Throughout his book, The Body of Faith: God in the People Israel, Michael Wyschogrod emphasizes God’s election of Israel and God’s covenant faithfulness inscribed in the mitzvot of the Torah. But he also points out an aspect of Jewish spirituality that is often underplayed: The climax of history will be the coming of Messiah. Wyschogrod writes that “Authentic Judaism must be messianic Judaism.” As an orthodox Jew, he is not referring to our Messianic Judaism but to the essential part that the Messianic hope should play in Judaism as a whole. He continues, “Messianic Judaism is Judaism that takes seriously the belief that Jewish history, in spite of everything that has happened, is prelude to an extraordinary act of God by which history will come to its climax and the reconciliation between God and man, and man and man, realized. Messianism is therefore the Jewish principle of hope.”
Even as Wyschogrod rightly sees the need for Judaism to be messianic, I see the need for our Messianic Judaism to be more Jewish. I do not mean that we need more bagels and klezmer music (much as I enjoy them). We need the very things emphasized by Wyschogrod: the intimate connections between God, Israel, Torah, and Messiah.
As the Messiah of Israel, Yeshua has always been, and will always be, Israel’s life. Even as Yeshua’s earthly life was lived in the midst of Israel, he remains in the midst of Israel, continually shaping Jewish spirituality and practice so that it will be ripe for renewal through full incorporation in his resurrec- tion life. This is the Messiah in whom we encounter God: the Messiah who remains in the midst of Israel and Jewish life.
- Michael Wyschogrod, The Body of Faith: God in the People Israel (City: Pub, Year), 254.
