Everything about Christianity And Judaism totally explained
» This article discusses the traditional views of the two religions and may not be applicable all adherents of each. For more on the importance some Jewish and Christian groups give to these views, as well as further variants within each religion itself, see Judaism and Christianity.
Although
Christianity and
Judaism share historical roots, these two religions diverge in fundamental ways. Judaism places emphasis on actions, focusing primary questions on how to respond to the "eternal"
Covenant their nation received at
Mount Sinai. Christianity places emphasis on belief and practice, focusing questions on how each person receives the
Covenant offered by
Jesus.
The article on
Judeo-Christian tradition emphasizes continuities and convergences between the two religions, this article emphasizes the widely diverging views held by Christianity and Judaism. This article only considers the mainstream Jewish views rooted in
Rabbinic Judaism (in contrast to
Karaite Judaism).
Self-identification
Each religion has an
ethos, that is, an internal description of its (self-described purpose).
The
ethos of Christianity is to provide people with what it holds to be the only valid path to
salvation (
Great Commission,
Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus,
Solus Christus) as announced by the
apostles of what the
Book of Acts describes as,
The Way . Only in
Gentile (non-Jewish) settings is
The Way referred to as
Christian . According to
Alister McGrath, the
Jewish Christians affirmed every aspect of then contemporary (Second Temple) Judaism with the addition of the belief that Jesus was the messiah. Nevertheless, the Bible teaches that people are, in their current state,
sinful, and the
New Testament reveals that
Jesus is both the man and
God,
God made
incarnate; that
Jesus' death by crucifixion was a
sacrifice to atone for all humanity's sins, and that acceptance of Jesus as
Savior and
Lord saves one from
Divine Judgment, giving
Eternal life . Jesus is the mediator of the
New Covenant . His famous
Sermon on the Mount is considered by some Christian scholars to be the proclamation of the New Covenant ethics, in
contrast to the
Mosaic Covenant of
Moses from
Mount Sinai. See also the
Good news (Christianity) and
Catechism.
Judaism's
raison d'être is to carry out what it holds to be the only
Covenant between
God and the
Jewish people. The
Torah (lit. "teaching"), both
written and
oral, both tells the story of this covenant, and provides Jews with the terms of the covenant. The Torah thus guides Jews to walk in God's ways, to help them learn how to live a holy life on earth, and to bring holiness into the world and into every part of life, so that life may be elevated to a high level of sanctity (
Imitatio dei). This will allow the Jewish people as a community to be a "light unto the nations" ( ) (for example, a
role model) over the course of history and a part of the divine intent of bringing about an
age of peace and sanctity where ideally a faithful life and good deeds should be ends in themselves, not means. See also
Jewish principles of faith.
The nature of religion: national versus universal
The subject of the
Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) is the history of the Children of
Israel, especially in terms of their relationship with
God. Thus, Judaism has also been characterized as a culture or as a civilization.
Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan defines Judaism as an evolving religious civilization. One crucial sign of this is that one need not believe, or even do, anything to be Jewish; the historic definition of 'Jewishness' requires only that one be born of a Jewish mother, or that one convert to Judaism in accord with
Jewish law. (Today,
Reform and
Reconstructionist Jews also include those born of Jewish fathers and Gentile mothers if the children are raised as Jews.)
To religious
Jews, Jewish peoplehood is closely tied to their relationship with God, and thus has a strong theological component. This relationship is encapsulated in the notion that Jews are a
chosen people. Although many non-Jews have taken this as a sign of arrogance or exclusivity, Jewish scholars and theologians have emphasized that a special relationship between Jews and God doesn't in any way preclude other nations having their own relationship with God, and doesn't mean Jews are superior to members of other nations. In this sense, "chosen" means chosen to undertake a duty, a responsibility or a role, rather than chosen as higher status or more deserving. For strictly observant Jews, being "chosen" fundamentally means that it was God's wish that a group of people would exist in a
covenant, and would be bound to obey a certain set of laws (see
Torah and
halakha) as a duty of their covenant. They view their divine purpose as being ideally a "light upon the nations" and a "holy people" (ie, a people who live their lives fully in accordance with Divine will), not "the one path to God".
Jews hold that other nations and peoples are not required (or expected) to obey Jewish law. The only laws Judaism believes are automatically binding on other nations are known as the
Seven Laws of Noah. Thus, as a national religion, Judaism holds that others may have their own, different, paths to God (or holiness, or "salvation"). Nevertheless, all people must recognize God's existence. Authorities disagree as to whether non-Jews must also recognize God's unity.
Christianity, on the other hand, is characterized by its claim to universality, which marks a significant break from Jewish identity and thought. Christians believe that Christianity represents the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham and the nation of Israel, that Israel would be a blessing to all nations. Although Christians generally believe their religion to be very inclusive (since not only Jews but all gentiles can be Christian), Jews see Christianity as highly exclusive, because it views non-Christians (such as Jews) as having an incomplete or imperfect relationship with God, and therefore excluded from grace, salvation, or heaven.
This crucial difference between the two religions has other implications. For example, while in a
conversion to Judaism a convert must accept Jewish principles of faith, the process is more like a form of adoption, or changing national citizenship (for example becoming a formal member of the people, or tribe); also Judaism doesn't encourage its members to convert others and in fact would require the initiative from the person who would like to convert, whereas
conversion to Christianity is generally a declaration of faith (although some denominations view it specifically as adoption into a community of Christ, and orthodox Christian tradition views it as being a literal joining together of the members of Christ's body).
Both Christianity and Judaism have been affected by the diverse cultures of their respective members. For example, what Jews from Eastern Europe and from North Africa consider "Jewish food" has more in common with the cuisines of non-Jewish Eastern Europeans and North Africans than with each other, although for religious Jews all food-preparation must conform to the same laws of
Kashrut. According to non-Orthodox Jews and critical historians, Jewish law too has been affected by surrounding cultures (for example, some scholars argue that the establishment of absolute
monotheism in Judaism was a reaction against the
dualism of
Zoroastrianism that Jews encountered when living under
Persian rule; Jews rejected
polygamy during the Middle Ages, influenced by their Christian neighbors). According to Orthodox Jews too there are variations in Jewish custom from one part of the world to another. It was for this reason that
Joseph Karo's
Shulchan Aruch didn't become established as the authoritative code of Jewish law until after
Moshe Isserlis added his commentary, which documented variations in local custom.
Understanding of the Bible
Jews and Christians seek authority from many of the same basic books, but they conceive of these books in significantly different ways.
The
Hebrew Bible comprises three parts:
- Torah - the five books of Moses
- Nevi'im - the writings of the Prophets, and
- Ketuvim - other writings canonised over time, such as the Books of Esther, Ruth or Job.
Collectively, these are known as the Tanakh, a Hebrew acronym for the first letters of each.
According to Rabbinic Judaism, the Torah was revealed by God to Moses; within it, Jews find
613 Mitzvot (commandments), of which some are prescriptive and others of which are proscriptive. Moreover, Rabbinic tradition asserts that God revealed two Torahs to Moses, one that was written down, and one that was transmitted orally. Whereas the Written Torah has a fixed form, the Oral Torah is a living tradition which includes not only specific supplements to the Written Torah (for instance, what is the proper manner of
shechita and what is meant by "Frontlets" in the
Shema), but also procedures for understanding and talking about the Written Torah (thus, the Oral Torah revealed at Sinai includes debates among rabbis who lived long after Moses). The Oral Law elaborations of narratives in the Bible and stories about the rabbis referred to as
aggadah ("lore"). It also includes elaboration of the 613 commandments in the form of laws referred to as
halakha ("the way"). Elements of the Oral Torah were committed to writing and edited by
Judah HaNasi in the
Mishnah in 200 C.E.; much more of the Oral Torah were committed to writing in the Babylonian and a Jerusalem
Talmuds, which were edited around 600 C.E. and 450 C.E., respectively. The Talmuds are notable for the way they combine law and lore, for their explication of the
midrashic method of interpreting tests, and for their accounts of debates among rabbis, which preserve divergent and conflicting interpretations of the Bible and legal rulings.
