“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”

Isaiah 55: 6-7

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Interfaith Marriage and Judaism

See “Interfaith marriage in our time: An outreach rabbi’s conflicting emotions at Hanukkah” by Rabbi Yitschak Rudomin:

With the hoopla and near-celebratory tone of articles in the Jewish media about how “great it is” that Joe Biden has family members who are intermarried to Jews, the following is a more sober and somber look at this very sad phenomenon.

Anyone involved in Kiruv Rechokim, Jewish outreach by Torah Jews to their secularized and non Orthodox brethren has known for a long time that the rate of intermarriage in America is coming closer and closer to 100% for secular Jews.

Yahweh Commanded the Children of Israel Not to Intermarry

Yahweh commanded the Children of Israel not to intermarry with the inhabitants of the Promised Land. He gave them that command during the exodus and the wilderness journey, and He explained why He did it. The verses below are examples. There are many others. To Yahweh it’s a big deal:

• Exodus 34: 15-16—“Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.”
• Deuteronomy 7: 1-6—”When Yahweh your Elohim brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—and when Yahweh your Elohim has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your children away from following Me to serve other gods, and Yahweh’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. For you are a people holy to Yahweh your Elohim. Yahweh your Elohim has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession.”
• Joshua 23: 12-13—“But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them, then you may be sure that the Yahweh your Elohim will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the Yahweh your Elohim has given you.”

Yahweh wasn’t punishing the Children of Israel or attempting to deny them happiness. He was trying to protect them, and He made clear that there would be consequences for disobeying His commands.

The Children of Israel did not Obey Yahweh

Despite Yahweh’s warnings, many Children of Israel disobeyed Him, and they suffered the consequences. For example, Samson wanted to marry Delilah, a Philistine. It cost him his sight and his freedom.

King Solomon made the same mistake. He is renowned as a great King of Israel and he built Yahweh’s Temple, but his legacy is marred by his infidelity to Yahweh:

King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which Yahweh had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to Yahweh his Elohim, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of Yahweh; he did not follow Yahweh completely, as David his father had done.

On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.

Yahweh became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from Yahweh, the Elohim of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. Although He had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep Yahweh’s command. So Yahweh said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept My covenant and My decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.” (1 Kings 11: 1-13)

After Solomon’s death in 931 BC, Israel was divided into 2 kingdoms. The Northern Kingdom was called “Israel”, and the Southern Kingdom was called “Judah”.

In 722 BC, the Northern Kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrians and taken captive. Eventually, they were scattered throughout the world and became known as “The 10 Lost Tribes of Israel”. As they assimilated, most of them lost touch with their identities as Israelites.

The Southern Kingdom included Judah and Benjamin. Judah absorbed Benjamin, because it was such a small group. Over time, the children of Benjamin saw themselves as being part of the tribe of Judah.

In 586 BC, the Babylonians defeated the Southern Kingdom and took them captive. During Judah’s 70 years of captivity and exile, Jewish religious leaders created Judaism, the religion.

Judaism, the religion, should not be confused with the things Yahweh requires. It is loaded with dos and don’ts that did not come from Him. Many of the rabbis’ dos and don’ts contradict Yahweh’s explicit commands. For example, Yahweh commanded the Children of Israel to praise His Name and to declare His Name to the world. But in the mid-2^nd century BC, the rabbis forbade the use of Yahweh’s Name, and the punishment for violating their decree was death. See Sanhedrin 7: 5 below:

One who blasphemes is not liable until he mentions the Name [and “blesses” the Name by the Name (i.e., “May X curse X”), it being written (Leviticus 24:16): “And he who blasphemes the Name … if he blasphemes the Name” — blaspheming the Name by the Name.] R. Yehoshua b. Karchah said: The entire day [of deliberation] they would examine the witnesses (to blaspheming) with an epithet (kinui) [A “substitute object” of a curse is called “kinui” by the sages; and, in Scripture (Job 32:22): “Ki loyadati achaneh” (“For I know now how to mince words.”)] — “May Yossi smite Yossi.” [I have heard that the Tetragrammaton is alluded to by “Yossi” for it (Yossi) has four letters, the gematria of which (86) is “Elokim.”] When the judgment was concluded [and beth-din came to pronounce him liableb], they could not execute him [on the basis of the testimony that they heard, for they had heard from their mouths only a curse] by epithet.] But everyone is sent out, [it being demeaning to utter a “blessing of the Name” in public], and they ask the senior witness (what he heard) and say to him: “Repeat what you heard explicitly,” and he does so. And the judges stand upon their feet, and they rend (their garments) and do not resew them [in a “finished” manner, with Alexandrine stitching, where the rent is not noticeable; but other stitching is permitted.], and the second witness says: “I, too, heard as he did.” [and he need not repeat it explicitly], and the third says: “I, too, heard as he did.” [This is in accordance with the view that just as two (witnesses) constitute one testimony, so do three.]

According to the rabbis, the meaning of “blaspheme” is simply saying “Yahweh”, and the Messiah was found guilty of blasphemy because He said “Yahweh”. See His Name is Yahweh: Revised Edition.

The rabbis’ dos and don’ts are spelled out in great detail in the Talmud and other religious writings. Collectively, they are called “Halacha”, a.k.a., the Oral Law and the traditions of the Jews. The literal meaning of the Hebrew word “Halacha” is “the way to behave” or “the way to walk”.

Halacha should be called “the way of the rabbis”. It is not Yahweh’s way.

Even so, according to the rabbis, Halacha has precedence over Yahweh’s Law that is spelled out in the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings. Christians call it “The Old Testament”. Jewish people call it “The Tanach”.

It should be obvious to anyone that nothing has precedence over Yahweh’s word. That’s especially true for rabbis and preachers. If they don’t recognize the superiority of Yahweh’s word, they are in the wrong line of work.

In due course, Yahweh is going to make that perfectly clear to them. Rabbis and preachers need to repent now while they still have a chance. One day, Yahweh’s door of mercy will close for them, and like He did to Pharaoh, He will harden their hearts so they couldn’t repent even if they wanted to.

Yahweh requires faith and obedience to His word and the leading of His Spirit. I call it “the faith of Abraham”. Yahweh’s Spirit will never lead anyone to do anything that contradicts Yahweh’s word. About that, you can be certain.

See The Trilogy.

When the Babylonian captivity ended, Judah returned to the Promised Land as an intact group, and the rabbis brought Judaism and Halacha with them. About 500 years later, the Messiah came to set the record straight. His teachings threatened the economic, social, and political well-being of the Jewish religious leaders, so they engineered His death at the hands of the Romans.

The rabbis of the Messiah’s day chose wealth, prestige, and power over Yahweh. They didn’t know that He is Yahweh, but they do now.

Problems with Rabbi Rudomin’s Arguments

1. Yahweh gave His commands to the Children of Israel, not to Judah alone.
2. Yahweh commanded the Children of Israel not to intermarry, not just the children of Judah.
3. Yahweh would never call a religion associated with Him “Judaism”, because Judah is just 1 of the 12 tribes of Israel.
4. Most people in the world today who are descendants of Israel do not know that they are Israel’s descendants. Thankfully, Yahweh is beginning to open their hearts to their identity as Children of Israel.
5. According to Halacha, someone can become Jewish by converting to Judaism. That’s utter nonsense. No one can become a descendant of Judah by converting to Judaism.
6. Foreigners have always been permitted to unite with Israel if they have faith in Yahweh. That has never changed. For example, David’s great-grandmother, Ruth, was a Moabite, not an Israelite.

Yahweh’s command to His children not to intermarry with people of other faiths still holds true. People who ignore Yahweh’s commands will have the same types of problems that Samson and Solomon had.

Faith (in Yahweh) is the operative word. It’s about faith, not religion. It always has been about faith, not religion.

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“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”

John 17: 22-24

See “His Name is Yahweh”.