FORUM
FORUM Easter on a Troop Ship In March 1944 I was on a troop ship going to the South Pacific. On Easter, lay-Catholic services were held on deck. It seems that the Gospel of John is commonly read...
...I hope you will invite Professor Jack Sanders to write an essay in response to Louis Feldman...
...From my personal experience, I can tell you that Chasidim believe in the necessity of putting all their strength and devotion into their own prayers...
...Fran and Irving Waltman West Hartford, Connecticut Moment's Arafat-Saddam Cover A Cheap Shot As a non-Jewish subscriber to MOMENT, I was appalled by the picture and caption on the cover of the December (1990) issue...
...Well, there are consequences to being called a bastard and shunned, but surely the Rabbi does not mean to justify such cruelty, or to use the fact of such cruelty as an argument for prohibition...
...In conclusion, it is with mixed emotions that I present this evidence in...
...She states that Chasidism "relegates women to stricdy limited roles centered on home and children...
...catholic church, however, was to make a place for itself in the social order of the day (something that goes along with the importance of physical existence) , and the New Testament assists that concern as well by making it appear that Christianity was prophesied by Jewish scripture, that Christians are the true inheritors of the divine revelation in Judaism, and that Christians are, in a word, the true Jews...
...In some schools two out of three children live only with the mother and not with the father...
...Matthew 28:15: So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among thejudaeans until this day...
...John 7:13: Howbeit no man spake openly for him for fear of the Sadducees...
...Lawrence M. Reisman New York, New York Francine Klagsbrun Replies: Mr...
...Labeling "many Chasidic sects" as anti-Zionist, Ms...
...Bertram Rothschild, Ph.D...
...The first activity of Jesus in Luke, after his baptism, is to preach in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30...
...Indeed, the halachic process has even allowed rabbis to abrogate biblical law in order to preserve family life...
...Gay and lesbian Jews are part of Jewish families and are creating Jewish families...
...John 7:13: Howbeit no man spake openly for him for fear of the Jews...
...Several Talmudic precedents come to mind...
...Klagsbrun writes that Chasidism is shut off not only from secular knowledge but from "knowledge of other ways of thinking within the Jewish world—a far cry from the talmudic sages who argued with each other from a dozen positions across rooms and centuries...
...Finally, the Talmud (Chagigah 15a) says, "We do consider that she may have conceived in a bath...
...The priests and "the crowd"—who are they but Jews?—cry, "Crucify him...
...Professor Jack T. Sanders Department of Religious Studies University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon Is the Old Testament Anti-Gentilic...
...Barrett L. Brick, Executive Director The World Congress of Gay and Lesbian Jewish Organizations Washington, D.C...
...Could it be that we always look too diligently for that which we fear...
...Of course not...
...And, unfortunately, are apt to find it, whether it exists or not, Robert C. Hunt Santa Ana, California Does A Good God Exist...
...There we have the beginning of Jesus' career and the end of Paul's...
...In this account in Luke, after Jesus has said that the Isaiah prophecy of proclaiming release to captives, sight to the blind, etc., has been fulfilled "in your ears," he mentions two biblical events...
...Rabbi Israel Chait Far Rockaway, New York The Jew as Demon Louis Feldman's apologia for the New Testament ("Is the New Testament Antisemitic...
...Moreover, permitting procre- • ation does not preclude the woman from continuing to look for a husband and father for the child...
...But what about the fact that the child will not have a father...
...Yes, I concede...
...Thus based on the Talmud we can find a case where the rabbis believed that it was possible for a woman to conceive without the benefit of intercourse...
...However, no one has come by in a long time asking her to share her life with him, and no one is even present on the horizon...
...Rabbi William Blank Sacramento, California Is Altering the New Testament The Answer...
...courts are forcing us to give them up...
...Dismissing gay Jewish family structures out-of-hand and slandering them perpetuates stereotypes that sanction bigotry, teaches many of our children to despise themselves and teaches mature individuals to believe that love and commitment are not possible in their lives...
...But that does not mean that it is an impossible [situation...
...Reisman presumes that my column on Chasidism was based on "preconceived notions," while his letter presents real "evidence...
...Sexual morals are important to me, but I do not consider this honest and sincere act an immoral one...
...The antecedents of the rebbe predate the rise of Christianity...
...She is not even interested in having an affair with an unmarried man...
...But for your staff to feature them on the cover is an assault on Jewish subscribers to your magazine...
...Here is a way for a woman to have a sanctioned special relationship with a man to whom she is not married, or at least with his sperm...
...These are the terms of talmudic discourse on insemination...
...Not every work in the New Testament maintains that position, but there is a definite tendency in that direction...
...Acts 9:23: And after that many days were fulfilled, the Judaeans took counsel to kill him...
...Aurora, Colorado Offended by Arafat-Saddam Cover We received your December (1990) issue with disbelief, disgust and outrage...
