Rosh HaShanah 2008, A D’rash

Don’t miss the post a little further down, “A Sermon for Rosh HaShanah 2008.”

What I have in this post is a d’rash, a short commentary on the Torah reading, which for Rosh HaShanah is Genesis 22, the Akeidah, or the story of Abraham and Isaac on Mt. Moriah. Here is a little d’rash from a Messianic Jewish point of view…
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Rosh HaShanah D’rash 2008
Derek Leman

Genesis 22:13-14
And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place Adonai will provide; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of Adonai it shall be provided.”

What if God had not provided a mediating sacrifice? What would it have meant to Abraham? What would it have meant to us?

Suppose God had let Abraham slay his only son. Suppose all our hopes and dreams rested in the knowledge that God had not sent a mediating sacrifice.

What would history be like if Yeshua had never come?

On the surface, it might not seem that bad. There would still be Judaism. There would still be the promises made to Abraham and confirmed through Moses and the Israelites. We could worship God, right?

And for those who do not believe Messiah has yet appeared, that is how it is. For those Jewish brothers and sisters who do not entertain the idea of Yeshua being the Messiah, God has been quite silent for a long time.

Imagine if Yeshua had not come. What would be different? Would we be like Abraham on the mountain weeping for our son who was dead, taken by our own hand?

The fact of the matter is that history would have little record of God’s love. History without Yeshua would be darkness with little hope.

Perhaps my Jewish brothers and sisters would disagree with me. Some would say, “God’s promises are enough. We don’t need to have some savior figure dying for our sins.”

And we must admit, Yeshua has come, but we don’t see him now. Yeshua has come, but we are still in the grip of the darkness. Yeshua has come, but it still takes faith to believe. Yeshua has come, but our problems are not over and the long night has not ended.

But I think of what Abraham told his son as they climbed the mountain, “God himself will provide the lamb.”

You see, here’s the thing. It’s why we are able to have so much hope. It’s true, God is hidden and Messiah has left us for a time. It’s true, we appear to be in the dark just as much as everyone else in the world.

But there is a difference. For us who have faith, God has spoken in a way that is real and tangible.
God was here. He lived and spoke and remembrance of his life and words is left to us. His death was seen by many and his return to life was seen by many. God has provided the lamb even though he has not yet extinguished the darkness.

We have climbed Mt Moriah with God already and seen a lamb provided for us. And our hope is now a tangible hope. Our hope has a name, Messiah Yeshua.

I’d hate to imagine a hypothetical, “What if God had not provided a ram for Abraham?” I’d hate to imagine, “What if Yeshua had not come into the world?”

My problems are not over. But a man as real as you and me was here and he persuaded me that he was more than a man. The world has darkness, but I know the light, because he is more than a promise, more than an idea — he has been here.

And so we can truly say, “God will provide and on the Mount of Adonai, it has been provided.”

Resources for Rosh HaShanah

L’shanah Tovah, everyone!

For those who are not Jewish, L’shanah tovah means “for a good year,” and it is a traditional greeting for this holiday season. Rosh HaShanah begins tonight at sundown. Yom Kippur begins Wednesday, October 8 at sundown.

Want to know more about Rosh HaShanah? Here are some notes that you may find helpful:
http://tikvatdavid.com/Torah_Study_files/Rosh%20HaShanahPDF.pdf

Notice also below that I have posted my sermon for Rosh HaShanah this year.

And try here for a little Rosh HaShanah culture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOTOdBzSpYc&NR=1

And don’t overlook another post, put on here just last night, called “Supersessionism Retro, 1930’s Style.”

May you be filled with grace, truth, and shalom in this upcoming year.

A Sermon for Rosh HaShanah 2008

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s will. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. –Matthew 10:28-32

A lot of times we feel like sparrows. The world is much bigger than us. We are small beings in a huge, uncaring world. If we stumble and fall, only a handful of people notice. Forces beyond our ability to even sway for an instant hem us in on every side. We are no more in control of events around us than any sparrow we see.

Being so small and insignificant compared to the mighty machinations around us, we can feel alone. Our prayers can seem to bounce off the ceiling or the sky. Of what use are words sometimes?

I mean, in ordinary prayer, we think of fine words or we pray ornate prayers written for us in books. And it seems fine.

But in a crisis, when we are afraid, when something we love dearly is about to be lost, what then? Where are the words?

Psalm 38:8 says, I am utterly spent and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart.

Have you ever prayed the prayer of groaning? Have you ever just bowed your head and sobbed?

Psalm 22:1 says, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?

Sometimes our groans are our words. Sometimes our words come out like groaning. Sometimes we cannot speak.

We have trouble understanding it all. The senseless hatred in the world. The unanswered corruption. The meaningless pain. We don’t always think about it until it happens to us.

Listen to Psalm 3:1-2: O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of me, there is no help for him in God.

It does seem that way many times doesn’t it? Maybe we don’t have literal enemies saying to us, “God isn’t real; just give up!” Maybe our problems seem to shout that to us, “There is no help for you in God.”

Consider the serious questioning of Psalm 13: How long, O LORD? Wilt thou forget me for ever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? 2 How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? 3 Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; lighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death.

Yes, don’t we wonder that? Didn’t Noah wonder, “How long will I be in this boat?” Didn’t Joseph wonder, “How long will I be in this prison?” Didn’t the children of Israel wonder, “How long will be be slaves here?” Didn’t David wonder, “How long will I be cast out under God’s judgment for my sin?” Didn’t Jeremiah wonder, “How long will I be in this well?” Didn’t those in exile wonder, “How long will we be in Babylon?” Didn’t Yeshua wonder, “How long will I be in the hands of Gentiles and tormentors?”

That is why we blow the shofar. We feel as small as sparrows and as helpless. Our prayers feel like groans that go nowhere.

YET WE CLING, SOMEWHERE DEEP DOWN, WE CLING, TO HOPE IN SOMETHING BETTER.

No matter how much we groan… No matter how numb any earthly pain could ever make us feel… There remains in us a hope.

It is hope in Messiah. It is hope in the coming days of God’s deliverance. It is hope in the promises God made long ago. It is hope in the unfailing character of God.

And so, we blow the shofar.

Rabbi Nosson Scherman writes eloquently of this. He says:

[The shofar] is a primitive instrument, barely capable of modulating its tones or shifting notes. Can anyone play a symphony or even a song on a shofar? No, but its piercing sound symbolizes the inarticulate cry of the indelibly stained soul that longs to be cleansed but does not know how. It is a cry that only God’s ear can translate into the plea, “it is our desire to perform your desire,” but we do not know how. The constant poundings of the Evil Inclination, of society, culture, habit, surroundings have numbed us to your touch, have deafened us to your message.
(Artscroll Mesorah Series, Rosh HaShanah, pg. 37).

Rabbi Shaul, the Apostle Paul said: Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. –Romans 8:26-27

All prayers do not need words. That is why we blow the shofar.

The piercing cry of the Tekiah… The broken groan of the Shevarim’s three notes… The staccato sobbing of the Teruah… THEY ARE A MIGHTY PRAYER.

The Torah was given to Israel on Mt. Sinai accompanied by the blasts of God’s shofar, as it says, “as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder” (Exod. 19:19).

God brought down the mighty walls of Jericho with the blast of a shofar, as it says, “When the people heard the sound of the shofars, the people let out a great shout; and the wall fell down flat” (Jos. 6:20).

In the last days, God will work wonders on the earth and restore his people Israel and the salvation of the world will be near, as it says, “On that day a great shofar will sound. Those lost in the land of Assyria will come, also those scattered through the land of Egypt; and they will worship ADONAI on the holy mountain in Jerusalem” (Isa. 27:13).

