Acknowledgment and Denial

Posted on January 4, 2012 by yourphariseefriend

Acknowledgment and Denial

Christian theologians attempt to rationalize their assertion that a certain individual, who breathed God’s air and walked God’s earth, is somehow divine and worthy of worship. These theologians present an argument which posits that it was “necessary” for God to “become human”. These philosophers argue that God “needed to become human” so that we can better relate to Him. As finite human beings, it is certainly easier for us to develop and sustain a relationship with another finite human being than it is for us to live a relationship with a holy God that is above every finite definition.

The core line of reasoning of this argument is fallacious. By redefining God, it doesn’t make it easier to have a relationship with Him. The whole concept of living in a relationship with God means acknowledging that every iota of finite existence is completely subject to God and is only here as an expression of God’s love. It boils down to acknowledgment. Can I acknowledge that I, together with all of my fellow creations, are completely subject to our Creator? Or will I withhold that acknowledgment?

Taking one entity, who breathed God’s air and walked God’s earth and attributing deity to him, is the precise opposite of acknowledgment. It is denial. It is a denial that every last finite existence attests to the truth of the Creator just as a work of art testifies to the existence of an artist. It is a denial that the need to breath and the act of breathing proclaim that the breather is but a beneficiary of the One benevolent God.

Denial is the opposite of acknowledgment. Denial cannot make acknowledgment easier. The act of denying the sovereignty of God over one of His subjects leads us in the very opposite direction of developing a relationship with God.

Let us examine this issue from another angle. Let us take a man who might feel distant from God. Let us say that this person is confused, afraid, alone and discouraged. This person finds it difficult to reach out to a God who is above all existence – such a God seems so far from him! But to imagine a person, a human being just like himself, standing there right next to him, empathizing with him and encouraging him – is not difficult at all. It just takes a little imagination.

But is the true God really so far? If this man were to suddenly receive a delivery – the UPS man brought him a box – the return address – “God”! He hurriedly opens up the box and there is a beautiful gift from God – a gift that precisely fits his need of the moment. Do you think that this man would still feel alone and discouraged? Would he still feel that God is distant and far off? I don’t think so.

The fact is that this frightened man together with every man and woman who inhabits God’s earth is receiving beautiful and precious gifts from God every second! The beating of our hearts, is a gift from God. Our ability to think is a gift from God. Our breath is a gift from God. Our very existence is a gift from God. Each of these and many more are personal gifts from a loving God who knows us better than we know ourselves and who loves us more than we love ourselves.

The true God who holds our every breath in His hand (Daniel 5:23) is not far from us. There is nothing closer to us than the One who lovingly sustains every detail of our existence every second. Our problem is that we fail to acknowledge, to recognize that these are all expressions of His love and care. In order to develop a relationship with God we need to allow ourselves to acknowledge that our breath is not an intrinsic possession of ours. We need to allow ourselves to acknowledge that the fact of our existence is not an inherent truth but rather an expression of His love. We need to allow ourselves to admit that we are but beneficiaries of God’s constant care for us.

The Scriptures teach us that the practice of justice and kindness is, in and of itself, knowledge of God (Jeremiah 22:15,16). Justice means being sensitive to give to each entity what is coming to it. Kindness is the quality that appreciates giving and recoils from undeserved taking. Justice and kindness are the tools that God gave us in order that we could acknowledge His benevolence. When we look at our breath through the lens of kindness, we realize that with every breath we are the undeserved recipients of a priceless, personal gift. When we look at our existence through the lens of justice, we realize that we belong to God.

Justice and kindness are to a relationship with God what the sense of hearing is to music and what the sense of taste is to food. The sensitivity to justice and kindness are the tools that God gave us so that we can appreciate God’s constant embrace.

If we feel that God is far, we should turn to acknowledging God’s sovereignty over every facet of existence – not to denying it.

