Posted on 05/21/2013 2:36:55 PM PDT by NYer
Footsteps is a Jewish organization that helps Hasidic Jews wishing to leave their ultra-orthodox community become integrated members of secular society and work through the profound difficulties of leaving behind their past and, in most cases, being disowned by their families.
PBS and A Journey Through NYC Religions report the varying responses of current members of the Hasidic community and individuals who have chosen a new way of life.
Sol Feuerwerker is glad he left.
I think that’s what surprises most people, you know, most outsiders, is that how can something this insular be happening right here in the middle of New York City. You know, as I’ve moved farther away from it, it kind of shocks me too actually.
There’s this whole, like belief or narrative in the community that if you, if you try to break away or change you will fail and you won’t be happy and you’ll just end up on drugs.
“Their structured lifestyle,” says Lucky Severson of Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, “seems to work for the majority. But, for some, the lack of choices is too rigid . . . Hasidic groups remain some of the most insular religious sects in the U.S.”
Of course, many outsiders view the Catholic and Protestant churches, and even not-so-orthodox religious communities as “insular.” Any group that asks certain loyalties of its members and sets itself apart from the rest of the world is in some way “insular.” By this definition every sovereign country is “insular.” And the idea that a member who leaves “will fail” and “won’t be happy” holds much truth. The kind of suffering caused by such a break is no small matter.
As Samuel Heilman, a Jewish scholar at Queens College, notes,
They have everything that makes up a culture: social norms, language, a career pattern in life. Even the ones who leave say that there are aspects of their lives that they left behind that they miss. To go to a Hasidic gathering and to sing the songs and to dance in the circle and to be enfolded into the community, and to hear your voice in a chorus of other voices. This is a tremendously exciting experience . . .
The organization was founded “not to proselytize but to provide counsel and support to those who want to explore life outside the confines of the world in which they were raised.” One need not think ill of hasidic Judaism to see the value of such a service for those who find it necessary to leave.
Footsteps says that it has assisted “over 700 altogether so far, a majority are young men.” Yet compare this trickle with a 60 percent increase in Hasidic membership overall in the U.S. and Canada and it begins to seem that the majority are quite content in their confines.
How about “Tales of an ex-Athiest”?
Interesting phenomena. Very insular communities such as the Hassidim and Amish do provide individuals with a sense of belonging, community and a very comfortable but extremely narrow niche. However the story of civilization and progress is also the story of detribalization. Individuals must detach themselves from the mundane regularity and comfort of the group and develop new ideas and things. Some do fail miserably and are lost. But those that succeed enhance us all.
“Individuals must detach themselves from the mundane regularity and comfort of the group and develop new ideas and things. “ I would only add that just because an idea is different or new does not make it correct. I think the problem with the insular community is that it has the potential to develop into a cult situation. If one is free to leave (without being ostracized and cut off) and choses to do so, then they should be wished well. I look at Islam and note that they kill those who leave. To declare someone a nonperson because they leave is cruel in the extreme.
God gave us brains for a reason.
I visited a small Messianic Jewish temple. Many of the ethnically Jewish folks there still dress in the Hasidic manner, especially the women, who stay covered up, including their hair. They observe the holy days of both religions (Passover and Easter, etc), and read from the New Testament after passing the Torah around the congregation and reading from the Hebrew bible. The rabbi dresses traditionally and wears a yarmulke and sidecurls. They give thanks for their Messiah Jeshua (Jesus) having already come!
Or how about “Tales of an Ex-Mohammedan”?
I attened a Messianic temple when I lived in Albuquerque. And I’m not even Jewish. I was welcomed as a “grafted branch”.
Me either. It was a most warm experience, including the socializing and potluck lunch afterward. Liturgically, I liked the wholeness of the Bible start to finish. No disrespect, but it seemed more like what Jesus would have wanted than, say, a megachurch with a slick preacher in a sharkskin suit.
A lot, if not most of “Messianic Jews” are NOT Jews. They are gentiles. That is a cult designed to ensnare uneducated Jewish souls. They put enough Jewish-LIKE stuff in their “services” to fool the unschooled, but they basically make it up as they go along. It is a complete travesty that these charlatans even touch a sefer Torah or utter any Jewish prayers. Their prayerbook is called by the Jewish designation, a siddur, but the resemblance to authenticity ends there. There are numerous references to JC in it and to the New Testament, both of which are completely not a part of authentic Judaism. The “rabbi” to which you refer is a complete fake without authentic Jewish ordination and any “Jewish” clothing they wear is simply part of the entrapment costume. It doesn’t take more than a few phrases to completely blow them out of the water as the fakes that they are. So basically, they are a cult with the express design of convincing Jews who were not fortunate enough to have a Jewish education that theirs is authentic Judaism. Kind of like trying to sell Naugahyde as leather. I make no apologies for tellin’ it like it is. I’ve seen these Messyantics in action and they are truly detestable. Anyone who thinks that deliberate misleading of uneducated Jews for the purpose of conversion is a good idea, go pound sand.
