Pick Your Fights

April 20, 2021 Leave a comment

When Yeshua sent his Talmudim (Disciples) out into the world to preach the Good News, he told them to be as wise as serpents and gentle as doves (Matthew 10:16). He also told them that if people in any town rejected their message, to shake the dust off their sandals as a warning to them (Luke 9:5).

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It seems to me that Yeshua was telling them they have the best and most important thing in the world to say to people, but still, they shouldn’t ram it down their throats (gentle as doves), and if they are rejected they should make sure the people know that their fate is now on their own heads (shake the dust).

But what about the part where he says be wise as serpents?

Aren’t serpents sneaky? I mean, they slide along on their belly in the deep grass hidden from view as they stalk their prey, or they camouflage themselves and stay perfectly still, for days or even weeks, until some innocent animal comes along and then they STRIKE!!!

That doesn’t sound very “holy”, if you ask me. It doesn’t even sound fair. But that isn’t what Yeshua was talking about.

Did you know that some venomous snakes can deliver a dry bite? That’s a bite where they do not inject their venom. Venom takes time to replace and energy to make, and reptiles do not have an abundance of energy, so to waste venom on a bite to a creature that isn’t food is not a wise thing for a snake to do.

When we are talking to someone about God, Yeshua, and salvation, we are injecting them; not with poisonous venom, but with a vaccine against death and destruction of their soul. We are giving them life eternal in our words, and they have the option to accept what we say or reject it.

Now, this is where we need to be wise as serpents, in that when we are in a discussion about the Bible, God, or Yeshua, and a confrontation begins to rear its ugly head, we need to step back and decide if we will continue to talk or shake the dust from our sandals. In other words, did we just deliver a dry bite?

We need to pick our fights: are we really just wasting our time or is the person still open to hearing the truth? If we find ourselves getting frustrated with someone, that is the signal we are no longer gentle or wise because frustration is the result of pridefulness.

Yes, when you are so fed up with this idiot who has no idea what he or she is talking about, spewing out traditional rhetoric that is just SO wrong that you want to wring their neck, well, this is the time to step back. You’ve delivered a dry bite, you have been rejected, and now it is time to shake off the dust.

You do NOT, and should NOT, tell that person anything else. Don’t tell them they aren’t really saved; don’t tell them they do not know God or Yeshua; do not tell them they are going to burn forever in hellfire. Even if all that is true, it is not for you or me or anyone to say.

Yeshua never told his Talmudim that they should verbally chop those who reject them into little pieces and insult their beliefs or tell them what will happen to them. He said to be gentle as doves, and only to shake the dust off their sandals. Truth be told, if someone won’t listen to the Good News of Messiah, then shaking off the dust won’t make them feel any different, but it isn’t really for their sakes as much as it demonstrates those bringing salvation, who have been rejected, have done their jobs.

You’re like the Lone Ranger saying, “Well, Tonto, we’ve done what we came here to do and it’s time to move on.”

I want to make one more point, and this is the one that I believe is most important: when you are in a discussion with other Believers, you need to be twice as diligent. How important this topic is to non-Believers is generally much less than it is to those who have accepted Yeshua because we are, in general, more certain (actually, I should say passionate) about our beliefs. So when we are discussing something with another Believer, we need to remember that they can reject us just as anyone else can, and we might be rejecting them, as well. No one knows everything, and another part of being wise is to be open to the fact that YOU might be the one with the wrong understanding.

Here’s a real-life example: I was adamant that I would never take one of the COVID vaccines that use mRNA. I was proud to announce that no one is going to screw around with my genome. I thought I was right, and I had many friends who agreed with me until one friend told me geneticists she knew debunked this rumor, and after doing the research I should have done from the start, I had to recognize and admit that I was wrong. In fact, mRNA vaccines have been used and researched for decades and after the mRNA teaches cells how to recognize and fight the COVID virus, it is destroyed; our DNA is protected inside the nucleus which the mRNA never enters.

Getting back to today’s message, we want to help those who don’t understand the truth about Yeshua’s teachings, who have been misled by the traditional misinterpretation of the letters Shaul (Paul) wrote, and especially those who think that the Torah is no longer valid because Yeshua did away with the need to follow God’s laws. We also want to lead the Jewish people to understand that Yeshua is NOT the Jesus Christ they have been told about, that he did not create a new religion, and that he never taught anything but to obey the Torah not just by doing as it says, but by spiritually letting it be written on one’s heart, which is the true New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31.)

So practice your delivery in order to be wise as serpents, and when you are feeling frustrated and rejected, pick your fight. If you have to ram it down their throats, stop! Now is the time to be as gentle as doves and shake the dust. Do NOT get into an argument, because once the discussion become an argument you have lost, and when you lose, they lose, too.

Salvation is available to everyone, but everyone won’t take it. In truth, most will reject it but what is even worse, if you ask me, is that many will accept Yeshua but because of wrong teachings, at the end they will find they never really had it right.

Thank you for being here and please press the SUBSCRIBE button in the right-hand margin, as well as going back to my YouTube channel and subscribe there (you can use the link above) because these are two separate lists.

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That’s it for today so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

A Story of Undying Hatred

April 15, 2021June 23, 2022 Leave a comment

To overcome hatred we need to understand where it comes from.

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Many years ago, when I was working as IT Support for the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, through a Jewish Community Center that was my account I was connected with (what we used to call) an Old Folks Home whose Chaplain was looking for someone to lead Friday Shabbat services. All the Rabbis she talked to were unavailable on Friday because they had their own congregations to tend to that night.

