Messer and the Hebrew Roots Marketplace

And besides being wise, the Kohelet also imparted knowledge to the people. (Ecclesiastes 12:9)

Is touching here the issue, or something else?

The time for commenting on Ralph Messer has passed (for the sad story and good reactions you can go here, here, here and the updates at the bottom of that link). Yes, it stinks that he lavished praise on a religious leader who abused his power through sexual misconduct, and yes, though the semantic and factual errors take a second place to that, those give plenty reason to embarrass and offend (and for some, amuse). The misuse of sancta was grotesque. He did apologize in a later video for offending various groups, but then he doubled down and offered a confusing defense (he was taken out of context with all the errors (as it turns out he wasn’t), he was invited to talk to Christians who know nothing (will consider this below), the Torah scroll was unkosher and just a gift to a man, and anyway, it is okay to touch it. also something about juju curses). This is all old national news.

I am glad that he clarified that he is “not Messianic,” and that mainstream (and even non-mainstream) Messianic groups have clarified that they have no association with him. However, I still wonder: what can I learn from his example?  Confession: I have said things about Judaism and the Jewish essence of faith in Yeshua which I would want to take back, and which I would have to apologize for if they were floating around the internet. As to what they are, the truth is I can’t now remember (or perhaps I am still unaware that they are even errors). At any rate, I am happy that they haven’t gone viral (if we are so blessed for an internet virus to someday spread from our persons, may it be of something which is praise-worthy)! What we can see is that if a teacher is deeply estranged from his subject (in this case, Judaism) such that it will nauseate those for whom the issue is more personal, that his audience is even more estranged than the teacher does not give anyone involved a free pass. Praise HaShem for the internet, that getting success while promoting a ministry with bizarre and off teaching can lead to going viral and actually getting caught.

Separating from the particulars of Messer’s response, one thing I sensed was his natural desire to be given his due for the work he puts into his ministry: “I was invited to teach the Hebrew Roots of the Christian faith to New Birth… our duty is the restoration of the Tabernacle of David… I go into prisons, we go into various areas which may be considered non-kosher… we see the lost, we see the homeless, I am teaching them the Hebrew Roots of the Christian faith… we reached over 8,000 people in an audience… lives were changed… I could’ve used Hebrew terms… but I was approaching a Christian audience… if you’ve never spoken in front of 8,000 people, you have to massage like a fine.. surgeon, you have to know where to integrate words, and what to do, and that’s what we did… ” That general sentiment which he expressed — that there is work involved — has got me thinking. Perhaps “Hebrew Roots teaching” (to be distinguished from Messianic Judaism and even the Messianic Movement) can be thought of as a marketplace with three broad levels. The levels pertain to quality.

The top level (this may include teachers who feel that “Hebrew Roots” is a misnomer) can speak to a broad audience but with sensitivity to the subject matter that integrates well into an engaging presentation. I am sure if you are interested in this sort of stuff then you have in your mind a group or teacher who exemplifies this.  They do a good service for their hearers and should be commended (even if they aren’t successful in a worldly sense).

The bottom level may have computers and internet connections (or maybe not), but most people will generally not bother listening to them, because they have no skills. But it is good that they have no skills since they manifestly don’t know what they are talking about, and may in fact be crazy people. Someone is either foolish or looking to throw smears if they judge the discipline by its bottom level.

The middle level is where many have thrived. Here is where there exists a great demand in the Christian world– but the demand isn’t for accuracy as such, but rather rhetorico-religious sexiness, entertainment, and “connecting with the audience.” Nerds need not apply. But this is not to say that work and skills aren’t valued. The work, however, is not to take all the depth and nuance of the subject matter and then accurately condense it for popular audience for their genuine edification (as they say, good popularizing often requires a greater amount of depth with the material and effort than writing at a purely scholarly level). Rather, the work is in constantly honing ones ability to creatively toss together symbols and ideas so as to create a new symbolic world, one which makes a jazzier, more sensational type of “sense” for a popular audience, but which loses a credible connection to the original symbolic and traditional world (the real world). What it means is not as important as that it gets the people going.

Because this category is broad and complex there is much to get confused by in here, but needless to say I put the reasonably successful Ralph Messer as an example of this middle level (alongside many who would disown him, like Michael Rood). But my point is that both popularization from a scholar and performance from a religious showman – the best way of thinking about the “top level” and the harshest way of thinking about the “middle level,” respectively – require hard work to do “right,” and so do the various shades in between. (this is overlooking questions of intentional deception and hucksterism and outright fraud, which certainly couldn’t be put upon all mid-level Hebrew Roots but which nonetheless must be brought to light where it exists)

In the end, I hope his example encourages us to do better. We cannot be suckered by the fact that jazzercized Hebrew Roots will turn a profit, for then we will in the end only add to the noise of the middle level. Rather, we strive to work at the highest level. Rather than this level being a contradiction of humility and love, the Ralph Messer episode shows us that humility and love are prerequisite for having excellent teaching. If I teach on Jewish faith and tradition to Christians who want to know – and I definitely have, and probably will again, and to be honest I think I am pretty fun, and would love to do something at your church or chicken barbeque or whatever – what matters is not whether I am Jewish (Ralph Messer is also Jewish). Rather, the content needs to be something that if and when my fellow  Jews see it they ought to say “yeah, that’s right; thanks for explaining that the way you did.” It needs to be accurate above all, such that I would be thrilled if my extended family were in the room. (That doesn’t mean such high praise – “yeah, that’s right; thanks” – will ever come. Perhaps not everyone wants to admit that a “Hebrew Roots” teacher (who believes in Yeshua) might actually get something right. Or, many times an individual doesn’t have a good handle on the diversity within his own religion, and so identifies the essence of Jewishness by the Judaism he had growing up and thus makes a mistake or two of his own.)

If “Hebrew Roots” just seems like a mockery to those outside the intended audience, then appealing to the ignorance of my intended audience would be a case of adding insult to injury (insulting and injuring the audience, I mean). Even as scholars can no longer afford to think of their audiences as small, popularizers can’t afford to think of them as small-minded either.