Try It

I had a pretty productive day today. I read the book of Galatians, and I studied up on the Trinity, and I read a fair amount of Such a Firm Foundation, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein’s book relating Christianity to Judaism. And I created a new pork recipe. I wasn’t planning to do that, but I had to fix something to eat, and I had a lump of Costco tenderloin, and I threw something together.

Here’s the basic idea. Cut a tenderloin into medallions and marinate it in a little Marsala, garlic juice (solids strained out so they won’t burn and stink later), several sliced cayenne peppers, and salt. Cut up a big white onion. Fry the onion in butter until it starts to clear, and then remove the onion from the butter. Add more butter if needed, or even if not needed. Fry the pork in the butter to brown it. Splash a little Marsala in while frying. When you have a pile of browned medallions, fry the onions a little more and add them.

The Trinity is an interesting concept, because it’s one of the main things Jews cite when they criticize Christianity. Even though Islam is a bigger threat to the Jews, Islam is considered less heretical than Christianity, because Islam is purely monotheistic. Christianity has the Trinity, which appears polytheistic to Jews. And to a lot of Christians, I might add. I didn’t know until recently that many Jews consider themselves forbidden to enter a church or even walk in front of one, whereas mosques pose no problem.

I tend to think Christians have screwed up the Trinity concept. While Jesus is clearly divine, it’s also clear that He considered himself completely subordinate to Jehovah. As for the Holy Spirit being a person separate from Jehovah, I’m not so sure. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was referred to as “the Spirit of God,” and it was no threat to monotheism. I see it as an extension of the life of God into the human body, just as a plant’s life extends into a leaf. I think it’s part of Jehovah. If it was not considered a polytheistic concept in Samson’s time, it shouldn’t be any different now.

Rabbi Eckstein’s book is informative. I’ve read the first chapter, and so far the obvious underlying message is, “It is a waste of time to try to convert us.” He talks about the way the Judaic legal system works, the way a modern legal scholar might explain the American legal system. And it’s impressive. There is no doubt about that. First there was the Pentateuch. Then the rest of the Hebrew Bible. Then there was oral law, supposedly dictated to Moses but not reduced to writing until the time of Jesus. Then there were endless commentaries, and commentaries upon commentaries. And there are immutable procedures for resolving questions, and man–not God–is considered the final arbiter.

The peculiar thing about man being the final authority is that it places his interpretation of scripture and commentaries and so on above even divine revelation. Rabbi Eckstein relates a story in which a group of rabbis have a dispute, and God speaks from heaven, giving them the answer, and they reject it, because tradition says they’re supposed to vote. And God agrees, even though their answer disagrees with His, and He says they’ve beaten Him! And He’s happy about it!

How do you convert people who believe things like that? We rely on faith and the action of the Holy Spirit; modern miracles, if you will. And Jews are trained to distrust these things. It’s not unreasonable; they’ve seen fraudulent messiahs come and go for centuries. And they haven’t had a prophet in over 2000 years.

Jewish scholarship is much deeper and older than ours. Christians tend to reinvent the wheel every time a church becomes unsatisfactory. Jews–at least the Orthodox–build on old foundations and don’t abandon them. If you look at it from an intellectual standpoint, you can hardly blame them for thinking they’re on firmer ground. It’s remarkable that any Jew with a religious education ever comes around. I suppose they only convert when they decide they see Jesus in the Bible, so convincingly that they’re willing to disregard the bits of the Talmud that were created after the advent of Christianity. I haven’t read the Talmud, but it’s my understanding that it’s not a document that could ever be used to support the divinity of Jesus. To put it lightly.

I’m not concerned. If Jesus is the Messiah, then creating intellectual barriers is like like building a house of straw to protect yourself from the Big Bad Wolf. Illuminating reading, however.

I can’t figure out whether Rabbi Eckstein is Orthodox or Conservative. I assume he must not be Orthodox, since he is willing to speak in churches. He hasn’t burst into flame yet.

Wonderful day. I recommend the “sabbath” observation to one and all.