(This was originally published in a recent issue of “The Remnant’s Walk,” a quarterly newsmagazine published by Congregation of YHWH Jerusalem. US Address at end of article. I find it worthy of publication, because, while we are aware of many of the errors rampant in Christianity, I have found that many new “converts” are turning to Judaism. Truth is, there are as many or maybe more errors and false doctrines in Rabbinic Judaism as there are in nominal Christianity. We are neither Christian nor Jew, but rely on Scripture only as our authority and this means BOTH the OLD Covenant and NEW Covenant writings. Is there a conflict between the two? No, not when they are properly understood. Some additions and deletions made here and there, and some mistranslations from the original Hebrew/Aramaic into Greek and ultimately into many languages, has made understanding of certain books or passages more difficult to understand, but Truth is there for the careful reader to discern. Notable among these misunderstood writings are those of the apostle Paul. Now to the article by Bro. Don Esposito):
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ahshua clearly
taught his disciples that they should not take the title of Rabbi: Matt. 23:8
But do not you be called rabbi, for one is your master, the messiah, and you
are all brothers.
Now we can
understand why Judaism would not follow this command of Yahshua since they deny
his messiahship, but why would messianic leaders today also deny Yahshua’s
command and take the title of rabbi? The first thing you must understand is why
Yahshua gave this command to his disciples, as it went much further than just
forbidding his followers from taking a specific title.
It actually goes to
the very heart of the problem with some believers today following the oral law
of modern Rabbinic Judaism. In the oral law it states that every disciple must
have a rabbi to teach him. Now this may not sound so devious by itself, but it
goes much further than this. Once you give your allegiance to your rabbi, he in
turn has become not only your spiritual mentor but literally your master.
The Jewish oral law
called the Talmud and also a book called the Mishnah states that, “if the rabbi
says right is left and left is right then so it is.” It also states “to break
the torah is a small offence but to disagree with a rabbi is punishable by
losing your eternal life.” Both of these statements are blasphemous and
idolatrous according to the first commandment.
This is the reason
that Yahshua said “Call no man rabbi, as you have one master the Messiah.” When
you would give your allegiance to your rabbi, basically you gave him your
undying loyalty to follow anything he tells you even if you know that it is
wrong, or even sin.
There is one story
in the Talmud (rosh hash 25a) that shows Rabbi Eleazar upset because he stated
that the New Month had started and he knew that he was wrong and that in reality
it did not start yet. Then another rabbi tells him not to worry because since
anything a rabbi says is infallible, that the new month has started even though
in reality it didn’t, simply because he said it did. This gave Eleazar comfort.
Again this is blasphemous and sounds very much like Roman Catholicism and the
pope.
In modern Judaism
the rabbis cannot be wrong and you must have a personal rabbi to give your
allegiance to. Also in modern Judaism the rabbis have no accountability to
anyone, not even to Yahweh. The Talmud states that “Yahweh is only one of 70
rabbis and must submit to the authority of the other rabbis.”
Yahweh must submit
to the rabbis? How perverted has modern Judaism gotten and who are these rabbis
and where did their authority come from? Did you know that the word Rabbi is not
found even once in the TaNaK (old testament)? So where did these rabbis come
from?
The answer goes back
to the Hasmonian Dynasty and the times of the Macabees. The Macabees were a
family of Jewish men who lived in the second century BCE. After Alexander the
Great conquered the world in 334 BCE, he died mysteriously soon after that, at
only 32 years old. His kingdom was divided by his four generals. The two
predominant ones were the Ptolemy’s to the south who overtook Egypt, and the
Seleucids to the north who oversaw Syria. These two kingdoms fought each other
for control and whoever was in charge at the time controlled the land of Israel.
In 167 BCE a leader from the Seleucids named Antiochus Epiphanes who hated the
Jewish people, made laws to make it illegal for Jews to circumcise their
children. He then went on to sacrifice a pig in the Temple (the abomination of
desolation) and tried to convert all Jews to Greek Hellenization.
At this time Mathias
Macabees with his four sons rebelled to save the Jewish nation. His oldest son
Judas was most famous for the story of Hanukah and the rededication of the
temple to Yahweh. These Macabees were the beginning of the Hasmonian dynasty.
After Judas died, his brother Simon took over for him, etc. But by the time of
the late first century BCE, descendants of Simon such as Jason were made high
priest and were not Levites but were from the tribe of Judah.
During the times of
the Macabees the Jewish leaders made covenant pacts with Egypt and Rome and were
looking for outside protection since they were not a very large military might
in this time period. Then in 63 BCE Rome conquered the land of Israel and set up
a very wealthy Edomite spice trader as governor of Judea named Herod the Great.
Herod converted to Judaism to try to win the confidence of the Jewish people,
but they saw right through his trickery.
At this time many
non-Levites and even worse, non-Jews who were Edomite converts such as Herod
were buying into the sacred priesthood. The Jewish court called the Sanhedrin
set up in 196 BCE held most of the reigning power. They were made up of
Sadducees and Pharisees. The Pharisees were not priests but common people, who
were against scripture, performing certain Levitical duties, when scripture is
very clear that only Levites should perform sacrifices.
