Was just watching "The Davinci Code" on TNT. I have read the book as well as Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons" book, have not read the latest. Not going to comment on what i think about the books (or writing style) no, no, this post is more a question...a conundrum...
So if Sophie was the last descendant of Mary and Jesus...does that make her a Jew or a Christian? Because I think I'd be a bit conflicted if I found out who I was I might be thinking, well crap! What would great x 79 Grandpa Jesus want me to be...cause he was a devout Jew...but then there is this Christan thing - even though he wasn't one, just his followers, does that make me one though? or does that make me a Jew...and...all hell...confusing.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Being a little more Universal in our actions
Last year on Yom Kippur I posted my essay on Jonah called ‘Lessons from a Fish’(read it here). This year on Rosh Hashanah I have been struggling with what to write about. There’s so much one can pick from that I was finding it hard to focus. It seems, however, I can not stray far from the same message I wrote about last year – caring for people who are different, primarily our Muslim neighbors.
The Torah portion for Rosh Hashanah includes the story of Abraham making a truce with Abimelech, the King of the Philistines. For those who do not know the background, the Philistines are the ancestors of the Palestinians; Palestine and Palestinian are what the Roman’s called the Philistines. The story of Abraham and Abimelech comes after the story of Hagar and Ishmael being kicked out (this is also part of the Torah portion for Rosh Hashanah) where G-d tells Abraham basically not to worry that Ishmael’s children will also become a nation because Ishmael, like Isaac, is a son of Abraham. Ishmael’s descendants are the Semitic peoples of the Middle East commonly referred to as ‘Arabs’ - I try to refrain from this label as it implies a connection to Saudi Arabia and MOST Middle Easterners are NOT from Saudi Arabia.
So where am I going with this? Well lets start with the 1st story – that of Ishmael and Hagar. Ishmael is the father of Islam. What pains me the most about Jewish anti-Muslim and anti-Arab rants is that we (and I use we because whether I like it or not we are all counted among the numbers and responsible for how as a group are viewed) are raging against our FAMILY. One of the most pervasive ideologies of Judaism is the importance of the Family. I find it very hard to be represented by people who are so blind when it comes to our reality. This is our reality – all people of Semitic background are related – G-d says so! We are all family and we need to look TO one another and look AT one another in this way. Until we are able to truly embrace what our G-d has said to us in his own words we will never know what it is to have Peace. We are a warring household, perhaps the perspective we need is to see ourselves as such. So far just being democratic and trying to recognize each others right to ‘exist’ and right to ‘be’ isn’t working – on BOTH sides.
The 2nd story proves to both the Jewish people and the Philistines/Palestinians that we have had peace once before, we can have it again. I won’t even begin to pretend that I know the solution to the problems in Israel. We read this Torah portion EVERY YEAR on Rosh Hashanah how is it that we have yet to try and renew this peace? How is it that we can casually let this slide by in our minds and not actually sit and think about what is being relayed to us by G-d in this Torah portion? Could it possibly be that this isn’t just a filler story but it is G-d trying to send us a message?
I understand that in Judaism the most important part of this Torah portion is the ‘Binding of Isaac’ and from this many things begin in Judaism and that’s fine I won’t deny it’s a pretty important part of the story of the Jews but maybe for once we can pay more attention to the story of the peace, between the Philistines and the Jews, and if we can grow from it and learn from it, from here on the Torah portion can have 2 important events for the Jews instead of the one.
In years to come we can recount how it was that like our Ancestors Abraham and Abimelech the Jews and the Philistines were able to live peaceably with one another and on Rosh Hashanah we celebrate this with a New Year of life and a New Year of Peace for all of G-d’s children.
I sometimes worry that as Jews we’re too busy only looking inward and not really looking around. It really isn’t all about us. In Judaism we call this Particularism – where we only focus on the Jewish community verses Universalism where we focus on the entire world as a community that we are a part of.
I would like for us as Jews to really pay attention this year to what is really being told to us in the Torah. Consider every story – there’s a lot of not so fun stuff in there. My future in-law mentioned to me the anger he feels about how Islam is a religion of war and preaches such, I kept my mouth shut but what I wanted to say to this was, Judaism isn’t no Saint of a religion its self! We took what we wanted because G-d said it belonged to us, and we killed a lot of people on the way. We are STILL doing this to this day. People who are for all tense and purpose our FAMILY.
