You must be kidding. On https://www.thepathoftruth.com, a rather unusual Christian web-site, you list two of my friends and co-religionists, Rabbis Ken Spiro and Stuart Federow, as false teachers. If you label them as false teachers, then you also must call the Prophet Isaiah a false teacher. After all, in his Chapters 24, 28, & 65, he vividly describes the mother false religion of the future (relative to his ministry) – Christianity.
Uri, your pledge for your co-religionists means nothing at all, especially because I have found both of them to be in serious contradiction against the God of Israel, and they have no answers to prove otherwise. Indeed, they have no answers at all.
You can read the correspondences and see for yourself. Then, if you wish to tell me that these men are like the prophet Isaiah, you can prove it by defending their positions that I have shown to be faulty and at enmity with the God of Isaiah. You will not be able to do this, however, just like they were not able, because there is no truth in you.
As for the false religion of orthodox Christianity, we summarily destroy it on our site.
The problem for you is that you cannot separate the vile from the precious, being yet in your sins and unbelief.
Isaiah spoke many things from God, which you would do well to hear. For examples:
"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples, unto Him shall the nations seek; and His resting-place shall be glorious" (Isaiah 11:10 JPS).
"Behold My Servant, Whom I uphold; Mine elect, in Whom My Soul delighteth; I have put My Spirit upon Him, He shall make the right to go forth to the nations" (Isaiah 42:1 JPS).
"I the LORD have called Thee in righteousness, and have taken hold of Thy hand, and kept Thee, and set Thee for a covenant of the people, for a Light of the nations" (Isaiah 42:6 JPS).
"Yea, He saith: ‘It is too light a thing that Thou shouldest be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the offspring of Israel; I will also give Thee for a Light of the nations, that My salvation may be unto the end of the earth’" (Isaiah 49:6 JPS).
Isaiah 53:1-12 JPS
(1) ‘Who would have believed our report? And to Whom hath the arm of the LORD been revealed?
(2) For He shot up right forth as a sapling, and as a root out of a dry ground; He had no form nor comeliness, that we should look upon Him, nor beauty that we should delight in Him.
(3) He was despised, and forsaken of men, a man of pains, and acquainted with disease, and as one from whom men hide their face: He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
(4) Surely our diseases He did bear, and our pains He carried; whereas we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
(5) But He was wounded because of our transgressions, He was crushed because of our iniquities: the chastisement of our welfare was upon Him, and with His stripes we were healed.
(6) All we like sheep did go astray, we turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath made to light on Him the iniquity of us all.
(7) He was oppressed, though He humbled himself and opened not His mouth; as a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before her shearers is dumb; yea, He opened not His mouth.
(8) By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and with His generation who did reason? for He was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of My people to whom the stroke was due.
(9) And they made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich his tomb; although He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.’
(10) Yet it pleased the LORD to crush Him by disease; to see if his soul would offer itself in restitution, that He might see His seed, prolong His days, and that the purpose of the LORD might prosper by His hand:
(11) Of the travail of His soul He shall see to the full, even My Servant, Who by His knowledge did justify the Righteous One to the many, and their iniquities He did bear.
(12) Therefore will I divide Him a portion among the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the mighty; because He bared his soul unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Isaiah 29:13-14 JPS
(13) And the Lord said: Forasmuch as this people draw near, and with their mouth and with their lips do honour Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear of Me is a commandment of men learned by rote;
(14) Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the prudence of their prudent men shall be hid.
As for the specific chapters of Isaiah you mention, what do you find in 24, 28, or 65 that disagrees with anything we have written or said? You don’t speak with any relevance to the matter at hand, Uri.
I see words there, however, that do apply to you:
Isaiah 28:14-22 JPS
(14) Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scoffers, the ballad-mongers of this people which is in Jerusalem:
(15) Because ye have said: ‘We have made a covenant with death, and with the nether-world are we at agreement; when the scouring scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us; for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood have we hid ourselves’;
(16) Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a costly corner-stone of sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste.
(17) And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.
(18) And your covenant with death shall be disannulled and your agreement with the nether-world shall not stand; when the scouring scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it,
(19) As often as it passeth through, it shall take you; for morning by morning shall it pass through, by day and by night; and it shall be sheer terror to understand the message.
(20) For the bed is too short for a man to stretch himself; and the covering too narrow when he gathereth himself up.
(21) For the LORD will rise up as in mount Perazim, He will be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon; that He may do His work, strange is His work, and bring to pass His act, strange is His act.
(22) Now therefore be ye not scoffers, lest your bands be made strong; for an extermination wholly determined have I heard from the Lord, the GOD of hosts, upon the whole land.
And:
Isaiah 24:3-6 JPS
(3) The earth shall be utterly emptied, and clean despoiled; for the LORD hath spoken this word.
(4) The earth fainteth and fadeth away, the world faileth and fadeth away, the lofty people of the earth do fail.
(5) The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statute, broken the everlasting covenant.
