Jews and Christians Together. A. Christian van Gorder

Christians believe the earth is only temporary, their goal on this earth is to get to heaven. That is why in the past, taking care of the environment was not the focus of Christianity. Growing up in a Pentecostal community, I was brought up not to pay too much attention to the world and my own body because the world and my body were only the temporary address for my soul. Now environmentalism is becoming very prevalent in various Christian communities. Even my own views about the environment and my own body have changed.56

      No Jewish Hair-Shirts

      A fundamentally different view about our human nature also leads to two distinct views on asceticism—rarely practiced in the long history of Judaism. Rabbis have long explained that God has given everything within our lives to be celebrated; nothing that God has created for our use is to be understood outside of the active presence of God’s love (Ps 16:8) . Humans are commanded to multiply (Gen 1:28), thus making celibacy rarely practiced (except for a time during the Second Temple period) in Jewish history.

      When individuals choose to fast, it is better that such efforts result in blessings for others (Isa 58:6–8) and are not done only for personal, spiritual gain. Material self-denial is expressly forbidden on the Sabbath and during times of feasting. The Nazirites, who made a vow (Num 6:1–21) to God not to cut their hair or drink wine, also had to bring a sin offering to the altar for their choice of seeking to know the Divine apart from the standard practices of the larger community. What is their sin? Perhaps it is that they are choosing not to enjoy some of the blessings that the Almighty has put on earth for their benefit.

      Christianity has been heavily influenced by Greek and Roman ideas about the inherently inferior nature of the physical world. St. Augustine brought the ideas of a dichotomous and fallen world into the heart of the Catholic tradition with his teachings on the superiority of the spiritual over the physical. It is possible that Christ had some ascetic practices, in keeping with John the Baptist and others who stressed fasting and denial much more than other Jewish teachers of his time. When Jesus, for example, condemns the rich man and claims that a rich man cannot enter heaven easily (Luke 18:25), such words could also have been proclaimed by those Hebrew prophets who condemned those choosing a life of comfort instead of generosity.

      Christians should appreciate how differing views of sin and the idea of an inherent sin nature affect varying Jewish and Christian considerations about the nature of the afterlife. A theological focus within Judaism on the inherent goodness of humanity has also played a role in why Jews seem far less concerned with grim and punishing visions of hell than some conservative Christians. These topics, of course, are mentioned, but with far less frequency in synagogues than in churches. Jews are encouraged to use the gift of time on this earth to sanctify this life and not to fixate on their eventual, possible status in the world beyond. Every day is a gift given by a God of love and mercy for our nurture and enhancement. One cannot escape living in this life by dreaming about the promise and hope of an ideal, future heaven.

      Teaching Circumcision

      The ritual of circumcision is a familial reaffirmation of faith before God and the entire Jewish community. God commanded that Father Abraham first administer this rite to himself, and then to his son Isaac on the eighth day after birth (Gen 17:10–12). It is not merely a surgical operation but an act of obedience to a divine command, and some Jews throughout history have chosen to die rather than cease to practice this ritual. Some rabbis have even claimed that the divine command to circumcise male children is more meaningful than any other commandment.

      Rashi, an eleventh-century commentator on the Torah and the Talmud, imagined a story illustrating the centrality of circumcision. He wrote that Kind David himself, who was physically fit, had just finished competing in his generation’s equivalent of the athletic Olympics. Since that kind of time and effort in athleticism and shaving the body was contrary to Jewish practice, David sitting in the bathhouse relaxing began to feel guilty that he was indiscernible from his non-Jewish competitors. When he looked down and saw his circumcision, he was comforted in remembering that he had not completely abandoned his commitment to his people.

      Adherents of both traditions accept that actions in the physical realm, such as circumcision, are related to an unseen spiritual dimension. The Passover meal and the ritual of the Eucharist (for Christians) are also material ceremonies that point to a higher spiritual meaning. All of life is to be united, not divided between that which belongs to God and to the realm of the physical.

      Conclusion

      Various Jewish rituals are practiced as concrete reminders of how the faithful should perceive the world. At the heart of many rituals is an emphasis on the daily responsibility that individuals have for their own ethical choices. Even emotions must conform to a commitment to relate to other Jews worldwide as they struggle to serve God despite pressing obstacles and difficult circumstances. One of the reasons why Jewish newlyweds smash a glass on their wedding day is to remind themselves—in their greatest joy—that individuals within their cherished community have suffered (and continue to suffer) as they remain faithfully devoted to the faith.

      The Jewish mandate for peace—shalom (שלום)—is a call for wholeness deeply rooted in this tradition of individual responsibility for moral actions and intentions. The message of tikkun olam is a call to bring justice and peace through good deeds into all our relationships in a world filled with evil and injustice. While conservative Christians celebrate the redemptive work of Jesus as Messiah on their behalf, Judaism teaches that individuals cannot stand by with passivity and expect God to forgive their sins through the whims of unmerited, divine actions. Jews, of course, believe that God is merciful and forgiving and has done (and will continue to do) many miracles on their behalf, but there is no understanding that salvation from sin is realized through the shedding of a divine savior’s holy blood. Some Christians use the story of Leviticus and the practice of the ancient sacrificial system to confirm their views that God’s eternal plan for salvation was to be expressed in a blood sacrifice. In contrast, Jewish teachers have called the community to live as a faithful people before God and to serve others with love and justice as “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod 19:6). When Jews live in such a way, they will not live only for their own good but to meet the needs of others. They trust that—as it relates to their eternal destiny—the “God of all the earth will do right” (Gen 18:25).

      The central focus of Jewish moral teaching is the command for ethical actions expressed in right relationships with others. Martin Buber explains that God is both the “wholly other” and the “wholly present” who is the “mystery of the obvious that is closer to me than my own I.”57 One knows God through knowing the divine creation, and one shows love to God through loving one’s fellow humanity. While all of us aspire to personal spiritual and moral growth, none of us can do this independent of others because we are all interrelated, and all share the mark of our common creation in the image of God Almighty.

      In contrast, some conservative Christian pastors preach that—while ethics is important and many even speak of the “fruits” of a genuine believer (“by their fruits ye shall know them” [Matt 7:16])—it is not ethical action that is at the heart of God’s eternal plan of salvation. God in Christ is the perfect sacrifice, which erases the blot of all human sinfulness inherent at birth in all sinners, and only the acceptance of a divine blood-sacrifice can appease the demand of a righteous and Holy God for moral purity and perfection.