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Herzl, Rabinowitz and Lichtenstein, it’s a powerful trio — each one a different kind of prophet for Israel’s restoration: Herzl the political, Rabinowitz the spiritual, and Lichtenstein the rabbinic.
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00:00Joseph Rabinovitz was born into a Hasidic Jewish family in Racina, Bessarabia, modern-day
00:09Moldova, and was deeply rooted in Jewish tradition before his spiritual transformation.
00:14His journey led him to found the Israelites of the New Covenant, also known as Novi Israel
00:18in Kishinev, around 1882.
00:21While he never renounced his Jewish identity, his open embrace of Yeshua as Messiah and
00:25his baptism in Berlin in 1885 caused a major rift.
00:29Orthodox Jewish authorities viewed him as a missionary and a defector, branding his movement
00:34as heretical.
00:35Yet Rabinovitz insisted on maintaining Jewish customs, like Sabbath observance and circumcision,
00:41within his community, which made his position even more complex.
00:44He's often described as a prophetic figure who tried to bridge the chasm between Jewish
00:48identity and faith in Yeshua, long before the term Messianic Judaism gained traction.
00:54His writings, like Tefla, Viekare, Emana, Laivene, Yisrael Beni, Berit, Hadasha, prayers and
00:59principles of faith of the children of Israel of the New Testament, reflect that tension and
01:04vision.
01:05Isaac Lichtenstein was born on April 11, 1825, in Nicholsburg, in what was then Austrian Silesia.
01:11He served as the district rabbi of Tapiosil, Hungary, for over 35 years.
01:16A respected Orthodox rabbi, he was deeply committed to Jewish tradition and scholarship.
01:21His turning point came in the early 1880s, when, during a wave of anti-Semitic violence,
01:26he encountered the New Testament, initially with suspicion.
01:29But what began as a confrontation turned into a quiet revolution of the heart.
01:33He later wrote,
01:34I looked for thorns and gathered roses.
01:36By age 60, he publicly declared his belief that Yeshua was the promised Messiah of Israel.
01:42Despite intense backlash, he refused to convert or sever ties with his people.
01:46Instead, he chose to remain within the Jewish community, distributing new testaments and
01:51writing tracts that testify to his faith.
01:53He retired from his rabbinic post in 1892 due to poor health and persecution, and passed
01:58away in 1908.
02:00Joseph Rabinovitz and Rabbi Isaac Lichtenstein lived before the formal birth of the modern state
02:04of Israel in 1948, but their spiritual vision and theological courage planted seeds that would
02:10echo into the Zionist and Messianic movements alike.
02:13Joseph Rabinovitz visited the land of Israel in 1882 during the first Aliyah, hoping to explore
02:19Jewish resettlement.
02:20But what he saw, poverty, oppression, and the inability of Jews to pray freely at the
02:25Western Wall, shattered his political hopes and redirected his vision.
02:28On the Mount of Olives, he reportedly had a spiritual encounter and declared,
02:33The key to the Holy Land lies in the hand of our brother, Jesus of Nazareth.
02:37This moment reframed his Zionism, not just a return to the land, but a return to the Messiah.
02:43He envisioned a Jewish national revival centered on Yeshua, not merely political sovereignty.
02:48Some scholars even call him the Herzl of Jewish Christianity.
02:52His movement, Bini Israel Bini Brit Hadashah, Israelites of the New Covenant, was a prototype
02:57of what we now call Messianic Judaism, a community that upheld Jewish identity while embracing Yeshua.
03:02Though small and persecuted, it foreshadowed the spiritual dimension of Jewish restoration.
03:08Rabbi Isaac Lichtenstein never left Hungary, but his influence was no less profound.
03:13As a respected Orthodox rabbi, his public affirmation of Yeshua shook the rabbinic world.
03:18He didn't convert or abandon his people.
03:20He stayed within the Jewish fold and called for spiritual renewal through the Messiah.
03:25In his tract, An Appeal to the Jewish People asterisk, he wrote,
03:27Christ is our only hope, our Savior and Messiah, that He, only He and no other, will bring us
03:33to Zion, to the house of our God.
03:35This wasn't just theological, it was prophetic.
03:38He saw Zion not merely as a place, but as a destiny fulfilled in Messiah.
03:42His writings inspired early Hebrew Christians and laid groundwork for later Messianic Jewish
03:46thought in Israel.
