It’s Erev Succot and “harvest” time in Israel...Tommy Waller and his family of 13, plus a company of many more, are here to help with the grape harvest and do other agricultural work in or near the communities of Har Bracha, Ariel, Itamar and Shiloh.
As devout evangelicals, the Wallers have a hankerin’ for “breaking barriers” and “planting the grapes in Samaria, with the people of Israel and at the same time, chipping away at that wall”[that separates Jews and Christians]. They are “dedicated as a family to sharing the Gospel of Yeshua (Jesus) by serving the people of Israel within the agricultural settlements and Kibbutzim."
Meanwhile, the Jews are obligated to keep those fences intact and avoid avoda zarah at all costs.
It’s not that the Wallers aren’t good, moral, upstanding Christians – because they are. It’s just that the old “one new man” and "grafted" thing keeps getting in the way.
If it helps clear the air, Jewish Israel would like evangelicals (and Jews for that matter) to understand that our avoidance of a theologically-based Jewish-Christian reconciliation is not due to generations of anti-Semitic baggage. Rather, it is an halachic issue of the highest order.
Jewish Israel explores the costs involved when we partner with those who help harvest our fields with the ultimate intentions of "harvesting our souls" and laying claim to our inheritance in Eretz Yisrael...more at Jewish Israel
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