Days of Awe Archives Yeshuim To the Point of Blood Hagee's Serious Error Goyishness of Yeshua Aroma Of Judaism What Tree. . . Kabbalah Of Yeshua Where Do You Want.. Fiddler on the Roof A Closer Look Messianic Judaism? One Minute of Prayer

Tradition And What We Believe

By Messianic Jewish Contributor, Mark Kigler

Many Jews and non-Jews as well,have seen the movie"Fiddler On The Roof."This is also true of believers in Yeshua.Isn't it interesting how the developing story follows our main character Tevye through his joys and sorrows  and He always manages to get through all  of this with the relationship he has with the almighty?

Tevye faces many challenges throughtout the movie.You see Tevye has five daughters and like any concerned papa would like to see them provided for the rest of their lives.One by one we see modern ideas challenging the"tradition".

"Love versus the arranged marriage" Oy Vey.What about tradition? Oh well.... A poor tailor wins over an arranged match with a well to do butcher.   The next daughter falls for a student,a revolutionary.and the third? Gevalt !! A non-Jew, a christian !!

Tevye, the G-d observing traditionalist has been bending his concept of tradtions throughout the movie for his first two daughters. But for his third daughter,who decides to marry a non-Jew  NO more bending. To quote Tevye "If i bend any more I will break".

Jewish tradition has held together the Jewish people for centuries.We ,as a people have survived holocaust, pogroms, crusades, inquisitions  and more.   For Tevye to even fathom the idea of giving his blessing to his daughter marrying someone in the Greek-Orthodox(Christian) faith is equivalent to  denying HIS G-D  and committing an unforgivable sin.

The interesting part of this is that Tevye will bend for love,for different ideology(the student revolutionary-communist), but  will not throw his Faith into the fire  by accepting a foreign religion that seems to go against all his core beliefs.    It brings up the question of how quick are we  as believers to throw Judaism,the religion of Jesus/Yeshua into that  fire?

Is Judaism and it's basic tenets as "strange' to us as the christian idea was to Tevye?     At least you can "love" someone and still practice Jewish ideals. You can also have progressive ideas and still be a Jew.

Can we as Messianic Jews (and Gentiles), believers in the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,  embrace the faith and customs of our forefathers and Messiah, and live a Messianic lifestyle as Yeshua and His disciples would have us to do, or will we constantly face people like Tevye who will look at us and our beliefs as totally unrecognizable and distasteful? The decision is ours to make.

                          TRADITION?