This document discusses tradition from both Christian and Jewish perspectives. It examines definitions of tradition, different streams of tradition within religions, and how tradition relates to identity and community. Specifically, it explores Israeli traditionism as negotiating religious and secular realms, and how Messianic Judaism navigates multiple traditions as a new religious movement between Christianity and Judaism. Tradition is presented as dynamic, relating to historical roots and evolving understanding over time through internal debate and engagement with other perspectives.

2. Helsinki Consultation
Richard Harvey
www.mmjt.eu

4. Towards a
Post-Religious and Post-Secular
Messianic Jewish Understanding
of
"Authority, Freedom, and Tradition
in the life of
Jewish Disciples of Yeshua"
with Reference to
Contemporary Israeli Traditionism

5. Outline
• Unpacking the question
– what is tradition?
• Christian tradition
• Jewish tradition
• Tradition, Traditionalism,
Traditionism
• Messianic Jewish
Tradition
• Towards Messianic
Jewish traditionism
• Key Questions

9. Tradition
• Paradosis
• Masoret
• Torah she’b’al peh

10. Macintyre’s dynamic definition
A tradition is an argument
extended through time in which
certain fundamental agreements
are defined and redefined in terms
of two kinds of conflicts: those with
critics and enemies external to the
tradition who reject all or at least
key parts of those fundamental
agreements, and those internal,
interpretive debates through which
the meaning and rationale of the
fundamental agreements come to
be expressed and by those whose
progress a tradition is constituted.
• MacIntyre 1988:12 in Yadgar 2011:14.

11. Thompson’s 4 facets of tradition
• Hermeneutic
• Normative
• Legitimating
• Identity forming

12. Streams of
Christian
Tradition

14. 1545 -Tradition in Triento -1475

16. Sea of Halacha

22. What does it
mean to be
Jewish?

23. What is
compatible
with being
Jewish?

24. Branches of Judaism

25. Sack’s Proposal
• Exclusivism
• Pluralism
• Inclusivism
• Orthodox
Inclusivism

27. Israeli Identity

28. Factors shaping perception of Jewish
Identity
(1)the Jewish
religion,
(2) the Holocaust,
(3) the State of
Israel and Zionism
(4) Israel/Diaspora
relationship

29. Mittleberg’s Paradigm of Jewish peoplehood
a) sense of personal closeness to other Jews
b) sense of shared fate
c) sense of responsibility for and commitment
to other Jews and their communities
d) possession of the cultural knowledge and
skills
necessary to feel at home within Jewish
culture(s)
e) engagement in local and global social
networks with depth and meaning
f) involvement in practices that signify and
realize the above.

30. Components of Jewish Peoplehood

31. Israeli Traditionism
• davening on Shabbat
morning and then
driving to the beach in
the afternoon.
• Ortho-secular
• Constant negotiation
• Values implicit – family,
spirituality, identity

32. Messianic Jews
and Traditon(s)
• Two absent,
divorced parents
• Abandoned
• Isolated
• Threatened
• Creative

33. Messianic Jewish Tradition
• Abandon (Maoz)
• Adapt (Nerel)
• Adopt (Juster)
• Accept (Kinzer)

34. Messianic Jewish Catholicity
• MJRC’s halacha
• Michael Brown’s
hymns
• Israeli expressions

38. Why “traditionism”
• Jewish tradition is your home, it’s
your roots, your sense of belonging
to where you are. A person cannot
live in a vacuum. I think it’s a
shame for those who do not hold on
to the tradition. Their life seems
pretty empty to me.(Tamar in
Yadgar 2011:51)
• I have a Jewish soul. I have
something in my soul that will not
leave me. And it’s not a bother that
will not leave me, it is something I
love very much . . . I am proud, I go
to synagogue gladly, because I
want to. And when I go to the pool
on Saturday [forbidden according to
the Orthodox interpretation of
Jewish Law], I also go because I
want to. I don’t like complete
secularity.
• (Sigal)

39. Israeli Traditionism
• “Traditionism is being
Israeli, because here
people don’t need to go
to synagogue to be
Jewish.” (Batya p53)

40. Between Orthodox and Secular
• You see so many fun things [in the
secular world], and you know that
the orthodox are missing it, not
because it is forbidden, but because
it [orthodoxy] is a wrong conception.
Religion got stuck somewhere. I think
I have an advantage over them [the
orthodox], because I know things
they don’t know. I know the secular
world. They are stuck in halachic
dictates, some of which are correct,
and some stemming from fear and
conservatism. I am against
conservatism. That is the point.
Develop! This is where traditionism is
– find your way in which you are also
religious and on the other hand
continue living.
• (Tehila) 56:2011

41. The reasons for choosing traditionism
and their meaning
• a complex system of
identification and
meaning
• sense of historical
commitment and
collective identity
• to conserve and reaffirm
one’s Jewish identity
• Emotions as reasons
• Sense of duty

42. national and historical duty
• “God? To me that does not play a
role. To me tradition is for
tradition’s sake. I want to carry on
a 3,800-year-old tradition; I don’t
want it to stop here. I think the
people of Israel is a unique
people, who have given a lot to
the world, a lot of that due to the
heritage received which makes
this people what it is,
consolidated it into a people. One
can always be epicurean, leave
Judaism and assimilate, but
people chose to hold on to
Judaism “ (Reuben 60:2011)

43. Connection to the roots
• “I keep kosher because my
mother’s family kept kosher and
because another six million died
for keeping kosher” (Meir)
• It is conservation. I see it as an
alliance with my antecedents,
preserving the tradition they
began, and continuity. And so it is
some sort of connection to the
roots ... I am like a tree ... a tree
has roots. There is nothing that
can be done about that; it has to
be connected to its roots. So I am
connected to my roots. I was born
a Jew and I shall die a Jew, unless
I break it in some way. (Tom 60)

44. Contribution of MJTrad to Ecumenism
• To Judaism – 7th branch
• To Xty – heal original
schism
• Bring denominations
together
• Celebrate shabbat

45. Lack of method?
• One of the main difficulties in
understanding the traditionist
way of life lies with its
perceived incoherence or lack
of orderly method. That which
seems to many to be selective
observance is also commonly
seen as symptomatic of the
lack of a guiding, uniting,
underlying logic. It is most
definitely seen as being
without a “method”, a
systematic code to clearly
explain which (religious)
practices are observed and
which are neglected. (67)

46. Ethno-national and communal
identification
• traditionist practice can
be described as guided by
the desire to conserve
authentic Jewish identity
in a contemporary
setting. The traditionist
body of practices and
beliefs answers to a
behavioral code based
upon ethno-national and
communal identification.
(68)

49. Streams of Messianic Judaism
• UMJC
• MJAA

50. Traditions in Messianic Judaism
• MJRC – Halakah and
Messianic Judaism

52. • Tradition acts as a measure of validity and propriety for a
community’s faith insofar as it represents a consensus of faith.
The various traditions that presently make claims upon us may
contain conflicting images and insights of truth and validity. We
examine such conflicts in light of Scripture, reflecting critically
upon the doctrinal stance of our Church.
• It is by the discerning use of our standards and in openness to
emerging forms of Christian identity that we attempt to maintain
fidelity to the apostolic faith.
• At the same time, we continue to draw on the broader Christian
tradition as an expression of the history of divine grace within
which Christians are able to recognize and welcome one another
in love.

53. Rosenzweig’s Nihil

54. Tradition and Self in a Mediated World
Four Facets of Tradition