| THE
PLACE OF RABBINIC TRADITION IN MESSIANIC JUDAISM
Dr. Michael Brown, 1988 UMJC Conference Theology
Forum
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Every one of us involved in Messianic ministry
has thought long and hard on the question of the place of rabbinic
tradition in Messianic Judaism. My own thinking has developed gradually
over the last few years, but I would like to share with you why
I have come to the conclusion that rabbinic traditions have little
or no place in our private lives or public services. Let me say
first, however, that even though I have given myself to much prayer,
study, and discussion over this very issue, I want each of you to
consider the arguments I present and then to arrive at your own
conclusion.
I’m going to divide this talk into three main areas: Biblical
Truth, Spiritual Life, and Integrity of Witness.
I. Biblical Truth
It is important to understand that the word “tradition”
can have at least two different connotations, one positive (in the
sense of “divinely transmitted truth”), the other negative
(in the sense of “man-made religious institutions or regulations”).
An example of the positive sense is Paul’s exhortation to
the Thessalonians to keep the “traditions” which he
delivered to them (2 Thes. 3:6); an example of the negative sense
is Yeshua’s warning in Mat. 15:3 that the Pharisee’s
broke God’s commandments for the sake of their traditions,
that is, “the traditions of the elders” (v. 2).
Let me state clearly that the very best rabbinic traditions are
still man-made, and as far as man-made religion goes, Yeshua spoke
with unmistakable clarity: “That which is born of the flesh
is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. . . . And
the flesh [i.e., human effort] profits nothing. It is the Spirit
that gives life” (John 3:6, 6:63). If we are going to worship
and serve God in the Spirit, flesh-born traditions can only get
in the way. It is in this vein that Paul asked the Judaized Galatians:
“After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain
your goal by human effort?” (Gal. 3:3b). And so Yeshua contrasted
the Pharisee’s humanly derived authority with His own divinely
ordained authority by saying: “God said this . .
. but you say that.” (Mat. 15:4-5).
Now the point I am making is simple: If we think that we are entering
into spiritual life by means of man-made traditions, then we are
sadly wrong. While it is one thing to follow the rabbinic calendar
as a matter of covenience, it is another thing entirely to pray
the prayers of the rabbis or utilize their varied religious expressions
and methods.
Although the Siddur may be filled with much beauty, it is utterly
devoid of New Covenantal truth. The Siddur gives no hint of the
fact that we are already forgiven, that Messiah’s
healing blood has already been shed, and that He has already
risen from the grave, ascended to heaven, and sent the Spirit to
dwell within us and empower us. Its prayers speak nothing of our
personal and intimate relationship with Abba, and their
high and lofty tone is often equal to distant and far off.
Frankly, when I pray the Siddur during worship services, or when
I intensively study the Talmud or the Legal Codes from which many
of the traditions come, I am keenly aware of the fact that rabbinic
Judaism is a religion alien to the New Covenant faith. Also, the
exclusive emphasis on the chosenness of Israel through the Torah
to the exclusion of the Gentiles is certainly inappropriate in a
New Covenant community of believers.
I would also note that very little of the Siddur can be positively
dated to the first century, and much of it, excluding of course,
pure biblical material, is very late. Yet even if it could be argued
that there are in fact some pre-Yeshuic prayers, the point is still
the same. None of these prayers reflect the new spiritual realities
brought about by Yeshua’s death and resurrection and the subsequent
outpouring of the Spirit. As for the prayers written by the later
rabbis, and in consideration of the fact that prayer is the most
intimate thing that a human being can do with God, how can we pray
the prayers of men whose very faith presupposes that Yeshua is not
the Messiah?
Yeshua taught that new wine could only be contained in new wineskins,
since if it was poured into old wineskins it would break them and
be spilled out onto the ground, ruining both the wine and the wineskins.
The nineteenth century rabbi Moses Sofer, nicknamed the Hatam Sofer,
coined the phrase hadash ’asur min-hattorah - “Anything
new is forbidden by the Torah,” thus the older a thing is,
the better it is (see his responsa, Yoreh Deah, no. 19;
Orah Hayyim, no. 28; Even HaEzer, no. 29; cited
by Louis Jacobs, A Tree of Life, 255f.). I believe that
this phrase, although of relatively recent date, accurately reflects
the spirit of rabbinic Judaism, setting it in stark contrast to
our Messianic faith. Our emphasis on the new covenant,
the new creation, and the new song that God has put in
our mouths bursts out of the bounds of the old wineskins of tradition.
