Does Messianic Judaism Forbid The Celebrations Of Christmas and Easter?

Nope. See Romans 14 and Colossians 2:13-17, among other verses. Also, I'm going to (G-d willing) expound more on this in light of Exodus 23-34--that is, the "tenor" of the Old Covenant, and thus the New Covenant--later.

    

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15:08:23 -- 1 hour 10 mins ago

Are Non-Messianic Jews Legalists?

I was writing a blog entry on Valentine's Day. Then this came up.

Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki

about an hour ago near Baltimore

sees almost every day, if not every day, why Non-Messianic Jews have an excuse to laugh at us: our hypocritical, out-of-bounds legalism. For example, as much as I love Samuel Rodriguez, there is no way that I'm letting him get away with connecting Ash Wednesday to Tammuz. Even if (as his legalistic friend alleges, and he realleged) the sign of the Cross is connected to Tammuz and a costume thereof (of which I have never seen nor heard), the Church redeemed it. Ever heard of tikun-ha'olam? We don't implement it, though we have the strength given to us by Yeshua Ha'Mashiach; and then we wonder why Non-Messianic Jews find us to be hypocrites who have no real interest in tzedek.

Yo veo casi todos los días, si no todos los días, por qué Judios quién son no Judios Mesiánicos tener una excusa para reírse de nosotros: nuestra hipócrita, fuera de límites legalismo. Por ejemplo, por mucho que me encanta Samuel Rodríguez, no hay manera de que yo voy a dejar que se salga con la conexión del Miércoles de Ceniza a Tamuz. Incluso si (como su amigo legalista alega, y él re-alegó) la señal de la cruz está conectado a Tamuz y un traje del mismo (de la que nunca he visto ni oído), la Iglesia ha redimido. ¿Has oído hablar de tikún-Haolam? No lo ponemos en práctica, aunque tenemos la fuerza que Ha'Mashiach Yeshua nos da, y luego nos preguntamos por qué Judios quién son no Judios Mesiánicos encuentran que somos hipócritas que no tienen ningún interés real en tzedek.

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  James Walker I thought non-messianic Jews *are* legalists... why would they fault legalistic messianics for being legalists?
  
  Furthermore, even your NT says:
  
  Matthew 6:16 “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly."
  
  Where does having a clergyman paint black cross on your forehead as a sign of starting a fast, and go telling your friends what you gave up for lent, fit in even with the above commandment of your messiah?
  
  Thus, I'm not following your logic either from the Judaism side, or Messianic side.

  27 minutes ago · Like
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  Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki Firstly, many Non Messianics follow the spirit of Torah as opposed to the letter--even if they do not believe in the inerrancy of Torah or the rest of Tanakh, much less in Yeshua as Masiach. In fact, Reform Judaism is very clear: "This early radicalism was mentioned in the 1885 Pittsburgh Platform, which dismisses "such Mosaic and rabbinical laws as regulate diet, priestly purity and dress" as anachronisms that only obstruct spirituality in the modern age. The platform stressed that Reform Jews must only be accepting of laws that they feel "elevate and sanctify our lives" and must reject those customs and laws that are "not adapted to the views and habits of modern civilization."" (Jewish Virtual Library)
  
  Reform Judaism continues this thinking today: " Some institutions are considered to be a product of the cultural milieu and societal norms of the ancient Near East when the Hebrew Scriptures were written down, and do not speak to our lives today. In addition, Reform Jews do not ascribe to the Mishnah and Talmud the same authority which Orthodox Jews do. While the Talmud and law codes guide the lives of Orthodox Jews, it is more accurate to say that they inform the lives of Reform Jews." (http://urj.org/ask/questions/orthodox/
  

  

  )
  
  Reform Judaism even mentions that Judaism is, or at least should not be, "frozen in time". Therefore, legalism would be--for example--following some "societal norms of the ancient Near East when the Hebrew Scriptures were written down"--giving over a slave's wife and children to his owner unless he has ear awled into a door. 
  
  Besides, Yeshua made a New Covenant, not a "Renewed Covenant". The Old Covenant remains for Non-Messianic Jews (which Karaites like yourself and others frankly get). The New Covenant and the spirit of the Old Covenant are for the Messianic Jew.
  

  
  

  Orthodoxy - URJ
  

  

  urj.org

  16 minutes ago · Like · Remove Preview
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  Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki Secondly, the intent is looked at. People who explain why they have crosses on their heads are certainly not looking for praise for doing it.

  15 minutes ago · Like
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  James Walker And how many ancient Jewish Christians rejected the Law in favor of Catholic traditions? Any sources, my friend? Ebionites or Nazarenes - they both rejected the trinity, were divided on the virgin birth, and united on the binding authority of the Torah. This is proven through documents from the 2nd century onward. Modern Messianic Jews, however, are the opposite, in most cases - being mainline evangelical protestants in beliefs and practice. How do you account for this?

  11 minutes ago · Like
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  Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki I can account for that many modern Messianic Jews heed the warnings in the Apostlic Letters--since the Apostles were writing down warnings about apostasy and legalism like that of the Ebionites and Nazarenes, which has nothing to do with Catholicism unless you consider that Non-Evangelical Catholics learned well from the Christian-in-name-only cults. By the way, Maccabees is not a part of Tanakh or Brit Chadashah.

  7 minutes ago · Like
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  James Walker It's our history, just as the German Reform movement and German holocaust a century later is part of our history

  6 minutes ago · Like
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  Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki The Reformation has nothing to do with the Holocaust. Martin Luther either fell away or was a Christian in name only.

  5 minutes ago · Like
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  James Walker where does the word legalism even appear in the NT?

