PVCC Puma Press: April 2006

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	Photo by Sara Sloan
	Rabbi Harlon Picker at a pulpit from which he delivers sermons to the Beth Yachad Messianic Congregation.
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Jews and Gentiles at Beth Yachad Messianic Congregation come together to worship God. The service opens with a blast from a ram’s horn, known in Hebrew as a shofar. People walk around to shake hands and greet each other with “Shabbat Shalom (Greetings for a peaceful Sabbath).”

The praise music starts. Some people get to their feet and join hands to participate in the dancing of the traditional Jewish Davidic dance. Around the room they dance and sing while others sit in their seats and sing along with the praises, “Baruch Adoni—Give him glory, Baruch Adoni, praise his name. He has given life to us; he has shown us the way. Yeshua Messiah is our Lord; he has destroyed our enemy.” After the worship music is over, people hear a sermon in a traditional style. At Beth Yachad Messianic Congregation, the sermon is focused on the Messiah and Savior Jesus Christ, whose Hebrew name is Yeshua.

What are the differences between Messianic Jews and Traditional Jews? Are Messianic Jews still considered Jewish?

Messianic beliefs and traditional Jewish beliefs are different, but they follow similar traditions and customs. Messianic Jews believe Yeshua is their Messiah and Savior, while most traditional Jews believe Yeshua was a charismatic speaker and a good person, but not the Messiah or Savior.

Rabbi Harlon Picker, the congregational leader for Beth Yachad Messianic Congregation in Scottsdale, says that he and other Jews who believe in Yeshua did not convert from Judaism.

“We don’t convert. Yeshua was a Jewish rabbi. All 66 books of the Bible were (Jewish). Everything having to do with Yeshua was Jewish,” says Picker. “If you’re a Jew, you’re still a Jew. You just believe the Messiah has come. What’s important is that he rose, he’s alive and he’s free.”

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	'If you're a Jew, you're still a Jew. You just believe the Messiah has come'
	—Rabbi Harlon Picker
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Picker believes that Yeshua saves men from their sins through grace.

Rabbi Erica Burech, who is an assistant head of a Jewish day school in the Valley, believes differently from Picker. Burech considers herself to be an observant, traditional Jew.

“Messianic Jews are not Jews,” she says. “You cannot call yourself a Jew if you say Christ is your Messiah. It’s contradictory.”

Burech believes that Jesus was a charismatic person who was really good. He was capable of getting people to follow him and was a good teacher, but nothing else. She does not believe in the resurrection of Jesus or that God could be incarnated as a person. Traditional Jews are still waiting for their Messiah to come.

Traditional Jewish beliefs follow the teachings from the Torah, the Hebrew term for the first five books of the Old Testament. Messianic Jewish beliefs follow both the Old and the New Testament..

Sometimes there are personal costs that Messianic Jews endure for their faith in Yeshua. These costs range from being shunned by their families to being excluded from the local Jewish Community Center.

Picker believes that Yeshua is “the rock and salvation” and that he will deliver them. “Be filled with his light because then there’s healing,” says Picker.

Some people who believe in Yeshua blame traditional Jews for his death. Picker says that Jews are not the only ones responsible for Yeshua’s death.

“Yeshua came for the lost, and he loved us no matter how we were or who we were,” says Picker. “He paid a debt he did not owe, because we owed a debt we could not pay.”

At Beth Yachad, which means “house of prayer,” the messianic congregation keeps its Hebraic roots and specifically teaches, preaches and keeps the biblical feasts and festivals. The congregation holds night services of prayer for Israel and keeps the Shabbat, which means Sabbath. Congregation members do not eat shellfish—not because it is forbidden, but because they are keeping their Jewish customs.

Both Messianic Jews and traditional Jews celebrate Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They also celebrate Yom Kippur among other Jewish biblical feasts and festivals. Burech says the only difference between traditional and messianic celebrations is that Messianic Jews add Yeshua.

“We don’t celebrate Easter or Christmas. We celebrate Passover and Hanukkah,” says Picker. “We celebrate God’s feast and festivals, not man’s.

“The holiest holiday is the Shabbat, which is every Friday evening until sunset on Saturday when there’s stars in the sky,” says Burech. "People think about creation on the Shabbat and how everything took place and how God declared the seventh day Holy."

Traditional Jews participate in seder meals during Passover. “We were enslaved, but we were redeemed. We try so hard to feel like we were there,” says Burech about Moses leading the Jews out of slavery by God’s commands.

Burech says that ultimately the traditional Jews want to take part in making this world a better and more peaceful place. “We need to take part in fixing the world, being environmentally aware and helping others—like taking care of the sick,” says Barech.

Picker says that Messianic Congregations like Beth Yachad are safe places for Jews to worship and for Messianic Jews to show other Jews they believe that Yeshua was and still is the Messiah. “Ask God who he is and if he has a son and who his son is. Then see what God says to you,” he adds.