Posted on 06/01/2007 7:27:54 PM PDT by Salem
“Fenton labeled as “a fallacy” the Christian assertion that it is anchored in the Jewish faith ...”
This 2003 article is a bit dated, but the confusion is common. Knowledgeable Christians detect a misrepresentation in Fenton’s assertion that the Christian branches claim to be “anchored in the Jewish faith”.
Like the Christian branches, the branches of Judaism grew out of the Hebraic faith rooted in the Abrahamic covenant, and grew apart from each other and into many competing branches as the unity of the Jewish community unraveled over disputes concerning the identity of Jesus, the disposition of gentile faithful, and finally was shattered together with the suppression of the Hebraic sacrificial system as a consequence of the razing of the temple in 70 AD and the scouring of surviving Jews out of the land in the sequel to the 70’s revolt and the renewed Bar Kochba revolt in the 130’s. The surviving Jews in the dispersion had to build a new foundation on the rubble of the suppressed sacrificial system and their exile from the Land of Promise, and the structures they built on the rubble were as deviant from the pre-70 Hebrew religion as some of the branches of Christianity.
As a modern example, the followers of Schneerson, the Chabad, have incurred the wrath of some representatives of Judaism:
http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-2718022_ITM
THE REBBE, THE MESSIAH, AND THE SCANDAL OF ORTHODOX INDIFFERENCE. By DAVID BERGER. Littman Library. 195 pp. $29.50.
David Berger would seem an unlikely candidate for the role of heresy hunter. A mild-mannered professor of Jewish history at Brooklyn College and Yeshiva University, he has been a liberal advocate of tolerant pluralism within the ranks of Orthodox Judaism and a willing participant in theological dialogue with Christians. But in his recent book The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference (2001), he has emerged as a would-be Torquemada on the Orthodox scene, demanding a policy of “intolerance” and “exclusion” toward those he deems to be heretical to Orthodoxy.
What has driven Berger to outrage—and what commends the interest even of those outside the world of Orthodox Judaism—are the messianic claims emanating from sectors of the Lubavitcher (also called “Chabad”) movement of hasidic Jews. In a public campaign, groups of Lubavitcher hasidim have declared that their leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson—affectionately known as “the Rebbe”—is the long-awaited messiah of the Jewish people—and this despite the fact that Rabbi Schneerson died in June 1994. Some of the messianists allow that Rabbi Schneerson died, but insist that he will return from the grave to complete his messianic mission; others go further, claiming that the Rebbe is in fact alive; while still others contend that Rabbi Schneerson is not only the messiah, but a divine being. In all of this, the Christian motifs are obvious—and that is precisely what enrages Berger. He excoriates the Lubavitcher messianists as vile heretics, accusing them of undermining classic Jewish teaching about the messiah and facilitating Christian missionizing of the Jews. Berger simply refuses to accept hasidim who champion what he bitterly terms a “kosher-style Second Coming.”
The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference is Berger’s report from the front lines of his war against the Lubavitcher messianists. The tone of the book is one of barely controlled hysteria, reflecting Berger’s sense that he is all alone, fighting a rear-guard action against a large and powerful enemy. Berger retains a “slender thread of hope that it is not too late,” but he clearly expects the worst in his struggle with the messianists. Indeed, much of the book reads as if the struggle has already been lost. It is no accident that the last page of the book carries the title “Epitaph,” and begins with the sentence: “The classical messianic faith of Judaism is dying.” In his introduction, Berger states categorically that for “much of Orthodox Jewry, the classic boundaries of the messianic faith of Israel are no more”; still further, he observes that “virtually all Orthodox Jews [today] belong to a profoundly different religion from the one they adhered to in 1993.”
Presented with such sweeping assertions about a group normally categorized as “ultra-Orthodox,” we must raise a series of pointed questions: Are a majority of Lubavitcher hasidim in the messianist camp? Have the Lubavitcher messianists dramatically altered perspectives in the larger Orthodox community? Does the evidence truly point to a “scandal of Orthodox indifference?” And, most importantly, do the Lubavitcher messianists really have nothing worthwhile to teach Jews today?
As a trained historian, Berger could be expected to open up broad vistas on the Lubavitcher movement. In fact, however, his analysis is narrow in the extreme. The Lubavitcher messianists do not just occupy center stage in The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference, they occupy the whole stage. Reading Berger’s book, one would hardly know that the Lubavitcher brand of hasidism has a rich and fascinating history spanning more than two centuries. Berger does not mention the Tanya, a masterwork of Jewish mysticism written by Shneur Zalman of Lyady, the founder of the Lubavitcher movement. Moreover, he passes over the role of dynastic succession in Lubavitch, which produced six outstanding leaders prior to the Rebbe. Even the hallmark missionary zeal of the Lubavitchers, which has made them familiar figures in far-flung Jewish communities, receives only passing reference. All in all, Berger’s relentless focus on the messianist doings of the last several years produces a cartoon version of Lubavitcher history.
To gain an overview of the Lubavitcher movement we must look elsewhere. Menachem Friedman’s brilliant essay “Chabad as Messianic Fundamentalism” is quite useful in this regard. (The essay can be found in Accounting for Fundamentalism [1994], University of Chicago Press, Martin Marty and R. Scott Appleby, eds.) The essay was written when Rabbi Schneerson was still alive but had suffered a stroke (this occurred in March 1993; the Rebbe died fifteen months later) that left him partially paralyzed and incapable of speech. For the Lubavitcher hasidim, this was a terrible time of testing, but for Friedman, as a sociologist of religion, it was an ideal moment to take the measure of Lubavitch. Friedman understood that, with Rabbi Schneerson near death, the Lubavitcher movement had reached a decisive turning point in its history. Friedman went so far as to express doubt that the Lubavitcher movement could “continue to exist without the bonding cement of the Rebbe.” If Lubavitch did survive, Friedman confidently asserted, it would be as an “entirely different sect.”
The Lubavitcher dynasty was founded by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyady in the second half of the eighteenth century. From the very outset Lubavitch was characterized by a powerful sense of mission, a feeling engendered by Zalman’s uphill struggle to advance the hasidic cause in his home base of White Russia. This region was a stronghold of the mitnagdim—rabbinic opponents of hasidism—and they actively conspired to have the Lubavitcher leader jailed by the Czarist police in 1798. Down to today, Lubavitcher hasidim tell and retell the story of the incarceration and release of Shneur Zalman, seeing in it...
etc etc etc
No, of course the Jews should put their trust in God, not in men. If they are confident in their faith, they need have no fear of being converted. That doesn’t mean they cannot accept the friendship and support of Evangelicals and others provided that they are not asked to compromise their beliefs in return.
Israel accepts billions from the United States, for instance, and has been willing to accept help and military support from us as a friend and ally. That doesn’t mean that Israel should put the US ahead of God. But hopefully such a choice will not have to be made.
B T T T
"Hear O' Israel, The Lord, Thy God, is One.""
. . . and humanity. Unfortunately, there are those who prefer Jerusalem to be fanatical, dark, pursuing strife and hatred. Those same people ignore the Torah’s greatest rule: Love thy brother as thyself.”
Mathew 12:50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.
3. As any number of Chabadnik Freepers would tell you, the number of Lubavitchers who believe that Rabbi Schneerson was the messiah is tiny.
The ADL is a leftist group. They have labeled many Religious Zionists as bigots.
This rat should come to the U.S. and run for the Senate. In the right state, she’d do just fine.
He warns us that not all are Jews that say they are.
Isaiah 45:23 I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.
When His feet touch down again, every knee will bow, including our Jewish brothers. All will know who the Son of God is at that moment - The Messiah will have returned.
....Ping
It’s too bad. I can understand the difficulties, but the only “winners” are the Olmert crowd.
“Fenton labeled as “a falacy” the Christian assertion that it is anchored in the Jewish faith and that Jesus and nearly all his early followers were Jews. “It’s an attempt to fool Jews, to pull Jews toward Christians and make as if there is no difference between Jewish and Christian values,” she said, explaining that the values in question “are Jewish values, and Christianity took them. Christianity is a distortion of the Bible.”
Parallels the Mormon debate regarding Romney (which in full disclosure I am part of here).
First of all....as a Jew I was NEVER taught to hate Christians. Not at home, not in Hebrew School. I am an observant Jew and attend Sabbath Services as well as Torah Study regularly - and never have I heard a word about hating Christians. And I don’t ever recall a conversation among Jews that advocated hating Christians - ever.
Right now we are building a new sanctuary and have been using a very beautiful Methodist Church as our temporary home. The Rabbi often mentions our debt of gratitude to this Christian congregation for their warmth and hospitality. They had a fire recently, and our congregation has donated to the Church to help them. This Church is very large and wealthy and doesn’t need out help, but still we are giving it. Happily giving it.
