Christianity and Judaism
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Judaism and Christianity while related some ways are distinctly different. Judaism being an Abrahamic religion fundamentally diverges in theology and practice. While Judaism places the emphasis for holiness on the concepts of clean and unclean, Christianity places the emphasis for holiness upon freedom and the Gospel. The article on Judeo-Christian tradition emphasizes continuities and convergences between the two religions, this article emphasizes the widely diverging views held by Christianity and Judaism.
Neither religion is monolithic
As with the article on the Judeo-Christian tradition, this article makes generalizations about Jewish and Christian beliefs and practices. Nevertheless, neither religion is monolithic. There are also individual variations among believers in both religions.
Raison d'être of the religion
Each religion has an ethos, that is, an internal description of its raison d'être. The ethos of
Christianity is to provide all human beings with what it holds to be the only valid path to salvation (John 14:6, Great Commission, Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus, Solus Christus).
Christians believe people are, in their current state, sinful. Christians believe that
Jesus was both the Son of God and God the Son, God made incarnate; that Jesus' death by crucifixion was a sacrifice to atone for all humanity's sins, and that acceptance of Jesus as the Christ saves one from judgement (John 5:24) and gives one Eternal life (John 3:16). Christians believe that Jesus is the mediator of the New
Covenant (Hebrews 8:6). His famous sermon from a hill
representing Mount Zion is considered by many Christian scholars to be the antitype [1] of the
proclamation of the Old Covenant by Moses from
Mount Sinai. See also
Judaism's raison d'être is to carry out the Covenant between God and the Jewish people. The Torah (lit. "teaching"), both written and oral, both tells the story of this covenant, and provides Jews with the terms of the covenant. The Torah thus guides Jews to walk in God's ways (Deut 30:16), to help them learn how to live a holy life on earth, and to bring holiness into the world and into every part of life, so that life may be elevated to a high level of sanctity (Lev 19:2, Imitatio dei). This will allow the Jewish people as a community to be a "light unto the nations" (Isa 42:6, 49:6, 60:3) (i.e., a role model) over the course of history and a part of the divine intent of bringing about an age of peace and sanctity where ideally a faithful life and good deeds should be ends in themselves, not means. See also Jewish principles of faith.
The nature of religion: national versus universal
Judaism does not characterize itself as a religion so much as a way of life (although one can speak of the Jewish religion and religious Jews). The subject of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) is the history of the Children of Israel (also called Hebrews), especially in terms of their relationship with God. Thus, Judaism has also been characterized as a culture or as a civilization. Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan defines Judaism as an evolving religious civilization. One crucial sign of this is that one need not believe, or even do, anything to be Jewish; the historic definition of 'Jewishness' requires only that one be born of a Jewish mother, or that one convert to Judaism in accord with Jewish law. (Today, Reform and Reconstructionist Jews also include those born of Jewish fathers and Gentile mothers if the children are raised as Jews.)
To religious Jews, Jewish peoplehood is closely tied to their relationship with God, and thus has a strong theological component. This relationship is encapsulated in the notion that Jews are a chosen people. Although many non-Jews have taken this as a sign of arrogance or exclusivity, Jewish scholars and theologians have emphasized that a special relationship between Jews and God does not in any way preclude other nations having their own relationship with God, and does not mean Jews are superior to members of other nations. In this sense, "chosen" means chosen to undertake a duty, a responsibility or a role, rather than chosen as higher status or more deserving. For strictly observant Jews, being "chosen" fundamentally means that it was God's wish that a group of people would exist in a covenant with Him, and would be bound to obey a certain set of laws (see Torah and halakha) as a duty of their covenant. They view their divine purpose as being ideally a "light upon the nations" and a "holy people" (ie, a people who live their lives fully in accordance with Divine will), not "the one path to God".
Jews hold that other nations and peoples are not required (or expected) to obey Jewish law. The only laws Judaism believes are automatically binding on other nations are known as the Seven Laws of Noah (which are mainly humanitarian). Thus, as a national religion, Judaism holds that others may have their own, different, paths to God (or holiness, or "salvation"). Nevertheless, all people must recognize God's existence. Authorities disagree as to whether non-Jews must also recognize God's unity.
