664 - A Rabbi Talks With Jesus: An Intermillenial, Interfaith Exchange

A Rabbi Talks With Jesus: An Intermillenial, Interfaith Exchange
By Jacob Neusner
New York, Doubleday, 1993. 154 pp. $21.00.

In one of the most honest and moving religious books of recent years, Professor Jacob Neusner, formerly of Brown University, the most prolific Jewish teacher and writer of our generation, renews and revitalizes the discussion of how the essential message of Jesus differs from normative Judaism. Neusner imagines that he is in the Galilee of two thousand years ago listening to the preacher known as Jesus of Nazareth. Neusner concludes that, bad he been there and heard the Sermon on the Mount and various other teachings of Jesus as the Gospel of Matthew records them, he would have said "no" to Jesus for some very Jewish reasons.

Neusner notes any number of differences between the Sermon on the Mount and normative Jewish tradition. Sinai, the first "mountain" revelation, had as its focus corporate Israel. The Sermon on the Mount is addressed to a small group of disciples. Neusner hears Jesus telling his disciples to cast off the bonds of family and kinship ("...he who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me")-unthinkable to Jewish ears. So, too, Jesus' concern for the inner life of anger and "lusting in one's heart." Judaism cares about what you do when you act upon your thoughts. Neusner, writing as a Jew, finds the idea of "turning the other cheek" to be especially difficult. Neither can he find any Jewish justification for Jesus' admonition to "love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.... You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Neusner's book will be very useful for several reasons. Jews and Christians will be able to refer to it in dialogue and joint study. It sharpens the debate on the problematic nature of syncretistic groups such as Jews for Jesus. It will also teach intermarried families why it is impossible to raise children with dual theological identities. Once again, Jacob Neusner moves the Jewish-Christian dialogue to its next level.

Rabbi Jeffrey K Salkin
Central Synagogue of Nassau County
Rockville Centre, NY.