Judaism and Other Religions - Revision history

WikSysop at 20:26, 12 February 2007

2007-02-12T20:26:34Z

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WikSysop: /* Immanuel of Rome */

2006-10-01T01:30:14Z

‎Immanuel of Rome

WikSysop: /* See Also */

2006-10-01T01:27:49Z

‎See Also

WikSysop: /* Rav Kook */

2006-10-01T01:23:25Z

‎Rav Kook

WikSysop: /* Zevi Yehudah Kook */

2006-10-01T01:19:22Z

‎Zevi Yehudah Kook

WikSysop at 01:04, 1 October 2006

2006-10-01T01:04:01Z

WikSysop: /* Elijah Benamozegh */

2006-10-01T00:46:44Z

‎Elijah Benamozegh

WikSysop: /* References= */

2006-10-01T00:40:35Z

‎References=

WikSysop: /* Elijah Benamozegh */

2006-10-01T00:40:08Z

‎Elijah Benamozegh

WikSysop at 00:37, 1 October 2006

2006-10-01T00:37:16Z

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 The rewarded saints observed by the narrator of the epic have reached their non-Jewish paradise through intellectual reasoning. The righteous of the nations – a category mentioned but not explicated in the Talmud – are here given form in this description of paradise. For Immanuel of Rome, paradise can be reached through a universal path consisting of self-discovery and intellectual discovery. The various forms of traditional religion, each with its own particular ethnicity, theology, and approach to naming God, pale before the universal truth.
-<blockquote>These are the pious among the gentile state
+:These are the pious among the gentile state
-who by their intellect and wisdom have become great…
+:who by their intellect and wisdom have become great…
-whist they with their intelligence searched out who formed them, and who was the Creator,
+:whist they with their intelligence searched out who formed them, and who was the Creator,
-And as they passed the Faiths of all other under examination…
+:And as they passed the Faiths of all other under examination…
-But they chose of all beliefs views such as seemed to them right,
+:But they chose of all beliefs views such as seemed to them right,
-Upon which men versed in conscience had no cause to fight…
+:Upon which men versed in conscience had no cause to fight…
-And when men boastfully would attach a name to God, our hearts trembled, it shook our frame to think that each and every people should give Him some definite name.</blockquote>
+:And when men boastfully would attach a name to God, our hearts trembled, it shook our frame to think that each and every people should give Him some definite name.
+:We, however say, Be His name whatsoever, we believe in the First Existence, the True One, whom we never from our life can ever sever. (Immanuel ben Solomon,  Tophet and Eden, trans. Hermann Gollancz [London: University of London Press, 1921].)
 ===Universalism Position #2 -Revelation===

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 ==See Also==
-*[[Thoughts_on_Noahidism]]
+*[[Thoughts on Noahidism]]
 ==External Links==

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 It is also worth noting that Hirsch’s approach is practically devoid of metaphysics. There is no talk of roots and branches, but rather of models and influences. These traits make him a useful starting point for contemporary Jewish theologies without metaphysics.
-====Rav Kook====
+====Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook====
 Rav Abraham Isaac Kook was the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the Zionist return to the land of Israel. His writings embrace modernism by offering a vision of the restored land of Israel, at once evolutionary and Hegelian while at the same time mystical and messianic. His influence is widespread and influential as a Zionist dream of renewal of religious Judaism.

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 Maharal embraces separation and particularism. Where Yehudah Halevi used the metaphor of the fruit to refer to the branch religions that sprout with Judaism, Maharal gives the metaphor the opposite valence: Israel is the fruit whose connection with the other nations – the shell – only decreases with time. This opposition between Israel and the world – Edom – is real and absolute, a zero-sum game where cooperation is not conceivable.
-====Zevi Yehudah Kook====
+====Rabbi Zevi Yehudah Kook====
 Zevi Yehudah Kook was the son of Rav Kook, he was blessed with a long life and many students. His ideology makes him the father of the settler movement and therefore influential in late twentieth-century Israeli political life.