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Posted in The Ultimate Truth | 8 Comments

The Bush, The Cloud and Genesis 18

Posted on January 2, 2012 by yourphariseefriend

The Bush, the Cloud and Genesis 18  

 

Christians believe that Jesus, a man who lived and breathed like all other human beings, was in some mysterious way – divine. On the basis of this belief, Christians direct veneration and worship towards Jesus. They call this belief the “incarnation of the divine”.

 

Ever since Christians began promoting this belief, the Jewish people have identified it as idolatrous and have chosen to give their lives rather than direct worship to Jesus.

 

Christian apologists have presented many arguments in their attempt to justify their worship and their belief. All of these arguments are wasted on the Jew who is loyal to his or her nation’s covenant with God. The heart of the Jew’s covenant with God is the knowledge that God directly implanted into the hearts and the minds of His nation – that there is no entity deserving of worship aside from Him (Deuteronomy 4:35). This knowledge was bestowed upon the Jewish people before God gave them the Bible and it is in the context of this knowledge that the Bible is to be read. An argument that is based on the piecing together of a complex and mysterious theological structure from enigmatic passages scattered throughout a book that contains about 30,000 verses – cannot go against the direct teaching of God.

 

With this in mind, we will direct our focus to some of those passages that Christian theologians see as a support for the doctrine of the incarnation.

 

Christians point to the burning bush which Moses encountered at Horeb (Exodus 3:1-4). The Christian contends that if God spoke to Moses out of the fire in the bush, He can also speak to us out of the person of Jesus.

 

Another passage that Christians point to is Exodus 40:34, where the cloud covers the tabernacle and the glory of the Lord is said to have filled the tabernacle. The Christian argues that if God’s glory can be manifest in a cloud, why can it not be manifest in the person of Jesus?

 

These arguments ring hollow for several reasons, but in the space of this brief article, we will limit our focus to one argument.

 

The Christian does not believe that the relationship between Jesus and God is the same as the relationship between God and the burning bush or between God and the cloud. No Christian theologian ever maintained that there are five members in the trinity (- add the bush and the cloud to the trinity). The person of the bush and the person of the cloud are insignificant entities in our relationship with God. No one ever recorded an adoring description of the bush or the cloud. The bush and the cloud were used by God to convey certain messages and that is all that remains of these two entities – the messages that God conveyed through them. Christians do not see Jesus as a mere medium that was used to convey a message. The person of Jesus himself is exalted and venerated by Christianity. The books that describe Jesus’ human activities; his birth, his travels, his human struggles and his suffering and death stand at the center of the Christian’s worship of Jesus. These books have no parallel in the Jewish memory of the bush or the cloud, and the Christian veneration of the person of Jesus has no parallel in the Jewish Bible’s teachings on the bush and the cloud.

 

Another passage that Christians point to in support of the incarnation doctrine is Genesis 18, where Abraham hosted three men. Two of these men turn out to be angels (Genesis 19:1) but who was the third one? The text tells us that after the men went to Sodom, Abraham was still standing before the Lord (Genesis 18:22). Since the text tells us that only two of the men arrived in Sodom, these Christian concludes that the third man is the one before whom Abraham was still standing.

 

The widely held Jewish interpretation of this passage posits that four separate entities appeared to Abraham; God (in a prophetic vision) and three men. Throughout Scripture, visions of God are accompanied by the sighting of angels and this is but another example (Judges 6:12-23, Isaiah 6:1,2). When the two angels left, the third stayed behind while Abraham spoke with God. There is no contextual reason to assume that God and the third person are one and the same.

 

However, some Jewish commentators (Rashbam) explain that the third person was the Angel of the Lord who is commissioned to speak God’s words throughout the Scriptures. It is he that is called “Lord” in his capacity of bringing God’s word to Abraham. Christian theologians, on the other hand, argue that this person was God incarnate.

 

Before we determine which of these two positions is rooted in the Jewish Scriptures, we will point out that even according to the Christian interpretation (which is erroneous), this text cannot serve as a justification for the worship of Jesus. The Bible tells us nothing about this person aside from the words that he said and the message that he conveyed. The entire function of this entity was to convey a message and that is the only function the Bible assigns to him. The Christian concept of venerating the human activities of the one that they see as an incarnation of the divine has no parallel in the Jewish Scriptures.

