Messianic Music, Chanukkah & Unity in Seattle!

What an amazing time we had with Joel Chernoff in concert this past Saturday (Dec. 8th).  What a great way to start off the Festival of Chanukkah.  To be able to worship God together with our two sister congregations, Beit HaShofar and Beit Tikvah, in unity was amazing.

It was really a special time of worship before Adonai.  Rabbi Jason Forbes led us in Havdallah for the closing of Shabbat.  My family and I led the blessing for the first night of Chanukkah.  The music, of course, was outstanding thanks to Joel Chernoff.  Close to three hundred people came out; many of which danced in a great dance circle.  About twenty of our children had their own dance circle thanks to some outstanding women of God who jumped in and helped the kids!

The words that describe the event for me are "wonderful, exciting, amazing, and awesome."  Of course the entire point was to celebrate our Messiah Yeshua together in unity.  For Beit Messiah it was a no-brainer.  We belong to both the IAMCS and the UMJC.  Beit Tikvah is our sister congregation through the IAMCS and Beit HaShofar is our sister congregation through the UMJC.   This was not just about bringing together all/any  "Messianic" groups in Seattle.  This was about bringing three like-minded Messianic rabbis and their synagogues who are focused on the same purpose: sharing Yeshua with our Jewish people in Seattle in a Jewish way.  Our three congregations are different.  We do things differently.  And this is to our benefit.  We are not saying that any of us do Messianic Judaism "right"!  We are saying we are three expressions of what Messianic Judaism is!  And to come together to celebrate the end of Shabbat, the Festival of Chanukkah, and Messianic Judaism in Seattle was a joy!

Special thanks go out to Joel Chernoff, his music was the catalyst for this special night.  I also want to thank Dan Behrens who did a fantastic job with everything audio/visual.  Phil Baxter leading our offering team, Fred Savo leading greeters, Mechele Baird helping me take care of Joel, the people that helped at the merchandise table.  Thanks to Dave Petrie getting our Beit Messiah banner waaaaaaay up on the wall, Jennifer Benvenuti for leading all the dancers, Janelle Behrens and her team for setting up coffee and cookies.  Thanks to Maryanne Savo and P.K. White for being so detail oriented and making sure the event went smoothly, everyone who helped with set up and break down, North Seattle Alliance Church for their partnership and friendship.  Thanks to Rabbi Hylan Slobodkin and Rabbi Jason Forbes for their friendship and co-leading in this event. Thank you to the people from Beit Messiah, Beit HaShofar, and Beit Tikvah and so many other friends who came out and supported this outstanding effort of unity.

The end of the event was one of my favorite parts when Rabbi Hylan, Rabbi Jason and I stood on the stage together as representatives of our synagogues.  To close the event Rabbi Hylan led us in the Aaronic benediction.  Psalm 133:1 says, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" And we did! And it was awesome!

If you have pictures from this event please send them to Rabbi@BeitMessiah.com so we can share them!

The Incarnational Reality of Sukkot

In my mind there is no greater holiday than Sukkot.  Some of my best childhood memories come from celebrating Sukkot with my family and congregation.  Building sukkot (both at home and for the congregation), eating in the sukkah, praying in the sukkah, and sometimes sleeping in the sukkah.  In college we built a sukkah every year and in my senior year I got some of my buddies to sleep in it with me until it began to rain.  One midrash says, "A man who sleeps in a Sukkah while it is raining is an idiot."  We took this to heart and retreated back to our house.  I have so many great stories and memories wrapped up in the celebration of this wonderful holiday.

View from Congregational Sukkah

Yesterday, I had an awesome experience as I sat in our synagogue's sukkah and wrote my sermon for this coming Shabbat Sukkot.  One Rabbi wrote, "there is a midrash that says that sukkot are not buildings at all but the glory of God." And that got me thinking.  As I sat in the Sukkah, reading and praying, I had the opportunity to sit in the glory of God.  It is easy in our sukkah because it is right by a lake and, though it is getting cold the sound of the leaves, wind, water, birds and corn stalks on our sukkah led me in a quiet peace that I have not experienced in a while.  The sukkah is a physical representation of the presence (or glory) of God; to sit in it during Sukkot while reading and praying was to invite God's glory into my life, even if just for a moment.  I played "Show Me Thy Glory" by Marty Goetz on my iPad and of course, as only Marty Goetz's music can, I felt the presence of the Lord with me.  

I know, cheesy right?  I agree.

But, it was also real.

During the middle Shabbat of Sukkot we read Exodus 33-34 (A curious passage for Sukkot since the holy day is hardly mentioned).  Moses says to God, "show me your glory."  And God does.  He warns Moses that no one will see God's face and live.  So, instead He passes by Moses and shows him His back.

Moses' desire is to see the glory of God and God obliges. 

This is Sukkot: If you want to see God's glory all you have to do is ask; then take the time to sit back and enjoy it.  

