To help the relations between Judaism and Catholicism

[Eucharisted]

Hello!

In the wake of much anger and bad feelings going on because of the recent actions and words some rabbis made, I have decided to ask our Jewish brethern a question:

What can we Catholic Christians do to help the relationship between Judaism and Catholicism?

For example, are there any sort of prayers we can pray? How about wishing you a Happy Passover on Passover? Or maybe we can work together to help defeat the evil of poverty in the world?

Let us know, and please be charitable, one and all.

 

[Crumpy]

While we wait for a reply, I can tell you about some Jewish writings that I have looked at recently.

I picked up some books on scripture from the Jewish Publication Society. I thought it would be worthwhile to look at the Jewish perspective on what we call the Old Testament writings.

First, they call the first five books of the Bible the Pentateuch, or Torah (instruction, direction). Those books are the written Torah; all the commentaries since about 500 BC are called part of the Oral Torah.

Their name for the Torah, the Prophets, and the other writings (like Psalms and Proverbs) are called the Writings. The Hebrew words for each of these three is contracted to Tanakh or Tanach, which would be their proper name for their Bible. They also use the word Bible, Scripture, and Hebrew Scriptures, interchangeably.

Their world view is that God will call all men to one faith before the end of time, and that faith will be to the Torah. They do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah. My reading of their commentaries is that right from the start of Genesis, they are not looking for symbolic or allegorical references to the Messiah, like we would.

Their writings, like the Talmud,are very sensitive to Christian thought. In every book that I bought or picked up at the library, I’ve run into at least one argument against the Christian interpretation of the Tanakh. These writers just choose their battles and the subject just pops up unexpectedly.

On the other hand, when I come across a truly messianic text, they can seem SO close, yet so far from the Christian truth. They use terms like God our Father and Holy Spirit, but not in the Trinitarian Christian sense.

I’m not a scholar, but what I see is that their Bible commentaries go a lot more to the literal sense of scripture, whereas Christian commentaries find the greatest satisfaction in the spiritual sense of the same texts – which would be natural.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston recently met with some Jewish leaders to try to soothe relations strained over the matter of that Bishop who rejected the idea of the Holocaust of Jews in WWII.

I live in a small town, and have had friendly relations with people that I knew were Jewish, and I’ve had similarly wonderful relations when I lived in a larger city. But, even there, I had a friend sort of push me away, thinking that I was trying to convert him. I hardly said anything at all to him. Without comment, I had borrowed a copy of the Jewish translation of the scripture, and when I returned it, he was oddly defensive.

I think the best thing to do is to live as peaceably as possible with Jews at all times. From their writings, I think they are very logical about scripture, very devout, sincere, etc. I also worked alongside Muslims, which is hard to conceal because so many of them take the name of Mohammed.

Best thing, I think, is to be a sincere Christian with all Jews. When a co-worker was married in a Catholic church, he invited our Jewish co-worker and things worked out very fine. The Jewish man recogized the Mass – the reading of scriptures, the prayers, the unleavened bread and cup of wine used for consecration, etc. It was a seed that was sewn, praise God.

 

[Valke2]

Hello!

In the wake of much anger and bad feelings going on because of the recent actions and words some rabbis made, I have decided to ask our Jewish brethern a question:

What can we Catholic Christians do to help the relationship between Judaism and Catholicism?

For example, are there any sort of prayers we can pray? How about wishing you a Happy Passover on Passover? Or maybe we can work together to help defeat the evil of poverty in the world?

Let us know, and please be charitable, one and all.

defeating poverty would by my choice over wishing me a Happy Passover.
I don’t know about the rest of the world, but onthe whole I’ve found that at least on these threads Cathoclis and Jews treat each other with respect.

 

[Crumpy]

Here I am again with, I hope, some more useful information.

I came across a book that I must have had for a few years, from Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, of the International fellowship of Christians and Jews.

He has a book What you should know about Jews and Judaism which is available, I presume, from the

International Fellowship of Christians and Jews
28 East Jackson Boulevard - Suite 210
Chicago, IL 60604

but this is in the book which was published in 1994. Check the web for more current information.

