Zola Levitt Ministries Blog

By Myles Weiss  

Yom Kippur ended last evening. The previous night, the cantor (singing rabbi) had recited the famous Kol Nidre, which means All Vows. This haunting prayer-song became part of the liturgy after the Spanish Inquisition. During that “long holocaust” of hundreds of years, many Jewish people were forced to convert to Catholicism to avoid execution. They vowed publicly to eschew Hebrew practices, but secretly kept their Jewish identity alive. They became known as the anusim or hidden ones. God is currently revealing them in the Western world, and many believe they will be part of another aliyah (moving back to Israel) in the coming years, as described in Obadiah 20.Yom Kippur is the Holiest Jewish holiday, and is observed even by secular Jews.

When I was a young boy in Hebrew school, my friends and I would have contests to see who could fast the longest. Not the purpose of a fast, this self aggrandizement, but part of a young approach to Jewish life for some.

Yom Kippur traditions include the following:

• We don’t eat or drink
• We don’t wash
• We don’t use lotions or perfumes
• We don’t wear leather footwear
• We abstain from marital relations

There is a tradition of wearing white to symbolize our repentance and reach for purity. This tradition looks forward to the  statement from above:

“He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”  (Revelation 3:5)

The Day of Atonement was the time for the Cohen Ha Gadol (High Priest) to approach the Lord in the Holy of Holies:

“Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die.”  (Leviticus 16:2)

 The Azazel, or scapegoat, was an integral part of the ceremony:

But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat.”  (Leviticus 16:10)

 Since we are living in the time of  “No Temple/No Sacrifice,” some Orthodox  Jews practice kapparot (covering) — they pass a live chicken over the head of the one making repentance, and then the fowl is sacrificed and donated to a needy family for food. It is a sincere, if ineffective, way of repenting, using the three modern practices of the season:

• Tefilah = prayer
• Teshuvah = repentance
• Tzedakah = charity

Yom Kippur is a Holy Day and sets us up to celebrate Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, in five days. As the seventh and conclusive Feast, Sukkot contains many prophetic pictures of Emmanuel, which means God with us!

By Myles Weiss

We are standing inside a gift to Israel from Russian sculptors — a Holocaust memorial that opens to giant wings!

Growing up in New York, it was not unusual for me to see numbers tattooed on the forearms of shopkeepers, deli-owners, and random friends and relatives. It seemed a silent but significant witness to us, the younger generation. We would look at the number, look up at the face watching us see it, and move on in our contact. No words were exchanged. The look said a lot.

It seemed to speak, “Yes I was there, I saw it, lived it, and got out alive. It’s all true. Don’t ask me about it”.

No wonder General Dwight Eisenhower commanded his media men, “Take as many photos and films as you can, because some day some b****** is going to say this never happened!”

Prescient of old Ike, huh?

He intuitively saw ahead to our day … and the denial that was forthcoming.

As the Jewish world pauses today to remember the Holocaust, the refrain from deniers continues unabated.  From Iran through the Arab world to Neo-Nazis in the West, there are those who are committed to blotting out the truth of the Nazi era and its profound, near total success at genocide. We watch with bewilderment as the Iranian regime denies the Holocaust while promising another one!

However, in the midst of the dulling noise of denial, a new force is rising in the earth. It is the sound of those Christians who are standing with Israel and the Jewish people. These believers in the God of Abraham stand with the natural children of Abraham and proclaim, “Never again!” Regardless of epithets hurled at them by mainstream media, politicians, and pundits, these champions are the spiritual offspring of Oskar Schindler, Corrie ten Boom, Raoul Wallenberg, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Out from the darkness of the tunnel that symbolizes those Holocaust years and into the Psalm 91-promise of God over the Jewish people.
Life overcomes death, light overcomes darkness!

The people of Israel and those Jews who recognize the miracle of the Jewish State’s existence stand in awe of this new era.

It seems to be a transitional season between where we are now in history and the soon-coming Messianic Age. The destiny of Jews and Christians are merging in many unforeseen ways.

