well. Treating God's Word and grace (and thus God Himself) casually, will not help us but rather, blow up in our faces. If we are not "worthy" (do not treat God's Word and grace with respect), then the medicine of life will be our poison instead.

As I've said before, it's not just what we do, but why we do it.

She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called happy. -Proverbs 3:18 (NRSV)

The Torah is called a "tree of life"; Eitz Chaim Hee, to those who cling to her. But you must cling to God's Word, and to God, with all your heart.

I know my blog today is pretty elementary, but it never hurts to get back to the basics once in awhile.

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

What Did Jesus Teach About the Torah, Part 4

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. -Matthew 28:19-20

This is the twelfth part of my series on what Yeshua (Jesus) taught his Jewish disciples to teach the newly minted Gentile disciples to obey. It's also the fourth part of my series that specifically focuses on what Yeshua taught about the Torah (the Law) that can be applied to non-Jewish disciples. Before proceeding, let's review a summary for Part 3 of What Did Jesus Teach About the Torah:

In a nutshell, we learned that in addition to the conditions outlined for Gentile disciples in terms of Torah obedience we find in the Acts 15 letter, there are a number of commands that Yeshua taught in Matthew 5 that can be applied to Gentile Torah obedience, including commandments to not murder, not to commit adultery, not to divorce except under extreme circumstances, to avoid taking oaths, and to love your enemies. These commandments are found in several sections of the Torah including Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. We find that the Acts 15 letter was written in direct response to events reported in Paul's Galatians letter where we discover Messianic Jewish disciples, without authorization from the Jerusalem Council, were telling new Gentile believers that they had to convert to Judaism in order to become Messianic disciples. The letter corrects this disinformation and we see that Gentile disciples are allowed to discover their lives in the Jewish Messiah, in the Torah, and in God without the requirement to become Jewish or to be obligated to the entire body of the Torah as are the Jewish people.

I want to revisit a portion of Acts 15 because I believe that Peter said something in response to some Messianic Jewish disciples who belonged to the party of the Pharisees that has relevance on how Yeshua taught about the nature of the Torah:

The apostles and elders met to consider this question. After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: "Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are." -Acts 15:6-11

These words are usually referenced by traditional Christianity to illustrate that the Law (Torah) was considered to be a burden too heavy for both Jewish and Gentile Christians and to justify the notion that the Torah was replaced by Grace. Frankly, it's a good point because how else can you explain Peter including both Gentiles and Jews in the statement ...putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? Were the Torah commandments an unbearable yoke? Compare what Peter is saying to what Yeshua says:

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." -Matthew 11:28-30

Of course, I'm assuming that both Peter and Yeshua are using the term "yoke" in the same way, that "yoke" refers to the Torah, and that the "yoke of Torah" can either be heavy or light. As support for this, consider the following quote from Torah.org:

This week's mishna provides us with an important life insight, one not only philosophically intriguing but practically valuable as well. One who accepts upon himself the "yoke of Torah" -- meaning he undertakes to study Torah diligently and without interruption, will find the yokes of government and of livelihood less burdensome or removed altogether.
Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld

So why is Yeshua's yoke (of Torah) easy and why does Peter refer to the yoke (of Torah) as a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? What's the difference between the yokes?

Amazingly, I think I have an answer. The clue is here:

No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are. -Acts 15:11

I don't believe that Peter was saying the Torah commandments were a yoke that the Jewish people found too heavy to bear. I think Peter is saying that believing that Torah obedience in and of itself will save you is an unbearable burden.

We see a perfect example of this in some One Law congregations today, where Gentile believers focus so much on certain aspects of Torah obedience, such as avoiding pork chops and scrimp scampi, learning how to tie their tzitzit, and the proper method for laying tefillin, that they've neglected the more important matters of the Torah, such as feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, and caring for the homeless and the friendless. If even some of the Jews in the First Century C.E. were "misaligned" in terms of their understanding of Torah too, then I have no doubt that the yoke of Torah would be heavy for them, just as it is for Gentile believers who expect Torah obedience to save them today.

Now look at the fact that Yeshua had to tell the Jewish people in Matthew 5 the correct interpretation of certain Torah commandments and link that to his teaching that the yoke of the Messiah's Torah is light, and you can understand what Peter is talking about. Peter isn't negating Torah obedience for the Jews, but he's negating Torah obedience for the sake of blindly following rules and expecting the Torah to be able to save you. This is exactly that the Gentiles in Galatians were being lured into by some unreliable Jewish brothers and what Paul was so upset about.