And our Messiah’s coming will be preceded by the sounding of God’s great shofar, as it says, “Then the LORD will appear over them, and his arrow go forth like lightning; the Lord GOD will sound the shofar, and march forth in the whirlwinds of the south” (Zech. 9:14).

And then our bodies will be raised up into the air and the mortal will become immortal and we will be changed forever, as it says, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a rousing cry, with a call from one of the ruling angels, and with God’s shofar; those who died united with the Messiah will be the first to rise; 17 then we who are left still alive will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16-17).

Truly the shofar is a mighty prayer. And today is the day it is written for us to blow it.

Tell the people of Isra’el, ‘In the seventh month, the first of the month is to be for you a day of complete rest for remembering, a holy convocation announced with blasts on the shofar. –Leviticus 23:24

In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you are to have a holy convocation; do not do any kind of ordinary work; it is a day of blowing the shofar for you. –Numbers 29:1
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We may feel like sparrows, but God knows everything that happens to every sparrow. We may only be able to pray sometimes with groans and sobs, but God who hears the prayer of the shofar hears the inarticulate prayer of sobbing or groaning. We may be tempted to believe the messages coming at us every day that there is no help for us in God, but somewhere inside us, we know our hope is not in something changing, but in the unchanging God. We may wonder, how long, O Lord, but the shofar reminds us that God will answer the call in the great days to come.

So, ten days before Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, we hear the blowing. It reminds us of our blessed duty to repent and renew our transformation each and every year. It warns us of judgment coming on the tenth day. It wakes up sleeping souls from the slumber of apathy and forgetfulness.

Whatever doubts and fears we may have had during the year, the call of the shofar awakens that spark inside of us that refuses to quit believing.

And it reminds us that we have a duty to tell others, so that many more can know the greatness of God. The shofar is not just calling for us; it is calling for the many who would believe.

We think that people will not believe. We think the message of God and Messiah will not be heard. But the shofar has a powerful call.

Rabbi Nosson Scherman says:

The Sages assure us that at essence the Jewish soul remains pure, and that even the most indifferent — and antagonistic — Jew can be reached. In the most awful periods of Jewish suffering, there have been Jews who responded to the slaughter by stepping forward and joining hands with their brethren and acknowledging their Jewishness, instead of running away to anonymity and safety.

True, they lack the words to express their inner stirrings, but sometimes there is the wordless groan of an aching heart that longs to return to its spiritual origins. (Artscroll Mesorah Series, Rosh HaShanah, pg. 37).

The image of God in us is pure. For all the sin and selfishness, no person has lost the image of God.

Who knows what aching the people around us are capable of? The hardened skeptic may secretly harbor hopes and longings for a return to our spiritual origin as children of God.

The shofar cry reawakens our faith each year and stirs the deepest part of us to a frenzied longing for God. Why shouldn’t it do that for others as well?
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Our Messiah came and is coming again. He told us in his own words what we must do and what we must believe. He taught us that he would die for our sins, be raised to seal us for resurrection, and would leave us for a time.

He said:

John 16:16,  In a little while, you will see me no more; then, a little while later, you will see me.

John 16:22, So you do indeed feel grief now, but I am going to see you again. Then your hearts will be full of joy, and no one will take your joy away from you.

John 14:18, I will not leave you orphans — I am coming to you.

Our Messiah is not here in the common sense of the word “here.” That is why we feel as insignificant as sparrows. That is why we groan and sometimes find no words for our prayer.

But Messiah is coming. The promise is not far off.

And the sign of his coming is a shofar call. As our Messiah said,

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, all the tribes of the Land will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with tremendous power and glory. He will send out his angels with a great shofar; and they will gather together his chosen people from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. –Matthew 24:30-31.

Supersession Retro, 1930’s Style

Some time back I wrote a series of reviews of Barry Horner’s Future Israel. Fantastic book (get it here). If you are curious what to think about the whole Israel question, why not let a Reformed Christian thinker give you a pro-Israel point of view. I mean, if a Reformed pastor can be pro-Israel, so can you, right? Under categories, click on “Barry Horner” to read about his book.

This reflection comes from one of Horner’s appendices, in which he gives us a snapshot of a discussion between two theologians in the 1920’s and the 1930’s about supersessionism (a.k.a. replacement theology, the idea that Israel is superseded in God’s plan by either the Church or by the person of Jesus). Too bad the whole Christian world couldn’t repudiate supersessionism in time to take away impetus for the Final Solution in Europe…
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Philip Mauro was a Calvinist thinker who died in 1952. He believed that God’s promises to Abraham were conditional (contra many theologians) and predicted that Jerusalem would not belong in Jewish hands again (too bad he isn’t around to back-pedal on that, cf. Barry Horner, Future Israel, pg. 63).

In an appendix to Future Israel, Barry Horner considers a theological conversation of sorts from 1929 and 1936. Philip Mauro wrote The Hope of Israel in 1929, a book denying Israel’s continuing role as God’s Chosen People (and cited on Preterist websites even now). He considered Deuteronomy 28:63-64 to settle the matter:

And as the LORD took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the LORD will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you; and you shall be plucked off the land which you are entering to take possession of it. 64 And the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other; and there you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.

Mauro said that the disobedience of this “odious kingdom” resulted in “the end of their history as a nation” and that the defeat handed to them by the Romans in 70 C.E. was something from which Israel would never come back.

Wow! Odious? Those odious Jews? Remember, this was said in the name of Christ posing as theology in service to the Jewish Messiah!

Mauro went on to interpret Romans 11 as saying the very opposite of its true message: that Israel as a nation has ceased to be God’s people and the only hope that remains for Israel is personal salvation for any individual Jew.

Enter Samuel Hinds Wilkinson, of the Mildmay Mission to the Jews, who wrote in 1936 to oppose replacement theology a little book called The Israel Promises and Their Fulfillment. Wilkinson was a good example of the right-headed early mission movement in Europe to Jewish people. I know that mission movements to Jews have come into disfavor in our day. It is sad, though, because once they were such a thing of beauty, a return out of the darkness of Christianity-in-denial-of-Israel. The Holocaust wiped out the result of many great pioneers and thinkers who sought to bring the Church to a realization of the importance of the Jewish people for the Jesus-faith. Yes, estimates of Jewish Christians (theology had not yet progressed to what we would call Messianic Judaism) killed in the Holocaust exceed 100,000.

Wilkinson argued brilliantly that Mauro misunderstood the law, thinking that God’s law for Israel lacked grace. This is something so few Christians understand. The law of Moses has no less grace than the New Testament. Jewish tradition understands the law to be given with grace (a common rabbinic dictum is that God’s mercy overpowers his judgment).

People who don’t understand that the law is filled with grace are generally people who have read only a little or on the surface in the first 80% of the Bible (the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible, which is 80% of the book Christians say they believe).

Wilkinson explained it all beautifully in a thought that I hope warms you as it does me. This is the kind of God I believe in. How about you?

The root of solemn consideration raised by Mr. Philip Mauro’s book, in and by which he challenges the assurance to God’s chosen people Israel of a national restoration, conversion, and beneficent mission, will be exposed if we ask the question: Did Law precede Grace or Grace precede Law? This is indeed a vital question: for indisputable the original promises to Abraham, recorded in Genesis 12, we given unconditionally. No one was bound by these promises but the One Who made them. No terms were imposed. No mediator was present (Gal. 3:20). Whatever those promises were, whatever kind of fulfillment they required, those promises and that Covenant which ratified them, in particular the grant of a specific territory as an everlasting possession, were unconditional and undeserved. We are told that Israel was not thus chosen for Divine love and favor because they were more numerous than other peoples: for they were the “fewest of all peoples” (Deut. 7:7-8): nor was their territory granted to them because of their righteousness, for they were a “stiff-necked people” (Deut. 9:4-6). And this unconditional Covenant and all that it included and involved antedated the Covenant of the law by 430 years. And the legal Covenant “which was 430 years after, cannot disannul it, that it should make the promise of no effect” (Gal. 3:17).

