By The Rivers of Babylon, USA, and Beyond
Back when our forefathers were exiled in Babylon we read in Psalm 137 3,4 they were asked to sing the songs of Zion.
There is something about Jewish music that stirs the innermost soul of man. Thus there in Babylon even those who exiled The Jewish people asked us to Sing the joyous songs of Zion for them. We answered them: How shall we sing the songs of The L-rd in a foreign land
Today many who call themselves Messianic Jews are not asking the question How can we? They have become so alienated from the question that they gladly sing the songs of Zion. But notice, the captors asked for Zions songs and the Jewish people answered rightly; How can we sing the songs of The L-rd (Hashem) in a pagan land.
You see the Psalm begins with Israel crying by the rivers of Babylon. Crying for what? Verse1 gives us the answer: When we remembered Zion.
They couldn’t sing. Yet our estranged Messianic brothers are singing them even joyfully and sadly for the observant Jewish community. They are singing them to a foreign god which neither we nor our fathers knew… So very sad.
Yet Hashem is not one to whom chess is a strange game. I would say he is the Master Chessman. For these our estranged brethren as they have been singing the songs of Zion an awakening begins to happen within. The song which one never knew or had only a very faint memory of begins to churn in the very soul of this one and he or she begins to investigate and finds out that they must begin to seek out “What does the L-rd require of me”.
He begins to honor Shabbat in a small way, He begins to stop eating forbidden meats. He happens into a joyous shabbas by invitation of a concerned Jew. As he dances and sings with the community he finds out He is Singing the Songs of the L-rd no longer in a strange land to a strange god but rather among G-d’s people with whom he weeps through to a genuine Teshuvah. Yes my friends it happens. I truly know it happens
Tsvi Jacobson
If you found this article helpful please consider making a donation to Judaism Resources by clicking on the link below.
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=FEAQ55Y7MR3E6
Judaism Resources is a recognized 501(c) 3 public charity and your donation is tax exempt.
Thank You
Yisroel C. Blumenthal
1000 Verses - a project of Judaism Resources 
Tzvi,
Thank you for these encouraging thoughts.
Jim
Tzvi,
This is extremely beautiful and inspiring. Yashar koach! If I knew any messianics I would invite them over for a shabbos meal. But believe it or not, I have never met one in person.
Really… I met plenty, I always want to talk with them, but as much that it is not appropriate for a messianic to talk about Jesus in a shul, it is not appropriate for me to say that they have been deceived. Most are way too deep in their belief to even consider that they could be wrong in the first place… It’s real sad. I heard a Jew who had to actually “come out” as messianic and he was actually so convince, he made me think about me (reversed me). I am a gentile, who had to “Come out” as rejecter or Jesus and am 100% convince I am right. I just wanted to tell him that he made me think about me, but in the end I knew he would not listen to what I had to say. Those people spend their whole life convince that hey hold the truth, when they are actually deceived and reject the very G-d who they said we reject. And nothing in the world will convince them that they might actually not be right !!!
RT,
If I invited them over, it would only be on condition that there will be no talking about Christianity in front of my kids. I don’t want my kids to see any arguments at the shabbos table.
Do people at your place of worship know you have rejected all forms of Christianity?
Yes they do…
Why do you think they don’t kick you out?
Probably for the same reason a Christian won’t be kicked out of a Synagogue if he does not try to evangelize. My family still believe in Jesus and they also hope that I will have an illumination by the HS I guess. I do not go that often anymore since I moved farther away. Messianic a genuinely trying to be good people and I have quite a few friends there still and enjoy speaking with them when I go.
RT, you’re a big inspiration for me (from this new info you just gave me combined with all of the other things you have written these past few months I’ve been here)!
Please accept my apology for commenting here after being asked to leave for speaking difficult truths which many were ill equipped to handle. I only comment now due to extenuating circumstances and will make every effort to be discreet. On May 10th finding myself in an extremely trying time, was in an intense prayer during which a Bible verse number came into my mind: Psalm 137:4. I looked up the verse, read it, but was unclear what specific meaning Hashem was wanting me to grasp. Two thoughts immediately came to mind; 1) I should be in Israel. 2) Metaphorically I was approaching my problem from a attitude foreign to Hashem.
I didn’t think much more about it until the next day May 11th when reading a email notification of a new blog post by Tzv. It was surprisingly on Psalm 137:4-5. After two witnesses I really sit up and pay close attention. I’ve read the post a few times looking for clues to what Hashem is wanting me to understand or do – (still working through that). However I did notice a couple statements which stirred a desire to respond;
___________________________
*** “Today many who call themselves Messianic Jews are not asking the question How can we?”
— The reason Messianic Jews are not asking the question; “How can we?” is because Rabbe Yeshua has given an answer to this question:
John 4,
Therefore when the Lord knew that the Perushim had heard that Yeshua was making and immersing more talmidim than Yochanan (although Yeshua himself didn’t immerse, but his talmidim), he left Yehudah, and departed into the Galil. He needed to pass through Shomron. So he came to a city of Shomron, called Shekhem, near the parcel of ground that Ya`akov gave to his son, Yosef. Ya`akov’s well was there. Yeshua therefore, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Shomron came to draw water. Yeshua said to her, “Give me a drink.” For his talmidim had gone away into the city to buy food. The Shomroni woman therefore said to him, “How is it that you, being a Yehudi, ask for a drink from me, a Shomroni woman?” (For Yehudim have no dealings with Shomroni.)
