Book Review Addendum

One more thing about David Klinghoffer's book (See here if you can't figure out to scroll down two previous posts). I finished it last night, and I've decided already I need to read it again. I want to make sure I grasp all his arguments, and I think it's an important book.

Anyway, one of the things he closes the book with is something that's bothered me for a long time. There are certain people who are determined to convince Jews that they really, really need to believe in Jesus and accept him as their savior. (It's the main reason David wrote the book, which would explain why he talks about it.) That's fine as far as it goes, I wish they would stop, but I kind of understand why they're worried about my soul.

The part that bothers me is the CONSTANT reference to selected verses in the Torah as prooftexts for Jesus' messiahship and the correctness of Christianity. Every one of these people I've ever heard from always cites these things out of context. Isaiah 53, if I'm not mistaken, is one of the usual texts cited. Klinghoffer goes through the verses bit by bit, so I won't. But how can you expect a God-fearing Jew to buy into your interpretation of that chapter when you don't explain how Isaiah 52, 27, 19, etc. fit into a Christological world?

I just don't think you can cherry-pick what you want us Jews to believe, and ignore all the other parts of our Torah (written and oral). The whole point of the Mishnah and Talmud (the Oral Torah) is to explain, illustrate, and clarify all the apparent conflicts in the written Torah. What the cherry-pickers fail to do to my satisfaction is resolve the parts of the Torah that explicitly contradict a Christian approach. Since the whole basis of our faith is that the Torah is a never-ending, binding contract between the Jews and God, you've really got to prove your case that there's a new covenant abrogating the old one.

Bear in mind I'm only concerned here with the Jewish perspective. If you aren't a Jew, (and David argues this point as well) there's a lot to be said for Christianity as a faith, if it brings people closer to the One God. I just wish the proselytizers would give up and leave us alone.

And yes, I think this book affected me a lot. He put in writing things I've thought about in the past quite a bit.