dybmh
דניאל יוסף בן מאיר הירש
A wonderful thoughtful post. Thank you for sharing. Do I disagree with it? Could I pick it apart? Certainly. Should I? Not in this thread.Hi dybmh. Good afternoon. You said: "How would you feel if I took the Gospels, flipped them around, and started making claims opposite to how you and others have been understanding it, practicing it, and making it part of your lives for thousands of years? Maybe pulling one verse from here, and one verse from there?" Oh I understand. Chr-stianity has flipped the New Testament to say that Yahweh abolished the Law with Yahshua's death, which isn't true. Something my faith is witnessing every day. But we haven't taken the Hebrew Scriptures and twisted it to our liking. Yahshua the Messiah fulfilled the prophesies in the Hebrew Scriptures regarding him. I fail to see how Jews cannot perceive this. Like you said, 'the Jewish people have the entire canon at their fingertips with a few tippy-taps at a keyboard', they are able to research these things for themselves. They have no excuse.
You also said: "A lovely offer, but the Jewish people are duty-bound to decline. You see, once people start idolizing something, it becomes strictly off-limits to Jewish people. So that means, any congregation, any assembly, any church of any kind which invokes a god in the flesh is not permitted. Even if that group does not itself worship the idol, invoking it's name is forbidden. Why, because that's the beginning of idol worship. Is it ok for non-Jews? I think that's a qualified, yes. It really depends on what's going on internally in that specific person. But for a Jewish person, even dipping our pinky toe in that pool of water is not proper." In my faith we do not believe Yahshua was Yahweh in the flesh. If Yahshua was Yahweh, who was at the controls of the universe for the 33 years that Yahshua was alive? Yahshua was Yahweh's *representative*, a perfect example of how Yahweh would have acted and spoke if He were on this earth. Ever read Genesis 19:24? "Then Yahweh rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Yahweh out of heaven". Here you'll find mention of two Yahweh's. A Yahweh in heaven and a Yahweh on earth. Yahshua pre-existed with the Father and dealt with the Jewish people. He was one of the angels that dealt with Abraham and others and he bore the same Name as the Father. You can read John 8:58. It harmonizes. Yahshua is Yahweh's Son, but Yahshua always directed the Father as being greater than he (John 14:28).
Regarding the oral law and contradictions between that and the Word of Yahweh, it took me 5 seconds to find this article 69ca89_86e78408591d46aa9843afc36d5c0ce9.pdf (wixstatic.com). But I haven't read through all of it.
You ask me to read Deuteronomy 13 but Deuteronomy 13 says:
"13 If there arise in the midst of thee a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and he give thee a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other elohim, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; 3 thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or unto that dreamer of dreams: for Yahweh your Elohim proveth you, to know whether ye love Yahweh your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul. "
Yahshua was pointing people to worship Yahweh, to keep the commandments saying, to love Yahweh your Elohim with all your heart and loving your neighbour were two of the greatest commandments in Mark 12:28-34. It's the Jews that were denying Yahweh. They were and still do to this day deny His Name, and have many traditions which are not based on scripture. What did Yahshua say to Satan in Matthew 4:10 "Yahshua said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship Yahweh your Elohim, and serve him only.’”
You said: "Yup, Isaiah preached during a period of crisis. Clearly this is not the case today. The vine is healthy happy and producing beautiful, delicious, healthy fruit." They are some deep-rooted problems with Judaism and you could say Judaism is more divided than ever.
That is your opinion. It's actually an opinion that has no merit. Isaiah 56:2 says "Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that holdeth it fast; that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil." How can we keep our hand from doing any evil? By keeping the Covenant. Further, the New Covenant which Chr-stians claim to believe they are connected to, says:
"31 Behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith Yahweh. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith Yahweh: I will put my *law* in their inward parts, and in their *heart* will I write it; and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith Yahweh: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more."
You said 'be free'. This suggests you don't believe the Laws of Yahweh to be a law of liberty, which is a shame. We are free when we keep Yahweh's Law. It's sin that entangles us, and makes us bound with a heavy yoke (Psalm 107:9-11). Galatians 5:1 says "For freedom did the Messiah set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage [sin]." What does Peter say? "15 For so is the will of Yahweh, that by well-doing ye should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: 16 as *free*, and not using your freedom for a cloak of *wickedness*, but as bondservants of Yahweh."
All the best to you and yours wherever you roam, sincerely