Christianity, on the other hand, is characterized by its claim to universality, which marks a significant break from Jewish identity and thought. Christians believe that Christianity represents the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham and the nation of Israel, that Israel would be a blessing to all nations. Although Christians generally believe their religion to be very inclusive (since not only Jews but all gentiles can be Christian), Jews see Christianity as highly exclusive, because it views non-Christians (such as Jews) as having an incomplete or imperfect relationship with God, and therefore excluded from grace, salvation, or heaven.
This crucial difference between the two religions has other implications. For example, while in a conversion to Judaism a convert must accept Jewish principles of faith, the process is more like a form of adoption, or changing national citizenship (i.e. becoming a formal member of the people, or tribe), whereas conversion to Christianity is generally only a declaration of faith (although in some Churches, people treat this as well as a metaphorical adoption into the community).
Both Christianity and Judaism have been affected by the diverse cultures of their respective members. For example, what Jews from Eastern Europe and from North Africa consider "Jewish food" has more in common with the cuisines of non-Jewish Eastern Europeans and North Africans than with each other, although for religious Jews all food-preparation must conform to the same laws of Kashrut. According to non-Orthodox Jews and critical historians, Jewish law too has been affected by surrounding cultures (for example, some scholars argue that the establishment of absolute monotheism in Judaism was a reaction against the dualism of Zoroastrianism that Jews encountered when living under Persian rule; Jews rejected polygamy during the Middle Ages, influenced by their Christian neighbors). According to Orthodox Jews too there are variations in Jewish custom from one part of the world to another. It was for this reason that Joseph Karo's Shulchan Aruch did not become established as the authoritative code of Jewish law until after Moshe Isserlis added his commentary, which documented variations in local custom.
Concepts of God
Both Jews and Christians believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, for Jews the God of the Tanakh, for Christians the God of the Old Testament, the creator of the universe. Both religions reject the view that God is entirely immanent, and within the world as a physical presence, (although Christians believe in the incarnation of God). Both religions reject the view that God is entirely transcendent, and thus separate from the world, as the pre-Christian Greek Unknown God. Both religions reject atheism on one hand and polytheism on the other.
Both religions agree that God shares both transcendent and immanent qualities. How these religions resolve this issue is where
the religions differ. Christianity posits that God exists as a Trinity; in this view God exists
as three distinct persons who share a single divine essence, or substance. In those three there is one, and in that one there are three; the one God is indivisible,
while the three persons are distinct and unconfused, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It teaches that God became
especially immanent in physical form through the Incarnation of
God the Son who was born as Jesus of Nazareth, who is
believed to be at once fully God and fully human. There are "Christian" sects that deny
one or more of these doctrines, however. See also
Some Jewish and Christian philosophers hold that due to these differences, it may well be that Jews and Christians don't believe in the same god at all. The majority Jewish view, codified in Jewish law, is that Christians do worship the same God that Jews, along with "extra" gods (i.e., the other two sections of the trinity). This theology is referred to in Hebrew as 'Shituf' (literally "partnership"; in this context, that both the other gods and God work together). Although this theology is strictly forbidden to Jews, it may be an acceptable belief for non-Jews (according to the ruling of some Rabbinic authorities). The vast majority of Christians have always held that they worship the same God as the Jews.
Understanding of the Bible
Jews and Christians seek authority from many of the same basic books, but they conceive of these books in significantly different ways.
The Hebrew Bible is comprised of three parts:
- Torah - the five books of Moses
- Nevi'im - the writings of the Prophets, and
- Ketuvim - other writings canonised over time, such as the Books of Esther, Ruth or Job.
Collectively, these are known as the Tanakh, a Hebrew acronym for the first letters of each.
