Interfaith

Recently, we have been reading much about “Interfaith Dialogues,” where members of different faiths discuss/share/debate religious beliefs. I personally got a few invitations to partake in such events.

What exactly is it?

So, despite being very short on a commodity called “time,” I decided to embark on a short journey to try and understand what exactly this “Interfaith Dialogue” entails.

I trust that starting any discussion with the intent of making it a productive one, ensuring that all sides speak the same language and have the same understanding of key terms, a short definition of the term, would be useful.

Here are three sources for the definition of the term “Interfaith.”

The first a basic one from Merriam-Webster defines it as “involving persons of different religious faiths.” For those who consider themselves more educated, here are two more by the Cambridge Dictionary and the Oxford one, successively.
“relating to activities involving members of different religions,” and “Relating to or involving different religions or members of different religions.”

For the innocent bystander, such, an almost identical definition of the term “interfaith,”  as bringing together people of different faiths, is the fulfillment of the vision of the end of days and Biblical prophecies. And indeed, it can hold much potential of improving relationship and repair rifts that are, in many cases, the result of religious differences and conflicts as history has proved to us time and again.

My question, though, is, will debating or discussing religious differences really going to bring about the so well sought “kumbaya?” Might it not cause a deeper rift? What is the likelihood that following such debates or religious encounters anyone may change their beliefs? Has the invention of the term “Judeo-Christian” brought more peace between Jews and Christians? Some say “yes,” some say “no,” others say “maybe.” Is it quantifiable? Has appropriation, or usurpation of Jewish symbols, terms and ideas by some Christians resulting from “Interfaith Dialogue,” coupled with Jews allowing it, helped Jews in any way?

My answer is NO!

In my experience such debates ended in deeper divides and more vain hatred. Why can’t members of any faith adhere to and practice what Lord, Rabbi Sacks calls ”The Dignity of Difference?” Why do some members of some faiths feel a need to use scare techniques (I was once told that if I do not accept Jesus/Yeshua I “will burn in hell”) or promises of a “better Afterlife” to lure and gain followers?

Is religious interfaith indeed the ONLY answer to ensure a better future for all?

Why can’t Jews, Christians, Muslims or members of other faiths enter a fruitful and productive “Interfaith” exchange in areas such as business, culture, sports or art? Why does it always have to be a “religious interfaith?”

As my dear, wonderful and very wise friend, Roger Froikin likes to end his stimulating, well thought of and challenging comments, “think about that!” 

Why Am I Not Surprised?

The recent decision by UNESCO to declare the Cave of Machpela (The burial place, according to Jewish tradition, of Avraham, Sarah, Itschak, Rivka, Yaakov and Lea, our Jewish Patriarchs and Matriarchs) as an “Endangered Palestinian burial site” did not come as a surprise to me. How come, you may ask.

For years now, Jews and the state of Yisrael have been giving not only chunks of our Land to strangers, but also slices of our Jewish Zionist identity and heritage to foreigners. Parts of Judaism, Jewish symbols and cherished concepts that have been ours for a few millennia are handed out as prizes, as spoils, as trophies to anyone who claims to love us and support us. So why should anyone be surprised when those to whom we so willingly hand out pieces of our essence, decide to wake up one day while we are still in a deep slumber and claim those as their own?

In case some find it hard to follow my point, let me be specific.

When the Romans arbitrarily renamed our Eretz Yisrael as “Palestine,” in order to add insult to injury and do all they could to disassociate Jews from this Land, those who resided in it were, as a result, renamed “Palestinians.” No, they were NOT Arabs. No, they were NOT Muslims. Those were not around here then. That name was given to us, Jews. It was an offensive name. Palestine was named after a heathen nation, the Philistines (meaning invaders), one of the worst enemies of Am Yisrael. We refused to take on this name and understandably so.

The name Eretz Yisrael along with the name “Palestine,” were later jointly used by the British during their Mandate over the area. The name “Palestinians,” however, was hardly used, if ever, during those years. Those that lived in the area were either Jews or Arabs. The name just laid there collecting dust until a group of Arabs, who moved here from surrounding countries, decided to adopt it and claim it as their own.

Personally, I have no problem with anyone calling themselves or crowning themselves with this or that name or title. I cannot stop them from doing it. I do have a problem, however, with anyone appropriating that which belongs/belonged to others and doing all they can to convince the world that that name, that title, that history was theirs from its inception. And that is exactly what is happening with the name” Palestinians.” They have engaged, sometimes with our backing, in efforts to re-write history to match their imaginary narrative and convince the world that they are the “original Palestinians.”