I met with the Chaplain and told her I was Messianic but never proselytize anyone and am happy to lead a totally “Jewish” service. I had put together a small Siddur (Jewish prayer book) and told her my plans for a simple, 30 minute or less service, and after she reviewed it she was OK with me leading the services. We had about 12-15 people show up each week, most of whom were Jewish but there were a few Gentiles, as well. The Chaplain made sure there was a loaf of Challah bread and grape juice for the Kiddush, which we did at the end.

This went on for about a year or so; she even asked me to put together a special High Holy Day service for those who couldn’t make it into the room where we did the Friday service, so I went to different parts of the building to do those services.

Everyone loved the service.

Then, one day, I was told to talk with the Chaplain and she said there was a woman who complained that I shouldn’t lead any Jewish service because I believed in Jesus and Jesus has nothing to do with anything Jewish. I thought she must be an Orthodox Jew, but lo and behold! She was raised Orthodox but many years earlier had converted to Quakerism! After talking with her and finding out she never even attended a service, we invited her to attend, which she did, and even after that, she insisted I be stopped.

I don’t know what power she held over everyone else, but, unfortunately, the Chaplain told me that management wanted to stop for a while until things settled down.

Nothing ever settled down and because of this one, hateful woman, as well as (I believe) the cowardice of management and the Chaplain (who I liked and respected), the services stopped. And what is even worse, or just harder to believe, is that someone who completely rejected Judaism and converted to a Christian religion, decades later is still harboring the hatred Jews have for Jesus.

And where does that hatred come from? Well, maybe from the Crusades, where in the name of Jesus thousands upon thousands of Jews were slaughtered if they didn’t convert? Or maybe later, from the Inquisition, where thousands were tortured and killed if they didn’t convert, as well as every Jew in Spain being expelled from the country?

Or maybe from the Holocaust? You may be thinking that the Nazi’s had nothing to do with Christianity, which is true, but consider these two things: to a Jew, anyone not Jewish is a Gentile, ie., same as a Christian, and the belt buckle of the Nazi uniform had engraved on it these words: Gott mit uns (God is with us.)

Not only this, but the general attitude Christianity has had for Jews since the 2nd Century is that we killed God, we rejected the Messiah (their Messiah is more like how it feels to a Jew), and there has been an ongoing attitude by Christians towards Jews of ” We accepted Jesus and you rejected him, so we’re better than you.”

This attitude which Gentiles have had towards Jews for millennia has been caused, I believe, mostly by the misinterpretations of the letters from Paul, who warned Gentiles against feeling this way (Romans 11.)

So, nu? This all makes sense now, why Jews have such an animosity against Christians that a woman raised Jewish, who rejected Judaism and converted to Quakerism so must, herself, accept Jesus as the Messiah, STILL hates the idea that anything having anything to do with Jesus is anathema to anything Jewish.

Now that I have gone through this, let me say, unequivocally, that this hatred is wrong because even with all that has happened, the past should not restrict us but be the motivation to help us move forward.

The past of that woman was fueling her current hatred, which was tangible, and instead of helping others find spiritual growth, restricted their connection to God. I really think she had to have been demonically influenced, since what she did, in her own mind being totally justified and believing she was doing right, was in fact destroying the communion between God’s people with him.

There is animosity on both sides. Jews have been taught Christians want only to convert them to deny “our” God and worship a different God named Jesus Christ, and Christians have been taught that the Jews have “missed the boat” and were wrong to reject Jesus, so now God has rejected them; worse than that, many believe that now only the “Born Again” Christians are the true Chosen people (which is called Replacement Theology.) As such, Christianity has “looked down” on Judaism as a second-class religion, and Jews see Christianity as a “holier than thou” religion.

There are two things Jews and Christians have in common: one is their hatred for each other, and the other is that both say if you believe in Jesus you can’t be Jewish anymore.

This is what we have to overcome. It ain’t gonna be easy, and I believe it won’t happen until the Messiah returns, shows absolutely who he really is, and establishes his kingdom on Earth. That is when both Christians and Jews will know, absolutely, what God wants from us.

And if you ask me, it won’t be from the Talmud or from the Epistles, but from the Torah.

So the message today is simply this: forget what you have been told about Jews and Christians, read the Bible (the WHOLE Bible) and make your own decision.

The only thing that will ever defeat ignorance is knowledge, and if you let the past rule your future, you won’t have one.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe here on the website in the right-hand margin, and on my YouTube channel, as well (use the link above.) Please share these messages with everyone you know, and remember that I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for today so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

You Can Still Screw Up.

April 13, 2021 Leave a comment

I just finished reading Leviticus. When I was in Chapter 19, though, something caught my interest, and this is it (from the Complete Jewish Bible):

Leviticus 19:5-8…When you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to ADONAI, offer it in a way that will make you accepted. It is to be eaten the same day you offer it and the following day; but if any of it remains until the third day, it is to be burned up completely. If any of it is eaten on the third day, it will have become a disgusting thing and will not be accepted; moreover, everyone who eats it will bear the consequences of profaning something holy meant for ADONAI -that person will be cut off from his people.

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The Peace Offering, also called the Thanksgiving Offering, is the only sacrifice where the one bringing the sacrifice also shares in eating of it. They are to eat it there, at the Sanctuary where it was offered.

