Minority Within a Minority
December 7th, 2009Keep the Fire Extinguisher Handy
I have been looking at The Messianic Times, which is a newspaper I picked up on my visit to Ayts Chayim. It was a real eye-opener.
The cover featured a photo of a wolf disguised as a sheep, over a long article about spies that infiltrate Messianic congregations. You might wonder who would bother. The Klan? Stormfront? Pat Buchanan? Well, no. Actually, it’s Jewish journalists and Orthodox Jews.
It’s kind of weird. The Orthodox don’t proselytize among non-Jews. But some of them make a strong effort to go after Messianics. Which, now that I think about it, seems to conflict with their position that Messianics aren’t Jews. If you go after a “Christian of Jewish Birth,” aren’t you proselytizing a Gentile?
Do they do this to the Hare Krishnas and Buddhists? Weird religions attract a lot of Jews. I wonder if they all get the negative attention the Messianics are getting. I’ll bet there are a hundred times as many Jewish Buddhists as Messianics. And these Eastern cults aren’t just philosophies, any more than yoga is just exercise. They are full-blown religions, with spirits and idols and afterlife myths and the whole nine yards. Messianic Judaism is no less compatible with Orthodox Judaism than these faiths. The jump from one to the other is much smaller.
The stories in the newspaper were pretty shocking. There was one about a lady in Israel who runs a bakery. She lost her kosher certification because she was Messianic. She had to go to court to get it back. This was a huge threat to her livelihood. In the meantime, she had to put up with–you won’t believe this–children spitting on her in the street. I am no rabbinic scholar, but I am sure Jewish law does not endorse children abusing and battering adults in public. Surely the parents of these children did not know what they were doing. I guess the kids heard negative remarks at home and then veered off into juvenile excess.
The Israeli High Court of Justice determined that kosher status was related to methods of food preparation, not the religion of the person doing the work. I don’t think that would fly over here, where the whole business is overseen by religious authorities instead of secular public servants. Although kosher slaughterhouses are full of Gentiles.
I wonder if a Christian can own a kosher business in America. I know products made by non-Jewish companies routinely get certification. Look for the tiny insignias on your Oreos and Cokes.
The paper said the spies sent to Messianic congregations are known as “probes,” and they do things like getting your contact information and putting up posters publicly identifying you as Messianic. That has to be a bummer if you live in Israel.
I wonder if Messianics send covert operatives to the Orthodox. I doubt they could make an impact. I read that there are only about 100 Messianic synagogues in the US, so math is not on their side. I know there are Messianics who continue to associate with other Jews, but I doubt the primary purpose is conversion. After all, these are the people they knew prior to becoming Messianic.
The paper also mentioned arson and a Molotov cocktail.
Suddenly I think I understand the things Jesus said about giving up families and houses and so on, for the kingdom. I’m sure he meant it as a general message to all believers, but I can see how it is particularly relevant to Messianics. Back when the church was primarily Jewish, they had to put up with a lot of violence and other types of persecution. It’s not like the situations most modern Christians face. If you join a church, your buddies might make fun of you for refusing to go to strip clubs with them, but you’re not likely to have kids spit on you, and flogging is passe.
Maybe when Jesus made remarks about turning the other cheek and giving in when wronged, he was primarily talking about Jewish followers who faced persecution from their own people. That would make a lot of sense, because he clearly endorsed self-defense at other times; he ordered his followers to buy swords. The mistreatments he mentioned are typical of the offenses religious minorities suffer when persecuted by the majority. You wouldn’t want your fledgling religion to be known for fistfights and lawsuits. Before long, instead of a church, you’d have a gang.
One Messianic has told me her parents offered to pay her to be treated by a psychiatrist. Not pay the psychiatrist; pay HER. Apparently they believed Messianic Judaism was a mental illness. I wonder if they would have tried to have her treated for atheism.
