Why do you think more Christians are becoming aware and interested in having a deeper understanding of how to celebrate the Biblical Feasts?
There has been a sea-change in Jewish-Christian relations. It is not just Christians standing with Israel because they are a fellow democracy or live in a tough neighborhood.
It is also because of Biblical grounds.
One of the aspects driving this movement is people rediscovering the Jewishness of Jesus and the Apostles.
They want to study the roots of Christianity and understand the cultural and regional settings of the Bible. It is also a reattaching to the ancient Hebraic culture and traditions to understand our Bibles better.
Do you receive any resistance from Jews or Christians because of this?
Some Christians scratched their heads when we first started 35 years ago. A lot of them were Evangelical or other Protestants that would say “It’s those Israel crazies or it’s that Israel crowd”. Support for Israel has gone mainstream now in the Evangelical world and it is a fast-growing movement.
It is not just North America and Europe, in fact the center of it now is in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
These people have a Biblical view of Israel and that God is still with the Jewish people. We’re becoming more accepted by Christians.
More and more Christians are becoming curious and looking into the Fall High Holy Days of Sukkot, Yom Kippur, and Rosh Hashanah.
On the Jewish side we cannot reverse all of the bad history over night, but we have been working at it for decades.
We have seen a lot of changes in attitude from the Israelis and we feel welcome here and it is also a festival of joy.
You can’t help but have a big smile on your face. Rabbis always told the Jewish people to expect Gentiles at Sukkot and we are showing up now.
There was even an expectancy that this celebration will happen every year. .
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Source:ICEJ