03:47If David H. Stern's Messianic Jewish Manifesto, pages 28 and 73, in Dr. David H. Stern's book
03:55pay, 28 and 83, Messianic Judaism, a modern movement with an ancient past.
04:00He is referencing, then it's a prophetic fulfillment.
04:03Stern saw Rabinovitz and Lichtenstein as forerunners, voices crying out in the wilderness
04:08of exile, pointing toward a restored Israel under Messiah's reign.
04:12Coming up in this segment.
04:13Stern saw Rabinovitz and Lichtenstein as forerunners, a modern movement with an ancient past.
04:43Stern saw Rabinovitz and Lchtenstein as forerunners, a modern yelderess, a modern movement with an ancient past.
05:01Stern saw Rabinovitz and Lichtenstein as forerunners, a modern movement with an ancient past.
05:12to number them. Hey, Abraham, look toward heaven and number the stars. If you are able to number
05:24them, so shall your offspring be. So shall your offspring be. If history is true and the modern
05:37state of Israel was reborn by Yeshua himself. According to Messianic Jewish history, a remarkable
05:44spiritual movement began in the late 19th century that prefigured both the modern state of Israel and
05:51the rebirth of Jewish faith in Yeshua, Jesus as Messiah. At the heart of this movement was Joseph
05:57Rabinowitz, a Russian Jewish lawyer, teacher and spiritual seeker. In 1884, Rabinowitz founded a
06:04Hebrew Christian congregation in Kishinev, Bessarabia, present-day Chisinau, Moldova,
06:10called Yisraelim, Shel Brit, Hadashah, Israelites of the New Covenant, and this congregation did not
06:16identify with traditional Gentile Christianity, but rather stood firmly rooted in Jewish identity
06:22and scripture, while proclaiming faith in Yeshua as the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. The turning
06:28point in Rabinowitz's life came in 1882, when he undertook a pilgrimage to the land of Israel,
06:35then under Ottoman rule, while standing on the Mount of Olives, overlooking the ancient city of
06:40Jerusalem. Kerr experienced what he later described as a divine vision. In that sacred moment, Yeshua
06:47appeared to him, and not as the founder of a foreign religion, but as the Jewish Messiah of Israel.
06:52Yeshua gave him a spiritual commission, not to restore the Jewish nation politically,
06:57but to revive it spiritually, by bringing Jews back to the God of Israel through the New Covenant
07:03foretold in Jeremiah 31-31. Upon his return to Kishinev, Rabinowitz was transformed. He no longer
07:11believed that Jews needed to convert to traditional Gentile-based Christianity, which often required
07:17abandoning Jewish identity and practices. Instead, he pioneered what we now recognize as Messianic
07:23Judaism, a belief that Jews can and should remain Jews while. Recognizing Yeshua Jesus as their Messiah,
07:31his congregation upheld the Hebrew Scriptures, honored Jewish traditions, and observed Jewish
07:37festivals, all while embracing the message of the New Covenant. In this way, Rabinowitz became not only a
07:43spiritual reformer, but also a forerunner of modern Zionism, thought with a unique Messianic vision,
07:50whereas political Zionism sought a national homeland. Rabinowitz envisioned a spiritual return to Zion
07:56through reconciliation with Yeshua. His work laid the foundations for a modern movement that connects the
08:02ancient roots of Judaism with a redemptive hope found in the Messiah. Much of this powerful story can be found in
08:09historical works such as the voice of Judaism and Dr. David H. Stern's Messianic Judaism,
08:16a modern movement with an ancient past. These sources affirm that Rabinowitz saw the rebirth of Israel
08:22not just as a geopolitical project, but as a divine act led by Yeshua himself, reviving his people from
08:28within by calling them back to their Messiah. Yes, in Dr. David H. Stern's book, page 28 and 83,
08:34Pre-Messianic Judaism, a modern movement with an ancient past. He highlights two major figures as
08:41foundational to the early development of modern Messianic Judaism. Joseph Rabinowitz, Russia,
08:471880s. Rabinowitz was a Jewish lawyer and intellectual who came to faith in Yeshua as the Messiah after a
08:53profound experience on the Mount of Olives in 1882. He returned to Kishinev and founded the Israelites of
09:00the New Covenant Congregation in 1884. His vision was to affirm Jewish identity while believing in Yeshua,
09:07not requiring conversion to Gentile Christianity. He's seen as one of the earliest and clearest pioneers of
09:13Messianic Jewish thought and practice. The second figure Dr. Stern discusses is Rabbi Isaac Lichtenstein,
09:21a district rabbi in Tapioce-li-Hungary. Unlike, Rabinowitz Lichtenstein did not start a new congregation,
09:28but remained in his rabbinic role while quietly embracing Yeshua as the Messiah. After reading the
