Identity Theft (20 page)

The high priest and the others were so incensed, they could barely restrain themselves. They wanted to kill the apostles. They were frustrated and jealous that these uneducated Jews from Galilee had the whole city listening to their message. It was clear that they were determined to stop them at any cost, lest they lose their power over the people.

Then one of them, clearly a respected member, stood up. He asked that the apostles be sent outside so they could discuss the issue at hand. Then he raised his voice and said:

Men of Israel, take care what you are planning to do to these men! Some time ago there was that fellow Theudas, who pretended to be someone great. About 400 others joined him, but he was killed, and all his followers went their various ways. The whole movement came to nothing. After him, at the time of the census, there was Judas of Galilee. He got people to follow him, but he too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.

So my advice is, leave these men alone. Let them go. If they are planning and doing these things merely on their own, it will soon be overthrown. But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God!
(Acts 5:35-39 NLT)

Fortunately, his reasoning swayed the majority. The disciples would not be stoned to death…at least, not yet. They were brought in and these arrogant, self-serving demagogues had each of them lashed with a whip and again ordered not to speak in the name of Yeshua. But the apostles, in stark contrast to what you would expect of prisoners who had just been beaten, left rejoicing, and as they did, the tablet screen switched off.

“Wow! What a story. Why does Hollywood waste its time on vampires and Harry Potter? This is far more compelling!”

Ariel asked me, “Do you know the name of the man who stood up and convinced the Sanhedrin not to kill the apostles?”

“No,” I answered.

“His name is Gamaliel, remember? I told you earlier that Shaul studied under him. I am sure you have heard of Hillel.”

“Of course. He was one of the greatest Jewish scholars ever. Without him, there would be no Mishna or Talmud. Hundreds of universities and every major one in the United States have a
Hillel House
, a place for Jewish students to maintain their Jewish culture and identity while away from home. I would occasionally eat Shabbat meals there when I was in college.”

“Gamaliel was Hillel’s grandson and also a very respected Jewish voice of his time. He was a senior member of the Sanhedrin. There is no doubt that it was his lineage and respected position that kept the other elders from executing the apostles that day. And what was his argument?”

Like Neo learning martial arts in the Matrix, I could recall everything with vivid detail. “He told them that if Yeshua was not from God, they had nothing to worry about—He would soon be forgotten. That other would-be messiahs had arisen yet they had come to nothing and no one remembered them. However, he warned, if Yeshua was the Messiah then they would not be able to stop His message from spreading and could find themselves in the uncomfortable position of fighting against the very One they claimed to represent.”

“Very good, David. Let me ask you something. Did Yeshua’s message spread abroad? Do people still follow Him? Do they still talk about Him? Or, like those others, Theudas and Judas, to whom Gamaliel referred, has He been forgotten?”

I didn’t even have to answer the question.

“So according to the wisdom of one of the greatest Jewish leaders of the first century, Yeshua must have been sent from God. Amazing! I remember reading, while growing up, that John Lennon once said that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus and that Christianity would eventually vanish.”

“Oh, they were popular…” Ariel broke in on my train of thought “…
for a minute
,” he said with a hint of angelic sarcasm. “But Yeshua has had staying power for over two millennia. I think it is safe to say that John Lennon had a tendency to
imagine
.”

My funny angel.

“You know, David, Orthodox Judaism testifies to the validity of Yeshua’s sacrificial death in another quite profound way.”

“Really? How so?”

“You are familiar with the
Talmud
, yes?”

“Familiar? I know what it is—the Oral Law written, the
Mishnah
and the commentary on it, called the
Gemara
. But no, I am not a student of it.”

“Tell me what you know about Yom Kippur—the Day of Atonement.”

“It’s the holiest day of the year for Jews. We confess our sins and fast in the hope that God will forgive us.”

“Do you sacrifice a goat as well?”

“
No
, what are you talking about?”

“Before
fasting
became the central element on Yom Kippur for the Jewish community, it was all about the sacrifice. Aaron, the first high priest, the brother of Moses, was to sacrifice a goat before the Lord. Actually there were two goats. The second goat was the goat upon which the high priest would lay his hands, placing all the sins of Israel upon it.” A passage lit up my desktop tablet:

When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the wilderness in the care of someone appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness
(Leviticus 16:20-22).

“This is where we get the term
scapegoat
—when someone is made to suffer for, or is accused of, another’s crimes.”

“Why don’t we still do this?”

“Because the Temple was destroyed in 70
CE
and all sacrifices ceased. Over time, the emphasis was shifted to fasting, which was also commanded in the Torah, as a sign of acknowledgment of and repentance for sin. But fasting can never take away sin. The whole idea of a sacrifice was that you cannot atone for your own sins and live. That was why a substitute, in this case an animal, had to die in the nation’s place—our place.”

“So why do we fast then?”

“That’s a good question, David. Why
do
you fast?” He paused to give me to time to digest the question and then answered himself, “Imagine that you were caught red-handed breaking the Law. Let’s say you were going 100 miles per hour through a busy neighborhood. You are arrested and given a court date. How would you present yourself to the judge? Would you wear torn jeans and a dirty T-shirt before the court?”

“Of course not! I would wear a suit and tie. I would probably get a haircut as well!”