Since the transcription of the Talmud, notable rabbis have compiled law codes that are generally held in high regard: the
Mishnah Torah, the
Tur, and the
Shulchan Aruch. The latter, which was based on earlier codes and supplemented by a commentary that notes other practices and customs practiced by Jews in different communities, is generally held to be authoritative by Orthodox Jews. The
Zohar, which was written in the thirteenth century, is generally held as the most important mystical treatise of the Jews.
All contemporary Jewish movements consider the Tanakh, including the Written Torah, and the Oral Torah in the form of the Mishnah and Talmuds as sacred, although movements are divided as to claims concerning their divine revelation, and also their authority. For Jews, the Torah - written and oral - is one's primary guide to the relationship between God and man, a living document that has unfolded and will continue to unfold whole new insights over the generations and millennia. A saying that captures this goes, "Turn it [theTorah's words] over and over again, for everything is in it."
Christians accept the Written Torah and other books of the
Hebrew Bible, although they occasionally give readings from the
Koine Greek Septuagint translation or the
Dead Sea Scrolls instead of the
Biblical Hebrew/
Biblical Aramaic Masoretic Text. Two notable examples are:
» * -- "virgin" instead of "young woman"
*
Psalm 22 -- "they have pierced my hands and feet" instead of "like a lion, (they are at) my hands and feet"
In the second example, the
Dead Sea Scrolls may support the reading of the Masoretic Hebrew text.
Also, instead of the traditional Jewish order and names for the books, Christians organize and name the books closer to that found in the Septuagint. Some Christian denominations (such as Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox), include a number of books that are not in the Hebrew Bible – called the
biblical apocrypha or
deuterocanonical books – in their canon that are not in today's Jewish canon, although they were included in the Septuagint (see
biblical canon and
table of books of Judeo-Christian Scripture). However, Christians reject the Jewish Oral Torah, which was still in oral, and therefore unwritten, form in the time of Jesus.
Christians believe that God has established a
New Covenant with people through
Jesus, as recorded in the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, Epistles, and other books collectively called the
New Testament (the word
testament attributed to
Tertullian is commonly confused with the word
covenant). For some Christians, such as
Roman Catholics and
Orthodox Christians, this New Covenant includes authoritative
Sacred Traditions and
Canon law. Others, especially
Protestants, reject the authority of such traditions and instead hold to the principle of
sola scriptura which accepts only the Bible itself as the final rule of faith and practice. Additionally, some denominations include the oral teachings of Jesus to the Apostles which have been handed down to this day, such as by
Apostolic Succession.
Since Christians refer to the Biblical books about Jesus as the New Testament, they also refer to the canon of Hebrew books as the
Old Testament, where
old is a reference to time not obsolescence (see
Meaning of old in Old Testament). Judaism, however, doesn't accept the labeling of its sacred texts as the "Old Testament," and likewise some Jews refer to the New Testament as the Christian Testament or Christian Bible. Judaism rejects all claims that Christian New Covenant ideas
supersedes, fulfills, or is the unfolding or consummation of the covenant expressed in the Written and Oral Torahs. It therefore doesn't accept that the
New Testament has any religious authority over Jews.
Many Jews view Christians as having quite an ambivalent view of the Torah, or Mosaic law: on one hand Christians treat it as God's absolute word, but on the other, they apply its commandments with an alleged selectively (compare
Biblical law in Christianity). As it seems to some Jews, Christians cite commandments from the Old Testament to support one point of view but then ignore other commandments of a similar class which are also of equal weight. Examples of this are certain commandments where God states explicitly they'll abide "for ever" (for example, ), or where God states a particular thing is an "abomination", but which are not undertaken by most Christians.
Christians explain that such selectivity is based on rulings made by early
Jewish Christians in the
Book of Acts, at the
Council of Jerusalem, in that while believing Gentiles didn't need to fully convert to Judaism, they should follow some aspects of Torah like avoiding idolatry and fornication including, according to some interpretations, of particular note in modern times,
homosexuality. This view is also reflected by modern Judaism, in that
Righteous Gentiles needn't convert to Judaism and observe all of Torah, but only the
Noahide Laws which also contain prohibitions against idolatry and fornication.
Some Christians (
Dual-covenant theology) agree that Jews who accept Jesus should still observe all of Torah, based on warnings by Jesus to Jews not to use him as an excuse to disregard it, and they support efforts of those like
Messianic Jews to do that, but other forms of Christianity oppose all observance to the Mosaic law, even by Jews, which is sometimes known as
Antinomianism. A minority view in Christianity, known as
Christian Torah-submission, holds that the Mosaic law as it's written is binding on all followers of God under the New Covenant, even for Gentiles, because it views God’s commands as "everlasting" (;, ; ) and "good" (; ; ).
Concepts of God
Traditionally, both Judaism and Christianity believe in the
God of
Abraham,
Isaac and
Jacob, for Jews the God of the
Tanakh, for Christians the God of the
Old Testament, the
creator of the universe. Judaism and major sects of Christianity reject the view that God is entirely
immanent (although some see this as the concept of the Holy Ghost) and within the world as a physical presence, (although Christians believe in the
incarnation of God). Both religions reject the view that God is entirely
transcendent, and thus separate from the world, as the pre-Christian Greek
Unknown God. Both religions reject
atheism on one hand and
polytheism on the other.
Both religions agree that God shares both transcendent and immanent qualities. How these religions resolve this issue is where the religions differ. Christianity posits that God exists as a
Trinity; in this view God exists as three distinct persons who share a single divine
essence, or
substance. In those three there's one, and in that one there are three; the one God is indivisible, while the three persons are distinct and unconfused,
God the Father,
God the Son, and
God the Holy Spirit. It teaches that God became especially immanent in physical form through the
Incarnation of
God the Son who was born as
Jesus of Nazareth, who is believed to be at once
fully God and fully human. There are "Christian" sects that deny one or more of these doctrines, however. See also
Nontrinitarianism. By contrast, Judaism sees God as a
single entity, and views trinitarianism as both incomprehensible and a violation of the Bible's teaching that God is one. It rejects the notion that Jesus or any other object or living being could be 'God', that God could have a literal 'son' in physical form or is divisible in any way, or that God could be made to be joined to the
material world in such fashion. Although Judaism provides Jews with a word to label God's transcendence (
Ein Sof, without end) and immanence (
Shekhinah, in-dwelling), these are merely human words to describe two ways of experiencing God; God is one and indivisible.
Some Jewish and Christian philosophers hold that due to these differences, it may well be that Jews and Christians don't believe in the same god at all.
Shituf
The majority Jewish view, codified in
Jewish law, is that Christians do worship the same God that Jews, along with "extra" gods (for example, the other two sections of the trinity). This theology is referred to in
Hebrew as 'Shituf' (literally "partnership"; in this context, that both the other gods and God work together). Although this theology is considered to be no different than any other form of idolatry for Jews, it may be an acceptable belief for non-Jews (according to the ruling of some Rabbinic authorities).
Accordingly, some Messianic congregations uphold a similar view with the description of God as a "compound unity."
Christian theology, however, describes such a concept as Tri-theism, and holds that any partnership of extra "gods" is strictly heretical. Thus, the very concept that Jewish theology describes as allowable for Christianity, Christians forbid as a denial of monotheism.. Interpretation or exegesis of the Scriptures is a major cause of this divergence
in understanding as the same passages viewed by different schools of thought view the other as illegitimate, or heretical. Anthropomorphisms, for example, Moses meeting with God face-to-face on Mount Sinai, prophets speaking by the "Spirit of God", or the Witch of Endor bringing up Samuel from the dead to King Saul require us to do a reality check of what is really happening in those stories and in our Synagogues and Churches.
