The Calling of Jeremiah the Prophet

Isaiah 53. Is this chapter forbidden for Jews to read? Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Thanks so much for joining us on The Line of Fire on this thoroughly Jewish Thursday. This is Michael Brown, and I am really excited, friends, because we have released, first of its kind, an amazing new video on Isaiah 53. It's on our website, AskDrBrown.org forward slash consider this. It's on our YouTube channel, Ask Dr. Brown, A.S.K.

Dior Brown. It's called The Most Compelling Messianic Prophecy, and we deal with Isaiah 53, five minutes, an animated video. It is going to be an amazing Jewish outreach tool. It's free. Share it.

Post it on social media. If you have questions about that, by all means, give us a call. But phone lines are open for any Jewish-related question of any kind. 866-348-7884.

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I'm in a very religious setting, and if anyone knew I was calling, I would be in trouble. Well, write to us privately. We will not give your name out to anyone.

We will not put you on a special list. We will interact with you privately and do our best to help. If your first language is English, we're good on that. If your first language is Hebrew, we're good on that. If your first language is Russian, we're good on that. We've got a staff member fluent in Russian, English, and Hebrew, Jewish, Russian, Israeli believer. We would love to interact with you.

But right now calling, this has to be English, all right? 866-34-TRUTH. So check out this new video on Isaiah 53. Simplest thing, just go to our YouTube channel, Ask Dr. Brown, and you will see it there, the most compelling messianic prophecy.

It is powerfully animated. Our team did an incredible job putting this together, and I produced the text for it based on decades and decades of study of the text to try to make it as simple as I could for a Jewish seeker and to edify all believers and all seekers from all backgrounds, but to convey the truth of the message, to kind of subtly answer questions and respond to objections that will come up, and then to let the text speak for itself, knowing the power of the word, that the power of the gospel is in the proclamation of the message. So Isaiah 53, more than any other passage anywhere in scripture, conveys this message of Messiah's vicarious death and his resurrection, and there it is laid out in the book of Isaiah hundreds of years before Jesus came into the world. So share that. Would you be, excuse me, an evangelism team with me?

Would you do that? Just take the link from YouTube and boom, post it on your Facebook page, send it out via Twitter, tell people on Instagram, wherever you can get the word out, get it out because we know God wants to touch multitudes of Jewish people with this tool. So Isaiah 53, we're going to look at the chapter a little bit more during the broadcast today, but is it forbidden?

There is a viral video that One for Israel produced. Our friends, they're Eitan Barr and other friends, and they're talking to people in Israel, religious Jews and others, and they're not familiar with the contents of the chapter. They've never read it. Is it forbidden? Are they told to skip it or not read it?

What are the details of this? Why is it thought of as a forbidden chapter? Why is it that many traditional Jews are not familiar with it? They know so much of the Bible by heart. They know massive amount of forbidden literature by heart. The most devout study many hours a day and incredibly learned, why do so many seem unaware of this passage? So first thing to understand is that a religious Jew, and it's the man that's the man that's doing most of the study, that a religious Jew is intimately conversant with the Torah, with the first five books.

This is the foundation for everything that they're studying. So when they first learn to read Hebrew, maybe four or five years old, they're starting to learn Torah in an early age, and then some years after that, learning it with Rashi's commentary. And every week in the synagogue, a portion of the five books of Moses is read so that annually you read through the entire Torah. So every year of your life you're going through it, going through it, going through it, going through it, going through it, and reading it during the week. Okay, then in your prayer times you are reciting lots of the Psalms. You're reciting other portions of Scripture, and that's part of your daily routine.

So you're very, very familiar with that. And then in the synagogue every week, you have supplemental readings called haftarat. You may hear spoken of colloquially as haftarah, but it's the haftarat. It's the supplemental reading, and it comes from the section in the Hebrew Bible called the Prophets, Nivi'im. A traditional Jew refers to what Christians refer to as the Old Testament.

They refer to it as Tanach. All right, so Torah, Nivi'im, Ketuvim. Torah, the five books of Moses, Nivi'im, the prophetic books, Ketuvim, the writings. Okay, what are the prophetic books in traditional Judaism? They are Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the 12 Minor Prophets.