I can’t tell people how to practice their religions, but I think history shows that violence, crime, and strongarm tactics only produce suffering and reprisals. That’s been true when Christians and Muslims and Hindus have used these methods. I don’t know of any faith that has done anything positive by this approach, unless you count the wars the early Hebrews fought at God’s express command, as revealed by prophets. If Moses or Joshua tells you–face to face–to spit on the baker, you spit on the baker. Otherwise, probably best to rely on prayer and persuasion and a godly example.
I much prefer the attitude of Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, the very non-Messianic head of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Christian employees are not allowed to proselytize, but they are not forbidden to talk about their beliefs if they come up. And there is a Messianic on the board, and as far as I know, the Rabbi’s kids don’t spit on him. I would guess that Jewish employees enjoy the freedom to promote their faith to curious Christians.
The Rabbi’s position shows that coercion is not an officially recognized and sanctioned tool of Orthodox Judaism, so it would be a dangerous mistake to assume otherwise.
I really feel for the people I met on Saturday. I know the important thing is to have God on your side, but it can’t be fun, being part of a controversial movement with virtually no human support. I admire their guts.
December 7th, 2009 at 3:40 PM
[…] instead of a church, you’d have a gang.
Islam in a nutshell.
December 7th, 2009 at 7:38 PM
Returning a Jew from Christianity, Buddhism, atheism, Obamaism, whatever to observance is counted under the positive scriptural commandment to return a lost object (a soul) to its owner (God) per Deuteronomy 22:1. Obvious from the Hebrew phrase “baal tshuvah”, meaning “master of return”.
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The reason why the counter-HK activism doesn’t get the attention and energy that counter-missionary activism gets is that no other religion pours tens of millions of dollars in deception as to those that support Jews for Jesus and similar organizations. Jews are specifically targeted and it’s reasonable to wonder why there is no comparable effort by Christians to return ex-Christians to their own fold. Why not focus on European secular socialists or Africa, Asia and South America and make those societies the kind of Christian cultures that people flock to out of desire and not out of pressure?
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Historically, rejected missionary activity (Christian, Muslim, etc.) has ALWAYS resulted in subsequent aggression by the missionaries. Aggressive missionary work has never been a good sign for the world. Its acceleration has always been a precursor to violence.
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There were “probes” to expose Samaritans and Sadducees and Hellenists other heresies back in the day, too. Christianity would not have come about had the zealot Maccabees not prevailed against not only the Syrians but also against the assimilators of their day.
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Honest congregations wouldn’t and shouldn’t worry about having deceptive practices and missionary strategies completely open-book. If you aren’t living your life as if it could appear against your will on YouTube, and clearly fulfilling the positive commandment to distance oneself from falsehood and decpetion, there’s something spiritually awry.
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There is no blessing in a mitzvah accomplished through deceit.
December 7th, 2009 at 8:12 PM
“Jews are specifically targeted and it’s reasonable to wonder why there is no comparable effort by Christians to return ex-Christians to their own fold.”
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The vast, vast majority of Christian evangelizing in the US is directed at weak or former Christians. Very little is aimed at Jews. It may seem like a lot to you, but in relation to the gigantic Christian population, it isn’t. Reaching 1.5% of the population is not an exciting prospect to most evangelists. I can’t speak for the Mormons. They are not Christians, and their rude proselytizing methods drive everyone nuts.
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“Why not focus on European secular socialists or Africa, Asia and South America and make those societies the kind of Christian cultures that people flock to out of desire and not out of pressure?”
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The small percentage of evangelism dollars devoted to reaching people from non-Christian societies was the subject of one of my pastor’s recent sermons. As for the Europeans, they have been saturated with the message, and it seems obvious that their answer is “no.” I would not be surprised if the Orthodox were experiencing similar results with their efforts to reach European Jews. Karl Marx is Europe’s Messiah.
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“Aggressive missionary work has never been a good sign for the world. Its acceleration has always been a precursor to violence.”
