For the majority of Jews in the Messianic Jewish movement, just as for the majority of Jews outside our movement, whatever religious behaviors we grew up with were random and spotty, souvenirs—vestiges of a time when those behaviors and values were part of an integrated way of life, when the question, “Why do we do this?” would have received an answer integrating that behavior with the warp and weave of Jewish life. But in our experience, such explanations were lacking, and the religious rituals or behaviors of our families of origin were, for the most part, the insubstantial echoes and imprints left by realities far more solid, now long gone.

When people from such homes come to faith in Messiah and seek to adapt their family-of-origin experience into the service of Yeshua, is it any wonder that the identities we form seem out of balance or dysfunctional? Is it not true that many Jews have abandoned Jewish life due to a combined lack of knowledge and failure of will? And if so, what kind of Messianic Judaism shall we build out of such people? Consider my Reacculturation Principle:

Because ambivalence and uncertainty as to personal/communal identity is widespread among Jewish Yeshua- believers, we must craft and pursue an informed process of courageously reclaiming Jewish life and identity from the vantage point of allegiance to our Messiah. Only in this way can we adequately rediscover and reinforce our core identity as Jews, a necessary precondition to a solid Messianic Jewish identity. I term this process “reacculturation.”

In recent times, Messianic Jews are increasingly choosing to live in accord with Jewish tradition. Some onlookers, conditioned to imagine that all tradition is dead tradition, disapprove of this trend. Others, from more tradition-honoring societies, such as Asian Christians, have no problem understanding that it is appropriate that Jews live in the time-honored ways handed down from their ancestors, hence, tradition.

Without a doubt, MJTI is a “tradition-friendly” institution. A moment’s thought reveals that God has used the Jewish traditional way of life as a means to preserve Jewish community continuity despite two millennia of dispersion interlaced with persecution and with pressures to assimilate, both overt and covert.

Each generation deals with tradition differently. In every Jewish family, and in every generation, there are those who carry the ball of tradition, those who pass it on to the next generation, those who drop the ball, and those who pick it up.

“…your old men shall dream dreams (chalomot), and your young men shall see visions.” Joel 2:28

Recently, I received an unexpected monetary gift and, for about ten days, pondered getting a new toy: an iPod Touch, whereby I would have access to the 75,000 or so applications available through Apple.

I researched online, but, unlike my remote ancestor, I did not see that the iPod was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that it was desirable to make one wise. Even though I visited not one, but two Apple stores, I did not take from the Apple and eat.

Of course, there was a sense of loss. Like most people, I like toys. However, conscious of all the demands upon me, and with a recent significant birthday reminding me of the limits of my time, I decided I would be better off without this portal to countless diversions.

Israel saw the great work that the Lord did against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses. . .  

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord: . . .This is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

Many of us came to faith in the Living God through personal crisis, a time when God had our full attention and we experienced some sort of divine intervention, when we said “This is my God and I will praise him—I recognize this chain of circumstances, this realization or intervention in crisis, as the work of God.”

In this conclusion to the Passover story— our people Israel have also come through a crisis and experienced the dramatic intervention of God. Now they too claim him as their own. But this is but one of three aspects of spiritual experience illustrated by our passage.

In the words “they feared the Lord and believed in his servant Moses” we see that peak experiences, those crises or times of apparent divine intervention, link us not only to God but to others whose experience shapes or resembles our own. Thus, the people not only encountered God in a new way, they also encountered Moses in a new way. We might term this second dimension of spirituality the communal dimension.

“…your old men shall dream dreams (chalomot), and your young men shall see visions.” Joel 2:28

Once upon a time, I had the idea for Hashivenu. It all grew out of one phrase found in the Torah service, but quoted from Eicha/Lamentations 5:21: “renew our days as of old.” I sensed at that time that renewal for the Messianic Jewish Movement would not come through galloping off into some unforeseen Holy Ghost future, as some might have it, but rather that such renewal involved reconnecting with the past. The metaphor I often use is that a tree can only grow tall if its roots sink deep. It is by sinking our roots deep in our Jewish past that we will see a renewal in today’s and tomorrow’s Messianic Judaism. And I still believe that.

Under the good hand of God, a handful of others gathered around me, as we all sensed ourselves drawn to serve a cause not yet clear to us. But as we met and prayed together, the mission statement of Hashivenu became clearer, and we identified the seven Core Principles which since then have permeated our actions and the projects, including MJTI.