Those are considered Nivi'im. So it is believed that Prophets wrote, say, 1 and 2 Kings, etc., 1 and 2 Samuel. The Prophets wrote those books. Therefore, they are prophetic in their insight. And then Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, 12 Minor Prophets. You say, what about everything else? What about 1 and 2 Chronicles, and Ezra and Ezra and Nehemiah?

What about Daniel? What about... Those all go in the writings together with Psalms and Proverbs and Job, Lamentations. They're all there. So every week in the synagogue, you read from the five books of Moses from the Torah, and then you read from Nivi'im, from the Prophets. Now, it's not all of those books, obviously.

It's a selection. Maybe a selection from Joshua that ties in with the weekly theme, or maybe a selection from Ezekiel or Jeremiah that ties in with the weekly theme in the Torah. So there are passages from Isaiah, and there is a passage read in Isaiah in one of the weekly Torah portions as a supplement right before Isaiah 53. And Isaiah 53 is technically 5213 to 5312. That's the passage. So ignore the chapter division there.

5213 to 5312. That's what we refer to as Isaiah 53. So there's a passage read right before that, and then the next week, the passage right after that, and Isaiah 53 is skipped. Why is it skipped? Okay, first thing, it is skipped.

That's a fact. Now, other passages in other places are skipped as well, but it is skipped, which means that a traditional Jew is not going to hear it as part of any annual reading. It is not part of daily prayer.

It's not part of the weekly synagogue readings. So a traditional Jew could grow up, and unless that traditional Jew has studied all the Bible, you say, but traditional Jews study day and night. They know the scriptures inside and out, not all of the scriptures. In other words, they do not read the Bible the way a Christian might and say, okay, I'm going to start reading Genesis 1. I'm going to read through the Bible in a year.

Excuse me. Again, the amount of study they do, the amount of material they learn is massive, but they're not just going through the whole Bible. So it is skipped, and that means that a traditional Jew, after being in synagogue, say daily or weekly for 50 years, will never hear that read in the synagogue, whereas they'll hear other portions read over and over and over and over and over.

The question is, why is it skipped? And the best scholarship that I've seen on this says that there is a debate on the subject, that if you go back far enough in the ancient world, because not all of the ancient Jews of the ancient Jewish world had the same customs. For example, if you lived in Babylon, the cycle was to go through the five books of Moses in the synagogues every three years. But if you lived in Judea, you would go through it once a year.

So things were not fixed in the same way. Different parts of the Jewish world may have prayed certain prayers on certain days and other parts of the Jewish world not. Certain parts of the Jewish world may recite certain portions of scripture on certain days and other parts of the Jewish world not.

So there are two different traditions that we try to uncover, but we just don't have exact data. One says, if you go back far enough, you'll see this was never one of the passages that was read. In other words, there's no evidence that it was once read and then taken out. There is that argument that in some parts of the ancient Jewish world, there is no evidence that it was ever there in the first place. It was always skipped just like other passages are skipped because they're not considered relevant or tying in with the weekly Torah portion. On the flip side, there are traditions that indicate that it once was read in the synagogues and was removed because it was considered too controversial.

It was considered too polemical, and it was known that Christians were going to use this to preach Jesus and that to have it read in the synagogue would not be constructive, which tells you the power of these words. Now, many Messianic Jews only know of that argument that it was read in the synagogues and was taken out. There is a debate about that. So if you have an Orthodox Jew saying, no, no, it was never part of the cycle, it was never taken out, that's what they've that's what they've heard. Others would argue, no, it was part of the cycle and it was taken out.

So there is a scholarly debate about that. But for sure, it is not read. And there is a strong argument that at least in certain circles, it once was read in the synagogues and was removed.

Now, it's not forbidden. Any Jew can study it, read it. It has all the standard commentaries. If you have any rabbinic Bible with Isaiah 53, I mean, a book of Isaiah, my library is filled with these things and all the commentaries are there and so on. But many Jews go through their entire lives and they're not familiar with the passage because it's not part of any traditional reading cycle.