And this is what I mean when I say read the stories and really digest each and every one, BIG and small. They are all important because they are ALL the word of G-d. You’ll learn more then you thought would be in there. Maybe if we all did this, something THIS YEAR, this Shana Tova, this New Year of Life, things might actually change for us and the world we share.
As a side note: I find it very interesting that Both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur mention instances where G-d points out that it is important for us to care for our Muslim friends and discusses peace with them as well as showing that we are family. There are many directions one can go with this and why/how it relates to these holidays in particular but I’ll let your mind do that walking…
The Torah portion for Rosh Hashanah includes the story of Abraham making a truce with Abimelech, the King of the Philistines. For those who do not know the background, the Philistines are the ancestors of the Palestinians; Palestine and Palestinian are what the Roman’s called the Philistines. The story of Abraham and Abimelech comes after the story of Hagar and Ishmael being kicked out (this is also part of the Torah portion for Rosh Hashanah) where G-d tells Abraham basically not to worry that Ishmael’s children will also become a nation because Ishmael, like Isaac, is a son of Abraham. Ishmael’s descendants are the Semitic peoples of the Middle East commonly referred to as ‘Arabs’ - I try to refrain from this label as it implies a connection to Saudi Arabia and MOST Middle Easterners are NOT from Saudi Arabia.
So where am I going with this? Well lets start with the 1st story – that of Ishmael and Hagar. Ishmael is the father of Islam. What pains me the most about Jewish anti-Muslim and anti-Arab rants is that we (and I use we because whether I like it or not we are all counted among the numbers and responsible for how as a group are viewed) are raging against our FAMILY. One of the most pervasive ideologies of Judaism is the importance of the Family. I find it very hard to be represented by people who are so blind when it comes to our reality. This is our reality – all people of Semitic background are related – G-d says so! We are all family and we need to look TO one another and look AT one another in this way. Until we are able to truly embrace what our G-d has said to us in his own words we will never know what it is to have Peace. We are a warring household, perhaps the perspective we need is to see ourselves as such. So far just being democratic and trying to recognize each others right to ‘exist’ and right to ‘be’ isn’t working – on BOTH sides.
The 2nd story proves to both the Jewish people and the Philistines/Palestinians that we have had peace once before, we can have it again. I won’t even begin to pretend that I know the solution to the problems in Israel. We read this Torah portion EVERY YEAR on Rosh Hashanah how is it that we have yet to try and renew this peace? How is it that we can casually let this slide by in our minds and not actually sit and think about what is being relayed to us by G-d in this Torah portion? Could it possibly be that this isn’t just a filler story but it is G-d trying to send us a message?
I understand that in Judaism the most important part of this Torah portion is the ‘Binding of Isaac’ and from this many things begin in Judaism and that’s fine I won’t deny it’s a pretty important part of the story of the Jews but maybe for once we can pay more attention to the story of the peace, between the Philistines and the Jews, and if we can grow from it and learn from it, from here on the Torah portion can have 2 important events for the Jews instead of the one.
In years to come we can recount how it was that like our Ancestors Abraham and Abimelech the Jews and the Philistines were able to live peaceably with one another and on Rosh Hashanah we celebrate this with a New Year of life and a New Year of Peace for all of G-d’s children.
I sometimes worry that as Jews we’re too busy only looking inward and not really looking around. It really isn’t all about us. In Judaism we call this Particularism – where we only focus on the Jewish community verses Universalism where we focus on the entire world as a community that we are a part of.
I would like for us as Jews to really pay attention this year to what is really being told to us in the Torah. Consider every story – there’s a lot of not so fun stuff in there. My future in-law mentioned to me the anger he feels about how Islam is a religion of war and preaches such, I kept my mouth shut but what I wanted to say to this was, Judaism isn’t no Saint of a religion its self! We took what we wanted because G-d said it belonged to us, and we killed a lot of people on the way. We are STILL doing this to this day. People who are for all tense and purpose our FAMILY.
And this is what I mean when I say read the stories and really digest each and every one, BIG and small. They are all important because they are ALL the word of G-d. You’ll learn more then you thought would be in there. Maybe if we all did this, something THIS YEAR, this Shana Tova, this New Year of Life, things might actually change for us and the world we share.
