Say No to Assimilation
Over the past 60 years, I have peeked into many religions and ideologies; I spent a little time in some while I delved more deeply into others…starting with – believe it or not – the modern-day religion of medicine, which states that “Doctors mustn’t be questioned or challenged”. This is true for any system that leaves no room for scrutiny. Ahhhh truth…how can we know what is true? Is there an Ultimate Truth? Truth has been losing ground in today’s world where the forces against it create the illusion that lies can be accepted as truths. Some of these come in the guise of half-truths and appear so nice, beautiful and loving, but their deceptive roots are soon revealed by their consequences. Thank God for the men and women throughout the ages who have dared to stand up and speak the truth against all odds.
We are in the holiday season – Christmas and Hanukkah, both considered to be the Festival of Lights, but will the true Festival of Lights please stand up?
Christmas is based on the story of the birth of a special baby boy in Bethlehem, called the Savior of the world. He has been compared in many ways to Joseph, in this week’s Parashah Miketz. Joseph was an Israelite, who, after much suffering became second in power to Pharaoh alone. The Egyptians looked upon him as the “son of the god Pharaoh” i.e., the son of god. His name was changed to Zaphnath-Paaneah. His ten brothers, who were sent by their father to buy food during that great seven-year, worldwide famine, didn’t recognize him because he spoke Egyptian and was dressed like an Egyptian. When the Israelites stood before their unrecognized brother, they bowed low to the ground (fulfilling his dream), but they weren’t bowing to a god; they were bowing to show respect to a powerful individual.
This sets the stage for another Israelite, born many years later, over 1700 years ago, on the first day of Sukkoth. He was welcomed into the community as a Jew when he was circumcised on the eighth day, on Shemini Atzeret. His name was Yeshua ben Yosef after his father, Yosef ben Eli. Like Jacob’s son, Joseph, Yeshua was transformed into a god-like figure. This was during the reign of Theodosius the Great, the Roman Emperor in 379 CE or AD, and was also given a new name – Jesus Christ. Our Rabbi “Percy Johnson”, whose Hebrew name is Netanel ben Yochanan z” l, our Ranebi taught us to love and honor the teachings of Yeshua whenever they agreed with the Torah given to us by Moses. It was only Moses who is said to have spoken פָּנִים אֶל-פָּנִים – panim el panim, face to face with God. No one knows where Moses is buried because he too would have been made into a god by the people. Imagine the throngs visiting his grave to pray for a miracle. That is a natural tendency in us.
Are we following the God of Israel and celebrating His Festivals, or do we accept a human being as a god and celebrate his festivals?
I have been listening to President Trump promise a glorious, healthy, happy and prosperous future and he’s a friend of Israel. My first thought… that is great; we need a strong man to put a halt to the terror that has been increasingly paralyzing the world with fear over these past several years. We desperately need someone strong enough to free the hostages and to curb the craziness of the woke mentality. He and his wife Melania wished everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year as He delivered a message about Jesus Christ being Lord and Saviour. That woke me out of my reverie. Since our last exile, after the destruction of the Second Temple, we Jews have experienced the best of times and the worst of times living under “Roman-like” rule in all the countries in which we have lived. The bald eagle is the national symbol of the US, just like the eagle of ancient Rome.
The strength of President Trump reminds me of King Cyrus who helped Nehemiah rebuild the wall around Jerusalem, but I had to remind myself, let’s not grow too comfortable with a man’s promise to protect Israel. God alone is our protector, and man ultimately cannot be trusted. Israel was safe in Goshen as long as Joseph was on the throne but when a new pharaoh arose who did not know Joseph, that’s where the troubles for our people became manifest destiny. It’s all part of God’s plan. The same cycle has repeated over the millennia… “We prosper, we grow comfortable, we forget God, a leader arises who at first tries to assimilate us but when that doesn’t work because there is something in our neshama that won’t allow the majority to turn to other gods, the nation harboring us becomes our taskmaster and our prison even looking to our annihilation.” That’s what we see with the story of Hanukkah.
For those who consider the writings of the Hebrew Prophets to be true, we know that the last great kingdom will be GOD’s kingdom, with HIS words coming forth from Jerusalem. No “religion” will rule the world, it will be GOD Himself, the Master of creation. We can’t convert to Him nor force others to. He is the only ONE who can open our hearts, and then we begin the life-long process of learning to trust Him and to love Him. When we disobey His principles and His warnings, we’re the ones to suffer the consequences, but that doesn’t mean that He stops loving us.
