In a commentary on this week’s Bible portion, we learn that Satan, the deceiver, told Sarah that Abraham had killed Isaac. It was her appointed time of passing, but the immediate cause of her death was grief.
Satan is not necessarily a direct liar. Often “the adversary” will simply deliver clickbait, a distorted version of reality. The victim buys the story and then is moved to distress. From the distress it is a short step to sin, God forbid.
I was chatting with someone who stated to me that they think Jesus never even existed, that any belief in him is “all a lie.”
That is an unfortunate attitude to have when you consider that:
- It is inaccurate.
- Christians overwhelmingly do promote morality.
- Christians are persecuted for promoting morality and their persecution is celebrated, mocked, and/or ignored by the occultist mainstream media.
In addition, based on my knowledge (highly recommended — Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s Kosher Jesus):
- Clearly Jesus was a rabbi or teacher of some kind. Generally his statements in the New Testament about how to treat people strike me as accurate to Jewish belief.
- Jesus observed the Torah. He advocated the proper keeping of Judaism. He did not hate Jews or start a separate religion. What happened after his death was not in his control.
- I can believe that Jesus provoked the ire of the Establishment rabbis although in the Talmud there is no reference to him. The references that seem to exist have been disputed if not disproven.
- I do believe that after his death, the godless Roman Establishment (Edom) co-opted Christianity and turned it corrupt (the Vatican).
- These are the same Romans that killed Jesus to take out a populist threat to them.
The below is standard issue Judaism:
- Jewish people do not believe that Jesus is a deity. The Ten Commandments tell us to worship only God and no other gods. However it is absolutely permissible to see him as a holy man, a carrier of God’s word, and so on.
- I personally believe Jesus was a holy man along the lines of any enlightened person and/or holy person. Others have pointed this out—Judaism does not encourage the people to substitute a man for one’s direct relationship with God yet many have done that with Hasidic rabbis.
- For a Jew, it is required to keep the Torah. For someone who is not Jewish, we believe it is important to keep the Seven Noahide Laws. This requirement doesn’t go away even if the Jewish person thinks they converted. If your mother was Jewish then you’re Jewish.
- Jewish people do not proselytize. Anyone can convert to Judaism. We don’t encourage it or seek it.
In talking to “regular” Jewish people who are observant there are two distinct attitudes toward Christianity:
- They support our values, and Israel.
- The main concern for the Jewish religion is intermarriage with Christians.
My main thoughts are:
- I find that Christian thinking resonates with me most of the time (as said above).
- Christians believe in God. Most Jews are atheist. That is a problem. We need to ask why and deal with that. To be fair the Jewish community is working on education and outreach pretty actively.
- Within the world of Jewish outreach and education the quality of information varies. People often get misinformation from Jewish educators themselves, often well-meaning.
- There is unbelievable ignorance about concepts that Christians understand straightforwardly. You have to fight the devil. No he doesn’t have independent power from God, but yes God grants him a license to operate so as to create free will.
- There is also ignorance about the fact that idol worship as prohibited in the Torah exists today and is pervasive. For example in the Torah God tells us to impose capital punishment on witches and destroy the idols they worship, even the trees. We are warned about idolatrous child sacrifice such as passing the children through the fire for Moloch.
- We need to welcome chastisement and not call it anti-Semitic when it is helpful. The Torah is very much engaged in chastising and reproving the Jewish people for misbehavior even in advance of the sim.
- We need to be humble and learn. Jews don’t know everything. Just like in science we are taught to learn from the non-Jewish world, so too in religion we must acknowledge where we are not acting in accordance with the precepts of our own faith. We can take guidance from others as long as it doesn’t violate the Torah.
Sadly there are people in every religion whose main act of “faith” seems to be belching out Satanic clickbait lies about everybody else. Those people are in fact the agents of Satan himself. “Fake News,” and they want us to kill each other.
The independent research of Christian Patriots, over a period of about five years, has helped me to see patterns of evil that exist in America and yes, in the Holy Land of Israel too. I am grateful to them for that.
They have helped me to see where my fellow Jews are often blind, or bought off by the Establishment. The Torah (Pirkei Avos, Ethics of the Fathers) tells us not to make a living off of faith. A lot of so-called religious leaders don’t follow that teaching.
Christians have actually helped me to better understand authentic Jewish teachings that I received many years ago, such as the emphasis on traditional gender roles. They have helped me to see the anti-God agenda of a politicized transgender movement, even within civil society not regulated by religion. (In fact a woman dressing as a man is prohibited in the Torah.)
I could go on and on but you get the point.
By Dr. Dannielle (Dossy) Blumenthal. All opinions are the author’s own. Public domain.
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