I felt I was standing at a great precipice. I wrote to my Orthodox friends about my intention to convert to Christianity. As soon as they received my letter they drove to the kibbutz and begged me to defer my decision until I had spent time learning about Judaism. They convinced me to spend some time in Yeshiva before making a drastic decision to convert to Christianity, claiming that my ignorance of authentic Judaism prevented me from making an informed choice.
First they very kindly invited me to live with them for one month, in which I learned the rudiments of Orthodox Jewish life. While I stayed with my friends, Rabbi Bulman spoke to me about the differences between Judaism and Christianity. He chose to focus on their very different worldviews, which he described in the following way. He claimed that while Christianity has a pessimistic view of history, with each successive generation getting worse, Judaism has a positive view, with each generation improving until Messiah's arrival will culminate it all.
Later I found out that this is false. Even on its own terms, Judaism speaks of
yeridat hadorot, that every generation degenerates spiritually more and more. But also on Christian terms this is not true. Christians believe that when Jesus came He changed history for all time. There was a steady spiritual regression until His day, but after Him everything changed for the better, both spiritually and physically.
Jesus promised that His disciples would accomplish greater things than even He did. And we see that today churches worldwide are powerful influences for good and for change. The church has translated the Bible into almost every human language and has brought educational and cultural improvements to every corner of the globe. Universities, originally established by the Church, have brought technological advances all over the world.
But what has Judaism to do with any of this? Orthodox Judaism, cloistered in its selfish and petty little world, has not brought God's word to the masses. It has not taught anyone about God at all. Instead it holds the Bible close to its chest and denies its light to others! It
feebly speaks of "
Noahide Laws", pathetically blinded to the fact that, thanks to Christianity, the world knows not only about Noah, but about the Patriarchs, David and Solomon, the Psalms, the Books of Wisdom, and most of all the Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ of Nazareth!
Even worse, Orthodox Jews are hypocritical ingrates, for they, who are beneficiaries of modern technology (like cars, computers, electricity, and modern medicine) continue to disdain most forms of secular education. The Orthodox communities in Israel have some of the most poorly educated, prejudiced, and mean-spirited people I ever have had the distinction of meeting. And all this emanates from the Orthodox Rabbis' cold hearted and fatuously disdainful attitude to the rest of the world. At the time, however, I did not see through the Rabbi’s ruse, and I accepted his words at face value. After the Holiday of Shavuoth, I traveled to Jerusalem and visited two well-known Yeshivas, finally choosing to enroll in
Yeshivat Ohr Samayach.
David Gottlieb, formerly Professor of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, one of Ohr Samayach's
outstanding instructorsMap of Ohr Samayach campus in Jerusalem
YESHIVA LIFE:
SITTING ON THE TRUTH
During my first month at Ohr Samayach, I took special classes to help deprogram me from the Christian ideas to which I had been exposed. Some of these were taught be a controversial man,
Shmuel Golding, who claimed to have been a high official in the Anglican Church who had
converted to Judaism. Similar anti-missionary organizations are
Jews for Judaism and
Outreach Judaism.
Another class was taught by an American rabbi named Shmuel Burstein, who also happened to be an excellent cantor. Shmuel was very friendly and courteous. He never denigrated or disparaged Christianity, but he insisted that its core doctrine of freedom from the law is incompatible with authentic Jewish beliefs. He stressed repeatedly the many verses in Deuteronomy that speak of the Law of Moses being binding upon Jews for all eternity. Here is just one example:
DEUTERONOMY 12:28
Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee forever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the LORD thy God.
After a couple of months of this process, I left behind any lingering Christian ideas and devoted myself whole heartedly to the many Jewish studies the Yeshiva had to offer. (Many years later I discovered this
Christian apologetics article disputing the interpretation Rabbi Burstein gave to the above verse from Deuteronomy.)
Since the world of Yeshiva is largely unknown to Christians, and even to many secular Jews, it bears detailed description. Yeshiva is a Hebrew word meaning sitting or meeting. It is quite simply a place where people meet to study God’s word. “Sit and learn” is a favorite Orthodox expression alluding to life in Yeshiva. All Orthodox Jewish children attend Yeshiva for the totality of their education. When they are younger they attend Cheder, comparable to our elementary school, except that they learn to read the Hebrew alphabet as young as three years of age. Boys and girls are strictly separated. At a later age they attend Yeshiva Ketana (like our Junior High School) and then Yeshiva Gedola (Senior High School). Girls attend a parallel system of their own. Israel provides a state-run Yeshiva system, but many of the Orthodox groups will not use it and send their children to private Yeshivas. Each major Orthodox group has its own Yeshiva system.
