Islamophobia in western media is based on false premises

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; display: none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimJeidX7Iz25_xdlEJ7qlj_UJNHBSZxdHKZeK3p-16BxXgGvd7aBvVeusTvWDEKBpQUWzs_Aong3qNHbrBwrWgbV87dw5q5c0f6heuLCgH-JgxCkOvxAvHYoOLRUcA-b-NxBbj5ZqVLlo/s0/islamophobia+by+media.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="264" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimJeidX7Iz25_xdlEJ7qlj_UJNHBSZxdHKZeK3p-16BxXgGvd7aBvVeusTvWDEKBpQUWzs_Aong3qNHbrBwrWgbV87dw5q5c0f6heuLCgH-JgxCkOvxAvHYoOLRUcA-b-NxBbj5ZqVLlo/s0/islamophobia+by+media.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although anti-Muslim sentiments certainly existed long before 2001, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the response to them intensified anti-Muslim tropes, namely the presumption that Islam is inherently violent or that Muslims have a propensity for terrorism. Since 9/11, specific individuals have turned <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/10/is-islamophobia-real-maher-harris-aslan/381411/">Islamophobia into an industry</a>, scapegoating Muslims to further their own agendas.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Like other forms of intolerance, however, Islamophobia can be objectively assessed. Empirical studies are an effective means of exposing this prejudice, one that plagues both sides of the political spectrum.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anti-Muslim rhetoric</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The rhetoric of Canadian conservative author Mark Steyn is typical of right-wing Islamophobia. For instance, Steyn claims that “<a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/mark-steyn-the-barbarians-are-already-inside-theres-nowhere-to-get-away-from-them">most Muslims either wish or are indifferent to the death of the societies in which they live</a>.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Likewise, Dutch politician and right-wing populist Geert Wilders refers to the Qur’an as “<a href="https://bridge.georgetown.edu/research/factsheet-geert-wilders/">a source of inspiration for, and justification of, hatred, violence and terrorism in the world, Europe and America</a>.” British conservative political commentator Douglas Murray suggests that to reduce terrorism, the United Kingdom requires “<a href="https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/nick-ferrari/douglas-murray-less-terrorism-the-uk-less-islam/">a bit less Islam</a>.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prominent left-wing commentators also contribute to the same scaremongering stereotypes as their conservative counterparts. For example, American neuroscientist and new atheist Sam Harris asserts that “<a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bombing-our-illusions_b_8615">there is a direct link between the doctrine of Islam and Muslim terrorism</a>.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Similarly, American comedian and television producer Bill Maher believes that there is a “<a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/cowardice-bill-mahers-anti-muslim-bigotry/">connecting tissue</a>” of intolerance and brutality that binds 1.6 billion Muslims to terrorist groups like ISIS. And Somali-born Dutch American activist and writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali states that “<a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/11/09/islam-is-a-religion-of-violence-ayaan-hirsi-ali-debate-islamic-state/">violence is inherent in the doctrine of Islam</a>.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">None of these characterizations, however, are sufficient from a scholarly viewpoint. Self-evident positions and gross exaggerations tend to detract from the main issue: whether the depiction of Muslims as violent extremists is misleading.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Most Muslims reject violent extremism</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Globally speaking, Muslims overwhelmingly reject suicide bombings and other forms of violence against civilians in defence of Islam. Studies found that <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-overview/#extremism-widely-rejected">Muslims view such extremism as rarely or never justified</a>, including 96 per cent in Azerbaijan, 95 per cent in Kazakhstan, 92 per cent in Indonesia and 91 per cent in Iraq.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 2016 report What Muslims Want, the most extensive research of British Muslims ever conducted, found that <a href="https://www.icmunlimited.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Policy-Exchange-ICM-Muslims-Survey-web.pdf">nine of 10 British Muslims reject terrorism outright</a>. When asked “To what extent do you sympathize with or condemn people who commit terrorist actions as a form of political protest,” 90 per cent condemned these actions, five per cent didn’t know and three per cent neither condemned nor condoned political acts of terror.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That’s hardly “most Muslims,” as Steyn contends.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378129/original/file-20210111-21-3ea3h6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Protestors at a public rally carrying an anti-racism banner on Sept. 5, 2020 in Newcastle, U.K. (Shutterstock)" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Protestors at a public rally carrying an anti-racism banner on Sept. 5, 2020 in Newcastle, U.K. (Shutterstock)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">When a large-scale global survey asked if “attacks on civilians are morally justified,” similar results were found when <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/migrant-integration/librarydoc/the-gallup-coexist-index-2009-a-global-study-of-interfaith-relations">comparing Muslim attitudes to the general public in France, Germany and the United Kingdom</a>. In fact, the responses were almost indistinguishable: French public (one per cent) versus Muslims in Paris (two per cent); German public (one per cent) versus Muslims in Berlin (0.5 per cent); and British public (three per cent) versus Muslims in London (two per cent).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In North America, research outcomes were strikingly similar. In a 2016 Environics Institute survey, <a href="https://www.environicsinstitute.org/docs/default-source/project-documents/survey-of-muslims-in-canada-2016/final-report.pdf">only one per cent of Canadian Muslims endorsed the following statement: “many” or “most” Muslims in Canada support violent extremism</a>. When asked if killing civilians for political, social or religious reasons can ever be justified, a 2017 Pew Research Center survey found that <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2017/07/26/terrorism-and-concerns-about-extremism/">84 per cent of American Muslims confirmed that it is “never/rarely” justifiable</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Because 12 per cent of American Muslims replied that violence against civilians can be “sometimes/often” justified, anti-Muslim activists argue that hundreds of thousands of Muslims remain radicalized. The qualitative responses of Muslims are quite revealing in this regard: violence is permitted if attacked, both as individuals and as a nation. In other words, in self-defense. When the U.S. general public was surveyed, their answers were practically identical: 83 per cent and 14 per cent respectively.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Contrary to Maher’s belief that the world’s Muslims support terrorist organizations like ISIS, most people in countries with significant Muslim populations have an overwhelmingly negative view of ISIS, <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/08/09/muslims-and-islam-key-findings-in-the-u-s-and-around-the-world/">including virtually 100 per cent of respondents in Lebanon, 94 per cent in Jordan and 84 per cent in the Palestinian territories</a> (10 per cent of Palestinians had no opinion of ISIS).</div><div style="text-align: justify;">False assumptions</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Islamophobia is an apt term for classifying inaccurate assumptions concerning Muslims and Islam. Those forwarding an anti-Muslim agenda believe that their viewpoints are coherent, but as Eli Massey and Nathan J. Robinson point out, the function of a prejudice “<a href="https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/10/being-mr-reasonable">leads us to believe that our generalizations are based on reason and evidence, even when reason and evidence actually point in an entirely different direction</a>.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The main assertion that Muslims largely support extremist violence is groundless. Because Islamophobia distorts the western image of Muslims, scientific studies serve as an important corrective in two important ways. First, they expose Islamophobic attitudes that have gripped the West since 9/11 and second, they help to decrease the spread of anti-Muslim vitriol by providing a rational forum for discussion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/stuart-chambers-1125960" rel="author" style="background-color: white; color: #006699; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 700; outline: none; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none;"><img alt="" class="lazyloaded" data-src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/avatars/1125960/width170/file-20200615-65952-83eh71.jpg" itemprop="image" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/avatars/1125960/width170/file-20200615-65952-83eh71.jpg" style="background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border-radius: 50%; border: none; display: block; float: left; margin: 0px 12px 18px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 48px;" /><span class="fn author-name" itemprop="name" style="background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Stuart Chambers</span></a><span face=""Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #383838; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;"></span><p class="role" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #555768; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 18px 60px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">Professor, Sociological and Anthropological Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa -  <a href="https://theconversation.com/islamophobia-in-western-media-is-based-on-false-premises-151443" target="_blank">The Conversation</a></p><p class="role" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #555768; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 18px 60px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p></div>