Rabbinical Judaism traditionally believes that these written works were also accompanied by an oral tradition which taught how to
perform commandments that are not stated explicitly in the Torah (e.g. What is the proper manner of shechita and what is meant by "Frontlets" in the
Judaism accepts as authoritative an oral law which explains the meaning and application of the laws in the Tanakh. These works of oral law are today collected in the Mishnah, which was written down around 200 C.E., and a Babylonian and a Jerusalem Talmud, which were edited around 600 C.E. and 450 C.E., respectively.
Since the transcription of the Talmud, notable rabbis have compiled law codes that are generally held in high regard: the Mishnah Torah, the Tur, and the Shulchan Aruch, which is generally held to be authoritative by Orthodox Jews. The Zohar, which was written in the thirteenth century, is generally held as the most important mystical treatise of the Jews.
Within the Torah, Jews find 613 Mitzvot (formal divine commandments), of which some are positive obligations, and others negatives that must be avoided. These form the basis of their understanding of the law. The in-depth examination to understand the commandments and their true significance and scope, to "walk in My ways", forms a major thread within the Talmud and other Jewish writings.
For Jews, the Torah is one's primary guide to the relationship between God and man, a living document that has unfolded and will continue to unfold whole new insights over the generations and millennia. A saying that captures this goes, "Turn it [the Torah's words] over and over again, for everything is in it."
Jews do not accept the characterization of their sacred texts as an Old Testament, nor do they believe that the New Testament has religious authority. Many Jews see Christians as having quite an ambivalent view of the Torah (or the Mosaic Law part of the Old Testament as it is known to Christians), on the one hand it is God's absolute word, on the other hand at times treating commandments very selectively. As it seems to some Jews, Christians cite from the Old Testament commandments to support one point of view but then ignore other commandments of a similar class which are also of equal weight. Examples of this are certain commandments where God states explicitly they shall abide "for ever" (for example Exo 31:16-17, Exo 12:14-15), or where God states a particular thing is an "abomination", but which are not undertaken by most Christians. Some forms of Christianity even go so far as Antinomianism.
Christians reject the Jewish oral law (Matt. 15:6), which was still disputed in the time of Jesus, for example the Jewish Encyclopedia article on Jesus notes: "Jesus, however, does not appear to have taken into account the fact that the Halakah was at this period just becoming crystallized, and that much variation existed as to its definite form; the disputes of the Bet Hillel and Bet Shammai were occurring about the time of his maturity." However in a similar way Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christianity consider their Sacred Tradition as the correct interpretation, while Protestants hold to the principle of sola scriptura. Christians disagree with the Jewish order of sacred texts (and some Christian traditions have included in their Old Testament books that are not included in today's Jewish canon, although they were included in the Jewish Septuagint). Historically, the Jewish oral tradition was not written down until the period of the Roman Empire, in the early centuries CE(Babylonian Talmud Jerusalem Talmud) and later developed more thoroughly through codification. Many Christians reject the covenant (that was established through Moses) with God embodied in traditional Jewish scriptures and oral traditions as obsolete, and thus refer to their canon of Hebrew books as the "Old Testament." Christians believe that God has established a New Covenant (theology) with people, and that this new covenant is established in an additional set of books collectively called the New Testament. See also Expounding of the Law. Additionally, some denominations include the oral teachings of Jesus to the Apostles which have been handed down to this day, such as by Apostolic Succession.
A minority view in Christianity, known as 'Torah-submissive', holds that the Bible (including the Mosaic Law) is an indivisible whole and fundamentally continues to apply to all followers of God under the new covenant. The view points out that God’s commands, including the Mosaic Law, are called both "everlasting" (Ps. 119:152,160; Ex. 12:24, 29:9; Lev. 16:29) and "good" (Neh. 9:13; Ps. 119:39; Rom. 7:7-12) and that rather than negating the Mosaic Law, part of the new covenant is to have this same Law written upon the hearts of believers by the Holy Spirit (Jer. 31:31-33, Ez. 36:26,27).
(See Table of books of Judeo-Christian Scripture)
Sin and Original Sin
In both religions, one's offenses against the will of God are called sin. These sins can be thoughts, words, or deeds.
