2.1.4 External Social-Structural Interaction
While one could expect that the ecclesiastical non-charismatic type, ℵ (aleph), should always have had a good relationship with Christian churches, denominations and groups, that is not so.
Christian bodies were apparently not always in favour of Messianic Jews (3/95, 3/96). Certain Christians did not even allow them to circumcise their baby boys, though it „is incumbent to every father to fulfill the Biblical precept to circumcise his son on the eighth day” (Donin 1972:273). Christian emissaries once expected, some apparently still expect, that Jews, once they got converted and entered a Christian congregation, refrain from this Jewish ritual (3/96). However, this brit, covenant, dates from the times of the forefathers (Genesis 17:10-14). Even Jesus was submitted to it (Luke 2:21). Furthermore it was still in use in the early church (Acts 16:3, Bagatti 1984).
Occasionally Christian missionaries appeared considerably disapproving of Messianic Jews. Especially missions who worked in the country since the last century, with little visible results, can dislike Messianic Jews. Their statements had to me a comprehensible taste of envy. Already Sobel (1974) analysed and described the roots of their failing efforts. Jews are not interested in a Christian message (8/97). They regard it as for Christians and not for them (1/95, 1/96). If a Christian verbal appearance is then even accompanied by demands to abandon Jewish identity and tradition, to take on Christian appearance, it becomes even more difficult to find an open Jewish ear. Messianic Jews, in the opposite, have left behind such approaches (Brinkman 1997) and have abandoned „the straitjacket” (Sobel 1974: 318) of cultural Christianity. They can express and celebrate their Jewishness usually unhindered today. Accordingly they find increasingly interest among Israeli Jews when they speak of Jesus as Jew and explain that he was never a gentile Christian (1/97).
Once some missionaries also not allowed Messianic Jews to have their worship services on Saturdays, Sabbaths (3/95, 3/96). Christians got free on sundays to visit their church. The prohibition against Jewish believers to hold their services on Sabbaths forced them to explain to their superiors and Jewish colleagues at work why they wanted off on sundays, the first working day of the Israeli week. They practically had to declare themselves as Christians, for Jews had off on Sabbaths, to worship in synagogues. Today this appears as cultural export and Christian anti-Judaism in the mission. Nowadays Messianic Jews of course circumcise their boys and conduct their services on Sabbaths. Yet only a few decades ago this was not as usual. While this struggle seemed very plausible to me, some outrightly denied that such struggles ever took place in Israel (8/97). Those who deny such struggles appear more Christian than Jewish.
Among evangelicals, mission in Israel has particular flair. When some evangelicals, especially charismatic, travel Israel, they get all too excited and fly into a rage. By making prophecies and exaggerated claims they enter personal and social conflict. Some end even in hospitals. The doctors already laugh and diagnose „Israel choler” or „Jerusalem choler” (5/95, Trouw 21 08 1998: 11). Some evangelical groups want their own Messianic Jew in Israel, with all the advantages and disadvantages on both ends. An example can be the following. A Lutheran mission had its Israeli Jewish theologian who was supposed to found a Christian congregation. As he did, it appeared that the mission expected him to stick to particular European Christian cultural congregational expressions. Knowing the particularities between Christianity and Judaism, one will understand how unattractive such policy must be in Israel. Since the mission appeared unable to comply with „contextualisation” or „enculturation” 16Enculturation in Christian mission regards the particularity of the culture in which Christianity gets negotiated. Its approach can be regarded as an active criticism of Eurocentric Christian mission praxises. Enculturation infers the development of awareness of cultural conditioning of Christianity in its occidental expression. It aims at transferring the cruciality of Jesus Christ for redemption in such a way into a foreign culture that its religious questions are taken seriously and answered (Brockhaus 10 1989: 514). ) the theologian saw no other way but to quit with the mission and to start his own ministry. 17An interestingly similar case in the Netherlands appears to be R. Süss. Yet Süss shows no intent to start his own religious group. He joined an Orthodox Synagogue (Trouw 1 4 1999: 16). ) He apparently left the ecclesiastical path, type ℵ (aleph), and entered the synagogal path, type ℷ (gimel) (27/97).
The external social-structural relationship of type ℵ (aleph) to Judaism can be described by instances that depict how Jewish culture gets treated. Jewish identity appears secular, defined nationally, not religious. National, Jewish Holidays get observed „in liberty”, Christian ones are occasionally held, occasionally questioned as unbiblical. The circumcision of boys appears today unquestioned and was never a problem according to some (8/97).