  5 minutes ago · Like
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  James Walker German Jewish Reform

  5 minutes ago · Like
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  James Walker He believed Jesus is Lord, and you can't say that without having the Holy Spirit, right? So whoever calls on his shall be saved, etc.

  4 minutes ago · Like
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  Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki So, Reform Jewish children are at fault, too? I see. G-d must be a sick G-d to punish children because of Reform Judaism. Look; s*** happens; life happens; the Holocaust had nothing to do with Reform Judaism. Also, not everyone who says "L-rd, L-rd" will enter Heaven; and some who do will still have been fallen away.

  3 minutes ago · Like
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  James Walker It's a covenant, with consequences. It's basic Bible

  about a minute ago · Like
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  Nicole Maratovah Czarnecki Covenant with consequences for innocent children, like my cousin Fredi, too? I see. So, Fredi, who was Orthodox, was thrown against a fence or burned in a furnace because of what Reform Jews in Germany did. Your thinking is sick, James.

The conclusion is that Non-Messianic Jews who follow all 613 mitzvot of Torah aren't legalists, because they have to follow all 613 mitzvot; whereas Messianic Jews who follow all 613 mitzvot, if they even are really Messianic, are legalists. Again, a New--not a Renewed--Covenant was made.

PS Good luck following Torah, James. Know that having fallen away is not a nice place to be in--you're still saved, but you will lose reward--the New Testament says that.

Keeping Mitzvot Is Causing Others To Stumble? Since When?

Truth may absolutely hurt, but.... For example, a friend asked why some consider him or her to be part of the Hebrew Roots and/or Sacred Movement cults. I replied, "To be fair, I think that they're just being honest. To want to keep all 613 mitzvot (some of which are in contradistinction to the New Covenant) is one thing, but to tell others to keep Torah lest they be pagan or not living for Yehovah is another." Now, do I--for example--keep at least some of the 613 mitzvot? Yes. For example, I do try to wear my tallit every day, and I looked up (for a lack of better wordage) tallit etiquette and answers to questions that I had about wearing a tallit (Remember that my family were and are Anusim.). But am I going to tell others to wear a tallit? No.

In fact, someone bluntly told me the followi

ng after I answered his question about whether I'm Messianic, and asked if he wanted a Messianic to further support his business: "It sounds like you are asking me in good faith, with pure intentions and not just trying to pick a fight, so I will be straight with you. I have struggled with that question for a while, and have not achieved crystal clarity. To be honest, I would prefer not to sell a tallit with tzitzit. I don't see why a Christian, regardless of their enthusiasm for biblical practices, needs kosher tzitzit. However, if a Christian is really serious, really wants to keep the mitzvah of tzitzit, is willing to take the trouble to learn to tie the tzitzit and spend an hour doing it, then I don't really have any grounds to object."

So, trying to keep all 613 mitzvot, including the mitzvah l'tzitziyot, may actually even cause Non-Messianic Jews to stumble. In other words, if you're going to keep the mitzvot that are still valid under the New Covenant, don't be legalistic lest cause anyone to stumble with them.

With All Due Respect To Dr. Michelle Scott of University of Maryland, Baltimore County...

Firstly, your faith and "objectivity as a historian" cannot be separated. For, "As in water face reflects face, So a man’s heart reveals the man." (Proverbs 27:19) Furthermore, "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things." (Matthew 12:35) You can't separate a worldview for any other kind of view, and vice versa. Secondly, there is a class of undeserving poor men. "A lazy man buries his hand in the bowl, And will not so much as bring it to his mouth again." (Proverbs 19:24) Also:

⁶ But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he^[a] received from us. ⁷ For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you; ⁸ nor did we eat anyone’s bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, ⁹ not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us.

¹⁰ For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. ¹¹ For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. ¹² Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.

¹³ But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good. ¹⁴ And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed.¹⁵ Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

(From 2 Thessalonians 3)

There are welfare queens, people who want to blame the White man and conservatives (including you, since you talk about a "conservative backlash"), and others who refuse to face that deliberate ineptness, sloth, and similar factors are what influence and cause poverty and even the supposed War on Poverty (which has been a miserable failure) to happen in the first place-- in other words, as I admittedly tweeted during class today, "Reaganomics may've worked if the "undeserving poor" & the Church did their jobs." 

Also in other words, we wouldn't even need a "War" on Poverty, which has actually been a death march to poverty-- and we thought that slavery and the Holocaust were over. Oh no: many Blacks and many of us Jews-- that is, those of us in the ghettos such as Crown Heights and Northwest Baltimore-- have enslaved and entrapped ourselves under the burdens of unneeded government entitlements such food stamps, welfare checks, Social Security and unemployment benefits, and other "safety" nets. 

Thus, in conclusion, you are serving only to perpetuate a self-imposed Holocaust (among Jews) and self-imposed slavery (among Blacks and others)  by being among those who blame trickle-down economics and Republicans instead of those who refuse to work for and feed themselves, and instead of the Church-- who has grown deliberately weary in doing good; and which supposedly, since you implied that you had a faith, includes yourself. 

Repost: Moshe Looked To Torah Shel Brit Chadashah, and Legalistic "Messianic Judaism" Is Not Jewish

"Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If a person sins unintentionally against any of the commandments of the LORD in anything which ought not to be done, and does any of them, if the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, then let him offer to the LORD for his sin which he has sinned a young bull without blemish as a sin offering..."

Those who insist on keeping all 613 mitzvot make the blood worthless ("For it is impossible for those who...fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.", as Hebrews 6 partly reads.). They like to play pick-and-choose mitzvotwhile under grace, since they cannot possibly go to the Temple and offer akorban l'kippur.

Besides, "the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.", as Hebrews 10 partly reads.

To advocate that keeping all 613 mitzvot while under grace is a mitzvah, is a sin. Legalism is sin, and "if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?"