Me again.
Well, of course. It just took a short walk around the kitchen for more coffee.
I can't just think about Jesus as a mythological figure with good ideas because what He was supposed to have done for Us, to have died for our sins, that is huge. And has a lot more to do with salvation and the afterlife than Jews are concerned with.
And if Christianity tells me that someone died for my sins and this offers me salvation, that better darn well be LITERALLY true, hadn't it? How can this be metaphorical? I can answer my own question. Christianity (wait for it, this is the Mormon version) seems to propose that *repentance* is a good idea. You can try again and again and again to make things right, clean your soul, and Christ's sacrifice makes this possible.
Jews are not so concerned with this. They are very community focused, but hey, they aint' gonna forgive ya seven times seventy (three is about the max)-- and they will never forgive the Nazis. Christians would because that is what is required.
So both philosophies affect how you live your life. And this is how Christianity might work metaphorically.
Am I really on the wrong track here, or am I getting closer to understanding something important?
Jen
Well, of course. It just took a short walk around the kitchen for more coffee.
I can't just think about Jesus as a mythological figure with good ideas because what He was supposed to have done for Us, to have died for our sins, that is huge. And has a lot more to do with salvation and the afterlife than Jews are concerned with.
And if Christianity tells me that someone died for my sins and this offers me salvation, that better darn well be LITERALLY true, hadn't it? How can this be metaphorical? I can answer my own question. Christianity (wait for it, this is the Mormon version) seems to propose that *repentance* is a good idea. You can try again and again and again to make things right, clean your soul, and Christ's sacrifice makes this possible.
Jews are not so concerned with this. They are very community focused, but hey, they aint' gonna forgive ya seven times seventy (three is about the max)-- and they will never forgive the Nazis. Christians would because that is what is required.
So both philosophies affect how you live your life. And this is how Christianity might work metaphorically.
Am I really on the wrong track here, or am I getting closer to understanding something important?
Jen
Interesting...one of the first big discussions I got focused on when I started learning during my conversion year was on forgiveness. Rabbi Shmuely Boteach had a wonderful article about it at Jewsweek and I think you can search it to find it there. Anyway, the long and short was that forgiveness was a two way street - not a one sided act. Christians forgive even when forgiveness is not requested. And according to Judaism, if forgiveness is NOT requested it cannot be given. Cool huh? So everyone running around forgiving everyone else really doesn't understand the whole meaning of teshuvah...one has to repent and ask forgiveness, otherwise whatever forgiveness is given falls on a deaf ear and a heart not prepared to receive it. It is then useless.
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