Israeli Leadership, the Orthodox, and Us
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Mid-Week News Update:
Israpundit posted the link to A-7's interview with pro-Israel American academic Francisco Gil-White. The comments on Israpundit and an Israeli blog linking to the post are as worthy as the interview itself, and shed valuable insight into Israeli politics and the clash between synagogue and State.
Check out Der Spiegel for an interesting and informative look on the effect of the Ultra Orthodox on Israeli government:
To attract devout Jews to the newly-founded country, the first premier included religious leaders alongside secular Jews in his government. Moreover, he granted rabbis a powerful role in society: a monopoly on performing marriages and divorces. [Ed. Note: And Messianic Jewish citizenship]The entire article provides a brilliant perspective that Messianics generally don't get. We view our faith, and our adherance to our faith, through a western, Protestant Christian lens. In other words, when someone doesn't proclaim interest in our faith, we ultimately are taught to believe that it is because that person has a gripe with G-d. In Israel, if a person is not interested in Judaism or being "religious" per se, it is because they have a gripe with religious authority, aka the Rabbis in power. Just because these Israeli Jews aren't Orthodox doesn't mean they don't have faith or identify as Jews: They simply do so in a way that bypasses the established leadership that has, in many ways, proven itself corrupt time and time again.
...Many Israelis are livid about the repeated exceptions made for the religious contingent. Young ultra-orthodox Jews, for example, are exempted from military service if they devote their energies entirely to Talmudic studies. They have their own state-funded educational system. Only recently has the government begun an uphill battle to introduce subjects like English, mathematics, history, and even Hebrew - the national language - into these schools. Unlike other Israelis, most ultra-orthodox Jews only use Hebrew in explicitly religious contexts. To ensure that Hebrew is not treated disrespectfully, they speak Yiddish most of the time, a language that originally evolved among middle- and eastern-European Jews.
...Increasingly, the religious parties are featuring as coalition partners in secular governments, often finding themselves in a position to tip the legislative balance one way or another. In return, they happily accept additional funds or special privileges for their constituents. But they have never set the national agenda or shaped Israel's foreign policy and its relations with the Palestinians. The religiously motivated settlers could only stake claims in the occupied territories because secular ruling parties favored colonization themselves.
...Ben-Gurion, who was not religious himself, loved to challenge the religious delegates in Parliament with his knowledge of the Bible. He was wont to quote from Psalm 24: "Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? Those who have clean hands and pure hearts." After reciting this passage, he would turn to the Orthodox members of parliament and say with a smirk, "According to these criteria, you're no more religious than I or my party colleagues are!"
Like their first prime minister, the majority of secular Israelis regard religion as clearly one aspect of their culture. A large number consider themselves to be nonreligious, although they observe many traditional religious practices, such as fasting during Yom Kippur, the most important Jewish holiday, blessing bread and wine on Shabbat evening, or holding the traditional seder meal at the beginning of Passover.
Reader Feedback
Regarding the post, Messianic Jewish Israelis on Israeli TV!, Anonymous writes:
Wow, pretty interesting stuff, Shoshana! Perhaps in the near future we may finally not longer be viewed by the State as "missionaries" or anything similar and as a genuine reconstruction of the early Pharasaic Jewish sect of Yeshua ben Yosef's followers that the Apostles were the forebears of (but only if WE place all of our effort into making it just that!). The Messianic Jewish community in Arad has become absolutely decimated in recent years by the Charedim. We must stand up for Israel (well, I guess the Charedim are in opposition to that, too).As far as Charedi Zionism goes, it doesn't take too deep a look into Ultra-Orthodox history to understand that they haven't always been as interested in Israel as the average Jew should be, and that's putting it ultra-mildly.
I find it interesting that some Israeli Jews refer to Yehoshua (Aramaic: Yeshua) as "Yeshu" (Hebrew: "May his name be erased"). The mysterious "Yeshu" figure described in the Talmud, I believe, is definitely not referring to Yeshua. Virtually all Jewish scholars agree that Yeshua was born within the time frame of a few years within year 0 CE, not 100 BC. The codifiers of the Talmud in the late 2nd century would have known this well. In the late 2nd century the Netzarim Jews' leadership was already largely decimated and lots of Gentile Christian heresies had already begun, but the true persecution of Jews by Gentile Christians had not yet begun, so
the Sages would not have had much of an anti-Yeshua bias. "Yeshu" is probably referring to another person entirely.
Regarding their general use of the name "Yeshu" versus "Yeshua," it is important to note that in Hebrew, using someone's name grants them a level of recognized authority in your eyes. It is a matter of respect and even deference to call someone by their name. Therefore, it isn't surprising that the Chasidim refer to Messiah by inaccurate names, whether they try to justify it through Talmud or not. Recall the saying, "There is power in the name," and you'll understand why they're so afraid to speak the name of Messiah Yeshua; to do so would not only be recognizing His authority, it would also put them in the hot seat when it comes to their own attitudes and actions regarding Him.
It is important for the believing community to understand the ultra-Orthodox culture. As we begin to develop a more Jewish identity as Messianics, we sometimes strain to adapt to Rabbinic culture, believing it to be an authentic representation of Judaism when it so clearly is not. How can we aspire to imitate a culture that is so blatantly anti-Israel, whose leadership is so corrupt, and whose mindset consists of levels of fear and self-loathing so great that they refuse to even speak their own language, lest they somehow cause offense? Not only would this be doing a disservice to our Jewish identity as members of the House of Israel, but we would be regressing, going against everything our Messiah instructed and sacrificed Himself for.
If you have any comments, don't hesitate to email them to theunifiedbody AT yahoo DOT com for publication next week!
Israel Judaism Orthodox Judaism Messianic Judaism
Labels: Israel, Judaism, Messianic Judaism, Orthodox Judaism, Yeshua
posted by Shoshana @ 8:31 PM