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That’s the lesson the probes need to learn.
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“There is no blessing in a mitzvah accomplished through deceit.”
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If that is true, the probes are wasting a lot of effort.
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I don’t know what deceptive practices you’ve encountered. The service I attended was extremely open. They love having visitors, and they put their literature out for everyone to see. The only subterfuge I heard about was effort to maintain a low profile outside of worship, in order to avoid drama and persecution. Keeping a secret in a charismatic house of worship is like trying to build a house of cards in a tornado.
December 7th, 2009 at 10:49 PM
I saw some very thuggish young fellows working for Jews for Judaism in Jerusalem when I was there.
December 8th, 2009 at 3:05 AM
The spirit of the Pharisees is alive and well, I guess.
December 8th, 2009 at 12:06 PM
I’ve stated repeatedly that I don’t really care what a person believes: that is his or her own business. It’s a person’s actions that count. Build a hospital or school, great. Blow children up in pizza parlors? Not so good.
Spitting on people with whose beliefs you disagree is obnoxious, evil, and wrong. Just goes to show, no one group has a monopoly on saintliness… or crass, stupid behavior.
Interesting, though. You state that Mormons are not Christians (a position of yours I recall from the 2008 election campaign). I’m here to tell you that Messianic Jews are less connected to core Jewish beliefs than Mormons are to Christian beliefs.
There’s nothing at all wrong with that. Messianics can be fine Christians… and their Jewish connection may enhance their Christian faith in ways I can only imagine. But despite the ritual trappings of Judaism, and despite the Jewish origin of many Messianics, they’re just not Jewish. Again, not a criticism… just a Truth in Labeling issue.
Sorry to sound like a broken record, but… well, you know.
December 8th, 2009 at 12:16 PM
The issue of who is or is not Jewish is not a giant concern to me, although it is annoying to be told I have to come up with new terms in order to avoid offending you and Aaron. But I find it strange that a Jew-murdering Muslim (like Adam Gadahn) or a Satanist or someone who wears a T-shirt reading “I hate Jehovah and Deny All he Stands For and Declare that Baal is God” can be a Jew, while a Torah-believing worshiper of Yeshua cannot.
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The central, indispensable, uniting belief of Christians is that salvation is by grace alone, and Mormons expressly label this “heresy,” so it is not clear why a Messianic is less like a Jew than a Mormon is like a Christian. Are you saying it’s because MJs (Messianics) believe in salvation by grace and Jews don’t? If that’s true, what about Jews who believe everyone goes to heaven regardless of what they do? If anything, they should be worse than MJs, who require, at least, that their members admit their sin and accept the sacrifice.
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You can see why I don’t understand.
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I would be very cautious about telling people they are no longer Jews. Persecution is going to get worse in the future, and many of these people will be lumped in with the rest of you by their tormentors. That’s what happened in Germany and Austria. They will need you, and you will need them. Remember how the rest of the world was criticized for turning the St. Louis away. And I guarantee you, you will not want to fire the Messianics in the IDF.
December 8th, 2009 at 12:48 PM
Wait a minute…you eat PORK! And WHALE MEAT! Why am I listening to you?
December 9th, 2009 at 5:17 AM
I think their are “cultural” jews, just like people call themselves Baptists because they went to Baptist church when they were a kid,, or call themselves Catholic because their parents went to Mass on Sundays.
I guess if one holds the view that to be Jewish means to deny the divinity of Christ, then Messianic Jew would be an oxymoron. It could also potentially mean that anyone who denies the divinity of Christ is Jewish?
I think the Bible is pretty clear that there will be a point where Israel will “wake up” to the reality of Yeshua, the Christ. I don’t think they’ll suddenly stop being Jewish.
Actually, according to the Bible, people who become Christians, become “grafted in” to the true vine. Technically, we become Jews, not the other way around. Which, by extension, might suggest that MJs are more Jewish, not less.
