This teaching talks about:

• The Rejection of Yeshua by Jewish Rabbis
• Theological Obstacles
• The Need for Informed Apologetics

-By Moshe DaCosta-

The first thing we should notice about Jewish Rabbis who are serious students of the Bible is that they take the word of God very seriously: they believe in the inerrancy of the Bible, and they actually have faith in what they do as the correct way to serve the Almighty. But then the natural question that comes to mind when we meditate on the subject of Messiah is, “Why can’t Jewish scholars believe that Yeshua is the promised messiah? Why do they have such limitations to see all the signs and the influence that His Presence has had on the whole world?” The Jews are not called the People of the Book without reason.

Throughout the centuries, men devoted themselves to serving and understanding His deity, His instructions, and our responsibilities towards our Creator. Entire generations of Jewish scholars memorized, studied, and wrote their interpretations in an entire library of Jewish knowledge on our culture, values, and traditions.

So why? What are the reasons they can’t believe in what we, lesser men and women, so easily understand?

In this issue of TFZ, we’re discussing Yeshua in the Talmud, a subject that is crucial to understanding the opposition and rejection from Jewish orthodoxy to the Good News about the Messiah, Yeshua. Without understanding the mind and the reasoning of the sages of Israel, one cannot clearly visualize the full picture and delineate the correct apologetics to approach and testify to our Faith. And that should be our main goal, isn’t it, to fulfill the Great Commission, given directly by our Rabbi? As Yeshua said, “Go and make disciples!” And I truly believe that He called the people of Israel to be His main disciples. We have not yet seen what Israel will be able to do when filled with power from the Spirit. That’s my prayer—that we’ll be able to see erudite Jewish men understanding and sharing the news about their Messiah!

However, that’s not the case yet. The rejection of the Gospel by Jewish rabbis is an underlying part of rabbinical Judaism. And the reason for this hostility towards Yeshua from Natzeret is always the same. It’s never different. In two thousand years of Jewish history, rabbinical Judaism always rejects Yeshua for the same reason, and my objective with this article is to give you the tools to understand and prepare yourselves to pray and testify to orthodox Jews, who have been indoctrinated by their traditions to automatically reject any mention or suggestion that Jesus Christ, “the God of the Gentiles”, could be the expected Messiah of Israel. But to understand that, let’s first hear Yeshua’s words, as described in Luke:

So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:16-21

Imagine that you’re there, in that synagogue, listening to what has just been said. Until not long ago, secular agnostic Jews didn’t exist, so imagine that you’re one of those religious Jews who saw a man standing in front of the whole kehila and telling them that he was the fulfillment of the prophecies mentioned in the Law, and described in the Haftarah, and taught and discussed in an incalculable number of study sessions since the moment you learned to read the Scriptures. Now you’re starting to understand what those people felt that particular morning. And yet, without any previous announcement, the Messiah, the Son of David, appeared right in front of them, reading from their own Haftarah scroll, teaching them about the exact subject they studied thousands of times before!

They had obviously heard about Yeshua’s reputation as a Torah scholar and rabbi, and exactly because of that, they invited Him to preach that morning. We learn that “news on Him went out” to the villages and cities in the Galilee during His first year of ministry, and there were probably several communities interested in His teachings, and in every one of them He would recognize relatives, friends, and even family customers. Familiar faces were everywhere. But this morning changed everything since He took upon Himself a role that was not expected from one of them. To be a scholar among Jewish people is a motive for praise. To be a rabbi is a respected position, but to be the long-awaited Savior, Redeemer of Israel, and Anointed of the Almighty God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that’s purely unthinkable.

And that’s why, when we look for references about Yeshua in Jewish literature, we find few but incisive rejections of His Messianic claims. Talmudic probable references to Jesus address Him as a heretic sorcerer who brought spells from Egypt, a bastard son of an unfaithful mother, a person whose teachings could not be taken seriously (Shabbat 104b). It’s interesting to me that this reference comes from a point in this tractate when those sages were discussing the Halakha of writing as a cause for Shabbat desecration. As a scribe myself, I understand the importance and holiness of Jewish writing and its connection to a pious life, and pursuing the sanctity of the Shabbat was always paramount to pharisaic (and later rabbinical) Judaism. And that is how the rabbis saw His person, as a traitor who started as a famous scholar but deviated to be a mekhallel (a blasphemer) of the Shabbat.

