Welcomed to a class at a local synagogue part 2

This is a continuation of my experience of being invited to a local synagogue to address a class of post Bar/Bat mitzvah students studying “Comparative Judaism”.  Several  questions that were asked of me had to do more specifically with Yeshua. One question was why would a Jewish person believe that Jesus is the Messiah? Why would a Jewish person identify themselves as a Messianic Jew. I explained that the reason is directly related to the Messiahship of Yeshua. The motivation for a Jewish person to embrace messianic Judaism is the forgiveness of sins that the Messiah provided via his death and resurrection. I shared my story of being confronted with the claims of the Messiah and realizing that repentance and tzedakah were not enough to have atonement for my sins – according to the Torah. I told the class that I came to believe that only in Yeshua could I truly find atonement for my sins. In other words, I and other Jewish people have come to believe in yeshua because of the spiritual reality of the forgiveness of sins and a unique intimacy with God.  I told everyone that this is very important to us because we believe every word of the Torah. We believe that Moses really lived and that the events of Mt. Sinai truly occurred and that we are accountable to God.  This is why we are in need of atonement that cannot be provided by our observance of Yom Kippur – that only comes by the work of the Messiah. The teacher than said that her observation of us and of Christians is that we seem to be “sin driven.” I said that we are not “sin driven” but that we are “blessing driven.” We desire the blessing God but our sins get in the way. Therefore we emphasize the confession of sin. I said that even though we are forgiven of our sins, we still are quite human and therefore sin.  As a result we continue to confess our sins. However, our services are full of life and this attracts people to come.  I described a typical service consisting of music, traditional prayer, Torah reading and sermon. People who do not embrace Yeshua have come and have been impressed with the atmosphere and content of the service.

 

This led to asking if our concept of the Messiah is the same as the traditional Jewish concept of Messiah. I said that the answer is “yes and no”   We believe that the Messiah will bring peace and spiritual transformation to the world. However, we also believe that he provides atonement for us today. This is why he could not be only a man. We also believe that he is the incarnation God. I said that according to the Bible, God appeared to Abraham, to Hagar, to Joshua and to Manoah the father of Samson to name a few. The text does not infer that these were visions or dreams. In fact in several cases – Hagar and Manoah – they cried out that they had seen God. The highest form of manifestation was the true enfleshment of God that we read about in the New covenant about Yeshua. This is a mystery that cannot be explained completely.

 

Another question was what do we do about the “anti-Semitic” passages in the New testament. I said that these statements are not anti-Semitic. They were directed to people whom the text describes as hypocrites  They are not blanket statements against the Jewish people. I mentioned another statement in the bible      ”But you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot because of your fame, and you poured out your harlotries on every passer-by who might be willing (Ezek. 16:15). I said that this passage and others like it are found in the Tanakh!  The point of these kinds of statements in both the prophets and the New Testament are designed to get us to respond by repenting of our sins. Just as it was a small minority of people who embraced the words of the prophets so too it is a small group of Jewish people who embrace the Messiah.

 

There were other questions and statements during my visit. I appreciated the dialogue and the spirit in which the questions came. I felt that I was able to explain the very basics of Messianic Judaism which was the purpose of my visit.

welcomed to a class at a local synagogue part 1

This past Sunday afternoon I was invited to speak to a group of post Bar/Bat mitzvah young people at a local Refom synagogue.  The name of their class is called “comparative Judaism” and the teacher wanted them to hear about Messianic Judaism. How refreshing to have a seat at the table in a discussion on comparative Judaism!! There were about 10 students in the class as well as the teacher, a parent and another person from the congregation. I received a very warm welcome and I certainly appreciated the opportunity.  Most of the questions came from the teacher and another adult, although there were one or two questions from the students.

 

The teacher asked me to give a brief history of the Messianic Jewish Movement. I explained that if we go all the way back to Yeshua, he and his first followers were Jewish and in those early days, the movement was a Jewish movement. However with the influx of many Gentiles over a period of time, the movement lost its Jewish identity.  Over the past several hundred years, there have been Jewish people who have believed that Jesus is the Messiah but most of these people joined churches and lost their Jewish identity.  Approximately 40 years ago, a spiritual event took place in which many young people embraced Jesus and this included thousands of young Jewish people as well.  As a result, groups of Jewish believers in Yeshua began to meet and express their faith and worship in a Jewish context. Over the years, this congregational movement has grown to the place in which there are messianic Jewish congregations in most cities that have a substantial Jewish population. I went on to explain that the movement has matured over the years and that there are now several organizations that represent many congregations and that we now have educational opportunities for our leaders to be equipped to serve as Rabbis.