The sin and guilt sacrifices are followed by the peace offering, which is the last offering made and brings us back into communion with God. The ultimate role of the Messiah is to bring us back into communion with God, and Yeshua’s sacrifice is both a sin sacrifice and a peace offering because it removes our sins and brings us back into communion with God.

So, when I was reading this I thought that it was interesting that if the peace offering, which has been offered correctly and accepted, is misused later (by not burning up whatever remains on the third day), then that offering is rejected! And not only that, but the one who offered it and was accepted, but now has violated the regulation, is not just having that acceptance removed but is being cut off from the people!

There can be a number of meanings to being cut off from your people, called karet, but the one that I believe makes the most sense is that it means to be deprived of the afterlife. Someone who has their name written in the Book of Life will have it scratched out if they commit a sin that has karet as its punishment.

This is a direct and absolutely conclusive denial of the ridiculous traditional Christian teaching of “Once Saved, Always Saved.” Despite what some religious leader once taught, which has been retaught over and over, here is God, the ruler and king of everything and everyone, saying that even if you do what is right and are accepted, if afterward, you do wrong and do not repent you will be rejected!

Maybe this is one of the reasons why Christianity has often taught that Yeshua did away with the law: not only does that wrongful teaching open the door to eating pork rinds while watching the game, but it allows one to sin after accepting Yeshua as your Messiah and not have to repent of it.

OSAS is nothing more than a pathway to eternal destruction, and this passage in Leviticus proves that!

We may do what is right in God’s eyes, but later we can still screw it up by sinning without concern for our spiritual health. It is more than believing that we will always be forgiven without even asking: it is the idea that because we have been saved that we can never lose that salvation.

Too often I hear people say that no one can take away what God has given, which, by itself, is a truism. However, we can throw away that which we received, and the fastest way to throw off our salvation is to continue sinning without regard or regret or even asking for forgiveness.

It doesn’t matter what some religious leader says to you, or what your friends or family tell you, the Torah is very clear that, as far as God is concerned, no matter how righteous you may have been at one time, if you turn from that righteousness and sin, your last actions are what you will be judged on.

To put it in accounting terms, our salvation is not FIFO, but LIFO.

FIFO means First In, First Out and LIFO means Last In, First Out. These are terms used to value inventory when calculating the Cost of Goods Sold. FIFO uses the cost of the inventory based on the oldest items and LIFO from the cost of producing the newest items; depending on how much it cost to produce the item, at that time, your profit margin will change.

The fact that what we did last is what we will be judged on is confirmed in Ezekiel 18, where God tells us that the sinner is the one who will suffer, not the children; but, more than that, it also says that one who was righteous but sins will die for their sins, but the sinner who turns from his sins will live.

So, if your peace offering (your acceptance of Yeshua as your Messiah) has been accepted and even if you received the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), but you continue to sin you WILL be cut off from your people. To be saved doesn’t mean that you can’t be punished, and your salvation will be removed if you sin without repentance or asking for forgiveness; not that God will take it away, but that by your actions you will have thrown it away.

So remember that Yeshua did not change or do away with the Torah, but confirmed it by teaching us the Remes, the spiritual meaning of the commandments (this is clearly seen when you read Matthew 5), and by the way in which he lived his life.

None of us can be sinless, but we can always sin less, and that is my personal goal: not to be perfect, but to be better than I was. And the way to do that is to follow the instructions in the manual, which we call the Torah.

Salvation is a rope that God has lowered from the heavens for us to grab hold of and climb up. It is a difficult climb, and each sin we commit is like placing grease on the rope, making it harder to hold on. And each time we ask for forgiveness, it cleans off the grease.

So hold on tight, keep climbing and try not to grease the rope too much.

Thank you for being here; please subscribe here and also on My YouTube channel (use the link above) and share these messages with everyone you know, saved or not. Check out my entire website and if you like what you see and hear on these messages, you will like my books, as well.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Does It Really Matter?

April 6, 2021 Leave a comment

Does it really matter?

You’re probably asking yourself, “Does WHAT really matter?”

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And I guess that’s the best way to start answering the question because until we know what matters, we can’t say what does or doesn’t matter, can we?

So let’s start with this: what really matters? Of course, what is important to one may be unimportant to another, so we have to deal with somewhat universal topics.

May I offer what I consider to be the most important topic there is: salvation. I doubt that to anyone who believes in God there can’t be anything more important than where they will spend eternity, which is either in God’s presence or out of it.

That being said, we can now say that what does matter is whatever affects our salvation, right? I have often said that the Acid Test question I use for any discussion is: “How does this affect my salvation? ”

The only thing left for us now is to determine what affects our salvation.

How about the proper pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton, the four-lettered name of God? I see so many people talking about this, and I have seen no less than 5 different ways people pronounce this name, except for us Jews, who never even try to pronounce it. If I am using the wrong pronunciation, will that prevent me from being in the presence of the Lord forever? Do any of you out there think that God is so petty and so prideful that if we mispronounce a name that no one has really used for millennia, that God will condemn you to hell? Even though the name you are using is the one you have always known to be the one and only, true God? Does God not know who he is, or who you mean?

I don’t think so. I think that whichever name you use to represent the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is acceptable to him when you pray from your heart. After all, we are saved by faith, not pronunciation, right?

If you agree, the next time someone argues about what the correct name for God is, remind yourself that this doesn’t really matter, and I recommend you don’t even get involved.

The more we try to convince someone else of what we believe, the more our own pridefulness takes over. And before we recognize what is happening, we are no longer trying to edify them or to honor God; now, all that matters is to hear them admit we are right and they are wrong. What do you think God would say about that?

What about the idea of the Trinity? (Boy, talk about your hot potato, right?) How many “passionate” discussions have you been part of or seen regarding this topic? But when we discuss the “what if”, we can determine if this really matters.

Here’s what I mean: what if God is singular and Yeshua is a totally separate entity? If Yeshua is not God, himself, isn’t he still the Messiah? Doesn’t his sacrificial death and resurrection still provide the means for us to be forgiven of our sins?

And what if Yeshua is God? Does that change anything he did as Yeshua the Messiah? Ultimately, does Yeshua’s divinity, or lack of divinity, change the status of his Messiahship? (Is that a word?) Does our salvation depend on whether or not Yeshua is God or just a divinely-created person?

I don’t think so, do you? I mean, salvation comes from his actions as the Messiah, right? What he used to be before he was Yeshua has no bearing on our salvation, so whether or not he is or isn’t God doesn’t really matter.

How am I doing so far? Is this starting to make sense? Are you beginning to see how ridiculous so many of the arguments (which often become nasty) you have seen regarding these topics really are?

And we could use the same line of reasoning for the proper calendar and for which holidays are important and which are just plain wrong.

Let’s look at the holidays: another hot potato is Easter and Christmas. No one argues that these dates were once used for pagan celebrations and that Constantine rebranded the pagan holidays to be Christian holidays, no longer celebrating pagan gods and goddesses but celebrating the birth and, respectively, the resurrection of the Messiah. The never-ending argument is whether or not celebrating these holidays honors or dishonors God.

So, without trying to convince anyone one way or the other, the real question is: will God condemn us to hell for celebrating what we consider to be the birth of the Messiah, or because we celebrate his resurrection? Do you think God cannot determine that in our hearts and minds whether or not we are worshiping Asherah or giving thanks for Messiah’s sacrifice?

I think he can tell the difference, don’t you? If you celebrate Messiah’s birth and resurrection, despite the dates you do it on, will that change the status of your salvation?

I don’t think so, do you? So, it doesn’t really matter.

When we talk about anything regarding God and the Bible, we need to determine, using spiritual maturity and discretion, if whatever conclusion to the discussion we are having really matters. It’s fine to have an exchange of ideas and interpretations, but when the discussion turns south and devolves into an argument of who’s right and who’s wrong, is it a topic that really matters?

If you say there is no God, that is a topic that really matters.

If you argue that Yeshua is not the Messiah, that is a topic that really matters.

If you say Grace trumps obedience, that really matters. No, really- it does!

But, if you say I began my Passover Seder a day too early or that Hanukkah isn’t in the Bible and shouldn’t be celebrated, does that really matter?

Can you see what I mean?

Next time you are witnessing or participating in a spiritual discussion, please turn down the need to show someone what you believe to be the correct thing, and ask yourself if it really matters? I mean, on an eternal basis, does it really matter? Will the results of this discussion be the difference between spending eternity in hell or in God’s presence?

For me, this is all that really matters: where will I spend eternity? If the results of a discussion will not change that, then it doesn’t really matter.

Thank you for being here, and as far as I am concerned, your subscribing to this ministry, here and on my YouTube channel, does matter to me. And remember, I always welcome your comments.

Until next time, l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Guilty, Whether You Know it or Not.

April 1, 2021 Leave a comment

Let’s say you’re driving along the highway, there is very little traffic and you are relaxing with your favorite tunes on the CD player when you hear the sound every driver hates to hear: a siren!

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You look in your rear-view mirror and yes- the Trooper is there for you.

After pulling over, the Trooper says, “Did you know that you were doing 90? The speed limit on this road is 65.”

You respond with, “I am sorry, officer, I didn’t realize I was going that fast.”

Well, if you’re very lucky and have a clean record, you might get off with a warning or a ticket for a lower violation, but one way or the other, the cop won’t accept, “I didn’t know I was doing that.” as an excuse.

My continual reading of the Bible currently has me in Leviticus, and when I was reading through Chapter 5 the other day, I came upon this verse, Leviticus 5:17 (CJB):

If someone sins by doing something against any of the mitzvot of Adonai concerning things which should not be done, he is guilty, even if he is unaware of it; and he bears the consequences of his wrongdoing.

I was immediately reminded of the previous chapters I had read in Leviticus, where often God talks about what to do when someone inadvertently or accidentally sins. In some cases, it says when they are made aware of their sin, they are to do the following, and in other cases, it says if they are made aware of their sin, they are to do the following, but in any and all cases, as the verse above states, whether you know you sinned or not, you ARE guilty!

So, how scary is that, right? I mean, what if I am doing what my Rabbi or my Priest or Minister, or whatever has been telling me is the correct way to worship God, but they are wrong?

In some cases, people have been praying to saints or celebrating the Sabbath on Sunday. Many God-fearing people enjoy their lobster bisque and shrimp tempura and chow down on pork rinds when watching the football game. And when asked why they don’t study the Old Covenant or obey the rules in the Torah, they say, “I don’t do any of those Old Covenant things because I have been told Jesus did away with that.”

That is like telling the cop “Sorry, I didn’t realize I was going that fast”; the answer you will get is “Your speedometer is right there in front of your face.”

