Book Comment: Judaism for Everyone and Why the Jews Rejected Jesus

Two books this time: Judaism for Everyone (2002) and Why the Jews Rejected Jesus (2005). These two books are two sides of the same coin and discuss some of the same issues.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, the author of eleven books with titles like Kosher Sex, The Rabbi and the Psychic, and The Jewish Guide to Adultery, wrote Judaism for Everyone as an apologetic work  (but, he emphatically points out, not as an evangelistic effort). The secondary title of the book is Renewing Your Life Through the Vibrant Lessons of the Jewish Faith.

David Klinghoffer says that he wrote Why the Jews Rejected Jesus as an explanation to his well-meaning Christian friends who cannot understand why he would reject the free gift of salvation offered by the Gospel.

For both authors the idea reduces down to one point: they do not believe that Jesus fulfilled the requirements for being declared the Messiah. Christians, of course, see the same things, but come to an entirely different interpretation *.

The Jews list these reasons for rejecting Jesus:

1.     Jesus never fought the Romans. * Chrisians say that Rome clearly saw Jesus as a threat.

2.     Jesus did not establish a physical political messianic kingdom.  * Christians say that Jesus established His kingdom in the hearts of His followers, an idea which Jews utterly reject.

3.     A new Temple was not built in Jerusalem.  * Christians say that Jesus Himself is the new Temple and its priest.

4.     The world did not recognize God as Lord.  * Christians say that at the Second Coming every head will bow and every knee will bend in acknowledgement of God.

5.      A New Covenant based on restored commitment to observance of the Law was not given to the Jews. * Christians say that the New Covenant based on Faith in the Saving Grace of Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law.

6.     There was no ingathering of the Jewish exiles.  * Some Christians see the fulfillment of this requirement in the establishment of the modern State of Israel.

The Jews saw the claims of Jesus and His Christian followers to be blasphemous.  Klinghoffer points out that to the Jews, blasphemy is abusing God’s name for a forbidden purpose. Boteach clarifies what the Jews see as that forbidden purpose: He declares that the idea that God can be Human is the ultimate heresy. *Christians, of course, insist that Jesus was fully divine and fully human.

I urge you to read both of these books. Christianity and Judaism have major differences between them.  A Christian, for example, cannot echo Rabbi Boteach in saying, “Doing the right thing for the wrong reasons is far more important than waiting for the right motivation.”

Even with the differences, there is agreement on the vast majority of our two worldviews and an understanding of Jewish history, symbolism, and theology is absolutely essential for a proper understanding of Christianity. Jesus was an orthodox Jew.

Also, since God does not change, all of His promises to Israel still stand. He is not finished with the Jews.  The Bible tells us that in the end days “all Israel shall be saved.”