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Wednesday, April 15, 2015

How to Really Honor Yom HaShoah




And while we're at it, let's not forget that Christian Nationalism is partly responsible for the Shoah, this false belief that Judaism threatens Christianism.  We saw it beginning in the writings of Ignatius (a "Church Father"):
"Do not be led astray by false opinions nor by fables which are old and profit nothing.  For if even now we live according to Judaism, we confess that we have not received grace.  For the most divine prophets  lived according to Jesus Christ…Therefore, having become his disciples, let us learn to live according to Christianism.  Whoever is called by another name more than this is not of God… It is impossible to speak of Jesus Christ and to judaise.  For Christianism did not put its faith in Judaism, but Judaism in Christianism,"  Ignatius, Letter to the Magnesians
And clarified in Nazi Germany:
"…a healthy Volk must and will reject Judaism in every form.  This fact is justified for and through history.  Should someone be upset about Germany's attitude toward Judaism, Germany has the historical justification and historical authorization for the fight against Judaism on its side!," Walter Grundmann, Professor of New Testament, University of Jena…1942
It's no secret that anti-Judaism is anti-Semitic.  But often people fail to understand how the two ideologies are linked.  The reality is that a religion (like a sense of nationalism) is a family.  And one's identification with his religious family only works in terms of a dichotomy:  us vs. them.  Thus, the Christians have historically viewed Jews as "them", the out group, the outsiders, pure enemies of the Christian family.  The various forms of Christianism survived precisely because they differentiated themselves as being distinct from Judaism (and Jews).

However, if we move beyond terms like Christianism and Judaism and focus on what unites us as family--Torah (which, on a deeper level is Yeshua, the Word of G-d)--then we suddenly become One Family.  The Bilateralists don't want this.  The Christians don't want this.  But the only way to bring peace is to have the same father, the same faith, the same worldview, the same way of life, the same family.  And, on a side note, I wonder what such a faith should be called...

On Yom HaShoah we should remember.  But we should also resolve to do everything in our power to prevent another Shoah from happening.

Are we really doing everything possible?



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