I'm glad this article caught your eye and happy to discuss it!
While we tend to think of the Messianic Jewish movement as beginning in the late 1960's, there was actually a movement of Jewish Yeshua-believers in the late 1800's in eastern Europe which dwarfed our current movement--hundreds of thousands. Many of the leaders of this movement were trained, learned rabbis who came to believe the New Testament--men like Joseph Rabinowitz, Theophilus Lucky, Paul Philip Levertoff, R' Isaac Lichtenstein, R' Yechiel Tzvi Lichtenstein, and R' Daniel Zion. Some in our movement have actually described this time period as the golden age of Messianic Judaism.
What happened to all these? Sadly, the Holocaust all but wiped these communities out. However, there is a growing awareness and desire to connect to this heritage. Vine of David, the Messianic Jewish publishing arm of First Fruits of Zion, has led the way in bringing the works of these Messianic luminaries to light (no small task since many of these writings are in languages other than English!). They have a "Remant Repository" on their website where you can browse these valuable texts. They also have published Paul Philip Levertoff's Love in the Messianic Age and Franz Delitzsch's Hebrew translation of the gospels, beautifully designed and bound editions which befit their majestic contents.
R' Elijah Zvi Soloveitchik did not identify with this European Messianic community. However, he was one of several rabbis in modern Europe who looked into the New Testament and did not find it anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish but rather deeply resonant with the teachings of Jewish tradition...who saw Yeshua as a faithful Jew and who felt that the world would be a better place if everyone, Jews and Christians, came to understand this. In this sense, he was the forerunner of many contemporary Jewish and Christian scholars who (based on far more evidence than R' Soloveitchik had at the time) have come to the same conclusions. It is a marvel that, at a time when the idea of Jesus as a faithful Jew was much more rare, R' Soloveitchik and others (R' Jacob Emden comes to mind) somehow perceived this truth.
Boaz Michael (president of First Fruits of Zion) wrote a blog post commenting on this Tablet article about R' Soloveitchik. You can read it here: A Rabbi Who Loved Jesus: Preface to Mark.
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.
