Ninth of Av 5771 – Another Excerpt

15. Page 209

Brown tells us that the disciples of Jesus found strength in the loss of the Temple rather than weakness. He goes on to say that the followers of Jesus have no spiritual lack with the destruction of the Temple and actually come to a richer spiritual experience without the Temple.

I find this statement quite revealing. The God of Israel dwelt in that Temple. He promised that when He returns, He will take His residence up in that same Temple (Ezekiel 37:28). If someone finds “strength” in the Temple’s absence, and comes into a “richer spiritual experience” without the dwelling place of God – we can be sure that this “spiritual experience” has nothing to do with the God of Israel.

In the context of this particular discussion (“did Jesus abolish the Law?”), Brown could not have made a stronger point for the position he is trying to refute. One of the premises that stands behind so much of Scripture’s Law, narratives, and prophecies is the concept: that through the Temple, Israel and the world come into a richer spiritual experience. To state that the loss of the Temple brought strength while at the same time contending that Jesus did not abolish the Law, is the epitome of self-contradiction.

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal

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14 Responses to Ninth of Av 5771 – Another Excerpt

  1. Len Hummel says:

    Oh? Really ? My, my but you’re a BLIND pharisee ! … Just like Jesus said.
    Your heart is hardened against the Truth and the Light of your own Messiah.(!)
    How sad. how very very sad.

    • Iti'El says:

      But didn’t Jesus state that the temple was his “father’s house” and he tried, but failed, to “cleanse” it? Most of Jesus’s disciples were already dead before the Rome’s war against the Jews. The question is “Where were all of his “Jewish” followers that were expecting Jesus to “return soon” to Zion? What happened to “Yaakov’s 1000’s” and his “Jerusalem church”? Didn’t they die in the temple too? Or is the legend (& it is only a legend) that they ran off to Pella (controlled by the Roman’s), true? Did they choose to side with heathen pagans rather then with their brothers & sisters? If so, did they assist the Romans in defeating the Jewish resistance and slaughtering their own family? Remember jesus had said he came with a sword and “not to be a peacemaker”. Did that “strenghten” them & bring them this joy? Tell me how & where did Jesus’s “Jewish” followers all disappear? And why didn’t they “come back” to Zion and rebuild a “New Jerusalem” with their messiah???

    • Len
      The “light” of Jesus brought Europe the Crusades the inquisition and the holocaust – to say nothing of all the years of hatred and anger towards the Pharisees that didn’t find physical expression. Len – you could be cured of your seething hatred towards the Pharisees – if you just open your eyes

      • Len Hummel says:

        Just saw this post. So you know: I do NOT have (nor have I ever had) “a seething hatred toward Pharisees”, – that’s simply a lie & a false accusations. What I SAID was (and I stand by it) you are BLINDED by your own determined REJECTION of your own Messiah. You have been wrong about Jesus from day one. … and that will NOT change unless or until GOD THE FATHER by THE HOLY SPIRIT opens your eyes about WHO & WHAT JESUS is REALLY about.(!) … http://www.clearlight.7t.com/7

    • Yitzchak Meir Skobac says:

      Len, when you point your finger, you have three pointing back at yourself!

      • Len Hummel says:

        If you look at it again: the ESSENCE of the message was: “how sad. how very very sad”. … and yes: I think it IS sad. … but everything resides (in the final analysis) in the aforeknowledge, heart-knowledge and Divine Jurisdiction of THE SOVEREIGN JUDGE: He reveals His Son to whomsoever HE WILL. * John 3:2-8 & 36 * 2 Cor.5:17-21; 6:1-2 * ***Ephesians 1:7-11***

    • Ezra says:

      You’ve made a lot of accusations but they’re worth nothing considering you haven’t brought anything to the discussion here. This isn’t an intelligent comment, just hate speech. Feel free to confront R’ Blumenthal on this, I’m sure he can give you many good answers as to why he thinks the way he does. Why the Jewish people think the way they do. I think you might find that you’re the one who’s blind.

  2. Thomas says:

    Care to make any actual criticisms, Len?

    • Len Hummel says:

      Jesus CLEARLY said He did NOT “abolish” the Law. HE FULFILLED IT. … including the Hope of the Ages and the promise of the prophetic word. … TWO MESSIAHS. TWO MISSIONS. ONE PERSON to fulfill both Messiah Ben-Yosef AND Messiah Ben-David.

  3. Goldberg says:

    Hello Rav Blumnthal,

    This comment is not related to this post. But there was an article in this week’s “Ami” magazine.
    A former missionary victim who now does countermissionary work, makes anonymous reference to you and Mike Brown. He claims that Dr. Brown once put one of your phone calls with him on speaker phone as a demonsration to his missionary students and implies that he did this without your knowledge, because he uses it to illustrate how missionaries abuse our trust when we try to engage them in “debate”.

    Is the story true and, if so did dr brown do it without your knowledge? from everything said in public it appears that you are both always very carefull not to abuse each other’s trust.

    just curious.

    In any event i think the fellow in Ami, while well inentioned, misprepresents your objectives in what you do and why you do it.

    Chazak Ve’Ematz.

    G.

  4. Shalom Rav Goldberg
    The Ami magazine “report” is as you suspected – inaccurate.
    Thanks
    Your Pharisee friend
    Yisroel C Blumenthal

  5. Dina says:

    On the fast of Tisha B’ Av I started reading a fascinating book called A Temple in Flames: The Epic Story of the Final Battle for Jerusalem by Gershon Bar Cochva (appropriately!) and Aharon Horovitz. It takes you step by step through the battles raging among the Jews and Romans to the final sacking of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple and is absolutely fascinating. It shows with crystal clarity the truth of the sages’ words that gratuitous hatred brought Jerusalem down. The infighting among the Jews weakened them to the point that the Romans were finally able to squash the Jewish rebellion. Even so, the Jews gave the Romans a run for their money. If not for the fracturing of the people into groups jockeying for power, the Romans would never have succeeded in defeating them.

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