Islamophobia in western media is based on false premises

Although anti-Muslim sentiments certainly existed long before 2001, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the response to them intensified anti...

Islamophobia in western media is based on false premises

Although anti-Muslim sentiments certainly existed long before 2001, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the response to them intensified anti...

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Paul and His Thoughts

<div class="separator" style="clear: both;display:none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0qU41lCd5Ltds0aqmg7zhmXhiiH2VsRur68XJP0GQ2ndNMjD0ACGYJvYWTlcH_Wje0GeebZKwV-z6Wq3sGkiSruhnwXR3-eEqiQt35CDwj1RuZAcvn29Y6S4ice2vPV6_v9GMBGkR8Xo/s800/paul+and+his+thoughts+stands.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="800" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0qU41lCd5Ltds0aqmg7zhmXhiiH2VsRur68XJP0GQ2ndNMjD0ACGYJvYWTlcH_Wje0GeebZKwV-z6Wq3sGkiSruhnwXR3-eEqiQt35CDwj1RuZAcvn29Y6S4ice2vPV6_v9GMBGkR8Xo/s600/paul+and+his+thoughts+stands.jpg" width="600"/></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1XPco_PkVf3Gg22t20RVmoKXQ5u309Tv2HsxnqZDG_-uXc5ckZuUKPhwePC_QQgl6He8EkZ7qAHfUxAWnZhhOpXPPxIugTQTBdMT0iFWblKqTvKILMBJYRCeI8_pFFZQAu4eHuSW13mY/s0/paul+and+his+thoughts+laid+600x500.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 0em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1XPco_PkVf3Gg22t20RVmoKXQ5u309Tv2HsxnqZDG_-uXc5ckZuUKPhwePC_QQgl6He8EkZ7qAHfUxAWnZhhOpXPPxIugTQTBdMT0iFWblKqTvKILMBJYRCeI8_pFFZQAu4eHuSW13mY/s0/paul+and+his+thoughts+laid+600x500.jpg"/></a></div><div style="text-align:justify; display:none;">A comprehensive compilation of analitical studies about Paul and his significant role in forming the Christianity from the very beginning until his tragic death, beheaded by Caesar Nero's executioner.</div> <div style="background-color: #4c66a4; color: white; font-family: oswald; font-size: 14px; height: 32px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 32px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; position: relative; text-shadow: rgb(0, 0, 0) 1px 1px 1px; text-transform: uppercase; width: 100%;"> <span style="background: none 0% 0% repeat scroll rgb(76, 102, 164); color: white; height: 32px; margin: 0px 10px 0px -10px; padding: 5px 15px; width: 100%;">Paul And His Thoughts</span></div> <script type="text/javascript" src="/feeds/posts/default/-/St.Paul?published&alt=json-in-script&max-results=999&&callback=labelthumbs"></script><br /> </div> <div style="clear:both"/></div>

Paul and His Thoughts

A comprehensive compilation of analitical studies about Paul and his significant role in forming the Christianity from the very beginning u...

Paul and His Thoughts

A comprehensive compilation of analitical studies about Paul and his significant role in forming the Christianity from the very beginning u...

