New Arguments and Spiritual Blindness

Posted on June 19, 2013 by yourphariseefriend

Christian missionaries are constantly presenting new arguments to justify their devotion to Jesus. This exercise is self-defeating.

One of the salient features of Christianity is the belief that anyone who doesn’t see the “truth” of their claims must be stricken by a spiritual blindness (or worse). We then find a debate between Christians and their opponents which the Christians proceed to lose. The Christian then turns around and generates a new argument and says: “Aha! It is because of THIS argument that you are spiritually blind.” “Well Mr. Christian, if you are not affected by this spiritual blindness, why then did you not think of the argument until now?” (This is aside from the fact that Christianity changed its theology time and time again after centuries of critique from the “spiritually blind”.)

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Believe in His Prophets – 2Chronicles 20:20

Posted on June 16, 2013 by yourphariseefriend

Believe in His Prophets – 2Chronicles 20:20

It is virtuous to believe in God’s prophets. It is not always easy to believe in the prophets. Sometimes the prophets were commissioned to deliver harsh words of rebuke. Messages that expose corruption, hypocrisy and that upset the apple-cart of spiritual complacency. People like to think that their understanding of spirituality is complete and refined and these same people like to judge themselves favorably according to their own spiritual standards. The prophets were sent to destroy the self-delusion of these people who were so self-satisfied.

Sometimes the prophets were sent by God to encourage the people to take a course of action that may seem completely illogical from a human perspective. The prophets often encouraged Israel to abandon fear and plans of self-defense and to place all of their trust in God. It was not easy to accept these messages that were delivered by the prophets of Israel.

It would be so much easier to dismiss the prophet as a madman or as a fraud.

Those who would reject the prophet and his message did not need to look at themselves as people who are taking a stance against God. The human power for self-delusion is almost unlimited. People could build an entire spiritual framework in which that which is good and Godly is defined as evil and that which is evil is defined as good (Isaiah 5:20). People who operate under this delusion of a false spiritual framework will consider a man of God to be evil. The fortress of petty religiosity that these people have erected for themselves will give them the strength and the confidence to persecute and even to kill the true prophet.

Even in a corrupt society that has built itself a complex structure of crooked spirituality God will find good people. These are people that have the humility to suspect that their concept of Godliness may not be as perfect as they would like to believe. These would be people who take rebuke, not as a trigger to persecute the messenger, but as an occasion for introspection. These are people who have the moral courage to reevaluate and correct the spiritual structure that they have erected for themselves.

It is good and Godly to accept the prophet sent by God and it is evil and ungodly to reject him.

But at the same time, Israel has a serious responsibility to reject a fraudulent messenger. Israel was entrusted with a message from God, they were appointed as God’s witnesses to the world and they were charged with the mission of preserving that message. Throughout history men arose with fraudulent messages that threatened to corrupt the testimony of Israel. It is Israel duty to reject these imposters and to maintain their loyalty to the truth with which the nation was entrusted.

Whenever a claimant to prophecy is rejected it is easy to cast the rejecters in the evil light of petty, hypocritical legalists. It is easy to say that those who rejected the visionary were threatened by the truth of the message that was brought to them and that they were too haughty to be able to accept the rebuke that was delivered to them.

But is this always the case? Israel is charged with the mission of destroying false prophets (Deuteronomy 13:6). Any time Israel moves to discharge this holy duty they can be accused of self-centered hypocrisy.

A holy rejection of a false prophet will be rooted in love for God (Deuteronomy 13:4). Before we are encouraged to believe in God’s prophets we are encouraged to believe in God (2Chronicles 20:20). After all, this is Israel’s mission, to testify to the world that all of the devotion that humanity can muster ought to be directed above and beyond all of nature to the One God who created it all (Isaiah 43:10).

When a prophet came with a message that would have us redirect our devotion then our loyalty to God demands that we reject him together with his evil message. Our love for God does not allow us to bend our hearts towards any one of His creations. And our love for God gives us the strength and the fortitude to face all of our accusers with equanimity. When the Jew was being burned at the stake under the accusation that he is a small-minded, self-centered, petty, hypocritical legalist, his love for God did not waver. When those who accepted the message of the false prophet cast themselves in the role of the humble and trusting people who are obedient to God’s message to the degree of total self-effacement, while at the same time they cast the Jew in the role of the arrogant, stubborn, inflexible, self-deluded rebel against God – the Jew was empowered by His love for God to remain strong.

