American Judaism: Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and Reconstructionist

 

Mark Beré Peterson: Hauntings, Urban Legends, History, Folklore, Mythology and Witchcraft

Whether you refer to them as denominations, streams, movements or branches the American Jewish experience is as diverse as their interpretation of traditional Jewish law or halacha. Outside North America, the non-Orthodox streams of Judaism play a less significant role, and in Israel the vast majority of synagogues and other Jewish religious institutions are Orthodox, even though most Israeli Jews do not identify as Orthodox. Evenwithin North America, the role of the movements has diminished somewhat in recent years, with growing numbers of American Jews and Jewish institutions identifying as “just Jewish.”

The largest affiliation of American Jews, some 35 percent of Jews identify asReform. The movement emphasizes the primacy of the Jewish ethical tradition over the obligations of Jewish law. The movement has traditionally sought to adapt Jewish tradition to modern sensibilities and sees itself as politically progressive and social-justice oriented while emphasizing personal choice in matters…

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2017 September – Upcoming Days of Awe

The ten days starting with Rosh Hashanah (Feast of Trumpets), 21 September 2017, 1 Tishrei 5778, and ending with Yom Kippur, 30 September 2017 or 10 Tishrei 5778, are commonly known as the Days of Awe (Yamim Noraim) or the Days of Repentance (High holidays). This is a time for serious introspection, a time to consider the sins of the previous year and repent before Yom Kippur.  On Wednesday September we have Erev Rosh Hashanah, followed by the 1st and 2nd Rosh Hashjanah days and the Yamim Nora’im or Days of Awe closing on September 30 with Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement.

Starting the Hebrew Year 5778 we should seriously think about how we want to continue is this particular time where there is so much anxiety and where we can find in so many  places religious groups fighting against each other. Jews and Christians are already a few years under fire and now we curiously also find Buddhists fighting Muslim groups.

What was our reaction when we heard all that bad news about terrorism and fighting (so called) religious people? Did we dare to come up or defend those who were attacked for things they did not do or for which their religion was not guilty?

Gary Bowers questions

What is your level of insecurity over menacing events conjectured by some geopolitical and socioeconomic experts? Such as: the dysfunctional disintegration of the European Union that could cause a chain reaction melt-down of the entire European economy; collapse of the financial system in the United States linked to or independent of Europe’s demise; Iran launching a first nuclear strike to make good on its threat to wipe Israel from the face of the earth and the United States along with it; North Korea doing the same thing; Russia’s ominous intrusion into the Middle East, potentially taking on the United States should we do anything to oppose Russia’s real agenda for being there; an all-out conventional attack by a powerful Islamic coalition of nations against Israel; and other harbingers of man-made catastrophes and natural disasters. {Yom Kippur / With Or Without Atonement?}

These days we should take time to search our heart, look for how we want to approach our life but also the life of others, and draw close to God in preparation for the coming Day of Judgement, Rosh Hashanah, and Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.

We have all different ways of handling ourself and our way of life. We also are eager to look at others and often do not mind judging them or pointing with a finger at them.

According to vain Jewish tradition, God supposedly weighs every man’s work to determine who will be written in His books, who will live and die, who will have a good life or a bad life for the next year. The judgement is based on one’s works during the Days of Awe (e.g., repentance, prayer, obedience, acts of charity). The individual’s fate is then sealed on Yom Kippur.

But we should know that we all are already written in the book of life and death from the beginning of times. Also from the moment we are born we do have our own choice to make the right or the wrong decisions, all the time. Nothing is decided just in one day or in one week or in ten days.

Rabbi Mark Glickman

The Days of Awe encourage us not to get other people to take responsibility for their misdeeds, but rather to get each of us to take responsibility for our own. The emphasis isn’t on what they’ve done wrong; its on what you’ve done wrong. Rabbi Mark Glickman, the spiritual leader of Temple B’nai Tikvah in Calgary, suggests:

During the upcoming Days of Awe, when you feel your finger starting to pop out and point at someone else – and pop out it surely will – then just bend that finger back so that it points at you. Focus your efforts not on what others have done to you, but on the ways you’ve fallen short and can improve in the future.

Check what you have done this last year, which past so fast. I am sure you, probably like me, wanted to do so many things and have to admit lots of things we wanted to have done are not done or we did not succeed to do. Let us do teshuva, to give tzedakah and to reflect on how we may improve ourselves. And let us consider how we can help others on that path to the Most High Elohim.