As a side note: I find it very interesting that Both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur mention instances where G-d points out that it is important for us to care for our Muslim friends and discusses peace with them as well as showing that we are family. There are many directions one can go with this and why/how it relates to these holidays in particular but I’ll let your mind do that walking…
Monday, March 16, 2009
we've had our suspicions....
this came out today. Among the Biblical Archaeology world it has been a theory for some time that the site has been incorrectly 'diagnosed' to put it one way. This theory only adds to the list of others out there. One Theory is that the actual site was a clay factory (see here for an article and links) and that the Essenes came upon it later after it had been abandoned but that by this time the scrolls had already been in the caves. Things like that. google it and see what you think...I won't say where I stand! :) well not in this post at least!
cheers!
miss s.
cheers!
miss s.
Friday, March 6, 2009
in an attempt to right our wrongs
so there are some theories out there that Gobekli Tepe is the infamous Garden of Eden. when i first read about this site i thought it was a giant hoax. it was just really unreal and 'too good to be true' in the world of Archaeology.
but it is real and people want it to be Eden. somehow this idea really creeps me out. from what i have read about this place - there are more articles out there then just the one i linked so google it ( here is Wikipedia's Vanilla version)- its a pretty tragic story. it reeks of the tragedy at Easter Island with the addition of human sacrifice - yikes!
all in all i'm not comfortable with the idea that this is Eden. it doesn't fulfil the requirements of "Eden" to this Archaeologist. And the archaeological evidence of what went on and what was going on at Gobekli Tepe doesn't sound like 'paradise' at all to me.
so if this is the Garden of Eden how did we get from Gobekli to Eden?
In many ways this place does fit Eden. from the art there is evidence that the abundance of animals and vegetation was quite remarkable - like the Garden of Eden in Genesis/B'reshit has us believe. its location is ok. this is the 1st part that does not convince me. but the main part of why i don't like Gobekli Tepe is because it just really freaking creepy.
what happened here? somehow these nomadic peoples in what is now Turkey got together and built this incredible structure. Why? we don't really know but i would put all my money on religious purposes - i mean, duh - anyhow...
the archaeological record shows that these nomadic people got together and built this amazing, gigantic structure for religious purposes. now when we talk about religious purposes we often think in our terms of how we gather and worship today. and its a pretty good model to use. believe it or not no matter how much we have advanced in technology we're still very much the same people we were 11,000 years ago. anyhow, the issue with Gobekli is what happened to the environment because these people needed to gather and build this place and then put the place into use.
the tragedy at Easter Island is an excellent example of the "Carrying Capacity" theory. the population of Easter Island destroyed their environment because they surpassed their Carrying Capacity's limit - that is the environment was no longer capable of supporting the population.
the result was a complete devastation of the environment which left the people trapped on an Island they could not escape (because they used up all their trees and could no longer build boats to get to the main land) and starved to death. as a result the people of Easter Island took out their anger on their gods and toppled their famous stone statues.
how is Gobekli like this? because a large population of nomadic people were forced to be sedentary for as long as it took to build this massive complex. this taxed the environment and changed the way these people lived. as well any time a large group of people were at the complex at any given time worshiping this would happen all over again. so a group that was reliant on being Nomadic and feasting off the land without having to work it was all of a sudden forced to be in one spot and forced into a sedimentary life. this dramatically changed the landscape. this change is why the archaeologists believe the people at Gobekli started to preform human sacrifice. the change in environment may have made them believe that their god or gods were angry with them (which is pretty much the argument always for human sacrifice) and so they began to sacrifice one another to appease/please their Deity/Deities. well this doesn't seem to have worked because they then covered the entire complex(!!!!!) with soil, abandoning it to be buried forever!
whew! my fingers hurt.
any how. this real life occurrence smells very similar to the story of Eden in the Bible as well as the Greek Mythology of how man kind was forced to work the earth because Prometheus stole fire from Zeus AND combine that with the myth of Prometheus's brother Epimethius (Adam) falling in love with Pandora (Eve) giving her that 'box' that she opened (the apple) even though both her and Epimethius new NOT to open the box (G-d's warning to Adam and Eve) and thus releasing evil into the world (being kicked out of Eden).
small side note Prometheus means "Foresight" (he was the smarter brother) and Epimethius means "Hindsight" - go figure...
all that said Gobekli Tepe is a good argument for Eden i suppose though its location really doesn't suit where i personally believe Eden would have been - i'm thinking Iraq in the Plain of Eden/Adan. its amazing how names that survive from biblical times end up being where those biblical places actually where! shock! yes i'm being cheeky. and although it is a good argument for Eden i feel unsettled about the reasoning because it assumes too much. we are speaking for these mesolithic and neolithic people and giving them very complex responsibilities about OUR beliefs. its just unsettling to me.