This love for God survived 2000 years of hell on earth and it burned brighter than all of the persecutions that tried to extinguish that love (Song of Solomon 8:7). And it is the fire of that love that will eventually light up the world with light and happiness (Isaiah 60:3).

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Annelise on Faith Structure

Posted on June 10, 2013 by yourphariseefriend

Some Jewish followers of Jesus believe that if the New Testament message is  not valid, then they have no other way of being sure that the Torah is from God.  If they found that Jesus’ teachings were false, they would not necessarily  continue to believe in the covenant made at Sinai or follow that law. Many  people have grown up feeling that traditional Judaism is dull or missing  something; not believing in Tanach on its own terms, or accepting the Jewish  understanding of God until they accepted Jesus. Their faith, convictions, and  personal experience of God are all anchored in their experience of the church  and the reasons they believe have compelled them to listen to its message.  Jesus’ life and message are the only reason why many people trust in this day  and age that the Torah itself was given to Israel by her God after the exodus  from Egypt.

The five books of Torah reflect a different assumption. Their message was  given to Israel to be held steadfastly in faith and loyalty as the primary basis  of all their future beliefs and choices. It is rooted in the experience that the  whole nation had of God in the time of Moses. This message was to resonate with  their children who sought God, for all generations in the future, as the story  and the covenant law would be passed down in their lives.

The book of Deuteronomy in particular expresses this theme constantly. Israel  is often reminded to keep carefully the laws that God has given them. Over and  over again, the experience of the exodus, their time in the wilderness, and the  importance of faithfulness to this covenant are brought as the first reason to  listen and obey. It is understood that in all the generations to come, this  covenant and this message will remain the foundation for knowing what God wants.  The phrase “What I command you today,” and words similar to it, shape the  framework.

A clear example comes in chapter 13, where the children of Israel were taught  to test the revelation claims that people would tell them to accept in the  future. This passage shows us the order of the process in which Israelites are  able to show their faithful love of God, according to Deuteronomy, while sifting  through the question of what they should believe and be loyal to. The message is  that even if the signs that a person prophesies come true, if they then lead  Israel away from these commandments (for example, into idolatry), they should  not be accepted or listened to. Any other ‘reasonable proofs’, miracles or  wonders, would also have to be considered in the same light of a prior belief in  Torah, as we can see from the rationale: “for the Lord, your God, is testing  you, to know whether you really love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and  with all your soul… For you shall hearken to the voice of the Lord your God,  to keep all His commandments which I command you this day, to do that which is  proper in the eyes of the Lord, your God.” (Deut 13:4, 19)

This loyalty to the Sinai relationship is always the first place to look when  considering any later claims about truth. If the message of the Torah is true,  then in every generation it is possible for Jews to accept this, as it is passed  down in the community, and understand it on its own terms as the foundational  belief among their beliefs. The story of Sinai and its laws presents itself as  the central hub for all beliefs that are later understood to join with it. The  message of living Torah passed on through generations is never believed to be  true simply because people realise that any particular man was a prophet.  Instead, the acceptance of each prophet is tested on the basis of the knowledge  that the community has of what was taught through Moses about how God wants the  nation to follow Him.

This is not to say that logic, evidence, and signs are not needed or  important for faith. We should not run blindly into things that we are told by  our parents or communities, or things that seem and feel right to us, without  using the minds and desire for truth that God has given us to test our own  biases. We always need to humbly check whether we are following Him, or  following a mistake. But at the heart of any human’s belief in God, and any  Jew’s acceptance of Torah, is an aspect of relationship that is deeper than  proof. It is true that when the evidence seems confused, we are limited in how  well we can walk forward in it, and must continue to search diligently for the  anchors and foundations of our obedience. But even then, the response that a Jew  has to God in the Torah is a personal relationship and a deep experience of  loyalty, at its very core. The Torah suggests that this knowledge, and this  loyalty, are possible for Jews to know in every day and age. It should be taken  as it was spoken in the time of Moses as the solid foundation for testing any  additional belief.

