A Jew’s Search for Hope with Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land
Author: Yossi Klein Halevi
Format: Paperback, 336 pages
Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (September 4, 2001)
ISBN-10: 0688169082
ISBN-13: 978-0688169084

Rabbi Judah said, “Abraham…saw Adam and Eve buried there…As he was gazing, an opening to the Garden of Eden opened for him…He saw a light shining in the cave and a single lamp burning. Then Abraham yearned to dwell in that site; his heart and will focused constantly on the cave.” -Zohar 1:127a

I’ve been debating how best to review this book. In reading Halevi’s almost decade old text, I took copious notes, recording on little scraps of paper, any observation or statement I considered important, or that resonated with my own soul (or occasionally ruffled my feathers). From an author’s or publisher’s point of view, the urgency for an almost ten year old book to be reviewed has long since faded, but for me, the message of connection and at least, attempted reconciliation with people, both unlike us, and inseparably bound to us, couldn’t come at a better time. While the message may not be literally timeless, it is a message for those of us awaiting the coming or the return of the Messiah (depending on your point of view), who will bring final unity and peace.

Yossi Klein Halevi is a devout Jew living in Israel, the son of a Holocaust survivor, and a journalist. In the last few moments of the 20th century, he was drawn on a journey to make a connection of faith with his Muslim and Christian brothers and sisters. In a land as religiously and politically dynamic as Israel, that’s not an easy thing to do. Yet, Israel’s religious landscape is explored right along with the author’s internal territory of faith, colored by human perceptions of past and present, in an attempt to cross over almost insurmountable barriers, not the least of which is fear.

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Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. -Leviticus 19:18

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.” -Mark 12:30-31

In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church – for we are members of his body. -Ephesians 5:28-30

I’ve always wondered about the assumptions these verses make. Of course, Moses is writing the original statement in the Torah (in Leviticus), and Yeshua (Jesus) is quoting him in Mark (among other Gospels). Paul makes a similar statement in Ephesians. The idea is that you are to treat your neighbor as well as you treat yourself, and a husband is to treat his wife as he treats his own body. The assumption is that you do love yourself and treat your body well. Is that a valid assumption?

It must have been back in the days of Moses, Yeshua, and Paul, otherwise, these statements wouldn’t have made a great deal of sense to their audiences. I suppose for many people, the assumptions are just as valid today. In fact, our modern culture seems to be rather excessively self-driven, catering primarily to the pleasure and desires of the individual. Yet there’s another side to human nature that isn’t being addressed. What about those people who walk around silently (or perhaps not so silently) feeling as if there’s dark cloud hanging over their heads? What about the people who don’t love themselves?

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Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. -Isaiah 55:6

We just celebrated the two days of Rosh Hashanah or the New Year, and now face the most awesome of days in our Holy calendar: Yom Kippur. However the ten day period between these two events is especially significant: The Days of Teshuvah. Actually, the ten days aren’t in between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but include those Days of Awe. But what are we to do during these ten days, which started last Friday at sundown and culminates a week from today?

The Hebrew word Teshuvah is most often translated as “repentance”, which is a word very familiar to both Jews and Gentiles, both believers in Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), and traditional, rabbinic Jews. Yet Teshuvah doesn’t quite mean “repentance” in the classical sense. According to chabad.org:

A more literal meaning of the word, however, is “return.” Repentance is a concept understood by Western society. Teshuvah, “return,” is a uniquely Jewish term. The difference between the two is more than semantic. Teshuvah reflects a radically different approach in our relationship with G-d. Repentance implies a reversal of one’s conduct – a recognition of past shortcomings, and a firm resolution to change in the future. It is the awareness of our imperfections that impels us to reorient.

“Return” emphasizes the fundamental spiritual potential that we each possess. Every one of us possesses a soul which is an actual part of G-d. This infinite G-dly spark represents the core of our beings, who we really are.

Every one of us possesses a soul which is an actual part of G-d. Believers in Yeshua, and citing Acts 2, might be tempted to believe only Messianic believers (Christians) possess the soul described on the Chabad article, but in fact, all human beings have the same connection to God because of this:

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Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground – everything that has the breath of life in it – I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning – the sixth day. -Genesis 1:26-31

In Jewish tradition, Rosh Hashanah is considered the anniversary of the Creation of the Universe by God. However, the actual day of Rosh Hashanah is considered to commemorate the sixth day of God’s creative act; the creation of man and woman, as chronicled in the quote above. Why is the Head of the Year celebrated on the sixth day, when God breathed life into the earth and created the first man, and not the first day of Creation?

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As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name, for men will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm, when he comes and prays toward this Temple, then hear from Heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name. -1 Kings 8:41-43

Traditionally, Jews, and those of us who have attached ourselves to Israel, face east, towards Jerusalem and the Temple Mount when we pray. It’s a reminder of who we serve, and an expression of longing for the coming of Messiah, who will rule the earth one day from that site. Some people are surprised that not only does facing east have a Biblical basis for Jews in prayer, but for Gentiles as well.

Beyond the words of King Solomon recorded in 1 Kings 8 though, Jewish thought regarding the “location” of the Divine Presence, and which compass direction to face while praying becomes a little interesting, at least to those of us without a classic Jewish education in Mishnah and Gemara.

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The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the Torah. -Mark 1:22

Modern, non-Jewish readers of the Bible tend to not understand why Yeshua (Jesus) teaching “as one who had authority” was such a big deal to Yeshua’s Jewish students and audience. Traditionally, Jewish sons would receive their first lessons in Torah from their fathers, starting at age 6 or 7 years, and then, if a child showed a particular talent in Torah study, he was sent to a Yeshiva or school of Torah study, to learn from a master Torah teacher such as Hillel or Gamaliel, both of whom lived in Israel during the First Century. Successful Torah students, would graduate the Yeshiva and become instructors, teaching in the name of, and under the authority of their Masters.

The Gospels have no record of Yosef (Joseph), Yeshua’s earthly father, after Yeshua was age 12. Certainly if Yosef died sometime afterwards, Yeshua, as the eldest son, would have taken on the responsibility of supporting the family (probably by carpentry), and would not have been eligible to attend a Yeshiva, even if invited. Yet, as we know, Yeshua was, among other things, an extremely gifted Torah teacher. No one could credibly question his Torah interpretations, even his detractors. Yet where did he come by such wisdom and knowledge?

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I suppose this would be a more fitting article for Yom Ha-Shoah or Holocaust Memorial Day, but a friend of mine (thanks, Ken) forwarded an email to me about the life of Irena Sendler, and I was so moved, I couldn’t wait to tell you about her. Here’s what the email said:

On May 12, 2008, a 98 year-old lady named Irena died. During World War II, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a Plumbing and Sewer specialist. She had an “ulterior motive”. She knew what the Nazi’s plans were for the Jews, (being German). Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried, and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids). She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog, and the barking covered the children’s and infant’s noises. During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2,500 children and infants. She was caught, and the Nazi’s broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.

In 2007 Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was not selected. Al Gore won for a slide show on Global Warming.

The prize doesn’t always go to the most deserving person.

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