The idea of a godman is in total opposition to the First Commandment given to Moses at Mount Sinai. “I am YHVH your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Lo yihiyeh lecha Elohim acheirim al panai…translated literally… You shall not place other gods al panai, upon My face. We cannot cover the essence of the Bore Olam with anything or anyone.
If anyone knows the consequences of breaking God’s Commandments, it is His Chosen People. It starts with us preferring to be like the other nations instead of being ‘ohr la goyim’ – a Light to the nations. Are we still trying to be like the other nations…especially at this season? What does the Christmas season mean to most Jews? Some choose to put up a Hanukkah bush instead of a Christmas Tree; others give their children gifts for 8 days in competition with the one. Can we celebrate both? Isn’t that an oxymoron and playing games with God? We have Hanukkah parties; we eat fried foods, latkes, donuts or sufganiyot. We give gifts or money, but we don’t teach that we light candles for eight nights because when it was Sukkoth, the Israelites didn’t have their Temple. It had been desecrated by the Greeks and only after the Maccabees won it back, was it rededicated and cleaned up for us to be finally able to celebrate God’s Moed, Sukkoth.
Where can we find the real story of Hanukkah? It’s not in the Jewish Bible…it’s in the Catholic Bible, or the Apocryphal writings. Why? Who decided where this story should be? Shouldn’t WE read it, so that we can know the true story and not the made-up one that glorifies a miracle about oil that lasted for eight days? If we want to talk about a miracle of oil, let’s read the story in 2 Kings 4, when our Prophet Elisha used a single jar of oil to save an impoverished widow from having to sell her sons as slaves.
The Hanukkah story in the book of Maccabees recounts how after the death of Alexander the Great, one of his generals inherited the territory that included Israel and imposed himself as their king. It describes his dilemma about how to control a people who wouldn’t assimilate to the Greek gods and their depraved culture. But there have always been people in our history who prefer to cross that line, including you and me, until we know better. In 1 Maccabees, it says that a group of Jewish renegades preferred the Greek culture saying “Come ‘let us ally ourselves with the gentiles surrounding us, for since we separated ourselves from them many misfortunes have overtaken us.” It is not easy to follow God’s principles; it requires us to make difficult choices between doing the right thing and the wrong one or taking the hard or easy way out.
God is constantly trying to get our attention, and hopefully, in this day, there are enough righteous men and women who are willing to do what it takes to turn the tide of evil and injustice and return us to a just and Godly society. At the time of the Maccabees, the Jews who wanted to hold fast to the Torah suffered tremendous losses. Women who were found with their circumcised sons were murdered along with their babies. Antiochus was attempting to annihilate the Israelites, when one man stood up, the Cohen HaGadol Mattityahu who said, “‘Even if every nation obeys him, conforming to his decrees, I, my sons and my brothers will still follow the covenant of our ancestors. May Heaven preserve us from forsaking the Torah and its observances.”
How can you and I be a modern-day Maccabee? How do we say no to assimilation? Can we celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas? How can we give Yeshua his rightful place among the forefathers of Israel, not as a god but as the Hebrew man who changed the course of history? Even the calendar date is based on the year of his birth. He made the Torah universal. The Bible is still on the best sellers list even though it is misunderstood, misinterpreted, added to and taken away from. It’s a real dilemma and I don’t have the answers. We each need to look at our situations and deal with it as best as we can without compromising our relationship with the One and only God of the universe for all humanity while not becoming arrogant or holier than thou.
Yeshua told us in Matthew 5: 14-16 ‘You are light for the world. A city built on a hilltop cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp to put it under a bushel; they put it on the lampstand where it shines for everyone in the house. In the same way, your light must shine in people’s sight, so that, seeing your good works, they may give praise to your Father in heaven.” As a lover and follower of the Torah, Yeshua was bringing his people Israel back to their role of being ohr la goyim, a light to the nations so that we can all live in peace and harmony. That’s the message of this season. Joseph went through all his trials and tribulations so that he could save the world around him. Yeshua experienced the same. They both represented the people of Israel whose role it still is to save the world, not subjugate or rule over it as some accuse us of. Joseph lived his first 37 years being humbled before he could be used to save the world. You and I may not be called to save the world but there’s a beautiful phrase in Judaism…” If you save one life, it is as if you save the world.” That we can do. In Israel, they say Chag Urim Sameach… Happy Festival of Lights. Let us each work on increasing that light within us by being obedient to God’s commandments. That will exponentially spread light throughout the world.
Chag Urim Sameach and Shabbat Shalom
Peggy Pardo