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| Pâ•qidꞋ Yi•rᵊmᵊyâhꞋu |
Subject: Torah Home & Family blog
Submitter: (name withheld by request)
Origin: GA, USA
Date: 2005.01.13 – Pâ•qidꞋ Yi•rᵊmᵊyâhꞋu ha-Tza•diqꞋ:What If I beleive already as you do? That Y'oshuah is moshiach. That We must obey and study Torah. That as a Jew who beleives in moshioch. I must learn how to get along with my brothers who do not beleive he is moshiach, and become a part of the jewish comunity. Why can I not just talk to a rabbi about this?
This is a good question, which many people have. Because it's such a vital question and so widely misunderstood by so many, I'll try to answer in more depth than usual. Some of the answers, however, are certain to be surprising and eye-opening; illuminating new horizons of Tor•âhꞋ perspective that those who are unfamiliar with the Jewish community have never been aware of.
If you're honest with the rabbi, and Orthodox Jews are the only ones to qualify for the title of rabbi, he defines you (though he may be too polite to say it) as a mᵊshu•mâdꞋ – outside of the legitimate Jewish community. You would be required to renounce your beliefs to become part of the Jewish community. Therefore, your premise is faulty. You cannot become a part of the legitimate Jewish community that way.
You might sit in a synagogue without being thrown out (again, they're usually too polite), but you won't be part of the Jewish community. Neither could you be counted in a mi•nᵊyânꞋ or called to read Tor•âhꞋ with the rabbi's knowledge. You'd merely be raising your level of pretend Israel, pretend Judaism and pretend salvation another notch. But trying to do it your way, instead of the Tor•âhꞋ Way, will always produce only pretend results.
You assume – incorrectly – that what we believe is the same as what you believe. It isn't.
The fact is that you certainly don't believe the same things that we believe. In fact, you don't know what we believe because you haven't taken our free online distance learning (click "Kha•vᵊr•utꞋâ" link in the appropriate ministry) to find out what we believe and teach. Most 'Messianics' and a significant number of gentile Christians believe what you state above. They don't believe what we believe either. Nor do they qualify to become part of the Jewish community either.
If you believe that RibꞋi Yᵊho•shuꞋa is the Mâ•shiꞋakh then you are obligated to adhere to his teachings. But, relying on the Christian Διαθηκη Καινη (NT) – and you're not in our Kha•vᵊr•utꞋâ, nor have I any record that you've even obtained The Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ Reconstruction of Hebrew Ma•ti•tᵊyâhꞋu (NHM) – you can't help but retain miso-Judaic Christian perceptions concerning what he taught. This is not a guess. Christian perceptions are evident even in your brief message when one knows what to look for. Your message demonstrates that you don't even know the difference between 'Messianic' Jews, who are Christians, and legitimate Orthodox Jews.
Is your eternal welfare not worth serious study? Are frivolous assumptions worthy of such a vital subject?
Tor•âhꞋ includes obedience to Ha•lâkh•âhꞋ, which, in turn, requires you to subordinate to the Beit Din that governs your community. Yet, that's exactly what you're trying to avoid! You're not obeying Tor•âhꞋ as you declared. Rather, you're denying and rebelling against Tor•âhꞋ!
To whatever Beit Din you subordinate, it is that Beit Din that requires that you adopt and live by its interpretations of Tor•âhꞋ – and the interpretation of all Bât•eiꞋ-Din in the Jewish community other than the Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ is that, by whatever name, the first century Jew is NOT the "moshiach"; and that's the end of it. That makes the Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ Beit Din your only option.
To subordinate to any Beit Din in the legitimate Jewish community other than the Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ Beit Din requires that you adopt that view! And if you don't adopt the view of the Beit Din to which you are subordinate than you transgress the Ha•lâkh•âhꞋ because it is that Beit Din which defines it for those who have accepted its governance – and, therefore, if you deny its decisions then you transgress Tor•âhꞋ.