While it is possible that the very first disciples lived in harmony
with some customs of their people, this really has nothing to do
with a believer today following rabbinic tradition. Although some
of rabbinic Judaism’s roots are pre-Yeshuic, for the most
part it is a religion developed after the destruction of the Temple
in 70 C.E., and more particularly, after the expulsion of the Jews
from Jerusalem in 135 C.E. Since that time the rabbinic expression
has gone its own way, with its Talmud-centered life orientation
and its massive legal system. Because the early Mishnaic sages were
not the true heirs of the biblical-prophetic faith, it
was inevitable that, as the Messianic faith began to flourish, a
split would have to come.
While we have much common ground with our people today (as Jews
in a largely non-Jewish world), we must never forget that, as far
as our walk with God goes, life in the Spirit is not consonant with
expressions of the flesh. There is a qualitative spiritual
difference between the Messianic faith and the Rabbinic faith.
II. Spiritual Life
Let me move on to the subject of spiritual life.
First I must say that before I had ever attended a Messianic service
of any kind, I was warned by the Spirit of God that “the whole
Jewish temptation is in the soul realm. It will fascinate, stimulate,
complicate, suffocate.” Of course, you are free to accept
this or reject this as a word from the Lord, but I have seen many
dear believers fall into this very trap. It may begin with a fascination
with midrashic stories or rabbinic sayings, or it may take on the
form of a soulish affectation for the Siddur or for some rabbinic
Shabbat customs. But soon life is not as simple as it used to be!
Questions of Messianic halakha seem to dominate, and side issues
like how we can incorporate rabbinic traditions in our celebration
of the Feasts become central. Pretty soon the believer finds himself
spiritually stifled, praying less in the life of the Spirit, witnessing
less to Jewish souls for fear of saying the wrong thing in the wrong
way, and praising Yeshua less and less.
What has happened? We have gotten our eyes off of Yeshua and onto
religious forms. And for many, the problem has been an overemphasis
on the mind and academic study coupled with an underemphasis on
prayer and life in the Spirit. Rabbinic Judaism, with its stress
on study and intellectual prowess, and with the soulish beauty of
many of its customs, has lured some believers away from the simplicity
of their faith in Yeshua.
Of course, I recognize that there are many challenging problems
for those of us who understand our need to recover our true biblical
roots, and I myself have spent many hours pursuing issues such as
Messianic halakha and the like. Yet what I am saying is extremely
important to hear: To the extent that we do not draw our
nourishment and life from the true vine, we are going to die.
As Yeshua said: “NO BRANCH CAN BEAR FRUIT BY ITSELF; IT MUST
REMAIN IN THE VINE . . . APART FROM THE VINE YOU CAN DO NOTHING.
IF ANYONE DOES NOT REMAIN IN ME, HE IS LIKE A BRANCH THAT IS THROWN
AWAY AND WITHERS” (John 15:1-6).
Please understand this. As I began to attend Messianic services,
and then as a member of Beth Messiah Congregation in Rockville,
I was decidedly neutral on the whole question of rabbinic
tradition in our services and personal lives. In fact, I was ready
and willing to embrace these things to the extent that they were
not in clear opposition to faith in Yeshua. And in times past I
have argued for our right to observe these customs and pray these
prayers if we so desired. However, I am now certain that in our
emphasis on solidarity with the Jewish community (and that has unfortunately
meant to many of us, solidarity with rabbinic traditions), we have
retreated from emphasizing the centrality of the True Vine and our
uniqeness in Him. It is one thing to have our faith grounded in
Torah and focused on Yeshua; it is another thing to follow rabbinic
traditions.
Let me be more specific. Why is there no evidence of real spiritual
revival in most all of our congregations? (And when I say revival,
don’t think that I mean some kind of worked up Pentecostal
Charismania. What I mean is a major influx of Jewish men and women
into the Kingdom, and a powerful evidence of the Spirit’s
work in our midst.) Why are there churches with thousands of solid
believers, and in some cases, hundreds of Jewish believers, while
the biggest congregations we can speak of have only several hundred?
If you say, “Mike, you’re being unfair. We’re
still brand new, in our infancy,” then I would respond by
saying that this is the very time that we should be showing our
greatest signs of vitality and life!
Our movement has written almost no new songs that exalt the finished
work of the Messiah or the power of His blood. Simply stated, we
have had a Jewish fixation instead of a Jesus fixation. In fact,
I have been in numerous Messianic worship services where Yeshua
was not mentioned in song even once. I have counted the choruses
found in some of our Messianic songbooks and discovered on occasion
that while songs about Jerusalem and Zion are commonplace, songs
exalting Yeshua have numbered as few as one in ten!
What is our glory? The Cross! Where is our power? The Name of Yeshua!
