A blog dedicated to the two topics usually best avoided: Religion and Politics.With a special focus on Israel/Palestine, Judaism, and Middle Eastern politics.
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“The idea of Christians as ‘true Israel’ goes back earlier than even the term ‘Christian’ does,” he told me. As Christianity began to separate from Judaism, this conviction was accompanied by a view that the Jews erred not merely in failing to recognize Jesus as the Messiah but also in interpreting their Scripture too literally. So the literal approach of contemporary fundamentalists like John Hagee “is a relative latecomer in the long history of Christianity,” even though it sells itself as “the one authentic form of Christianity.”
The real problem is that, fundamentally, this fetishistic view of Judaism and the role of Israel in the advent of the end times sees Jews as a people to be herded together so that another group can achieve its eternal reward. To me that’s a troubling catechism. It’s ultimately not so far from the “Christ-killers” narrative of yore, just with an Israel-friendly varnish.
Maud Newton, Oy Vey, Christian Soldiers
Look at that—a New York Times op-ed about the disgusting trend of Christian cultural appropriation of Judaism. It’s depressing as hell, but check it out.
(via this-is-not-jewish)
And, noticing this contradiction, do you
a) realize that the author(s) of the Gospel and First Epistle of John had read the Torah and was aware of the contradiction and disagreed with Genesis
b) realize that the author(s) of the Gospel and First Epistle of John had read the Torah and was aware of the contradiction and interpreted Jacob’s statement as referring to a spiritual truth
c) realize that the author(s) of the Gospel and First Epistle of John had read the Torah and was aware of the contradiction and was speaking of the face of God metaphorically and may not have even believed God had a literal faced) assume the Bible is a single coherent document that is intended to be read at an extremely face-value level and thus this contradiction proves that the entire document is useless
e) assume the Bible is a single coherent document that is intended to be read at an extremely face-value level and thus this contradiction must be ignored or denied and never mentioned again
If you answered a-c we can probably have an interesting conversation about the nature of the anthology called the Bible. If you answered d or e we probably can’t.
I’m not Christian, but I can’t agree more with that addition.
Also, from a Jewish point of view, that first verse is to be taken metaphorically and spiritually but not literally.
Just a friendly clarification for those who do not know
Allah, the god of Islam, is NOT the same as Yahweh, the God of Judaism and Christianity. I hear a lot of people saying they share the same God, and they do NOT. there are several fundamental differences between the two. The god of Islam calls for works for salvation, and Islam believes that Christ was NOT the Son of God and is actually lesser than Muhammad. Judaism and Christianity share the same God, but have different beliefs about the Messiah. Christians believe Christ is the Messiah and fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, giving us a salvation we cannot earn by a gift of grace. Jews believe that the Messiah is yet to come but will in the future.
Please stop saying Allah is the same as Yahweh-Elohim, the God of the Jews and Christians. Thanks :D
from your friendly theology student~
Speaking as a Jew, I can tell that G-d in Islam is the same as G-d in Judaism. It’s Christianity that involves Jesus as a part of G-d, which is not something that Jews or Muslims believe. And Muslims revere Jesus more than the Jews. They revere him as a prophet, though not a Messianic figure or a son of G-d. Jews do not.
And remember, Allah isn’t the “god of Islam.” Allah is simply the Arabic word that means G-d. Jews and Christians that speak Arabic call G-d Allah as well.
Hanukkah would not be so foriegn to Christianity if most Christians used a Bible that included the Apocrypha. I, being from an Anglican Christian tradition use a Bible containing the books of Maccabees and have for the last few years read the story of Maccabees during my Advent meditations. Therefore every year at this time have read the story of Hanukkah and this year purchased my first menorah to light for the eight days. There may be some who think that it is wrong for me to celebrate what has essentially become a “Jewish heritage” day in America liken to St. Pattys Day or Cinco de Mayo but I see nothing wrong commemorating Freedom Fighters standing up against an oppressive regime and a miracle of God in candles burning for eight days….please tell me how Celebrating this holiday is anti-Christian? Afterall….it’s in the Bible….if you’re reading the right Bible.
I know you didn’t mean this as such, but please don’t use a Jewish holiday to say that our Bible is wrong. This story is not in our Bible but comes from our Rabbinic tradition. And it’s our festival of freedom and independence.
