In the weekly portion of Shoftim, Deuteronomy 18:18, Israel is told to appoint judges and officers for all the gates that HaShem has given them, tribe by tribe, and that the nation should be judged with righteousness. How do we judge between righteousness, (good) and evil? Only through the knowledge of Torah can we comprehend what HaShem considers good and evil. Much of our suffering as Jews (past and present) are brought about by our ignorance or rejection of the Word of God. I believe Israel as a nation has gone through this last war or are going through this conflict in the Middle East, because her leaders have lost sight of the laws and promises that HaShem has made to our fathers. The Almighty, speaking through the prophet Hoshea declares:

        “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge and because you have rejected knowledge, I’ll reject you as Cohanim.  Because you have forgotten the Torah of your God, I in turn will forget your children.”  Hoshea 4:6

        We are living in the Information Age and the human race is being bombarded like never before with all sorts of data. Daniel prophesied about the last days and said; “Many will rush here and there as knowledge increases.” (Daniel 4:6) This is true of the time that we live in. The technological advance and absolute information explosion we have experienced creates a sense of rush, as we are forever on the go, flying here, driving there, all accomplished at dizzying speed. We are bombarded with information through Computers, iPods, media, music, and film industry. Our minds are kept so busy that we are not able to hear or focus on eternal truth. Consider how we gleaned information in the 1940’s, and how slow cultural changes took place (mostly radio and newspapers in my home country, South Africa) compared to the speed of electronic media, the avalanche of films from Hollywood, and the ever-evolving music industry. No wonder our moral values, including the rest of mankind’s, have been in rapid decline since the 1980’s. Our perception of what is moral and right has been so devalued, that to be conservative is equated with the “Right” and being “Right” automatically has become “wrong.” Orthodoxy and conservatism is frowned upon as narrow and unfriendly to “human needs.” Our thinking has become clouded and we are no longer able to discern between right and wrong, Torah and fables. Jewish people at large have become blind and lost their spiritual insight. We do things mechanically and out of ritual. For example, the mitzvah of laying Tefillin, has become trivialized and now equates merely to a religious ritual that the frum minority enacts. However, the command to “Bind it on your forehead and tie it to your hands” is much more than obedience to fulfill a ritual; it is symbolic of having all of our thoughts and conduct guided by the very Laws of God. Truth has become subject to our own perspective of truth, relative to individual perceptions rather than established truth. No longer do we value and hold true Moshe Rabbeinu’s words cautioning us not to stray from the Torah, nor to take on the worship of the nations around us. Today, vying for our attention, a battle between Torah values and the mores of the age in which we are living, and true to the words of Hoshea, we will suffer the consequence of our “relativism.”

        The three parashot (portions) Ekeh, Re’eh and Shoftim, stretching from Deuteronomy 7:12 to 21:9, contains a common thread, and that is, that HaShem warns Israel to guard against Avodha Zara, idol worship. We are reminded from the Decalogue, The Ten Commandments or Ten Living Words, that we are not to worship any created form, not that which is in heaven or that which is from earth, as HaShem abhors such deeds. In Deuteronomy 13:7 – 12, the admonition goes as far as invoking the death penalty through stoning, for any one that would cause you to turn away from HaShem or encourages you to turn to idol worship. The penalty held true for all within the gates of Israel, your closest relatives, wife, and even your children. Although we do not have a record of vast numbers of Jewish children executed by their parents, practicing Jews have kept true to this command for thousands of years, by sitting Shiva for a child that has turned to foreign worship.

        In the Messianic Writings, Shaul of Tarsus, (Paul) warn the Jewish followers and proselytes, of the Jew Yeshua, (commonly known by the Roman name Jesus) in Thessalonica, against the “man of lawlessness” a false messiah, who will cause people to break the Torah and also parade himself as God. This group included pagans that have turned their backs on idol worship. (1^st Thess.1: 8 –10.) He further warned them that the separation from the Torah (spirit of the false messiah) was already at work “secretly.” (2^nd Thess. 2:1 – 8.) This admonition came before the start of the Roman/Christian Church in 50 CE, and is very revealing in the light of the doctrinal shift that takes place over the next four hundred years. Shaul further encouraged them to “Stand firm, and hold to the traditions they were taught” (2^nd Thess. 2:15) and praised them for imitating the congregations in Yehudah, which congregations were all zealous for the Torah.  (1^st Thess. 2: 14)

        Late 1st century C.E. the Church Fathers, all gentile followers of Yeshua, started to give appellations of absolute deity to Yeshua and at the various councils stretching into the Fourth Century, established doctrines that declared Yeshua as absolute God and part of a Trinity. This was foreign to Torah and declaring Messiah God was tantamount to idol worship. Jews understood it as such, and therefore, because a man became the object of worship it was considered an Avera, (sin) idol worship, a break with Torah and a transgression of the commandment “not to bow down to any created form, not to that which is in heaven or on earth.” On close inspection of the New Testament, (sic) unless one has the supposition or predetermined belief in the Trinity, or the existence of a dual natured Man/God, it is not possible to affirm this belief with New Testament support.