The yoke of Torah is light when we realize that it's faith and grace that saves us, not robotic Torah obedience and the Torah is heavy when we become rule-bound for the sake of being rule-bound and believe that it's the little details of obeying the Torah commandments that will either save or condemn us. Paul says in Romans 3:10 that no one is perfect; no one obeys God's Torah perfectly. It's not the perfection of Torah obedience that saves us, it's the continual struggle to perfect our faith by grace. Paul compares our journey of faith to running a race in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 and in 2 Timothy 4:7, he says he has finished the race and has kept the faith.

Both in Matthew 7:15-23 and Matthew 16:5-12, Yeshua admonishes his disciples to guard themselves against "false prophets" and against "the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees". The Gentiles in the Galatian church needed to hear that lesson as well and Paul was able to take the message to them. This message was then re-enforced by the Acts 15 letter, and we modern Gentile Messianic disciples also need to be paying attention to what this teaching is saying. There are still plenty of "teachers" out there who elevate the benefits of blind Torah obedience above living a life of faith, grace, and fruitfulness by obeying the weightier matters of Torah and accepting the proper yoke of the Messiah.

Conclusion: What do we learn about Yeshua's yoke of Torah for the Jewish and Gentile Messianic disciples?

1. God made no distinction between Jewish and Gentile disciples in terms of receiving the Spirit, having hearts purified by faith, and being saved by the Messiah's grace.
2. The Yoke of Torah is heavy if we believe we must obey every little Torah commandment to the letter in order to be saved.
3. The Yoke of Torah is light if we realize that both Jewish and Gentile Messianic disciples are saved by faith, rather than by robotic Torah observance.
4. Avoid the "yeast" of "false prophets" and bad teachers who contradict the teachings of the Messiah.
5. Faith is a race we run all our lives in order to win the only reward that will last for all eternity.

In a nutshell, for today's lesson, we learn that the Yoke of the Messiah's Torah is light when we realize that obedience to Torah starts with faith and grace. Everything we do to obey God out of our faith and devotion, when we love God with all our might and we love our neighbor as ourselves, will yield much good fruit.

I know that I haven't come to an absolute conclusion regarding Gentile Messianic Torah obedience vs. Jewish Messianic Torah obedience. As far as the book of Matthew is concerned, this is as much as I can find specifically about how Yeshua taught the Torah. If what we Gentile disciples are to obey is contained within the limits of Matthew, then how Gentiles respond to the Torah is certainly different than how Jews respond to the Torah.

I haven't quite exhausted the teachings of the Messiah in Matthew yet, and there will be a few more entries in this series. Beyond that, we'll see what final conclusions I can make when the final blog post wraps up my observations.

What Did Jesus Teach About the Torah, Part 1?

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. -Matthew 28:19-20

This is the ninth part of my series on what Yeshua (Jesus) directed his Jewish disciples to teach the newly minted Gentile Messianic disciples to obey. Today, we'll take a hard look at what Yeshua (Jesus) taught his Jewish disciples to teach about obeying the Law, otherwise known as the Torah. Before we get to that, let's review the previous lesson: What Did Jesus Teach About Response and Acceptance:

In a nutshell, we learn that when we hear the Good News of Messiah Yeshua that's being delivered to the entire world, we must respond by building the foundation of our lives on the Rock and then sharing the seed that was planted with as many as we can. Put the Word into practice so we can bear good fruit and yield large crops of disciples for the Master. It's not so much whether we say "yes" or "no" but whether we repent and then "do" that counts.

I hadn't planned to write another blog in this series today, but I was updating the information on my congregation's website about a class I plan to start teaching later in October, and I realized that the content completely folded into this series. In fact, this series is the basis for the reboot on my class on the Torah commandments and Gentiles.

For almost two years, the class examined each of the 613 Commandments that traditional Judaism states were given to the Children of Israel by God. I felt that, if we looked at the commandments using the traditional Jewish format, we could see how we Messianic disciples could better serve our Master and Lord. The result, though quite interesting and illuminating, seemed to be missing one important element: Yeshua. Specifically, we were missing this:

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. -Matthew 28:19-20

Yes, I know I quote these words of the Master at the beginning of every blog post in this series, but now, we're zeroing in on some very important material. Yeshua commanded the Jewish Messianic disciples to make disciples of all of the Gentile nations teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. The key to what we should be learning of the commandments lies in what Yeshua actually taught as reflected in the Gospels. It's from there that we will discover the entrance to the Torah for Gentile disciples. In pursuit of this new line of study, there are a number of other scriptures we must consider:

