I’m Going to be a Jew on my Own Terms
Rabbi Yehudah ben Shomeyr
Many have wondered where I have been. I am on Sabbatical and still am. I am briefly popping my head out of my cave in order to make a personal, revelatory proclamation and go back inside until I feel HaShem telling me to go out again. So I suspect I will be on sabbatical for a while longer.
I am sure there will be some out there who totally miss the point of my rant and take out of context my words that I am screaming from the entrance of my cave.
I’ve had this phrase repeat and resonate in my spirit the past few days.
“I’m going to be a Jew on my own terms!”
Shocking perhaps, coming from a progressive orthodox Rabbi. It could be misconstrued and taken as rebellion or arrogance. But these motives are the furthest thing from my spirit right now. During this sabbatical I have been crushed, warn down, rubbed raw and broken and this cry of my spirit is coming from a disgust and anger at myself for getting caught up in the politically correctness of traditions and the religion of Judaism along with its myriad of useless debates that, I for a time, was foolishly mistaking for ministry and relationship with the Divine and others. It has gotten me nowhere but dashed against the rocks. Serves me right!
I’m done! I’m not going to bow to the whim of the public consensus any longer of what others think a Rabbi should be. If I try and live up to this faulty expectation of others I will always fall short and let myself and G-d down. I am going to be a Jew on my own terms.
Messianic and Natsari, Torah Obedient believers in Messiah Yeshua (of which I am one of them) are becoming a cult! We can be the most two faced, double-standard hypocrites on earth, who go from railing against the stuffed shirt traditions of the papal hierarchy of the Christian Church to embracing almost without question the traditions if the Jewish shul. From bucking the system of Christendom to woefully wagging the condemning finger to those who question or even color outside the lines of Jewish Orthodoxy.
I’m going to be a Jew on my own terms. I’m done being a hypocrite. I was this Christian rebel who turned into a whooped Jew. No longer! My Exodus to freedom began at Pesach this year. I’m going to get reacquainted with the Messiah who brought me out!
Look, I have the 613 Commandments and I do my best to walk in the footsteps of Yeshua HaMoshiach and I live by a halacha which may or may not line up with yours, or meet your personal convictions and criteria and that’s okay. I am not answerable to your halacha, nor are you to mine. I do not sit on a Beyt Din against you, nor you me. Though we are one body and a community, I am not answerable to you personally nor are you to me. We are only answerable to G-d and our local community and Beyt Din. If we must we will agree to disagree agreeably. I will no longer put out fires others foolishly create. I will let my teachings speak for themselves. I haven’t the time for useless debates. I’m done. I’m going to be a Jew on my own terms.
Tired of Christians not coming around to your way of thinking? With the way we act and carry on I can’t say that I blame them. Mohammed of Islam got tired of Christians and Jews not listening to him or bowing to his way of thinking and his solution was to convert by knife point or kill them! Ironic, Catholicism did this to Jews also. How many steps away are we from such hypocritical lunacy!? Debates and arguing rarely win anyone. However, love does.
Prov. 10:12 Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.
1 Peter 4:8 And above all things have fervent love among yourselves: for love shall cover the multitude of sins.
I’m done with the loveless version of Natsari Judaism. I will not be labeled a hatemonger or a cult.
If Natsari and or Torah Observant Messianic Judaism doesn’t change course soon it will either become a cult (if it hasn’t done so already) or assimilate back into Christianity or melt into non-believing Judaism.
It’s time to be like our Rebbe Yeshua and stand up to our own Jewish faith when necessary and sit down at the well and love those Samaritans; who to us are those of Christendom. It’s time to stop being angry and arrogant toward them on account of the same ignorance they are in bondage to, that we were once blinded by.
You don’t kick a frightened child out from under a gloomy bed, you gently and lovingly coax them out with the light. My Adon! Whose blood has unwittingly soiled our hands!?