(6) Therefore hath a curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are found guilty; therefore the inhabitants of the earth waste away, and men are left few.
The reason you claim much yet prove nothing is because you are full of yourself and devoid of the Spirit of God. You speak not for Truth’s sake, but for your own. Your confidence is in your intellectual ability, not the LORD:
Jeremiah 9:23-24 JPS
(23) (9:22) Thus saith the LORD: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches;
(24) (9:23) But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth, and knoweth Me, that I am the LORD Who exercise mercy, justice, and righteousness, in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.
The LORD is not kidding, and neither, as His servants, are we. You need to repent in order to get right with God. You need The Key for Israel and the Jew.
Paul Cohen
Paul,
I’m afraid that it is YOU who is mistaken. Using the JPS translation
doesn’t impress me since no translation from Hebrew to English or, for
that matter, to any other language, is perfect.
The Torah and rest of the Hebrew Bible are the property of the Jewish people, and the fact that various translations of the Hebrew Scriptures found their way into Christian bibles is nothing more than theft and an attempt to usurp and misuse them. This is obvious since Christians do not observe the precepts in the Torah, nor do they follow what the rest of the Hebrew Bible teaches. Instead, they bend the mistranslated texts in their attempts to retrofit them to Christian theology.
When you are able to discuss the Hebrew Bible with me in the Hebrew language, then we can continue to dialogue. Till then, perhaps you need to read this material – http://virtualyeshiva.com/counter-index.html.
As to Rabbis Spiro and Federow, the do not need me to defend them. I read your various correspondences and they didn’t impress me since they are based on your own misperceptions.
Uri Yosef, Ph.D.
Director of Education
VirtualYeshiva.com
You need have no fear, Uri. While you can only allege I am wrong, I have proven that you and your friends are wrong, and will do so again.
I didn’t use the JPS translation to impress you; I only used it so that you couldn’t complain that someone other than one of your co-religionists worded the Scriptures I quoted. Nevertheless, the JPS does have errors in it, some of which are intentionally misleading, and therefore it cannot be used with confidence on all occasions.
I know this because I speak fluent Hebrew of the Spirit. While you may speak Hebrew of the letter, that is not the language of God. Your boasting of linguistic ability is empty and foolhardy. Only those who speak Hebrew of the Spirit comprehend the Word of God, as did all the prophets and Messiah.
The children of Israel who were in constant rebellion against God also spoke Hebrew of the letter, and where did it get them? As Jeremiah, sent by the God of the Hebrews to speak His Words to them, said of them (and you):
"To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can’t listen: behold, the Word of the LORD is become to them a reproach; they have no delight in it" (Jeremiah 6:10 HNV).
And Moses, who wrote most of the Torah you think to own, said this of you:
"For they are a nation without wisdom, neither is there any understanding in them" (Deuteronomy 32:28 MKJV).
What good is owning something you don’t comprehend or know how to use?
But you, as a fool, are confident in the flesh and in your lack of wisdom and understanding. You destroy yourself with that which should be used for your good.
Which prophet or man of God ever got a doctorate degree from a heathen institute of "higher learning," and used it to signify spiritual authority? Did Ezekiel get a Ph.D. from the University of Chaldea? And if so, why isn’t it mentioned in his writings to give them a little more credibility, like you mention it in your letters?
You also mention your organization, "Virtual Yeshiva." Did Moses, when sent by God to liberate the children of Israel, set up a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in Egypt to make sure he had the approval of the Egyptian authorities for his ministry and could collect tax-free donations? Do you think Daniel had one in Babylon?
Obviously men of God have never behaved as you do, because they were sent by God and had His authority rather than relying on their own. You seek the authorization and approval of men because you are not sent by God, but speak for yourself. You criticize heathen Christianity, but you are no different in your ways and like confidence in the things of men. Even worse, you are a hypocrite and liar.
As for true Christianity, show us where we deviate from the precepts of the Torah. And show me how you keep the Torah without a Temple or Tabernacle of God and Levitical priesthood to carry out the prescribed sacrifices. Show me how you fulfill the annual feasts without these things, according to the actual and precise Words of God, and not according to how you retrofit them to fit your Jewish theology.
(By the way, true men of God have no "theology." They walk in the Spirit of the living God, according to His mind and will, and therefore never speak speculatively and blasphemously about His divine Nature.)
You say the Tenach is the property of the Jews. Boasting of holding the papers while losing the Author, without Whom the papers are meaningless, is tragically stupid of you. The Lord warned you where this would lead, but you do not hear or believe Him.
Jeremiah 7:11-15 JPS
(11) Is this house, whereupon My Name is called, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, saith the LORD.
(12) For go ye now unto My place which was in Shiloh, where I caused My Name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel.
(13) And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spoke unto you, speaking betimes and often, but ye heard not, and I called you, but ye answered not;
(14) therefore will I do unto the house, whereupon My Name is called, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.
(15) And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.
