MJRC Presents a Codification of Messianic Halacha! YIKES!!!

So I only found out about this yesterday after Gene and Carl Kinbar made fun of me for wanting to discover the principles of halacha.  It turns out that the MJRC has done precisely what I feared.  They created a codification of Messianic halacha.  I'm guessing this was VERY recent.  Here's the link:





http://ourrabbis.org/main/documents/MJRC_Standards_Mar2011.pdf

And here's the response I gave to Carl after he denied that it was a code of halacha:

Carl and James,

Since Carl is saying his organization’s document is NOT codified halachah then I must respond. I believe that statement to be false.

Carl, your document gives a table of contents that clearly categorizes major areas of halacha and subdivides the sections into “Decisions and Commentary.” It refers to these decisions as “halakhic standards.” And it plainly states that these decisions are not ad hoc or provisional. The opposite of ad hoc is “systematized plan” (i.e. code) and the opposite of provisional is “permanent.” Here’s your organizations words:

“While other areas of Messianic Jewish life are of profound importance, such as worship, ethics, education, and social concern, we believed that halakhic standards had received far less attention than their place in Messianic Jewish life warranted. We saw the need for such standards in our own lives, and as Rabbis also received numerous requests from others for halakhic guidance – guidance which up to this point we had been able to provide only in an improvised, ad hoc, and provisional manner…The standards of observance contained in the present document are the fruit of our study and deliberation over the course of those five years.”

And here’s where it gets INTERESTING. Your organization goes on to explain that halacha is an extension of Divine Law:

“When we treat Halakhah as an extension of God’s Law, a guideline for communal obedience and relationship, we experience the character it shares with Torah, “the perfect Law that gives liberty” (James 1:25).”

So if one puts all of those pieces together, it’s pretty obvious what you’re doing. You’ve attempted to promulgate codified halachah under the rubric of “Standards of Practice.” But for anyone who bothers to read the document, it’s readily apparent that this document could’ve been entitled “Codified Halacha for the Messianic Movement.”