What Should Be Our Involvement With Rabbinic Judaism?

Matthew 23:3, Whatever they tell you. First what is Moses’s seat as Yeshua uses the term? If Moses’s seat is what you seem to think it is and we have to do ALL that the rabbinic Jews tells us, then the disciples went against what the Jews and Yeshua told them to do when they disobeyed the Jews who told them to stop preaching Yeshua in Acts 5. Into other words, if we’re going to follow everything the rabbinic Jews tell us, then we must all become Yeshua-deniers. Are you a Yeshua denier? If so, this blog is not the place for you. If you’re not, then you’re not following ALL that the Jews say to do. Period. It’s really that simple. I’m trying to be kind and gracious here and speak the truth in love.

We need to make another point here as well. If Yeshua meant in Matthew 23:1–3 that we have to do everything the Jews tell us, then why did he spend the rest of that chapter pointing out all the things that do that are wrong and contrary to the Scriptures? In other words, to NOT do everything they tell you to do. Hmmmmm???!!! There must be more to this Moses’ seat thing than doing all that they tell you to do.

What Should Be Our Involvement With Rabbinic Judaism?

The discussion that follows is in response to the idea that because the Pharisees (and the modern rabbinic Jews who are their spiritual descendants) sit in Moses’ seat, we should do whatever they tell us to do including following their traditions and oral law. Some even have embraced the idea that following rabbinic Judaism is to walk a higher spiritual road (because they ostensibly understand and observe the Torah. What is the truth of the matter and what is Yeshua really saying in this passage? 

Admittedly, there is much we can learn from our Jewish brothers. If you have read my Torah study guides and commentaries and my hundreds of teachings, you would know that I draw heavily from the wisdom of the Jewish sages. My approach is very multi-faceted and my learning is very broad. In my mind, and in the mind of Yeshua and apostles (as we shall point out below) the sun does not rise and set on the Jewish sages. Moreover, the Judaism of today is not that of Yeshua’s era. It is true that the rabbinates of today are the direct descendants of the Pharisees of old, but their religion is as far removed from that of their predecessors as modern Christianity is from its originators. In fact, after A.D. 70, the religion of Judaism was virtually reinvented to accommodate the dual realities of the temple’s destruction and the cessation of the priesthood with the fall of the Sadduceean sect. To assume that what the modern Jews teach is an exact replica of the religion of the Pharisees of Yeshua’s day is very presumptive and ignores the facts of history.

Yes, Yeshua made a comment about Moses’ seat in Matt 23:2 that is easily misunderstood today when we don’t have all the facts. Because the Pharisees sit in Moses seat, Yeshua told his disciples to observe whatever they tell you to observe. The problem is that most people have no idea what Yeshua was really saying here. “Moses’ seat” was a colloquial expression that was understood by his listeners of that day, but the meaning is lost to most who read this passage today. Moses’ seat refers to a literal throne-like chair that sat in Jewish synagogues (where the Pharisees were the officiants) from which the religious leaders would make judgments concerning spiritual and civil matters. (One can type in “Moses’ seat” into an internet search engine and find actual photos of these seats that have been discovered in ancient Jewish synagogues.) In a modern church, it would be like the pastors and board of elders making decisions for the church body they minister over. These leaders do not have the authority, however, to change the word or law of Elohim—only to administer it. Even the pope has a throne from which he makes religious rulings for the Roman Catholic Church. 

When telling his disciples to observe whatever the Pharisees told them to observe, Yeshua wasn’t telling his disciples (and us) to mindlessly follow the religious leaders of his day (or our day), who were the same leaders at other times he referred to as hypocrites, serpents, devils and whitewashed tombs and who eventually nailed him to the cross. Not at all. Yeshua expected his disciples to follow the Word of Elohim. In fact, let’s make a bold, but scripturally-based assertion here. Toward the end of his ministry, Yeshua turned the ecclesiastical authority that the Jewish religious leaders exercised over to his apostles. He gave them the authority over his church to bind (to prohibit, forbid) and loose (to permit), and he said that heaven would respect their decisions (Matt 16:17–19). They, in fact, exercised this divine authority in Acts 15 at the first Jerusalem counsel.