...by Louis Feldman (December 1990), please allow a neutral observer to pose the obvious counter...
...I was born and bred in a Lubavitch home, attended Chabad schools, married a Lubavitcher and am raising my children thus...
...There can be little doubt that this version of the parable understands Jesus to be the prince who goes to heaven to receive his rule and then returns to order the slaughter of those Jews who did not accept his messiahship—especially since the author of Luke introduces the parable with these words (Luke 19:11): "He was near Jerusalem, and they thought that the Kingdom of God was about to appear suddenly...
...They (auto kai) will hear...
...Here are my suggestions [the italicized words replace "theJews"]: •John 5:16: And therefore1 did the Pharisees persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day...
...By their nature, spiritual texts imbue their subject matter with archetypal powers that plummet to the innermost core of their adherents' psyches...
...Those involved in Israeli politics also rely on his word to determine their political stance—let's not be ingenuous about his "advice...
...To try to talk away antisemitism is to willfully board catde cars to the death camps...
...December 1990), exhibits a very dangerous mindset...
...One can find passages there that make the quotations in Feldman's article pale by comparison...
...All this is possible because of the leadership we have...
...Even if the child marries a convert, converts do not retain their previous biological relationships under Jewish law (Yevamot 97b), again no problem...
...The New Testament's "anti-Judaism" passages express the collective unconscious of Christendom...
...it seems that the real challenge for a rabbinic responsum on the subject of artificial insemination would be to discuss the ways in which artificial insemination could be halachically possible...
...All the action of Luke-Acts is sandwiched between these two important episodes...
...Mr...
...And I am a woman...
...Perhaps the talmudic device of a "wife for a day" (Yoma 18b) could be used not only as a way to obtain sperm but knowledge of its source...
...Other building blocks towards a halachic solution to Sarah's need could include long-standing rabbinic support, although not unanimous, for concubinage (pilegesh or 'ishah meyuchedet...
...The true enemies of Israel lie with its increasing militarization, expansionism in the West Bank and the narrowing of political discourse—not with Yasser Arafat, Saddam Hussein and the Arab world...
...In contrast, Lis Harris in Holy Days: The World of a Hasidic Family (Summit, 1985) wrote, "My own starchy notions of how the apparent inequality of Jewish women in Jewish law probably affected them were modified considerably—by what appeared to be a remarkably energetic, mutually supportive community of women, an almost Amazonian society that was too busy to pause to reflect upon its distance from the world of men...
...Perhaps permission to artificially inseminate can be withheld except in cases where adequate arrangements have been made to provide for the child...
...Her child-rearing days are quickly flying by, and therefore she is asking herself as Hillel asked himself many years ago (Avot 1:14), "'im lo 'achshav, 'aymataif" "If not now, when...
...The problem of inadvertent incestuous marriage between two half-siblings conceived by artificial insemination by the same sperm donor is serious but solvable...
...Klagsbrun claims that Chasidic non-Zionism flies in the face of the seminal texts of Judaism...
...John 18:12: Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus and bound him...
...A better solution, I suggest, is that Christians read the New Testament—in its entirety and in its context...
...Those texts are unanimous in the view that since the revelation at Sinai, the Jewish people's identity has been defined by adherence to the laws of the Torah...
...What a pity it was that Louis Feldman ("Is the New Testament Antisemitic...
...However, Feldman's analysis tells only half of the story, and in doing so comes close to a whitewash...
...This can hardly be construed as an anti-Zionist outlook...
...Prager worships and praises a God who runs a world where, as he details a description of a 17th-century pogrom, Jewish flesh is flayed off and flung to dogs...
...Both are men's obligations (Yevamot 65b...
...This young woman does not want to enter a sordid relationship...
...It is Christians, not Jews, who need to see that the problem of antisemitism is ingredient to the New Testament itself...
...The Chasidim are obviously Orthodox...
...The rebbe W2& not a Chasidic invention, and the only Christological influences in Chasidism are those Ms...
...In these days when antisemitism seems to be rearing its ugly head again—when some of us thought that it was, at the least, mortally wounded—it appears to be those Christian groups where the Bible is read as literal truth that find again the divine sanction for the rejection and destruction of Jews that resides in parts of the New Testament...
...My son studies in a Chasidic yeshivah...
...To ensure that, Israelis themselves must squarely face their choices: to embrace democracy and thus recognize the just demands of the Palestinians and negotiate hon-estiy with them for a two-state solution or to continue the intransigence toward the intifada and cause even greater militarization and limiting of dissent within Israel, thus creating the kind of Israel Meir Kahane called for...
...It is not we who are begging others to take our children from us...
...Despite many responsa prohibiting artificial insemination by donor for a married woman, no less a scholar than Rabbi Moses Feinstein permitted the practice in a series of important responses...
...My heart breaks for children who do not have a father or a mother...
...Ask them...
