Can Jews and Christians Truly Reconsile?
The 1965 Vatican Council, and subsequent attempts by the Church to make peace with Judaism, did not win over Orthodox Jews who believed that their reading of the Scriptures was correct - not Christian reading. A new book discusses this uncomfortable relationship
After Esau hated Jacob for years, the brothers met. Esau rushed to Jacob, hugged him, fell on his neck, kissed him, both of them weeping. Thrilling reconciliation. But the Jewish sages, according to Midrash Bereshit Rabbah 78, were not attracted to this reconciliation. They placed dots above the Hebrew word vayeshakehu ("he kissed her," Genesis 33: 4), signifying abolition. But erasure was not an obvious choice - it was, after all, a word in the Torah - so they performed "sham" abolition. They claim that Esau's kiss was a hoax, and that his intention was not to kiss (nishek) him but to bite (nashakh) - a nice play on words.
Then, why are they crying? Because a miracle happened and Jacob's neck hardened and prevented the bite from being damaged; one cried for his neck while the other cried for his teeth. Funny? Of course not. For the sages of the rabbinical period, Esau was a metonym for Rome and later for Christianity. The possibility that Rome would reconcile with the descendants of Jacob, the Jews, had never occurred to them.
But it happened in Rome, in 1965. The Second Vatican Council published "Nostra aetate," a document in which the Catholic Church declares neglect of its anti-Jewish heritage and its desire to make peace with Judaism.
An enlightening and important new book by historian Karma Ben Johanan, "Reconciliation and Its Dissatisfaction: Unresolved Tensions in Judeo-Christian Relations," examines the reciprocal conceptions of Catholicism and Orthodox Jewry in an era of reconciliation. The first part is devoted to the enthusiasm of the Christians in approaching the Jewish people, as well as to the internal debates that arose in the Church after the reconciliation. In the second part, the book discusses the cold response of Orthodox Judaism, including the suspicion raised by the desire of Christians to turn a new leaf, and the concerns of the rabbis at the possibility of excessive closeness.
The captivating book by Ben Johanan, a Jewish-Christian relations and theology scholar currently teaching at Berlin's Humboldt University, is based on library research and personal interviews with some of its protagonists. It is written with scientific momentum and enriches readers with essential information to help us understand ourselves and others. Authors should be congratulated on their good writing, fresh style, and fluent and convincing phrasing.
As noted, early in the book, Ben Johanan described the intense efforts of Catholic theologians to understand the meaning of the Holocaust and the Church's anti-Jewish heritage. On the one hand, there is a feeling of guilt and an acceptance of responsibility; on the other hand, fear of a collapse of the theological infrastructure that has crystallized for nearly 2,000 years. The Declaration of the Second Vatican Council concludes a chapter in the history of Christianity and opens a new one. The decisions taken, however, raised new questions, which remain unresolved today.
The declaration involved the withdrawal of two fundamental postulates regarding the Jewish people: guilt at the crucifixion of Jesus and the claim that they were no longer the so-called elect. The third idea, the aspiration to see their conversion in the End Times, gives in to the hope that in the future all people will be united in belief in one God, a formula that has a familiar biblical twist. Two issues remain open: Jewish exile and the creation of the State of Israel.
After the Jews were liberated from Jesus' murder, and after it had been determined that they would continue to be loved by God, questions arose about why they were punished by exile and what it means to re-establish the Jewish state. If the Jews are still loved, what is the validity of the dogma of the ancient Church which states that "there is no salvation outside the Church"? Are Jews exempt from this rule?
The author points to the rise of conservative trends after the Second Vatican Council, not only as a natural response to the reformists' victories in the body, but also against the backdrop of the 1968 student revolts in Western Europe and the United States. , which raises concerns about the erosion of belief that will lead believers to abandon their faith.
The book vividly describes the readiness of the Church to face the challenges of modernity, to look in the mirror and carry out a self-examination without fear of shaking the foundations that stand. It is not easy for a 2,000 year old religion to retract the dogma that billions of people command to follow. It is no small matter to criticize respectable individuals who are canonized, on canonical books taught from generation to generation. A religion, in essence, finds it difficult to examine itself critically, because in doing so its aspirations for metaphysical truth are lost. A pope who sits on Peter's throne does not wish to claim that all his predecessors were wrong.
