August 30, 2012<\/p>\n
BY RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN<\/p>\n
My revered teacher and mentor, Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik, published an essay entitled \u201cConfrontation,\u201d dealing with the subject of Jewish-Christian dialogue; it appeared in the Spring 1964 edition of Tradition, the official journal of the (Orthodox) Rabbinical Council of America.\u00a0 What follows is an analysis of and commentary on my mentor\u2019s masterful study 46 years later, including some noteworthy encounters with Christians over the years, and a discussion of the changes that have occurred in Christian doctrine since 1964. My contention is that Rav Soloveitchik fundamentally permits theological dialogue with Christians, albeit under certain carefully-crafted guidelines, and that, under those guidelines, such dialogue is essential and critical to defending the interests of the Jewish people today.<\/p>\n
Introduction<\/p>\n
Professor David Flusser and a Protestant Nun<\/p>\n
My first involvement in Christian studies took place at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1960-61, when I had the privilege of attending a course on the Greek text of the Gospels given by the renowned Professor David Flusser, the foremost international scholar of the \u201cInter-Testamental\u201d period.\u00a0 A deeply observant Jew, a Talmudic scholar and a historian\u2013theologian of early Christianity, Flusser brought to bear all of the Talmudic parallels to Jesus\u2019 teachings. The course \u2013 which covered most of the gospel according to Matthew in Greek exposed me for the first time to the Jewish life that Jesus led.<\/p>\n
Since the requirement for the course was fluency in ancient Greek, only four students enrolled; an Israeli Egged Bus driver, an autodidact and Greek native whose avocation was the history of religions; a Protestant nun from Bonn, Germany, who was spending the year (as I was) studying in Israel; a 23-year-old monk named Yohanan from Terra Sancta; and me, a Greek major and student of Rav Soloveitchik, newly-graduated from Yeshiva University and planning to return for Semicha (Rabbinical) studies after this Israeli interlude.<\/p>\n
The class met in the Givat Ram campus three times a week in a very large room (Professor Flusser generally lectured to overflow audiences); the three men sat in the front row, opposite Professor Flusser.\u00a0 All the way at the far end of the room \u2013 in splendid isolation, dressed in a gray habit \u2013 sat the Protestant nun.\u00a0 Although we were often engaged in lively discussion over the proper interpretation of a text, she never joined in.\u00a0 The only time she spoke was after class, privately, directly to the professor.<\/p>\n
On the last day of the term, the nun approached me shyly with a question; she understood that I was a rabbinical student and wondered if I could direct her to a program leading to conversion to Judaism.<\/p>\n
When I asked why she was interested in conversion, she explained that she had been taught at her seminary that because the Jews had rejected Jesus as the Messiah, they were doomed to wander stateless throughout the world.\u00a0 Once she realized that that God had fulfilled His divine promise to us and that we had indeed returned to our ancient homeland, she questioned her previous theology and began exploring the \u201cOld Testament\u201d assiduously.\u00a0 Her friendship with a young religious woman had introduced her to the lifestyle of Sabbath and Festival observance, and that had confirmed her decision to become Jewish.<\/p>\n
Coincidentally, I had been studying Talmud privately that year with an older and very respected prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Rav Soloveitchik \u2013 Rav Zev Guthold.\u00a0 Rav Guthold\u2019s official position in Israel was \u201cMegayer HaMedinah,\u201d the one responsible for all conversions in the Jewish State.\u00a0 I introduced my classmate to Rav Guthold with a warm endorsement.<\/p>\n
About three years later, my wife and I came to Israel for the summer.\u00a0 Rav Guthold told me that this nun had indeed converted, married a \u201cRav Arele\u201d hassid, and dressed almost identically to the way she had dressed when I had known her in her former identity. She now had one baby and was pregnant with a second.\u00a0 \u201cMy husband and I agree on almost everything except for one issue,\u201d she told me when we finally got together. \u201cI am a religious Zionist.\u201d My encounter with this former nun made me aware of two things: the significance of the re-born State of Israel in the revision of what had been accepted Christian doctrine, as well as how seamlessly a deeply religious and modest Christian can adapt into a Hassidic religious life-style.<\/p>\n
Brother Yohanan, Birkat Kohanim, and Christian Persecution<\/p>\n
I also got to spend time with Brother Yohanan.\u00a0 We were almost the same age, so we naturally became friends and spent every Saturday evening together at the movies.\u00a0 I shared with him a lot of my thoughts and dreams, including my desire to participate in Birkat Kohanim at the Kotel (which in 1961 was closed to Jews).\u00a0 One night, he said to me, \u201cI have looked into the matter and I am sure that I can arrange to fulfill your dream.\u201d\u00a0 I asked him what I had to do and he told me that it was simply a matter of completing a form.\u00a0 \u201cMeet me at the Garden of Terra Sancta and bring your American passport\u201d, he said.\u00a0 \u201cThen I\u2019ll be able to admit you as a Passover pilgrim, you will be able to pray at the Western Wall, and if you can find a quorum of Jews, you can recite the priestly blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
I was very excited, I met him as arranged and he gave me the form to fill out which I did with alacrity.\u00a0 It asked some standard questions about my identity which I readily filled out, but at the end of the form the last line read, \u201cI hereby attest to the fact I am a believing Christian.\u201d\u00a0 I could not possibly sign that; the pen almost fell from my hand.\u00a0 He looked crestfallen. \u201cWhy not?\u201d he asked. \u201cThey are not going to ask you to baptize yourself.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t really mean anything.\u00a0 Just sign it and then you will be able to visit the Western Wall.\u201d\u00a0 At that moment, I was overwhelmed by thoughts of all the massacres against the Jewish people perpetuated in the name of the founder of Christianity: the auto de f\u00e9, the deicide charges, the pogroms on Easter and Christmas.\u00a0 There were tears pouring down my cheeks.\u00a0 I screamed at him, \u201cWe can\u2019t even learn Torah on Christmas eve,\u201d nittel nacht (the night of the birth) was the night of pogroms, when it was forbidden for Jews to enter the Beit Midrash, the study hall which housed the communities\u2019 sacred Jewish texts.\u00a0 Were the Jews to have gathered to study that evening as they did every other evening, an entire community of men could be destroyed by simply torching the study hall.<\/p>\n