Right action
Faith versus good deeds
Judaism teaches that the purpose of the Torah is to teach us how to act correctly. God's existence is a given in Judaism, and not something that most authorities see as a matter of required belief. Although some authorities see the Torah as commanding Jews to believe in God, Jews see belief in God as a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for a Jewish life. The quintessential verbal expression of Judaism is the
Shema Yisrael, the statement that the God of the Bible is their God, and that this God is unique and one. The quintessential physical expression of Judaism is behaving in accordance with the
613 Mitzvot (the commandments specified in the Torah), and thus live one's life in God's ways.
Thus fundamentally in Judaism, one is enjoined to bring holiness into life (with the guidance of Gods laws), rather than removing oneself from life to be holy.
Much of Christianity also teaches that God wants people to perform good works, but all branches hold that good works alone won't lead to salvation, which is called
Legalism. The exception is
Dual-covenant theology. Some Christian denominations hold that salvation depends upon transformational faith in Jesus which expresses itself in good works as a testament (or witness) to ones faith for others to see (primarily
Eastern Orthodox Christianity and
Roman Catholicism), while others (including most Protestants) hold that faith alone is necessary for salvation. However, the difference isn't as great as it seems, because it really hinges on the definition of "faith" used. The first group generally uses the term "faith" to mean "intellectual and heartfelt assent and submission." Such a faith won't be salvific until a person has allowed it to effect a life transforming conversion (turning towards God) in their being (see
ontological faith). The Christians that hold to "salvation by faith alone" (also called by its Latin name "
sola fide") define faith as being implicitly
ontological—mere intellectual assent isn't termed "faith" by these groups. Faith, then, is life-transforming by definition. See also
Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification and
Christian View of the Law.
Sin and Original Sin
In both religions, one's offenses against the will of God are called
sin. These sins can be thoughts, words, or deeds.
Catholicism categorizes sins into various groups. A wounding of the relationship with God is often called
venial sin; a complete rupture of the relationship with God is often called
mortal sin. Without salvation from sin (see below), a person's separation from God is permanent, causing such a person to enter
Hell in the afterlife. Both the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church define sin more or less as a "macula," a spiritual stain or uncleanliness which constitutes damage to man's image and likeness of God.
Original Sin refers to the idea that the sin of
Adam and Eve's disobedience (sin "at the origin") has passed on a spiritual heritage, so to speak. Christians teach that human beings inherit a corrupted or damaged human nature in which the tendency to do bad is greater than it would have been otherwise, so much so that human nature wouldn't be capable now of participating in the afterlife with God. This isn't a matter of being "guilty" of anything; each person is only personally guilty of their own actual sins. However, this understanding of original sin is what lies behind the Christian emphasis on the need for spiritual salvation from a spiritual Saviour, who can forgive and set aside sin even though humans are not inherently pure and worthy of such salvation.
St. Paul in
Romans and
|I Corinthians placed special emphasis on this doctrine, and stressed that belief in Jesus would allow Christians to overcome death and attain salvation in the hereafter.
Roman Catholics,
Eastern Orthodox Christians, and some
Protestants teach the Sacrament of
Baptism is the means by which each person's damaged human nature is healed and
Sanctifying Grace (capacity to enjoy and participate in the spiritual life of God) is restored. This is referred to as "being born of water and the Spirit," following the terminology in the
Gospel of St. John. Most
Protestants believe this salvific grace comes about at the moment of personal decision to follow Jesus, and that
Baptism is a symbol of the grace already received.
Hebrew has several words for sin, each with its own specific meaning. The word
pesha, or "trespass", means a sin done out of rebelliousness. The word
aveira means "transgression". And the word
avone, or "iniquity", means a sin done out of moral failing. The word most commonly translated simply as "sin",
het, literally means "to go astray." Just as Jewish law,
halakha provides the proper "way" (or path) to live, sin involves straying from that path. Judaism teaches that humans are born with
freewill, and morally neutral, with both a
yetzer hatov, (literally, "the good inclination", in some views, a tendency towards goodness, in others, a tendency towards having a productive life and a tendency to be concerned with others) and a
yetzer hara, (literally "the evil inclination", in some views, a tendency towards evil, and in others, a tendency towards base or animal behavior and a tendency to be selfish). In Judaism all human beings are believed to have free will and can choose the path in life that that'll take. It doesn't teach that choosing good is impossible - only at times more difficult. There is almost always a "way back" if a person wills it. (Although texts mention certain categories for whom the way back will be exceedingly hard, such as the
slanderer, the habitual
gossip, and the
malicious person)
The rabbis recognize a positive value to the
yetzer hara: one tradition identifies it with the observation on the last day of creation that God's accomplishment was "very good" (God's work on the preceding days was just described as "good") and explain that without the yetzer ha'ra there would be no marriage, children, commerce or other fruits of human labor; the implication is that yetzer ha'tov and yetzer ha'ra are best understood not as moral categories of good and evil but as selfless versus selfish orientations, either of which used rightly can serve God's will.
Or as
Hillel the Elder famously summarized the Jewish philosophy:
» "If I'm not for myself, who will be for me?
"And when I'm for myself, what am 'I'? » "And if not now, [then] when?
Another explanation is, without the existence of the yetzer ha'ra, there would be no merit earned in following God's commandments; choice is only meaningful if there has indeed been a choice made. So whereas creation was "good" before, it became "very good" when the evil inclination was added, for then it became possible to truly say that man could make a true choice to obey God's "mitzvot" (wishes or commandments). This is because Judaism views the following of God's ways as a desirable end in and of itself rather than a means to an end.
Jews recognize two kinds of "sin," offenses against other people, and offenses against God. Offenses against God may be understood as violation of a contract (the covenant between God and the Children of Israel). Since the destruction of the
Temple in Jerusalem, Jews have believed that
right action (as opposed to
right belief) is the way for a person to atone for one's sins.
Midrash Avot de Rabbi Natan states the following:
» One time, when Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai was walking in
Jerusalem with Rabbi Yehosua, they arrived at where the Temple now stood in ruins. "Woe to us" cried Rabbi Yehosua, "for this house where atonement was made for Israel's sins now lies in ruins!" Answered Rabban Yochanan, "We have another, equally important source of atonement, the practice of
gemilut hasadim ("loving kindness"), as it's stated "I desire loving kindness and not sacrifice" (
Hosea 6:6
).
The Babylonian
Talmud states:
» Rabbi Yochanan and Rabbi Eleazar both explain that as long as the Temple stood, the altar atoned for Israel, but now, one's table atones [whenthe poor are invited as guests]. (Tractate Berachot, 55a.)
The liturgy of the Days of Awe (the High Holy Days; for example
Rosh Hashanah and
Yom Kippur) states that prayer, repentance and
tzedakah (the dutiful giving of charity) atone for sin. But prayer can't atone for wrongs done, without an honest sincere attempt to rectify any wrong done to the best of one's ability, and the sincere intention to avoid repetition. Atonement to Jews means to repent and set aside, and the word "T'shuvah" used for atonement actually means "to return". Judaism is optimistic in that it always sees a way that a determined person may return to what is good, and that God waits for that day too.
Love
Although love is central to both Christianity and Judaism, literary critic
Harold Bloom (in his
Jesus and Yahweh: The Names Divine) argues that their notions of love are fundamentally different. Specifically, he links the Jewish conception of love to justice, and the Christian conception of love to
charity.
As in English, the Hebrew word for "love,"
ahavah אהבה, is used to describe intimate or romantic feelings or relationships, such as the love between parent and child in
Genesis 22:2; 25: 28; 37:3; the love between close friends in
I Samuel 18:2, 20:17; or the love between a young man and young woman in
Song of Songs.
