I agree that Messianic Judaism needs to be a real Judaism that falls within the parameters of Judaism’s traditional expressions, but I think that, in regard to your four optional approaches, there is another option, and that is one of disinterest in halachah. I find myself falling more and more into that category. Though I favor a traditional approach to Torah, I do not see the apostolic community expending much time or energy in pursuing or developing a halachic course. They did not seem to feel the need to redefine Judaism or to bring the new Gentile believers “up to speed” with the establishment. The apostles were concerned with bigger issues. They were all about proclaiming Messiah, His resurrection, forgiveness of sins in His name and a life of repentance, ethical orientation and righteous living. With only a few exceptions, the Gospels and the Epistles are suspiciously silent on matters of halachah. I think this is what you mean when you speak of “keeping Messiah at the center of who we are and how we express ourselves.”

I like your analogy about the seeds, new sprouts and so on. With God’s help, may we fall on the good soil and produce a crop thirty, sixty and a hundredfold of righteousness, good deeds and more souls in the kingdom.

Great blog and I whole heartedly agree. When in Israel the situation that deeply impacted me about this topic the most was when Boaz was teaching on prayer and people began becoming very antagonistic against us. One young religious man was visibly upset about our portrayal of Yeshua as Messiah and made a statement that he was going to stick around so that we “could see the face of the people that we were lying to”.

On the way back to the hotel I started to become deeply despondent and feeling like I just wanted to hang it up. “Where do we fit in?” I thought? Yet, as I pulled out of this depression I became fixed on two things. The first being that it has been two thousand years of errant theology that has made the Jewish people perceive Yeshua as anti-Torah and we aren’t going to fix that perception in few minutes. It is going to take a long long time. The second is that as much as I feel great affinity towards Traditional Judaism and the Jewish people in general there are stark contrasts that we would do well not to blur.

All in all I came home from Israel with a renewed sense of attachment and deep love for the Messiah. I long more and more for His return each day. In the mean time we have a lot to figure out.

I think that most people will perceive their approach as not fitting into any of those options, even if in reality they may. I would guess that most people in our movement feel that they "Take a balanced approach to Jewish tradition as it relates to Torah by filtering it through the litmus test of Yeshua's teaching." The reason our approaches to tradition vary is because our interpretations of Yeshua's teaching vary. Some folks might feel that you are unfairly labeling what they feel is responsibility as arrogance.

Most people perceive a substantial divide between Yeshua's teaching and Jewish tradition, and in fact interpret Yeshua's message as a direct indictment of those traditions. Thus, they feel that to follow Yeshua is to challenge tradition by definition.

Others of us are beginning to see less and less discrepancy between the two as we learn more about both.

But where we perceive ourselves as fitting into both the realm of Yeshua's teaching and Jewish tradition simultaneously, others have perceived us as moving away from Yeshua's teaching in favor of Jewish tradition.

Wow Boaz! Insightful words. Very well put.

I've been contemplating a similar thing about times to recede to grow in a sheltered environment. One of the thing that you didn't cover here (but can be extracted from what you said) is the vital importance of season. There is a time to plant and a time to harvest. It easy for those of us involved in sharing to forget about these seasons and go go go. Over the last few years it's caught up with me and I've been forced to lie down in green pastures.

In the Messianic Community it is particularly difficult because we are all babes. It's hard to find men of character who are growing at a similar rate. If we grow much "faster" we can easily slip into pride. If we grow too "slow" we can be tempted to despair. I'm amazed at how often this has destroyed our communities. It's an easy trap in which to fall.

Too often we run our mouth without accountability. I've been guilty of this way too much. Over these last months I've begun to realize the vital roll of sheltered accountable growth. Without accountability I might have lost touch completely. Sill, there is a guilty feeling for taking this time for myself. Your blog post encourages me greatly. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that is under the care of the seasons of time. Thank you so much for sharing. As always you are in my prayers...

...Rods ;-)

For many of us the interest in learning, understanding, and following Rabbinic Halacha in our faith lives is a matter of discispleship to the Master. My desire as a Gentile to follow the ways of the Judaism is a desire to follow the ways of my Master. But, I agree with the teachers above. As was stated several times at the FFOZ National Conference last year, 'I have no interest in Judaism outside of the Messiah, Yeshua.'

you all's openess and honesty is so refreshing, may you all be blessed in Messiah's work in the earth. May it be so.

