Wednesday, May 04, 2005

We Need More Jews in the World

We need more Jews in the world

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SHMULEY BOTEACH, THE JERUSALEM POST

May. 5, 2005

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Upon the accession of Pope Benedict XVI to the throne of St. Peter, I quickly penned an article encouraging the new pope to do something about clerical celibacy. For the first 1,000 years of Catholicism, priests (and many popes) married. The enforcement of lifelong-loneliness on the Catholic clergy directly contravenes God’s statement in the Bible that “it is not good for man to be alone.” Clerical celibacy has also severely depleted the number of Catholic priests in the West to the point of looming crisis.

As I expected, a great number of Jewish critics wrote in objection: What right do we Jews have to lecture others about their faith? Would we like it if Christians started telling us to eat pork?

This criticism is severely misguided. Judaism does not claim to be the inheritor, much less the replacement, of Christianity. But Christianity makes precisely this claim with regard to Judaism. Christians have preached to us Jews for thousands of years as to how our faith ought really be practiced, and have claimed that the tenets of their religion are soundly based on Hebrew scripture.

As such, Jews have every right to respond with our own traditional understanding of the Bible and how the God of Israel wishes to be worshiped. Our purpose in so doing is not to enter into a belittling competition with Christianity, but rather to illuminate, for the edification of our Christian brethren, the teachings and life of Jesus from within the Jewish context whence he emerged.

Indeed, the refusal of many Jews to enter into theological discussions with Christians is based on two misguided assumptions. The first is that Judaism was never meant for non-Jews, so why discuss our religion with them? And the second is that the success ? or failure ? of Christianity has no impact on Jews or Judaism.

Both assumptions are incorrect.

We Jews must first dismiss the notion that Judaism is an obscurantist worldview that has no appeal to anyone but Jews. I am downright tired of hearing that Judaism is too demanding a religion to really grow, and that it was only Christianity’s stripping away of Jewish ritual ? in the form of Paul’s abrogation of the law ? that made it palatable to hundreds of millions of gentiles.

This is preposterous, as the growth of Islam ? which likewise demands of its believers the challenging ceremonies of circumcision, strict dietary rules, and multiple prayers per day ? demonstrates. It is, furthermore, gravely insulting to Judaism to suggest that our religion is so archaic and non-compelling that only those born into it would ever consider practicing it.

The second assumption is also wrong. The success of Christianity is a direct outcome of the failure of Judaism. Rather than us Jews embracing the proselytizing zeal of our father Abraham ? whom the Bible says “created souls” (converts) in Babylon ? his descendants discovered God and kept Him to themselves. For 3,000 years we Jews have proudly asserted our aversion to proselytizing non-Jews. Our arguments were simple. Firstly, numbers are not important. It’s quality, not quantity, that counts. Second, converts are untrustworthy. They’re motivation is suspect, their commitment lax. Third, Judaism admirably claims no copyright on truth. A moral Muslim or a God-fearing Christian are just as close to God as a Jew. So why proselytize?

All three arguments are correct, and I am especially inspired by the Jewish validation of other faiths, affirming that both Christianity and Islam are valid monotheistic religions. But while these explanations account for why we Jews should not launch a global crusade to convert gentiles to Judaism ? indeed, when I meet a lapsed Christian, Catholic or Muslim, I endeavor to reawaken within them a commitment to their existing faith ? they do not explain why we should not at least be far more open to educating non-Jews who have no faith of the glories of the Jewish religion with a view toward having them embrace it sincerely.

It is simply not true that numbers don’t count. The paucity of Jews in the world makes the protection of Israel a nearly impossible challenge. The Arabs and Muslims, who are a hundred times our number, can at any time launch an economic boycott, as they have done in the past, against companies that do business with Israel, and the small size of world Jewry can do little to dissuade these corporations from following suit.

Also, in Diaspora communities, the Jewish population is too small to make a real impact in local elections and choose politicians who are favorable to Israel and Jewish interests.

As a result of our small numbers, we have relied on three other factors to protect us.

The first is Jewish financial power. We Jews raise a lot of money for candidates who are pro-Israel. But this is an incomplete solution, and leads to charges that Jewish money controls the world.

The second is relying on the essential decency of the politicians in question to see that the cause of Israel and Jewry are just, which works when the man in question is George W. Bush, but not when it is Jacques Chirac.

The third policy has been to rely on the friendship of our Christian ? especially evangelical ? brethren, who number in the hundreds of millions. But much as I am grateful to our wondrous Christian brothers and sisters for their unfailing friendship, in the final analysis our Christian brethren, understandably, have their own agenda, which sometimes overlaps with our own and sometimes conflicts. We cannot afford, in the modern era, to be so dependent on others for our security. We need more Jews in the world.

I believe that the world Jewish community should set as its target the attainment of 100 million Jews in the world by the year 2050. This is possible if we triple the Jewish birthrate to five or six children per family, which many Orthodox families are already doing, severely curtail the number of Jewish adults marrying outside the community, which can only be done through giving more youngsters a Jewish education, and finally, open synagogues and community centers to non-Jewish people around the world with a view toward showing them the blessings of a life lived in accordance with Jewish teaching.

This need not be very radical. A straightforward agenda would entail advertising existing lectures and classes in mainstream newspapers, as well as Jewish ones, bringing more overtly Jewish content to mainstream radio and television, and encouraging local rabbis around the world to welcome non-Jewish participants, without ever pressuring them to embrace Judaism. When a non-Jew attends, say, synagogue services, simply make them feel welcome and like they belong. That’s all.

I recognize that many will say that this policy will only encourage intermarriage. I disagree. Rabbis can and should make it very clear to non-Jewish participants that Judaism simply does not allow romantic entanglements between Jewish and non-Jewish individuals until such time as the non-Jewish person has sincerely embraced Judaism. Far from being a prejudicial policy, this rule is the ultimate affirmation of Jewish continuity and survival.

Let me be clear that I am in no way encouraging Judaism to actively missionize non-Jews. I am merely asking us all in the Jewish community to adopt a new openness to the many non-Jews who would like, of their own volition, to examine Judaism, rather than continuing with the self-hating notion that Judaism has nothing of interest for the wider world.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1115259514993&p=1006953079865