“The great question of why God permits evil is usually treated in Judaism less as a “why” question than as a “what” question: Given the evil in the world, what do we do about it?

We can wonder about God’s role, but it is ultimately inscrutable. We cannot know. Imagine how little a two-year-old understands an adult. He cannot even understand what he does not know. The Jewish tradition conceives of the gap between humans and God as far greater than that between an adult and an infant. So how, ultimately, can we understand?

What we can do, is act. Faced with evil, we can choose goodness. In a weary world, mitzvot enable us to begin closing the breach between what is and what should be. Even in the most difficult circumstance, we can choose. As the great Viktor Frankl writes in Man’s Search for Meaning: “We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.’”

-Rabbi David Wolpe - From a past edition of his weekly Off the Pulpit.

Matthew 11:1-19

John the Immerser often receives very little attention. Of course people talk about him as being important because he was a cousin and forerunner of Yeshua, but otherwise his role is largely reduced to a small mention in the introduction to a much larger narrative.

Hermeneutically, however, the Gospel writers place the greatest emphases on details they deem the most important to the larger story. Interestingly, all four Gospels mention the narrative of John. You can choose to skip over this fact – as most others do – or you can recognize its significance. Not even Yeshua’s birth narrative is mentioned in all four Gospels (it is only recorded in Matthew and Luke). As such, all four Gospel writers considered John’s narrative as having far more relevance to the larger redemptive story of Yeshua than even Yeshua’s birth. Think about that for a moment.

So who exactly was John? In addition to being Yeshua’s cousin, he was a cohen – a priest on both sides of his lineage and groomed from birth to serve in the Jerusalem Temple. Yet, it seems at some point he was either sent out, or banished to the desert.

In this Besora portion, John sends a message to Yeshua asking, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for someone else?” (Mt. 11:3) Jon is clearly asking, “Are you the Messiah?” Yeshua responds, saying:

“Go and tell John what you are hearing and seeing – ‘the blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are being raised and the poor hear the Good News.’ (Matthew 11:5 quoting Is. 61:1)”

What is so significant about Yeshua’s response?

It is a messianic quote from the prophet Isaiah. In Jewish thought, talk is cheap. Yeshua does not respond merely with words, but rather with a demonstration that he is indeed the promised Messiah. Yeshua wants John to know for sure. However, Yeshua, knowing John, adds a small detail he knew maybe only John would catch. In his quote of Isaiah, Yeshua adds “the dead are being raised,” a detail not actually found in Isaiah 61:1. The only other place this particular phrasing has ever been found is in the Dead Sea Scrolls (in scroll 4Q521). Because of John’s believed connection to the Qumran community, in my opinion this was a sort of personal nod or wink to John, adding even greater emphasis to Yeshua’s response.

John was the perfect candidate to be a forerunner for Messiah. John was an Elijah-type figure who would usher in Yeshua’s time on earth. As John himself states, “The reason I came immersing with water was so that [Messiah] might be made known to Israel” (John 1:31).

Each of us has a role similar to John. We need to prepare the world for Messiah’s return, and become participants in ushering in the Messianic Age. It is a great task. However, our role has also been divinely selected. G-d has chosen each of us in this particular time for a certain reason. G-d needs you. Only when working together can we experience the long awaited return of our beloved Messiah Yeshua – may it be soon!

*This commentary originally appeared in the Set Table.

"Since the 1960's, the Messianic Jewish Movement has talked about revival - an act of G-d - while too often we have instead seen revivalism - more of an act. A movement calling itself the Messianic Jewish Movement has increasingly become the Messianic Jewish-style Movement, with a decreasing Jewish demographic presence. But what is most telling is that what we are seeing in the Messianic Jewish Movement bears little if any resemblance to what the Bible would lead us to expect: a movement of observant Jews at the heart of the Jewish community, empowered by the Spirit, demonstrating the authority of the risen Messiah - as a sign, demonstration, and a catalyst of G-d's consummating purposes for Israel, the nations, and the entire creation."

Learning within Judaism is more than studying ... it is a form of worship. This just may be one of the primary differences between Judaism and other faith traditions. We have nearly 3,000 years worth of texts, layers of conversations, building upon the previous generations in order to grapple with our most sacred Scripture. For us Jews, learning is an essential part of our devotional lives. In addition to prayer, and righteous living, Judaism teaches a concept of תורה לשמה Torah Lishmah - the study of Torah for its own sake.

"Let me distinguish between learning and study. Study involves the acquisition and mastery of facts and their interconnections. Because followers of Yeshua are directed to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, our learning involves more than acquisition and mastery. It involves all four faculties—heart, mind, soul, and strength—and becomes for us a consuming act of love and worship. Learning is an embodied spiritual practice that enables us to cleave to God and one another.

Learning is worship. While this is no truer for Messianic Jews than for others, our years of involvement in Jewish life taught us that this view of learning is particularly Jewish. It has been carried forward by Jews for about two thousand years now. Sadly, it is not yet embedded in Messianic Jewish life, where learning is more like study, an acquiring of information (even revelation) that is necessary to walk closely with God—but not worship. The new Messianic Jewish learning insists that these writings of our people—the Tanakh, the Brit Hadashah (New Testament), midrash, Talmud, and more—are not valuable only for what they contain and describe but because they enable us to worship God specifically as Jews."