• Mikva for the ladies after service today at 2:30 at Jimmy and Ruthi’s• Second group for shooting practice.• My folks will be here on the 15th so that Tuesday he’ll be teaching live at our place, not via the internet but actually there.

• We will have full time missionaries in Israel this October!!!

• Larry and Dee Dee will be leaving for Israel indefinitely in October. They will be giving us live reports from Israel on Shabbats via their webcam.

• This week Bob and I will be going to Leavenworth to scout out a place for us to start our satellite Synagogue in that area. Keep us in prayer.• Leadership meeting this week. If you’re interested in being part of the leadership team, please call me for a reservation.

• We’ll basically be going over what is expected from those in leadership at Beit Aveinu. Only call if you’re very serious about being on the Leadership team. It doesn’t guarantee you’ll be accepted as leadership but if you don’t go, it kinda guarantees you wont be. If you can’t make it and you want to we can make another time available for you.

• If you are accepted onto the team, it doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be put into service right away. It’s on an individual basis depending many various factors. It’s open to both men and women.There’s many things women can do in leadershipthey just can’t be Rabbis.

•We don’t do this very often, about once a year.So if you don’t feel you’re ready this year, there’s always next year. We’ll also be setting up a Beit Din before too long. Beit Din means “House of Judgment”.It’s basically a Jewish court.

• A Beit Din is largely used for the following:• Validation of gittin (bills of divorce)• Biblical Kosher certification• Standards of observance• Conversion• Oversight of a Mikva• Determination of Jewish status• Judgments on disputes

• Concerning judgments of disputes, it’s always better to handle things in-house if possible.• These are the people that know and care about you.• Most times better then some judge who’s never laid eyes on you.• Sometimes a secular judge is best but you should always have an option. My dad will be sitting on the Beit Din. It is also Biblical…

•1 Cor. 6 •1 How dare one of you with a complaint against another go to court before pagan judges and not before God's people? 2 Don't you know that God's people are going to judge the universe? If you are going to judge the universe, are you incompetent to judge these minor matters?

•3 Don't you know that we will judge angels (messengers), not to mention affairs of everyday life? 4 So if you require judgments about matters of everyday life, why do you put them in front of men who have no standing in the Messianic Community? 5 I say, shame on you! Pretty straight forward.

• Next week “Messianic Pepper Spray part 2”• Also come and find out what the Gospel is.

One Shabbat morning, a mother went in to wake her son and tell him it was time to get ready for Synagogue, to which he replied, "I'm not going." "Why not?" she asked.

I'll give you two good reasons," he said. "(1), they don't like me, and (2), I don't like them." His mother replied, "I'll give you two good reasons why you SHOULD go to Synagogue:

1… You're 59 years old, and 2 you're the Chief Rabbi!"

““On the morning of the third On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and there was thick cloud over the mountain, and there was

the sounding of a very loud SHOFAR blast. the sounding of a very loud SHOFAR blast. Everyone in the camp trembled.”Everyone in the camp trembled.”

Please stand for the Shema and face east towards Jerusalem.

Shema Israel Adoni Shema Israel Adoni Elohaynu Adoni Echad.Elohaynu Adoni Echad.Barukh shem k'vod Barukh shem k'vod malkhuto l'olam va'ed.malkhuto l'olam va'ed.

Hear oh Israel the L-rd Hear oh Israel the L-rd our G-d is one L-rd. our G-d is one L-rd. Blessed be the Name of Blessed be the Name of His glorious kingdom for His glorious kingdom for ever and ever.ever and ever.

Because Messiah said it was the greatest Because Messiah said it was the greatest Commandment!Commandment!Mark 12:28-29Mark 12:28-292828 And one of the scribes came, and And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that He had answered them well, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “asked Him, “Which is the greatest Which is the greatest commandment of allcommandment of all?”?”2929 And Yeshua answered him, “The And Yeshua answered him, “The first first of allof all the commandments is, the commandments is, Hear, O Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is One Israel; The Lord our God is One Lord:”Lord:”

Please stand for the Israeli National Anthem!

Kol ‘od balleivav penimah Nefesh yehudi homiyahUl(e)fa’atei mizrach kadimah, ‘Ayin letziyon tzofiyah; ‘Od lo avdah tikvateinu,Hatikvah bat shnot alpayim, Lihyot‘am chofshi be’artzeinu,Eretz-tziyon (v)'Y(e)rushalayim.

