With all the talk in the media about Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s new book “Kosher Jesus,” I got to thinking… What about the other way round, ‘Did Jesus keep kosher?’
Well I think he did, because he was a rabbi and an observant Jew. The New Testament says that Paul (one of the disciples of Jesus) did away with the law. Prior to this all of Jesus’ disciples kept kosher.
For me the whole Jesus story is quiet simple. Jesus was a rabbi who wanted to have mixed seating in the temple. Well actually it’s hard to know one way or the other, but basically Jesus wanted to start the Jewish conservative movement. At the time only Orthodox Judaism existed and he wanted things to be a bit more laid back. Thus the rabbis chucked him out. But Jesus had some followers and the story of Christianity began.
From the Jewish point of view there really is not much to the whole thing. Debating whether or not there could be a kosher Jesus… As in, could Jesus be ‘kosher’ as in ‘acceptable’ to Jews is just nonsense. From a Jewish theological standpoint the whole thing is rubbish and the only reason why Jews were ever debating could Jesus be kosher, is because they were forced by the church throughout history. Today we need to be aware of ‘kosher Jesus issues’ because of the many groups like ‘Jews for Jesus,’ Messianic Jews, and the like that try and entice Jewish people.
As for Shmuley Boteach using the title “Kosher Jesus,” I’d be willing to bet he himself did not want to use the tile, though “Kosher Jesus” works well from a marketing point of view. Consider Shmuly’s other books like: “Kosher Adultery,” “Kosher Sutra,” and “Kosher Sex.” However, Boteach still has many other books with other titles and perhaps could have kept the word kosher away from Jesus.
This week, I stumbled across a YouTube video from the National Jewish Outreach Program (NJOP) called “Jew Walking.” It’s a take on a popular television concept, where the host takes to the streets to see just how much the people walking around out there really know. This particular video targeted Jews on New York’s Upper West Side and wanted to find out just how much they know.
Sadly, the results weren’t all that great. All the people asked could name Jesus’s mother without hesitation but only one could name Moshe’s (Moses’s) mother! That’s pretty pathetic, especially since she is such an important female figure in the Torah.
Which leads me to some other ideas that came up this week, like the role of women in the Torah. We learn in Judaism that women are actually created closer in the image of G-d than men. Spiritually, we don’t need to wear yarmulkes and tzitzit in order to be reminded of Hashem’s presence. We don’t need to pray with a minyan (a quorum of 10 Jewish men). We don’t need it because we’re aware of it at all times. (But don’t feel bad, guys – remember, you thank G-d every morning for being a man and not a woman in the morning blessings because you get the added merit of doing all those extra commandments you’re obligated to do!)
Both of these concepts – family and the role of women – feature prominently in this week’s parsha and are strongly interlinked. This should come as no surprise as the traditional role of a woman in Jewish society is to raise and protect her family. (Just look at the lyrics of the famous song “Aishet Chayil,” “Woman of Valor” – the woman in this song is providing for her family – husband and children alike – and providing them with everything from warm clothing to food to love and support.) This parsha allows us to trace this tradition back even further and to see how women, physically and spiritually alike, are the protectors of the entire Jewish people.
First the importance of family comes up, as the parsha opens with the listing of the Jewish families who went down to Egypt. As the Jews were swiftly sucked into the Egyptian culture, they needed to have strong reminders of where they came from and who their families were in order to avoid being assimilated completely. I am sure this is an idea we can all identify with in today’s modern society. We assimilate more and more into the culture that surrounds us, yet, for some reason, when we are reminded that we are related to Avraham (Abraham), Yitzchak (Isaac), and Yaakov (Jacob), our hearts swell with pride. In those moments, we are reminded that we are Jewish princes and princesses and we suddenly want to cast off our assimilation, at least as much as we are able. So too in Egypt. The Jews, in order to avoid being lost completely within their host society, had to begin with a reminder of who their families were.
But the very existence of the Jewish families was at stake, on a couple of different levels, and it was up to the women to save them. On a physical level, Hashem made a miracle and the Jewish women began giving birth to many babies at a time. Yet even that was not enough – the Jewish people had to be saved by the women on a spiritual level, too. Amram was the leader of his people (and the father of Moshe) and when Pharoah commanded the Jewish boys to be thrown into the river and killed, Amram divorced his wife, Yocheved, which encouraged all the Jewish people to do the same. It was his daughter Miriam who helped save the Jewish people that time. “Daddy,” she pleaded with her father, “so Pharaoh will kill the boys, but will you prevent the girls from living, too?” Amram re-married Yocheved and as a result, she gave birth to a son – Moshe Rabbeinu.
Yocheved and Miriam featured more in this week’s parsha, too, as midwives, going under the names Shifra and Puah. When Pharaoh commanded them to kill all baby boys born immediately, they agreed to do so – and then disobeyed. On the contrary, the actually helped the births along because they wanted the Jewish nation to increase. When Pharaoh asked why so many boys were still being born alive, Shifra and Puah simply told him that the Jewish women gave birth too quickly and they could not reach them in time to carry out his order.
They were helped, of course, by all the women. The women had to be able to conceive and so they needed to have intimate times with their husbands. They did their best to accomplish this by using copper mirrors to do their makeup and their hair, to make themselves as attractive as possible. As a result, they bore many children. G-d smiled upon this and those same mirrors were later used to make basins for the mishkan (the tabernacle).
