What is Messianic Judaism?

Messianic Judaism is a Judaism that believes in Yeshua (Jesus). We realize how the very idea of our Judaism with Yeshua seems impossible. Yet we also realize how baffling ideas sometimes turn out to be true when investigated closely.

As most scholars, Jewish and Christian, admit, Yeshua was a Jewish teacher in Israel who did not come to start a new religion. Messianic Judaism may appear to be breaking the rules established through centuries of church and synagogue tradition. But we understand ourselves as restoring Yeshua's original place within Judaism.

Abraham Joshua Heschel famously said, "A Jew is asked to take a leap of action rather than a leap of thought." Judaism is about living the principles of Torah and there is room for diversity of thought on other matters. Messianic Judaism is about building a Jewish community following our great Rabbi, Yeshua the Messiah of Israel.

As a Judaism, we are connected to the history and tradition of our people. We respect the whole Torah, including the rulings of the rabbis. With other Jewish communities we thoughtfully pursue a halakhah built on written Torah as well as rabbinic tradition. We believe in the divine inspiration of the Torah, prophets, writings, and the apostolic writings usually known as the New Testament. We find in the holy writings a unity flowing from beginning to end.

We are involved in the Jewish community. Davening in a synagogue that is not Messianic is no problem for us. Just like the mainstream Judaism, we also have good relations with many Christian denominations and seek mutual understanding. We believe that the divide between Judaism and Christianity is unfortunate and the two could be much closer without assimilation from either side.

Messianic Judaism is a home for Jews who wish to follow the easy yoke of Yeshua. His teachings on the Torah bring us to the heart of goodness. Comparably to other great Jewish teachers, Yeshua brought out the delight of the commandments but also a deeper insight into human nature and divine intent. Yeshua's way is to keep the commandments holistically, so that, for example, the commandment not to murder becomes a charge not to insult or demean any person and thus do harm to G-d's image.

We take seriously and greatly rejoice in God's promises of restoring Israel and repairing the world. The promises of Moses and the prophets are expanded upon in the apostolic writings so that Messianic Judaism is a forward-looking Judaism. We have great faith in the Messianic Age and the World to Come. Knowing redemption through Messiah fills us with peace even in the face of life's pains and worries.

We are welcoming to non-Jewish spouses and children of intermarriage, adult children of intermarriage, and other non-Jews who wish to participate with us. We believe the presence of like-minded non-Jews among us is prophetic, as a sign of the Coming Age according to the prophets is the nations being drawn to Zion. We are already seeing what Isaiah described, "All the nations shall flow to it, and  many peoples shall come" (Isa. 2:2-3).