This is a great question. Most people under the umbrella of “Messianic Judaism” really just practice Christianity with the addition of Jewish customs. They should really be called Jewish Christians. Their adherence to Torah is much like Reform Judaism, where only the “moral” laws matter, and everything else not pertaining to ethics is considered ceremonial & cultural, but not as important as the Torah presents it as.

For example, Reform Jews will eat unclean meat, and in their earlier days Reform Jews also met on Sunday instead of Shabbat. Both Christians and Reform Jews do not give much weight to laws that are distinctly from Torah.

At Benei Avraham, we believe the Torah is true, and is relevant for today. We carry the principles of Torah and apply it as best we can to our lives. We are not Christians that do a few culturally Jewish customs.

Our worldview is Jewish. We study Torah, Talmud, Midrash, Hasidut and Kabbalah. We seek to understand and observe halachah, or Jewish law, and abide by the customs and traditions of our ancestors as best we can. We understand the importance of learning and praying in our holy tongue, Hebrew. We keep kosher, observe family purity laws, and guard Shabbat as best we can. This is Judaism.

To us, being a Messianic Jew means being a Jew first, with the added illumination of being a talmid or disciple of Yeshua, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. According to Rambam, it is through Yeshua and his followers that most of the world has come to know the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and His Torah.

The Creator said in Genesis chapter 26 that He would multiply our father Abraham’s seed as the stars of heaven, and would give them the promised land, and that by them all the nations of the earth would bless themselves, because Abraham heeded God’s voice, and kept His charge, His commandments, His statutes, and His laws.’ Abraham is considered the father of Judaism.

We seek to walk as he did, in God’s Torah, and command our children to do likewise. When we walk in God’s way, we fulfill the charge to be “light unto the world.” Our light is the Torah, as the Psalmist said, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path,” and Proverbs declares that the “commandment is a lamp, and the Torah is a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way to life.”

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