If the sanity of Wilkinson’s graceful theology is a fresh breath of air to you, check out my September 24, 2008 post, “Anti-Pro-Semitism?” and read a little of Stephen Sizer’s “Christian” denouncing of Israel and naïve love affair with Muslim terrorists. It will make you long for more men like Wilkinson in this crazy world we live in.

Here is a great blog exposing Stephen Sizer’s errors: http://seismicshock.blogspot.com/ and here is an article about Sizer preaching a sermon for Christmas 2007 comparing an Iranian delegation coming to Gaza to fund the terrorists of Hamas to the coming of the Magi in the Gospel of Matthew (I wish I were making this up): http://seismicshock.blogspot.com/2008/09/stephen-sizer-and-iranian-money.html

Anti-Pro-Semitism?

Wow! I just found a website today set up to critique the writings and public statements of Stephen Sizer. Stephen Sizer is a pastor who frequently makes statements opposing Israel and Christians who love and side with Israel. Is Sizer an anti-Semite?

Well, I like what one person said: he may or may not be an anti-Semite but he is definitely anti-anyone-who-is-pro-Semitic.

So, I will give you the link to two sites, Sizer’s and the Maverick’s. The Maverick is an anonymous blogger dedicated to exposing Sizer’s dubious views and rhetoric. Oh, and by the way, Mr. Sizer, I am not anonymous and you can find all my contact information with no trouble and I have no problem saying your material is not in the spirit of Jesus.

The blog of Stephen Sizer: http://stephensizer.blogspot.com/

The blog of Maverick: http://seismicshock.blogspot.com/

Classic Reprint: Does Grace Cancel Holiness?

Okay, this is a re-posting of a classic piece from last High Holiday season. I wrote it in an informal style. It could use a little polishing and could be the basis of a first rate article. But here it is in all of its raw, unfiltered, rhetorical glory. The issue is as important now as ever.

I pray you all have a productive season this High Holidays.
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FROM SEPTEMBER 2007, REPRINTED FOR YOUR AMUSEMENT (AND MAYBE EDIFICATION)…

Several things led me to write on this topic. First, I was reading the blog of a well-respected Christian intellectual who holds a high-visibility post in Christian media. He espoused an idea I hear sometimes which troubles me greatly: that grace means we should be realistic and not expect too much holiness in Christendom as a whole. That is, we should not be surprised when we hear surveys showing that Christians are no different than non-Christians in areas like marriage, sexual sin, and so on.

Second, I am writing about this because I think it is something our community, those of us in MJ, struggle with. We are people in between two worlds. On the one side, is our Jewish world in which our people are making long prayers of repentance. Some are seeking to earn a good year by pleasing God with much repentance. On the other side, is our Christian world in which our brothers and sisters emphasize grace sometimes to the exclusion of holiness. I want to clarify some things for my Christian friends and try to help others with me in MJ who wonder: How seriously should I take the High Holidays and repentance?
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First, for my Christian friends, let me start with two disclaimers:
1. I believe that we cannot merit God’s love or acceptance by our own goodness.
2. I believe that we cannot grow in godly character merely by willpower or self-determination.

Yes, I believe in grace. I just think many Christians and Messianic Jews are tragically anti-New Testament in their view of grace. Would Paul agree with any of the following statements?
a) I have the righteousness of Christ in me and God does not see my sin.
b) I cannot do anything good except believe in God, and even that is God’s gift and not my choice.
c) I will always be a failure, so I need to revel in grace and accept that I am going to fail God again and again.
d) God never intended that his people would actually become holy and as soon as we think this should be our goal we have left grace.

My answer? No. Paul would not agree with any of these statements. The third one comes close, but even in it there is subtle error: a casual acceptance of sin as though holiness does not matter to God.

If you are a Christian and struggle with the boundaries between grace and holiness, can I recommend Jerry Bridge’s excellent volumes: The Pursuit of Holiness and The Practice of Godliness (both available at amazon.com).

You see, for us Messianics, it is a troubling and vital issue right now: should we sorrow and lament over our sins or should we casually assume that our holiness is in Messiah and not take this repentance thing too seriously?

I’d like to share a little biblical light on things. First, two sayings of Yeshua have bearing on this question:

Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Luke 15:7

The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. Luke 18:11

Realize something about Yeshua’s words here.

#1: These are not anti-Jewish, but anti-self-righteousness. And Messianic Jews/Christians are no more immune to this problem than any human being. If you read these verses thinking that as a Messianic Jew or Christian these words of Yeshua do not apply to you, then read #2.

#2: These sayings of Yeshua are a trap intended to capture you and convict you. Luke 15:7 is generally read by people who think, “I am one of the ninety-nine who needs no repentance.” Snap! You just got caught! People who read Luke 18:11 often think, “Thank you, God, that I am not like that Pharisee.” Irony or ironies, man. You just became a brother to that Pharisee even if you are not a Jew.

That is to say, Yeshua fully expected that we, like the tax collector in Luke 18 or the one sinner in Luke 15, would repent. He even expected that we would beat our chests (Luke 18:13). YET I HAVE HEARD MJ’S AND CHRISTIANS CRITICIZE JEWS FOR BEATING THEIR CHEST AND REPENTING GREATLY AT YOM KIPPUR. “Legalism!” people say. I say, “holiness.”

People are teaching, in the name of Paul, something Paul would never agree with. The idea that grace cancels holiness is anathema to Paul. God really expects us to stop hurting, hating, lusting, lying, cheating, abusing, excusing, lazing, and self-promoting.

Read Romans 2:5-10 carefully. Allow me to quote vs. 5 and suggest that MJ’s and Christians do not get an out-clause on this:

But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

Also, take a close look at the book of Titus. Paul gave instructions for a congregation there among a people known for lying and cheating. He did not emphasize that grace cancels holiness. Far from it. He called them the CHANGE:

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Titus 2:11-14

Far from canceling holiness, grace calls us to it. What is grace? Is it a pass from judgment? Only in the sense of God’s acceptance, not in the sense of God’s satisfaction with who we are. God, via Paul, says that grace TRAINS us to RENOUNCE ungodliness, not to embrace it and call it the mystery of grace.

To my Messianic friends, don’t let this Yom Kippur be something you casually ignore. Don’t assume you are one of the 99. You are the one who needs repentance. Don’t smugly think to yourself, “I have Messiah’s righteousness and it does not matter if I am a sinner.” You are wrong. You will be judged for every sin. Paul said so, so don’t get mad at me.

Reflections on a Yom Kippur Noob Experience

I have been on the path of Judaism for about seven years. Before that, I was learning about Judaism, but from a different paradigm. I used to see Judaism as “them” and Christianity as “us.” Judaism was the other. My interest in Judaism was in order to be a better Christian. And that is still somewhat true, by the way. The great paradox of Messianic Judaism is finding harmony in two faith traditions many people consider antithetical.

Yet, I experienced a change about seven years ago. It was not a sudden watershed moment, a complete turn-about on a dime. It was more gradual. But it began with the realization that the rabbis are a whole lot smarter than I used to give them credit for. Once I began to accept tradition as a legitimate, though not infallible, teacher, my approach to Judaism began to change.