A Temani (Yemeni Jewish) style shofar made from a horn of the greater kudu. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

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With best wishes to you, your family, and all klal Yisroel for a good, sweet, safe and healthy year, full of success spiritually and materially, with much nachas ruach, and a geula shlema for the coming year.

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Please come to read:

On the Virtue of a Bent Finger: A Challenge for the Days of Awe

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Preceding article

Elul Observances

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Additional reading

1. Perhaps a little bit late, though not less well ment: Happy Rosh Hashanah
2. From dust and breath into living beings
3. Prophets making excuses

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Further reading

1. What about Blowing the Esrog on Shavuos?
2. Haftarat Simchat Torah—Joshua: Strong and Resolute
3. Days of Awe
4. A Sober Israel Experience
5. Looking Back to Look Forward
6. Day 1081: Days of Awe
7. Elul Journey: A New Year Is Emerging 5775 – 11 More Days
8. 49 days until Rosh Hashanah
9. Rosh Hashanah’s Shout for Joy
10. Comfort for a Traumatized Age
11. Respite
12. Elul: Month of Return and Renewal
13. Days of Teshuva 2017
14. Embracing Elul by Heather Rosenberg
15. The Waters Meet Their Limit
16. Melodies for the Days of Awe
17. Days of Awe at CBI 2017 / 5778
18. Contemplative Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
19. High Holy Days 2017: Finding Interfaith Community
20. About this weekend: Selichot and cemetery service
21. Yom Kippur / With Or Without Atonement?
22. Hurricane Harvey & A Year of Prophetic Milestones (2017)

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Related articles

• Faith Council Members Take A Step Back From Advising Trump
• Shadowhunters 2×16 “Day of Atonement” Synopsis & Photos

Reciting the Aleinu as a warning against temptation of idolatry

From a review completed by a MA student at the University of Chicago Divinity School, with a focus on modern Jewish thought, Joel Swanson. Joel is interested in the intersections of phenomenology and Jewish theology, and in the unique insights that the rabbinic hermeneutic tradition can contribute to our understanding of postmodern philosophy.

Late in his life, Moses Mendelssohn found himself forced to defend the daily Jewish prayer Aleinu in a public contretemps with the Christian community of Königsberg. Two verses in the prayer, translated as

“For they worship vanity and emptiness, and pray to a god who cannot save,”

were widely viewed by Christians as an attack on Jesus, a reading based upon the testimony of a fourteenth century Christian convert from Judaism. As a result, in 1703 King Friedrich of Prussia signed an edict forbidding the recitation of these two verses of the Aleinu, and appointing Christian inspectors to enforce this ban. Seventy years later, David Kypke, an orientalist appointed as the inspector of the Königsberg Jewish community, filed a complaint alleging that the Jews purposely mumbled their recitations of the prayer, and therefore that he could not be sure they were not reciting the offending verses. The Jewish community of Königsberg prepared a response to these allegations, and naturally, it fell to Moses Mendelssohn to serve as the emissary to the Christian community and deliver this response.

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According to Mendelssohn, Jews continue to recite the Aleinu not to attack other religions as idolatrous, but as a warning against the temptation of idolatry that lurks within all monotheists. Mendelssohn’s defense of Aleinu is a masterful use of emerging Protestant notions of pluralism and interiority to defend a particular Jewish tradition.

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Freudenthal, did in fact see these two verses in the Aleinu as an attack on Christians, and no amount of creative rewriting of history on Mendelssohn’s part could change this. In order to defend Judaism before Christian authorities, Mendelssohn wound up redefining his own tradition.

Continue reading: “Moses Mendelssohn: Enlightenment, Religion, Politics, Nationalism” edited by M. Gottlieb

An American Embassy to the Eternal Capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem

A dark moment in the year 2016 might be the election of the man of whom most people thought he would not even make it to the selection of president candidates. Though very cleverly playing on the fearing minds of radical and right wing Americans blackening all other candidates he managed to blackguard Hillary Clinton many started to cry to put her in jail and would not vote for her.

Donald Trump often turned with the wind and at one moment he was on the blacks and Jews calling them names and at other moments he said he respected Judaism but found all Jews have to live in their own country.

In some of the ads leading up to the campaign Trump clearly stated his position:

Trump Campaign Statement on Israel

I love Israel, and honour and respect the Jewish faith and tradition. It is important that we have a president who feels the same way. For me, respect and reverence for Judaism is personal. My daughter Ivanka, and my son-in-law Jerad are raising their children in the Jewish faith, always reminding me of the important values and lesson we learn about leadership, resolve, and families in Jewish tradition. My administration will stand side by side with the Jewish people and Israel’s leaders to continue strengthening the bridges that connect, not only Jewish Americans and Israelis, but also all Americans an Israelis. Together we will stand up to the enemies like Iran, bent on destroying Israel and her people. Together we will make America and Israel safe again.