In Sanhedrin 43a, we follow the rabbinical interpretations on blasphemers’ punishment by lapidation (stoning someone to death), how the process should be judged and supervised, and how the defendant could be acquitted of his sentence. The Gemara said that in the case of Yeshua the Nazarene, it was “more difficult” to pass the sentence since Yeshua apparently had strong ties with the Romans, and the government had intent on His acquittal. The text describes the process: “Ulla said, And how can you understand this proof? Was Jesus the Nazarene worthy of conducting a search for a reason to acquit him? He was an inciter to idol worship, and the Merciful One states with regard to an inciter to idol worship: “Neither shall you spare, neither shall you conceal him” (Deuteronomy 13:9). Rather, Jesus was different, as he had close ties with the government, and the gentile authorities were interested in his acquittal. Consequently, the court gave him every opportunity to clear himself, so that it could not be claimed that he was falsely convicted.” Here we can see how Jewish sages avoided the guilt of condemning a tsadik (just man) by questionable ways. First, they accused Him of idolatry and of being a false teacher. Then they defined him as a blasphemer, and God Himself obligated the Pharisees to expose the sins of such a man. Next, they tied Yeshua’s actions to the Roman oppressor, the hated and idolatrous invader, and without anyone capable of defending the case, it was their responsibility to “stone” the blasphemer and hang the dead body outside of the city walls. They literally changed everything that actually happened, as we can read the narrative in the Gospels through eyewitness testimonies of the facts.

Another example of how Jesus is seen by the orthodox can be found elsewhere in Jewish legislation. The Tractate of Sotah mainly addresses the laws concerning married women, and when exploring the challenges involved in judging daughters of Israel for harlotry and impure behaviors, several men are mentioned. Again, the sages discussed the attitude of one of the Pharisees towards Jesus the Nazarene, including him among the bastard sons of Israel, and how devout Jews should rebuke them (Sotah 47a). Yehoshua ben Perahya pushed the young Jesus with both hands, and a few paragraphs later, we understand that he did it because he (probably) misunderstood or misheard a commentary made by Yeshua about a married woman. In the text, while Yehoshua ben Perahya was praising the owner for his beautiful guesthouse, Yeshua mentioned, in a very empathetic way, how tired the owner’s wife looked to Him. Yehoshua ben Perahya immediately accused Jesus of looking towards the woman with unclean eyes and, in an aggressive demonstration of insensitivity, attacked his young student, identified in the text as Yeshua, who in the future would be considered a heretic. Here we see the pharisaic justification that a bastard would “obviously” repeat carnal inherited behaviors, suggesting that Jesus’ punishment years later was a natural consequence of Mary’s sins.

There are a few other references that we could look at and analyze, but returning to the Scriptures, one can infer that the reason why Yeshua was so blatantly rejected by the Pharisees and, much later, rabbinical Judaism, is revealed in the prophecy given by Simeon in Luke chapter 2. In addition to all the positive things he saw regarding Yeshua’s future, he also declared that “this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel” (Luke 2:34). Going back to the text we were analyzing in the fourth chapter of Luke’s gospel, we now realize why that initial surprise was so quickly replaced by wrath when He refused to perform the miracles they heard He was doing in other places. They became filled with rage when He didn’t do what he was told by the people He knew so closely. They wanted to control Yeshua. They wanted to say, If He is the promised Messiah, He will bless us first!

What was Yeshua preaching to Israel? That Salvation had come, and He was there to redeem. But only to those who acknowledged their spiritual poverty, their bondage to sin, and their carnal behaviors. He was the Bridegroom who finally arrived to the long-awaited ceremony, but the seats at the party were available only for His friends. They were blessed; among all nations, they were the ones whom He chose; they were the ones who would be finally touched by holiness. That generation was especially blessed with His message of forgiveness, redemption from sin, and acceptance into an abundant and eternal life with God. But that message was actually shocking to all of them. The initial approval faced the inevitable human tendency for disbelief and skepticism.

Israel was eager for the Messiah’s coming. They were honestly waiting for the Messiah to come and carry out vengeance on their Gentile enemies, ultimately generating salvation for Israel. They hated their oppressors and probably were very disturbed when Yeshua didn’t say anything about the day of vengeance. They surely were aware of John the Baptist’s message: “When the Messiah comes, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire,” and they expected fire, the fire of justice against oppression. Even Yohanan (John) the Immerser (Baptist) was surprised eventually. After his violent arrest by Herod, he was surely expecting that His Redeemer, Yeshua, would find a way of opening the prison gates and setting him free. Yeshua never did that; He actually never proposed vengeance to ungodly people, Romans or Jews. John even sent his own disciples to ask Him about it; after all, if He is the Messiah, where was the justice? Yeshua had scheduled the day of vengeance to come after the day of salvation.

That little synagogue in the Galilee received Yeshua’s words with disrespect. They acknowledged His talent as a teacher and His powerful oratory. They could not disagree with His interpretations and His accurate applications of the Law. They could not resist His authority and the majesty of His presence. They saw His miracles and the effect that He had on the lives of the people following Him, but they simply couldn’t accept one thing: that Yeshua was different from them and that He was much more than they would ever be. They didn’t even take into consideration His superiority when the Father said out of heaven, “This is My beloved Son.” They just kept repeating, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” Their familiarity generated contempt.