And therefore, if you show it to them for the first time, unless they've been trained in polemics or know the arguments about Jesus being the Messiah, many of them have never read it before. We'll be right back. 866-34-TRUTH. I'm going to the phones as soon as we come back.

By calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Oh boy, is that beautiful.

I just want to let it play. Our friend Joshua of Israel, Godel Elohai, great is our God. It's Thoroughly Jewish Thursday. Any Jewish related questions you have for me of any kind whatsoever, by all means, give us a call. 866-34-TRUTH.

We start with Christian in Tampa, Florida. Thanks for calling the line of fire. Hi there. Thank you so much, Dr. Brown. I appreciate you taking my call.

You bet. I just had a quick question. I have a couple of Jewish friends that try to use Jesus praying to the Father and also in, like, whipping people in the temple as, like, an excuse to kind of, like, knock out His divinity. And so my question is, how would I properly articulate to them how that's not how that works through Scripture?

Like, is there any passages that I can check out that could refute this claim correctly? Right, so the first thing is to say, it doesn't say he whipped people. He drove, right, he overturned the tables, and he's quoting from Jeremiah 7 that the temple's been turned into a den of thieves, and that he drives out the cattle with a whip. So there's nothing unmessianic or sinful or fleshly about that.

He's cleaning out his father's house. And in fact, he asks, who better to do it? You could even point to Malachi 3 that when the Messiah comes, he's going to come like a refiner's fire, and he's going to purify the priests and the Levites. And the question is, who can endure the day of his coming?

Because it's going to come with purging judgment. So I would start there in terms of saying, first, he's not hurting anyone. He's not doing any violence. There's no accusation against that. It would have been very easy if you're using the New Testament as a guide here, because we know about this through the New Testament. It would have been very easy for Rome to bring some type of accusation against him based on that he was actually causing violence or leading an uproar, but they had to rely on false testimony.

So that would be the first thing. The second thing is, the very ones that were eyewitnesses to that are the ones that make the claim that he was sinless. If this was looked at as some sinful activity, you would have been able to point to it. You don't have in Jewish literature anywhere, ancient Jewish literature, that he gets attacked for doing that.

That's the one thing. The other thing is that they need to understand that he comes as a mediator. So he is going to pray to his father because he is fully human and fully divine. And I would start with passages like Genesis 18, where God appears in human form and eats with Abram, even as his feet washed, has an extensive conversation with him, and then leaves while the two angels that are with him go on to Sodom. Genesis 18, through that to the beginning of the 19th chapter, is to say our God is complex in his unity. To just try to squeeze him into our little minds is a mistake.

He is far greater than that. So at one and the same time, he can sit enthroned in heaven. At one and the same time, he can fill the universe with his presence. He can work among us invisibly by his spirit, and he can appear in human form. And we have evidence for that in the Hebrew Bible. Now he just does it in a more permanent way in the New Testament. And he does that to bring human beings to God. So this is exactly what the New Testament teaches.

And this is not a matter of math or science. We're talking about Almighty God, complex in his unity. So I would point to the wonder and beauty and mystery of it, but say this is how God reaches out to us and makes himself known so that we can know the only true God. I point out that the God of the Old Testament is hidden and yet revealed, invisible and yet visible, transcendent and yet imminent.

How is that? Is through his son that he makes himself known. This is consistent from the Hebrew Bible into the New Testament. All right, thank you so much.

You are very welcome. Keep sharing the gospel with your friends and make sure you show them the Isaiah 53 video. 866-34-TRUTH. OK, before we dig into a bit more of the Isaiah 53 text, let me just say that I'm not going to get into a major political discussion. We all had our fill with the presidential debate Tuesday night. I think it's one of the rare times when left and right united like, oh, oh, boy. But I saw a fascinating article in the Jerusalem Post. I was curious to see how this would play in Israel and other nations. So so check out this article in the Jerusalem Post. America gets taste of Israeli politics in debate analysis. For years, Israelis thought that they would adopt elements of U.S. politics, but this time it went the other way.

In other words, in other words, the Jerusalem Post article is saying, America, this is what we deal with all the time. This is what our politics sound like all the time. You thought it was juvenile.