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What is Ilm Al Hadith (Science of Hadith)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHswuG4v1eCJVw05JijCxW6roPEt_Ww7KSRA4o9F7ydoln2vuuUnY4gvwBIZv6ymYxkVeRZYMp1N7g1LbQHgk-Y4zX4TvS_2QqbaBJIX33sD8qoy1S83BOua4Z3oSrMzjXooYp-zkzP7E/s0/ulumul+hadits.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 0em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="699" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHswuG4v1eCJVw05JijCxW6roPEt_Ww7KSRA4o9F7ydoln2vuuUnY4gvwBIZv6ymYxkVeRZYMp1N7g1LbQHgk-Y4zX4TvS_2QqbaBJIX33sD8qoy1S83BOua4Z3oSrMzjXooYp-zkzP7E/s0/ulumul+hadits.jpg"/></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trirong; font-size: medium;"><b>Define Ilm Al Hadith (Science of Hadith)</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ilm al hadith means Science of Hadith, which refers to the Knowledge of the scrutiny of hadith literature. Basically every hadith has a chain (isnad) of narrators that are going all the way back to the Prophet ﷺ. Studying biography of each narrator in a chain who transmits the hadith, in addition to comparing it with other chains of that same hadith, if any, including studying linguists of text as well as circumstances involved when particular hadith was narrated and others factors involved in recording are all included in the subject of ilm al hadith. There exists a few common misconceptions that the collection of hadith took place many years, in most cases 200 years, after the Prophet's death or that its initial collection was started by the students of the companions, and Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his companions never supported or indulged in this activity. Such misconceptions are false because there is evidence that hadith were being collected during the Prophet's life (discussed in subsequent posts) and in fact the foundation and practice of Ilm Al hadith (Science of Hadith) was initiated by his companions, in a more organized manner especially during the rule of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umar">Umar ibn Khattab</a> (r.a), the 2nd successor of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trirong; font-size: medium;"><b>Foundation of Ilm Al Hadith (Science of Hadith)</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Umar (r.a) was the first to realize the necessity of the proper sifting of the hadith narrations. Those who narrated any hadith were required to produce some witnesses in support of the tradition. In this way a rich corpus of Hadith was built up. Umar (r.a) classified the traditions in two broad categories. One category of traditions pertained to religious, moral and social affairs pertaining to the community at large. The other traditions revolved round the person of the Holy Prophet ﷺ and pertained to his words and deeds as a human being i.e. the Prophet's Sunnah. Umar (r.a) distinguished between these two categories.[1] All matters falling in the first category were binding and had the status of law. Umar (r.a) evolved the following principles on the basis of which the traditions were to be accepted:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(1) The report should be literally faithful;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">(2) Every Hadith narrated should carry with it the name of the narrator and the chain of narrators;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">(3) The narrators must be men of proven faith and integrity;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">(4) In judging the veracity of a report the occasion and circumstances involved should be taken into consideration;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">(5) The report should not be repugnant to the Holy Quran;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">(6) The report should be rational.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trirong; font-size: medium;"><b>Subsequent Developments in Ilm Al hadith (Science of Hadith)</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">By the end of 1st century Hijrah (100 AH - 720 CE) majority Companions passed away leaving their compilations behind including the framework and process for hadith evaluation taught to Tabi’een (their students). However this process needed to be a bit more supervised especially to avoid and separate the unauthentic traditions that began circulation in subsequent years. Therefore, during the rule of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umar_II">Umar bin Abdul Aziz</a> (r.a) (717 - 720 CE), one of the Ummayad Caliphs (also known as 2nd Umar due to his piety), ordered the collection of ahadith on a large scale. He assigned learned scholars and hadith experts of Madinah such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Bakr_ibn_Muhammad_ibn_Hazm">Abu Bakr Ibn Hazam </a>(Qadi of Madinah) and famous I<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Shihab_al-Zuhri">bn Shihab al-Zuhri</a>, who were also students of Prophet's companions, Ayesha (r.a) and Anas bin Malik (r.a), expert hadith specialists and teachers. During the mid of 2nd century Hijrah (150 AH), hadith centers came to exist and scholars like Imam Malik (Died 179 AH) and Sufyan Thauri (Died - 168 AH) and several others opened their centers to teach hadith with rules as laid down by their predecessors.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In subsequent years rules of hadith collection were expanded and further conditions were added such as ilm al rijal (names of narrators and their biographies) and each hadith that included a chain (isnad) of narrators was classified based on the reliability of the narrators such as their piety, intelligence, if they were of forgetful nature, or if they were known to ever have lied. It was based on the strength of the narrators is how each hadith came to be classified with a status such as Dhaeef (weak), Sahih (authentic), Mutawattur (narrated through several chains), Hassan (good - lesser than Sahih), Ghareeb (strange due to some interruption in chain). Based on each status later compilations were made such as Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, with sahih meaning they are very authentic due to evaluation involved in their chains. One of the authors of Hadith book comments on this unique process: “Every Muhaddith (hadith expert) even today, when describes a hadith, he suffixes it with a specific name of a hadith denoting its level of authenticity (such as ‘Hassan’ or ‘Sahih’), then quotes the book of hadith where its documented (such as Musnad of Ahmad) and then prefixes it with an unbroken chain of narrators spreading over the last 1400 years through whom he received the hadith. No other religion, nation, party or even small group of people can show the parallel of what early Muslims did to ensure the authenticity of hadith and Sunnah.”[2]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In subsequent centuries scholars studied these ahadith, added their comments to explanations given by their teachers and developed upon the wisdom and knowledge, resulting in science of Fiqh (practices/ruling) & Shariah (Islamic law). It is extremely sad to see that today many Muslims doubt the authenticity process of all hadith or some of it, without researching. And worst is that some even compare the uniquely systematic collection of this literature with collection of Christian Gospels that clearly lacked any consistent methodology and process in its compilation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">References:</div><div style="text-align: justify;">[1] Masud-ul-Hasan, Professor. 1982. "<a href="http://www.alim.org/library/biography/khalifa/content/KUM/16/1" target="_blank">Khalifa bin al-Khattab - Hadith and Fiqh</a>." Alim - The world's most useful Islamic software. Accessed 03 05, 2019.  . (Masud-ul-Hasan 1982)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">[2] Kazi, Mazhar. April 1, 2007. Guidance from Hadith & Sunnah. Al-Huda Publications - (Kazi April 1, 2007)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Trirong; font-size: 14px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">[Courtesy of  </b></span><span face="Helvetica, Sans, sans-serif" style="background: 0px 0px white; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Trirong; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/rizqan_kareem/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #bb1904; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.17s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Zaid Shah</a><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #525252; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> |</span></b></span></span><b style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Trirong; font-size: 14px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Rizqan Kareem | <a href="https://www.rizqankareem.com/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #bb1904; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.17s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Most Excellent Sustenance</a>]</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Trirong; font-size: 14px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Trirong; font-size: 14px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></b></div>

What is Ilm Al Hadith (Science of Hadith)

Define Ilm Al Hadith (Science of Hadith) Ilm al hadith means Science of Hadith, which refers to the Knowledge of the scrutiny of hadith lite...