I’m just starting the book, but it may be something that you are interested in. It’s a book to explain Judaism to Christians (and non-Christians).

Chapters Part One - Jews and Judaism
foundations of Jewish Belief, Jewish Paths to Sanctification, The Sabbath- A day of Sanctified time, Festivals of the Jewish Year, The Jewish Life Cycle, facing the challenges of the holocaust, Israel- the dawn of redemption, The rise of Jewish denominations

Chapters Part Two The Jewish - Christian Encounter
The Parting of the Ways, Jewish Views of Jesus, Christians,and Christianity, Christians and anti-semitism, Christian Missions and the Jews, Jewish-Christians Relations Today.

Eckstein is the rabbi you see maybe on some TV channels, requesting funds for poor Jews in Russia, money for Jews to emigrate from Russia to Israel, etc.

For some reason, the Spirit is leading me into a lot of study of the Jewish faith. I wish I had noticed this book in my collection earlier.

I think the purpose of this book is to answer the questions in the original post.

 

[orange_man]

I’m not sure what Catholics hope to accomplish by establishing ecumenical relations with Jews? As individual Christians we are to love all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, and so on (Jew, Muslim, whomever). However, there is no salvation outside of Christ … period! To say there is lumps Catholics in with those wacky Christain Zionists (who give new meaning to theological ineptitude). The Jews will only find salvation when they find Christ; and that will happen according to God’s timing.

 

[Crumpy]

It’s me again. I’ve finished about 95% of Rabbi Eckstein’s book. He writes with passion and intensity.

The book, What You Should Know about Jews and Judaism, is written strictly from the Jewish point of view. There’s a lot of stuff about why the Jews do not believe in Jesus, and the coverage of this material is more than superficial, although this is not the subject of the book, exactly. It is kind of a poke in the eye, I should warn you.

Basically, Jesus is not the messiah that the Jews back then or even today are looking for.

But, Eckstein gives a typical overview of Judaism. I think he writes as if the book were written for Christians, in particular; I think it was, this impression is no mistake. It’s an apologetic for Judaism, no question.

But, the relevance for this thread is, towards the end, he says that to improve relations between Jews and Christians, “Jews have to be better Jews, and Christians have to be better Christians.” Largely, he speaks about all Christians, certainly no special emphasis on Catholics.

He has a lot to say about the Holocaust, and he pokes all Christians in the eye for allowing that to happen, for allowing Hitler to get control of Germany. He says all the Christian churches “were silent.”

In a relatively short space, he gives an overview of anti-Semitism, going back to Jesus Himself! (See John 8:44 where Jesus refers to at least a couple Jews as “sons of the devil”). And, don’t overlook Paul in Rom 2:2, “For he is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly.” – whereby Eckstein says that Paul was seeming to say that Christians are the true Jews and that anyone else is not a true Jew.

It’s things like that which stick in the consciousness of Jews over the centuries. He notes a lack of documentation of the Jewish rabbis criticism of Christianity, but for many centuries, the Jews were persecuted by Christians as it was, without the Jews fanning the polemical flames of disagreement.

He takes note of the condemnation of all forms of Anti-Semitism by the Second Vatican Council, the denunciation that the Jews were responsible for the death of Christ, etc. See the Nostrae Aetate, a historic document.

Catholics have quite a history of anti-semitism to overcome and we all have to live up to the new teaching of the Church. His big issue, the issue for all Jews, is the survival of the state of Israel.

Well, to bring this to a close, go to the website for his organization, www.ifcj.com, and maybe take a look at his newsletter.

 

[Crumpy]

In my post #6, I just trusted Eckstein about his quote of Romans 2:2, but it seems he meant to cite Romans 2:28-29, actually.

 

[trdchubi]

Let us try to assess what is being taught in replacement theology, promoted by traditionalists, about our “Elder” brothers the Jews being “Displaced” and totally “Disregarded” by the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob.