Barabbas, Man, Myth, or Mussar
Dear Readers,
I may bring to light the wrongdoings of the Jewish community and the need to fix it, but we are not the only ones out there, so to speak. Tikkun olam starts with us and this is a success story. It is a Rabbi working hard to fix the society of Tiberias, a city in northern Israel. The foundation is called: "The Maimonides Heritage Center" and is based next to the grave of its namesake. The works of this center are admirable. They attend to the poor, destitute, and homeless of Tiberias. It is very important to see Jews helping other Jews because while it does immediate repair to the community, the inspirational influence of such a project is amazing. The world will see and they will see that Jews are generous and, more than that, concerned with the wellbeing of others. If you would like to explore this center, you can visit on the web at http://www.maimonidesheritage.org/ and click around. That same inspirational Rabbi Yamin Levy of the previous post is involved in this important and admirable endeavor.
I thought of this while discussing YU with my friend, Avi. Avi stated that an easy path to leaving the faith of God is to have a good look around and see what God's chosen people are doing. Faith is a very fragile thing and society reflects that. A strong society will, in turn, have strong faith while a weak society will have a weak faith or worse, a falsified deluded faith. The way Judaism is now, it is a race to God. Those that know that they can't out-pray and out-learn those that can are at a very severe disadvantage because, generally speaking, the Jewish community does not help others up unless there is a benefit involving them.
"All of Israel is responsible for one another."
-Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Shavuot, 39a
"Do unto others as you would have them do to you"
-Luke, 6:31
It is up to the entire community to be responsible for its social wellbeing. The statement of the Talmud does not give use liscence to be nosy and yenta-like, as some may interpret. We have but do good to people. The New Testament is a good way to look at ourselves through a man who tried to revolutionize judaism: Jesus. Granted that the books are not written by him, they do contain a great deal of the life of Jesus. The New Testament, according to some Christian traditions, supercedes the Old Testament. To them, this restatement of an ethic is very telling. It means that this is an ethic they thought was important enough to repeat in Luke, particularly if the Jews of the time were as inconsiderate as today.
"Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would. And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas. Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ? For he knew that for envy they had delivered him. When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified."
-Matthew 27:15-23
When I first heard the story of Barabbas, I was in shock. Jew could not be so callous to their own. After living in the Jewish community for the duration of my existence, I can now better understand the observation that was made about Jews in this passage. Jesus is of a different sect than the mainstream. Perhaps he was an essene. Perhaps he just liked to commune with nature. In any case, Jew or no Jew, Jesus tried to introduce doctrine into our belief system and this alone would reward him with the death he got at the hands of the Romans.
-Marc Kolb
I may bring to light the wrongdoings of the Jewish community and the need to fix it, but we are not the only ones out there, so to speak. Tikkun olam starts with us and this is a success story. It is a Rabbi working hard to fix the society of Tiberias, a city in northern Israel. The foundation is called: "The Maimonides Heritage Center" and is based next to the grave of its namesake. The works of this center are admirable. They attend to the poor, destitute, and homeless of Tiberias. It is very important to see Jews helping other Jews because while it does immediate repair to the community, the inspirational influence of such a project is amazing. The world will see and they will see that Jews are generous and, more than that, concerned with the wellbeing of others. If you would like to explore this center, you can visit on the web at http://www.maimonidesheritage.org/ and click around. That same inspirational Rabbi Yamin Levy of the previous post is involved in this important and admirable endeavor.
I thought of this while discussing YU with my friend, Avi. Avi stated that an easy path to leaving the faith of God is to have a good look around and see what God's chosen people are doing. Faith is a very fragile thing and society reflects that. A strong society will, in turn, have strong faith while a weak society will have a weak faith or worse, a falsified deluded faith. The way Judaism is now, it is a race to God. Those that know that they can't out-pray and out-learn those that can are at a very severe disadvantage because, generally speaking, the Jewish community does not help others up unless there is a benefit involving them.
"All of Israel is responsible for one another."
-Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Shavuot, 39a
"Do unto others as you would have them do to you"
-Luke, 6:31
It is up to the entire community to be responsible for its social wellbeing. The statement of the Talmud does not give use liscence to be nosy and yenta-like, as some may interpret. We have but do good to people. The New Testament is a good way to look at ourselves through a man who tried to revolutionize judaism: Jesus. Granted that the books are not written by him, they do contain a great deal of the life of Jesus. The New Testament, according to some Christian traditions, supercedes the Old Testament. To them, this restatement of an ethic is very telling. It means that this is an ethic they thought was important enough to repeat in Luke, particularly if the Jews of the time were as inconsiderate as today.
"Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would. And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas. Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ? For he knew that for envy they had delivered him. When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified."
-Matthew 27:15-23
When I first heard the story of Barabbas, I was in shock. Jew could not be so callous to their own. After living in the Jewish community for the duration of my existence, I can now better understand the observation that was made about Jews in this passage. Jesus is of a different sect than the mainstream. Perhaps he was an essene. Perhaps he just liked to commune with nature. In any case, Jew or no Jew, Jesus tried to introduce doctrine into our belief system and this alone would reward him with the death he got at the hands of the Romans.
-Marc Kolb
posted by Marc Kolb | 1:36 AM
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