In past posts here at Talk Wisdom, I have shared information regarding how many Jews are seeking out the Messiah, and ultimately becoming Messianic Jews who are believers in Yeshua (Jesus Christ). Please see:
The Lord Is Gathering His People
So What’s the Difference Between the Christian and the Jew?
Read about a disturbing development in Israel today over at WND.com.
Sanhedrin bans all Messianic Jewish marriages in Israel.
Excerpt:
A rabbinic court, or Sanhedrin, has ruled that a Jew who believes in Jesus as the Jewish Messiah is no longer considered a Jew for purposes of marriage in Israel. This makes it impossible for two Messianic Jews to get married inside the country.
“An Israeli couple who are Messianic Jews cannot marry in a traditional Jewish religious ceremony in Israel because they are considered converts to Christianity, a rabbinical court ruled on Tuesday,” according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
It was the first time a rabbinical court has ruled on the issue of the status of Jews who believe in Jesus as Son of God, after a Messianic couple requested they be married in Israel according to Jewish law or “halacha.”
The couple was essentially told they would need to deny their faith in Jesus as the Son of God to have a state-recognized Jewish wedding ceremony in Israel.
All marriages in Israel are controlled by religious authorities, whether Jewish, Islamic, Christian or Druze, according to laws first handed down under the Ottoman Empire. These laws were retained by the British Mandate and continued after the state of Israel was founded in 1948.
The judges wrote that if the couple “declares before the court they have completely given up their Christian beliefs, including their belonging to a Messianic Jewish community and missionary activities, the court will discuss their matter anew.
[Although] I was disappointed to see the decision of the rabbinic court, it doesn’t surprise me at all,” said Dr. Michael Brown, a Messianic Jewish scholar and author of many books on Christianity and Judaism, including “The Real Kosher Jesus.”
In the eyes of most Orthodox Jews, Messianic Jews are heretics and idolators, unworthy of being part of the larger Jewish community, even though they would consider us still Jews.” Brown told WND. “Many of them want to keep us out of Israel entirely, so refusing to grant two Messianic Jews an official rabbinic wedding is in keeping with their hostility toward us.”
Still, the decision is disappointing, he said, since all official Jewish weddings performed in Israel must be done by Orthodox rabbis, who would gladly perform a ceremony for two atheists.”
Now, I must pause here…”would gladly perform a ceremony for two atheists???” That’s quite shocking!
So…in the minds of these Orthodox rabbis, it’s better to believe in no God at all (and, therefore, perform marriages for atheists) rather then decline marriage ceremonies for Jews who have come to believe that Jesus Christ is the Jewish Messiah prophesied in Scripture?
Mr. Brown continues:
“So we should protest this decision to the government while still recognizing that our calling to follow Yeshua will bring us persecution and rejection.”
I hope visitors will go to the site and read it all.
Another excerpt:
Messianic Rabbi Zev Porat is founder of the Tel Aviv-based Messiah of Israel Ministries. He grew up an Orthodox Jew, and his grandfather, Rabbi Pinchas Porat, was a Holocaust survivor who later became one of the heads of the Sanhedrin in Israel.
Porat told WND:
This decision will deprive people of retirement, medical and other benefits that come with a state-recognized marriage. He said Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders are celebrating this move because they have long been “furious” about Jews coming to Jesus Christ.”
Porat said in an email to WND it is very important for Jewish believers in Messiah to keep their Jewish identity.
Talk Wisdom 
September 3, 2017 at 11:59 pm |
…So you’re surprised that there are bigots in Israel? Where have you been hiding?
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September 9, 2017 at 11:19 am |
Taking into consideration the fact that the Sanhedrin arrested Jesus and put him on trial, this comes as no surprise.
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September 13, 2017 at 7:31 pm |
Hi Tom, welcome to my blog. Apologies for this delayed response but I was unable to get online for several days.
If you visit here again, you will notice that commenter “Robert Pickle” claims that the WND article is full of errors. When I went to the Haaretz site (generally, a reliable source for truth in journalism) the entire article is not available for viewing unless you pay a fee and join the online site.
I need to take some time to investigate this situation.
WND is generally a reliable conservative site, and I agree that they are usually a pro-Israel media outlet. If what was written in their article was true and can be backed up by Haaretz and reliable information about the court proceedings and decision on the subject of “Messianic Jews not being allowed to be married in a traditional Jewish ceremony anymore,” then that is (IMHO) a disturbing new development. When I get more information, I will return and comment further.
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September 13, 2017 at 7:50 pm |
Hello Robert Pickle. Welcome to my blog. I looked at the two links you have provided but need to do more research on this topic.
As you will see in my comment to Tom Taylor, I went to the Haaretz site to compare their report vs. WND, but they require a small fee and online sign-up to view their content.
I was disgusted with some of the comments that appeared under the WND article, but isn’t that the way it should be because of our USA freedom of speech guaranteed in Article 1 of the U. S. Constitution?
These days, all kinds of speech are being squelched (or, attempted to be censored) by the media. The violent uprisings of protest by militant leftists (e.g. Antifa) presents more proof of censorship against those with whom they disagree. One example is those Christian business owners who politely turn down participating in homosexual “marriages” and who disagree with any participation in same-sex “marriages” are being sued out of business! Our Supreme Court is taking on that very issue and it will be a very important decision concerning Christians being able to live their lives according to their faith and work their businesses as they see fit according to their belief that marriage is the union of a man and a woman.
Thank you for stopping by and commenting about your concerns regarding the WND article. Hopefully, the truth about the accuracy of the topic will come out.
