[This article was in 2012; it reflects what Sinaites have gradually evolved into— a distinct start-up community with specific and identifiable beliefs and practices. At the time this was first posted, we did appear to be Jew-wannabes; hence the constant attempt to correct the misperception and to clarify what we’re not and who we are. Yes, we sound like a broken record but there’s good reason — repetition allows a message to sink in though to this day, some Jewish friends in our city keep thinking we’re into Judaism just because we’re Sabbath-keepers, eat kosher, study TNK, live Torah. —Admin1.]
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There are two parts to this question:
- Are you Jew-wannabes?
- If not, what are you?
What is a ‘Jew-wannabe’?
A person who decides to become a Jew? Or one who imitates Jews?
For an interesting article on “Who is Jew”, please go to http://www.jewfaq.org/search.shtml?Keywords=who+is+a+jew%3F
Jew—-A person whose mother was a Jew or who has converted to Judaism. According to the Reform movement, a person whose father is a Jew is also a Jew. Although the term is derived from the term “Judahite” (meaning a member of the tribe of Judah or a citizen of the kingdom of Judah), it has historically been applied to the patriarchs, the matriarchs and all of the descendants of Jacob and all converts to their faith. See Who Is a Jew?
Since Sinaites are ALL gentiles, the question must mean—we are trying to be like Jews?
Why would people get this impression? The following typical observations have been given:
- because you’re focused on the Old Testament, no longer the ‘New’;
- because you’ve changed your food choices to’ kosher’;
- because you worship on Saturday instead of Sunday;
- because you no longer go to a christian church nor attend christian fellowship;
- Because you no longer believe that Jesus Christ is God;
- because your God is the ‘Jewish God’;
- because you observe ‘Jewish feasts’;
- because you’re using Hebrew terms like Shalom, Shabbat, Tanach, Torah, etc.
- because you use Jewish symbols and trappings (mogen David, menorrah, tzitzit, kippa, etc.)
Obviously, all the above are associated with Jewish people, with Israel. So, it is understandable that anyone who starts incorporating such changes in one’s lifestyle makes one appear indeed like a “Jew-wannabe”.
Admittedly, when we were into Messianic Judaism, we were guilty of all of the above. At messianic conferences we attended, such Jewish trappings were used and sold and we bought them. Messianics appear like Jew-wannabes. However, we have left Christianity altogether, including Messianic Judaism which is ‘Christianity in Jewish disguise.’ We have found our true spiritual identity and it falls under neither the umbrella of Christianity nor Judaism.
There is a perception that being “biblical” is the same as being “Jewish”. And by “biblical” we limit the word to apply only to the Hebrew Scriptures [Tanach], that first part of the Christian Bible that has been re-named “Old Testament.” We’ve been told we should not even use the word “biblical” because that is a Christian term, we should use “scriptural.” We’re not slow to learn nor stubborn about changing when we taste truth as dispensed by the True God.
So the answer is—
- yes we aspire to live in conformity with the requirements of the commandments given by the God revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures,
- but no, we do not aspire to become Jews; by our ethnic origins alone, we’re already disqualified.
- We do appear “wannabe’s” because admittedly, as individuals and as a community, we have chosen to live according to the Torah, the five books attributed to Moses, the only Scriptures we recognize as divinely inspired after non-stop research on how the canon of the New Testament and the Hebrew Scriptures were put together.
- Such observable changes in our lifestyle are results of our having been enlightened by the original revelation of the God who appeared on Sinai who revealed His Name as YHWH;
- we are so strongly convicted that we have decided to embrace as many of His commandments as we are able to apply in our current circumstances in this day and age.
- Those ‘OT’ commandments are obeyed by observant Jews and so, when a gentile observes the same, he is labeled ‘Jew-wannabe’.
- Actually, if a label is going to be imposed on us, it should run like this: ‘YHWH-loving gentile who observe’s YHWH’s TORAH.’ Does that sound like a Jew-wannabe?
The very reason we chose ‘Sinai’ as the focal point of our belief system is exactly because Sinai is outside of the promised land, Israel. Sinai is not Jerusalem, associated with Israel and the Jewish people. If we were really “Jew-wannabe’s” we would simply work on being accepted into any one of the sects of Judaism by fulfilling their requirements.
Sinai is NEUTRAL territory.
If the God of creation, the God of gentile Abraham and Israelite Moses, chose this neutral ground— between the land of bondage and the promised land— to reveal Himself to the nations through a people who would model his pattern for living to the rest of the world, He was very wise in so choosing, if only to indicate that He is the God of all nations, not only Israel. In fact He is the God of the universe!
There are many scriptural references that show it is His intention to be known to and worshipped by the whole world, but he had to start somewhere, start small, with an identifiable people separated from the nations by the life they live. Thus, His commandments are given to Israel to live out as a nation, so that other nations would be attracted to and want to emulate their lifestyle, their ethical and moral standards to work towards making this earth a haven, if not a heaven on earth.