“Why?”

“He is the judge. My fate is in his hands. I would want to communicate to him that I was sorry for what I did in hopes that he would extend mercy. To present myself to him in a disrespectful way would ensure maximum punishment.”

“Very good David, but tell me, can wearing nice clothes take away what you did?”

“No, I suppose not.”

“In the same way, fasting was never intended to take away sin. It was merely the posture of humility in which the people of Israel presented themselves before the Lord. While the high priest was presenting the offering before the Lord and imparting the sin of the nation onto the scapegoat, the people waited outside in hopes that God would forgive them.

“Now, imagine if, while Aaron was carrying out his ceremonial duties on the Day of Atonement, the people treated it just like any other day—they worked, they ate, they played, they laughed. What would that have communicated to the Lord?”

“That they were not serious or that they didn’t even believe they needed to be forgiven,” I replied.

“Exactly, but if the people didn’t work, or eat, and humbled themselves, that would communicate something entirely different to the Lord. It would convey, ‘We are serious. We have sinned. Please accept the sacrifice.’

“And that brings me to my point. Did God always accept the Yom Kippur sacrifices?”

“I don’t know. I never really thought about it.”

Ariel replied quickly, as if he was eager to share a great insight, “Well, the rabbis and sages over the years thought quite a bit about it! In fact, the Talmud itself, which in the eyes of the Orthodox Jews is equal to Scripture, states as a matter of fact that God rejected the Yom Kippur sacrifices from 30
CE
to 70 ce. This can be found in tractate Yoma 39b.

“According to the Talmud, there were several signs that would testify as to whether or not God had received the sacrifice and forgiven the people.

“First, the priest would draw lots from an urn. One of the lots had written on it
LaHashem
or ‘For the Lord’. The other lot had the words
LaAzazel
. If the priest drew the lot
LaHashem
in his right hand, that meant that God accepted the sacrifice. However, if it showed up in the left hand, it meant the opposite.”

“Well that is just a 50/50 chance. How could the people pin their hopes on such odds? I mean, there is nothing supernatural about that. I could just flip a coin.”

“Not so; we are talking the same result over forty years. The chances of flipping a coin just five times in a row with the same result are 3 out of 100! Imagine 40 times in a row! Believe or not, that could happen only once in 1,099,511,627,776 times—and yet the Talmud claims that it did happen in the first century.

“Another sign was that a crimson thread, which was tied to the horn of the scapegoat, would supernaturally turn white. Actually, part of this thread was taken from the goat and tied to the temple doors. That way the people would be able to see for themselves if it turned white, and this also failed to happen even once during those forty years.

“There were other signs as well. However, the main point is that according to the most respected post-second-Temple period Jewish document—the Talmud—the God of Israel rejected the Yom Kippur sacrifices every year after 30 ce. However, what the Talmud fails to reveal—whether through ignorance or conspiracy—is what took place in 30
CE
when God began to reject the offerings.”

“The death of Yeshua!” I blurted out.

“Exactly! And of course we know that the reason the counting ended at 70
CE
was not because God suddenly began to accept the sacrifices, but…”

“…Because the Temple was destroyed by the Romans!” I finished Ariel’s sentence. “There were no longer any sacrifices after that. I never knew this! Jewish people need this information! You are telling me that according to Judaism’s most trusted source, from the time of Yeshua’s death until the destruction of the Temple, the Yom Kippur sacrifices were not accepted. Unreal!”

“I don’t know if you know it, but there are two versions of the Talmud—one, written in Judea called the Jerusalem Talmud and one that was compiled in exile, called the Babylonian Talmud—and both of them agree on this point.” Two passages appeared on my tablet, which I read out loud.

Forty years before the destruction of the temple, the western light went out, the crimson thread remained crimson, and the lot for the Lord always came up in the left hand… (Jacob Neusner,
The Yerushalmi,
p.156-157).

Our rabbis taught: During the last forty years before the destruction of the Temple the lot [‘For the Lord’] did not come up in the right hand; nor did the crimson-colored strap become white… (Soncino version, Yoma 39b).

“Ariel, the Jewish people—non-religious ones like me, or like I was—don’t know this. Someone needs to tell them!”

“Yes, David, someone must tell them, indeed,” he stated with a twinkle in his eye.

“Come on, David, I want us to return once again to Yeshua’s last Passover. It’ll be a short visit. Are you up for another flight?”

“You need to ask?” I responded as I stretched out my hand. Instantly we were soaring. As we neared the first century, Ariel began to descend. Live scenes flashed past us as though rewinding a film. The closer we got to our destination, the slower they scrolled. We passed the Day of Shavuot. I could see Yeshua speaking with His disciples. It was followed by a scene where He appeared to a large group of people—more than 500. They were looking at Him in amazement, knowing that this Rabbi had just recently been crucified. Now He was cooking fish on the shores of the Galilee and I could see Kefa jump into the water from a boat and wade to shore. Next, we flew over the open tomb, the rock, and the angels. And finally we returned to the scene of that last Passover.

This is the same room in which Kefa and the other disciples received the Holy Spirit on Shavuot. The meal appeared to be over. Yeshua picked up a piece of unleavened bread, and as He broke it, He said:

“Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me”
(1 Corinthians 11:24 NKJV).