Response from Bobby
At this time of year as we observe Yom HaShoah, I have just been told that
I am not Jewish or entitled to celebrate the Jewish festivals because of
my belief in Yeshua as the Jewish Messiah, and that I practice a deceptive
religion because I keep my Jewish heritage yet believe that Messiah has
already come once and will return again. I'm told that my practice of
Judaism as a follower of the Jewish Messiah has never been accepted by
Jews as a true sect of Judaism.
I disagree with Rabbi Sarah Meytin on every count that she enumerates in
her editorial. I will give my own enumerations to prove that Jews who
believe in the Jewish Messiah are still Jewish and we are not deceivers
or predatory to children, the elderly and young people away from home
and seekers of the truth.
Let me first start with the Jewish part. I am a Jew. I was raised
with all the Jewish traditions and festivals. I was raised as a secular
Jew who didn't believe in G-d at all. But my lack of faith in G-d did
not make me any less Jewish. Not even to the other children who assaulted
me growing up, calling me a dirty Jew. My lack of faith would not have
mattered to Hitler either. Hitler would have sent me to the camps right
next to the Jews who did believe in G-d.
The rabbi's statement that Messianic Jews have never been accepted as
Jews by other sects of Judaism is also wrong. In the first century
after Messiah Yeshua came there was a sect of believing Jews called
Nazarenes. Some have even proposed that these are the same people of
faith who preserved the Torah and the other scrolls found in caves near
the Dead Sea. These people were fully Jews and fully believing in Yeshua
as the Jewish Messiah and recognized by the 1st century Jewish leaders
as Jews.
In his book entitled Messianic Judaism, Dan Cohn-Sherbok writes that
Messianic Jews should be accepted and should be considered a legitimate
"branch" of Judaism. Many historic rabbis also believed in Yeshua after
studying Torah and Talmud without a missionary in sight; Rabbi Henry
Bregman, Leopold Cohn, Asher Levi, Rudolph Hermann Gurland to name a few.
Did these learned rabbis stop being Jewish when truth was revealed?
It is also a shame that the rabbi believes that this Messiah I follow
is only the "Christian" Messiah. Look in Talmud for references that the
Messiah will come twice. First as Messiah Ben Yosef, the suffering servant
to take away the sin of the world, then again as Messiah Ben David, the
Lion of Judah to establish His Kingdom. Yes, this is from Talmud (TB
Sukkah 52a); (ii)! Yeshua was a Jew. He lived as a Jew. He came first
for the Jewish people to return them to Torah and G-d. Then to bring
salvation to the Gentiles.
As to the rabbi's claim of Jew and Gentile together, that she has that
correct. We do worship together because the Prophet Isaiah says that
for the Messiah to just bring back only the house of Israel to G-d is too
small a thing.
5. And now, the Lord, Who formed me from the womb as a servant to Him,
said to bring Jacob back to Him, and Israel shall be gathered to Him,
and I will be honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God was my strength.
6. And He said, "It is too light for you to be My servant, to establish
the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the besieged of Israel, but I will
make you a light of nations, so that My salvation shall be until the end
of the earth."
7. So said the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, about him
who is despised of men, about him whom the nation abhors, about a slave
of rulers, "Kings shall see and rise, princes, and they shall prostrate
themselves, for the sake of the Lord Who is faithful, the Holy One of
Israel, and He chose you." Isaiah 49:5-7 (http://www.chabad.org)
But I think what I found most offensive in the editorial is the rabbi's
comments that we Jews who believe in Messiah Yeshua practice deception
to lure seeking Jews, the elderly and students into a false Judaism.
I beg to differ greatly with her on that charge. The reason so many
elderly, students and those seeking G-d seem to come to faith in Messiah
Yeshua is not because we have tricked them. You make them sound so
weak minded and unable to think for themselves when the opposite is
really the truth.
They come to faith because they stop listening to what the rabbis say
and read the books for themselves. They read the Tanakh and ask G-d
to reveal Himself to them as they study His word. They read the Book
of Daniel, because it prophesied that Messiah would come when Yeshua
did in fact come and would be cut off from the living when Yeshua was
crucified.
They read the Book of Isaiah and see the suffering Messiah prophesied.
They Psalms 22, whose prophetic writer says, "they have pierced my feet
and hands," and Zechariah 12:10, which states, "They will look upon me
and mourn like one does for an only son."
I am always surprised when some Jews tell me that I am not Jewish because
I believe in Yeshua. They have no trouble with Jews who don't believe
in G-d at all. Secular Jews are still thought of as Jews. In fact, I
have been told that one is Jewish even if they believe in Buddha, believe
in New Age, and believe in humanism. Just don't believe in Yeshua.
Baruch haShem that not all the Jewish leaders feel that way. Look on
www.Aish.com and read about Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger.
Cardinal Lustiger was born Aaron Lustiger to Polish Jewish parents,
but during the war, he was sent to live with a Christian family who
promptly converted him to Catholicism. This raises an interesting
question: are there some things you can do during your lifetime which
invalidate your Jewishness, like lets say...being ordained a Cardinal
in the Catholic church and being one of the major contenders to be the
next Pope in Rome? Well according to Jewish law, once a Jew, always a
Jew. No matter what you do, we can't let go. We are like that gym
membership that is impossible to cancel. If our little Aaron from
Poland did happen to become Pope, Jewlarious would be the first ones
to call him up before Rosh Hashana and say, "Good Yontif, Pontif."
I am amazed how tolerant the Jewish community can be towards all
people except those Jews who think differently. If only you believed
the scripture that states, "hine ma-tov uma nayim shevet achim gam
yachad (how good and how pleasant it is when brothers can dwell
together in unity).
Robert P.
Silver Spring, Maryland