You thought it was bad. Every crosstalk and yelling over each other is like, this is our normal politics. You think we get nasty, our attack ads in America, the level of our politics, the name calling, the accusation. You think it's bad here? Go over to Israel.

But hang on. Add in the fact that you have as many as 22 different parties competing for seats in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, for the 120 seats, OK? And maybe 10 of them will get enough votes to to get in the threshold level, which is four seats. Then you add in that you have ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups, radically left secularist groups, and then Arab groups, you've got a volatile mix. So, I mean, I found that so interesting to see that they're saying, yeah, America got a taste of Israeli politics.

That's like our norm. So, yeah, interesting for them. Yeah, interesting for sure. 866-34-TRUTH.

Oh, I want to get to this question momentarily over in Seattle. But first, beginning of Isaiah 53. So again, 5213. Isaiah 5213 starts with these words, Hinay Yaskil Avdi. So no question about Hinay and Avdi, behold, and my servant, but Yaskil, that can mean he will act wisely or he will succeed.

He will prosper. Either way, it speaks of his great exaltation and God drawing attention to him. And it continues, Ka'sher Shamamu Alecha Rabim, just as many were astonished at you, either speaking to the servant directly or the prophet as a type of the servant.

All right. Ka'sher Shamamu Alecha Rabim, just as many were astonished or appalled at you. We understand this ultimately with reference to the servant. So his appearance was marred more than that of a man. And his likeness is for him beyond human semblance. So he's going to be highly exalted.

Okay. I didn't read the end of that verse. He will be lifted up, exalted, and exceedingly high. But first, he's going to suffer terrible abasement. Just so he will startle or sprinkle many nations. And that which they had not heard, they will now understand.

Now, we're going to get into this a little bit more as the broadcast goes on. But the question is, who is this servant? This one that will be highly exalted but only after terrible suffering. This one whose message will now get out to the nations. You can make a case for sprinkle many nations so that cleansing work of his blood, others would translate startle.

That's a whole other linguistic debate. As a result, kings will shut their mouths. The traditional Jewish view says ultimately this is speaking about Israel. It may have some messianic application, but it's ultimately speaking about Israel. And if you will keep reading in Isaiah 53, you'll see that the servant of the Lord has been suffering for the sins of the nations. The kings of the nations are speaking and they're saying, oh, we thought Israel was suffering for its own sins. We didn't realize that Israel was suffering for our sins as we exiled and oppressed and killed the people of Israel. But we're healed through their wounds. Messianic Jews, Christians would say, no, no, can't say that.

Absolutely not. It's not the servant. This is Israel speaking and Israel saying we thought that he, the Messiah, was suffering for his sins. We didn't realize he was suffering for our sins. And by his wounds, we are healed. So in our video on Isaiah 53, we lay out very simply five minutes animated video. So to the point and with the scripture being put out there, put out there so people hear it, feel it, receive it, think about it. We indicate why the servant spoken of is the same one spoken of in Isaiah 49 and Isaiah 50, who is rejected by his people, even suffers violence in the hands of his people.

And yet it is through his life and his death and his resurrection that those very people are saved. And through him, that the message now goes to the nations and that Israel succeeds in its mission to be a light to the nations. All right, we'll get back in Isaiah 53. But before we do that, we're going to answer a question on Psalm 22. So stay right here.

Now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Yeah, the voice of Misha Getz, Marty for many, many years before Misha even existed. Great to hear her singing together with her dad there, Misha's voice, the prayer from prayer of blessing from number six, the Aaronic benediction. It is Thoroughly Jewish Thursday, so welcome. We've got some new music we'll be playing these weeks, so be ready to be blessed. That's my problem is I just want to just worship, drink that in.

Anyway, here we go. 866-34-TRUTH. Any Jewish-related, Hebrew-related question you've got for me, please give us a call. We go over to Rob in Seattle, Washington. Welcome to the line of fire.