 

But who was this person? The Bible provided us with an answer before we got to this chapter. In chapter 16 in this same book (16:7-13), Hagar meets the Angel of the Lord. In an uncharacteristic usage of Hebrew, the text emphasizes that it was the Angel of the Lord who spoke to Hagar. Three verses, one after another, all open with the words: “And the Angel of the Lord said to her” (16:9,10,11). Yet when Hagar speaks of her encounter with the Angel, she says that it was the Lord who spoke to her (16:13). It is clear that the Angel of the Lord is chosen to convey God’s words and that when one converses with this angel, he or she has conversed with God Himself – although they have only seen the angel.

 

We encounter this same angel in the book of Numbers. The text describes how the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes and he saw the Angel of the Lord (Numbers 22:31). The text makes it clear that the Lord and His Angel are two different entities. The Angel goes on to warn Balaam that he may only speak what he, the Angel, will tell him to speak (22:35). When Balaam actually receives the word that he is to pronounce, the text tells us that it was the “Lord” who met Balaam and placed the words in his mouth (23:16). But the text has already made clear that it was the angel who was commissioned by God to put the words into Balaam’s mouth. This passage gives us to understand that when one meets with the Angel of the Lord, it is described by the text as having met the Lord.

 

In the book of Exodus we are told that the Lord traveled before His people in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:21). Yet when the pillar of cloud moved from its position in front of the people to stand behind them to protect them from the pursuing Egyptians, the text tells us that it was the Angel of God who moved from before them to stand behind them. Again, we learn that when God acts through the agency of the Angel, the text will describe it as the Lord traveling before His people.

 

In light of all of these texts we can confidently state that the Jewish interpretation that it was the Angel of the Lord who Abraham saw as a man and not God Himself, is firmly rooted in the words of Scripture. The Christian interpretation, that insists that it was God Himself incarnated as a man, is without Scriptural foundation. There is not one passage in Scripture which Christians can point to with confidence and say that here God appeared as a physical human being.

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Context and Kabbalah

Posted on January 2, 2012 by yourphariseefriend

Context and Kabbalah

Christian missionaries will grab hold of anything that they might be able to use to justify their belief in the trinity. Be it a Scriptural passage, an analogy from the physical world or a passage from the writings of the Jewish rabbis. The fact that the Jewish rabbis all identified the Christian veneration of Jesus as idolatrous, doesn’t seem to faze the missionary in the least. If they can find a line or a passage that can be read as a support for their cause, they will use it – regardless of the overall textual context of the book and regardless of the living context of the book; the lives and beliefs of the people who wrote these books and of the community that holds these books sacred.

Let us examine one of the more popular missionary proof-texts from the kabbalistic work; the Zohar. In Volume 2, page 43b the Zohar speaks of three that are mysteriously one. The three that are one, are the three names of God mentioned in the Shema – the central declaration of Jewish faith. Missionaries trumpet this passage as a “proof” that the ancient kabbalists believed in a trinity.

The assumption that the Jewish kabbalists believed in the trinity is about as realistic as the belief that the founding fathers of the United States were secret loyalists to George the third, King of England. The argument does not deserve a refutation. But for those who are not fully aware of the Jewish aversion to the deification of a human and for those who will believe the most fantastic conspiracy theories – I will ask them to turn one page in the Zohar.

On page 42b in that same volume the Zohar declares that God Himself is One, and is above all identification – even above His name. The Zohar goes on to explain that the names of God only describe His interaction with His creations and do not begin to describe God’s own essence. The Zohar points to Deuteronomy 4:15 and Isaiah 40:18, 25 as the Scriptural teaching on the nature of God.

It is clear that when the Zohar speaks of three that are one on the very next page, the intention is NOT that God is somehow three and one at the same time as Christians believe. But rather, the Zohar is teaching us that the three modes of God’s interaction with the world are intrinsically one.

