Posts by Russ Resnik
From the editor – Issue 34 – Israel at 70
This year Israel proudly marks seventy years as an independent state in the ancient Jewish homeland, and Kesher joins the commemoration with a penetrating look at theological, pastoral, and socio-political issues that come to the fore on this historic anniversary. We lead off with “The Besorah, Jerusalem, and the Jewish People,” by Dr. Mark Kinzer,…
Read MoreThe Love of God: Divine Gift, Human Gratitude, and Mutual Faithfulness in Judaism, by Jon D. Levenson
Reviewed by Russ Resnik Jon Levenson is a world-class biblical scholar, Professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard, and a writer gifted in engaging his readers on issues that might at first seem antiquated or esoteric. His latest offering, The Love of God, opens with “one of the most familiar passages in the Bible,” Deuteronomy…
Read MoreFrom the Editor – Issue 33
Jewish tradition and values are often expressed most effectively through lifecycle events such as marriage, birth, parenting, sickness, and death and mourning. Rabbinic stories picture Hashem himself participating in such occasions, blessing the bride and groom, visiting the sick, and burying the dead (for example, b.Sotah 14a). Messiah Yeshua follows his example, from blessing a…
Read MoreHealing the Schism: Barth, Rosenzweig, and the New Jewish-Christian Encounter, by Jennifer M. Rosner, and Converging Destinies: Jews, Christians, and the Mission of God, by Stuart Dauermann
In 1965, Nostra Aetate, the Roman Catholic statement on relationships with non-Christian faiths, declared that “the Jews should not be spoken of as rejected or accursed as if this followed from Holy Scripture.” On the fiftieth anniversary of Nostra Aetate, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks noted, “Today as a result, Jews and Catholics meet not as enemies…
Read MoreFrom the editor – Issue 32
Everyone loves—and needs—a story. Through story we discover who we are and how we are to live. Men and women are formed by the stories they hear as children; societies and cultures are shaped by the stories they tell and re-tell over the generations. The foundational truths of Judeo-Christian culture are conveyed in stories. Judaism…
Read MoreIdentity, Joseph, and the Hero’s Journey
The Lord’s long dialogue with Abraham opens with two words: Lekh l’kha (Gen 12:1). This phrase can be translated, “Go for yourself,” which Rashi interprets as “Go for your benefit and for your good.” It can also, and perhaps more literally, be translated “Go to yourself,” that is, go to find or to become who…
Read MoreChosen? Reading the Bible amid the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Walter Brueggemann
A review by Rabbi Russell Resnik When I first learned that Walter Brueggemann had written a book opposing Zionism and questioning modern Israel’s claim to the land of Israel, I was troubled. Brueggemann is an outstanding Christian scholar of the Old Testament and a highly credible voice. After I read the book, though, I was…
Read MoreRejoinder to Rabbi Stuart Dauermann’s and Boaz Michael’s Response Papers
Rabbi Stuart Dauermann and Boaz Michael have been valued friends of mine for years, and I greatly appreciate them both as thinkers and teachers. So it is an honor to read and learn from their responses to my paper. Before addressing Stuart’s main criticism, namely that my effort to develop a definition of marriage is…
Read MoreThe Two Shall Become One Flesh: The Beginning and End of Marriage
Some Pharisees came to Yeshua, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father…
Read MoreHesed And Hospitality: Embracing Our Place on the Margins
On a recent Shabbat morning, after the Torah reading, the rabbi opened his d’rash by saying: Judaism is a religion of law. In Judaism, we ask the question, ‘What does the halacha say I should do?’ Christianity is different. It likes to ask, ‘What would Jesus do?’ But we already know what Jesus would do-he…
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