Some people even claim that Yeshua was sympathetic to or followed one Jewish religious sect over another. This is incorrect. In reality, he was his own man who charted his own course. He was, after all, the Word of Elohim incarnate. He didn’t need to find approval among men’s religious clubs! Sometimes he followed the teachings of the Sadducees, sometimes the Essenes, sometimes the Hillelites and sometimes those of the school of Shamai. The truth is that he didn’t follow any of them. In the areas where they lined up with him, he agreed with them. Nothing more or less. He was not partial to one sect over another. When they didn’t line up with the Word of Elohim, he was against their beliefs. He expects the same of his disciples. Let’s think this thing out critically and look at the big, big picture and not fall into the trap of just blindly following one Jewish religious sect over another based on a couple of comments Yeshua said and that modern readers pull out of context.

Having said this, I’m not against the rabbinic Jewish sages. If you were to watch any of the videos that I record in my home library for our YouTube channel, you would see behind me a large bookcase full of the classic works of the major rabbinic sages. I have read many of their works, prayed their prayers, memorized their liturgy, learned their language, put on their kippot, tied their tefillin, and worn their talit (both gadol and katon), blown their shofarot, waved their lulavim, celebrated their minor holidays, incorporated their traditions into the biblical feasts, and tied tzitzit according to their traditions. I still do some of these things to this day. 

But is following rabbinic Judasims really coming to the higher level spiritually? The truth is that some of us are coming to the true higher level (and there are higher levels beyond that, but it ain’t rabbinic Judaism nor is it mainstream Christianity either!!!). That higher level does not revolve around a group of men Jewish (or Christian, for that matter) (no matter how learned and wise they may be) who have illegally misappropriated the title rabbi (which in Hebrew means “my great one” and only colloquially “teacher”)—a title that belongs to one Man only (see Matt 23:7–8). My Rabbi is Yeshua the Messiah. Period. His apostles who wrote the Testimony of Yeshua focused on him as the source of truth—not on men. I follow their example.

Now because the Pharisees sat in the so-called seat of Moses, and Yeshua told us to observe whatever they tell us to observe, some people believe we should follow rabbinic Jewish halachah. The Hebrew word halachah is a noun that simply means “walk” and refers to how we walk out our faith and obey Elohim. The concept of halachah is rooted in the Torah, NOT in the oral traditions of the Jews. If it weren’t for the foundational halachic immutable principles of the Tanakh that tell us what the truth is and how to walk it out, there would be no Judaism, much less all of their traditions. A wise person can learn truth from many sources, but the best source is that which is closest to The Divine Source of truth, and that is found revealed in Scripture.

Now let’s unpack Yeshua’s statement in Matt 23:2, to observe whatever the Pharisees tell you to observe. To understand the Messiah’s words here, this statement has to be weighed in the context of the rest of the passage and everything else Yeshua said. If we cherry-pick a verse out of its context and turn it into a stand-alone principle, then we can virtually make the Word of Elohim say anything we wish. At the very least, we do injustice to the one speaking the words and can end up making them say something they never intended.

Here are some points to consider when addressing Yeshua’s words in Matt 23:2 to observe whatever the Pharisees tell you to observe.

First, the word “observe” is the Greek word tereo meaning “to attend to carefully; take care of; to guard; to keep; one in the state in which he is, to observe; to reserve: to undergo something.” As one can see, “observe” is only one of the possible meanings of the word, and not even the its first or main definition.

