Punished for Rejecting Jesus

Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim

Reader: Good afternoon. I need assistance phrasing a rebuttal to those insisting that [Jewish problems are] Hashem’s punishment of the Jews for rejecting Jesus. I usually counter this way, sarcastically:

 “Sure, the Almighty is punishing the Jewish people for obeying Deuteronomy 13:2 and 18:20 that forbids following false prophets like Jesus.” 

I regularly read Rabbi Skobac (Jews for Judaism) and Rabbi Singer's (Outreach Judaism) literature, however I cannot seem to phrase what I'm trying to say correctly.  Thank you for your time and assistance.

–Dave

Rabbi: Your approach is correct: Validating God's view must be based not on human guesswork, but only on what He said, referring to not following false prophets, accepting other gods, imagined forces, and deifying figurines of anything in the heavens or the Earth, including humans. This fully rejects deification of man, i.e., Jesus. This is also why we reject Jews flocking to the Rebbe's grave and putting notes in it. That's the identical crime of praying to Jesus. Share with others that we do not defend our own brothers and sisters communicating with the dead, as this is a very helpful tool for them to see how unbiased, rational and consistent Jewish thinking is. God hid Moses grave precisely to prevent human deification (Deut. 34:6).

On this note of following only what God says, this person violated following God, as he imagines to know God’s thoughts, for God never stated that He's punishing Jews for rejecting Jesus. Torah says just the opposite as I cited above. A person is not capable of knowing God's thoughts in order to make such a statement: “Your “thoughts are not My thoughts, and your ways are not Mine, says God” (Isaiah 55:8). God clearly rejects assumptions about how He operates.