A Review of Tzvi Sadan's "The Concealed Light"

In a scene from the second act of the Stephen Sondheim musical Sunday in the Park with George, the aging, wheelchair-bound Marie sits looking up at George Seurat's magnificent painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte."  Seurat was Marie's father.  Her mother, Dot, was Seurat's lover during the time he worked on what would become his greatest work.  Thus, Dot is featured prominently in the foreground of the painting.



Standing with Marie looking up at the painting is her grandson, also named George.  He too is an artist, but, unlike his namesake, this George is floundering, struggling to find an expression of his own.

Gazing up at the painting, Marie points to her mother and asks, "Did I ever tell you who that was?"  George replies patiently, "That is your mother."

Almost as if without hearing him, Marie begins pointing at every other woman in the painting.  As she does so, she sings:

Isn't she beautiful?
There she is....there she is...
There she is...there she is...
Mama is everywhere---
He must have loved her so much.

George's response is slightly cold: "Is she really in all those places, Marie?"

In The Concealed Light: Names of Messiah in Jewish Sources, Tzvi Sadan shows us how Jewish commentators through the centuries have stood before the Scriptures and, in a way not unlike Marie before her father's famous painting, seen hints of Messiah in the most unlikely places. Sadan gives his readers glimpses---one hundred different tableaus, if you will---of what they saw, concise summaries organized according to different names assigned to Messiah from Scripture by later rabbinic commentators.

Some of the names Sadan brings out are familiar: Branch, David, Lion, Son of David, Son of Joseph.  Others are obscure: Donkey, Adder.  Still others are even more startling: Pierced, Son of God.  All of the names hold profound resonance for those who cherish the Hebrew Scriptures and who are convinced that Yeshua of Nazareth is the Messiah of whom they speak.

The book is quite engaging on a first reading.  In some cases, the connections are challenging to follow (Vav, Stone) because the original Jewish commentators hung their interpretations on the slightest details of the literal Hebrew wording or even lettering.  However Dr. Sadan deftly navigates these passages, enabling readers of all levels to follow the interpretative leaps and bounds.  And with each entry being only two pages long, the book is easily digested over numerous sittings.  I anticipate returning to it regularly for devotional reading.

On a personal note: when I created this blog, I named it Gathering Sparks partially to represent the idea that I felt that there was much beauty, depth, and light in our Jewish traditions, and that it was our duty as Messianic Jews to gather, admire, and be enlightened by those "sparks."  Dr. Sadan's book is a prototypical example of this kind of gathering effort, and I am deeply grateful to Vine of David for presenting it to us in such a beautiful form.  However, it is not enough simply for Dr. Sadan to write it or Vine of David to publish it.  In order for it to reach its full potential, we have to read it---and be nourished by its contents.

In Israel's Messiah and the People of God, Mark Kinzer makes a "radical and scandalous claim"---namely, "that Yeshua constitutes the true center of Jewish life." (p. 64)  Dr. Kinzer is not the only Messianic Jew who has discovered this to be true.  An ever-growing number of Jewish followers of Yeshua are encountering the Risen One, through the work of God's Spirit, within the pages of our Siddurs and the writings of our sages.  The Concealed Light is a powerful witness to His presence within Judaism---for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.

~

If what I've written at all intrigues you, inspires you, moves you, or reminds you of your own relationship with the Rabbi of rabbis, I exhort you: buy this book.  Click here to view The Concealed Light for sale online through Vine of David.  This review was written based on a advanced review copy I received.

The 'Jewish Guilt' reading of Jesus

Note: what you are about to read is highly tongue-in-cheek.

The world of critical Biblical scholarship encompasses an ever-growing number of approaches to the Biblical text such as historical-critical, source criticism, form-criticism, and redaction criticism.  Postmodern literary theory also introduced us to a range of alternative readings via feminist, post-colonial, and identity theories.  It is in the latter vein that I humbly offer yet another vantage point into the words of these historical sacred texts: namely, the "Jewish Guilt" reading of Jesus.

"Jewish guilt" literary theory seeks to expound the ironic nature of the many logia of Jesus by reading them from the vantage point of the 20th century Jewish mother (or grandmother).

I hereby present the first in what might be a series of explorations of Jesus' logia from the "Jewish guilt" vantage point (with apologies to my own mother and grandmother).

Purim and the Holocaust

From chevrahumanitarian.org:

It is estimated there are between five-hundred-thousand to one-and-a-half million survivors of the Holocaust still alive today. Each month about one percent of these people pass on. Too often, their last years have been spent in nearly the same conditions in which they survived in the camps. These who suffered so much, continue to suffer---don''t they deserve better? We can help ease their last years. We can do something to care for their daily needs, and that we are supporting them in tangible ways.

As we draw near to Purim, consider making a donation to Chevra.

