Quote of the Day: Daniel Boyarin on the suffering Messiah in Isaiah 53

"This commonplace view [that Isaiah 53 was distorted by the Christians from its allegedly original meaning, in which it referred to the suffering of the People of Israel] has to be rejected completely. The notion of the humiliated and suffering Messiah was not at all alien within Judaism before Jesus' advent, and it remained current among Jews well into the future following that--indeed, well into the early modern period. The fascinating (and to some, no doubt, uncomfortable) fact is that this tradition was well documented by modern Messianic Jews, who are concerned to demonstrate that their belief in Jesus does not make them un-Jewish. Whether or not one accepts their theology, it remains the case that they have a very strong textual base for the view that the suffering Messiah is based in deeply rooted Jewish texts early and late. Jews, it seems, had no difficulty whatever with understanding a Messiah who would vicariously suffer to redeem the world."

from The Jewish Gospels, pp. 132-3

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.

Knowledge in Parsha Va'era

Excerpts from a drash on parsha Va'era which I wrote for this week's edition of The Set Table.

Our parasha opens with the famous four-fold expression of redemption that God vows to Moses:

I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments; and I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God . . .
(Exodus 6:6–7a)

After these four promises from God comes a fifth:

. . . and I will bring you in unto the land concerning which I lifted up My hand to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
(Exodus 6:8) 

What is it that bridges God’s four-fold redemption of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt to God’s bringing the Israelites into the land?  The answer is given in the intervening verse:

…and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
(Exodus 6:7b, emphasis mine)

This emphasis on da‘at, knowledge of God, is characteristic of the first half of Exodus, in which Israel comes to know God through his miraculous deliverance. In particular, this verse highlights that Israel’s future entrance into the land must be preceded by their coming to know that the Lord is God.

. . .

The late Lubavitcher Rebbe taught:

These verses cite five expressions of redemption. The first four relate to the Egyptian exile and the three exiles following thereafter, including the present one. The fifth—“I shall bring you . . .”—relates to an additional level of ascent that will follow the initial redemption by Moshiach. 
(Living With Moshiach, p. 51)

If the fifth message of redemption (“I shall bring you into the land . . .”) is a reference to the Messianic redemption, then it follows that entrance into the Messianic Age must be preceded by Israel coming to know God in the fullest sense. Of this Jeremiah writes, “no man shall teach his neighbor . . . for they all will know me” (Jeremiah 31:34).


Read the whole thing at http://thesettable.org.  Shabbat shalom, readers!

Toronto Post article on Messianic Jews and Christmas

The Toronto Post has a lengthy article on Messianic Jews featuring Emmanuel Messianic Jewish Congregation (founded in 1915!  website: http://godwithus.org/).  Here's an excerpt from author Alen Abel's conversation with Rabbi Barry Rubin:

In the rabbi’s study above the part-time prayer hall, we enjoy a lively conversation about the Nazarene and his disciples.

“Virgin birth?” he says. “That’s very Jewish. The first three matriarchs – Sarah, Rebecca and Rachel – were barren. God performed a miracle and ‘opened their wombs.’ One would expect the pattern to continue with the birth of a messiah, too.

“Christmas is a thoroughly Jewish holiday in essence. But like a lot of Christians, it has lost its Jewish roots. I honour the birth of the Messiah – that’s important. Isaiah predicted it. It’s foreshadowed in Genesis. It’s theologically essential, but Christmas isn’t.

“Look, I’m an American. The American Christmas is fun, it’s beautiful. The decorations are pretty but they’re not Jewish, plus they’re not Scriptural.”

Rabbi Rubin says that his research leads him to conclude that the Son of God was born at harvest time, not the winter solstice.

“Why won’t you say the name ‘Jesus’? “ I ask.

“We’re trying to overcome two thousand years of anti-Jewish actions by Jesus’s followers,” he replies. “We’re trying to make a point. When he was a child, his mother would have called him Yeshua. She wouldn’t have yelled ‘Jesus! Time to come in for dinner!’ “

Read the rest at http://life.nationalpost.com/2010/12/20/alen-abel-the-jews-who-believe-in-jesus/.

Rabbi Derek Leman announces new book

Over at Messianic Jewish Musings, Derek Leman announces his new book, "Yeshua in Context," which will be coming out next month (followed by several other high-quality Messianic resources on Yeshua in the fall). Here's the table of contents:

The Table of Contents for Yeshua in Context
Ch 1 The Real Yeshua, Mark 1:1-20
Ch 2 The Unexpected Yeshua, Luke 4:14-30
Ch 3 The Heralding Yeshua, Mark 1:16-45
Ch 4 Yeshua as Exorcist, Mark 1:23-28; Luke 11:19-20; 13:32
Ch 5 Yeshua as Healer, Mark 5:21-43; Luke 7:22; 10:18
Ch 6 The Messianic Secret, Mark 8:22-35
Ch 7 The Temple Cleansing, John 2:13-22
Ch 8 The Handwashing Dispute, Mark 7:1-23
Ch 9 The Prodigal Story, Luke 15:11-32
Ch 10 Beatitudes of Hope, Matthew 5:1-12
Ch 11 Seeds and Fruit, Mark 4:1-20
Ch 12 The Wicked Tenants, Mark 12:1-12
Ch 13 Born from Above, John 3:1-21
Ch 14 Messiah’s Trial, Mark 14:53-65
Ch 15 Yeshua in Death, Mark 15:21-39
Ch 16 The Living and Present Lord, Luke 24:36-53
Ch 17 The True Vine, John 15:1-27

To get on the pre-order list, email Derek at derek4messiah@gmail.com. (I already have!)

"I am the vine."

