THIS JEW AND JESUS

POSTED ON JULY 13, 2012  

THIS JEW AND JESUS

THIS JEW AND JESUS

An Andrew Tirade

I am a Jewish man.  Let me say that one more time for people who don’t always get it.  I am a Jew.  (I also like to say it twice because it just bothers some people as well.) I am frequently asked this question; “You’re a Jew?”  I simply answer yes.  Then I get the standard follow-up question; “So…you don’t believe in Jesus?”  I have been presented with these two questions in various forms, and in a broad spectrum that runs from curiosity to outright hostility, for the better part of the last 40 years.  So here at long last I am putting down my PERSONAL views on what it is and means for me to be a Jew and exactly what I feel about Jesus.

First off.  I am not a Jew because I don’t believe in Jesus and Jesus has nothing to do with me being a Jew.  I am a Jew because my parents were Jews.  This is simply the way it works for almost all of the world’s faiths.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, the Catholics and the Christians say you have to be baptized into the faith, the Muslims, Buddhists and Hindu’s probably have their thing, the Scientologists require that you read really bad science fiction novels and the Jews insist that your mommy was Jewish and maybe you had a lovely Bar/Bat Mitzvah.  This is great for anyone under 12 years old, but really, at a certain point you have to make your decision.  I assume this is the reason the faiths have almost universally gotten it right on this one with so many religious rights of passage occurring somewhere around puberty.

I can’t speak for the other faiths or cultures, but I will assume that the need for a religious identity is universal as well. This I have.  I did grow up in a home that was very short on faith, but steadfast in the identity of its religious cultural heritage.  Without getting too academic, what I am trying to say is that I always knew I was a Jew, but Synagogues, Hebrew Schools and Religious observations were not omnipresent in my home.  What was present was semi traditional cooking; a fair amount of Yiddish sayings and statements; an appreciation for our old world heritage, and very strong Zionist support for Israel.  For good or bad, Jesus just did not come up much in our home.  This is probably because Jesus, as a deity, just does not exist in the Jewish home, or the Buddhist home and so on.  With this in mind, I often wonder if other people of non-Christian faith are presented with a lifetime of; “You’re a Hindu?”  “So….you don’t believe in Jesus?”

The Jewish belief or view of God is Universalist in most regards.  (At least it is to me.)  I could try to muddle through what I believe at this point, but the great Jewish Philosopher Baruch Spinoza did it for me over 500 years ago.  So take it away Baruch:

“God, or substance, consisting of infinite attributes, of which each expresses eternal and infinite essentiality, necessarily exists.”

“Besides God no substance can be granted or conceived.”

“Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be conceived.”

“God is the indwelling and not the transient cause of all things.”

So that’s it in a nutshell.  I don’t believe in Jesus. I don’t believe in Buddha, I don’t believe in Shiva, I don’t believe in magic crystals and I sure don’t believe in L. Ron Hubbard.  Sure I accept that most religious or biblical figures existed at one time or another and I live my life by many of their lessons today, just as I live my life by the lessons of Moses, Job or Yoda.  (Yeah I know Yoda is not real, but his message is real to me.)  Additionally, I don’t believe in pearly gates, angels, reincarnation or an afterlife.  I do believe in recycling though.  For this reason nothing would make me happier than being made into chum upon my death and spread out on equal parts of land and sea, so that I can swiftly reenter the food chain.  At this point the food chain will surely develop severe bloating and gastritis.

Then there is the matter of my religion and the methods of my observation.  This is simple because from a dogmatic standpoint, it simply does not exist.  Again I would try to give a typically long-winded blowhard explanation of this admission but approximately 150 years ago Abraham Lincoln said it better than I ever could, so take it away Abe:

“When I do good, I feel good.  When I do bad, I feel bad.  That’s my religion”

If only I could be as concise as Lincoln. He defined our nation in a mere 263 words in the Gettysburg Address and here he strips away the immensity of all faiths and tells us that his religion is the heart of religion.  Simply to feel good when you do good and to feel bad when you do bad…amazing.  This is not to say that I even remotely feel that the body of the world’s great faiths should be stripped away.  I feel that divinely inspired or man made, they are possibly the greatest accomplishments humanity has ever possessed.  Faith brings us together, it educates, it calls for reflection and introspection and most important, it gives us a Reason To Be.  So for me to be a Jew is to view the world though the filter of banter I have presented up to this point.

But what about Jesus?  I love Jesus!  I feel especially close to him being that we share a faith and a trade. (Luckily for him, he probably never had to help anyone design a kitchen or order windows from Home Depot.) I bask in the celebration on his birth.  It is the warmest most rewarding time of the year.  I love the togetherness that families enjoy as they gather to remember his crucifixion and their belief in his resurrection.  Most of all, I love his simple message of love, charity, and acceptance.  (I would hate to bid against this guy!)

I never deny the existence of Jesus, because I truly believe that this amazing man walked the earth.  I truly believe that he was one of the greatest men that mankind has ever produced.  And above all, I agree with his message from top to bottom.  His greatness is enough for me.  I don’t need deify Jesus but I do understand why so many in the world do.  So to all Christian readers, please understand that my Jewishness is not a rejection or a dismissal of your faith, it is simply a different point of view.