 

I was able to dispel a few myths about Messianic Judaism. The teacher asked me if we were the same as “Jews for Jesus.”  I answered by saying that many people think that all messianic Jewish congregations, Jews for Jesus, and other messianic organizations are part of one large entity that is financially well funded by churches. Often this myth includes the perception that we are purposely deceiving the Jewish community by appearing to maintain a Jewish identity in order to attract unsuspecting Jewish people and turn them into Christians. I told them that Jews For Jesus is an organization that hires people to work for them and that their goal is to confront the Jewish people with the claims of Jesus. Their method is designed to make the issue of the messiahship of Jesus a issue that cannot be denied. They are supported by anyone who resonates with their mission and method. We, on the other hand, are communal in our orientation and that while we desire to make our voice heard in the community, we are desirous of building community among those who come to Beth Messiah and we desire to be part of the larger Jewish community.  I went on to say that the only people who support Beth Messiah are the people who consider themselves part of the congregation. I told them that we have no dues and that our finances come from people simply giving to the congregation which includes our congregants and a few others in the community who support us. (This is quite a testimony considering that we own a building on a major street in a nice area of town.)

 

I was asked if the Gentiles that come to Beth Messiah eventually convert to Judaism. I said that while there are some in our movement who selectively do conversions, we do not.  The Gentiles in the congregation are affirmed in their own identity and are welcomed because they desire to identify on some level with the Jewish people – after all the Messiah is the Messiah of Israel and the nations.  This seemed to be the hardest thing for the teacher to understand.  How could people join a synagogue if they are not Jewish? I asked her if there were Gentiles that were part of the synagogue. She said that there were, but that they were not members. I responded by saying that in our congregation there is a wall that is removed between Jews and Gentiles and that we all maintain our own personal and ethnic identities but are co-equal and co-participants in the congregation.  I went on to explain that this is why we attract families of mixed marriages. Each partner is affirmed while at the same time living within a Jewish context.  One of the students asked me  if we celebrate Christmas and Easter. I said that Christmas is a celebration of the miraculous birth of the Messiah and Easter is a celebration of the resurrection of the Messiah. We believe in his miraculous birth and in his resurrection from the dead. However, the celebrations of Christmas and Easter are Gentile expressions of these beliefs. As a messianic Jewish congregation we do not engage in Gentile expressions of faith.  We remember the resurrection of the Messiah when we celebrate Passover. I went on to explain how Passover relates to the death and resurrection of the Messiah.   

The rest of the questions pertained directly to the messianship Yeshua and the New Testament. In the next post I will share how I responded to these questions.

Sukkot: feast of provision and hope

This is the week of Sukkot, the Feast of Booths. Last Shabbat at Beth Messiah it was a chilly day but we had our service outdoors. As we waved our lulavs and etrogs in our Sukkah, we reenacted life in the wilderness – at least for a few hours. Sukkot is an agricultural festival celebrating the ingathering of the final harvest of the year. It is a time to give thanks to God for his provision – much like the American holiday called Thanksgiving. However, according to the Torah there is an added dimension. Sukkot is to be celebrated by dwelling in a Sukkah so that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I the LORD your God. (Lev. 23:43). This added dimension makes this agricultural celebration transcend the seasons of the year as well the type of society in which we may dwell – urban or agrarian or technological. Sukkot is a holiday in which we celebrate the provision and protection of the Jewish people throughout history. We are commanded to remember that God did not abandon us in the wilderness but rather that he provided just what we needed in a difficult situation – a “booth” to live in. Similarly, God gave us manna in the wilderness to eat. As Deut. 8:2-3 tells us, the purpose was to teach us that our we live not by bread alone but by whatever God provides for us – that he is the provider and that our security and satisfaction come from him.

There are several important lessons to be reminded of at Sukkot. First, sukkot causes us to appreciate moments of blessing in the midst of difficulty. Lets face it. Life is not easy. But in the midst of everything, there are moments of blessing. Appreciate the small things that bless us. develop an attitude of thanksgiving. A Sukkah is not a permanent, secure home and manna is not a sirloin steak. But when we really experience need we tend to be more thankful to God for our provisions.

