Covenant(s)Maimon Schwarzschild

Passover and Holy Week are a good time to pay attention to how Jews and Christians are thinking about each other.  Irving Greenberg is an exceptionally interesting Orthodox Jewish theologian and intellectual, although he is known in the Jewish world for highly unorthodox Orhtodoxy.  His recent book “For the Sake of Heaven and Earth: The New Encounter Between Judaism and Christianity” suggests that Jews should certainly consider Christianity an authentic covenant: there is authority in Jewish tradition, after all, running back to Maimonides, that Christianity is part of a divine plan to spread Torah.  More daringly, Greenberg says that Christians are honourary members of the House of Israel, or even, simply, members of the House of Israel.  Jews and Christians are “part of one people, the people of Israel”.

Greenberg imagines the Messiah coming at the End of Days.  “Jews and Christians march out to greet him and establish his reign.  Finally they ask if this is his First Coming or his Second Coming – to which the Messiah smiles and replies, ‘No comment’.”

This is wildly against the grain, especially for traditional Jews.  Greenberg has certainly been criticised for it in Orthodox circles. But “Tradition” magazine, the generally quite tough-minded intellectual journal of mainstream “modern” Orthodoxy, while far from endorsing everything in Greenberg’s book, gives it – and him – a very respectful review.  Read the whole review, for a thoughtful sample of Orthodox Jewish thinking and debate about Christianity.

Happy Passover!  Happy Easter!