Toto

Shmuley Boteach is famous for being the rabbi to both Michael Jackson and Uri Geller, and for writing about sex, not for his academic qualifications. But it is not necessary to reeducate him to disagree with him.

No Robots

For a more balanced look at Boteach, see here for his sermon that won for him the London Times Preacher of the Year award, along with accompanying profile.

Toto

Quote from the Sermon:

Whereas our ancestors struggled to keep the faith amid poverty and persecution, we today struggle simply to stave off slumber in the Synagogue. I personally have developed a new pill called 'Preachagra' that keeps congregants upright through the the sermon. How did we ever sink so low?

How, indeed.

Boteach is a character and an entertainer. But a source of enlightenment?

No Robots

Maybe you should read on for a couple of sentences:

What every person wants - the greatest human need - is to feel intensely alive. We want to be inspired, unfettered, energetic, infinite.

Toto

I can read about that greatest human need in any pop psychology book or any place that's trying to sell me something. But even if he's right, that doesn't mean that Boteach knows the first thing about the history of first century religions in the Roman Empire, much less that he has a clue about the best way to feel intensely alive, or that he can distinguish between that feeling and a self-deluded state.

No Robots

For a scholarly treatment of this subject, see From Rebel to Rabbi: Reclaiming Jesus and the Making of Modern Jewish Culture. The book is by Matthew Hoffman, Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies and History at Franklin & Marshall College. He writes:

From Martin Buber to Geza Vermes and Samuel Sandmel, there have been Jewish thinkers, scholars, and rabbis who have continued to view Jesus in a positive light, as a Jew and a brother, whose teachings originate in the Judaism of his times, and who is still relevant to the contemporary Jew in some way or other.--p.256

dr lazer blast

Where does it say anywhere that the first coming of Jesus will bring a world of peace and end evil and idolatry? in fact in the bible it states the opposite. Especailly when Jesus said "I came to bring a sword, and turn the hearts of the daughts against their mothers" etc. etc


It seems to me you're taking a vocal minority and trying to turn it into the majority. Majority of christians do NOT hate Jews, in fact it is the opposite. Jewish people are Gods chosen people, so why would christians hate them?. Jesus even said it himself "Salvation is from the Jews." Some christians do hate the jews (a small amount), but that isn't right, nor is it following proper doctrine to do so.

Gawen

Jeeez, how vague can one be? Looks like he didn't finish the sentence. I'l try:

...to view Jesus in a positive light, as a Jew and a brother, whose teachings originate in the Judaism of his times, and who is still relevant to the contemporary Jew in some way or other, which leaves us any way we wish to fill in the blanks.

FireBrandon

The Hebrew Scriptures do not define a "first" and "second" coming. Yahweh allegedly does nothing without revealing it to his prophets (Amos 3:7-8) It is strange that he says nothing of two comings. Surely God does nothing without revealing it to his prophets. The second coming idea was probably created by Jesus' disciples after he died and not before. If God wanted to show us that this was not an invention by the disciples he could have prophesied it hundreds of years before in the Minor Prophets or in Isaiah. But what we do have in Isaiah and the Minor Prophets are descriptions of what this Son of David will do when he appears.

In Isaiah 11:4 it says that the Messiah, "shall...with the breath of his lips slay the wicked." Verse 6 continues and says, "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat...and a little child shall lead them."

If you can give me a clear definition in the Hebrew Scriptures of a first and second coming then I shall give more weight to your argument.

I agree with you that such a claim as "the majority hated Jews" would be unwarranted. Only the ones who really believe in the Bible and take it seriously would be the vocal haters of Judaism. Many Christians do not ardently care about their religion and how "superior" it is to other religions, thus they feel no need to be intolerant of others. But passionate Bible lovers will vigorously and often spitefully oppose those who reject the Messiahship of Jesus.

My claim is not that the majority of Christians have hated Jews. It is that when the Jews thoughtfully rejected the conclusion that Jesus is the Christ, many (I did not say most) Christians persecuted and murdered them and justified it because of the Jews "hardness of heart" or spiritual "pride".

Example 1: Crusades and general anti-semitic attitude in Medieval Europe. The way Jews were despised is even reflected even in fictional writings such as Ivanhoe.

Example 2: Nazi Germany: Nothing more needs be said. 6 million Jews were executed on a predominantly Christian continent. What greater stain can there be to the name of Jesus Christ than that? The church in many European countries largely ignored this slaughter.

Example 3: Early Church Fathers
Replacement theology is rampant throughout the church fathers. They are the founders of Christianity and as they were closer to the foundation of the church they represent the core message of the church well. If they could easily see the Church as the new spiritual Israel, then God had no further plans for Israel. Israel missed it and the true Israel was now the Church. This list includes Justin Martyr, Augustine, Origen, Hippolytus of Rome, Lactantius, and others. Hippolytus has an article called "Treatise against the Jews." Justin Martyr has his "Dialogue with Trypho the Jew" etc.. These were the good guys and the ones who had the best access to traditions from the twelve disciples. Yet they seem to take the Jew-hating stance.

Example 4: the Bible
The Gospels are filled with Anti-Semitism and portray the Jews as extremely evil men. The term Pharisee today is filled with such contempt in Christian circles. If I called you a Pharisee it would "hypocrite", the name Jesus called them. Rather it is a simple party term for their beliefs, which ironically were more similar to Jesus' than the Sadducees. The Bible could have been written by God in a way to have kept the Holocaust from happening. It is too bad that his ways are higher than ours............That is a real bummer for the little children whose lives were snuffed out in the Holocaust slowly and painfully.

manwithdream

FireBrandon,

I think the best mainstream Jewish anti-missionary articles are on this site

http://www.virtualyeshiva.com/counter-index.html

If you would like to see fringe Jewish anti-missionary arguments, you can look at my site: http://www.messianicmistakes.com/

Kenneth Greifer