I have heard Jews speak with disappointment that anti-semitism is still so prevalent - that even today a number of mainstream Churches are advocating against Israel.
If you attend a religious service in a synagogue - read through the prayer book - you won’t see a word against Christians or Christ. The prayers are all about seeking peace among people, justice, helping others, praising G-d.
Every group of people has its a small minority of “crazies.” And that includes Jews. Radicals spouting some kind of nonsense - like this councilwoman.
What you are seeing is not hatred but caution. After two thousand years of constant persecution - some of it still going on today right here in America such as on American college campuses (campae?) - you can’t blame Jews for caution.
I’ve had numerous times in my life when I’ve been the recipient of anti-semitic bias - hatred - bigotry - and one learns to live with it, and one learns to be cautious.
My personal philosophy is to accept a Christian’s statement of friendship - until proven otherwise. I married a Christian. My grandchild will be a Christian. I don’t hate Christians.
Accepting a person or a groups statement of friendship until proven otherwise is something we all do. If I state I am your friend, you accept that unless proven otherwise.
As for this councilwoman in Israel - she is a minority of opinion. You can’t blame her for her caution. I don’t agree with her, but I can relate to what she fears. I remember the lineup of Christians who waited for the Jewish children as we left school to try to convert us. It wasn’t fun having to run that gamut everyday after school.
But when you say you are my friend, I accept that unless proven otherwise.
Inevitable. sigh.
“1. The idea that Judaism was invented in 70 ce (or in your spin 136 CE) is a rather amusing fallacy.”
That is a strange misreading of what I said, which is that the survivors of these apocalyptic events in succeeding decades developed into new communities which jettisoned the foundations of classical Hebraic religion for new foundations, doing so by variously reinterpreting the demands of Torah to accommodate it to the new circumstances. Or, as you put it:
“Vespasian allowed Rabbi Yochanan to re-establish the Sanhedrin at Yavneh, and recognized him as the head of the continued Sanhedrin. It was in this role that the Sanhedrin, already dominated by Pharisees, decided that prayer and deeds could replace sacrifice.”
At this distance from the events, it is difficult to appreciate how radical this was at the time, and by now its also a convenient veiling of the situation in order to claim essential continuity with the past for your favorite branch. There is an interesting parallel to these new readings that developed among the Christians - - - as described in the letter to the Hebrews - - - (Hebrews 6:13-10:25) to justify the abandonment of the sacrificial system for lives of communal prayer and “doing the truth” (John 3:19-21) out of gratitude for, and in obedience to the One whose one ultimate sacrifice brought the need for further sacrifices to an end.
Isn’t it interesting how both branches from the pre-shoah events arrived at the same conclusion: no need for further sacrifices - - - albeit from somewhat different premises and chains of reasoning!
http://www.jewfaq.org/qorbanot.htm
“2. The Christians were a tiny sect in this period. Jews didn’t care about the followers of a fallen Messianic claimant. “
Perhaps, though this is a murky period indeed.
http://www.cjcr.cam.ac.uk/staff/sim.html
If so, then they were adopting the wisdom of Gamaliel, which anticipated that the “tiny sect”, if it was indeed wrong-headed would go the way of apparently similar previous groups:
Acts 5:33-40
When they heard this, they were furious and plotted to kill them. Then one in the council stood up, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in respect by all the people, and commanded them to put the apostles outside for a little while. And he said to them: “Men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do regarding these men. For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody. A number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was slain, and all who obeyed him were scattered and came to nothing. After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census, and drew away many people after him. He also perished, and all who obeyed him were dispersed. And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it—lest you even be found to fight against God.” And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
Needless to say, the particular tiny group following this Way did not stay tiny.
“3. As any number of Chabadnik Freepers would tell you, the number of Lubavitchers who believe that Rabbi Schneerson was the messiah is tiny.”
Perhaps the vehemence of Rabbi Berger’s argument is driven by his desire to avoid a repetition of (in his eyes) this earlier Gamalielian blunder of ignoring a “tiny sect” in the expectation that (if it is not of the Creator) it will just fade away in due time.
Now that a really good idea. Burn bridges with your allies, just about the only allies they have left. Just damn!
Total bullshit from a political and individual nonentity who is lucky to have the job she has.
It is obviously a slow news day in Israel.
Is she afraid she might be converted? Like a turtle she tries to pull her head into her shell. If you know truth you welcome opportunities to share it. You are not afraid. Any adult who believes they have truth should be informed enough about it to confidently convey it.
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