Where Are Our Prophets Today?

Where, Oh Where! Are Our Prophets Today?

I have been told that I read TaNaKh way too literally.  But sometimes I wonder which is the greater sin:  to read TaNaKh too literally or to read it too liberally.  Both are probably wrong.  Somewhere in the middle is maybe the best approach.  But where in the middle?

Anyway, back to the main subject line.  Where are our Prophets TODAY???  When we need them so much!  HaShem told us in His Torah NOT to change his laws.  HaShem told us in His  Torah that if anyone came to us and told us that it was OK to do such a thing that we should take that person outside of the camp or city walls and stone them. (See Deut 13 for a full explanation of both these things.)  His Torah is a holy thing, not something to be explained away and set aside.

Yes, I know that we are not in control of certain things and we cannot control the public laws like murder trials and rape trials etc.  But we CAN control our attitudes about other things.  Today, unfortunately, some of our Rabbis (Rabbim?) have decided that it is OK to allow homosexual members and some congregations have even ordained homosexual Rabbis in some of the more liberal Reformed Synagogues.  At first the Conservative synagogues condemned the Reformed synagogues and refused to have anything to do with them.  Now, some of the Conservative temples have even come over to the Reformed side and are admitting homosexuals.  Some are even posting their "openess" on their web sites.

So?  "What's wrong with that?" you might ask.  Well, Torah has said in Lev 20:13 that if a man sleeps with another man as a man sleeps with a woman, then both men are to be taken out and stoned for such a thing is an abomination.  Maybe we can't actually take folks out and stone them, by civil and criminal law of the land in which we live, but we should NOT condone such terrible acts against the Torah.  Can we?  But we, the Jewish community, not only condone homosexuality but advertise it as a "good thing" and as part of our attempt to integrate ourselves into the "modern community." Shades of Sodom and Gomorrah!  Having been brought up in modern times I probably could not take part in stoning either.  Not today.  Maybe next year.  Or ten years from now after it had gotten to be more common.  Maybe...

Going on up the scale just a bit, what about adultery?  Everyone does it, right?  And, in some cases, as Rabboni pointed out, it might even be OK in certain circumstances.  But not according to HaShem.  One of the Big Ten Commandments says, Thou Shalt NOT commit adultery.  No IFs.  No Ands.  No Butts.  That is a direct commandment.  NOT a suggestion.  There was a time in the USA (yes, here in the good old USA) when adultery was a crime just like any other crime.  Yet, today, in our modern age, we treat adultery as something at which one might wink.  Monty Python style:  "Nudge-nudge.   Wink-wink."  It's OK if no one knows about it and, even if they do know, it's just a bit dirty, eh wot?  Something to be expected after 7 or 10 years of marriage.  Couples who get married and stay married or 40 or 50 years and remain faithful to each other are so rare that they are celebrated within communities with great parties and public demonstrations of joy.  These couples should be the rule, not the exception.

OK, enough self-righteous exhortations.  Everyone, or most everyone, hates a do-gooder and, for some weird reason, loves a do-badder.  Human nature, I suppose. And, as we get older, we tend to become strange do-gooders or really bad do-badders.  As we age, we tend to leave the namby-pamby middle-of-the-road, liberal, feel-good path and drift either toward being bitter old dry twigs of hatred and disgust or we try to, well, buy our way into heaven.  OK, some stay on their original path but not many.  I would like to think that I am one of the original pathfinders.  But I'm not.  I'm always finding a new path, a new way, a new light.  And I would like to think that this is part of the growth process - that a person can find new thoughts and change.  But NOT to change G-d's laws.  Some things are eternal.  Some things are not.  Our task is to read, study, learn and recognize which things are set in concrete and which things can be changed.  So, go and study.  Learn.  And may G-d be with you.  Always and forever.

Shalom...

Christians and Jews

OK, here goes...  I have been young and now I am old and all my life I have been told certain things about Christians and Jews.  Most of them have been wrong because Jews have told me things about Christians and Christians have told me things about Jews.  So, lets review a few things that Christians have said about Jews and why Christians think that Christ was necessary. 

• Jews depend on their obedience to the law (Torah) for salvation
• Jews depend on their good works for salvation

This is really interesting since

• If any Christian had ever attended a Yom Kippur service they would have understood how Jews feel about repentance.  The words Yom Kippur mean "Day of Repentance."
• Deut 24:16 teaches that parents shall not be put to death for the sins of their children nor children for the sins of their parents.  Ergo, to teach that one person can be put to death for the sins of all mankind is anathema to a Jew.
• All of Ezekiel 18 teaches that repentance is part of Judaism.  If anyone repents then HaShem will forgive that person regardless of their past.  The death or life of another person is not mentioned here and neither is the blood of bulls nor goats as is preached in Christianity.
• The sacrifice of a person's son to ANY god is an abomination to HaShem.  This is stated over and over when HaShem says this in reference to Molech.  See Deut 12:31.
• HaShem specifically warned Jews in Deut 13:2+ about following prophets or dream-diviners who come to you with signs and wonders, whether these signs and wonders come true or not, and try to get you to follow other gods.  HaShem is testing you.  It goes on to say what you are to do with such people or even with such towns.
• In Isaiah 42:8, 43:10b and 42:12b HaShem says that He alone is G-d and He does not share His glory with anyone else, not even this Christ person.

 By the way, a Jew should not even mention the name of this Christ person, nor the name of any other false god.  See Ex 23:13b for more on this.  That is why Tevyeh ("Fiddler on the Roof") always said, "... that man..." when referring to "the Christ".

All of that just to say this:  Jews did not need the Christ to redeem them.  They were redeemed from Egypt over three thousand years ago by the mighty hand of G-d himself.  And we can be forgiven from our sins just by asking HaShem for forgiveness.  We don't need the blood of Christ nor anyone else as an intermediary - not Mary, not a saint, not a redeemer.  We need only HaShem as our G-d.

So, what do Jews say about Christians?  That's a subject for another post at a later time when my son gets involved.  Maybe next year.  :-)

Shalom

[BTW, if you leave a comment, all comments are moderated so make it clean and tasteful or they won't be published.  However, all comments that are clean and tasteful and/or thoughtful will be published however contradictory to my own theological leanings.]