Sukkot is a good model for the way to meet our needs. Our ancestors in the wilderness did not just see the sukkah appear before their eyes. They had to build the sukkah. We are not called to simply wait for the blessing to appear before our eyes. We should take whatever we have and use it for the right purpose and we will see God provide. For example, we need to work and we will see God provide. We need to study and we will graduate. We need to pray and we will see provision. In other words, we have the responsibility to use the resources that God has given us regardless of how meager we may think they are.

Sukkot is also a festival of hope. It is a holiday that reminds us that we are on a journey. While the journey may be difficult at times, God gives us moments of blessing on the way. But the goal is to get to the destination. God provided for our people in the wilderness because they had a destiny to reach the promised land. The day will come when our journey ends as well. Either it will be when we die or it will be when the Messiah returns and transforms this world. When we die we will be in the presence of the Lord. There is much discussion about what it means to be in the “presence of the Lord” when we die. One thing we know for sure is that IT IS REALLY GOOD! it is better than we could ever dream. We do have a sense of what it will be like when the Lord returns. It will mean that the journey is over and there is no longer a need that is not met directly by the Lord. Let us press on and celebrate Sukkot, blessings on the journey and let us look forward to the day when we reach the City and …

I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; 26 and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; 27 and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Revelation 21:22-27

affliciting the soul and social responsibility

I want to continue on the theme of ”afflicting the soul” or “self-denial.”   The prophet Isaiah expanded the meaning  of what it means to afflict the soul when he defines the kind of “fast” that God desires.   The text of Isaiah 58:6-7 reads:

   Is this not the fast which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go free And break every yoke?  Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry And bring the homeless poor into the house; When you see the naked, to cover him; And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

 It is tempting to understand this passage as simply teaching that religious activity in and of itself does not please God. It must be accompanied by actions that reflect the character of God.  While this is good and true, it also seems to be broadening the meaning of self-denial.” We usually think of self denial in terms of how it affects my own life. I deny a pleasure and it helps me in my relationship with God. This is true. However, the text seems to also be saying that it is not good enough to be thinking of ourselves when we “afflict the soul.”  He is telling us that if we re going to deny ourselves, it should somehow benefit the vulnerable people around us. Perhaps he is saying that fasting has its place, but let us deny ourselves for the sake of others.  If we are going to fast, perhaps we could give food to a homeless shelter or a bag of groceries to a needy friend. This is an important idea to explore. If we are going to really make a difference in the community and at the same time find our delight in God we need to be thinking of ways that we can deny ourselves for the benefit of the community.  

 It is interesting to note that when Yeshua quoted Isaiah 61 when he began his ministry he repeated much of the sentiment of Isaiah 58. He said,  

 The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are downtrodden… (Luke 4:17)

As followers of the Messiah of Israel, should we not deny ourselves in the same way as Messiah?  Should we not afflict our souls by  bringing release to others? This is something that is important to consider as we begin a new year.

According to Isaiah, the result of this kind of “fast” is  ”And the LORD will continually guide you, And satisfy your desire in scorched places, And give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. (Isaiah 58:11)

Is this not what we really desire? May we begin to engage in the spiritual disciplines that will bring forth the glory of God as well as our own satisfaction.

Afflicting the soul 1

Yom Kippur has come and gone. I hope it was a good fast for everyone.  It is a wonderful thing that every year we have this opportunity to “humble our souls” and fast as a community on Yom Kippur.  The phrase “humble the soul” or “afflict the soul” is translated from the hebrew words t’anoo naf-sho-tay-chem (please forgive my free style transliteration. I certainly hope that Dr. M. from OSU is not reading this!!).    The JPS Tanakh uses the phrase “practice self-denial.”  This seems to be a description of “fasting” based on several  bible verses. However, a case can certainly be made that the application is broader than “fasting” because the word “nefesh” or “soul” refers to the whole person. Therefore a correct translation would also be “afflict yourself” or “humble yourself.”  In the book of Daniel we read that he humbled himself and the description includes anointing his body as well as fasting. The Mishna describes “afflicting the soul” as refraining from eating, drinking, anointing the body, washing the body and sexual relations.  Probably the thought behind the text is to refrain from physical activity that one finds gratifying and satisfying. We often assume that the meaning must be an inward repentance and confession. While this is true, there is most definitely a physical element to it. We are not only metaphysical beings but we are also physical beings. God is quite interested in our physical beings and how we as physical human beings relate to God. We do not only follow him with our heads and hearts but we follow him with our bodies as well.

