Blog Review: Judaism’s Eternal Covenant

I took the time to read a relatively new blog called “Judaism’s Eternal Covenant” by a Sephardic Messianic Jewish writer. His name is David Daniel Gonzalez. Like me, he breaks one of the most widely stated rules of blog website marketing– he has white text on a black background. I thought about what that might mean. Perhaps it signifies secret knowledge, whispered in the darkness. Mr. Gonzalez is a documentary filmmaker with a strong interest in social services and cultural issues. He married a social worker and together they work on two major issues: human trafficking and anti-Semitism. Israelites by anyone’s standards, they observe the laws of the Torah and accept the sacrifice of Yashua Messiah. Mr. Gonzalez also compares marriage to the relationship between YHWH and Israel.

While most of the blog websites are short, there is a lot posted on “Judaism’s Eternal Covenant.” Rather than post mostly original content, Mr. Gonzalez has mostly copied and pasted articles written by others. His blog is therefore largely a collection of outside articles. This lends authority to his website, but reading them makes me a little bit hungry for some articles of his own contribution. I have a feeling that Mr. Gonzalez has many valuable thoughts in his head that need to get out. Perhaps he has published his own work somewhere else and wanted this website to be a vehicle for other people’s works. A web search of his name, however, turned up very little.

The most recent entry (March 6 2008) is a timeline from 510 “B.C.E.” to 200 “C.E.” that follows the relationship between Judaism and Western history, including the rise of Christianity, during that time. It is a nice list packed with good information. What follow are articles on a wide variety of Jewish topics.

One particularly interesting highlight is the article “A Gentile’s View of Today’s Germany.” It asserts that the Germans of today are not much different from the Germans of Hitler’s day, and indeed their dislike for Jews is traced back to Martin Luther. The article implies that it is only outside repression that keeps the Holocaust from repeating itself.

Another article, “Hitler was mindlessly focused on his goal: the elimination of all Jews from the planet,” outlines how Adolph Hitler put the elimination of the Jews above his own well-being, and indeed even above the goal of victory over his war enemies. Following articles discuss Adolph Hitler’s desire for a return to a Pagan time which predated Christianity and Judaism, where “survival of the fittest” was the prevailing law. Jews and Christians, with their own laws, were a hindrance to that return.

The article which actually got me into his blog site in the first place was called “Hebrew Roots.” It is a mirror of the article on wikipedia.

The oldest article on the blog is called “Torah in our Hearts.” It begins with this statement: “The way that modern Jewish movements successfully synthesize rabbinical/medieval tradition with modernity is exemplified by the claim that the Reform movement focuses on Israel, the Conservative in Torah, and the Orthodox in God himself.” It goes on to mention a few other Jewish movements, and concludes with the observation that it is observance, not theology, which has held the Jewish community together through adversities. The three modern Jewish movements mentioned remind me a lot of different Christian movements that run parallel. The Reform movement focuses on Israel. Much of the Christian movements are focused on Heaven. The Conservative movement focuses on Torah. Similarly, Many Christian movements are legalistically focused on keeping their own different sets of rules. The Orthodox are focused in God himself. Ascetic and mystic Christians are similarly focused on feeling the presence of God. These movements cut across denominations, though some denominations can be seen as leaning more toward one or another of these three.

The series of articles posted by David Daniel Gonzalez are thought-provoking and well-written for the most part, but there is little original content contributed by Mr. Gonzalez himself. His own focus can be understood from the articles he has chosen. I would like to see Mr. Gonzalez write some articles of his own and post them. I believe that if he did, it would be a worthwhile contribution. At the same time, his current blog is a good resource which brings together in one place many articles which speak to his chosen subject. It doesn’t look like Mr. Gonzalez has done much to promote or market his blog. Therefore, I consider it to be highly undervalued. I certainly felt that reading his posts was an enriching use of my personal time.