“Gay Rights” Confused With “Human Rights”
by Rabbi Cohen
[ Human Rights Speech: Geneva: HRC - http://bcove.me/qs3211sh ]
This speech by US Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is an excellent representation of the confusion present in the ethical discussion regarding “Gay Rights.” The issue of the “human rights” of LGTB persons is a different topic from the “rightfulness of” birth-gender abrogation by choice, itself. I support “gay rights” as the struggle to insure the human rights of no person of any disposition are breached; but as an adherent to the authority of the Scriptures to define sound ethics, I cannot find room within the Scripturally-defined zone of rightful human conduct to approve the specific conduct inherent in birth-gender abrogation by choice.
It may be informative to point out that the recently deceased dean of Harvard Divinity School, the Rev. Peter J. Gomes, “came out” as a person with homosexual predispositions – but acknowledged also that he could not find in his understanding of The Scriptures ethical approbation to act upon those dispositions. The path he found or chose to resolve this conflict was to live in celibacy: others personally known to me, not guess work or rumor, but specific persons known to me, have chosen to turn away from homosexual conduct into heterosexual life. These are polar examples of resolution – there are paths leading to these choices, and I will not do LTGB people the disservice of reducing them in so brief a space as this. There are many gender-related dispositions humans must tame rather than simply follow: and society expects them to do so.
The idea that, simply because a person claims to feel a certain inclination, he or she must be given the freedom to act upon it, does not really stand up to close scrutiny. Merely name-calling persons not giving such approval – labeling them “phobes” (people with fears so irrational as to constitute mental illness) does not really obtain as an argument. A referee in a formal debate would invalidate such a tactic as “ad hominem” (attacking the person, not the idea the person is advocating) and would demand a return from name-calling to actual discussion of ideas.
Just because there is a constituency desiring a certain thing, does not automatically place a demand upon the rest of society to approve that desire. If the rest of the world of humans interacting with their sexual natures must practice restraint, selectivity, and self-denial – how successful a public relations campaign we have witnessed, having across the last forty years created an ethos demanding of us all, under penalty of being labeled medieval at best, and psychopathic at worst, that we approve a zone of behavior many across the eons have believed is a violation of the order of creation, or a sin against the will of a Creator?
May men and women of all nations not have an opinion any longer than something is simply wrong?
The human rights of LGTB should be as sacrosanct as any others. But there is no “human right” of mandatory universal approval. We should not be able to slander (publicly name-call) people into acquiescence to matters of morality with which they sincerely disagree.
We can be for Gay Rights – and against gay conduct.
That is not contradictory: it successfully “renders unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God, what is God’s.”
At least, in this one rabbi’s opinion.
Rabbi Bruce L. Cohen
8 December 2011 New York City
A Great and Terrible Day
by Rabbi Cohen
A GREAT AND TERRIBLE DAY
Rosh HaShanah To Do List
by Rabbi Cohen
This is a practical follow-up to the blog “The Spiritual Alarm Clock Chimes” containing specifics on practice during this season of history in which Yom Teruah is being observed in most of the Jewish world as “Rosh HaShanah.”
… atonement … leading to Yeshua possibly becoming a focus of discussion.
THE SPIRITUAL ALARM CLOCK CHIMES
by Rabbi Cohen
THE SPIRITUAL ALARM CLOCK CHIMES
“Rosh HaShanah” is Actually “Yom Teruah”
Leviticus 23:24 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall you have a sabbath, a memorial by blowing of trumpets, a holy assembly.’”
We do not seek to be iconoclasts: we simply aspire to do what the Scriptures direct. However, in so doing, we often find ourselves shattering standard paradigms and embracing emphases not necessarily widespread among our People at present. We did not choose it, but as Kurt Vonnegut said, “So it goes.”
Throughout the world, our People will soon be observing what is commonly called, “Rosh HaShanah” – the Jewish New Year.
The Talmud states the following in TB Rosh HaShanah 2a:3-13:
“There are four new years. On the first of Nisan is the New Year for Kings and for Festivals. On the first of Elul is the new year for the tithe of cattle. R’Elezar and R’Simeon however, place this on the first of Tishri. On the first of Tishri is the new year for years, for release and Jubilee years, for planting and for the tithes of vegetables. On the first of Sh’vat is the new year for trees according to the ruling of the House of Shammai; however, Beth Hallel places it on the fifteenth of that month.”
I am sure you already see the ticklish thing for those of us adhering to Scripture as the core-standard of Judaism – how shall we put this delicately? The Scriptures directly state the Jewish New Year “for years” is on the other side of the year, in the spring month of Nisan.
Contemporary mainstream Judaism has selected a “new year for years” directly in contradiction to the Scripturally-declared new year “for years” in Exodus 12:2. Our standard, per Scripture (Deuteronomy 18 and Isaiah 8:20) is that the Scripture’s directives have final and absolute authority to define Judaism’s practices and doctrines.
It is not like the Scriptures are vague about it: “This month (Nisan) shall be for you (Israel) the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.” (Exodus 12:2) The Hebrew states Nisan is to be “rosh ha-chodesh-eem” (head of the months), rishon hoo lachem l’chod’shay ha-shanah” (the first it is of the year’s months).”