We’re only going to do three songs today, we need to have enough time to finish the De-Judaization of the Galilee teaching.

O-seh Shalom Beem rue-mawvO-seh Shalom Beem rue-mawvWho yah-seh Shalom aw-lay nu Who yah-seh Shalom aw-lay nu V'al kol Yees-raw-aleV'al kol Yees-raw-aleB'-eem rue Eem rue Ah- mainB'-eem rue Eem rue Ah- main

Ya-a-seh sha-lom Ya-a-seh sha-lom Ya-a-seh sha-lom Ya-a-seh sha-lom Shalom aw-lay-new V’al kol Yees-raw-aleShalom aw-lay-new V’al kol Yees-raw-aleSing twice 2XSing twice 2X

May He who makes peace in May He who makes peace in His heights make peace upon His heights make peace upon us and upon all Israel…Amen.“us and upon all Israel…Amen.“Thank you BJ we’ll do two Thank you BJ we’ll do two songs from the videos now.songs from the videos now.

Kadosh

Adonai Lee

Meet new people! Let them see that Messianics truly understand community and brotherly/sisterly love. Say hello to old friends… show that you care!

• Next week, change in prayer structure.

• We’ll be doing it like they do in Synagogue. One prayer for the sick, one for unsaved loved ones then the governments of Israel and the US. And other specific needs.

• Prayer for Salvation for loved ones and the Jewish people

• Evi’s, Pam’s, Karin’s, Joann’s and Amy/Kathy’s family as well as for Jesse and Steve for Salvation and healing needs.• Joann Melcher’s upcoming surgery.

• Sha'alu shalom YerushalayimPray for the Peace of Jerusalem. May His Shalom (Yeshua) come quickly. • Pray for G-d’s will in the Middle East.

• Pray for our government andpray for Obama for G-d to smite him with true wisdom. • Pray for Social Security needs.• Pray for Holland that anti-semitic laws will not continue to pass

• Pastors in Wenatchee to see the truth of HaShem’s Torah.• For new Beit Aveinu Congregation in Leavenworth.•Teresa’s family for visas.• Joann’s sister for financial help.

• For victims of crime. Pray the victims will have courage to stand up and be heard.• Prayer over our tithes and offerings.• Messianic Evangelistic group in Vancouver BC

• Pray for continued blessings on Sandra’s son’s limousine service.• Pray for Chuck’s family for health• Alla, from Russia for her house matters to be taken care of for the right people to give her the right help.

Amy’s cousin for his foot for healing and recovery and bone infection.Wayne’s young friend, Luis for healing from stroke. Karin’s daughter for recovery.

Pray for the men of this valley to take their rightful place in the L-rd and continued growth in our Synagogue.Wilbur for his eyesPray for our nation for finances.

Evi’s cousin Jerry for healing for gout and wisdom for health and Salvation. Pam’s friend, Summer for her new jobFamily in Wenatchee house burned for the family and burn victims.

Mark for healing and recovery and Salvation.Joann’s mom for complete restoration. Helicopter down in Afghanistan soldiers familiesEND

Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Malachi 3:8

Blessing Before The Reading Of The Torah

Aug 13, 2011 Ve'etchanan ("And I besought")

Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11 Isaiah 40:1-26Acts 3-5

We’ll read…

Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22 Isaiah 1:1-27Acts 1-2

Aug 6, 2011 Devarim ("Words")

Deut 1 9-18Isaiah 1:1-9Acts 1:12-21

Deut 1:9-18

9 "At that time I told you, 'You are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone. 10 ADONAI your God has multiplied your numbers, so that there are as many of you today as there are stars in the sky. 11 May ADONAI, the God of your ancestors, increase you yet a thousandfold and bless you, as he has promised you!

Deut 1:9-18

12 But you are burdensome, bothersome and quarrelsome! How can I bear it by myself alone? 13 Pick for yourselves from each of your tribes men who are wise, understanding and knowledgeable; and I will make them heads over you.' 14 "You answered me, 'What you have said would be a good thing for us to do.'

Deut 1:9-18

15 So I took the heads of your tribes, men wise and knowledgable, and made them heads over you - leaders in charge of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens, and officers, tribe by tribe. 16 At that time I commissioned your judges, 'Hear the cases that arise between your brothers; and judge fairly between a man and his brother, and the foreigner who is with him.

