On Tuesday afternoon I was invited
to speak on a luncheon panel entitled “Dialogue among the Abrahamic Religions”
sponsored by the Muslim Student Association at North Central College. The other
panelists were Eric Doolittle, chaplain at North Central College, who
represented Christianity, and Aadil Farid, immediate past president of the
Islamic Center of Naperville. We were
invited by Youseff Mekowy, an Egyption student in his senior year and President
of the Muslim Student Association at NCC. He indicated that the purpose of the panel was “to educate our
audience to help clear the stereotypes and the ignorance that might lead to any
sort of misunderstandings”. The audience
of about 50 consisted of about faculty and students from different countries and different religious backgrounds.
I decided to talk about four common
misconceptions or misunderstandings about Judaism.
The first is that one can
understand Judaism by reading the Old Testament. It is true that in the Old
Testament one can read the seminal Jewish stories about Abraham and Sarah,
about Moses and the Exodus from Egypt, about the commandments to abstain from
certain foods and about our history in the Land of Israel. But Biblical
Judaism, with its Tabernacle and Temple, its Priestly service, its focus on
animal sacrifice, its emphasis on ritual purity, its severe punishments – think
“eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” – and its very cross G-d – is not the Judaism
that we practice today. Judaism is not a fossilized religion, but a living, breathing
and developing tradition that has evolved and adapted to meet the challenges of
new circumstances and changing times. There is always, of course, much tension
around how much Judaism should change, or could change, before it ceases to be
true to its origins. This has led to a variety of expressions of the Jewish
faith throughout the world, from Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism to the more
traditional interpretations from the Orthodox or Haredi movements.
A second common misunderstanding
about Judaism is that going to a Seder replicates Jesus’ Last Supper. Although
the Gospels situate the Last Supper around the time of Pesah and therefore Seder,
there is no conclusive evidence that the Last Supper was the Jewish ritual
known as a Seder. Scholarly consensus holds that is more likely to have been an
ordinary Jewish meal. There is no mention in the Gospels of important symbols
associated with a Seder -- Matzah, or bitter herbs, or four cups of wine, or
the eating of the Paschal lamb. Furthermore, the Seder as we know it, began to
be practiced sometime after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70CE, after
Jesus’ time, and continued to develop throughout the Middle Ages up to our own
present day.
A third common misconception is
that all Jews support the State of Israel. In fact, prior to World War ll there
was a great controversy about whether there should be a Jewish homeland in the
Middle East . There was also controversy about and what kind of homeland it
ought to be. Some sought to establish a Jewish cultural center within the
Ottoman Empire. Others, such as Theodore Herzl the founder of Modern Zionism,
saw the need for a Nation State of the Jewish people with real political power.
Many Jews in America were concerned that the establishment of a Jewish state
would lead to charges of “dual loyalty”. Justice Louis Brandeis addressed the
issue in 1915 in a speech to Reform Rabbis:
“Let no American imagine that
Zionism is inconsistent with Patriotism. Multiple loyalties are objectionable
only if they are inconsistent. A man is a better citizen of the United States
for being also a loyal citizen of his state, and of his city; or for being
loyal to his college.... Every American Jew who aids in advancing the Jewish
settlement in Palestine, though he feels that neither he nor his descendants
will ever live there, will likewise be a better man and a better American for
doing so. There is no inconsistency between loyalty to America and loyalty to
Jewry.”
Today, 69 years after the establishment
of the State of Israel, most Jews want to see a democratic Israel with secure
boundaries who is at peace with her neighbors. At the same time, many Jews
disagree with the policies of particular Israeli governments. Most American
Jews support the official goals of the Israeli government, which is to work
toward a two state solution where Israelis and Palestinians can live side by
side in peace and dignity.
A fourth misconception is that all
Jews believe in G-d and are religious. Last year Rabbi Yehiel Poupko, Rabbinic
Scholar of the Jewish United Fund of Chicago, wrote an article for the magazine
“Christianity Today” explaining to Christians Bernie Sanders’ Judaism. He
writes that Sanders’ “Judaism, and membership in the Jewish people, fit no
category of faith and religion familiar to most Christians.” How then can
Sanders say, as he did, “I am very proud of being Jewish, and that is an
essential part of who I am as a human being” and yet not practice the Jewish
faith or affirm a belief in G-d? This is because, writes Rabbi Poupko, “We are
not merely a faith or a religion. We are a family. Our family life entails
belief in God, responding to God’s revelation at Sinai, and God’s commanding
voice summoning us to a life of justice, holiness, purity, and
righteousness. Irrespective of how an individual Jew responds to that,
they remain a member of the family.”
As we all know there are many other
misconceptions about Judaism. Perhaps I will be invited back to NCC next year, so
that we can continue to learn from one another.
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