Some could conclude here that this self affliction could mean really doing harm to ourselves like cutting ourselves or doing harm in order to atone for our sins and misdeeds. There are those who might teach that the “mortification of the flesh” is necessary in this way to be cleansed from sin. I disagree. The text in Leviticus 16 is clear that the High Priest makes the atonement via the sacrifices. The Messiah made the atonement for us when he died for our sins and was raised from the dead. No, afflicting the soul does not atone for our sins. So then, what could be the purpose of practicing self-denial? When we deny ourselves we are physically choosing to focus our attention on God and not ourselves.  In other words, it is not simply a case of denying ourselves out of duty to God. It is denying ourselves with an attitude of recognizing that I am leaning on God and not a physical act to give me satisfaction. But wait! When we fast, is it not true that while chanting the Amidah we might be thinking of the pickled herring and lox and bagels that await us when the fast is over? Perhaps. But still if the intention of the heart is to focus on God and saying to yourself “I am choosing God over food for now” you are testing your heart and cultivating faithfulness.  This kind of self denial cultivates joy and delight in God. When there is no “affliction” of the self in a physical way we have a tendency to forget about God and to have a difficult time experientially to be thankful and to experience his grace. That is why the people who respond most readily to the messiah are the vulnerable people – people with real felt needs in life. Practicing self-denial in a sense creates a situation within ourselves where there are felt needs and thus a need to rely on God. Listen to Moses as he explains why the Jewish people wandered in the wilderness:

 Deuteronomy 8:2-3   ”You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.  ³ “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.

 God was testing and training the hearts of the people to rely on him for their well being. The goal of this testing is to cultivate joy and satisfaction in God.

 Yeshua told us to “afflict the soul” in this way when he said…

“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. (Luke 9:23-24).

Notice that the goal is to gain life. To live well.  It is not something only to practice on Yom Kippur but making a practice of self denial  will cause us to find much greater satisfaction and trust in God.  

 I am sure that we can all think of ways in which we can practice self denial. Fasting from time to time; denying ourselves some of the conveniences in which we find joy and gratification; taking a season off (or at least one day) from our favorite hobby or sports team.  The point is to find joy and satisfaction and delight in the Lord as focus our attention on him. None of this is to deny or demean the inner or metaphysical aspect of self denial. It is vitally important to repent and confess our sins but let us not neglect the great benefits of self denial.

high Holy Days journey

Happy New Year! I have not posted anything for a week or so because I have been extra busy preparing for the high holy Services at Beth Messiah and taking care of my parents. We had great services for Rosh Hashanah although the sermons were too long as I have been told. Now we are in the Days of Awe as we prepare ourselves for Yom Kippur. I like to think of the holidays as a journey. We begin with the wake up call, the sound of the shofar. It’s piercing sound wakes us up to remember our need for repentance. Maimonides famous “interpretation” of the sound of the shofar is

  ”wake up sleepy ones

from your slumber and the dozing ones arise from your sleep

and examine your deeds and return with Teshuva and recall

your Creator, those people who forget the truth with the silliness

of the times and waste all their years on foolishness and

emptiness that will not help and not save. Look to your souls

and improve your ways and mistakes and abandon each one of

you his mistaken path and his intention that is not good”

Hichot Shofar 3:4

 Once awakened at Rosh Hashanah we enter the Ten Days of Awe, a serious time for personal reflection and a time to ask forgiveness and be forgiven of others.   Yom Kippur is the culmination of the ten Days of Awe at which time we confess our sins as individuals, as a community and as a people and start anew with God. The main tradition at Yom Kippur is fasting. It is the interpretation of the phrase “you shall afflict your souls”. Some translations are “humble your souls” or “deny yourselves”.  In this way, there is a personal sense of cleansing as our focus turns away from personal gratification in a physical way to finding gratification in relationship with God.  (I will write more on this later this week.)  

