Shalom everyone,
In the Hasidic Jewish community, each sect celebrates the life and teachings of their respective founding Rebbes, in much the same way as we celebrate the life and teachings of the Prophet Yeshua. If you ever need to explain to other Jews how we, as Talmidis, relate to the person of the Prophet Yeshua, we honour him in the same way that Hasidic Jews honour their Rebbes.
Each Rebbe has a particular take on Jewish life, on the problems of the world and on humanity. Each Rebbe has emphases that shape the outlook and mindset of their community. This is exactly how Talmidaism functions with respect to Yeshua. Our emphases, our focus and our mindset is that of the Israelite faith, as seen through the eyes and teachings of the Prophet Yeshua. Similarly, they honour the day of their Rebbes’ death.
The Fast itself
The fast tomorrow (15th Apr 2022) is a daytime fast. Incidentally, this year it coincides with the ‘Fast of the Firstborn’ – a traditional Jewish practice, observed by those who are the firstborn of their mothers, on the day before the Passover meal (or on a Friday, if that means that the fast would fall on a Sabbath, because the Passover meal this year is on the Sunday evening, 17th Apr). The Fast of the Firstborn remembers the firstborn who died in the last plague, to impress upon us that, as Jews, we are not supposed to rejoice at the misfortune of those who hate us.
Since our memorial fast is on a Friday, we break the fast an hour or so before we normally begin our preparations for the Sabbath. This way, there is a spiritual line drawn between the sadness of the fast, and the joy of the Sabbath. You can break the fast simply by eating something small or light – like a light sandwich, a biscuit, a fruit etc.
Remembering the person of Yeshua as a human being
The whole purpose of the memorial day, is to fix in our minds the human person of Yeshua – who was probably made aware by God that he only had a short time, and yet still chose to serve God in the way he did. To his closest apostles and followers, his death was a tragedy. The person they had followed for three years, listened to, learned from, inspired by, respected and even loved, was gone. And not just gone, but gone in the most horrific way possible at that time – executed on a Roman cross.
Reading the Talmidi Jewish version of Yeshua’s final week and death, fixes in our minds that it was the Romans who crucified Yeshua. Our version redresses the 2,000 year-old injustice of blaming the entire Jewish people into perpetuity for the death of Yeshua. If you are a Christian, there is no way you can possibly see it or comprehend it, but the Passion-story of the gospels is utterly anti-Semitic. In contrast, the Talmidi version is pro-Jewish, and more realistic if you view Yeshua as a fully human prophet, and understand the Jewish cultural background of that time.
Normally, the gospel of John bears no similarity to what is contained in the other 3 gospels. However, with regard to the final week of Yeshua’s life, there are certain core details of the story that even John’s gospel shares. To someone who analyses how a historical document was put together, this fact seems to suggest that there is a core tradition of narrative that even the gospel of John could not depart from. This story could support the hypothesis that the earliest story about Yeshua that circulated widely amongst his first followers, was the last week of his life, and the manner of his death.
In Talmidaism, because we do not view Yeshua as the messiah, there is absolutely no need to explain his death in any way – or even to try and find his death predicted in the prophecies of the Hebrew Bible. The life of a prophet is always difficult, and many prophets died for the Message of God they tried to deliver. Talmidi theology has no need to read any kind of salvific purpose into his death either; his death was the death of a Jewish martyr and prophet.
Reading ‘The Book of the Two Trials’ every year – which is not obligatory, by the way – but if you do, reading our version of the last week in Yeshua’s life, fixes all these points in your mind, and changes your perspective on Yeshua’s death. It demystifies it, and makes it more real. You begin to see Yeshua as a human being, a faithful servant of God, a messenger of God, a prophet who had a real life, and whose death was not unusual for that of a Hebrew prophet.
The Resurrection of Yeshua in Talmidi theology
In the original gospel of Mark – which is the earliest gospel written – the gospel ends with Mk 16:1-8. Three of Yeshua’s female followers go to the tomb, but he is gone. A man – presumably an angel – tells them that he has risen from the dead, and that they are to tell his apostles to go to the Galilee. However, they are so terrified that they run away, and they don’t tell anyone anything – not even the apostles.
In the pagan religions of the ancient Mediterranean, if someone resurrected from the dead, that meant unequivocally that they were a god. Stories of a number of pagan gods circulated at that time – including that of Baal Taraz, the local patron-god of Paul’s hometown – gods who resurrected every year at springtime. Resurrection was a hallmark-feature of the gods of Spring; in pagan cultures, resurrection automatically meant divinity.
In the Israelite faith, resurrection meant nothing of the kind. If you were someone who was able to resurrect the dead, that merely meant that you were a holy man of God – the prophet Elisha was one such man, who resurrected the Shunammite boy (2Kgs 4:32-37) In fact, there are a number of parallels between Elisha’s miracles and the miracles of ‘Jesus’ in the gospels. If the time came for you to die, and you are taken alive into heaven, again, that meant that you were a holy person, whose life was pleasing to God. Both Enoch and Elijah were taken alive into heaven, when the time came for them to die.
Resurrection in a Jewish cultural environment
The resurrection of Yeshua does not have the same central importance in Talmidaism that it does in Paullist Christianity. In Talmidaism, it is not a core article of faith. I personally do believe that Yeshua was resurrected by God, and was taken alive into heaven by God. However, if you don’t believe that Yeshua was resurrected, that does not preclude you from being a part of the Talmidi community; the belief is not a defining test of membership.
In the Israelite faith, it is the fire of God’s Glory that cleanses a soul of the stain of sin (Isa 43:25), so we don’t need to put that on Yeshua’s death. Our God already has the power over life and death (cf 2Kgs 5:7); our God already had the door open to eternal life, for the righteous and repentant who pass away (Prov 12:28).
In a Jewish cultural environment, resurrection means that Yeshua was a holy man of God, who had lived a life pleasing to God, and whose mission, life and actions God had vindicated. In the pagan world, resurrection was automatic proof of divinity; in the Jewish world, resurrection is automatic proof of God’s especial blessing on a holy life.
Personally, although I believe he was resurrected, I am convinced that the post-resurrection appearances are all fictional. None of the details in the gospel-stories agree; they are likely based on dreams, of the type which are normal for a grieving person to have of someone they once loved. I regularly have dreams of my grandparents, even now, 33 years after their deaths. During those dreams, I am convinced that they are still alive. Most people have dreams of this type, when they have gone through a bereavement.
In all likelihood, genuine stories of comforting dreams and visions of Yeshua` circulated amongst his closest Jewish followers, and these filtered through to Paul’s ex-pagan Believers. Like everything else Jewish which Paul transferred into a pagan, non-Jewish environment, these stories were mutated to fit the world-view of the teller. Moreover, they took on the meaning they had in a pagan environment. Jewish accounts of comforting dreams became Gentile-Christian accounts of incontrovertible physical appearances, and within a decade or so, had become established fact – after all, there was no way most people in Corinth, Philippi or Galatia could verify anything with the eye-witnesses – the Jewish apostles in Jerusalem. The stories claiming that Yeshua was seen after his death therefore grew and grew, and eventually became part of Gentile Christian canon lore.
Each year, we remember that it all meant something
Yeshua’s death was not for nothing. It was not the end of his message – because the Message he was given to deliver was God’s Message, and God’s Message cannot die. I think that realising this, is what reinvigorated Yeshua’s grieving apostles. They realised that Yeshua’s mission to prepare the Jewish people to survive the coming tribulation still mattered; Yeshua’s values and ethics still mattered. Just as Yeshua had to overcome grief, and continue after the death of the teacher he loved – Yochanan (John the Baptist), so too, his apostles and Jewish followers realised that they also had to overcome their grief, and continue with Yeshua’s mission among their people, if his life and ministry was to mean anything.
As I said in my previous blog, Yeshua’s ministry was a success, even though he never got to see it while he was alive on earth. The Galilee survived, and the Jewish people survived the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and Judea. His values and teachings have survived, to point us and deliver us to Yahveh, our heavenly Father, inspiring us still, nearly 2,000 years later.
The blessings and salvation of Yahveh, our Sovereign Redeemer, be with you all
your brother and servant
Shmuliq