He looked at me with absolute horror.\u00a0 \u201cThen we can\u2019t be friends anymore, because you hate me.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t hate you at all,\u201d I protested.\u00a0 He insisted: \u201cBut you hate my god.\u201d\u00a0 No, I said, \u201cWe learned about Jesus together with Professor Flusser.\u00a0 I don\u2019t hate your god, who was a religious Jew.\u00a0 I hate what your religion made of your god, in whose name millions of my people were murdered.\u201d\u00a0 He walked away from me, bitterly calling out: \u201cIf you hate my religion, then you hate me.\u00a0 We can no longer be friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a difficult but sobering moment and from that conversation on, we never spoke again \u2013 although we continued to attend Professor Flusser\u2019s classes together.<\/p>\n
Missionaries in Efrat: We Must Take Strong Measures to Prevent Fraudulent Attempts to Convert Jews to Christianity<\/p>\n
In the late 1980\u2019s, the Jewish Agency arranged for 72 families from the Former Soviet Union to come and make their homes in Efrat.\u00a0 Some Messianic Christians missionaries heard about our new arrivals and thought that these people would be easy prey. The missionaries placed copies of the Tanach \u2013 the 24 books of the Bible \u2013 together with the New Testament in Hebrew and Russian in every mailbox in Efrat; the \u201cJewish\u201d and Christian Testaments were bound together in one bind, so that the unsuspecting Russian Jews would think they were a single sacred text, with the Gospel as part of the Jewish Bible.\u00a0 The text was published in Hebrew on one side, Russian on the other.<\/p>\n
As soon as I heard what had happened, I sent a letter to all the residents of Efrat, instructing them to publicly burn the entire Bible together with the Gospels.\u00a0 This was because the Talmud teaches that a Sefer Torah, (Bible Scroll) which was written by a Jewish heretic or someone who is attempting to cause a Jew to renounce his religion (and anyone who accepts Jesus as a Divinity and\/or the Messiah has ipso facto renounced his privileges as a Jew) has to be burned (See Rambam Hilchot Yesodei Hatorah 6:8).<\/p>\n
I have the utmost respect for the Gospels as the sacred literature of the Christians; however, when the two testaments are joined together and sent to unsuspecting Jews in order to convert them, I felt I had to take a stand so strong as to disallow any credence to connecting the Gospels to the Jewish Bible, and in a manner which would leave no room for compromise or misunderstanding.<\/p>\n
Intimations of Change Within the Church<\/p>\n
Most Welcome Christian Visitors Arrive<\/p>\n
When the second Intifada (Palestinian uprising) began, tourism to Israel came to a standstill.\u00a0 Especially Efrat, which is technically beyond the \u201cGreen Line,\u201d felt the isolation, even from friends and relatives. I then received a call from a woman who introduced herself as Schwester Marta, who asked if she could bring a busload of tourists from Germany to visit.\u00a0 Needless to say, I made an appointment to meet their bus at our parking lot the next day at 1:00 pm.<\/p>\n
Nothing could have prepared me for the miraculous sight that greeted my eyes the following afternoon.\u00a0 Forty Protestant\u00a0 nuns, garbed in gray habits, descended from their tour bus, holding aloft Israeli flags and accompanying me to my office in Efrat, singing in Hebrew \u201cNahamu Nahamu Ami,\u201d \u2018Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,\u2019 a verse from the Prophet Isaiah.\u00a0 Hundreds of our students streamed out of our high schools to watch this stirring spectacle.\u00a0 Schwester Marta presented us with a textured tapestry of Jerusalem, featuring the verse from Psalms, \u201cFor the Sake of Jerusalem I dare not be silent.\u201d\u00a0 She then said \u2013 impromptu, \u201cWe want you to know that we have a special love for the Jewish people.\u00a0 We want to invite you to see our kibbutz in Darmstadt, Germany, called New Canaan.\u00a0 New Canaan also has a community of houses which we would like you to dedicate.\u201d\u00a0 The nuns then led the entire assemblage in the singing of the Hatikvah national anthem, and took their leave.<\/p>\n
I felt truly comforted by this experience, as if these nuns had given me the courage and faith to continue defending Efrat from Palestinian suicide bombers and drive-by shootings.\u00a0 I decided then and there then when I next visited our eleven rabbinic emissaries serving pulpits across Germany, I would investigate New Canaan.<\/p>\n
What I found was a sweetly calm and laid-back verdant diamond, a perfectly tailored and beautifully appointed \u201ckibbutz\u201d with large and colorful farming areas for fruits, vegetables and flowers.\u00a0 Upon entering, we first came upon an artificial stream with the words \u201cRiver Jordan\u201d announcing its namesake, and then 12 stones set in a row, each inscribed with the name of one of the 12 tribes of Israel.\u00a0 In the distance were clusters of home communes, modest but tasteful houses, in which the 140 nuns and 60 monks who comprised the village-kibbutz lived, and from where they raised and exported their produce, with all profits going to support hesed (lovingkindness) projects in Israel.\u00a0 One community of homes sported a sign which read Beth El, another Shiloh, a third Kiryat Arba, the largest Jerusalem-and then I came upon Efrat.<\/p>\n
When I rose to \u201cdedicate\u201d Efrat, I quoted the verses from Isaiah (53) describing the travail of the suffering servant, who suffers for the sins of the world. \u201cWhereas you believe that this text refers to the founder of Christianity, our major commentaries believe that it refers to the Jewish people entire (historic Israel); the scapegoat of the world, cast off of the craggy mountain peaks into the crematoria of Auschwitz and Treblinka.\u00a0 We must teach the world the morality of the Ten Commandments, we must hold aloft the banner of a God of love, morality and peace.\u00a0 We must prevent a worldwide Jihad of suicide bombers.\u00a0 And if we work and teach together, perhaps we will bring all the children of Abraham back to their father and to our Parent-in-Heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n
As she accompanied me to my car, I asked the Schwester to explain the origin of New Canaan.\u00a0 \u201cWe were seven religious girlfriends, all of whose fathers had served in Hitler\u2019s Wehrmacht.\u00a0 We made a pact together to create New Canaan as a penance for our fathers\u2019 sins.\u201d\u00a0 She then led us all in Hatikvah.\u00a0 As I travelled back to Israel, I felt that I had never before seen such an expression of repentance, a total re-dedication of life to atone for the sins of one\u2019s parents.<\/p>\n
Israel Faces Fanatic Moslem Foes and Christian Religious Friends<\/p>\n
More and more Christians kept coming to Efrat, expressing love and support for the Jewish State of Israel emphasizing our common heritage of the 24 Books of the Bible and seeking ways to help us socially and politically.\u00a0 I began to understand how crucial their newfound friendship was, given an international climate in which not only the Arab bloc, but also the European Union, the former CIS, more and more South American countries and indeed the United Nations as the \u201cpeacekeeping\u201d force in the world, were questioning our legitimacy as a nation. They were condemning us left and right for protecting ourselves against Hamas rockets which were being hurled at our civilians and students (even within the \u201cGreen\u201d Line).<\/p>\n
And political ties with the Christians assumes even greater significance if one accepts the thesis of Harvard\u2019s Professor Samuel P. Huntington, in his masterful work \u201cClash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order.\u201d\u00a0 Radical Islam is spreading its suicide-bombing terrorist tentacles throughout the globe, from Afghanistan to Indonesia to Pakistan to Lebanon to Chechnya to London to New York, creating an Iran-Al Quaeda-Syrian-Hamas-Hezbollah axis of fanatic Jihadism which threatens the entire free world.\u00a0 This present World War, in which the Israeli-Palestinian clashes are only small change, is primarily a religious war, in which Allah-turned-Satan by Wahhabi Islam is poised to overtake the God of love, compassion, morality and peace of the Judeo-Christian tradition.\u00a0 Since we are fewer than 13 million Jews worldwide, our forging an alliance with almost two billion Christians is not only politically clever, but becomes a crucial, planet-saving necessity.<\/p>\n
But before I could embark on any kind of alliance with the Christian world, I had to entertain the possibility \u2013 given the past 2000-year-long history of Christian enmity against, and persecution and forced conversion of, the Jews \u2013 that our Christian friends were really wolves in sheep\u2019s clothing, that they were now embracing us only in order to convert us.<\/p>\n
The Catholic Church Reaches Out<\/p>\n
I quickly learned that as early as the 1960\u2019s, the Second Vatican Council embarked on a process of \u201caggiornamento\u201d \u2013 the \u201cupdating\u201d of Catholic doctrine, including a post-Holocaust and post-Jewish State new look at the Catholic attitudes towards Jews and Judaism.\u00a0 (For much of what is to follow in this regard, I am deeply indebted to my colleague and partner Rabbi Dr. Eugene Korn, and his essay \u201cThe Man of Faith and Religious Dialogue: Reviewing \u2018Confrontation\u2019 After Forty Years,\u201d Modern Judaism,Volume 25, Edition 3).<\/p>\n
It was within this context that at the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church under Pope Paul VI issued its landmark document \u201cNostra Aetate\u201d (\u201cIn Our Time\u201d) in October 1965, (almost two years after Rav J. B. Soloveitchik\u2019s \u201cConfrontation\u201d).<\/p>\n
Does this third point mean that the official Catholic Church now views Judaism for Jews as being just as salvific (\u201csaving\u201d) as is Christianity for Christians?\u00a0 A number of American Catholic theologians maintained that it does, in a paper they published entitled \u201cReflections on Covenant and Mission\u201d (August 12, 2002, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops), and they therefore maintain that targeting Jews for conversion to the Church is no longer acceptable Catholic theology.\u00a0 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (the present Pope Benedict), however, doesn\u2019t go so far; he insists that Christianity is the highest expression of God\u2019s revelation (Many Religions, One Covenant, Ignatius, San Francisco, 1999, pp. 70-71).\u00a0 But he also maintains that the conversion of the Jews \u201cis hardly possible within our historical time and perhaps not even desirable\u201d (ibid p. 109).\u00a0 In Dr. Korn\u2019s words, he is an \u201ceschatological supersessionalist.\u201d\u00a0 (I cannot find fault with this position, since I believe that Maimonides teaches in his Laws of Kings 12,1 that in the eschaton, \u201call of humanity will return to the true religion\u201d \u2013 that is, to Judaism, in accordance with the statement of R. Shimon ben Elazar in the Babylonian Talmud (Berachot 57b) and the words of the prophet Zephaniah (3:9).\u00a0 As long as we can respect each other in the fullness of our respective faith commitments without feeling beholden to convert the other, I can well appreciate the faith of each that he has the more perfect revelation, as will be proven by who converts to whom in the eschaton. This is also the position of R. Soloveitchik, as I later explain in this paper.<\/p>\n
It was clear to me that such profound theological changes could only have emerged from two realizations on the part of honest officials within the Catholic hierarchy:<\/p>\n
The Evangelicals: A Meeting with Pastor Hagee<\/p>\n
The large numbers of Christians who were visiting Efrat \u2013 and especially those who were truly interested in studying \u2013 were mostly Evangelical Christians.\u00a0 I had become quite friendly with the charismatic Pastor Robert Stearns, who brought groups of Evangelicals of all ages who wanted to hear our Biblical interpretations, who wanted to study Talmud, who wanted to study about the Sabbath and the Festivals.\u00a0 I understood that their intention was not conversion to Judaism; they merely wanted to live their lives more and more the way Jesus had lived his life!\u00a0 Having lived in America, they were never part of the Christian European anti-Semitism; they also loved to study the \u201cOld Testament,\u201d which gave them a natural affinity for Jews and for the Land of Israel.<\/p>\n
I felt instinctively the sincerity of their friendship \u2013 and it was mainly to satisfy their thirst for learning about Judaism, the Sabbath and the Festivals and their desire to strengthen their ties to us, to the Land of Israel, and to our right to our homeland \u2013 that I began to consider opening a Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation in Efrat.\u00a0 I received strong encouragement from Malcolm Hoenlein, a good friend and the Executive Vice President of Conference of Major American Jewish Organizations, as well as from leaders of AIPAC. I understood that an Orthodox rabbi \u2013 who accepted the divinity of the 24 books of the Bible \u2013 would be taken most seriously by the Evangelicals who share the same belief, and I had heard that, according to one study, Evangelicals comprise 35% of the American voting public.<\/p>\n
At about this time, I visited San Antonio, Texas where one of our young rabbinical emissaries had just been appointed Assistant Rabbi to Rav Aryeh Scheinberg. Rabbi Scheinberg is a beloved friend of long standing and a most respected colleague, who is known as Pastor John Hagee\u2019s \u201crabbi.\u201d\u00a0 Rav Scheinberg suggested that I meet this most influential pastor of the Evangelical world, which I was most anxious to do.<\/p>\n
Pastor Hagee is a most impressive man with a clear, deep, articulate voice and a warm and embracing manner.\u00a0 He looked at me intently and said, \u201cRabbi, I love the Jewish people; Rabbi, I love you, Rabbi.\u201d<\/p>\n
The truth is that this extraordinary Christian leader puts his money where his mouth is; he dedicates much of his life to raising millions of dollars each year, which he distributes to help important social welfare and educational institutions throughout Israel.\u00a0 He really demonstrates the love he feels.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, since I was just at the cusp of announcing the opening of our Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation, I had to ask my question:\u00a0 \u201cTell me the truth, Pastor Hagee, do you love us because you want to convert us?\u00a0 Do you love us to death?\u201d\u00a0 He flashed one of his signature smiles, amused by the hutzpah, or naivete of my question.\u00a0 \u201cNo, Rabbi, I don\u2019t love you because I want to convert you; but neither do I love you purely out of altruistic consideration.\u00a0 I love you because of Genesis 12:3, where the Bible records that \u2018God said to Abraham, \u2018I will bless those who bless you, and those who curse you I shall curse.\u2019\u00a0 Rabbi, I want to be blessed, not cursed!\u201d<\/p>\n
Pastor Hagee has a ministry which is measured in millions; he is undoubtedly the most successful pastor in our generation.\u00a0 Rabbi Scheinberg reported to me that during the 49 years he has lived in San Antonio, Pastor Hagee had not tried to convert even one Jew to Christianity.\u00a0 Given the overwhelming charisma of Pastor Hagee, this can only be because he truly does not believe that Jews must be converted to Christianity.<\/p>\n
So I established the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation, in order to forge a political alliance against fundamentalist and radical Islamism and in order to forge a moral-ethical alliance against radical and materialistic secularism.\u00a0 We must convey our mutual belief in a God of love, compassion and morality, the kind of absolute morality which would never refer to suicide bombers who murder innocent women and children as freedom fighters!\u00a0 I also felt humbled in the presence of a Christian who had such complete faith in the Divine words of our Holy Bible.<\/p>\n
Getting Into the Nitty-Gritty of the Issue<\/p>\n
Are We Permitted \u2013 or Perhaps Even Mandated \u2013 to Teach Torah to Christians?<\/p>\n
Large numbers of Christians continued to come to our Center; they were, however, less interested in discussing politics or even in Israel\u2019s right to a Jewish State (which they took as a given, since the Land of Israel was promised \u2013 even guaranteed \u2013 to the Jewish people by the Creator of the heavens and earth Himself), and more interested in learning Torah: the Written Law, chiefly the Pentateuch (the Chumash \u2013 Five Books of Moses) in accordance with traditional Jewish commentaries, and the Oral Law, the Talmudic Pharisaic Tradition that Jesus also studied.\u00a0 Hence, I had to face a fundamental question:\u00a0 Are Jews permitted to teach Torah to Christians?<\/p>\n
The great legalist-philosopher-decisor Maimonides (11th Century) rules in one of his responsa (1:149, Blau edition) that \u201cit is permissible to teach the Torah and Commandments to the Christians and draw them close to our faith.\u201d This is very much in line with the Seforno (1475-1550) in his commentary to God\u2019s exhortation (preceding the Revelation of the Decalogue) that Israel be a \u201ckingdom of priest-teachers and a holy nation\u201d (Ex 19:6), that \u201cas a result of this teaching function, you will be a treasure for all (of the nations); you (all of Israel) will be a kingdom of priest-teachers to bring understanding and instruction in Torah to all of humanity, \u2018to call out to everyone in the name of God so that everyone will be enabled to serve God with one accord\u2019 (Zephaniah 3:9). As it is said (in Scripture), \u2018and you (Israel) shall be called the priest-teachers of the Lord (Isaiah 61:6),\u2019 and as it is said, \u2018From Zion shall go forth Torah,\u2019 (ibid 2:3).<\/p>\n
Maimonides speaks in perfectly consistent tones regarding the Jewish obligation to teach Torah to the world in his \u201cBook of the Commandments\u201d (Sefer HaMitzvot), Positive Commandment 3.\u00a0 Here, in analyzing the command to \u201clove the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and all your might,\u201d Maimonides equates \u201cloving\u201d God with \u201cknowing\u201d God; we achieve the performance of this commandment by \u201cdelving deeply and becoming knowledgeable in God\u2019s commandments and deeds (the two revelations of Torah and Creation, the commandments and the sciences; he may also be including philosophy, which is allied to physics and cosmogony, as well as history)\u00a0 so that we may come to know Him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maimonides then adds a most crucial addendum as part and parcel of this commandment to love \u2013 or know \u2013 God:\u00a0 \u201cThis commandment also includes seeking out and calling every human being to the service of God (avodat Hashem), may He be\u00a0 blessed, and to believe in Him\u2026 For when one truly loves (knows) God \u2013 to whatever the extent that it is possible for one to grasp Divine truth \u2013 one will undoubtedly seek out and summon the deniers and fools to the true understanding which one has achieved.<\/p>\n
In the language of the Sifrei,\u00a0 \u2018You shall love the Lord your God\u2019 means \u2018make God beloved to every human being in the world as did your father Abraham,\u2019 as it is written, \u2018the Souls whom they made in Haran\u2019 \u2026in accord with the greatness of (Abraham\u2019s) love did he seek out people for the faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