I am even more upset with those among us who have encouraged and supported such claims by them.

We have given them the keys to Har Habayit (Temple Mount), OUR Har Habayit, and openly. Why then was everyone caught by surprise when UNESCO declared that holy Jewish place as a “Palestinian” site?

We have enabled such a move.

It is not only the Muslims, though, that we have assisted in usurping that which belongs to us only. A year and a half ago, I read the following headline in “The Independent:”
“Joseph's Tomb arson attack: Jewish and Christian holy site in West Bank 'set on fire by Palestinians' I was dumbfounded. I knew that since the Oslo Accord, this Jewish Holy site has been under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority. However, when in the world did Joseph’s Tomb become a “Jewish AND Christian holy site?” When did Jews hand out religious property shares in Joseph’s Tomb?

Yisrael is indeed a holy place to many. The Land, however, belongs to the Jews first and foremost (and please do not quote me prophecy which promises this Land to all!). Until such time as the Tanach prophesizes, foreigners are welcome to worship here who and what they please but only as guests. It breaks my heart when I read that Yisrael is selling land to external religious entities and thus giving them chunks after chunks of what is ours, only to see them one day claiming parts of our Jewish Homeland as their own?

Which brings me to another serious concern. We have been handing out titles which are part of our heritage only and are reserved to some only. I have read Jews labelling those who make money out of supporting Yisrael as “Righteous Gentiles,” a title that is saved for the select few special souls who saved Jews during the Shoah while risking their lives. What a spit in the face it must be for those brave individuals to see their memory being diluted.

Likewise, many of us have been letting those who claim to love us and support us call themselves “Zionists,” (as opposed to “Pro-Zionists”) when that hard-earned concept, that idea is one ONLY Jews have harboured and practiced for over two millennia. Hence, we get “Christian Zionists.” We get “Muslim Zionists.” We even get “Koranic Zionism” (which claims that since Muhammad declared Eretz Yisrael belonging to the Jews and since he came BEFORE Herzl, the founder of Political Zionism, he is the “original Zionist.”)

Zion and Zionism belong to the Jews only.  What concerns me is that many non-Jews who crown themselves with the title “Zionist” may be doing that for the purpose of paving their way to claiming parts of Zion as their own. Let me explain.

Some might have heard by now about an Evangelical missionary group called  HaYovel Ministries http://palmtreeofdeborah.blogspot.co.il/2017/05/hayovel-ministries-sowing-seeds-for.html Yes, they, too, call themselves “Christian Zionists.” Their enablers have even ensured that they get land to set up their encampment on Mount Grizim AKA Har Haberachah (Mount of Blessing). According to Tommy Waller (https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/51659/christian-zionist-family-in-israel-will-leave-you-amazed-biblical-zionism/#FEiibry7Ciubpjlb.97), their patriarch, “Many Christians make a mistake of thinking that Israel is just for the Jews.”

No, Mr. Waller it is NOT A MISTAKE, Eretz Yisrael is for the Jews, you are merely a guest in it.

They have already claimed themselves the holders of “New Jerusalem,” (which of course will replace Jewish Jerusalem!). It will be the one from which their messiah will rule when he comes back to earth. That, at least, is the message https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcRYzssndgc  Caleb Waller bears to his fellow Evangelicals in Nashville.

Frankly, I am not surprised and I do not blame the Wallers and other Christian groups that have set base and camp in Yisrael. Their Jewish enablers and many others among us Jews have allowed them all to cloak themselves with the title Zionists, leading them to believe they have a stake in Zion.

How long do you, dear readers, reckon it will take before UNESCO or any other International body next declares Holy Jewish Site as that of others while we are asleep at the wheel?

Wake up Jews! Is this the legacy we want to leave to our future generations? Will we be able to look them straight into the eyes and say that we have done all that is within our power to ensure their future in Eretz Yisrael, and keep it as the Jewish Homeland?

These are the pressing questions that need to be addressed if you, like me, wish to preserve the Jewish soul.

Keeping Friends Closer and Drawn Lines Redder

This article was written jointly by Roger Froikin and Bat-Zion Susskind-Sacks

Picture this, it is Passover. You invite Christian friends, guests, to you family Seder. You start to read the Haggadah, and just when you get to the part where Jews say how we are to see ourselves, not just our ancestors, as being brought out of slavery to freedom, our Christian friends say, “hey that’s not what your Seder means, it is an allegory for the coming of Christ and the resurrection.”