 Five days after Yom Kippur is the festival of Sukkot.  Although traditionally this is a minor festival, it really is the capstone of the High Holy Day Season. It is the time when we rejoice in restoration.  If you read the text carefully in Leviticus 23  you will notice that the word “celebrate” is used through the description of Sukkot. It is the celebration of the full harvest and spiritually a celebration of acceptance.  We dwell in the Sukkah and remember the provision of God. The emphasis on Sukkot is on the land of Israel and the blessings of the land.  Atonement has been made and we rejoice.

 As a messianic Jewish community, we observe these days in light of the coming of the Messiah.  This means that we come first with an assurance of the forgiveness of sins but at the same time we come asking for the forgiveness and cleansing from our sins. While we have forgiveness of sins we know that complete eradication of the flesh has not taken place yet. It is a rich and healthy experience for us to have the season when we reevaluate our lives and the life of our community and desire a deeper relationship with God in Yeshua.  This season also reminds us that the day will come when all Israel will recognize the Messiah and there will be the ultimate national Day of Atonement for our people. We need the wake up call of the shofar, the Days of Awe and a communal time of repentacve and confession.  One of the traditions that we have at Beth Messiah is something called “Living Yiskor.”  It is a short liturgy that we say on Yom Kippur  that includes a time of silent prayer as we intercede for our loved ones who are alive but have not embraced yeshua. As a messianic Jewish community we have an obligation to stand with our people in repentance  and to intercede for our people.  

 I hope that you are on the journey this year and that you are taking the opportunity to reflect on your own spiritual life and your relationships with others as you deepen your walk with God.

two kinds of faith

The questions was once asked of a Sage: why do we say God and God of our fathers  when we begin the Amida as well as in a variety of other prayers? In other words why do we repeat “God”  In Martin Buber’s Ten Rungs the answer given is that “God and God of our fathers” represent   two kinds of faith:

 

One believes because he has taken over the faith of his fathers, and his faith is strong. The other has arrived at faith through thinking and studying. The difference between them is this: The advantage of the first is that, no matter what arguments may be brought against it, his faith cannot be shaken; his faith is firm because it was taken over from his fathers. But there is one flaw in it: he has faith only in response to the command of man, and he has acquired it without studying or thinking for himself. The advantage of the second is that, because he found God through much thinking, he has arrived at a faith of his own. But here too there is a flaw: it is easy to shake his faith by refuting it through evidence. But he who unites both kinds of faith is invincible. And so we say, “Our God” with reference to our studies, and “God of our fathers” with an eye to tradition.

The Way of Man and Ten Rungs by Martin Buber, Kesington Publishing Corp, New york 2006, p. 43

 

There are many things we could say about this statement but I think that as we approach Rosh Hashanah we as a messianic Jewish community can resonate with the gist of the statement.  Each of us has come to faith in Yeshua individually via a confrontation with the messianic claims of the Messiah. The Ruach HaKodesh convicted us of the truth of Yeshua and our need for atonement.   Through study, thought and prayer we have embraced Yeshua. This is true of all Messiah followers. We have entered into a new relationship with God.  But we as a Messianic Jewish Community also have embraced the God of our fathers in that we believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We believe in the covenantal responsibility that God has given to us. We embrace the traditions of our people. “We have found him of whom  Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote– Yeshua of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”  We find our belief that Yeshua is the Messiah compatible with Jewish faith and practice.  Embracing Yeshua enhances our Jewish identity and gives great meaning to our customs and traditions. It also gives us a sense of purpose as Jews – to be a light to the nations and to our people as well.  Yeshua’s resurrection is the beginning of the fulfillment of the resurrection of Israel.  In messiah we have life – we have Jewish life.   

 

This season of repentance is a marvelous time to see just how compatible faith in Yeshua is with Judaism. We blow the shofar on Rosh Hashanah to awaken us from our slumber to remember our need to repent of our sins and to be renewed in our relationship with God. We remember the kingship of God; His promises and the covenant relationship. on Yom Kippur, we come before God as both individuals and as a community and we confess our sins. We also intercede on behalf of our people. As a Messianic Jewish Community we know that we must confess our sins and God has given us a season each year  to engage in Heshbon HaNefesh – an account of the soul and to  renew the covenant relationship. living within the framework of Jewish practice enhances and solidifies faith in Yeshua.   Blessed be our God and the God of our Fathers.