In my recent book by LifeWay (a Christian publisher — see? paradox), I wrote a description of a noob experience I had with Yom Kippur (not that I am up to date with modern terminology, but noob means a newbie, someone who is getting into an interest they know little about). I’d like to quote this excerpt from Feast and reflect on it . . . (see my book Feast here).
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I was out of my comfort zone to be sure, but I asked for it. I wanted to experience a traditional Yom Kippur prayer service, and in those days, the Messianic Jewish congregations I knew about were not very traditional. To really experience the solemnity of the day, I felt I needed to be with Orthodox Jews.

Back then, I had to borrow a tallis—a prayer shawl—as I wasn’t traditional enough to even own one. I entered the room that contained only praying men. The women were in another section, separated by a dividing wall. I could hardly see them, but some of the men were on their knees, their heads touching the floor. Others were sitting and praying with their noses buried in the holiday prayer book. Many were ritually beating their chest.

There is no temple to go to any more, and so there is no Holy of Holies. That means there’s no chance for the high priest to enter beyond the veil and sprinkle blood on the cover of the ark. Yom Kippur now is not what Yom Kippur used to be. Yet I felt as if I was in the holiest place left on earth, the place of prayer for atonement.

This experience occurred in the old days, in the pre-Judaism days of Derek. I entered the experience expecting a certain result: I expected to go into the synagogue, see how confused and sadly lost these Jewish people were, and exit more resolved than ever to convert all Jewish people to Jesus.

I was nervous to be sure. I was like an intruder, entering the synagogue and hoping to be thought Jewish and that no one would ask a question. Fortunately for me, it being Yom Kippur and all, people were too busy praying to socialize or ask who I was. They had no idea I came to pray that they would all come out of the darkness and enter into the light of Messiah.

I had heard in a sermon by a Jewish evangelist that Yom Kippur was a time when he was very sad for his people, ritually beating their chest as if their ritualistic pleas of mercy would turn the heart of God toward them. I thought, how sad that people would beat their chest. What a pathetic and wasted display of ritual and emotion when simple faith in Jesus would do!

Yet as I watched, my mind was changed. I started praying for them to be saved, but the spirit of repentance was contagious. Didn’t I have enough failures that I should also beat my chest before the Living God? Or should I expect that grace makes all such displays of contrition irrelevant?

I don’t believe I thought of it then, but only later. Yeshua himself commended the practice of beating the chest. He told a story of a tax collector and a Pharisee. The tax collector beat his chest and said:

God, be merciful to me a sinner!

And Yeshua said, “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

But what attitude had I brought in here with me? I had brought in the attitude of the Pharisee. In a paradoxical reversal, I was now the Pharisee and these modern day Pharisees were the tax collectors (in my confused thinking, I mean — I don’t mean that Orthodox Jews are brigands). I was thinking to myself, “God, I thank you that I am not like these Orthodox Jews but that I know my sins are already forgiven.”

There is a Grace Myth to the effect that we are automatically alright with God because of the cross and that we are in need of very little repentance.

The great men of God in the Bible repented greatly.

Yeshua did not take away repentance in his teaching, but said that we would be forgiven IF we forgave others. He condemned an attitude of smug superiority in the religious people of his day. He would never condone the attitude of some Christians and Messianic Jews (thankfully, not all) who shrug off their own sin while seeing all too clearly the sins of others.

Yeshua taught us to pray, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” This is hardly the prayer of someone whose sins magically disappear after they are committed.

No, as a noob in an Orthodox Yom Kippur service, I was on my way to freedom. I was about to be set free from the manic depression of guilt, doubt, and complacency. I was about to find a needed correction to my theology. I was about to find that Yom Kippur is something we all need, and more than once a year. The way of the righteous is repentance until the perfect comes.

Coming soon: I will have an article soon as promised about Co-Heirs in Ephesians. I needed more time that expected to do a little research. I will also repost a classic High Holidays (Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur) piece from last year, “Does Grace Cancel Holiness?”

Torah as Custodian

Yesterday I had one of those accidents of discovery that makes life so much fun. I was researching opinions on Ephesians 2, preparing for some Bible studies our congregation will have around the campfire this Sukkot. I was reading my favorite Ephesians commentary by Markus Barth (in the Anchor Bible series), when he made some remarks about Galatians 3. It’s a commentary on Ephesians, so this was not something I expected.

On page 292, Barth refers to to Galatians 3:24 and the custodian or pedagogue metaphor Paul uses there to describe the Torah. Something Barth said opened my eyes to a dimension I had completely missed before. My thoughts are not complete and it may be this will come out jumbled and incoherent. It may be there will be holes large enough for study Bibles to fit through in this exposition (but you will be sure and let me know, I presume).

What is Paul’s point about the Torah being a custodian or pedagogue? Before I get into the exposition, I should make sure all readers know that in the Greco-Roman world affluent families often had a custodian in charge of the education of the boys. The custodian was not the teacher so much as a supervisor of their education. He made sure the boys got to school and did their work. I have read that he was also responsible for teaching them manners.

The Common View
The view I have heard commonly expressed is that this custodian metaphor of Paul “clearly” shows that Paul regarded the Law as an unnecessary relic of the past. When we were children, we needed a tutor, but as we are grown up in Messiah, the custodian is no longer needed. The child is Israel and the grown-up is the church. Israel needed a custodian because they were primitive, but the church is more sophisticated now, with Messiah on the scene, and no longer in need of childish instruction. The Torah of Israel, then, was instruction for primitive minds.

A Moderate View
I have also heard a more moderate and less appalling view. Again the child is Israel and the church is the grown-up, but the work of the custodian (the Law) is viewed more positively. One of the custodians purposes was to teach manners to the children. When the child moves into the next phase of life, the custodian’s work is finished, but the custodian’s teaching remains. That is, the boys will still follow the manners taught by the custodian even though the custodian is no longer active in their lives. Thus, the Law has continuing relevance even if it is not an active covenant any longer.

Working Toward a Positive View of Law and Israel
Reading Markus Barth’s comments mentioned above, I saw that there were elements I had completely missed in my earlier readings of Galatians 3. Specifically, I saw in Barth that I had not paid attention to the pronouns in the custodian passage:

Now before faith came, we were confined under the law, kept under restraint until faith should be revealed. So that the law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian; for in Messiah Yeshua you are all sons of God, through faith.

Barth’s comment is revealing:

Sheer reliance upon “works of the law” cannot bring God’s blessing to the nations, for the law is given as a custodian only to Israel.

I have seen the importance in other places in Paul’s letters of distinguishing between the “us” and the “you.” The “us” is Israel and the “you” is the nations. Often people read the “us” as the apostles and the “you” as the non-apostles, but in some places in Paul’s letters it could be strongly demonstrated that Paul’s “us” refers to his people, the people of Israel (try Ephesians 1 for a compelling reading that may surprise you if you’ve not thought of the pronouns this way before).

Think about the flow of Galatians 3:23-29 with the pronouns distinguished in this way:
– Before faith came, we Jews were confined under the Torah
– The Law was a custodian for us Jews until Messiah came
– Now that faith has come, we Jews are no longer under a custodian
– For in Messiah, you Gentiles are all sons of God
– (thus we can see that being sons of God is not due to works of Law)
– Rather, all who are baptized into Messiah have put on Messiah
– So that neither Jew nor Gentile is superior (nor male/female, etc.)

