Chanukah: A Cheerful Feast? For the last couple of years, Ive received quite a bit of email from Messianics as to whether it is good (or even sin) to observe Channukah. The crux of the issue for those who choose not to observe it is that it is adding to the Torah. In other words, it is not a commanded moed or chag. Many have asked for a complete teaching, which I have been assembling (and still am), or even some slices of guidance on the issue. I will be teaching two sessions on Channukah at the Nashville conference next weekend, one in the General Session and one for the Women of Valor session. However, the material I present will merely be a few highlights from the bulk of my notes. The difficulty in the apologetics is that the research goes much deeper than Channukah itself. It must dig into the 2000 year-old question of Jewish tradition and halakha and how it relates to a non-Jew turning back to the Torah as life in Yeshua. Having been burned by twisted or empty traditions, the new Torah seekers are loathe to look to Jewish tradition, which for them could be another empty pit-stop on the way back to Egypt. These fears are valid, but they need to be approached systematically, i.e., hermeneutically, not with bitter fodder from bloggers or organizations who are working from an only slightly-revised Constantinian Creed (or Laodicean, or Sardinian). In a pamphlet written by Rabbi Cardozo, he quotes Abraham Heschel, who once observed that we do not need more textbooks, but rather more text people. The difference between a student and a disciple is that the student studies the text while a disciple studies the teacher. (p. 9) We have Yeshuas words concerning the halakha, and if we study both him and his disciples, then a balanced view can arise from both the text and the teacher(s). The approach can then answer the questions: Did Yeshua and/or his disciples walk merely in the written text of the Torah, or did they observe many of the Jewish traditions? If they walked in even some of the halakha and traditions, why? If we can determine why, then can we apply the same hermeneutical principles to our own questions? Is it a logical fallacy (false dilemma) to pit truth against tradition when it is evident that for Yeshua, tradition grows out of truth? Their relationship is not mutually exclusive, rather one grows out of the other. What are the hermeneutical tests that Yeshua gave his own disciples for validating a tradition which he did not consider an addition to the Torah of truth? Is it possible that in the absence of learning Moses in the synagogue as the Jerusalem Council in Acts expected, that non-Jews who are reading Jewish custom, idiom, tradition, or halakha in the Brit HaChadasha do not even recognize it as such? In other words, if Ive never met someone, am I able to recognize that person and say, Nice to see you again? Is it possible that the message to the seven assemblies in Revelation is delivered in the traditional idioms, customs, and traditions of the Jewish synagogue? Are we missing what it says when we merely revise our Constantinian Creeds, pointing out that there is a synagogue of Satan? If all synagogues were of Satan, then why did the Jerusalem Council direct Gentiles there to learn the text of Moses? We must learn more than the text itself; we must learn from what Yeshua and the apostles DID. We must study the teachers and become text people. We will address some of the questions above on a limited basis at the conference, and more fully in the upcoming CG Workbook Six so that the reader may examine the material and hermeneutical methods critically. The simplest explanation of the hermeneutic is found in CG Workbook Five Volume Four: Behaalotkha. Until then, remember that a chag is a message of peace. Let there be peace among the children of Abraham, exhibiting his kindness while they search the Good News of the Scriptures: Nahum 1:15 Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace! Celebrate your feasts, O Judah; pay your vows. For never again will the wicked one pass through you; he is cut off completely. Even a fast can turn to a peaceful chag of joy, and according to the word of the LORD, even the fasts added by Judah to commemorate certain events related to the Temple and their spiritual history are included. Which one of these is found only in the text of the Torah? Zechariah 8:18-23 Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘The fast of the fourth, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth months will become joy, gladness, and cheerful feasts for the house of Judah; so love truth and peace.’ Let there be peace in our camps and gladness and joy in our journey while we learn together to become text people.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 13:29:36 +0000
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