Transcript:

Growing up in a Jewish home, I thought Jesus was the Gentile God — the founder of the Catholic religion. I had no idea he was one of us.

Hi, I’m Rabbi Lawrence Hirsch. I am the rabbi at Beit HaMashiach, or “House of the Messiah”, in Melbourne, Australia, and I’m also the Executive Director of Celebrate Messiah. As a Messianic Jewish rabbi, I live in that space between two communities — I was raised in a Jewish home, and I’ve come to believe with all my heart that Jesus is the Messiah. That means this conversation is deeply personal for me. 

Let’s talk about Jesus, the Jewish Rabbi. 

You may have heard of a celebrity orthodox Rabbi who’s name is Rabbi Schmuley Boteach, who caused quite a stir several years back in 1999 when he authored a book called Kosher Sex. 

In 2012, he stirred the pot once again with another book called Kosher Jesus. In this book Rabbi Boteach endeavours to explore the Jewishness of Jesus. In his book, he speaks of Jesus as being…

“a wise and learned rabbi who “…worked to rekindle Jewish ritual observance of every aspect of the Torah and to counter the brutal Roman occupation of his people’s land.”

In an interview about his book he said: 

“We in the Jewish community have a choice. We can either, as has happened for 2,000 years, allow the Christian community to teach us about the Christian Christ, or we can take the initiative and the responsibility of teaching the Christian community about the Jewish Jesus…. He was a Jew, after all.”

And when he was interviewed on Israeli TV about his book, Boteach said: “There is a general movement on behalf of the world’s Christians to rediscover the Jewishness of Jesus, because of you don’t understand the Jewishness of Jesus, you cannot understand his humanity.”

Martin Buber, a brilliant Austrian-born Jewish philosopher, who did most of his work in the mid 1900s‎ (February 8, 1878 – June 13, 1965) once made the claim that “We Jews know [Jesus] in a way—in the impulses and emotions of his essential Jewishness—that remains inaccessible to….Gentiles.”  

This was not meant to be an arrogant statement, as Buber himself was a remarkably humble and gentle man but rather he was highlighting the fact that to truly know Jesus, one must learn to look at him from the perspective of his Jewishness.  If we fail to do this, we cannot hope to truly comprehend him correctly.  

I agree with much of what Rabbi Boteach says in his book Kosher Jesus and I agree with Martin Buber’s comments that to truly know Yeshua, we need to understand his Jewishness. I rediscovered the Jewishness of Jesus many years ago. I was brought up in a good Jewish home in South Africa…

• As I grew up I had no idea whatsoever that Jesus was Jewish…
• As far as I was concerned, Jesus Christ was the Gentile God who was the son of Mr and Mrs Christ
• I also thought of Jesus as the Founder of the Catholic religion
• I also assumed that the New Testament was written by a bunch of Catholic boys – St Paul, St Peter, St John, St Matthew … I had no idea that they were all in fact, good Jewish boys. 
• You can imagine my surprise when I first read the New Testament. Jesus spoke about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, continually quoted the Hebrew Scriptures and recited the Shema saying that it was the most important commandment in the Bible.

However, Rabbi Schmuley Boteach doesn’t go far enough. Of course he rejects the resurrection, the divinity and the messiahship of Jesus, which I of course have come to believe with all of my heart.

I do agree with Buber’s comments that in order to fully know Yeshua, we need to know him not only in his divinity but also in his humanity, in his essential Jewishness. After all, Yeshua is 100% God and 100% man. We need to know him in both his divinity and his humanity. 

I believe it is time for Christians to rediscover and fully embrace the Jewishness of Jesus. And I believe it is time for Jewish people to embrace Yeshua as the Promised Messiah of Israel and the Son of God. 

And Philip Yancey in his book called “The Jesus I Never Knew” says that it is impossible to know Jesus apart understanding his Jewish Roots and the Jewish context that he was born into. Yancey says that in order to really understand Jesus as He was/is, we need to “go back, way back, and picture Jesus as a first-century Jew with a phylactery on his wrist and Palestinian dust on his sandals.”