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. -Matthew 5:17-20

From this, we know that the Torah of Moses was not done away with when Yeshua perished on the execution stake, but this scripture is also sometimes used to support the concept that Gentile disciples, as "grafted in" (Romans 11:11-24), are obligated to the full 613 commandments, just as are the Jewish disciples and as Jews have been since the days of Moses. However, this would make Gentile disciples and Jewish disciples virtually indistinguishable from one another and except for circumcision (and some Gentiles in the Messianic movement believe that even the Brit Milah is for Gentile Messianics), we would be identical in appearance, form, and substance, to our Jewish brothers and sisters. Was this God's intent? If so, why are we Gentiles not simply encouraged to convert to Judaism? Paul spoke harshly against Gentile conversion to Judaism:

Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches. Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God's commands is what counts. Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him. -1 Corinthians 7:17-20

Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. -Galatians 5:2-6

Clearly Gentile disciples were not meant to be turned into Jewish disciples. Doing so would completely devalue the sacrifice of the Messiah. Also, 1 Corinthians 7:17-20 states that being Jewish or Gentile isn't the important point but that keeping God's commands is what counts, yet Galatians 5:2-6 says that Gentiles should not seek conversion to Judaism for if we convert, we will be obligated to obey the whole law. Paul also states here that what's most important is faith expressing itself through love, not being a Jew or a Gentile.

The two verses seem confusing and almost contradictory as far as Gentile Torah observance is concerned. So what does this mean for Gentile observance of the Torah commandments relative to Jewish observance? I don't plan to give a definitive answer in this blog post, but I do plan to explore the issue more fully in the class I'll be teaching in October (and if you click this link, you'll see the class announcement displays a startling similarity to this blog post).

Just one thought before proceeding. In 1 Corinthians 7, when Paul says that people should remain as who they are (circumcised or uncircumcised) and that obeying the Torah is the most important thing, if you look at his words from a certain perspective, you could imagine he's saying that Torah obedience is different for each group. I can't prove this one way or the other right now, but keep it in mind.

There are a few other passages that are specifically relevant:

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." -Matthew 22:36-40

This, of course, is the Master quoting from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 and seemingly indicating that these two commandments are like two large containers, and within these containers, are the sum of all of the other commandments given by God. Since Yeshua is teaching this and since the Matthew 28 directive mandates that the Jewish disciples teach the Gentile disciples everything Yeshua taught, what does that mean for we Gentiles today? Also consider this:

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices - mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law - justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. -Matthew 23:23-24

This is one of the "seven woes" Yeshua speaks to the corrupt Pharisees and Torah teachers as recorded in Matthew 23 and which I taught about in a previous blog post, but note an important point. He says "You should have practiced the latter (ceremonial laws), without neglecting the former (moral laws).

I'm sorry I'm dividing the Torah into "ceremonial" and "moral" laws. This is how the church typically views the Torah and how it justifies disregarding the Shabbat (ceremonial) while attending to commandments such as feeding the hungry and visiting the sick (moral), yet in Matthew 23:23, Yeshua teaches obedience to both! If this is part of what Yeshua intended to be taught to the Gentile disciples, then it has tremendous impact on how we Gentile disciples today learn and obey the Torah of Moses.

One more thing. Yeshua says that justice, mercy, and faithfulness are more important matters than giving a tenth of our spices in the Temple. Adding to this, in Mark 12:33, the man speaking to Yeshua regarding the two greatest commandment replies, "to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." In other words, substance is more important than the mechanics.

Conclusion: What did Yeshua instruct the Jewish disciples to teach the Gentile disciples to obey about the Torah?

1. The Jewish disciples are responsible to teach the Gentile disciples of Yeshua everything Yeshua had taught them.
2. Yeshua didn't eliminate the Torah but rather, he came as the living embodiment of Torah, to show us that it is possible for a human being to obey God. The Torah is here to stay.
3. Anyone who breaks a single commandment of the Torah or teaches others to break the commandments will be called "least in the Kingdom of Heaven". Be careful if you tell someone that they don't have to obey a commandment.
4. If you came to faith in Yeshua as a Jew, stay a Jew. If you came to faith in Yeshua as a Gentile, stay a Gentile. Obeying the commandments is what counts.
5. If you, as a Gentile, convert to Judaism in order to seek justification by the Torah rather than by faith, the Messiah will be of no value to you at all. Faith expressed through love is what counts.
6. The two greatest commandments, loving God with everything you've got, and loving your neighbor as yourself, exist as two big buckets which contain the sum of the Torah and the Prophets.
7. Keep all of the law. Don't subdivide it into what you do in the Temple and what you do for human beings, disregarding one and clinging to the other. However, of the two sides of the coin, doing justice, mercy, and faithfulness is more important.