Now, how would this argument fit into Paul’s larger purpose in Galatians? Remember he is teaching Gentiles who are confused about these matters not to give in to Jewish proselytizers seeking to convert them and put them under Torah. They are seeking the Abrahamic blessing (mentioned in Galatians 3:8) by converting and becoming Jews rather than by putting on Messiah and being accepted as they are.

Paul’s response: the Torah is Israel’s custodian, not yours.

It’s a pretty good argument.

In the larger picture of Galatians 3, I think Paul is saying something like this: God announced long ago a plan to bless you Gentiles through Abraham. But this does not happen by Law-keeping (conversion). Law-keeping brings a curse when you fail. That is why Messiah had to take Israel’s curse on himself. And in Messiah that blessing came to you Gentiles. Don’t forget that the promise of blessing through Abraham was prior to the Law. And a prior promise is not cancelled by a later covenant. But the Law was given to foster righteousness until Messiah came. The Law was Israel’s custodian until Messiah came. The law was never your custodian, you confused Galatians, but ours. Furthermore, God has, in Messiah, changed even our relationship to the Law. It no longer functions as a custodian for us. And you Gentiles are under the blessing apart from the Law. So now we see there is no exclusion, but Jew and Gentile are equally under blessing remaining as Jews and Gentiles with no conversion (or assimilation).

What do you think? I’d like to hear some of you out there weigh in . . .

Reverse Galatianism

Several things have made me think about this topic in recent weeks. I had an email exchange with a theologian who expressed the idea that Jews who come to faith in Yeshua should join in with existing churches so that there will be unity in the Congregation of Messiah. In other words, he believes the New Testament writers would oppose the idea of Messianic synagogues.

Similarly, Amy Downey at mysterysolvedwithmessiahjesus.wordpress.com posted a question:

What is the “best” place for a Jewish believer to attend for worship of Messiah Jesus? A doctrinally sound Messianic congregation or a doctrinally sound church?

The only response was from a Christian pastor whose answer was no, Jews separating into Messianic Congregations is not the ideal, but may be necessary due to lack of understanding in the church. He made an argument I often hear, “I believe all the churches are wrong for their segregation based on color, creed, or culture.” Messianic Judaism, in other words, is simply racial segregation at work.

I responded with a few arguments and the debate got hot very quickly, with Chris saying, “it seems like your newly found yarmulke has slid over your eyes.”

Whoa! It’s hard to see with this yarmulke over my eyes . . . :-)
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Galatianism. That is the error which Paul fought against in Asia Minor. Some Jews, whether Messianic Jews or traditional Jews we cannot really say (see Mark Nanos, The Irony of Galatians, for a case that they were traditional Jews). Galatianism is the false belief that non-Jews must become Jews and take on the yoke of Torah in order to be in Messiah or to grow in Messiah.

I am sad to say that the book of Galatians has made little impact on many in the Hebrew Roots and broader Messianic movement. Many would say just what the opponents of Paul in Galatians were saying: that non-Jews must follow Torah to obey Messiah. How do these interpreters get around the message of Galatians? They say that Paul was only arguing against converting to Judaism and not against Gentiles taking on Torah observance. They say that circumcision is required for Christian children but that it must not be understood as a sign of conversion. They say either that Torah observance is required or that it is a matter of spiritual growth with the mature moving out of Gentile ways and into the Torah over time.

Galatianism bothers me. It is one of the reasons the church world looks at “Messianic Judaism,” speaking in the broader sense of the term, and thinks we are ridiculous. It seems we cannot understand the simplest of New Testament teachings.

But if Galatianism bothers me, reverse Galatianism grieves me (and I’d rather be bothered than grieved). Reverse Galatianism is the false belief that Jews must become as non-Jews in order to be in Messiah or in order to grow in Messiah.

That’s right, there is an opposite error to Galatians. But you ask, “Why didn’t Paul address this issue?” My answer would be two-fold:

1. It wasn’t a problem in Paul’s time. No one was telling Jews to quit keeping Sabbath and to stop worshipping at the Temple daily.

2. The ongoing responsibility of Jewish people to God’s covenant with Israel was assumed. Paul would be appalled (pun?) to see the lack of respect for Jewish identity and covenantal responsibility in the church world today.

Let me explain a little more what Reverse Galatianism is and how it affects opinions in the modern church world:

–Why do those Messianic Jews need to be separate? Why don’t they simply join us?

–Why do I, a Jewish believer in Jesus, need to consider a Messianic Congregation when I’ve got this big, happy mega-church with so many more programs and people to meet?

–The New Testament mission called for unity of Jew and Gentile, one new man, and so we must be one new man (and that new man is Gentile, by the way).

–Jewish identity has no more meaning than any other ethnic identity. It is pre-Christian and should be given up for the cause of unity. (Meanwhile, I attend a church whose culture is closest to my own and would hate to see my whitebread church start using Hip-Hop worship or my black church using Southern Gospel or so on and so forth — but I still speak with authority about this shedding pre-Christian ethnic identity thing).

–The Torah is obsolete and I wish Messianic Jews would realize that none of that matters now. (What? Those verses about the Torah remaining until heaven and earth disappear? Well, those are unclear and I prefer to interpret them in light of the much clearer passages that say Torah is obsolete.)

–It’s not healthy for Messianic Jews to separate. It keeps the Congregation of Messiah divided. But the dividing wall of separation is abolished (Eph. 2). We should all come together.

Reverse Galatianism is the error of thinking that while Gentiles must not be forced to become Jews, still it is for the best if Jews in Messiah become Gentiles.

One reply to our call for strong Jewish identity and the need for Messianic Jewish congregations, is to say, “But Jews can remain Jews and worship with everyone else in a one-size-fits-all church.”

I understand that many well-meaning people who love Israel and the Jewish people feel this way. It is the best and kindest rebuttal to Messianic Judaism I have heard. The problem is, this is the response of people who do not know what it means to be Jewish or to live Torah. You often cannot understand another community if you have not lived in their shoes.

Take as an analogy the black community in America. Many black Christians choose to worship in churches targeted to their community. Those who believe Messianic Jews should assimilate into normal church life might be inclined to think the same way about black Christians. But I would ask them, “Have you experienced life as an African-American? Do you know what it is to walk in their shoes? Do you honestly believe that your Anglo church is going to address the needs of this community?”

With Messianic Jews the issues run on another plane. Not only do Jewish people have ethnic issues, history, and pressures to face, but there is also the matter of covenantal obligation to the Torah. And the Torah is not something meant to be kept in isolation. Torah is a community affair. That is precisely what many of our critics do not understand. Torah and Jewish life are meant to be lived together and mutually reinforced. How would that happen in a church setting where no one fasts on Yom Kippur and where Saturday is sometimes a work day for fixing up the church grounds and where ham is on the Wednesday night dinner menu?

So, please do weigh in on this issue. Can you see the need for Messianic Jews to band together? Can Messianic Judaism be in unity with churches without giving up its distinctiveness?

Coming soon: “Co-Heirs: It Means Neither Heir is Eliminated.”

Deuteronomy and the Ten

I am on vacation with my family in Sapphire, North Carolina. It is beautiful up here, though it rains all the time. This area is a national rain forest (who knew?). Still, we’re having a soggy-great time.

At this time of year, as the High Holidays approach and we near the beginning of another cycle of reading Torah, we are in Deuteronomy. I learned a long time ago, from a professor whose classes I sought out, that Deuteronomy organizes the Torah into a pattern . . .
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Often the modern words we use to describe things are quite different from the ancient words. We say Deuteronomy, for example, Latin for “Second Law” or the retelling of the Law by Moses on the edge of Canaan to a new generation. But the ancient name is more ambiguous, d’varim, words. So the book begins eleh ha’d'varim, these are the words.

