Response to MyShtetl article

A Response to the MyShtetl article

Recently, I became aware of an article on the web that is rather scathing of Beit Ariel Messianic Jewish Congregation and Messianic Jews in general.

We have just launched our new web page and when you search www.beitariel.co.za, this article appears on the opening page. The full article is available on www.myshtetl.co.za/blogs/lion613/jews-jesus-getting-ugly

Allow me to briefly quote from that article:

“I had a secretary who always wore a small Magen David on a neck-chain. She was a cheeky, aggressive, outspoken ex-Israeli who had the bizarre habit of saying to people, “Don’t talk to me like that! I’m an Israeli!” – as if somehow that was a trump card in all arguments. Then one day I heard a tinkling sound from her neck-chain and I noticed that another item had been added: a small silver crucifix rubbed cheerfully against the Magen David, producing the tinkling sound. She saw my expression and said, “They go together. They belong together. You should come to Beit Ariel, you’ll see!” I started to reply and she said, “Don’t talk to me! I’m an Israeli!” – so I didn’t.

This was a woman of above-average intelligence who had qualified as a lawyer, and even practiced as one, before deciding that she didn’t want the responsibility of the job and ended up working as a legal secretary. She may have been a little eccentric but she wasn’t ignorant – either in secular or religious matters. But she had a restless soul, and in the absence of proper guidance, look what happened to her! – And she wouldn’t let me talk to her, because, apparently, she was an Israeli … !

So now, when we deal with J for J, we are dealing with failed members of our own tribe, and its harder to deal with them than with plain old Christian missionaries. Sometimes they are people who we know, and we just assumed that they went to another shul in another suburb. I am extremely perturbed by the number of elderly Jewish folk in Sea Point who don’t seem to understand the difference, and end up going to “Beit Ariel” on Friday evenings. Ask them why and they will tell you that it’s because for the first time they understand what’s going on in the service … !

Sometimes I walk past there on a Friday evening and I hear the clapping and the Hebrew singing (phonetically spelled words projected onto an overhead screen) and the guitars and organ music and I think terrible thoughts. I wonder how much petrol it would take to burn the place down, and then I remember that many of the people in there are known to me – nice, well-intentioned but failed Jews who just got lost somewhere along the way. It’s a tragedy happening before our eyes”.

Perhaps it is fortuitous that we consider this rather disparaging article while the recent weekly parashiyot in Vayikra discusses tzora’at. Tzora’at is commonly translated into English language as ‘leprosy’, but our sages are quick to point out that tzora’at has nothing to do with the medical condition called leprosy or Hanson’s disease.

Instead, they suggest that this skin affliction called tzora’at is the physical manifestation of the spiritual malaise called loshen harah – the unbridled tongue! According to the sages, tzora’at is the consequence of a loose tongue that commits the sins of slander, gossip, undue criticism or negative speech about another person who is created in the image and likeness of HaShem.

I therefore find it astonishing that a Jew who professes love for our people would publicly speak so judgmentally about his own people – failed or otherwise - especially during these weeks when Torah is discussing loshen harah!

I suspect that many of us take too lightly the instruction found in Torah to guard our speech. Wise King David said in Ps 94:3-11;
3 LORD, how long will the wicked, how long will the wicked triumph?
4 They utter speech, and speak insolent things; all the workers of iniquity boast in themselves.
5 They break in pieces Your people, O LORD, and afflict Your heritage.

Our words have power and we all need to be far more careful with the utterances of our mouths. I am so mindful of the opening verse of one our most ancient and stirring of prayers, the Amidah Prayer. We chant “Adonai s’fatai tiftach ufi yagid t’hilatechah” - “My Lord, open my lips that my mouth may declare Your praise!”
Ps 34:1- “I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth”.

Our speech was designed to edify and build up, not to criticize, condemn or demean! Ya’akov said in chapter 3: 8 – 10;
8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With it we bless our G-d and with it we curse men, who have been made in HaShem’s image and
likeness
10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.

There are many comments I could make but let me simply reflect upon two issues:
1) being linked to J 4 J, and
2) being labeled a “failed Jew who just got lost along the way”.

I can only speak for myself.

Firstly, J 4 J is a missionary organization. Beit Ariel on the other hand is a faith community consisting of Jew and non-Jew who come together regularly to worship the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Beit Ariel is not a missionary organization.

Secondly, to call me or any other Jewish believer a ‘failed Jew who just got lost along the way”, is rather judgmental considering that the writer of the article has never met me. To the best of my knowledge, we have never had a conversation together.

Whatever the author of the article thinks, I personally have not converted to another religion and I have not deviated from the path of Torah. I remain a Jew, a Cohen, following in the traditions taught to me by my father and my zeida. I have more right to be called a member of the Jewish people than a Jewish Buddhist (who breaks the 1st of the Ten Commandments) or a Jewish agnostic or atheist.

I was raised in a kosher home, matriculated at Herzlia School and from the age of eight to eighteen, I sang in our local shul choir (Tiferet Yisrael in Schoonder Street. Alas, it is no longer there). This was my upbringing.

Although I turned away from our traditions for a decade while I searched for the answers to many questions I wrestled with during that period, the moment I discovered Yeshua, it was as if my whole heritage just whelmed up inside of me, but with a greater intensity and a deepening desire to study Torah. This was in 1983 and my passion for our people, the Land and for Torah has only increased with the passage of time.

The author of the MyShtetl article does not know my heart or the values that guide my life. Therefore, he is not in a position to judge my character.

Jer 17:10
10 ‘I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways;
according to the fruit of his doings”.

Look, I understand his motive for writing what he did and I take no offense. I understand that our people consider faith in Yeshua to be a stumbling block and a turning away from the heritage of our people. I disagree with this but I understand from whence it comes!

However, we Jews who believe in Yeshua are such a small minority.

Of far more concern to me personally are the many thousands of our people who are so secularized, that they don’t even believe in HaShem at all! He is ‘the man up there’ is a typical comment when the topic turns to spirituality. Israeli society is rife with this scourge and it is spreading throughout the world. It is rampant here even in the Mother City.

This concerns me far more than a handful of Jews who profess faith in Yeshua Messiah!

Therefore, I suggest that the writer of the MyShtetl article should rather focus more of his concerns about those who are secularized within his own family and his own Temple, than be concerned about us ‘failed Jews”.

In any event, we view ourselves as fulfilled Jews who have returned to the covenant that HaShem cut with our people.

I confess that I have often experienced failure in my life, even recently, but most certainly not concerning my faith in G-d and in the fullness of His provision in Mashiach Yeshua!