Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Judaism and Christianity, that's the broader topic.
And there are two separate questions here. Number one, Judaism and Christianity, the way they are now, the way we see them presented today. Number two, how did it all start historically?
So let's start with the first question rather. Let's start with the first question first.
First of all, Judaism and Christianity today are two completely different religions that in their practice and in their beliefs, have some common ideas.
That's why there is such a term as Judeo Christian values.
But these are two distinctly different religions that believe in very different things.
And very often people ask me, don't all the religions believe in the same God? And the answer is, no, they don't.
Now, there could be two different religions that both believe that there's only one God, and they both believe that this God is in charge of everything. But in their minds, in the minds of these believers, these two gods are two different gods.
Do you believe that God wants you to fast on Yom Kippur or not?
Do you believe that God wants you to eat in a sukkah? Or do you think that God doesn't want you to eat pork? So if you believe in the God that tells you that you have to eat on Yom Kippur, you cannot believe in the same God. If you believe that the God did not tell you to fast on Yom Kippur, God cannot be schizophrenic. God cannot have two different opinions or two different wishes.
So in other words, we believe in the God that is in charge of the whole world. And this God has 613 commandments for us Jews, and they are only for us Jews, and we have to follow them. This God also has seven commandments for non Jews, and that's what we believe in.
There could be different religions that also believe in one God, but they don't believe in the 613 commandments, and they don't believe that God wants these things from them.
And they're free to believe whatever they want. But their religion is very different from our religion.
And even though there is such a thing as Judeo Christian values, as I said, in other words, there are parts of Christianity that retained the original Jewish ideas.
And that's why there is an overlap in the views that we have. But at the same time, there are values which make us different as well.
A different religion can tell you that when somebody slaps you in your face, give him another cheek.
And our religion doesn't say that. Our religion says it the other way around.
If somebody is about to assault you, it's a mitzvah for you to defend yourself.
So our religions very often demand from us different things.
This is a general overview of Judaism and Christianity today.
How did it all start?
Judaism is a religion believes in one God. And we were the first and the only monotheistic religion back then.
And Jews lived in the land of Israel.
And then when we had our second temple and this temple was destroyed, Jews were devastated. And Jews were really looking forward to the coming of Mashiach and rebuilding of the temple. And the Torah does promise that after our second Temple will be destroyed, a Mashiach Messiah will come and he will rebuild our temple. We will have our third Temple. And the third Temple is already going to be everlasting and it will never be destroyed.
So Jews were looking forward to it.
And after the Romans have invaded the land of Israel and destroyed the temple, they have destroyed the Jewish life, killed untold numbers of Jews. The numbers of people killed back then, percentage wise for sure exceed the numbers of Jews that were killed during the Holocaust, even though we don't have the exact stats.
But we know that Jews were completely devastated and broken, and they were hoping for Mashiach to come.
And here came a person who said that he is this Mashiach that we are waiting for.
Now, back then, as a matter of fact, there were many people that were coming claiming to be Mashiach. Many.
And in Talmud and other places, we have several stories like this of people who were coming claiming to be the Mashiach who everybody is waiting for.
And most of the time, when someone with a claim like this would come, the rabbis would come and investigate the claim and determine whether he's somebody who we could even look into, who we could even follow.
So in order to be Mashiach, one has to be qualified for being considered for the position to fill out the job application, one has to be obviously Jewish, one has to be a righteous person, and one also has to be a descendant of King David.
Why? Because we know that Mashiach will be our future king. And we know that our kings can only be from the lineage of King David.
So when these people who were claiming to be messiahs were announcing their candidacies, the rabbis would look at them and very often, most of the time, they would say that you guys not qualified.
There were great rabbis who were considered potential messiahs throughout our history.
Like, for example, the Talmud says that many rabbis considered Bar Kochba a potential Mashiach. Bar Kochba was the one who started the famous revolt against the Romans and was successful in the beginning.
And Rabbi Akiva, among many other rabbis have considered him to be the Messiah that we are waiting for. If the Jews of those years would merit that Mashiach should come for them.
The problem was that Jews didn't marry. So that's why he was not able to fulfill his mission as a Mashiach. For all we know, Rabbi Akiva was correct. And when he identified him as a potential Messiah, he was just waiting for us Jews.
So now when the person who started Christian religion came and announced his candidacy, the rabbis have looked at him.
He was Jewish by birth, so that part checked out.
He was to be Mashiach. He's supposed to be righteous. We are not sure about that part.
But what we know for sure, according to his own claims, he was not from King David's lineage because he was claiming to have been son of God. In other words, his mother did not have a father, father of flesh and blood.
We know that the husband of her mother, Joseph was not from King David's lineage.
So now I do know that modern day Christianity believes that his father was God himself, which, whatever that means.
And I can only take their claim at face value, and I can only tell you that if their claim is correct, then we know for a fact that he is not a descendant of King David on his father's side. So we know for a fact he cannot be the Mashiach that the Torah is talking about.
So once the person who claimed to be Mashiach of the Torah and claimed to come to redeem the Jews and rebuild the temple, once he was rejected by the Jews, he went to non Jews.
And he was very successful in recruiting them to believe in his religion.
But in order for the non Jews to follow him, he had to drop many of the restrictions that the Torah proscribes that the Torah requires. And that's why Christians today don't follow the laws of kosher. They don't eat matzah on Pesach and they don't celebrate Rosh Hashanah. They don't fast on Yom Kippur, which is fine because they're not Jews. They're not required now.
So he created his own religion, which again today is a standalone, separate religion, which is very distinct from its original foundation, which is Judaism. What are the relationships with Jews and Christians? Historically, it's a whole separate topic because as you said correctly, Jews in Europe have suffered from Christian persecution for many years, from Crusades to Inquisition to
[00:09:17] Speaker B: pogroms.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: So Christian church has been instigating many pogroms and the famous wave of pogroms of Baghdad. Khmelnytsky was also supported and in part instigated by the church. And this was both in Eastern Europe and Western Europe. This was with Catholics, with Protestants, with Orthodox Church, with everyone around.
Now, that has changed in the past century or so.
That has changed in the past hundred years or so. And today, Christians are the biggest supporters of Israel and of the Jews, and we are thankful to them for that. And this shows that antisemitism is not by any means essential to Christianity. It has been an add on.
And we see a lot of antisemitism coming from the Muslim quarters today. And we also know it's not essential to them as well. Why? Because for centuries and centuries, Jews lived very peacefully next to Muslims.
Christian church is not intrinsically antisemitic, just like Islam is not intrinsically anti Semitic. But both of them had antisemitic leaders in anti Semitic periods of time.
