Messianic Jews Doing It Wrong

Having grown slightly bored with the Shema, this Messianic worship leader decided to mix things up by pretending to perform the Birkat Kohanim at the same time. “If this doesn’t excite the congregation,” he thought, “I’ll try the Batusi next week.”

“A shore kiddy Shane, ooh, by mitzvotav!”

Sheol (שְׁאוֹל) is a place mentioned in the Tanakh as the destination of the dead. Shaul (שָׁאוּל) is the Hebrew name for Saul, the first Israelite king, as well as Paul the Apostle. Messianic congregations frequently use “Shaul” in place of “Paul” to make the New Testament seem more Jewish.

Note that the consonants for both words are the same in Hebrew. As you can imagine, this poses problems for Messianic congregations whose leaders can’t actually read Hebrew—for example, Yeshuat Yisrael, which put together this slide for one of the many PowerPoint sermons it offers on its website.

Tisha B’Av is usually a day of mourning and fasting—but not this year, thanks to this exciting Messianic concert scheduled on the same date!

(Hat tip: Jews for Judaism Canada)

Update: The concert has been cancelled, but Dan David still plans to perform on Tisha B’Av.

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is still heavily involved in the Messianic Jewish movement—no surprise there, given that they remain dedicated to converting Jews to Christianity. Here’s a photo from an affiliated service held right before the 2011 SBC Annual Meeting in June:

“Ric Worshill, left, a police chaplain in Lindenhurst, Ill., and David Foster, a member of Beit Yuash Shem [sic] of Meridian, Miss., worship during the meeting of the Southern Baptist Messianic Fellowship at CrossPoinTempe Church in Tempe, Ariz. The services were held Saturday, June 11 prior to the start of the June 14-15 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Ariz.”

The Southern Baptist Messianic Fellowship, by the way, has a membership of just over thirty congregations and twenty ministries with names like “Tikvat L’Chaim” and “Congregation Adat Shalom.” And that’s not counting the congregations I mentioned earlier that are part of the SBC itself.

(Oh, and how funny is it that the SBC website misspelled “Yeshua?”)

Protip: When you pick a name for your fake synagogue, pick a name you can pronounce correctly.

If a tallit is nothing more than a dance prop to you, I suppose it’s not much of a stretch to use the tallit as a mop, too (3:58).

When the Messianic movement appropriates Jewish ritual objects, it often alters the objects to promote Christianity. Take this “New Covenant Prayer Shawl,” for instance, designed to look like a tallit. It even has a blessing in Hebrew!

What is the usual Hebrew blessing written on a tallit?

Blessed are you, Lord, our G-d, sovereign of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to wrap ourselves in the tzitzit (fringes).

And what is the Hebrew blessing written on this shawl?

The main Prayer in Hebrew on the (Atara) reads in English as follow: Blessed are you O’ Lord King of the Universe Who has fulfilled all of the law through Jesus the Messiah and have covered us with his Righteousness. [All errors in original text.]

If the law about wearing tzitzit no longer applies, there’s no need for a prayer shawl whatsoever. If you want to wear a prayer shawl anyway, there’s no need to make it look just like a tallit—unless, of course, you’re really just playing Jewish dress-up.

I was going to mock this video for the poor Hebrew and the Star Wars-style scrolling text, but the heavy echo effect makes it feel as if Jesus Yeshua is right here with me.

Aaronic? No. Moronic? Yes.

Seriously, this Jewish playacting is just awful. The last line of his so-called “blessing” may as well be random syllables because he forgets so much of it.