Pope Paul VI during the Second Vatican Council. [Photo: Peter Geymayer]
Ben Johanan describes the courage, sincerity and determination of the supporters of reform in the Church, who face the doubts and fears of conservatives. The most important point of his book is the vivid description of Pope John Paul II's visit to Israel in March 2000. The prayers he offered at the Western Wall, his speech at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and his request for forgiveness from the Jewish people. ignited a deep shift in the relationship between Jews and Christians. His symbolic movement created a new kind of dialogue, based on human and diplomatic friendship that pushed doctrinal arguments to the point of view of a handful of experts.
The 'idolatry' problem
In the second part, this book presents the internal discourse of Orthodox Jews on Christianity. The author deliberately chooses Orthodoxy, of all options, as a counterweight to the Catholic Church because of its hegemonic position in Israel and its important role in defining Jewish identity, although it is doubtful this choice will be favored by liberal American Jews. Ultimately, Ben Johanan concluded that, while Christian discourse was aimed at peace, Orthodox Jewish discourse responded to Christianity with increasing hostility, which preceded the Second Vatican Council and deepened thereafter.
One example is the halakhic discussion of whether Christianity includes the avoda zara - Hebrew for "idolatry." During the Middle Ages, there were differences of opinion on this issue. Some admit that Christians believe in the divine source of the Torah and their religious intentions are sincere. However, in the eyes of most rabbinical judges deciding on halakha matters, belief in the divinity of Jesus and the Holy Trinity was considered evidence of the multiplicity of gods, hence idolatry. The closer relationship between Jews and Christians in the modern era may have resulted in a softening of expectations for Christianity, but such as Yosef Salmon, a history professor, and Prof. Aviad Hacohen, a law scholar has shown, Modern Jewish orthodoxy continues to view Christianity as idolatry. Indeed, according to Ben Johanan,
An increasingly negative attitude towards Christianity is also seen in efforts to restore the expression of Jewish literature that contradicts Christianity and to reveal new truths that were hidden and censored since the invention of printing, for fear of incurring Christian wrath. Among censors in the past, some genuinely wanted to become enlightened Jews, as the Israeli historian Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin has pointed out. Normalization and political freedom eliminated fear of Christianity and served to compensate for the inferiority felt by Jews over the years.
It is not easy for a 2,000 year old religion to retract the dogma that billions of people command to follow.Another question that the halakhic literature considers is whether, now that the Jews have come to power, the State of Israel should destroy the churches under its rule, or whether this act should be avoided simply for fear of angering the "goyim," such as Rabbi Yehuda Gershuni (disciple of the Rabbi. Abraham Isaac Kook) and Rabbi Menachem Kasher are defended.
A more extreme approach is also seen in the realm of music. In the 19th century, Rabbi Moshe Hazan praised Christian music effectively, while Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg (died 2006) expressed surprise at his approach. I must note that it is not only religious chants that disturb the Orthodox. On two occasions I have encountered hostile responses to Schiller's chant "Ode to Joy" ("Everyone becomes brothers") in Beethoven's Ninth, because it is considered "Christian music."
One of the important innovations of this book is its discussion of the religious meaning of Jewish history in the school of thought of Rabbi Yehuda Ashkenazi (nicknamed "Manitou") and the rabbis of his circle. They were mostly educated in France and immigrated to Israel after the Six Day War, approaching Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, a key institution of the national religious movement, founded by Rabbi Kook in Jerusalem. Ashkenazi is among the few figures in Orthodox Judaism who are relatively familiar with Christianity. He stated that for 2,000 years Christianity claimed that the Jews did not understand their own scriptures, that they were no longer the Israel of choice and that they were punished with exile for crucifying God's child. This accusation threatens the identity of the Jews.
According to Ashkenazi, things turned around after the founding of Israel. Today, Christianity is suffering from loss of identity. It was not the Jewish eyes covered by the veil that prevented them from understanding the Old Testament; it's a blind Christian who doesn't understand the New Testament. The re-establishment of Jewish sovereignty proves that the Jews were right in their prolonged dispute with Christianity. The realization of the prophetic return to Zion proves that the Jewish interpretation of the Bible, not the Christian one, is correct. Instead of Jews serving as "witnesses of faith" to the justification of Christianity, Ashkenazi said, Christians now serve as astonished witnesses to the rise of the Jewish people.
Thus a new interpretation of the creation of the State of Israel developed. Not just a "national home" as others have, but a religious event meant to deny the Christian faith. Everything went awry, "and the time has come to reverse this method," wrote Manitou.
