1 / 25

JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY: NO HOLDS BARRED – SESSION 3

JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY: NO HOLDS BARRED – SESSION 3. Are the “Chosen People” Still “Chosen” ? How did they get that way, anyhow? . “Administrative Matters”. Dialogue from 9:00 to 9:50 Break from 9:50 to 10:00 Dialogue from 10:00 to 10:30 Questions and Answers from 10:30 to 10:45.

talor
Télécharger la présentation

JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY: NO HOLDS BARRED – SESSION 3

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY:NO HOLDS BARRED – SESSION 3 Are the “Chosen People” Still “Chosen” ? How did they get that way, anyhow?

  2. “Administrative Matters” • Dialogue from 9:00 to 9:50 • Break from 9:50 to 10:00 • Dialogue from 10:00 to 10:30 • Questions and Answers from 10:30 to 10:45

  3. Vietnam Revisited: War’s Challenges After 47 Years SILVERSEA CRUISES ABOARD THE SILVER WINDSAILING FROM HONG KONG TO SINGAPOREMARCH 10 to 19, 2015 CAMBODIA LAND PACKAGEMARCH 19 to 23, 2015CALL FIVE STAR TRAVEL 800-243-3066

  4. Winston Churchill "Some people like the Jews, and some do not. But no thoughtful man can deny the fact that they are, beyond any question, the most formidable and most remarkable race which has appeared in the world.”

  5. John Adams "I will insist the Hebrews have [contributed] more to civilize men than any other nation. If I was an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations... They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this Earth. The Romans and their empire were but a bubble in comparison to the Jews."

  6. Mark Twain "...If statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race, a nebulous dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. But his contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are way out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers.

  7. Mark Twain – 2 He has made a marvelous fight in this world, and with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?"

  8. Aleinu Let us now praise the Sovereign of the universe, and proclaim the greatness of the Creator who has set us apart from the other families of the earth, giving us a destiny unique among the nations.  We bend the knee and bow acknowledging the supreme Sovereign, the Holy One of blessing. (Mishkan Tefilla)

  9. Scriptural Sources For Chosenness Gen. 17.7: I will maintain My covenantbetween Me and you, and your offspring to come. Ex. 19.5-6: If you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples….You shall be for me a priestlykingdomand a holy nation. Lev. 19.2: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. Deut. 14.2: It is you the Lord has chosen out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

  10. Contract vs. Covenant CONTRACT COVENANT Relationship Concerns identity Transforms lives Indefinite duration • Transaction • Concerns interests • About benefits • Has ending date

  11. Scriptural Sources – 2 Amos 3.1-2: Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:  You only have I singled out of all the families of the earth; that is why I will call you to account for all your iniquities. Isaiah 49.6b - 7: I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth…because the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, has chosen you.

  12. Dr. David S. Ariel • Head of Oxford Centre for Hebrew & Jewish Studies • “In 1975, … Reform Judaism now reaffirmed belief in chosenness, peoplehood, and certain mitzvot, but continued to insist that the exalted station of the Jewish people is a product of its ethical religion.” • “Orthodox and Conservative Judaism continue to advocate a belief in chosenness rooted in the notion of religious obligations, the mitzvot, that define the specifically Jewish way of life.”

  13. Reconstructionist Judaism Mordecai Kaplan (1881-1983) Founder of Reconstructionist Judaism Humanist and Naturalist Did not believe in a supernatural God that could bestow favor upon one nation Believed it was practically and morally problematic to posit the fundamental superiority of one people

  14. What Does It Mean to be “Chosen”? • Does it mean “better” ? • Given a special mission and a special status ? • Incentive and duty to give a good example and live a Torah-based life • More obligations to live an ethical life • Additional religious obligations • Call to action (and responsibility) both individually and communally to heal the world and to spread the message of God’s goodness

  15. Detriments of Claiming Chosenness • Misunderstood as “better” by Jews and by others • Jews sometimes are perceived by others as being smug, and as having a sense of superiority • Can cause resentment by Gentiles • Is it a factor in Anti-Semitism? • Divisive; restricts assimilation and reconciliation • Seems “old fashioned” – based on ancient Scripture • Difficult to live as “God’s Chosen”

  16. Chosen by a Higher Authority

  17. How to Explain Jewish Success? • Jews seem to be disproportionately represented in learning, science, professions and finance • Are Jews are inherently brighter? More hard working? • Do Jews look out for each other more effectively than other groups look out for their family and friends? • Recent Book: The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History, 70 CE to 1492

  18. The Chosen Few • Literacy distinguished Jews from 90% of the population from the 1st to the 16th Century • Literacy enabled Jews to enter professions and trades that required literacy to be performed • Jews were not “forced” by Christians or Muslims to be in finance – they were the only people with the skills to conduct finance and banking effectively until the 16th Century

  19. How to Explain Modern Success? • Jewish Family Life • Worship in Synagogue • Tradition of Learning and Torah Disputation • Positive Aspects of Being Marginalized • Seek recognition in new areas of endeavor or with low barriers to entry

  20. Christian “Chosenness” • John 14.6-7: Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also.” • Claims by some Christians that unless a person is a Christian, they will not be “saved.” • Christian Supersessionism • God’s Covenant with Jews is no longer valid • “Proof” is destruction of Temple (70); Jerusalem (135) • Gains “traction” and “enforcement” in 4th Century

  21. American Exceptionalism:Obama vs. Putin OBAMA Speech on Syria (9/10/13):  “America is not the world's policeman.  Terrible things happen across the globe, and it is beyond our means to right every wrong.  But when, with modest effort and risk, we can stop children from being gassed to death and thereby make our own children safer over the long run, I believe we should act.  That's what makes America different.  That's what makes us exceptional.”

  22. Vladimir Putin – NYT 9/11/13 And I would rather disagree with a case he [Obama] made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is “what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.” It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.

  23. From a Review of The Myth of American Exceptionalism – NYT 4/24/09 At the heart of American exceptionalism lies a messianic streak, the belief in a country with a global calling to uplift. This is the idea that Godfrey Hodgson examines in The Myth of American Exceptionalism.” The United States, he writes, has become “just one great, but imperfect, country among others.”

  24. American Exceptionalism – 2 Dismayed by what he sees as the religious, self-righteous and rightist manipulation of a once ennobling idea, Hodgson argues that “what has been essentially a liberating set of beliefs has been corrupted over the past 30 years or so by hubris and self-interestinto what is now a dangerous basis for national policy and for the international system.”

  25. Walker, there is no road; the road is made by walking.

More Related