...Linda Levee Paul San Francisco, California Responsa with More Than One Voice Your idea to introduce a Responsa column (December 1990) in order to connect the sources of Jewish tradition to our modern day ethical and personal dilemmas is a welcome and exciting idea, one that I applaud...
...most synagogues and the law won't let us...
...Many are professional teachers...
...Here are a few examples: •John 5:16: And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day...
...If Christians would look at the context of the passages cited by Mr...
...Rabbi Barry Freundel The Georgetown Synagogue/ Kesher Israel Congregation Washington, D.C...
...There may well have been a presumption of halachic observance within a Jewish state, but that presumption does not preclude the fundamental legitimacy of such a state...
...Authenticity, I repeat, lies not in the exotic, but in the mainstream tradition, be it interpreted through the Orthodox, Conservative or Reform movements...
...In the first of her charges against Lubavitch, Klagsbrun says that Chasidism is "Male dominated, it relegates women to stricdy limited roles centered on home and children...
...Louis Feldman's article leaves one with the frightening question, "Will we ever learn...
...Rabbi Devorah Jacobson HiBel Foundation Washington University St Louis, Missouri We agree.—Ed...
...Add to that the crowd's response to Pilate's protestation of innocence in Matthew 27:25: "Then answered all the people, and said, 'His blood be on us and on our children,'" and popular antisemitism has all the kindling it needs to start the fire...
...While it is true that procreation in marriage is preferable, the matchmaking solution won't help a woman whose biological clock is running out...
...J. Brill, 1978...
...But why Klagsbrun finds fault with this is -beyond me...
...Reisman agrees with me that American Jews can find little relevance to their lives in the exotic nature of Chasidism...
...Jewish Arab-bashing, whether on the cover of MOMENT or elsewhere, is not going to ensure Israeli security as a democratic state...
...We are told that children from broken homes "often suffer from various psychological problems" to - persuade us that it is a bad idea...
...After Moses, there were numerous judges and prophets -who played the same role...
...However strange Paul's thinking may seem to Jews today or may have seemed to most Jews in his day, Paul seems always to have considered himself a son of the covenant...
...Irvin J. Borowsky, Founder and Chairman American Interfaith Institute Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Louis Feldman Replies: Mr...
...However, I do feel that his treatment was a bit too facile...
...Moreover, is not the biblical-talmudic-halachic practice of yibbum, the levirate marriage, nothing but a sanctioned way for a single Jewish woman to obtain sperm with yichus [pedigree...
...How Artificial Insemination Could Be Halachically Possible The only real halachic concerns that Rabbi David Golinkin raised in his responsum (Responsa, December 1990) involve the possibility of future incest...
...Finally, if there is no marriage after "a serious effort," the young woman is urged to adopt Rabbi Golinkin totally ignores the significance of childbirth to a woman...
...Ms...
...Regarding the article, "Is the New Testament Antisemitic...
...John 19:4-16...
...Torah, for Paul, is not the way to life...
...I'm glad Mr...
...Though many problems need to be overcome, including some not mentioned by Golinkin—such as mar'it 'ayin (the appearance of impropriety) and tzni'ut (modesty)—the last word for the single woman who wants to have a baby by artificial insemination may be "yes"—not "no...
...As to the strong language, that is characteristic of the rhetoric of that day...
...Surely the word "often" tells us very little...
...Still, we are told that the child would suffer the "stigma of being born out of wedlock...
...I wish to assure Ms...
...The considerations such as "broken homes," "wedlock," "psychological problems," "the good of society," "companionship" and "holiness" have no talmudic foundation in this responsum...
...Sanders is the author of the recently published Jews in Luke-Acts (SCM...
...From a Jewish point of view, the child born of this 35-year-old unmarried woman would not be illegitimate...
...Specifically, however, I must disagree with Feldman about Luke and Acts (which I shall abbreviate "Luke-Acts") . He correctly cites passages in Luke-Acts that look as if the author meant that all Jews are guilty of Jesus' death, but then he finds elements of balance in Luke-Acts...
...He refers to Elijah's providing sustenance to a Sidonian widow in a time of famine, although there were widows in Israel, and to Elisha's healing the Syrian leper Naaman, although there were lepers in Israel...
...When the Jews Cried "Crucify Him...
...Indeed, Rabbi Golinkin himself admits that "the answer to the same question can vary from generation to generation, from place toN place, from rabbi to rabbi...
...Rabbi Jack Segal Congregation Beth Yeshurun Houston, Texas Recognizing a Woman's Natural Desire to Experience Childbirth I read with great interest Rabbi David Golinkin's response to the question of whether or not it is permissible for an unmarried woman to be artificially inseminated so as to bear a child (Responsa, December 1990...
...But we must be realistic...
...To begin with, there is much in Feldman's article with which I heartily concur...
...I would like to hear an intellectually honest argument as to why Mr...
...Therefore I propose that you consider changing the format in one of these ways: Either invite two or three 'Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, The Challenge Confronting Jewish Women: Social Involvement Enhanced by Modesty (New York: Sichos in English, 1990...