It may seem strange to most Americans, but the Orthodox girls receive a much better secular education than the boys, who are trained almost entirely in Talmudic studies from the age of ten. In the Orthodox world, a married woman often works to support her family, while her husband spends as many years as possible in advanced Talmudic studies (in an institution called a Kollel). The education system is geared to providing girls with practical tools for finding work. Thus girls study geography, mathematics, literature, and computers and technology, in addition to a very rigorous religious studies curriculum; while the boys mainly study Talmud, with a perfunctory study of mathematics. I have met Yeshiva boys in Israel who had no idea of what the map of the world looks like. Their education is narrow and dogmatic to the extreme.
Also their ideas about work and income differ markedly from Christianity, which praises the honest labor of a man to support his family. However in the world of Jewish Orthodoxy, gainful employment is viewed as a curse that only those intellectually incapable of studying Talmud undertake as a last resort. This attitude is not reflected in the Talmud, strictly speaking, many of whose Sages were craftsmen, like Jesus, working as carpenters, blacksmiths, and shoemakers. However, during their exile in Europe, the rabbis created a culture of exclusive Yeshiva study. (One of the purposes of the Chassidic revolution in the 18th century was to bring hope to the Jewish working masses who had been excluded from the elite and exclusive world of Talmudic study of the great Yeshiva centers in Lithuania and Poland.) The Orthodox in Israel today carry with them much of the historical aversion to gainful employment; today it is said that more students study in Yeshiva that at any time since the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD. (Secular Israelis, cynical about this socio-economic arrangement, have remarked that it seems similar to a pride of lions, in which the male sleeps most of the day while the female does all of the hunting!)
Starting after the Six Day War, in 1967, Israel enjoyed a big upsurge in immigration. People began to catch a kind of secular messianic fervor. Jews sought to study the values and beliefs of Judaism that they never had learned before. Many Yeshivas were opened that catered to Jewish adults who had been raised secular and therefore had no Jewish knowledge per se. Such was Ohr Samayach, along with
Aish Hatorah,
Darche Noam,
Diaspora, and
Machon Meir.
Most of the students at Ohr Samayach were raised either as secular Jews or in Orthodox homes but had veered away from that. My roommate, for instance, Gershon Seif, was from the latter group. As a teenager he had joined a rock band and became an accomplished drummer. Later he desired to return to his religious roots and enrolled at Ohr Samayach. He was a very quiet, serious and thoughtful person. I used to listen to him recite the long prayer Jews say each night before going to bed. He recited it from memory, cherishing each word, while I listened totally entranced! Today he performs
Jewish music and serves as a
rabbi in Chicago. Two other Yeshiva friends also serve as American rabbis:
Yitzchak Feldman and
Shaul Praver.
Usually our daily routine was like this: We awoke at 6 am and morning prayers began at 7 am. Prayers lasted until 8 am, followed by breakfast in the dining room. The food always was good, but the chefs were not knowledgeable about avoiding fats, sugar, and refined flour. I often would suffer from the after effects of this kind of cuisine, and I would ponder why, if we were following God's will by learning His Law, my dietary health seemed so poor? But this was the only negative aspect of Yeshiva life.
At 9 am we had our first class, on the weekly Torah reading. Teachers like
Uziel Milevsky were among my favorites. He was formerly Chief Rabbi of Mexico City, and he was a brilliant scholar and an excellent teacher. He showed us that the Torah text is far more than simple stories, that there is great depth, subtlety, and detail behind each story. He would incorporate Midrashim and Talmudic passages, which he seemed to know by heart, as he wove a fascinating behind the scenes account of what really is going on in the Bible. For an excellent example of this approach, see this
Midrashic interpretation of the Book of Esther.
Also there were weekly lectures in Philosophy and Apologetics, which bolstered our faith in the tenets of Orthodox Judaism as we faced the cynical secular culture that surrounded us. But the main part of our studies was devoted to Talmud. We would prepare a section of Talmud with a study partner for about two hours. Then we would meet for a one hour class covering the same material. It was extremely dry and technical, and, although I developed a certain proficiency in it, I did not like it at all. I found it boring and lifeless, especially compared to the Midrashic classes. (Although the Talmud also contains Midrash, called Aggadah, our studies focused on the more technical portions dealing with the intricate details of Jewish Cannon Law, or Halacha; e.g., what time in the evening and morning a Jew must recite the Shema prayer, the many details of the Sabbath restrictions and prohibitions, and the laws of marriage contracts and bills of divorcement.)