The differences in Ha•lâkh•âhꞋ between the various Orthodox communities are peripheral to the core principles, but only a Beit Din is qualified to define and discern such points. These differences are limited such that they don't interfere with interaction among the various elements of the Orthodox Jewish community. In this case particularly, however, the differences determine whether the life practice of those governed by that Beit Din comply with Tor•âhꞋ. In this way, the Beit Din and Ha•lâkh•âhꞋ provide flexibility for diversity within the Orthodox Jewish community while still maintaining the ancient acceptable limits.
When the community with which you supposedly identify is the only community in the wider Orthodox Jewish community that believes that RibꞋi Yᵊho•shuꞋa is the Mâ•shiꞋakh, then Tor•âhꞋ requires you to subordinate to that Beit Din, not any other.
Moreover, authentic followers of RibꞋi Yᵊho•shuꞋa are like the original followers of RibꞋi Yᵊho•shuꞋa, who subordinated to the Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ Beit Din, under our first pâ•qidꞋ, Pâ•qidꞋ Ya•a•qovꞋ "ha-Tza•diqꞋ" Bën-Dâ•widꞋ, the brother of RibꞋi Yᵊho•shuꞋa. True followers of RibꞋi Yᵊho•shuꞋa become like the original Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ; not rebels who reject them to "follow their own eyes and their own heart."
Other (Orthodox) rabbis may take you in conditionally, but that condition is that they eventually persuade you to renounce your belief. Until then, you're not really part of the legitimate Jewish community just because they allow you to sit in synagogue.
You cannot join the legitimate (Orthodox) Jewish community by rejecting what it stands for.
The Nᵊtzâr•imꞋ Beit Din is the only Beit Din that accepts followers of RibꞋi Yᵊho•shuꞋa as the Mâ•shiꞋakh. And we don't accept anyone who doesn't successfully complete our Kha•vᵊr•utꞋâ to learn the essentials of Tor•âhꞋ and then obey Tor•âhꞋ in their everyday practice.
We aren't 'Messianic' Christians and we don't accept 'Messianic' Christians into the Jewish community any more than Orthodox rabbis would. If we compromised Tor•âhꞋ standards then we wouldn't be in compliance with Ha•lâkh•âhꞋ ourselves – which would define us outside of the Jewish community. So, you can see that it wouldn't do you any good even if we admitted your (and similar Christian) views that contradict Tor•âhꞋ. Instead of us bringing you in, you would be bringing us out to join you – outside of the Jewish community.
You'll have to comply with Tor•âhꞋ – a legitimate (Orthodox) Beit Din as opposed to your own eyes – to be admitted into the Jewish community. No way around it.
Born Jews who have been estranged from the Orthodox Jewish community most of their lives, and have assimilated into the gentile world, view Tor•âhꞋ through an assimilated lens – a gentile and Christian perspective that thinks that the Christian OT is Tor•âhꞋ. That happens to be wrong, and mistranslations are only the tip of a titanic iceberg.
It's a fatal error of eternal dimension to assume an estranged perspective is correct and, based on that misleading perspective, that you know Tor•âhꞋ. The reality is that you're unaware of even the simplest and most basic rudiment principle of Tor•âhꞋ: the Shᵊm•aꞋ because the Shᵊm•aꞋ reinforces Mosh•ëhꞋ's declaration to subordinate to the Beit Din – "not to stray after your own heart and after your own eyes after which you prostitute yourselves" (bᵊ-Mi•dᵊbarꞋ 15.39).
If you had studied in our Kha•vᵊr•utꞋâ you would have learned that, in the original Hebrew, written Tor•âhꞋ requires obedience to Oral Tor•âhꞋ – Ha•lâkh•âhꞋ, which requires subordination to the Beit Din governing that particular community.
You must learn Tor•âhꞋ – as Jews have always defined it, not as Christians pervert it – before you can obey it.
If you truly desire to become part of the legitimate Jewish community, then abandon the Christian perspective of Displacement Theology (rejecting the authority of Ha•lâkh•âhꞋ and the Beit Din) and learn how RibꞋi Yᵊho•shuꞋa taught Tor•âhꞋ. Our Kha•vᵊr•utꞋâ is the only place on the planet to do that.
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