koberstein
Active member
What Is Messianic Judaism?
Aaron Eby: Messianic Judaism is a movement of Jewish followers of Jesus who hold that following Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah, doesn't transfer us outside the orbit of Judaism and the Jewish people. And to take it a step further, there's a school of thought known as Postmissionary Messianic Judaism that embraces an approach that sees Jewish life and Torah observance as a matter of covenant fidelity for Jewish people, and it's at home within the whole Jewish world and Jewish tradition as it exists today, and it seeks to be a bridge between disciples of Yeshua among the nations with Israel. And this is where we've carved out our spot. And we certainly have some unique perspectives to bring to Messianic Judaism. But Messianic Judaism, the fundamental concept of Postmissionary Messianic Judaism, that's our ideological home.Damian Eisner: Aaron just mentioned the word bridge. Messianic Judaism is a bridge, and Hebrew roots is an island, okay? Messianic Judaism lives and functions today, for sure, within two worlds, between the world of what we would term “traditional Judaism,” I guess—that's not the best terminology, but those Jews who do not have a connection with Yeshua as Messiah—and on the other side, the church. But I mean, and that also is no monolithic term. There's no such thing as “the church.” Messianic Judaism lives, breathes, thrives, enjoys living to some degree within those worlds being a positive connector between the two of them.
I want to be careful because I don't want to lump all Hebrew roots people into this negative bucket, but on the whole, it's pretty negative, if I'm just going to be honest here. But it has created this holier-than-thou mentality that separates it from the church with accusations of paganism in the holidays and all kinds of things that aren't worth getting into and separated itself from Judaism, that is, the authority and the genius of rabbinic sources and millennia of Torah interpretation are rejected as man-made traditions. Judaism basically has gotten everything wrong and the church has gotten everything wrong, but these enlightened Hebrew roots scholars have risen to the occasion and created what is the true faith. It's dangerous.
I would also apologize almost for the damage that Hebrew roots has done both in the church and in Messianic Judaism. There are pastors who lump us in with Hebrew roots, and sadly, our own fellow Messianic Jews sometimes lump us in with Hebrew roots at First Fruits of Zion. That is absolutely not where we belong. I remember doing this podcast years ago, and some of those ideas [took root] within a very limited number of voices within Messianic Judaism [who then] made those accusations. We invited some of those people to come on the podcast, and they just they rejected that. But that solitary, holier-than-thou, “we got it right, everyone else has it wrong” [theology] is Hebrew roots, and Messianic Judaism I think certainly represents a beautiful bridge.
And just to say this other point: Messianic Judaism's pretty old, like, you know, 2,000 years old. It started a long, long time ago with this guy named Jesus who came along and had a movement with Jewish disciples, and he was here to be bringing the kingdom to Israel. And you had Messianic Jews who brought about everything that we see today, even within Christianity. Hebrew roots thinking is an absolutely modern movement of, I would say, certainly 20th century. And sadly, over the last 20 years, it has gained more traction because of things like YouTube, and anyone can be an expert on YouTube, right?
FFOZ within Messianic Judaism
Aaron Eby: Very well said. And generally, with many of these Messianic Jewish leaders, we have a very good relationship. I don't want to give people the impression that by and large we're rejected. I think many Messianic Jewish leaders are really close relationship with us and see us as part of their work. And beyond that, we've done an extraordinary amount of work, possibly more work than any other Messianic Jewish organization, to collect the writings and the stories of the founders of modern Messianic Judaism and to publicize and disseminate their writings. We feel a really deep connection and resonance with those Messianic Jewish pioneers from the 19th century and early 20th century. They are our heroes. We're walking in their footsteps.To be honest, I'm afraid that when people are using that ridiculous Hebrew roots label to disparage and distance us, maybe it's not in good faith. You know It's a way to just make someone “the other.” And I hate to see that.
Jacob Fronczak: It seems to me that when you pick up the word Judaism, you are picking up 3,500 years of tradition, more texts than anyone could possibly read in one lifetime … I mean, there's a whole framework there. And I think it's pretty clear that we are operating within that framework. When we talk about what relationship does a non-Jewish person have with the Torah, all the things we say about that are within a traditional Jewish framework because traditional Judaism also believes that the Torah has a lot to say to a non-Jewish person—particularly any non-Jewish person, certainly, but a lot more even to say to a non-Jewish person who lives like in the land of Israel, for example. So those are our guideposts along with the New Testament and everything the apostles said for this discussion. It's hard for me to believe that some of these people don't know that that's our approach. But you know, we try to give people the benefit of the doubt.
Damian Eisner: That's a very Jewish idea actually, Jacob—the benefit of the doubt.
Jacob Fronczak: You know, when I learned about the laws of evil speech, I had to go back and regret whole years of my life that I just flushed right down the toilet.
Last edited:
