BRO. DO YOU EVEN TORAH?

BRO- DO YOU EVEN TORAH?

The rabbis in the 3rd century joked that just as the Galilean sages lost the ability to speak well they lost the ability to study well.

This is because of that “embodiment” of the Master way of Torah stuff in the Galilean teachers like Jesus or Hillel or Ben Dos. Remember this emphasis on teaching learners to “live out Torah” or “learn Torah with your feet not just your head” was, in contrast to teaching interpretation in terms of purity laws.

Rabbis in the temple-city Jerusalem had an intense focus on study and practice of sacrifice. These leaders rebuked Galilean hasadim or pious men (think religious leaders) for being lax about the law and ignorant of how to practice ritual purity. 

The Galilean push back— you can see Jesus’ doing this in his teaching— is an internal purity and ritual being secondary to heart and intent.

Rabbi Ben Dosa, another miracle working teacher from the Galilee also was derided as being lax about the law like Jesus.

Yose the Galilean was criticized for a a similar type scene that we find in the gospels— visiting with a woman of ill-repute at a well:

You stupid Galilean! Have the sages not commanded: Do not have a long conversation with a woman?!”

b Erub 53.b (he’s quoting Pirkey Avoth1.5)

Ha! Good times.

Or a quote preserved in the Talmud is about a nine on the tension scale there Rube (I just quoted the Burbs. Go and Learn. Fist bump.) goes something like this: 

Greater is the hatred of the am ha-aretz (people of the land) for the learned (think the rabbis who study) than the Gentiles for Israel.

b Pes. 49b

So the whole region seems to be this tinder box a lot like YP facebook groups.

You have people who are more literal and sacramental and you have people who lean towards the way of being in the world.

They actually both love God… but appear to hate one another. I know… This is getting awkward. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. And whatever you do don’t answer a loaded survey question in Youth Pastors Only.

Seriously though, do you see how how literally to take the text of scripture versus how much to interpret forward to the present day is actually an ancient debate?

Let’s have that debate with charity and kindness, and understand that if the sages didn’t always come down in the same place… that we don’t have to either.

More than that, let’s embody the story of God like the Galileans!

What truly changes people is not arguments about the Bible, but the Bible lived out in flesh and blood with creative resolve.

Think about how you became a Jesus follower and how you grew into someone who could (on your good days) be entrusted to disciple your own learners.

I don’t know about you, but I can not rattle off the three or four sermons or talks or messages or apologetic arguments or theological tenets or rituals that convinced me to trust and follow Jesus and helped me grow. There I said it.

What I can instantly name, is the three or four people who pointed me to Jesus and helped me grow through consistent and impactful relationship.

Who is that for you?

And most important, who are the ones that see you like that?

Heart,

Pastor Mark and Pastor Heather