Where has our proclamation fallen short? THE CROSS AND THE NAME!!
Let me make a strong statement. If we are spiritually more
at home with a prayer written by a traditional rabbi then with a
great hymn written by a committed Gentile believer then our orientation
is dangerously wrong. Isn’t this why many of our congregations
are spiritually anemic, because we have not cooperated with the
Father’s central purpose, i.e., “that in everything
Yeshua might have the supremacy” (Col. 1:18)? Didn’t
Yeshua teach us that as He was lifted up, He would draw all men
to Him (John 12:32)? And in the limited time that we have for our
public services, can we justify the inclusion of material that knowingly
leaves Yeshua out? In the busyness of our lives, do we have room
for prayers and customs devoid of the Spirit of God?
I believe that we have been misled into thinking that we cannot
identify with our people outside of rabbinic tradition. In fact,
some of you listening may have already concluded that I am saying:
“Throw away your Jewishness! Quit praying for Israel! Who
needs Torah anyway?” But that is absolutely not what
I intend to get across. My point instead is this: What real connection
is there between our life in Yeshua the Messiah and the traditions
of those whose faith is built upon His rejection? Yeshua said that
His truth was from above, hidden from the wise and prudent and revealed
to babes (John 3:31. 8:23; Mat. 11:25). Yet a leading rabbinic scholar
said: “Let the truth emerge from the earth. The truth be as
the sages decide with the human mind” (Aryeh Leib, introduction
to his Kesot HaHoshen on Hoshen Mishpat, quoted
by Berkovitz, Not in Heaven, 55). How can we harmonize
these words?
I can only say that Biblical Judaism and Rabbinic Judaism are two
very different faiths. One is based on the once and for all sacrifice
of the Lamb of God; the other has substituted prayer, repentance,
and good deeds. One is based on the witness of the indwelling Spirit
and the revelation of the divine Word; the other is based on logical
deduction and human tradition. One is based on the demonstration
of the power of the living God; the other is based on majority rule.
One releases its people into a free expression of praise, adoration,
and prayer; the other legislates when and how to pray, and even
what to say.
It is a plain fact that the Jewish people who have been the most
devoted to rabbinic orthopraxy have been the hardest to win to the
Lord, and the early rabbis associated with the beginnings of traditional
Judaism were those who most clearly rejected the Messianic faith.
Many of our Orthodox people who have come to know Yeshua as Lord
have first become disoriented with their traditional faith
and only subsequently received the Messiah. Why is this?
Because the rabbinic religion is contrary to the Gospel, in content
and in spirit. And if you might say, “I believe that there
are features of Rabbinic Judaism which can be redeemed with some
effort,” I would reply, “Why look for silver amidst
the dross when there’s plenty of pure gold to be found?”
Should we wear a Tallit in our services? Obviously, this is a matter
of personal and/or congregational conviction. But realize this:
If we do it as a religious duty or service, remember that we are
wearing a garment that does not fulfill the Scriptural
requirements for the fringes (because it lacks the color blue and
it is not part of our regular daily clothing), and we are putting
on something whose intricate fabric of knots and strands reminds
us of just how far the rabbis have gone in legislating religious
life.
Should we light the Shabbat candles and pray the traditional prayer?
Again, this is a matter to be decided individually. But I have always
wondered why we have taken over a traditional custom, prayed an
untrue prayer (viz., that God has commanded us to light
the candles, although I realize that many Messianic Jews have revised
that part), and then tried to fit Yeshua in as the “light
of the world”! What has any of this got to do with the Sabbath?
How does this highlight the true rest that we now have in Yeshua?
And if we are seeking to honor Torah, why are we lighting a fire
after dark on Friday night?
III. Integrity of Witness
All this leads me to my last point, viz., integrity
of witness. You may say, “I agree with you completely. There
is no spiritual life in rabbinic tradition. I only do this to be
a Jew to the Jews.” But is it really working? Are we really
doing what Paul spoke of in 1 Corinthians 9?
Over the years I have been very friendly with a number of rabbis,
some Orthodox and others Conservative. Their primary complaint with
Messianic Judaism was that it was deceptive and superficial. While
they were willing to talk to me about Yeshua, they were deeply upset
with Messianic Jews.
I believe that their charges are basically correct, although it
has never been our intent to be deceptive in the least, and I am
sure our motives have been pure. Let me try to explain this to you
from the rabbinic perspective.