How Much of the Torah do We Teach<\/p>\n
At this point in our discussion, the reader may be a bit perplexed. Is Maimonides declaring Judaism to be a missionizing religion, with an obligation upon every Jew to bear witness to the world regarding the 613 commandments? This would certainly go against conventional wisdom. Maimonides does definitively rule that Jews are obligated to teach \u2013 and even coerce \u2013 Gentiles into accepting the Seven Noahide laws of morality: not murdering, not stealing, not committing sexual immorality, not eating the limb of a living animal, not worshipping idols, not blaspheming God, and establishing courts to enforce the first six laws (Laws of Kings 8,10). This is in line with God\u2019s election of Abraham, \u201cin order that he instruct his household after him to observe the ways of the Lord by doing acts of compassionate righteousness and moral justice\u201d (Gen 18:18,19), as well as the divine charge to the first Hebrew and the \u201cfather of a multitude of nations\u201d that \u201cthrough you shall be blessed all the families of the earth\u201d (Gen. 12:3). According to at least one view of the Talmud, these laws of morality are sufficient to gain for the gentiles a share in the world to come, and are certainly necessary to secure a world without bloodshed that would not destroy itself if universally accepted.<\/p>\n
From these sources it should be indubitably clear that if we are to teach the Christians the commandments (at least the seven commandments of Noahide morality, and perhaps all the commandments of compassionate righteousness and moral justice) as well as a deeper understanding of God (remember, the Noahide laws do not include faith in God, and Maimonides derives outreach to the gentiles from the command to \u201cknow and love God\u201d),\u00a0 how can we not be speaking to the Christians in theological terms? After all, when one teaches, one must always listen to one\u2019s students, and learn from their responses. Theology means the study of God.\u00a0 Making God known and beloved to the gentile world is all about theological dialogue!<\/p>\n
And even in terms of the nature of the corpus of commandments that we are permitted and even encouraged to share with the Christian world, it is clear that Maimonides goes beyond the seven Noahide laws.\u00a0 To be sure, we have already said that the positive and obligatory command for us to \u201cmissionize\u201d and even coerce gentile acceptance of these laws refers only to the seven Noahide laws, which are necessary for a civilized society and a world of peace.<\/p>\n
However, we have already seen how, in his Sefer Ha-mitzvot (Positive Commandment 3), Maimonides advocates spreading knowledge of God by means of spreading the \u201cCommandments\u201d \u2013 not merely the seven Noahide laws.\u00a0 In his responsum permitting teaching Torah to Christians (ibid 1:149), he again speaks of teaching the commandments, and \u201cthus drawing them closer to our faith (dateinu),\u201d going on to write \u201c\u2026and perhaps, \u201cyah\u2019zeru l\u2019mutav,\u201d they will return to the best path (ibid).\u00a0 And so, in the last chapter of his Mishnah Torah, in speaking of the Messianic Age in the eschaton, Maimonides says, \u201ceveryone will return to the true religion\u201d (dat ha\u2019emet \u2013 Kings 12,1), adding \u201cthey (the gentiles) will neither rob nor destroy; rather they will eat permitted foods in peace and quiet together with (or like) the Israelites\u201d \u2013 which, to me, implies that they will keep our laws of kashrut, but probably within a vegetarian context.\u00a0 Moreover, within his \u201cGuide to the Perplexed,\u201d Maimonides refers to the Sabbath on which \u2013 in the eschaton \u2013 all humanity will rest; \u201ctherefore we are told in the law to honor this (Sabbath) day \u2013 in order to confirm thereby the principle of Creation that will spread in the world when all people keep the Sabbath on the same day\u201d (Guide 11:31).<\/p>\n
In sum, Maimonides would maintain that the gentiles need not convert, but that it is salutary to expose them to the Torah commandments and \u2013 in the eschaton \u2013 they will convert or at least come to acceptance of many of the commandments, more than the seven Noahide laws[1].<\/p>\n
__________________________________<\/p>\n
[1] See the difference of opinion between Menahem Kellner (that the gentiles will convert to Judaism in the eschaton) and Chaim Rapaport (the Gentiles will accept only the Noahide laws) in Meorot 7:1, Tishrei 5769, and Gerald Blidstein (\u201cPolitical Concepts in Maimonidean Halakha,\u201d Bar Ilan University, 1983, p.98 n.27 and p.227), who ends up somewhere in between, as I do.\u00a0 The reader will also note that in his responsum 1:149 (Blau edition), Maimonides only permits the teaching to Torah to Christians but NOT to Moslems, who do not accept the validity of the Bible and will therefore use our teachings against Judaism and against the Jews. However, Rav Chaim David HaLevi (\u201cAsei Lecha Rav\u201d part 7,48) the former Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, also permits teaching Torah to Moslems, since the only time we prohibit Torah study at all to gentiles is before they accept the Noahide laws, and Moslems are monotheists.\u00a0 Indeed, Maimonides himself contrasts a gentile who does not yet keep the seven Noahide laws \u2013 and who may neither be occupied in the other commandments of the Torah nor may he rest on the Sabbath \u2013 with the children of Noah, who may keep all of the rest of the commandments, and if he is occupied in Torah, he may be compared to a High Priest (see the contrast in B.T. Sanhedrin 49, Avodah Zarah 3).\u00a0 A Child of Noah receives reward for any additional commandment he performs,\u00a0 he may bring whole burnt offerings to the Temple, and his charitable gifts are to be gratefully and distributed among the poor of Israel (Laws of Kings 10:10).<\/p>\n
And so the Mechilta De R\u2019Yishmael (in its introduction to the giving of the Torah, in Parashat Yitro) asserts: \u201cThe Torah was given in an open-spaced no-man\u2019s land (desert,parousia) because, had it been given in the land of Israel, the Israelites would say to the nations of the world: \u2018You have no share in it.\u2019\u00a0 But the Torah was given in the free-to-all desert, so that anyone in the world who wishes to accept it may come and accept it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finally, although Maimonides considered Christianity to be idolatry (unlike the overwhelming majority of Middle-Age decisors who did not believe Christianity to be idolatry for the Christians) \u2013 he \u2013 nevertheless highly respected the influence of Christianity to spread major positive concepts of Jewish ideals to the farthest recesses of the globe:<\/p>\n