It is worth noting that the New Testament essentially is a Midrashic text. Galatians 4:21-31, for example, is written in a classic Midrashic style, which sees patterns and forms in the text that allude to higher and deeper truths. It is my belief that this way of understanding the New Testament would help considerably to resolve apparent contradictions in the Gospel accounts that embarrass the Christian witness (for instance the seeming conflict between the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke). Jewish Midrashim commonly present conflicting views of what might have happened behind the Biblical text. For example, regarding the spouses of Jacob’s 12 sons, one Midrash states that they married twin half-sisters, while another states that they married Canaanite women. Obviously both versions cannot be true. Yet, somewhat paradoxically, Orthodox Jews consider both views equally valid! This kind of exegetical acrobatics might serve Christianity well!
GALATIANS 4
21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
Jebel al Lawz in Arabian Desert
JEWISH CANNON LAW:
ORAL FIXATIONS
It is important to explain Judaism's Oral Law. This is the body of writings included in the Mishna and Gemarra (the two main parts of the Talmud), which after many centuries of collation and codification came to be redacted into Jewish Cannon Law, or Halacha, which comes from the root Lalechet, meaning to walk, and it literally means the way to go in one's daily walk with God. (The Talmud also contains homiletic writings, called Aggadoth, similar to separate collections of rabbinical writings called Midrashim, but the "Oral Law", strictly speaking, refers only to those portions of Talmudic and other rabbinical discussions concerned with Halacha.)
The Oral Law is the source of much misunderstanding in the Christian world. Some Christians cite verses like this to suggest that there never was an Oral Law that originated with Moses and that Jesus struggled primarily against it:
JOSHUA 8
34 And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law.
35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them.
However these verses may mean simply that whatever Moses wrote in the Torah, Joshua read before the congregation of Israel. It does not mean that there was not a corresponding Oral Tradition to explain and interpret these commandments. Indeed, an honest reflection upon the Law of Moses virtually demands the existence of an accompanying Oral Law. For instance in the following well-known verse from the New Testament, in which Jesus castigates the Pharisees for various errors in their behavior and leadership of the people, He mentions phylacteries and fringes, both of which are derived from verses in the Torah:
MATTHEW 23:5
But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
These verses are the source for the fringes and phylacteries, from the Hebrew word tefillin, meaning prayer amulets, as well as for the mezuzah, or doorpost inscription:
NUMBERS 15
37 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
38 Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue:
39 And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring:
40 That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God.
41 I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God.
DEUTERONOMY 6
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
Note that these references to fringes and frontlets are very vague. It would not be possible to know what these devices look like or how to make them merely from the Biblical verses. Every aspect of fringes and frontlets used today by Jews is derived from the Oral Law. For instance, Jews make fringes of four threads doubled over into eight strands on each of the four squared corners of a rectangular garment. They attach a single blue thread doubled over as one of the four threads on each corner. The garment has specific dimensions that determine its obligation to bear fringes.
Tefillin are much more complicated. They consist of two leather boxes, one tied on the bicep of the left arm and the other on the hairline centered between, but above, the eyebrows. Each box contains four passages of Scripture: Exodus 13:1-10, Exodus 13:11-16, Deuteronomy 6:4-9, and Deuteronomy 11:18-21. In all these passages the command to make a sign upon the hand and frontlets between the eyes is repeated: Ex. 13:9,16; Deut. 6:8; 11:18. The rabbis saw in this repetition of binding and wearing an indication that these four passages literally must be worn upon the body. This part of the command is considered to have originated with Moses himself, instructed orally to Joshua and from then on to the teachers of Israel.
The Talmud explains how to make the leather boxes, how to write the four Torah passages mentioned above, on what kind of parchment, and with what kind of quill and ink. The laws governing the scribal arts alone are extremely complex and run into the thousands, including the correct form of the Hebrew letters and how and when scribal mistakes may be corrected. It should be obvious to all but the most prejudiced reader that none of these provisions is readily discernable from the bare Torah text. Thus, Orthodox Judaism rejects the Karaite and Samaritan notion of “Torah Alone” with the same fervor that the Catholic and Orthodox Churches reject Martin Luther's cry “Sola Scriptura” as an impossible trivialization of the huge complexity of Scripture.
