Beth HaDerech; Messianic Jewish Congregation, Toronto, Canada

Is Mashiach your Rabbi?

Rabbeinu (our Rabbi) Maran Yeshua calls each of us individually to a life of discipleship to him (the Mashiach teach us to walk the Torah of HaShem). But what is a disciple? What does it mean to be a disciple? Disciples in Judaism: Our image of a disciple of Maran Yeshua maybe of a bearded man in a robe, wearing sandals. Or it may be simply an image of one of the Twelve that followed Maran Yeshua. We tend to think of discipleship as the Besorat tova HaGeulah (Tidings of Redemption) describes them, perhaps something Yeshua HaMashiach introduced when he chose his 12 disciples. This is wrong. Long before the days of the Master, discipleship was already a well-established institution within Jewish culture. All the great sages, the rabbis, the sages among the Pharisees and the teachers of the Torah had disciples. The Hebrew word for disciple is talmid. Talmid means student. The plural is talmidim: students. We translate talmidim as disciples. A talmid was a student of one of the sages. A talmid’s job was to learn everything that his Master had to teach. The talmidim of First Century Judaism learned everything from their teacher, and they learned to be just like their teacher. They learned the stories that the teacher told. They learned the lessons that their teacher taught. They learned to eat the foods that their...