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When you are not ARG'ing or playing Halo 2...

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Clayfoot
Entrenched

Joined: 19 Aug 2004
Posts: 785
Location: Warner Robins, Georgia, USA

Phaedra wrote:

Gestas wrote:

L'chaim archon!
(Phaedra - can we Gentiles l'chaim one another?

Certainly -- I don't hold the Hebrew copyright or anything.

One of my high school teachers was an old testament scholar (no fooling). She told us that Christianity was an obscure Jewish sect that kinda got carried away. So, all Christians are religious Hebrews (as opposed to cultural/ethnic Hebrews). They just don't know it. Early on, ethnic Jewish Christians and gentile Christians argued about how much of Jewish custom and law that Christians (Jew and gentile) should observe. If I am not mistaken, one or two of the Apostles pretty much cleared the way for Christians to ignore anything in Jewish law that they found inconvenient. Eating kosher food is one example. Observing the Sabbath on Saturday is another.

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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2004 11:45 am

Phaedra
Lurker v2.0

Joined: 21 Sep 2004
Posts: 4033
Location: Here, obviously

Clayfoot wrote:

Phaedra wrote:

Gestas wrote:

L'chaim archon!
(Phaedra - can we Gentiles l'chaim one another?

Certainly -- I don't hold the Hebrew copyright or anything.

One of my high school teachers was an old testament scholar (no fooling). She told us that Christianity was an obscure Jewish sect that kinda got carried away.

Sort of...there are a lot of cultural influences other than Jewish ones. A literalist Christian would probably disagree, but from a Jewish standpoint (and just from a history student's standpoint) Christianity is very Hellenistic.

Quote:

So, all Christians are religious Hebrews (as opposed to cultural/ethnic Hebrews).

Hmm. Again, this is a Christian viewpoint. From a Jewish one, I spend a lot of time going, "Where the heck did they get that idea?! Are we even reading the same Bible?"

But as I was saying in the first theology thread, way back when -- this train of thought, and it's not at all an uncommon one, tends to lead Christians into misconceptions of Judaism...they tend to end up viewing Judaism as a sort-of pre-Christ Christianity with dietary laws and different holidays. Which, as the Christian students in my Jewish Cultural History class often expressed, can lead to a great deal of disorientation when they realize how different the ethical assumptions, worldviews, existential conceptions and so on actually are.

Quote:

They just don't know it.

Oh, I think they do, otherwise Christianity, its prayers, its songs and its doctrine wouldn't mention Israel so often. Christianity positions itself as the "new Israel." Not all Christian denominations are supercessionists, but the traditional doctrine held that Christians replaced Jews (or at least, the Jews who didn't convert) in G-d's covenant with Israel.

Quote:

Early on, ethnic Jewish Christians and gentile Christians argued about how much of Jewish custom and law that Christians (Jew and gentile) should observe.

Quote:

If I am not mistaken, one or two of the Apostles pretty much cleared the way for Christians to ignore anything in Jewish law that they found inconvenient. Eating kosher food is one example. Observing the Sabbath on Saturday is another.

Well, Paul did. And from a Jewish standpoint, that's pretty much the only thing that makes Jesus different from all the other false messiahs running around Jerusalem at the time --

(and there were a lot -- one Egyptian guy managed to assemble 30,000 followers at the Mount of Olives, Bar Kokhba had even more -- he managed to give the Romans absolute hell for two years (a little event known as "the Jewish War"). Some had pacifist or ascetic philosophies like Jesus' -- others were warlike)

-- Paul took it to the Gentiles. And voila, Christianity is no longer a sect that will, like most, either be wiped out by the Romans or the Muslims or whoever's in power at the time, or reabsorbed back into the Jewish people, but a major Gentile religion.

As for the reason our Sabbath's on Saturday and most Christians' is on Sunday, Sunday was a weekly Roman holiday. Observing it on Sunday made it easier for Christians to hide what they were doing from the persecutory pagans, back in the Bad Old Days.

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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2004 12:08 pm
Last edited by Phaedra on Mon Jan 03, 2005 3:13 pm; edited 1 time in total

urthstripe
Entrenched

Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 1113
Location: Atlanta, GA

She's too smart...she stole everything I was gonna say, and then some.