There is an incarnational reality that so many people miss regarding Sukkot.  We call Sukkot "the Feast of Ingathering", "the Feast of Tabernacles", and "the Time of our Rejoicing".   God's desire is to gather all the exiles back to Himself as a farmer gathers all the crops in the Autumn (feast of ingathering).  He wants to "tabernacle" with us.  Tabernacle means "to dwell" or "to live" and that is precisely what the God of creation wants to do.  He wants us to tabernacle in His presence (feast of tabernacles).  He did all this so that we can rejoice in His presence and let the cares of this world fade away (time of our rejoicing).  The incarnational reality of Sukkot is that God gives us the opportunity to Sukkot (tabernacle) in His presence. 

We can take it one step higher in the person of Yeshua.  John 1:14 says, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling [sukkot; tabernacled] among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."  John is using imagery from the Feast of Sukkot.  The Word, Yeshua, came to Sukkot among us.  Just like we do every Sukkot, John turns to the concept of the glory of God. "We have seen His glory. the glory of the one and only Son..."  The incarnational reality of Sukkot is that Yeshua left heaven, was born as a baby, grew in stature and knowledge, and brought the glory of God into a human body (the incarnation). 

Why would God do such a thing? 

He was answering the cry of Moses for all of Israel.  We say, "show us your glory" and God in His wisdom sent "the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." Amazing!

Beit Messiah's Sukkah in Seattle

The whole point of building sukkot is that they are temporary.  Sitting, eating, sleeping and all that we do in the sukkah is temporary because we only do it for eight days out of three hundred and sixty five.  As with all of the feasts in scripture we are called to remember what happened in our past but also "remember" what will happen in the future.  There will come a day when we will only be in the presence of God and there will be nothing else...

No sun, moon or stars...

Only us (those who call on the name of Yeshua) and the presence of God.

During this Sukkot, take the time to sit in the sukkah and enjoy the glory of God.  If you don't have a sukkah, no worries; the presence of God will go anywhere and at any time.  All you have to do is want to see it and ask God for it.

It is temporary.

You will have to ask again.

But, it is a wonderful picture of all that we hope for. 

The prophet Zechariah writes (in another special reading for Sukkot), "On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which lies to the east of Yerushalayim...Then ADONAI will be king over the whole world. On that day ADONAI will be the only one, and his name will be the only name...everyone remaining from all the nations that came to attack Yerushalayim will go up every year to worship the king, ADONAI-Tzva’ot, and to keep the festival of Sukkot" (14:2-16 CJB).

You are a sukkah and you can house the presence of God.  Just as Yeshua became the God/Man we, not being God, can have the glory of God reside in us. 

We become His sukkah.

Just as a sukkah is temporary so, we are temporarily on this earth as foreigners and strangers and the God of Israel is calling us home.  He, through Messiah Yeshua, wants to ingather us (Feast of Ingathering), so that He can dwell in us (Feast of Tabernacles) so that we can rejoice in Him (the Time of our Rejoicing)!

Chag Sukkot Sameach (Happy Sukkot)!

AMF & This Present Generation

Credit: Aaron Kasdan

The Asheville Music Festival (AMF), at Deerfield's near Ashveville, NC, was one of the great events of my life.  I was incredibly honored to be asked by my friends who planned it to emcee this important event.  It was amazing to experience AMF from behind the scenes and from on the stage.  To be back stage with all the singers and look out over the whole crowd was simply exciting.

Leading up to AMF I had great expectations of all that the Lord wanted to do in this present generation. Of course some of the expectation was because my wife, Laura, and I traveled by ourselves and left our children with her parents.  For us, as a couple, there was high expectation.  But also, as a young Rabbi, I had great expectation in seeing, hearing and participating as a voice in my generation.  

Credit: Andre Oliveira

My expectations were met on the first day (Thursday) when a major storm hit. As I drove a golf cart around and helped various people get to their campsite, rain began to fall, mud began to form, followed by hail and rivers of water instead of walkways.  Some people began to say, "the enemy is attacking" and it dawned on me that Satan cannot control the weather.  Sometimes we attribute things to Satan that are not his.  Only the One who created the weather can control the weather.  Often Satan is made out to be the arch enemy of God and in a conversation about these things, Jonathan Mahoney said, "Satan's arch enemy is actually Michael the arch angel."  Beautiful.

There is no one like our God and no one at His level that can be matched with Him.