Psalm 27: coming with confidence to God

During the month of Elul we read Psalm 27 every day in order to prepare for the High Holy Days. But why this particular Psalm? Perhaps it is because psalm 27 reflects our lives as we approach the Days of Awe. The Psalm begins with words of great confidence: the Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear?  The first three verses exude trust and confidence in God. The writer is saying that no matter what my circumstances might be, God will be with me and he will guide me and he will deliver me.  However, in verse 9 the writer seems to have a different attitude: Do not hide Your face from me, Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not abandon me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation!

He pleads with God not to hide his face from him; not to abandon him; not to be angry with him. What has happened to the confidence?  I think that the key is in the last verse which reads: Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; yes wait for the Lord. 

 Confidence is not independance. Confidence is not self righteousness. When we have confidence in the Lord we identify with him.  This means that we have such intimacy with God that we can say that the light that I have is the light of the Lord. He does not only provide deliverance for me but he himself is the deliverance. This unique unity with God causes us to face every challenge; every relationship; every thing and every situation with God as the mediator. As followers of the Messiah of Israel, we know that he is the mediator between God and ourselves but he is also the mediator in everything else.  Yeshua comes between us and every situation. He comes between us and every relationship. Everything is mediated through him.    In the midst of a problem we cry to God as a child cries to his father. A child runs to his father because he knows that he can count on him. He runs to his father - not to try to convince him to help   - but because he is assured of his help. This is what it means to be dependant on God. this is what it means to be identified with God – to be “in Messiah.”  When we “wait on the Lord” we are waiting with confidence for his deliverance in whatever form it might come.  During the days of preparation in this season of repentance, we are confident of the forgiveness of God because of the atonement for our sins made by the Messiah. Yet at the same time we come before him knowing that we have sinned and   that we are fallen people.  As king David wrote in Psalm 51 “my sin is ever before me.”  Let us come with confidence to the Lord that he will not reject us; he will not forsake us. Rather he will cleanse us and make us whole and new again.  as the writer of Hebrews says, 

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Yeshua, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,  and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;  Heb. 10:19-22

 

Immersion

During this month of Elul we have a tradition at Beth Messiah of immersing people in water who have professed faith in Yeshua the Messiah. In the New Covenant Yeshua said to go and make disciples and to immerse  them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The word for immerse in most bibles is the word “baptize.”  The word “baptize” or  “baptism” is a foreign word to Jewish people.  Not only is it a foreign word but it has quite a negative connotation for many of us.  Baptism has often been identified with the persecution of the Jewish people in the Middle Ages. For many of us it conjures up the notion of conversion and the loss of Jewish identity.   The word “baptize” is a Greek word that is transliterated in the English bible but not translated. The word itself means to immerse under water.  It is used in ancient literature of a ship sinking or of material being placed under liquid.  One common usage of the word in the ancient world was to describe material being dipped into dye. In this sense there is an aspect of identification with the usage of the word.  The material coming out is identified with the dye into which it was immersed.  

 The rite of immersion is first depicted in the New Covenant in Matthew chapter 3 where we find John  baptizing (immersing) people as they confessed their sins.  This rite of being dipped in water is the Jewish rite of mikveh.  Mikveh is a Jewish custom that is practiced today.  It is used for purposes of ritual cleansing as well as for conversion.  Aryeh Kaplan, in his book, Waters of Eden  describes miveh as entering into the womb and being born. He also depicts it as entering the grave and rising from the dead. The idea is that entering the waters of Mikveh depicts a person staring new and being cleansed before God.

 John’s mikveh or immersion was a mikveh of repentance.  When we embrace Yeshua s Messiah we participate in a mikveh of testimony. We are publicly declaring that we believe that Yeshua is the Messiah and we publicly repent of our sins and promise to live a life of godliness as we follow Yeshua, the way of righteousness. This year, we used a service that was created by Dr. Mark Kinzer, rabbi of Zera Avraham Congregation in Ann Arbor Michigan.  After a communal confession of sins, I asked each participant three questions: “Do you renounce all evil and seek a life of kedusha – of study, worship and deeds of loving-kindness?”  “Do you believe that Yeshua is the Messiah and the Son of God?”  and “Will you follow Yeshua and live as his disciple?”  It was similar to taking marriage vows – a public declaration of covenant love and fidelity.  After their answer to the questions and prayer, each was immersed in water.

