Orthodox Jews v.s Pharisees
Pharisee is a sect of Judaism when the Second Temple still existed. Then Jewish people were scattered. Orthodox Jews keep the same teachings of Pharisees. The Orthodox Jews manage the Kotel and most Jewish sites in Israel, so that’s why it is required for man to wear a kippa or hat on head. And that’s why men and women pray separately.
Two-Handled Vessel
Being ritually clean is important to Pharisees or orthodox Jews. (The definition of a real ‘Jew’ mostly refers to whether he/she strictly follows the teachings in orthodox Judaism) You have to use this special two-handled vessel/cup and say a special prayer to achieve ritually clean status, and is irrelevant to hygiene.
That is why the Pharisees said
“Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not do the ritual handwashing when they eat bread.” (Matthew 15:2)
How to Interpret Jewish ‘Persistence’?
Pharisees was a sect of Judaism that emerged after the First Temple was destroyed. In the land of captivity, a group of people separated themselves from the local culture, and strived to keep their faith and live according to the teachings of Torah.
When God asked the children of Israel to
1.Use tefilin (“bind them as a sign on your hand, they are to be as frontlets between your eyes”),
2.Keep payot (“You are not to round off the hair on the sides of your heads”)
3.Hang mezuzah (“write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”)
4.Wear tzittzit (“It will be your own tzitzit—so whenever you look at them, you will remember“)
All these things that Jewish people do remind them and many generations of who they are. And they were not welcomed in European continent because of such appearance. (Plus they eat kosher and keep shabbat). They were not just called ‘weird’, or ridiculed. Many Jewish people were killed for keeping commandments.
When Yeshua replied to Pharisees on the ‘tradition’ of washing hands, knowing that Yeshua was from the same culture and he was keeping commandment of God too, he was simply reminding the Jews that loving God is more important than tradition.
“Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? (Matthew 15:3)
Mitzvot, or commandments of God are never outdated.
Daniel, his 3 friends who were thrown into firing furnace, Queen Ester, and Nehemiah had not forgotten who they were. They had not forsaken their God or the commandants. And it’s this same ‘persistence’ on keeping the Word of God, that Christians today can know the God of Abraham, Jacob and Isaac.
It’s this persistence, that the Bible, the language, the culture, the people and the faith is kept till today.
It’s been a long time from 70AD when the Second Temple was destroyed till now. And if you visit Israel, you will see that Jewish people are still persistent in being a Jew.
They were expelled, forgotten, mocked, rejected, persecuted and even replaced, but they haven’t given up their identity. They have not forgotten their God. And their God have not forgotten His people.
What I really want to say as a Christian is, “Thank you.”
