Winter 1984 - 1985 - Quarterly Review

RELATIONSHIP OP JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY
those who have died will come to life. Then all will know that
everything about God is true. Faith is not a fairy tale. If all this does not
happen, then the whole Torah is an illusion, a fable. This affirmation
is part of the courage and daring of Judaism. It set the test of its truth
not in another world which cannot be measured, not in a world from
which there are no travelers who have returned with firsthand
reports. Judaism insisted that redemption is going to happen in this
world, where you can see it, measure it—and if it does not happen,
then the religion is revealed to be an illusion.
This vision of Judaism was set in motion by a great event in Jewish
history—the Exodus. Exodus points to a future goal in that it promises
that not only Jews will reach the Promised Land of freedom and
equality but all people will. By its own definition, then, Judaism is a
religion that is open to further events in history. Or to put it another
way, Judaism has built into its own self-understanding that it must
generate future messianic moments. And the central revealed
metaphor that guides this process from the beginning is covenant.
The covenant is between God and Israel. God could do it alone. But
the achievement of total perfection of the world will take place as the
result of the efforts of both partners. Although the promised
perfection seems beyond human capacity, the two partners between
them can achieve it. In theory, the divine respects human free will.
Therefore this final perfection cannot simply be given by God or
brought on by human effort.
The covenant makes possible the process of getting to the final
redemption. The covenant is Israel's commitment not to stop short of
perfection. It is the pledge to testify, to teach the world, to witness to
other human beings. And the covenant also implies that we can
answer the question: What do I do now? The answer is: step by step.
Use an army to reduce the possibility of war. If one has to fight, kill as
few people as possible. A commitment to achieve perfection step by
step means that the model of perfection itself unfolds in history.
To summarize: Judaism is a religion of redemption and perfection,
rooted in history, operating through a covenant, illuminated by
history, open to further events of revelation which will clarify its
message, with an implied pedagogical model of the relationship of
God and humans in which God will help the humans unfold, but will
not force them to be free.
JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY
In light of all this, to be a faithful Jew is to look forward to further
events of revelation and redemption beyond the Exodus—events that
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