Teaching Team
Jesus the Chasid
It is said that a person should be artful in piety (b.Brachot 17a) the artfulness lies in him making sure his piety is noticed by no one at all. We know that a number of early Chassidim concealed themselves and when discovered were distressed greatly. (Hayom Yom, Tishri 8)
The Master echoed this same teaching many hundreds of years before this was written. It should pride us that these great teachings taught by Chassidic masters were first spoken by our Rabbi Yeshua many hundreds of years before. The Master taught,
“Beware of practicing your rightness before men to be noticed by them.” (Matthew 6:1)
“But when you give to the poor do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing.” (Matthew 6:3)
“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites for they love to stand at the street corner and the synogogs to be notice by men.” (Matthew 6:5)
“Whenever you fast do not put on a gloomy face like the hypocrites for they neglect their appearance to be noticed my men, but when you fast anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed my men.” (Matthew 6:16)
The Master also was a very pious soul but yet was very humble. One example of this is in Luke chapter 11.
While Yeshua was saying these things, one of the women in the cowed raised her voice and said, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast that fed you.” But he said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” (Luke 11:27)
We also see many examples of the Master telling those for whom he performed miracles to tell no one. The Talmud states,
The beginning of wisdom is the fear of Hashem good understanding to all their practitioners. It is not stated “to practitioners” but “to their practitioners,” which implies to practitioners for [the Torah’s] sake, and not practitioner not for [the Torah’s sake] (i.e. but for ulterior motives, and regarding anyone who practices not for [the sake of Torah] it would have been better for him is he was not created. [1] (b.Brachot 17a)
We to should strive to be like the Master and do our good deeds for the sake of heaven and not for our own selves.
[1] The footnote in the Talmud states on this that this is a person who learns Torah merely to use it as a weapon against other people.
Search in Blogs...
Browse through Blogs
- « The Next Generation of the Torah Club Dictionary
- Blogs Index Page
- » Ann Coulter’s Big Idea about Jews and Christians
Feeds
Use this RSS feed to track our blogs in your favorite reader.
The FFOZ Blogs RSS Feed
Blogs by Category
- Back Office
- Events and Administration
- Founder’s Blog
- Guest Authors
- Lessons from the Land
- Levertoff Documentary
- Mishlei Musings
- Publications
- Road Trip 09
- Shalom Tour
- Teaching Team
- The Siddur Project
- Torah Club
- Video Blogs
- Site Info Blog
Blogs by Author
- Aaron Eby
- Boaz Michael
- D. Thomas Lancaster
- FFOZ Staff
- Guest Authors
- Media Staff
- Hope Egan
- Seth Dralle
- Toby Janicki
More Recent Posts
- Remembrance and Repentance
- Passover and the Death of James the Just
- Hosting Your First Passover Seder
- Devil's Children
- Vacation Time
- Visit Israel with FFOZ
- A KISS from me to you
- Eating biblically? Let's chew the fat.
- Kosher Sunday School
- Messer and the Messianic Mess
Visitor Feedback:
That is really great.
Jeremiah | October 15, 2007 5:08 PM
Toby,
Thanks for this post. A true and clear reminder:
The ultimate form of piety is the ultimate form of humility.
Baruch HaShem for all of your work at FFOZ.
SDG
Scott Gerlitz | October 17, 2007 8:20 AM
Baruch HaShem, this is very good stuff.
Lots of people need to understand Judaism more (and stop thinking Yeshua did away with Judaism and created "Christianity", just because some of the teachings of first century Pharisaic Judaism weren't correct)... there are so many misconceptions people have about it.
Aharon HaLevi | October 25, 2007 11:36 PM
I strongly urge Christians & Messianics read "THE LIGHT AND FIRE OF THE BAAL SHEM TOV" by Yitzhak Buxbaum. Why? Because, like Yeshua, the Baal Shem Tov kept his status as a Tzadik & a Chasid hidden, until such time as it was meant for him to reveal himself and assume a leadership position within their respective communities. The number of parallels between the life, times and teachings of Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer (Baal Shem Tov) and the historical Yeshua ben Yosef are amazing to say the least.
If you want to get a real handle on what Yeshua was trying to accomplish via his Kingdom-Repentance Movement and the way he went about attempting to advance the Kingdom of Heaven amongst the Am Ha-Aretz (Common Folk) and Chilonim (Secular Jews) of his day and age, then get this book by Yitzhak Buxbaum. I promise that you will not be disappointed!
Additionally, this book is helpful in that it gives the reader and understanding into the nature of Jewish aggadah and how a historical person can have stories spun around their person and work, which would inflame a literalist and cause a Mythicist to dismiss said historical figure out of hand as being a mere mythological construct.
*Toby's Response:* Thanks for the recommendation. I believe he also wrote an excellent book on Hillel.
smadewell | December 26, 2007 12:23 AM