During his a speech at AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Donald Trump waxed bold and direct regarding his position on Israel:

I speak to you today as a life-long support and true friend of Israel.

I am a newcomer to politics, but not to backing the Jewish state.

I came here to speak to you about where I stand on the future of American relations with our strategic ally, our unbreakable friendship, and our cultural brother, the only democracy in the Middle East, the State of Israel.

He laid out several of his policies with regard the Nation of Israel. He was very politically incorrect, as his usual style normally is. He addressed the issue of Iran, but also the problematic relationship between Israel, the United States and the United Nations:

“The United States can be useful as a facilitator of negotiations, but no one should be telling Israel that it should be, and really that it must abide by some agreement made by others, thousands of miles away, that don’t even really know what is happening to Israel, to anything in the area. It is so preposterous; we are not going to let that happen…. When I am president, believe me, I will veto any attempt by the UN to impose its will on the Jewish state.  It will be vetoed 100%.

During this speech Trump pointed out the track record of agreements that were imposed upon Israel in the past and his feelings on the reason for failure:

President Clinton with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat at Camp David peace talks, July 2000.

To make a great deal you need two willing participants. We know Israel is willing to deal. Israel has been trying to sit down at the negotiating table without preconditions for years. You had Camp David in 2000, where Prime Minister Barak an incredible offer, maybe even too generous, Arafat rejected it. In 2008 Prime Minister Olmert made an equally generous offer, the Palestinians Authority rejected it also. Then John Kerry tried to come up with a framework, and Abbas didn’t even respond. Not even to the Secretary of State of the United States of America. They didn’t even respond. When I become President, the days of treating Israel like a second class citizen will end on day one!

Now many have treated his speech as simply electioneering and grandstanding. But as Donald Trump has been building his cabinet, and announcing the key roles, he has been building a team that is capable of realizing his campaign promises.

What has been most interesting this week has been the appointment by President Elect Trump of the American bankruptcy lawyer David Friedman, a 57 year old Orthodox Jew from New York, as the future Ambassador to Israel, which shall receive its residency not any more in Tel Aviv, but moves to Jerusalem.

Friedman helped advise Trump during the campaign and has assisted him in bankruptcy proceedings in the past. He is a supporter of Israeli settlement construction, has downplayed the need for a Palestinian state, and is considered a key force behind the incoming president’s relatively hard-line pro-Israel positions, including supporting moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Though in 1980 the Knesset had already declared Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel this law was declared null by the U.N., which called for the removal of the remaining embassies in the city. A statement from Israel’s Foreign Ministry called the resolution “unjust” and

“additional proof that the U.N. organization has been converted into an instrument in the hands of Israel’s enemies in their war against her existence and independence.”

With moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to a plot of land in Jerusalem which would be leased from Israel to the US for 99 years, for $1 per year since January 18, 1989, of the last days of the Reagan presidency, according to the agreement singed by US ambassador to Israel William Brown and Israel Lands Authority deputy director Moshe Gatt.

David Friedman was a major contributor to the Trump policy on Israel as he stated in a meeting with an Israeli delegation when meeting for dinner with them:

… anything where there is jobs or national security, the economy, immigration, everything is vetted through a policy committee. With regard to Israel there really isn’t a policy committee. Our relationship is so strong, that on matters of Israel, he’s really given Jason and I full authority to speak on his behalf.

The one thing that I’m proudest about, to date, is the Republican platform as relates to the state of Israel. The Republican platform on Israel is the strongest platform with regard to Israel that either party has ever developed in the history of this country. The way this was developed was a partnership between the Orthodox, within the Jewish community, the Israel lovers within the Jewish community and the evangelical community.

So from this platform, I would invite people to compare 2016 to 2012, there is no longer any reference to a two-state solution, there is an affirmative statement that Israel is not an occupier with respect to Judea and Samaria. There is a commitment to recognize Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the Jewish people, undivided capital of the Jewish people, to move the embassy there.

When this platform was passed by the Republican platform committee, the Evangelical community, got up, not only did they get up and clap, but people were actually crying. That is how motivated, that is how happy they were. They for this was a day they would never see. 