Credit: Heather Silverman

Now, I am not sure why God sent rain and delayed the start of AMF by several hours.  But, I am sure He is God and that I don't need to know His reasons.  And with the rain I saw people helping each other that had just met.  I saw young and old together helping each other move tents that were being flooded.  I saw people go to Walmart and buy other people rain boots.  I saw a ton of volunteers doing a ton of little jobs to get the event started in the midst of chaos.  I saw people in the remote lot (which you had to take a shuttle from) stay down there the entire time so that people could be registered and enjoy the festival.  I saw seasoned leaders come to enjoy the festival though they were not asked to speak or perform.  I saw young people doing amazing art work.  I saw a big dude serving beef ribs, hippies serving vegetarian quesadillas, "trash huggers" taking trash away, and a young sophisticated dude serving coffee of which he knew everything one could know about coffee.  I saw an awesome couple that served unreal root beer snow cones! Yes, root beer!  I saw a crazy cross section of the world of Messianic Judaism and was excited that it is so much bigger than the circles in which I run. I saw Joel Chernoff and Stuart Dauermann carry two Torah's at the same event in the same Torah service. 

Credit: Ben Weisman

I heard crazy things like "this is the cleanest festival we have ever worked" (trash huggers).  I heard, "We are having intelligent conversation because everyone is sober" (coffee guy).  I heard bands who had never heard each other’s music talk about working together.  I heard an amazing message on Shabbat and a cool analogy of AMF being like Dorothy shifting into technicolor.  the message was assisted by Ross Anderson who blew my mind with his memorized reading of the Parsha and how he forced us to imagine Moses receiving the revelation from God and speaking it with the kind of passion that imagine Moses actually spoke.  I heard some of my favorite music and was introduced to new music I had never heard before.  I heard an awesome choir of AMF musicians lead us in song together on Shabbat morning.  And I heard joy when a giant tent was put up to shield people from the rain and sun (when it came out).

Most of all there was an excitement in the air because it was our event.  It was a festival lead and performed by people of this present generation.  It was a festival blessed by our fathers and leaders of a variety of important Messianic organizations.  It was a festival that I believe pleased the Lord.  It was a festival that will spur our generation to rise up and move forward with abandon with what the Lord has called us do while honoring those who came before us.

It was a festival to make Messianic Judaism relevant to our generation and to lead our generation in turning to the God of Israel in repentance through the person of our Messiah Yeshua. It was a festival that will spur our current leaders to see value in our generation and no longer treat us as children but as co-heirs, comrades, and partners in the preaching of the Jewish Gospel that our Jewish people so desperately need.  

Credit both: Andre Oliveira

As the end of AMF came, a strange thing happened.  The order switched for the last two acts.  Hazakim went first and Micah Mahoney went last and for me at least they were two of the most powerful performances.  Hip-Hop is the music of our generation and it deserves to be highlighted and re-imagined as a Messianic art form.  And it was fitting to end with Micah and his band on a note of reverent worship because after all this was a Messianic Jewish Music Festival and it made sense to end worshipping the One who created us and gave the vision for this event in the first place.  

As my friend, Troy Wallace, and I worshiped and talked on stage, we saw our Rabbi friend go and sit on speakers outside of the lights of the stage and without a microphone.  He began to pray.  Of course few could hear him so I went to get a microphone and he pushed it away as he prayed.  The crowd that was left was forced to quiet themselves and push in closer to hear.  I then understood what Seth was doing.  Spontaneously people began to pray, young and old together.  It seemed to be the best way possible to end the festival.  After all, the whole heart of AMF was to bring people together to celebrate through music, dance, art, drama, sight and sound -- all these things that God has given our generation in abundance.  

Credit: Ben Weisman

I shared something in the midst of all these things that seems to have resonated with many people and I want to share them here as well.  As a young Rabbi in a predominately old movement, I can't tell you how much I love my dad (Rabbi David Rosenberg) and his generation.  I can't tell you how honored I am to carry the mantle of leadership that has been passed down from generation to generation.  It has often been said to me in terms of rising up to lead this movement by seasoned leaders, "you will have to wait until some of our leaders die before you can take your place."  From my heart, as a voice in my generation, that is the last thing we want.  We are not asking for a torch to be passed to us so that we can be lone runners moving forward.  We, this present generation, want to stand with those who have come before us.  We would rather hold the torch with you, lead with you, preach on the same stage as you, sing with you and continue to learn from you and have you learn from us.  We continue to sing your songs and want you to sing ours.  We continue to hear you preach and want you to hear us preach.  We want this to be about us together, many generations together, working together to reach many generations -- together.  Not just "us" as in your generation. Or "us" as in this present generation. But, "us" as in many generations together sharing the message of the God of Israel with our people and leading them in repentance through our Messiah Yeshua -- together.

Credit: Ben Weisman

So many people wanted to know if there will be another AMF. As far as the vision for the festival goes, it was the only one.  I see the wisdom in this though I long for this festival to repeat every year.  But it has happened.  A shift was made that is bigger than you and me.  It is bigger than one generation or another.  A shift was made because AMF gave this present generation a voice.  And leaders of the older generation were there to support it, see it and hear it.  It was loud. It was heard. And we all, close to a thousand of us, saw it -- together.  

AMF changed me.  AMF changed the Messianic Jewish Movement.  And those who planned it will be blessed to know that, though some of the change cannot be measured, much that is still to happen in this present generation will point back to this important Messianic Jewish Music Festival!