Catholicism categorizes sins into various groups. A wounding of the relationship with God is often called venial sin; a complete rupture of the relationship with God is often called mortal sin. Without salvation from sin (see below), a person's separation from God is permanent, causing such a person to enter Hell in the afterlife.
Original Sin refers to the idea that the sin of Adam and Eve's disobedience (sin "at the origin") has passed on a spiritual heritage, so to speak. Christians teach that human beings inherit a corrupted or damaged human nature in which the tendency to do bad is greater than it would have been otherwise, so much so that human nature would not be capable now of participating in the afterlife with God. This is not a matter of being "guilty" of anything; each person is only personally guilty of their own actual sins. However, this understanding of original sin is what lies behind the Christian emphasis on the need for spiritual salvation from a spiritual Saviour, who can forgive and set aside sin even though humans are not inherently pure and worthy of such salvation. St. Paul in Romans and First Corinthians placed special emphasis on this doctrine, and stressed that belief in Jesus would allow Christians to overcome death and attain salvation in the hereafter.
Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, and some Protestants teach the Sacrament of Baptism is the means by which each person's damaged human nature is healed and Sanctifying Grace (capacity to enjoy and participate in the spiritual life of God) is restored. This is referred to as "being born of water and the Spirit," following the terminology in the Gospel of St. John. Most Protestants believe this salvific grace comes about at the moment of personal decision to follow Jesus, and that Baptism is a symbol of the grace already received.
The Hebrew word for sin, het, literally means "to go astray." Just as Jewish law, halachah provides the proper "way" (or path) to live, sin involves straying from that path. Judaism teaches that humans are born with freewill, and morally neutral, with both a yetzer hatov, (literally, "the good inclination", in some views, a tendency towards goodness, in others, a tendency towards having a productive life and a tendency to be concerned with others) and a yetzer hara, (literally "the evil inclination", in some views, a tendency towards evil, and in others, a tendency towards base or animal behaviour and a tendency to be selfish). In Judaism all human beings are believed to have free will and can choose the path in life that they will take. It does not teach that choosing good is impossible - only at times more difficult. There is almost always a "way back" if a person wills it. (Although texts mention certain categories for whom the way back will be exceedingly hard, such as the slanderer, the habitual gossip, and the malicious person)
The rabbis recognize a positive value to the yetzer hara: one tradition identifies it with God's observation on the last day of creation that His accomplishment was "very good" (God's work on the preceding days was just described as "good") and explain that without the yetzer ha'ra there would be no marriage, children, commerce or other fruits of human labor; the implication is that yetzer ha'tov and yetzer ha'ra are best understood not as moral categories of good and evil but as selfless versus selfish orientations, either of which used rightly can serve God's will.
Or as Hillel the Elder famously summarised the Jewish philosophy:
- "If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
- "And if I am only for myself, what am 'I'?
- "And if not now, [then] when?
Another explanation is, without the existence of the yetzer ha'ra, there would be no merit earned in following God's commandments; choice is only meaningful if there has indeed been a choice made. So whereas creation was "good" before, it became "very good" when the evil inclination was added, for then it became possible to truly say that man could make a true choice to obey God's "mitzvot" (wishes or commandments). This is because Judaism views the following of God's ways as a desirable end in and of itself rather than a means to an end.
Jews recognize two kinds of "sin," offenses against other people, and offenses against God. Offenses against God may be understood as violation of a contract (the covenant between God and the Children of Israel). Since the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, Jews have believed that right action (as opposed to right belief) is the way for a person to atone for one's sins. Midrash Avot de Rabbi Natan states the following:
- One time, when Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai was walking in Jerusalem with Rabbi Yehosua, they arrived at where the Temple now stood in ruins. "Woe to us" cried Rabbi Yehosua, "for this house where atonement was made for Israel's sins now lies in ruins!" Answered Rabban Yochanan, "We have another, equally important source of atonement, the practice of gemilut hasadim ("loving kindness"), as it is stated "I desire loving kindness and not sacrifice" (Hosea 6:6).
The Babylonian Talmud states:
- Rabbi Yochanan and Rabbi Eleazar both explain that as long as the Temple stood, the altar atoned for Israel, but now, one's table atones [when the poor are invited as guests]. (Tractate Berachot, 55a.)
