Composed From Tweets and Facebook Statuses: Yad L'Achim, And Other Self-Hating Jews And Anti Semites....

I'll never get why some Messianic Jews dread groups like Yad L'Achim-- what can man do to us that G-d hasn't planned since before time? Meanwhile, I actively call for parties like Likud & Yisra'el Beiteinu to stop supporting & enabling groups like Yad L'Achim. I even once called & confronted Yad L'Achim in New York. They're just abusive control freaks. Don't let 'em get to you (Here, I'm talking to people like my friend who got mad at me for saying that she is Messianic. She doesn't want Yad L'Achim to know & attack her.).

I should clarify that I am talking about fellow Messianic Jews across the board, me sadly included, when I say that I'll never get why some Messianic Jews dread groups like Yad L'Achim. I get afraid. (I-- even I-- get dreadful of everything of rejection to persecution.). I was abused and persecuted by my Self-Hating-, Non-Messianic-Jewish dad. I've been there, done that, and come to realize that I'm going to get persecuted almost daily if not daily. But I'm not afraid of my faith or what people will do to me because of it-- not if I don't want to be, for "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." I'm even making aliyah if G-d wills, and I'm going to have a Hell of a time as a Patrilineal, Messianic Jew with a disability. 

I know that Yad L'Achim is dangerous, but Yeshua stated clearly, "But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name’s sake." (Luke 21:12) I've received threats from people in the same vein, including Anti Semites. By the way, remember that Antimissionaries (Countermissionaries) and Anti Semites are ultimately in the same vein.

By the Way, To Begin The Discussion On Yeshua...

As I've made clear before, I believe Yeshua to be Mashiach. I do not find (for a lack of a better term) a One-in-Three, "Three In One", Pluralunity, or Trinity G-d to be in conflict with the Shema-- after all, both "Eloheinu" (from "Elohim") and "Echad" indicate plurality and unity-- e.g., "And God said: 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.'" In that context, I believe "us" to be G-d the Father, G-d the Son, and G-d the Holy Spirit. As for as P'rushi tradition, I see nothing wrong with it so long as it does not conflict with Tanakh. In the CJB Translation of the New Testament, from Romans 14: "5 One person considers some days more holy than others, while someone else regards them as being all alike. What is important is for each to be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes a day as special does so to honor the Lord. Also he who eats anything, eats to honor the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; likewise the abstainer abstains to honor the Lord, and he too gives thanks to God."

Composed From Yesterday's Tweets: Religion and Politics

Let's go over Right and Left one more time: Rightists want freedom, Leftists want restriction, and G-d states to be neither Right nor Left. ""Therefore you shall be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left." As if G-d didn't know about politics: search "right left" on Bible Gateway. Nonetheless, Yeshua does say, "I could wish you were cold or hot." (Rev 3:15b). So, we do need to lean Right or Left. So given Deuteronomy 5:32 and Revelation 3:15-16, we need to not be Far Right or Left but certainly need to have convictions.

Happy Israeli Independence Day

Today is Iyar 5, 5772. HaChodesh L'Iyar was sighted on April 22 at 7:24, according to Nehemiah Gordon. So, the P'rushim were, once again, a little off in celebrating Yom Ha'Atzma'ut-- they celebrated Yom Ha'Atzma'ut early. But to be fair, they at least celebrated the Day of Independence for Israel. 

Is Matrilineal Jewishness Valid? The Answer Is...

Yes, but not because of the P'rushim is Matrilineal Jewishness valid. I should've at least saved my posts from one group that I was in with Asher Romero ben Israel and Adam Klein (who is not Nehemia Gordon's friend, as he stated, and clearly not my friend-- on his own volition), because I'm so damned lazy and don't really want to rewrite what I already wrote (Maybe I'm more depressed lately as well, thus more lazy. Anyway...).

First, let's begin with B'resheet 17:19-21:

¹⁹ Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.²⁰ And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.²¹ But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.”

