On Tuesday, we visited the village of Ein Kerem in order to learn more in depth about Christianity. We began with a brief background about Jesus. His original name is Yeshua Ben Yosef, which literally translates to "Jesus son of Joseph." Born in Bethlehem, the family returns to Nazareth where Jesus will live growing up. He is baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, who is the one that tells Jesus he is the messiah. As for his family dynamic, he has his mother Miriam and his father Joseph. Joseph is a carpenter, and Jesus serves as his apprentice. At the age of twelve years, the family loses Jesus after a pilgrimage holiday. However, when they find him, he is arguing with the Sanhedrin. At such a young age, Jesus was already an intellectual figure, who thus appears to be a Pharisees.
We were also told a story of how Miriam was aware of her being pregnant with Jesus. This also ties in to the importance of Ein Kerem as it relates to the history of Christianity. As we learned, Ein Kerem is a stopping place. At one point, Mary comes from Nazareth to visit her cousin, Elizabeth. Mary stops at a water well for a drink when she finds Elizabeth, who is pregnant with John the Baptist. Upon their confrontation, Elizabeth tells Mary that she is pregnant with the Messiah. This encompasses the significance of this place as it is the meeting place of Mary and Elizabeth as well as the birthplace of John the Baptist, and it also explains why this source of water is now called Mary's Spring.
We learned here that Jesus was an observant Jew. He followed the mitzvoth, such as kashrut, sacrifice at the Beit Hamikdash, etc. Furthermore, he valued social action immensely. However, despite his Judaism, he did have many disagreements with it. For example, we see that Jesus elaborates on heaven and hell. Furthermore, he emphasizes individual prayer. This differs from the Jewish tradition of communal redemption that we value even today. Another example of his disagreeing with aspects of Judaism is in his opinion on divorce. While the Jewish people as a whole accept divorce, Jesus was extremely against the practice of this.
A large part of what we learned while walking around Ein Kerem was that much of the spread of Christianity resulted following Jesus' death. Then, many drastic changes are made in order to appeal to more people. A large one of these is Peter and Paul's elimination of the mitzvot, such as kashrut and circumcision. We also realized that with the mitzvot eliminated, faith itself was made to be more important.
Outdoor Church painting
Magnificat translated into dozens of languages
Indoor Church painting
Offerings presented
Finally, we concluded with tying in the Christianity with ourselves as Jews. We came to see the reasons of the Christians for blaming us for the killing of Jesus, otherwise known as Deicide. This was expressed in the St. Augustine Witness Theory, where it is said that the Jews need to be kept alive, but only to witness the Messiah as for embarrassment.
After learning more about Christianity, which do you think are the most important ways in which it differs with Judaism, and which of these resonate with you the most (can be Christian or Jewish aspect)? Do you feel the Jews are rightfully blamed for the death of Jesus? Why or why not?
One of the biggest differences for me was the greater emphasis on individualism in Christianity. Judaism places greater emphasis on community. Although we have personal prayers that we can say on our own, many of our most important prayers can only be said in a minyan. In addition, a lot of us connect our Jewish identities with community as we feel most Jewish when we're surrounded by other Jews - whether at camp, NFTY events, or elsewhere. I don't think the Jews should be blamed for the death of Jesus. They weren't trying to target Christianity, they just didn't believe Jesus was the Messiah. Although I think we can definitely condemn those Jews for sentencing Jesus to death, it's not fair to punish Jews for thousands of years.
ReplyDeleteI think the most critical change from Judaism to what we now as Christianity, is the getting rid of the Hebrew universal language. That is what tied the Jewish people together, and by eliminating that aspect I think it really broke off from Judaism. I don't think that the Jews should be blamed for the death of Jesus, although they did not believe he was the Messiah I do not think they explicitely said to kill him, and it is unfair to blame the Jews when we don't exactly know what happened.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I learned, I realized that christianity does differ from Judaism in many different aspects. First of all, christians do not have to follow all 613 mitzvoth. Also, christians deal a lot more with faith than jews do. We jews focus mostly on our actions instead of our faith. Personally, judaism resonates with me most because that is all that I know. I just feel extremely comfortable with judaism. I do feel that the jews back in the time of Jesus are rightfully blamed for his death because not only did we choose not to save him, but we wanted to crucify him.
ReplyDeleteTo me, what I learned on this trip made it clear that the most important differing aspect from Christianity to Judaism is Christianity focuses its prayers to the individual person as compared to Judaism, its more focuses on the community. Personally, Judaism resonates me the most because their is more of a connection to the Jewish community when your reason to pray is for the community. Unlike Christianity, the focus of praying is for the benefits of yourself. Even though the Jewish people did not believe in Jesus as a Messiah, I do not believe that it is right for the Jewish people to take the blame for Jesus death as we are not completely sure what had happened.