The liturgy of the Days of Awe (the High Holy Days; i.e. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) states that prayer, repentance and tzedakah (the dutiful giving of charity) atone for sin. But prayer cannot atone for wrongs done, without an honest sincere attempt to rectify any wrong done to the best of one's ability, and the sincere intention to avoid repetition. Atonement to Jews means to repent and set aside, and the word "T'shuvah" used for atonement actually means "to return". Judaism is optimistic in that it always sees a way that a determined person may return to what is good, and that God waits for that day too.
Faith versus good deeds
Judaism teaches that the purpose of the Torah is to teach us how to act correctly. God's
existence is a given in Judaism, and not something that most authorities see as a matter of required belief. Although some
authorities see the Torah as commanding Jews to believe in God, Jews see belief in God as a necessary, but not sufficient,
condition for a Jewish life. The quintessential verbal expression of Judaism is the
Thus fundamentally in Judaism, one is enjoined to bring holiness into life (with the guidance of Gods laws), rather than removing oneself from life to be holy.
Much of Christianity also teaches that God wants people to perform good works, but all branches hold that good works alone will not lead to salvation, which is called Legalism. Some Christian denominations hold that salvation depends upon transformational faith in Jesus which expresses itself in good works as a testament (or witness) to ones faith for others to see (primarily Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Roman Catholicism), while others (including most Protestants) hold that faith alone is necessary for salvation. However, the difference is not as great as it seems, because it really hinges on the definition of "faith" used. The first group generally uses the term "faith" to mean "intellectual and heartfelt assent and submission." Such a faith will not be salvific until a person has allowed it to effect a life transforming conversion (turning towards God) in their being (see ontological faith). The Christians that hold to "salvation by faith alone" (also called by its Latin name "sola fide") define faith as being implicitly ontological--mere intellectual assent is not termed "faith" by these groups. Faith, then, is life-transforming by definition. See also Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification and Christian View of the Law.
Food
Jews, unlike most Christians, still practice a restrictive diet which has many rules. Most Christians believe that the kosher food laws do not apply to them as they are no longer under the Law of Moses.
Love
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Love is a central value in both Christianity and Judaism. In Jesus and Yahweh: The Names Divine, literary critic Harold Bloom argues that their notions of love are fundamentally different. Specifically, he links the Jewish conception of love to justice, and the Christian conception of love to charity.
As in English, the Hebrew word for "love," ahavah אהבה, is used to describe intimate or romantic feelings or relationships, such as the love between parent and child in Genesis 22:2; 25: 28; 37:3; the love between close friends in I Samuel 18:2, 20:17; or the love between a young man and young woman in Song of Songs.
Like many Jewish scholars and theologians, Bloom understands Judaism as fundamentally a religion of love. But he argues that one can understand the Hebrew conception of love only by looking at one of the core commandments of Judaism, Leviticus 19:18, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Talmudic sages Hillel and Rabbi Akiva commented that this is a major element of the Jewish religion. Also, this commandment is arguably at the center of the Jewish faith. As the third book of the Torah, Leviticus is literally the central book. Historically, Jews have considered it of central importance: traditionally, children began their study of the Torah with Leviticus, and the midrashic literature on Leviticus is among the longest and most detailed of midrashic literature (see Bamberger 1981: 737). Bernard Bamberger considers Leviticus 19, beginning with God's commandment in verse 3 – "You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God, am holy" – to be "the climactic chapter of the book, the one most often read and quoted" (1981:889). Leviticus 19:18 is itself the climax of this chapter.
As theologian Franz Rosenzweig has pointed out, "love" in this context is remarkably different from the more common examples of love in that it constitutes an impersonal relationship:
- ...the neighbor is only a representative. He is not loved for his own sake, nor for his beautiful eyes, but only because he just happens to be standing there, because he happens to be nighest to me. Another could easily stand in his place — precisely at this place nearest me. The neighbor is the other ...
(This point is underscored by another verse in the same chapter, Leviticus 19: 34, commanding the Children of Israel to love strangers.)
