Dear Refiner's Fire...


Your site asserts the following (on Challenging Rabbi Shraga Simmons):

HOW, pray tell, can anyone be "healed" by the bruises of Israel or the Jews? Has the world been healed by our sufferings? Hardly. If anything, anti-Semitism keeps rearing its ugly head ever higher and more viciously. People haven't learned anything from the past. We are sinful creatures, prone to sinning. The world has become more awful and decadent than ever. People are totally out of control. Children no longer obey their parents. Abortions are commonplace. Terrorism is keeping the world hostage.

Homosexuality is being pushed on us like never before - and starting to be accepted as "normal". All of God's Commandments are being ridiculed; "right" is now "wrong" and vice versa. These days you run the risk of being murdered just because somebody doesn't like your looks. Has the suffering of us Jews done anything, whatsoever to make the world a better place? If you think it has, you are seriously deluding yourself!

Just exactly HOW did Adonai lay on the JEWS the "guilt of all of us"? If that were true, what are you going to do about it? Furthermore, if the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 is "Israel" as Rabbi Simmons claims, HOW can the servant die as a substitute for the sins of Isaiah's people - Israel? That would mean that Israel is dying as a substitute for the sins of Israel...which doesn't make sense! Again - you are grasping at straws!

REF YOUR QUESTION: HOW, pray tell, can anyone be "healed" by the bruises of Israel or the Jews? Has the world been healed by our sufferings?

MY ANSWER: It is a well-understood kabbalistic idea that, in great part, by virtue of the very suffering of the Jewish people that the entire world attains its perfection, or, "tikkun." Of course, like the first great redemption, from Egypt, the relationship between a long period of increasing suffering and redemption is not clear until the actual redemption itself, and the darkness always gets darkest just before the break of dawn.

REF YOUR QUESTION: HOW did Adonai lay on the JEWS the "guilt of all of us"?

I OFFER THIS ANSWER: All of mankind are children of Adam, and suffer as a consequence of his sin. The Jews are the nation chosen to rectify that sin for the benefit of all mankind.

REF YOUR QUESTION: If that were true, what are you going to do about it?

I OFFER THIS ANSWER: What we Jews do about the suffering is continue to be humble and loving servants of G-d, with a faithful understanding that service notwithstanding suffering is part of our mission to participate in G-d's salvation of mankind.

REF YOUR QUESTION: Furthermore, if the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 is "Israel" as Rabbi Simmons claims, HOW can the servant die as a substitute for the sins of Isaiah's people - Israel? That would mean that Israel is dying as a substitute for the sins of Israel...which doesn't make sense!

I OFFER THIS ANSWER: Clearly, the Jewish people can suffer as an atonement for the sins of the Jewish people themselves, and for the nations, which is the fact in this instance. In fact, since Jewish failings contribute to the failings of the nations, Jews all the more bear responsibility and consequential suffering.

Your questions are so easy to answer. Perhaps it is you that are grasping at straws?

Justin



Our Response....


Dear Justin,

Thank you for writing. Here are our responses to your comments:

YOUR QUESTION/ANSWER: HOW, pray tell, can anyone be "healed" by the bruises of Israel or the Jews? Has the world been healed by our sufferings? ...It is a well-understood kabbalistic idea that, in great part, by virtue of the very suffering of the Jewish people that the entire world attains its perfection, or, "tikkun." Of course, like the first great redemption, from Egypt, the relationship between a long period of increasing suffering and redemption is not clear until the actual redemption itself, and the darkness always gets darkest just before the break of dawn.

RESPONSE: First of all, kabbalah is "well-understood" only by the Jews - and only those who actually dabble in it. Secondly, Kabbalistic mysticism, in short, is astrology. It isn't Biblical; it is a man-made concept, and therefore has no merit in God's eyes. God hates anything to do with astrology, witchcraft, etc. (Please see our article on kabbalah.)

  • Isaiah 47:13-14 says, "All the counsel you have received has only worn you out! Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you. Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame. Here are no coals to warm anyone; here is no fire to sit by."

  • Deuteronomy 17:2-5 says that those who worshipped the sun, moon, or stars were to be stoned.

  • Leviticus 20:6 says God will separate himself from those who go after mediums and familiar spirits.

  • Deuteronomy 18:10-12 says that practicing witchcraft, sorcery, soothsaying, interpreting omens, making spells, and being a medium or spiritist, are all terrible sins to God.

  • Deuteronomy 18:9-11 says, "Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft..."

YOUR QUESTION/ANSWER: HOW did Adonai lay on the JEWS the "guilt of all of us"? ...All of mankind are children of Adam, and suffer as a consequence of his sin. The Jews are the nation chosen to rectify that sin for the benefit of all mankind.

RESPONSE: The question is, HAS it? Have the Jews rectified that sin yet? If so, WHEN are they going to get off their duffs and rectify it? WHY, if they have the power to rectify man's sin, have they allowed the world to become more decadent than ever? We are now in the times equivalent to Noah's days where God destroyed the whole world with the flood. We are in the End Times, as outlined in the Bible; we are facing the arising of the Antichrist. So WHERE have the Jews been to "rectify that sin"? HOW are the Jews going to save us? Only the BIBLE has that answer - and that answer is in the New Covenant!

YOUR QUESTION/ANSWER: If that were true, what are you going to do about it? ...What we Jews do about the suffering is continue to be humble and loving servants of G-d, with a faithful understanding that service notwithstanding suffering is part of our mission to participate in G-d's salvation of mankind.

RESPONSE: The thing is, HOW are you going to be the "salvation of mankind"? Is all of Israel going to act as a sacrifical lamb? Sin has always required the blood of a PERFECT offering. Are Jews perfect enough to be that final sacrifice? Is ANYBODY perfect enough? Furthermore, Jews have not cornered the market on suffering....

YOUR QUESTION/ANSWER: Furthermore, if the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 is "Israel" as Rabbi Simmons claims, HOW can the servant die as a substitute for the sins of Isaiah's people - Israel? That would mean that Israel is dying as a substitute for the sins of Israel...which doesn't make sense! .....Clearly, the Jewish people can suffer as an atonement for the sins of the Jewish people themselves, and for the nations, which is the fact in this instance. In fact, since Jewish failings contribute to the failings of the nations, Jews all the more bear responsibility and consequential suffering.

RESPONSE: I'm sorry but that answer is plain ridiculous. Again, SIN requires BLOOD SACRIFICE. Neither WE JEWS - nor anyone else in this universe -qualifies as "perfect, blemishless lambs". Suffering in itself does NOT make atonement for anything. If it does, please show me the exact Scripture that says so.

YOUR FINAL COMMENT: Your questions are so easy to answer. Perhaps it is you that are grasping at straws?

RESPONSE: Our statements line up with the Bible. Do yours?