The Heart of HaShem

 

I was asked to present this paper for your conference this week so that I could participate with you as you learn about HaShem. Who is HaShem? It is a Hebrew rendition of the name for G_d; an evasive synonym. Why would people avoid saying the name (HaShem) of G_d? Because He is Holy, and other and worthy of our Utmost Respect. We as people should honor Him above all. Yeshua did, in everything. So in this paper, we will do the same. HaShem means, “the name”; for now that is how we will refer to Him, later, we shall see another way to refer to Him.

It is impossible for Christians to understand Jesus without understanding His religion. It was not, as current believers sometimes understand, Christianity. Jesus was Jewish. He came from a long line of Jewish people. As such, He did not think about things like church, sacraments, saint days, Sunday School, Christmas or Easter. All of those things were made up by Gentiles decades and even centuries after Jesus left this Earth. Neither Jesus nor the Apostles and New Testament writers were Christians, they were all, until their dying day, faithful, Torah observant Jews. Additionally, Jesus’ name was NOT Jesus. Jesus is a transliteration of a transliteration of a translation. Jesus’ mother called him Yeshua. In honor of Him, so as not to obscure his identity, this paper will refer to Him by His name, Yeshua.

I thought I would bring you a study on how HaShem began to show His people Israel how He wanted to be known. The “Israel” of the Sinai Desert was made up not only of circumcised Jews but also of righteous Gentiles called foreigners or ger toshav. They had come with Israel, the community out of Egypt. It was there that HaShem commanded them to remember and to keep the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread as a perpetual Holy Day to Him (Exodus 12:14-28). Israel was both Jew and Gentile who claimed HaShem as their G_d. While there were different roles for those who actually became circumcised and became Jewish, there were also Gentiles who did not convert in the community. HaShem saw them as one community, just as Yeshua and the Apostle Paul did as well (Romans 11, John 15).

It was in the desert at Sinai where He brought His people, both Jew and Gentile worshippers out of Egypt. HaShem’s goal was to show them His Heart and how they were to approach Him. He wanted to dwell among them as their God. However, He could not dwell among a disloyal or impure people.

From the time they left Egypt, the people of Israel, both Jew and Gentile, were taught by HaShem, step by step. At first, their deliverance through the Red Sea, was a sign to them that their G_d wanted to deliver them. They passed through the waters of baptism symbolically through the Red Sea, in order to be a separated and holy people. Then HaShem gathered His people and gave them a covenant. His Law was to be followed by everyone in the community, both Jew and Gentile, as a sign that they were His people. The 10 Commandments, as we know them, were given to both Jew and Gentile. They were given to people who claimed HaShem as their G_d. All of the people in the community promised before HaShem, that they accepted and would follow His covenant. That acceptance was voluntary, not demanded and it came AFTER not before deliverance. HaShem sees Israel as one body, the same body that Yeshua and Paul talked about in the Apostolic Writings (the New Testament).

After their acceptance of the Torah as a sign that they were His people, HaShem asked the leaders to take an offering from the people. We begin today in Exodus 25:2, where HaShem now asks His people to show their love for Him through gifts.

Notice that HaShem did not have his people go back to Egypt to ask for donations from rich people. He asked His people to give of themselves. These people were in the desert, they had nothing but what they could carry from their impoverished lives in Egypt. What could they give? HaShem asked them to share what He had already provided them. He was able to produce the things He needed through what the people already had. He is not limited by lack of funds. He can make things out of nothing. It is not we by He who decides what is worth giving.

HaShem wanted “investors” in His tabernacle. He did not want to demand it, He wanted cheerful givers that identify as a community who loves Him.

Most of Exodus 25 is used for the detailed description of how the Tabernacle was to be built. HaShem’s particular instructions were to be followed exactly. The people did not see this as a burden or something that they could brag about. These instructions or “mitzvoth” were opportunities to show HaShem how they loved Him. Similarly the Torah, as given to the community of Israel was a joy with 613 opportunities (not laws) that allowed the people of Israel to show HaShem their love and devotion.