It was the Council of Jerusalem that decided that Gentiles converting to Christianity did not have to follow Jewish law.

And, raaaandom quote from Life of Brian (ok, maybe not so random):

Brian: I am NOT the Messiah!
Arthur: I say you are Lord, and I should know. I've followed a few.

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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2004 12:29 pm

Phaedra
Lurker v2.0

Joined: 21 Sep 2004
Posts: 4033
Location: Here, obviously

urthstripe wrote:

She's too smart...she stole everything I was gonna say, and then some.

Quote:

And, raaaandom quote from Life of Brian (ok, maybe not so random):

Brian: I am NOT the Messiah!
Arthur: I say you are Lord, and I should know. I've followed a few.

Extra points for incorporating Monty Python into a religious discussion.

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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2004 1:45 pm

thebruce
Dances With Wikis

Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 6899
Location: Kitchener, Ontario

Phaedra wrote:

Quote:

So, all Christians are religious Hebrews (as opposed to cultural/ethnic Hebrews).

Hmm. Again, this is a Christian viewpoint. From a Jewish one, I spend a lot of time going, "Where the heck did they get that idea?! Are we even reading the same Bible?"

I wouldn't say it's a 'Christian' viewpoint... some people may believe that. The way I see it, pre-Christ, there was Israel, and the jew of the time... after Christ, because of Jesus' teachings, Christianity - followers of Christ - continued under the new covenant... Christianity was born not solely of non-Jew, but anyone who chose to believe in everything Jesus taught and his purpose on earth. Both jew and gentile became Christ-followers after his death... So Christianity wasn't strictly born out of Judaism, it was a following that began with the way a man changed the view of the world.

Quote:

They just don't know it.

Again, you're saying there's a line from Judaism to Christianity, when Christianity wasn't born as a child of the Jewish rule, but as an alternate, per se, not restricted to any 'kind' of person... Jesus was a jew, but only by birth. His point at the time was take away from the emphasis on law and tradition where it had no reasoning on what his entire purpose on earth was.

[quote]

Quote:

Early on, ethnic Jewish Christians and gentile Christians argued about how much of Jewish custom and law that Christians (Jew and gentile) should observe.

This much, I think, is definitely true. If you read between the lines in Acts and a lot of Paul's writings, it becomes apparent that Paul and the Jerusalem Church (the Jewish Christians led by Peter and James) had some serious disagreements over things like whether Gentiles should have to convert to Judaism to be Christian.[quote]
Well, under Jewish rule, there was a lot of cultural conflict, which laws to follow, which cultural ideals should be maintained as coming from God, when many things Jesus specifically tried to change. So it was more a differing of beliefs as to what God planned for his people.

Quote:

Well, Paul did. And from a Jewish standpoint, that's pretty much the only thing that makes Jesus different from all the other false messiahs running around Jerusalem at the time --

And it's not so much 'inconvenient', but more that for instance, the kind of food you eat doesn't bare a specific purpose in God's biblical will given the new covenant. Jesus' purpose was to break down the rules and laws set up in the first covenant the intent of which was to bring man closer to God. With the new covenant, Jesus accomplished that purpose himself, so many actions of the time were no longer necessary. The problem was, you needed to believe the Jesus was the beginning of the new covenant between man and God.

Quote:

-- Paul took it to the Gentiles. And voila, Christianity is no longer a sect that will, like most, either be wiped out by the Romans or the Muslims or whoever's in power at the time, or reabsorbed back into the Jewish people, but a major Gentile religion.

Well, I'm 100% positive that it was a line down the middle. Any who chose to believe and follow Jesus and his teachings, whether Jew or Gentile, became what we would consider a Christian. Christianity doesn't draw a line between jew or gentile. Depending on what you consider 'jew' or 'gentile' Smile

the moment you become a Christian some may consider you a Gentile... *shrug* I guess it depends if one considers 'Jew' a term of birth or belief.

now back to arguing infinity and E over in syzygy Mr. Green

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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2004 2:12 pm

Phaedra
Lurker v2.0

Joined: 21 Sep 2004
Posts: 4033
Location: Here, obviously

thebruce wrote:

Again, you're saying there's a line from Judaism to Christianity, when Christianity wasn't born as a child of the Jewish rule

Mm. This is too complicated of a discussion to really get into here, but just speaking as a student of religion in general, not as a Jew, generally Christianity and Islam are both considered offshoots of Judaism that took on life of their own.