According to Franz Rosenzweig, the commandment to love one's neighbor itself arises out of another unique love: the relationship between God and the Children of Israel. That the relationship between God and the Children of Israel is a romantic relationship and comparable to the marital bond is made clear in Hosea 2:19 (see also Ezekiel 16:8, 60; Isaiah 54:5; Jeremiah 3:14; 31:32). The centrality of love to the relationship between God and Israel is epitomized in Deuteronomy 6: 4-5: "Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God; the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might." Arguably, this commandment is as central to Judaism as Leviticus 19: 18, as it was recited twice daily in the Temple in Jerusalem, and in the prayers of all observant Jews. Moreover, the Rabbis dictated that all Jews should recite this verse at the moment of their death (this custom contrasts with Mathew 27: 46, "About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?' — which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" see also Mark 15: 33; Luke 23: 46, however, is closer to the spirit of Jewish practice: "Jesus called out with a loud voice, 'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.' When he had said this, he breathed his last.")
Apparently by the Hellenistic period these two commandments were understood to be central to Jewish faith (see Mark 12: 28-32). Rosenzweig believes that these two commandments to love are inextricably connected, but in a complex way. He finds it remarkable that throughout the Pentateuch God demands that Israel love Him, yet never professes love for Israel (except in the future; that if Israel loves God He will bless them in return). But he does not see this as evidence that God does not love Israel; on the contrary. Rosenzweig asks, how can someone command love? The only answer, he argues, is that only a lover can do so; only one who loves can demand, "love me!' in return (Rosenzweig 1970: 176-177). The consequences of this demand, according to Rosenzweig, provide the foundation for Judaism.
The first consequence of being loved, according to Rosenzweig, is a feeling of shame:
- In the admission of love, the soul bares itself. To admit that one requites love and in the future wants nothing but to be loved — this is sweet. But it is hard to admit that one was without love in the past. And yet — love would not be the moving, the gripping, the searing experience that it is if the moved, gripped, seared soul were not conscious of the fact that up to this moment it had not been moved or gripped. Thus a shock was necessary before the self could become the beloved soul. And the soul is ashamed of its former self, and that it did not, under its own power, break this spell in which it was confined. This is the shame that blocks the beloved mouth that wishes to make acknowledgment. The mouth has to acknowledge its past and still present weakness by wishing to acknowledge its already present and future bliss. (Rosenzweig 1970: 179)
Thus, the immediate response to God's commandment to love is to confess, "I have sinned." For Rosenzweig this confession is not a source of shame; on the contrary, by speaking a truth about the past, it makes love in the present possible and thus "abolishes shame."
Consequently, Rosenzweig does not believe that this confession requires absolution:
- It is not God that need cleanse it [the soul of the beloved, i.e. Israel] of its sin. Rather it cleanses itself in the presence of his love. It is certain of God's love in the very moment that shame withdraws from it and it surrenders itself in free, present admission — as certain as if God had spoken into its ear that "I forgive" which is longed for earlier when it confessed to him its sins of the past. It no longer needs this formal absolution. It is freed of its burden at the very moment of daring to assume all of it on its shoulders. So too the beloved no longer needs the acknowledgment of the lover which she longed for before she admitted her love. At the very moment when she herself dares to admit it, she is as certain of his love as if he were whispering his acknowledgment into her ear. (Rosenzweig 1970: 180-181)
In other words, Rosenzweig sees in the Hebrew Bible a "grammar of love" in which God can communicate "I love you" only by demanding "You must love me," and Israel can communicate "I love you" only by confessing "I have sinned." Therefore, this confession does not lead God to offer an unnecessary absolution; it merely expresses Israel's love for God.
But "What then is God's answer to this 'I am thine' by which the beloved soul acknowledges him" if it is not "absolution?" Rosenzweig's answer is: revelation: "He cannot make himself known to the soul before the soul has acknowledged him. But now he must do so. For this it is by which revelation first reaches completion. In its groundless presentness, revelation must now permanently touch the ground." (Rosenzweig 1970: 182) Revelation, epitomized by Sinai, is God's response to Israel's love. Contrary to Paul, who argued that "through the law comes knowledge of sin" (Romans 3: 20), Rosenzweig argues that it is because of and after a confession of sin that God reveals to Israel knowledge of the law.