December 9th, 2009 at 9:42 AM
“I would be very cautious about telling people they are no longer Jews.” You keep making strawman assertions. There is a world of difference between not being Jewish and not practicing Judaism.
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A Mayflower descendant whose mother is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and whose father is a Medal of Honor winner and Purple Heart recipient can become a traitor. Not one iota of his American citizenship is changed and he becomes a member of no other nation. Such a person IS American but does not BEHAVE American. It simply ISN’T difficult to understand that a member of a nation can be a traitor to that nation yet still remain 100% a citizen of that nation… unless you don’t want to understand.
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A game that uses chess pieces and a chessboard but which allows rooks to move diagonally from black squares ceases to be chess. It phenotypically shares many attributes to a casual observer but the seemingly minor change is quite radical, divorcing the mutated version from the entire tradition of the past.
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“Persecution is going to get worse in the future, and many of these people will be lumped in with the rest of you by their tormentors. That’s what happened in Germany and Austria. They will need you, and you will need them. Remember how the rest of the world was criticized for turning the St. Louis away. And I guarantee you, you will not want to fire the Messianics in the IDF.” These sound like threats and not like someone I’ve known for 30 years.
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The rest of the world was criticized? Hardly learned a thing from my perspective. 99 out of 100 people wouldn’t know what the St. Louis is if learning consists of being committed to preventing recurrence. For most of the last 2000 years, there hasn’t been much worth praising vis a vis treatment of His people. Who knows, maybe the last half century is merely a statistical anomaly and things will revert to the traditional horror. What is certain is that Jews who have embraced Hellenism, Christianity, Islam, Marxism, Obamaism, have never had a 3rd identifiably Jewish generation and would clearly not count as a “remnant” as scripture foretells will exist near the End of Days. It has always been spiritual suicide resulting in descendants who no longer observe the eternal Jewish laws.
December 9th, 2009 at 9:50 AM
“You keep making strawman assertions. There is a world of difference between not being Jewish and not practicing Judaism.”
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Wait, you told me they were “Christians of Jewish birth” and objected to my using the term “Jews” to describe them. That wasn’t me. It seemed very clear that you were saying they were not Jews. Is that wrong? If you’re just saying their faith is not Judaism, your assertions make more sense, because you say pretty much the same thing about apostates.
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“These sound like threats and not like someone I’ve known for 30 years.”
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Threats? This is the same thing you’ve been saying about the increasing anti-Semitism in the word. You’ve seen and criticized the increasing hostility on the left and in Europe. Surely you would not call your own remarks threats. I don’t even understand that.
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I’m supporting aliyah, assistance for the Jewish poor, and pro-Jewish PR, and all the decisions and tactics involving the use of my money are conceived by Jews, not Christians. No proselytizing and no strings. That’s the best I can do.
December 9th, 2009 at 11:42 AM
As we approach Chanukah, it’s good to remember that the Maccabees were halachic zealots, uber-Pharisees, who didn’t need Sadducees, Samaritans or any other Judaism-based sect to prevail first over their Greco-Syrian temporal oppressors and then subsequently and more importantly over the Jewish Hellenists (Jews against halacha).
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History is relentless in proving that non-Pharisaical Judaism is a spiritual dead end whose descendants cease within a century to be identifiable as a remnant sufficient to fulfill the promises of the messianic age.
December 9th, 2009 at 3:16 PM
Gee, Steve – I’m not criticizing you, or your beliefs… all I’m saying is pretty much what you surmise above: the faith of Messianic “Jews” is not Judaism. They may be Jewish by birth, and they may fit the Nuremberg Law definition of Jews, but they are no longer Jewish by belief.
If this were my blog, I’d call ’em Messianics. That’s a neutral enough term. But it’s not my blog; it’s yours. And you don’t offend me… nor do your beliefs offend me. They’re your beliefs.