Like many Jewish scholars and theologians, Bloom understands Judaism as fundamentally a religion of love. But he argues that one can understand the Hebrew conception of love only by looking at one of the core commandments of Judaism,
Leviticus 19:18, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Talmudic sages
Hillel and
Rabbi Akiva commented that this is a major element of the Jewish religion. Also, this commandment is arguably at the center of the Jewish faith. As the third book of the
Torah, Leviticus is literally the central book. Historically, Jews have considered it of central importance: traditionally, children began their study of the Torah with Leviticus, and the
midrashic literature on Leviticus is among the longest and most detailed of midrashic literature (see Bamberger 1981: 737). Bernard Bamberger considers Leviticus 19, beginning with God's commandment in verse 3 – "You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God, am holy" – to be "the climactic chapter of the book, the one most often read and quoted" (1981:889). Leviticus 19:18 is itself the climax of this chapter.
As theologian
Franz Rosenzweig has pointed out, "love" in this context is remarkably different from the more common examples of love in that it constitutes an impersonal relationship:
» ...the neighbor is only a representative. He isn't loved for his own sake, nor for his beautiful eyes, but only because he just happens to be standing there, because he happens to be nighest to me. Another could easily stand in his place — precisely at this place nearest me. The neighbor is the other ...
(This point is underscored by another verse in the same chapter, Leviticus 19: 34, commanding the Children of Israel to love strangers.)
According to Franz Rosenzweig, the commandment to love one's neighbor itself arises out of another unique love: the relationship between God and the
Children of Israel. That the relationship between God and the Children of Israel is a romantic relationship and comparable to the marital bond is made clear in
Hosea 2:19 (see also
Ezekiel 16:8, 60;
Isaiah 54:5;
Jeremiah 3:14; 31:32). The centrality of love to the relationship between God and Israel is epitomized in
Deuteronomy 6: 4-5: "Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God; the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might." Arguably, this commandment is as central to Judaism as Leviticus 19: 18, as it was recited twice daily in the
Temple in Jerusalem, and in the prayers of all observant Jews. Moreover, the Rabbis dictated that all Jews should recite this verse at the moment of their death (this custom contrasts with Mathew 27: 46, "About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?' — which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" see also Mark 15: 33; Luke 23: 46, however, is closer to the spirit of Jewish practice: "Jesus called out with a loud voice, 'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.' When he'd said this, he breathed his last.")
Apparently by the Hellenistic period these two commandments were understood to be central to Jewish faith (see Mark 12: 28-32). Rosenzweig believes that these two commandments to love are inextricably connected, but in a complex way. He finds it remarkable that throughout the
Pentateuch it's demanded that Israel love God, yet never professes love for Israel (except in the future; that if Israel loves God that'll be blessed in return). But he doesn't see this as evidence that God doesn't love Israel; on the contrary. Rosenzweig asks, how can someone command love? The only answer, he argues, is that only a lover can do so; only one who loves can demand, "love me!' in return (Rosenzweig 1970: 176-177). The consequences of this demand, according to Rosenzweig, provide the foundation for Judaism.
The first consequence of being loved, according to Rosenzweig, is a feeling of shame:
» In the admission of love, the soul bares itself. To admit that one requites love and in the future wants nothing but to be loved — this is sweet. But it's hard to admit that one was without love in the past. And yet — love wouldn't be the moving, the gripping, the searing experience that it's if the moved, gripped, seared soul were not conscious of the fact that up to this moment it hadn't been moved or gripped. Thus a shock was necessary before the self could become the beloved soul. And the soul is ashamed of its former self, and that it did not, under its own power, break this spell in which it was confined. This is the shame that blocks the beloved mouth that wishes to make acknowledgment. The mouth has to acknowledge its past and still present weakness by wishing to acknowledge its already present and future bliss. (Rosenzweig 1970: 179)
Thus, the immediate response to God's commandment to love is to confess, "I have sinned." For Rosenzweig this confession isn't a source of shame; on the contrary, by speaking a truth about the past, it makes love in the present possible and thus "abolishes shame."
Consequently, Rosenzweig doesn't believe that this confession requires absolution:
» It isn't God that need cleanse it [thesoul of the beloved, for example Israel] of its sin. Rather it cleanses itself in the presence of his love. It is certain of God's love in the very moment that shame withdraws from it and it surrenders itself in free, present admission — as certain as if God had spoken into its ear that "I forgive" which is longed for earlier when it confessed to him its sins of the past. It no longer needs this formal absolution. It is freed of its burden at the very moment of daring to assume all of it on its shoulders. So too the beloved no longer needs the acknowledgment of the lover which she longed for before she admitted her love. At the very moment when she herself dares to admit it, she's as certain of his love as if he were whispering his acknowledgment into her ear. (Rosenzweig 1970: 180-181)
In other words, Rosenzweig sees in the Hebrew Bible a "grammar of love" in which God can communicate "I love you" only by demanding "You must love me," and Israel can communicate "I love you" only by confessing "I have sinned." Therefore, this confession doesn't lead God to offer an unnecessary absolution; it merely expresses Israel's love for God.
But "What then is God's answer to this 'I am thine' by which the beloved soul acknowledges him" if it isn't "absolution?" Rosenzweig's answer is: revelation: "He can't make himself known to the soul before the soul has acknowledged him. But now he must do so. For this it's by which revelation first reaches completion. In its groundless presentness, revelation must now permanently touch the ground." (Rosenzweig 1970: 182) Revelation, epitomized by Sinai, is God's response to Israel's love. Contrary to Paul, who argued that "through the law comes knowledge of sin" (Romans 3: 20), Rosenzweig argues that it's because of and after a confession of sin that God reveals to Israel knowledge of the law.
For Rosenzweig as for the
Rabbis,
Song of Songs provides a paradigm for understanding the love between God and Israel, a love that "is strong as death" (Song of Songs 8:6; Rosenzweig 1970: 202). God's love is as strong as death because it's love for the People Israel, and it's as a collective that Israel returns God's love. Thus, although one may die, God and Israel, and the love between them, lives on. In other words, Song of Songs is "the focal book of revelation" (Rosenzweig 1970: 202) where the "grammar of love" is most clearly expressed. But, Rosenzweig argues, this love that's as strong as death ultimately transcends itself, as it takes the form of God's law — for it's the law that binds Israel as a people, and through observance of the law that each Jew relives the moment of revelation at Mt. Sinai. Ultimately, Song of Songs points back to Leviticus and the rest of the Torah.
Song of Songs largely describes a clandestine love affair, forbidden by the woman's brothers (Song of Songs 8: 8-9), and scorned by her friends (Song of Songs 5:9). For Rosenzweig, the concealed nature of this romance is emblematic of the way lovers lose themselves in one another. Yet the book itself struggles against this private love. "O that you were like a brother to me," the woman cries, "that nursed at my mother's breast! If I met you outside, I'd kiss you, and none would despise me" (Song of Songs 8:1). The point, for Rosenzweig, is that love neither can nor should remain private.