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September 14, 2017 at 4:43 am |
So you are surprised that there are anti-Christian bigots in Israel!
Perhaps I should remind you that Israel has no formal Constitution by which they must abide. Since most Jews do not regard Jesus as their awaited messiah, naturally the more extreme elements would seek to remove even those traces and those believers. Just like the Catholics used to do. Just like the Taliban does now.
As for WMD, we’ve discussed its alleged accuracy over the years: it’s spotty at best, and borderline libelous at worst. The very fact that someone other than me has brought this article’s lack of accuracy to your attention speaks volumes of that publication’s trustworthiness.
You’re going to let a small fee and online sign-up stifle your quest for truth? Especially when you’ve admitted that you ‘need to do more research on this topic’? Maybe you should have done the research before you posted–like when you claimed that Obama supporters prevented military votes from being counted back in ’12–before you realized you’d been punked by a humor website.
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September 14, 2017 at 2:06 pm |
If it concerns you so much, why don’t you pay the fee, read the article, then cut and paste it in comments for all to read and discuss?
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September 14, 2017 at 2:39 pm |
There are additional links of discussion about the Sanhedrin Initiative at the link provided by Robert Pickle. See The Sanhedrin.org: The Sanhedrin Initiative.
There is no direct reference to the controversy introduced by The Haaretz and WND articles, however we can see that the new efforts to bring about the Sanhedrin Court is discussed here:
I did not see a date on the posting, so it is not clear when it was written.
I can certainly understand that Messianic Jews would be left out of the “Jewish unity” equation, simply because many religious Jews (particularly the Conservative, Orthodox, and Ultra Orthodox Jews) would view them as Jews who left Judaism for Christianity. However, the Messianic Jews see themselves as authentic Jews too! Why? Because of their heritage, upbringing, location in Israel etc. They desire to have a traditional Jewish wedding, and to be denied one is quite sad (IMHO). It demonstrates a certain kind of hostility towards them simply because they see the Messiah who was prophesied in Scripture as already being fulfilled by Yeshua (Jesus Christ).
I’m no Jewish scholar, but the fact that the Torah only contains the 5 books of Moses and does not include the writings of the prophets included in the Old Testament Bible, reveals that many Jews do not have the entire historical information needed to understand who Jesus was, is, and forever shall be, because they have not seen or read of the hundreds of prophesies written about (and most already fulfilled) by Him – the true Messiah, Jesus Christ.
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September 14, 2017 at 3:05 pm |
In another link, I found this article:
The Sanhedrin: Informal translation from Hebrew of the 14 Tishrei, 5770 (2 October 2009) statement.
Excerpt:
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September 14, 2017 at 3:48 pm |
Another link includes criticism of Pope Benedict’s 2009 visit to Israel.
The Sanhedrin.org: The Disgrace of the Pope’s visit to the Temple Mount on Lag Ba’Omer
Excerpt:
As a former Catholic turned born-again Christian (over 30 years ago) I recognize the important differences between Roman Catholicism and Biblical Christianity. I put in a search for “The Christian Inquisition and Pope Benedict.” Many alarming links to read! One link does say that he apologized for the sins of the past in Roman Catholicism. Some links mentioned the Catholic priest sexual abuse scandals.
It is understandable that the Sanhedrin would not have trusted (or wanted) Benedict’s visit to the Temple Mount in Israel I just hope and pray that they would know (or, one day recognize) the huge differences between Roman Catholicism and Biblical Christianity.
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September 15, 2017 at 3:57 am |
Because I’m not the one raising the alarm about it and posting it on a blog. I’m neither Christian nor Jewish–I don’t have a horse in this race. What ‘concerns’ me, if anything, is your Chicken Little approach to the story.
I seem to recall that Benedict never apologized for what the Church did; it was all done by people who were ‘acting in the name of the Church’. The difference is subtle, but definite. But just what is a church, if not the people who comprise it?
Whatever happened to the boast “Talk Wisdom reports, you decide”? If you’re doing the reporting (or in this case, reposting), it’s your responsibility to be as accurate as possible–which, according to both Mr. Pickle and yourself, you have not been.
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September 15, 2017 at 4:31 pm |
I’m having trouble with my computer today. Many of the links continue to “buffer” or I get the message that the website is “not responding.”
Anyway, at least I got a copy of the link at the Jerusalem Post that picked up the story written about in this post.
Jerusalem Post: Senior national religious Rabbis declare opposition to civil marriage.
There is also an updated article at WND:
WND: Sanhedrin accused of trying to delegitimize Jews who believe in Christ.
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September 15, 2017 at 11:10 pm |
I knew it wouldn’t be difficult for someone as web-savvy as you to find some other way! Bravo Zulu!
The Jerusalem Post article is most interesting. If I read it correctly, it means that if you converted to anything other than Orthodox Judaism, you would not be allowed to marry, never mind what Yahweh says.
Hmmm. So we condemn Germany for doing a very similar thing eighty years ago, but condone Israel for doing it now? Maybe I’ve missed something here.
WND quotes the Messianic rabbi Zev Porat:
We know there has long been an upsurge of religious fundamentalism in the world. There’s no reason whatever to think that Israel is immune to such things; after all, Jews have been told before not to intermarry with believers in other faiths, and even to kill them. But since genocide is mostly frowned upon these days, socially disenfranchising them is the way to go.
Apparently the regathered Sanhedrin are out to Make Israel Great Again…and only True Jews are to be allowed.
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