Also, if you want to be a Christian celebrating this holiday, it does smack of cultural appropriation. If you insist on celebrating it because it fills out your faith, I probably won’t convince you otherwise, but hopefully you will see the irony in celebrating, as a Christian, a Jewish triumph against assimilation, conversion, and brutal persecution and oppression when Christians have been doing the same to us for over fifteen hundred years.
Also note that the Rabbinic tradition and law was one denigrated in the New Testament. You may know our ancient Rabbis by another name: the Pharisees.
The Christian Appropriation of Judaism
From the blog of Krista Dalton (h/t: Rachel Held Evans)
The problem I have is that as Christians attempt to understand Judaism, they do so from a decidedly Protestant and/or Western mindset, and by doing so fail to comprehend Judaism at all. This attempt to understand “Jewishness” by piecemealing bits and pieces of the biblical text is perhaps not so much annoying as it is saddening to me. The modern Jewish experience deserves to be appreciated as it is and not what by what we can make it under our own ideologies.
Further, there is something different about wanting to understand Judaism, and wanting to understand Judaism in relation to Christianity as the “fulfillment of” Judaism. Often this rhetoric emerges from veiled or even outright claims to supersessionism, which to me, is the highest insult I could give to my Jewish peers. Can’t Judaism be allowed to stand without Christianity? Must my only exposure to Judaism be, as a Christian, in an attempt to define “it” to “my” faith?
Judaism as a religion is valuable, meaningful, and beautiful. And it is not mine. To attempt to articulate my religious experience as “superior” “replacing” or “negating” their experience because, after all, “Jesus was Jewish,” is a travesty.
Christians cannot reclaim their Judean origin so simply as if 2,000 years of history haven’t happened.
(via this-is-not-jewish)
This was a short story that i had to write for my judaism class. It was the first fiction piece I’ve ever written, and I was so proud of how it turned out. I originally wanted to write a research paper on Holocaust Theology: explanations for why the holocaust happens (from jews and christians)….
This is a touching story and it was interesting for me to read. I know you’re probably not looking for any critiques, but since it appeared on the Judaism tag and the story seems to try and be from a Jewish point of view, even speaking for Jews, I do want to note something. The end seems to imply that Levi was supposed to be G-d with it’s reference to the meaning of G-d’s name: I Am. Is this correct? While the story it’s self is touching, this is not a Jewish perspective at all. In fact, it’s in direct opposition to one of the central tenets to our religion which is that G-d is beyond human form and would never take one.
I think it’s wonderful that as a Christian you are trying to understand the horrors of the Holocaust and the millennia of persecution we’ve suffered, but I caution you about putting a Christian message in a story about Jewish suffering, especially since we have been slaughtered for refusing that message.
Hey! Thanks so much for your critique. It’s actually really appreciated. Ive just began studying Judaism, so I welcome any critique you have as a means of learning more. The story is based off of a play I encountered called “the Trial of God” by Elie Wiesel. Have you read it? It’s very good. In the story, the characters put God on trial for abandoning his people. When no one will defend God, a stranger walks in. He begins to defend the God of Israel throughout the trial. In the end, it turns out to be Satan (sorry for the spoiler) and it didn’t set right with me. How could Satan defend God. Surely the Almighty could defend himself. And if he did, what would that look like? What would God say if he was accused of abandoning his people? That’s how the story came into fruition. I wanted to explain it a little bit. Once again, thank you so much for your insight. It is greatly appreciated. I’m sorry for any offense I caused.
I am familiar, thank you. I’m a big fan of Wiesel’s work. Thank you for responding! As a writer, I definitely understand the need to write something in response to a piece of writing that just does not feel quite right or ring quite true.
I do hope you keep in mind what I said and how it might be difficult for Jews to read your post without connecting it to the message we’ve received for millennia that Jesus should save us and that it is our stubbornness that keeps us suffering. Again, we don’t believe that G-d could ever be incarnate as a human being and in Wiesel’s story, there is no defense of G-d and there can be none in the outcome of the Holocaust. There are many ways to be religious in Judaism and his is one of them. I’m sure you understand that as a Christian, it is your responsibility to be extremely careful about the messages to which you give voice through your writing about Jews and Judaism and our history of persecution.