Hello, Dr. Brown. My question is about Psalms 22-16. I was watching and reading a Tovia Singer's article, and he claims that it is not the word pierce because I believe karau is the correct word, and that means like a lion rather than the Christian translation of karu, which is pierce, and he lists karu saying it does not mean pierce but dig or excavate. I'm saying that the nachal hever manuscript is just a misspelling considering that this word is never used anywhere else in Hebrew. Yes, I mean Tovia really should know better. We refuted that many, many, many years ago in writing and on video.

All our materials have been out. Many others have refuted it, so it's very, very weak arguments. The problem with Tovia Singer is he knows this stuff has been refuted. He knows their answers, but he doesn't tell you. So what I'll do is say now here's the counterargument, but here's the accurate information. He doesn't tell you that this has been demolished, his arguments, years and years ago, and that he's only telling you part of the story. Why?

Because he doesn't want you to know the whole truth. So here's the deal. This is an internal Jewish issue. This is not even a Christian issue.

This is an internal Jewish issue. So the Masoretic manuscripts, the vast majority, a multiplied thousands of manuscripts, hundreds over the years, and the hundreds that still have, so they read almost all of them kahri, which would be like a lion, okay? So kahri yadavir aglay, like a lion, my hands and my feet. What does that mean? There's a verb missing. Clearly, there's a verb missing. So if you look at Rashi, who's the foremost medieval Jewish commentator, lived from 1040 to 1105, what does Rashi say?

Like a lion, they are mauling my hands and my feet. So first, that'd be a very vivid picture of crucifixion right there. The New Testament itself never quotes this verse. It quotes some of the surrounding verses in Psalm 22, which is a vivid crucifixion psalm.

So in terms of what's ultimately being seen and experienced there in the spirit. But that's the first thing. Rashi says, like a lion, they are mauling my hands and feet. So that would be quite a valid description of someone having their hands and feet pierced with metal spikes.

First thing. The second thing is the oldest translation that we have of this is the Septuagint, the Greek translation. And we know for sure, contrary to what Tovia Singer says, that the Septuagint was completed before the time of the New Testament. And the Septuagint translates with they pierced.

That's how the Septuagint translates. Where did they get this? This is a couple hundred years before the time of Jesus.

Where did they get that from? That's not Ka'uri. Well, as Tovia mentions, nachal hever, the Qumran manuscript. So this is roughly around the same time of the New Testament. The reading there does not have a yud, which is a smaller line, but a vav, a longer line, which is karu.

So what does karu mean? It would then mean dig out, cut out, or bore through, something like that, which again could easily be used. So they dig through, they bore through, my hands and my feet would work very, very well to speak of crucifixion. But there's more. There are about a dozen Masoretic manuscripts. So these are Jewish traditional manuscripts from, say, 800 to 1,000 years after the time of Jesus. And some of them have variant readings. Some of them read karu, kaf, reish, vav, karu.

Some of them read ka'aru, with an olef. So the very thing that Tovia is denying exists is found in traditional Jewish manuscripts. And that's why the best ancient Hebrew lexicons add this as a as a potential root.

That is, they're either ka'aru there or karu. So either way, the oldest translation that we have, says they pierce, the oldest Jewish translation, the oldest Hebrew manuscript that we have of this, says they dug through, they bore through. And some medieval Masoretic manuscripts reflect this as well. This is entirely a Christian, a Jewish issue, because it's not quoted in the New Testament. So there is good evidence for a reading of they dug through, they bore through, hence they pierced my hands and feet.

And this is something that's entirely Jewish in terms of ancient translations and ancient manuscripts. I'm just trying to see if I can find the right video for you. But I actually got into this in great depth on a show that I did. Let's just see if I can find this and tell you how to find it. Yeah, here we go. So if you go to YouTube and just search for Dr. Brown Refutes Rabbi Singer on Daniel 9 and Psalm 22, or just type in Dr. Brown Psalm 22, you'll see a video where we get into this in great depth. We demolish arguments that he raised. We take some clips from him about Daniel 9 and Psalm 22, get into it.

I even put up copies of the data, some of the information that you can actually see it with your own eyes. So on our YouTube channel, Ask Dr. Brown, or just search on YouTube, Dr. Brown Refutes Rabbi Singer on Daniel 9 and Psalm 22. And again, what troubles me with Rabbi Singer is different than many other counter missionaries who give you the other information and who say, hey, look at this, check it out.