Any Christian Jew who feels that the message of the Torah and the importance  of loyalty to it are not accessible until you place your trust and loyalty in a  later idea has missed the process that God set in place for preserving the  knowledge of Himself among Israel. If a Jew finds it impossible to question  Jesus while continuing to believe in the Torah, or is never drawn to test his  message in light of their faithfulness to God in the Torah covenant, then they  have come at everything from the wrong perspective and missed the depth of what  the observant community is holding onto.

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Posted in Annelise, Faith Structure | 30 Comments

Faith and Works – Reading Reality

Posted on June 7, 2013 by yourphariseefriend

Faith and Works – Reading Reality

 

The concept of faith in Judaism means maintaining a loyalty to truths that were demonstrated to our nation over and against the allures of the world which threaten to obscure these truths. Our nation came face to face with the God of justice, kindness and morality and we pledged our hearts to him. The glamor of the material world tends to hide the truth of God from us and distort our view of reality. The work of faith is then to maintain loyalty to these truths and to make sure that our view of reality remains steadfast and true.

 

How do the attractions of the world distort our view of reality?

 

There are two basic ways that our desire for pleasure honor and power can warp our read on life. The obvious way that our understanding of reality can become warped is when our bias compels us to read the facts on the ground in a way that agrees with our personal preference. When the members of a sports team argue with the referee they usually believe that they are telling the truth. Their partiality towards their own team makes them see that the facts on the ground occurred in a way that is favorable for their own team.

 

But there is another, perhaps more insidious way, that our attachment to the pleasures of this world distorts our view of reality. Sometimes it is not a question of what actually happened but rather our leanings will distort our interpretation of an event from one extreme to the next.

 

Imagine a practical joke being played on someone. Some people would consider the occurrence to be entertaining. They may go home and tell their spouses and children about the funny event that they witnessed. The mother of the victim of this practical joke will probably not see this event in the same light at all. She will most likely read this event as a callous act of cruelty – which it probably is.

 

There is a struggle going on inside of every one of us. On the one we have a desire for justice, a love of kindness and we appreciate holiness. On the other hand we crave for physical pleasure, honor and power. From the standpoint of our desire for justice, when we witness an act of injustice, we find it repulsive. From the standpoint of our yearning for holiness any act of immorality is abhorrent. But from the standpoint of our desire for physical pleasure immorality and injustice are not abhorrent at all; we may even find them attractive.

 

As we go through life, every one of our thoughts, words and deeds, will empower either one side of our personality or the other. Either we are strengthening our sensitivity to truth, our love for kindness and our appreciation of holiness. Or we diminish these at the expense of our desire for material pleasure, honor and power.

 

A person who has developed a very strong sensitivity to his or her own enjoyment of physical pleasure will read the world through the eyes of greed and self-indulgence. The reality of the God of truth and holiness will fade into the background and will be more difficult to perceive. The pleasure offered by any given attraction of this world will tower over any negative feelings of wrongdoing that might stand in the way of acquiring this pleasure. The acquisition of this pleasure will be defined in the mind of this person as something positive and worthwhile.

 

But a person who has developed a strong sensitivity towards justice, love of kindness and holiness will see the acquisition of this same pleasure in a completely different light. In the eyes of such a person the acquisition of something which violates the precepts of justice and holiness is repulsive and abhorrent. For such a person it is much easier to maintain loyalty to the God of justice and holiness. A person who lives with a strong sensitivity to God’s truth will find it easier to see the reality of God through the allures and the attractions of the material world.

 

A person who is attuned to the quality of kindness will see in an act of compassion a deep and abiding beauty. A person who is focused on satisfying their own desire for pleasure may see the same act of compassion as a foolish act of weakness. A person who is attuned to the Godliness inherent in every human being will see people in a very different light than the person who can only measure people by what they have to offer in terms of instant gratification.

 

By observing God’s holy law and by practicing the precepts of justice and kindness we empower the side of ourselves that takes pleasure in truth. By living with the works of God’s holy law we strengthen our faith and we make it so much easier for ourselves to see the reality of God beyond the illusion of the fleeting pleasures of this world.

 

“With what can the youth purify his way? By observing Your word.” (Psalm 119:9)

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He Established Testimony – Psalm 78:5

Posted on June 7, 2013 by yourphariseefriend

He Established Testimony – Psalm 78:5

“Faith” means believing in something that is not readily evident. We would not use the word “faith” to describe our understanding that the sky is blue or that water is wet. We use the word faith to speak of concepts that we believe to be true but that are not openly obvious.

