[HANASHIR:14359] Re: Another Hatikvah question

[rahel <rahel...>]

I apologize for misleading you. The student actually asked if I could teach 
them about Jesus - and did not add the word Christ. I agree with you and 
others) that I missed an important opportunity to teach something more 
about Judaism! Unfortunately I, myself, admit to my ignorance on the subject.

And yes... back to music - sorry for the detour.

Rahel



At 11:38 AM 5/20/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>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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