So, nu? What is a God-following, Scripture-believing person to do?
We have a few choices.
We can hide from the contradiction. No – I don’t think so.
We can be completely instantaneous: we can boycott Rosh HaShanah as it is currently anti-Biblically practiced among our People due to the primacy of Talmudic influence over Scriptural influence during the past two millennia of our national religious life. Somehow, severing ourselves entirely does not seem in the spirit of our New Testament mandate not to abandon “the customs of our ancestors.” (Acts 21:18-25)
Or – we can adopt King Solomon’s paradigm in Ecclesiates 7:18 for incremental change: “it is good to grasp toward one thing while not letting go of the other. One who reveres God will come forth with all of them.”
Solomon is not advocating fear-based tolerance of compromise: he is advising engagement with the need for some changes to be incremental rather than instantaneous. As long as patience does not equal a moral compromise, we can consider such an approach.
The first day of Tishri is a Biblical holiday. We should observe it.
It is called, “Yom Teruah” – the Day of A Trumpet-Call.
We should mark it as such, even as we use contemporary nomenclature to allow the current Jewish world to relate to our observance of it.
It is a mandated shabbat of rest from vocational work.
We can do that.
It is the national spiritual alarm clock for the Jewish nation, signaling that Yom Kippur – the all important Day of Atonement – is a mere ten days away. In societies before electricity made instant communication possible, a span of ten days to ready oneself for the day of all days in the calendar is not really all that much time; especially since there was no instant way to affirm a calendar date as accurate. One’s locality might be “off” a day or even a few: the “isru hag” custom (to extend the holiday an extra day) in Talmudic practice evolved in great part because of this uncertainty of calendar calculation.
We can ready our heads and hearts, align our actions and re-align our past deeds by redemptive action.
Our synagogue of Two-Testament Judaism celebrates the holiday currently called “Rosh HaShanah” by most of Judaism, declaring its nature as Yom Teruah – observing the meaning of the holiday assigned to it by Scripture. We seek to make restitution for any wrongs committed against other people, since wrongs done to people necessitate restitution to the harmed person before going to God for His forgiveness. (Matt. 5:24) Our focus is not so much on an actual “Jewish new year” as it is upon the meaning of the “alarm-reminder” of the trumpet-call pointing toward the soon-arriving day of Yom Kippur. We take up the call for spiritual introspection and restorative action as best we may.
Psalm 89:15 cries out, “Blessed is the people that know the teruah! They shall walk, oh, Lord, in the light of your presence.” The writer could not resist throwing in a pun (like your Rabbi is oft wont to do) two verses later: “For You are the glory of their strength! And in Your favor, our horn (keren) shall be exalted.” The horn of warning (our shofar) – connected to the horn of blessing.
A horn is a symbol of strength – and also of abundance.
Blessed are the people who know the teruah – for what it truly is.
May we be such a people – and may we know such a blessing.
So – Yom Teruah mevorach! – May you have a blessed Day of The Trumpet-Call! May your season of introspection be deeply meaningful and genuine – and may the atonement of Messiah Yeshua give you deep and abiding peace as we draw near to Yom Kippur this year.
Rabbi Bruce L. Cohen
New York City
26 September 2011 – 27 Elul 5772
Shavuot – Hag Symptomatic!
by Rabbi Cohen
“Nowhere in The Bible is any link made between Sinai and Shavuot.” – Rabbi Michael Strassfeld, THE JEWISH HOLIDAYS p 69 Harper Row 1985 Cambridge
Why do Two-Testament Jews practice Tikkun Leil Shavuot (all night study of Torah on Erev Shavuot)?
Ostensibly, our faith has a few bedrock stones in its foundation; and surely, Isaiah 8:20′s concept is among them: “To the Torah and the Testimony (of the Deut. 18 ratified prophets)! If they (any purveyor of allegedly sound religious ideas) do not speak in accord with that word, there is no dawn (actual inspired truth) in the them.”
Even someone as invested in Jewish practice as Rabbi Strassfeld of SAJ here in Manhattan, had to admit in the oxymoronic opening page of his Jewish Holidays book’s chapter on Shavuot – subtitled, “Revealing The Torah,” that “Nowhere in The Bible is any link made between Sinai and Shavuot.”
Strassfeld goes on to say, “The nature of Shavuot began to change after the destruction of The Temple in 70.c.e. Without The Temple, neither of the two agricultural rites of Shavuot could be observed. At some point in the rabbinic period (post 1st-century), connection began to be made with the Revelation at Sinai, which the Biblical text tells us occurred in the third month, or Sivan (Ex. 19:1).” (Strassfeld p. 71) Again – even a committed practitioner of the Matan Torah emphasis feels compelled in conscience to admit that before the removal of the 2nd Temple, there is no evidence of Jewish practice linking Shavuot observance to receiving the Torah at Sinai. That emphasis developed as an artifact of The Temple’s absence, the same way Rabban Yochanon ben Zakkai substituted good deeds for sacrifice with his out of context, partial quotation from Hosea (see Avot D’Rabbi Natan 4:5), and virtually created non-Messianic Judaism by that complete avoidance of the letter and spirit of Daniel 9:24ff and Isaiah 53.