Yeshua answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From where then have you that living water? Are you greater than our father, Ya`akov, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, as did his sons, and his cattle?”
Yeshua answered her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I don’t get thirsty, neither come all the way here to draw.”
Yeshua said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
The woman answered, “I have no husband.” Yeshua said to her, “You said well, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you Yehudim say that in Yerushalayim is the place where people ought to worship.”
Yeshua said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when neither in this mountain, nor in Yerushalayim, will you worship the Father.
You worship that which you don’t know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Yehudim.
But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshippers.
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah comes,” (he who is called Anointed One). “When he has come, he will declare to us all things.”
Yeshua said to her, “I am he, the one who speaks to you.”
__________________________________
*** “…….the Jewish people answered rightly; How can we sing the songs of The L-rd (Hashem) in a pagan land [?]”
— Did they answer rightly? Is not the land of Israel a gift? Are we to value the gifts of Hashem greater than Hashem Himself? When we value Hashem greater than the land, only then will we truly have the land back.
____________________________________
*** “They are singing them to a foreign god which neither we nor our fathers knew… So very sad.
— Sad, perhaps, but Hashem understands. Although strictly an extra biblical definition of Yeshua even by NT standards, nevertheless a definition extricably linked with Hashem Himself; the GOD of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. I don’t think Hashem grades knowledge, but HE does judge the Heart.
___________________________________
*** ” Yet Hashem is not one to whom chess is a strange game. I would say he is the Master Chessman. For these our estranged brethren as they have been singing the songs of Zion an awakening begins to happen within. The song which one never knew or had only a very faint memory of begins to churn in the very soul of this one and he or she begins to investigate and finds out that they must begin to seek out “What does the L-rd require of me”.
He begins to honor Shabbat in a small way, He begins to stop eating forbidden meats. He happens into a joyous shabbas by invitation of a concerned Jew. As he dances and sings with the community he finds out He is Singing the Songs of the L-rd no longer in a strange land to a strange god but rather among G-d’s people with whom he weeps through to a genuine Teshuvah. Yes my friends it happens. I truly know it happens”
——This last part of the Blog Post is especially touching to me, as it is a perfect description of my personal experience and what I’ve been saying all along, the only difference being is; I’m fairly certain that sadly, Tzvi Jacobson probably doesn’t recognize Rabbe Yeshua as a most important chess piece.
A little while back CP asked why he should be unwelcome at a synagogue if all he wanted to do was learn Torah. In answer to his question, I wrote, among other things, that the people of the synagogue could never be sure that CP would not attempt to teach them about Jesus, because the holy spirit could move him away from his original intention. Indeed, I argued that he could not even be sure of himself for this very reason. And so, the synagogue would be justified in feeling uncomfortable with his presence there.
With his comment on this blogpost, CP shows that my assessment was correct. Because of some comments he made here, for which he refused to apologize, he was asked to cease posting. CP does not honor this request, justifying himself by an appeal to the holy spirit.
Does the holy spirit exempt one from honorable behavior?
Apparently, because he reiterates that he is in no way apologetic for his vitriolic comments.
The holy spirit also exempts him from reading the passages to which he will make reference. If he read the Torah in regard to two witnesses, he would find it bears no relation to his abuse of scripture. It certainly was never intended as justification for one to follow whatever vain thought popped into one’s head. One suspects that CP would be better off reading Torah without the aid of the holy spirit than with it.
Jim
Jim,
Your comment was a sight for sore eyes. I am greatly appreciative!!! 🙂
Alan
Jim,
For the convenience of the readers, I found where you wrote this:
https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2017/02/27/deadly-parable-excerpt-from-supplement/#comment-34763
“And even if CP did, as he claims, only want to learn Torah, they could neither know nor trust this to be true. Nor could he. It is quite feasible that he would go in with an intention to only learn, but then the ‘holy spirit’ might move him to tell these people about Jesus. So, even if they could know somehow that CP’s intentions were pure, they could not rely on them staying that way. And neither could he. It is perfectly reasonable then, that they not welcome him into their midst.”
Thanks, Alan!
Jim
My friend you don’t kow Tsvi not that it is important. Tsvi will tell you that many Messianics he knows or knew searched out God’s word without the emotional love songs of Christianity and found that it wasn’t Rabbi Yeshua that they rejected. It was the god yeshua that they rejected and no matter what new Tallis you attempt to put on Yeshua the false god shines through and a Jew eventually will see through that. You obviously are in love with Yeshua just as I am in love with Hashem. To you they are one and the same. My study of Tanach and the New testament has shown me that they are not at all. May Hashem speak to your mind so that your heart which seems to be pure can find his truth
Following.