Weekly Bracha 14

Hope you all had a happy Purim!

Here’s the weekly roundup of the Messianic blogosphere and related news items:

• Request to Dismantle Yad L’achim (PDF) – The Jerusalem Institute for Justice, an Israeli organization that has been fighting in Israeli courts for the rights of Messianics in Israel, has filed a suit with the Israeli government to dismantle the anti-missionary Judaism-shaming organization Yad L’Achim, which has threatened, bullied, harassed, and persecuted Messiah’s followers in Israel.

  We hereby ask you to exercise your authority pursuant to section 50 of the Associations Law, 5740-1980 (hereinafter: "the Associations Law") to request the District Court to dismantle Yad L’achim organization, since its activities are evidently contrary to the law and the democratic nature of the State of Israel, to the extent that it could be defined as a "terrorist organization" within the meaning of the law, in breach of sections 49(1) and 49(2) of the Associations Law.
  
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  The Organization's publications, as reported in the media, have an aggressive and sensationalist character directed against Reform Jews, the Kabbala Study Center, members of ethnic minorities, Jehovah's Witnesses, Protestant Christians, New Age groups, Messianic Jews and others.

• Haaretz ignores Jack Teitel-Yad L’achim connection – Despite a confession from Jewish terrorist and murderer Jack Teitel that he worked for Yad L’achim for 5 years, the popular Israeli paper Haaretz omits this information.
  
  
• The Dangers of Exclusionary Messianic Judaism – Folks that don’t fit into the UMJC/MTJI frame of Messianic Judaism are often delegitimized and isolated, painted as a lesser, placed outside of Messianic Judaism. I’m such a person, I’ve experienced this. Messianic apologist J.K. McKee has experienced this. And popular Messianic blogger Joseph Weissman has experienced this.
  
  
• Archaeologist sees proof for Bible in ancient wall – 3000 year old fortifications excavated in Jerusalem give evidence for the authenticity of the Biblical account of the kingdom of King David and King Solomon.
  
  
• The Jewish No To Jesus, and the NT Responses – Jews said no to Jesus. This is a problem for the legitimacy of Jesus’ Messiahship, argues the author. So how did the NT authors deal with this problem?
  
  
• HaYesod – Experience vs Rumor – A review of First Fruits Of Zion’s HaYesod discipleship program.
  
  
• Worship vs Ritual – Aaron Sperry brings up a question that has long been on my mind: how do you balance pure worship with ritual? How do you ensure your own worship doesn’t degrade into repetition without meaning?
  
  
• Justice and Mercy – James speaks frankly on the frustrations of unfairness and injustice in this life, but how we must yield to God’s ultimate justice and mercy.
  
  
• J-BOM train is a-growin’ – More Messianic folks will be joining us for the Jewish Book of the Month club, or J-BOM. Seth from Judeoxian even gets a few more Messianics to start a blog and join us. Wahoo, nice job Seth!
  
  
• Jewish origins of the hymn “King of Kings” – Aaron has a goods on the interesting history of the classic Christian hymn that goes, “King of kings and Lord of lords, glory, hallelujah”. Turns out, it’s from a Hebrew folk tune, possibly the Purim niggun Vayehi Bimei Achashverosh.
  
  
• Don’t you know about Moby Dick? He eats people. It’s in the Bible. – Sorry, couldn’t resist.    If anything, this serves to underline the importance of Bible literacy.
  
  
• In Search of an Explanation – Daniel tackles the idea of gentiles eating kosher, and towards the end of his post, lets his mind wander into curious territory: what is the expectation of gentiles who attach themselves to Israel through Yeshua? A God-fearer? A convert to Judaism? Something else?

Video blogs

• John McKee’s Editor’s Update:
  

  

Podcasts

• What Is The New Covenant, part 2 – Messianic apologist John McKee looks at what the New Covenant is – are we under the law? Are we in a post-resurrection era with different rules? Are gentiles part of this new covenant through Messiah, and if so, are they part of Israel? He explains that a significant part of the New Covenant is keeping God’s Torah, and being filled with God’s spirit. And mid-way through the podcast, McKee makes the bold assertion,

  Paul would not have opposed a proper keeping of the Torah by non-Jewish believers, because it first involves being transformed by God’s love.

• The Messianic Secret – Messianic rabbi Derek Leman discusses why Yeshua was so hidden, so ambiguous, in his message. Why didn’t he simply say, “I’m the Messiah. Here are miracles to prove it. Here’s what you need to do.” Instead, he opted for personal revelations, parables, and “show-and-don’t-tell” methodologies.

• Messianic Jews, Head Coverings, and Prayer Shawls – Hebrew Christian apologist and evangelist to Jews, Dr. Michael Brown, has some interesting things to say about Messianics and our traditions.