The Bible is right there, in front of your face, and no one is stopping you from reading it.

We will all meet the Lord at his Throne of Judgment, and when God asks you why you have rejected his instructions, mitzvot, rules, regulations, and commandments, will you say “Sorry- I didn’t know I was supposed to do all that stuff. They told me I didn’t have to.”?

And if you say that, what do you think God will say?

Will he say, “Oh, well then, that’s OK. After all, if your Rabbi or Priest or Minister told you you didn’t have to obey me, who am I to go against them?”

No, it is more likely he will say something like “I had Moses write these down so there would be no confusion as to what I say is acceptable and what is not, and all you had to do was read them for yourself to know.”

Then you say, “But I said the Sinners Prayer and accepted Yeshua in my life, so I am saved. The Bible says all who call on his name will be saved! So, then…it’s all fine, right? Yeshua- tell him I’m one of yours.”

If you have rejected the Father, you have rejected the son, no matter what you once prayed. Here’s the hard truth, my friend: speaking isn’t doing!

Don’t be surprised if Yeshua says “I never knew you” if you spent your life rejecting God’s commandments.

Now, am I saying that you are not saved? Am I telling you that you HAVE to obey the Torah completely or no matter what you prayed or what you do, you are going to hell?

No, I am not saying that at all: I am not in the place of God, I do not know your heart, and I do not know what the future holds. I only know what God tells us in the Bible, and that in the Old Covenant he tells us how HE wants us to worship him, which Holy Days we are to celebrate, and how we are to treat each other.

I also know that in the New Covenant there is nothing new. Yeshua says, over and over…and over, that he does and says only what his father in heaven tells him to do and say, and that he had to have lived his life in perfect accordance with the Torah or he would not have been a spotless lamb and his sacrificial death would not be acceptable. In that case, we would have no means of salvation.

No…what I am saying is that you should read the entire Bible, especially the Old Covenant, and most definitely the Torah (the first 5 books) because that is the ONLY place where God, himself, directly tells us what he wants us to do.

The Gospels demonstrate that Yeshua lived and did what any Torah-observant Jewish person would have done, and if you really, I mean R-E-A-L-L-Y want to be worthy of that plastic bracelet with the WWJD on it, then you need to know how Yeshua lived, which is the way God said to in the Torah.

That is what Jesus, Yeshua, did. And that is what God says he wants from each of us.

So get a Bible, a complete Bible (Genesis through Revelation) and read it from start to finish so you know what it says, then make up your mind who you will obey: God, or some person who is pretty much repeating whatever he or she was taught in Seminary school.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to this and my YouTube channel, as well, and remember that I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

What does “Believe in Jesus” Mean?

March 30, 2021 Leave a comment

Growing up Jewish, I was taught that any Jew who “believes in Jesus” is no longer a Jew, but now is Christian and a traitor to Judaism.

Listening to Christian missionaries, I am told we must “believe in Jesus” to be saved, and when we do we are no longer Jewish or have to obey the Jewish laws.

It seems the only thing Jews and Christians have in common is that believing in Jesus means you are no longer Jewish.

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But we know, based on James 2:19, that because the demons know God exists and is one, they must then also know Jesus who sits at the right hand of God, right? So, since the demons “believe in Jesus”, are they now saved?

I don’t think so!

It seems the term “believe in Jesus” has some meaning, but what is it, really?

NOTE: I will be using the name “Jesus” instead of Yeshua because it is more relevant to the topic, and so please don’t comment on or open a discussion about what the “real” name of the Messiah is because it is irrelevant to this lesson.

Frankly, if you ask me (and since this is my ministry, I will ask if you don’t) believing in Jesus doesn’t mean anything because we aren’t told just what we are believing in.

“Believe in Jesus” can mean anything from believing he existed to believe he is the Messiah, the son of God, and many Christians believe that Jesus is God, himself.

Many Jews believe in Jesus, but only to the point where they accept that he existed and was just a Rabbi; they believe this because his existence has been mentioned in the works of Josephus, a trusted and respected chronicler of history.

Muslims generally believe in Jesus in that they believe he existed and was a prophet, but not a Messiah or related to God other than being his prophet.

Then there are the atheists who don’t believe in God, at all, but might accept that Jesus existed, but only as a man with some historical significance.

And since the name “Jesus” has no etymology within Judaism, even the name is questionable to many as a valid identifier of the Messiah.

So, that brings me to the conclusion that to “believe in Jesus” essentially means nothing in particular because it can mean so many things.

Some Christians today are eager to learn about their Jewish roots and are beginning to recognize the importance of obedience to the commandments in the Torah, whereas most Christians want to believe only what they have been taught, which is that Jesus did away with all that “Jewish” stuff and all they need to do is believe in Jesus (there’s that term again), be a good person and love their neighbor and they will go to heaven when they die.

Yeah, well, that’s not really how it works, but it sounds good so just about everyone likes to accept that and won’t read the Bible for themselves.

If it was up to me, I would never use the term “Believe in Jesus” because it really means nothing- there is no substance to it and it doesn’t really tell anyone what encompasses that belief. Instead, I would say we need to accept that Jesus (but I would use his real, Hebrew name of Yeshua) is the Messiah God promised to send, and because of his sacrifice, we don’t need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem (which no longer exists) to be forgiven of our sins; that’s why he is now the ONLY means by which we can be forgiven of sin.