“It is beyond the human mind to fathom the designs of the Creator, for our ways are not His ways, and neither are our thoughts His thoughts.\u00a0 All these matters relating to Jesus of Nazareth and the Ishmaelite (Mohammed) who came after him only served to pave the way for King Messiah, and to prepare the entire world to worship God together as one, as it is written, ‘For then will I turn to the peoples a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve Him with one accord’ (Zephaniah 3:9).\u00a0 Thus the Messianic hope, the Torah and the Commandments have become familiar topics of conversation among inhabitants of the far isles and (were brought) to many peoples uncircumcised of heart and flesh\u2026” (Laws of Kings, XI:4, unexpurgated version of Rav Kapah).<\/p>\n
These words of the greatest philosopher and halakhic authority in Jewish history after Moses can only serve to underscore the importance of dialogue with the Christians and conveying the theological truths about God, Torah and the Messianic Age which must (and will eventually be) accepted by a receptive world.<\/p>\n
Hence it is indubitably clear that we may teach Torah to the gentiles \u2013 the seven Noahide Laws as compulsory, and as much of the rest of it that they would wish to learn. And that is precisely what our Center for Jewish Christian Understanding and Cooperation does: we teach the Hebraic roots of Christianity, the basic lessons of our Written and Oral Torah as studied and practiced by Jesus.<\/p>\n
It goes without saying that a great part of Torah is predicated upon the Land of Israel, from the commandments of proper tithing and the Sabbatical year which are rooted in the produce from the soil of the Holy Land to the great Jewish leaders from Abraham to Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, zt\u201dl, whose physical remains have been fused with the eternity of the soil of the homeland of historic Israel (Knesset Yisrael).\u00a0 Any honest study of \/Torah must serve to strengthen the bond between Israel and its land in the eyes and hearts of all who learn it \u2013 and teaching the Christians goes a long way in strengthening their commitment to Israel as a Jewish State.<\/p>\n
One of the Center\u2019s earliest experiences clearly demonstrates this point; in 2009, 24 Evangelical pastors came to our center for one week on a mission to study the Hebraic roots of Christianity through the sacred texts of our holy books and tours of our holy land. (As it turned out, they were snowed in for two days, so the hours of text study overpowered the hours of tour study.)\u00a0 The result was 24 CUFI (Christians United for Israel) evenings which took place in 24 churches on the Eastern seaboard of the United States \u2013 all dedicated to celebrating the State of Israel as a model for emulation and raising funds to help the indigent in Israel.<\/p>\n
Rav Soloveitchik\u2019s \u201cConfrontation\u201d<\/p>\n
Background and Overview<\/p>\n
My revered teacher and mentor, Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik, published a groundbreaking essay on Christian-Jewish dialogue in the journal Tradition, a publication of the Rabbinical Council of America, in the Spring-Summer edition of 1964, one-and-a-half years before the Second Vatican Council ratified Nostra Aetate in October 1965 (The essay was penned at least two years before).<\/p>\n
This was at a time when the Catholic Church was rethinking its relationship to the Jews (in the wake of the Holocaust as well as the unexpected and unprecedented, phoenix-like rebirth of the Jewish State of Israel) and was beginning to cultivate Catholic-Jewish inter-religious dialogue within this context of \u201caggiornamento\u201d \u2013 the updating of doctrine.\u00a0 Rav Soloveitchik was legitimately concerned, lest such dialogue at this early and delicate stage lead to Jewish recapitulation on fundamental Jewish truths, which would obviously be disastrous.\u00a0 It was to this end that the \u201cthe Rav,\u201d the internationally renowned halakhic and theological leader of Yeshiva University style Orthodox Jewry \u2013 the Lubavitcher Rebbe called him \u201clamdan ha\u2019dor,\u201d the greatest Talmudic scholar of the generation \u2013 penned his far-reaching and penetrating essay, \u201cConfrontation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The essay begins and ends with biblical exegeses, opening with a masterful commentary on the Biblical chapters on Creation and their ramifications for understanding the human existential mission and predicament, and concluding with the confrontation between Jacob and Esau after the patriarch leaves Laban and is returning to his ancestral home; obviously, Jacob represents Israel and Esau is the Midrashic symbol for Rome and the Vatican.\u00a0 The major piece of this theological tour de force is dedicated to Israel\u2019s relationship towards or confrontation with the world \u2013 and the concomitant obligations this engenders \u2013 as well as Israel\u2019s confrontation with its religious faith counterpart, Christianity, and to what extent dialogue in that setting is desirable, or even possible.<\/p>\n
Contrary to what many Orthodox rabbis have maintained, \u201cConfrontation\u201d should not be seen as a cut and dried halakhic responsum permitting Jewish-Christian dialogue on \u201cuniversal problems,\u201d which are \u201ceconomic, social, scientific and ethical,\u201d but categorically forbidding dialogue in areas of \u201cfaith, religious law, doctrine and ritual\u201d (Rabbinical Council of America, Mid-Winter Conference, February, 1966). Were that the case, Rabbi Soloveitchik would have written just such a precise halakhic responsum setting down these guidelines replete with Talmudic citations and halakhic precedents, rather than the highly nuanced, theologically rich, and dialectically infused \u201cConfrontation.\u201d Moreover, the very RCA statement of 1966 forbidding discussions of \u201cfaith and religious law\u201d concludes, \u201cTo repeat, we are ready to discuss universal religious problems. We will resist any attempt to debate our private, individual faith commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Apparently, how to define \u201creligious\u201d issues is neither simple nor clear-cut. In fact, Rav Soloveitchik defined his philosophical school of thought as that of an \u201cHalakhicExistentialist\u201d \u2013 committed to the proposition that halakha deals with the most fundamental existential problems of humanity! Rav Soloveitchik himself often cited in his writings Christian theologians such as Soren Kierkegaard, Karl Barth and Rudolf Otto (See, for example, the beginnings of \u201cHalakhic Man\u201d) and the first reading that he gave of his \u201cLonely Man of Faith\u201d essay prior to its publication took place at an Inter-faith Seminar (sic) at St. John\u2019s Seminary in Brighton, Mass. (See Korn, \u201cThe Man of Faith and Religious Dialogue,\u201d Note 8).<\/p>\n