Deut 1:9-18

17 You are not to show favoritism when judging, but give equal attention to the small and to the great. No matter how a person presents himself, don't be afraid of him; because the decision is God's. The case that is too hard for you, bring to me and I will hear it.' 18 I also gave you orders at that time concerning all the things you were to do. END (Baruch HaShem)

Isaiah 1: 1-9

1 This is the vision of Yesha'yahu the son of Amotz, which he saw concerning Y'hudah and Yerushalayim during the days of 'Uziyahu, Yotam, Achaz and Y'chizkiyahu, kings of Y'hudah: 2 "Hear, heaven! Listen, earth! For ADONAI is speaking. "I raised and brought up children, but they rebelled against me.

Isaiah 1: 1-9

3 An ox knows its owner and a donkey its master's stall, but Isra'el does not know, my people do not reflect. 4 "Oh, sinful nation, a people weighed down by iniquity, descendants of evildoers, immoral children! They have abandoned ADONAI, spurned the Holy One of Isra'el, turned their backs on him!

Isaiah 1: 1-9

5 "Where should I strike you next, as you persist in rebelling? The whole head is sick, the whole heart diseased. 6 From the sole of the foot to the head there is nothing healthy, only wounds, bruises and festering sores that haven't been dressed or bandaged or softened up with oil.

Isaiah 1: 1-9

7 "Your land is desolate, your cities are burned to the ground; foreigners devour your land in your presence; it's as desolate as if overwhelmed by floods. 8 The daughter of Tziyon is left like a shack in a vineyard, like a shed in a cucumber field, like a city under siege." 9 If ADONAI-Tzva'ot had not left us a tiny, tiny remnant, we would have become like S'dom, we would have resembled 'Amora. END (Baruch HaShem)

Acts 1:12-21

12 Then they returned the Shabbat-walk distance from the Mount of Olives to Yerushalayim. 13 After entering the city, they went to the upstairs room where they were staying. The names of the emissaries were Kefa, Ya'akov, Yochanan, Andrew, Philip, T'oma, Bar-Talmai, Mattityahu, Ya'akov Ben-Halfai, Shim'on "the Zealot," and Y'hudah Ben-Ya'akov.

Acts 1:12-21

14 These all devoted themselves single-mindedly to prayer, along with some women, including Miryam (Yeshua's mother), and his brothers. 15 During this period, when the group of believers numbered about 120, Kefa stood up and addressed his fellow-believers:

Acts 1:12-21

16 "Brothers, the Ruach HaKodesh spoke in advance through David about Y'hudah, and these words of the Tanakh had to be fulfilled. He was guide for those who arrested Yeshua - 17 he was one of us and had been assigned a part in our work."

Acts 1:12-21

18 (With the money Y'hudah received for his evil deed, he bought a field; and there he fell to his death. His body swelled up and burst open, and all his insides spilled out. 19 This became known to everyone in Yerushalayim, so they called that field Hakal-D'ma - which in their language means "Field of Blood").

Acts 1:12-21

20 "Now," said Kefa, "it is written in the book of Psalms, 'Let his estate become desolate, let there be no one to live in it'; and 'Let someone else take his place as a supervisor.' 21 Therefore, one of the men who have been with us continuously throughout the time the Lord Yeshua traveled around among us, END (Baruch HaShem)

Baruch atah Adonay Eloheynu melech ha'olam, asher bachar-banu mikol ha'amim, venatan-lanu et torah-to.Baruch atah Adonay, noten hatorah.

Blessed are You, LORD our God, king of the universe, who chose us from all the peoples and gave to us His Torah. Blessed are You, LORD, giver of the Torah.

TURN ON VIDEO

• Today we are going to talk again about the de-Judaization of Galilee.• I’m going to get this through if it kills me. • We’re going to do a quick review and then continue the second part.

• To de-Judaize means to take the Jewishness out of something.• In this case it’s taking away any Jewishness that is related to the area of the Galilee.

• The de-Judaization of the Galil (Galilee) is the second most anti-Semitic doctrine in the Church today.

• It’s important to understand this doctrine because if we take away the Jewishness of the Galilee we can then take away the Jewishness of Jesus Himself.

• It’s important to understand the region of the Galilee in the first century to both Jews and Christians.

• According to this false doctrine that the “Jews in Galilee were sparse”, Galilee was far removed from Jewish cultural life, as well as from the Torah and the observance of Biblical Law.

• Judea, they say, “was the only focus of real Jewish learning.”

