[HANASHIR:14336] Re: Another Hatikvah question

[Mitch Bassman <mbassman...>]

At 12:57 AM 05/20/2003, Rahel wrote:
>The next year, in a different class at a different synagogue, I was asked 
>by a student if I could teach the class about Jesus Christ [sic]. I 
>declined stating that we were here to learn about Judaism. I suggested 
>that they could research about Jesus Christ [sic] in many other places and 
>on their own time.

I do agree with Rahel's comments, but, if the student posed the question 
the way you cited it, then you missed a perfect opportunity to teach your 
student something specific about Judaism. Our kids need to understand that 
Jews (as well as persons of any other non-Christian religion) do not refer 
to Jesus (son of Joseph) as "Christ" because only Christians believe that 
he was the "Christ" (from the Greek word for messiah or moshiach in 
Hebrew). It bothers me to hear (or read) Jewish colleagues referring to the 
man as though "Christ" were his last name rather than an honorific applied 
only by Christians. Remind your students that people didn't have last names 
at that time, that his name was probably Yeshuah ben Yosef, and that the 
title (not name) of "messiah" (i.e., Christ) was applied only later by his 
disciples. That much you could teach them, so that they don't grow up 
referring to "Jesus Christ" as though that were the actual name of someone.

We now return you to your regular discussions about music.

--Mitch Bassman

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