Another example that proves the need for, and legitimacy, of the Jewish Oral Law is the verse that states that Jews must take a special group of plants on the Festival of Succoth (Tabernacles). But it does not explain what kinds of plants. The Jewish custom of taking an Ethrog fruit as the bough of goodly trees and myrtle branches as the bough of thick trees can only be derived from the Oral Law:
LEVITICUS 23:40
And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.
I do not believe that it is fruitful to tell Jews that their Oral Law is a contrived form of rabbinical oppression. When Jesus mentions the use of tefillin and fringes, He does not reject them outright but rather condemns their abuse for pompous ostentation rather than for genuine piety. And to those who object based on the following passage from Matthew, I would say that there is a difference between the Oral Law clarifications communicated by Moses and those later added on by the Pharisees.
Jesus embraced the former while being very cautious about the latter. Indeed it must be so, for even the most recognized Jewish customs of making Kiddush on a cup of wine at the beginning of Sabbath and Festive meals and having four cups of wine at the Passover Seder are all derived from the Oral Law! There is no mention anywhere in the Written Law of Moses about sanctifying a cup of wine before a sacred meal! The problem is that, over the centuries, rabbis added details to the original Law of Moses that became excessively burdensome.
This seems to be the reason that Jesus denounces ceremonial hand washing before eating a meal with bread. The Talmud states this was ordained by later rabbis to reinforce the idea that the people are a Kingdom of Priests by reminding every Israelite that even in eating common bread he serves a similar role to the Temple Priests, who had to follow elaborate ritual cleanliness procedures before partaking of the Shew Bread or the other sacred sacrificial portions allotted to them. And although this was a good idea in theory, Jesus insists that the means of attaining holiness (hand washing) had become more important than the end of holiness itself (turning the entire nation into a Kingdom of Priests).
MATTHEW 15
1 Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,
2 Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
3 But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
4 For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
5 But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;
6 And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
This is further seen when Jesus denounces, in Matthew 15, their custom of proclaiming a gift to the priests, even if unrighteously usurped from one of the Ten Commandments (in this case honoring one's parents by providing for them in their old age), to be inviolable and unredeemable, in order to demonstrate to them that many of their religious strictures had become self-serving rather than serving God's Higher Purposes. He revealed to them their hidden motives that made a mockery of their claim to place holiness for the sake of Heaven above all earthly concerns.
However, Christian critics of Judaism have taken Jesus' comments out of context and far beyond their intended purpose. Indeed in this passage Jesus seems to establish the theoretical righteousness of Jewish Cannon Law beyond question or dispute:
MATTHEW 23
1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
2 Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:
3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
Here Jesus is simply accusing them of hypocrisy. He does not say that their teachings are false. He says they do not do what they themselves teach others. Those who take license from this New Testament passage to denigrate Jewish Halacha should be extremely cautious, for they may be reading far more into Jesus' words than He intended and may be blaspheming Moses' seat!
In my opinion, rather than attack Jewish Halacha as contrived and false, a Christian should resort to the principle that, while the Word leads to death, the Spirit brings life. Leave Halacha alone. In fact, the huge burden of the Halacha, if sincerely undertaken, might well lead the Jew to the conviction that all his efforts to appease God through works of the Law are hopelessly doomed. This indeed is what happened to me in my experiences as an Orthodox Jew.
THE PAIN OF THE ORAL LAW:
TRUTH DECAY
Let me explain. Halacha discusses the different quality of religious items like fringes and phylacteries (called “beautification of the mitzvoth“). A simple set of tefillin costs about $200. A rabbi in Jerusalem is known to wear four different sets of tefillin, each costing $1000 - $2000. (This is due to disputes in the Talmud about in which order the four Torah passages are meant to be inserted into the leather boxes worn on the arm and the head.) The dye used to make the blue thread of the fringes costs from $10 - $100. Orthodox Jews usually have many garments that require such fringes. Similarly with Mezuzot, which Halacha states must be placed on every doorpost of the home, not just on the front door or gate. Good quality Mezuzot parchments can cost from $20 - $100. If a home has ten doors, this amounts to a huge expenditure.