From this week's edition of The Set Table, the Chayyei Yeshua piece I wrote on John 15:1-17:

In scripture, the vineyard represents Israel (Isaiah 5:17, Mark 12:1–12). But in John 15:1–17, Yeshua seems to employ the vine image differently. We glean more insight from a parable of Ezekiel:

A great eagle . . .came to . . . a cedar [of Lebanon], . . . broke off its topmost shoot and carried it away . . . He planted it like a willow by abundant water, and it sprouted and became a low, spreading vine. (Ezekiel 17:3-6, excerpted.)

The parable goes on to pronounce judgment on the vine–that is, the king of Judah–for breaking the covenant. Then the Lord declares:

I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. (17:22–23.)

Christopher M. Tuckett observes: “The context of Ezekiel 17 is itself all but explicitly ‘messianic’ in that it refers to the promised restoration of the Davidic monarchy in the form of king Jehoiachin” (“The Parable of the Mustard Seed and the Book of Ezekiel,” The Book of Ezekiel and Its Influence, p. 97). Thus, Yeshua’s claim “I am the true vine,” read together with Ezekiel 17, assumes messianic overtones, which are only heightened when we recognize that the vine of Ezekiel’s parable started out as a branch.

Yeshua goes on to invite each of his disciples into a personal, abiding relationship with him. In his book, The Hasidic Parable, Aryeh Wineman contrasts eighteenth-century Hasidism with “earlier stages of Jewish mysticism in which the mystic remained an isolated individual, not serving as a leader of center of any kind of human community”:

Gershom Scholem defines the innovation of eighteenth-century Hasidism whereby the mystic–who is turned inward and away from society–becomes at the same time the center of a community.

Likewise, Yeshua established himself as the center of his community and the source of its life and love. Paul Philip Levertoff calls this love “the realization of the highest ideal of Chasidism–i.e., achdut ‘unity,’ . . . a closeness of union approaching to identity (Acts 4:32).”

We naturally focus on the disciples’ need to abide in Yeshua. But this passage also reveals the amazing dependency of Yeshua on his followers: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you” (John 15:16). Just as Ezekiel prophesied that the vine “will produce branches and bear fruit,” so Yeshua reveals that he personally chose his disciples “to go and bear fruit—
fruit that will last.” How? “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you” (John 15:7). Praying the way Yeshua teaches means (a) remaining in him by obeying his commands and (b) having his words in us.

As our prayers turn toward the restoration of Israel, we do well to adopt the words of Psalm 80:14–19, which employs the same vine image in a prayer for (Messianic) redemption:

Return to us, O God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see! Watch over this vine, the root your right hand has planted, the branch/son you have raised up for yourself. Your vine is cut down; it is burned with fire; at your rebuke your people perish. Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself. Then we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name. Restore us, O LORD God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.

An interesting proposition...

...from Orthodox Jewish theologian Michael Wyschogrod (someone all Messianic Jews owe it to themselves to be familiar with). He writes:

Israel...should declare itself a constitutional monarchy ruled by a successor to King David, represented by a “regent safeguarding the Throne of David until such time that divine intervention identifies the rightful heir to the Davidic kingdom.”

Thoughts?

I wish I was in New York to attend this lecture on "Jewish covenantal theology" at First Things from someone whom R' Meir Soloveitchik called "perhaps the most original Jewish theologian of the past half century."

For more on Wyschogrod, I highly recommend this essay by Christian theologian R. Kendall Soulen.

Shavuot and the book of Ruth

On Shavuot, it is traditional to read Megillat Ruth. Last year I discovered a great reading of Ruth by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi online. Here's the first part:



This Shavuot (next Tuesday night / Wednesday), get together with a few of your friends or with some people in your community and read through Ruth together. (Or better yet, watch this video!) Then try to learn from the redemptive themes of the story. Don't forget to discuss Ruth's role in the geneology of Messiah!

Rosh Chodesh

This week's haftorah is from Isaiah 66 due to Rosh Chodesh--the new moon. Here's an excerpt from torah.org:

[...] a greater dimension of Rosh Chodesh was intended to be and will eventually become a reality. The Tur in Orach Chaim (417) quotes the Pirkei D'R'Eliezer which reveals that Rosh Chodesh was actually intended to be a full scale Yom Tov [i.e. holiday]. The Tur quotes his brother R' Yehuda who explains that the three Yomim Tovim correspond to our three patriarchs and that the twelve days of Rosh Chodesh were intended to correspond to the twelve tribes. This link reveals that each Rosh Chodesh truly has a unique aspect to itself and that one of the Biblical tribes' remarkable qualities is available to us each month. However, as the Tur explains, due to an unfortunate error of the Jewish people this opportunity has been, to a large degree, withheld from us.

But in the era of Mashiach this error will be rectified and the experience of Rosh Chodesh will actually reach its intended capacity. Yeshaya reflects upon this and says at the close of our haftorah, "And it will be that from month to month. . . . all will come and prostrate themselves before Hashem." (66: 23) The Psikta Rabbsi (1:3) explains that in the days of Mashiach we will have the privilege of uniting with Hashem every Rosh Chodesh. All Jewish people will come to the Bais Hamikdash each month and experience His Divine Presence. During the illustrious era of Mashiach sin will no longer exist and Rosh Chodesh will be viewed exclusively as an opportunity for elevation. Each month will provide us its respective quality and opportunity which we will celebrate through the Rosh Chodesh festivities. The sacrifice of Rosh Chodesh will reflect our great joy over being with Hashem and will no longer contain any aspect of remorse or sin. In those days, the experience of His Di vine Presence in the Bais Hamikdash will be perpetuated throughout the month and the entire period will become one uplifting experience.*

*Copyright (c) 2010 by Rabbi Dovid Siegel and Torah.org. The author is Rosh Kollel of Kollel Toras Chaim of Kiryat Sefer, Israel.