Now, here's why we believe it's wrong. And then they'll lay out their argument. He doesn't tell you that these arguments exist. And you think, oh, no, am I believing something wrong?

It's like, hang on. There are arguments. And he knows full well about them because he's studied these things for many years. That's what bothers me, that he withholds the truth from people and gives a terribly misleading impression.

So any follow-up question from that? Yeah, there's a couple other words that he says. I think DACA and another word that's primarily used for Pierce in the Old Testament. And he mentioned if the author wanted to use the word Pierce, he would have used one of these other words rather than a unique rare word that has never been used. So I guess my question is, why do you think the author used this kind of unique word? Is it an archaic version of Karu?

And why was one of those popular? Yeah, well, first thing is, Tovia knows full well that you have what's called hapax legomenon in the Hebrew Bible, words used only once. There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of words in the Hebrew Bible that are found only once.

This is totally common. And you have many different words used in many different contexts. In other words, there's not one universal word that has to be used here or has to be used there. For example, the word he wants us to use, the root dakar, okay, that's used in Zechariah 12.10, but he beat you, I'd like to share dakar. And they'll look to me whom they pierced. So does he accept that's talking about Jesus there? Because it says pierced?

No, I'll have an argument out of it anyway. But again, if you're talking about something vivid, you know, like digging through your hand or boring through your hand or something like that, or related to like piercing through the ear of a slave in Exodus 21, that's the root that's used here, that same root. So no reason to point out as if it's so odd. And Toby, again, knows full well that there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of words that occur only once in the Hebrew Bible. Because remember, we only, from the entire ancient literature, these are the books we have. It's not like we have a library of 50,000 ancient books from Israel, and we'd see which words are used even more commonly. We just have this limited corpus. So nothing particularly obscure about it, nothing that would be, you know, so unusual. And again, in the vivid description here, it could work especially well. And what was the word you used for a single use word?

You said that a little bit earlier. Yeah, so hapax, H-A-P-A-X, legomena, L-E-G-O-M-E-N-A, or a single one, legomenon. So just check out here. So if I'm searching, I go Hebrew Bible, right? Typing this in, Hebrew Bible, hapax, legomenon. What it's literally in Latin, once said, once said.

So here, I'm getting a Jewish encyclopedia comes up first. Words are forms of words that occur once only. There are about 1,500 of these in the Old Testament. In other words, forms occurring only once. But only 400 are strictly hapax legomena. That is, are either absolutely new coinages or roots and cannot be derived in their formation. And there is specific meaning from other occurring stem. So they're listing 400 that are totally unique. And then another 1,100 that appear only once, but can be connected with other words.

So this is not even a hapax legomenon. This is not even that extreme in that regard. But again, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of these, no mystery and a very, very weak argument for Tovar to raise. And he knows full well that if it said they pierced my hands and feet, he'd have some argument against it anyway. He's been presented with the truth for decades and has resisted it.

So we pray for God to grant him repentance. But yeah, very, very easily refuted. And again, check out the video where we put the evidence up there visually for you. OK? OK, thank you. Sure thing. You bet. Eight, six, six, three, four truth. And what do you know?

Another Tovia singer called. Let me tell you this, friends. We are about to release a series of videos that one by one will take these deceptive, misleading, destructive videos that Rabbi Singh has been putting out for decades now online. And we'll demolish them one at a time and present you with the glorious truth of the scriptures. And we'll we'll separate the lies and the misinformation from the truth. So we're working on this.

It's a major project that could be multi-year. But we know that many others are confused and misled by the deceptive material. Does a good job of presenting deception, but truth will shine like light and expose the darkness. I'll take another call on this. We come back.

Stay right here. It's the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice of moral, cultural and spiritual revolution. Get into the line of fire now by calling eight, six, six, three, four truth.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Oh, yeah. Music from Israel. This is a Jewish celebration. Eight, six, six, three, four truth. The number to call. Let's go to Dan in Roswell, Georgia. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you, Dr. Brown. Love what you do. The gospel and God bless your work.