» Now she's his. Is she? Does not something ultimate still separate them at the pinnacle of love — beyond even that "Thou art mine" of the lover, beyond even that peace which the beloved found in his eyes, this last word of her overflowing heart? Does there not still remain one last separation? The lover has explained his love for her .... But will this explanation do? Does not life demand more than explanation, more than the calling by name? Does it not demand reality? And a sob escapes the blissfully overflowing heart of the beloved and forms into words, words which haltingly point to something unfulfilled, something which can't be fulfilled in the immediate revelation of love: "O that you were like a brother to me!" Not enough that the beloved lover calls his bride by the name of sister in the flickering twilight of allusion. The name ought to be the truth. It should be heard in the bright light of "the street," not whispered into the beloved ear in the dusk of intimate duo-solitude, but in the eyes of the multitude, officially — "who would grant" that! Yes, who would grant that? Love no longer grants it. In truth, this "who would grant" is no longer directed to the beloved lover. Love after all always remains between two people; it knows only of I and Thou, not the street. This longing can't be fulfilled in love ... (Rosenzweig 1970: 203-204)
It can't be fulfilled in love. For Rosenzweig, as for the Rabbis, it can be fulfilled only in law. This is the meaning of revelation: Israel's love provides God with the means to enter the world, and through the commandments to Israel their love enters "the street." It is through the revelation of God's commandments, according to Rosenzweig, that the love portrayed in Song of Songs becomes the love commanded in Leviticus. Just as love for the Children of Israel is one of the ways that God is present in the world, the necessary response by the Jews — the
way to love God in return — is to extend their own love out towards their fellow human beings.
This extension of God's love into the world, through the People Israel, is the point of Leviticus 19:18. According to Bloom, however, this love has a different character than the romantic love celebrated in Song of Songs. He argues that to understand the commandment to love one's neighbor one must look at the other commandments that form its context, beginning with verse 9:
» When you reap the harvest of your land, you shan't reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shan't pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you'll leave them for the poor and the stranger: I the Lord am your God.
» You shan't steal; you shan't deal deceitfully or falsely with one another. You shan't swear falsely by My name, profaning the name of your God: I'm the Lord.
» You shan't defraud your neighbor. You shan't commit robbery. The wages of a laborer shan't remain with you until morning. You shan't insult the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind. You shall fear your God: I'm the Lord.
» You shan't render an unfair decision: don't favor the poor or show deference to the rich; judge your neighbor fairly. Do not deal basely with your fellows. Do not profit by the blood of your neighbor: I'm the Lord.
» You shan't hate your kinsman in your heart. Reprove your neighbor, but incur no guilt because of him. You shan't take vengeance or bear a grudge against your kinsfolk. Love your neighbor as yourself: I'm the Lord.
According to Bloom these accompanying commandments reveal that for Israel, love "in the street" takes the form of "just dealing." Similarly, theologian William Herberg argued that "justice" is at the heart of the Jewish notion of love, and the foundation for Jewish law:
» The ultimate criterion of justice, as of everything else in human life, is the divine imperative — the law of love .... Justice is the institutionalization of love in society .... This law of love requires that every man be treated as a Thou, a person, an end in himself, never merely as a thing or a means to another's end. When this demand is translated into laws and institutions under the conditions of human life in history, justice arises. (1951: 148)
The arguments of Rosenzweig, Herberg, and Bloom echo the teachings of the
the Rabbis, who taught that the written and oral
Torahs provide the way to express this love-as-just-dealing. This view is encapsulated in one of the most famous rabbinic stories, that of the time a man once challenged
Hillel the Elder, an important
Pharisee who lived at the end of the 1st century BCE, to explain the entire law (
Torah) while standing on one foot. Hillel replied, "That which is hateful to you, don't do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Go and study it." Rosenzweig suggests that Hillel presented the commandment from Leviticus in the negative form (do not do it) as a way of setting up his own, affirmative, commandment: to go and study the law — in other words, the only way to fulfil Leviticus 19:18 is to observe all the laws of the Torah, the practical embodiment of the commandment to love. Similarly,
Maimonides wrote that it should only be out of love for God, rather than fear of punishment or hope for reward, that Jews should obey the law: "When man loves God with a love that's fitting he automatically carries out all the precepts of love" (Maimonides
Yad Chapter 10, quoted in Jacobs 1973: 159).
Whereas Jews believe that law is the ultimate fulfillment of love, Christians believe that love is "the fulfillment of the Law" (Romans 13:8-10). Nevertheless, Jesus shared Hillel's — and presumably many Jews' — notion of love and the law, when he echoed the Pharisaic position that
» "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself." All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
When asked in reference to the latter commandment "And who is my neighbor?" (Luke 10:29), Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37), in which the answer to the question is ultimately a foreigner (perhaps echoing Leviticus 19: 34).
In the
Sermon on the Mount, Jesus extended the commandment to include not only "your neighbor" but "your enemy" as well:
» "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, don't resist an evil person; but whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your cloak also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and don't turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the pagans do the same? Therefore you're to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Jesus lived out this teaching at the end of his life. During his arrest, trial, scourging, and crucifixion, Jesus offered no resistance, totally submitting to his persecutors, however unjust. During Jesus' arrest, one of his disciples struck with a sword the ear of a man coming to seize Jesus, but Jesus commanded him to put away the sword, and healed the ear. (Luke 22:50-51) Jesus even prayed for his persecutors from the cross, calling out "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34)
Because of this, Jesus' selfless life of service, and the belief that Jesus died for the salvation of God's people, Christian love is personified by Jesus, the supreme example being his martyrdom on the cross. Jesus commanded his disciples to follow his example: "My command is this: Love one another as I've loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:12-13) Furthermore, this same love is believed to be shared between the Father, the Son, and all Christians: "Just as the Father has loved Me, I've also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you'll abide in My love; just as I've kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love" (John 15:9-10). Finally, Jesus proclaimed love to be the defining characteristic of all Christians: "By this all men will know you're my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:35).
Still, even more remarkable statements about love are made in the New Testament by the apostle John and by Paul. The most famous, and widely considered one of the earliest and most succinct summaries of the Christian faith, runs "For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him shan't perish but shall have eternal life" (John 3:16). Adding to this is "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
In the first epistle of John, he makes the bold statement "God is Love" (1 John 4:8,16). So love isn't merely
a characteristic of God, but
the characteristic, which alone sums up God's complete essence.
Bloom argues that the Hebrew word for love,
ahavah אהבה, is fundamentally understood as "just dealing." In the classic characterization of Christian love, Paul's discourse in
First Epistle to the Corinthians, sometimes called the "love chapter," rather than using either of the two other Greek words that loosely translate to English as "love" (
erōs ερως, meaning erotic love, or
philos φιλος, meaning familial love), Paul used the word
agápē αγαπη, which is probably more literally translated as "charity," and was first translated as "love" by
William Tyndale:
» If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I'm only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I've the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I've a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I'm nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It doesn't envy, it doesn't boast, it isn't proud. It isn't rude, it isn't self-seeking, it isn't easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love doesn't delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:1-8) ... And now these three remain: Faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)
Taking all this into account, Christian love can generally be described as: unconditional, self-sacrificing, charitable, altruistic, selfless, service-oriented, obedient, humble, peaceful, and compassionate.
The Corinthians passage isn't only remarkable for the quality of love it describes. The intent of the passage is clearly to elevate love above other things traditionally considered good, including wisdom, faith, and charitable giving. It also explicitly makes love more important than the things mentioned in the previous passage: supernatural gifts, spiritual strength and positions of leadership. Many assert that this, combined with Jesus' teachings and John's claims, expands Christian love beyond that in Leviticus. Bloom maintains that the difference is in the character of love.
Abortion
Both Jews and Christians regard pregnancy as a gift from God, and hold children to be miracles.
The only statements in the
Tanakh (Hebrew Bible, Christian Old Testament) about the status of a fetus state that killing an unborn infant doesn't have the same status as killing a born human being, and mandates a much lesser penalty (a fine); it should be added that the instance cited in the Tanakh contemplates the accidental, rather than the deliberate, causing of an abortion.
The
Oral Law states that the fetus isn't yet a full human being until it has been born (either the head or the body is mostly outside of the mother), therefore killing a fetus isn't murder, and
abortion - in restricted circumstances - has always been legal under Jewish law.
