Q & A
- Wearing tallit and tzitzit
- Serving meat and milk together
- Jesus and forgiveness of sin
- The Holy Spirit
- Grace and the Law
- Messianic and Christian fellowships
- A righteous person
- The New Testament church
- Calling God our Father
- Veil over the nations
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Q: Are men of the congregation to wear a tallit? Numbers 15:38-40 commanded fringes (tzitzit) to be worn from the corners of our garments, is that referring to a tallit? Is wearing a tallit commanded to all believers of the 12 tribes, and those grafted in, not just those of the tribe of Judah? I see you and several other men wearing them at the service, is there a reason?
A: The Torah says the children (sons) of Israel are to put fringes on the four corners of their garments and to put a thread of blue on each fringe.
“Speak to the children (sons) of Israel and you shall say to them that they shall make themselves fringes on the corners of their garments, for their generations. And they shall put a thread of blue with the fringe of each corner. And it shall be to you for a fringe, that you may look on it and remember all the commandments of YHVH, and do them; and that you do not go about after your own heart and your own eyes after which you go whoring; that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy to your Elohim.” (Numbers 15:38-40)
When YHVH gave the commandment, common garments were four-cornered rectangular coverings tied at the waist with a panel in front and a panel in the back. It was on the four corners of the panels that people placed the fringes. Clothing changed over the centuries and other styles replaced the four-cornered garment. The rabbis concluded that it was important not to lose the opportunity to keep the commandment just because a clothing style change did away with four-cornered garments.
As a result, the rabbis invented the tallit
(טלית)
, also called a prayer shawl, as a
four-cornered garment to carry the fringes—tzitzit
(ציצית)
. The tallit you see worn
in meetings is a tallit gadol, or large tallit, and is designed to wear over
the top of other garments as a shawl.
There is another style, the tallit katan, or small tallit, that is designed for daily wear under a shirt or jacket. The fringes hang down lower than the wearer's waist. They are pulled out so the wearer can see the fringes even though the tallit katan is concealed under the wearer's clothing.
The rabbis took the view that since there was no longer a rectangular garment on which to attach the tzitzit, that one had to be constructed to fulfill the commandment. I take the view that since the earth is described in the Scriptures as having four corners, I don't see the need for specifically a four-cornered rectangular garment to fulfill the commandment to wear the fringes on the four corners. So I attach four fringes, each with a thread of blue, equidistant around any appropriate outer garment, and wear them daily.
How often should we wear them? I take the view that since the purpose of the
fringes is to “be to you for a fringe, that you may look
on it and remember
all the commandments of YHVH, and do them;
and that you do not go about after
your own heart and your own
eyes . . . ” (Numbers 15:39), the only time I need to
wear them is when YHVH expects me to keep His instructions and commandments.
Who is supposed to wear them? The instruction to wear the fringes only applies to those people who are under covenant to keep YHVH's commandments.
There is some question whether the instruction applies only to men. The Torah says, in Hebrew, bnei Israel are to wear the fringes. Bnei can mean sons, or it can mean a mixed group of males and females because Hebrew uses the masculine form of a word to describe a mixed gender group. The rabbis consistently choose to define bnei as sons, partly because they see the fringes as a time-dependent commandment.
The rabbis concluded that since the Torah says “when you look upon them,” that the wearing of the fringes is only required during the day when they can be seen. Restricting the wearing of the fringes to the daylight hours makes the instruction time-dependant.
The rabbis said that since women are precluded from certain activities during their menstrual cycle, they are not required to keep any time-dependent commandments. So they say that women are not required to wear the tallit or the fringes. Thus, they interpret bnei as sons, only including men.
The rabbinical decision that the commandment only applies in the day was because of the instruction to look upon the fringes. And at night the fringes couldn't be seen. Living in a developed area, I am rarely in a place I can't see the fringes, even at night, thanks to electricity. So I wear my tzitzit in the day and at night whenever I am wearing garments designed to be worn in public.