...In every one of the Gospels, the gentile Pilate finds nothing in Jesus deserving of death (Matthew 27:15-26...
...The correct number for Pareveh, The Alliance for Adult Children of Jewish-Gentile Intermarriage is (202) 8283020...
...Another major concern of the...
...John 7:1: After these things Jesus APRIL 1991 • MOMENT 5 walked in Galilee...
...it seems wrong to gainsay a woman's natural desire...
...Perhaps arrangements with the sperm bank can be made so that parentage is known, or private arrangements with a donor might be entered into to avoid the problem of unknown parentage...
...At least one source gives it messianic implications, claiming that the messiah will not come until all the souls created by God at the creation of the world have a chance to live (Babylonian Talmud, Yevamot 62a...
...She failed to mention that Rabbi Schneerson's objection to the Labor party's platform was its "territory for peace" plank, which he, along with many others, believes is a threat to Israel's integrity...
...It seems that the Gospel of John is commonly read on Easter...
...After years of teaching and active participation in both Reform and Conservative congregations, I have simply come to recognize the value of the Chasidic approach in bringing a much needed spiritual dimension back into Jewish life...
...John 5:18: Therefore the Pharisees sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God...
...December 1990), scholarship and goodwill—both considerable—are at war with each other...
...opposition to Zionism has little to do with the messiah and more to do with the Zionist definition of Jewish identity by reference to a secular state...
...December 1990) was not present to explain to me on that occasion that the New Testament is not antisemitic...
...It seems to me that, from the mouths of the Lukan Jesus and Paul and from the structure of Luke-Acts, we can fathom the author's intent...
...Recommended reading: My The Jews in Luke-Acts (SCM...
...It is doubtful that any evidence would shake her preconceived notion...
...I wrote:] If someone would have said to me 13 years ago, "Rabbi, I am 35 years old and I want to have a baby—but I am not married," I probably would have said, "Are you out of your mind...
...A moment's reflection reveals that, to the contrary, it is anti-gay prejudice that bears responsibility for the disintegration of many families...
...Let us not be foolish and try to deny antisemitism in the New Testament by asking picayune questions such as who is meant by "all the people...
...The very sight of Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein is obnoxious...
...Christ continues the Abrahamic tradition of proper relationship with God, but Abraham was before the Torah (see Romans 4:1-12...
...In a manner characteristic of Chasidic thought, Rabbi Schneerson explains that "men often choose to influence their environment by force" and that "although they may attain their goals, the manner in which they do so often causes friction with those around them...
...It is not we who seek alienation from our parents...
...It is this kind of devotion and ahavat yisrael [love of Israel] that has earned Lubavitch the support it enjoys from Jews outside the movement...
...Is there room for her needs...
...It is kind to make everything and everyone appear rosy and good intentioned...
...Given these and other sources describing the importance of having children (Ibid...
...It is easy to understand why Jews were murdered especially at Easter...
...Odd that you seldom see anyone raise that question...
...These passages are against Judaism as a religion...
...All I can remember is "Crucify Him, crucify Him...
...After quoting this scripture, which in this context seems to say that the preaching of the Christian gospel to Jews is for the purpose of closing their eyes and ears and hardening their hearts, Paul announces, "Let it be known, then, to you that to the Gentiles has been sent this salvation of God...
...At the very beginning of my article I state: "That the New Testament and quotations from it have been used by antisemites for antisemitic purposes cannot be doubted...
...While there might be some women who would prefer to conceive in such fashion, it is hardly likely to become the method of choice...
...It is not we who refuse to sanctify our relationships or to protect them...
...Does Dennis Prager's God not respond unless he gets enough worship...
...If he thinks his are intellectually honest answers, he would be wise to think again...
...I have never been so uncomfortable in my life...
...If the changes in the text proposed by Mr...
...Augsburg Fortress, 1987...
...Procreation is an extremely important value in Judaism...
...They further embraced Saddam Hussein because he has tweaked the nose of the U.S...
...That the author of Luke has moved this story forward from its position in Matthew and Mark (Mark 6:1-6 parallels Matthew 13:53-58), where it comes after Jesus has performed several miracles, shows that the author wants to emphasize the account...
...The Chasidim observe the same principle...
...for he would not walk in Judea, because the Sadducees sought to kill him...
...I think that a child can live far better with a single loving mother than with constantly arguing parents...
...Thousands of Christian theologians agree that portions of the New Testament have been used by tyrants and others to harm innocent people...
...Once the rabbi enters these philosophical arguments, he has shown that there is no talmudic basis for his objections and his philosophical arguments can be countered with others that are equally reasonable...
...On page 33I make an important distinction when I state: "There are passages in the New Testament that can be characterized as anti-Judaism...
...asked by survivors and their children...