Rashi, the great 12th century commentator on the Bible and Talmud, states clearly of the fetus 'lav nefesh hu--it isn't a person.' The Talmud contains the expression 'ubar yerech imo--the fetus is as the thigh of its mother,' for example, the fetus is deemed to be part and parcel of the pregnant woman's body." Judaism prefers that such abortions, when necessary, take place before the first 40 days where the Babylonian Talmud Yevamot 69b states that: "the embryo is considered to be mere water until the fortieth day." Afterwards, it's considered subhuman until it's born. Christians who agree with these views may refer to this idea as abortion before the "quickening" of the soul by God in the fetus.
There are two additional passages in the Talmud which shed some light on the Jewish belief about abortion. They imply that the fetus is considered part of the mother, and not a separate entity:
One section states that if a man purchases a cow that's found to be pregnant, then he's the owner both of the cow and the fetus.
Another section states that if a pregnant woman converts to Judaism, that her conversion applies also to her fetus.
Judaism unilaterally supports, in fact mandates, abortion if doctors believe that it's necessary to save the life of the mother. Many rabbinic authorities allow abortions on the grounds of gross genetic imperfections of the fetus, such as Tay-Sachs disease. They also allow abortion if the mother were suicidal because of such defects. However, Judaism holds that abortion is impermissible for family planning or convenience reasons. Each case must be decided individually, however, and the decision should lie with the mother, father, and Rabbi.
Most branches of Christianity have historically held abortion to be generally wrong, referring to Old Testament passages such as Psalm 139 and Jeremiah 1, as well as New Testament passages concerning both Jesus and John the Baptist while they were in utero. Also, the Didache, an early Church document, explicitly forbids abortion along with infanticide, both common practices in the Roman Empire, as murder. The view that abortion is 'equivalent to murder' isn't actually widely held outside fundamentalist Protestantism in the United States. The Roman Catholic church, for example, permits medical procedures to be carried out on a mother for the purpose of saving her life, even if doing so would put the foetus at risk. Many Protestant Christians claim that the Ten Commandments prohibit abortion under the heading of "Do not murder". Others reject this view, as they hold that the context of the entire set of Biblical laws includes those laws which restrict them to already born human beings.
War, violence and pacifism
Jews and Christians accept as valid and binding many of the same moral principles taught in the Torah. There is a great deal of overlap between the ethical systems of these two faiths. Nonetheless, there are some highly significant doctrinal differences.
Judaism has a great many teachings about peace and compromise, and its teachings make physical violence the last possible option. Nonetheless, the Talmud teaches that "If someone comes with the intention to murder you, then one is obligated to kill in self-defense [ratherthan be killed]". The clear implication is that to bare one's throat would be tantamount to suicide (which Jewish law forbids) and it would also be considered helping a murderer kill someone and thus would "place an obstacle in front of a blind man" (ie, makes it easier for another person to falter in their ways). The tension between the laws dealing with peace, and the obligation to self-defense, has led to a set of Jewish teachings that have been described as tactical-pacifism. This is the avoidance of force and violence whenever possible, but the use of force when necessary to save the lives of one's self and one's people.
Although killing oneself is forbidden under normal Jewish law as being a denial of God's goodness in the world, under extreme circumstances when there has seemed no choice but to either be killed or forced to betray their religion, Jews have committed suicide or mass suicide (see Masada First French persecution of the Jews, and York Castle for examples). As a grim reminder of those times, there's even a prayer in the Jewish liturgy for "when the knife is at the throat", for those dying "to sanctify God's Name". (See: Martyrdom). These acts have received mixed responses by Jewish authorities. Where some Jews regard them as examples of heroic martyrdom, but others saying that while Jews should always be willing to face martyrdom if necessary, it was wrong for them to take their own lives.
Because Judaism focuses on this life, many questions to do with survival and conflict (such as the classic moral dilemma of two people in a desert with only enough water for one to survive) were analysed in great depth by the rabbis within the Talmud, in the attempt to understand the principles a godly person should draw upon in such a circumstance.
The Sermon on the Mount records that Jesus taught that if someone comes to harm you, then one must turn the other cheek. This has led four fairly sizable Protestant Christian denominations to develop a theology of pacifism, the avoidance of force and violence at all times. They are known historically as the peace churches, and have incorporated Christ's teachings on nonviolence into their theology so as to apply it to participation in the use of violent force; those denominations are the Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, and the Church of the Brethren. Many other churches have people who hold to the doctrine without making it a part of their doctrines, or who apply it to individuals but not to governments, see also Evangelical counsels. The vast majority of Christian nations and groups have not adopted this theology, nor have they followed it in practice. See also But to bring a sword.
Capital punishment
Although the Hebrew Bible has many references to capital punishment, the Jewish sages used their authority, and the demands for justice emphasized in the Bible, to make it nearly impossible for a Jewish court to impose a death sentence. Even when such a sentence might have been imposed, the Cities of Refuge and other sanctuaries, were at hand for those unintentionally guilty of capital offences. It was said in the Talmud about the death penalty in Judaism, that if a court killed more than one person in seventy years, it was a barbarous (or "bloody") court and should be condemned as such.
This subject is discussed in more detail in Jewish views of capital punishment.
Christianity usually reserved the death penalty for heresy, the denial of the orthodox view of God's view, and witchcraft or similar non-Christian practices, which struck at the roots of Christianity as practiced. For example, in Spain, unrepentant Jews were exiled, and it was only those crypto-Jews who had accepted baptism under pressure but retained Jewish customs in private, who were punished in this way. It is presently aknowledged by most of Christianity that these uses of capital punishment were deeply immoral.
This subject is discussed in more detail in Christian views of capital punishment.
Food
Ital.
Salvation
Judaism doesn't see human beings as inherently flawed or sinful and needful of being saved from it, but rather capable with a free will of being righteous, and unlike Christianity doesn't closely associate ideas of "salvation" with a New Covenant delivered by a Jewish Messiah, although in Judaism Jewish people will have a renewed national commitment of observing God's commandments under the New Covenant, and the Jewish Messiah will also be ruling at a time of global peace and acceptance of God by all people.
Judaism holds instead that proper living is accomplished through good works and heartfelt prayer, as well as a strong faith in God. Judaism also teaches that Gentiles can receive a share in "the world to come". This is codified in the Mishna Avot 4:29, the Babylonian Talmud in tractates Avodah Zarah 10b, and Ketubot 111b, and in Maimonides's 12th century law code, the Mishneh Torah, in Hilkhot Melachim (Laws of Kings) 8.11.
The Christian view is that every human is a sinner, and being saved by God's grace, not simply by the merit of ones own actions, pardons a damnatory sentence to Hell.
Judgment
Both Christianity and Judaism believe in some form of judgment.
Most Christians (the exception is Full Preterism) believe in the future Second Coming of Jesus which includes the Resurrection of the Dead and the Last Judgment. Those positively judged will be saved and live in God's presence in the Kingdom of Heaven, those who are negatively judged will be cast into the Lake of Fire (eternal Hell or simply annihilated), see for example The Sheep and the Goats.
In Jewish liturgy there's significant prayer and talk of a "book of life" that one is written into, indicating that God judges each person each year even after death. This annual judgment occurs on Rosh Hashanah. Additionally, God sits daily in judgment concerning a person's daily activities. Upon the anticipated arrival of the Messiah, God will judge the nations for their persecution of Israel during the exile. Later, God will also judge the Jews over their observance of the Torah.
Heaven and Hell
There is little Jewish literature on heaven or hell as actual places, and there are few references to the afterlife in the Hebrew Bible. One is the ghostly apparition of Samuel, called up by the Witch of Endor at King Saul's command. Another is a mention by the Prophet Daniel of those who sleep in the earth rising to either everlasting life or everlasting abhorrence.