On a separate note, the reason you see us wear the tallit gadol at fellowship even though we often wear tzitzit on our clothes as well, is that the three elders decided at the beginning of the fellowship that we, as elders, would wear them in Sabbath meetings in part to show our support and solidarity with the Jewish people. The rabbinical tradition of wearing the tallit gadol fulfills the commandment in the Torah to wear the fringes and does not violate any instruction from YHVH.
We do however place a thread of blue on our fringes in obedience to the Torah, but in contradiction to the rabbinical rules. We recognize that the rabbis omit the blue thread as a display of sorrow for the loss of the Temple and because there is debate over the proper source of the blue dye. But there is no instruction in the Torah or the TaNaKh to leave out the blue thread on each fringe, nor a specific source indicated, so we choose to follow the Torah and not the rabbis.
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Q: Answer this question about food if you can please. When the three strangers visited Abraham and one (Yahweh, I presume) predicted Sari [Sarah] would have a baby, Abraham served his guests unleavened bread, meat, and milk. Was it against halacha [הלחה] food laws to serve meat and milk together? You shall not seethe a kid in its mother's milk, kind of thing?
A: Part of the answer comes from the instruction itself: “You shall not boil a kid [ghedee (גדי)—a young goat] in its mother's milk.” (Exodus 23:19 – Emphasis added) The instruction is specific to a kid—a young goat, and to the milk of its mother.
In this account, Abraham went to the herd—bawkar (בקר), which describes cattle, oxen, and herd animals as opposed to flock animals like goats and sheep. He selects a ben bawkar (בן־בקר) —a son of the herd—a calf. (Genesis 18:6-8) At the outset of the account we see that the animal Abraham selected for his guests didn't fall into the category of animal that the Torah forbids us to boil in its mother's milk.
Could we expand the prohibition to include the calf? Perhaps, but the prohibition would be extended to don't boil any animal in its mother's milk. The common understanding of the prohibition is to forbid the pagan practice of boiling an animal in the life-giving milk of its own mother. If we were to extend the meaning to other animals, it would still involve a young animal and the milk of its mother.
The rabbinical prohibition against eating, commingling, storing together, cooking together, etc, milk and meat seems to be an unreasonable extension. It encounters serious opposition in this account.
While it is very clear that Abraham didn't violate the scriptural injunction not to boil a kid in its mother's milk, it is equally clear that he did violate rabbinical prohibitions.
And YHVH and His companions had no problem eating the meal of meat, milk, cheese and bread set before them. The rabbis also teach that this acceptance of the meal shows us that we should honor local customs, and since angels don't really eat, they just pretend to, there was no violation.
I would agree with them part way. We shouldn't offend the customs of locals, unless their customs violate the Torah. What kind of example of obedience would YHVH set for us if He violated His instructions just because it was the custom to violate them? And if He did so, how could He expect us to keep any of His instructions today when it seems that all of our local customs are in violation of His Torah? I don't think He would give us permission to break His Torah just so we can do what everyone else is doing.
Hey, that's what many people teach today.
“The Law is done away with, and modern conventions and new morals have replaced those old morals.” It's a lie! Those new morals are just repackaged sin. The adversary has been packaging sin to look like a choice since the Garden of Eden. He continues doing the same thing today.
Eating milk and meat in the same meal, or using a cream sauce for meat? There is no Torah prohibition against it.
Unless you own animals and both milk and slaughter them, or you buy your milk and meat from the same farm and they do both, the chance that you would ever boil a kid or other animal in its mother's milk is so remote that there is almost no chance at all.
If it's any additional help, I looked through four cookbooks and none of them had a recipe that called for boiling meat in milk. And no, they weren't rabbinical kosher cookbooks - that would have been too easy.
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Q: Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, died on the Cross for our sins, and if we confess our sins and ask forgiveness, He is just and forgives us of our sins, and that we will have eternal life (that His blood covers our sins)?