That Jesus was a Jewish rabbi is clear to see as you read the Gospels. First century rabbis would often have disciples who would “follow” after them. The Hebrew word for disciple is talmid (talmidim) which means learner. 

Significant rabbis would have rabbinic schools of disciples committed to both learning from their rabbi and following his ways. Two famous rabbinical schools of Jesus’ day was the school of Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Shammai (btw. Rabbi Sha’ul, the Apostle Paul received his rabbinical training through Rabbi Gamaliel, the great grandson of Rabbi Hillel.

Let’s read from the Gospel of Matthew as we see Yeshua (I’ll be calling Jesus by his Hebrew name from now on – Yeshua) calling his disciples to follow him (I’m reading from CJB version):

Matthew 4:18–22 (CJB) 

18 As Yeshua walked by Lake Kinneret, he saw two brothers who were fishermen—Shim‘on, known as Kefa, and his brother Andrew—throwing their net into the lake. 19 Yeshua said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers for men!” 20 At once they left their nets and went with him. 21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers—Ya’akov Ben-Zavdai and Yochanan his brother—in the boat with their father Zavdai, repairing their nets; and he called them. 22 At once they left the boat and their father and went with Yeshua. 

John 1:35–39 (CJB) 

35 The next day, Yochanan was again standing with two of his talmidim. 36 On seeing Yeshua walking by, he said, “Look! God’s lamb!” 37 His two talmidim heard him speaking, and they followed Yeshua. 38 Yeshua turned and saw them following him, and he asked them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi!” (which means “Teacher!”) “Where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and remained with him the rest of the day—it was about four o’clock in the afternoon.

I am fascinated how these disciples were so drawn to Yeshua that they were willing to leave their livelihoods behind to follow him. And what a journey they went on, preaching the Kingdom of God and proclaiming the Good News to Israel. 

But discipleship meant more than just learning information, discipleship means drawing into a close personal relationship with one’s rabbi.

This is beautifully stated in the Talmud where a disciple is called to, “Let your house be a meeting place for the rabbis, and cover yourself in the dust of their feet, and drink in their words thirstily” (Pirke Avot 1:4). 

“Cover yourself in the dust of your rabbi.” What an amazing concept…

The best disciples were the ones who stayed so close to their rabbi that they could take in every detail of their mentorship. 

This should be a fresh challenge today as we consider the call of Yeshua upon our lives! How about us? Is our life covered with the dust of our Rabbi Yeshua?

And who did Yeshua call as disciples? Did he go to the seminaries in Jerusalem? No, he sought out simple fishermen working for their living around the Sea of Galilee.  

But don’t think for a moment that these fishermen were not schooled in Bible. They would have had the mandatory training of any Jewish boy growing up in ancient Israel. Yet, Yeshua called the “am-ha-aretz” the people of the land, the common people to follow him. 

A Rabbi Like No Other

Even though Yeshua may have been an itinerant rabbi from Nazareth, he was however, a rabbi like no other. This is born out of several passages in the Gospels where Yeshua taught like no other rabbi with authority and with power. 

The Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:1–7:29) gives us a logical and clear presentation of Rabbi Yeshua’s teachings. In the so-called “sermon on the Mount,” Yeshua gives us his authoritative, messianic interpretation of Torah, clarifying the true intent of God’s law for all of Israel and those in the Nations who will seek him.

That his teaching was authoritative and powerful shouldn’t be a surprise to us as he was the very Word of God made flesh. He, as the Messiah, had come to write God’s true Torah (Law) on our hearts through the Holy Spirit.  

This truth is clearly illustrated several times in the Sermon on the Mount where Yeshua follows a formula where he contrasts rabbinical tradition (which is known as Torah she’ba’al pey, i.e Oral Torah), with the written word of God (Torah she-bikh-tav). 

According to tradition, this Oral Law was passed down from Moses to Joshua to the 70 Elders of Israel, to the Prophets and then the men of the Great Assembly (Sanhedrin). 

In addition to this Oral Law classical rabbis also developed a concept called the “fence around the Torah” (seh-YAHG lah-toh-RAH) that was to protect the perimeter of the commandments.