Perhaps, what the RCA was really saying in its 1966 statement was that \u201cwe resist any attempt to debate our private faith commitment,\u201d whereas \u201cdiscussion (or dialogue) of universal religious problems\u201d is perfectly permissible. Perhaps,\u00a0 much more in line with the Rav\u2019s thought is the statement adopted by the RCA [and probably written by R. Soloveitchik himself] at its Mid-Winter Conference in Feb \u201964, which is appended to the \u201cConfrontation\u201d article in Tradition \u201964 and calls for a \u201charmonious relationship among all faiths\u201d in order to combat the \u201cthreat of secularism and materialism and the modern atheistic negation of religion and religious values.\u201d Combating the negation of religion requires, at the very least, basic theological discourse defining \u201creligious\u201d values.<\/p>\n
Indeed, I believe that a careful reading of \u201cConfrontation\u201d will more than justify the salutary benefits of religious dialogue today, albeit in accordance with the very specific guidelines and limitations expressed by the Rav and to which we at the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation (CJCUC) carefully adhere.<\/p>\n
Let us explore together the Rav\u2019s \u201cConfrontation,\u201d utilizing as much as possible his own words, to attempt to fully understand his position.<\/p>\n
Adam in the Garden of Eden; Non-Confronted vs. Confronted Man<\/p>\n
Rav Soloveitchik typologically explains the initial biblical description of man as \u201cnatural man,\u201d who sees himself as part and parcel of the natural world around him, non-confronted by it and bearing no responsibility towards it. \u201cAnd the Lord God planted a garden in Eden eastwards, and he put there the man whom He had formed\u201d \u2013 in the midst of all of the alluring and seductive vegetation all around (2:8,9). Natural man is egocentric and hedonistic, driven only by instinctive pleasures, devoid of individuation and self awareness. In short: non-confronted man.<\/p>\n
Six verses later we see the emergence of a different man, a confronting and confronted man, who looks at the world, understands his power over it and his responsibilities towards it, and who accepts a commanding God setting limits to his conquests: \u201cAnd the Lord God took the man and He placed him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to preserve it \u2026 and the Lord God commanded the man, saying\u2026\u201d (2:15,16). Man has a kerygma, a mission, to perfect and preserve the world, to attempt to subdue the other, lesser creatures roundabout, and to agree to submit to \u2013 and be subdued by \u2013 the Creator of the Universe. He says \u2013 and lives \u2013 \u201cI am responsible, therefore I am.\u201d Confronted and confronting man has now emerged.<\/p>\n
Confronting and confronted man is filled with self-awareness; he recognizes his position in the universe as unique (because he can control and conquer) and tragic (because he, too, will be subject to conquest by evil and by death), and he is beset by profound and debilitating loneliness (\u201cIt is not good for the human to be alone,\u201d Gen.2:18). And so, in addition to the universe, he confronts Eve, his life-partner, with whom he can establish a community by means of verbal communication \u2013 or dialogue (ibid 2:23) \u2013 a counterpart with whom to confront the world.<\/p>\n
Words, however, are a double edged sword; they express \u201cwhat is common in two existences,\u201d the similarities between two individuals joining their lives and destinies, but also the \u201csingularity and uniqueness of each existence,\u201d what is separate and distinct for each one respectively. And of course the wages of sin are felt when the one attempts to control and subdue the other (ibid, 3:16: \u201cHe shall rule over her\u201d).<\/p>\n
From this paradigm, it is clear which confrontation is positive, salutary, even redemptive.\u00a0 And so, Rav Soloveitchik goes on to write that Jews engage in a double confrontation, with the Universe as well as with God, through our Covenant as Jews. And while \u201cwesternized\u201d Jews may think that it is impossible to engage in both the universal and the covenantal confrontations \u2013 they may think that that they are mutually exclusive, that concern for world obviates and even drowns out the concern for a unique and separate covenantal identity \u2013 the very opposite is the truth.<\/p>\n
Indeed, it is the covenantal confrontation which defines and directs our national kerygma (mission) towards the universal and the universe: \u201cThrough you shall be blessed all the families of the earth,\u201d was God\u2019s charge to Abraham. \u201cBut only in this (not in wisdom or strength or wealth) shall be praised the one who is to be praised: be intelligent, and come to know (understand) Me, that I am the Lord who does (acts) of lovingkindness, moral justice and compassionate righteousness on earth (the whole of the earth), for in these do I delight, says God,\u201d was Jeremiah\u2019s message to the Israelites, as well as the citation with which Maimonides concludes his final magnum opus, \u201cThe Guide to the Perplexed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moreover, continues the Rav as he goes on to deal with Jewish-Christian confrontation and dialogue: \u201cInvolvement with the rest of mankind in the cosmic confrontation does not rule out the second personal confrontation of two faith communities, each aware of both what it shares with the other and what is singularly its own. In the same manner as Adam and Eve\u2026 encountered each other as two separate individuals, cognizant of their incommensurability and uniqueness, so also two faith communities \u2013 which coordinate their efforts when confronted by the same cosmic order \u2013 may face each other in the full knowledge of their distinctness and individuality. We reject the theory of a single confrontation and instead insist upon the indispensability of the double confrontation\u201d (Tradition, Vol. 6, No.2, Spring-Summer 1964).<\/p>\n
The only reason why the Rav questions a confrontational dialogue with the \u201cother faith community\u201d which would be as salutary as Adam\u2019s confrontation with Eve \u2013 is because the Church historically treated us as inferior beings; in the Rav\u2019s own words, \u201cUnfortunately, however, non-Jewish society has confronted us throughout the ages in a mood of defiance, as if we were part of the subhuman objective order separated by an abyss from the human\u201d (ibid, p.19,20).<\/p>\n