Of course, God saw it all ahead of (and outside of) time. He showed Ezekiel that the graves of Europe would open and the people would be planted in the Land, and then clean water would be sprinkled on them. Clean water is the spiritual renewal that has begun, as Israelis open the Torah and the whole Tanakh, and some of them are seeing the Messiah! Christians are sharing the Good News, some with wisdom and cultural sensitivity.

In the middle, between the “gentile-born, grafted-in Christians” and the modern Orthodox, “Bible-believing, living-in-the-heartland” Jews, stand Messianic Believers.

Misunderstood by nearly everyone, this small (in numbers)  cadre of “both/and” folks continues to live as Jews while honoring Yeshua (Jesus) as Messiah.

Naturally, we live with varying levels of halachah, kashrut, and shomer shabbat … as does the rest of our Jewish mishpochah. Some of us are extremely observant, and others of us are less so.

Just like the rest of the Jews worldwide.

As you may have heard, “two Jews, three opinions” — we are a people who have many opinions and approaches to living the Jewish life. That characteristic comes with us into our life with Messiah. We have some very liturgical synagogue-style congregations, some small groups that meet in homes, large “Jewish-flavored churchy” meetings, and every thing in-between. Very Jewish is our multicolored tapestry of ways to worship the one true God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and His Mashiach, Yeshua.

In Israel, the Messianic community is engaged with the culture in creative and honoring ways. Their sons and daughters serve with distinction in the IDF and other armed forces. Here in the Diaspora, the Jewish Believers have as many lifestyles as Jews anywhere, from extremely observant to casual commitment, from synagogue-like to church-like.

We truly are a peculiar people, as Shimon Kefa (Peter) told us in his epistle, and often find ourselves being mislabeled and misunderstood. Apparently, we are not Jewish enough for some and too Jewish for others! Oh well, the servant is not greater than the Master! As the old Yiddish proverb goes, “If God lived on Earth, we’d break His windows.”

But the Messianic community is a bridge.

A bridge between Christians and Jews, and a living testimony that one can remain Jewish and follow Yeshua.

The Messianic body in Israel is a first-fruits offering to the Lord. Its members are standing at the finish line, waving sheaves before God, encouraging the whole nation to receive Yeshua and to cry out, “Baruch HaBa B’Shem Adonai! … Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!”

So, in the midst of this somber memorial, we have cause to celebrate and rejoice in the soon-coming of the Messiah Yeshua!

The Lion of the Tribe of Judah is coming soon, to a Jewish Jerusalem, to rule and reign, and for a thousand years!

Baruch HaShem!

By Myles Weiss

As Passover concludes around the world, I thought this photo of the original Southern Steps (they date from the time of Yeshua) makes a poignant statement of the Jewish historicity in the Land of Israel and Israel’s intimate connection to the Gospel. We found a rare, quiet moment to review the connection between the Feasts of the Lord in the Tanakh (OT), and the institution of New Covenant (NT) fulfillment of them.

Pilgrims gather here still, as in the days when they would flood these very steps on their way to the Temple to make sacrifices for themselves and their families. They would walk up these stairs, gingerly, as the steps are purposely uneven, causing even the most confident to look down and take care.

Walking with rapt attention is a healthy frame of mind when approaching a Holy God! On the left upper corner are the remains of the exit doors, where “those that mourn” would be “comforted” (Matthew 5)  with prayers and coins as the worshippers left their meeting.

So it is today: “rapt attention” is still a salient quality to display when dealing with things that pertain to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Every year at this time, Jews thank God for His miracle-working power in our deliverance from Egypt by the blood of the lamb. Now, many of us also celebrate the blood of Yeshua, the once and perfect sacrifice for our sins. Katharine and I served 120 folks at a seder at Beit Abba in Napa, California. Jews and  gentiles worshipped together, as the revelation of “Yeshua in the Passover” came forth. What a blessing to lift up “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” as His cousin Yochanan the Immerser (John the Baptist) dubbed Him.

Our seders always contain revelation from the Word, good humor, great food, and spiritual encounters.

Here is a a delightful video clip from aish.com, a Jewish web think tank/clip purveyor…enjoy!

And as we say at the seder — L’Shana Haba B’Yerushalayim — Next year in Jerusalem!