In the same way, we moderns are used to referring to the core commandments of the Torah as the Ten Commandments. The Torah calls them something else, as in Deuteronomy 4:13, the Ten Words or the Ten Sayings, aseret ha’d'varim.

The meaning and purpose of the Ten Commandments is largely lost to Christian interpreters. Many regard them as God’s eternal moral standard. In this regard, though, they are incomplete and also they don’t exactly fit the bill. This is why churches have struggled with the fourth commandment (Sabbath) and have sought to either re-direct it to a Sunday commandment or spiritualize it. It is beyond common now to hear sermons in contemporary churches or see books by misinformed Christian authors to the effect that God’s intent in the fourth commandment is to demand rest from his servants. It doesn’t matter which day, such speakers and writers assure us, but that we follow God’s example in resting.

While I do not for a second doubt the value of resting as a way to recharge for service, I have no doubt these well-meaning people have missed the significance of the fourth commandment entirely. There is a better explanation in Exodus 31:13.

What are the Ten Commandments really? If they are not a set of eternal moral standards, what do they really mean?

The answer is simple and profound and thoroughly demonstrated by the very structure of Deuteronomy. The Ten Commandments are a summary of the entire body of the Torah (the ten are a summary of the 613, we might say). As a summary of the whole Torah, the Ten are a convenient way to symbolize the entire Torah into something that will fit onto two stone tablets and fit inside God’s footstool (the Ark). They represent to Israel the entire Torah.

That is why, when Moses retells the Torah for the second generation about to enter the land, he organizes the Torah around the framework of the Ten. The Ten Commandments, like all the Torah, are the covenant stipulations God gives to Israel. The Ten Commandments are for Israel. They are not a moral subset of the Law separated from rest of the Law to become the Law of the Church. The truth is more complex. All of the Torah is for Israel, though much of it has universal application. The Ten Commandments are the sign of Israel’s commitment to God’s covenant. They are covenant signs and anchors on which the entire Law may be fixed.

The outline below is based on notes and lectures from Dr. John Walton (Wheaton University) and the essential outline has been in various commentaries and articles by other interpreters as well:

First Commandment
No other Gods.
Deut 6-11. Laws about the one and only God and how to relate to him.

Second Commandment
No idols.
Deut 12. Laws about getting rid of hilltop shrines and having only one temple. Laws against following practices of Canaanites.

Third Commandment
Using God’s name as holy.
Deut 13:1 – 14:21. Laws about false prophets and false teachers who promote idolatry. Dietary laws about holiness.

Fourth Commandment
Honor the Sabbath.
Deut 14:22 – 16:17. Laws about tithing, Sabbath years, and festivals.

Fifth Commandment
Honor father and mother.
Deut 16:18 – 18:22. Laws about judges, officers, kings, justice, and temple authorities.

Sixth Commandment
Do not murder.
Deut 19-21. Laws about cities of refuge, land disputes, and warfare.

Seventh Commandment
Do not commit adultery.
Deut 22:1 – 23:14. Laws about mixing things, faithfulness to your neighbor, sexual sins and crimes, and purity regarding sexual and bodily functions.

Eighth Commandment
Do not steal.
Deut 23:15 – 24:7. Laws about helping escaped slaves, prohibiting interest, paying vows, and a woman’s rights in divorce.

Ninth Commandment
Do not give false testimony.
Deut 24:8-16. Caution in determining skin disease. Laws against keeping a neighbor’s pledge for a loan. Laws against punishing the innocent.

Tenth Commandment
You shall not covet.
Deut 24:17 – 26:15. Laws protecting widows and orphans, leaving gleanings for the poor, just weights, and first fruits.

Gentiles in Torah and Prophecy, Book Excerpt

The following is an excerpt from my 2008 book, The World to Come, by Lederer (see it here or on amazon).

Since we were talking recently about Gentiles and Torah, I thought this might stimulate some thinking. Comments are welcome.
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There are a number of myths and understandings about Gentiles and the Torah. Many people think Gentiles were called unclean in the writings of Moses and kept away from God. Part of this confusion comes from the Judaism in the time of the New Testament. The Temple then had a court of the Gentiles which kept Gentiles far away. Strict Jewish practice in the New Testament era regarded Gentiles as unclean. But God never said this.

In Torah, there were three ways Gentiles were included: assimilation, participation, and invitation. By assimilation, I mean that a large number of Gentiles became part of Israel, such as Caleb the Kenizzite (not an Israelite by birth) and the mixed multitude at the Exodus. By participation, I mean the sojourner who lived with the Israelites and yet remained separate. He was invited to offer sacrifices and participate almost fully. Though not in the Torah proper, Solomon’s prayer in 1 Kings 8 shows the principle of invitation (1 Kings 8:41-43). Solomon prayed that the prayers of foreigners, directed toward God’s Temple in Jerusalem, would be heard in heaven. Gentiles could join Israel, worship with Israel, or at the very least, pray to Israel’s God.

It is in the Psalms and the Prophets that we begin to see a major theme of God’s love spreading from Israel to the nations to the ends of the earth:

David recognized God’s plan for Israel’s worship to spread to the nations: “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to Adonai; all the clans of the nations will worship in your presence. For the kingdom belongs to Adonai, and he rules the nations” (Psalm 22:27-28).

Israel recognized that the nations would be drawn to God through them: “Let the nations be glad and shout for joy, for you will judge the peoples fairly and guide the nations on earth. Let the peoples give thanks to you, God; let the peoples give thanks to you, all of them. The earth has yielded its harvest; may God, our God, bless us. May God continue to bless us, so that all the ends of the earth will fear him” (Psalm 67:4-7).

Various prayers for all the nations to know God: “May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun! May people be blessed in him, all nations call him blessed!” (Psalm 72:17).

Non-Jews are received as Non-Jews, and not expected to convert: “In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name” (Amos 9:12).

The nations will come up to Jerusalem to learn the Torah and to worship God: “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of Adonai shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of Adonai, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths’” (Isaiah 2:2-3).

Messiah comes for the nations: “I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness” (Isaiah 42:6-7).
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6).

Israel’s restoration will draw nations to God: “Nations will go toward your light and kings toward your shining splendor” (Isaiah 60:3).

Some from the nations will serve as Levites and Priests in God’s Temple: “They shall declare my glory among the nations. And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to Adonai, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says Adonai, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of Adonai. And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says Adonai” (Isaiah 66:19-21).

The nations who attack Israel will be cursed: “I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land, and have cast lots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it” (Joel 3:2).

Many from the nations will attach themselves to Israel to find God: “When that time comes, ten men will take hold – speaking all the languages of the nations – will grab hold of the cloak of a Jew and say, “We want to go with you, because we have heard that God is with you”" (Zechariah 8:23).

The nations will worship God at the Temple with Israel at the Feasts: “Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, Adonai of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths” (Zechariah 14:16).

Grace After Meals: FFOZ’s New Book, Pt. 2

I am reviewing a wonderful resource by FFOZ (ffoz.org) which a great learning aid for Grace After Meals (Birkhat HaMazon). As I mentioned last time, you can order a book about Grace After Meals (called Breaking Bread) as well as your own Grace After Meals prayer book (called We Thank You) and CD’s that give melodies for the Hebrew and even the English. I hope many Messianic families will grow into this part of Jewish life and that the FFOZ materials will helps us mature as a movement.