What is Ilm Al Hadith (Science of Hadith)

Define Ilm Al Hadith (Science of Hadith) Ilm al hadith means Science of Hadith, which refers to the Knowledge of the scrutiny of hadith lite...

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The Quran on Jihad as Struggle vs Jihad as Fighting

<div class="separator" style="clear: both;display:none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZWcdEGo5Zo5hScnz4XnWMJaGezKIEn1fkDvU_9ap1ya3APn6spfDXsx6tUnE7RFAAHlL8XjxRDUPvTivpwCFteZRF90RCmyyg5XDA_XTZylcXFef_SxjLCvO3siV9FwREeVcoVY-wphg/s0/jihad.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="699" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZWcdEGo5Zo5hScnz4XnWMJaGezKIEn1fkDvU_9ap1ya3APn6spfDXsx6tUnE7RFAAHlL8XjxRDUPvTivpwCFteZRF90RCmyyg5XDA_XTZylcXFef_SxjLCvO3siV9FwREeVcoVY-wphg/s0/jihad.jpg"/></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSBdB1EcZJ83IhyzYuJZ7jkQutCz_gpatmyxzbxhrPPRYDtKx2PSFD3MbMmbNzz3Cj7-S9JcFRma_kqPyE-9k6LIBto083Bf1L7KzYc0QclXAbCeHMSQNdphpMtNzLWFc76uh10IUp9l8/s0/jihad+600x500.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 0em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSBdB1EcZJ83IhyzYuJZ7jkQutCz_gpatmyxzbxhrPPRYDtKx2PSFD3MbMmbNzz3Cj7-S9JcFRma_kqPyE-9k6LIBto083Bf1L7KzYc0QclXAbCeHMSQNdphpMtNzLWFc76uh10IUp9l8/s0/jihad+600x500.jpg"/></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Jihad means striving and struggle in the way of Allah ﷻ. Jihad does not mean to kill. Qitaal means to kill. The majority of Verses on Jihad mentioned in the Quran are not associated with Qitaal. The only Surah that mentions Jihad with Qitaal is Surah Taubah (chapter 9) and that also in regards to lawful defensive war and not aggression. Sheikh Irshad Soofi Siddiqui Chishti of South Africa, in his book Madinah to Karbala, mentions the following facts about Jihad and its revelation in the Quran: “There are 35 verses of the Holy Quran which contain the word Jihad ﺟﻬﺎﺩ or its derivatives. Of the 35 verses of the Holy Quran which contain the word Jihad ﺟﻬﺎﺩ or its derivatives, not a single verse contain Jihad ﺟﻬﺎﺩ as suggesting aggressive fighting and killing. Not a single verse combines the word Jihad ﺟﻬﺎﺩ with qitaal (killing) fighting or warfare. This is with regard to the text of the Holy Quran. Putting the 35 verses which deals with Jihad ﺟﻬﺎﺩ into context, 30+ verses have no context or connection with fighting or warfare. There are only few verses which mention the word Jihad with Qitaal. They possess the context of lawful defensive warfare and they all appear in one chapter (Surah). They are in the 9th Surah, at-Tawbah (Repentance) and they refer to a lawful defensive war.”[1]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Many Quranic verses that contain the word Jihad were revealed in Makkah during the 1st ten years of Prophet’s preaching, and in Makkah the Prophet and His Companions never engaged in any combats. In fact they bore the persecution patiently. For example the following Verses revealed in Makkah contain the word Jihad and the context in which they were revealed has nothing to do with fighting or Qitaal. In the following Verse Allah ﷻ advises the believers to strive with the Quran (i.e. using knowledge as your weapon) and even refers to such struggle as Jihad Kabeera i.e. Great Struggle: … but strive hard against them, by means of this [Quran], with utmost striving (Jihad Kabeera)."[2] In the following Verse Allah ﷻ mentions that doing good and righteous deeds are a Jihad (struggle) His path: "...But We shall be sure to guide to Our ways those who strive hard (jahadoo) for Our cause: God is with those who do good.."[3[ Similar verses that mention Jihad (struggle), majority of them in the Quran are not in reference to Qitaal or killing, but inspire the believers to struggle in the way of righteousness and keep patience at what they experience when struggling, because suffering brings them spiritually closer to Allah ﷻ and impacts their enemies by making them realize their own errors. However, as a last resort if the enemy is hell bent on eliminating the believers and Islam, then in such extreme scenario there is room to Jihad (struggle) and fight the enemy for the sake of defending one's honor and faith.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">References:</div><div style="text-align: justify;">[1] Chishti, Irshad Soofi Siddiqui. 2010. Madinah to Karbala Holy Blood on Unholy Hands Volume One. Abd al-Qadir Soofi Publications - (Chishti 2010)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">[2] Al Quran 25:52 - Asad Translation</div><div style="text-align: justify;">[3] Al Quran 29:69 - www.Quran.com</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Trirong; font-size: 14px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">[Courtesy of  </b></span><span style="background: 0px 0px white; border: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Sans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Trirong; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/rizqan_kareem/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #bb1904; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.17s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Zaid Shah</a><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #525252; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> |</span></b></span></span><b style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Trirong; font-size: 14px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Rizqan Kareem | <a href="https://www.rizqankareem.com/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #bb1904; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.17s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Most Excellent Sustenance</a>]</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Trirong; font-size: 14px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Trirong; font-size: 14px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Trirong; font-size: 14px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></b></div><table class="wsite-not-footer" id="blogTable" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #525252; font-family: Lato, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: justify; width: 1000px;"><tbody><tr></tr></tbody></table>

The Quran on Jihad as Struggle vs Jihad as Fighting

Jihad means striving and struggle in the way of Allah ﷻ. Jihad does not mean to kill. Qitaal means to kill. The majority of Verses on Jihad ...