Early Hebrew views were more concerned with the fate of the nation of Israel as a whole, rather than with individual immortality. A stronger belief in an afterlife for each person developed during the Second Temple period but was contested by various Jewish sects. Pharisees believed that in death, people rest in their graves until they're physically resurrected with the coming of the Messiah, and within that resurrected body the soul would exist eternally. Maimonides also included the concept of resurrection in his Thirteen Principles of Faith.
Judaism's view is summed up by a biblical observation about the Torah: in the beginning God clothes the naked (Adam), and at the end God buries the dead (Moses). The Children of Israel mourned for 40 days, then got on with their lives.
In Judaism, "Heaven" is sometimes described as a place where God debates Talmudic laws with the angels, and where Jews spend eternity studying the Written and Oral Torah. "Hell" as Gehenna is a place or condition of purgatory where Jews spend up to twelve months purifying to get into heaven, depending on how sinful they've been, although some suggest that certain types of sinners can never be purified enough to go to heaven and rather than facing eternal torment, simply cease to exist. Therefore, some violations like suicide would be punished by separation from the community, such as not being buried in a Jewish cemetery, rather than with eternal torment. Judaism also doesn't have a notion of hell as a place ruled by Satan since God's dominion is total and Satan is only one of God's angels.
Catholics also believe in a purgatory for those who are going to heaven, but Christians in general believe that Hell is a fiery place of torment that never ceases, called the Lake of Fire. A small minority believe this isn't permanent, and that those who go there will eventually either be saved or cease to exist. Heaven for Christians is depicted in various ways. As the Kingdom of God described in the New Testament and particularly the Book of Revelation, Heaven is a new or restored earth free of sin and death, with a New Jerusalem led by God, Jesus, and the most righteous of believers starting with 144,000 Jews from every tribe, and all others who received salvation living peacefully and making pilgramages to give glory to the city.
In Christianity, promises of Heaven and Hell as rewards and punishments are often used to motivate good and bad behavior, as threats of disaster were also used by prophets like Jeremiah to motivate Israelites. Modern Judaism generally rejects this form of motivation, instead teaching to do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. As Maimonides wrote: » A man shouldn't say: I'll carry out the precepts of the Torah and study her wisdom in order to receive all the blessings written therein or in order to merit the life of the World to Come and I'll keep away from the sins forbidden by the Torah in order to be spared the curses mentioned in the Torah or in order not to be cut off from the life of the World to Come. It isn't proper to serve God in this fashion. For one who serves thus serves out of fear. Such as way isn't that of the prophets and sages. Only the ignorant, and the women and children serve God in this way. These are trained to serve out of fear until they obtain sufficient knowledge to serve out of love. One who serves God out of love studies the Torah and practices the precepts and walks in the way of wisdom for no ulterior motive at all, neither out of fear of evil nor in order to acquire the good, but follows the truth because it's true and the good will follow the merit of attaining to it. It is the stage of Abraham our father whom the Holy One, blessed be God, called "My friend" (Isaiah 41:8 – ohavi = the one who loves me) because he served out of love alone. It is regarding this stage that the Holy One, Blessed be God, commanded us through Moses, as it's said: "You shall love the Lord your God" (Deuteronomy 6:5). When man loves God with a love that's fitting he automatically carries out all the precepts of love.
(Maimonides Yad Chapter 10, quoted in Jacobs 1973: 159)
The Messiah
Jews believe that a descendant of King David will one day appear to restore the Kingdom of Israel and usher in an era of peace, prosperity, and spiritual understanding for Israel and all the nations of the world. Jews refer to this person as Moshiach or 'anointed one', translated as Messiah in English and Christos in Greek. The traditional Jewish understanding of the messiah is that he's fully human and born of human parents without any supernatural element. The messiah is expected to have a relationship with God similar to that of the prophets of the Tanakh. In his commentary on the Talmud, Maimonides (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon) wrote:
» All of the people Israel will come back to Torah; The people of Israel with be gathered back to the land of Israel; The Temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt; Israel will live among the nations as an equal, and will be strong enough to defend herself; Eventually, war, hatred and famine will end, and an era of peace and prosperity will come upon the Earth.
He adds: » "And if a king shall stand up from among the House of David, studying Torah and indulging in commandments like his father David, according to the written and oral Torah, and he'll coerce all Israel to follow it and to strengthen its weak points, and will fight The Lord's wars, this one is to be treated as if he were the anointed one. If he succeeded [andwon all nations surrounding him. Old prints and mss.] and built a Holy Temple in its proper place and gathered the strayed ones of Israel together, this is indeed the anointed one for certain, and he'll mend the entire world to worship the Lord together ... But if he didn't succeed until now, or if he was killed, it becomes known that he isn't this one of whom the Torah had promised us, and he's indeed like all [other] proper and wholesome kings of the House of David who died."
He also clarified the nature of the Messiah: » "Do not imagine that the anointed King must perform miracles and signs and create new things in the world or resurrect the dead and so on. The matter isn't so: For Rabbi Akiba was a great scholar of the sages of the Mishnah, and he was the assistant-warrior of the king Ben Coziba [Simon bar Kokhba] ... He and all the Sages of his generation deemed him the anointed king, until he was killed by sins; only since he was killed, they knew that he was not. The Sages asked him neither a miracle nor a sign..." (Main article: Moshiach)
The Christian view of Jesus as Messiah goes beyond such claims and is the fulfillment and union of three anointed offices:
A Prophet like Moses who delivers God's commands and covenant and frees people from bondage.
A High Priest in the order of Melchizedek overshadowing the Levite priesthood.
A King like King David ruling over Jews, and like God ruling over the whole world and came from the line of David
For Christians, Jesus is also fully human and fully divine as the Word of God who sacrifices himself so that humans can receive salvation. Jesus sits in Heaven at the right hand of God and will judge humanity in the end times.
Christian readings of the Hebrew Bible find many references to Jesus. This takes the form in some cases of specific prophesy, but in most cases of foreshadowing by types or forerunners. Traditionally, most Christian readings of the Bible maintained that almost every prophecy was actually about the coming of Jesus, and that the entire Old Testament of the Bible is a prophecy about the coming of Jesus.
Catholic views
Catholicism teaches of the necessity of the Church for salvation, which some like Fr. Leonard Feeney - at one point excommunicated by Pope Pius XII - interpreted as limiting salvation to Catholics only. At the same time, it doesn't deny the possibility that those not visibly members of the Church may attain salvation as well. In recent times, its teaching has been most notably expressed in the Vatican II council documents Unitatis Redintegratio (1964), Lumen Gentium (1964), Nostra aetate (1965), an encyclical issued by Pope John Paul II: Ut Unum Sint (1995), and in a document issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dominus Iesus in (2000). The latter document has taken criticism for claiming that non-Christians are in a "gravely deficient situation" as compared to Catholics but also adds that "for those who are not formally and visibly members of the Church, salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace which, while having a mysterious relationship to the Church, doesn't make them formally part of the Church, but enlightens them in a way which is accommodated to their spiritual and material situation."
Pope John Paul II on October 2 of 2000 emphasized that this document didn't say that non-Christians were actively denied salvation: "...this confession doesn't deny salvation to non-Christians, but points to its ultimate source in Christ, in whom man and God are united". The Pope then, on December 6, issued a statement to further emphasize that the Church continued to support its traditional stance that salvation was available to believers of other faiths: "The gospel teaches us that those who live in accordance with the Beatitudes--the poor in spirit, the pure of heart, those who bear lovingly the sufferings of life--will enter God's kingdom." He further added, "All who seek God with a sincere heart, including those who don't know Christ and his church, contribute under the influence of Grace to the building of this Kingdom." On August 13, 2002, American Catholic bishops issued a joint statement with leaders of Reform and Conservative Judaism, called "Reflections on Covenant and Mission", which affirmed that Christians shouldn't target Jews for conversion. The document stated: "Jews already dwell in a saving covenant with God" and "Jews are also called by God to prepare the world for God's Kingdom." However, some U.S.-led Baptist and other fundamentalist denominations still believe it's their duty to engage in what they refer to as outreach to "unbelieving" Jews (see Jews for Jesus).