For one who has already accepted that the Zohar preaches a trinity as a matter of faith, I don’t believe that a logical argument will convince them to reconsider their position. So if a missionary quotes the Zohar to you, don’t expect to get him to change his mind. But at least you can give him some homework. You can tell him to read the Zohar from the previous page. Then you can tell him that Thomas Jefferson was actually attempting to express his loyalty to the King of England. Somehow, he ended up with the Declaration of Independence.

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Posted in General | 14 Comments

Israel and Jerusalem – Eternal Choices

Posted on January 1, 2012 by yourphariseefriend

Christians often use the example of the tabernacle as a justification for their worship of Jesus. The missionary contends that just as God came to dwell in the tabernacle, allowing His people to direct worship towards Him by bowing towards the Holy of Holies – so it is with Jesus, they claim. They argue that the infinite God came to dwell in Jesus’ finite body and therefore there is nothing wrong with the Christians directing their worship towards Jesus.

This fallacy of this argument is readily apparent. The tabernacle had no personality of its own. The tabernacle was an inanimate building within which God’s presence came to dwell. No one ever confused the tabernacle with God. No one ever claimed that the tabernacle was a second person in a triune godhead. Everyone understood that there are two separate entities here; the tabernacle and God, and no one ever confused the two or fused the two together.

Jesus, on the other hand, was a human being with a human personality. Christians acknowledge as much. No one ever claimed that the body of Jesus was an empty shell that served as a resting place for an entity that was completely unrelated to his body. When the body of Jesus was crucified, Christians acknowledge that he suffered – not in the sense of the suffering that a person experiences when his house is destroyed, but in the sense of the pain that a person experiences when his own body is hurt. A popular Christian credo asserts that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine. No one ever dreamed of making the claim that the tabernacle was both fully physical structure and fully divine.

The comparison that Christians make between the tabernacle and Jesus doesn’t work. It is no more than a poor excuse for the justification of idolatry.

But what was the tabernacle? What do we mean when we say that God came to dwell in the tabernacle built by Moses or in Solomon’ Temple?

Perhaps we can understand the concept of God dwelling in the tabernacle when we understand the concept of God dwelling amongst the people of Israel. We find that the people of Israel are also called God’s sanctuary (Leviticus 20:3). The Scriptures describe God’s relationship to Israel with the same terms that the Scriptures describe God’s relationship with the Temple: “My name is called upon nation/house/city” (1Kings 8:23, Daniel 9:18,19, 2Chronicles 7:14). The association between God and the Temple is similar to the association between God and the people of Israel. Both of these are eternal choices that God made as to how He identifies Himself to mankind.

The term that the Scriptures use to describe God’s relationship with Israel and with the Temple (- “His name is called upon them”) is also used to describe the relationship between a husband and wife in the context of marriage (Isaiah 4:1). Marriage is more than just a relationship between a man and a woman. A man and a woman could share a secret relationship, but we would never call that relationship by the term: “Marriage”. It is only when the two parties agree to tie their identities together for all to know that we can then say that they are married.

The same applies to God’s choice of Israel and the Temple. When God chose Israel, He did not just enter into a relationship with them. He tied Himself to them in such a way that henceforth He identifies Himself towards all of mankind as the God of Israel and Israel identifies herself as the people of God. This was not something that was done secretly between God and Israel. God made His choice of Israel public to all who were able to see at the time – i.e. the Egyptians. The entire nation of Egypt saw the Nile turn into blood for seven days. They all saw the unparalleled plagues which culminated with the splitting of the sea. Since then, God has allowed no other nation to lay claim to anything that can even remotely compare to the Exodus and the revelation at Sinai (Deuteronomy 4:33,34). God points to the uniqueness of this claim as a sign that God’s covenant – His marriage, with the people of Israel still stands – to the end of time.

Indeed, since them, when people think of the Creator of all existence, they associate Him with the people of Israel. And when people see Jewish people worshiping their God, everyone knows who it si that is being worshiped – the One Creator of all.