Second, the context of what Yeshua is saying here is against the backdrop of the Pharisees’ hypocritical tendencies. In other words, he condemns them for saying one thing and then doing another. He also judged them for some of the things they did. Example? Calling men “rabbi”, omitting the weightier matter of the law, and their ostentatious religious show and pretense. Elsewhere, in the famous Sermon on the Mount, Yeshua flat out tells his disciples to NOT follow the unbiblical traditions of the Jews. This is evidenced in all of Yeshua’s “you have heard said…but I say unto you” statements of Matt 5. Then in Matt 15, Yeshua accuses the same Pharisees of transgressing the commandments of Elohim by their tradition (Matt 15:3–9). In Mark 7, Yeshua has more to say about following the so-called “traditions of the elders” (the Jews’ oral laws and traditions). He makes it clear that his disciples are in no way to check their brains at the door and to blindly follow Jewish traditions. What is the bottom line here? The disciples of Yeshua are to do only those things that line up with the written word and commandments of Elohim. Period. If the Jews’ traditions don’t, then ignore them (Mark 7:5–13). The apostles understood Yeshua’s commands and what he was really saying. When they were dragged before the Sanhedrin (the Jewish ruling elders) and commanded to stop preaching the gospel of Yeshua the Messiah, Peter made his famous rebuttal to them. He declared that we must follow Elohim and not men. In other words, he viewed as null and void any human commands that violate the written word of Elohim (Acts 4:18–19). When Peter stood before the same counsel again a little later, he reiterated his earlier statement when he declared to them, “We ought to obey Elohim rather then men” (Acts 5:29).

On the basis of points one and two, we now come to point three. Let’s think this issue out and analyze it critically. That’s what YHVH gave us intellect and reasoning capabilities for. The modern rabbinic Jews reject Yeshua as the Messiah. If we take Yeshua’s statement in Matt 23:23 to do whatever the Jews tell you to do, then we may as well forget about believing in Yeshua. Obviously this is not what Yeshua is telling us to do, and this is not what his apostles took his words to mean.

 

11 thoughts on “What Should Be Our Involvement With Rabbinic Judaism?

  1. I was taught a totally different interpretation of this…..I was taught that what happened in “the seat of Moses” was that the Torah was READ and that’s all. As soon as the reading was over, whoever wished to expound, interpret, teach… on that reading got up from that seat to do so…that ONLY the actual words of the Torah were read from the seat of Moses. Has anyone else heard that?

  2. I was and ran as far away as possible they were wolves in sheeps clothing teaching a kabbalist Yeshua and another gospel..I day run forest run…

  3. They (the rabbis) sit in Moses’ seat-whatever therefore He (Moses) said to do, that observe and do=according to Hebrew scholar Nehemia Gordon the word is not “they” in whatever “they” say, no it’s the word “he” (see it in the middle of the word “tHEy” yes they sit in the seat but we are to do what he (Moses as instructed by YHVH) said to do. Hey, maybe that is where we got the expression “do as I say and not as I do”, as Phar-I-see! 🙂

    • Hi Carol. It sounds like you are agreeing with me…? Whatever “he” said…that was Torah. So the only thing that was spoken from the seat of Moses was Torah?…

  4. Off topic, but….I just saw that Nehemiah Gordon does not believe that Yeshua is Messiah…. Is that correct?

    • As Phar-I-see! I have a sneaking suspicion that he secretly does and yet if he admits to it openly he may be barred from some resources that as yet are teaching him as he teaches us-you know the Word of God is a two-edged sword-that being said yes I am agreeing with you. stay blessed 🙂

    • That is correct. My wife witnessed to him about Yeshua face to face over the dinner table in Israel in 2008. Pray for him. He certainly has heard and read the gospel message. We know NH quite well personally, and he has a good heart. He just needs to have the blinders drop off of his eyes.

      Like Carol said, he may be a secret believer, but who knows. If he is and hasn’t confessed Yeshua openly, well, we know what Yeshua said about that. Not good!

  5. Pure, Holy Scriptures only. The Way, the Truth and the Life. All else is Taurus excrement.
    John

  6. I just read an article from the Messianic Bible Society about Eliazer Ben-Yehuda, who was responsible for the Hebrew language to be re-introduced again in Israel. However, there are a few ultra orthodox Jewish communities in Israel who refuse to speak it in their daily lives; they want to keep Hebrew as a sacred language, only spoken in their synagogues and religious universities. Its just another example of rabbinical invention that is not part of Elohim’s Word.
    Sonja

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