This is the first blog post in this series where I've quoted other "authorities" besides Yeshua, namely Paul in this case. Yet as a Messianic disciple and as the disciple who was charged to be an emissary to the Gentiles, Paul was uniquely positioned to obey the Matthew 28 directive, so I feel that I'm on solid ground by quoting him as well as the Master.

Paul said two things that are hard to put together. He said that obeying the Law was the most important thing and he said that faith expressing itself as love is the most important thing. On the surface, if you look at the two statements in their scriptural contexts, they seem to contradict each other, but if you take the two greatest commandments into consideration, then obeying the commandments of God is expressing faith as love, as long as we keep our priorities straight. You could also interpret this contradiction as there being two different ways of obeying the Torah, one for Jews and one for Gentiles. I have no conclusion on this point right now.

In a nutshell, for today's lesson, we learn that Gentiles are supposed to learn and obey everything Yeshua taught, including the fact that the Torah will be with us for a long time. We learned that God called each of us as the person He made us to be, so Jews don't have to turn into Gentiles, and Gentiles don't have to turn into Jews in order to be disciples of the Messiah and in fact, deliberately turning ourselves into something we're not just because we think it will justify us before God, makes Yeshua valueless to us. Loving God and loving others is the totality of the Torah and the Prophets and we should do both, not neglecting one for the other. In order to find out what comes next, we can't neglect what the Torah teaches, because that's what Yeshua teaches.

I made this blog post a "Part 1" because there's still a gaping hole in the middle of how and in what parts of the Torah Yeshua expects Gentile obedience. What I'm trying to say here, is that Gentile Torah obedience may be more than what "strict Messianic Judaism" wants to believe. That said, it may also be quite different than what One Law/One Torah adherents have traditionally understood.

To be continued.

What Did Jesus Teach About Humility and Mercy?

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. -Matthew 28:19-20

Leadership and Servanthood

This is the fourth part of my series on what Yeshua (Jesus) directed his Jewish disciples to teach the newly minted Gentile Messianic disciples to obey. It's also the third of a series of Yeshua's teachings in the Book of Matthew on Leadership and Servanthood. To summarize Part III What Did Jesus Teach About Being Servants:

In a nutshell, we learn that Yeshua teaches his disciples, all of us, to obey him by doing acts of kindness and righteousness for his sake and for the sake of others, but not to glorify ourselves. A student is never greater than his master and it is enough for us to be his students and to imitate him. When we are faithful and serve even the least or the weakest of Yeshua's servants for his sake, we are serving him.

That is what we can say about what Yeshua taught the Jewish disciples to teach the Gentiles disciples about being servants. Remember though, he also told the Jewish disciples to teach the Gentile disciples "to obey everything I have commanded you". In order to understand what everything means, we need to press on. Even after several blog posts, there's still much to cover.

It seems like in Matthew 18, Yeshua had a great deal to say on topics such as humility, the value of the individual, consideration for people who sin, and rendering mercy. While you may not think these areas have much in common, I believe that they are qualities possessed by anyone who is a servant in the Kingdom and who leads by example. Let's have a look:

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"

He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

"And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. -Matthew 18:1-6

Humility and greatness become two sides of the same coin in this parable of the Master. Exodus 12:3 describes the man who lead a nation of 3 million people through the wilderness for 40 years and who spoke face to face with God as, Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth. From his example alone, we can see that humility and leadership have a great deal to do with one another. That's quite a switch from our perception of the world's leaders today, who seem anything but humble and where humility is seen as weakness.

Yeshua is very protective of his humble "little ones" and for the person who causes one of them to sin "it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea". That's how important they are to him.

To be considered great in the Kingdom, we must do what is against human nature...not to exalt ourselves but rather, to be humble...even if we lead a congregation, or a city, or a nation. That's quite a challenge, especially since most of us like to be called by titles and to be treated with deferentially.

"Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell. -Matthew 18:7-9

Relax, this isn't an invitation to commit self-mutilation. Remember parables are metaphorical stories. The way I read these few sentences, is that we are to take stock of what exists in our lives that results in our sinning and then to remove those qualities or situations from us. This is an excellent message as we are right in-between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. There is no better time to take a good hard look at who we are and to make some serious changes than right now. Imagine what an example we could set for those around us if we could lead in this type of behavior, humbling ourselves before God and before our fellow human beings.