The same applies to the Temple in Jerusalem. God didn’t just simply choose a place for His people to worship. He made this choice public knowledge. He tied His identity to this place. He calls the Temple: “My House”. From the time that God chose the Temple in Jerusalem, He calls Himself; “The one who dwells in Zion” (Joel 4:17) and the Temple is called the house of God (Psalm 122:9).

The association between God and the Temple in Jerusalem is an eternal association that still stands (Psalm 78:69, 132:14). When Jews pray towards the site of the temple everyone knows who they are praying to and when the Temple in Jerusalem is mentioned (such as when people speak of the Channuka miracle) everyone knows that this was the dwelling place of the Creator of heaven and earth.

The way that God made the choice of His house public knowledge is through His people; Israel. Once it is already established that this nation is His bride, then when they unanimously acknowledge that this place was graced by the presence of their God – the world knows that the Creator of heaven and earth came to dwell here.

Now that the Temple is destroyed and Israel is in exile, God’s honor is diminished in the eyes of the world. People understand that it is God’s house that is in ruins and that it is His people that are scattered in foreign lands. The Messianic vision of the prophets foresaw a time when God returns to dwell in His house and sanctifies His people – openly – to the eyes of all mankind (Ezekiel 37:28). Because then, and only then, will all mankind truly recognize that there is no power aside from the One Creator of heaven and earth (Isaiah 40:5, Psalm 102:16).

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Posted in General | 1 Comment

Use and Abuse of the Scriptural Texts

Posted on January 1, 2012 by yourphariseefriend

Genesis 18 – Exodus 24
Jews consider the Christian veneration of Jesus to be idolatrous. After everything is said and done, Christians are pointing to one who was born like a human, breathed like a human, and suffered like a human – and call this one “divine”. If this is not idolatry, then what is?

A common Christian counter-argument points to passages such as Genesis 18 and Exodus 24 as a Scriptural support for the concept of an incarnation. Christians understand that these passages describe God coming to earth in human form.

The Jewish response is multi-faceted (there are many ways to explain that black is not white). Jews will point out that not one of the passages that Christians quote in support of their doctrine is presented by the Author of Scripture as a directive relating to worship. Jews will point out that the Christian understanding of these texts wrenches the Scriptures out of its covenantal context. And Jews will point out that according to the Christian reading of these texts, the prohibition against idolatry becomes meaningless. According to the Christian understanding of these texts, anyone and anything can be “God incarnate”. It is this last argument that I will focus on in this brief article.

Christians respond to this last Jewish argument with the contention that it is only Jesus who filled all of the prophetic criteria required of the Messiah predicted by the Jewish prophets and therefore it is only Jesus who can lay claim to being an incarnation of the divine.

Instead of pointing to the fact that Jesus fulfilled NOT ONE of the prophetic criteria described by the Jewish prophets (I articulate this point in my critique of Dr. Brown’s 3rd volume – https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2010/09/07/dr-brown-volume-3/), I will point out that the Christian contention is irrelevant to the discussion.

The Jewish people were presented with the books of Genesis and Exodus many centuries before Isaiah, Daniel and Micah were born. Let us take a Jew who lived in the times of the judges, or in the times of David and Solomon. He never read Isaiah 53, Micah 5 or Daniel 9. Now someone comes to him and claims to be “God incarnate”. This claimant points to Genesis 18 and Exodus 24 as a “Scriptural support” for his preposterous claim. How should this claim be treated?

I would think, that in this setting (pre-Isaiah), even a Christian could acknowledge that this claim would be have been an abuse of the text. If the purpose of the text would be to support “incarnation claims”, then the prohibition against idolatry would fall by the wayside. One could worship any person (or any number of people) and claim that the object of their veneration is an incarnation of the divine as per Genesis 18 and Exodus 24.
When we bring the text back to its original context (before the rest of the books of Scripture were authored) it becomes clear that these texts were not written in order to lend support to the worship of men. That is not the role that they are assigned by the Divine Author of Scripture. There is no reason to think that the purpose and the function of these texts ever changed.