And I'm sorry, but I think it's stunningly inaccurate to say that there's no "line from Judaism to Christianity." If that were true, your Bible wouldn't include ours, and you wouldn't be using our prophecies to legitimize your central religious figure. You wouldn't consider the actions of our ancestors to be significant, if Jesus was "only a Jew by birth."

Quite to the contrary, if you'll recall, Jesus said he was sent "only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel," and he even gets a bit chauvinistic (I'm sure you have a different interpretation, but as a surface reading) with the Greek woman in Mark who wants him to cast a demon out of her daughter: he tells her that the "dogs" don't get to eat until after the "children" have, and she replies that even the dogs can eat the scraps that the children don't, and he tells her, oh, okay, in that case, your daughter's healed.

Christianity wouldn't be calling itself a "new covenant," but rather, simply, "the covenant" if it didn't see itself as having some sort of continuity with Judaism. The NT works very hard to situate itself as a successor to/continuation of/fulfillment of the "Old Testament."

I think if you ask most people, they're going to answer that Christianity is the "child," to a certain extent, of Judaism. It's just that it, unlike Judaism, is universal rather than family-specific, and determined by choice, not inheritance.

P.S. This is a subtlety of which I don't expect you to be aware, and I know it's just a typing-speed issue or something, but away from people who know you and know that your intentions are good, it's probably best, as a matter of interfaith etiquette, to capitalize "Jew." There are people who don't, as a matter of principle, and I don't think you want to be confused with them.

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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2004 3:02 pm

thebruce
Dances With Wikis

Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 6899
Location: Kitchener, Ontario

Phaedra wrote:

And I'm sorry, but I think it's stunningly inaccurate to say that there's no "line from Judaism to Christianity." If that were true, your Bible wouldn't include ours, and you wouldn't be using our prophecies to legitimize your central religious figure. Christianity wouldn't be calling itself a "new covenant," but rather, simply, "the covenant." The NT works very hard to situate itself as a successor to the "Old Testament."

I think if you ask most people, they're going to answer that Christianity is the "child," to a certain extent, of "Judaism." It's just that it, unlike Judaism, is universal rather than family-specific, and determined by choice, not inheritance.

I guess it depends on what you consider 'child'... in the sense that to define Christianity as having roots in Judaism is pushing it, but obviously in order to fully understand why Christianity came to be, the history of the region had to be described, which in this case is Judaism. The Bible describes the pre-Christ 'world', then the new covenant which began the following of Christ... maybe I'm wrong, maybe it's just semantics, but I consider the 'old covenant' pre-Christ, more of a common history than a Jewish root. In a sense, pre-Christ we believed the same thing, because God hadn't given any other belief. When Jesus came along, it was more a split, because in Christianty the natural continuation is following Jesus, rather than the now (believed) separate Judaism (ie, the difference between the Jewish faith and the Christian faith). It's more to me like pre-Christ it was more of a Judeo-Christian world, and after Jesus, it became Judaism and Christianity... semantics I think... ah well. You can't be a Christian unless you accept the Bible's truth, which includes the old and new covenant (OT and NT) as truth. Our similarities in faith lie in the OT pretty much. So it's more of a common ancestry rather than a sprouting of one faith from another, IMO.

But hey, I'm learning Smile

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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2004 3:24 pm

archon
Decorated

Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 250

Gestas wrote:

And for the record archon - anyone with a avatar like yours is de facto cool. No question Smile

A-ha! Excellent to see we're on the same page! Geek

Gestas wrote:

We should like, totally get together and do a manual on emotiheiroglyphics.</valleygirl> We could call it: Dunce

(That's "Dummies' Guide to RandomFunnySymbols" if anyone was wondering.)

- I mean, another equally excellent suggestion. You, sir, are a genius who is rivaled only by Phaedra or maybe thebruce on his better days (kidding!!!!!!). You're on fire today.

Seriously, I think we can all agree that emoticons are just about the best thing ever. I just wish there was a way to vocally send emoticons. Well, among other things.

