The Twisting of a Natural Desire: How First Fruits of Zion Exploits Gentiles' Natural Desire to Seek Reconciliation with the Jewish People

I read a good quote from Pamela Eisenbaum in her book entitled "Paul was Not a Christian."  She said:

"...Paul also believed...that it was time to reconcile non-Jews to God.  Reconciling non-Jews to God also meant reconciling non-Jews to Jews, not because they were necessarily hostile to each other but because, if all people were potentially children of God, Jews and Gentiles must now be considered part of the same family; this entailed a new level of interaction and intimacy."

If you believe that Believers are (or should be) a family then you probably realize that G-d has given each Believer, whether Jew or gentile, the impulse to be reconciled to the other.

And if you've read the prophets:

"Many peoples shall come and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.'" (Isaiah 2)

then you probably realize that, in the latter times, G-d will give Gentiles an impulse to follow Torah.

But what if someone was unscrupulous enough to exploit this impulse toward reconciliation?  What if there were people out there who tried to guilt Gentiles out of following the Torah?

This is precisely what First Fruits of Zion is doing.  On a recent post at Gene's blog, he talks about a recent UMJC conference at which he and Boaz (from FFOZ) took some One Law Gentiles into a private room and sent them on a guilt trip, telling them that their Torah lifestyles constituted an act of rebellion, that it was hurting Jews.  And we all know by now about Boaz infamous comparison of the One Law gentiles to followers of Korach.

In short, FFOZ has learned to exploit the impulse of reconciliation, to pervert it towards segregation--the exact opposite of what the impulse is meant to accomplish!

FFOZ would rather gentiles belong to Christianity a religion which Zetterholm calls "anti-Jewish" on page 23 of his book "The Messiah in Early Judaism and Christianity.

FFOZ would rather gentiles fight their G-d-given urge to follow the Torah as full citizens of Israel, a Torah which Midrash says was for meant to be for all people:

'They encamped in the wilderness.  The Torah was given in public, openly in a free place.  For had the Torah been given in the land of Israel, the Israelites could have said to the nations of the world:  You have no share in it.  But now that it was given in the wilderness publicly and openly in a place that is free for all, everyone wishing to accept it could come and accept it.' (Mekilta de R. Yismael, Bahodesh 1)

May G-d deal with FFOZ swiftly!  May He preserve those whom He has called and guide them along the Way so that they will never turn back!