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Posted in General | 4 Comments

Is the Bible an Algebra-textbook?

Posted on December 29, 2011 by yourphariseefriend

Is the Bible an Algebra-Textbook?

In an algebra-textbook you expect to find complicated equations with letters representing various numbers. The textbook only gives you some of the numbers in the equation and you have to work your way backwards in order to figure out what each letter represents. Only after you have read the entire equation and only after you have made all of the appropriate calculations can you determine with any certainty what particular number each letter is representing.

Is the Jewish Bible the same type of book?

Allow me to explain my question. The first verse in the Bible reads: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”. Let us pause for a moment. What does the word “God” mean? What does that word represent? Did the Divine Author expect us to know what the word God means before we complete reading the book? Or can we only expected to figure out what the word “God” represents by reading the entire book – and working our way backwards in order to make a positive identification?

The answer to this question is explicitly presented in this same book. In Deuteronomy chapter 4 Moses reminds the Jewish people (- the intended audience of the book – Deuteronomy 33:4, Psalm 147:19,20) – that God Himself taught them to know Him (Deuteronomy 4:35). The Jewish people were introduced to God long before the book of Genesis was presented to them. Sinai was not simply an informative teaching on the nature of God. It was the sealing of a covenant between Israel and God. God bound Himself together with Israel at Sinai – and we are married to Him ever since.

Not only are the Jewish people expected to know the meaning of the word “God”, but they are expected to already find themselves in a deep, intimate and committed relationship with God before they read the first word of the Bible. The Bible must be read in the context of this knowledge that God granted to the Jewish people and in the context of the relationship that already exists between Israel and God – otherwise the Bible will have been wrenched out of its covenantal context.

The Bible is NOT an algebra-textbook.

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Posted in Faith Structure | 2 Comments

Channuka – Ezekiel 11:16

Posted on December 26, 2011 by yourphariseefriend

The word “Channuka” means “dedication”. It refers, of course, to the dedication of the Temple that took place when the Hasmoneans recaptured the Temple from the Syrian-Greeks, purified it and rededicated it for the service of God.

The fact is that this was not the only Temple-dedication that our nation witnessed. We dedicated the Tabernacle in the wilderness, we dedicated the Tabernacle at Shiloh, the First Temple under Solomon and the original dedication of the Second Temple. The Hasmonean dedication that we commemorate on Channuka was only a rededication of the Second Temple that had been defiled by the Syrian-Greeks. So why is this dedication singled out to be celebrated with a national holiday?

We must understand the historical context of this particular dedication. All the other dedications took place while God still spoke to us through the prophets. The spirit of God that had come to dwell with us through the dedication of the Temple allowed the prophets amongst us to hear God’s voice. We lost that gift.

When prophecy ceased, the Jewish people were devastated. Their heavenly Father was no longer talking with them. They felt that God was no longer with them. Then the persecutions began. Now God was not even allowing them to keep His Law! But under the leadership of Matisyahu, the remained loyal. They fought back and God crowned their efforts with victory.

Now they entered the Temple. How they wanted to light the Menorah! But they encountered an obstacle. They only had one little bit of pure oil. They did not give up, they did what they could. And God reached out and miraculously made the oil last. How their hearts were filled with joy! Their Father was with them! The gift their Father had given them was the ability and the opportunity to serve Him. They then realized that every time we fulfill one of God’s commandments – it is an embrace from God! Our Father is giving us the opportunity of serving Him! We saw that God could remove that ability from us in an instant. The fact that we can observe His commandments is the greatest gift He could give us.

Although we lost the Temple, we still have the gift of being able to fulfill God’s commandments. That gift still shows us that wherever we are God is our miniature sanctuary in exile (Ezekiel 11:16).

The lights of the Menorah testify that He is always with us.

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal

Posted in Holidays, Judaism | 7 Comments

Deuteronomy 4:15 – Isaiah 45:19

Posted on December 16, 2011 by yourphariseefriend

 

Deuteronomy 4:15 – Isaiah 45:19

The Bible continuously repeats and emphasizes the prohibition against idolatry. But what is idolatry?

