This is the original of the Rabbinic theme that Yeshua quotes years later.

Please G-d first and treat your fellow man as you want to be treated. This is for lifestyle, not Salvation. Salvation was based on Repentance, always, and your Faith in G-d. Not by works. Don’t confuse a right standing lifestyle with Salvation. Salvation is only by the Grace of G-d. A good lifestyle was by the nurturing of fellow man.

OK, Shammai was the vice president of the Sanhedrin. He taught many things that we find Yeshua voicing out against. He doesn’t come against ALL of the Pharisees, only this group, the Shammaites. Yeshua says that they are hypocrites because they put more on the peoples shoulders than any man can carry, and they are not carrying the load themselves. He lists the things that the Mishnah says are what hypocrites do.

Now, that said, lets go back to hand washing.

In ancient Jewish circles, washing the hands before meals has its source in Talmud as one of the 18 measures. Not to be confused with the Shemoni Esray, the 18 prayers. These 18 measures were written by the school of Shammai.

It required that the Priests Tithe could not be eaten by the Priest until he had washed his hands. But by New Testament times, thirty years later, this fence around the Law was extended to cover ALL people. It was originally just for the Priest and then was put on everyone, for every meal by the Shammaites. They looked for bondage to put people under to prove they were G-d Fearers. If it’s bondage, it’s not from G-d.

Remember, Yeshua was only hostile to one group of Pharisees. It was Pharisees that came to Yeshua and told Him not to go to Jerusalem on a certain day, they were laying in wait for Him. Many of the Pharisees were in His camp, they were Righteous men and they were in His Kingdom. Joseph of Armathea was a Pharisee and he put Yeshua in his own tomb when He came down from the Cross. It was Nic Demone Ben Gurion, the head of the Pharisees that came to him by night. Yeshua has all kinds of Pharisees following Him. They believe as He  believes. That Salvation comes only by the Grace of G-d, not by good works. But, once you are saved, you had better go out and do what G-d has told you to do! The Shammaites are hypocrites and He is always straightening out what they say and do.

Why is He sometimes so irritated by these Pharisees? When this great debate came about because of the outside of the cup thing in the First Century, the School of Shammai killed many of the members of the School of Hillel. They killed them over this stupid cup thing. There are records of actual blood brothers that had this problem. The one brother who belonged to the School of Shammai, killed his brother that went to the School of Hillel because he believed that since he was a Hillelite, he was cursed and would go to hell. They were extremists and called others the “first born of Satan.” They called all the others that were not Shammaites or Hillelites “the synagogue of Satan.” This is used in the Bible when Yeshua says to Peter, “get behind me Satan.” This was a common expression of the day when someone was doing the things of a Shammaite. Yeshua was talking about a specific group and their actions. Not all of the Pharisees.

OK, let’s go on. The School of Hillel was a loving, good, generous, lenient  school that helped slaves and women and the poor in the first century when most of the other groups were ignoring them, and making life harder for them. Yeshua was against this. And He really got hot when He kicked over the tables in the Temple and said “you are not willing to go in yourself but you won’t let others in either and this is the House of Prayer for ALL Nations, not just you!” The School of Shammai said that the hands must be washed Before filling the cup of wine. The School of Hillel ruled the washing must be done just before you took the bread. The Talmud explains this in Buracote 52A and B talks about this in the First Century and helps us get some information about it. The School of Shammai was concerned  that the cup of wine, the cup of blessings,  would become virtually unclean from the hands. And the hands from the cup. The school of Hillel was concerned that the washing of hands may interfere with the actual taking of bread and blessing G-d for it, so they did not agree with Shammai in the least. Yeshua quotes this when He is confronted by Shammai’s men from the Temple He quotes Hillel’s rules EXACTLY. The Talmud further explains that the School of Shammai considered those that followed the school of Hillel’s ruling as: eating with unclean hands, and because the unclean cup would foul the hands, which explains why they were getting on Yeshua and His disciples. This was a Rabbinical ruling, a fence around the Law that was not in the Word of G-d but was a way of protecting the man of G-d from fouling himself while speaking prayers to G-d.  In the teaching last week, Yeshua rebuked the Pharisees who vowed their possessions to the Temple as Corban, (vowed to G-d). They didn’t want to support their parents as the 5th Commandment says, so they said they had no money, that they had vowed it to G-d, Corban. Then they only gave a small portion to the Temple. This is probably what happened with Annanias and Sophia. This goes directly back to the Shammaites. They were the too straight, too strong, the bondage part of the Pharisees. They were the hipocrates. In the situation with Corban. Other dishonest Pharisees were probably doing the same thing. But the School of Shammai’s ruling made it even worse. They said that “once you made a vow to the Temple, it can’t be broken, no matter what!”

Hillel on the other hand said: “ If you need the money to take care of your parents, go and take care of them. Because the Spirit of the Law is more important than the letter of the Law.” Man was not made for the Sabbath, the Sabbath was made for Man. The Sabbath was not made to put you in bondage, it was made FOR you. This was the point of Yeshua’s teaching. This was the point of Bet Hillel. But Shammai would have no part of it. Yeshua hated strict religion because the Word of G-d hates strict religion. So again we see Yeshua directing us to the School of Hillel opposed to the School of Shammai.

Yeshua of Nazareth never wished to see His fellow Jews change their traditional faith in G-d. He Himself remained a Jew until His last moment. He never mentioned or suggested forming a new religion, or setting up new scriptures to replace the old. He never suggested starting a Christian Church to replace the Synagogue. He told us to STAY in the synagogue. He told us in Matt 10, that even if we got whipped, not to leave the synagogue! The Synagogue was where you got the teaching. From now on, we are no longer only a  bible study or Friday Night Service to beat the rush. From now on we are a Bet Knesset. An assembly of Believers. Ecclesia, Church, has the connotation of a large building with commerce going on. Bet Knesset has the connotation of a place of Prayer and Worship and Learning. It perfectly fits the saying that the Church, the Kaheelah, the LIVING body grew daily. It grew in Wisdom, Knowledge and Understanding, not in numbers. Yeshua wanted His disciples to learn and go back to the correct teachings. He came to set the Law, the Word of G-d upright. This is what He was doing. Among the Pharisees in the Sanhedrin in the First Century it was said that if they killed seven people in seventy years, it was to be called a bloody Sanhedrin. The people we see stoning everyone are not from the Sanhedrin. They are judging among themselves by the Laws that are passed down to them. People were aggravated because the Sanhedrin wasn’t putting enough people to death. They were taking action using the interpretations of the Pharisees. That’s why they had to bypass the Sanhedrin and go to the Romans to get Yeshua killed, He didn’t break any Laws of G-d. And if the Roman’s didn’t kill Him by Crucifiction, He would have been stoned. You need to separate this in your mind. The Sanhedrin was like the Supreme Court of today, they made the Laws. They judged very few individuals. The Bet Din, the Synagogue courts did the Judging. These were mob action, vigilante groups.

OK, Yeshua is  showing them the loving policies of Forgiveness and Repentance and Salvation. He wanted them to return to these traditions of bringing this love to the world. Shammai is against this. Yeshua’s attacks on the Pharisees was an attack on the School of Shammai. He probably also came against the Essenes. If you don’t understand what these groups were all about, you really can’t understand the Words of Yeshua. You shouldn’t stereotype all the Pharisees, because you will be stereotyping Yeshua right in with them. They were the interpreters of the Word. Now this doesn’t interfere with your Salvation! You are saved! In the Talmud, when it was put into writing in the First to third Centuries said that any Jew that followed the teachings of the School of Shammai, was worthy to be put to death!

Let me close with this, it should help you, it really helped me. The Mishnah has a whole tractate giving us record that if you are a Jew in the Marketplace and you touch something that is ceremoniously impure, you could become pure again by washing your hands up to the wrist. Orthodox Jews even today do this BEFORE having their meals. It has a good basis to it. The rational for this is not for hygienic reasons. The basis for this is that after the destruction of the Temple, man’s prayers were as incense going up to G-d. They had evening prayers and morning prayers for evening sacrifice and morning sacrifice. The idea was that a man’s body was his Temple. The dining table was his altar. The food on it was the sacrifice to G-d. And with this concept, the man became the priest of his own home. The Hebrew Testament requires the priest to be ceremoniously clean before they offered the sacrifice on the altar of HaShem! ALSO, the food was to be pure, kosher and not pig meat and the like offered on the altar. Now I don’t want to put you in bondage, I’m just giving you “food for thought”.  Another thing to realize is that ANY table we sit down at and pray, becomes the Altar of HaShem! That includes McDonalds!

OK., let’s go to:

Mark 7:9

9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.  

And also in verse 13 Mark 7:13

13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

Yeshua ONLY pointed out those traditions that made the Laws of G-d ineffective. There were HUNDREDS of traditions He left alone.

There are many of the Traditions that we need to know and do today. How about when the people laid their palm fronds in front of His donkeys feet and cried HOSHIANA, save us!

Where did they learn this stuff if not from tradition, from  the Talmud.

In John 10:21-22 Yeshua is celebrating Hanukkah. How did He know if not by the Talmud and tradition.

Yeshua did many things with tradition, but never one tradition that would interfere with the Word of G-d.

We learn to do the right things because when we go out and DO the right things, People see Christ in us the hope of  Glory

Boruch arta Adonoy Elohanu Melech Ho olom, asheer kid shanu b’Mitzvotso, v’tzivanu l’heet ateef B’Tzit Tzit. Omen

BLESSED ART THOU O LORD OUR G-D KING OF THE UNIVERSE WHO HAS BLESSED US WITH HIS COMMANDMENTS AND COMMANDS US TO WRAP OURSELVES IN THE TZIT TZIT. AMEN

Boruch HaShem! (Praise the Name!)