Foreword
Torah Rediscovered
Ariel and D'vorah Berkowitz
By David H. Stern
I count it a privilege to have Ariel and D'vorah Berkowitz as friends and neighbors here in Jerusalem. I consider it an honor to be asked to write the foreword for their book on Torah. I am pleased to see my name and books among the references quoted in the text. But most of all I think I can regard this book itself as in some degree a fruit of my own ministry in the Messianic Jewish movement.
In my book, Messianic-Jewish Manifesto, which Ariel read soon after it appeared in 1988, I urged Messianic Jews to lead the Body of Messiah in reacquainting Christian theologians in particular and the Church at large with the centrality of Torah in the Gospel. The Berkowitzes now join the small but growing number of Messianic Jewish writers who are doing just that.
In this regard they go beyond the Christian scholars who are starting to appraise Paul's attitude toward the Torah more favorably than past generations of theologians; for these scholars, perhaps in the name of objectivity, usually approach the question much more abstractly, much more gingerly. Their work is appreciated, but at the same time we need people who will get down to brass tacks and talk about how to live by the Torah.
Ariel and D'vorah don't have all the answers; neither did I in my chapter on Torah in Manifesto (the longest chapter in the book). But they are addressing the right question and carrying the discussion a bit further than before. They are giving all of us food for thought. For the production of guidelines for behavior (known in Judaism as halacha, the "way to walk") necessarily must be a communal product, not decreed by scholars in ivory towers, but growing out of the life of a holy community trying, by the power of the Spirit of God, to live out what it means to be a new creation in Yeshua the Messiah.
Ariel's experience as a pastor in America and as a teacher here in Israel-and D'vorah's experience as a pastor's wife along with their years of study, expressed in their own walk of faith, give them background and experience for writing this book. I am glad that they have decided to share that background and experience. May the reader come away with an enhanced understanding and appreciation for the role of the Torah in the Gospel and an increased desire to embrace it in the light of New Testament truth.
David H. Stern, Ph.D. Translator, Jewish New Testament
Author, Jewish New Testament Commentary Jerusalem, Israel