There is, however, a significant body of Torah and Prophetic content – as well as New Testament content – on the concept of “firstfruits” and “the harvest.” Shavuot is, in the Scriptures, called Hag HaBikkurim (Feast of The Firstfruits).
Messianic congregations could be holding ceremonies in which the congregation stands to make the statement in Numbers 26:5 with all first-born children at the bima – and perhaps donate five shekels (the amount for which they were redeemed in their pidyon ha-ben as first-born infants) to their shul or some worthy Jewish cause. We could, in accord with the commandments regarding harvest, bring a portion of our income for that year thus far to be given to the widow and orphan – as Torah commands, and which allowed Ruth (whose book is read on Shavuot) to survive long enough as a poor sojourner to become the great-grandmother of King David. We could ponder the implications of Yeshua, the Suffering Messiah risen from the dead, as what 1Cor. 15:32 calls “firstfruits” of resurrection from the dead, and Believers as what Yaacov/James 1:18 calls “firstfruits among his creations.” We could hold all-night prayer vigils, seeking outpourings like the Acts 2 outpouring in our era.
I have always believed our People have as much to learn from what Messianic Jews do NOT do in line with historic Jewish custom, as what we do.
I became an Israeli media topic because I, as a rabbi, do not keep dairy/meat separation. I do not observe it because it has nothing to do with Judaism. If, by Judaism, you mean a Jewish faith expression consonant with the standard of Isaiah 8:20, and not some post-Biblical, medieval contrivance that has been absorbed across time as definitively “Jewish” in the same way the black coats and kaftans of the arch-Orthodox now seem so quintessentially Jewish, and were actually an attempt by European Jews hundreds of years ago to blend in with standard non-Jewish fashions of that era, and be less identifiably Jewish. My picture appeared in Yediot Achronot in a two page spread, with a caption next to my face reading in Hebrew, “HaRav ochel cheeseburger!” (The rabbi eats cheeseburgers!) It went on to explain in detail why I do. There is nothing non-Jewish, or anti-Scriptural about a cheeseburger – and certainly, in chicken parmesan, there is no chicken that ever gave cow’s milk in such a way that there is danger that the cheese on the chicken contains its mother’s milk.
Shavuot is The Holiday of the Firstfruits.
Shall we not treat it as such?
Shall we not cease merely “going with the flow” of a manner of observance that cooperates with avoidance of the doings of Heaven and all their implications? The Temple is gone by Heaven’s own doing – and the sacrificial system with it. We cannot practice Shavuot as it is written in the Torah. Messiah has come and died at exactly the time Scripture said he would (Daniel 9:24ff): between Cyrus of Persia’s decree to start rebuilding of The Temple (445 b.c.e.) and that rebuilt Temple’s subsequent destruction (70 c.e.). The need for an offering on Shavuot BEGS contemplation of that reality – and “Matan Torah” reformatting avoids it entirely.
I am all for healthy observance of the Acts 21:18-24 mandates that we observe Torah and hold to the customs of our ancestors: and as rabbi of a synagogue in the capital of the Jewish world outside Israel for nearly twenty years now, I am keen to be authentic and authoritative in our Jewish observance.
However, during Passover, I do not allow the post-Biblical total focus on the Exodus to obscure The Lamb to complete invisibility. “The Pesach” actually refers to the lamb sacrificed to insure the survival of the Jewish household. The Afikomen (“I have arrived.” in Greek) ceremony now embedded nearly ubiquitously standard Passover observance, is surely an artifact of 1st and 2nd century Messianic Jewish fulfillment of the Yeshua’s commands about the Passover matzah and wine, “As often as you do this, do it henceforth in remembrance of Me.” Two-Testament Judaism needs to be diligent in regard to its stewardship of The Book (Matt. 5:19).
What does Two-Testament Judaism have to bring to observance of Shavuot?
Heaven only knows. But – the key is in The Book.
In this rabbi’s opinion – an authentic, sound, and authoritative Shavuot will not be found going along with the “Matan Torah” reformatting of the holiday, and the Tikkun Leil Shavuot, dairy and greenery purchases, and all other amplifications of that emphasis, which even the most committed of Jewish traditionalists admits “is nowhere in The Bible.” The words “nowhere in The Bible” should not describe the foundation of any of our practices in my opinion.
So – while I wish all a “Hag Sameakh” – I see Shavuot right now more as “Hag Symptomatic.” Symptomatic of a great need among our People – and in Two-Testament Jewish faith also – to stop reading past the words on the page, adopt more caution in regard to desiring to “act Jewishly” – and become erudite in the actual content of Biblical Judaism, and its expressive practices.
Let’s sit down with a nice cheeseburger, and set to work on the recovery of The Holiday of The Firstfruits for our own, and following generations? May our children’s children see a Shavuot observance in their era that cannot even remotely be described by the words, “Nowhere in The Bible.”
Rabbi Bruce Cohen
19 May 2010