Similarly with laws of kashrut. Halacha is not content just to separate meat from milk (based on the interpretation of various verses in the Torah that speak of not boiling a kid in its mother's milk, from which the rabbis took license to interdict all forms of meat and dairy combinations, even having coffee with milk at the end of a meat meal). But the Halacha goes much further, mandating separate pots and pans, dishes, and cutlery, which of course is extremely costly for the average Jew. Furthermore the rabbis placed a double bind on the people: exhorting them continually to give more money to support Torah academies, necessitating working long and hard hours; but also exhorting them to spend more time in prayer, Torah study, and communal worship in order to reap God's blessings.
Thus, to give a practical example: the morning prayer service comprises about 100 pages in a Hebrew prayer book. Most Orthodox Jews who work for a living have less than one hour in which to pray in the synagogue. This simply is not enough time to recite all these pages of prayers with due reverence, or even with comprehension. The Talmud states that the pious of Israel would spend nine hours a day at prayer, three hours at each of the three public prayers. When an average Jew reads this he can react in one of two ways: either ignore it or wonder why his own prayer life is so brief, rushed, and anemic!
A perfectionist by nature, who wanted to pray in the most sincere manner, I would start the prayers with one group, move on to a different group in the middle of my prayers, and conclude the service with yet a third group! This process took perhaps two hours rather than the one hour that most Jews allotted to themselves. (Just before I became a Christian, this form of oppressive prayer, in which one had to rush through dozens of pages of text in order to finish in the inadequate allotted time, so disgusted me that I termed it "Fax Machine Praying", in which we would spew out the words of the prayer book thoughtlessly and insincerely, like a machine spewing out pages of text sent mechanically through the phone lines.) Then I wanted to study Torah with commentaries after the morning prayers, still wearing tallith and tefillin, a practice lauded by the Talmud. When I finally was ready to start Kollel studies it was too late to eat breakfast or take care of other needs. (It should be obvious that this sort of schedule can be maintained only by the privileged few who do not have to rush off to work to toil for their daily bread.)
So an urgent question arises in the mind of any sincere practitioner of Halacha (as well of any astute reader of this testimonial): how much money should one spend on religious items, such as tallith, tefillin, and books? How much should one spend on food for Sabbath and festivals? Is it better to lavish funds on these things or to buy poorer qualities and give the remainder of the funds to charities? (In short, even within the sanctified parameters of Halacha, the temptation to selfishness and self-indulgence still exists!) And whom should one support: the working poor or the Torah students? Halacha gives no clear guidelines to these questions.
What about time in prayer: should one spend more time in the morning prayers and work at a less lucrative job, since God can always make up the difference? Halacha praises self-sacrifice and devotion in prayer, but most people who are struggling to support their families simply do not have the luxury of choice. Thus they may work at difficult and unrewarding jobs, and when they go to synagogue to find religious solace, instead they face an onslaught of guilt for not giving enough money or spending enough time studying Torah themselves.
Halachic requirements at the time of the Jerusalem Temple were even heavier, demanding that on the three annual pilgrimage festivals a man buy his wife new clothes and jewelry and purchase meat and wine for the Festive Meals. And this does not include the expense and difficulty of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. So it should be very apparent that Orthodox Judaism is loaded down with strictures that can give rise to guilt and encourage the formation of a privileged class of Torah scholars, who tend to forget their indebtedness to those who toil to support them and impose ever increasing demands upon them.
When I got involved in the Chassidic movement, these problems were almost infinitely compounded! Originally I was drawn to Chassidism in order to simplify my spiritual life. I was intrigued by the Chassidic idea that one cannot be justified before God simply by works of the Law and Torah study, as conventional Orthodox Jews believe. The Chassidim argued that only by a relationship with a living Tzaddik (a righteous man) could one be made acceptable to God. Different Chassidic movements (and there are many dozens of them) have different emphases and practices, but they all follow Halacha. And they add many rituals that are intended to lead to greater levels of personal piety.
The
Breslov movement is one of the most extreme, for its founder, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, who lived from 1772 - 1810 in the Ukraine, demanded a very rigorous lifestyle of piety. On top of the normal Orthodox practices of daily public prayer and Talmudic study, he mandated:
1. early to bed with little food for supper
2. rising at midnight for the “Midnight Lament“, to mourn the destruction of Jerusalem
3. immersion in a mikvah, usually of cold water
4. private prayer, meditation, and study all night until the time of the sunrise service.
5. long, thoughtful, and sincere public prayer.
6. Torah study after the prayer
7. extensive recitation of Psalms
8. recitation of prayers specifically composed by Rabbi Nachman and his followers.