• This doctrine at it’s fundamental core pits Yeshua and the “ignorant Disciples” against the religious (Jewish) establishment of Judea.

• According to this doctrine, “Only in a Galilee with a non-Jewish character could incipient Christianity have found its divine expression”.

• In other words, if Galilee was Jewish, Jesus couldn’t have come.

• These “scholars” have taken away the Jewishness of the Galil, turned the people of that area into idiots and made Jesus the leader of this region of idiots and a rag tag band of…

• Galilean imbeciles who He made into “Princes of His Kingdom”.

• Yeshua is made into a pauper (peasant), Peter always looks like the bumbling buffoon of little faith, “Doubting Thomas” is branded for eternity as an incompetent and Mathew the tax collector is his own brand of traitor and it’s all clinched with…

• “Can anything good come out of Nazereth???” and “Isn’t this the Jesus from Nazareth?”

• This is all spliced together to make a Gentilized Galilee.

• This doctrine leaves the unsaid idea that Jesus and the Disciples weren’t really all that Jewish in the first place.

• Christian Scholars claim that “only one sage—Rabbi Yose ha-Galili—came from Galilee; a few living in Galilee were Jews, but not religious” .

• This is the major basis for their thesis.

• They contend…”Galilee was a focal point of Hellenistic cities and centers of Hellenistic culture, and the Jewish content of Galilee was extremely sparse.”

• The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, one of the most widely distributed and influential Biblical reference works goes so far as to say that Jews were but a minority in the Galilee region.

• MOST Bible Dictionaries and Bible Encyclopedias report a strong Gentile majority in the Galilee.

• By doing so, they have reduced the Jewish context of Yeshua and many of the Disciples.

• One may say, “Well, I’ve never heard that at my Church.” I’d bet 90% of you have heard this doctrine but you simply didn’t recognize it.

• BTW Where else are you going to hear false doctrine? At Church!

• That’s not a slam at Churches either.• I can make my case simply by saying, “How many

denominations are there? They can’t all be right can they.

• The de-Judaization of the Galilee is a clever tactic of the Enemy to take away yet one more building block of the Jewishness of the New Testament.

• They might as well come out and say it. Why mince words?

• If you want to be like Jesus, stay away from the Jews and their religion.

• Do you see where these roots lead?• The de-Judaization of the Galilee is the beginning

root of taking away the Jewishness of Jesus.

• If Jesus was born in a Gentile region and if He was raised in an area which was heavily influenced by Gentiles and if Jesus went on to fight against the Jews to establish a Gentile religion called Christianity, then wasn’t Jesus already basically a Gentile?

• We then went over who was really building the middle wall of partition. It’s Gentile Believers who are NOT secure in their lawlessness.

• It is they who become uncomfortable with our observance of G-d’s Laws.

• They become un-nerved with our being Jews.

• So, the de-Judaization of Galilee is the first domino.

• If they can establish that, they can simply sit back and watch the rest fall.

• Any serious discussion of the Jewishness of Yeshua rests on this topic.

• The claim of a “strong Gentile presence in the Galilee” has been an important component of the argument that Galilee was thoroughly infused with Greco-Roman culture an argument largely based on purported archeological finds.

• Of which there are none.• That doesn’t stop people like Robert W Funk

and other Biblical scholars from saying things like this…

• “semi-pagan Galilee whose inhabitants, because they were often of mixed blood and open to foreign influence, were despised by the ethnically pure Judeans to the south.”

• Or “Greek was widely used in semi-pagan Galilee, in Hellenistic cities like Sepphoris”.

• Greek language huh? Remember…if you’re going to de-Judaize something, better make sure you get rid of Hebrew first.

Robert W. Funk

• Birger A. Pearson is an American scholar studying early Christianity and Gnosticism. He currently holds the positions of Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Professor and Interim Director of the Religious Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley….

Professor Birger A. Pearson holds a Ph.D. in New Testament and Christian Origins from Harvard. Pearson was one of the original translators of the Nag Hammadi library. He writes…

• “Robert W. Funk projects a non-Jewish Jesus. To put it metaphorically the Jesus Seminar has performed a forcible epispasm on the historical Jesus, a surgical procedure for removing the marks of circumcision.

• Remember these so called “scholars” have taken their excelled education and they use it solely to delegitimize the Jewishness of Yeshua, that’s evil!

