Messianic Judaism
Today in class the discussion of Messianic Judaism really sparked my interest. I must admitt that I have heard of Jews for Jesus and Messianic Judaism before, however, I did not formerly distinguish between the two. To me, in some ways, as a Jew, I have no problem with Messianic Jews, however, in other ways I do see a problem.
For me, the problem with messianic Judaism lies in that the way in which messianic Jews go about proselytizing is deceitful. I think that this is a problem not in what they are preaching, but in the fact that they are pretending to have beliefs that they do not hold, and pretending not to have beliefs that are central to their lives. I think that this is dangerous in that it could really damage a community.
On the other hand, I see no theoretical or ideaological problem with Messianic Judaism. I believe that Judaism is much more about the community and shared actions than it is about theology, therefore, a person's own's beliefs are not something that I am going to question or doubt. I do not see how a person who calls him/herself Jewish and also believes in Y'eshu HaMashiach is considered a threat, because I believe that Judaism in its many forms is strong enough that most Jews will not be turned on to this sort of ideaolgy. Furthermore, I believe that if a Jew does turn to messianic Judaism, then it is because they were not feeling fulfilled with Judaism, therefore, if the path of messianic Judaism leads them to fullfillment, then so be it, and good for them.
In addition, I know that in practice there is a difference, but I would argue that members of the Lubavitch Chabad sect of Judaism that believe that Shneerson is the messiah are not that far off from members of the messianic Jewish movement.
posted by Rachel Kaplan @ 3:39 PM
2 Comments:
Rachel,
I agree with what you are saying about their method of proselytizing. Additionally, I think Professor Cohen's example of Messianic Jew rising to become president of a synagogue without the congregation knowing he was in fact a Messianic Jew is deceitful, and I would be upset if I was in this situation.
I agree with your take on the similarity to the Messianic figure being seen in Rabbi Schneerson, as I stated in one of my blogs as well however, there are absolute differences between that situation and this, the largest being that this is, in fact, a Christian group simply referring to themselves as Jews. On the other hand, I never thought about this idea as you did in reference to your thoughts that Judaism in itself is strong enough that another group should not be able to take away from the Jews practicing Judaism as it is usually thought of and that those who can be drawn into Messianic Judaism were not finding fulfillment in other means of "being Jewish." That is a very interesting way of looking at the topic and has made me think slightly differently about the group.
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