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A Forgotten Book

Rabbi Isaac Lichtenstein was curious when he observed one of the teachers in his school reading a book printed in German. Asking the teacher what he was reading, the book was passed to him. He leafed casually through the pages until his eye fell upon the name, “Jesus Christ.” Realizing that the little book was a New Testament, he sternly rebuked the teacher for having it in his possession. He furiously cast the book across the room. It fell behind some other books on a shelf and lay forgotten for nearly 30 years.

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The Lord is One

“Hear, O Israel, Adonai Eloheinu Adonai is one. These three are one. How can the three Names be one? Only through the perception of faith; in the vision of the Holy Spirit, in the beholding of the hidden eye alone.…So it is with the mystery of the threefold Divine manifestations designated by Adonai Eloheinu Adonai—three modes which yet form one unity.” [1]

A Christian quote? Hardly. The above is taken from the Zohar, an ancient book of Jewish mysticism. The Zohar is somewhat esoteric and most contemporary Jews don’t study it, but there are other Jewish books that refer to God’s plurality as well.

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The Identity of Jewish People

Frequently, as I have had the opportunity to minister in various congregations, I have asked people, ‘What do you think it means to be Jewish?’ People tell me that being Jewish is being part of the chosen people. Or it is a person who has the Jewish religion. Or it is a person who does not believe in Jesus. People also respond in other ways. Even Jewish people have difficulty defining ‘What does it mean to be Jewish?’

In the field of Jewish evangelism, definitions and terminologies seem to facilitate an understanding of how we might effectively communicate the message of Messiah. Jewish people are referred to as: Jews, Jewish people, Hebrews, Israelites, descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the Chosen people. Some Christians even seek to boast that they have become the true Jews because of their circumcision of the heart through faith in Jesus.

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613 Mitzvot

613 Mitzvot or 613 Commandments (Hebrew: תרי”ג מצוות transliterated as Taryag mitzvot; TaRYaG is the acronym for the numeric value of “613”) are a list of commandments from God in the Torah. In Judaism, there is a tradition that the Torah contains 613 mitzvot (Hebrew for “commandments,” from mitzvah – מצוה — “precept”, plural: mitzvot; from צוה , tzavah- “command”).

According to tradition, of these 613 commandments, 248 are mitzvot aseh (“positive commandments” commands to perform certain actions) and 365 are mitzvot lo taaseh (“negative commandments” commands to abstain from certain actions). Three-hundred and sixty-five corresponded to the number of days in a year and 248 was believed by ancient Hebrews to be the number of bones and significant organs in the human body.

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Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they might be saved. – Romans 10:1

Paul’s Burning Question in Romans 9–11

Paul wrote Romans 9–11 to answer this question:

If Israel is God’s chosen people, and if he gave to them the sonship and the glory and the covenants (9:4), and yet by and large they have rejected the Messiah and are cut off from Christ (9:3), then has not the word of God fallen? And if the surety of God’s word to Israel has fallen, how does it stand with us who hope in the promise that those whom he called he will also glorify?

This was a burning question for Paul. All his hope as a Christian, all the purpose of his apostleship, hung on this question: has God’s word to Israel fallen? Have all the glorious purposes of God for this people aborted because of their unbelief?

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