Both Judaism and Christianity speak of “faith” and both of these belief systems emphasize the importance of faith. Both Judaism and Christianity encourage belief in concepts and doctrines that are not visible and obvious in the physical world. But that is where the similarity stops. The faith of Christianity and the faith of Judaism are as far apart from each other as night is from day.

We can find the difference between the faith of Judaism and the faith of Christianity when we ask ourselves what came first: was it the faith in the heart of the believer or was it the truth in the realm of reality? Did the facts on the ground produce the faith or did the faith produce the facts?

In the case of Judaism God put the reality of His truth directly into the faces of the Jewish people. They collectively witnessed the ten plagues in Egypt, they collectively experienced His guiding hand in the wilderness for forty years and they all heard His voice from the midst of the fire at Sinai (Deuteronomy 4:35). While they were listening to God declare: “I am the Lord your God” it was not a matter of “faith”. The need for faith only arose when the curtain came down and God’s presence was no longer openly revealed.

In order to keep the faith alive from generation to generation God established the testimonial observances through which the Jewish people encounter the testimony of their nation on an experiential level. These observances allow each Jew to touch the solid reality of the founding facts of Judaism. With the strength of these truths established in his or her heart the Jew can step forward into the darkness and walk by the light of the truths which his people encountered face to face.

In the case of Judaism it was the facts that produced the faith.

In the case of Christianity it is the faith that produced the “facts”.

No one in the entire history of mankind ever saw Jesus as the second person in a triune godhead. No one in the entire history of mankind ever saw Jesus die for anyone’s sins. These were conclusions that a specific group of people arrived at after they analyzed and interpreted certain events.

Which specific group of people arrived at these conclusions? It was a group of people who “believed in” Jesus. These were people who had already put their faith in Jesus before they decided that he is the Messiah, before they decided that he needs to die as an atoning sacrifice and before they dreamed that the man that stood before them was somehow divine. These people had committed their hearts to faith in Jesus long before anyone had thought of the foundational doctrines of Christianity.

It was this group of people; those who had already a deep and abiding faith in Jesus, who arrived at the conclusions that form the foundational doctrines of Christianity. The doctrines of Christianity stand on the interpretation of men who desperately wanted to believe. It was the faith that these men had in Jesus which produced the supporting pillars of Christianity.

When the Jew is faced with darkness and confusion he or she can always go back to the anchors of Judaism. Yes; the wicked may prosper and the just may suffer, but our ancestors came face to face with the God of justice. The world may ridicule us because God’s presence is not manifest in our midst, but He joined Himself to us at Sinai, in the Tabernacle and in the Temple to the eyes of the entire nation and that bond can never break. These facts nourish and sustain our faith in times of darkness, we don’t need our faith to nourish and sustain the facts.

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Wicked Success – Habakkuk 2:4; Esther 5:13

Posted on June 3, 2013 by yourphariseefriend

Wicked Success – Habakkuk 2:4; Esther 5:13

 

“Behold the fortified, his soul will never be settled within him; but the righteous will live with his faithfulness”

 

“… and all of this is worthless to me.”

 

The prophet Habakkuk opens his book with an outcry to God about the success of Nebuchadnezzar. Habakkuk cannot understand why God allows the wicked to succeed in their quest for more wealth and more power. Why does God allow these wicked men to crush the righteous and the innocent?

 

In response to Habakkuk’s quest for understanding God says: “Behold the fortified, his soul will never be settled within him; but the righteous will live with his faithfulness.” God is telling the prophet to look just a bit beneath the surface. A man like Nebuchadnezzar, who is constantly seeking to augment his power, to build a bigger and better fortress for himself, is a man who never lives. The very fact that they are so busy building their power base is a sign of weakness and want. People who feel secure don’t need to keep on acquiring new sources of power and strength. People who are happy are not obsessed with the work of obtaining more and more wealth. As much as these people amass strength, power and wealth they will always be confronted with another weakness, another want, another deficiency that they will need to overcome according to their scheme of life. This constant never-ending race leads to nowhere and doesn’t allow their souls to find peace within themselves.

 

The righteous, on the other hand, live in a different world. They live in the world of “emuna”; honesty, trust, faithfulness and loyalty to God. The righteous recognizes that what God did not allot to them in life will not help them. The righteous trusts that it is God who placed him in this world and will take care of his needs and wants. The righteous has a calling in life and he is faithful to that calling. And the calling of the righteous is to be loyal to the God of truth and kindness.