My question is, I recently heard Dr. Rabbi Tovia Singer speak rather confidently that Jesus could not be the Messiah because the Torah speaks against human sacrifice. So what would how would you articulate a Christian answer to that assertion? Thank you. Yeah, it's again, a ridiculously ignorant thing for him to say.

He knows the answer. Traditional Judaism recognizes the atoning power of the death of the righteous. This is taught throughout the Talmud and rabbinic literature. So I just say your own tradition speaks otherwise. We don't believe in human sacrifice. Of course, we don't believe in human sacrifice, but we believe in the atoning power of the death of the Messiah.

So where do we go? Well, we look at the principles of Isaiah 53. Whoever it's speaking of, he dies for our sins. And by his suffering, we're healed. All of us like sheep went astray.

Each one's turned to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the guilt of all of us. And through his suffering, we become righteous.

So we say we believe what's written there in Isaiah 53. Then we also say that we find this principle of the death and suffering of the righteous, bringing release and freedom to others within the Torah that we see when the high priest dies. Numbers 35, that the innocent manslayer, the person who unintentionally went out and killed a person.

So, you know, you're chopping wood in the in the forest and your ax head goes flying off, kills your best friend. Well, you flee to a city of refuge and you have to stay there the rest of your life or until the death of the high priest. And the mission in Talmud asks the question, so Jewish literature, what atoned for that blood, for the bloodshed?

Was it the time the person spent in exile in the city of refuge? No, it's the death of the high priest that atones. This is in the Mishnah and the Talmud. You even have in Numbers 25 that when an Israelite man takes a Moabite woman into his tent to have sex with her and Phineas runs in. There's a plague that's been launched on Israel because of their sin.

Phineas, high priest's son, takes a spear, spears them through and they die. And it says that Phineas, by killing them, made atonement for Israel. So here the death of representative wicked people brings atonement to Israel and turns back a plague. And then you have in Jewish tradition, Isaac offering himself up on the altar in Genesis 22, even though he doesn't actually die.

Rabbinic tradition says it was as if he died and all subsequent sacrifices that are offered are offered based on Isaac's merits. And to this day, when a famous rabbi dies at his funeral, you say, may his death be an atonement for our sins. So Tovia knows full well, we put this out in great depth in the year 2000 in Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus Volume 2 Theological Objections. By the way, there's a reason Tovia has refused to debate me a second time for almost 30 years now.

There's a reason for this. But the answer is we do not believe in human sacrifice. We believe in the atoning power of the death of the righteous. We see it most explicitly found in Isaiah 53. We send he died by his death.

We are forgiven and free. And then the simplest way where you can get out this basic argument is this. Do you get my emails, Dan? I'll also sign up for that. OK, but here's here's why you're going to sign up. Go to AskDrBrown.org. When you sign up, you are going to get AskDrBrown.org.

You see sign up for emails. Immediately you'll get a free mini book called Seven Secrets of the Real Messiah. OK. And in it, there's a chapter about the atoning power of the death of the righteous in Jewish tradition. All right. So it's it's it's the mini book, but it's free. So then go there.

AskDrBrown.org. Sign up for emails. Everybody else do the same. This is for everybody.

All right. And you'll get immediately this free mini book, this e-book, Seven Secrets of the Real Messiah. And you'll find out more about the atoning power of the death of the righteous.

And then other resources we have to get into it in expanded form. It's powerful. It's biblical. It's glorious. And again, Isaiah 53 that we've talked about.

Isaiah 53 actually cut you off there, Dan, but hopefully you're still listening. We have a new video out. If you missed the announcement earlier, just released last night. So it was released 9 p.m. last night.

It's just out. It is a five minute animated video on Isaiah 53. You will find it to be one of the greatest Jewish outreach tools you've ever gotten your hands on.

