yiri@ucf-cs.UUCP (Yirmiyahu BenDavid) (11/09/84)
David writes: [] The irrepressible Yiri Ben-David: >When Christians attempt to convert Jews in the future, it is they who >need to turn to the Judaism from which they became apostate around 110 >CE. It is they who are unsaved and in need of salvation. Turn back to >the Judaism of your origins and find your salvation before you suffer >all of the dooms you have been proclaiming to everyone else. Don't be >stiffnecked in your arrogance and hypocrisies simply because the shoe is >now on the other foot. This presents a number of interesting theological questions for the divinity students: Does God hear the prayers of Christians? **************************** Yiri responds: I say nothing here... but I will provide a literal translation of a passage from the Jewish Bible, Proverbs 28:9 (your version may be verse 8 or 10) : "He who turns aside his ear from hearkening to Torah, even his prayer is an abomination". **************************** Have Jews replaced Christians as the *true* Jews? **************************** Yiri responds: Christians (as opposed to the N'tzarim) have NEVER been Jews, so no replacement is necessary. **************************** Has Israel replaced America as the *true* Israel? **************************** Yiri responds: America has been kinder than most countries to the Jews. Still, no one should deceive themselves that America is equatable to Israel. It is not. **************************** Are Christians Mashiakh-Killers? **************************** Yiri responds: While I suspect these questions were somewhat rhetorical and tongue- in-cheek, there are nevertheless some things it might be good to give serious reflection to. The historical account represents that there was a Jewish element which instigated a "kangaroo court" and a trial, after which the actual execution was carried out by gentiles. Neither is innocent. Both must assume responsibility for the death. Regardless of how we have been treated down through the ages, it is not the Jewish way to seek retribution, but rather to forgive and pursue peace. (The spectre of continued ignorance and persecution is an entirely different matter.) I have certainly presented a tutorial for Jews (and others) to be able to deal from a position of strength with those who try to convert them and to expose christians to shortcomings about which most of them have never been told. While that may seem to be an attack, it is in reality a defense. If it seems like an attack to christians, they should reflect how they have thusly been attacking Jews for centuries - to say nothing of the other far more tragic persecutions we have endured. Put simply, the shoe is indeed on the other foot. I implore everyone not to become as abusive to christians as they have sometimes been to others. I suggest that they are often well-meaning people who are victims of deceit and who are usually disseminating that deception on others unwittingly with great zeal. In my opinion, the Roman Empire pulled off the most insidious counter- feiting job in history and have thereby deceived more people and done more damage in its name than any other group I can think of. Good intentions don't bring back the dead and undo the damages. The most unfortunate part of it is that they refuse to change course - they absolutely refuse to examine these possibilities objectively because it threatens what they are already frozen into believing regardless of facts, historical considerations, etc. and they can't face the (admit- tedly) difficult prospect of discovering that for all their life they've been putting all their eggs in a counterfeit basket which would disappear with all the eggs they've collected so far. They cannot face having to admit such a momentous error. ****************************