• Why is it so evil?• Because if you can take away the

Jewishness of the Galilee even before Jesus is born…

• Then you don’t have to prove anything else from that point. If you have a virtually pagan Jesus, then you’ve just made paganism a good thing.

• That finishes the review. • Now, I’ve thought of a way to start off this

second part so I can show you the importance of this.

• We all know the mess the Church (in general) is in because they’ve taken away the Jewishness of Jesus and His culture right?

• I think we’re all on the same page there.

• We understand that is a huge problem and that there are many misunderstandings due to the fact that if you take out His Jewishness you have little left in the Bible to deal with.

• So we understand the magnitude of that problem.

• Most Messianics think the root of this problem is the Christian belief that when Jesus died on the cross, Judaism was done away with and a new religion was started (Christianity).

• What I’m saying is that is NOT the root of the problem.

• What I’m saying is the root of this problem goes to before Yeshua was even born.

• This is the root of this sneaky, surreptitious (secret) , anti-Semitic doctrine that has gone undetected for years.

• And G-d’s Holy Spirit has revealed it in this day and age.

• So, if you can take away the Jewishness of the Galilee area, taking away the Jewishness of Jesus is easy.

• When dealing with non-Messianics first deal with Galilee then after that’s established, deal with Paul’s writings.

• False teacher, Bishop John Shelby Spong says …

• In any event, if you wish to have some sense of the Jesus of history, it is to Galilee, not Jerusalem or Bethlehem, that you will go. Galilee is the province that shaped Jesus of Nazareth. The story of Jesus is drawn into the Jerusalem orbit by the power of that city and by the negativity of the Jewish people toward Galilee in the first century. As the Bible tells the Jesus story, his Galilean roots and Christianity's Galilean origins become obvious.

• Did you get his 3 step message?1. “Galilee shaped Jesus”2. Jews were against Galilee3. The roots of Christianity (that of Galilee) are

against the Jews

• Once your eyes are opened to this, you begin to see the genius of The Enemy’s plan.

1. Take away the Jewishness of the Galil.2. Take away the Jewishness of Jesus.3. Take away the need for G-d’s (so called

“Jewish”) Laws.

4. Christians can sin openly via grace.5. The World (including un-Saved Jews) can

mock all that Christianity is supposed to stand for.

• I call it Satan’s 5-step plan for deceiving everyone!!!

• This deception doesn’t all start at the cross.

• The root of it all is the de-Judaization of the Galilee.

• One of the many key components of the de-Judaization of the Galil is to pit Yeshua against the Jewish establishment in Judea.

• You can NOT pit Yeshua against the Jews OR the Jewish leadership or they against Him.

• “But what about the whole Jewish Sanhedrin that condemned him at His trial. It says so in Matt 26:59 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death.

• You gotta watch those Greek words! Whole, All, Some, Few etc. Not trustworthy in Greek.

• Luke 2:1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed .

• I don’t think the American Indians got that memo.

• It wasn’t talking about the known world either because Caesar fought other countries, didn’t conquer them, and they didn’t pay him a dime ever!

• We know for a fact that the Sanhedrin wouldn’t meet during Pasach or any other holiday, it was forbidden! They also never met at night and they also had to allow a 24 hour period before rendering a verdict of death.

• The trial of Yeshua did not encompass the whole Sanhedrin court, just a small, few amount of it’s members.

• Which members?• Only some Sadducees.• Not one Pharisee was involved.

• You know the whole Sanhedrin included Pharisees.

• I’ll have you notice, that after Yeshua’s arrest, in the Greek New Testament there is no further usage of the word “Pharisee” in connection with Yeshua in any of the Gospels.

• In other words, the Pharisees wouldn’t have nothing to do with it. The Pharisees were in bed with the Sicarii (Jewish Death Squads) and it was considered treason to turn over any Jew to the Roman Authorities. That was a death sentence! Pharisees were NOT involved.

• You also gotta remember that none of the Jews had the power to put anyone to death at that time.

• Only the Roman government had that power. I joke around and say “If you wanna blame someone for the death of Jesus, blame the Italians”. The truth of it is, why do you think it was the Roman (Italian) Catholic Church that persecuted the Jews so much early on?

• The Crusaders killed thousands upon thousands of Jews, the Inquisition (Catholics) killed thousands and thousands more.

• Reason? If it wasn’t the Jews who were responsible, who else was involved?

• They felt they had to get a jump on the gun.

• The Italian leaders didn’t want anyone lookin at them.