The Quran on Jihad as Struggle vs Jihad as Fighting

Jihad means striving and struggle in the way of Allah ﷻ. Jihad does not mean to kill. Qitaal means to kill. The majority of Verses on Jihad ...

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Hadith Collections in Early Islam

<div class="separator" style="clear: both;display:none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtTl7jsuY1_9QLBql5LjiAsmhJACqDjzcVKsOEMwO1KLScqM6lMG_wkytgsLTl-3bsvv7pwSzb506KXRnfs1hjMSOmY8BM4HAS5-maI73xHEP7Z667EwO0fFNxyT9HRafnO6jqj2peW6E/s0/hadits+collection-2.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="699" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtTl7jsuY1_9QLBql5LjiAsmhJACqDjzcVKsOEMwO1KLScqM6lMG_wkytgsLTl-3bsvv7pwSzb506KXRnfs1hjMSOmY8BM4HAS5-maI73xHEP7Z667EwO0fFNxyT9HRafnO6jqj2peW6E/s0/hadits+collection-2.jpg"/></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP3qoGLw5QxuQuBiCxBTQ6e0wMNMSdXbjrYS4cODv3QOSsefMjdiABcsyBEMTph59LslaDoYukF33w61j1UYEXGDdir99Oi4FlAXefYZeDlJnYDpn6QA_uCpM5sapVT9lSKWCNf_LUBc4/s0/hadits+collection.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 0em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="452" data-original-width="518" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP3qoGLw5QxuQuBiCxBTQ6e0wMNMSdXbjrYS4cODv3QOSsefMjdiABcsyBEMTph59LslaDoYukF33w61j1UYEXGDdir99Oi4FlAXefYZeDlJnYDpn6QA_uCpM5sapVT9lSKWCNf_LUBc4/s0/hadits+collection.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">​Hadith are the Prophetic words and Sunnah are the Prophet's actions. Alongside memorizing and writing the Quran, many companions of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ memorized and copied his hadith and sunnah in to writing format, especially those that had very close interactions with him and spent more time with his blessed personality. The companions memorized and collected the Prophetic traditions when accompanying him, and after his passing away learned those that were missed from other more learned companions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trirong; font-size: medium;"><b>The collection of Abu Bakr (r.a)</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to Ayesha (r.a), Abu Bakr (r.a) had originally a collection of over five hundred traditions, and he deposited the compilation with her for custody. Ayesha (r.a) relates that one night she noticed that Abu Bakr (r.a) felt very restless. He tossed about in the bed, and could not sleep. Ayesha (r.a) got worried whether he was suffering or was worried. He made no reply, but remained restless throughout the night. The following morning he asked Ayesha (r.a) to bring him the collections that he had deposited with her. She brought the compilation and he set fire to it. On the inquiry of Ayesha (r.a), Abu Bakr (r.a) explained his conduct: "The collection contained many traditions that I had heard from other people. I thought that if I died and left behind traditions accepted by me as sahih (authentic), but really not so, then I would have to answer for that."[1] Thus Abu Bakr (r.a) collected himself and in fact did not condemn in any way this act of collecting traditions but burned them only due to fear of personal accountability before Allah ﷻ, if even one of them resulted in being incorrect. Therefore its not the collection he disliked but his personal accountability due to deep consciousness of Allah ﷻ that he feared.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trirong; font-size: medium;"><b>Hadith collection during Umar's rule</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was during his rule that Umar (r.a) laid the foundation for the practice of ilm al hadith (science of hadith), process used for the hadith preservation by subsequent generations of Islamic scholars. The practice with Umar (r.a) was that if any new problem cropped up, he announced the issue in the public assembly, and inquired if any of them remembered any tradition of the Holy Prophet ﷺ on the subject. Those who narrated any tradition were required to produce some witnesses in support of the tradition. If such statement was duly corroborated and was in accordance with the spirit of the Quran as well as common sense it was adopted and applied to the facts of the case in hand. In this way a rich corpus of Hadith was built up. To read more on the agreed principles for acceptance of a hadith in his era please read: ​<a href="https://gusmendemanswering.blogspot.com/2020/02/what-is-ilm-al-hadith-science-of-hadith.html" target="_blank">What is Ilm Al Hadith (Science of Hadith).</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Trirong; font-size: medium;"><b>Hadith collections by prominent sahabas (companions)</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">​Its stated the Abu Ayyub Ansari (r.a), the famous Ansari companion, traveled for a month’s journey to Egypt listen to a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ directly from its narrator Uqba ibn Amir (r.a) who said that Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever cover the faults of the believer Allah will cover his faults on Judgment day.” (Bukhari & Muslim). After hearing he did not even change his saddle of the horse and immediately left to come back. Jabir bin Abdullah (r.a) went a month’s journey from Madinah to Syria to secure authenticity of a tradition from Abdullah ibn Amr (r.a) as Abdullah used to himself write hadith. Abdullah (r.a) reports: "I used to write everything i heard from the Messenger (saw) as i wanted to Preserve it. The Quraish forbade me, saying "Do you write down everything that you hear (from him) and The Messenger ﷺ is a human being who sometimes speaks in anger and joy? (that is that he may say something emotionally that may not be worth writing)." So I stopped. Then i mentioned this to Allah's Messenger ﷺ. He pointed with his finger to his mouth and said "Write! By the One in Whose Hand is My Life! Nothing comes out of it (His Mouth) except the Truth!" [2]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Said ibn Al Musayyib (r.a) used to travel days and nights to listen to a single hadith from its original narrator. It is on record that companions like Ali ibn Abi Talib (r.a), Abu Huraria (r.a) and other companions collected their own sahifa (scripture) of Prophetic Hadith such as:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li>Sahifah (scripture) of Ali ibn Abu Talib (r.a)</li><li>Sahifah of Abdullah ibn Abi Auf (r.a)</li><li>Nuskah of Samurah Jundab (r.a)</li><li>Kitab of Abu Huraira (r.a)</li><li>Sahifah of Jabir Bin Abdullah (r.a) [3]</li></ul></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was these books from which was derived most of the hadith literature later found in the authentic collections that we famously know today as Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah, Tirmidhi etc.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">References:</div><div style="text-align: justify;">[1] Masud-ul-Hasan, Professor. 1982. <a href="http://www.alim.org/library/biography/khalifa/content/KAB/16/2" target="_blank">"Khalifa Abu Bakr - Mushaf, Hadith, Tasawwuf, Fiqh, and Poetry."</a> Alim - The world's most useful Islamic software. Accessed 03 05, 2019. . (Masud-ul-Hasan 1982)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">[2] Sunan Abu Daud of Imam Abu Daud, Hadith #3161</div><div style="text-align: justify;">[3] Kazi, Mazhar. April 1, 2007. Guidance from Hadith & Sunnah. Al-Huda Publications - (Kazi April 1, 2007)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Trirong; font-size: 14px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">[Courtesy of  </b></span><span face="Helvetica, Sans, sans-serif" style="background: 0px 0px white; border: 0px; font-size: 14px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-family: Trirong; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/rizqan_kareem/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #bb1904; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.17s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Zaid Shah</a><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #525252; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> |</span></b></span></span><b style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Trirong; font-size: 14px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Rizqan Kareem | <a href="https://www.rizqankareem.com/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #bb1904; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.17s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Most Excellent Sustenance</a>]</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Trirong; font-size: 14px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Trirong; font-size: 14px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table class="wsite-not-footer" id="blogTable" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #525252; font-family: Lato, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; table-layout: fixed; text-align: justify; width: 1000px;"><tbody><tr></tr></tbody></table>