That’s something they never overcame. They never understood that He was not really one of them. They never did. After His year and a half of ministry in the Galilee, Yeshua returned to the same synagogue in Nazareth, and again they repeated, “This is Joseph’s son, and we know His mother, and we know His sisters, and we know His brothers. This can’t be the Messiah!” Yeshua was very clear in His teachings, and they understood perfectly what He meant. Salvation is available for the poor, the prisoners, the blind, and the oppressed. But they did not realize they were the poor; they were the prisoners; they were the blind! And they continued in oppression. They received the message: to achieve salvation, they had to acknowledge their spiritual destitution, their spiritual poverty, their spiritual blindness, their spiritual bondage, and their spiritual oppression.

Acknowledging their sin was probably the last thing they would ever do. They were the Goy Kadosh (Holy Nation), they were the Am Segulah (Chosen People). They were Tsadikim (righteous) and had Ma’asim Tovim (good deeds). And they were the only ones who worshipped the true Living God. They weren’t the poor, the prisoners, the blind, or the oppressed. “Yeshua was talking about someone else, yes, certainly... The famous rabbi was surely talking about Gentiles.”

In their assessment, 400 years after the last prophecies were given to the people of Israel, they thought Yeshua turned out to be more than an unexpected prophet; He became the unwanted Messiah. In Luke 4:24, Yeshua acknowledged their rejections and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.” The Scriptures mention the same perception in Matthew 13:57, Mark 6:4, and John 4:4, and even give more details. He felt rejected by His own family in His own house, and our Mashiach (Messiah) marveled at their unbelief.

One thing is sure: there’s nothing worse than spiritual pride, and unfortunately, when we search for honest appraisals made by the sages of Israel a few centuries later, we notice that His Messiahship was still the stumbling block for Rabbinical Judaism. We find only slander and misrepresentation. In the book Jewish Antiquities, we find a surprisingly objective assessment. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, contemporary to the early Church and unquestionably impartial (since he never participated in the Christian stream of Judaism that was blooming in the region at the time), wrote the following statement:

 ”Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call Him a man; for He was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to Him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was Messiah. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned Him to the cross, those that loved Him at first did not forsake Him; for He appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other things concerning Him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from Him, are not extinct to this day.” (Jewish Antiquities, book 18 chapter 3, 63-64)

Until today, there’s been an active pursuit by some Jewish intellectuals to erase this passage from Josephus’ book, affirming that it was deceitfully inserted by the Catholic Church in order to solidify their claims about Jesus. To this date, we have never found evidence of Pharisees or Talmudic sages who had anything positive to say about the rabbi who changed the world. In Luke 4:28–29, we read about the religious reaction to Yeshua: “So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.”

Unfortunately, Jewish intellectualism has been buried in self-righteousness and entrenched in its own interpretation of God’s Word for quite some time. However, there is much evidence that is possible to present and testify about the real Yeshua to our people when a Jewish believer manages to build a solid foundation of knowledge about Jewish Law and tradition. Although the people of Israel are undoubtedly the recipients of God’s promises of redemption, our legalism and attachment to the Jewish mainstream viewpoint prevent orthodoxy from accepting what they think is a false messiah.

The real challenge now is that Christians over the centuries have given a sad and damaging testimony to the Jewish people about the Jewish rabbi and messiah they learned to follow. Replacement theology is still practiced among Christians, although more recently some good theologians have started to review their positions in regards to Israel. This is really helping. But looking through Jewish lenses, we understand that Israel sees itself as the true children of God. We’re the legitimate recipients of the biblical covenants. The Gentiles, even when represented by sound and healthy churches, will always be idol worshippers, regardless of their few good deeds according to the Jewish Torah. We saw in the last three or four decades a noticeable emergence of Messianic Jews with academic potential, but those men were not able to establish a respected movement in Israel, such as the Reform and Conservative Judaism that arose in the last century.

Yeshua’s disciples in Israel and abroad need to understand that only through a degree of effort and self-dedication will it be possible to reach and have an effective impact on Judaism. Orthodoxy is completely shielded against the “poison of the Gentiles,” and the People of the Book have many competent intellectuals that can shred to pieces a superficial (and especially a charismatic) exposition about Yeshua, the promised Messiah. That’s a role that we Israeli Messianics have to take accountability for and prepare ourselves accordingly. It’s ultimately the work of the Spirit to convince Israel about our current spiritual leprosy. However, if we have to compete with trained minds, then the least we can do is not present ourselves as untrained, counting solely on Grace to back us up. Men like Paul Levertoff, Isaac Lichtenstein, Abram Poljak, Daniel Zion, and more recently, our very own David Stern and Joseph Shulam, did their part as Jewish academics, understanding and translating Yeshua’s message to a Jewish contemporary audience. Now it’s your time to immerse yourself in Jewish literature and Talmud and succeed in sharing the Jewish Messiah from an authentic Jewish perspective.