This man is noted for his conservative political views, his belief that the “Jewish left” is a danger to the State of Israel, and that Jews who supported the nonprofit liberal advocacy group J Street, are

“just smug advocates of Israel’s destruction”

But it are just those advocates who try to bring peace in the region promoting American leadership to end the Arab–Israeli and Israel–Palestinian conflicts peacefully and diplomatically.
J Street’s stated aim is to provide a political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans who believe that a

“two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is essential to Israel’s survival as the national home of the Jewish people and as a vibrant democracy”.

J Street has a two-fold mission: first, to advocate for urgent American diplomatic leadership to achieve a two-state solution and a broader regional, comprehensive peace and, second, to ensure a broad debate on Israel and the Middle East in national politics and the American Jewish community.

The appointment of Friedman, who once compared a Jewish lobby group to concentration camp prisoner-guards, is a controversial one and some liberal Jewish groups in the U.S. as well as a senior Palestinian cleric have openly denounced the decision.

As believers in the Bible we followed the Iraq-Iran War, the present religious wars and terrorist acts, the Brexit and the American elections suspiciously, very intrigued and  now with appointment of David Friedman to the post of America’s Ambassador to Israel seeing how zigzaw puzzle pieces fitting the details given in the Bible.

We are fascinated to see the finger of God at work in the nations, as the prophet Daniel clearly stated:

“…the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.” (Daniel 4:17)

God allows people to reign matters and to choose their own governments. God also allows events to take place in His time schedule. He may look at the United States and see how Donald Trump may take his position of power in America and the world. Bible students can become quite excited by this prospect, not because of the man, but because of his stated policies with regard to the State of Israel and with the events Donald Trump may bring into this world, where he is perhaps going to make it easier for the Jewish state to develop.

The president elect moving the American Embassy is one thing, but also calling it

“to the Eternal Capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem“

is giving the voice to what Jews and real Christians are looking forwards to for already many years. We do know that Jerusalem has to become the eternal capital of the world, but now a politician has called it with a clear voice “the Eternal Capital”. That is what more people shall have to come to recognise.

The movement of America’s embassy to Jerusalem is one step closer to becoming a reality.  It is the issue of Jerusalem that will cause the nations to come down to the land in the latter day, and bring God’s judgement upon them:

“For, behold, in those days, and in that time, When I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, And will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, And will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.” (Joel 3:1–2)

Zechariah also identifies Jerusalem as being the flashpoint:

“And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: All that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, Though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.” (Zechariah 12:3)

All nations who come against it will be destroyed. So when we see America, the most powerful nation in the world talking about legitimizing the Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, it brings the issue to the forefront.

You may read more about this in the Christadelphian News-site: Bible in the News

Protesters outside of AIPAC conference at Washington DC Convention center. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Days of Nisan, Pesach, Pasach, Pascha and Easter

End of Winter, new beginning

When Winter let us see its last breath 1st Nisan brings a New Year.
At the appearance of the first “new moon” of Spring, that is, when the waxing crescent of the moon is first sighted we come to celebrate the Biblical New Years Day.

After the dark months we look forward to a time of more light. We are also confronted with what happened many thousand years ago. There was an event in history which was going to influence the coarse of history up to today. In Egypt a people felt restricted and threatened by how they where treated. Nisan brings the start of their big journey. It is the start of the month of the Exodus from Egypt and the beginning of Jewish national history. It is also the first month used for counting the festivals (mo’edim) of the Hebrew Calendar and for reckoning the years of reign of the Kings of Israel.

Head of the months

Israel’s Escape from Egypt, illustration from a Bible card published 1907 by the Providence Lithograph Company (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Rosh Chodashim (ראשׁ חֳדָשִׁים), “the head of the months,” and its observance is considered the very first commandment given to Israel before the great Exodus from Egypt took place. For the world now got days they should remember for ever.

“This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.” (Exodus 12:2 ASV)

“3 And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand Jehovah brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten. 4 This day ye go forth in the month Abib.” (Exodus 13:3-4 ASV)

“The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep: seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, at the time appointed in the month Abib (for in it thou camest out from Egypt); and none shall appear before me empty:” (Exodus 23:15 ASV)

“The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, at the time appointed in the month Abib; for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt.” (Exodus 34:18 ASV)

“Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto Jehovah thy God; for in the month of Abib Jehovah thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.” (Deuteronomy 16:1 ASV)

Commemorating miracles the Creator performed

Creation in itself is already something special about many people may have many theories. Still people are not sure how everything came into existence. They still continue to have many debates about how the world came into existence. By wondering and concentrating on the theories of man they do not see the first miracle nor the other miracles God did in this universe which still hides a lot for our small eyes.

The Ramban (Nachmanides) wrote:

“By counting every month from Nisan, we constantly commemorate the miracle that God performed when He took us out of slavery.”

