Quote of the Day

Over at the Jesus Creed blog, Scot McKnight challenges the idea that the Bible teaches charity should be left up to individuals, and that the government shouldn't have anything to do with it.

That Jesus didn't speak about electing a government is beside the point; he didn't have that option. He did live in a world governed by a Torah that let the government have laws that mandated care for the poor. He lived in a world that didn't just leave it up to individuals. Sure, there was lots of private charity. That too, on top of laws.

Dr. McKnight asks his readers: "Are you seeing an increasing connection of libertarianism with the Bible? Do you think the Bible is anti-government mandated care for the poor? Do you see a radical voluntarism as the biblical model for caring for the poor?" He also presents "a set of texts that show that the Bible mandated charity and didn't leave it up entirely to individuals to make the decision." Check out the rest over at the Jesus Creed blog.

Dr. McKnight, if you gave this drash at my shul, I'd give you a hearty yasher koach!

J-BOM is here!

J-BOM (the Jewish Book of the Month club) officially starts today. (In case you don't know what I'm talking about, click here.)

Hopefully you've ordered your copy of The JPS Commentary on the Haggadah. I intend to make several posts about the book over the coming month, in connection to the upcoming Pesach holiday.

Here's a taste of what's to come, from the book's foreword by David Stern. (No, not that David Stern.) After opening by talking about how beloved the Passover haggadah is, Stern writes:

[The] proclivity for contemporizing the haggadah can be traced back to the haggadah text itself. In one of its most famous passages, it instructs its reader, the participant in the seder, "to see him or herself as though they had gone out of Egypt." Historically, Jews have fulfilled this instruction in different ways, sometimes even acting out the Exodus by marching around the seder table! Since the early Middle Ages, however, probably the most typical way Jews have made the haggadah speak to their contemporary concerns and needs has been through the act of composing commentaries on it and then drawing on their elaborations and interpretations at the seder. These commentaries have been of every conceivable type--midrashic, legalistic, homiletical, ethical, philosophical, and mystical. And each has added a different and additional layer of meaning to the ritual.

I'd like to suggest that we take Stern's observation as an exhortation: that as we read the haggadah through this commentary, we also engage in creating our own commentaries on the haggadah, commentaries which reflect our own particular story, giftings, and passions.

Should Messianic Jews "Keep the Law"?

Have you ever wrestled over the question of whether Messianic Jews should keep Torah or not?

Over the years, I certainly have. You can read about some of the things that influenced me changing my mind on the issue in the comments section of a recent post at the Rosh Pina Project blog.

Chag Purim Sameach

This last-minute-before-Shabbat Purim mini-message brought to you from the Windows & Doors blog:

Purim 2010 (5770) begins Saturday night and it's a serious party. Think socially responsible Mardi Gras and you begin to get the picture.

Rabbi Hirschfield goes on to list the four essential ingredients of Purim:

1. Reading/hearing the megillah (hopefully you'll take time out to go do this on Sunday!).
2. Giving gifts to the poor (consider making a donation to Chevra!).
3. Mishloach Manot, giving food gifts to friends and neighbors (don't forget to check the hechsher for your Jewish friends!).
4. The Seudah, or festive meal.
   

If you haven't already, make sure to work these essentials into your schedule for Sunday. Party responsibly, kids--and Chag Purim Sameach!

J-BOM is coming!

If you keep up with other Messianic blogs, then you've probably already heard of the Jewish Book of the Month Club (J-BOM), a new Jewish learning project started by Derek Leman.

If you read Gathering Sparks, then you're just the type of person who would benefit from participating--or even starting up a study group at your shul or church!

I'm going to be doing all of the above, as well as blogging about interesting things that I learn along the way. (Not to mention building up the Jewish section of my personal library with some quality selections!)

J-BOM starts this coming month (March).
The first book is The JPS Commentary on the Haggadah.

You can buy it from Amazon.com (probably the cheapest option), or you can take advantage of a special offer JPS made to Derek especially for this program and get 30% off list price by ordering from JPS directly.

Other blogs which will also be participating include:

• http://ffoz.org/blogs
• http://judahgabriel.blogspot.com
• http://judeoxian.wordpress.com
• http://orgadol.wordpress.com
• http://rebrez.wordpress.com
• http://derek4messiah.wordpress.com

So go ahead, order The JPS Commentary on the Haggadah and prepare for a Jewish learning explosion*!

* OK, so that was a cheesy word play on the whole J-BOM thing. You got me. Have a good Shabbos...

Be Happy! Adar is here...

From Halocho A Day:

One increases joy when Adar begins because Adar and (next month) Nissan historically have been full of miracles, including the redemption from Egypt and (nearly a millennium later) the miracle of Purim.

Adar is considered an auspicious month for the Jews.

Source: Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 141:1

Jewish Bloggers Discuss Augustine

Last fall I read Paula Frederiksen's book Augustine and the Jews. One of the reasons Augustine stands out in early church history is because we have so much of his writing, much of which was highly introspective. Because of this, we can actually trace the development of Augustine's thinking on a particular subject over the course of his life. In Augustine and the Jews, Paula Frederiksen does just that, as she attempts to show that Augustine developed an innovative Christian theology of the Jewish people which, though it would certainly be judged anti-Semitic by today's standards, was actually far better than the existing theologies of the Jewish people (developed by John Chrysostom, for example).

I really enjoyed Frederiksen's book; her close reading of Augustine really opened up the exciting possibilities in studying primary sources from the early church period for me.

So I was interested to discover that several of my favorite Jewish bloggers were talking about Augustine and Frederiksen's book. Here are a few quotes:

From Kvetching Editor:

Should Jews thank the church?

. . . Augustine's philosophy, although really, incredibly backhanded, was that Jews survive and should survive throughout all time until the End of Days in order that they serve as evidence to Christianity's truth. By Jewish survival, Jewish books survive, and, according to Augustine, it is Jews and their books that provide a walking, talking, breathing witness to the truth of Christianity -- that the church fathers didn't just "make it up." Jews and Judaism were not a challenge to Christianity, insisted Augustine, but a witness to it!

. . . Is it Augustine's (REALLY BACKHANDED) doctrine that has allowed the world to not completely destroy Jews and Judaism?

From Dovbear:

John Chrysostom, was from the "kill them all "school. During his remarkable career as a preacher of violence against the Jews, he put it this way: "When animals are unfit for work they are marked for slaughter, and this is the very thing which the Jews have experienced. By making themselves unfit for work, they have become ready for slaughter."

Augustine, disagreed, and lucky for us, his view won the day. Basing himself on a proof-text found in Psalm 59.11, he argued that the Jews should be kept alive, in a demoralized and decrepit state, to serve as proof that God had rejected them. His model was Cain, a type for the Jews, who had murdered Able, a type for Jesus, and was likewise made into a despised wanderer as punishment.

Check out the full discussions!