Learning from Levertoff - "The Law and Love" (Part 2)

Here is Part 2 of Yahnatan discussing "The Law and Love" from "Love and the Messianic Age" by Paul Phillip Levertoff.

Thoughts on Messiah Journal #109

Below are some thoughts on the most recent issue of Messiah Journal.

(Full disclosure:my own book review of the Jewish Annotated New Testament is published at the end of this issue.  I did receive a free copy of the journal.)

• Tzvi Sadan's article ("Halachic Authority in the Life of the Messianic Community"): I was glad to get to read this and glad that it's been put into print, since it articulates a number of important arguments in a succinct and eloquent way.  That said, in his treatment of Matthew 16, I was a little surprised that he failed to directly address verse 12 (unless I missed it)--in which it says that Yeshua "was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees."  I take it that Sadan reads this verse through the lens of Matt 23:1-2 and Luke 12:1, but I think it only weakens his argument for him not to state this explicitly.  (And even stated clearly, I think this is the one of the weak points in his argument...and this is coming from someone who shares Sadan's convictions in this area.)
• James Pyle's article ("Origins of Supercessionism in the Church") provides a helpful overview of supersessionism in Christian history.  I'm looking forward to his followup article on supersessionism today.
• Update (forgot to include this in my initial post): I enjoyed Rabbi Russ Resnik's initial article in a series he will be doing on "Living the Greatest Commandment" (the Shema) and very much look forward to further entries.  I'm particularly interested in seeing what Rabbi Russ brings out get integrated into our communal understanding, practice, and articulation of the Shema, including in public worship.
• Toby Janicki's article ("A Gentile Believer's Obligation to the Torah") has been a long time coming.  I've thought a number of times that the current discussion about Acts 15 is too reductionistic on the Gentile side of the equation--the "four prohibitions" of the Apostles aren't just four singular practices.  Rarely does anyone actually map the prohibitions onto the teachings of Paul or the other apostles, and I've longed for an ordered exploration of this topic.  Not only is Toby's article a great contribution towards that effort, but he also includes helpful forways into later Jewish and Christian interpretation on the issues.  A couple observations:
• I had never heard anyone propose the interpretation Toby proposes for Paul's perplexing reference to "baptisms for the dead" in 1 Cor 15:29.
• I also appreciated his take on Paul's reference to "the cup of blessing" in 1 Cor 10:16.   
• Another great scholarly take on the ritual demands of Paul's gospel to the Gentiles with respect to the Temple is Paula Frederksen's article Paula Frederiksen "Judaizing the Nations: the Ritual Demands of Paul's Gospel". 
• I also am intrigued by his proposal that Gentiles are enjoined to keep the "remember" portion of the Shabbat commandment (with respect to creation) but not the "guard" portion which relates to the exodus from Egypt.
• I do wonder about some of Toby's "these would only make sense if..." arguments, where he suggests that early Messianics must have been familiar with certain practices (such as benching), otherwise Paul's statement would make no sense.   Clearly, the Lord's Supper (even at it is practiced today) has its roots in mealtime blessings, but does the fact that few Christians today bench after meals prevent them from understanding Paul's reference to "the cup of blessing that we bless"?  So even though I wonder about the degree of adaptation that had already happened, I'm not at all threatened by the idea or by Gentiles recontextualizing the "cup of blessing" to reclaim .
• Aaron Eby's article ("The Writing on the Wall") is the second in a series on the destruction of the Temple; this time he surveys rabbinic responses to the Temple's descruction.  This series has been helpful for me in relation to discussions I've been having about the NT's theological evaluation of the Temple.
• The Levertoff excerpts are really great.  Keep 'em coming, FFOZ!
• The book reviews section includes two great book reviews from Jacob Fronczak (Scot McKnight's The King Jesus Gospel and David Rudolph's A Jew to the Jews).  The latter is rather expensive ($88.15 on Amazon.com), so Fronczak's review gives readers with a more limited budget an idea of what Rudolph covers in exquisite detail.  Also, Jacob's voice is relatively new to me (I discovered his blog, Hope Abbey, last summer), but I immediately welcomed his insightful contributions to the Messianic conversation.
• Last and least, my first contribution to Messiah Journal, a review of the Jewish Annotated New Testament.  I'll leave it to others to comment.  :-)

Jewish-Christian relations, 1800's style

Over at the On the Main Line blog, Mississippi Fred MacDowell has an fascinating post on relationships between religious Jewish scholars and philo-Semitic Christian scholars in the mid-1800's, including excerpts from correspondence between Franz Delitzsch and Jewish scholar Samuel David Luzzatto.

Check out Why did Seligmann Baer prepare an edition of the Bible with Franz Delitzsch?

Learning from "The Law and Love"

Check out Gathering Sparks' very own Yahnatan Lasko in this clip from Vine of David!