Month for the Redeemed

Since the redemption from Egypt took place during the month of Nisan you also could call it

“the month of the redemption.” [Chodesh HaGeulah (חדֶשׁ הַגְּאֻלָּה)]

The Babylonian Talmud (Tractate Rosh Hashanah 11a) states:

“In Nisan our forefathers were redeemed from Egypt and in Nisan we will be redeemed.”

Not only for Jews it is an important month; Also for Christians it should be the most important month of the year. It should be a period where we remember how the Divine Creator has chosen Him a people, Israel, the Jews. But also because it is the month of the New Creation. The God of gods not only in that month took care that His own people got liberated from the slavery in Egypt. Many years later God also took care that all people got liberated from a bigger and worse slavery, namely the slavery of sin. Therefore not only for the Jews, also for Christians and Muslims, but also for those who do not (yet) believe in the True God, Nisan is also Chodesh ha-Yeshuah (חדֶשׁ הַיְשׁוּעָה), the “month of the salvation,” both in terms of the physical deliverance from Egypt, but more profoundly in terms of the spiritual salvation given at Zion/Moriah through the Messiah.  The Month of Jeshua has brought a change for the whole world, Jews and gentiles or to believers and non-believers or non-religious.

When you take Nisan to come from nissim (נִסִּים, “miracles”) or from the word nitzan (נִצָּן, “bud”) we got presented the greatest miracles in humankind.

Coming into new life

When the flowers are come on the earth; the time of cutting the vines is come, and the voice of the dove is sounding in our land, when the fruit-trees put out their green fruit and the vines with their young fruit give a good smell, we should get up and go into the world bringing the Good News of Salvation. (Song of Solomon 2:12-13) We should be thankful that the Creator not only redeemed His own people but also gave a solution for the sin of us all.

The 1st of Nisan is counted as the new year for the purpose of counting the reign of kings of Israel (in Exodus 12:2, the word lakhem (לָכֶם), “to you,” can be rearranged to form the word melekh (מֶלֶךְ), “a king.”). For instance, if a king ascended the throne just a week before the new moon of Nisan, that week would be reckoned as a year in the chronicles of Israel’s kings.

Last king and High-priest assigned to the throne

On the 14th of Nisan, about 1985 years ago a new and the last king for God was put next to the throne of God. A Jewish man from the lineage of king David was chosen to become the major High Priest in the Temple of God and to be the mediator between God and man, sitting at the right hand of God.

“55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, 56 and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.” (Acts 7:55-56 ASV)

Jesus from Nazareth was the man God called “his only begotten beloved son“. He was the chosen one, the one God had already spoken of in the Garden of Eden. As such God His Word, His promise made in the Garden of Eden, had become flesh in 4BCE. When this son of man who was also called son of David and son of God, became 12 years of age he went already in the temple to talk about his heavenly Father. When he was thirty he got baptised by John the Baptist, after which God declared in front of many at the river Jordan, that the man standing there in the water was ‘his beloved son“.

“16 And Jesus when he was baptized, went up straightway from the water: and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him; 17 and lo, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17 ASV)

For those who would have doubted God repeated His saying:

“33 And it came to pass, as they were parting from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah: not knowing what he said. 34 And while he said these things, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud. 35 And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my Son, my chosen: hear ye him. 36 And when the voice came, Jesus was found alone. And they held their peace, and told no man in those days any of the things which they had seen.” (Luke 9:33-36 ASV)

After the man had died God provided a Comforter, Who gave Jesus his disciples the courage to go out in the world and to tell about the miracles that man had done and of what importance that man was and did works in the name of his Father, the Holy Righteous One God, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah.

Day of breaking the bread

Bread to be broken as a symbol (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On the 14th of Nisan they had seen that man taking bread and wine, presenting them as if it was his own body, saying it was given to them and the world for their sins, and the action of that coming together and “Breaking of the Bread” they had to repeat until he would come back.

According to Jewish tradition the month of Nisan is also assigned to the royal tribe of Judah (יְהוּדָה), in whose merit both the Holy Temple was built and from whom the Messiah Jeshua (Jesus Christ) would descend. When we look at the name Judah (יְהוּדָה) we can see that it includes the Name YHVH or YHWH (יהוה) {Jehovha} with the insertion of the letter Dalet (ד), suggesting that Judah would be the “door” or “gate” into the presence of God. This Only One God had kept His promise made in the Garden of Eden. His Word had become flesh. (John 1:1) The man of flesh, blood and bones had only done the Will of his Father (and not his own will) and was killed for it and for being an nuisance for the leaders at that time.  They could not bear it that this man dared to say he was doing all this miracles in the name of his heavenly Father. If he would told the people he was doing it himself they would perhaps not have bothered so much, but now he called to God for what he did. That was considered blasphemy and therefore he had to be killed.

