In recent months, I’ve been devouring Rabbi David Fohrman’s teachings at Aleph Beta Academy. In their own words, “Aleph Beta Academy is committed to the relevance of Jewish learning.” This is not a site where anyone believes Yeshua is the Messiah. However, they do believe in the promised Messiah. It is the teachings I glean from this site that have solidified why I believe Yeshua is the promised Messiah.
There are two teachings that speak volumes:
- Passover: The Exodus That Could Have Been is a five-part series that points out how the Exodus could have ended with all the Egyptians worshipping the true Creator of the Universe.
- Tisha B’Av and Mashiach: What Mourning Says About Our Destiny is a seven-part series that points out how King Hezekiah could have been the Messiah had he given God the credit when foreigners came to find out why the sun turned back.
In essence, both teachings point out that the function of Messiah (and Israel) is to bring the Gentiles to worship the true Creator of the Universe.
A few weeks ago I attended service at an Episcopal Church. The opening hymn was about Sunday. The second stanza reads:
This day at the creation, the light first had its birth; this day for our salvation Christ rose from depths of earth;
Here I was in a building full of non-Jewish people, all acknowledging that Sunday is the first day of the week, that God spoke and the light was born, acknowledging the truth of the Hebrew Scriptures. That’s when I was sure, by Judaism’s own reckoning, that Yeshua is the Messiah.
Though the Christian Church might have gotten some things wrong, may have misunderstood much of Paul’s teachings, what I was hearing was Gentiles acknowledging and worshipping God – the Creator of the Universe – thanks to Yeshua and His disciples.
I too devour all of Rabbi Forhman’s work at Aleph Beta, and recently purchased his book “The Exodus You Almost Passed Over”
His teachings on the Parsha’s, particularly in his in-depth series are very insightful, and his works on Esther fascinating.
As for not being of Yeshua, a lot of the time I get the feeling that in their looking forward to Maschiach they are getting very very close to him…they just do not know his name.
I agree completely, Questor. They really are getting closer to Him. In His timing they will come to know His Name. I often think they know Him better than many of us who claim to be His followers.
Hello, I appreciate your kind nature in your post, and I think where you’re coming from is very gracious.
I’m curious about what you said about the Christian church misunderstanding much of Paul’s teachings. Can you point me to any summary of this idea? I’m very interested to learn about what core ideas are felt to have been misinterpreted or misunderstood.
There is a lot of material out on the web. Some of it is good, some not so much. Though I may not agree with everthing they teach, First Fruits of Zion has some good basics that cover this subject. Their workbook, Hayesod, is a great way to start.