Judaism is about love
Judaism Is About Love by Shai Held is the best theological book I read in 2024.
I wish I’d had this book 30 years ago. I wish many Christians had it now.
Here is how it starts (broken up a little by me to make it more readable here):
“Judaism is not what you think it is.
“Judaism is about love.
“The Jewish tradition tells the story of a God of love who creates us in love and enjoins us, in turn, to live lives of love.
“We are commanded to love God, the neighbor, the stranger – and all of humanity – and we are told that the highest achievement of which we are capable is to live with compassion.
“This is considered nothing less than walking in God’s own ways.
“If this seems surprising to you, this is likely because centuries of Christian anti-Judaism have profoundly distorted the way Judaism is seen and understood, even, tragically, by many – probably most – Jews.”
Held’s purpose is not to show how firmly Jesus stands in the Jewish tradition, yet he does so, usually without naming Jesus. On page after page he explains basic Jewish traditions in terms of love, and on page after page it sounds so much like Jesus.
I thought I knew how closely Jesus adhered to the Jewish tradition, and yet I was frequently so astounded after reading a passage that I could only say, “Oh, that’s Jesus through and through; how could I not see this before?”
Only one suggestion. Now Held should write a popular version of this book for readers who lack the patience to put up with academic conventions. Rabbi Held writes clearly and is mostly easy to read. However, his book is nearly 400 pages long, followed by 100 pages of dense footnotes. As a scholar, he feels it necessary to support every statement with an attribution or a footnote. I have a fair tolerance for such things, but even I felt worn out after reading only a few pages at a time.
Still, this is a book that deserves to be widely read. It cannot on its own brush back many centuries of lies about Judaism, especially the lies we Christians toss around so easily, even today. But it’s a good start.
NOTE 1: Before buying my own copy, I checked it out from the Johnson County Library (a truly excellent library system, by the way). After reading just a few pages, I returned the book for others to read and ordered a copy for myself. If you have any hesitation about reading it, get it from the library first.
NOTE 2: Shortly after reading Held’s book, I tried to read The Triumph of Life: A Narrative Theology, by Irving Greenberg (also from the Johnson County Library). I simply could not get into it. It was a supposedly accessible work, written for a popular audience, covering much of the same ground as Held’s book, but I found it cold and unreadable.
Sorry, Rabbi Greenberg. I much prefer Held, even with the many footnotes.
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Not long ago, I got an email from a major “Christian” publisher about a new study of “God’s eternal blueprint.”
I was informed that not only was God’s plan eternal, but “The Bible is also eternal. God’s Word ‘was with God in the beginning’ (John 1:2)…”
You remember how the gospel of John begins.
“In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.”
Who was with God from the very beginning? It was God’s Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Christ, revealed in human form in Jesus.
The eternal Word is Jesus. The eternal Word is not the Bible.
The Bible is far from eternal. Parts of it are a couple thousand years old. It was written by human hands – under inspiration, yes, but still recorded by humans and passed down through human hands over many generations.
It is not eternal. Only God is eternal. To suggest that the Bible is not only eternal but was from the beginning with God is simply blasphemous.
This confusion of Word and (W)ord has gone on for many years in “evangelical” circles and, sadly, in mainline churches as well. It must stop.