The Christian Effect on Jewish Life

Introduction
Branch Chairman, Sidney Moss, introduced Rabbi Dr Michael Hilton as the Rabbi of Kol Chai Reform Synagogue at Hatch End, author of The Christian Effect on Jewish Life (ISBN 0334025826, SCM Press) and co-author of The Gospel and Rabbinic Judaism.

Rabbi Hilton commenced by saying that when his book The Christian Effect on Jewish Life came out in December 1994 he went round the country and talked to a lot of CCJ branches, but it is quite a while since he has talked about his book, and so he was very pleased to have the opportunity to review things because, as with any other area of scholarship, things do change, and there is a lot less surprise about the title now than there was 10 years ago. Ten years ago it was pretty way out to claim that Christianity had influenced what everybody thought of as the older religion. It was obvious that Judaism had influenced Christianity, but the other way round – how could it be? Now it is much more generally accepted that Jews couldn’t possibly have lived in Christian lands for over 1500 years without it having some effect.

To give a very simple example, the great Medieval scholar Maimonides wrote, “The custom is for all Jews in Spain and the West, in Babylon and in the Holy Land to spread out mats in the synagogue on the floor to sit on. But in the cities of Edom they don’t sit on the floor, they sit on chairs”. Now what did he mean by “the cities of Edom”? To the Rabbis it frequently meant Rome, and so here he clearly means Roman Catholic practice, i.e. Christian Europe. And the custom of providing chairs, which Maimonides said spread from Christians to Jews, was soon universally adopted by Jewish communities everywhere.

Ignore it and it will go away?
The traditional Jewish attitude to Christianity was to ignore it; to hope it would go away. Probably because it was ignored, scholars were for long totally unaware how many little Christian customs have had an influence on Jewish life. However, back in the 1890s when Jewish/Christian dialogue got going, Reform and Conservative Rabbis and Jewish scholars started taking an interest in the life of Jesus as a Jew and a great teacher.

Comparing Festivals

Passover & the Last Supper
Another joint study session which Rabbi Hilton had lead for CCJ was with Fr Gordian Marshall was on the very interesting subject of the Passover Seder – the special meal at which Jews celebrate Passover, and the Last Supper which Jesus shared with his disciples. The Seder is, of course, very popular now among many church groups. The church Seders take many forms. Some try to recreate the ceremony as described in the book of Exodus, eating lamb with bitter herbs, while others borrow from the Jewish liturgy and use part of the liturgical book known as the Haggadah. Now this is rather problematical as the Gospels themselves take different views as to whether that Last Supper was a Passover meal at all, but the Jewish liturgy as it has come down to us very clearly dates from a time later than that of Jesus. Since Rabbi Hilton wrote his book an Israeli scholar has written quite extensively on Christian influences on the Passover Seder.

Chanukah & Christmas
When Rabbi Hilton started writing his book it was in the winter, round about the time of Chanukah and he decided to look at the very obvious way in which, in modern times, the celebration of Christmas had influenced the Jew’s own mid-winter festival. On the spiritual side one can equate the similarity between the Jewish way of life, and Rabbi Hilton quoted from the book of Zechariah “Not by power but by my Spirit says the Lord of Hosts”, and the Christmas message. The story of Chanukah is essentially the story of a war. It is Christmas that gives us the story of peace; the story of birth, the message of goodwill. What happens is that people adopt external customs and practices and the scholars and Rabbis aren’t able to stop them, so they invent some Jewish origin to validate them. It has happened in many instances.

Rabbi Hilton drew attention to the lighting of the Advent candles, which are lit in a very similar way to which the Chanukah candles are lit. In the States signs go up in Jewish areas saying “Happy Chanukah, Happy Christmas”. Gifts and wrapping paper are designed to suit either festival, or even both. Coloured decorations in the shape of a star or a dreidel (Chanukah top) are available which you can hang up in your home. He once received a Christmas card which showed Father Christmas and a Rabbi standing side by side. The Rabbi was holding a sack of toys, and Father Christmas the Chanukah candles. They had swapped hats but their beards were identical!