 

The righteous doesn’t spend all of his time building a fortress for protection. Such activity cannot rightly be considered “living”. The work of establishing a strength and protection is just a means of fending of a threat so that life can go one undisturbed. But what is life itself? Is the point of building one wall to be able to live another day so that I can build another wall?

 

The righteous are shepherded with their faithfulness in God (Psalm 37:3). They recognize that the Master of the universe guides every instant of their existence. They trust in Him for protection and they trust in Him for all of their needs and with God as their shepherd they never lack (Psalm 23:1). Every moment is a moment of life, a moment suffused with purpose and with meaning. The righteous see every step of life as part of a walk with God and with God at your side you will not falter (Psalm 16:8; Isaiah 41:10).

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Annelise on the Law of Life

Posted on May 30, 2013 by yourphariseefriend

Annelise on the Law of Life

The faith and culture of Judaism have been called legalistic by some people, who feel that careful observance of details in rabbinic law detracts from the real spirit of the written Torah. Others believe that the written law itself is made of arbitrary, almost irrelevant rules, or that it was once important but has now been replaced by a better path. To consider these issues and truly understand Judaism as a legal religion, we can ask what the original implications of the Sinai covenant were.

Obedience to the Torah was always meant to involve thankfulness, grace, faith, freedom, repentance, forgiveness, sincerity, and a life that draws very near to God. The law given to Israelites at Sinai contains the ability to turn back to Him and find forgiveness, whatever the situation is. From the earliest preserved Pharisaic texts until today, this recognition of the spirit of the law is still spoken about very often in Jewish life. Sincere service and worship of God are known to be the reason for keeping it wholeheartedly. The belief that Torah laws are to be kept, guarded, and even fenced off so deliberately is not merely self-righteousness if these are the things that God Himself told the Jewish nation He desires from them. Each part matters so much. Some are moral laws, applying to all humans; some are special covenant laws that belong only to the Jews in their personal relationship with Him. But from the moral commandment to love justice to the specific law of making tassels on the corners of their clothing, these things are a means of close connection between Israel and their God. He said that this path is not too distant for anyone to choose.

Fences are made around the Torah to guard it as something valuable and important. This is not the only reason why Orthodox Jews follow rulings that have been made by rabbis and by their communities after what was heard at Sinai. This covenant and law weren’t just given to people as individuals, but to a whole community as a collective sign and witness of their experience of God. The idea is to hold the covenant, keep its laws, and give their testimony, as a unified community through history. The historical fact for centuries has also been one of dispersion through many parts of the world. To hold their identity and their observance together, and for smaller groups to pursue the Torah through their own particular insights into it, an aspect of customs and shared life brings the heart of this law into the living context.

It is definitely wrong to make unnecessary fences or to twist the spirit of the law. Every stringency can draw people away from accessing the shape of the Torah itself, even while they can also help to apply or protect the meaning of the law in important ways. But when care is taken not to confuse the commandments of the Torah with the rulings of any community’s leaders, real freedom and expression of love can come from their rulings and customs. Life is complex, and the Torah is very detailed. The many details of rabbinic law are formed as practical answers to all these everyday questions. They come from conversations between people who have been respected in the community for their grasp of how different parts of the law work together and for the sincerity of their love for the spirit of the Torah as a whole and in its parts. This process is not perfect, but the corrections need to come from within the conversations and lives of the witness community, those who observe the law and have been promised to preserve it by grace. The only groups who take rabbinic authority seriously are those who really believe that the Torah comes from God and that it matters to actually keep it deeply in everyday life, getting closer to obedience over time. Many laws and fences simplify the law so that people who do not study Torah constantly are still able to walk in it with peace of mind, without forgetting details or encountering frequent uncertainty about how things fit together. In the same way, when these things are lived out every day and also studied carefully, they seem less extensive; they become intuitive and valuable when you live in them for every hour of many days.