A: Yes, we believe Jesus is the Son of God, that He died for our sins, that He was resurrected after three days and three nights as He promised, and that through His sacrifice we can be forgiven for our sins and gain Eternal Life. Once we have been forgiven, we believe we should follow His directions to “go and sin no more.”
We usually use Yeshua the Messiah's Hebrew name because the name Jesus is too often associated with someone who purportedly violated the Torah, did away with it and taught against it. We don't believe the Messiah did any of those things.
We believe that people make a serious mistake in accepting Yeshua as Messiah and then going back to their same life of disobedience to God's commandments and instructions. By accepting His sacrifice we should change from transgressing God's instructions to obeying them. Otherwise we trample His blood under our feet.
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Q: How would you explain the Holy Spirit ?
A: Our understanding of the Holy Spirit is the meaning given in the Hebrew, the Ruach haKodesh, literally the Spirit of the Holy. It is the Spirit of God that He gives to those who come to Him and submit to Him. The gift of the Spirit brings with it healing, knowledge, faith, hope, love, and the primary function is to lead us into all Truth.
There are also other spirits around. The best method of determining if it is the Holy Spirit or not is whether it leads one to obey the instructions God gave to Moses in the Torah. If the spirit doesn't lead into all Truth, and Truth is defined Biblically as the Word of God, then it is likely some other spirit.
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Q: Did Yeshua ever talk about God's grace versus the law?
A: The simple answer is no. He did contrast some of the popular teachings of the religious leaders with the law to show how they were actually violating God's law by their traditions though. He also expounded on the meaning behind some of the laws, such as Matthew 5:21-22 when he showed that the prohibition against murder extended to harboring the anger that precedes the actual act.
God's law is part of His grace. Part of the confusion around grace is a misunderstanding of the meaning of the word. In the Hebrew, the word translated as grace is khane and has the meanings - “favor, grace, charm, elegance, acceptance.” In the Greek the word is charis it has the meanings - “(A) that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness; (B) good will, loving-kindness, favor.”
If we understand the meaning of grace it is clearer that we obtain grace through (1) The intercessory sacrifice of our sin offering, Yeshua, which brings us from our state of disfavor with God into favor in His eyes; (2) our obedience to God's commandments, statutes and judgments that keeps us clean and in favor.
We see in the Torah the shadow of this. Israel was freed from Egypt through no act or worthiness of their own. But then they were taken to Sinai and given God's instructions and told that since God brought them out, they were to keep His instructions. They would be blessed for keeping them and punished for violating them. Just as any loving parent would do for his children to direct them in the path that results in a good life.
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Q: Are Messianic fellowships Christian fellowships?
A: If you mean by Christian do they believe in Yeshua as the Messiah, some are and some aren't. Our fellowship believes that Yeshua was born in the first century and lived as a man and that was the first coming of the Messiah. We also look forward to the second coming of Yeshua the Messiah to come and establish His kingdom on earth.
There are Messianic fellowships that believe a Messiah is coming, but that He hasn't yet come.
Sometimes the name Christian is only applied to groups who adhere to the Catholic Church's doctrines and beliefs including setting the first day (Sunday) apart instead of the Biblical Sabbath. Under that definition, we would not be Christian.
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Q: The Bible says that “no one is righteous, no not one.” How can that be if God calls some men righteous, like Moses and Abraham?
A: Paul wrote in Romans 3:10 “as it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no not one;’” He was quoting from the Psalms. When we don't go back to the original and determine the context of the phrase we are apt to misunderstand its meaning. This is the case in the apparent conflict in the question, why are many called righteous, if there are none righteous.