Eastern Orthodox views
Eastern Orthodox Christianity emphasizes a continuing life of repentance or metanoia, which includes an increasing improvement in thought, belief and action. Regarding the salvation of Jews, Muslims, and other non-Christians, the Orthodox have traditionally taught the same as the Catholic Church: that there's no salvation outside the church. People of all genders, races, economic and social positions, and so forth are welcome in the church. People of any religion are welcome to convert. Orthodoxy recognizes that other religions may contain truth, to the extent that they're in agreement with Christianity. (Some of the early church fathers pointed to Socrates' belief in one God; a few more modern Orthodox Christian theologians have found traces of trinitarianism in the writings of Laozi.)
Many Orthodox theologians believe that all people will have an opportunity to embrace union with God, including Jesus, after their death, and so become part of the Church at that time. God is thought to be good, just, and merciful; it wouldn't seem just to condemn someone because they never heard the Gospel message, or were taught a distorted version of the Gospel by heretics. Therefore, the reasoning goes, they must at some point have an opportunity to make a genuine informed decision. Ultimately, those who persist in rejecting God condemn themselves, by cutting themselves off from the ultimate source of all Life, and from the God who is Love embodied. Jews, Muslims, and members of other faiths, then, are expected to convert to Christianity in the afterlife. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also holds this belief, and holds baptismal services in which righteous people are baptized in behalf of their ancestors who, it's believed, are given the opportunity to accept the ordinance.
Proselytizing
Judaism isn't a proselytizing religion. Orthodox Judaism deliberately makes it very difficult to convert and become a Jew, and requires a significant and full-time effort in living, study, righteousness, and conduct over several years. The final decision is by no means a foregone conclusion. A person can't become Jewish by marrying a Jew, or by joining a synagogue, nor by any degree of involvement in the community or religion, but only by explicitly undertaking intense, formal, and supervised work over years aimed towards that goal. Some less strict versions of Judaism have made this process somewhat easier but it's still far from common.
In the distant past Judaism was more evangelistic, but this was often more akin just to "greater openness to converts" (c.f. Ruth) rather than active soliciting of conversions. Since Jews believe that one need not be a Jew to approach God, there's no religious pressure to convert non-Jews to their faith, see also proselyte.
However the Chabad-Lubavitch branch of Hasidic Judaism, whose various beliefs and practices have caused controversy with other Jewish denominations, has been an exception to this non-proselytizing standard since in recent decades it has been actively promoting Noahide Laws for Gentiles as an alternative to Christianity.
By contrast, Christianity is an explicitly evangelical religion. Christians are commanded by Jesus to "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations". Historically, evangelism has often led to forced conversion under threat of death or mass explusion (See also Inquisition). While abuses of this sort are no longer common, at certain times and in certain places, evangelism has veered into high-pressure coercion, in those instances causing significant ill-will.
Mutual views
Common Jewish views of Christianity
Jesus plays no role whatsoever in Judaism. Jews are familiar with Jesus primarily through the western world since it's a relatively Christian-oriented society. Many view Jesus as just one in a long list of failed Jewish claimants to be the messiah, none of whom fulfilled the tests of a prophet specified in the Law of Moses. Others see Jesus as a teacher who worked with the gentiles and ascribe the messianic claims they find objectionable to his later followers. Because much physical and spiritual violence was done to Jews in the name of Jesus and his followers, and because evangelism is still an active aspect of many church's activities, many religious Jews are uncomfortable with discussing Jesus and treat him as a non-person. In answering the question, "What do Jews think of Jesus," philosopher Milton Steinberg claims, for Jews, Jesus can't be accepted as anything more than a teacher. "In only a few respects did Jesus deviate from the Tradition," Steinberg concludes, "and in all of them, Jews believe, he blundered."
On a religious level, Judaism doesn't believe that God requires the sacrifice of any human. This is emphasized in Jewish traditions concerning the story of the Akedah, the binding of Isaac. In the Jewish explanation, this is a story in the Torah whereby God wanted to test Abraham's faith and willingness, and Isaac was never going to be actually sacrificed. Thus, Judaism rejects the notion that anyone can or should die for anyone else's sin (see Spiegel, 1993). As a religion, Judaism is far more focused on the practicalities of understanding how one may live a sacred life in this world according to God's will, rather than hope a hope of a future one. Judaism doesn't believe in the Christian concept of hell but does have a punishment stage in the afterlife (for example Gehenna, the New Testament word translated as hell) as well as a Heaven (Gan Eden), but the religion doesn't intend it as a focus.
Christmas and other Christian festivals have no religious significance in Judaism and are not celebrated. Celebration of non-Jewish holy days is considered Avodah Zarah or "Foreign Worship" and is forbidden; however some secular Jews in the West treat Christmas as a secular (but not religious) holiday.
Common Christian views of Judaism
» Main article: Christianity
Christians believe that Christianity is the fulfillment and successor of Judaism, retaining much of its doctrine and many of its practices including monotheism, the belief in a Messiah, and certain forms of worship like prayer and reading from religious texts. Other beliefs, like the need for a blood sacrifice for sin, are beliefs that Rabbinical Judaism has since veered away from.
Most Christians consider that the Law was necessary as an intermediate stage, but once the crucifixion of Jesus occurred, then adherence to civil and ceremonial Law was superseded by the New Covenant since the purpose of these laws was to dictate a proper relationship to God through the tabernacles and the temples in Jerusalem.
Some Christians adhere to Replacement theology which states that Jews who reject Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God have ceased being the Chosen People. This position has been softened by some adherents, or completely rejected by other churches where Jews are recognized to have a special status due to their covenant with God through Abraham, so this continues to be an area of ongoing dispute among Christians.
Some Christians who view the Jewish people as close to God seek to understand and incorporate elements of Jewish understanding or perspective into their beliefs as a means to respect their "parent" religion of Judaism, or to more fully seek out and return to their Christian roots. Adherents of Messianic Judaism are ethnic Jews who have found faith in Jesus as their Messiah. Christians embracing aspects of Judaism are sometimes criticized as Biblical Judaizers by Christians when they pressure Gentile Christians to observe Old Testament.
Inter-relationship
In addition to each having varied views on the other as a religion, there has also been a long and often painful history of conflict, persecution and at times, reconciliation, between the two religions, which have influenced their mutual views of their relationship over time.
Genocide, including persecution, forcible conversion, and forcible displacement of Jews (ie hate crimes) were common for many centuries, with occasional gestures to reconciliation from time to time. Pogroms were common throughout Christian Europe, including organized violence, restrictive land ownership and professional lives, forcible relocation and ghettoization, mandatory dress codes, and at times humiliating actions and torture. All had major effects on Jewish cultures.
More recently, even within the last century alone, some Jews see the current wave of evangelism as yet more reasons to doubt goodwill, while others look to the many peaceful gestures towards harmony since that time, likewise some Christians are at peace and others suspicious of Jews.
What is clear is that formally, there's mostly peaceful living side by side, with strong inter-dialogue at many levels to reconcile past differences between the two groups, and many Christians emphasize common historical heritage and religious continuity with the ancient spiritual lineage of the Jews. Christians and Jews attempt to coexist ultimately by recognizing the fact that they both worship the same Almighty God, that they both recognize several of the same prophets, and that both religions, while having faults, attempt to make the world a better place. Christians view the Jews as keepers of the Old Covenant, and thus still righteous with God. Jews view Christians ultimately as themselves, only the followers of who they doubt was the Messiah. What is also likely is that for a long time to come, some within each will continue to consider the other with varying degrees of suspicion and hostility.
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