• So how do we prove that the Galil was Jewish?

• There’s various ways to do this.• First, you have to disprove their idea that

there weren’t any Jewish sages in that area in the First Century.

• How do we do that? We look at ancient writings from that time.• First person to note is Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai.

• We’ve talked about him before in the Talmud 101 course. • He was a primary contributor to the core text of the Mishna (Oral Codes) and the Rabbi to Rabbi Eleazer a follower of Yeshua.

• He was a teacher in Arav, Israel. He grew up there and then lived there for an additional 18 years.• More then once in various Rabbinical writings (Shabbat 16:7; 22:3) does it speak of him teaching in the Galil.

x

x

• Do you remember Rabbi Hanina Ben Dosa?We’ve also talked about him in Talmud 101• Do you remember he was a healer who lived at the time of Yeshua.

• I told you the story of the son of Johanan ben Zakkai he was very sick, the father solicited the prayers of Hanina. Hanina readily complied, and the child recovered.

• The messenger who had asked Hanina to pray, after Hanina had prayed… the messenger wrote down the exact time of the prayer and when he returned he discovered that the boy had been healed at exactly that hour.

• Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa was from Arav too!In fact he was one of Rabbi Yochanon Ben Zakkai’s talmidim in Arav.

• Now, there are some people who don’t have a problem saying Jesus was Jewish, but they’ll still try to de-Judaize the Galilee. • I don’t let them get away with it and neither should you.

•I’m going to throw a lot of names at you in this teaching, but if you take one name away from this, remember Rabbi Yochanon Ben Zakkai.• He’s known as one of the greatest Rabbis in all of Judaism.

• Right along with Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Eleazer, Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Shammai.• And just remember that Rabbi Zakkai is from the Galilee and he had many students from there.

• So, there are many other well known Rabbis who came from or taught in that area…

• Rabbi Halafta• Rabbi Hananiah (Hanina) ben Teradyon• Rabbi Eleazer ben Azariah• Rabbi Zadok and • Rabbi Elisha ben Avuyah

• Rabbi Jose ben Kisma• Rabbi Judah, one of the most frequently mentioned sages in Tannaitic literature, was from Usha (Galilee region).• His Father Rabbi Ilai was also from there…

• Rabbi Ilai used to take walks on the shore of the Galilee with Rabbi Gamaliel (Paul’s Rabbi) whenever Gamaliel would visit that area. • Rabbi Johanan ben Nuri was from the Galil.• The list goes on and on!

• “Well, why doesn’t someone call out these so called Scholars and show our Christian brothers and sisters the truth?”

• Many have tried to teach the Church concerning false doctrine. It hasn’t worked for the last 2,000 years.• People wont listen.• We can’t even get people to understand that we should keep G-d’s Holy Laws.• Try talking to them about Jewish Rabbis.

• Their eyes start to gloss over then they whisper about how you’re “under the Law.”• The Scholars know this and not only that, Orthodox Rabbis know there’s a lot of false doctrine in the Church too.

• Orthodox Rabbis who have gone through Yeshiva have read the New Testament many times.• They used to teach the New Testament in High School in Israel as history minus the faith aspects of it.

• No offense but I had buddies in High School in Israel that knew the Bible better then most Christians in the U.S.• They know it doesn’t match up with what Christians teach.

• OK, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus was one of the sages with numerous ties to Galilee. Although he came from the South where his property was located, we find him several times in Galilee where he had disciples.

• He was suspected of being a Jewish Believer in Yeshua and was arrested by the authorities for that offense.

• He remembered that “Once he had been walking in the public road of Sepphoris (in the Galil near Nazareth) and began to talk with Jacob of Kefar Sikhnin, who transmitted to me a teaching in the name of Yeshua of Nazareth.”

• This incident dates from before the destruction of the Temple because he speaks as when tension with the Jewish Believers was not great and a sage could have stopped to hear a teaching in the name of Yeshua.

• This was probably Rabbi Eleazer’s point of Belief. When he became a Believer in Yeshua.• How would you like to have heard that conversation between Rabbi Eleazer and Jacob of Kefar Sikhnin ?

• Jacob of Kefar Sikhnin may have heard the very words of Yeshua and was probably the son of Jude, Yeshua’s brother. • Rabbi Eleazer was one of the greatest Rabbis of all time and he hears the truth from Yeshua’s very own nephew and believes.

• Then as a Messianic, Rabbi Eleazer would surely want to spend more time in the Galil with other Messianics in that area.