The important thing to note here is the Heart of HaShem is something that can be accessed by anyone who will accept His covenant and follow His instructions. You don’t have to be Jewish, however, His commandments, as we see here are not just for Jews. In fact, His Torah (which does not mean LAW but rather Instruction) is the very thing that Yeshua commanded His disciples to follow. (Matthew 5:17-20). If we say that we are believers, the Torah applies to us. It was not Yeshua or the Apostle Paul that did away with Torah. It was the Greek, Ante Nicene Fathers, who decided that the Jewishness of Yeshua was unacceptable. They, not Yeshua, not the Apostles and not the New Testament writers, decided to replace Israel with the “church”.

The Heart of HaShem is in Israel, not in the “church”, which is a 3rd century invention. HaShem’s heart, as we see in the construction of the tabernacle, is in the presence of those who are obedient to His Word. His Word, by the way, is what the Church calls the Old Testament. The New Testament just expounds on what was already there. Remember, it was not canonized until the 4th Century, hundreds of years after the death of the Apostles.

I would ask that you examine Exodus 25-27 with open eyes and open heart. Read the word as if you were the ger toshav not the replacement for Israel (which Yeshua would never uphold). As you see yourself as part of a community that existed before the church, how can you see HaShem’s heart? Is the heart of the Father, whose seat is in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle, the same one that you want to know? Or do you want to know a Christianized version. One that replaces His Word, His Ways, His Torah, with something that even Yeshua would shudder to think.

I would encourage you to get to know Israel, the people of G_d, both Jew and Gentile, not the Church. If you would like to know more, please contact me, as we have online discussion groups and classes that you can access. Learning to know the TRUE Heart of HaShem is a life changing experience that you will not want to miss…..Shalom!

Read Exodus 25:27

How is the Ark of the Covenant a resemblance of the Heart of HaShem? Also, how should this represent the heart (in Hebrew the core of the human being) of the disciple?

How does this resemble the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:33? Who are the people HaShem makes the New Covenant with? Do you see that it is not the church? What do you know about Church History? You might start to try to find out…..

 

Study verses: 2Cor. 9:1-15 Giving to HaShem from what He has given to us

Paul talks to the community at Corinth. How does the concept of giving parallel the idea of giving in the Sinai? How should believers, both Jew and Gentile, give to HaShem? Does the responsibility for ministry fall on foreigners or on the local community? Why? How does the local body funding its own ministry model the community at Sinai? What can we learn from Exodus 25 that we can apply now? How does this show the Heart of HaShem?

In Matthew 5, Yeshua says this:

17 ”Don’t think that I have come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete. 18 Yes indeed! I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so much as a yud or a stroke will pass from the Torah — not until everything that must happen has happened. 19 So whoever disobeys the least of these mitzvot and teaches others to do so will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever obeys them and so teaches will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness is far greater than that of the Torah-teachers and P’rushim, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven!

Here he is saying that He did not come to do away with the Law but rather to complete or bring it to the forefront. He says that we are to follow it as well as follow the teaching of the Torah teachers, the Pharisees (although He said not to follow what they DO hypocritically). So what, are Christians to do? Yeshua says if we disobey even the least of the commandments (mitzvoth) we will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven (which is not a PLACE). If we are to be part of HaShem’s Heart, of His Kingdom which rules men’s hearts (again this is a Hebrew idiom another synonym for G_d’s name), we are to be holy, we are to follow His instructions (Torah) and His leaders instructions….pray about this, ask HaShem to reveal His Heart to you, and contact me at Cheryl@livingtruth.us letting me know what He is saying to you.

AMEN.

 

http://www.noachide.org.uk/html/ger_toshav.html

Ger Toshav – a Resident Stranger (Gentile) who dwells in the Holy Land.

(N.B. Currently in this era nobody can become a Ger Toshav, until the Jubilee Year is reintroduced in Israel when the King Moshiach comes).

 

In biblical times a Gentile who observed the seven Noachide laws in the Holy Land was regarded as a resident alien or Ger Toshav in Hebrew. (גֵר תּוֹשָׁב)

 

The Gemara (Talmud Bavli, Avodah Zarah 64b) quotes three opinions regarding who is a Ger Toshav, and they are:

 

1. Rebbi Meir maintains that a Ger Toshav is a Nochri (stranger) who accepts upon himself, in front of three “Chaverim” (Talmidei Chachamim), not to worship idols.