 This rite is an outward expression of what happens to us inwardly when we embrace Yeshua.  We are immersed into Yeshua when we believe that he is the Messiah and Lord. The promise is in Ezek. 36:24-27    

“For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land.  ²⁵ “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.  ²⁶ “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  ²⁷ “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

 We read about the fulfillment in   in Romans 6:3-4  

Or do you not know that all of us who have been immersed into Messiah Yeshua have been immersed  into His death?  ⁴ Therefore we have been buried with Him through immersion into death, so that as Messiah was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

 In our identification with Yeshua we have been cleansed from sin. The Ruach Ha’Kodesh dwells within us and we are empowered to live godly lives. the rite of immersion testified of this inward truth.

 We had 5 men immersed. Two of them are Jewish men who have come to be followers of the Messiah of Israel. May this month of Elul be a time of committing ourselves once again to covenant faithfulness.  

 

preparing for the high holy days

Forty days is a significant period of time in the Scriptures. The flood lasted for forty days. Moses was on Mt. Sinai for forty days and forty nights. The Spies in the wilderness returned after 40 days.  Yeshua fasted in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. Yeshua appeared to his disciples for 40 days after He rose from the dead.  so it should not surprise us that Jewish tradition gives us 40 days to prepare for Yom Kippur, the day of Atonement. The first day of the month of Elul begins the forty days of preparation.  During this time, the shofar is blown at the end of the morning Shacharit weekday services to remind us of the call to repentance. In addition Psalm 27 is read every day to prepare for the season of repentance.  As a messianic Jewish community we recognize that God always desires repentance and contrition.  A season of repentance is a healthy discipline for all of us. In addition, these traditions and the biblical observance of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are corporate in nature. They pertain to us as a people and not simply as individuals. Therefore as the remnant of Israel, we have a responsibility to participate with the rest of the Jewish community in the corporate contrition and confession of sins. During this season we confess sins and we intercede on behalf of our people. It is also a time for us to take  personal inventory of our lives and of the life of our community.  I find this time of year to be rich in meaning in my our spiritual journey and in the life of our congregation.  

 

In a little book called The Way of God, Martin Buber relates a Chasidic story that is a good beginning place for our journey of repentance and restoration. Rabbi Shneur Zalman was confronted by someone who challenged him with a question about how God could be all knowing yet still ask Adam: “where are you?” here is the discussion as Buber retells it:

Man: how are we to understand that God the all-knowing, said to Adam: “Where art thou?”

Rabbi: do you believe that the Scriptures are eternal and that every generation and every man is included in them?

Man: I believe

Rabbi: Well then, in every era, God calls to every man: “Where are you in your world? So many years and days of those allotted to you have passed, and how far have you gotten in your world?” God says something like this, “You have lived forty-six years. How far along are you?”

 

Buber explains that the purpose of the question that God poses is to evoke a response in us that causes us to ask ourselves the same question: “Where are you?”   He says that we are like Adam – we hide from the face of God by turning our existence into a series of hideouts.  Buber writes, “The question is designed to awaken man and destroy his system of hideouts; it is to show man to what pass he has come and to awake in him the great will to get out of it.”

 

As messiah followers, we began our journey by coming out from our hiding places, repenting of our sins and embracing Yeshua. The Messiah leads us on the path of righteousness.  However,  we sometimes stray from the path.  We continue to hide in a variety of ways rather than being confronted by God with our sin. We may come to services, be active in our congregation, sing in the music group or teach the Scriptures but we continue to hide behind these things rather than confront our sins.  God continues to call us. It is when we hear the “whisper” of God and come out from hiding that we can begin walking on the right road again.   But sometimes we can hear a voice of condemnation (Buber calls this the voice of Esau) and continually torture ourselves with the guilt of our sin but when it is the voice of God it will lead to repentance and a renewal of our walk with God.  

 

In the New Covenant, when Paul writes about the reception of his first letter to the Corinthians, we read, I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. ¹⁰ For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. (2 Corinthians 7:9-10)

 

 

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) In Yeshua we find forgiveness of sins and an abundant life. During these days of introspection may we hear the whisper of God and   come out from hiding   and find forgiveness and cleansing and a new beginning in our walk with the Lord.