Showing posts with label Israel Today magazine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Israel Today magazine. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Messianics in Turmoil as Anti-Missionaries Dig Up Dirt - ISRAEL TODAY

Messianics in Turmoil 

as Anti-Missionaries 

Dig Up Dirt

Tuesday, February 25, 2014 |  David Lazarus  ISRAEL TODAY
The leadership of Messianic Jewish congregations across Israel are in turmoil over recent revelations published in the snazzy new anti-Messianic magazine “The Seekers” put out by the anti-missionary group Yad L’achim.
With so many young Jewish Israelis coming to faith in Yeshua in recent years, Yad L’achim was compelled to reveal an arsenal of evidence detailing the scandalous activities plaguing Israel’s Messianic movement in a mass mailing of the magazine.
Exposed! Messianic Jews in Cahoots with Christians
Yad L'achim has now proven beyond doubt that there is, in their words, “a strong connection between Messianic Jews and Christian Churches!” After years of intensive undercover investigative work, with some help from Google, Yad L’achim has published a website page revealing that “some Messianic leaders receive financial support from oversees Christian organizations!”
Such collusion with Christians surely spells doom for the Messianic Jewish movement as we know it. No self-respecting Jewish organization would dare receive support from Christians. Messianic Jews receiving money from churches clearly excludes them from the Tribe. For Heaven’s Sake, Orthodox Jewish charities would never be caught cavorting with Christian money!
Revealed: Messianics Enjoying Sin!
In yet another devastating blow, Yad L’achim reports that young Jewish boys and girls are lining up to join Messianic congregations because “the New Testament gives you the freedom to do whatever sin you want,” says Ronen Shalom, a Yad L’achim convert.
Shalom, who recently converted back to Orthodox Judaism after becoming a devout Buddhist, then a Yoga instructor and Tai Chi expert before living for a number of years as a freedom-loving follower of Jesus, admits that even he eventually got tired of the “freedom that allows any sin” in the Messianic movement. Thank G-d, the poor seeking soul is now back on track and “enjoying every minute” adhering to the 613 commandments as well as the thousands of rabbinic laws added to the Torah, he says.
Shalom and his friends also report being “much happier now that they are back home in the Orthodox religious camp” without all the sin and corruption.
Spotlight: Messianic Leaders Poke Fun
Yad L’achim’s new Hebrew magazine also reveals that that Messianic Jews are anti-Semites. As proof, a student of Yad L’achim’s reprogramming program divulged that he heard a Messianic leader tell a joke about how some Orthodox Jews spend hours inspecting the Sukkot Etrog with a magnifying glass to insure it is kosher. Overcome with horror that anyone would poke fun at the Orthodox being too strict in keeping the rabbinic traditions, the distressed student had to abandon his Messianic faith. And that is NO joke!
Messianic Jews in Turmoil
In their scathing report, Yad L’achim also provides irrefutable evidence that some Messianics do not always agree with each other. In fact, they have in their hands actual Messianic newsletters taken from the world wide web showing that certain Messianic Jews in Jerusalem are in disagreement with other Messianics over theological issues! It appears that Messianics are arguing with one another!
One can certainly appreciate how such arguments make it impossible for a real Jew to join the Messianic movement. Although, don’t they say that when two Jews get together to talk about anything you get three different opinions? Could it be that Jews who believe in Yeshua are still Jews (by virtue of their argumentativeness)? That is a question still being argued. At least ex-Messianics are now resting in peace back in Orthodox Judaism without all the conflicts, divisions, mean-spiritedness and arguments.
Note: Yad L’achim’s strategy to put off young Jewish seekers from the “temptation to follow Jesus” by exposing the dirty laundry of his disciples should not be considered _Chutzpah (rude). Religious authorities way back in the New Testament times also liked to spread stories about the Messianic Jews (see Acts 6:10-15, if you dare)._
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Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Jordanian Sheikh: Israel Belongs to the Jews!

Jordanian Sheikh: Israel Belongs to the Jews!

Wednesday, February 19, 2014 |  Yossi Aloni ISRAEL TODAY  
Sheikh Ahmed Aladoan of Amman, a member of Jordan’s well-known Adwan tribe, posted to Facebook this week that there is no such place as “Palestine,” and provided references from the Koran to back up his assertion.
One of the Koranic verses provided states that Allah gave the Holy Land to the sons of Israel until the Day of Judgment (Surah Al-Ma’ida, verse 21), and the other (Surah Al-Shara’a, verse 59) says that the land was bequeathed to the Jews.
The sheikh turned to those who “distort the words of the Koran,” whom he labeled as liars, and questioned where they had even come up with the name “Palestine.” He insisted their claims to the Land of Israel were forfeit because “Allah is the protector of the Children of Israel.”
And if that wasn’t enough, the sheikh went on to turn the tables on the anti-Israel propaganda machine by accusing the Palestinians of killing children, the elderly and women, of using human shields, and of having not an ounce of mercy for even their own children.
The sheikh’s words caused a storm in the Arab media, and were picked up by the Israeli Embassy in Amman.
The Arabic daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi further explained the sheikh’s position, noting that he supports the notion that Jordan is Palestine, and insists that Arabs living both in Jordan and the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories would almost all love to be Israeli citizens.
The Adwan tribe issued a statement distancing itself from Sheikh Aladoan’s remarks. But the sheikh was not intimidated, and insisted he would continue to make his voice heard on these matters.
Last year, Sheikh Aladoan visited Israel and spent time with the chief rabbi of Tsfat (Safed), Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu. The sheikh informed Rabbi Eliyahu and his students that in the Koran, “there is no name ‘Palestine’ for this land, and therefore, the Arabs should not be fighting the Jews over control of this land.”
Watch the following video of their encounter. Most of the video is in Hebrew, but around the 2:00 mark, Sheikh Aladoan’s assistant translates his words in English.  
PHOTO is for illustration purposes only. The sheikh in the photo above is actually Sheikh Jabari of Hebron, another powerful tribal leader who also agrees that this land belongs to the Jews.
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Sunday, February 9, 2014

Money and Faith: Can the Two Walk Together? - ISRAEL TODAY

Money and Faith: Can the Two Walk Together?

Sunday, February 09, 2014 |  Tsvi Sadan ISRAEL TODAY  
In the wake of celebrity Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto’s supposed attempt to bribe a senior police officer, Finance Minister Yair Lapid stated, “Three tycoons were known to counsel rabbis - Moti Ziser, Ilan Ben Dov and Nochi Dankner – all of whom saw their [financial] empires crumble. Maybe they should have consulted economists rather than rabbis.”
In the increasingly tense debate between religious and secular views in Israel, Lapid seized the opportunity provided by Rabbi Pinto to widen the divide between the spiritual and the material. Money and faith, so Lapid and many Israelis believe, are two unrelated and even opposing spheres.
Pinto set a bad example, so be sure, but to conclude from his scandal that rabbis should not be consulted on financial matters is like concluding from one rotten apple that all apples should be avoided.
Moreover, in light of the presumably sound economic theories and policies that led the Western world into financial crisis, relying on economists for good counsel is apparently as risky as consulting a rabbi.
People’s ill judgment in the financial sphere, as well as just about every other sphere of human life, is ultimately a testimony of human frailty, not a rebuttal of spirituality. If anything, that the ultra-rich, who presumably don’t need any help on financial matters, would seek spiritual guidance should have been cause for concern that they are unable to find the good counsel they need from secular economists.
There are those who will insist that the rich, just as the poor, are simply superstitious. Be that as it may, I believe more credit should be given to one who seeks the company of a rabbi, or the spirituality that he represents.
A case in point was the 2008 gathering of 500 of Israel’s upper echelon in honor of Rabbi Haim Kovalski, who had earned great respect among many Israelis due to his Project Meorot Hadaf Hayomi that aimed to help every Jew study the Talmud on a daily basis.
Asked by a reporter what a respected lawyer was doing at such an event, Gideon Fischer replied: “…people are looking for a wise man. A rabbi has no radio and he doesn’t read secular newspapers. He knows all that is needed to be known, and avoids everything one need not know and need not read or see. All of his time is devoted to studying and casuistry. He has hundreds of thousands of studying hours, and we, how much time are we wasting on television, nonsense and vain things? We want to sit around a refined person.”
True religious people, and by religious I mean anyone who puts his or her faith to practice, knows that the division Lapid suggests between the spiritual and the material is false at best. The Bible has much to say about debt, usury, alms giving and a host of other purely economic issues that if given their proper weight can bring much relief to individuals and society.
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Friday, January 31, 2014

Messianic Hebrew Bible - ready after 20 year project

A Modern Messianic Hebrew Bible

Friday, January 31, 2014 |  David Lazarus  ISRAEL TODAY
There are many reasons for the discrepancy between what people say they believe and what they do with their beliefs. But the Messianic Jews in Israel are working to bridge that gap with a new project aimed at getting people in the Land of the Bible to read their own book.
For the first time, the ancient Masoretic text of the entire Hebrew Bible has been translated into modern Hebrew. The Messianic publishing company Hagefen (The Vine) finally completed the project, a painstaking effort that took over 20 years.
The full article appears in the February issue of Israel Today Magazine.
SUBSCRIBE NOW to read it all!
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