        So, how did this come about? After the Hurban (fall of the second Temple) when there where no longer any Jews amongst the followers of Yeshua in Jerusalem, the gentile leaders that remained, developed an apologetic that was informed by their pagan backgrounds rather than Torah, hence a doctrine that satisfied Roman/Greek mythology came to be the established doctrine of the Church. Prior to this time, the Jewish followers of Yeshua remained true to the Temple and dedicated to Torah and because of this, suffered under the hands of the Christian leaders. So, it is understandable, in the light of these Parashot, when the discovery is made that a Jewish child has embraced and been immersed (baptized) into the Church and Christian practice, that it is accepted that they have turned to idol worship and are considered to have died, as if they have been stoned to death, hence the child is mourned and Shiva is observed.

        We are further admonished in Shoftim, “You are not to plant an idolatrous tree (ASHERAH) near the Altar of HaShem your Elohim.” The commentary in the Stone Chumash removes any ambiguity, and states, “not only an idolatrous tree but the pagan habit of adorning, and landscaping the outside to make it attractive and thereby lure worshippers.” HaShem is concerned with what happens on the inside. The Protestant, Evangelical world and its Para Jewish missionary organizations, have made themselves guilty of this practice. Jewish leaders have rightly accused these organizations of being wolves in sheep’s clothing, fundamentally not because gentiles were posing as Jews, but because of the instruction against idol worship found in Ekev, Re’eh and Shoftim. The heart of the matter remains; you just cannot call yourself a synagogue, if you follow Roman/Protestant Theology. In the same way as the early Church adopted pagan thoughts and symbolisms to attract pagans, it now dresses itself in Yidishkeit, and places of worship are given a Jewish-friendly exterior, so it may appeal to the un-informed Jew. Because most Jews lack knowledge of Torah and do not know the Hebrew Scriptures, they are easily seduced to submit to strange doctrines.

        The admonition “Likewise you shall not erect a standing stone/pillar which thing HaShem your Mighty One hates” makes it very clear that we cannot substitute the Temple and Altar with another form of worship even if it is dedicated to HaShem. Case and example, Church steeples, which was how pagan temples, in particular those devoted to sun worship (hence, “Sun”day) distinguished themselves from one another. Many Christian religious objects, like the cross, under which Jews suffered endless persecution, all have pagan origins. Vines Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, pg. 258, explain as follows; “The cross, as it is known today, having its origins in ancient Chaldea, was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz, (being in the shape of the mystic Tau, the initial of his name) in that country and the adjacent lands, including Egypt.” He further explains that after its break with the Temple and Jewish eldership, in order to accommodate or make the now gentilized faith more acceptable to pagans, the Tau or T, in it’s most frequent form, with the cross piece lowered, was adopted to stand for the “cross’ that Yeshua was executed on.

        To conclude; Yeshua, speaking to a woman at Jacob’s well in Shomrom, (Yochanan 4:24) said; "Ha Elokim hu Ruach, v’hamish’tachavim lo, aleihem lehishtacha’vot b’Ruach uve’emet" – "Elokim is Spirit, and those who worship Him need to worship Him in Spirit and Truth."  On another occasion when he was tempted by the Evil One, during a forty day fast, (Mattiyahu/Mathew 4:8) it is written; “Once more the Adversary took him up to the summit of a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in all their glory, and said to him; “All this will I give to you if you will bow down and worship me.”  “Away with you, Satan!” Yeshua told him, “For the Tanakh says, ‘Worship HaShem your God, and serve Him only.’” 

        The real Messiah will draw Jews back to Torah and worship of HaShem, the false messiah, through trickery and deceit attempt to draw Jews away from Torah and HaShem. Yeshua the Jew fulfills this call, however, the Jesus of the Church parades himself contrary to the Torah. This is what Shaul near 2000 years ago warned us about, that the separation from the Torah (spirit of the false messiah) was already at work “secretly.”  Need I say any more?

        I have a message for Jews that proclaim Yeshua as Messiah, but still adhere to foreign worship; “It is Elul, now is the time to make T’shuvah and turn to the real Messiah.” May Yeshua, the greatest son of Israel, and his teachings, be reclaimed to his rightful place amongst the Jewish people.


Rabbi Aryeh Baruch Vos Levitz
Elul 8, 5766 – September 1, 2006

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