Another reason why rabbinic rulings are followed is the centrality of the early texts of Jewish law for the group that has survived in its observance through history until now, such as the Mishnah and Talmud. It was always important to listen to the judgments of priests and judges about how the law should be applied in the life of the community; this is directly commanded in the written Torah. In our time of history, those judgments and that knowledge have been preserved in this form. The leadership of the late Second Temple period still has to be taken seriously by observant Jews. It is also undeniable that some aspects of the law, even some that were serious and punishable with death, didn’t have their details laid out in the written law; they were known by the community who were living them under Moses’ leadership and whose children began to pass them on. In the end, it is this tradition and knowledge, preserved among the observance of His law and among His promise that points to the validity of the Torah, prophets, and other scriptures themselves.

We can always choose to be hypocritical and proud, or to learn integrity and be humbly thankful. What matters is that we live in line with God’s commandment in the place that He has given it to us to do so.

Much of the Torah holds laws surrounding the Temple service. These are not a cumbersome burden. They are the gift of the fact that God has chosen to meet so, so closely with people in that place and in that way, if they will be receptive of relationship with Him in specific obedience. Striving to keep His laws is a way of honoring the continued gift of His presence. And the prophetic promise for the future comforts Israel that the Torah will be kept more fully, in spirit and in its details; that God will be met with so closely there in Jerusalem again, and throughout the world. What matters is not what we feel about the laws, but how we can each obey whatever God has actually commanded us as He reveals His heart in the details of life this world.

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Posted in Annelise, Oral Law | 3 Comments

Eternal Israel – Excerpt from Council of My Nation

Posted on May 28, 2013 by yourphariseefriend

When one reads God’s declaration “This nation I have formed for Myself” (Isaiah 43:21), one must recognize that “this nation” is an entity that includes living Jews of every generation. “The children of Israel shall guard the Sabbath” (Exodus 31:16) refers to an observance that continues to sanctify people that live in your own neighborhood. “The council of My nation” (Ezekiel 13:9) is a council that abides from the times of Moses until this very day. “You are My witnesses” (Isaiah 43:10,11) is God’s declaration, not only to Jews who lived long ago, but to Jews who are alive today. Those who read these words and understand them as a reference to a “new” Israel (i.e. the Christian Church) cannot hope to begin to comprehend scripture. The people who pay lip-service to the concept of the eternal chosen-ness of Israel, but eviscerate the concept of all meaning (i.e. – by believing that the Christian Church is the only witness that can be trusted) are not much nearer to the message of scripture. These can be compared to one who attempts to read a wedding invitation while denying the existence of the bride. Those who reject Israel’s unique standing as God’s firstborn son should not expect to appreciate the words of Israel’s Father.

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Posted in General | 38 Comments

Works – Excerpt From Critique of Vol. 5

Posted on May 26, 2013 by yourphariseefriend

V. 53. Pages  195-198

Brown describes self-righteousness  as a “feeling that you have attained righteousness before God based on your  actions, or the feeling that you are morally superior to others.”

 

Brown speaks of: “the efforts of  religious Jews on the days leading up to Yom Kippur to have their good deeds  outweigh their bad deeds so their names might be written in the Book of Life for  another year?”

 

In place of the Jewish attitude (as  Brown understands it), Brown offers the word of Paul: “not having a  righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith  in Messiah – the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith”(Phil.  3:9).”

 

Brown has again displayed a lack of  understanding of the facts on the ground within Judaism and, more importantly, a  lack of understanding of the spirit of Scripture.

 

It is true that the Jewish attitude  is to focus on our deeds, especially in the time-period leading to the Rosh  Hashana and Yom Kippur, as if our judgment depends upon our deeds. In the words  of Maimonides: “One should always see themselves, throughout the year, as if  they were halfway innocent and halfway guilty, and so the entire world, that it  is halfway innocent and halfway guilty; if he sins one sin, he causes himself  and the world to be considered guilty and he brings destruction upon himself; if  he does one meritorious deed, he has caused himself and the world to be  considered righteous, and he brought upon himself and upon them salvation and  deliverance” (3 Teshuva 4).  