BTW, Dunedin wouldn't happen to be a city that took it's name from Men of the West, would it? Or was it the other way around...

Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2004 3:38 pm

Clayfoot
Entrenched

Joined: 19 Aug 2004
Posts: 785
Location: Warner Robins, Georgia, USA

archon wrote:

Seriously, I think we can all agree that emoticons are just about the best thing ever. I just wish there was a way to vocally send emoticons. Well, among other things.

A sci-fi story featured an alien race that could produce visual emoticons above their own heads. By the end of the book, a human character was starting to do it, too.

The Uplift War by David Brin

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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2004 11:26 pm

Clayfoot
Entrenched

Joined: 19 Aug 2004
Posts: 785
Location: Warner Robins, Georgia, USA

thebruce wrote:

Phaedra wrote:

AI think if you ask most people, they're going to answer that Christianity is the "child," to a certain extent, of "Judaism." It's just that it, unlike Judaism, is universal rather than family-specific, and determined by choice, not inheritance.

Christianity must be a descendant of Judaism. Same literature and same god. Without the basic assumptions of sin and redemption described in Judaism, the entire Christian movement has no meaning. Moreover, the life of Jesus as a messiah only has meaning in the context of Jewish prophecy.

Now, I'm pretty sure the evangelical movement in the US sees it the other way around: Jews are just delusional Christians who haven't yet recognized Jesus as the Messiah. When certain events have occured (the Temple is rebuilt, a bull of a special color is born...), the Jews will accept Jesus and umm... finally enjoy good pork barbeque and sausage.

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Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2005 12:00 am

Phaedra
Lurker v2.0

Joined: 21 Sep 2004
Posts: 4033
Location: Here, obviously

Re: translation subroutine now online

Somehow missed this post...

pikalek wrote:

Phaedra wrote:

urthstripe wrote:

Ouch, I think I just got hosed.

Oh dear. The only slang usage of "hosed" with which I am familiar is the one that is equivalent to "pulling my leg," i.e. a mild term for lying. (However, that can't be what you mean, can it? That would be mean. Sad

Nah. You're not mean. So what does it mean?)

Never thought I'd see the day where I'd be translating something for you Phaedra;

<half-smile> When I need help translating something, it's almost always English, pikalek.

pikalek wrote:

when I get to assist a team mate I do this Smile

When a teammate assists me, I do this: Rock On

Molte grazie, or perhaps considering the theme of this thread, todah rabah.

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Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2005 7:23 pm

archon
Decorated

Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 250

Clayfoot wrote:

A sci-fi story featured an alien race that could produce visual emoticons above their own heads. By the end of the book, a human character was starting to do it, too.

The Uplift War by David Brin

YES.

Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2005 12:37 am

thebruce
Dances With Wikis

Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 6899
Location: Kitchener, Ontario

Clayfoot wrote:

Quote:

It depends on your perspective really... I don't see it as Christianity descending from Judaism, moreso as a common history. Christianity is inclusive of the pre-Christ world, just as Judaism is... If Christianity descended from Judaism, then it wouldn't include the same history, but begin at the point Jesus began his ministry. That's why I say, it's likely just arguing semantics. Then, I'm not arguing Smile

, cuz it's not really important who came from whom. The point is, there is a difference between today's Jewish faith, and Christian faith. And I dunno really how we got onto this part of the discussion ... Smile

Quote:

Now, I'm pretty sure the evangelical movement in the US sees it the other way around: Jews are just delusional Christians who haven't yet recognized Jesus as the Messiah. When certain events have occured (the Temple is rebuilt, a bull of a special color is born...), the Jews will accept Jesus and umm... finally enjoy good pork barbeque and sausage.

Anyone who believes Jews are 'just delusional Christians' have problems of their own... it's not any group of people for one, who don't recognize Jesus as the prophecized Messiah, it's anyone in the world who doesn't. There's no differing between cultures as to who and who does not, because across the world, people of all cultures have become Christians. So again, it comes down to a matter of no 'group' of people's faults that Jesus died, nor is it any collective culture that denies Jesus is the Messiah (but that doesn't mean any collective faith doesn't deny that, just people by their culture, ie where they were born, traditions and values they hold which don't directly and purposely contradict scripture). There is, and should be, no such thing as racism in the Christian faith, because God created all people of the world, and all are equal. Blaming any culture for anything God says was due to all men, is claiming a falsehood, just as is claiming one kind of person is better than another. The only thing that hurts God is denial of Him, and denial of anything He says or has done. Which is why it's everyone's fault Jesus died, and it was by His own will and choice that Jesus died, as he could have saved himself at any point.