Hadith Collections in Early Islam

​Hadith are the Prophetic words and Sunnah are the Prophet's actions. Alongside memorizing and writing the Quran, many companions of Pro...

Hadith Collections in Early Islam

​Hadith are the Prophetic words and Sunnah are the Prophet's actions. Alongside memorizing and writing the Quran, many companions of Pro...

Read more »

Can Jews and Christians Truly Reconsile?

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP2PNez7rhko10jfJN1OP0Jv1yQnnzfUOEnKZM7cSby7cn9fokVt7N7cQvi1ttMyb_A6qY68Lunud81D7dh_L8-KQ8WKKBFc1hZaJ4zZl1eHHshUPUgfj-PL3z5kX6afjNqXfajRWO2ahV/s0/jews+vs+christian.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; clear: none; color: #f36109; display: inline; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0em 0px; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.17s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" border="0" class="lazy-yard" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP2PNez7rhko10jfJN1OP0Jv1yQnnzfUOEnKZM7cSby7cn9fokVt7N7cQvi1ttMyb_A6qY68Lunud81D7dh_L8-KQ8WKKBFc1hZaJ4zZl1eHHshUPUgfj-PL3z5kX6afjNqXfajRWO2ahV/s0/jews+vs+christian.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; transition: opacity 0.35s ease 0s, transform 0.35s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" /></a><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px;" /><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-size: x-large; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://kristusdankristen.blogspot.com/2016/03/kami-mengutuk-kekristenan-3kali-sehari.html" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #1e7915; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.17s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">"We Curse Christianity Three Times a Day"</a></b></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-size: x-large; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Can Jews and Christians Truly Reconsile?</b></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">A new book discusses this uncomfortable relationship</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">After Esau hated Jacob for years, the brothers met. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Esau rushed to Jacob, hugged him, fell on his neck, kissed him, both of them weeping. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Thrilling reconciliation. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">But the Jewish sages, according to Midrash Bereshit Rabbah 78, were not attracted to this reconciliation. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">They placed dots above the Hebrew word vayeshakehu ("he kissed her," Genesis 33: 4), signifying abolition. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">But erasure was not an obvious choice - it was, after all, a word in the Torah - so they performed "sham" abolition. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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.</span></span></i></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Then, why are they crying? </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Because a miracle happened and Jacob's neck hardened and prevented the bite from being damaged; </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">one cried for his neck while the other cried for his teeth. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Funny? </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Of course not. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">For the sages of the rabbinical period, Esau was a metonym for Rome and later for Christianity. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">The possibility that Rome would reconcile with the descendants of Jacob, the Jews, had never occurred to them.</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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.</span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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.</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">It is written with scientific momentum and enriches readers with essential information to help us understand ourselves and others. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Authors should be congratulated on their good writing, fresh style, and fluent and convincing phrasing.</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">On the one hand, there is a feeling of guilt and an acceptance of responsibility; </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">on the other hand, fear of a collapse of the theological infrastructure that has crystallized for nearly 2,000 years. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">The Declaration of the Second Vatican Council concludes a chapter in the history of Christianity and opens a new one. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">The decisions taken, however, raised new questions, which remain unresolved today.</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Two issues remain open: Jewish exile and the creation of the State of Israel.</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><ul style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 1.5; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><li style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 1.3; list-style: none; margin: 5px 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-what-fuels-evangelical-christians-love-hate-relationship-with-jews-1.9023555" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.17s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black;">What Promotes Christian </span></a><span style="color: black;"><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-what-fuels-evangelical-christians-love-hate-relationship-with-jews-1.9023555" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.17s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black;">Evangelical </span></a>Love-Hate Relationships With Jews</span></li><li style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 1.3; list-style: none; margin: 5px 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-why-the-netanyahus-are-embracing-christian-europe-1.8840596" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.17s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black;">Why Netanyahus Embraced 'Christian Europe'</span></a></li><li style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 1.3; list-style: none; margin: 5px 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-are-anti-jewish-extremists-hijacking-u-s-catholicism-1.5730727" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.17s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black;">Are American Catholics Attacked by Extremist Nostalgia for Anti-Jewish Teaching?</span></a></li><li style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 1.3; list-style: none; margin: 5px 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-why-jesus-was-a-hebrew-speaker-1.5250513" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.17s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black;">Why Jesus Was Really a Hebrew Speaker</span></a></li></ul></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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"? </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Are Jews exempt from this rule?</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">, which raises concerns about the erosion of belief that will lead believers to abandon their faith.</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dewaplokisMultiRelated" style="background: none; border: 0px; color: #fb540a; display: flex; flex-wrap: nowrap; justify-content: space-between; margin: 0px auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="icon" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">It is not easy for a 2,000 year old religion to retract the dogma that billions of people command to follow. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">It is no small matter to criticize respectable individuals who are canonized, on canonical books taught from generation to generation. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">A religion, in essence, finds it difficult to examine itself critically, because in doing so its aspirations for metaphysical truth are lost. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">A pope who sits on Peter's throne does not wish to claim that all his predecessors were wrong.