"See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.

"What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost. -Matthew 18:10-14

Certainly this says that there is no one who is insignificant in the Kingdom of Heaven, not even the smallest child and not even the weakest lamb, but it says something else as well. I mentioned on my congregation's blog in a post called Healing that according to Orthodox Rabbi Shumuley Boteach, when Moses left the flock he was tending to follow one lost sheep, immediately before encountering the burning bush (Exodus 3), he wasn't just going after the one lost lamb for the sake of the lamb, but also for the sake of the flock. Rabbi Boteach states:

Ostensibly, the story seems to indicate that Moses’ care for each individual found favor in God’s eyes. But this is a misunderstanding. Only a fool would have risked an entire flock for the sake of a single sheep. Rather, Moses did not return for just any sheep, but for the smallest and weakest. It was not because he believed that the straggler, if properly fed and cared for, could grow to be the pride of the flock, big and strong like its counterparts, that he collected it. Even this small sheep was an indispensable member of the flock. Moses recognized that without this straggler the entire flock was flawed and deficient.

Each person has an inestimable value to God because each of us has been created in His image but more than that, we also have an inestimable value in the Kingdom of Heaven, in our congregations, in our communities, and in the world because God created only one of each of us to perform a special job for Him. Without even one of us, our congregations, our families, and even the Kingdom, would be incomplete and lacking. We are not just wanted, we're needed, each and every one of us.

"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
"I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." -Matthew 18:15-20

How we treat even the smallest child is important to Yeshua, and so is how we treat someone who has sinned against us. You'd think that if we ever had an excuse to "lower the boom" on someone, it would be someone who "did us wrong". Yet, the Messiah is very specific about how we are to spare the feelings of even someone who sinned against us, first by going to him privately and giving him a chance to repent before the matter becomes generally known. If the matter can be settled at this point, it's done and no one need know of this person's error.

Even if the person refuses to repent, take just a few other witnesses with you during the next confrontation. There's still a chance he'll see the mistake he's made and repent. Finally, even if you have to bring it before the entire congregation, there's still a chance the person will humble himself and return to the fold. Only after this, if the person continues to refuse, is he asked to leave and perhaps, even after this, if he would be willing to repent, there would be healing and reconciliation.

Matthew 18:21-35 is a parable that illustrates this final lesson. Peter asks Yeshua if there's a limit to how many times a person should be forgiven before we can write them off (Up to seven times?), but Yeshua says there is no limit, or at least not one that can be counted, since seventy-seven times is less likely a literal number and more a bit of Rabbinic shorthand to mean "as many times as it takes". Imagine if God only forgave us 77 times or even 77 times 7 (a mere 539 times). Would any of us survive?

The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant shows us this principle in action. If the servant shown mercy by his master had shown the same mercy to those who owed him a debt, he would have learned the lesson the Master was teaching and survived. Lack of mercy results in being turned over to jailers to be tortured. Not a desirable outcome.

Conclusion: This lesson seems very much like my previous blog post but perhaps that's not an accident. Maybe the lessons of leadership and servanthood are inexorably intertwined with humility, mercy, and valuing others. What did Yeshua tell his Jewish disciples to teach the Gentile disciples to obey regarding humility and mercy as servants and leaders?

1. The greatest leader is the most humble servant.
2. Absolutely no one is insignificant or unworthy of your time or attention.
3. Even the very least person among you has an inestimably valuable role in the congregation, the family, the community, and the world.
4. Even if a person sins against you, give them every opportunity to realize their error, to repent, and to reconcile themselves to you.
5. Show the same sort of mercy to others as God has shown to you. The consequences for not doing so are too horrible to contemplate.

The last point reminds me of when Yeshua taught his Jewish disciples how to pray (and thus, this is something we Gentile disciples are to learn as well):

He said to them, "When you pray, say:
" 'Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
(emphasis added)
And lead us not into temptation.' "
-Luke 11:2-4

How we are forgiven seems dependent on how we forgive others. Perhaps this entire lesson can be encapsulated in the following few verses:

Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." -Matthew 20:26-28

In a nutshell, for today's lesson, we learn that Yeshua taught his Jewish disciples and we Gentile disciples that in all our dealings with people, regardless of our relative position in our congregations, communities, and in life, we are to act humbly, to value everyone, to realize we are all important and unique to God, to be forgiving, and to grant as much mercy to others as God has granted to us.

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.