...However, in a recent series of addresses, Rabbi Schneerson acknowledged that "women are accepting greater participatory roles in every area of social life," and that they "need not shy away from involvement in the world...
...As for the position of the rebbe, it's a far reach from his centrality in Chasidic thought and life to the relatively minor place of Choni the Circle-Drawer and other miracle workers in the Midrash...
...I also agree especially with Feldman's point that the New Testament is a library and not one book— even though it be small by comparison with the Hebrew Bible and minuscule alongside the Talmud...
...The insulting equation of non-Orthodox Jews with heretics reinforces the very point I was making—Chasidic determination to delegitimize all but their own way of thinking (neither Conservative nor Reform Judaism negates the divine origin of the Torah, written or oral...
...Parents were made to help their children, to give their children courage during difficult times rather than merely to add guilt feelings to their psyches...
...It isn't far from that position to the one that says that Christians are true Jews and that those Jews who follow Torah are not true Jews...
...The majority of the women in this community hold jobs...
...I have, by the way, studied and earned my degree in journalism at New York University...
...Though he later expressed concern over possible jealousy on the part of the husband, this concern would, obviously, not be present in the case of a single woman...
...Precisely for those reasons, however, my task is a bit daunting...
...generations of rabbis have been able to abide by these conflicting mitzvot...
...I would like every woman to have a child with her husband, if that is her desire...
...It is thoughdess and offensive...
...That Jews therefore deserved any destruction that came upon them...
...In addition, neither marriage nor procreation are obligatory for women in Jewish law...
...As Rabbi Golinkin states, a rabbi's responsum "must take into consideration not only the halachic sources but also the problems and conditions of the current generation and the society in which we live...
...rabbis and/or other learned teachers of Judaism who represent various perspectives on the Jewish religious spectrum to offer their responses to each question or rotate the Responsa authors and invite a different person to respond to each question, again with an eye to insuring the pluralistic nature of this column...
...Rabbi Golinkin suggests that a stigma attaches to a child conceived by artificial insemination and to the woman who bears such a child...
...More than any other single factor they have created and sustained the archetype of Jew as demonic shadow figure throughout Western history...
...And as Lis Harris has shown, anyone truly open and honest will recognize the authentic core of Chasidism, even if they themselves are not prepared to adopt a Chasidic life...
...Feldman ignores the fact that the New Testament is a spiritual text...
...Klagsbrun reads into it...
...Anonymity of the sperm donor, except in regard to knowing whether he is non-Jewish (hardly much of a breech of confidentiality), can be maintained...
...Mark 15:6-15...
...Does his God not help if the praying isn't to code...
...It is true that in the traditional Chasidic setting, men and women are viewed as possessing different qualities which suit them for different roles...
...Matthew 28:15: So they took the money, and did as they were taught...
...It is, therefore, even harder to choose which value— procreation or marriage—is more important to a woman...
...But he neglects to state that the New Testament contains anti-Jewish passages and has been used incorrecdy for many centuries to foster a hatred that has led to the murder of about half the Jewish people in the last 800 years...
...He says that women make their ideas attractive to others and cause them to be accepted as part of their own perspective...
...Do we not see here evidence that the author of Luke-Acts sought to show that the ancient prophecies had always had nonjews in mind...
...At the conclusion of Acts, then, we find Paul in a synagogue-like setting in Rome...
...Nor did I claim that Chasidim rely in their prayers on the rebbe alone...
...Augsburg Fortress, 1987...
...Since Paul is a prisoner he cannot go to the normal place of Jewish gathering, so he invites Jewish leaders to him...
...Lubavitch has gained recognition and support of people outside the movement because of the way it accepts all Jews—unconditionally...
...Borowsky are adopted, I believe that years from now, if a scholar should discover what has been done, the argument would be presented that the Jews (and their allies) engineered these changes out of a feeling of guilt...
...Yes, indeed, Chasidic women are too busy with home and children to reflect on the distant world of men, and the men have been only too happy to keep that world distant, shutting the women out of any form of authority or decision-making in religious life...
...American Jews, no matter their religious affiliation, know that their ancestors were Orthodox...
...The Christian claim to be the true Judaism was an appeal for status within the Roman Empire...
...It seems to have been quite clear to myriads of vicious and homicidal Christians...
...If we approve of artificial insemination, we are saying, "There is no need for the Jewish family!'" That is a non sequitur...
...But scholar should answer scholar...
...Reisman does not deny the rootedness of a Jewish state in the classic texts (strange that he does deny the importance placed by many Chasidic sects in their opposition to Israel on the advent of the messiah...
...On TV it is news and we tolerate it...
...Could there be some embarrassment about his status as mediator between God and ordinary people...
...Klagsbrun goes on to focus the bulk of her comments on the Lubavitcher Chasidim without ever mentioning that this particular sect has ardently supported Israel since the State's founding in 1948...
...homophobic teachings, unfortunately, foster fear and hatred all too well...
