Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him who glories and wants to boast, boast of this: that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD Who practice steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the earth; for in THESE things I delight, says the LORD.”[¹]

We have a political party in Israel called “United Torah Judaism, ” first formed in 1992[²], which in alliance with two small Israeli Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) political parties, "Degel HaTorah" and "Agudat Israel," forms a powerful haredi block in the Knesset.

In addition to these parties representing the ultra-orthodox community, we have the Sephardic[³] haredi party, “Shas,” of which Eli Yishai became the leader after former leader Aryeh Deri was convicted of fraud and sentenced to imprisonment. Yehuda Deri, the Chief Rabbi of Beer-Sheva and one of the defendants in the trial, is Aryeh’s brother.

These men and their parties view themselves as the guardians of Torah and Judaism. Yet they broke some chief commandments, such as:

• “You shall not bear false witness;”[⁴]
• “You shall not utter a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man, to be a malicious witness. You shall not follow a multitude to do evil; nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, turning aside after a multitude (my insert: of ultra-orthodox rabbis and ministers), so as to pervert justice; nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his suit.”[⁵]
• ”You shall not defraud your neighbor, neither oppress nor rob him;”[⁶]
• “You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another. And you shall not swear by My Name falsely, and so profane the Name of your G-d: I am the LORD.”[⁷]
• “You shall NOT DO INJUSTICE IN JUDGMENT; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in RIGHTEOUSNESS SHALL YOU JUDGE your neighbor.”[⁸]
• “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason with your neighbor, lest you bear sin because of him.”
• “You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.”[⁹]
• “You shall NOT DO WRONG IN JUDGMENT…”[¹⁰]

• “You shall not respect persons in judgment; but you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is G-d’s.”[¹¹]
• The judges appointed by the people “shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall NOT PERVERT JUSTICE; you shall NOT SHOW PARTIALITY; and you shall NOT TAKE A BRIBE, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. Justice, and ONLY JUSTICE, you shall follow…”[¹²]
• “If there be a controversy/dispute between men, and they come into court, that the judge[s] may decide between them and judge them: then they shall acquit/justify the righteous/innocent and condemn the guilty/wicked.”[¹³]

This is what Howard Bass, who pastors Kehilat Nachalat Yeshua, wrote in his two letters of May 31, 2010, and June 7th:

“Shalom Brothers and Sisters,

A verdict has been handed down by the Judge[¹⁴] in our lawsuit filed against the Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yehuda Deri, and against the anti-Messianic organization, Yad L'Achim. The Judge did exactly what we have been praying and hoping . . . that he would not do! The Judge has determined that the two defendants are innocent of any wrong-doing concerning the events before, during, and after 24 Dec 2005, and that we did not produce sufficient evidence to prove any personal liability on their part in our civil suit against them.

The Judge has ordered that we pay 1000 ILS to each of the defendants, and that we pay the legal fees of each of their advocates, which will come to tens of thousands of shekels.  (We have not yet been notified of this amount.)
We express our sincere and heartfelt thanks to all of you for your encouragements, prayers, praises to God, and financial contributions throughout this lawsuit to date. We believe, with many of you, that we were led by the Lord to enter into this lawsuit, and we have sought to honor the name of Yeshua. We believe that, at least in this latter regard, we were successful: even the Judge in his decision referred to the Lord as "Yeshua", and not by the acronym commonly used by many in this land.  We understood from the outset that there was a risk involved in taking these particular defendants to court for what we still know they are liable.

We would greatly appreciate you prayerfully considering assisting us with further donations to help us with the large financial burden we are now obligated to pay.  If we decide to file an appeal of this decision, we will do so only after consultation with other Messianic leaders from around Israel, just as we did before going to trial.

We always believed, and still believe and accept, that the verdict is the Lord's, and it is for us to discern what He is saying to us through it.

Glory to the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel”

 ************

2nd letter:

“Shalom All,

We have received notice of what we must pay the two defendants and their lawyers for the miscarriage of justice in our lawsuit against Beer Sheva's Chief Sephardic Rabbi, Yehuda Deri, and against the anti-Messianic/Christian organization, Yad L'Achim.  The Judge has rewarded them for their illegal and untruthful assault against Nachalat Yeshua Messianic Congregation on Dec 24, 2005 (seven years after an earlier larger illegal protest on Nov 28, 1998, organized by the same two defendants).

The total fees to be paid out to them based on the Judge's ruling is approximately 155,000 ILS ($40,200 or GBP 27,800), one-half to each of the defendants and their attorneys. This must be paid by this Friday (June 11) to avoid any other penalties. The costs include payment to each of the defendants, gradated percentages of our claims against them for violations of Israeli law, attorneys' wages for their clients' defense, and the five appearances in court for the trial.

We will do our best to pay what we can by this Friday, and recover by whatever the Lord brings in through those who have it on their heart from God to contribute towards lifting the financial burden for this lawsuit. We also continue to ask all of you, in any case, to pray that we would clearly know our Lord's will whether we should, or should not, appeal this verdict of the Magistrate's Court.”[A]

G-d also gave clear instructions what the persons convicted by the judge should do:

• “… And you shall be careful to do according to all that [the judge] directs you; according to the instructions which he gives you, and according to the decision which he pronounces to you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the verdict which he declares to you, either to the right hand or to the left..”[¹⁵]