\u201cA confrontation of two faith communities is possible only if it is accompanied by a clear assurance that both parties will enjoy equal rights and full religious freedom. . . A democratic confrontation certainly does not demand that we submit to an attitude of self-righteousness taken by the community of the many which, while debating whether or not to \u2018absolve\u2019 the community of the few of some mythical guilt (i.e. deicide!\u2013SR), completely ignores its own historical responsibility for the suffering and martyrdom (it has inflicted) upon the few, the weak and the persecuted\u2026 there should be insistence upon one\u2019s inalienable rights as a human being created by God\u2026 we do not intend to play the part of the object encountered by dominating man,\u201d the Christian (ibid, p.21).<\/p>\n
In other words, Rav Soloveitchik is not against religious dialogue with Christians; that is why this essay is entitled \u201cConfrontation,\u201d and not \u201cNon-Confrontation.\u201d The only thing he insists upon, however, is that the confrontation be in the spirit of religious equality, of mutual respect for the individual faith commitments of each which are not subject to logical debate, or traded compromises in matters of our unique covenantal faith values and rituals.<\/p>\n
Red Lines and Pre-Conditions<\/p>\n
These are the three things that Rav Soloveitchik argued against and these are, likewise, my red lines in dialogue with Christians:<\/p>\n
Here are Rav Soloveitchik\u2019s words, published in \u201cConfrontation,\u201d in which he set down his pre-conditions for Jewish-Christian dialogue, which are my pre-conditions as well:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn light of this analysis, it would be reasonable to state that in any confrontation we must insist upon four basic conditions in order to safeguard our individuality and freedom of action.<\/p>\n
The Rav was afraid that since Christianity claimed that it had superseded Judaism, this is what they would attempt to foist on us in any debate and \u2013 since they were the many and we were the few \u2013 we would be forced into a difficult position. Hence, our independence in faith has to be accepted and respected.<\/p>\n
Here, he emphasized that we are not one religious faith community with Christianity. He went on to write, \u201cWe must always remember that our singular commitment to God, and our hope and indomitable will for survival are non-negotiable and non-rationalizable and are not subject to debate and argumentation\u201d (p.24).<\/p>\n
We do not want Christians to ask us to change our religious texts and so we ought not expect of them to change their religious texts. I would submit that we can and must, however, share with them the pain in our hearts and injuries to our bodies that we have experienced as a result of certain of their sacred texts, as in the statements in the Gospel which refer to the historic Jewish collective guilt for \u201cdeicide\u201d and the references in their writ and liturgy to convert the Jews now.<\/p>\n
Rav Soloveitchik continues:<\/p>\n
Here Rav Soloveitchik is expressing the view of Maimonides that ultimately, in the eschaton, everyone will turn to the Jewish faith.\u00a0 In the meantime, however, in our confrontation with the other faith community, we must express passionate commitment towards our unique religion without holding back the intensity of our intellectual and emotion fervor; only then will our peers in the other faith community truly respect us.<\/p>\n
It should be obvious that the four pre-conditions stipulated by the Rav for Jewish-Christian dialogue have largely been accepted by the Catholic and Evangelical churches, as well as by many Protestant church authorities.\u00a0 Nearly all churches today have rejected the collective deicide charge against the Jews, deplore anti-Semitism, asked for forgiveness for Christian persecution of Jews, and no longer maintain that Christianity has superseded the Jewish People\u2019s covenant with God.<\/p>\n
In fact, we do enter Jewish-Christian dialogue very much as equals \u2013 and even as \u201cequals plus.\u201d\u00a0 Our very existence in history \u2013 despite destruction, exile and global persecution \u2013 affirms God\u2019s covenant with us as well as His existence on earth (\u201cyou are My witnesses says God\u2026,\u201d Isaiah 43:10), and our return to our homeland, Israel, after close to 2000 years of exile, confirms the divine Biblical prophecies of Deuteronomy 30:1-10 and Isaiah 11:11.<\/p>\n
And if many of our Christian brothers and sisters believe that in the eschaton everyone will become Christian, we see that Maimonides believes that in the eschaton, everyone will become Jewish! As long as the group with whom we dialogue respects us as we are now in the fullness of our differences, we can very well agree that the eventual Messiah will tell us who is converting to whom (if indeed a conversion will be necessary at that time).<\/p>\n
Understand the Differences from Generation to Generation<\/p>\n
As for those Jews to whom the Christian involvement in Jewish persecution culminating in the Holocaust makes it emotionally impossible to participate in any kind of Jewish-Christian discourse \u2013for whom the very idea of delving into Jesus\u2019 Jewish identity cannot escape their lips or enter their hearts since so many atrocities were perpetrated against innocent Jews in his\u00a0 name \u2013 I can only urge that they revisit the Torah commandment, \u201cRemember the days of old, consider the years of many generations; ask thy father, and he will declare unto thee, thine elders, and they will tell thee\u201d (Deut. 32:7). Rabbenu Sa\u2019adiah Gaon lists this verse as one of the 613 commandments, as exhortation to study history.<\/p>\n
Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch goes one step further, interpreting the Hebrew \u201cshnot\u201d not as \u201cyears\u201d (from the Hebrew shanah), but rather as differences (from the Hebrew shinui).\u00a0 Be sensitive to the changes in history and respond accordingly: be sensitive to the evil empire of radical Islam threatening to destroy Israel and the entire free world in a \u201creligious\u201d war of the civilizations; be sensitive to the fundamental doctrinal changes within contemporary Christianity; be sensitive to the outstretched hands of so many in the Christian world offering friendship and support.\u00a0 Have we the moral and religious right to reject their overtures in the present climate of widespread Israel hatred and delegitimization?<\/p>\n