6/13/2007

Kosher Spirits

So I've made friends with this girl who describes herself as "Super Jew". I told her I was "Super Catholic, nice to meet you."

We had a most enjoyable conversation in which she taught me the phrase, baruch ashem yom-yom, which means "God is great, all the time!" We gushed over how nice it is to have grown up with religion and know that no matter what we encounter in life we can make sense of it because of our relationship with God. And then I said Hallelujah, and asked her to say something equivalent in Jewish, and she looked at me and said, "You know that's a Jewish word, don't you?" But then she taught me the phrase of praise.

I'm so geeked. Reading all the buzz about the Rabbi Neusner references in Benny's book gives me warm fuzzies. It's such a thrill to know that we have so much to celebrate in common with our Hebrew Brethren. We are all Israelites, after all, looking to our Almighty for words of hope.

To quote Pius XI in 1933: "We are spiritually Semites."

1 comment:

Kt said...

Way cool, swp. I love learning how Jewish traditions tie into Christian ones. But are we really all Israelites? We share in God's special revelation to the Israelites, yet are we drawn in with them, or do we pursue God alongside them? It is amazing to me how pointedly both Christ and the apostles reached out to the Gentiles without attempting to press Jewish requirements on them, and how the early Church only requested them to follow only two kosher rules. Because it says that "in Christ there is no Jew or Gentile," I take it to mean that the only distinction that matters now are those who believe and those who don't, and that we do not necessarily have to reject our Gentile-ness to enjoy salvation. ie, I share a spiritual heritage with the Israelites, but I remain a Gentile.

It would be amazing to trace a family connection to Abraham and so be part of God's original chosen people, (and yay! I might have one myself), but there must be many Christians today who don't have any sort of connection at all. That's why I wonder if we should be boasting in Christ, not specifically the Israelites. Seems like we've gone off on this before. I was just in a tangenty sort of mood.

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