A preparation for salvation by the full ransom

After Jesus had let his disciples prepare for 15 Nisan, the Passover he on the 14th of Nisan enjoyed his last supper on the 14th of Nisan and asked his disciples to remember that day. All followers of Christ therefore should remember that special day when Jesus installed the New Covenant. The same day he was taken prisoner and impaled to find his death. He was put in a grave and according to the Holy Scriptures was three day under the dead, being in sheol or gehenna (the hell) or what we commonly call the grave. {Those who call the hell a place of torture should wonder why Jesus had to be in it for three days.}

The Door to find and to open

Jeshua or Jesus Christ was from the tribe of Judah and had spoken many times of his Father and about his role in this world-system.  He also knew we all have to live in this world, but warned us not to be of this world and to look at him to get to know his Father and to see the light leading up to the gate of the Kingdom of God. Many times Jesus described himself as ha-sha’ar (הַשַּׁעַר) “the gate”(John 10:9). The arrangement of the tribes placed Judah directly in front of the door into the Mishkan (Numery 2:3).

Celebrations and the Day after

“Christ risen from His tomb”, fresco ; cathedral of Spoleto, Italy; (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

These days when so many have celebrations being it for Passover or being it called Easter, they should see the first New Year which marks the month of the redemption of the Jewish people see the redemption Jeshua brought when he was sacrificed upon the wooden stake at Moriah to redeem us from our sins. The second marks the month of Israels’ corporate salvation that will be fulfilled in the End of Days.  Oddly enough for most Christians, “New Years Day” should be really celebrated in the spring, certainly not in “January.

After three days in the grave, something incredible happened. It goes beyond any human conception. Though we should grasp a clear understanding of the event. Because of the Passover celebration the loved ones of Christ had no time to properly prepare the body for burial with spices and ointments according to Jewish customs. No work could be done on the Holy Sabbath of Sabbaths, so that task had to wait until the day after.

When in the morning, Mary Magdalene and several other women went to the tomb with the spices they had prepared and arrived at the sealed tomb, guarded by Roman soldiers, so that nobody could do something with the body of that rebel Jesus, they found the tomb had been opened and nobody around the tomb. When they went in, they did not find Jesus’ body, and they wondered what had happened.

Suddenly, two angels in dazzling white clothes were there. The women were terrified, but the angels said to them,

“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you that He would be turned over to sinful men, be crucified, and rise again on the third day!”

The women ran back to tell Jesus’ apostles what they had seen. Peter and one other apostle went to the tomb to see for themselves. They looked in and saw the linen cloths that Jesus’ body had been wrapped in but nothing else. Then they went home, amazed and confused.

Not stolen, not mislaid

The Risen Christ, the one who showed his wounds to proof he was not a ghost or spirit (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You can imagine how terrified they must have been. Who had stolen the body of their most beloved rabbi (master teacher)?

When Peter and the other apostle went home, Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb crying. Suddenly she saw Jesus standing there, but she did not recognize him at first. Jesus said to her:

“Woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?”

Mary thought He must be the gardener and said:

“Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where, and I will take him!”

Can you imagine what would have gone through this lady when Jesus said, “Mary!” and she then recognized him and exclaimed, “Master!”?

All the disciples like Mary Magdalene knew Jesus was the son of God, who had done everything for his Father and who had spoken of the possibility of people going to the reign of his Father, him being there. But Jesus affirmed her that he was not yet by his Father in heaven. It is not by dying that something would go up into heaven or hell. Like every human being, plant or animal, Jesus died and we will die. Normally once death, all thinking and handling will be finished. We shall not be able to do anything any more. Mary Magdalene was aware of the dead not being able to do anything, but now she got to see Jesus. Also others, later, got to see Jesus. To them he also proofed he was not a ghost or a spirit, like his Father is a Spirit. He was a man of flesh and blood who showed his wounds to proof that it was him they were seeing know, after he had died. Incomprehensible!

Not yet in heaven, Still to ascend

Jesus said:

“Don’t hold on to me, because I have not yet returned to the Father. But go to my disciples and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'”

Then Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples

“I have seen the lord!”

and she told them everything that had happened.