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 Rav Kook does not seem to assign special historical significance to Christianity and Islam for their status as “branches.” In a move that accepts the already-globalizing situation of the early 20th century, even the non-Abrahamic religions contain gold and holiness, which await elevation and unity with the Source of Israel. One can encounter and empirically study them. Yet, it is a Jewish task to purify these other religions. The actual process, however, of study, purification, and unification is left frustratingly vague. Nevertheless, what is clear, though, is that, personally, Rav Kook was able to look at other religions –and even atheism – and see the Truth of Torah within them.
 Concluding thoughts on historical inclusivism
 The Historical inclusivist approach enables Judaism to respect and appreciate Islam and Christianity on its own terms, if not on theirs. Like its metaphysical variation, it transforms the millennia of Diaspora into part of the redemptive progress of history, with all that entails for remembering and feeling the pains accumulated along the way.
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 There are many variants on this approach; all of them accepting metaphysical structures. (See R. Elijah Benamozegh below as an example.)
 Concluding thoughts on metaphysical inclusivism
 These metaphysical constructs indicate a basis for Jewish-Christian respect and encounter not predicated on any of the non-religious principals of modernity. In this, it might be a particularly useful basis for discussions with metaphysically-inclined churches; I can envision a mutual encounter with the Greek Orthodox Church concerning theories of Divine glory, blessings and energies. However, metaphysical models are limited in their utility in an era where few embrace, or even understand, metaphysical language. Premising our encounter on a theology of angels and the power of Divine names would not be prudent for a Jewish community which put little stock in either.

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 Lipschutz's offers a vision of tolerance based on a generic sense of revelation, reward, and afterlife found in all religions.  Rather than approaching religions as an other, he senses a common core based on morality. If one wanted to develop an approach to non-Abrahamic faiths, then his general definitions offer a useful starting point. For him, enlightenment, karma, and reincarnation could be considered valued forms of Torah for gentiles.
-====[[Elijah Benamozegh]]====
+====[[Elijah Benamozegh|Rabbi Elijah Benamozegh]]====
 Our next thinker did actually embrace the reading of works of other faiths. Rabbi Elijah Benamozegh (1823-1900) was a preacher and essayist in nineteenth-century Italy, who incorporated the new finding of comparative religion in his Biblical commentaries and who wanted to bring Gentiles, even his Christian contemporaries, back to a true universal Monotheism based on the seven Noahide laws.

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 As Jonah on his voyage confronted each religion calling out to its own god, we need to have an understanding of our daily encounters in an age of globalization. And as Jonah needed to learn that he could not dwell alone or refrain from speaking to the gentile of Nineveh, we need to learn that we have to encounter the broader world and we cannot refrain from engaging other religions in an age of globalization. Hence, we need our own theology of other religions.
-==References===
+==References==
 [1] Alon Goshen-Gottstein, [http://www.jcrelations.net/en/displayItem.php?id=1754 "Jewish-Christian Relations: From Historical Past to Theological Future" Ecumenism No. 146 (2002)].

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 Rabbi Dr. Alan Brill
-''Rabbi Dr. Alan Brill teaches at Yeshiva University and Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and is also the Founder and Director of Kavvanah: Center for Jewish Thought. He is the author of a forthcoming monograph on Orthodox approaches to other religions. The following is a summary and sample of it. Omitted are chapters on encountering Easter religions, a phenomenology of common techniques, and the implications for this paper of [[Rabbi Soloveitchik's dialectic position]].  This paper was commissioned by the World Jewish Congress for the "World Symposium of Catholic Cardinals and Jewish Leaders," January 19-20, 2004 in New York City.''
+''Rabbi Dr. Alan Brill teaches at Yeshiva University and Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and is also the Founder and Director of Kavvanah: Center for Jewish Thought. He is the author of a forthcoming monograph on Orthodox approaches to other religions. The following is a summary and sample of it. Omitted are chapters on encountering Easter religions, a phenomenology of common techniques, and the implications for this paper of [[Rabbi Soloveitchik's "Confrontation"|Rabbi Soloveitchik's dialectic position]].  This paper was commissioned by the World Jewish Congress for the "World Symposium of Catholic Cardinals and Jewish Leaders," January 19-20, 2004 in New York City.''
 In this paper, I present a range of traditional sources bearing on the encounter between Judaism and other religions. These have been selected with an aim of highlighting the widest array of opinions, for the purpose of beginning discussion; this is not designed to be either a complete anthology of relevant sources, or a definitive word on the meaning of these texts. These selections will, I believe, clarify the wisdom of Alon Goshen-Gottstein’s recent assertion that the entry of Orthodox Jews to the Jewish-Christian dialogue  "has expanded the boundaries of the conversation and introduced new dimensions."[1]