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| Posted By: XMAS Posted On: Dec 22, 2005 Views: 839 | JEWISH GREETING Jesus Miracle A Christmas greeting from a Jewish brother. By Marc Gellman Newsweek Updated: 5:39 p.m. ET Dec. 21, 2005 Dec. 21, 2005 - I love miracles. I have seen a few and heard of many. None of the miracles I have ever seen involve splitting a sea or feeding a great multitude from a challah bread and some herring. The miracles I mostly see involve the transformation of old enemies into reconciled friends, the transformation of sick marriages into loving ones, the spontaneous remission of diseases, the return of a smile to a face creased with the frowns of grief, the breakthroughs in learning by a child who was deeply challenged the return to mobility of the disabled, the understanding of a new way for prayer or mediation that brought hoped-for serenity to a storm-tossed soul, the commitment to a life of health after a life of tragic self abuse, the way lost people are suddenly found and mostly the way people without hope discover that religion saves them from hell. All these miracles and more gain new light and luster in this season of miracles. I love that Christmas is a holiday for the celebration of miracles. That is what I love most. I also love the baby Jesus. I don't love him as my Messiah, but I love him as the Messiah for my Christian friends, and I love their story. I love that, just like God appeared to Moses in a humble bush, the Christian Messiah was born in a humble manger. I love that both his birth and his deathand of course his resurrection for my Christian friendsare the objects of their two greatest holidays. The birth of Jesus is understood as an unmerited gift, a gift of God's grace. The word I use to describe grace is the Hebrew word hesed. It means the same thing. It means that the beginning of every faith and every spiritual journey is that you are being given a path (Tao), a teaching (dharma) or a law (halacha) that will help lead you to the truth, and this guide or guidepost is not being given to you because you earned it or deserved it. It was given as an act of superabundant love. To get what you need but did not deserve is the meaning of the miracle of Jesus' birth to me. It is also to me the miracle of other paths up the same mountain to God. The Christian Easter story of his death and resurrection calls to mind for me the parallel miracle that neither our failings nor our death are the end of us. This is a common hope of ours that enables us to face the mystery of death and sin. Birth and death are a miracle in the person of Jesus, who Christians believe is the Christ. I cannot find a resonance for that story in my soul, but I can find a brotherly love for that story, which resonates in different but similar ways, not only in my faith of Judaism but in all the great wisdom traditions of our earth. I love the bubbly lights and the Christmas trees, and I love Santa and the reindeer (Blitzen is my favorite reindeer because he is just kind of stuck there back in the pack). I love the carols, and I love the cookies, but mostly, my Christian brothers and sisters, I love the fact that you were formed and sustained by a miracle that has changed the world. I am proud that your story begins in my story as a Jew, and I am proud that you have taken your story into the hearts and souls of one out of every three people on planet Earth. I love that you are happy now, and my joy is joined to yours. D. H. Lawrence wrote about marriage the way I think about our common joy on Dec. 25: So it must be: a voyage apart in the same direction. Grapple the two vessels together, lash them side by side, and the first storm will smash them to pieces. This is marriage, in the bad weather of modern civilization. But leave the two vessels apart, to make their voyage to the same port, each according to its own skill and power, and an unseen life connects them, a magnetism which cannot be forced. And that is marriage as it will be when all this is broken down. And so I offer you my Christmas wish: May we have a voyage apart in the same direction, and may an unseen magnetism connect us and may we make our way to the same port speedily and in our time. Merry Christmas! |
| Posted By: Posted On: Dec 22, 2005 Views: 836 | RE: JEWISH GREETING No one gives a fuck. |
| Posted By: Posted On: Dec 22, 2005 Views: 831 | RE: JEWISH GREETING Yes they do! |
| Posted By: adam Posted On: Dec 22, 2005 Views: 826 | RE: JEWISH GREETING that article is too long & i don't wanna scroll so...  |
| Posted By: Posted On: Dec 22, 2005 Views: 823 | RE: JEWISH GREETING that's getting pretty redundant |
| Posted By: Posted On: Dec 22, 2005 Views: 819 | RE: JEWISH GREETING You are getting pretty redundant |
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