2. The Chachamim say that a Ger Toshav is a Nochri who accepts upon himself to observe the seven Mitzvos of Bnei Noach.

3. Acherim maintain that the above opinions are incorrect, and that a Ger Toshav is a Nochri who accepts all of the Mitzvos except for not eating Neveilos (animals that were nothttp://www.noachide.org.uk/html/ger_toshav.html

Ger Toshav – a Resident Stranger (Gentile) who dwells in the Holy Land.

(N.B. Currently in this era nobody can become a Ger Toshav, until the Jubilee Year is reintroduced in Israel when the King Moshiach comes).

 

In biblical times a Gentile who observed the seven Noachide laws in the Holy Land was regarded as a resident alien or Ger Toshav in Hebrew. (גֵר תּוֹשָׁב)

 

The Gemara (Talmud Bavli, Avodah Zarah 64b) quotes three opinions regarding who is a Ger Toshav, and they are:

 

1. Rebbi Meir maintains that a Ger Toshav is a Nochri (stranger) who accepts upon himself, in front of three “Chaverim” (Talmidei Chachamim), not to worship idols.

2. The Chachamim say that a Ger Toshav is a Nochri who accepts upon himself to observe the seven Mitzvos of Bnei Noach.

3. Acherim maintain that the above opinions are incorrect, and that a Ger Toshav is a Nochri who accepts all of the Mitzvos except for not eating Neveilos (animals that were not slaughtered properly).

 

 

Rambam’s Hilchos Issurei Bi’ah 14:7

What is meant by a Ger Toshav (resident alien)? A gentile who makes a commitment not to worship false deities and to observe the other six universal laws commanded to Noah’s descendants. He does not circumcise himself nor immerse. We accept this commitment and he is considered one of the pious gentiles. Why is he called a resident? Because we are permitted to allow him to dwell among us in the land of Israel, as explained in Hilchos Avodah Zarah.

 

Rambam’s Hilchos Issurei Bi’ah 14:8 (see Luke 4:19, and Isaiah 61:1-2a)

We accept resident aliens only during the era when the Jubilee year is observed. In the present era, even if a gentile makes a commitment to observe the entire Torah with the exception of just one minor point, he is not accepted.

 

Rambam’s Hilchot Avodat Cochavim 10:6

‘The laws concerning the sale of property and support of the poor, et cetera, mentioned in this chapter apply only when the Jews are exiled amongst the nations, or when they are attacking the Jews, but when we are attacking them it is forbidden to have them in our midst. Concerning temporary residence or moving from one rented house to another; we may not allow a gentile into our land unless he has accepted upon himself the Seven Commandments of the Sons of Noah, for it is written, “They shall not dwell in your land”, even for a single hour. If a gentile accepted upon himself the Seven Commandments then he is classed as a settling stranger. Settling strangers are accepted only at a time when the Jubilee is observed, but a righteous stranger, i.e. a convert, is accepted at all times.’

slaughtered properly).

 

 

Rambam’s Hilchos Issurei Bi’ah 14:7

What is meant by a Ger Toshav (resident alien)? A gentile who makes a commitment not to worship false deities and to observe the other six universal laws commanded to Noah’s descendants. He does not circumcise himself nor immerse. We accept this commitment and he is considered one of the pious gentiles. Why is he called a resident? Because we are permitted to allow him to dwell among us in the land of Israel, as explained in Hilchos Avodah Zarah.

 

Rambam’s Hilchos Issurei Bi’ah 14:8 (see Luke 4:19, and Isaiah 61:1-2a)

We accept resident aliens only during the era when the Jubilee year is observed. In the present era, even if a gentile makes a commitment to observe the entire Torah with the exception of just one minor point, he is not accepted.

 

Rambam’s Hilchot Avodat Cochavim 10:6 (see Luke 4:19, and Isaiah 61:1-2a)

‘The laws concerning the sale of property and support of the poor, et cetera, mentioned in this chapter apply only when the Jews are exiled amongst the nations, or when they are attacking the Jews, but when we are attacking them it is forbidden to have them in our midst.

 

Concerning temporary residence or moving from one rented house to another; we may not allow a gentile into our land unless he has accepted upon himself the Seven Commandments of the Sons of Noah, for it is written, “They shall not dwell in your land”, even for a single hour.