</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirHhioWhTSbJz57Cq1PspS21RyxEjwnyziwte-f2kdpn_AFjPcr5wKIuP58oWlA_o1dAwLnizIO37_7BzF6pym4HIw1qj4gn5xG2DLQ_ElAXkoofLkWXd7OlKmO_uuNWZ3CJ3W2JBbmXTH/s0/paus+pius.jpg" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; clear: none; color: #1e7915; display: block; float: none; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.17s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" border="0" class="lazy-yard" data-original-height="790" data-original-width="800" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirHhioWhTSbJz57Cq1PspS21RyxEjwnyziwte-f2kdpn_AFjPcr5wKIuP58oWlA_o1dAwLnizIO37_7BzF6pym4HIw1qj4gn5xG2DLQ_ElAXkoofLkWXd7OlKmO_uuNWZ3CJ3W2JBbmXTH/s0/paus+pius.jpg" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; transition: opacity 0.35s ease 0s, transform 0.35s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" /></a></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><i><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Pope Paul VI during the Second Vatican Council. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">[Photo: Peter Geymayer]</span></i></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Ben Johanan describes the courage, sincerity and determination of the supporters of reform in the Church, who face the doubts and fears of conservatives. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">ignited a deep shift in the relationship between Jews and Christians. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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.</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-size: large; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The 'idolatry' problem</b></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">In the second part, this book presents the internal discourse of Orthodox Jews on Christianity. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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.</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">One example is the halakhic discussion of whether Christianity includes the avoda zara - Hebrew for "idolatry." </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">During the Middle Ages, there were differences of opinion on this issue. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Some admit that Christians believe in the divine source of the Torah and their religious intentions are sincere. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Aviad Hacohen, a law scholar has shown, </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Modern Jewish orthodoxy continues to view Christianity as idolatry. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Indeed, according to Ben Johanan,</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Among censors in the past, some genuinely wanted to become enlightened Jews, as the Israeli historian Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin has pointed out. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Normalization and political freedom eliminated fear of Christianity and served to compensate for the inferiority felt by Jews over the years.</span></span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: Trirong;">It is not easy for a 2,000 year old religion to retract the dogma that billions of people command to follow.</span></b></blockquote><span style="font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px;">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.</span></div></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">A more extreme approach is also seen in the realm of music. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">In the 19th century, Rabbi Moshe Hazan praised Christian music effectively, while Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg (died 2006) expressed surprise at his approach. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">I must note that it is not only religious chants that disturb the Orthodox. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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."</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Ashkenazi is among the few figures in Orthodox Judaism who are relatively familiar with Christianity. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">This accusation threatens the identity of the Jews.</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">According to Ashkenazi, things turned around after the founding of Israel. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Today, Christianity is suffering from loss of identity. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">It was not the Jewish eyes covered by the veil that prevented them from understanding the Old Testament; </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">it's a blind Christian who doesn't understand the New Testament. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">The re-establishment of Jewish sovereignty proves that the Jews were right in their prolonged dispute with Christianity. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">The realization of the prophetic return to Zion proves that the Jewish interpretation of the Bible, not the Christian one, is correct. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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.</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Thus a new interpretation of the creation of the State of Israel developed. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Not just a "national home" as others have, but a religious event meant to deny the Christian faith. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Everything went awry, "and the time has come to reverse this method," wrote Manitou.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX4KeQJzJI85ozo1SAFFNCxMWeRIWR9LoU2EaUcQpxt0T0_7pIkf4KuUGKUYSZLwp5ax8FWgO5s13W_tmg_kYsXtXIe_stAvX7SPyEE0B9xkE4o1mEzkrzbNlAZEdT5Wb1-Ox4h0Dr19gM/s0/rabi+koko.jpg" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; clear: none; color: #1e7915; display: block; float: none; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.17s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" border="0" class="lazy-yard" data-original-height="1151" data-original-width="800" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX4KeQJzJI85ozo1SAFFNCxMWeRIWR9LoU2EaUcQpxt0T0_7pIkf4KuUGKUYSZLwp5ax8FWgO5s13W_tmg_kYsXtXIe_stAvX7SPyEE0B9xkE4o1mEzkrzbNlAZEdT5Wb1-Ox4h0Dr19gM/s0/rabi+koko.jpg" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; transition: opacity 0.35s ease 0s, transform 0.35s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" /></a></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><i>Rabbi Kook</i></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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.</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dewaplokisMultiRelated" style="background: none; border: 0px; color: #fb540a; display: flex; flex-wrap: nowrap; justify-content: space-between; margin: 0px auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="icon" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-size: large; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">'Biblical program'</span></b></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Many reflections have come to my mind while reading this book, and I would like to present three here. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">The first is the apparent and surprising similarity between the interpretation of history put forward by the "French", and that of the Church Fathers. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Indeed, Augustinian doctrine seems to be enjoying a revival at Mercaz Harav Yeshiva. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">The turning point in Christendom occurred in 1965; </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">in the Jewish community in 1967. According to Oury Cherki, one of the rabbis of the circle, </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">The Six Day War is to be held with a higher regard than the War of Independence. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">It is a "biblical event in every sense of the word." </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Now it is the turn of the Jews to look at history as realizing Judaism's triumph over the Church.</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Unfortunately, as the Church moved forward and called for interfaith and fraternal conciliation, the Jewish Orthodox circle revived old controversies and claimed victory. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Rabbi Cherki even expects Christians to believe in Jews in the place of Jesus, because "Jews are divine"! </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Manitou wrote, "Gradually Christians discovered that Jews do not need to be Christians but Christians need to be Judai."</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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? </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>While Christian discourse aims at conciliation, Orthodox Jewish discourse responds to Christianity with growing hostility, which preceded the Second Vatican Council and deepened thereafter.