Submitted by Ben Tzur, Feb 13, 2008 00:40

The problem with the Catholic liturgical reference to Jews and Judaism is not that Catholics think they have the only true religion. As Halkin rightly says about that, so what? Jews can easily live with that. It is the specific singling out of Jews and Judaism for conversionary hopes that is the glaring issue - which Halkin misses completely. If it were a general declaration of hope for the conversion of all humanity to Catholicism, OK, fine and dandy. But it isn't. Since only Jews are singled out in the new liturgy, among all the non-Christian religions in the world, it is not strange that Jews objected. They have every right to do so. (Imagine the uproar if the religion chosen for such an insult were Islam! Then there would be worse than polite protests, you can be sure, and there would be plenty of Catholic Christians and others, including "well-meaning liberal" Jews, who would excuse it and find the Church liturgy outrageous and unjustifiable provocation, even a threat to world peace.) This is of a piece with traditional Christian tendencies to suppose that theirs alone is the authentic "fulfilment" specifically of Judaism, and the reality that Judaism not only is its own autonomous and salvific religion that should be understood on its OWN terms to be understood at all, but also that it even dared to continue on after the rise of Christianity and even flourished, producing new and intensely spiritual new forms of religious devotion down through the generations, demonstrating heroic loyalty to the God of Israel despite the worst efforts of the Church and Islam, and even managed in just this generation to spur the creation of a new Jewish state in the Land of Israel - all this is too dynamic and challenging to be accepted. The supersessionist or "displacement" obsession with Jews and Judaism, and its accompanying assertion that Judaism the religion is simply dead, and without salvific power, is one of the sick legacies of the past that has led to much grief. There is no compliment to Jews in the dismissal of the reality and efficacy of the Jewish religion in the newly revived and rephrased Latin liturgy. And there is no love. Quite contrary to Halkin, it is just the same old story of denial, denigration and willful spiritual enslavement that we know so well. Jews are important solely to confirm Christianity and Christian claims to be the true "Israel after the Spirit." What Jews are and what they want, what they believe and how they (along with Jesus by the way) worshipped God, none of this registers. Halkin goes on to mention the red herrings of Jewish references in the liturgy to hoping for the day when Israel's God will be recognized by all the earth, and all idolatry will be abolished. First of all, this is a general statement that does not single out any religion or community, so following Halkin's own logic, so what? There is nothing for Christians specifically to take exception to in it. But there is more. These messianic hopes do not call for the world's conversion to Judaism, for the simple reason that it has always been a mainstream and authoritatively expressed Torah teaching that salvation is available to every person in every culture and religion, depending on their own decency and godliness - no one needs to convert to Judaism now or in the future to be saved. Instead, in the messianic age, the major difference will be that each religion will have renewed and raised itself to a true actualization of the Noahite covenant, purifying itself from the dross that deviates from that covenant and that has caused so much violence and sorrow in history. Humanity can then join in a general and symphonic religion of God that allows purified forms of all the religions to flourish in harmony with each other; in such a world, Israel's faithfulness and priestly role on behalf of humanity will at last be properly recognized and honored. No doubt there are some authorities that look forward to all the world converting to Judaism in the last days, and certainly according to the prophets there will be some conversions, but the more persuasive interpretation of the prophetic teachings on this subject is that of Maimonides, according to whom the sayings that all Israel will be gathered into the Land of Israel means that non-Jews will continue to exist in their various cultures and purified religions elsewhere. In any case, things are not quite simple as Halkin suggests in these matters. As for being defensive about Judaism, Jews should defend Judaism. It is a wonderful religion, filled with holiness. There is nothing dishonorable in insisting on that against all detractors. Too bad Halkin does not agree. The age of the ghetto cringe is now definitively past.

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