 

If a gentile accepted upon himself the Seven Commandments then he is classed as a settling stranger. Settling strangers are accepted only at a time when the Jubilee is observed, but a righteous stranger, i.e. a convert, is accepted at all times.’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Between Intermarriage and Conversion: Finding a Middle Way

By Rabbi Steve Greenberg

Despite our deeply ingrained binary conception of Jewish identity (i.e. that a person is either a Jew or a non-Jew and that there is no category in between), perhaps it is time to invent something new.   The increasing rate of intermarriage has become a cause celebre generating many new efforts, none of which speaks to the new reality that Jews face as fully integrated members of the societies in which they live.  

Historically, whenever we Jews have been intimately involved in a non-Jewish society, we have intermarried.  We did it in Spain in the Middle Ages and in Europe in the nineteenth century, and we are doing it now in America.  The community’s preferred approach to date has been to encourage the non-Jewish spouse to convert, but this approach is rather problematic, as it tends to produce conversions of questionable sincerity. This leads me to suggest another approach: why not invent a new category between Jew and gentile?  In fact, over the course of Jewish history the tradition has grappled with variants of this challenge and bequeaths to us a number of ideas that we might profitably rehabilitate today.  One of the most interesting of these is the tradition’s idea of the ger toshav, or resident alien, who occupied this in-between position in biblical times. 

The ger toshav was not a convert.  He was, according to the rabbis, a gentile who lived among the Jewish people, happy to be part of the Jewish world and supportive of the religious and social frames of Jewish life.  He could eat tref, but was not permitted to publicly worship other gods, and if he was circumcised, he could even partake of the Passover sacrifice.   In antiquity, he was the Jewish goy at the seder table.    He was a lover of the Jewish people, though not a Jew himself.   In many intermarried homes today, this characterization would aptly describe the feelings and commitments of the non-Jewish spouse.

When my cousin Janet married a non-Jew, I did not attend the wedding.    At the time, I was studying to be a rabbi.   I am a year older than Janet and we had always been close, but after the wedding we didn’t speak for years.  Eventually, the shock wore off, they had children, and everyone managed to deal with reality.  In fact, we all have come to love Janet’s mate, Bill.   He has effortlessly become a full-fledged member of the clan.  Janet and Bill have raised their children Jewishly with Janet’s hard work and Bill’s encouragement, and Bill is proud to be the non-Jewish father of a Jewish family.  

Since Janet and Bill tied the knot, the Jewish community’s attitude toward intermarriage has undergone a huge change. What was once taboo has become the norm. The AJC’s 1999 Survey of American Opinion found that 62 percent of the respondents consider anti-Semitism a greater threat to the Jewish people than intermarriage.  

And though I am saddened by the increased numbers of “mixed” kids growing up in intermarried homes, I no longer can stomach the indignation that I once proudly held on the matter.  All of us, including those of us in the Orthodox community, must do more to address this issue than we have.       

Steven Bayme of the AJC recently criticized the Reform movement’s policy of outreach to the intermarried, insisting that such programming undermines the communal resistance to mixed marriages.  Eric Yoffie has responded to him that intermarriage is a consequence of modernity.  The only way to put the genie back in the bottle would be “to return to the ghetto.”    

There is no doubt that the contemporary cult of the self has had onerous effects upon all sorts of cultural, moral and religious norms.  Despite whatever criticisms we might have of the contemporary zeitgeist of freedom and self-expression, there is no going back to an age when personal desire was routinely subordinated to familial or communal norms.  

Recent proposals to enrich Jewish experiences prior to marriage have much merit.  The deeper and more intense an individual’s Jewish cultural, social and religious commitments are, the greater their desire to marry a Jewish person is likely to be.   Such direct campaigns to combat intermarriage, like the Birthright Foundation’s project of sending thousands of young adults to Israel, might slow down the trend, but they are surely not going to turn it around.    

Instead of focusing our attention on mixed marriages, why not attend instead to the problem of mixed homes.   Why not secure the Jewish home by creating a contemporary ger toshav — not a convert to Judaism, but a gentile who actively chooses to live among Jews.   

From time to time, interfaith couples planning to marry ask me to discuss their options.  They do so not because the non-Jewish partner is ready to begin conversion, but because they want to begin the exploration of their options by consulting with an Orthodox rabbi.   What I have discovered in these conversations is that I have very little to offer such couples.   

