This week's Parashah Re'eh which is the first in three consecutive Parashot  in Deuteronomy that contain the majority of  mitzvot  (commandments). Interesting is the opening statement of Moses, who sets before the people what the result will be for those who will either keep the 'WORD of G-D' or rejects it.  It is a choice between blessing and curse!  
      We progress to chapter 13, that is the litmus test of a true prophet of G-d. This as I have been saying for many years is the separating chapter between the two oldest sister religions. It is such a great catastrophe that a stream of legitimate Torah observant Judaism was turned into something barely recognizable from its historical reality. Today it is as if we have two prophets standing facing each other. One is saying one thing and the other contradicting what is being said. This is similar to what is recorded in Jeremiah 28:5 where the false prophet  Hananiah  the son of  Azzur contradicts the true prophet.
      Close to nineteen hundred years have passed since Yeshua was turned into a false prophet. It appears that it started with Ignatius of Antioch soon after the destruction of the Second Temple. The gentile believers in Yeshua the Messiah began a process of stripping this Jewish born, 'Israeli' native who attended shul (synagogue) and Temple services kept Torah impeccably (how else could he be called sinless). His mother was a Jewish maiden from the Galilee. Yeshua was obviously well educated in torah according to the pharisaic tradition.
     It is fascinating that Yeshua, perhaps anticipating that his raison de etra will be misinterpreted, states "Don’t think that I have to abolish the Torah or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete. Yes indeed! I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so much as a yud  or stroke will pass from the Torah - not until everything that must happen has happened." Matthew 5:17-18 (CJB). Starting with the early Church Fathers anti-Judaic biases that more often than not turned into anti-Semitic diatribes (e.g. John Chrysostom). The problem was and is that every effort has been made to dejudaize the Rabbi from Galilee and gentalize his teachings. Once his teachings were made to mean something else, the next step is ready, which is to construct a religion based on these reinterpreted and misinterpreted anti-Torah teachings. Follow this up with a non-Biblical calendar and hey presto we have another religion presided over by a messiah – god (in theory). This may sound harsh and judgmental, but facts are facts.
     In Acts we read the problem confronting the "council of Messianic leaders in Jerusalem,"  whether gentiles having accepted Yeshua as Messiah need to convert to Judaism. We all know that the answer is no! The new gentile followers have to abstain from the basic elements of pagan religious observance and attend synagogue in order to become as Sha'ul (Paul the Apostle), grafted into the domesticated Olive Tree  vis-a-vis  Israel and the Covenant. This way they like Israel will be fellow heirs by adoption as sons into the commonwealth of Israel. Part of attending synagogue was to learn what mitzvot applied to whom. Obviously there are mitzvot that can apply only to certain people i.e. males, females, Levites and Priests. There are ceremonial, land specific, and moral mitzvot to name a few.
     So we see the historical biblical messiah standing before the false messiah with the two camps of followers arguing for and against which is the true messiah sent from Heaven. Our only litmus test is the Word of Scripture, as we are instructed to test every spirit (against the Word). The followers of the false messiah have had to negate the very scripture, the Torah, otherwise it will be patently clear that the one who has done away with Torah, destroyed it, must be the false messiah. In reality the false messiah in this case is nothing but a scarecrow, which its followers like a marionette have dancing to their tune and desires.