09:34New Testament around 1878, he was deeply moved by the teachings of Yeshua and believed they were in
09:41harmony with the Hebrew scriptures. Lichtenstein did not abandon his people of faith, but rather
09:46believed that Yeshua was the fulfillment of Jewish hope. He wrote several booklets defending belief in
09:51Yeshua, including two letters to my people and in the old paths. Together, Rabinowitz and Lichtenstein
09:58represent two streams of early Messianic Jewish revival. Rabinowitz, visionary founder of a distinctly
10:05Messianic Jewish congregation. Lichtenstein, traditional rabbi who came to faith in Yeshua from within the
10:13Jewish community, maintaining Kalechik life. Dr. Stern uses their stories to show that Messianic Judaism
10:19is not new, but rather a renewal of an ancient faith in its original Jewish context. How Joseph
10:26Rabinowitz and Isaac Lichtenstein influenced Zionism. While Joseph Rabinowitz and Rabbi Isaac Lichtenstein
10:33were not Zionists in the political sense, like Theodor Herzl their lives. And teachings had a profound
10:40impact on the spiritual foundations of what would eventually become modern Zionism, particularly as seen
10:46through the lens of Messianic Judaism. Their influence helped shape a vision of Zionism that
10:53included not only a return to the land of Israel, but also a return to God through Yeshua the Messiah.
10:59Joseph Rabinowitz is often referred to as a spiritual Zionist. In 1882, while standing on the Mount of
11:06Olives overlooking Jerusalem, he experienced a powerful vision in which Yeshua appeared to him and
11:12revealed himself as the Jewish Messiah. Rabinowitz came to believe that the true rebirth of Israel
11:17would not come first. Through politics or military strength, but through spiritual restoration,
11:24by turning back to the God of Israel through faith in the new covenant foretold in Jeremiah 3131. When
11:30he returned to Kishnev, Rabinowitz established the Israelites of the new covenants in 1884, a Messianic
11:37Jewish congregation that upheld Jewish identity, scripture and tradition while proclaiming faith
11:43in Yeshua, if their legacy continues today in the modern state of Israel, where Messianic Jewish
11:51believers are living proof that the ancient faith of the Jewish apostles is being revived in the land
11:56of promise. Or message to the world today, if Yeshua is the mastermind behind modern Israel,
12:03if it is true that Yeshua the Messiah is the spiritual mastermind behind the rebirth of the
12:08modern state of Israel, then the message to the world today is clear. God is not finished with Israel
12:13and Yeshua is at the center of his plan. The physical restoration of the Jewish people to their ancient
12:19homeland is not merely a political event. It is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy overseen by the very
12:26one who came first to his own will return again in glory. The prophets foretold a day when God would
12:33gather his people from the nations and plant them back in their land, not only to dwell securely, but
12:38to walk in a new heart and a new spirit. Ezekiel 36, 24, RC 27. The fact that modern Israel exists today
12:48after centuries of exile is a miracle. But even more astonishing is the growing remnant within
12:53Israel, Messianic Jewish believers who are returning not just to the land, but to their
12:59Messiah. This is the revival of the ancient faith of the apostles in the land where it all began.
13:05To the nations, this is a sign. Yeshua is not merely a savior for individuals,
13:10but the Messianic King of Israel and the Lord of all nations.
13:13His hand in restoring Israel is not a political statement. It is a spiritual call to the world.
13:19Watch what I am doing in Israel and prepare for my return. Just as he once wept over Jerusalem,
13:24he will one day be welcomed back by his people with the words, Baruch haba bisteh em Adonai.
13:31Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Matthew 23, 39.
13:35Therefore, the message for the church and the nations is this. Honour what God is doing in Israel.
13:41Stand with the Messianic remnant and prepare your hearts. The same Messiah who died and rose again is
13:47now gathering his people not only for their sake, but for the fulfillment of global redemption.
13:53The restoration of Israel is not the end of the story. It is the signpost that the kingdom of God
13:59is near. In this light, our mission is urgent to proclaim Yeshua not only as the savior of souls,
14:06but as the risen king of Israel and the nations to call the church back to its Jewish roots and to
14:12call the world to repentance and hope in the one who is both the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God.
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