this is where i get the title for this entry - In an attempt to right our wrongs - we are essentially trying to make restitution with our bad behavior of getting kicked out of Eden by finding G-d's Eden. and if we do find it what do we think we can do? do we think we can make up for lost time and say our sorrys? go back to this easy life of nakedness and no work? no we can't. Archaeologists and Biblical Scholars have for many years (as you will read in the article) believed that Adam and Eve wasn't a story to be taken literally. it was a story of the beginning of a 'people'. think of it this way, if you're trying to explain the History of the State of Texas for instance you're not going to go into the background story of how the Roman Empire played a part in the creation of the Catholic Church which then played a part in the shaping of Europe which then played a part in the Conquest of the Americas which then led to the State of Texas...are you? well neither is the bible...
so when the bible begins to tell the story of the Jewish people it doesn't really talk about all the other multi-god (polytheistic) people living in the fertile Crescent at the time its just going to focus on a point in time that is relevant to the explanation of where Abraham and Sarah came from. Adam and Eve is this point. their story is that of one couple in particular living a nomadic existence in the Fertile Crescent at a point in time and how they went from being mobile to sedimentary and why. people needed to know why they worked the earth and just like the Greek Myth our Biblical story (which more then likely comes from the same source as the Greek Myth originally) explains why.
to give Gobekli so much control over the 'story' when that's all it really is, is what i have biggest issue with. to say that the biblical story is about a group of people that lived in the Plain of Adan in Iraq and were the first to be sedimentary makes sense, but to say that Gobleki was the actual Garden of Eden in its literal word for word sense - a Garden - is out there....i just think its us grasping at straws and trying to find this thing that was the key to our 'goodness' and we lost it by being bad. i think we are trying to make up for our wrongs - Adam and Eve's wrongs by finding it again for G-d and humanity. well guess what, G-d knows where it is. and if it really was a for real place and true paradise, he'll let us back in when he thinks we should be allowed back in...
but back to what i said at the very beginning about how its 'too good to be true' and an amazing archaeological find. well it is. the technology and the organization that it took to master the building of the site is a great eye opener and really solidifies what us archaeologists always knew and that is that mesolithic and neolithic people are quite capable of accomplishing great things (so your Alien's built it argument does not float!) with their hands and their 'arrow heads'.
cheers,
Miss S.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
away from Christmas and on to Jesus
so i have to say good! to this strange you think being a Jew and all? not so! and I'll explain why...
the fact the Jesus may be a valid person who walked, talked, and preached around 2000 years ago means that its possible anyone in the Jewish and Christian Bible walked,talked, and ministered to the masses in the biblical middle east. its a basic umbrella of validity that biblical writings do indeed contain Truths. that the Bible/Torah/Tanach is a valid history not 'folklore'.
so any how...
the fact the Jesus may be a valid person who walked, talked, and preached around 2000 years ago means that its possible anyone in the Jewish and Christian Bible walked,talked, and ministered to the masses in the biblical middle east. its a basic umbrella of validity that biblical writings do indeed contain Truths. that the Bible/Torah/Tanach is a valid history not 'folklore'.
so any how...
some thoughts after the holidays...
The December Dilemma
Every year around December there is a big deal made about Christmas vs. Chanukah and what to do if 1) you are an interfaith family/couple 2) your kids are influenced by their Christian friends 3) any general “what do I do in ________________________ situation?”, type Christmas dilemmas for Jews.
This dilemma is different. This dilemma is a Messiah dilemma.
Being able to stand back and watch the Christmas craziness is very interesting for a non-Christian and considering that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world there are more and more non-Christians out there every year witnessing the nuttiness that is the Christmas Fever or Fervor for that matter. It may sound harsh but it often reminds me of the whole sober person in a room full of drunks scenario.
Watching from the other side of the glass is indeed interesting on a couple of different levels but the one that is the most interesting and causes the infamous dilemma for me is two levels in particular, the Secular Christmas celebrator and the Believer Christmas celebrator. Both of these – for different reasons cause me to question my own personal beliefs in a Messiah every year.
