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Not quite Jewish, not quite Christian … totally commited to Torah and Messiah Yeshua.

Archive for the ‘hallekah’ Category

Hanukkah is here!

Monday, December 14th, 2009

Mazel tov! Hanukkah is here!

Many may not appreciate the true meaning of this holiday. The festival of lights? Sure, the temple oil burned for eight days – so what, right?

It goes deeper than that, though. For me, my favorite thing about Hanukkah is the aspect of it known as the Feast of Dedication. It is a time to rededicate ourselves to HaShem, as well as his promised Messiah – the Messiah Yeshua.

See, at the time of the Maccabees, there was pressure on all Israel to bow to Greek gods and integrate their Judaism to fit in to Greek society. Boldly, the Maccabees stood up and refused to change how they worshiped the L-RD to fit in with and mirror the way others worshiped their false gods. It was a victory for staying true to haShem that kept the doorway open for Messiah’s appearance.

Unfortunately, once history moved beyond the first century of the Common Era, the Messianic movement lost its way, divorced itself from its Jewish roots, adopted anti-Judaic replacement theology, and, most importantly – when the pressure came to change worship of Messiah Yeshua in spirit and in truth to better fit in to Roman society, Christianity willingly abandoned the truth of the L-RD in exchange for celebrating the birth of Mithras – deciding that it was enough to change Mithras’ name to Jesus.

I’m not so sure Yeshua the Messiah approves. To say the least.

That’s why we’re celebrating Hanukkah in our house, and have ever since we got married; if it was good enough for Messiah Yeshua, it’s good enough for us.

My Mishpatim Commentary

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009

Those searching for some answers on Mesothelioma have great resources to search out the information they need. Here at MessianicMusings.net, we focus on searching out spiritual answers from the Torah and the Brit haDasha. Here’s my commentary on Mishpatim. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Our parashah for today is Mishpatim, or “Judgments,” and covers Exodus 21:1 through 24:18. It is with this parashah that we begin to journey into the more detailed rulings of law that are to govern the people of Israel. It is what is commonly referred to as “the law of Moses,” and not because Moses wrote them down – these laws still come from God – but because they are a result of a mediation between a holy and perfect God, and Moses.

While The L-RD is still the Lawgiver, it is Moses who negotiated with The L-RD to help determine what would be an acceptable minimum standard of human behavior that would still find that behavior acceptable to The L-RD in His holiness.

It is important to realize that, unlike the Ten Commands, these rulings ARE mediated between God and man; therefore, they do not represent the L-RD’s perfect standard for holiness. They are, instead, the least we can do to show our love and respect for, and obedience to, the living God.

After the lofty principles laid down in The 10 Commands, these new points of law – and there are 613 points of law in all, laid out over the course of the five books of the Torah – seem immediately and obviously different. While The 10 Commands are broad in their scope and universal in their truth, these rulings are far more detailed and specific, but they also require some application to make them relevant to all the experiences one might encounter in life.

Let’s take a look at one of these commands as an example. We read this in:

Exodus 21:28-32
“If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull must be stoned to death, and its meat must not be eaten. But the owner of the bull will not be held responsible. If, however, the bull has had the habit of goring and the owner has been warned but has not kept it penned up and it kills a man or woman, the bull must be stoned and the owner also must be put to death. However, if payment is demanded of him, he may redeem his life by paying whatever is demanded. This law also applies if the bull gores a son or daughter. If the bull gores a male or female slave, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver to the master of the slave, and the bull must be stoned.

Well, that’s pretty clear and simple, isn’t it?

You see, the 10 Commands were absolutes, truths spoken by the L-RD Himself directly to the people. Just in the way that they are written, these Mosaic laws have the earmarks of negotiated rulings. But we can also see their connection to the original core ten.

What is this ruling about? Well, it covers “Thou shall not steal,” “Thou shall not covet,” and even “Thou shall not murder.” Those are the most obvious connections to the Ten Commands, and as we know – the 10 are so interrelated and connected that, once you break one of them, you end up being guilty of violating them all.

Let’s consider this point of law for a moment. Why is it needed? Well, one can easily imagine the situation popping up in a rural, agrarian society like that of the people of Israel, can’t you? People keep and raise bulls, but bulls are huge animals with the ability to easily slay a human being. So what does one do when that happens?