...Feldman has, I think, explained Paul's attitude toward Judaism and Jews simply but clearly...
...Klagsbrun writes that among Chasidim, "ordinary folk are taught to depend on [the rebbe] to carry their prayers upward...
...He explains the Christian gospel to his Jewish audience, and although some "are persuaded," he turns viciously on his hearers, applying against them the stock early Christian antijewish text, Isaiah 6:910, in which God tells the prophet to say to the people they should listen, but they will not comprehend, lest they repent and save themselves (Acts 28:17-28...
...Is the Old Testament anti-Gentilic...
...Norman Beck's Mature Christianity: The Recognition and Repudiation of the Anti-Jewish Polemic of the New Testament (Associated Univ., 1985...
...Of course it could be better...
...this journal...
...The talmudic sages argued with those who accepted the foundations of Jewish faith as they saw them: the divine origin of both the oral and the written Torah, the authority of the rabbis...
...Jesus' synagogue audience (in Luke) gets the point and tries to lynch him...
...Klagsbrun attributes the success of Lubavitcher outreach to "the cultlike promise of spirituality...
...they are not directed against Jews qua Jews, as a group...
...Showing a photo of Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein greeting each other over the caption, "Brothers Embrace," is a cheap shot...
...Indeed," Rabbi Schneerson concludes, "men would be well advised to learn this approach from women and incorporate it in their own life-work...
...Rabbi Golinkin is against the procedure even if the donor's identity could be determined...
...The Mishnah and Talmud are replete with stories of men such as Choni the Circle-Drawer and Rabbi Meir, who . interceded in heaven on behalf of others...
...I have reread the Gospels many times, and I cannot escape the conviction that, were I a Christian without the sophistication of a Biblical scholar, I would conclude that the Jews of Jesus' time were responsible for his death...
...Dennis Prager's justification of God in light of the Holocaust (Column, October 1990) is insulting to survivors and their families...
...Luke 23:17-25...
...Differences between them and with the Orthodox lie in interpreting the expressions of divinity...
...John 7:1: After these things Jesus walked in Galilee...
...However, I came to a different conclusion...
...This parable again has a comparable parallel in Matthew, the parable of the talents, but again there are noticeable differences in the Lukan version (Luke 19:11-27...
...Some male domination...
...Acts 9:23: And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him...
...Listening to an influential backer's advice is political, not theological...
...Those whom they saw as heretics, such as the Sadducees of the Temple era and Karaites of the Gaonic era were not allowed in the debate...
...When Jesus rages against hypocritical "scribes and Pharisees," his words stamp "Pharisee" as a term of scorn, while in our tradition it is a synonym for "scholar of Torah...
...She merely wants to be blessed by giving birth to a child and raising it...
...Yaacov Luria San Diego, California Professor Jack Sanders Responds It is an honor to me, a non-Jew, to be asked to contribute a comment to MOMENT, a journal for discussion among Jews, and especially so since I am asked to respond to an article by Professor Louis Feldman, whose studies of Josephus and other aspects of early Judaism are so well known to everyone who attempts to understand either early Judaism or early Christianity...
...I would like every woman to be happily married if that is her desire...
...But I do not answer that way any longer...
...How sad that just when we need to promote and encourage Jewish unity, Klagsbrun seeks to incite the unwar- _ ranted hatred and intolerance that is at the root of all the divisiveness among our people...
...This sanctioned institution made it halachically permissible for a man to have intercourse with his sister-in-law, incest according to the Torah...
...The New Testament, taken as a whole, is not antisemitic because some of its parts are certainly not—this means especially the letters of Paul...
...What makes this omission particularly deceptive is her assertion that the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Schneerson, thwarted the Israeli Labor party's chances of forming a government last spring...
...It is an exercise in demonology^that clarifies nothing about the nature of the Gulf crisis and what is at stake both for Palestinians and Israelis...
...But if she possesses the courage, the desire, the motivation and the inspiration to go • forward with this act, and if she possesses parents who will stand by her during difficult times, I think she can find maternal fulfillment...
...John 18:12: Then the band and the captain and thejudaean officers of the Herodians took Jesus and bound him...
...six million lives have recently taught us, however, that we cannot afford such kindness...
...and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day...
...The Palestinians and their leadership have embraced Saddam Hussein as a last resort, from their frustration in the intifada so brutally attacked and suppressed by the soldiers of the Israeli army...
...Those texts presume a Jewish state will be halachic (or theocratic, if you prefer...
...Louis Feldman is correct when he states that the New Testament is not antisemitic ("Is the New Testament Antisemitic...
...December 1990), is correct as far as it goes, differentiating between the initial intentions of the authors—reflecting an ambivalence about Judaism—and the effects of their words, which have been a significant cause of antisemitism...
...Michael Cook's Mark's Treatment of the Jewish Leaders (E...
