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What Do You Mean I'm Not Jewish?
by Chaia Kravitz
While hostility towards
Messianic Jews occurs in many forms, the most insulting statement thrown our way is that
we are not Jewish. But according to who?
Meet "Steven."* Steven is 35 years old. He is Jewish. He went to a Talmud Torah day school, but no longer knows how to read any Hebrew. Since his Bar Mitzvah, he only attends synagogue on the High Holidays. He goes golfing on Saturdays and eats pork and shrimp regularly (although he feels guilty about it). He is married to a woman who is not Jewish but has agreed to raise the children with a Jewish identity. So, every December they light a menorah beside the Christmas tree. But don't try to talk to Steven about Yeshua. He'll get angry and defensive. He will make it perfectly clear that he has no intention of accepting Yeshua as his personal Savior. Why? Believing in Yeshua is just not Jewish! It's amazing how even the most secular of Jews will suddenly feel a surge of Jewish pride as soon as Jesus is mentioned. They will even go so far as to accuse Jews who believe in Jesus/Yeshua as not being Jewish. Even the families of Jewish Believers have been known to become hostile. A Messianic Rabbi in the Southern United States once told me that if I was ever in Long Island I could visit his grave. He proceeded to give me the exact directions to get to the cemetary and the headstone. The date that he told his family he was a Believer was the date that to them, he was dead. To me, this is just obscene. Someone cannot simply stop being Jewish. It is very rare that after a Jewish person tells their loved ones about their faith in Yeshua, that they will be caught in the kitchen frying bacon. I suppose in certain situations a Jewish person, guided either by an inner shame of being Jewish or lack of knowledge about his or her heritage, will assimiliate into Gentile culture. Jewish people, for example, have been known to convert to Catholicism from time to time. Or, they will just get so wrapped up in a Christian church that celebrating Christmas, Easter and eating Biblically non-kosher foods become a lifestyle. Even still, such a person remains a Jew. A Jew is someone who is a physical descendant of Abraham. Nothing can take that away. No Rabbi can pass a decree changing that. Some high-profile Messianic Jews have been refused Jewish burials in Jewish cemetaries. The local board of Rabbis in their area pronounced that the deceased was not Jewish due to their acceptance of "Christianity." I am not sure what gives anyone the right to tell someone else what they are or are not, but I wonder if the reaction of the Rabbis would have been the same if the deceased was a well-known Buddhist guru. After all, in the Western world, one in three Buddhist leaders comes from a Jewish background. But, of course, we never hear the established Jewish community complain about that. The purpose of Messianic Judaism is to bridge the gap between the Gentile church and Jewish community. A Jewish person is more likely to accept Yeshua if the Gospel is presented in a Jewish way -- which, according to Messianic theology, is the way it was supposed to be in the first place. He or she is also more likely to remain Jewish in idenity and practise when it is shown that the first Believers were Torah observant Jews who kept kosher and observed Shabbat and the Feasts. In fact, some Jewish Believers report that they more closely identified with Judaism after becoming Messianic. They read the Bible, want to live as God commands and also live likeYeshua -- a Torah observant Jew Himself. This is why Messianic Jews are often described using the term "Completed Jew." They are solid in their faith in Yeshua and in their Jewish roots. Some Messianic Jews are Torah observant to the point where you honestly would not be able to tell the difference between them and their Orthodox Jewish counterparts, when judging by lifestyle alone. Only after they told you they believe in Yeshua, would you be able to know for sure that they were Messianic. I know one such woman. Although her largely Orthodox Jewish family rejects her Messianic beliefs, she observes Shabbat, is strictly kosher, has nothing to do with Christmas or Easter and strives to keep the Torah. But now that she is Messianic, some would call her a traitor and a heretic. That is all right, because those twelve disciples who followed Yeshua were called the same and worse. What is most ironic in this case is that before, when she would eat bacon by the pound and pig out on Yom Kippur, she was viewed by her family and community as a good Jewish girl! Indeed, some Messianic Jews are more Jewishly observant and involved than secular Jews. If they live in an area where there is no Messianic synagogue, they choose to go to a traditional one rather than a Christian church. Many purposely seek out other Messianic Jews to marry and raise their families with all of the same customs and rites of passages as their non-Messianic brothers and sisters. Let's talk a bit more about the issue of apostasy. The twelve disciples were never told that they were not Jewish for following Yeshua. Rabbinical Judaism has a notwithstanding clause: if one is born a Jew, one dies a Jew. At worst, Rabbinical Judaism looks upon Messianic Jews as committing a sin because of our beliefs. But nowhere in the Torah or Talmud does it say that a Jew who sins ceases to be a Jew. So, if you believe that faith in Yeshua is wrong for a Jewish person, call us what you will. Insult us, mock us, cast us out from your social clubs and communities. Just don't say that we're not Jewish. *Steven is a fictional composite based upon some of the secular Jewish people who I know. Copyright 2002
- Romans 1:16, NIV |