This command lays down the guidelines. If it is the animal’s first offense, the animal is to be slain, but not its owner. One could easily imagine a grieving family wanting both animal and owner slain in retribution, so this law sets up a protection for an innocent owner. However, the law goes on to say that if the animal is in the habit of goring, and the owner has made no provision to protect people from the animal, they are to slay both the animal and the owner.

This speaks of taking responsibility for one’s animals. If you know you have a violent animal, you should take some measures to protect people from it, right? But just a second… the command just said that on a bull’s first offense, it is to be slain, so how can it be that an animal would get to a second offense for this command to come into play?

That’s where God’s wisdom is displayed. He knew two things were possible. First, a bull who gores is only to be put to death if it what…? Kills someone. Can a bull show a tendency toward goring and yet have a victim live? Sometimes, sure. Also, I think God anticipated that some people might not obey the command the first time – they might value the bull with a history of goring over the lives of others. That is why, if it is a repeat offense, the life of the owner who has been warned about a bull’s tendency to gore is also forfeit. Yet in this law, God shows His mercy by allowing the owner to ransom his own life, so that the owner may live, but suffer loss.

So, that complex web of possibilities and “what ifs” certainly bears the hallmarks of a negotiated minimum standard, doesn’t it? It lacks the simple clarity of The Big 10. Yet the most obvious question that arises here is… hey, this is great if you’re a farmer or rancher and you own a bull… but how does this apply to my life, today?

That is where we get into what is known as halakha. Halakha is a Hebrew word that most literally is translated as, “the path, or the way of walking.” In practical use, it is used to refer to the collective body of Jewish law, including the Biblical laws of Moses, as well as later Talmudic and rabbinic interpretations. Often, halakha is translated simply as “the Law.”

However, in the context of our study today, what I mean by halakha is how adding in the interpretations of man – whether they be the mediations of the rabbis, the commentaries of Christians scholars or even the sermons of one’s favorite rabbi, pastor or teacher – become necessary to apply a law like this to make it relevant to modern situations.

For example, we in America today have many people who live in large cities. They will never own a bull. But we do own pets, don’t we? And how often do we hear about one pet owner or another being sued because, let’s say, their pit bull or their German shepherd attacked and either injured, or even killed, someone?

If one takes a purely literal reading away from this law, it can only apply to bulls. However, by applying halakhic principles, one can easily see how the principle of this law can be applied to all sorts of animal ownership, and therefore be applied to modern dog owners, as well as all sorts of other animals, be they pets or livestock.

So you see, halakha is not always a bad thing. At its best, it is simply the efforts of people who do fear God and respect His commands, to understand how best to apply God’s instructions to all aspects of their daily lives.

So where does halakha sometimes go wrong? We have an example of that as well in this week’s Torah portion. We read, in:

Exodus 23:19
Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Over the centuries, this simple, 10-word law has become the subject of volumes upon volumes of the mediations of man. The original command was simple: do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk. What was the purpose of this command? It reflects God’s mercy, which extends even to the animals; the principle is that the very substance that gave that animal life – its mother’s milk – ought not be used to take its life at the moment of its death.

And we know that this is consistent with the character of God; that He does indeed care for the animals He created. We know this because He had Noah build an ark to preserve not only human, but animal life, in the time of the Great Flood. This compassion for animals is also reflected even in the book of Jonah, which ends with this word from The L-RD in:

Jonah 4:11
But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”

Yet what has become of this simple command, meant as a show of compassion to animals? It has been expanded and expounded upon so much that the core meaning of the original command has nearly been forgotten.

Now, instead of focusing on animal cruelty, this command is the central point of reams of dietary laws that call for the complete separation of meat and dairy products. That means no cheeseburgers, no meat-and-cheese pizzas. Some even take it so far as to purchase separate sets of dishes and silverware… separate refrigerators, pots and pans… some even operate two separate kitchens out of a fear of inadvertently violating the command by having a spec of meat come into contact with a spec of dairy. In Israel today, most restaurants are either meat establishments or dairy establishments.

The expansions of meaning that have been added to this simple command about animal cruelty have gone so far beyond the original meaning that it is almost unrecognizable in practice.

Worse yet, it makes the command nearly impossible for all but the very wealthy to observe; if a poor person can barely keep a roof over their head, and is fortunate to own one set of dishes, can they observe this command in the way it has been expanded upon? It would seem unlikely, wouldn’t it? This is an example of how halakha can snowball out of control and become nearly impossible to observe.

And this is what Yeshua was referring to when he said, in:

Matthew 23:2-4
“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

And again in:

Luke 11: 46
Yeshua replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.