Comparing Scriptures

In 1991 a very unholy row broke out in the Jewish world. All over Israel posters went up proclaiming the message “Prepare for the coming of the Messiah”. In England and America children were asking if the Messiah was on his way. The posters and publicity came from a group which is commonly known as Lubavitch. They were proclaiming that their Rebbe, the then 89 year old Menachem Mendel Schneerson was about to announce that he was the Messiah. When he died in June 1994 it made headlines across the world. Many of the reports highlighted the messianic fervour of his followers. A few of his followers danced and sang instead of mourning, confident of their leader’s return from the dead. The resurrection of the dead is a cardinal Jewish principle, they argued, so why not a Messiah who came back from the dead? But in fact there is no precedent in Judaism for such a belief; it is an obvious borrowing from Christianity.

The British newspaper The Independent used the headline “Tears flow as the Second Coming is Postponed”. There is no doctrine of that Second Coming in Judaism, and yet the paper seemed to think it described the attitude of this particular Jewish group. It is apparent that the difference in Messianic beliefs can be regarded as the classic distinction between Judaism and Christianity. It is taught in schools and colleges everywhere. We like to live with that simple point of view. Christians are the ones who believe the Messiah has already come, while Jews are still waiting. Rabbi Hilton’s argument, which he expounds in his book, is that the doctrine of the Messiah is not in fact a central doctrine of either Judaism or Christianity, but has been kept alive by centuries of debate between the two faiths. (Some in the audience were rather surprised by this “downplaying” of the concept of a Messiah and this was reflected in some of the questions which were raised following his talk).

Other Influences

Organisation and Leadership Roles
The first Reform Synagogues were strongly influenced by Christian practices. It was in 1888 that Westfallia became the first State in Germany to grant full equality to Jewish citizens, and Rabbi Israel Jacobson wanted to organise the community on modern lines. Sermons were to be in German, Rabbis would be paid by the State like the Christian clergy. They would be expected to take on pastoral functions such as visiting the sick. Rabbi Hilton said that that means the very job he does as a congregational rabbi is actually modelled on that of a Christian minister. Before the 19th Century rabbis didn’t particularly carry out pastoral work; that was undertaken by the community as a whole. Rabbis were scholars and they wouldn’t necessarily lead prayers. Much of the job today has been very much influenced by Christian practice.

Rites and Ceremonies
There was a new rite of Confirmation, of which the name, idea, and many specific features were borrowed from the Church. At first the ceremony took place at the home or at school, the teacher asking the 13 year old boy to give well-rehearsed answers to questions on his beliefs and the bible. The method of instruction was the Question and Answer technique – similar to the Catechism. The ceremony was subsequently made available for girls. In the 20th Century, with the return of more traditional Jewish values, the nature of the ceremony has changed. The catechisms were abandoned, and it became a ceremony of reading prayers and Torah, and indeed the word “Confirmation” has been dropped. When it does take place, as it still does in Liberal Synagogues, it is normally called ”Kabbalat Torah”.

The custom of lighting candles for the dead in the place of worship is clearly borrowed from the Church. It was a time when Masses for the dead were a very popular part of Catholic tradition. The rabbis linked the lighting of candles to the verse from Proverbs ”The soul of man is the lamp of the Lord”, thus assimilating it to the Jewish tradition. This doesn’t disguise the obvious borrowing from the Catholic Church. Sabbath candles which are lit on Friday nights were borrowed from the Church in the Middle Ages. Originally two were lit, as was the custom of two candles on the altar. Then, as the use of candles used in Christian worship with processions etc increased, so the number of Sabbath candles increased.

Conclusions

Part of the answer clearly lies in the history of hostility between Jews and Christians. Each shaped its theology in a way different from the other. Each developed practices to highlight the differences. At the same time, as part of the process, each was exercising a subtle influence on each other’s responses. The paths of the two faiths could never come together because the distinctive features of each would be lost, but neither could they go too far apart, because then there would be no grounds for debate and comparison. And this has very important implications for the way we understand our Jewish/Christian dialogue today.

Too often, even now, dialogue consists of Jews explaining to Christians features of Jewish life, which Christians enjoy because they feel they are learning something of their own history and roots. Jews normally express little or no interest in features of Christian life which are part of their history. Much interfaith dialogue helps to preserve the myth that the Judaism of ancient times has continued virtually unchanged. But that is not true: once Jews acknowledge a Christian influence more openly, they will have a clearer understanding of how they can relate to Christians in a pluralist society. And in that way Jews and Christians can meet as equals.

Rabbi Hilton concluded his most interesting talk by expressing the hope that God will guide future discussions between the two faiths.

- Bernard Tiley