Follow the Leaders

 

Moshe Ben-Chaim


 

 

Reader: We have corresponded in the past, and I have not really kept up my end by asking you questions regularly.  I am on the road from Christianity to Moses and slowly making my way. Exodus 19 saying that we should believe Moses forever is a pretty hard one for us ex-Christians...but nonetheless, truth is truth. 

I meet with a group of guys to study the Torah Portion each week...All we have is Reform Judaism in this area, and no Orthodox Rabbis around that I can find, so we ex mainstream Christians get together to try to figure things out by arguing theology with the Torah as the center point. Having said that, I used to be a Trinitarian[1], but the Tanach has proven to me that this idea is nonsense. On to my question... 

We came across Isaiah 49 in a HafTorah a couple weeks back, and one of the guys, (who is a Trinitarian) shows me in his Chumash that the verse says the “LORD MOSHIACH” in the Hebrew text, I know those two particular words by sight. My NAS and KJV says “savior” which would be “yasha” I think in Hebrew.... I can't find an English translation that says the LORD is Messiah and Redeemer, and I would think that Trinitarians would be all over this scripture to prove that Hashem is Moshiach. 

Any ideas as to why the Chumash shows MOSHIACH and the Hebrew in the NAS and KJV show YASHA?  Are there any Rabbinic thoughts or commentaries on what this would mean. 

You comments are appreciated.

 

Chad Hill, Fort Walton Beach Florida

 

 

Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim: Chad, good to hear back. The word here in Isaiah 49:26 "moshiache" simply means, I am the Lord “who saves you”...a verb, and not a savior's title as the Trinitarians imagine. Thus, this word "moshiache" does not suggest God is also the Messiah (Trinitarian theology).

It must be appreciated that Torah and all religious truths can not determined by anyone, other than the original recipients and teachers, i.e., the Sages. In Deuteronomy 17:11, God commands the Jews – the only recipients of the Torah on Sinai – that they alone act as Torah teachers. So I wonder why the Trinitarians reject this clearly stated verse from their studies, choosing to rely on a wrong and convoluted interpretation of Isaiah 49:26 instead.

An individual or group, who have no training in Torah, to suggest they better understand God’s words than the Rabbis, is foolish. I always use the example of Henry Ford: just as I cannot tell that original inventor of the Ford that I know better what a Ford is, so too, all others cannot teach the Jews what Torah is, or what it means.

 

Reader: Thanks for the reply. That is where knowing the difference between verbs and nouns in Hebrew comes in handy. I found it strange that God would be referred to as "an anointed one" since He is greatest of all, and who could anoint Him?!

Thanks again, I will be back with more questions I'm Sure...

 

Chad

 

 

 

 

 

 



[1] Those who believe in the Christian trinity, God being composed of 3 beings.