And it's free for everyone to use online. And it emphasizes what scripture says. He died so we could live. We categorically reject human sacrifice. But we absolutely believe that the righteous Messiah could say, Father, I will take their place. Just like a soldier in battle that he gives his life so that the other troops can escape. He he gives his life and then they are freed by his sacrifice. That's what the Messiah did for us. All right. So we're not going to dig deep into Isaiah 53 further just for time's sake and to be able to take your calls. But watch the video. And then we've got in volume three of answering Jewish objections to Jesus.

You want to dig deeper, counter all the major countermissionary objections to Isaiah 53. They're all there. That's why we spent these many years putting out these resources. Let's go to Shim in Charlotte, North Carolina. Welcome back to the line of fire. Hey, thank you so much, Dr. Brown. Second time I'm calling. It's great to speak with you again. Yeah, I remember that. But what's your background, Shim?

My background? I come from a from an observant Jewish background. I still really respect and love a lot about rabbinic literature and practice. But I no longer see it as carrying authority from Sinai.

I've really gone back to the roots, gone back to Tanakh and to scripture. And that's what I see as being the Ikar. That's the okay.

That's the main point of authority. Got it. Got it. And your name, Shim, is that short for something else? Yes, it is, Shimon.

Okay, Shimon. Got it. Got it. And so I'll answer your question in a moment. So I imagine you're familiar with Karaite Judaism, correct? Yes. Yes, I am. And I have looked into it and they have a lot of things that do speak to me, but it wasn't for me for a number of reasons. Got it. Got it. And, you know, I have a whole volume, volume five of my series on answering Jewish objections to Jesus, where I challenge the idea of an unbroken chain of rabbinic tradition. Going back to Moses. So maybe at some point we can send it to you.

But if you're in Charlotte, maybe one day we'll meet face to face. But I do remember you calling. I think you asked about canon of scripture, how we got certain books. Was that the question? Yes. Yes. Good memory.

Exactly right. All right. Yeah.

The name Shim stuck out to me. So, OK. Yeah. Let's dive in quick. Your your your question, sir. OK, great. Thank you. This is something that I really wanted to ask before the Day of Atonement.

And I called, but I called towards the end and didn't get a chance to get on. Yeah. I've heard you say a number of times that one big problem with rabbinic Judaism is that after the fall of the temple, there's no atonement system. And I really get that. But at the same time, there's a number of verses throughout the Tanakh, many in Psalms, many in the prophets, where they do seem to speak about this idea that prayer can replace that.

And sometimes it's even maybe preferable. I have there's many examples. I have three that I pulled up right now. Psalm 141. Take my prayer as an offering of incense, my upraised hand as an evening sacrifice. Hosea 14, which you spoke about a little bit last week as well. Take words with you and return to Yahweh.

Say to him, forgive all guilt and accept what is good. Instead of bulls, you will pay the offering of our lips. That seems to be as explicit as you can get. And the last one I have here, at least, is from Psalm 51. O Lord, open my lips and let my mouth declare your praise, for you do not want me to bring sacrifices. You don't desire burnt offerings. True sacrifice is a contrite spirit.

You will not despise a contrite and crushed heart. So can't this, doesn't it seem to be replacing the atonement system in a way? Yeah. So, Shim, first thing is, are you willing to read something if we send it to you?

Yeah, anything for sure. Okay. So when we're done, all right, Rachel is going to get your mailing address.

We're not putting you on any list or anything like that. And I'm going to send you volume two of my series because I deal with these in great depth. All the verses and I have limited time here. Okay.

So best thing to try to call in earlier as well. So, Shim, stay there. It's going to be a second before Rachel is free. But as soon as Rachel is free, she's going to get on.

And Kai, just tell Rachel that we need her to get Shim's info here and that we'll send him volume two of my series. So, in short, Psalm 141 is simply saying receive my prayer the way you receive sacrifice. It's not saying it takes the place of in any way, shape, size or form. And who wrote Psalm 141? What was David's relationship to Temple Tabernacle? Psalm 51 is saying what you want more than anything is a heart of devotion to. But read to the end of the song because he then says, then when I've repented properly, you'll receive my offerings and sacrifices. And then in Isaiah 14, it's a mistranslation to say that bowls are now replaced by prayer. But, Shim, stay there. We're going to get you that info and you'll be helped by this book.