</blockquote></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">This unconscious link to Christian thought patterns is also seen in the homeless and therefore universal Jewish conception of the Diaspora. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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.</span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">In doing so, new material - sacred territories - was added to the classic Zionist "Diaspora negation". </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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." </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">God was removed, his place was taken over by the Land of Israel, and the Torah was sent down to the third place.</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Christianity views it as a prophecy that was fulfilled at the coming of Jesus and in the Christianization of the Roman Empire. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Jewish thought in the Middle Ages saw it as a promise of a future to come. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Now the future has come true.</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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? </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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? </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">But faith and naivety are often intertwined.</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">The second reflection evoked by the book relates to his almost exclusive work with the rabbis. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">But hostility to Christianity was also found among Orthodox intellectuals. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">I will note here as a striking example of the late Yeshayahu Leibowitz, the "high priest" of the liberal left in Israel. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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).</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; clear: both; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYf1ZF9AChzQek_KfqfRGvXbmGOWWyPQ7AZPSvlFJr7sf_EH5XyrYgLRVc5OSMaxMpqx7E6GKgRTFtocx2-Wj6MAIbSRV3kgGgMo6APlsQbIjxq-zoTAJfT3S9VEK43rcLlOfHhlSWwvXm/s2048/nyetanyahu.jpg" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; clear: none; color: #1e7915; display: block; float: none; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.17s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" border="0" class="lazy-yard" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1315" height="auto" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYf1ZF9AChzQek_KfqfRGvXbmGOWWyPQ7AZPSvlFJr7sf_EH5XyrYgLRVc5OSMaxMpqx7E6GKgRTFtocx2-Wj6MAIbSRV3kgGgMo6APlsQbIjxq-zoTAJfT3S9VEK43rcLlOfHhlSWwvXm/s600/nyetanyahu.jpg" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; transition: opacity 0.35s ease 0s, transform 0.35s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" width="100%" /></a></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><i>Prof. Yeshayahu Leibowitz [Photo: Alex Levac]</i></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Flusser has expressed satisfaction that Eichmann is unwilling to take oath on a copy of the New Testament in court. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">"Eichmann separated himself from his Christian God and thus served Christianity," wrote Flusser. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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."</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Leibowitz was furious at Flusser's efforts "to purify the [sheretz] pest of Christianity for a number of reasons." </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">"</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Christianity is an "abomination of destruction," a paganism that fabricates the forged symbols of Judaism. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">"We condemn Christianity three times every day," wrote Leibowitz.</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="dewaplokisMultiRelated" style="background: none; border: 0px; color: #fb540a; display: flex; flex-wrap: nowrap; justify-content: space-between; margin: 0px auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="icon" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">He did not change his mind after the Second Vatican Council, but instead held fast to his view that Christianity is "paganism". </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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." </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Meshumad, the Hebrew term, is a derogatory idiom for a converted Jew. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Leibowitz, for example, called Heinrich Heine "the most despicable and abominable figure in Jewish history." </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">In a 1975 letter he called Meshumad "hated by the people, covenant breakers, blasphemers, blasphemers and the curse of God."</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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.</span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">I told him I would give him two answers. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">First one: yes. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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). </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">What is allowed for the Talmud is also permissible for a talmid (disciple). </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">He never appeared in my class again.</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">The final comment refers to the nature of "Judaism" with which the Church seeks reconciliation. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Christian theology is still in dialogue with itself - not yet with the Judaism that has its parallels.</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Against this background, pioneering academic research on both sides stands out. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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.</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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.</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">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." </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">For me, the author also hopes that the results will be different. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">The book proves that academics have the ability to bring people closer together and bring peace to the world.</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">“Reconciliation and Its Dissatisfaction: Unresolved Tensions in Judeo-Christian Relations,” by Karma Ben Johanan. </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Tel Aviv University Press (Hebrew), 460 pages, 98 shekels</span></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "PT Sans Narrow"; font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">[ </span><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/life/books/.premium.MAGAZINE-we-curse-christianity-three-times-a-day-can-jews-and-christians-truly-reconcile-1.9072566" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #1e7915; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.17s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Israel Jacob Yuval</a><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;"> | </span><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: inherit;">Published on 14.08.2020]</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="border-top: 1px solid rgb(136, 136, 136); text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq8BmkSJfYCCelYeOQHW8ZY4RzgAmMicZ4p5ND3S3otaAIPeu5Bho6mmN4tk61w-o4xPzPnUEPC2LdF4sl3h0bW5n2JOo9bQ2XJ5t5lwUD2NAC4xX0pxpl8lzJmlXXvqFt61CfU908Nuk/s73/israel+yuval+yacob.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="73" data-original-width="60" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq8BmkSJfYCCelYeOQHW8ZY4RzgAmMicZ4p5ND3S3otaAIPeu5Bho6mmN4tk61w-o4xPzPnUEPC2LdF4sl3h0bW5n2JOo9bQ2XJ5t5lwUD2NAC4xX0pxpl8lzJmlXXvqFt61CfU908Nuk/s0/israel+yuval+yacob.jpg" /></a><div style="text-align: justify; font-size: small; line-height: 1.2em;">Professor <a href="https://huji.academia.edu/Yuval" target="_blank">Israel Jacob Yuval</a> 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.</div></div>

Can Jews and Christians Truly Reconsile?

"We Curse Christianity Three Times a Day" Can Jews and Christians Truly Reconsile? The 1965 Vatican Council, and subsequent attemp...

Can Jews and Christians Truly Reconsile?

"We Curse Christianity Three Times a Day" Can Jews and Christians Truly Reconsile? The 1965 Vatican Council, and subsequent attemp...

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