As we keep repeating in our posts, TORAH was not given to Israel to make the whole world Jewish; it was given to Israel to live it so that the gentiles will realize something is quite different about them, a lifestyle that is attractive and works for the benefit of all nationalities, not just Israelites/Jews. TORAH reveals a God who liberates and does not enslave through impossible laws that are impossible to obey; yes, contrary to Pauline and Gospel teaching that consider YHWH’s LAW as a ‘yoke’ to be liberated from by their Christian version of the Jewish messiah-savior.
TORAH is taught in synagogues by Jewish Rabbis, yes. But it is not exclusive to them by divine commandment, it has become exclusive only because of the way the world has turned anti-semitic and nobody seems to be interested in a “Jewish” God and His “Jewish” Scriptures. You see, it’s “for them, not us.” By the misuse and careless use of words alone, wrong thinking and wrong perception are propagated.
There is much to learn from remnant Israel that is Torah-observant, and that is always the place to start . . . and a gentile can join Judaism, the religion that is Torah-based. But that is not our choice.
We keep saying, our journey of faith is away from Rome, toward Sinai and not Jerusalem.
It is not easy to be in the situation such as we are in—having left religions we had been born in, embraced for decades of our lives, and moved on to another unknown, unpopular, forgotten, done away with, labeled “obsolete” way of living. Please note: not a religion, but a way of living: the Torah life prescribed by the God of all humankind.
It has been the best decision we have ever made individually and now as a core community. As new as we are, we have had to constantly explain why we are no longer Christian and why we are not Jew-wannabes. Now to the next question: “if not, what are you?”
The simplest answer to that question is —
- We are gentile believers in YHWH,
- who live by His commandments as best as we can.
What should we be called? Well, for now we have chosen to be called Sinaites. Why?
Please read our Statement of Beliefs if you have not done so:
In behalf of Sinai 6000 Core Community,
** Comment from RABBI FEDEROW:**
- “Since one has to be born of a Jewish mother to become a Jew, obviously no gentile is a Jew.”
- “But since Sinaites are ALL gentiles, the question must mean—we are trying to be like Jews.”
- “but no, we do not aspire to become Jews; by our ethnic origins alone, we’re already disqualified.””
Here the text is explicit, Mordecai was called a Jew even though he was from the tribe of Benjamin. All those who follow the faith of Abraham, regardless of which tribe they came from, are known as Jews. The people at Mt. Sinai were all Jews, including and eventually the Mixed Multitude because having left Egypt and having joined the Jewish People and having witnessed the Exodus and joined themselves to it, to the people and to the religion, they became Jews as well. That is why there is no mention of them after Numbers, because they had all converted to Judaism and simply became a part of the Jewish People. Abraham is the first Jew and all the Patriarchs and matriarchs and all the sons of Jacob and all the members of all the tribes of Israel were all Jews, and the ex-slaves of egypt were all Jews, too. The only Gentiles at Sinai were the mixed multitudes and they, too, eventually became Jews, and all because the word Jew is used to describe those people, in the Bible and after, who were believers in Torah, the written, and then the Oral Torah as it developed and as Gd wished it to develop over the last 2,000 ++ years.
But more importantly for you and for your website and for all those who are a part of your group worldwide, yes, indeed, it is possible for one to convert to Judaism and become a Jew! And the Bible explicitly says so. Look again at the Book of Esther.
Esther 8:17
And in every province, and in every city, where ever the king’s commandment and his decree came, the Jews had gladness and joy, a feast and a good day. And many from among the peoples of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews was fallen upon them.
The Biblical text is clear, “And many from among the peoples of the land became Jews…” and so it is, in fact, possible to become a Jew through the conversion to Judaism. The Bible explicitly says so. Gentiles can become Jews, as they did in the Bible!
Do you and yours reject Rabbinic Judaism, the way in which Judaism survived over the last 2,000 ++ years as Gd has willed it to survive? IF there was any Judaism that could have been called “Biblical-only Judaism,” which there never was, it ceased to exist as soon as Ezra came back from the exile and not only read the Torah to the people, but he also expounded and explained it (Nehemiah 8:8), using the Oral Tradition. If you reject Rabbinic Judaism, the Judaism that has survived these last 4,000 years, and for the last 2,000 years, then yours will just be another fringe group that will be lost in the passage of time.
If you do, if fact, accept Rabbinic Judaism, then the path for you and all your groups is clear, seek out the rabbis and convert and become real Jews. It is the path that Gd Himself has been leading you down, it is the path that Gd has been leading all of your groups down, and that path leads straight to Judaism, fully Judaism, to the conversion to Judaism and to become Jews!
Take a look at: http://www.bechollashon.org/about/mission.php
Rabbi Stuart Federow
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S6K—P.S. One more reason why we would be mistaken for Jew-wannabe? We are embraced by the Jewish Club in our city and invited to their celebrations. And some of our members have started attending Shabbat service at the synagogues in the places they have migrated to because they are isolated but wish to continue worshipping with the God they now identify with. That God is not ‘Jewish’ but He is the God who revealed Himself as recorded in the Torah which is the first five books of the scriptures of Israel, the TNK.
www.haruth.com