I embraced the Good News and committed my life to Yeshua in the Spring of 1960. Some of you know my testimony. I soon became part of a Reformed Church that was very much in the Evangelical movement. My father was Jewish and my Mother a Norwegian Christian but not involved in the Church when we were growing up. I was not raised religiously because of the Jewish/Christian marriage. As I entered into teen years, I became part of fundamentalist ministries, camps, and Bible clubs. In that fundamentalism, there was much legalism. Legalism raises extra-biblical morals to a significant importance. There was a whole list of things that Christians were not to do: not going to movies, dancing, drinking wine or beer, listening to contemporary music, playing billiards, mixed swimming, and on and on. When I attended Wheaton Collage during the last of the 1960s, most of the students were reacting strongly against this legalism and fundamentalism itself (though most still wanted to be Evangelicals). Though we were young and overreacting, we never the less did believe we saw some patterns of great concern. The biggest concern was that we knew Christians who kept the legalistic additions not in the Bible but violated the explicit Biblical standards. We noted such things as gossip, lack of forgiveness, not seeking to reach the poor, weakness in devotional life, questionable financial dealings. One of the biggest was gossip and causing division in the Body.
When I entered into Jewish ministry, I realized that my knowledge of Judaism was shallow. One of the members gave me an English translation of the most important post-Biblical Jewish book on applying the Torah. This is the Talmud which was first in oral form and then the first part put in writing at the end of the second century by Rabbi Judah the Prince. This first part is the Mishnah. The commentary was next developed over the next centuries and was compiled. This second part was known as the Gemara. Together they make up the Talmud. As a young leader in my 20s, I decided to read through the Talmud, but not with intense concentration. I was amazed at the level of legalism. The Mishnah expresses a level of concern for minutiae, laws upon laws upon laws that have less and less connection to Biblical intent. Sometimes the applications of the Torah or Law is wise. There is also much of value in the broad thrust of Jewish traditions; the prayer traditions, the stories of godliness, and love that are really wonderful. The celebrations of the Sabbath and Feasts and their meanings are greatly enriching. However, this legalism is an amazing phenomenon. Recently, I decided to read through the Mishnah and again am once again amazed. I would invite my readers to borrow a copy of the Mishnah and just go through at least part of it. Then you will understand what I am saying here.
Here is my point. Though there are stellar examples of love and godliness in Jewish history, I do not think the legalism is a contribution to this attainment. Living near Jerusalem provides so many examples of Yeshua’s words, “Straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.” His words against the legalism of the Pharisees in Matthew 23 is the most devastating critique of legalism in history. Living next to the ultra-Orthodox provides us with example after example of such legalism. They are well known to Israelis and they are not attracted to this Orthodoxy. Here is one example. In the Jerusalem Post, the Rabbi of a sect of Orthodoxy ruled that the Sabbath elevator did not solve the problem of traveling on an elevator in Shabbat. The Sabbath elevator stops runs up and down all day and stops on every floor. This constant stopping frustrates some. However, it prevents the legalistic standard against Sabbath violation by pushing the buttons and thereby turning on lights and running a machine. One couple with their children, one infant and one toddler, now had to carry them and their carriage down and up 7 flights of stairs. The Sabbath elevator is frustrating because it stops on every floor automatically. The Rabbi ruled against even that Sabbath elevator. Living in high rise buildings was now impossible. The couple complained. “What kind of Sabbath is this for us to have to climb seven flights of stairs with our children, the carriage, and our equipment?” One can see this legalism in the criticism of Yeshua for healing on the Sabbath. Yeshua’s critique of legalism was not just applicable to Jewish legalism. Indeed, the issue is that legalism tends to lead people to concern themselves with minor matters and to neglect the weightier matters of the Law.
One of the saddest examples of this loss of moral perspective in ultra-Orthodoxy is the recent health minister in Israel, Yaakov Litzman. Rabbi Litzman is accused with good evidence of protecting a pedophile. An Israeli Orthodox woman was the leader of a Jewish girls school in Australia. She is credibly accused of molesting many girls. The government of Australia seeks to have her extradited to stand trial. Yet, the Rabbi protects her as one his own. “Blood is thicker than water.“ Her ability, with support from her community leaders, to avoid extradition, has been very amazing. Yet, Rabbi Litzman is one who fights in the coalition government to enforce legalistic norms for the whole society and threatened to bring down the government over his demands.
Messianic Jews are loyal to our people. We seek to present the Gospel so that they may be delivered and enter into the fullness of Yeshua and God’s Biblical New Covenant Judaism. This includes secular Jews, ultra-Orthodox Jews, Modern Orthodox Jews, and traditional but not Orthodox Jews.