The traditional Jewish community forces the non-Jewish spouse to consider an all or nothing bargain — either full-fledged Jewish identity by conversion, or rejection.   An alternative approach that would emphasize the positive value of  Jewish culture and tradition, and the joys of living in a Jewish home without insisting upon conversion has, until now, not been imaginable.  What if we were to create such an approach that would in effect look upon non-Jewish spouses as potential gerei toshav?   Rabbis would then be able to offer to non-Jews wishing to marry a Jewish spouse the opportunity to become not converts, but committed fans of the Jewish people. 

For this approach to have a chance of becoming widely accepted in the Orthodox world, potential gerei toshav would have to learn about Judaism in a course specifically designed for this purpose along with their prospective spouse.  They would have to be prepared to raise Jewish children and to help create a Jewish home.  Children growing up in such a home would know that they have two parents, one Jewish and one not, but that they are full-fledged Jews and not half-Jews.  In situations where the woman was the non-Jewish partner, the children could be converted in early childhood by a proper bet din, thereby insuring that they are treated as Jews within the larger Jewish community.
    

Forcing conversion on people doesn’t work for many reasons.    People often have good reasons for not wanting to convert.  For some, the weakness of their religious convictions regarding their own faith makes them feel inauthentic about adopting another faith.  Such folks don’t feel strongly enough about religion to pledge their faith in good conscience.  Conversely, others may feel powerfully drawn to Jews and Judaism, but feel unable to abandon the faith of their childhood.  They may not be prepared to cause the familial upset and disappointment that their conversion would produce for those they love.  Still others, while they may be ready to marry a Jew and raise Jewish children, find themselves in possession of Christian faith that they simply cannot deny or give up.  Adoption of the ger toshav status would provide a means of sustaining their own faith while still being wonderful parents to Jewish kids. 

The marriage of a Jew and a ger toshav would not be legitimate under existing halachic frameworks.  However, my own work in finding solutions to gay and lesbian marriage has shed light on this issue for me.    In thinking about non-normative marriage partners, I have decided that kiddushin, the traditional ritual for the Jewish wedding, simply doesn’t apply to gay couples.   What does make sense for such couples is a religiously meaningful commitment ceremony.  In this case as well, the traditional ritual would not well serve a mixed couple.   New rituals for such marriages, rituals that partake of Jewish resources and speak honestly about what is actually happening, are needed.   Exactly what such marriages could mean for the Jewish community, how they ought to be formally enjoined, or how they should be terminated when they end are all questions that call for the exercise of cultural creativity.    

Maimonides makes it clear that the traditional marital ritual was an innovation when it began.  Until then, a man took a woman into his tent, and when they came out they were married.   If the present form of kiddushin was once an invention, then innovation itself is not the problem.  

If Abraham had two wives and Jacob had four, doing things just like our forebears is also not the issue.  If the Talmudic sage Rav would call out on his travels, “Who will marry me for the day?” in order to provide a “day wife” for himself, it must be clear that marriage and family-making are always a part of the larger cultures in which they reside.  It is time that we provide a place for the non-Jew in our families in much the same way that the ger toshav, or alien resident, was given a place in ancient Judea.   

The more we Jews are empowered as a people culturally, materially and politically, the more non-Jews will be drawn to us.  Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband and a trusted commander in David’s army, was a Hittite. Though he was a non-Jew, he was an insider in ancient Judea, with his home opposite the palace of the king.  His name Uriah means  “God is my light” and apparently was his not by accident.  He was so morally upright that, despite David’s urgings that he go and sleep with his wife Bathsheba so as to obscure the fact that she was pregnant by King David, Uriah refused to sleep in the comfort of his bed while his men were in the battlefield.    Perhaps instead of a new Jewish name which converts receive, a ger toshav should adopt a new middle name, that of Uriah.    

In my own opinion, it is better when two Jews marry and produce children who carry on the covenant of Israel as knowledgeable and proud Jews.  But for the great non-Jewish souls who find themselves, like Uriah, drawn to the Jewish people and ready to stand up and even fight with us in our battles, we must find a way to formally recognize them.  It is a sign of our success that we ought to celebrate rather than to mourn.