Much ado is being made in Messianic and Christian circles about a 'prophecy' made by the late Jewish rabbi, Yitzchak Kaduri, who before his death left a scrap of paper in which he claims his 'G_d' told him the name of the Jewish Messiah-to-come would be 'Yehoshua' and that he would appear after the death of Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who passed away recently after being in a coma for many years.

This prediction, made by a highly respected leader in Judaism, has Jews in a tizz because 'Yehoshua' (Joshua) is one of many Hebrew variants of Yeshua (the name used of Jesus by most messianics), Yah'shua/Yahushua (the name used of Jesus by ministries like our own).

In a frenzied bit of damage control, followers of the late rabbi are claiming that he was not pointing to Christianity's 'Jesus' whom he had always referred to disparigingly, as most religious Jews do, as 'that man'. Others are having second thoughts, especially those with Lubavitcher leanings. Why? Because the late New York Lubavitcher Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (whom many Jews claim is/was the Messiah and will reappear) predicted that Rabbi Kaduri would bear witness to the coming of the Messiah and this is the only prediction he ever made.

Why are Christians and Messianics paying any attention to these men at all as though either of them had access to the Father ("No one comes to the Father except through Me (Yah'shua/Jesus)" - John 14:6, NKJV) when both during their lives repudiated Yah'shua (Jesus) of Nazareth?

Why would Schneerson's endorsement of Kaduri mean anything at all? Was it not Schneerson who taught that:

"The body of a Jewish person is of totally different quality from the body of members of all other nations of the world. Bodies of Gentiles are in vain. An ever greater difference is in regard to the soul ... A non-Jewish soul comes from three satanic spheres, while the Jewish soul stems from holiness."

Thus for Schneerson and his followers the lives of non-Jews are worthless. And he's far from alone in spouting such murderous arrogance and racism. Holocaust activitist Elie Wiesel, whose lies about his holocaust experiences seem to be legion, also claims that Jews are a superior race. "Everything about us is different," Wiesel boasts. "Jews are ontologically exceptional."

I have looked at Schneerson's writings and I am unimpressed. In only one instance did he speak an important emet (truth) that I know of that Jews need to remember, albeit grudgingly, while commenting on Genesis 44:18. He said:

"Judah must first do as the Patriarch Judah did when he came near unto Joseph and he acknowledged the authority of Joseph."

For an orthodox religious Jew, who arrogantly regards himself as a member of the new Master Race and would never submit to anyone, such is, of course, unthinkable. May they never get absolute power as Hitler did for they would do no less! Schneerson tried to distance himself from this inevitable and obvious meaning of the Scriptural text by adding, "and initially was influenced from Joseph". Yet for Schneerson, Kaduri and all the other Talmudic rabbis, the emet (truth) remains: they must submit to the headship of Joseph, who was a type of the Messiah, and whom Yahweh has assigned Headship over New Covenant Israel. For the Jews, or anyone else for that matter, no Joseph means no Messiah and therefore no salvation.

A few Jews have been a little more honest. Meir Leib ben Yechiel Michael [Weiser], known colloquially as 'the MALBIM' (1809-1879 AD) grudgingly acknowledged the same truth as Schneerson reluctantly did, saying that Judah will be attached to Joseph:

"'Thus says Yahweh-Elohim: 'Surely I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will join them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand''" (Ezek.37:19, NKJV).

The MALBIM understands the Scripture to be saying that Judah will be joined to Joseph and not the other way round but his pride is so hurt at this thought that he, like Schneerson, insists Judah will only be "at first" attached to Joseph as a "secondary attaché" because of the pride, prejudice and bias of those who falsely claim to be Judah. That is why there is no such thing as 'Messianic Judaism' for the true seed of Judah will always attach itself to Jospeh. Only the counterfeit Judah will refuse. There is only 'Messianic Israel', it being understood that Israel as having Joseph and Ephraim as the head [1].

So why are we drooling over the ridiculous and irrelevent jibberings of an enemy of the true Messiah? If he had met the true Messiah Yah'shua (Jesus), as many authentic Judahite Jews have, he would have proclaimed it from the housetops and not just scratched it on a scrap of paper to be opened after his death while souls were perishing. He may truly have believed that the Jewish (counterfeit Judah's) messiah will be called 'Yehoshua', and he may very well be called such, with Satan telling the late rabbi as much, but so what? Wasn't Barabbas' name 'Yah'shua' ('Jesus') too? [2] Two messiahs with the same name standing before Pontius Pilate, yet one was the true Messiah of Israel and the other a false one offering salvation viâ the sword.

Believers have got to get their lusty carnal eyes off the Synagogue of Satan with all its lying and duplicity (Rev.2:9; 3:9). Messianics have got to end their love-affair with that snare which is Judaism and see it for what it really is. Neither Schneerson nor Kaduri have anything useful to tell us - nobody who is not born-again having surrendered to the true Messiah, Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), the resurrected One, born of the Virgin Mary, without sin, and very Elohim (God), has anything useful to tell us about the emet (truth) of the Besorah (Gospel). Jews going to Kaduri's 'Yehoshua' are not going to find salvation but yet another false messiah with a similar or identical name. It's not the sound or spelling of the name that matters anyway but the person using it! There are many who have had the Saviour's Name historically, including the son of Sirach, the writer of the Apocryphal book, Ecclesiasticus.

We need no Kaduri announcing the Messiah anyway. John the Baptist already did that two thousand years ago. Our authority and our watch cry is "For Joseph and for Israel in Yah'shua (Jesus) our Messiah!" for therein alone is safety and salvation in this very dangerous world of many false voices. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] For a fuller discussion, see my devotional, The Kingdom of Joseph: Restoration, the Two Sticks and Judaism
[2] See The Two Yah'shua's (Jesus')

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