[HANASHIR:14350] Re: Another Hatikvah question

[Amy Fried, Ph.D. <jdkrheum...>]

I agree.
-Amy

On Tue, 20 May 2003 11:38:21 -0400 Mitch Bassman <mbassman (at) erols(dot)com>
writes:
> 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
> 
> ------------------------ hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org 
> -----------------------+
>