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In 1978, at age 13, I had my bar-mitzvah. I was well-trained, and I’m sure I read well from the Torah and from the haftorah prophetic reading. I am thankful for
this training, since I still use it today, as I often read from Torah in the messianic synagogue. However, to be honest, I had no idea what I was doing nor what it
meant to be a “bar mitzvah” (son of the commandments), except that my parents were throwing a big party at the Marriott later that day which would involve
me receiving a lot of money from everyone who came. I was pretty excited about that. I was trained to read Hebrew and mimick prayers, not to understand the
spiritual significance of any of it. All I knew was that people were celebrating “me”, and that was cool. When I was 13, nearly every weekend I had a bar
mitzvah to attend, since all my friends were having them, and now it was my turn. The greatest thing about it was, since I had completed bar-mitzvah I no
longer had to attend Hebrew school.
LAYING THE FOUNDATION - HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE
Beginning in high school, and throughout college in the 80’s, it was the Reagan years and most young people were business majors, fraternity members, ultra-
conservative, right wing, Repulican, and everything that was the opposite of the preceding 10-15 years. A popular TV show called “Family Ties” pretty well
characterized the age. Michael J. Fox played a college age kid who was ultra conservative, and his parents were hippies. However, all the Jewish kids I knew
were still drawn to the hippie movement of the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s. We never went for the whole Young Republican thing, because really that was
something for people who were o.k. with Pat Robertson running for President, it was for fundamentalist Christians as far as we were concerned. Of course, I
had no idea that messianic Judaism grew out of the hippie movement. We were drawn to it because the music and the simplistic message of the hippie
movement a decade earlier seemed to be all about walking in love and doing things right, without regard to the established norms and institutions of society.
This was a message that struck home with me and my Jewish friends. In fact the music of the hippie era appealed to me, and to my Jewish friends, as a kind
of new religion. We quoted song lyrics from Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, etc. like some people quote from the bible.
I was definitely affected by Bob Dylan’s public confession of Jesus as the Messiah in about 1979. Even though I was mad at him about it, I also felt that there
must have been some good reason why he did it, at least for a while. I listened to his songs about Jesus, and I really liked them, but I did not understand. I was
pleased when Robert Zimmerman, a/k/a Bob Dylan finally stopped singing about Jesus in the 80’s. But I never forgot those songs, and I never stopped
wondering why an intelligent and famous Jew like Bob Dylan would ever sing a song that says: “I’ve been saved by the blood of the Lamb”. I have no idea
whether or not Dylan still believes, that’s between him and God. But I have to say, his songs about Jesus made a huge impact on me – and still do.
In my college and high school days, I had never read anything from the new testament. It was like a book that would curse me, I supposed, if I even looked at it.
I did not know that Yeshua himself was an anti-establishment Jew, rejected by the religious rulers, but accepted as the Messiah by thousands of Jews who
saw the hypocrisy in the Rabbis and in religion. I now know that Yeshua’s early Jewish followers were a lot like me. They were looking for spiritual things, and
they identified with the simple truth of the gospel: Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. This was what I was looking for, but I had no
idea I would later find it in Yeshua. God was actually laying a foundation in my life to understand and receive the gospel, as he did with thousands of Jews in
the 70’s who came out of the hippie movement and were transformed into the movement which we now know as messianic Judaism.
this training, since I still use it today, as I often read from Torah in the messianic synagogue. However, to be honest, I had no idea what I was doing nor what it
meant to be a “bar mitzvah” (son of the commandments), except that my parents were throwing a big party at the Marriott later that day which would involve
me receiving a lot of money from everyone who came. I was pretty excited about that. I was trained to read Hebrew and mimick prayers, not to understand the
spiritual significance of any of it. All I knew was that people were celebrating “me”, and that was cool. When I was 13, nearly every weekend I had a bar
mitzvah to attend, since all my friends were having them, and now it was my turn. The greatest thing about it was, since I had completed bar-mitzvah I no
longer had to attend Hebrew school.
LAYING THE FOUNDATION - HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE
Beginning in high school, and throughout college in the 80’s, it was the Reagan years and most young people were business majors, fraternity members, ultra-
conservative, right wing, Repulican, and everything that was the opposite of the preceding 10-15 years. A popular TV show called “Family Ties” pretty well
characterized the age. Michael J. Fox played a college age kid who was ultra conservative, and his parents were hippies. However, all the Jewish kids I knew
were still drawn to the hippie movement of the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s. We never went for the whole Young Republican thing, because really that was
something for people who were o.k. with Pat Robertson running for President, it was for fundamentalist Christians as far as we were concerned. Of course, I
had no idea that messianic Judaism grew out of the hippie movement. We were drawn to it because the music and the simplistic message of the hippie
movement a decade earlier seemed to be all about walking in love and doing things right, without regard to the established norms and institutions of society.
This was a message that struck home with me and my Jewish friends. In fact the music of the hippie era appealed to me, and to my Jewish friends, as a kind
of new religion. We quoted song lyrics from Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, etc. like some people quote from the bible.
I was definitely affected by Bob Dylan’s public confession of Jesus as the Messiah in about 1979. Even though I was mad at him about it, I also felt that there
must have been some good reason why he did it, at least for a while. I listened to his songs about Jesus, and I really liked them, but I did not understand. I was
pleased when Robert Zimmerman, a/k/a Bob Dylan finally stopped singing about Jesus in the 80’s. But I never forgot those songs, and I never stopped
wondering why an intelligent and famous Jew like Bob Dylan would ever sing a song that says: “I’ve been saved by the blood of the Lamb”. I have no idea
whether or not Dylan still believes, that’s between him and God. But I have to say, his songs about Jesus made a huge impact on me – and still do.
In my college and high school days, I had never read anything from the new testament. It was like a book that would curse me, I supposed, if I even looked at it.
I did not know that Yeshua himself was an anti-establishment Jew, rejected by the religious rulers, but accepted as the Messiah by thousands of Jews who
saw the hypocrisy in the Rabbis and in religion. I now know that Yeshua’s early Jewish followers were a lot like me. They were looking for spiritual things, and
they identified with the simple truth of the gospel: Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. This was what I was looking for, but I had no
idea I would later find it in Yeshua. God was actually laying a foundation in my life to understand and receive the gospel, as he did with thousands of Jews in
the 70’s who came out of the hippie movement and were transformed into the movement which we now know as messianic Judaism.
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