The attitude to Halakha is outright either contemptuous or ambiguous at least. Some groups would reject any rabbinical expression as outright wrong (8/97). Others would apply some elements, either shamefully and inconsistently or purposefully. At one instance, before a common meal of a larger fellowship on a Friday evening, a little girl lit the „ner shel shabbat”, the Sabbath Candles, and spoke the appropriate blessing at the appropriate time (Donin 1972: 72-74). Yet the way how they announced and did this had an air of reluctance and shame. I can have confused attempted humility with shame, yet I perceived the act was more to satisfy outsiders then the fellowship. While some individuals and groups may shun encounters with their fellow Jews, others can react assertively to the shame they feel. As one interviewee put it:
A young woman, in my age, told me: „Hey what do you believe?” I couldn't speak. I never ever in my life felt so much ashamed like then and promised God: „It was the first time and the last time that something like that happened.” I took all the Christian books I had and studied how to show Jesus in the Old Testament. If you see Jesus as Lord in the Old Testament, the barrier to the New Testament will fall down. Because they tell us: „You believe in New Bibles. You believe in three Gods.” But I want to show them, I do not believe in three Gods. I believe in one God with three personalities and one of them is the Messiah: Jesus. That's it. It starts from Genesis. After eight months of just studying for myself, to defend it, as we say, the appetite came with the food. I just prayed to God, „God, please bring someone to explain, otherwise I explode with all this information.” I was so sure, that the fear went down. There were no black holes in my faith, by believing: Jesus is my Lord. It is not that I know all the Bible, but the doctrines of to know: Jesus is the Lord God, who died for you on the cross, and, resurrected on the third day, payed for your sins. I am so sorry that many believers really think that to be a believer, you only have to go once a week to church and pay your duty to the Lord in a sense. I think that you should do a little bit more than that. At least, know why I believe it. If I am a child of God, you have to grow in the discipleship, in obedience. I am not saying that I am perfect. I did my stupid things. Which I would do differently today (2/95).
Today, the young man leads a fast growing type ℵ (aleph) group. He consciously trains his members in apologetics. They are assertive in evangelization, take considerable risks and are not at all inclined to back down and hide their faith. The group appeared not to practice any Jewish religious rituals. However, this is one of several instances, where an existential experience of a pioneer leader shaped the evolving internal and external social structure of a group (Mintzberg 1983: 157-162).
Once I got invited to a „Sabbaton” of a type ℵ (aleph) group, which met in the „Upper Room” of a Christian church. The leader of the group was neither Israeli nor Jew. It was already dark when the guests arrived and even later when the service officially began. In the presence of about one hundred people, a lady, with a red shawl beautifully covering her head, said the blessing and lit the two candles with obvious devotion and joy. In spite of her Kavanah, „a sense of standing in the presence of God and the intent to fulfill one of His commandments” (Donin 1980: 19), the act would have been a desecration of the Sabbath in the eyes of any observing Orthodox Jew. Because,
the Sabbath candles are lighted approximately twenty minutes before sundown. ... Once the time of sundown passes, the candles may no longer be lit (Donin 1972: 72).
The new day begins with sundown, not sunrise. The time of twilight before and after Sabbaths are added to the Sabbath. Accordingly, observing Jews may light fire only before and after this expanded time span. I should note, that a woman, not a man, had entered here a situation in which she could only violate orthodoxy. After the lady's prayer, a man recited the
Sabbath Kiddush (Sanctification) ... while holding a cup of wine in his hand ... on behalf of all those present (Donin 1972: 76).
He also blessed, broke and salted bread, ate and shared it. The timing of the ritual that the man performed was no violation of Orthodox piety. Since even secularised Israeli Jews regard the Orthodox as the legitimate keepers of Jewish tradition, the woman appears in a weaker religious position in respect to the Jewish tradition. Had the group conducted its Sabbaton before sundown, the woman would not have been forced to violate the orthodox ruling, not to make fire on the Sabbath.
After some songs the „thanksgiving” meal started. When the meal was finished, two young man and a woman sang beautifully to piano music and invited to give testimonies. To ensure nobody would make it too long, they suggested every speaker would light a match and speak only while it burned. It was very entertaining to watch people how they tried to make their point without burning their fingers. Apparently nobody considered that from an observant point of view, every lit match was a new desecration of the Sabbath.
... inaction on the part of the individual is a demonstration of homage to the Lord, of returning all things, as it were, to His domain. On the other hand any constructive interference by man with the physical world constitutes „work”, according to the Biblical definition. Any act, however small, that involves man in physically creative acts and shows his mastery over the world constitutes work. It is this underlying motif which may help to explain some of the whys of the Sabbath laws. This is why acts which may not even require any physical effort, such as plucking a flower or striking a match, are still called work. To desist from this work on the seventh day is equivalent to recognizing God as the Creator of the world (Donin 1972: 65-66).
Christians often ask critically where God commanded the Jews to light candles and to bless a cup of wine at the beginning of Sabbath. Yet not the candles are the crucial point to mark the beginning and the end of Sabbath. One must understand that in the light of the Mosaic law the fire-symbol makes the point. An oil lamp or other means would do as well. To light fire, just before and surely not after sundown, expresses conscious, purposeful submission to the commandment not to violate the Sabbath. „Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day” (Exodus 35:3 NIV). Lighting Sabbath lights, at the last moment just before the Sabbath, draws the line, marks the boundary of this „island in time” (Donin 1972: 61-70). After the Sabbath, another fire ritual, Havdalah, „which means Division or Separation”, draws again a boundary in time between the holy and the profane (Donin 1972: 86-88).
People become aware of their culture when they stand at its boundaries: ... when they become aware of other ways of doing things (Cohen 1985: 69).
Lighting fire just before and after the period in which it is not allowed reinforces the boundary and allegiance to Judaism. 18These rituals, many prayers and prescribed times refer to the ancient temple service. The whole Siddur is a 'supplication' for what has become impossible after the destruction of the second temple, the sacrificial temple service that involved burn-offerings at certain times. The whole order of the Siddur kept alive the remembrance of the second temple and the hope for a third temple, and the restoration of a national Davidic rulership 'next year in Jerusalem' (Donin 1980: 11-14, 293-294, Petuchovski 1981). ) While Moses never commanded Jews to light Sabbath candles, today, for the observant Jew, the fire ritual, to be performed preferably by women, perfectly marks and reassures the commandment's intent and the observants' faithfulness to it.
At another instance in another group, I had the impression of a slowly growing Judaisation. When I visited the group's Sabbath service first, it appeared like any European „Open Brethren” congregation (9/95, Burkhardt, Geldbach and Heimbucher 1978: 515-517 ). As I found later, there were historical connections to this tradition. One brother was leading the service, another preached. Everything looked like in a European church, except the Hebrew language and the fact that the cross was replaced by the shema calligraphy. Two years later in the same congregation, a younger speaker used purposefully elements of the Siddur. As they told me, it was the first time that such happened in that congregation and was tolerated.
Obviously, individuals and groups of type ℵ (aleph) embrace Judaism, if at all, eclectically, yet also, as it seems incrementally. It appears that until now Weiner's theory of Judaisation of Christianity in Israel's „landscape” got empirically verified, just as Sobel's expectation that Israel would produce more genuine Jewish expressions of Hebrew Christianity.
I was told that Israel's Rabbinate issued a letter to all rabbis to instruct them to ask every immigrant if he or she regards „Jesus as Messiah”. In case of a positive answer, they must deny immigration to them. In the light of human rights, this may be regarded religious discrimination (Brauer 1974: 134-193). Nevertheless, the net has holes and some Messianic Jews turn every stone and take great risks to enter Israel permanently. Not always because they would be so mission-minded. Often it is a very genuine Jewish affection and love for the Jewish nation and cause. Though most of them may not be religiously observant, to me they appear excellently devoted and committed citizens of the Jewish nation.
Unfortunately, since 1997 three new anti-missionary laws were proposed in Knesset. They were triggered by a mailing of a foreign mission. This organization mailed many thousands of evangelistic booklets to many households throughout Israel. Orthodox collected as many of them as they could and burned them in front of Knesset. If these laws pass legislation, they would render the mere possession of evangelistic material illegal. Even attempts to move others to change their faith could be punished. While this forms a threat for missionary work in Israel, Messianic Jews have installed a „Messianic Action Committee”, the „MAC”. The MAC protests institutionally against such legislation and actively seeks support abroad against it (CWI Autumn 1997: 12). Groups of type ℵ (aleph) appear particularly suitable to ask Christian bodies in Israel and abroad for support, because culturally and social-structurally they appear most similar to them. 19While I finish this paper, I am told that the MAC worked out detrimental, as the induced foreign protests often failed to be Israel friendly. This would shed an incorrect and unfortunate light on the movement. Whenever I read appeals of the MAC, they warned that protests must be positive about the Jewish state and not be excuses for anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli expressions. )