For Rosenzweig as for the Rabbis, Song of Songs provides a paradigm for understanding the love between God and Israel, a love that "is strong as death" (Song of Songs 8:6; Rosenzweig 1970: 202). God's love is as strong as death because it is love for the People Israel, and it is as a collective that Israel returns God's love. Thus, although one may die, God and Israel, and the love between them, lives on. In other words, Song of Songs is "the focal book of revelation" (Rosenzweig 1970: 202) where the "grammar of love" is most clearly expressed. But, Rosenzweig argues, this love that is as strong as death ultimately transcends itself, as it takes the form of God's law — for it is the law that binds Israel as a people, and through observance of the law that each Jew relives the moment of revelation at Mt. Sinai. Ultimately, Song of Songs points back to Leviticus and the rest of the Torah.
Song of Songs largely describes a clandestine love affair, forbidden by the woman's brothers (Song of Songs 8: 8-9), and scorned by her friends (Song of Songs 5:9). For Rosenzweig, the concealed nature of this romance is emblematic of the way lovers lose themselves in one another. Yet the book itself struggles against this private love. "O that you were like a brother to me," the woman cries, "that nursed at my mother's breast! If I met you outside, I would kiss you, and none would despise me" (Song of Songs 8:1). The point, for Rosenzweig, is that love neither can nor should remain private.
- Now she is his. Is she? Does not something ultimate still separate them at the pinnacle of love — beyond even that "Thou art mine" of the lover, beyond even that peace which the beloved found in his eyes, this last word of her overflowing heart? Does there not still remain one last separation? The lover has explained his love for her .... But will this explanation do? Does not life demand more than explanation, more than the calling by name? Does it not demand reality? And a sob escapes the blissfully overflowing heart of the beloved and forms into words, words which haltingly point to something unfulfilled, something which cannot be fulfilled in the immediate revelation of love: "O that you were like a brother to me!" Not enough that the beloved lover calls his bride by the name of sister in the flickering twilight of allusion. The name ought to be the truth. It should be heard in the bright light of "the street," not whispered into the beloved ear in the dusk of intimate duo-solitude, but in the eyes of the multitude, officially — "who would grant" that! Yes, who would grant that? Love no longer grants it. In truth, this "who would grant" is no longer directed to the beloved lover. Love after all always remains between two people; it knows only of I and Thou, not the street. This longing cannot be fulfilled in love ... (Rosenzweig 1970: 203-204)
It cannot be fulfilled in love. For Rosenzweig, as for the Rabbis, it can be fulfilled only in law. This is the meaning of revelation: Israel's love for God provides Him with the means to enter the world, and through His commandments to Israel their love enters "the street." It is through the revelation of God's commandments, according to Rosenzweig, that the love portrayed in Song of Songs becomes the love commanded in Leviticus. Just as God's love for the Children of Israel is one of the ways that he extends Himself into the world, the necessary response by the Jews — the way to love God in return — is to extend their own love out towards their fellow human beings.
This extension of God's love into the world, through the People Israel, is the point of Leviticus 19:18. According to Bloom, however, this love has a different character than the romantic love celebrated in Song of Songs. He argues that to understand the commandment to love one's neighbor one must look at the other commandments that form its context, beginning with verse 9:
- When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I the Lord am your God.
- You shall not steal; you shall not deal deceitfully or falsely with one another. You shall not swear falsely by My name, profaning the name of your God: I am the Lord.
- You shall not defraud your neighbor. You shall not commit robbery. The wages of a laborer shall not remain with you until morning. You shall not insult the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind. You shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
- You shall not render an unfair decision: do not favor the poor or show deference to the rich; judge your neighbor fairly. Do not deal basely with your fellows. Do not profit by the blood of your neighbor: I am the Lord.
