A Call to the Traditionaphobes

Shalom,

Just one or two other things.

Did you know that....

Man-made traditions are solidified within the very fabric of the Scriptures?

Take for example the decree by Mordechi to celebrate Purim. This was a man-made tradition that became accepted as a Yah-breathed object lesson. In fact any teaching, decree or practice that is not mentioned specifically in the Torah is an example of either a venerable tradition or a commandment that has been uncovered through deductive reasoning of the text.

The rabbinic movement today (with whatever its faults) is a direct flow on from the appointment of 70 elders by the prophet Moshe Rabbeinu. While the original appointment of elders in the wilderness and their rabbinic ancestors were not above making mistakes and teaching error (evident as early as the elder’s criticism of the two outsiders who also received the Holy Spirit), they are the highest ceiling of earthly authority on the Torah and the writings of the prophets that mankind have.

Think about it. For authoritative Scriptural commentaries, who do we go to? The Karaites….No! The Christians….No! Reform Judaism….No!, The Samaritans….No!, Sadducees (if they still existed)….No!!

You cannot walk out this faith whilst ignoring rabbinic Judaism period. You’ll end up putting something else on your arm and between your eyes instead of tefillin and you’ll post a photocopy of Scripture on your doorpost instead of a painstakingly laboured over kosher mezuzah parchment. Some people can’t afford Mezuzah and this is fair enough, but I’m talking about those who can, but don’t.

The Karaites can’t even get away with side-stepping rabbinic Judaism! Most of the time they don’t ignore rabbinic ordinances; they just take rabbinic ordinances and change them. The typically long braided blue and white tzitzit is a great example of Karaite tradition and most of the finer aspects of the Kosher laws (that most Karaites follow) are based on rabbinic rulings.

Some offshoot branches should stop boasting against the root! I appeal to all who are continuing to run down rabbinic Judaism to cease and consider the bigger picture.

Jason C.N. Jordan

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Comment by Jason Jordan on March 5, 2010 at 11:05am: Shalom bro Andrew,

At this present time Orthodox Nazarene Authority is still in a very reformative phase, (i.e. in many ways we are still finding our feet) so it would be precipitous for me to hold our authority over our rabbinical brethren’s insights, notwithstanding our steadfastness in Messiah Yahshua. Certainly in our full birthed state our authority would be (almost) indistinguishable from rabbinic tradition rather than a competitive or counter collection of insights.

Hope this response helps.

In Moshiach,

Jason.

Comment by Mikha El on March 7, 2010 at 7:02am: I too agree there are many valid teachings within mainline Judaism. There does exist tradition however that I don't adhere to. Case in point...milk and meat separation. Do I then discredit everything else proclaimed by the sages of old, of course not. There is fabulous insight into scripture to be gained by study of their writings realizing they were human also and not above the possibility of human error. This being the case, in my mind, the only true representation of Judaism/"Judah" today is Nazarene Judaism not mainline Judaism.

Comment by Shawn on March 7, 2010 at 4:38pm: IN RESPONSE TO -

"and what about the Nazarene authority? you hold Rabbinic authority higher than Nazarene authority?

One must consider ORDER of authority in order for their to even be authority.

EXAMPLE

Lets say that the city of "fakesville" has an official judicial system and police force. In order to be part of the Judicial system or police force you must go to the preexisting system, learn from them, and receive authorization from them, then get your badge to do work for the city.

Lets say that one day a boy of 15 years of age named "Joey" decides he wants to be a cop just like his big brother Jude. It would not be right for Joey to one day say to himself "I want to be a police officer therefore I shall go buy a gun and find a cool toy badge and start arresting people and making laws."

Poor sweet little Joey may have the best of intentions, but thats just not how things work. Joey should go to his older brother Jude who is already a hired city official and ask him how to go about applying for a job...(of course Joey may not be quite old enough yet for the job).

That is the problem for Nazarene Judaism. There is no direct line of students or authority going back to Yeshua. The existence of Torah and Oral Torah observant believers in Yeshua disappeared around 300-500 CE. Those who had halachic authority amongst the Nazarenes went to one of two places Roman catholicism or Judaism.

In order to have a valid handed down authority and not just a made up one pulled out of thin air you would have to come from one of those two sources who claim to have such authority. Rome in my opinion is obviously defunct. So that leaves orthodox Judaism. have their always been believers in Yeshua amongst orthodox Judaism who could still have this authority? According to the testimony of Rabbi Simcha Pearlmutter...Yes.

Comment by Mikha El on March 7, 2010 at 5:04pm: Quote:
That is the problem for Nazarene Judaism. There is no direct line of students or authority going back to Yeshua.

Gotta disagree with you here Shawn. Yeshua and His "students" were Nazarenes as is evident in not only scripture but in ancient writings as well. Therefore we can easily see that there has always been torah observant believers in Messiah, ...few in number perhaps and disorganized to boot. Nevertheless they existed as we do today. To assume they had no "authority" because they may have been disorganized is not what I see in scripture.

Now that the Internet has come about, we are able to network and realize there are others of us out there in the diaspora. These followers, as I have said earlier, we're/are the true representation of Judaism / Judah NOT mainline Judaism who has been in Torah violation for their outright rejection of Yeshua....despite the fact some may claim they had never heard of Him in attempt to excuse rejection. No "boasting here"...just presenting fact. I love the Yehudim people, ...more than most even. Enough to tell them the truth...how about you?

"Authority" is a funny word. I have heard of a few others that claim they have "authority". The test for me concerning this claim is where's the truth? No truth, no authority! 1/2 truth doesn't cut it for me...never will. Does this mean we cease our outreach? Absolutely not! Rabbi Singer needs Yeshua just as much as you and I do. To "die in our sin" is not a good thing.

Comment by James E. Auel on March 30, 2010 at 9:01pm: One of the largest Synagogues in Albania is Netzarim. There were over 250 thousand Netzarim in Iraq till Hadam Hussane killed them with Gas. I not sure of the number now.

Many Jews returned from Iraq and many of them Netzarim, how many would have returned if they hadn't been killed in our life time. There is even followers of Yochannan the Immerser(John the Baptist) follower living today. You have to look beyond what you know and have heard to know the truth. We have a long history and practices. But you can't find them unless you look!

Comment by Jason Jordan on April 1, 2010 at 11:57pm: That's right James! You are absolutely right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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