In today’s installment, I want to critically review the claim of the authors of Breaking Bread that Grace After Meals is a custom pre-dating Yeshua and that Yeshua himself quite likely followed this tradition.
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The traditional commandment to pray Grace After Meals is based on Deuteronomy 8:10. It is enumerated in the 613 by the rabbinic sages as a commandment from the Torah. The command to bless God after meals is d’oraita (written) while the words of the prayer are d’rabbanan (rabbinic). That is, Deuteronomy 8:10 could be interpreted as a commandment to bless God after each meal while the actual words to say are a tradition.

In Breaking Bread, authors Toby Janicki and Aaron Eby suggest that the invitation to bless and the first three benedictions (out of four) in the Birkhat HaMazon were already in existence in Yeshua’s time (though wording was variable). They note that the first written form of the entire blessing is from 1000 C.E. Yet they list a number of evidences for an early date for this custom.

What I will do below is list the major evidence and give my own evaluative thoughts. How ancient is Birkhat HaMazon?

It is not that I believe we should only practice Jewish traditions that go back to Yeshua’s time. Not at all. I believe in the value of Jewish tradition and keeping Torah in solidarity with Israel. Yet it would be interesting to know if this custom was fixed in Yeshua’s time.

**Note: If you get bored with the details, skip to the summary at the end.**

An Early Parallel in Ben Sirach (c. 180 B.C.E.)
One reference that the authors use suggesting an early form of the Birkhat HaMazon is Sirach 36:12-14, 17-19 (this is from the Apocrypha and is also known as Ecclesiasticus or Ben Sira):

Have mercy, O Lord, upon the people called by thy name,
upon Israel, whom thou hast likened to a first-born son.
[13] Have pity on the city of thy sanctuary,
Jerusalem, the place of thy rest.
[14] Fill Zion with the celebration of thy wondrous deeds,
and thy temple with thy glory.
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[17] Hearken, O Lord, to the prayer of thy servants,
according to the blessing of Aaron for thy people,
and all who are on the earth will know
that thou art the Lord, the God of the ages.

[18] The stomach will take any food,
yet one food is better than another.

[19] As the palate tastes the kinds of game,
so an intelligent mind detects false words.

This part of Ben Sirach was probably added during the Maccabean period (around 160 B.C.E.) and may not be original to the book. Still, current scholarship views Ben Sirach 36 as ancient, even if not original (Ben Sirach is from about 180 and this may have been added around 160).

It is important to note that nothing in the text of Ben Sirach identifies this as a prayer after meals. In the context, chapter 36 is a sort of prayer inserted into a wisdom text with no context before or after to give it a location in history or narrative. So why say this has anything to do with the early history of the Birkhat HaMazon? Because it has some striking similarities to the third blessing.

Does this text in Ben Sirach suggest that Birkhat HaMazon was already a custom in Israel? Or, vice-versa, did this text in Ben Sirach become a source for later tradition?

Another Early Parallel, Jubilees 22:6-10 (c. 150 B.C.E.)
This text does not contain any of the wording of the Birkhat HaMazon. Rather, it shows that the idea of blessing God after meals was around quite early.

Jubilees is a retelling and expansion of the stories from the book of Genesis. Jubilees 22 is a story about Abraham on his deathbed. Jacob brings him a meal and an offering to God. He does so with the intention of enabling his dying father to “eat and bless the Creator of all before he died.”

In other words, by 150 B.C.E., Judaism, or at least some segments of Judaism, understood blessing God after eating to be a biblical custom.

The Dubious Evidence from The Letter of Aristeas (c. 200 B.C.E.)
The authors cite the Letter of Aristeas as a possible indication of a “set custom and procedure for blessing.”

This reference shows little and adds little to their case. It involves a priest being called in by an Egyptian official in the court of Ptolemy II to make a blessing at a public event. The blessing was before the meal, not after, and the text does not indicate that the priest followed any set form. In my opinion, this reference adds nothing to the case the authors wished to make.

Evidence From Qumran
The Essenes at Qumran made table fellowship a major part of their religious practice. We should expect that, if a custom of Grace After Meals existed in Second Temple Judaism, we would find it at Qumran.

The authors cite 4Q434a (document #434 found in cave 4 at Qumran) as a parallel to Birkhat HaMazon. Biblical scholar Moshe Weinfeld published an article suggesting this fragmentary prayer was a form of Grace After Meals specifically to be used in the house of a mourner. Weinfeld further argued that the Qumran text contains specific language from the rabbinic tradition applying Grace After Meals to the situation of a house in mourning.

This is significant because, if he is right, this would suggest that later Birkhat HaMazon customs may have already been well under way by the time the Qumran document was written. In other words, some of the current practices of Birkhat HaMazon may have been fixed quite early, possibly before the first century.

The Dubious Evidence From the Jerusalem Talmud
The Jerusalem Talmud (a.k.a. Palestinian Talmud or Yerushalmi, c. 400 C.E.) has some of the early rabbis discussing the regulations for Grace After Meals. The authors of Breaking Bread cite this as additional evidence for the early adoption of Birkhat HaMazon customs. While this evidence should be mentioned, it proves nothing. The Talmud is widely believed to take later customs and put them in the mouths of early rabbis. In fact, the Talmud claims that Abraham fully practiced all the rabbinic traditions!

The Dubious Evidence of 1 Cor. 10:16
The authors claim that “cup of blessing” in 1 Corinthians 10:16 is a technical term referring to holding a cup of wine while reciting Birkhat HaMazon. Again, this evidence is worth mentioning, but it is not hard to imagine that any religious community, applying any religious custom of praying while holding a cup of wine, might use the term “cup of blessing.” The most we can say is that the New Testament demonstrates that early believers said blessings over a cup of wine. In what context and for what specific ritual purpose they did so is unclear.

The Evidence of Mark 6:39-40
This is an interesting piece of evidence. I deem it inconclusive, but worth noting. When Yeshua gave instructions for the feeding of the five thousand, he instructed that they be seated in fifties and hundreds. David Instone-Brewer is one scholar who sees here a possible parallel to the regulations for reciting an invitation (Zimmun) to bless before the Birkhat HaMazon. The invitation to bless varies depending on the size of the group. And fifty and one hundred are breaking points for altering the version of the prayer.

Could Yeshua have followed an ancient custom of table fellowship regulations, perhaps from the Pharisaic khaverim or fellowship groups, when he arranged the five thousand to be fed? All I can say is that I don’t have a better suggestion for why he arranged them in fifties and hundreds. I would have to admit that this is a possible historical context from which to understand the story. The idea has merit but cannot be proved.
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Summary
Is the custom of reciting a blessing after meals ancient and did it precede the life of Yeshua?

I think the evidence from Jubilees and Qumran does suggest that the idea of a blessing existed.

Was the ancient form of the prayer related to the current form?

Here we have much less to go on. The authors admit that the form of the prayer varied until it became fixed around 1000 C.E. Yet it could be that some of the wording was already in use in Second Temple Judaism. The problem is we have no direct evidence that this language was already in use.

For example, though the passage from Ben Sirach includes wording similar to the third blessing, we do not know if the anonymous writer of Ben Sirach chapter 36 was even praying Grace After Meals at all.

More convincing is the wording of Qumran document 4Q434a which follows some specifics of the rabbinic regulations for Grace After Meals in a house of mourning. This is at least some evidence of an early accumulation of wording that remained in the tradition.

I think we can say that there is too little evidence to determine if Judaism at that time had a widely used and somewhat fixed prayer for Grace After Meals. I believe the authors of Breaking Bread have overstated their case, but have provided us with a rich summary of evidence to ponder the possibility.