 

The key words in this teaching are:  “all the time”. Immediately after doing a good deed, we should still be looking  at ourselves as though we are standing on the edge. When properly understood,  this teaching actually precludes self-righteousness. The thrust of the teaching  is that we must act as if everything depends upon our future actions, and that  at no given point in time could we rely on our past actions. I still haven’t met  the Jew who walks around with the attitude that he or she is righteous enough to  stand before God on the merit of his or her deeds. Maimonides (based on the  Talmud) is encouraging everyone, both a person steeped in sin and a person who  has lived a moral life to see themselves as one who stands on the edge. The  point is not to consider yourself righteous, but rather, to treat your actions  with all seriousness. Judaism emphasizes the concept expressed by David; “…no  living being is righteous before You (God), and echoed by Job (Psalm 143:2, Job  15:14, 25:4). Furthermore, we recognize that, with our deeds, we give nothing to  God that He does not already possess (1Chronicles 29:14, Job 35:7). At the same  time, this does not exempt us from our responsibility as God’s servants. God  puts the burden squarely on our shoulders when He commands us to obey His  commandments and in His mercy, He counts our deeds for righteousness despite the  fact that we gave Him nothing (Deuteronomy 6:25).

 

The joy and happiness we experience  when we fulfill God’s will is not the feeling of pride in our own  accomplishments. Rather, the happiness that results from our obedience to God is  rooted in the recognition that we have just received the greatest gift from God  and the greatest expression of His love.

 

To sum it up; we act as if  everything depends on our deeds, because that is how God wants us to act. We put  all of our trust in God, because we know that everything depends on His  mercy.

 

So Brown has misunderstood the  Jewish attitude towards good deeds, and towards God’s judgment. He has also  misunderstood a basic theme in Scripture.

 

The concept that righteousness  based on our deeds is somehow not from God while righteousness based on faith is  from God, is completely without any Scriptural foundation. God, in His mercy,  counts both our faith and our deeds towards us for righteousness (Genesis 15:6,  Deuteronomy 6:25). As long as these (the faith and the deeds) emanate from a  heart that is humble before God and that recognizes that God is the absolute  sovereign to whom both our faith and our deeds belong, then these are accepted  by God. But a faith that is not based on the recognition that God already  possesses our hearts, such as the faith that Paul and Brown are encouraging,  will never be accepted by God. Such a faith is the height of arrogance towards  God. How could a human being pledge his or her heart to anyone aside from the  One that created it to begin with?

 

Brown’s criticism of Judaism for  possessing an attitude of moral superiority should be directed at the Bible.  Throughout the Bible, God contrasts Israel’s position against the position of  the gentiles (Exodus 19:5, Deuteronomy 7:6, 14:2, 26:18,19, 33:29, Jeremiah  10:16). There is no question that the people of Israel received greater gifts  from God than did the other nations of the world. The question is: do we  recognize these as undeserved gifts? – as the Scriptures encourage us to do  (Deuteronomy 9:4). Judaism encourages us to acknowledge that which we were  granted from God as undeserved gifts and as a responsibility before God and man,  and not to use these gifts as an excuse for arrogance.   

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal

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Faith – Excerpt from Critique of Vol. 5

Posted on May 21, 2013 by yourphariseefriend

V. 56. Page 205

Brown critiques Judaism: “…it does not provide complete redemption for the soul. In other words, it does not bring the assurance of forgiveness of sins, the assurance of being in a right standing with God, the assurance that upon death, we will be received into His eternal presence.”

 

I don’t see the Christian’s assurance of forgiveness, and the Jew’s lack thereof as a shortcoming of Judaism or as an advantage of Christianity. For people, who are tainted with the character faults of pride, envy, self-centeredness and greed, to stand there and to proclaim that they are “assured of being in a right standing with God” is nothing that I envy. For a person who is tainted with these flaws to be “assured” that they have been cleansed of these flaws, is something that I envy even less.

 

The assurance that the Jew experiences, is the assurance that King David experienced: “Even if I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, because You are with me” (Psalm 23:4). Wherever we are, God is with us. Not a god, who depends upon schools of theologians and libraries of writings to justify our devotion to him, but the God who holds the breath of every being in His hand, including our own breath, and including the breath of Jesus in those few years that he was granted on God’s earth.

 

We walk in the assurance that God is merciful and just and that He does not demand of us that which we are incapable of bringing forth. We experience the assurance that God accepts our sincere repentance to the degree that He forgets our sins. Sincere repentance is an ongoing, never-ending process that requires as to constantly seek greater depths of sincerity and of truth. As we draw ever closer to God, we are flooded with the light of His love – every time we are granted the privilege of fulfilling one of His commandments, and every minute that we are granted the privilege of breathing His air and walking His earth. Our hearts are steadfast with the assurance that His purpose on earth is being fulfilled through us as His beloved firstborn son.

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