Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

Having read three of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan‘s book in the past I was happy to discover in our library a volume I was not familiar with. It was as titled “The Real Messiah? A Jewish response to missionaries.” (A side note: I had a discussion about the book’s title in a LibraryThing forum. This social cataloging site had two entries for the same book and I asked them to combine them. When they did the “?” was missing from the joined title. I insisted that they add that back, because it really makes a difference in the meaning of the title.) As I read on the book’s inner cover the publication was sponsored by an organization called “Jews for Judaism.” Their declared goals are to create “preventive counter-missionary education program that instill a greater appreciation and commitment to Jewish values and beliefs” and “winning back those Jews who have been influenced by Christian missionaries.”

As I learned from the pages of the book itself that their undeclared aim is to counteract the activities of Jews for Jesus. The book attempts to support these objectives through ten chapters, three of which were not written by Aryeh Kaplan. Before I would share my own opinion about the book let me summarize these chapters.

The introduction consists of 10 advices for Jews what to do with/how to react to the missionary problem caused by Christians who proselytize Jews. These include, learn Torah, d not argue with missionaries, do not debate, do not be taken by the “Jewish Christian” ploy, do not lose your cool, get the facts, plan strategy, focus on the teenagers and create opportunities for youth participation.

The second chapter, titled “Why aren’t we Christians?” takes four basic teachings of Christianity and explains why they Jews cannot accept them. These tenets are Jesus was the Messiah predicted by the prophets; man is evil and sinful; the Jews are no longer G-d’s chosen people, those who accept Jesus are; there is only one law: love.

The third chapter answers the question “What can a Jew lose by embracing Christianity? The answer is: Everything.” In detailing the answer Kaplan takes the differences to the concept of trinity, incarnation and meditation. In addition he also has suggestions how to find spirituality within Judaism in case that is missing for the Jewish person.

The fourth chapter compares the Jewish concept of Messiah to that of the Christian. The Jewish Messiah will “bring the world back to G-d, and make it a place of peace justice and harmony”. Christians on the other hand when Jesus did not accomplish these had to radically alter the concept and introduce the notion of a second coming. Kaplan rejects it as it extraneous to the original idea.

The fifth chapter, written by Berel Wein, looks at the history of ecumenicism. Taking one particular incident, a dialogue in 1263 CE, under the rule of James I of Aragon of Spain between Ramban (Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman) and Dominican monks Wein recounts the arguments of both sides and posist that there were and are no long term advantages of such “dialog.”

Pinchas Stolper, in chapter six, compares the historical Jesus’ activities with the Biblical prophecies regarding the Messiah. He takes 24 specific examples and shows how Jesus did not fulfill them, therefore he could not have been the Messiah.

Kaplan examines the missionaries’ most common, Tanakh based arguments in chapter seven and dissects them one by one. Through careful analysis he proves how the very quotes proselytizers attempt to use from Jewish resources for their agenda are misguided, misunderstood or deliberately misinterpreted.
Chapter eight is an unfavorable comparison of Jesus words and acts, based on New Testament quotes. For example it gives examples how he did not “turn the other cheek” when attacked, how he was vindictive, and vengeful, did not practice love all the time.

The penultimate and longest chapter of the book specifies the characteristics of Messianic age as known through Jewish sacred writings. The fact that the state of Israel has been reestablished is considered a foretold sign that the Messianic age is getting closer. The accelerated pace of technological and social changes in the last few hundred years are also interpreted in similar manner. The human free will, the process of divine creation is synthesized in the Messianic age with the statement that “the ultimate goal of the historic process is the perfection of society. Since everything was created by G-d, all must eventually be perfected.” (page 84) The significance and nature of miracles is considered in relation to our worthiness for them. The return of all Jews to the land of Israel, the rebuilding of the Temple, and worldwide peace are all covered in this context. The consequence of the coming of the Messiah, both as a human person and as an embodiment of the Messianic age is separated from the Jesus figure’s second coming.

The last chapter presents yet another approach to help Jews to fight the urge to listen to Jews for Jesus group’s message. It is a retelling of a story of a Jewish girl (yes, not young woman), who joined Jews for Jesus group for a while, but under the influence of articulate rabbis, communal feeling of a Shabbaton and learning she rediscovered and returned to Judaism.

As you can see from the above summary there is plenty of mental ammunition for Jews to counter proselytizers’ arguments. That is the best point of the book in my opinion. However I found it repetitive, because some arguments appear over and over in almost every chapter. To be fair, there are plenty points, which are covered only once.

As a Jew I understand and emphasize with the goals of the Jews for Judaism group. I think a different version of this book, however, would have been an even better tool to promote them. I think the focus of their agenda has clouded their otherwise rational thinking. There is quite a bit of unnecessary hostility venom in the writing. I believe in order to provoke your points and discredit your opponents it is not necessary to depict your adversary as evil. Uncovering their agenda and operational mechanics is more than enough. I understand and share the emotional reaction bursting out when meeting with Jews for Jesus. However in a book intended for everyday usage and for academic purposes I would have preferred a more neutral tone, that still respects the other side’s faith and humanity even if vehemently disagree with them.

I also found it ironic that on one hand the authors of the book admonish Christians for using Hebrew Scriptures in their efforts to convert Jews, but on the other hand they are using New Testament quotes to disprove Jesus’ qualities that are important for Christians. I believe similarly as the authors accuse proselytizers to using and misinterpreting Hebrew sentences out of context, they would be accused by Christians of doing the very same from the Gospels. I do not think it is the best tactic, while I recognize that for a Jew being familiar with the New Testament itself is already a sign of respect.

Having raised these observations about the book I am still happy that I read it. I learned a lot from it about the Messiah/Messianic age and ho to defend Jewish belief. I would like to close this essay with the sentence from page 85 that keeps reverberating in my mind needing more work to get fully expound.