Yitro
Exodus 18:1-20:23

     This past week, on January 27^th, the 60^th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp was observed in Poland . It is poignant that the Torah portion for this week  is the narrative of the Mount Sinai experience  It was at Mt. Sinai that the Jewish people were called to be a  “holy nation”.   It was here that our people were  “chosen” as a nation to be God’s own possession. God had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that their descendants would inherit the promises and obligations of being in a covenant relationship. Here at Sinai the covenant is affirmed with the whole nation. The law of Moses serves as the covenant stipulations. The purpose of this calling is to be the avenue through whom God would reveal himself to the world.  This identity has sustained our people for thousands of years. The Torah portion, when read in light of this Holocaust remembrance, reminds us that while men may try to destroy our people, it is the will of God that the Jewish people live on.

       As a messianic community, we believe that it was the destiny of our people to bring forth Yeshua the Messiah.  We also believe that it is the destiny of our people to accept him as Messiah one day. In the meantime, we realize that we have a calling as Jewish believers to maintain our identity as Jews. This is no easy task considering that the majority of the Jewish community shuns us and the culture of the vast majority of believers in Yeshua is not Jewish. That is why our congregation is so important to us.  There is a cultural mandate for us to keep our identity and to pass it down to the next generation. 

      In the book, To Be a Jew by Hayim Halevy Donin, we read of four cornerstone of Jewish identity. The first cornerstone is the Torah. The Torah explains to us that we are called to be a holy people and it explains the way of holiness. When the Messiah came, he did not abrogate the Torah. Rather he taught us how we are to live it out in light of the coming of the Messiah.  The second cornerstone is identification with the Jewish people.  We identify with the issues that unite the Jewish people.  We understand ourselves to be living within the Jewish community. We encourage our people to participate in community events. The third cornerstone is the land of Israel . It is the destiny of the Jewish people to live in our ancient homeland. We are strong supporters of Israel and encourage our members to be as well. The fourth cornerstone is belief in the God of Israel. We believe that the God of Israel is the only God and that Yeshua is the Messiah. We believe that the God of Israel revealed himself in many different ways and that today He has revealed himself in the person of Yeshua.  We believe that the God of Israel sent the Messiah to take away our sins in anticipation of his coming to restore the kingdom. According to the Prophet Isaiah, the Messiah came to die or our sins and to be raised from the dead.  When we believe this we have atonement and forgiveness from God.

      Some have likened the covenant relationship of Exodus 19 to a wedding of God to Israel . One could say that the four cornerstones serve as the four poles of the Chuppah (canopy) under which we stand in our covenant relationship with God.

     Finally, is Marcy Kotting’s  Bat Mitzvah.  It is not only a celebration of a milestone in Marcy’s life, but we  also celebrate the faithfulness of God in preserving our people and tradition and in sending the promised Messiah Yeshua.

Shabbat Shalom!