| Letter#3 Origin
of Reform Judaism
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| My dear Mr. Isaacs: |
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| I am in receipt
of letter of recent date, in which you object to my classification of Reform Judaism as
"man-made." I hasten to reply thereto, though the answers to your first letter
have not yet been completed. My declaration is so firmly an established fact, that it surprises me to have you ask, "Is not ancient Judaism 'man-made' according to your line reasoning? Did not the understanding of it come through a man? Is it not called the Mosaic Law?" It is so designated, yet it is not man-made, as Moses was not the author, and has never been so declared in Israel. He was only the human instrumental agent through whom God placed His Law in the keeping of the Children of Israel. It was to be obeyed, and carried forth by Israel, until the "Prophet God will raise up" Cain, as Moses said, whom "though shalt hear" (Deut. 18:15). He came. He is the Messiah, Jesus, whom you refuse to hear as God said you should. Converts from the Synagogue to the Church giving Him ear, cry out, as did Nathaniel, who became St. Bartholomew the Apostle, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets wrote" (St. John I:45). Reform Judaism is man-made because it was introduced into Jewry by men who had no authority whatsoever to modify the Law that came from God through Moses and the Prophets, for instance, by repudiating belief in a personal Messiah. Jewry has not, and never did have, any more power to repudiate belief in the coming of a personal Messiah than the Catholic Church has to repudiate the belief in His second coming. The Messiah made His first appearance out of Bethlehem Ephrata, as foretold by Michaes (5:2); and the Messiah promised to come again, this time in all His glory. While Reform Judaism claims Moses Mendelssohn (Berlin, 1729-1786) as its its progenitor, its real real existence as a Judaic sect is due to the work of the two German modernized Rabbis mentioned in my last letter. As proof of its human origin, I herewith present a quotation from the "Encyclopedia of Jewish Knowledge" (N.Y., 1934, p. 267) - "Reform Judaism began in Germany in the first quater of the 19th century, and there particularly under the great leaders, Samuel Holdstein and Abraham Geiger, experienced its largest initial growth and acheivement." It is most important to keep in mind the fact that ancient Judaism was the product of the covenant God made with Abraham, the ancestor of Israel, about the year 2083 B.C.; and that God did not make any covenant with Moses Mendelssohn, Samuel Holdstein, Abraham Geiger, or any American Rabbi, thirty-nine or fourty centuries later. Its importance lies in that the only religion man is morally obligated to obey is a God-made religion. Ancient, and not modern Judaism is therefore the religion to which man is duty-bound to submit his will for direction in matters of faith and morals, IF the Law of Judaism has not been fulfilled in the coming of Jesus as the Messiah, and the establishment by Him of the Church to take place of the Temple and the Synagogues. My disire to follow the will of God would lead me prayerfully to wear the tephillin* in the Synagogue today, instead of praying with beads in the Church, IF the King of the Jews, predicted to come, had not come and had not substituted one spiritual society for the other. |
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