What do you do?

 Some Jews would sit there quietly, smile, and start to discuss what these Christians inserted in the celebration. To their children, this would appear as acceptance of the Christian interpretation.

Well, that is not what Jews should be doing.  Jews need to say, “yes, we want friends, but friends respect one another and these Christians were not acting like friends. The Jews who chose to ignore their lack of manners and aggressive should be ashamed of themselves.”

Yet, In the State of Israel today,  Medinat Yisrael, in Eretz Yisrael the Jewish Homeland, there are places where this scenario is being played out in reality. No one is responsible nor seems to want to draw the line between acceptable and not acceptable. In some places missionaries are telling Jews what Jews should believe, while some Jews look down and say nothing.

They claim to be our friends. They declare that they love us. Moreover, they claim that they are here in Eretz Yisrael to help us, serve us and to fulfill the calling of the prophecy   ו וּבְנֵי הַנֵּכָר, הַנִּלְוִים עַל-יְהוָה לְשָׁרְתוֹ, וּלְאַהֲבָה אֶת-שֵׁם יְהוָה, לִהְיוֹת לוֹ לַעֲבָדִים (And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants,) (Isaiah 56:6).

Some of us ask, and justifiably so, is that the real reason? Rather, is this the only reason?

As a people who has been deprived of love by others for so long, such an offer is, of course, very tempting. For who does not want to be loved. Who does not want to have free servants and volunteers to do the dirty work for them? 

So, they were given a place to set up their camp. They are adorned and adulated by those they help. They invite their friends to come and stay with them. They organize Shabbat events where Jews and Christians meet and mingle. They conduct Christian weddings with Jewish rituals to which they invite local observant Jews and which the latter attend thus condoning such practices.

Frankly, we have no problem inviting strangers as guests to our private home and our National Home, especially those who claim to be our friends. Our issue, however, is when these guests, these friends feel that they have a right to teach us, to expose us to that which is as foreign to us, that which is poisonous to us, spiritually, and nationally. They feel it is their duty, as our friends, to teach us that which we have never asked for, nor ever wanted.

Their upbringing and their belief pave their way toward one and one goal only, to make everyone, especially those that they consider their friends, that which is what they are, embrace and adopt that which they believe in. For them there is one way and one way only, their way.

And their way is to share with and educate Jews about “this Jesus that” they “know.” Their vision is to share with us “this passion, this soon coming jubilee [Yovel in Hebrew] in Yeshua HaMessiah.”

AND, THAT IS WHERE WE MUST DRAW THE LINE

Interestingly, during the Crusades, when Christians, directed by their leaders, were busy murdering Jews on the way to fight the Muslims for Jerusalem, one Roman Catholic Bishop   warned that some Jews should be spared because the Second Coming of Christ would be from among the Jews.  He drew a line. And one might ask Christians, were they successful in converting all the Jews so that Judaism would disappear, how would their Jesus come back?

So, that is our question.  Where will we draw the line?   Where and when will we demand respect for us and our traditions and our Torah?  When will our people understand that friendship does not mean having to beg for it, to ingratiate oneself for it or to compromise one’s own standards for it.

DRAW THE LINE.  RESPECT OTHERS WHO RESPECT US.

And that means no missionary activity directed toward Jews.  No telling Jews what Jewish literature that was written for Jews in the Hebrew language “really” means as interpreted by outsiders.

Moreover, Jews wake up.  See things as they are, not just how you want them to be, desperate for approval and friendship. What do you imagine will happen when Christians who so desperately want us Jews to join them are thwarted?  

Look at history.  Learn from it  

That which is Our Own

This article was co-authored by Roger Froikin and Bat-Zion Susskind-Sacks.

“Of course it is ok for non-Jews to adopt and use Jewish symbols and practices,” we hear many Jews say. “Isn’t it great that others find our Torah and its commandments so desirable that they decide to embrace them?” Others ask.

The Torah was given to Am Yisrael and the Jewish People, not to the world.  The Torah instructs Jews to wear a tallit, to use tefillin, to remember and to observe Shabbat. We are instructed to do that because as the Torah says G-d took us, Am Yisrael, not everyone else, out of slavery in Egypt with a “strong hand and an outstretched arm.” Jews alone were given the laws of Kashrut and the Mitzvah to celebrate Jewish holidays in a particularly Jewish way.  These experiences and customs are uniquely Jewish ones. They are related to and are an integral part of our unique Jewish history, the history of Am Yisrael.