From a personal point of view, the point of view of a Jew who lost branches of her family in the Holocaust, no one can absolve G-d of that horror, especially someone who is not Jewish, especially from a Christian perspective. From a Jewish religious point of view, G-d needs know absolution.
Again, thank you for responding and understanding that is not an attack on your writing or your studying. I hope you continue to learn and write and I offer myself as a resource if you have questions.
This was a short story that i had to write for my judaism class. It was the first fiction piece I’ve ever written, and I was so proud of how it turned out. I originally wanted to write a research paper on Holocaust Theology: explanations for why the holocaust happens (from jews and christians)….
This is a touching story and it was interesting for me to read. I know you’re probably not looking for any critiques, but since it appeared on the Judaism tag and the story seems to try and be from a Jewish point of view, even speaking for Jews, I do want to note something. The end seems to imply that Levi was supposed to be G-d with it’s reference to the meaning of G-d’s name: I Am. Is this correct? While the story it’s self is touching, this is not a Jewish perspective at all. In fact, it’s in direct opposition to one of the central tenets to our religion which is that G-d is beyond human form and would never take one.
I think it’s wonderful that as a Christian you are trying to understand the horrors of the Holocaust and the millennia of persecution we’ve suffered, but I caution you about putting a Christian message in a story about Jewish suffering, especially since we have been slaughtered for refusing that message.
Christian-centrism is real…How people see…
“Ehmagawsh nuns are so adorable! I love Sister Act/The Sound of Music!”
“ehmagawsh, they’re so oppressed! YOU’RE SO OPPRESSED AND YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW, LET US SAVE YOU!!!”
For real though, nuns cover the exact same parts of their bodies as hijabis and Orthodox Jewish women, but no one is concern-trolling them. Nuns also live with severe restrictions on their personal lives that Muslim and Jewish women do not. I can count on one hand the articles by “feminists” about concerns over nuns and the church that controls them. I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the “feminist” articles about “oppressed” Muslim and Orthodox Jewish women.
Feminism means acknowledging the autonomy of women and their rights to make their own choices. Some women choose to be nuns, some choose to wear hijab, and some choose to dress tznius. Calling women who choose to cover themselves a certain way “oppressed” is un-feminist. Only picking women of minority (in the West) religious groups to call “oppressed” is incredibly Christian-centric.
end rant.
all these serious posts, I don’t know what’s gotten into me…
In Modern Judeo-christian traditions, there are many misconceptions about Azrael(a.k.a.) the grim reaper.
the number one misconception is that hes an entity of evil, which is entirely false.
He’s a Arch angel. of of the seven Arch angels Still celebrated in Orthodox and Eastern…
well, for one, I’m not a Goyim, and its judaio-christian, meaning that its christian but still pays attention to the judaic roots.
Goyim is plural for non Jew. That is, non-Jews. Are you Jewish.
There are a lot of reasons why Jews don’t like the term Judeo-Christian, although I’ve never heard it used in the way you just did. But we don’t like how people tend to use it to erase uniquely Jewish experiences and incorporate them under some Christian umbrella that doesn’t truly exist. We’ve been persecuted by Christians for fifteen hundred years. We don’t want to be incorporated by it. I encourage you to check out this, this, and this.
Facts and misconceptions about Azrael.
In Modern Judeo-christian traditions, there are many misconceptions about Azrael(a.k.a.) the grim reaper.
the number one misconception is that hes an entity of evil, which is entirely false.
He’s a Arch angel. of of the seven Arch angels Still celebrated in Orthodox and Eastern rite churches. At one time, there we’re people who even followed his philosophies(judeo-christian necromancers)
these being ideals such as:
the Idea that humans are a transcendent species and that death is a metamorphic stage of our life cycle.
That god(Yaweh or Jehovah) is the universe itself.
that all dead things must stay dead.
that funerals should be done without embalming.
that Christ died for our souls to gain entry into the after life.
That humans must learn about the world(limbo/the void) outside the veil(the veil is our dimension)
That’s really just the basics of old judeo-christian necromantic philosophy. I’ll post more if needed.
Speak for yourself. Except for one of your points, that is Christian necromantic philosophy, not Jewish. This really isn’t Jewish at all. The part about “Christ died for our souls,” might be a hint towards that direction.
Really, there isn’t such a thing as Judeo-Christian philosophy in the first place.