ReplyDeleteThere are many defining aspects that differ between Christianity and Judaism, however there are two that stand out to me. These are that Judaism has a language that we live by, while Christianity does not, and Judaism has an idea of the community as a whole, while Christianity focuses more on the individual. Being a Jew we are connected by our language, Hebrew, and we have a land for our people, which is Israel. Christians speak all different language, and do not have "their land." I don't believe that the jews should be blamed for the death of Jesus. They never ordered him to be killed, they just didn't believe that he was the mosiah.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most prominent differences between these two religions is the Christians emphasis on faith instead of the Jew's emphasis on mitzvot. I identify more with the jewish faith on this issue because I do not believe it is essential to believe in the spiritual aspects of a religion to be part of it. As someone who does not believe in God it is still nice to feel connected to the jewish community. I also like the Jewish belief in action and really practicing all the mitzvot to better the community. This is what religion should be about, in my opinion. I do believe the jewish people are responsible for the death of jesus but they did not see him as an important figure at the time. He was mostly seen as a false messiah, with very few followers. The jewish people just saw him as one of many imposters so they did not think his death would be such an impactful event to many. But, they did condemn him to crucifixion, so technically yes it was the jews fault that jesus died.
ReplyDeleteI think that the biggest difference is christianity focuses more on individuals where as Judaism is very community based. I definitely agree with Judaism more because I think being in a community is very powerful, and having a support system is crucial, however I do understand what christians value in self reflection. I think that it is good to have a balance, but some prayers should have to be said in a community only for example the Amidah. I think the biggest change was christians decision to break away from having a Universal language because they lost their peoplehood. I absolutely do not agree with the statement that Jews are responsible for the death of Jesus. Yes, we saw him as the false messiah, but that shouldn't lead to his death, there is something missing in the story. There is no link. Also, I don't think it was just to blame all of the ancestors as they did not do the so called wrong doing.
ReplyDeleteI think the aspect that makes christianity more greatly differ from Judaism is the boundary between a religion and a culture. As mentioned in the blog, famous priestly figures such as Paul altered the Jewish religion to become a more universal accessible concept, not restricted in being bound to a particular language or group of people. Christianity became popular through being international, a faith anyone from anywhere could easily join, and not necessarily have to support through specific actions like circumcision and traditions. Contrastingly, a lot of Judaism still has a firm foot in traditional practices, such as circumcision or keeping kosher, for example. Since Judaism has maintained a strong connection to the hebrew language and the particular land of it’s history, ‘Eretz Israel’, it is a culture of people rather than solely a religion. I’m not sure if I 100% believe the story depicted in the New Testament, partly because it is so old and I can’t quite picture Jews being so demanding on killing another Jew, (but I’m also not sure what appropriate reactions or social norms were of the time period). Either way, I don’t believe the blaming of Jewish people should be considered in modern day, or was even fair throughout the middle ages. As I don’t believe it’s right to hold blame over any cultural group of people based on ancestral actions of the past, as individuals of the evolving society likely now share very different opinions and live in a very different world.
ReplyDeleteI think the main difference between Judaism and Christianity, that Christianity is a universal religion and has many different languages. As for Judaism, it is only for Jews and its only religion is Hebrew. What resonates in Christianity is the beautiful art work and architecture in the church. It's cool designs intrigues me. I don't really know because I wasn't there, and don't believe in it because there is no historicity to back up what is real or not.
ReplyDeleteI believe the main difference between Christianity and Judaism is the following of the mitzvot and the difference in languages. Christian's do not follow any of the mitzvot (unlike Jews) and I believe these mitzvot are one of the more important parts off Judaism. We are taught about the different mitzvot and their importance all throughout our lives and as Jews, we try our best to follow them. Also, one of the unique things about the Jewish people is our language. We have kept the same language since the religion started. However, Christianity changes the language based on where you live. Although it is convenient, It is against one of the three reasons why god chose us as his people.
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ReplyDeleteI think that one difference that definitely separates Judaism from Christianity is the languages. Christianity was translated into different languages for people everywhere to spread out and take Christianity in as strictly a religion. The fact that we try to keep Judaism in Hebrew means that we can keep Judaism as a culture and a religion and continue a thriving community all over the world that can be tied together by a commonality. I'm not sure that I agree that Jews killed Jesus. I think that whatever it says written, modern Jews should not be blamed for something that may or may not have happened long, long ago.
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