Beha'alotcha (ascend)

Numbers 8:1 - 12:16

When Yeshua was 12 years old, he was in the Temple talking with the Sages. When I was 12 years old, my parents redecorated the living room of our house. On my 13^th birthday, I had my Bar Mitzvah. I read far beyond the obligatory Haftorah and short Torah portion. My parents and family were very proud of my accomplishment. However, the main event, the celebration of my introduction to Jewish manhood began about 6 hours later, on that Saturday night. All of the invited guests (including my friends who were on the Bar/Bat Mitzvah circuit) were seated at beautifully decorated tables. My parents and I were standing in the back of the social hall of the Temple. I was wearing a tuxedo for the first time in my life. (To understand the importance of this I must say that I have worn a tux only one other time in my life – the day I was married!) I was a bit nervous waiting for the magic moment. Finally I heard the words, And now let’s greet the Bar Mitzvah boy, Howard and his parents Sarah and Bernie Silverman as hey enter the room! And thus began the “sacred” tradition of the Bar Mitzvah party.

There is a movie in theatres now about this important Jewish custom called Keeping Up With The Steins. It is about a wealthy Jewish family in Los Angeles and the way they go about celebrating the Bar Mitzvah of their son. At this point you may be wondering what this has to do with this week’s Torah portion. A lot. In this week’s Torah portion we read about how the children of Israel were led by God manifesting Himself as a cloud. The last two verses of Numbers 9 sums it up: Whether it was two days or a month or a year that the cloud lingered over the tabernacle, staying above it, the sons of Israel remained camped and did not set out; but when it was lifted, they did set out. ²³ At the command of the LORD they camped, and at the command of the LORD they set out; they kept the LORD'S charge, according to the command of the LORD through Moses. ( Numbers 9:22-23 ) The point is that the people were not only following His commands, but they were following God. When He said “stop” they stopped. When he said “let’s move” they moved. They did not decide for themselves, when they would follow and when they would “do their own thing”. In the Scriptures, being Jewish meant being a follower of God. They were earlier told not to be like the Egyptains or the Canaanites. They were to be followers of the God of Israel. When you think about the way that God has called us to live and the way we identify as Jews today, it becomes quite clear that our people have moved far away from our roots in the Torah. In an interesting syndicated article in this week’s Ohio Jewish Chronicle, Rabbi Eliyahu Stern* comments on the movie, Keeping up with the Steins. He says “instead of being Jews, the Steins, like so many other Americans, want to be Jew-ish.” What he means is that we have become a people who are identified with American economic and social success. Being Jew-ish is living with the trappings of Jewish expressions and certain “cultural attributes” without taking seriously the meaning of the synagogue, Jewish worship and the importance of Judaism. The reason for this evolutionary change in the, shall we say, Jewish American Person according to Stern is that “it is more ‘fun’ than being a Jew.” Rabbi Stern observes that non-Jewish Americans like Madonna and Naomi Campbell have embraced being Jew-ish. He says “It is cool to identify with Judaism”. It is chic. It is the thing to do. But do these people take Judaism seriously? I doubt it. Unfortunately this form of Judaism is far from the core beliefs and values that have held our people together for thousands of years. The commands of Torah and the faith described in the Bible are not aken seriously. At the end of the article Rabbi Stern writes “Jewish sentimentality and ethnicity will never take the place of Jewish content. No matter how much everyone loves a party, in the long term what matters most is what happens inside the synagogue.”

While I understand and appreciate Rabbi Stern’s perspective, I would take it a step further. What matters most is what takes place in the heart. The problem is not simply that it is more fun to be jew-ish, but that our people have lost a sense of purpose in being Jewish. We are not simply another ethnic group with an interesting history and cultural development. We exist because God raised us up to be the people who would be a blessing to all of the families of the earth-ultimately in bringing forth the Messiah. (see Gen. 12:3; Psalm 67). He called us to live according to His Word, not the cultures surrounding us. (Lev. 18:1-5). In our Torah portion we read how our ancestors were called to follow God wherever He would lead them. We are called today to still follow “the cloud”. However, today, it is not a cloud, but rather Yeshua the Messiah. He said to his disciples “follow me!” When we follow Yeshua, we are able to fulfill our calling as Jews. By the power of the Ruach HaKodesh, are enabled to live godly lives. We can live lives that imitate the moral and ethical attributes of God. In addition, by having this kind of intimate relationship with God that comes via repentance and acceptance of Yeshua;s atonement for our sins, our Jewish heritage and traditions and values become important to our calling. In other words, we now can experientially know why we are Jews and we live our lives as followers of Messiah Yeshua within the structures of Judaism. The messianic community of Jews and Gentiles recognize our calling to both the Jewish community and to the Church. After all, the New Covenant says that Yeshua is a light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel.”

Unfortunately, there are those within the messianic community and the Christian Church who have fallen prey to being Jew-ish. There are many who enjoy identifying with Jewish symbolism, terminology and traditions and not only trample on the meaning and practice of these important aspects of Jewish life, but who enjoy these practices without the holy life that is to accompany the traditions. The answer to all of this is as I said earlier, to embrace Yeshua and the atonement He brings and to embrace the way of life that we as followers of Yeshua are called to live. In this is joy, satisfaction, love, peace and many other attributes. Rather than keeping up with the Steins, we should be keeping up with Yeshua!