"What Every Christian Needs to Know About Judaism" (Rabbi Evan Moffic)

TITLE: What Every Christian Needs to Know About Judaism
AUTHOR: Rabbi Evan Moffic
PUBLISHER: Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2020, (224 pages).

Christians generally recognize the link between Judaism and Christianity. Jesus ministered among Jews. Many religious rituals came from Jewish culture. The twelve disciples were all Jews. The Bible contains many references to Jewish practices. There were feasts and rituals that are familiar to the Jew. However, from these, not much else is known to the layperson. In this book, author Rabbi Evan Moffic's primary purpose is to unpack Jewish teachings for Christians, to establish a deeper appreciation of Judaism and Jewish culture. In this manner, he hopes that Christians will learn to grow closer to Jesus by understanding the times, the contexts, and the uniqueness of Judaism. In doing so, he aims to build bridges between Jews and Christians to share the common heritage. Throughout the book, Rabbi Moffic shares the common elements. First, the God of the Hebrew Scriptures is the same as the God of the Bible. He addresses common questions surrounding the nature of God; His Revelation; topic of suffering, etc. On suffering, he helpfully points out the three different approaches to suffering: Job approach; Jeremiah approach; and the Maimonides approach; Lurianic approach; and the Kaplan approach. These are definitely eye-opening approaches that Christians would benefit from learning.
Second, Old Testament comprises texts from the Hebrew Scriptures. After pointing out the Hebrew equivalent names, the author also shows us the value of commentaries, just like our modern Bible commentaries. Just like our Calvinist brethren use the acronym TULIP to describe Calvinism, the Jewish have PARDES (minus the vowels) to guide the various learning perspectives.

• Peshat: understanding from sages;
• Remez: hints surrounding the passage;
• Drash: What teachers tell us;
• Sod: secret things and hidden meaning.

Third, there is the doctrine of election. This is something Christians often struggle with, especially on the topic of calling. Rabbi Moffic shows us how Judaism nuances calling, choosing, and chosenness. When dealing with the question of whether God had called Jews to suffer, he answers brilliantly that the primary thing is to shine our chosenness, even in the midst of suffering. While this is something some Jews do not accept or understand, both Jews and Christians ought to consider this manner of witnessing for God in spite of suffering. Fourth, the chapter on Israel gives us a fresh perspective of what land means to the nation. It is neither capitalistic nor communist. Instead, land in Israel is a blend of equality and interdependency with high degree of political and social equality. Chapters five and six offer us a glimpse of the significant events in the Jewish calendar. In Autumn, there is the Rosh Hashanah; the Yom Kippur; Sukkot; and the Simchat Torah. In Winter/Spring, there is the Chanukah; Purim; Passover; Omer &Shavuot; Yom Hazikarron & Yom Haatzmaut; and the Tisha B'av. Other important emphases in Judaism is prayer, everyday holiness, and life-cycle events. The latter chapter should give us a deeper insight into the significant days of a person's life. Rabbi Moffic ends the book with eight popular questions people ask about Judaism.

My Thoughts
First, this is a richly informative book about what Judaism is, explained by an insider. It is not simply an explanation of popular practices. It is taught by a learned sage. Rabbi Moffic takes care to maintain faithfulness to the Jewish names instead of over-simplifying them for the modern audience. It's like trying to decide whether to say something in Hebrew or to use the English equivalent. For the most part, the author uses both so that he could point us to the same thing. For example, many Jewish rabbis writes "G-d" leaving out the vowel. In this book, the author chooses to follow the normal modern convention. In that way, non-Jewish readers would follow along the explanation without being distracted by semantics. I appreciate the background provided for the Jewish practices. Often, we find only pockets of information gleaned from commentaries and reviews. In this one book, we have a primer on Judaism and how it relates to Christianity.

Second, Christians ought to read this book because Jewish culture and beliefs form the context of the ancient biblical literature. We will gain not only a historical understanding but also cultural and political reasons why certain things are being done. It is also hoped that Christians would read with more compassionate eyes to see how much Jews had suffered over the years. If there is any one group that deals most passionately with the topic of suffering, it is the Jews. They have suffered in a way that no other groups had suffered. I appreciate the depth of insight with regard to Jewish reflections and teachings about the meaning of God and suffering. It also gives us fresh insight into one of the most popular books written on human suffering, authored by Harold Kushner: "When bad things happen to good people."

Third, this book is an invaluable resource for Bible teachers and preachers to use in their teaching. One of the things in teaching ancient biblical texts is the reason why people do what they do. It is often a challenge to help modern readers understand ancient contexts. Like telling the story of a song before listening to it, we immediately connects with the writer's background and motivation, rendering a better and deeper appreciation of the music. We can learn and incorporate a lot of background from this book into our study of the Bible. Granted, there are many differences with regard to Judaism and Christianity, the chief being how we view Jesus. It is impossible to be completely in agreement in terms of doctrines. Nevertheless, we are enriched with greater understanding not only of our differences but also our similarities. This book does highlights the latter more.

Thank you, Rabbi Moffic!

Rabbi Evan Moffic is a guide to Jewish wisdom for people of all faiths. A graduate of Stanford University, he is the spiritual leader of Congregation Solel on the North Shore of Chicago. He has been featured in the Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Forward, and Christianity Today, and appears regularly as a religious commentator on Fox News and CNN.
Rating: 4.5 stars of 5.

conrade

---

This book has been provided courtesy of Abingdon Press and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.