The idea is that if we set up a fence and don’t break through its boundaries, then we will certainly not break the actual commandments of God. 

So, in the Sermon on the Mount, Yeshua is directly addressing the misinterpretation of the Oral Law and the Fence around the Law. And, as the Messiah, the very Word of God made flesh, he is giving the true intent of the Law.

In each case he rejects the rabbinic traditions, reaffirms the authority of the Torah principle, and draws out its implications for those of the Kingdom. And Yeshua does it all with an astounding messianic authority.

For example:

Matthew 5:21–22 (NIV84) 

21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. 

Matthew 5:27–28 (NIV84) 

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 

Matthew 5:38–39 (NIV84) 

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 

And so you can see the formulae that Yeshua uses: “You have heard that it was said” (Oral Tradition)… “But I tell you…” (Yeshua’s authoritative interpretation of God’s Word).

Rabbis do not normally teach on their own authority. The common practice among the rabbis of the mishnaic period (10-220 CE) was to appeal to the authority of previous teachers. If one expected to present a weighty argument, he would need to support it with other authorities.

In the Talmud, the phrase tannu rabbanan (our rabbis taught) is often used in such cases. Frequently, there would be a direct reference to rabbinic scholars (e.g., “Rabbi Joshua said in the name of Rabbi Akiva”). Any rabbi worth his salt would have a significant number of sources behind his teaching in order to establish strong authority.

However, Yeshua never quoted any other rabbi. Yeshua taught on his own messianic authority, saying “But I tell you…”

It was apparent that Yeshua, as the Messiah and the very Word of God made flesh, did not need an extra authority. 

Indeed, he could teach as one who had authority himself, the holy Messiah sent directly from the Father.

As Supreme Rabbi and Messiah, the very Word of God made flesh, Yeshua gives us the true intent of God’s Law, drawing out practical implications for those who would be his disciples and subjects of the Kingdom of God. 

That the people noticed the difference between Yeshua’s teaching and the rabbis of his day can be seen in several passages in the Gospels. 

For example:

Matthew 7:28–29 (CJB) 

28 When Yeshua had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at the way he taught, 29 for he was not instructing them like their Torah-teachers but as one who had authority himself. 

Not only did Yeshua our Rabbi teach with authority, but as the Messiah his teaching was followed by miracles. 

Matthew 4:23–25 (CJB) 

23 Yeshua went all over the Galil teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom, and healing people from every kind of disease and sickness. 24 Word of him spread throughout all Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill, suffering from various diseases and pains, and those held in the power of demons, and epileptics and paralytics; and he healed them. 25 Huge crowds followed him from the Galil, the Ten Towns, Yerushalayim, Y’hudah, and ‘Ever-HaYarden. 

Yeshua went all over the Galilee, preaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the Good News and healing people. He was a rabbi like no other.  

In the Gospel of John 7, Yeshua preached in the Temple at the Feast of Tabernacles. The chief priests and the Pharisees send guards to arrest Yeshua. They returned having not arrested him and said:

John 7:46 (NIV84) 

46 “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards declared. 

No-one ever spoke the way Yeshua our Messiah spoke. He is our Jewish Rabbi, our Messiah, the Son of God, the very Word of God made flesh. We are called to be his disciples, committed learners, followers and agents of the Kingdom of God. 

There was a time in Yeshua’s ministry when some of the many people following him began turning back as his message was causing offence. Yeshua turned to his 12 disciples and said:

“Do you want to go away as well?” 

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”” (John 6:67–69, ESV) 

Jesus wasn’t just a good teacher. He was a rabbi like no other — speaking with his own authority: ‘You have heard it said… but I tell you.’ And he’s still saying that to you today.

if you’re Jewish, I implore you to consider Yeshua as the Messiah… listen to his words, read the Brit Chadashah, the New Testament and make your mind up for yourself. 

If you’re a follower of Jesus — then fully embracing Yeshua in both his Divinity and his Humanity will significantly impact your love for Him and the way you follow him. It is my desire you will love him all the more.