We see that Yitzhak had to have Sarah-- not anyone else-- as his mother and Avraham-- not anyone else-- as his dad (which is why, incidentally, I believe that some Kara'im argue that both parents must be Jewish in order for the child to be Jewish). We also see that Yitzhak was the first Yehudi:

²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. ²³ But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, ²⁴ which things are symbolic. For these are the^[d] two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— ²⁵ for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— ²⁶ but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. ²⁷ For it is written:

“Rejoice, O barren,
You who do not bear!
Break forth and shout,
You who are not in labor!
For the desolate has many more children

Than she who has a husband.”^[e].

Yitzhak was "born of the promise". We see that in this way, Yitzhak was the first Jew and that Patrilineal Jewishness is as valid as Matrilineal Jewishness. But let's get back to Matrilineal Jewishness. We've seen so far that the contribution of the mother cannot be left out (thus part of why I stated that  I believe that some Kara'im argue that both parents must be Jewish in order for the child to be Jewish). The contribution certainly was not left out in the cases of the young Dani of Mitzrayimi parentage, Hiram the king of Phoenicia and Huram his dad(? See Wikipedia for the dispute on this.), and Timothy HaYavani:

• ^"10 Now the son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel; and this Israelite woman’s son and a man of Israel fought each other in the camp. ¹¹ And the Israelite woman’s son blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed; and so they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.) ¹² Then they put him in custody, that the mind of the Lord might be shown to them. ¹³ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁴ “Take outside the camp him who has cursed; then let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him." The P'rushim use this, but only to attempt to invalidate Patrilineal Jewishness; thus, they don't use this for the right reasons. 
• "So he said, “What kind of cities are these which you have given me, my brother?” And he called them the land of Cabul,^[a] as they are to this day." Here, Hiram calls Shlomo "brother" because " ³ Now King Solomon sent and brought Huram^[a] from Tyre. ¹⁴ He was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a bronze worker; he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill in working with all kinds of bronze work. So he came to King Solomon and did all his work. " Hiram also blessed G-d. "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, for He has given King David a wise son, endowed with prudence and understanding, who will build a temple for the Lord and a royal house for himself!"
• Then he came to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, theson of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek. ² He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. ³ Paul wanted to have him go on with him. And he took himand circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek. ⁴ And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to keep, which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem.

One more quick example; which is not Scriptural, nonetheless valid: Geraldo Rivera's daughter Sol. Are we to say that she is not Jewish because her dad's paternal granddad was a Spaniard and his paternal grandmother a Taino Native American? Is Sol then only a Spaniard of Taino and Jewish descent? To rule out Lillian Friedman Rivera's contribution and Erica Levy Rivera's contribution (which, by the way, makes Sol a Matrilineal Levit) would be entirely unfair and unpractical, especially since Sol is 3/4 Jewish. 

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. 

Does Jews For Jesus, And Do Similar Groups, Actually Proselytize? The Answer Is That...

They sometimes but rarely do. Let's first look at what proselytize means:

Definition of PROSELYTIZE

intransitive verb

1

: to induce someone to convert to one's faith

2

: to recruit someone to join one's party, institution, or cause

transitive verb

: to recruit or convert especially to a new faith, institution, or cause

— pros·e·ly·ti·za·tion  noun

— pros·e·ly·tiz·er  noun

Jews for Jesus does not intend to "induce someone to convert to one's faith" or "recruit someone to join one's party, institution, or cause"-- that is not up to them. "⁵ Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? ⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. ⁷ So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase." So goes the same for any other Messianic Jew and G-d, although Jews for Jesus does indeed intend to-- as they state-- make the Messiahship of Yeshua (Jesus) unavoidable.


When they proselytize is when they go into places where they're unequivocally unwelcome, unless they are called to go there by G-d-- but whether they are called is disputable as well. For, "when you go into a household, greet it. ¹³ If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. ¹⁴ And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet.¹⁵ Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!"


Most haredim in haredi shtetlach are preconceivedly exclusive, private, and unwelcoming of Messianic Jews-- so why Jews for Jesus does enter neighborhoods like Crown Heights and Northwest Baltimore, unless invited, is one aspect of Jews for Jesus that I question.


In conclusion, Jews for Jesus (and similar groups) proselytize only when they go into places where they are clearly unwelcome and not called to go. Otherwise, they do not do or intend recruiting or inducing regarding Messianic Judaism.