The example former enemy-aiding and abedding
Paul set was not to be remunerated for preaching, to earn his own bread by
tent-making, and to live a sacrificial life-style so that the Gospel could
go forth to the ends of the earth unhindered by the drag of widow’s mite-depleting
“pay packages” exacted for filthy lucre-loving pharisaic clergy. Now that we have
spoken of the Gospel that was preached, let's talk about where it was preached
and how. The most common general plan for the interior of the early messianic synagogue is to
have the migdal etz (Neh 8:4) or pulpit platform (bema) and the Aron Kodesh
ark containing the Scrolls at the eastern end of the building (closest place to Jerusalem)
opposite the entrance.
Separated
seating in the early Kehillah explains 1Co 14:34-35. Apparently the women
were not asking their “husbands at home” but were blurting out to them
across the room in the house shtiebel שטיבל
In 1Ti
2:11-12 Paul is referring to a domestic situation where there is a hishtaltut
oyenet (hostile takeover) where “Eve” domineers her man “Adam.” Recently
a messianic Jew related how he and his wife had their vacation ruined when
his messianic Jewish wife was abused by his Jewish mother and his Jewish
father allowed himself to be domineered by this abusive woman as well as
docilely allowed Moshiach to be blasphemed by her.
The woman should have been silent but she usurped her place and domineered
her husband.
Yom Rishon
(Sunday) began on Saturday night and in Ac 20:7 you observe the messianic believers
seeming very much like Hasidic Jews who linger after Shabbos is over on Saturday
night (really Sunday, since a day is reckoned as evening and morning in Genesis
chapter 1). Seudah Shlishit or סעודה שלישית
, or third meal sometimes called , שלוש
סעודות Shalosh seudos, refers to the
fact that there is a third meal customarily eaten by shomer Shabbos Jews on
Saturday night or Sunday by Jewish reckoning.
In the
Beis Hamikdash there was the Court of the Women and the Court of Israel and
men and women did not intermingle in the Jerusalem temple worship. Separated
seating, sometimes with the men on the right and the women on the left, was
the prudent environment of the early Messianic Jewish worship practice of
the “holy kiss.” Deaconesses or Tzidkaniyot (righteous women) (1Ti 3:11)
prayed for the women; the holy women were not touched or handled by men, and in
some cases the women sat behind the men so that they were not even a visual
distraction from worship when the women stood to prophesy. And even here
it should be remembered that these prophetesses dressed modestly as befits
holy women. They did not wear form-fitting clothing that allowed the female
derriere a megaphone to trumpet its presence to the holy
brethren in attendance. A holy woman never invites indiscreet glances from
a brother in the L-rd.
The word lalew is
like “cuckoo” or “boom” and lah-lah-lah is like blah-blah-blah meaning
unspiritual
chatter or spiritually disruptive blurting out, which means
that since women are allowed to speak in 1Co 11:5
and 1Co 11:13,
then 1Co 14:34,35 must be referring
to this kind of speech rathan than all speech.
Tznius
( צניעות (modesty) and peribolaion (peribolaion,
head covering, 1Co 11:15) See 1Pet 3:3-4. Just as Orthodox Jewish women
cover their heads with a scarf when they bentsch licht over the Shabbos light,
so Rav Shaul insisted as a rabbi that they have their heads covered in the
holy service. See 1Co 11:15. In Biblical times, women covered their heads
with veils or a scarf
שלייער
(veil) as a sign of tznius. A woman’s long flowing
hair was considered erotic (Song of Songs 4:1) and scandalous (Num 5:18) and
the sign of a heathen woman or street walker and therefore inappropriate for
public display in shul holy worship. Long flowing hair on
a man was a unisex mixture or Shatnez crossdressing (Deu 22:5) from a rabbinic
perspective, though the turban-wearing Kohen Gadol did not uncover his head (Lev 21:10).
In Brooklyn
we see Orthodox Jewish women never going outside without their shaytl or wig
to cover their head and never walking around with their forearms exposed.
Their public conduct with men is always business-like and terse and never frivolous
or flirtatious. See here.
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