All I’m focusing on is Truth in Labeling. If you believe that Jesus / Yeshua is the Messiah, fine. But as soon as you believe that Jesus is in any way divine, or that his death on the cross redeemed the world from sin, you really aren’t subscribing to a Jewish belief system any more. But that’s OK, too, ’cause there’s a name for that belief system: Christianity.
And, yeah, I eat pork on rare occasions. And I have tasted of Leviathan. I’m a Jew, but despite my (almost) daily attendance at synagogue, I’m not especially observant. In that way, I carry on the tradition of my non-observant parents and grandparents… but at least I’m knowledgeable enough to understand the laws I flout daily. 😉
December 9th, 2009 at 4:21 PM
“but at least I’m knowledgeable enough to understand the laws I flout daily”
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“1 Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?
2 Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?
3 Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee?
4 Will he make a covenant with thee, with tartar sauce? wilt thou take him for an appetizer for ever?”
December 10th, 2009 at 3:48 AM
Unless I’m mistaken, the Jewish faith anticpates the coming of a Messiah, yes? They simply deny that Yeshua ben Yosef was that messiah, right?
So if “their” messiah shows up, and they follow him, do they become something other than Jews at that point? Say this guy is named Harold, do they become Haroldians?
Aaron, are you saying there are “cultural” jews and “religious” Jews, such that being secular, or even apostate you can still remain jewish, but not Jewish?
It seems like Orthodox Jews have much the same problem with Messianics calling themselves Jews that Protestants have with Mormon’s calling themselves Christians.
December 10th, 2009 at 9:52 AM
I don’t want to annoy anyone, more than I already have, but there are a bunch of Chabad Jews out there who think Menachem Schneerson is the Messiah. And he died years ago. They pray to him and call him God and the whole nine yards. I have to wonder if they are considered Jews.
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I kind of like the term “MJ” for “Messianic Jew.” Rabbi Brawer uses it. The Orthodox can say it stands for “Mamzer Jesusers” or something.
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I would never deny that MJs are Christians, but the term “Christian” does not fully capture their essence. I think they try to go easy on Christian terminology like “cross” and “Christian” and even “Jesus,” because it turns off potential members and deemphasizes the totally Jewish origins (prior to the pagan additions) of Christianity.
December 10th, 2009 at 2:16 PM
Ah, Steve. Its that Stone of stumbling again.
December 10th, 2009 at 9:44 PM
Ahh, the Chabadniks.
All I will say is, there are quite a few of ’em who think Schneerson was the Messiah. (Strange, because he doesn’t meet any of the criteria.)
I don’t know of any who actually think he was divine in any way, though… and if they do, then they’re diverging from Jewish belief in a major way.
I guess it takes all kinds, eh?
December 11th, 2009 at 4:07 AM
That’s a great point, Steve. Who get’s to decide if you are a ‘real’ jew or not?
Perhaps Christianity should be considered a “sect” of Judaism, rather than a separate religion.
Of course, suggesting that would undoubtedly irk a whole lot of people.
Christians consider Jesus the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies, which are all part of Jewish scripture. So wouldn’t considering ourselves to be anything else than members of the Jewish faith technically make us “apostate?”
December 11th, 2009 at 12:05 PM
“(Strange, because he doesn’t meet any of the criteria.)”
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At least he never ate a whale.
December 11th, 2009 at 12:13 PM
Aw, Steve – you’re just envious because, unlike me, you have never gotten to taste the unctuous, pastrami-like flavor of raw whale bacon.
December 11th, 2009 at 2:35 PM
Flipper-killer!
December 11th, 2009 at 3:34 PM
The two most common reasons for a Jew to leave Judaism are:
1) Looking for a religion with more standards than liberal fundamentalism.
2) Being shocked at the fact that Judaism has standards and is not limited to liberal fundamentalism.
Jews in the first category are almost entirely Christian. Jews in the second category have a wide variety of beliefs.
I want Jews in the first category to return to Judaism. I regard retaining Jews in the second category as less urgent.