I think that is much more direct, making it clear why when we accept that Jesus is the Messiah we can receive salvation, other than just saying “believe in Jesus”.

Don’t you agree?

Thank you for being here: please subscribe, here and on my YouTube channel as well, and remember that I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch haShem!

What Is the New Wine Yeshua Talks About?

March 23, 2021March 23, 2021 Leave a comment

In the Gospel of Mark (2:21-22), Yeshua teaches the following:

No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old coat; if he does, the new patch tears away from the old cloth and leaves a worse hole.And no one puts new wine in old wineskins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine is for freshly prepared wineskins.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

The traditional Christian interpretation of this lesson is that Yeshua meant the old laws were no longer valid for those who follow him. In other words, they use this to justify sinning against God by ignoring what he said in the Torah.

Christianity has maintained that what Yeshua taught was the new wine, and those who accept Yeshua as the Messiah and follow his teachings, are the new wineskins. As such, what is in the Torah is the old wine and only valid for the old wineskins, i.e., the Jews.

Does this make sense? I mean, Yeshua is the Son of God, the Messiah, and throughout all the Gospels, especially in John, he constantly tells us he does and says only what his father in heaven tells him to do and say. He even prayed at the rock in the garden just before his crucifixion, confirming with God that HIS will be done, not Yeshua’s.

So, given that his entire time on earth was spent doing what God told him, does it seem likely that what he would have taught was to rebel against God? Did the Son of God tell those who accepted him as the Messiah that he did not come to reunite them with God (which is what the Messiah is to do), but instead to separate them from God by rejecting his commandments and follow a new set of laws, laws that Yeshua created?

I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t seem right to me, at all!

What Yeshua taught was what is in the Torah, but instead of teaching just the plain language of the law (called the P’shat), he taught us the deeper, more spiritual understanding (called the Remes.) Haven’t you ever wondered why there are so many references in the Gospels about how people said no one has ever taught like Yeshua did? That’s because no one ever had- the Pharisees and Sadducees only taught the basic meaning of the law: do not murder, do not commit adultery, etc. But Yeshua taught us the spiritual understanding of the law: do not even hate in your heart, do not so much as lust with your eyes.

Using the biblical exegesis system called Circles of Context, let’s look at what was happening just before Yeshua talked about new wine and new wineskins.

This chapter in Mark begins with the Pharisees asking why Yeshua was saying he could forgive sins. Next, they asked why he ate with sinners and tax collectors. They then asked why his disciples didn’t fast as the Pharisee’s disciples did.

What do all these questions have in common? They are referencing rabbinical traditions that are not specified in, or have anything to do with the Torah.

I believe these traditions are what Yeshua was talking about when he talked of “old wine.” And the new wine is not different mitzvot from the Torah, but the spiritual understanding of the existing mitzvot!

The new wineskins are people that have not been so indoctrinated into the old wine that they can no longer accept the new understanding Yeshua was teaching.

Now, here is a sad and ironic reality: Christians who believe that Yeshua’s “new wine” is that all you need is to love each other and be a good person are now the old wine in old wineskins, refusing to accept that Yeshua did NOT do away with the Torah, but confirmed it!

More and more Christians who are seeking the real Messiah, the one who taught God’s word and never rebelled against the Torah, are the new wineskins who want to accept the new wine Yeshua taught, way back then.

During Yeshua’s ministry on the earth, the new wine was the spiritual understanding of the Torah, and NEVER anything against obedience to God’s commandments in the Torah. The new wineskins are his Disciples and all those Jews and Gentiles who followed him, still obedient to Torah.

Today, the new wine Yeshua taught is still new because early Christian leadership denounced the Torah- they rejected the new wine and watered it down with their own traditions, ruining the purity of Yeshua’s wine by blending it with old pagan traditions, holidays, and watering down (if not totally rejecting) anything dealing with the Torah, other than the 10 Commandments.

And they have even rejected and ignored some of those!

So, here is my understanding of the passage in Mark 2:21-22: the old wine is the rabbinic traditions that over-ruled God’s word or added to it, and the old wineskins, already stretched to their maximum, are those who rigidly maintain those traditions, unwilling to change or even listen to new ideas. The new wine is the Remes of the mitzvot, the spiritual understanding of the Torah, and those who overcame their desire to adhere to those man-made traditions and accepted the new wine Yeshua taught became new wineskins.

Today there are two old wines: the Christian old wine that Yeshua did away with the law, and the Jewish old wine that Yeshua is not the Messiah.

I used to be an old Jewish wineskin, but became a new wineskin about 25 years ago when I accepted Yeshua as my Messiah; I never converted from Judaism and, in truth, am now more “Jewish” than I ever was before.

So, nu? Which wine do you drink?

Thank you for being here and please subscribe here and on my YouTube channel, and share these messages with everyone. I also would love it if you would check out my books (on my website) and remember- I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for now, and probably for the week because my wife, Donna, is getting a shoulder replacement today (your prayers for a successful operation and speedy recovery are humbly requested) and I will be really busy from Thursday on preparing for the Pesach Seder, since she will not be able to help with the cooking or the preparation of the house.

That’s it for now…l’hitraot and (an early) Pesach Chag Sameach!

Who Are We to Say?

March 18, 2021 Leave a comment

Do you remember in the Book of Job what God said regarding all the advice that Job’s three friends gave him? God wasn’t very happy that they had been telling Job all about what God does, how he feels, and what he thinks. In fact, let’s see what happened, in Job 42:7 (CJB):

After ADONAI had spoken these words to Iyov, ADONAI said to Elifaz the Teimani, “My anger is blazing against you and your two friends, because, unlike my servant Iyov, you have not spoken rightly about me.