Many could not believe what had happened. Several got to see Christ Jesus, and saw that he was really risen. They could see and believe.
We can not see that Jesus is rise. For us it is more difficult to believe, because there are no witnesses alive any more. We have to go on the books, the stories told. Most of all we have to go on our faith were we believe what has been told in the Old Books of the Old Testament, where the promises of God are told to all who want to know. In those books are also the signs given to recognise the promised Messiah. Putting everything together, we should have no doubt who the Messiah is and what God has done with him and for us.

Tool to get out of the slavery of sin and its curse, the death

Having the month where God helped His chosen people to get out of slavery by man, we also have the month where God gave mankind a tool to get out of the slavery of sin and its curse, the death. As such this is the Month of Hope and the Month of Salvation.

Instead of being wondering which presents or gifts we should buy for Easter, we should use Easter time to remember the Exodus form Egypt , the Last Supper, Jesus installing the New Covenant, Jesus being impaled for the sins of the world, and Jesus taken out of the dead by his heavenly Father. A resurrection bringing us hope, because in it, we can see what shall be able to happen to us in the future, after Jesus has returned.

All more the reason to look out for the return of Christ and to put our hopes in that man who was the beloved son of God. We should trust in him and his Father and follow his teachings, being thankful for the restored relationship between God and man.

Dominion of sin and Death has been conquered

In Christ Jesus, Jeshua, death has been conquered. He paid the ransom by giving his body to his Father. If Jesus is God, because God can not die and is an eternal Spirit. Than Jesus could not be taken out of the dead and his body raised to be the body showing wounds. Without dying there could be no he resurrection. And if there is no resurrection, then we have no hope.

Christ Resurrected (Photo credit: Waiting For The Word)

If Jesus wasn’t raised, if the tomb was not empty or when Jesus his body would have been stolen out of the grave, than there would be nothing to hold on to accept Jesus was risen. Several people saw Jesus after he had died. They were convinced they had really seen him.  Many were willing to die for what had happened, because they were convinced “death now could be reversed”. Now they could believe sin shall not have dominion over them nor us who believe, because from that day onwards we have come under grace. (Romans 6:14)
In case Jesus’ death didn’t pay our penalty for sin, then we “are still in our sins.” And when Jesus was not taken out of death by his Father, meaning that there did not took place a resurrection, then all those who have died before us … no matter what they did …shall have had nothing in their hope.

Isaiah promised that the dead would live (Isaiah 26:19) and Job knew that there would come a moment that he should not hide any more in Sheol. Abraham Isaac and Jesus believed in a God of the dead but also in the God of the living.

“31 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, 32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not [the God] of the dead, but of the living.” (Matthew 22:31-32 ASV)

The one man who did all the time the will of his Father told the people about the hope they could have when he would be gone. If he would not be taken out of the dead, what reason would there be to believe what he said?

“39 And this is the will of him that sent me, that of all that which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that every one that beholdeth the Son, and believeth on him, should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:39-40 ASV)

“22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; then they that are Christ’s, at his coming.” (1 Corinthians 15:22-23 ASV)

We should know that a great quality is been given to the life of man that cannot be matched by any other soul.

“And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12 ASV)

“3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures; 5 and that he appeared to Cephas; then to the twelve; 6 then he appeared to above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain until now, but some are fallen asleep; 7 then he appeared to James; then to all the apostles; 8 and last of all, as to the [child] untimely born, he appeared to me also.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-8 ASV)

“20  But now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of them that are asleep. 21 For since by man [came] death, by man [came] also the resurrection of the dead.” (1 Corinthians 15:20-21 ASV)

By Jesus Christ assurance given

Through Jesus Christ we now have the assurance that we may fall asleep (die), but there shall come a moment, after he returned, that we shall be taken out of the graves and shall come to see what it means to receive the gift of God which is eternal life.

“For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23 ASV)

“It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.” (Hebrews 9:23 ASV)

“And without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing [unto him]; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that seek after him.” (Hebrews 11:6 ASV)

In the resurrection of Christ Jesus our faith in him is of incredible value. Let us therefore recognise who that man was and is and follow his teachings and worship his Father, the Only One True God, Who gives life.