• There’s other ways we know that the Galilee was largely populated by Jews.• There were Rabbinic Courts in the Galilee• The court of Rabbi Hanina ben Teradyon in Sikhnin, and of Elisha ben Avuyah were both in the Galil.

• Contrary to what we’re taught in Church, there were also many praise worthy things said of the Galileans by both the Judeans and those of Jerusalem.• The Jews of Galilee were admired and looked up to by the Jews of Judea.• Not despised as the Church teaches.

• In Bible school they taught us that the Galileans were crude and uneducated. • Here’s what one commentator writes…

“Not only did the urban sophisticated of Jerusalem look down upon the Galileans because of their social status but the Galileans had a history of associating with the pagan communities along their borders so their piety was often questioned as well…

We hear this prejudice in the first chapter of the gospel of John. Jesus calls Philip to be one of his twelve disciples. Philip rushes over to tell his friend Nathanael that he and Andrew and Peter had found the new Messiah in Jesus, to which Nathanael replies, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"

• Very little of that is true!• Nathaniel was from the Galilee too!• And notice he said can anything good come from Nazareth, not Galilee!

• Why’d he even say that? Nathaniel was from Cana, Cana was a more well established town. Nazareth was a new town, not as well known so there was some rivalry there.

• But to take the leap that the Galilean Jews were crude and uneducated… that is sinister. Most of them quote Geza Vermes a Catholic Priest in England in the early 1900’s on the issue. What does he know?• The facts are clear, the Jews of the Galil were educated and refined.

• Some will also point to Isaiah chapter 9:1 to drive it home that Galilee was Gentile…• It’s speaking about the birth of the Messiah…•1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan.

• This runs back to the problem of NOT understanding

the Hebrew word “Goyim”! גויים• It can mean Gentiles OR it can mean NATIONS!

• Exodus 19:6 "'But you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy

nation (goy) גוי.' These are the words that you shall speak to the children of Israel.“ • It’s not saying that Jews are a nation of Gentiles! Nobody thinks that.

• There’s many examples of this word in Scripture. • It’s used 558 times in the Tanach (Old Testament) and only 30 of those times is it referencing specifically Gentiles.• In that passage in Isaiah it should’ve been translated “Galilee of the nations”. Look at the context, it’s speaking of the Redeemer of the world!

• That’s the thing with Hebrew, it’s all about context.• We talked about this in Hebrew class last week didn’t we?• Every word in Hebrew is about context.• If you take things out of context, you’re stuck with a bunch of nonsense.

• Archeologically , there is NO basis for a Gentile Galilee.• We have found many houses in Sepphoris (the town that the so called scholars said didn’t have a Jewish population) and in these houses we found Mikvas!

• A mikvah in someones house was a sign of affluence. • Only the very wealthy could afford a Mikva in their home. • They were wealthy and refined.

• The Jews of the Galil were also very strict in their observance of Torah and Halacha (Jewish codes) and that was even noted by the Jews of Jerusalem (Tosefta 3:18).

• Many well known Jews lived in that area.• In tractate Sukkah it says… It once happened that Rabbi Eliezer, who resided in Upper Galilee, was asked thirty laws of the laws of the sukkah.

• Where did he reside? In Galilee.• If you wanted the strict answers, go to the Galil.

• From Rabbinical and other writings that date to the first century we see a broad picture of commandments being observed more scrupulously and strictly there than in Judea.

There’s more… another way we know of a flourishing Jewish life in that area is that Synagogues are to be found in Nazareth,

Capernaum and in all the cities of Galilee, even the New Testament attests to that fact… Mark 1:21 and 6:1; Luke 4:21; John 6:59.Did you know we’ve found a synagogue even in Nazereth?

This very synagogue is written of in Luke 4:16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up : and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read .

• So you can’t blame a lack of knowledge of Jewish works here. “Pastor doesn’t know all those Rabbinical references” It’s in the New Testament! If you got synagogues, you got Jews! Religious Jews!

• In Conclusion, DO NOT let the de-Judaization of the Galilee slip by.• If it means “you’re causing division” or “you’re rebuilding the middle wall of partition” or that…

• “you think you know so much” You’re arrogant” don’t let it get by you because others are listening too and you may be the only link they have to the truth.• That doesn’t mean you’re supposed to submerse yourself among the ignorant…

• Jesus didn’t.• Let’s stand for the benediction.