I bring this up because recently I have posted something that resulted in my being told I wasn’t really saved. And you know what? … this wasn’t the first time.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

So how does anyone know who is “saved”? What is salvation? Is it something we can touch? Is it something that we can see? Is it visible to others, like a certificate on my wall or a medal I can wear? Can anyone know someone is “saved” simply by what they write?

We are told we can tell righteous people by the fruits they produce (Matthew 7:16), but how can we really know their “fruit” if we only see what they post on social media? Or only hear what they say now and then?

On an apple tree you will find the occasional rotted or misshapen apple, so does that mean the tree, itself, is no good? Is every single grape in the vineyard perfectly formed and juicy? If a pear tree produces a few pears that are not tasty, should I destroy the tree?

I believe salvation is a spiritual relationship between the person and God, and the only ones who can truthfully say what the condition of that relationship is… is that person and God.

So, why is it, then, that there are people who think they know what that relationship is? I have been told, on more than one occasion, that I am not really saved because of what I have said in one of my ministry messages.

I have been told I don’t have a true relationship with Jesus because I believe the Torah is still valid. I have been told I am not really saved because I do not believe that most of the things written in the New Covenant writings are “God-breathed” divine instructions. I have been told I am not really saved because of my beliefs about certain holidays or my refusal to pronounce the Tetragrammaton.

Look…I accepted Yeshua as my Messiah many years ago, and the constant blessings in my life have confirmed that I am in good standing with him, as well as in good standing with God. I pray constantly, I fail constantly, and I ask for forgiveness constantly.

And not to brag, but for the record, I have had many people over the years confirm that I have a definite gift for teaching and understanding of God’s word, so when I get told I am not really saved, I tend to ignore it. However, I will listen, just in case, I have made a mistake. Despite praying every day to only say in this ministry what is right in God’s eyes, I can’t trust myself to always excise any personal feelings or not notice a personal peeve that might sneak its way in.

And when someone tells me I am not really saved (which, I am happy to say, rarely happens) I have to ask, “What makes them think they know?”

Are they God?

Do they have a Bat-phone connection with God where he confides in them who is in the Book of Life and who isn’t?

Can they see into my heart, as God does?

What divine power have they been given to discern the status of someone else’s personal relationship with the Almighty?

And most important of all, what makes them think they can speak for God?

Job’s friends thought they could speak for God. That didn’t work out very well for them, did it?

So here’s the message for today, from someone who may or may not be saved:
Don’t speak for God!

If you think someone is wrong, tell them why you think so with compassion and respect. Show the biblical justification for your opinion and where you believe their understanding has been misguided. But when it comes down to someone’s relationship with God, I strongly suggest you leave that between the person and God.

There are many traditional Christian teachings I passionately disagree with: I have issues with the letters Shaul wrote, about Christian denial of the validity of the “law”, about the “Once Saved, Always Saved” doctrine, and I definitely have major problems with the Replacement Theology lie. And it isn’t just Christianity- there are also many issues I have within Judaism regarding Talmudic regulations.

I have argued (nicely, for the most part) with people I like and respect about calendars, holidays, and other topics that aren’t necessarily salvation issues, but important, nonetheless.

However, no matter how heated these discussions have become, I have NEVER had the audacity to tell someone they aren’t really saved.

To those who feel they can tell someone whether or not they are saved, there is one, and only one, who can decide which of us is written in the Book of Life; and, if I may be so bold as to say, it ain’t you!

Thank you for being here and please subscribe, share these messages with everyone you know (saved or not), and if you like what you hear then please consider buying my books.

And remember: I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for now, so l’hitraot and Baruch Ha Shem!

Where Paul Went Wrong

March 16, 2021 Leave a comment

First off, let me state that I deeply respect Shaul of Tarsus (Paul) and what he did, all he suffered through, and his knowledge and understanding of the Word of God.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

That being said, I also think that none of the Epistles he wrote should be considered scripture or included in the Bible because although he often quotes from and refers to the Tanakh, his letters are written in order to micro-manage his congregations.

They are not missionary- they are managerial.

When he said he would go to the Gentiles from now on (Acts 18:6), he was talking to the people in that town, and only in that town. Shaul always went to the synagogues, bringing the Good News of the Messiah to the Jews first, then to the Gentiles; in other words, only after the Jews in a town rejected him did he then go to the Gentiles in that town.

He never stopped preaching to Jews. Ever.

What happened later was that his letters became a source of confusion because each one was written to a congregation that had specific problems, and Shaul dealt with each congregation differently. And when he wrote to a congregation, he “tweaked” the message about obedience to the Torah to meet their specific situation. This led to his letters being misused and misinterpreted to the point where modern-day Christianity is based almost exclusively on what he wrote instead of what God said, in the Torah.

Let’s not forget that Shaul was a Pharisee trained by Gamaliel, one of the greatest Jewish Torah scholars of all time, so, nu? … how could he have allowed this to happen? Where did he go wrong?