That's what we're saying here... we're all equal Smile

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Posted: Sun Jan 02, 2005 10:37 pm

Phaedra
Lurker v2.0

Joined: 21 Sep 2004
Posts: 4033
Location: Here, obviously

New Year's Thoughts

Since we're discussing prejudice, and we're doing it from the positions of different religious traditions which have often been hostile, I wanted to post some New Year's thoughts here.

I generally don't feel that the New Year has really started for the first few days of January. It always seems to be a transition period to me � we aren't quite into the year enough yet to get a feel for it, to know what kind of year it will be.

Maybe it's because I'm Jewish � Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year (in September), is the first day of the ten Days of Awe leading to Yom Kippur. They're a time in which things aren't yet set in stone or, to use the imagery of the holiday, the book has been written, but it's not yet sealed. One is supposed to use those days to make things right, both between ourselves and others, and between ourselves and G-d, before the "book is closed" on Yom Kippur. There's a very beautiful prayer in the Rosh Hashanah liturgy, the Avinu Malkeinu, set to a haunting, evocative melody, in which we address G-d as both our father (avinu) who loves us, and our king (malkeinu) who will judge us. It starts by simply beseeching Him to hear us: Avinu malkeinu, sh'ma koleinu, Our Father, our King, hear our prayer. Be with us as we reflect and examine ourselves.

So, for me, the New Year on January 1st is a secular version of the same thing, a time to reflect and decide on what I want my new year to be. I see the first week or so as a time to figure that out before I really get started.

2004 was a year with a lot of ups and downs for me: my first year out of school, in the "real world," a year in which I saw a lot of new relationships form and a lot of old ones fade away.

It was a year that brought me to this community, which was definitely a highlight and something for which I'm very grateful.

But it was also a year in which the rhetoric of our society changed, and not always, I feel, for the best. It seemed that this year brought more divisive words and attitudes to the surface than any other year I can remember in my (admittedly short) lifetime.

Avinu malkeinu, chatanu l'fanecha. Our Father, our King, we have sinned before you.

It was a year in which it seemed to become okay to paint liberals or conservatives as the enemy, rather than just the necessary opposition in a political system based on a balance achieved by the tension between competing ideas. It was a year in which the stranger seemed to become less a human being, and more a symbol onto which to project our fears and our anxieties. And it was a year in which there were so many battles to fight that often we felt we only had time and energy to remember our own.

A particular, local example still sticks in my mind. A local political radio personality said some rather nasty things about the Hispanic community and used a racial slur. He apologized, but then shortly after, he mocked the apology and the anger of the community that he had denigrated.

There was a protest � 300 members of the Hispanic community showed up at the radio station to object that that sort of rhetoric was not okay and that they didn't feel that the station was taking them seriously. The station replied that they would not fire the man � they would work with him to help educate the community on issues regarding prejudice. One wonders if they really understood that it wasn't the community that needed that education so much as the man who made the remarks.

Or maybe the community did need it. 300 people? There were more guests at my cousin's wedding! I wasn't there. Neither was anyone else from my neighborhood, my place of work, my suburb. A community of a particular heritage was essentially told that that heritage made them less worthy of dignity and respect, and all the rest of us essentially told them that that was their problem, not ours.

But, of course, things rarely happen that way.

Sinned before Him? Oh boy, have I ever. I wasn't there. I should have been -- I could easily have been. Those three hundred -- denigrated, hurt, angry, and alone -- should have gotten to the radio station, set up their signs, and turned around to find a thousand non-Hispanic members of their larger community behind them, saying, "This is not a 'Hispanic problem' � this is a problem. Period. And we're with you." The city's churches and synagogues and our one mosque should have been there, saying, "We know that prejudice and hatred toward other human beings, made in G-d's image, are a crime against G-d as well as man, and as people of G-d, we grieve for what happened here."

My tradition tells me that as people of G-d, we have a responsibility: tikkun olam, which translates into English as "healing/repairing the world."

I've certainly said things that have probably broken the world a little bit more when I could have kept them to myself. And I've committed sins of omission: a thousand moments have passed me by where a simple word, a gesture of support, even a smile could have created greater peace, greater well-being, and too often I've done nothing. None of us can fix the world's big problems alone, but we will continue to work alone unless we can first address the little, interpersonal problems that face us every day. Until we can create peace amongst each other, we will not find allies to help us heal the world at large.

There's a lot of healing to be done. There's still a lot of prejudice and injustice here in the U.S. The Middle East is a powder keg. There's genocide in Sudan.

Five million children die of starvation every year.

The least any of us can try to do is to bring more compassion into our own lives and the lives of those around us and hope that that will create the fertile ground from which help for the greater problems can spring.

Avinu malkeinu, alkenu chamol aleynu, v'al olaleynu v'tapenu. Our Father, our King, have compassion upon us and our children.

It's not just prejudice against people we need to worry about � I think it's also prejudice against G-d. I don't think G-d's reputation is quite as good as it should be in our society, right now. I don't think that's because there's a secular conspiracy to discredit Him � I think it's because too often we who are supposed to be people of G-d fall down on the job. We use Him as an excuse. We talk a lot about Him, but don't do much about it. We try to make Him wear campaign buttons. We spend a lot of time trying to convince people who disagree with us that G-d is on our side, instead of trying, as Lincoln put it, to be on G-d's side.

Which, as He tells us pretty clearly, is the side of the widow and the orphan, the side of the weak, the side of the people who can't take care of themselves. A rabbi (what, you thought I was done with the Jewish stories? Gotta stick with what I know, sorry!) once told his listeners that everything in the world has a purpose. A listener asked him, "In that case, what's the purpose of atheism?" "Atheism is indeed purposeful," replied the rabbi, "because it reminds us that when we are confronted with another human being in need, we must imagine that there is no G-d, and in fact no one other than we ourselves, to help him so that we do not do less than everything of which we are capable."

"If I am not for myself, who will be?" asked Rabbi Hillel, one of the most revered rabbis of the Talmud. But he followed it with "And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?"

When, indeed.

The prayer goes on: Avinu malkeinu, kaleh dever v'cherev v'rav mealeynu. Avinu malkeinu kalehchol tsar, umastin mealeynu. Our Father, our King, bring an end to pestilence, famine and war. Our Father, our King, of every oppressor rid us.

There, it breaks down for me a little. Because the Talmud, in its extensive discussions of prayer, talks, curiously, about bad prayers: prayers that are unethical, wrong, misguided, or misdirected. Praying for something bad to happen to someone else falls under this category. So does asking G-d to change something that's already determined; for example, after a woman is pregnant, one cannot pray, "Please let this child be a girl." The sex of the child was determined at conception � we can't ask G-d to rewrite the past.

The problems with these prayers are obvious enough that no one needs to read the Talmud to figure them out. But interestingly, it adds another category of "wrong" prayers: one is not supposed to pray for G-d to do something that is within one's own power, simply to spare oneself the chore of doing it.

When I learned this, it stunned me. It had never occurred to me that to simply stand in a synagogue and pray for G-d to, say, put an end to prejudice without doing anything about it might not only be sort of lazy, it might actually be unethical. But there it was, staring me in the face. And I can no longer hear those lines of the Avinu Malkeinu without feeling that I cannot just say them unless I also work to bring them about.

I also cannot pray for an end to prejudice between religions, between ethnic groups, between people in general, unless I am also attempting to do something about it.

Another rabbi, Tarfon, adds that "it is not incumbent upon you to finish the work [of healing the world] but neither are you free to desist."

At first, thinking about this, I felt overwhelmed. How does one fight history? We can't magically change the minds of people to wipe out prejudice.

But then I remembered a story I had heard about a rabbi who had died fairly recently: during his tenure, a local Jewish couple had lost their only child in a car accident. They weren't members of his congregation, but he went to see them anyway. A few days later, the husband bumped into the rebbetzin, the rabbi's wife, at the supermarket. "Rebbetzin," he said, "I have to tell you, if not for your husband, I don't think my wife and I would have made it." That evening, the rebbetzin asked her husband what he had said to the couple that had given them so much comfort. The rabbi shrugged and said he'd said nothing � what could anyone possibly say under such circumstances? A while later, the couple asked if they could come over and visit with them. When they got there, the rabbi was still at the synagogue, so the rebbetzin thought it would be a good time to find out what, precisely, her husband had done.

"Do you remember how you said my husband had been so comforting? What did he actually say?" she pressed.

The man was quiet for a while, searching his memory. Finally he said, "I know this sounds crazy, but � nothing. Nothing I can quote, at least." The rebbetzin looked at him, puzzled, and he continued, "The rabbi came to our house, walked straight over to me, put his arms around me, and then," the man's voice cracked, "he broke down and cried with me."

"He hardly knew us," the wife added, "but he took us into his heart. He's the most compassionate man I've ever met."

And I realized that that type of compassion doesn't just work with individuals -- it's hard to be prejudiced against someone who has been there in your time of need, whether that "someone" is an individual or a community of people.

So I guess that's what religious communities need to do for each other: we need to be there for each other. We need to help out in one another's times of need, to support each other in times of grief, because that is the only way we will ever remember that we're supposed to be allies, and siblings, and not strangers or enemies. Whether it's by helping communities devastated by disasters rebuild, by coming to them as Christians or Jews or Muslims, and in that role helping them get back on their feet again, whether it's urging our churches or synagogues to take action when another community is the victim of persecution or prejudice, whether it's just asking how we can help when another community suffers, or whether it's simply speaking out -- and doing so explicitly as a Christian or Jew or Muslim -- when we encounter prejudice against another and expressing grief at their hurt, positioning ourselves, in the face of injustice, as standing beside the victim, we need to be there for each other, because I think if we honestly ask ourselves where G-d is in those situations, we'll know clearly where we should be and what we should be doing.

So it's at that point that I think I can resume praying.

I can't pray for G-d to simply make prejudice vanish, but I can pray for the openness and the empathy to care about the problems of people who are different for myself so that I can demonstrate the compassion that should be our hallmark as people of G-d. We can pray for the courage and the strength to show our vulnerability when we encounter prejudice or injustice directed at ourselves, to respond to prejudice by using our hurt as an impetus to reach out to the compassion we know must be in the other person, rather than responding defensively in kind and increasing the distance between us.

When it is prejudice directed at someone else, whether an individual or a group of people, we can pray for the wisdom to know how best to attempt to change the minds of the people demonstrating it without alienating them or making them defensive. Most importantly, we can pray that prejudice never find a foothold in our own hearts, for help in remembering that every human being is created in G-d's image, for G-d to keep our eyes open so that we always see human beings before us, rather than symbols or some faceless mass.

This is the sort of prayer that I think (yet another) rabbi was talking about when he said, "Prayer may not save us, but it makes us worth saving."

We cannot be keepers of each other's religious faith � our beliefs are different and sometimes conflicting. But we can be keepers of each other's faith in each other, in the humanity of the stranger, of the breath of G-d in every person.

Avinu malkeinu, Kotvenu b'sefer chayim tovim
Our Father, our King, inscribe us for blessing in the Book of Life.

Avinu malkeinu chadesh aleynu shanah tovah
Our Father, our King, let the new year be a good year for us.

If I have made any of you feel defensive, feel attacked or feel hurt, I am sorry. If I have demonstrated prejudice or unkindness to you, I apologize.

May those around you treat you with compassion and understanding in the coming year, and always see you for yourself. And may we all be able to help our respective communities work together more and to view each other with greater love and empathy in the new year.

May the New Year be a good year for you, and G-d bless.

_________________
Voted Most Likely to Thread-Jack and Most Patient Explainer in the ILoveBees Awards.

World Champion: Cruel 2B Kind

Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2005 12:44 am

urthstripe
Entrenched

Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 1113
Location: Atlanta, GA

She's good.

Thank you for that, Phaedra.

_________________
In this life, there are nothing but possibilities.

Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2005 1:40 am

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