Traditional Rabbinic Judaism is just that: the Judaism based on
rabbinic traditions. These traditions, recognized by the Orthodox
as being providentially transmitted and developed through 3500 years
of Torah history, are considered to be the very essence of Jewish
life. They are binding on all who recognize the authority of the
rabbis. That’s why, from a traditional perspective, it is
totally sacrilegious and almost blasphemous to follow one custom,
revise another law, and then discard whatever other traditions we
choose. Doing this violates the very essence of rabbinic halakha
which seeks to legislate a Jew’s life before God from his
first waking moments to his midnight meditations.
What are we saying to the rabbinic community (and let’s face
it, if we want to influence our people, we must influence the rabbis)
when we pick and choose from the traditional liturgy in our services,
wear talliyot on Friday night, and walk around donning
yarmulkes while eating at Macdonalds? Can’t you see how offensive
this is? Instead of drawing attention to Yeshua, it diverts attention
to side issues. We have unwittingly been guilty of making a mockery
of the Oral Law by accepting a few of its traditions while rejecting
almost all of its authority and relevance. Believe me, Rabbinic
Judaism is an all encompassing religion, dealing with every possible
area of a Jewish person’s life. It takes years of study for
a newcomer to traditional Judaism to learn even the basics! And
we’re still mispronouncing “Messiah” and “Holy
Spirit” in Hebrew. Who are we fooling?
Yes, let us boldly proclaim the true Jewishness of our faith. But
why run roughshod over traditional sensitivities with our piecemeal
borrowing of that which is sacred to them? As for our non-traditional
Jewish friends, why are we trying to win them with tradition? Why
put forth mixed signals as to who we really are?
How would we feel if a new group came to us and said: “Don’t
think that we don’t believe in Yeshua. We do! In fact, we
sing ‘He is Lord’ in our services. Of course, we also
believe that Krishna is Lord, and that Sun Moon is Lord too!”
We wouldn’t be impressed! We’d say that they were a
cult, plain and simple. But that’s how we appear to the Jewish
community. It’s hard for them to take us seriously. Our public
services give one impression and our private lives give another.
What message are we conveying? And when we call our leaders “Rabbi”
(and please don’t get angry with me – listen to my heart),
aren’t we unnecessarily provoking the rabbinic community,
especially when some of our men can’t even read and understand
Hebrew, let alone identify the Six Orders of the Mishnah? But that
is the very thing that “Rabbi” means to our people –
the learned spiritual leader of the community, expert in all matters
of Jewish law and interpretation.
It’s also interesting that among the early Jewish believers,
as far as I know, the title “Rav” or “Rabbi”
was never used for the teaching elders, even though it was widely
used in traditional circles. And, if you would like to do some research,
see if you can find any evidence at all that these first Messianic
Jews (generally called Nazaraeans) were ever accused by the Church
Fathers of keeping any rabbinic traditions. This point
is important! Sooner or later we will have to realize that being
Jewish does not mean being rabbinic.
Let me turn closer to home. I am now the head of a Messianic Yeshiva,
yet I’ve lost some friends in the Orthodox community because
they feel that the name “Yeshiva” is deceptive. And
I understand their point. In the Jewish community Yeshiva has a
certain meaning. A newly saved Orthodox Rabbi from Israel came to
me in Maryland and said that we didn’t have a true Yeshiva.
The name meant something specific to him, and if effective communication
is our goal, then let’s be sensitive to using words super-charged
with emotion. Maybe our school should be called “Messiah Study
Center”, or “Messiah Training Center”? I’m
open to suggestions, seriously. [In 1989, the school name was changed
to Messiah Biblical Institute and Graduate School of Theology.]
But I need to close now. It will be up to all of us to work through
these issues and decide for ourselves. I recognize your right to
have your own definite convictions. I hope you recognize my right
to have mine!
Yet my point is simple and clear: I believe that the Word of God
is our Guide, that the Spirit of God is our Teacher, and that we
have a huge task set before us: the salvation of our people Israel
and our personal faithfulness to God’s call. Rabbinic tradition
can only get in the way of fulfilling that call. In fact, two of
our leaders have independently come to the conclusion that the phenomenon
of Messianic Jews praying rabbinic prayers is like the children
of Israel defeating their enemies at war and then turning around
and worshiping their idols! Strong words, for sure; but filled with
truth nonetheless.
In John 16:2 Yeshua told us that we would be put out of the synagogues
for our faith, and tragically this has been the case. Yet there
is a change in the air and something new is happening. But it is
not time for us to bring rabbinism into the Body, nor is it time
for us to seek reentry into the traditional camp. Rather, as we
go to Yeshua “outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore”
(Hebrews 13:13) it is time for the synagogue to come to us.
Download this document in Word format: click
here
Dr. Michael L. Brown
ICN Ministries
PO Box 1446
Harrisburg, NC 28075
704-782-3760
e-mail: ministry@icnministries.org
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