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Please find also to read:

1. God’s promises
2. Belief of the things that God has promised
3. Israel God’s people
4. Tu B’Shvat, the holiday of the trees
5. Passover and Liberation Theology
6. Commemorating the escape from slavery
7. Being sure of their deliverance
8. Deliverance and establishement of a theocracy
9. Do not be afraid. Good news because a Saviour has been born
10. Bringing Good News into the world
11. God’s salvation
12. Waiting for God’s Salvation
13. Ember and light the ransomed of Jehovah
14. Jesus Messiah
15. Jesus Christ, Jeshua, Messiah, Jahushua
16. Seeing Jesus
17. Jesus begotten Son of God #4 Promised Prophet and Saviour
18. Jesus begotten Son of God #10 Coming down spirit or flesh seed of Eve
19. Jesus begotten Son of God #5 Apsotle, High Priest and King
20. Jesus begotten Son of God #14 Beloved Preminent Son and Mediator originating in Mary
21. Jesus begotten Son of God #18 Believing in inhuman or human person
22. Anointing of Christ as Prophetic Rehearsal of the Burial rites
23. Day of remembrance coming near
24. 14 Nisan a day to remember #1 Inception
25. 14 Nisan a day to remember #2 Time of Jesus
26. 14 Nisan a day to remember #3 Before the Passover-feast
27. 14 Nisan a day to remember #4 A Lamb slain
28. 14 Nisan a day to remember #5 The Day to celebrate
29. 14-15 Nisan and Easter
30. Around the feast of Unleavened Bread
31. Shabbat Pesach service reading 1/2
32. The son of David and the first day of the feast of unleavened bread
33. A Jewish Theocracy
34. Observance of a day to Remember
35. Around the feast of Unleavened Bread
36. Observance of a day to Remember
37. Pesach and solidarity 
38. A Holy week in remembrance of the Blood of life
39. Seven days of Passover
40. On the first day for matzah
41. Servant for the truth of God
42. The Anointed One and the first day of No Fermentation
43. How is it that Christ pleased God so perfectly?
44. Wishing to do the will of God
45. For the Will of Him who is greater than Jesus
46. Self inflicted misery #3 A man given to suffer for us
47. The Seed Of The Woman Bruised
48. The redemption of man by Christ Jesus
49. Imprisonment and execution of Jesus Christ
50. Death of Christ on the day of preparation
51. A Messiah to die
52. Swedish theologian finds historical proof Jesus did not die on a cross
53. Impaled until death overtook him
54. Why 20 Nations Are Defending the Crucifix in Europe
55. Jesus three days in hell
56. Christ having glory
57. Salvation, trust and action in Jesus #3 as a Christian
58. Your Sins Are Forgiven
59. A Great Gift commemorated
60. High Holidays not only for Israel
61. Festival of Freedom and persecutions
62. After the Sabbath after Passover, the resurrection of Jesus Christ
63. Proclaiming shalom, bringing good news of good things, announcing salvation
64. Jesus is risen
65. Risen With Him
66. Easter: Origins in a pagan Christ
67. Eostre, Easter, White god, chocolate eggs, Easter bunnies and metaphorical resurrection
68. Peter Cottontail and a Bunny laying Eastereggs
69. Altered to fit a Trinity or Ishtar the fertility goddess
70. Who Celebrates Easter as Religious Holiday

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Other interesting articles:

1. Welcome to Easter 2014
2. Walk with Jesus: Matthew 27 He who overcame
3. Gethsemane
4. Yeshua thanks his father through prayer
5. Pesach
6. Good Friday or Passover?
7. What’s Good about Good Friday?
8. When Was Jesus Crucified?
9. Jesus Died
10. “Christ Is Our Passover Lamb” / The Message of the High Sabbath beginning the eve of March 25, 2013
11. Ransom for allom
12. Holy Trifecta: Good Friday, Passover, Resurrection Sunday
13. Thoughts About Easter
14. It Did Not End In the Grave
15. Tree of Jesus Life, the Risen Christ, (a)
16. On Easter and The Resurrection of Jesus
17. Easter Questions and Answers
18. What Happened on Easter?
19. The Truth About Easter
20. The Easter Story of the Resurrection
21. Jesus is alive, the tomb is empty.
22. The Empty Tomb
23. He is Risen! What Christians Believe About Easter, and Why
24. The Significance of the Resurrection – Jesus Arose Where He Died
25. The Glory of Easter Part 1 + The Glory of Easter Part 2
26. “The Resurrection”
27. The Resurrection of Jesus X 4
28. Even Resurrection Pauses For Sabbath Rest
29. The Power of His Resurrection
30. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
31. The Resurrection is Believable
32. He is not here, He is risen, just as He said
33. When Nothing Meant All
34. Pass Over Now
35. Does Christianity Have Pagan Roots? (Part 1) How Did “Easter” Originate? | god from the machine
36. Does Christianity Have Pagan Roots? (Part 2) The Pagan Myth Myth… No, I’m Not Stuttering

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  Happy New Year!!!! Biblically speaking of course.
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