Let’s take the Secular Christmas celebrator. These are the people that for many personal reasons don’t buy into the religion part of the holiday but instead buy into the consumerism side of the Holiday. At first I was tempted to coin it “Hallmark” style side of the holiday but felt that a bit unfair to Hallmark because Hallmark in many, many ways (for all holidays including Valentines!) does an excellent job at focusing on the religious side of a holiday more then the “buying gifts” aspect of all holidays. But I digress…
The non-religious celebrator is difficult for me because coming from the Jewish side it doesn’t make much sense to celebrate a holiday if you do not buy into the religious reasons for the celebration. At this point you are basically mocking the religion of said holiday and making it even more meaningless and trivial to non-Christians.
It would make no sense for a Jew to fast for Yom Kippur if they didn’t believe in redemption (now I get this is nothing like gift giving but give me a break we’re Jews we don’t have holidays like that – that’s right Channukah isn’t about gift giving believe it or not!). Nor would it make sense for a Jew to go through all the Pesach ‘motions’ like leaning to the left and eating the Carpas if we thought the whole Passover story wasn’t real. Therefore it’s very difficult for me to understand the concept of celebrating a holiday you have no religious connection to. Just like Jews who take part in Halloween! Makes no sense…
But the hardest part of my December Dilemma is that part about a Messiah. I’ll just come right out and say it, if I can’t believe that their Messiah isn’t a joke then how will I know when my Messiah comes? How do I know I won’t react the same way to my true Messiah? Being unable to believe in the possibility of their Messiah deeply affects my own personal beliefs in a Jewish Messiah for me.
As Jews I feel we are so busy being caught up defending ourselves against why Jesus isn’t for us (and he isn’t for so many reasons – most of them because he didn’t fulfill the prophecy of the Jewish Messiah to qualify for the job) that we never stop to question our own beliefs in a true Jewish Messiah.
I come from both sides of the road. As a former Christian in multiple Christian roles – I was baptized Presbyterian, raised (during my formable tween and teen years) Episcopalian, was deeply involved in the Episcopalian church as an adult – I was constantly searching for something that the church couldn’t provide and that was reason. Judaism gave me that reason and gave me the faith I was looking for. I couldn’t believe in Jesus as a Messiah as a Christian. Being Jewish made that ok and made it all make sense in the end – because if I was a Jewish Soul of course I wasn’t going to believe in Jesus ‘Christ’.
There was nothing the years of indoctrination into the church was going to do. Nothing the church could say to me since day one of my Human life was going to form my head and heart around Jesus being a Messiah. So was there something wrong with me? No, I was just a Jewish Soul. And I truly believe this.
But if being Christian for 25 years of my life and being very much in love with the idea of Christianity couldn’t convince me of a Messiah then what does that mean for my Jewish self?
And this is my December Dilemma. We scoff and mumble over the silliness of this Christmas holiday and every year we have the ‘what are we going to do’ discussion – because its very difficult as Jews to figure out what to do with your time on a day where everyone is on lock down and I can’t go to the gym or the store or run errands, cause everything is closed, or even enjoy TV without being reminded of Jesus. But I never stop to think about the religious impact the Holiday truly has on my thinking and this scares me a great deal. If I can’t even give the Christians on ounce of true sincerity that hey maybe their Jesus guy might be a Messiah (although the dieing thing doesn’t make much sense) then who am I to say that my Messiah and my Jewish ideas of a Messiah are correct?
To solve this problem for me I really have only one option – and I will admit it is an unsettling option for me but it does help to build my faith – and that option is to ‘put it in G-d’s hands’. This many times is my answer to something I may be having a hard time with and many times it is a relief. This time it offers me no relief though. But I must assume, that if what the Tanach says about the Messiah is True (and because I believe it is the word of G-d I believe this to be so) then it will be obvious when the Messiah comes. It’ll be really hard to miss the dead coming back to life, eternal peace, the rebuilding of the Temple etc. and because of this I put it in G-d’s hands. I have no other choice with this December dilemma in particular.
Every year around December there is a big deal made about Christmas vs. Chanukah and what to do if 1) you are an interfaith family/couple 2) your kids are influenced by their Christian friends 3) any general “what do I do in ________________________ situation?”, type Christmas dilemmas for Jews.
This dilemma is different. This dilemma is a Messiah dilemma.
Being able to stand back and watch the Christmas craziness is very interesting for a non-Christian and considering that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world there are more and more non-Christians out there every year witnessing the nuttiness that is the Christmas Fever or Fervor for that matter. It may sound harsh but it often reminds me of the whole sober person in a room full of drunks scenario.
