Wednesday, 22 November 2017

Our Jewish Heritage

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What of the Jewish heritage? I will fight the views of those who would make this heritage a legalistic burden. We should be free to experiment, to use new tunes, to use English as well as Hebrew in English-speaking lands, to use music, drama and dance in new ways. However, my vision is that, if we truly love Israel - past, present, and future - we will have a heart desire to identify in a biblical way with our people's heritage.

Messianic Jews ought to be zealous to learn Hebrew; this is our national language. If Ben Yehuda could revive a Hebrew-speaking nation, surely we can develop Hebrew as a second language. Surely we can learn to appreciate singing and praying in Hebrew as well as in English ... Hebrew is in the language of the Tenach itself! We should have a Messiah-given love for our people far beyond our compatriots.

Second, we should see a creative appropriation of Jewish heritage to the extent that it is consistent with Scriptures and can be used to extol the Grace of God in history and the fukfilment in the Messiah Yeshua. We could have leaders who foster times of joy. We could have a love of traditional melody, in identification with the historic expression and experience of our people. Our involvement would be with understanding! However, we could develop new expressions of music, dance, and drama drawing from the Scriptures and Jewish tradition. Because of the Holy Spirit, we could be an expression if our heritage that has life, verve, meaning, and joy to such an extent that our people would say, "It is Jewish, but it is so much more full of life!"

Our desire is not to destroy the Jewish community, but to recover the means by which Jewish people could be part of the universal Body of believers, while yet remaining part of their people and the nation of Israel.

Jewish Roots, Chapter Thirteen: A Messianic Jewish Vision