“Kosher Jesus” by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (Gefen Publishing House, 241 pages, $26)
“Very Near to You: Human Readings of the Torah” by Avraham Burg, translated by J. J. Goldberg (Gefen Publishing House, 442 pages, $30)
Passover is the most universal of the Jewish holidays. Both observant and non-observant Jews celebrate it; and many non-Jews identify with its message and story.
So it seems appropriate that, in time for the holiday, from the same publisher two books have come to The Chronicle whose authors seek to build intellectual and good will bridges between, on the one hand, Jews and Christians, and on the other, Jews of differing orientations.
Unfortunately, I don’t think either of these books will achieve the authors’ stated goals. Both say in effect, “Be reasonable and see things my way.” Many people likely will regard such a message, however well-meaning, as arrogant, presumptuous, and off-putting.
But the chief weakness lies in the authors’ foundational assumption that the fundamental differences between the various groups are bridgeable. I think they underestimate the huge intellectual and emotional distance separating Judaism and Christianity, and Orthodox and liberal/secular Jews.
One of these books has caused a news-making storm in parts of the Jewish world. Since its publication in February, “Kosher Jesus” has been vehemently denounced by several Orthodox rabbis who clearly, and often admittedly, have not read it.
According to a Feb. 5 article in the Los Angeles Times, available online, these rabbis find the very title disgusting and offensive, and they fear that the book could be used to lure Jews to Christianity.
In reality, “Kosher Jesus” could not be used that way. Shmuley Boteach, an Orthodox rabbi, devotes a good 50 pages to describing “Why the Jews Cannot Accept Jesus,” and he expressly states, “Jews have not and cannot ever accept Jesus as he exists in Christian theology.”
However, the book is shallow. Boteach seems to think it is news that Jesus was an observant Jew; that his teachings came from the Hebrew Bible and the developing Jewish thought of his time; that he may have been one of many recorded would-be messiahs seeking Judea’s independence from the Roman empire; that the Romans and not the Jews of Judea crucified Jesus; that Christianity is more the creation of Paul than of Jesus; etc.
Actually, Jewish, Christian, and secular Bible scholars and historians — and workers in interfaith relations — have been delving into these matters for decades, and in much greater depth.
Moreover, Boteach makes careless errors. He seems unable to tell the difference between a gas chamber and a crematorium, nor between the Assyrian empire (911-612 B.C.E.) and the Seleucid Greek empire (312-63 B.C.E.) that the Maccabees fought (167-140 B.C.E.).
But the biggest problem lies in those 50 pages alluded to earlier. How can Boteach build sympathetic connections between Jews and Christians when he sticks in Christian readers’ faces refutations of the fundamental tenets of Christianity?
Boteach seems to be saying implicitly that if Jews and Christians just ignore or agree to push aside the nearly 2,000 years of Christian teachings about Jesus, then “we can forge a deep bond of togetherness using Jesus of Nazareth as a bridge.” I wonder how many believing Christians or Jews are really willing or able to do that.
Avraham Burg, for his part, is a controversial figure in Israel. The son of a National Religious Party leader, he is a former head of the Jewish Agency for Israel and former speaker of the Knesset; and he has become one of Israel’s renowned “post-Zionist” liberals.
He argued in his 2008 book “The Holocaust is Over We Must Rise From Its Ashes” that too many Israelis and Diaspora Jews have not been able to leave the Holocaust behind and sufficiently universalize its lessons. (See Dec. 19, 2008, Chronicle.)
He continues to make that case in “Very Near to You,” and in a distinctively Jewish way — through commentary essays on each Torah portion of the week read in the synagogue through the Jewish liturgical year.
In his preface, Burg contends that his viewpoint “is neither pious nor secularist. If I could describe an imagined, virtual place where it belongs, it would be midway between those who were reared in the bosom of Torah and those whose spirit finds no connection with traditional sources.
“To the former, I render this plea: if you want to be relevant, come out from behind the high walls that have grown up between us… To the latter, I appeal: come back and join us as full partners in the intellectual task of crafting the modern Jewish identity… And to both groups I say: please, do not walk away.”
Unfortunately, his interpretations will not be inviting to most members of either group. They will appeal only to the minority of each that sympathizes with Burg’s project and values.
For example, in his commentary on the Ten Commandments as stated in Deuteronomy, Burg analyzes “You shall not murder” (5:16) as follows:
“This sweeping command is based on the difference between God and man. If there is a God, creator of the universe, he can breathe life at any moment into any matter. Man, his creation, resembles him but is not exactly like him. Man can take the life of his neighbor at any moment, but can only give life at the moment of sexual communion. Whoever cannot repair a life that was cut short or restore life to one he has killed may not take a life. It follows, then that the death penalty is impermissible, since the taking of life is a privilege reserved to God alone.”
To secular Jews, life is not a supernatural phenomenon, and the use of “man” to mean people is not proper. To religious Jews, Burg’s claim about the death penalty contradicts Genesis 9:6, in which God demands that humans give the death penalty for murder; and the “if there is a God” clause is reason enough to throw the whole book out. No bridge between the two groups can be found here or in his many similar interpretations.
As a set of Torah portion commentaries, Burg’s book has some value, though because it lacks an index, it is less useful than it could be. I know I learned some things from the Talmud, Midrash, and later commentators’ passages he brought in. But his more ambitious purposes will not be realized here.
Loading ...