Reader Questions/Comments

Messianic teacher and founder of the The Messianic Times Newspaper, Zev Isaacs, recently sent me the following email. What's your opinion?

Tzit Tzit are for Jewish men to wear.

The 613 commandments are only for the Jewish people to keep, and besides that 2/3 do not apply to any Jewish person outside of Israel. Again, they are for Jewish people born of Jewish parents to keep. All you are obligued to do is to love God with all your heart, and to acknowledge that Yeshua is the Messiah.

You are to share the Gospel with others, so that they can know the One and True Living God.

Regarding clearing out the "chometz" on Passover, this is a festival for the Jewish people to keep eternally, but if you want to celebrate them, that's fine, but don't try to be legalistic about it, as the legalism has been "EXTENDED" by the rabbis. Do not live in fear, as a non-Jew these things do not apply to you.

Be blessed, Zev

The Netzarim Response

Yes, and pigs have wings, and satan and Jesus are brothers, and men who martyr themselves for God get 72 virgins in the afterlife, and everybody worships the same god....

If tzit-tzit are for Jewish men to wear then how come the scriptures say the following:

Numbers 15: 37 ADONAI said to Moshe, 38 "Speak to the people of Isra'el, instructing them to make, through all their generations, tzitziyot on the corners of their garments, and to put with the tzitzit on each corner a blue thread. 39 It is to be a tzitzit for you to look at and thereby remember all of ADONAI's mitzvot and obey them, so that you won't go around wherever your own heart and eyes lead you to prostitute yourselves; 40 but it will help you remember and obey all my mitzvot and be holy for your God. 41 I am ADONAI your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt in order to be your God. I am ADONAI your God."

Various versions say either "Israelites" or "Children of Israel". Never does it say "Speak to the men only of Israel"!!! What Isaacs is essentially saying is that women don't need to be reminded of God; men are the only ones who count.

As to the "613 commands", Numbers 15:13-16 makes it abundantly clear that ALL who accept the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are to do EXACTLY as YHWH's Chosen people do!

Numbers 15: 13 "'Everyone who is native-born must do these things in this way when he brings an offering made by fire as an aroma pleasing to the LORD. 14 For the generations to come, whenever an alien or anyone else living among you presents an offering made by fire as an aroma pleasing to the LORD, he must do exactly as you do. 15 The community is to have the same rules for you and for the alien living among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You and the alien shall be the same before the LORD: 16 The same laws and regulations will apply both to you and to the alien living among you.'"

Please re-read the above in case you missed it: Any Torah-less non-Jew/Hebrew/Israelite who does not yet believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is an "alien"/foreigner. However, if they do wish to accept Him, then they are to do exactly as those who are already belong to Him!

"Living among" means not necessarily physically, but rather, it refers to all those who have accepted the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They MUST be Torah observant, just like the Houses of Israel and Judah were with whom God made His New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:32)!

Romans 10: 12. And in this, it discriminates neither Jews nor Gentiles. For there is one, Master YHWH, over them all, who is abundantly generous towards every one that calls on him. 13. For everyone that will call on the name of Master YHWH, will have life.

Regarding the cleaning out of the chametz on Passover, if you believe in YHWH and His awesome Messiah Yeshua, then you are GRAFTED IN through the blood of Yeshua and must adhere to ALL His moedim (appointed times) and you MUST clean out the leaven....

The Bible is clear that ALL who accept the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are to be Torah observant. Same God, same rules!