1. Are you going to have another Jewish Food Festival?
Obviously the most important question. Yes, on March 27.
2. Why is your Sabbath on Saturday instead of Sunday?
The Biblical basis for the Jewish Sabbath is the statement in Genesis that, on the seventh day, God rested. We have always understood the seventh day to be Saturday. But our liturgy also says that the Sabbath is zecher litziyat Mitzrayim - a remembrance of the exodus from Egypt - even though we do not claim that the exodus from Egypt took place on a Saturday. While the exodus is the most important event in all of Jewish religious history, the resurrection is the most important event in Christian religious history, so it was natural for most Christians to celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday.
3. Why do the dates of Jewish holidays change every year?
The Jewish calendar is based on the lunar cycle - the phases of the moon - and the lunar month consists of 29.5 days. As a result, the lunar year is about 355 days. Relative to the solar year, everything moves up about 10 days each year. But many of the Jewish holidays relate to the seaons: Rosh Hashanah must be in the fall, and Passover must be in the spring. To preserve the relationship to the seasons, whenever the lunar and solar calendars become too far out of synch, an entire month is added to the year, causing everything to jump back. The Muslim calendar is also lunar but is not corrected to stay in synch with the solar calendar.
4. Is the Jewish Bible the same as the Christian Bible?
The Jewish Bible is essentially the same as what Protestants call the Old Testament (excluding the Apocrypha). If you start reading at Genesis and read through to Chronicles II, you've got it. However, because Jewish Bibles always follow the text handed down by our scribes, while Christian Bibles sometimes follow other texts, there are slight differences, plus the differences in translation that you also find among Christian editions of the Bible.
5. Do you believe in heaven and hell?
Traditional Judaism believes in an afterlife, often called the olam habah, the World to Come, but doesn't profess to know a great deal about it. Progressive branches of Judaism tend not to emphasize any afterlife, and most of us would say that we don't know and can't know.
Traditional Judaism also believes in the bodily resurrection of all the faithful, to take place in the future when the Messiah comes. Progressive branches of Judaism also downplay, or completely disclaim, belief in a Messiah and in physical resurrection.
6. Why don’t you all go back where you came from?
This question is most often asked in voicemail at my office, usually in a message left in the middle of the night.
For me, "back where you came from" would be Ohio.
The first Jews in what is now the United States arrived in New Amsterdam in 1654 when it was still a Dutch colony. Other Jews settled soon after in Newport, Rhode Island, partly because Roger Williams had promised completely religious freedom and liberty of thought there, and Newport became one of the most important Jewish communities in the colonial and revolutionary period.
7. Do you really not “have” Christmas?
It's hard for Christians, living in a predominantly Christian country, to imagine that there is anyone living among them who genuinely ignores Christmas altogether, and it is frankly hard to ignore the secular manifestations. But many Jews do.
Others, perhaps a majority in our region, have Christians among their extended families and may celebrate with them. It's somewhat like being an American in Canada on July 1, which is Canada Day: you can enjoy the fireworks and parties even though it doesn't have the same meaning for you that it would for a Canadian.
8. What do you think about Jesus?
Jesus has no role in Judaism, and we don't think about Jesus very much at all.
9. Was Jesus a rabbi?
Jesus doesn't appear in any lists of our early rabbis, and the references to him in the Talmud, some of them veiled, are unfavorable. On the other hand, a large share of what he is reported to have taught is consistent with the teachings of our early rabbis, and so I am inclined to think that he must have been part of the same circle.
One thing that is confusing is that Christian tradition is quite negative about the Pharisees and seems to prefer the Sadducees, but the teachings of Jesus are closer to those of the Pharisees, from which the early rabbis emerged. The episode of whipping the money changers in the Temple appears to be a criticism of the Sadducees.
10. Do you believe that Christians are saved?
I really want to ask, "saved for what?" Or perhaps, "Do Christians believe that Jews are saved?"
The idea of salvation is really not central in Judaism, and we are much more concerned with life in this world than with salvation in the future. We emphasize righteous living, and the concept of being saved through faith is incomprehensible to us. In theological terms, this would be "justification by works" rather than "justification by faith," although we wouldn't use those terms.
Among modern rabbis, only Mordecai Kaplan used the term salvation very much. In his writing, however, it seems to mean whatever makes life worth living, so it's still in the here and now.
According to Jewish tradition, no one needs to be Jewish to be in good standing with God. We disapprove of polytheism, and to a Jewish mind the Trinity is hard to understand, but our rabbis have always taught that Christians consider themselves monotheists and since we are not experts on Christianity, we don't question that.
Judaism does believe that all human beings are obligated to observe the Noahide Laws, and that everyone who does is assured a place in the World to Come, whatever it is.
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