9. extensive study of Zohar, writings of Arizal, and Rabbi Nachman's own teachings.
10. rigorous adherence to all aspects of Halacha and regular and disciplined study of Talmud, Legal Codes, and Midrashim
It has been calculated that a person would have to read 100 large folio pages per day just to satisfy Rabbi Nachman's scholastic demands. This would not include the many pages of prayer, Psalms, petitions, and other practices that he mandated. (It should be noted that Rabbi Nachman inherited property and lived off rental income. He and his wife both suffered from tuberculosis, amassing huge medical expenses that his followers paid for. He had nine children, of whom all three of his sons and one daughter died in infancy.)
Thus, by the time I converted to Christianity I could well appreciate Jesus' famous declaration:
MATTHEW 11
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
It also is important to remember that although Jesus pronounced doom over Jerusalem, He preserved the Pharisees as a remnant:
LUKE 21
20 And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
21 Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.
22 For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
23 But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.
24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
In Jesus' day, there were many groups of Jews: Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Priests, Essenes, Herodians, Zealots, and Samaritans. Why, of all these, did only the Pharisees survive to reorganize and create Orthodox Judaism of today? I believe the Pharisees serve Christ's Divine Purposes in two important ways:
1. They preserve the ancient Jewish dream and ideal of a Messiah-Redeemer-Savior. In fact the Talmud teaches that when Messiah does come, the miracles associated with him will be so great that they will far overshadow those of the Exodus from Egypt under Moses!
2. They continue to apply the full burden of the Mosaic Law upon the Jewish people, helping to drive them in desperation to the foot of the Cross. Indeed today most Israelis are secular and have a testy relationship with the Orthodox Jews who live in their midst. Of course they will turn to a rabbi to perform a wedding, bar mitzvah, Bris, or funeral. But they do not want to live under the heavy burden of the Halachic system. Indeed, it is ironic that most Orthodox rabbis opposed the Zionist movement, and that is why so many Orthodox Jews perished under the Nazi Regime, since they had resisted the call to return to Zion, while in fact most immigrants to Israel were secular Jews. And the Zionist movement itself was heavily influenced by Christians in America and Britain, starting with the rise of
Dispensationalism in the 19th century. So in some ways it is possible to see in the modern State of Israel a nascent Christian society.
This is further evidenced when one considers that, as part of their national service in the IDF, every Israeli soldier is given extensive historical and geographical tours of Israel. One of the sites they visit is the
Garden Tomb in East Jerusalem, where they hear the story of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. In this way Israelis are perhaps the best informed about these foundational doctrines of the Christian Faith of any Jewish community in the world!
This is why I believe that Christians seriously err in challenging the legitimacy of Jewish Oral Law and Halachic lifestyle. Rather agree with the Jews that these practices are legitimate and warranted, but then point out that even if they are true, no Jew possibly can fulfill properly even 10% of the spiritual burdens placed upon them by their rabbis. And lest they wish to be accused of hypocrisy, in boasting of a legal system that they themselves cannot adhere to, let the crushing weight of Halacha drive them to the foot of the cross, as Paul writes:
GALATIANS 3
19 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.
20 Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.
21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.
22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Early on in my Orthodox experience, however, I was blissfully unaware of these looming problems, so the four years I spent at Ohr Samayach, from 1983 - 1986, were among the happiest of my life. I was exposed to an amazing world of Jewish scholarship; I found comfort in the ebb and flow of Jewish life and deep meaning in its practices; and I found rest and joy on the weekly Sabbath and annual Holy Days.
THE JEWISH LAZY-FAIRE BIBLE
It is important to explain the attitude of Orthodox Jews to the Old Testament, or what they call Tenach, the Hebrew acronym for Torah [Law, or Pentateuch], Neviim [Prophets], Ketubim [Writings]. Orthodox Jews almost never study Tenach scriptures in the manner of Christians. The Talmud mainly analyzes the verses of the Pentateuch, or Five Books of Moses, in order to explain the minutiae of details in the so-called
613 commandments. The Orthodox Jewish liturgy in the Siddur [prayerbook] is filled with verses from Psalms and other Tenach writings, but these are recited rather than studied or analyzed. In fact, Orthodox rabbis state that only women and children are meant to study the words of Tenach, since they do not have the intellectual capacity to comprehend the Talmud, which uses complex logical analysis to wrest legalistic details from the verses of the Pentateuch. Indeed this attitude puts Jesus’ statement into a new light, for the rabbis indeed mock Jesus’ approach as that worthy of children and not mature adults:
MARK 10:15
Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.