He tells us, himself, where he went wrong, and it’s here in 1 Corinthians 9: 19-22…

For although I am a free man, not bound to do anyone’s bidding, I have made myself a slave to all in order to win as many people as possible. That is, with Jews, what I did was put myself in the position of a Jew, in order to win Jews. With people in subjection to a legalistic perversion of the Torah, I put myself in the position of someone under such legalism, in order to win those under this legalism, even though I myself am not in subjection to a legalistic perversion of the Torah. With those who live outside the framework of Torah, I put myself in the position of someone outside the Torah in order to win those outside the Torah — although I myself am not outside the framework of God’s Torah but within the framework of Torah as upheld by the Messiah. With the “weak” I became “weak,” in order to win the “weak.” With all kinds of people I have become all kinds of things, so that in all kinds of circumstances I might save at least some of them.

What Shaul is telling us is that he adjusted his message in order to meet the needs of his audience, instead of giving the exact same message to all the people. Now we know that God is never changing, and his word is never changing, but what Shaul did was to change Gods’ words in order to make them appealing to whomever he was talking to.

Add to that the fact that he talked using Jewish Logic and it becomes obvious why there is so much misunderstanding of what he wrote.

“Jewish Logic” is how Jews express their thoughts. Being Jewish, I know that a Jew will tell you everything that something isn’t before they tell you what it is. When you read Romans, you see a perfect example of what I am saying: Shaul goes through listing all the reasons that the Torah would be considered invalid, then comes back with “Heaven Forbid!” when he proposes that what he just said is true. That is why Romans has been used as a polemic against the Torah when it is, in fact, an apologetic FOR the Torah!

Shaul did what he considered the right thing to do in order to get the message about the Messiah out to as many people as possible. And, in fact, he did a great job of that. The problems came later when the letters he wrote to these different congregations, to help them manage themselves and stay on track, emphasized what each group needed to hear instead of sending the same exact message to everyone.

And that is where Shaul went wrong. Since then, his letters have been more of a stumbling block to the proper obedience to God, meaning worshiping and living the way God said we should, than almost anything else, other than (maybe) Constantine’s creation of modern-day Christianity.

Since we can’t get rid of these letters, when you read them please remember that Shaul was a Torah-observant Jewish man who was trying to do whatever he could to get both Jews and Gentiles to accept Yeshua as their Messiah. He said he wanted to get the message to as many people as possible in the hopes that some might be saved.

I think he assumed, as James did (in Acts 15:21) that all his new converts to Messiah would become more Torah observant as they grew spiritually.

Unfortunately, after Shaul’s death, the new leadership of these Gentile Believers decided they should break away from Judaism; that, however, is another story.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe, share these messages to help this ministry grow, and also check out my books. And remember- I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Sorry to Disagree, But the Flesh is Strong

March 11, 2021 Leave a comment

We read in the Gospels, such as in Matthew 26:40-42, that after their Passover Seder together, which is called the Last Supper, Yeshua asked some of his Talmudim to stay awake and pray with him in the garden, but each time they kept falling asleep.

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Yeshua commented that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, meaning that although they wanted to, they weren’t as strong as their desire to obey him and so they fell asleep.

I am the last person on earth to want to argue with Yeshua, but in this case, I have to say I disagree with him: the flesh isn’t weak, it is strong.

The “flesh” is our humanity, our iniquity (the innate desire to sin), and our egocentric personality. Egocentric doesn’t mean we think we are better than anyone else, it means we see ourselves as the center of the universe, not caring that much for anyone else but concentrating only our our own needs and feelings.

For example, I know some people who seem to be so nice, offering their help and offering to give things to others but after a while, I can see that they are doing this not from a legitimate desire to be of service but to generate compliments for themselves and to hear people tell them how wonderful they are. The conversations they are involved in always seem to come around back to them, what they have done, what they know, etc. This doesn’t make them “bad” people, just egocentric.

In all fairness to the Disciples who were in the garden with Yeshua, they just finished a large meal with a lot of wine. Anyone who has been to a Seder knows there are 4 glasses of wine each person drinks during the meal; not only that but between reading the Hagaddah and eating in the middle of the narrative, these meals can take a few hours. So, naturally, full of lamb and wine, staying awake while sitting in a dark garden would be a real challenge to anyone.

With their flesh just dying to sleep, even though their spirit desired to pray along with Yeshua, their flesh was stronger.

If the flesh was truly weak, then we would be able to overcome it, wouldn’t we? Sin would be an easy thing to control and do away with, yet the facts of life show us, conclusively, that this is NOT the case. The flesh, the Yetzer Hara (evil inclination), the desire to do that which is pleasurable and easy is obviously stronger; otherwise, we wouldn’t really need the Messiah, would we? No, if the flesh was weak, we would be able to overcome our sinful desires and allow the Ruach (spirit) to control what we do and say.

But, as I have already pointed out, that isn’t how it is in real life. Why do you think Yeshua says the road less travelled and the narrow gate is the pathway to salvation?

So, all I am saying is it seems to me that the flesh is not really weak, but strong enough that we find great difficulty in overcoming it.

Again, far be it for me to argue with the Messiah, but in this case, I would change that statement in Matthew to read “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is strong and difficult for people to overcome.” Then I might follow that up with a statement Yeshua made earlier to his Talmudim (Matthew 19:26), where he says: “…With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

So if you want your spirit to be stronger than your flesh, you need to strengthen it with spiritual exercise. The way to do that is to pray, read the Bible, and obey the instructions God gave us in the Torah, which is the ONLY place where God tells us how he wants us to act.

And like any good exercise program, you must do this on a regular basis.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe, share these messages, and I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for now, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!