The people I met at that synagogue were at least 70% ethnic Jews, based on my observations having grown up many decades ago in a Protestant family in a 50% Jewish community, where half my school friends and neighbors acquainted me from kindergarten onward with their customs and beliefs. The "second language" in our neighborhood was Yiddish.
You have objected to the presence of gentiles at that synagogue, which is a logical contradiction, since the purpose of the Messianic strain of Judaism is to maintain Jewish traditions while also accept the teachings of Jesus, a Jew who in earthly life was called "Rabbi" by his contemporaries. Jesus taught that gentiles should be included in the salvation he said he came to offer specifically to the Jewish people. Some Jews believed then that he is the Messiah; today's Jews are descended from those who did not. This is not a judgment, but simply a matter of fact -- all the earliest believers in Jesus' teachings were ethnically Jewish.
One of the most important "gists" of those teachings is that grace or salvation does NOT depend on genetic tribe or ethnic customs, and not even upon laws, or the following of laws as a means of achieving salvation, but on surrender to God and a willingness to hear God's direction in one's life and follow those promptings. Christianity is not an ethnicity; although in my opinion, many of the divisions between various sects of Christianity have more to do with the cultures in which they originated than with definitive knowledge of the Mind of God (i.e.; Catholicism originated in ancient Rome, Lutheranism in Germany, Methodism in England, Presbyterianism in Scotland, etc.). This important teaching was one of the drivers of equality before the law that undergirded the creation of U.S. Constitutional jurisprudence, and also drove the Abolition and Civil Rights movements here and in England that worked against slavery and Jim Crow.
Although it may feel uncomfortable to you that some Jews have committed to Jesus as Messiah (Hebrew = Messiah; Greek = Christ), yet wish to retain many of their ethnic and cultural traditions from Judaism that do not interfere with their belief that the Messiah did come 2013 years ago, I would not necessarily characterize those believers as uneducated without proof. We are all familiar with today's untruthful meme that conservatives are conservative because they are not smart, or not as smart as Democrats wish to believe themselves to be. Actual research indicates otherwise. Also, in my experience, most people who claim adherence in most religions have not studied their own scriptures thoroughly (indeed, it can be the work of a lifetime), much less those of other religions.
Many who come to believe in Christ do so by way of a transcendent experience that cannot be characterized as solely intellectual. Study may come afterwards. That is what happened to me, who was born and raised in a so-called Christian family, but did not experience a whole-hearted belief until later in life.
Wishing you well along your journey.
Once you introduce the teachings of JC into the mix, bingo! It's no longer Judaism. It's something that has some Jewish elements mixed in, but it would not pass any smell test that it's Judaism of any ilk. You cannot believe and worship JC and still say you are following Jewish practices. The 2 are incompatible.
Sorry guy. I'm glad that you enjoy JC as part of your life, but you are very much speaking from the position of looking in from the outside.
I just moved away from NY. These folks are interesting indeed.
They were not Orthodox; they were Conservative. There is much argument among Jews whether this form of Judaism "qualifies." I leave that to the principals in the dispute to sort out.
You cannot believe and worship JC and still say you are following Jewish practices. The 2 are incompatible.
I believe you are missing the point. Messianic Jews are not trying to practice Judaism per se. They are practicing a form of Christianity. Religion is a group of beliefs, wrapped in a cultural environment. Many Messianic Jews are more culturally comfortable in their format than in a, say, Southern Baptist environment. And as my earlier post observed, their worship format may well be closer to the original practices (of Jews in the Holy Land who believed Jesus is the Messiah predicted by their prophets) than the practices Americans experience in Protestant or Catholic environments.
That said, I do believe that if an observant Conservative or Reform Jew were to attend a Catholic mass, they would be surprised at the many concordances, just as many Christians feel familiar when they attend Jewish services on behalf of family members or friends. Evangelical Christians acknowledge their religious roots in Judaism; right or wrong, this is one of the drivers of American political support for Israel.
Sorry guy. I'm glad that you enjoy JC as part of your life, but you are very much speaking from the position of looking in from the outside.
I'm a shicksa. And okay with where I am religiously -- also appreciative of the rich friendships and windows into the variety of worship formats honoring the G-d of Abraham that have been open to me as an American.
Again, blessings on your journey.
Bookmark for later
Would you please elaborate .... elucidate why, where, and when exactly Jesus Christ was rejected... was in at the garden party?????????
'AMEN!!!
Then he's an idiot.
He wasn't so much "rejected" as never accepted in the first place. The Torah was given and the Torah is the Ultimate Revelation. Nothing any prophet says may contradict it in any way and any "prophet" who prophecies it ceasing and being replaced (or "fulfilled" as christians dishonestly put it) is false.
Why don't you accept Joseph Smith?
I'll be sure to pass along your kind remark.
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