The Gospel According to...

I had the opportunity of talking to my son's midrasha class on the occasion of the coincidence of Maundy Thursday and erev Pesach. It was only the remnants of his class as a town dance thinned the numbers quite a bit but it was interesting to hear what might have been taught as Christianity by their teacher and to be able to contrast that with some thoughts from a modern day theology student.

I started off by separating the stories of Jesus from the history of Christianity (ugh!). I spoke of Jeshua the Rabbi and his message from the Torah - his message straight out of Deuteronomy and Leviticus. Love your enemies, free the slaves, care for the sick, feed and clothe the poor and lift up the widowed, and orphaned and children. All these things the the kids had learned as mitzvoth - and they were this Rabbi's messages. But what happened in chronicling and documenting that message was completely another story. They had no idea that at one point there were perhaps hundreds of "gospel" stories (Read Luke 1:1) but that only these four accounts were selected because they best represented what the prevailing theology of the time (ca. 100-300 CE) believed and wished to portray. They saw Christians (with plenty of good reason) as literalists but did not realize that our biblical stories, like theirs, were subject to revision and adaptation.

For example, I asked them what the Romans were like. Few really knew the unabridged version of Roman culture, of their lust for blood and sport of killing. Why then, I asked would there be little of no reference to the Roman tyranny in the books of the Christian bible? Because would you risk writing anything negative about a people who would think nothing of finding a reason to kill you? So perhaps as Rabbi Shmuel Boteach writes (Kosher Jesus), they might be inclined to whitewash the text and finger the Jews or the ruling class of the priesthood as the bad guys. After a few centuries of telling the story the the bad guys became the killers, and in the name of telling a story of crucifixion and resurrection, antisemitism became institutionalized in the catholic church.

But that was not the message of this man (who never once referred to himself as the Messiah or meshiach). I also pointed out the many similarities between a Christian service, our ritual prayers and sacraments as rooted in or directly lifted from the Shabbat service. And that today we (mostly) believe that the day before his trial and execution at the hands of the Romans, these followers and their rabbi gathered to remember the Passover, to share unleavened bread and drink wine in whatever the seder rituals of the day prescribed.

I only had a half hour to get this out and there are so many things that need to be untangled - what's this trinity thing and how can you explain the crusades. We just did not get there. But perhaps for three kids and my son, today a few of us bridged a little bit of the gap. And I would like to think that I might be invited back to talk again for a little bit more time in an open forum with the Rabbi and the whole class. That would be nice.

The Groundhog

We have a groundhog in our neighborhood - that I think lives under my tool shed. - and who helps himself to our herbs and flowers as well as the apples that fall over the fence from my neighbor's tree. He is big, and fat, and as it appears to me, quite happy in life.

I was watching him this morning at breakfast. He sat peacefully on the hillside, alternating munching on well watered grasses and observing the occasional joggers going by. I wondered what I could learn from him. First of all, he wants for nothing, yet he did not plant it, care for it or invest anything in it. If he could speak I am certain that he would view this world as his idea, his garden, his tossed salad on a silver platter! Yet I worry so much. How will I pay for this or that? Will I be able to feed my family? What about the leak I always get in the cellar after a heavy rain? How can I start seeing the world as my garden?

But he is also serene. Nothing seems to hurry my rather annoying visitor. He knows where his safe places are - the nearest bush or tunnel to escape me or another neighbor who has had it with his confounded eating our precious flowers. But he is calm and, yes, serene. he eats peacefully, looks up and surveys his world peacefully, and returns to his apple slowly and calmly. He isn't rushed - as I am - running from pillar to post, from one client to the next. Where is my peace, my pace, in this hurry-up world in which I live.

So I have declared today as Groundhog Day! And maybe tomorrow too. But unlike the movie of the same name, it will not be reliving the same events to get it right. It will be to see the world as my salad plate, to take my time, to know where my safety really is and to observe everything with a calm serenity. I have despised the little bastard, for always showing me up and outsmarting my attempts to stop him. But now he has the audacity to become my teacher!