Each and every person needs to remember that he or she has a vital and important role in the Jewish community. Nobody is more or less important than anybody else. We are all part of the same family and we must all work together. We have to remember who we are and where we came from, so we don’t lose ourselves. If we’re men, we have to value and respect the women in our lives – and if we’re women, we have to live up to the standards set by the women who came before us and earn that respect. There is an important role for every person in Jewish life.
My last post was about Jews for Jesus in Australia. My friend Rabbi Eli Cohen in Sydney has been actively working for Jews for Judaism and doing counter-missionary work. I just finished discussing with him Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s new book “Kosher Jesus.” Eli mentioned that he wrote a few thoughts of what he thinks about the book and agreed I could share it on Traveling Rabbi.
So here it is from Rabbi Eli Cohen:
My “personal” thoughts after reading the book “Kosher Jesus” cover to cover.
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach should have had more foresight into the public reaction to his book that was coming his way.
The title and the synopsis that Shmuley chose to use to promote his book was reckless and damaging. The immediate impression it has given the public is one that has caused irreparable damage.
The book’s suggestion that Christians have misunderstood their “savior” will undoubtedly offend many Bible-believing Christians; nevertheless, they may also see this book as an opportune tool for Jewish evangelism. The next time a Jew is approached by a missionary the question will be “what do you think of “Kosher Jesus”” ?
Many unsuspecting Jews upon hearing about this new book “Kosher Jesus,” written by an orthodox Rabbi, may suffice themselves with the title and a brief excerpt or synopsis available online and glean from it that Jesus is now “Kosher” without bothering to read the inside of the book. This is a real concern that Shmuley seems to have either overlooked or failed to fully appreciate.
HOWEVER, if you actually read the inside of it you’ll see that the content inside the book is not THAT bad/heretical (although I personally wouldn’t give it to anyone Jewish not already caught up with Christianity). I also wouldn’t say that Judaism needs to look further then its own sacred teaching to find moral and ethical values without any additional help from Shmuley pointing to the quotes recorded NT (which may or may not have been quoting Jewish sources) for confirmation.
His “scholarship” leaves much to be desired as he has made a number of serious mistakes both in regards to Judaism and even more so with regards to his understanding of Christianity and the NT.
His latest “Fiction Novel” (which is what I would call it) is a compilation of his personal opinions sprinkled with his fanciful imagination that he has vocalised at his debates with Christians. These view formed by Shmuley are inspired by the views of a British Jewish scholar of the University of Leeds, Hyam Mccoby OBM, and Shmuley’s obsession with “universal religious ethics”. In other words in Shmuley’s mind, Jesus and Shumley as so like-minded it’s frightening.
I personally would consider giving the book to “messianic” friends of mine that have a good sense of humour.
As someone who is in the anti-missionary field, I have a different concern. If Shmuley’s “Fiction Novel” is looked to as an authority for the Jewish response to Christianity, the Christians will make a laughingstock of the book and say “is this is the best response to Christianity that Judaism could come up with? Another “DaVinci Code”? The mistakes in the book reveal that author is lacking any serious familiarity with and understanding of both Christianity and the NT.”
As usual though, Shmuley does make some traditional and valid arguments against Christianity which are already well known by anyone who has ever dealt with this issue.
One remark to Shmuley, had you come to me or anyone else in this field, you could have received constructive criticism that would have helped the book pack a serious punch.
Jews for Jesus car in Bondi Sydney Australia outside the Jewish shop
Jews For Jesus in Australia and Where Can You Find Jews For Jesus in Australia
What does a Rabbi have to say about Jews for Jesus in Australia?
First off, I apologize for the title of this blog post “Jews For Jesus in Australia and Where Can You Find Jews For Jesus in Australia,” and for mentioning it again here. Because it is important to say Jews for Jesus in Australia a few times to get this page found in the search engines. I just hope that any Jew G-d forbid searching for Jews for Jesus in Australia may find my page and learn something about real Judaism before they are polluted with junk.
Well, I’ve long known that they unfortunately are operating in Australia. I do wish they’d go perhaps to Indonesia instead. With a population of 250 million people there and maybe a dozen Jews, they’d have a hard time finding any Jews.
My first encounters in Australia with Jews for Jesus, Messianic Jews, or whatever one calls them, was as a Rabbinical Student in Sydney. Some of these missionaries had gone through the Jewish neighborhoods in the Eastern Suburbs dropping off books, something about “The Real Messiah,” on the door steps of any house with a mezuzah. One of the yeshivah boys having discovered this, mobilized a unit to go and collect as many books as they could before the home-dwellers ever got to them. Having collected a few hundred books, they made a bonfire in a garbage can and burnt them.
A few years later I was part of a group of Rabbis and educators who attended a two-day seminar on how to counter missionaries targeting Jews and how to deal with Jewish people who have, G-d protect us, fallen into one of these groups.
An organization called “Jews for Judaism,” works hard at countering the Jews for Jesus. Unfortunately the Jews for Jesus organization have a lot of money and human resources which makes it challenging working against them.
The most bizarre occurrence for me with a messianic Jewish organization was in Tokyo, Japan. I walked out of the train station in downtown Tokyo, and some guy wearing a big Jews for Jesus t-shirt handed me a brochure in Japanese and English. Now really, how many Jews are they going to convert in Japan?
Anyway, I got to thinking of all this because a friend of mine took this photo a few weeks ago. I’m not sure what they needed for the Judaica shop in Bondi.
It’s important that we know these guys are operating and that we must be prepared to deal with them.
