Aug 09 2009
Parshat Re’eh: Who was Jesus? (A Jewish Perspective)
Last week I told a couple of stories about the mitzvah of tefillin. Here’s another one worth sharing, which will always remind me of this week’s Torah portion, Parshat Re’eh:
Twice in my life I had the fortune of joining the students of Crown Height’s Yeshivat Hadar HaTorah to go put tefillin on Jews in Washington Square Park in Manhattan. It was an absolutely fantastic experience, and almost always positive.
ALMOST always.
There was one moment which I will never forget. A small group of people walked up to our booth. One of them asked us if we had ever heard of Isaiah 53. At the time the question was meaningless to me (now with a handful of knowledge it’s a surefire conversation stopper).
So here I was, chatting with some girl from Wyoming with big dangly Jewish star earrings. I remember complementing her not only on her willingness to identify as a Jew in Wyoming, but on her ability to do so in such a blatant way. Boy was I impressed.
And the conversation continued. At different points I gave a confused nod… and then she dropped the bomb:
“I’m a Messianic Jew,” she said.
“Oh… Oh! Well, OK then,” I said, struggling for the correct way to react.
And I passed her on to someone else more wise and learned then myself. Alas, I was but young in my Jewish education at this point…
* * *
Now, at this stage in my life my Jewish identity was by no means clear. But I very much knew instinctively that I was NOT a Messianic Jew. It seemed silly to me. Very silly, in fact.
It was much later on that I decided to look into things and find out why Judaism has decided to reject Jesus as its Messiah for 2,000 years.
I was pleased to find these passages in the Jewish Bible in this week’s Torah portion, Parshat Re’eh, that really do explain what the Jewish people have always felt was Jesus’s role in the world:
“2 If there arise in your midst a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams–and he gives you a sign or a wonder, 3 and the sign or the wonder happens, and he speaks to you–saying: ‘Let us go after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them’; 4 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 5 After the LORD your God shall you walk, and Him you shall fear, and His commandments you shall keep, and to His voice you shall listen, and Him you shall serve, and to Him you shall cleave. 6 And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he has spoken perversion against the LORD your God… to draw you aside from the way which the LORD your God commanded you to walk in.” (Devarim/Deuteronomy 13:2-6)
Please feel free to draw your own conclusions from the previous verses. In my opinion, they speak for themselves. Combine these verses which seem designed for the possibility of a Jesus figure with these verses which seem designed to prevent the possibility of a New Testament, and voila, you have all the reason in the world for a Jew to stay a Jew for JUDAISM forever.
Eat your heart out strange girl from Wyoming with dangly Star of David earrings!