Watching from the other side of the glass is indeed interesting on a couple of different levels but the one that is the most interesting and causes the infamous dilemma for me is two levels in particular, the Secular Christmas celebrator and the Believer Christmas celebrator. Both of these – for different reasons cause me to question my own personal beliefs in a Messiah every year.
Let’s take the Secular Christmas celebrator. These are the people that for many personal reasons don’t buy into the religion part of the holiday but instead buy into the consumerism side of the Holiday. At first I was tempted to coin it “Hallmark” style side of the holiday but felt that a bit unfair to Hallmark because Hallmark in many, many ways (for all holidays including Valentines!) does an excellent job at focusing on the religious side of a holiday more then the “buying gifts” aspect of all holidays. But I digress…
The non-religious celebrator is difficult for me because coming from the Jewish side it doesn’t make much sense to celebrate a holiday if you do not buy into the religious reasons for the celebration. At this point you are basically mocking the religion of said holiday and making it even more meaningless and trivial to non-Christians.
It would make no sense for a Jew to fast for Yom Kippur if they didn’t believe in redemption (now I get this is nothing like gift giving but give me a break we’re Jews we don’t have holidays like that – that’s right Channukah isn’t about gift giving believe it or not!). Nor would it make sense for a Jew to go through all the Pesach ‘motions’ like leaning to the left and eating the Carpas if we thought the whole Passover story wasn’t real. Therefore it’s very difficult for me to understand the concept of celebrating a holiday you have no religious connection to. Just like Jews who take part in Halloween! Makes no sense…
But the hardest part of my December Dilemma is that part about a Messiah. I’ll just come right out and say it, if I can’t believe that their Messiah isn’t a joke then how will I know when my Messiah comes? How do I know I won’t react the same way to my true Messiah? Being unable to believe in the possibility of their Messiah deeply affects my own personal beliefs in a Jewish Messiah for me.
As Jews I feel we are so busy being caught up defending ourselves against why Jesus isn’t for us (and he isn’t for so many reasons – most of them because he didn’t fulfill the prophecy of the Jewish Messiah to qualify for the job) that we never stop to question our own beliefs in a true Jewish Messiah.
I come from both sides of the road. As a former Christian in multiple Christian roles – I was baptized Presbyterian, raised (during my formable tween and teen years) Episcopalian, was deeply involved in the Episcopalian church as an adult – I was constantly searching for something that the church couldn’t provide and that was reason. Judaism gave me that reason and gave me the faith I was looking for. I couldn’t believe in Jesus as a Messiah as a Christian. Being Jewish made that ok and made it all make sense in the end – because if I was a Jewish Soul of course I wasn’t going to believe in Jesus ‘Christ’.
There was nothing the years of indoctrination into the church was going to do. Nothing the church could say to me since day one of my Human life was going to form my head and heart around Jesus being a Messiah. So was there something wrong with me? No, I was just a Jewish Soul. And I truly believe this.
But if being Christian for 25 years of my life and being very much in love with the idea of Christianity couldn’t convince me of a Messiah then what does that mean for my Jewish self?
And this is my December Dilemma. We scoff and mumble over the silliness of this Christmas holiday and every year we have the ‘what are we going to do’ discussion – because its very difficult as Jews to figure out what to do with your time on a day where everyone is on lock down and I can’t go to the gym or the store or run errands, cause everything is closed, or even enjoy TV without being reminded of Jesus. But I never stop to think about the religious impact the Holiday truly has on my thinking and this scares me a great deal. If I can’t even give the Christians on ounce of true sincerity that hey maybe their Jesus guy might be a Messiah (although the dieing thing doesn’t make much sense) then who am I to say that my Messiah and my Jewish ideas of a Messiah are correct?
To solve this problem for me I really have only one option – and I will admit it is an unsettling option for me but it does help to build my faith – and that option is to ‘put it in G-d’s hands’. This many times is my answer to something I may be having a hard time with and many times it is a relief. This time it offers me no relief though. But I must assume, that if what the Tanach says about the Messiah is True (and because I believe it is the word of G-d I believe this to be so) then it will be obvious when the Messiah comes. It’ll be really hard to miss the dead coming back to life, eternal peace, the rebuilding of the Temple etc. and because of this I put it in G-d’s hands. I have no other choice with this December dilemma in particular.
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