Chanukah Sameach!
Monday, December 18, 2006
Chanukah Sameach mishpocha!
I'm psyched. I got the greatest Chanukah gift last night:
From the Source for Everything Jewish Catalog description:
Genuine Military Issue Star of David. This Star was made for Jewish members of the Armed Forces of the United States. Wear it to show your support for the troops. Stainless steel tag and beaded stainless chain (24"). Made in USA. Shown actual size.I'm a huge MilFan and an even bigger Jewish Fanatic, so this is like, the uber-ultimate gift to me. If you're a soldier in the U.S. Military or the Tzahal (Israel Defence Forces/IDF) thank you so much for your service, and please feel free to drop a line anytime!
I was also fortunate enough to hit one of my favorite Israeli shops this weekend, where I managed to pick up ALL FOUR Ahron Razel albums. I'm currently listening to The Burning Bush which is nearly all Tanak verses set to music. FYI: Listening to Hebrew music is a great way to learn the language, and listening to Israeli music is a great way to pick up a lot about Israeli culture. Too often, we believers tend to cordon ourselves away from the rest of the Jewish world, which causes us to miss out on a lot of our cultural heritage. We have to remember that being Jewish isn't just about what happens in Shul, but how we look at and relate to the outside world as well. How can we learn about our cultural perspective if we never engage with it?
Here's my Chanukah gift to you, dear readers:
Rabbi Tovia Singer instructs believers on how to and how not to celebrate this holiday season on Israel National Radio. (And he's RIGHT!) Rabbi Tovia Singer, of the infamous anti-missionary group Outreach Judaism, discusses why Christians should prefer menorahs over those un-Biblical Christmas trees in yet another segment that proves that even un-believing Jews know how to worship Messiah more correctly than most believers. (Fast forward to the second half of the show to hear the clip.) Baruch haShem for the wisdom HaShem imparts through His people Israel!
Chanukah/Hanukkah, Tzahal/U.S. military, Israel/Judaism
posted by Shoshana @ 1:38 PM
5 Comments:
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At 5:07 PM,
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בס״ד
Happy Chanukkah! Day three! I guess I would consider Rabbi Tovia Singer (btw, is a Conservative Rabbi, or Modern Orthodox?) a reasoning rival to Messianic Judaism, rather than an unreasoning enemy, as far as anti-Missionaries go. Unlike a Jews for Judaism or Messiah "Truth" anti-missionary, he's not destroying Messianic Seals in his leisure time. He makes some definite and good points, and he's debated Christians before. Now he should show everyone how correct he is: I'd like to see him debate a Messianic Rabbi and have it recorded! That results of such a debate would be quite memorable. -
At 9:58 AM,
Shoshana said...
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I would hazard to say that Rabbi Tovia is Modern Orthodox. I severely doubt he'd ever align himself with the Conservative movement, especially now that Conservatives are ordaining gay and lesbian clergy. Truly, Tovia is an awesome person, both extremely knowledgeable and truly friendly with Christians and righteous gentiles. Like most pro-Zionist Modern Orthodox, he sees the benefits in developing a strong relationship with the believing community, as long as the believing community refers to themselves as Christians, not Messianic Jews.
This is where the humility of the believing community must come into play; instead of letting egos get in our way, we must trust that it is HaShem who knows and defines our hearts. If non-believing Jewish people like Rabbi Singer want to reach out and develop relationships, who are we to say no based on terminology and titles? We must work to build on common ground; unity of the Jewish people- believer and non believer alike- comes from Yeshua. Our actions will make His truth a manifest presence in the relationship.
I'd never consider a fellow Jew an enemy, per se. (Well, maybe the Neteuri Karta.) These people are our mishpocha; to refer to them as "enemies" somehow implies a level of hatred in my heart against them, and I couldn't do that. Not to family. Look at King David, who fled his people for years- all he did was sing songs of praise to G-d on behalf of Israel! His love for them never stopped, even though Israel's King wanted him dead!
Rabbi Tovia has debated various Christian and Messianic leaders on a number of occasions. A quick Google search revealed this link: Real Messiah that contains an mp3 of his debate with Dr. Michael Brown. I haven't listened, so feel free to give a review if you get the chance. -
At 8:54 PM,
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בס״ד
And that's where Tovia gets me angry: he insists that Messianic Jews refer to themselves as Christians, despite the fact that the two are worlds apart in matters of Torah, monotheism, Hebraic mindset, lifestyles and lifecyles, and such. He should try debating Brian Tebbitt, just to see how "Christian" we can get (I would venture to say that Brian's a genius). So YashaNet recommends that you get Outreach Judaism's 'Let's Get Biblical' tape series to get a good idea of what the Messiah is supposed to be like, and then get Messianic Jew James Trimm's rebuttal called 'Let's Get Truthful' that rebuke's OJ's claims as to how Yeshua fulfilled the expectations. I, unfortunately, can't listen to the Dr. Michael Brown debate, as I am on dial-up. Yes, still. :-)
Finally, this doesn't really have anything to do with the main topic, but what is your opinion on women's tallisim?
http://www.thegalileeexperience.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TGE&Product_Code=TWE001&Category_Code=TS
http://www.thegalileeexperience.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TGE&Product_Code=TWE002&Category_Code=TS
Obviously, Brian and Brian are opposed to the idea, but they just defer to Orthodoxy 95% of the time anyway.
Baruch HASHEM! -
At 10:01 AM,
Shoshana said...
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I prefer to avoid useless "word battles" between believing and non-believing Jews. As Shaul instructs Timothy, "They accomplish nothing useful and are a catastrophe for the hearers." Our actions testify to the truth of who we are in Messiah. Shaul writes shortly after the above-quoted phrase, "Do all you can to present yourself to G-d as someone worthy of His approval...". Yeshua instructed us to love each other; Rabbi Tovia may not think of us as mishpocha, but HaShem thinks otherwise, and, therefore, so we should as well. It is through living the truth that we may be a witness to others, like Tovia, of the truth of Yeshua.
Rabbi Tovia once called me a "baptized Jew," to which I replied, "actually, the preferred term is mikvah'd," and he laughed. Hate destroys; love builds. Psalm 4 instructs, "You can be angry, but do not sin! Think about this as you lie in bed and calm down. Offer sacrifices rightly, and put your trust in Adonai." The opinions of others can hurt sometimes, but they are not our affair. Our business is to please HaShem and trust His justice and His truth. It is through this trust that we will be blessed with Shalom and the burden of hurt and anger will be taken from us-- so that we may dedicate ourselves to glorifying Him by loving Him and, in turn, loving each other. (I John 2:10-11)
I have not read that on YashaNet. However, I would never dissuade someone from reading any anti-missionary material, just as I would encourage people to read "banned books." The Truth is eternal-- no words of men can ever alter or destroy the Truth. Confronting such materials tends to give us great insight into how much, or how little we know, and how much, or how little trust we truly have. Never be afraid of the test.
Regarding tallit: Interesting question. In essence, you're asking if I believe women should wear tzitzit, since the tallit is just the robe upon which the tzitzit are tied (technically, tzitzit are commanded while tallitot are not-- without the tzitzit, the tallitot is just a piece of fabric, an ancient robe).
Tzitziyot are spoken of twice in Torah: Numbers 15:37-41, "ADONAI said to Moshe, "Speak to the people of Isra'el, instructing them to make, through all their generations, tzitziyot on the corners of their garments, and to put with the tzitzit on each corner a blue thread. It is to be a tzitzit for you to look at and thereby remember all of ADONAI's mitzvot and obey them, so that you won't go around wherever your own heart and eyes lead you to prostitute yourselves; but it will help you remember and obey all my mitzvot and be holy for your G-d. I am ADONAI your G-d, who brought you out of the land of Egypt in order to be your G-d. I am ADONAI your G-d." and Deuteronomy 22:12, "You are to make for yourself twisted cords on the four corners of the garment you wrap around yourself."
When I visited Israel nearly 10 years ago, my mother attempted to wear her tallit with tzitziyot to the Kotel. Our tour guide instructed her not to, out of fear that she would be attacked by the Orthodox at the wall. "Only last week, David Stern wore a kipa that had Yeshua's name on it, and he was beaten up," was their justification. My thought is this: if the Orthodox could use Torah to prove to me that Yeshua isn't the Messiah, they wouldn't need to attack an old man for bearing Messiah's name. The same goes for the tallit; if they could show me in Torah where it states that a woman is not to wear tzitziyot, then they wouldn't need to attack a woman for wearing a tallit with tzitziyot.
Tzitziyot are a mitzvah for the people of Israel, are they not? Torah was given to the women of Israel as well as the men, was it not? Therefore, the question isn't "should women wear tzitziyot," but "why shouldn't they?" -
At 8:51 PM,
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בס״ד
Shoshana, thanks for your insights. Your words are very powerful and I very much agree with you.
Anti-missionaries scare, shock, and sometimes amaze me. Destroying property, attacking men, women, and children, death threats. Even the Reform community in Israel gets more respect than that. It usually isn't Modern Orthodox that do these things to us, but ultra-Orthodox Chassidim, and by Chassidim I don't mean sincere followers of the wonderful message of Yisroel Baal Shem Tov, such as Chabads; I'm talking anti-Zionists wearing big fur hats. The true kicker is that when certain members of ultra-Orthodox communities in Israel take such violent action against us, they are clearly violating the Torah! And sometimes they even do it on the Shabbat or Yom Tov!
Your insights on tzitzyot for women are equally captivating. Of course Brian would disagree but every time they do so I remind them how much they already deviate from Orthodox tradition by believing that Yehoshua is the Moshiach.