Rabbi Kook
One of the many virtues of Ben Johanan's book is his in-depth observation of the conceptual mosaic of the two religions, and how the idea of a new religion develops amid the unbroken preservation of the coherence and inner balance of the totality of religious thought. In contrast to their frozen imagery, the two religions move and shift endlessly with full awareness of themselves, their historical circumstances and the ideas milling around them.
'Biblical program'
Many reflections have come to my mind while reading this book, and I would like to present three here. The first is the apparent and surprising similarity between the interpretation of history put forward by the "French", and that of the Church Fathers. Indeed, Augustinian doctrine seems to be enjoying a revival at Mercaz Harav Yeshiva. Almost at the same time the Catholic world is retreating from the old theology which saw in history the realization of the victory of the Church over Judaism - that same theology, in its opposite form, gained new life among the adherents of Jewish Zionist messianism. The turning point in Christendom occurred in 1965; in the Jewish community in 1967. According to Oury Cherki, one of the rabbis of the circle, The Six Day War is to be held with a higher regard than the War of Independence. It is a "biblical event in every sense of the word." Now it is the turn of the Jews to look at history as realizing Judaism's triumph over the Church.
Unfortunately, as the Church moved forward and called for interfaith and fraternal conciliation, the Jewish Orthodox circle revived old controversies and claimed victory. Rabbi Cherki even expects Christians to believe in Jews in the place of Jesus, because "Jews are divine"! Manitou wrote, "Gradually Christians discovered that Jews do not need to be Christians but Christians need to be Judai."
Granted, it may be pleasing to believe that the enemy is wrong, but is contemporary Judaism destined to repeat mistakes made by Christianity in its dishonorable past? Rather than aspiring to convert Christians to Jews and win over religious disputes, it would be better for Judaism to reconcile and respect the religions that human civilization has created.
While Christian discourse aims at conciliation, Orthodox Jewish discourse responds to Christianity with growing hostility, which preceded the Second Vatican Council and deepened thereafter.
This unconscious link to Christian thought patterns is also seen in the homeless and therefore universal Jewish conception of the Diaspora. Whereas in the eyes of the philosopher George Steiner and Satmar Rebbe this is the ideal Jew, according to the doctrine of Abraham Isaac Kook, Diaspora Jews appear almost like a Christian. The practical disconnect from political life made him an isolated, abstract being, just as Christianity prefers to abstain from material life, biblical commandments and sexuality, and become a religion of spirituality itself.
In doing so, new material - sacred territories - was added to the classic Zionist "Diaspora negation". The slogan adopted by Rabbi Kook's disciples, "Land of Israel, the people of Israel, the Torah of Israel," replaces the slogan of the 18th century Ramchal (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto), "The Holy One, Praise Him, the Torah and Israel are one." God was removed, his place was taken over by the Land of Israel, and the Torah was sent down to the third place.
The religious-messianic approach of these supporters also gave a new dimension to the old dispute between Christianity and Judaism about the prophecies of redemption and comfort uttered by the Hebrew prophets. Christianity views it as a prophecy that was fulfilled at the coming of Jesus and in the Christianization of the Roman Empire. Jewish thought in the Middle Ages saw it as a promise of a future to come. Now the future has come true.
Yet one might wonder: If the prophetic destruction of the First Temple succeeded in predicting the destruction of Jerusalem that would occur close to their time, and if the consolation prophecies were able to predict events that would occur 2,500 years later - why didn't any prophet predict the destruction of the Second Temple? And what about the old exile of the Jews, which lasted 2,000, not 70, years, or the Shoah, the most terrible catastrophe to ever befall the Jewish people - why wasn't it foretold by prophets peering into the distant future? Any unbiased reader of comfort prophecy understands that it refers to a return to Zion after the only event of destruction in 586 BC known to the prophets. But faith and naivety are often intertwined.
The second reflection evoked by the book relates to his almost exclusive work with the rabbis. But hostility to Christianity was also found among Orthodox intellectuals. I will note here as a striking example of the late Yeshayahu Leibowitz, the "high priest" of the liberal left in Israel. The book “I Wanted to Ask You, Professor Leibowitz” (Hebrew) contains a letter that the professor wrote to David Flusser, who was a professor of early Christianity and Second Temple Judaism, during the period of Eichmann's trial (in Jerusalem in 1961).
Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz [Photo: Alex Levac]
Flusser has expressed satisfaction that Eichmann is unwilling to take oath on a copy of the New Testament in court. "Eichmann separated himself from his Christian God and thus served Christianity," wrote Flusser. He added his hope that it "will be a historic change for my Christian brothers to clear their religious consciences and will allow the Church to be closer to our common Father in heaven."
Leibowitz was furious at Flusser's efforts "to purify the [sheretz] pest of Christianity for a number of reasons." In his view, it is the hatred of Judaism and Judaism that gave birth to Christianity, and "finds perfect expression in the sinful folio [in Hebrew avon, sinful, plus gelion, folio - wordplay on" Evangelion "] and the letters- apostasy though. "
Leibowitz uses harsh language against Christianity, refraining from calling Paul the Evangelist by name and calling him a heretic "by the way," in contrast to his conversion narrative of deep conviction and after Jesus was revealed to him. Christianity is an "abomination of destruction," a paganism that fabricates the forged symbols of Judaism. "We condemn Christianity three times every day," wrote Leibowitz.
He did not change his mind after the Second Vatican Council, but instead held fast to his view that Christianity is "paganism". In a 1987 letter to an unnamed correspondent, he wrote: "Your words make me suspect that you are an apostate, and I do not want to have discussions with apostates." Meshumad, the Hebrew term, is a derogatory idiom for a converted Jew. Leibowitz, for example, called Heinrich Heine "the most despicable and abominable figure in Jewish history." In a 1975 letter he called Meshumad "hated by the people, covenant breakers, blasphemers, blasphemers and the curse of God."
While dozens of theological students, clergy and monks, Catholics and Protestants, flock to Jerusalem each year to study Judaism there, one cannot even imagine Israeli schools teaching the New Testament as additional background for understanding the Talmud.
At the end of a class at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2000, where I was quoting passages from the New Testament, a student approached me and asked if I would quote more quotes in future classes. I told him I would give him two answers. First one: yes. Second: In all 2,700 pages of the Babylonian Talmud, there is only one quote from a Gentile book, namely from the New Testament (Babylonian Talmud Tractate Shabbat 116a-b). What is allowed for the Talmud is also permissible for a talmid (disciple). He never appeared in my class again.
The final comment refers to the nature of "Judaism" with which the Church seeks reconciliation. A reader of Ben Johanan's book has the impression that almost every step taken by Christian theologians refers to Judaism as the "Old Testament" religion, which predates Christianity. This shows that the dialogue between the two religions is still in its infancy, since Judaism is not a religion in the Bible but the religion of the Talmud, rabbinical literature, kabbala and prayer. Christian theology is still in dialogue with itself - not yet with the Judaism that has its parallels.
Against this background, pioneering academic research on both sides stands out. Over the last generation, Jewish and Christian scholars in academia have shown great interest in parallel developments in the two religions even after their paths split. The Hebrew University has established a center for the study of Christianity, and with symbolic parallelism, Cardinal Bea's Center for the Study of Judaism has been established at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University. Dozens of books and hundreds of articles published over the past decades have been devoted to discussing the intimate and complex relationship between Judaism and Christianity throughout history. Ben Johanan's Karma book itself is an important milestone in this academic opening - which in my opinion is a direct result of the Second Vatican Council.
Thanks to the empathy the author shows for the subject, the final product is not only an enlightening research study but also an intellectual, cultural, and political challenge. It is an important book for Jews, separately, and for Christians, separately, and also for anyone for whom the Judeo-Christian story is an important element in defining their identity.
I will close with an excerpt from the book's epilogue: "The challenge to the establishment of the State of Israel against Judaism is similar to that posed by the Christianization of the empire to Christianity." For me, the author also hopes that the results will be different. The book proves that academics have the ability to bring people closer together and bring peace to the world.
“Reconciliation and Its Dissatisfaction: Unresolved Tensions in Judeo-Christian Relations,” by Karma Ben Johanan. Tel Aviv University Press (Hebrew), 460 pages, 98 shekels
Professor Israel Jacob Yuval is founder and academic director of the Mandel Scholion Research Center, and heads the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Advanced Studies in Humanities at Hebrew University. His book "Two Nations in Your Womb: Perceptions of Jewish and Christians" (Magnes Press, 2000; in Hebrew) won the 2002 Bialik Prize in Jewish Studies and Literature.
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