“On This Day Sacred to Christians”

   This is the day Christians celebrate the birth of their savior which leads me to ask what our perspective on Jesus might be, and to offer a brief response.

  Decades ago, Rabbi Maurice Eisendrath, president of the then Union of American Hebrew Congregations, posed the question whether there might be room for Jesus in Judaism. Do I have to tell you how vociferous the fury was? I doubt he meant we should accept him as our “Christ,” but even a lesser tie created the vehement rejection it did. And while certain aspects of Christian Scriptures, specifically that attributed to Jesus, run parallel to ours there is no question that just because there were those who made him the center of their religion, Jews could/can not, we would/will not. We totally distanced ourselves from Jesus, especially the declaration that he was the Messiah, soon to come again.

   Well, in our view once the Messiah was to come, that was it…one and done. No return and no hope for return. And we don’t believe the Messiah came (nor the Messianic Age) for the simple reason that everything we expect the Messiah to bring – peace, justice, love, understanding, etc. – isn’t in the offing. And besides, if we want it, we should do the work ourselves…the Messianic Age, as I’ve written about before…a lot.

   “But,” you ask, “don’t we have similar prayers that Christians have?” Indeed, we do. Probably the most obvious is the one we sing as we walk with the Torah scroll once it’s been removed from the Aron Hakodesch: L’cha Adonai Hag’dulah, v’hag’vurah, v’hatiferet, v’hanetzach, v’hahod (“Yours is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty”). In Christianity’s “The Lord’s Prayer” (“Our Father Who art in Heaven…”), one finds, “For the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours forever.” Just like our L’cha Adonai, the content of “The Lord’s Prayer” comes from many sources in Hebrew Scriptures. In fact, there are Christian scholars who maintain that while “The Lord’s Prayer” is “how Jesus taught us to pray,” it is the least “Christian” of the major selections in their liturgy. Well, he was Jewish, wasn’t he?

   On this special day for Christians, we wish those who hold Christmas sacred to be touched by its light and its blessings.