Unlike what many Jews are taught nowadays, Judaism is not universal. Though many of the values, morals, lessons, of Torah and of Jewish history, are ones that all peoples can learn and benefit from, Torah, as we mentioned above, was given to the Jewish People. It is the story of the Jewish People, not of the whole world.  Even though various Gentile peoples have adopted what is Jewish, that does not make  G-d’s gift to the Jewish Nation, the Covenant with Am Yisrael, universal. 

After 2000 years of being subject to persecution, exclusion, hate, and all too often confiscations and violence by Christians, for the first time in history, some Gentiles, considering the roots of their own faith, have found an interest in Judaism and Jewish practices. Some because of sheer interest. Many more do it because it is a way, they believe, to understand and be closer to their religious roots.

So today we see some Christian ministers adopting the use of the Talit.  Others try the Kipah.  Some churches for the last several years have held Passover meals with matzah and traditional Jewish readings at their churches. 

We have no problem with Christians having an interest in learning and understanding the Jewish roots of their religion, to the degree that they exist.  It needs to be remembered, however, that Christians do it not to be Jewish or more like Jews, and not to be part of what is Jewish.  For example, when Christian Churches sponsor a Seder for Passover, they do it because Jesus did it and they interpret it through their own religious theology as being Jesus centered.  They do it not because they love the Jewish People or because they want to be like Jews.  They perform these rites for Christian reasons, to identify closer with their theological roots. 

We have no right to tell Christians what to do or what to believe within their theology. 

What we do have a problem with, though, is when Jews see Christians perform customs associated with Judaism and feel “Oh so flattered” and “Oh so happy” about it that they fail to see (or is it refuse to see) the rationale, the motives, behind it.  We do have a problem when Jews blur the differences between Jewish beliefs and Christian beliefs based on the Christian adoption of some Jewish forms and customs and when some Jews claim that we are all the same.

Because we are not. We are not better. We are not worse. We are just different.

To those Jews who are willingly and readily handing out slices of our Jewish heritage indiscriminately, we have this to answer. Will those same Jews allow strangers into their home, let them take, for example, a precious heirloom that has been running in their family for generations and let them walk out with it and declare it as their own? That, in our book, is usurpation! The difference is that when one takes a private possession it is between them and the owner. When one appropriates Jewish practices or symbols, it is between those who take it and Am Yisrael. That includes Jews like us who are unhappy about it. We cringe when we see reverends and pastors wearing talitot, Jewish prayer shawls, in their church services praying to Jesus when we all know that he is not part of Jewish tradition. We are unhappy when we witness a Pesach Seder conducted in a hybrid manner which celebrates the “Last Supper” more than the Exodus from Egypt

As much as we object to it and as much and we disagree with this reality, we cannot and should not try to stop others from taking on Jewish customs and practices while continuing to practice their own non-Jewish faith provided it stops there.

Unfortunately, it does not.

What we see unfolding in front of our eyes is a trend that we consider threatening to the future of our Jewish people. Many of those friends and supporters who adopt our customs and practices feel, much to our dismay, that with their interpretations of their “universal” nature, that they are compelled by their beliefs to spread their “gospel” to the Jews who, they believe, don’t seem to understand their own history or purpose. They then tell us what we should believe. They feel an obligation to educate us about our heritage and our tradition as seen through the lens of their own religious interpretations, in some attempt to define us, all with grave consequences to our future as a People.

Many of those who engage in such activities are charismatic leaders who whilst advocate for us, end up convincing Jewish youth, too often unprepared with a solid Jewish education, nor with any knowledge of the differences between Christianity and Judaism, of their interpretation of Judaism. They teach it through their own ethnic, religious and cultural eyes changing the meaning of the original Jewish values. We end up with Pied Pipers who allegedly came to our rescue but end up influencing a Jewish generation with a very misconstrued idea of what Judaism, Torah, Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael are all about.

The solution is not isolation, nor is it telling Christians what to believe.   Nor is it in suppressing freedom of expression.

The solution is in education of that which is our own. We need Jewish education that is more sophisticated than patterns that seemed sufficient in the 19^th century. We also need to coach and educate young Jews of how the Christian and Muslim see the world in order to ensure proper Jewish continuity. 

May we continue to have a blessed Pesach