- You shall not hate your kinsman in your heart. Reprove your neighbor, but incur no guilt because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your kinsfolk. Love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
According to Bloom these accompanying commandments reveal that for Israel, love "in the street" takes the form of "just dealing." Similarly, theologian William Herberg argued that "justice" is at the heart of the Jewish notion of love, and the foundation for Jewish law:
- The ultimate criterion of justice, as of everything else in human life, is the divine imperative — the law of love .... Justice is the institutionalization of love in society .... This law of love requires that every man be treated as a Thou, a person, an end in himself, never merely as a thing or a means to another's end. When this demand is translated into laws and institutions under the conditions of human life in history, justice arises. (1951: 148)
The arguments of Rosenzweig, Herberg, and Bloom echo the teachings of the the Rabbis, who taught that the written and oral Torahs provide the way to express this love-as-just-dealing. This view is encapsulated in one of the most famous rabbinic stories, that of the time a man once challenged Hillel the Elder, an important Pharisee who lived at the end of the 1st century BCE, to explain the entire law (Torah) while standing on one foot. Hillel replied, "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Go and study it." Rosenzweig suggests that Hillel presented the commandment from Leviticus in the negative form (do not do it) as a way of setting up his own, affirmative, commandment: to go and study the law — in other words, the only way to fulfil Leviticus 19:18 is to observe all the laws of the Torah, the practical embodiment of the commandment to love. Similarly, Maimonides wrote that it should only be out of love for God, rather than fear of punishment or hope for reward, that Jews should obey the law: "When man loves God with a love that is fitting he automatically carries out all the precepts of love" (Maimonides Yad Chapter 10, quoted in Jacobs 1973: 159).
Whereas Jews believe that law is the ultimate fulfillment of love, Christians believe that love is "the fulfillment of the Law" (Romans 13:8-10). Nevertheless, Jesus shared Hillel's — and presumably many Jews' — notion of love and the law, when he echoed the Pharisaic position that
- "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself." All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. (Matthew 22:37-40)
When asked in reference to the latter commandment "And who is my neighbor?" (Luke 10:29), Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37), in which the answer to the question is ultimately a foreigner (perhaps echoing Leviticus 19: 34).
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus extended the commandment to include not only "your neighbor" but "your enemy" as well:
- "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your cloak also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the pagans do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:38-48)
Jesus lived out this teaching at the end of his life. During his arrest, trial, scourging, and crucifixion, Jesus offered no resistance, totally submitting to his persecutors, however unjust. During Jesus' arrest, one of his disciples struck with a sword the ear of a man coming to seize Jesus, but Jesus commanded him to put away the sword, and healed the ear. (Luke 22:50-51) Jesus even prayed for his persecutors from the cross, calling out "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34)
Because of this, Jesus' selfless life of service, and the belief that Jesus died for the salvation of His people, Christian love is personified by Jesus, the supreme example being his martyrdom on the cross. Jesus commanded his disciples to follow his example: "My command is this: Love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:12-13) Furthermore, this same love is believed to be shared between the Father, the Son, and all Christians: "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love" (John 15:9-10). Finally, Jesus proclaimed love to be the defining characteristic of all Christians: "By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:35).
Still, even more remarkable statements about love are made in the New Testament by the apostle John and by Paul. The most famous, and widely considered one of the earliest and most succinct summaries of the Christian faith, runs "For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but shall have eternal life" (John 3:16). Adding to this is "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
In the first epistle of John, he makes the bold statement "God is Love" (1 John 4:8,16). So love is not merely a characteristic of God, but the characteristic, which alone sums up God's complete essence.
Bloom argues that the Hebrew word for love, ahavah אהבה , is fundamentally understood as "just dealing." In the classic characterization of Christian love, Paul's discourse in First Epistle to the Corinthians, sometimes called the "love chapter," rather than using either of the two other Greek words that loosely translate to English as "love" (erōs ερως, meaning erotic love, or philos φιλος , meaning familial love), Paul used the word agápē αγαπη, which is probably more literally translated as "charity," and was first translated as "love" by William Tyndale:
- If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not del