While I agree with your comments at #3 (and with Mike at #7), in that what they are doing is wrong, before we blast, we need examine ourselves. Pull the plank from our own eye. Mike states that, “all the evidence they need is right in front of them.” I agree, but our Lord was crucified and raised 2000+ years ago, and there has been a lot of water under the bridge since then. Have we done our part to remind them as a people and a nation what “evidence” they are overlooking? Or are we simply reversing the story around, making them the Samaritans, tax collectors, and harlots and making ourselves the Pharisees?

But in regards to the video, it is quite revolting…looks more like a brouhaha that could just of easily surrounded a street-brawl or dog-fight rather than a solemn sacrifice.

My heart broke for them when I saw this video (maybe I should have felt bad for the lamb..wasted in a sense…the curse of Deuteronomy covers this) because of their choosing such ignorance when all the evidence they need is right in front of them if ethinic pride didn’t take such a formidible place in their lives. I wish we had some of that “Zealot” attitude in the church today…as far as having the ZEAL of the LORD for those things He truly does prescribe. I guess at least from their perspective they are trying to appease “their” God but He is not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Can we (you) get a Q & A page set up? Call it “Inquisito” or something like that….

You are a model of civility and grace! Thank you for the clarification!

The way I was reading you, you were highlighting the differences between what they were doing and what was actually commanded in their Scriptures. I was attempting to show how what they were doing might make actually sense within their Scriptural framework–particularly their commitment to keeping Torah and their hope that God would restore the Temple. While I don’t agree with it, I think seeing things from their perspective helps it to be a little less “strange,” “bizarre,” or “not normal.”

I probably should have introduced myself. I’m a believer in Jesus, Jewish by birth. I’ve been following BH for some months, and enjoying it–particularly your series on Romans 3. I didn’t grow up in the Reformed tradition, but I’ve definitely benefited from it as I continue to study the Bible. I’m not trying to be contentious or stir something up…I just thought I’d chime in on something that caught my interest…and that maybe my perspective could help! :-)

Keep on blogging!

Jonathan

I’m not sure I understand your comment at all. I don’t know if you are just trying to crawl inside their skin and see things from their perspective. If so, that’s fine. I understand and appreciate the concern.

But you seem to think that if somehow the present-day Jewish people were to build a temple, that they would be able to “truly keep the command” to sacrifice lambs. No way.

For them to build “a temple” would in itself be a act of disobedience and rebellion against God’s new order since the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, the Lamb. Any “sacrifices” offered in such an environment would be high treason against the Lamb of God.

First: since the temple has been destroyed, Jews have NOT been offering the lamb sacrifice. This is the significance of the burnt bone on the seder plate at every Passover seder in Jewish homes–to bring to mind the lamb sacrifice and that the temple is still destroyed. Many Jews don’t even eat lamb at Passover because they don’t want to trespass the command to sacrifice the lamb only at the temple. Check out these links for examples.
http://judaism.about.com/library/3_askrabbi_o/bl_simmons_passoverlambwhen.htm
http://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/270479/jewish/The-Shank-Bone.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korban_Pesach

So then: what is this video? Among the orthodox religious Jews in Israel, there are some groups who are zealous to restore the Temple. The following article describes their attempts each year to sacrifice a lamb on the Temple mount.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/844722.html

It’s my best guess that the folks at Sourceflix met up with one of these groups and filmed them killing a lamb.

Even though I think the men doing this are mistaken and their attempts to get onto the Temple mount are probably unhelpful politically, I think it’s important to at least see their actions in the spirit in which they are done. Criticizing this what they’re doing because there’s no temple, altar, or priests is a bit like kicking a man while he’s down–you can be sure that these men pray fervently every day for God to restore the temple.

As for it being a “big production” with lots of men standing around–I think the video’s title is unhelpful here b/c it misses the point. I don’t think these men are killing the lamb in order to try to directly fulfill the Ex. 12 commandments or carry out what used to go on in the Temple. If they were, you would (rightly) expect that they would be sacrificing a lot more lambs–one for each household. Therefore I think that something else is taking place here for this community.

I think the best way to understand it might be as a sort of “prophetic action”–by killing this lamb, they’re expressing their faith that God will one day restore the Temple, so that in that day they can truly keep the command. Note that they wouldn’t be directly violating the command not to sacrifice except in the place God chooses unless they burned the lamb on an altar which is in some place other than the temple mount. So they (probably) are killing the lamb but not burning it. This is why the title is wrong: killing an animal doesn’t make a sacrifice. By definition, it takes an altar, fire, and a (would-be) priest to make it a sacrifice, right?

A final suggestion: these men may even be killing the lamb in faith that even this year, God would miraculously restore the temple mount, so that they would have a lamb ready to burn on the altar for Passover.

Of course, those are just my speculations about what they’re doing. I’d be curious to know more about what is going on. For example, I wonder what they’re going to do with the blood? (I assume it’s going on some doorposts.)

Anyone fluent in Hebrew?

-Jonathan