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What is the
true essence of Judaism?

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Mystery

The earliest Biblical description of the Jews as a people


2 Ki. 16.6  At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drave the Jews from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day.

As so often Jews are defined by the hostility towards them

Esther 3.6  And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had shewed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.

Yet even at the time of the revelation of the Law - there was still something profoundly 'Gentile' about the people

De 10:16  Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.
De 30:6  And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.

This exposure of this problem is repeated by the Prophets and in the New Testament

Jer 6:10  To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

Eze 44:9  Thus saith the Lord GOD; No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is among the children of Israel.

Ac 7:51  Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

The Messiah reproved rabbinic teachers in His own time for despising Moses

Jn.5.45  Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.
46  For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.
47  But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?

The words He spoke before indicate the reason for this

Jn.5.41  I receive not honour from men. 42  But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.
43  I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.
44  How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?

The true essence of Judaism comes from the root of Judah's name, and Leah's worship of God on his account

Ge 29:35  And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the LORD: therefore she called his name Judah; and left bearing.

From Judah's root comes the One Whom His brethren worship

Ge 49:8  Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee.

Here is the kernel of true Judaism - Psalm 103 - the worship of and delight in God Himself

Ps. 103:1-2     Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

The Apostle Paul writes strong words about the effects of neglecting the Messiah -
words that have since been wickedly abused by Chrysostom
and many others to justify persecuting and even murdering rabbinic Jews. 
This abuse is something Paul and other followers would have
robustly renounced and condemned as hideously contrary to the Messiah's mission and spirit.

Rom.1:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Php 3:3  For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Yehoshua the Messiah, and have no confidence in the flesh.

This circumcision of the heart, the undeserved inscription of His Law in our hearts, comes through the kinsman-Redeemer (
Goel) of the New Covenant - Yehoshua
Deut.30:5-8  And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.
And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
And the LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.
And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the LORD, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day.

Jer. 31:31-4  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Isa 44:6, 22-3  Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his Redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.
I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.
Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein:
for the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel.

Gen. 47: 16  The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them,
and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.

Gen. 32:27  And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.
And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

Col. 2:11  In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Messiah.

His voice calls for mercy and patience, to provoke repentance, not the malice or hatred (so often shown by the idolatrous) towards those still in sinful unbelief

Heb 12:24  And to Yehoshua, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

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Isa 57:15  For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place,
with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Why would a leading Jewish rabbi want to visit Jesus?

An old rabbi's appeal from the heart

Yitzhak Kaduri's note

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