Grace After Meals: FFOZ’s New Book

First Fruits of Zion (ffoz.org) is an interesting organization. I am friends with some of the leaders even though we have a few differences in outlook on the role of Torah in the life of non-Jewish followers of Yeshua. I am greatly encouraged by a few things about FFOZ, such as their increasing understanding of the uniqueness of Israel. In recent years their theology on Israel has moved in a direction somewhat closer to my way of thinking.

One of the great things about FFOZ is their commitment to well-produced materials and solid scholarship. They have a large staff of knowledgeable people practicing Judaism with learning and devotion. I know the director of FFOZ, Boaz Michael, personally and I admire his integrity and commitment to love and unity in a movement prone to division and rivalry. He has been an example to me and I hope his example is mellowing me out.

All that said, I want to introduce you to a new resource by FFOZ and give a little critical review . . .
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FFOZ recently released a series of benchers and teaching tools related to Birkhat HaMazon, or Grace After Meals. Grace After Meals is a Jewish tradition based on Deuteronomy 8:10:

So you will eat and be satisfied, and you will bless ADONAI your God for the good land he has given you.

That is why the main Jewish prayer for food comes AFTER the meal. It’s a wonderful tradition.

So, FFOZ has a book about the history and laws of Birkhat HaMazon called Breaking Bread (see it here).

They have a bencher with all the blessings as well as (see below) a possible early Messianic Jewish version of grace after meals from the late first or early second century (I know it sounds like a questionable historical idea, but see below). The bencher comes in a less expensive paperback (here) or a leatherflex (here).

They also have a line of audio teachings and even a children’s book (see all here).

And here are two really useful things:
1. They have CD’s with all of the melodies so those who do not have a community in which to learn these blessings can do so.
2. They have English translations that go with the same melodies and you can hear the English sung as well as the Hebrew!

Now, for those not used to Jewish prayer, know that chanting in English is not common (though a modern mystical rabbi named Zalman Schachter-Shalomi is known for doing this). I know a lot of people are going to love chanting the blessings in English. And according to Jewish halakhah, this is permitted, though Hebrew is preferred (not least because people from different countries speaking different languages can all pray together when Hebrew is the language of prayer).

So, what about this idea that there may be an early Messianic Jewish version of grace after meals? Here is where I think someone at FFOZ has come up with something amazing. I don’t know much about Didache scholarship, but I wonder if one of the PhD’s on staff shouldn’t write this up as a scholarly monograph and get it into an academic journal. Authors of Breaking Bread, Aaron Eby and Toby Janicki, make a compelling case that the Didache, an early Christian (or Messianic) writing from late first century or early second century, is a document that has been read wrongly from the perspective of later Christian ideas. The authors contend that parts of the the Didache reflect Jewish customs and issues not found in later Christianity.

To put it simply, they contend that the Didache is better read without assuming certain later Christian ideas but in an earlier, more Jewish context.

Take, for example, the well-known prayer from the Didache quoted for so long as an example of a supposed early Christian Eucharistic prayer. I include it here in a Christian translation by J.B. Lightfoot:

Chapter 9, But as touching the eucharistic thanksgiving give ye thanks thus. First, as regards the cup: We give Thee thanks, O our Father, for the holy vine of Thy son David, which Thou madest known unto us through Thy Son Jesus; Thine is the glory for ever and ever.

Then as regards the broken bread: We give Thee thanks, O our Father, for the life and knowledge which Thou didst make known unto us through Thy Son Jesus; Thine is the glory for ever and ever. As this broken bread was scattered upon the mountains and being gathered together became one, so may Thy Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into Thy kingdom; for Thine is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ for ever and ever.

But let no one eat or drink of this eucharistic thanksgiving, but they that have been baptized into the name of the Lord; for concerning this also the Lord hath said: {Give not that which is holy to the dogs.}

Chapter 10, And after ye are satisfied thus give ye thanks: We give Thee thanks, Holy Father, for Thy holy name, which Thou hast made to tabernacle in our hearts, and for the knowledge and faith and immortality, which Thou hast made known unto us through Thy Son Jesus; Thine is the glory for ever and ever. Thou, Almighty Master, didst create all things for Thy name’s sake, and didst give food and drink unto men for enjoyment, that they might render thanks to Thee; but didst bestow upon us spiritual food and drink and eternal life through Thy Son. Before all things we give Thee thanks that Thou art powerful; Thine is the glory for ever and ever. Remember, Lord, Thy Church to deliver it from all evil and to perfect it in Thy love; and {gather it together from the four winds}–even the Church which has been sanctified–into Thy kingdom which Thou hast prepared for it; for Thine is the power and the glory for ever and ever. May grace come and may this world pass away. Hosanna to the God of David.

Notice a few things:
1. This translation makes it sound very Christian, but eucharist is simply a Greek word meaning “to give thanks.” It has come to mean the ceremony of the bread and wine representing Christ in Catholic churches (Protestants call it Communion usually instead of Eucharist).
2. The prayer is definitely Messianic/Christian since it refers to Jesus, baptism, and the teachings of Jesus.
3. Yet if translated somewhat differently this prayer can be seen as the very Jewish prayer that it is (eucharist = giving thanks, church = congregation, etc.).
4. Most importantly, this prayer does not mention the death of Yeshua nor his body and blood at all. It is more likely a blessing with bread and wine than an early Eucharistic prayer.
5. And finally, the prayer has some similarities to the Jewish prayer, Birkhat HaMazon.

I will say more about FFOZ’s new resources for teaching grace after meals in future posts, but for now, I hope that this resource will help the developing Messianic Jewish movement take on the tradition of grace after meals. I hope this practice will spread. Our fledgling movement needs to move to the center of Jewish life and away from the fringes. Thanks FFOZ for blessing the MJ community with these needed resources.

Interesting Discussion in the Comments

I just wanted to direct you to two posts which now have some good comment threads going on:

http://derek4messiah.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/jews-gentiles-and-mj-whaddya-think/

http://derek4messiah.wordpress.com/2008/09/01/answering-objections-torah-and-gentiles/

High Holidays 2008: Part 1

The month of Elul is here (it started Monday, September 1). This is a 30-day period of preparation for the High Holidays (Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur). Rosh HaShanah begins at sundown on Monday, September 29, 2008.

During this month, the shofar (ram’s horn) is blown each morning. Below I relate my own sort of first impression of the shofar.

This is a month for extra prayer and beginning to take a spiritual accounting so that our repentance is complete when the High Holidays arrive. There is a tradition of praying three psalms a day (starting at the beginning of Psalms) as well as praying Psalm 27 each day for the month of Elul.

The following is an excerpt from my book, Feast: Finding Your Place at the Table of Tradition by LifeWay (threadsmedia.com).

The horn looked funny. I had heard that the trumpets Joshua’s men blew at Jericho were animal horns, but I’d never seen anything like it. It was twisty and about three feet long. The leader put the shofar or ram’s horn to his lips and started to blow.

I found out later that this “instrument” was actually from an animal called a kudu, an African antelope with massive horns. Ram’s horns are still sold and used, but many people prefer the longer, more beautiful kudu horns.

Since my first exposure to a shofar, I’ve held many sizes and shapes and even tried them out. I’ll never forget the first time I smelled the inside of one!

But that first experience was unique, hearing the shofar blown on Rosh HaShanah. I had no idea what it would be like. Would he play a tune with it? Can you do that on a natural trumpet with no valves? Would be just give it one long blast? The reality of the service surpassed my anticipation. A caller yelled out three different patterns: tekia, a long blast; shevarim, three short blasts; and teruah, nine quick blasts. For a solid five minutes the caller shouted out variations of these patterns. At the end, there was one sustained blast. With each blowing our emotions rose until the end, when we were on the edge of our seats, our ears ringing with God’s majesty.