The party of the
Pharisees were also called Rabbis. Again you do not even once see this term in
the whole of Torah. Then in the second half of the first century CE after the
destruction of the Temple, many Jewish people were seeing the fulfillment of
Yahshua as the substitute of the sacrificial system and were questioning the
authority of the false Rabbinic system that had been set up.
This is when a man
called Akiva (or Akiba) came on the scene and set up what is today modern
Rabbinic Judaism. In modern Judaism the oral writings of the rabbis are much
more important than even the torah and most of these writings come from Akiva.
The Talmud is filled with stories of how great Akiva was. There are stories of
every great man of the bible praising Akiva, even such great men as Abraham and
Moses and even Adam in the garden of Eden talked about how great Akiva was.
Clearly these are fairy tales and made up by Akiva himself.
Akiva made the
rabbis into gods and gave all authority not only in earth but heaven also to the
rabbis. Akiva was also the one who wrote that Yahweh is merely one of 70 rabbis
and must submit to the will of the rabbis.
Akiva was also the
one who named Simon Bar Kochba as the Messiah in 132 CE. Akiva saw that many
Jews were accepting Yahshua as the promised Messiah and knew he had to do
something to stop the movement, so he named Bar Kochba as the messiah, well
knowing that believers of Yahshua could not fight in a holy war for a false
messiah. The punishment for not fighting against the Romans was imprisonment,
confiscation of property and also death.
Akiva set up a 4-man
tribunal against believers with himself at the head, and sentenced many of our
Jewish brothers and sisters to death. This is why by the second half of the
second century CE, there were very few Jewish believers left in society. Akiva
also wrote evil lies about Yahshua and called him everything from a warlock to a
bastard, to a liar. All this is written in the Talmud.
In modern Judaism,
Akiva is acclaimed as the greatest rabbi of all time and is worshipped by his
rabbinic followers. No wonder there is so much hatred for Yahshua among orthodox
followers today. I am sorry to say that modern rabbinic Judaism is a false
second century religion made up by an evil man named Akiva. There are many books
such as Dan Gruber’s Rabbi Akiva’s Messiah that can easily confirm these
facts as accurate, but the best source to verify these things is to go to the
Talmud and the Mishnah themselves and see the evil lies that are said about our
King Messiah Yahshua the Son of Yahweh.
This article is not
to attack rabbinic Judaism but to show that the origins of it are not
scriptural. Certainly when you read the oral law a child can see that it does
not go back to Moses but is filled with inaccuracies and fairy tales. In a time
when many believers are coming out of paganized Christianity and are naively
thinking that rabbinic Judaism is the ancient religion of the bible, the truth
must come out.
Even worse, we know
of some that are even converting to rabbinic Judaism to be able to stay in the
land of Israel. The whole problem of why Yahshua had so many problems with the
Pharisees was that of authority. Yahshua claimed full authority from heaven:
“Mat. 28:18 And coming up Yahshua talked with them, saying, All authority in
heaven and on earth was given to me.”
But the rabbis also
claimed that all authority in heaven and earth was given to them. The Talmud
says that Yahweh gave ultimate authority over heaven and earth to Moses and in
turn Moses has handed this authority over to the rabbis and since Yahweh said
they could have it, he can’t take it back no matter how evil they are.
So the believer in
Yahshua must make a decision. Yahshua clearly stated in Luke 14:33 So
likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsakes not all that he has, he cannot be
my disciple.
In order to be a
disciple of Yahshua we must forsake all and give our total allegiance to him or
else he states we are not worthy to be his disciple. The rabbis claim this same
authority. When you are a convert to rabbinic Judaism you are required to give
the allegiance that belongs to Yahshua alone to another rabbi. Clearly we can
see why calling someone rabbi has a much deeper meaning than just another title;
it has to do with who is our master and who we worship. As believers in Yahshua
we should not recognize another rabbi or master than Yahshua and certainly
leaders in the body of Messiah should not be taking the title of rabbi to
themselves, as it is left for Yahshua alone.
Matt. 23:8 But
do not you be called rabbi, for one is your master, the messiah, and you are all
brothers
Names such as
teacher and pastor are job descriptions and should not be used as titles. As
this Scripture states, we are all BROTHERS. I may be an ordained Elder
and pastor but tht is my job not my title. To the brethren I am simply brother
Don just as any other brother. When one takes titles to himself such as rabbi so
and so or pastor so and so, this is simply a device to separate and lift himself
up from the rest of the brethren, and this lifting up is against scripture.
Mat. 18:4
Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is
greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Children don’t need titles).
Matt. 20:27 And whoever desires to be
first among you, let him be your servant.
We are all equally
important in the eyes of Yahweh and although we should give respect to elders
and pastors who are working among us, we should not take any title to ourselves,
as only the Eternal Creator Himself, Yahweh, deserves and has set apart titles
for his own glory. Most of all neither should we call ourselves rabbi or neither
should we give allegiance to rabbis that do not have that authority from
scripture but from an unrighteous murderer named Akiva who is the father and
founder of modern Judaism in the second century CE. Let us give our undying
allegiance to Yahweh and His son, the King of Kings, Yahshua Ha Mashiach! ~
By Bro. Don
Esposito. Contact him at his US address, Congregation of YHWH, PO Box 832,
Carteret, NJ 07008.