So you see, while halakha can be a good thing, it can be carried too far. The mediations of the rabbis were nowhere near as developed in the time of Yeshua, and even then he called them a burden no one can bear. Since then, the volumes that have been added to the Talmud, the Tosefta and the Mishnah could flood this stage.

And Christians are not exempt from this, as any survey of a Commentary section in the average, well-stocked Christian bookstore will demonstrate. And the teachings found there often stray just as far from the written word of the L-RD as does anything in the oral traditions of the rabbis.

So, as we continue to explore the laws of Moses, let’s keep in mind this approach. While it is good to apply the instructions of The L-RD to our life, we must avoid becoming so ambitious in doing so that we lose sight of the original commands.

Shabbat Shalom.

First visit since the diagnosis

Monday, July 7th, 2008

This past weekend, my wife and I had our first visit with mom since she was diagnosed with cancer. Here’s what we know: it’s stage four cancer of the pancreas, as well as some spots of lung cancer from her smoking habit. Today (Monday) she was meeting with another doctor who would be describing the course of treatment, care options and the like that he would be recommending for her case.

It’s a tough, grim diagnosis and a topic that makes something as common and pedestrian as door hardware seem like a preferrable topic of conversation. But as we visited, I was struck by our ability to make the time together enjoyable and fun, rather than morose and full of tears.

I suspect we were all trying to create some good memories to fall back on, once this progresses a bit more. That’s what I think. And I think it’s needed.

Mom tires too easily to go out for lunch anymore, so we brought a homemade meal to her. My wife, who is a wonderful cook, fixed up some homemade spaghetti sauce and brought it down with noodles and cheesy garlic bread. On the trip down, we stopped by a grocery store and picked up six different kinds of brownies: peanut butter, cherry frosted, mint chip, German chocolate, caramel and regular fudge. We all had a taste of each of the ones we liked.

We left the leftovers with Mom and Dad to make sure they had something nice to heat up for the next few meals. We took pictures and played cards and handheld games together at the table, talked some serious stuff but didn’t allow our time together to become dominated by the cloud of doom trying so hard to hover over us and spoil our time.

The end comes of each of us, eventually, until Yeshua’s return; with Mom, we have a warning that it’s coming soon, so I’d rather spend that time letting her know what she means to both my wife and me, creating as many good memories as we can in the time that’s left, than sitting around weeping about what we cannot change.

There will be time enough for tears in private… before she passes, and after.

Too many Shavuots?

Monday, June 16th, 2008

The holiday that Jews and messianics refer to as Shavuot, and which Christians call Pentecost, is a matter of some controversy; all three groups celebrate it on a different day and some feel it might take a CAT5e to figure out the truth.

Well, that’s not so. In fact, it’s a rather simple matter.

Christians are on an entirely different calendar altogether, led there centuries ago by the anti-Judaeic Constantine, so their date for Shavuot/Passover is way off.

That leaves the Jewish Shavuot and the “other” Shavuot. The Jewish Shavuot is a tradition handed down by the Pharisees, who counted seven Shabbats, which included a festival Shabbat and has them celebrating Shavuot a few days earlier than those who celebrate the “other” Shavuot.

The “other” Shavuot tradition comes from the Sadducees, who reacted to the Pharisees interpretation and said, basically, “Hold on, the meaning of Torah here is seven REGULAR Shabbats after the feast of first fruits of the barley harvest.” That means that, for messianics like those of us at Sar Shalom, Shavuot must always fall on a first day of the week – Sunday – which was yesterday.

Anyone who reads the Torah passage completely in relation to this would, I believe, come to the same conclusion.

Loose lips sink congregations

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

Why someone would want to sit around, when the people being talked about aren’t there, and allege that a messianic family does not believe in the messiah is beyond me. If it is a simple question of whether it’s true or not, the best way to find out the truth is to approach that family and ask them directly. Right?

Well, hold on to your platform beds, because that’s not always how it goes. This weekend, my wife was present at a table where just such a conversation was going on. She was going to speak up right away, but another person at the table, who knew the family in question, spoke up first and told this gossiper that she was wrong and the allegations weren’t true.

Bad enough, right?

But what makes it worse is that the person brushed off the truth of the matter, saying, “Oh, I’m just repeating what I’ve been told by someone who should know.”

This person was told by both my wife and this third party that this was definitely a case of lashan hurah, and that she was hurting her witness by persisting. That’s about the time I arrived and left with my wife, so she’s not sure if the discussion ended there or not.