If a family rebels against its patriarch, killing his son and heir to steal the inheritance, and then gets apprehended by the legal authorities, what do you think happens? The family’s goods are confiscated and they are either executed or thrown into jail. That is what happened to Israel.
You have lost your rights to much more than just the paperwork. You have lost the only vital and meaningful thing, your connection to God. Even coming back into the land of Israel has not come about because you are connected or obedient to Him. You are still not reconciled. That is the point of The Key for Israel and the Jew.
Will you lie and now tell me that God has been speaking to you? Will you lie and say He no longer has a tongue or desire to speak in the present?
The Word of God belongs to no people any more than God Himself belongs to a people. He is Lord over all and all belongs to Him. Those who possess anything of His are first possessed by Him. You have things backwards, as do all Jews who kiss the Torah but not the Son (and here is another place the JPS mistranslates):
"Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled in but a little time. Blessed are all who put their trust in Him" (Psalms 2:12 MKJV).
The Psalmist spoke of your apostasy from God:
"The stone which the builders rejected is become the chief corner-stone. This is the LORD’S doing; it is marvellous in our eyes" (Psalms 118:22-23 JPS).
The Lord Jesus Christ, the Stone you rejected, told your fathers why they could not understand the Hebrew of God:
"Why don’t you understand My speech? Because you can’t hear My word. You are of your father, the Devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you don’t believe Me" (John 8:43-45 HNV).
And Stephen, a true Hebrew speaker, said this to your fathers right before they murdered him:
"You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do" (Acts 7:51 HNV).
Who gives you the right, Uri, to read and interpret my English and to judge the things I say? Who gives you the right to judge what is recorded in the New Testament? The fact is that you have no authority whatsoever because you have no connection with, and understanding of, God and His ways, as has been amply demonstrated yet again.
Paul Cohen
Paul & Co.,
My last communication in response to your lengthy diatribes. Consider this:
If Jesus really lived and died, Jesus was not G-d.
If Jesus died on Friday and less than 36 hours later on Sunday he undied, Jesus made no real sacrifice."
Now you can add my name to your list of false teachers and be sure to
include the link to my "false teachings" –
http://virtualyeshiva.com/counter-index.html
Uri Yosef, Ph.D.
Uri, you have your facts wrong, as usual. Jesus didn’t die on Friday. He died on Wednesday, "between the evenings," at the time of the Passover sacrifice on the 14th of Nisan, which is the late afternoon approaching the beginning of the 15th and the Feast of Unleavened Bread (a high Sabbath). He was then in the grave the precise amount of time He said He would be – three nights and three days.
Wednesday night, Thursday night, and Friday night. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. As the weekly Sabbath ended, the Lord raised Himself from the dead, just as He said He would (proving He is God):
"Then the Jews answered and said to Him, What sign do you show us, since you do these things? Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:18-19 MKJV).
By early Sunday morning at dawn, into the fourth day, the Lord had already been raised, which, given His promise, we know happened the day before:
Luke 24:1-8 EMTV
(1) And on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.
(2) But they found the stone having been rolled away from the tomb.
(3) And going in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
(4) And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.
(5) Then, as they became afraid and bowed their faces to the ground, they said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?
(6) He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee,
(7) saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’"
(8) And they remembered His words.
We will keep this conversation in its present location, under The Key for Israel and the Jew. There you may also access other correspondences that answer your objections.
Paul
It was expected, as one would expect pus and putrefaction to emerge from a boil that was lanced. Cleansing and healing will follow, because God has ordained it for His people. Will you, Israel, identify with the pus or the Doctor?
What the God of Israel has done for me, and what He will do for you.
A Letter of Promise, Hope, and Exhortation to the Dispersed and Oppressed Uncircumcised-in-Heart Seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
We witness the ungodly and unjust hatred for Jews everywhere and consider there is something important going on. We are also in awe of the marvelous historical developments and events, knowing very well, by God’s grace, that man cannot do what has developed concerning the Jews at any time, perhaps especially in this last century. Here is a letter of promise to God’s chosen in the flesh, based on His faithfulness and awesome power:
“I, even I, am He Who comforts you: who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who shall be made as grass; and have forgotten the LORD your Maker, Who stretched forth the Heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth…?” (Isaiah 51:12-13 HNV)
“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the hearts” (Proverbs 21:2 HNV).
Israel, come hear the Word of God, and let your hearts be revealed; know the Truth and be reconciled to Your Father. It is time. Of what value is it to continue in darkness, not knowing Him and His heart towards you, Who has loved you from days of old and draws you with lovingkindness?
Israel, your God knows and sees what you suffer. He is not remote, unfamiliar, or unaffected by what is happening with you. There is a reason for your predicament, however, a reason that holds the key to the solution for all. There is an answer from God, which you need to hear and know.
Jews, you have tried everything to be at peace, to have dialogue with, and to appease, the world. You have tried everything, and nothing has worked, because you lacked the simple solution. Here is the key for Israel, the Jew, and the whole world.