One reason that evangelism to Jewish people is so difficult is that they are not at all familiar with the many Messianic verses that Jesus fulfilled, simply because they almost never study the words of the Tenach (apart from the complex legalistic analysis of the Pentateuch found in the Talmud).
In my experience, Christians are very intimidated by Jews and imagine that Jews have a much more profound knowledge of Tenach than they do. But this is totally false! Jews are almost completely ignorant of the teachings of Tenach. And even Orthodox Jews who are fluent in Hebrew often cannot understand the vocabulary of the Tenach, since the later prophets employed a much more complex language than the Pentateuch itself. Therefore Christians should never feel intimidated by imagining that Jews possess an encyclopedic and superior understanding of Tenach!
DEUTERONOMY 18:15-22
15The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
16According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.
17And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.
18I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
19And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.
20But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.
21And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken?
22When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.
Another important point is that when Jews do study Tenach, it almost always is in order to lend authority to the Talmudic approach. Orthodox Jews believe that only the Laws of Moses are important, and that everything else in the Tenach, apart from the historical accounts, is simply prophetic exhortation to obey the Law of Moses. They understand these verses quite literally to mean that future prophets would urge the people to return to obedience to the teachings of Moses, rather than introduce new teachings themselves.
In fact, based on verses 20-22, a prophet who tries to introduce new teachings that appear to contradict the Law of Moses is worthy of death! And indeed this is how Orthodox Jews try to justify their rejection of Christ and their surrendering Him to the Romans for crucifixion, in one of the most detestable sins in the Talmud of
Mosser. And in this Orthodox Judaism finds itself on the horns of a very uncomfortable dilemma, since there are many allusions in the Talmud that the Messianic Age will bring a radical change in the Law.
See these writings of Hebraic scholar, Risto Sanatala, for more details.
Perhaps nowhere is this contrast seen more sharply than in Jesus’ words in Matthew 15:
MATTHEW 15:7-9
7Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
8This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
9But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Here is the original passage:
ISAIAH 29:13-14
13Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
14Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.
The key phrase is the Hebrew Mitzvath Anashim Melumada in verse 13. This literally means Commandment of Men Learned [or Taught]. There are two ambiguities in the phrase, and Jesus’ words are based on one interpretation while the Talmud explains it according to the other interpretation:
יג וַיֹּאמֶר אֲדֹנָי, יַעַן כִּי נִגַּשׁ הָעָם הַזֶּה, בְּפִיו וּבִשְׂפָתָיו כִּבְּדוּנִי, וְלִבּוֹ רִחַק מִמֶּנִּי--וַתְּהִי יִרְאָתָם אֹתִי מִצְוַת אֲנָשִׁים מְלֻמָּדָה.
13 And the Lord said: Forasmuch as this people draw near, and with their mouth and with their lips do honour Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear of Me is a commandment of men learned by rote;
יד לָכֵן, הִנְנִי יוֹסִף לְהַפְלִיא אֶת-הָעָם-הַזֶּה--הַפְלֵא וָפֶלֶא; וְאָבְדָה חָכְמַת חֲכָמָיו, וּבִינַת נְבֹנָיו תִּסְתַּתָּר.
14 Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the prudence of their prudent men shall be hid.
Mitzvath Anashim means Commands of Men. However “men” can refer either to those who ordain the command or to those who are commanded to obey it. Likewise Melumada can mean either a commandment that has been taught by a teacher or learned by a student.
Jesus says the verse castigates the false teachers of Israel, who invent commandments and claim they are of God, which places a huge burden on the people and enhances the power and prestige of the rabbinical leadership. As a consequence, verse 14, according to Jesus, means that the false wisdom of the rabbis will perish and the kingdom given to more simple folk who are prepared to follow Jesus.
However the Talmud says that Isaiah’s meaning is entirely different: the prophet is castigating the people of Israel, who perform the commandments of God perfunctorily and without genuine devotion. And therefore verse 14 means that the genuine wisdom of the rabbis will be withheld from the masses, whose insincere religious devotions cause them to fall into the darkness of being without a shepherd.
Another way to put it is that while Jesus blames the rabbinical leadership for the fact that Israel is without a shepherd, the Talmud blames the Jewish masses, who do not want to obey the rabbinical teachings or who perform their religious duties in a half-hearted manner.