But really, how many times does a congregation need to be told to avoid gossip (bearing false witness) and engaging in lashan hurah (evil speech)? It’s a message that’s been shared several times on Shabbat morning and is even part of our bylaws.

It’s loose talk like this that led to many deaths when the children of Israel were in the wilderness. Evil speech and gossip kills any sense of safety and community. It must be avoided.

Thoughts on evil speech

Monday, February 11th, 2008

Call it evil speech, gossip or lashan hurah, but careless words can lead to the destruction of a congregation. The problem comes when trying to determine what is evil speech and what is speaking honestly when wronged by a fellow believer.

In any community of faith, people often prefer to do business with members of their own congregation when they can, whether it be buying insurance, stair lifts, or looking for someone to do auto repair. As long as the quality of the work or service provided is solid, this usually benefits all concerned.

But what happens when something goes wrong, or the quality of the work or service provided isn’t where it ought to be? Let’s imagine a scenario where you have a person who repairs PCs. Let’s call him Chuck, after the popular NBC character on the show of the same name.

To lure business, Chuck decides to cut his prices to members of his congregation. But because he’s earning less for that work, rather than put in his best effort as he would for any other customer, Chuck either repairs PCs for congregational members on the cheap, or has a less-skilled friend do it for him, one who is prone to make mistakes but needs the work.

Now, Chuck isn’t necessarily a bad person. He’s using cheaper parts to give folks he’s close to a better deal; or he’s giving work to a friend who needs to learn the PC repair trade, and by doing so, hopes to help out both his congregational customers since this trainee won’t be paid as much for his time, while also giving the trainee much-needed experience. Chuck’s heart is good.

But because the trainee’s less experienced, or because cheaper parts are being used, the quality of the work done for congregational members goes down. Hard drives crash more frequently. Motherboard problems arise. Computers repaired don’t stay repaired as long. Some PCs even fry.

So here’s the philosophical question: If you were a congregational member whose PC fried under such circumstances, how do you handle it? Is it evil speech to warn people away from Chuck’s PC repair? Is it wrong not to warn them? Is it better to simply take your business somewhere else, or do you confront Chuck about the quality of his PC repair work?

There are few easy answers. It is for situations like this, I believe, that people turned to rabbinical interpretation. However, I do tend to think that the Brit haDasha standard for resolving conflicts among believers would probably be the starting point for a correct messianic response.

Fall festival season: Yom Kippur

Monday, September 24th, 2007

Yom Kippur translates from the Hebrew as “the day of atonement.” It is a festival, established by Adonai with Moshe, as “an everlasting covenant,” a festival that all who fear the G-d of Abraham, Issac and Jacob are expected to observe.

There are no special accoutrements (like special prayer shawls or religious ornamentation, or even the carrying of a Swiss Army knife) that help celebrate this holiday. Instead, it is generally celebrated by wearing as much white clothing as possible to represent the washing away of sins, and is often accompanied by the observance of a fast.

One note I want to make about the celebration of Yom Kippur. While generally, the fast on Yom Kippur is observed with a complete fast from all foods, please note that one can fully and faithfully celebrate the Yom Kippur fast without going to unhealthy extremes.

For example, if you are on medication, it is not a breaking of your fast to take your medication on Yom Kippur. Remember the principle that must guide all Judeo-Christian observance: the preservation of life comes before all else.

Likewise, those who require special dietary considerations, such as diabetics, would be well advised to not observe a total fast, but a partial one. (For example, fast from sweets or something, but eat what you must to keep your blood sugar levels at a healthy balance.)

Finally, remember that among most messianic congregations, we are interested in following the pure, written Torah, but not necessarily the centuries of hallekah that have descended from Rabbinic oral Torah traditions. (Not that they are without value in some instances, but as a rule, the written Torah takes precedence over the oral Torah among the messianic community.)

Here’s an example of what concerns me. At our congregation this weekend, I overheard another member of our kehilat explaining how to observe the Yom Kippur fast to another member. She was insistent that the fast include all liquids, even water, from sundown to sundown. She then went on to repeat strict regulations on exceptions to the water portion of the total fast, insisting that the new member “try not to even drink water, but if you do, only take one ounce and, even then, you must not take water more than once every 15 minutes.”

This level of legalistic observance is overkill and is what Messiah Yeshua was referring to when he talked about the Pharisees of his day perverting the Torah into “a burden no one can bear.” In other words, be graceful in your observance of the Yom Kippur fast; it should be an observance of joy, not one of burden!