Generally, we understand that idolatry mens directing devotion towards an entity other than the God who created heaven and earth. There is no question that this is a valid definition of idolatry, but it is not a complete definition of idolatry.

In Deuteronomy 4:15 God reminds His people that they saw no form when He spoke to them at Sinai. It is for this reason, because they saw no form, that they are not to create an image. God is telling us, that even when we intend to worship Him, the One who spoke to us at Sinai, we should use no form to represent Him.

So the correct Biblical definition of idolatry would include two categories: worshiping another entity aside from God, and using any image to represent God to ourselves in our worship.

Christianity advocates a devotion that is a violation of the prohibition against idolatry according to both definitions.

If they were to advocate devotion to Jesus without claiming that Jesus is one and the same with the God of Israel, that would be a violation of the first definition of idolatry: directing worship to an entity other than the God of Israel. If the Church were to claim that Jesus is merely a symbol, a representation of the God of Israel, with no significant character of his own – that would be a violation of the second definition of idolatry: using an image to represent God to ourselves in our worship.

But Christianity insists that Jesus was a distinct person with an identity of his own, yet they also contend that worship of Jesus is somehow also worship of the Father. The devotion, the love and the adoration that the Church is encouraging is devotion to an entity other than the God of Israel and at the same time, it is using an image to represent the God of Israel.

There is no shortage of Christian responses to the charge that the devotion that the Church advocates is idolatry. The Christian theologians speak of a “mystery of the god-head”, and the impossibility of understanding God’s nature.

But God did not expect us to understand His nature, nor did He expect us to base our devotion to Him on our lack of comprehension. God made a covenant with us. A covenant that He expects us to keep. He spoke the terms of the covenant clearly and unequivocally. He did not send us on a “mystery search” or on a trip to the realm of the unknown. He told us in no uncertain terms what it is that we are not to worship. According to our limited human understanding of God’s command, devotion to Jesus is exactly what God does not want us to do. We are well aware of the fallibility of human understanding, but we are also cognizant that God knows our weaknesses even better than we do. God spoke to us, and He handed the responsibility of keeping His commandment to us, fallible humans. He made it clear to us, to the degree that nothing is more clear to our fallible minds. It behooves us to obey.

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Posted in The Ultimate Truth | 7 Comments

“Are You My Mother”

Posted on December 16, 2011 by yourphariseefriend

“Are You My Mother”

As a child, I read a book entitled: “Are You My Mother”. The basic plot of the story describes a bird who happens to hatch from the egg when her mother is away from the nest. She wanders around looking for her mother. She finds a cat, a hen, a cow, a boat and many other items on her search for her mother. She discovers in turn that each of these is not her mother. The story’s happy ending has the bird embracing her real mother and they all live happily ever after.

The plot of this story only makes any sense (to the mind of a toddler) because this bird never actually saw her real mother. Had the bird known her mother, the search to identify her mother would have never started.

This child’s tale has a direct bearing on the struggle between the Church and the Synagogue for the soul of the Jew. The Church points to Jesus, and declares to the Jew – he is your Father, when you see him you have seen your Father.

Had the Jewish people never encountered their Father, the missionary might be able to start a conversation. The conversation wouldn’t last too long, but I can perhaps fathom how the conversation might get off the ground. But for a people who have encountered God directly (Deuteronomy 5:4) and who have come to know Him intimately (Deuteronomy 4:35) – there is no room for a discussion. We tell Jesus: You are NOT our Father. We have met our Father and it isn’t you.