I know so little about Jewish tradition, and I have only been in the faith for a short amount of years, but I truly believe that you all could not go wrong in centering your focus solely on Messiah's teachings and not on combining His teachings with jewish tradition because he is the sole and final authority on all matters that we now question and are trying to grow in..

Matthew 17:5 (KJV)
While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.

Matthew 28:18 (KJV)
And Yeshua came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

if Messiah is solely the focus you can never go wrong because as he said..."of my sheep I have lost none" and "no man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand"

shalom to you all....you all are apart of something so great....be blessed in it...

I found myself agreeing with Daniel's comments. It is intriguing to me how often Yeshua's comments were haggadah rather than halacha. Even when asked halachic questions He often responded with haggadah. Perhaps this should be instructive for us.

Boaz;

Bright, discerning, wise and balanced.

Add to that the comments from Toby, Daniel and Aaron, and its easy to see why your organization is grasping new branches on the olive tree almost daily.

SDG

I also chose to live in a rural environment to raise my children. It was so much easier to relate Yeshua's teachings of Torah to everyday experiences they could see and feel, such as vegetable plantings to harvesting to composting, and caring for livestock from birth, training, service, and kindly death. They did not grow up without responsibilities and the knowledge of the Master's provision and care.

Thankyou all for sharing your feelings about judaism and our belief in YESHUA.I though I was going crazy tring to balance the both acording to the Masters teaching.

Chances are that you will not post this comment or at least in full. However it is very clear to me that you all came home with a renewed feeling that "keeping messiah at the center" was key because Eretz Israel does not want you there. The man who said that he wanted to see the faces of the people that you were lying was doing the very thing that Ha-Shem commands. Please leave stop and look at you beliefs. I can see that all of you love G-d and want to serve him. However you have all created a G-d in your own image.

**Reply: You certainly may be correct that, “Eretz Israel does not want your there” particularly as it pertains to certain the religious sectors of modern Israel. We organizationally, and me personally have many positive relationships with Orthodox communities in the Land that respect us greatly—despite what they consider to be my critical error in maintaining Yeshua as the promised Messiah. Our relationship with many secular Israeli’s is very positive as well—in fact FFOZ does have a positive connection to the Land, I am sure that all of these friends would love to have us there on a more full-time basis.

The thing that was encouraging and disappointing to us was the reaction to the teachings. For example, the man that we mentioned, the one that said, “see the face…” stood there for the majority of the teaching in full agreement, nodding his head, engaged, it was not until I mentioned, Act 3:1 that is a reference to Peter and John going to the Temple at the time of prayer. The teaching was on prayer. It was intended to educate Christians to the centrality of the Temple and its worship to the early disciples and intended to show that the Disciples participated in set time, liturgical prayer as part of their Faith in the Master. My point was that our teachings were 1.) respectful of Judaism 2.) sourced through Jewish teachings augmented by the references in the Gospels 3.) recasting our faith and practice in the Messiah of Israel within its proper context and culture.

Unfortunately, it will take a lifetime of consistent work to even make a dent in the damage that has been done by errant theology that has separated faith and practice in the Messiah away from its Torah and Jewish foundations. As you can tell from my post, we are still trying to sort it all out, apply what we know, and transform our lives around a new reality. Which is, Yeshua was faithful to the Torah and as his disciples we should be as well.
Thanks for your kind hearted post.

Yes, FFOZ teachers, staff and families need an environment where all can grow in practice and understanding of all the teachings that Messiah Yeshua embodied and taught.

As one who learns from the FFOZ teachings and who shares them in our locality am inspired by the example of the entire FFOZ community. We all also need to have available to us a similar environment.

On behalf of my wife and myself who participate in a wonderful Messianic Jewish congregation (I am one of only two Jews by birth among our group), I am requesting response to our desire to create a Torah Learning and Living rural, ecologically-oriented community.

Is that a description of FFOZ in Missouri? If so, I'd like more information on how we can either join you or learn how to create a community ourselves. (We are in Western Colorado).

If the kind of community we want is elsewhere, or not yet created, we would appreciate hearing from anyone who can help us and yourself to achieve this dream, which may also be our destiny to achieve.

Thank you Boaz, FFOZ, and any others who read this message for being the courageous pioneers that you are, as we all work together, even separately, to maintain and grow Messianic/Apostolic Judaism.