Modern Judaism, Temple Judaism, and the Faith of the Prophets
Modern Judaism starts after the destruction of the Temple AD 70, and the diaspora. Without the Temple, there is no Kohen Gadol (High Priest), sacrifices cannot be made, the ecclesial lunar calendar cannot progress, and the faith in its original format cannot continue.
The population of Israel dispersed all over the Roman Empire, mostly in Europe, the Levant, and Northern Africa. Judaism by this point was mostly hellenized, and many of the jews spoke Greek. So they were quickly able to adapt to life in the Empire.
With them they brought what we would come to call the Tanakh, the official OT canon of the Jewish Diaspora. This canon was different from the canon inside the Kingdom of Israel, many books were excluded. Famous exclusions were the Book of Maccabees and the Book of Enoch.
The confirmation of the final canon is disputed, originally it was stated to be the Council of Jamnia, however in the 1960s, secular American Jewish scholars didn’t like the idea of a Rabbinic synod, but they offered no other alternatives.
With the Tanakh settled, the Diaspora had to completely redesign their liturgical process. Jewish worship was centered around sacrifices made at the Temple, and the ancient Liturgy could only be done at the Temple, not in the Shuls (Synagogue).
The ancient liturgy is replaced, sacrifices are no longer performed, and the service consists of some prayers, readings from the Torah, multiple recitations of the Shema, and a homily from the rabbi. New positions within the faith are created, Chazzan or Cantor.
Without the Temple, the jewish connection to HaShem was severed, and they now have a completely different Tanakh than that of their forefathers. In such a short amount of time, the faith is unrecognizable to jews who lived less than 100 years before.
There is no direct continuation between Second Temple Judaism and the Judaism of the Diaspora, the traditions changed, the liturgy changed, and the holy book changed. Ironically, the only continuation that can be found with ancient Judaism can be found with the early Christians.
Modern Judaism rejected the core beliefs of ancient Judaism and disputed their own scripture. The most important being the rejection of God’s body in how He interacts with mankind, as laid out by the “13 Articles of Faith” from Maimonides.
“3. I believe with complete faith that the Creator, blessed be His name, is incorporeal; that He is free from all anthropomorphic properties; and that He has no likeness at all.” Maimonides was indirect contradiction with Judaism’s scripture.
Shemot Chapters 33:18 through 34:28 make multiple references to God using anthropomorphic means “:הֲסִרֹתִי אֶת־כַּפִּי וְרָאִיתָ אֶת־אֲחֹרָי וּפָנַי לֹא יְרָאוּ” God uses His hand to cover Moshe, and then turns around and shows him His back for no one can look upon Him.
If God is “free from all anthropomorphic properties; and that He has no likeness at all” as Maimonides claims, then what was Moshe supposed to be looking at? In his commentaries, Sage Rashi tries to explain this away by saying God was speaking in Midrashic metaphor.
We Orthodox Christians know that these were God’s uncreated “energies” or “operations” in the world, as is the teaching of the Church from the beginning and up until now, but such theology is not present in judaism. Instead, they simply deny the meaning of the Scripture.
A common tendency we see frequently in Modern Judaism is to explain away doctrinal and scriptural inconsistencies away in the Midrashes and in the Talmud. The Midrash should be regarded as nothing less than Rabbinic Fanfiction.
The stories within the Midrash have no scriptural support, an example being the Midrash for the Book of Jonah claiming the Leviathan had Jonah in his belly and they became friends, and then Jonah decided he wanted to live in the Leviathans stomach, but God said he couldn’t.
I won’t address the Talmud, we all know it’s drivel and everyone who has studied Judaism has read it. More importantly, we need to discuss the Baal Shem Tov, who was the architect behind the most successful attempt at reconstructing ancient Judaism.
The Baal Shem Tov founded Chassidism in the 1700s, and Chassidism is the closest thing Jews have to ancient Judaism. It’s mystical and liturgical, however, they lack the connection to the Temple and their mysticism is rooted in the Kabbalah.
Kabbalah has little Scriptural support, and little Talmudic support. It is an innovation. The Tanakh itself is mystical, everything you need stems from it, but the Kabbalah completely redesigns Jewish mysticism and refocuses it around elements that are not present in Scripture.
The Chassidic understanding of Neshama (the Soul) and the Afterlife is rooted in Kabbalah, Chassids, and thus most modern Jews, believe in a form of obliterationism, when you die your Godly Neshama is absorbed back into God, and your identity ceases to exist.
Chassidic jews are also iconoclasts. Iconography of any sort is considered idolatry, which deviates completely from the second temple period, Judaism had been hellenized and iconography had become common, but even before in Solomon’s Temple, we know of the Ark.
To summarize, Modern Jews have a different canon, different liturgy, a different ecclesiology, no Smicha (ordination) leading back to Moses, rejects God’s energies, reject the Jewish afterlife, and reject iconography.
There is nothing that connects modern Jews to ancient Jews.
So, if Jews don’t have that connection, who does?
The Orthodox Church.
Our Liturgy, the design of our Churches, our theology on Angels, the Soul, the Afterlife, our iconography, and the Canon of Scripture can all be traced back to Prophet Moses.
Even our Smicha traces back to the Prophets. As it is written about our Lord Jesus, “Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.” (Ps 110:4, Heb 7:17)
Only Jesus was the successor to the priesthood when all other priests ceased to exist in the Second Temple.
Interestingly, the Talmud records that in 30 AD (the year Christ was crucified), the Red fabric in the Temple stopped turning white on Yom Kippur which signaled that God accepted Israel’s sacrifice (Rosh Hashanah 31b and 32a). The Crucifixion did away with animal sacrifices.
Through the Eternal Priesthood which Christ possessed, He gave this to all His Apostles, who went out spreading the once enclosed faith out to all the world. Now every Bishop (High Priest) and Priest participates in that same religious authority which Prophet Melchizedek did.
Now we, the True Israel from which the jews once departed, offer the Holy Oblation and sacrifice which Jesus offered once and for all as an offering to His Father. This eternal sacrifice covered the sins of His faithful for eternity, and we participate in it ever Liturgy.
This timeless Liturgy, we the True Flock of God participate in. This allows us to become one with God and to see Him as Prophet Moses once did in the Burning Bush, as the Apostles saw in the flesh, and we become partakers in the Divine Nature by communion.
But the jews, by their own machinations, can never have this. They have no Temple at which to offer sacrifices to pay the debt of their sins, no method of becoming one with God, and in order to make up for this lack of experiencing Him, they reject the afterlife all together.
We, the Orthodox Christians, have the Temple, which was destroyed and raised up again in 3 Days. At the Holy Altar, which jews no longer possess, we make the sacrifice of praise that saves us and the whole world.
Jews, convert to Orthodox Christianity! The faith of your Fathers!
Jesus is the Messiah as explained in the Scripture, He is the fulfillment of the Law and of the Prophets. By denying Jesus Christ, the jews of today reject HaShem. this rejection of HaShem is why the jewish faith continues to crumble.
I pray that all jews everywhere repent and join us in Eternal Life, where there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.
Where we will be joined by Adam, Eve, Abraham, Moses, Aaron, and all the Prophets of Old.
God be with ye.