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal

Posted in Faith Structure | Leave a comment

Eternal Covenant

Posted on December 15, 2011 by yourphariseefriend

Eternal Covenant

“When you are in distress and all these things have befallen you, at the end of days, you will return to the Lord your God, and hearken to His voice. For the Lord your God is a merciful God, He will not abandon you nor destroy you, and He will not forget the covenant of your forefathers that He swore to them. For inquire now regarding the early days that preceded you, from the day that God created man on the earth, and from on end of the heaven to the other end of the heaven: Has there ever been anything like this great thing or has anything like it been heard? Has a people heard the voice of God speaking to them from the midst of the fire as you have, and survived? Or has any god ever miraculously come to take for himself a nation from the midst of a nation, with challenges, with signs, and with wonders, and with war, and with a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with greatly awesome deeds, such as everything that the Lord your God, did for you in Egypt before your eyes? You have been shown in order to know that the Lord, He is the God, there is none beside Him. From heaven He caused you to hear His voice in order to teach you, and on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire.” (Deuteronomy 4:30-36).

The point of this passage is: That the fact that Israel is the only nation that claims to have heard God’s voice from the midst of the fire, and the fact that Israel is the only nation that claims to have experienced anything like the exodus from Egypt, is supposed to encourage the Jew at the end of time that God will not forget the covenant that He made with our forefathers.

Why? How do the unique claims of Judaism reassure us that God’s covenant with us still stands? What is the covenant that we share with God?

The thrust of the covenant that Israel shares with God is that we are called to be His nation and He declares Himself to be our God (Exodus 6:7, Deuteronomy 29:12, 1Chronicles 17:22). This means that God tied up His own identity with that of Israel. The covenant that Israel shares with God denotes that God will be called: “The God of Israel”, and that Israel will be called: “The people of God”. In other words; a covenant is like a marriage. No longer can we look at the two parties of the covenant as separate entities; the destiny of these two parties is bound up with one another and the very identity of these two parties is bound up with one another. The exodus and Sinai sealed the connection between God and Israel. From that point onward, Israel is God’s bride, and God is Israel’s husband and lover.

Israel’s intimacy with God that was displayed by the exodus and the familiarity with God that Israel gained through the Sinai revelation remains unmatched by any other national entity.

In these verses in Deuteronomy, God is reassuring Israel that no nation will ever match Israel’s claim of being married to God.

The perception of God that Israel acquired at the Sinai revelation is not a peripheral aspect of our covenant with God. Neither is this perception something that fades away with the passage of time. God points to this knowledge of God that we acquired at Sinai as the very heart of our relationship with Him, and God speaks to the last generation and points to this knowledge as a unique possession that sets us apart from every other national entity. This knowledge was not acquired through the handing over of a book, nor was it accomplished through the recital of words. God points to a fiery encounter, collectively experienced as the means through which He imparted this knowledge to us (Deuteronomy 4:35). God also tells us how it is that this knowledge will be preserved throughout the generations. Again, it is not through the recital of words or through the reading of a book; but through the channel of love and trust that exists between children and their parents (Deuteronomy 4:9, Psalm 78:5).

Sinai and exodus were fiery experiences that seared the perception of God into the minds and the hearts of the people who experienced it. They were commanded by God to keep this awareness and intimacy with God alive and to pass it on to their children. Each generation of Jews is enjoined by God to absorb the testimony of exodus and Sinai from their parents, to come to know and love the God of their ancestors and to stand together with their parents in a covenantal relationship with God (Deuteronomy 29:13). The power, the reality and the truth of God embodied in the testimony of exodus and Sinai is so weighty that the last generation of Jews can put their full trust in the God of Sinai on the basis of this testimony (Psalm 78:7). A trust in God that will encourage them to give their lives for Him (Psalm 44:17-23). A trust in God and a love for Him that will carry them through the darkest times (Isaiah 26:13, Micha 7:7,8). A trust and a yearning for God so that when God arises to judge the earth, the children of the exodus and Sinai will cry out with joy: “Behold! This is our God! The God that we hoped for! (Isaiah 25:9). And the connection between God and Israel that was forged at exodus and Sinai runs so deep and is so steadfast, that when God alone is exalted on that day (Isaiah 2:17), His bride, Israel, will be vindicated to the eyes of all the nations (Isaiah 49:23, 62:2. Micha 7:10, Psalm 98:2,3).

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal

Posted in Basic, Faith Structure, Judaism | 28 Comments