...But we need to reflect just a bit on that fact As a library, the New Testament represents someone's collection, and some recent studies have proposed, I think correctly, that the collection, the library, is anti-Gnostic—that is, the collection was made by leaders of the early catholic church as a way of emphasizing the importance of physical-existence in this world as a part of God's concern, whereas the Gnostics were promoting a one-sided spiritualism...
...In the education of Christians about the New Testament lies our best hope for peace and harmony...
...It's a difference of priorities...
...Sam Gordon Anniston, Alabama Will We Ever Learn...
...Not only must the column be, I believe, religiously pluralistic, it must include the voices of men as well as women...
...In this sense, even Paul contributes (although certainly unwittingly) to developing antisemitism when he puts Christ over against Torah...
...John 5:18: Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God...
...for he would not walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him...
...December 1990...
...Prager claims to answer the question, "How can I believe in God after the Shoah...
...As distasteful as it sounds to liberals, it is no different from Ronald Reagan's listening to Jerry Falwell...
...Michael Egren Auburn Hills, Michigan Klagsbrun on Chasidim Francine Klagsbrun's December column on Chasidim smacks of the prejudice of which she accuses the Chasidim...
...I am an editor of two major Lubavitch publications...
...Louis Feldman's article, "Is the New Testament Antisemitic...
...Klagsbrun's statement that the cen-trality of the rebbe "smacks of Christological influence" delegitimizes Chasidim in the same way she accuses them of delegitimizing others...
...One doesn't rely on the rebbe alone...
...Klagsbrun blames reliance on the rebbe for the Lubavitcher's influence in Israeli politics, ignoring the fact that his support resulted in increased votes for Agudah...
...An Orthodox Rabbi Says "Yes" To Artificial Insemination in Response to a Conservative Rabbi's "No" I appreciated David Golinkin's response on single women and artificial insemination and the new moment department (Responsa, December 1990) that featured it...
...those who are perceived as Orthodox and not Chasidic are studied and accepted...
...We are told in so many words that the stigma is bound to lead to psychological problems...
...And it doesn't matter whether the text refers to them as "Jews" or "the people" or "the Pharisees...
...More important is the perception of authenticity...
...Howard Adelman Smith College Northampton, Massachusetts Why I Would Respond "Yes" to Artificial Insemination I was very impressed with Rabbi Golinkin's Responsa in the December 1990 MOMENT...
...She is not interested in breaking up a family...
...Will such a life be easy for the mother...
...only that they rely on him to serve as their intermediary...
...Klagsbrun that like many Jews who have come to support Lubavitch, I am not motivated by any "level of guilt," as she puts it...
...That it was foretold that Jews would reject the divine revelation of Jesus and the church...
...The Talmud suggests otherwise (Chagigah 14b-15a) by describing a virgin becoming pregnant in a bath, who is nevertheless permitted to marry a high priest...
...Indeed, the very nature of the issue selected for the first column (a single Jewish woman in her 30s considering artificial insemination) highlights the obvious and important need to hear women's responses to this and future discussions...
...Further, sperm from a gentile donor would not raise the problems Golinkin mentions...
...He seeks to demonstrate why the Shoah poses no intellectually honest arguments against the existence of a God...
...Unfortunately, 40 percent of our marriages end in divorce...
...From what I can see, his "evidence" more than reconfirms my arguments...
...Certainly children from intact homes "often" suffer from psychological problems...
...Baila Olidort Brooklyn, New York A Reform Jew Who Supports Lubavitcher Chasidism As a Jew from a Reform background who supports Lubavitcher Chasidism, I was dismayed by the many inaccuracies and false innuendoes contained in Francine Klagsbrun's December 1990 column...
...That the Chasidim take their cue from our rebbe, whose broad vision and concern for every Jew is an endless source of inspiration, is true...
...When he receives his kingdom he returns and orders those who did not want him to rule to be slaughtered (katasphazein...
...For example, by finding a way for Sarah to be artificially inseminated, perhaps at a sperm bank that is operated under strict rabbinic supervision to prevent incest, we are enabling the Jewish people to grow...
...I, too, wrote on this issue [albeit 10 years ago...
...That some unmarried women might be artificially inseminated has nothing to do with the importance of the Jewish family...
...But we dare not turn our backs on young women who see their childbearing days evaporating and castigate them for wanting to give birth to a child through artificial insemination...
...Children need role models to guide them and to lead them...
...Christ is...
...This would accurately reflect your desire to learn what the Jewish tradition has to say about the ethical and personal problems we face every day...
...This preserves no family and diminishes Judaism...
...Do you know the embarrassment you will face...
...The 16th-century Shulchan Aruch (Hilchos Bikkwr Cholim) states that one should go to a tzadik or learned man to receive a blessing for a sick person...
...At the same time, the very obviousness and exotic nature of the Chasidim allow these American Jews to dismiss the Orthodox lifestyle as something not relevant to their own lives...
...I've been around varied Chasidic groups most of my adult life...