PSALM 35:19
Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause.
PSALM 69:4
They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.
LAMENTATIONS 3:52
Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.
This dichotomy is further seen with regard to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Both the New Testament and the Talmud blame this on
Sinat Chinam, or Senseless Hatred, based on the above verses. But while Jesus says the cause of Jerusalem’s desolation is the senseless hatred of the rabbinical leadership towards Him, the Talmud states that the senseless hatred that brought doom to the nation of Israel is that of the Jewish masses towards their rabbis. See
here for more.
Again this dichotomous approach is found in the Jewish and Christian understanding of the famous passage in Jeremiah 31, which forms the basis of the phrase “New Testament” in the first place!
JEREMIAH 31:31-34
31Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
33But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
While Christians see in these verses a promise that, under the future Messiah, the Law of God would become more transcendent and subtle, the Talmud says the very opposite! It claims that, following the miraculous deliverance from the genocidal plot of Haman the Amalekite in Persia, described in the Book of Esther, Jews recommitted themselves to following the detailed strictures of the Mosaic Oral Law! Thus the Orthodox rabbis find in the very words that Christians see as foretelling the New Testament a confirmation of the validity and necessity of the Talmudic approach!
OLD PROBLEMS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
To be fair to our Jewish friends and critics, I should like to note the following examples of problems in the New Testament text that no one should dismiss lightly and that, indeed, demand a response. For while many apparent anomalies and contradictions, raised by Jewish critics of the New Testament, can be resolved satisfactorily; and certainly similar questions can be charged against the Tenach scriptures as well; however the following three examples are extremely difficult; I have yet to find a satisfying explanation for them:
I. The Nativity accounts of Matthew and Luke seem totally contradictory:
a. Matthew does not mention the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem while Luke does.
b. Matthew does not mention the presentation in the Temple of the infant Jesus while Luke does.
c. Luke does not mention the visit of the Magi while Matthew does.
d. Luke does not mention the flight to Egypt while Matthew does.
e. The genealogies of Jesus are very different in the two Gospels.
Some seek to resolve this in the following manner:
Joseph and Mary journeyed from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born.
The infant Jesus was presented in the Temple 40 days later.
Joseph and Mary then returned to Nazareth with Jesus and gathered their things to return to Bethlehem. They imagined that the Messiah needed to be raised in Bethlehem and not just born there.
Two years later the Magi arrived bearing their gifts. They incited Herod’s wrath against the infant Jesus, causing the family to flee to Egypt for a period of time.
Eventually the Holy Family returned to Nazareth.
The problem is that the following verse in Matthew implies that none of them ever had lived in Nazareth:
MATTHEW 2:23
And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.
II. Additional problems concern the Ecclesiastical date of December 25 for Jesus’ birth. About this there are many questions:
Why would the Romans order a census during a difficult time of the year for travel, when roads are wet and muddy, weather inclement, and daylight hours few (in those days people traveled only by daylight)?
Why would shepherds be with their flocks in the fields at night in the cold of late December?
Why would the Romans order a census that required people to travel to their villages of birth?
And if they did so, why didn’t Mary’s parents, who,
according to many Christian scholars, also were of the House of David, travel to Bethlehem as well?
III. A final problem occurs at the very end of the New Testament, in the Book of Revelation, whose Chapter 20 presents the following order of end times events:
Battle of Armageddon
Christ’s Millennial Kingdom
War of Gog and Magog
Heavenly Jerusalem
The problem is that most Christians who believe that Christ will reign for a millennium from Jerusalem will have a Millennial Temple as well. This is based on Ezekiel’s Vision of the restored Temple in Ezekiel 40-48. However, Ezekiel’s Temple comes after the War of Gog and Magog; while Revelation says that after this final battle the Heavenly Jerusalem will come down and that it specifically does not have a Temple:
REVELATION 21:22-27
22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
23And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
24And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
25And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
26And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.
27And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.
This presents a seemingly irresolvable contradiction between Revelation and Ezekiel concerning the nature of the Millennium and whether or not it contains a restored Jerusalem Temple. And of course Christ’s statement to the Samaritan woman only compounds this problem:
JOHN 4:19-24
19The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
20Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
21Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
23But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
24God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
ORTHODOX JEWISH SABBATH:
TASTE OF HEAVENLY EARTH
The Late Reverend Albert R. 'Kim' Dreisbach, Jr., OBM, 