Let's look at the original phrase from Psalm 14 (Emphasis added) in context:
“The fool has said in his heart, There is no God! They acted corruptly; they have done abominable works, there is none who does good. Jehovah looked down from Heaven on the sons of men, to see if there were any who understood and sought God. All have gone aside, together they are filthy; there is none who does good, no, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity not known, eating up My people as they eat bread? They have not called on Jehovah. There they were in great fear; for God is in the generation of the righteous. You have shamed the counsel of the poor, because Jehovah is his refuge. Who will bring the salvation of Israel out of Zion? When Jehovah brings back the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.”
Notice that “the fool” and the “workers of iniquity” are the ones among whom there is “none that do good,” but they are contrasted with “My people” and “His people” By looking at the meaning it is readily apparent that on the surface, a wicked person and a fool who says there is no God, will not do good, or be righteous. A wicked person is known by his fruit, and a wicked tree produces wicked fruit. A righteous person is living in obedience to God's instructions, none of the fools or wicked do so.
The obvious other side of the issue is that those who are His people who keep the commandments are by the very act of doing so, righteous. Neither Paul nor David are directing their comment that “none are righteous” toward the faithful followers of God.
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Q: New Testament churches teach that grace has replaced the law. Are the scriptures of the Old Testament not for today?
A: The confusion begins with the concept of a New Testament church which was originally a heretical teaching promulgated by Marcion and others about 200 AD. Their concept is that there are two gods, a bloodthirsty god of the Old Testament, and a loving god of the New Testament.
The Scriptures provide evidence that God, the Creator, is the same yesterday today and forever, and beside Him there is no other. Since the instructions God gave to Moses on how to live a righteous life were given by God it follows that they are just as applicable today as they were when they were given.
An obvious conundrum with saying that the way God deals with us has changed is that if He changed it once, what would stop Him from changing it again? It's like the question about what happens to all those people who went to hell for eating meat on Fridays now that the Roman Catholic Church says it's okay to do so? What if God changes His mind again and decides that in order to be saved you have to eat pigeon three times a day what happens to all those people who were saved by saying the sinner's prayer?
Another part of the confusion comes from the artificial division of the Bible into Old and New Testaments. There is one testament, or covenant, and it flows from Genesis to Revelation in the current arrangement of the books. What applied in Genesis, such as setting the seventh day apart as holy, still applies today. What has really happened is that the lie that you don't have to do what God instructs has replaced the truth that God always requires obedience to His commandments, statutes and judgments. Just like it was in the Garden of Eden, the adversary tells us “you shall not surely die.”
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Q: Did the believers in the Old Testament times ever refer to God as Father? Or did that relationship start when Yeshua referred to God as His Father, in turn allowing believers to call God Father?
A: There are a few references to God as Father in the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy 14:1 it says “you are sons of God,” The prophet Isaiah 63:16 says “You oh Lord are our Father” and again in Isaiah 64:8. The prophet Jeremiah 3:4 says, “Will you cry to me from this time, you are my Father” and in, 31:9 “I am a father to Israel.” In the book of Malachi 2:10 the prophet says, “Have we not all one father, has not one God created us?” And in the Psalms 89:26 David says, “You are my father my rock and the God of my salvation.”
The widespread use of the term Father to apply to God appears to have begun after the time of Yeshua. But it is possible that the prophets indicated above were simply echoing a common practice in their days.
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Q: I heard someone say that there is not only a veil over the eyes of the Jewish nation when it comes to recognizing Yeshua as the Messiah, but there is also a veil over the Gentile nations. Where does it say that in the Scriptures?
A: The reference is from Isaiah 25:7 and it refers to the day that God will remove the covering and veil from the nations and peoples. The sense of the verse is that God will remove the false gods that they have unknowingly covered themselves with and give them the true covering of His sacrifice. Then their ignorance will be replaced with knowledge of the ways of God and they will begin to walk in righteousness according to God's instructions and give up their wicked ways.
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“Behold, the days are coming, says YHWH,
when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah
. . . I will put My law in their minds,
and write it on their hearts;
and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
Jeremiah 31:31,33b