...Give me a break...
...Anti-Gay Prejudice And the Disintegration Of the Jewish Family It is unfortunate that in moment's new Responsa column (December 1990) Rabbi David Golinkin sees fit, in a responsum on artificial insemination, to blame homosexuality for the perceived disintegration of the Jewish family...
...Do you know how this will affect your parents...
...Borowsky they would see that the Jews referred to are not all the Jews of all time, let alone their descendants, but rather the particular Jews who opposed Jesus' teachings at that time...
...behemoth, until very recendy an uncritical and obliging ally in Israeli intransigence toward the Palestinians...
...We feel that you have committed a disservice to Jewish readers and you owe us an apology...
...62a-b) and the need to replenish our numbers after the Holocaust and to compensate for those Jews lost to assimilation, I am not sure why procreation is less of a value than marriage (kiddushin...
...What about the woman's parents, what about their embarrassment...
...A Lubavftcher Mother Responds Francine Klagsbrun's diatribe against Chasidim (Column, December 1990) was badly lacking the evidence any good writer would look for to support the kind of statements she makes...
...Though Rabbi Golinkin is correct that the family is the best vehicle in which to raise a child and we need to emphasize that ideal continuously, other arrangements may also work...
...Borowsky asserts that I neglect to state that the New Testament has been used incorrectly for many centuries to foster a hatred that had led to the murder of about half the Jewish people in the last 800 years...
...It is by what people have seen of Lubavitch in practice that makes them want to support it: the humanitarian projects of Lubavitch—its drug rehabilitation centers, the Children of Chernobyl project, the contribution of Lubavitch to Israel—cultivating the land and establishing Jewish settie-ments there beginning with the first aliyah [immigration to Israel] of Chabad Chasidim in 1776, to the present day...
...In Louis Feldman's interesting essay, "Is the New Testament Antisemitic...
...Today is 1980 and not 1880...
...but those over whom he is to rule send an embassy to protest his rule...
...The difference, you see, is that all these women identify themselves as mothers...
...However, because I found the teshuvah [answer] given by Rabbi David Golinkin to be quite objectionable and disquieting (it was a paean of sorts to the mythical idea of the Jewish family), it occurred to me that the idea would perhaps be better served by offering a more pluralistic framework for it...
...These allusions appear only in Luke and seem to imply that God's care and concern had always been extended to non Jews rather than to Jews...
...That is so profound an experience that many women would far prefer childbirth to adoption...
...Such a translation would curtail antijewish hatred from being passed on to succeeding generations of Christian children...
...An increasing number of Christian leaders agree that slight changes in translating the New Testament would more accurately represent the events of the first century...
...Or does he not believe that his God responds to prayers...
...It is my considered opinion that, when one notes the beginning of Luke and the end of Acts, and when one follows closely what all the main characters in Luke-Acts (Jesus, Peter, Paul and Stephen) say about Jews generally, one will come to a different conclusion...
...In Luke the absentee landlord is a new ruler who goes to a far country in order to receive his kingdom...
...When Jesus says that what comes out of a person's mouth is more important than what goes in it (Matthew 15:11), he denies that mitzvot [commandments] and kashrut [dietary laws] have any validity as tools in the path to the experience of God...
...children are torn apart like fish and ripped from bellies of pregnant women— where the women's hands are cut off to prevent them from removing the live cats placed in their open bellies...
...Others have jobs in the corporate environment Many have secondary degrees, and those who could swing it have their doctorates, too...
...Borowsky asserts that I neglect to state that the New Testament contains anti-Jewish passages...
...That the author of Luke-Acts thinks that destruction is merited is especially clear in his treatment of one of Jesus' parables (and here we see an example of what the leading characters say about Jews), the parable of the minae, usually called the parable of the pounds—an attempt to translate the ancient monetary unit into English...
...That enfranchises the narrow minded and the bigoted...
...Thus, Orthodoxy in any form is a living example of how their ancestors lived and behaved...
...Judaism does not consider illegitimate a child born to an unwed mother...
...Klagsbrun's facile dismissal of Chasidism as male dominated is equally misleading...
...those who support them can believe they are connecting to their ancestors...
...Assuming that the child marries a Jew, the problem of incest is avoided...
...George Fish Indianapolis, Indiana Sorry, Wrong Number The correct number for the Holocaust and War Victim's Tracing and Information Center of the American Red Cross is (800) 848-9277...
...I would strongly urge MOMENT to continue its long-standing commitment to combining dialogue and scholarship on timely subjects by basing this new column on responsa from several rabbis writing on the same subject...
...In making her point, Klagsbrun bemoans the authenticity associated with Chasidim and ponders loudly the reason behind the support Lubavitch receives from Jews outside the movement Her explanation, that Chasidim seduce young people by "its rebbes, its mysticism, its absolutes and its determined air of authenticity" is puerile and untrue...
Vol. 16 • April 1991 • No. 2
