My Jewish Week

My Jewish week began with my local book group discussing Geraldine Brooks’ novel The Secret Chord (2015). It’s the story of David – yes, that David, in the Bible. Much I did not know. Goliath may not have been a giant, just big. David sang beautifully – the secret chord – and wrote poems to The Name. He also united the various tribes into the kingdom of Israel and built the capital, Jerusalem, not peaceful pursuits in any age. This was also an era when men had many wives and concubines. I was fascinated by Brooks’ depiction of the women in David’s life, especially Michal, Abigail, and Bathsheba. These are complex women, who suffer rape, manipulation, dynasty building and destroying. I went to my Bible and to Miriam Therese Winter’s Woman Wisdom: A Feminist Lectionary and Psalter: Women of the Hebrew Scriptures, Part One (1991). On Michal, Winter writes “A Psalm to Guard Against Hypocrisy” and on Abigail, “A Psalm of Wise Words.” “Bathsheba’s Psalm” is in Part Two, and is the most moving of them all:

Voice: Come to my aid, O Holy One,

for violence overpowers me,

desecrates my integrity,

blames me for its sin.

“All” respond to her voice of pain; we absolve this suffering woman, and pray for her healing – as Natan (Nathan) does in the novel by forming a fatherly bond with her wonderful son, Sholmo (Solomon), who becomes David’s heir.

My book group has three people more or less raised Christian and six more or less raised Jewish. David’s great love was not any of these wives or concubines, but Yonatan (Jonathan). The question was asked how our different faith traditions handle same-sex relationships. Certainly Leviticus condemns to death men who lie with men, and we get the word “sodomy” from Genesis. David does not think about any of this in his love for Yonatan – but then, David, as Brooks presents him, acts on his appetites without much reflection at all.

What I felt good about saying was that David is convinced he is beloved of Yahweh. He has a personal relationship that is the source of his psalms, and he accepts that his punishments are for his sins against Yahweh, though we also see them as sins against people.

What I did not feel good about saying was that all I have learned from those who advocate for LGBTQ people in the Catholic Church suggests that Christ’s law of love supersedes the prohibitions that had just been brought up from the Hebrew Scriptures. I think I actually used the word “supersedes.” What I didn’t know then was that the letters of Paul in 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy are sometimes translated to condemn homosexuality in their lists of sins. What I didn’t remember was that Jesus is quoted in Matthew 10:15: “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the Day of Judgment than for that town.” This is the gospel of love; welcome is more important than sexual sins. While I did not ask everyone specifically, I would imagine that all the members of my book group support LGBTQ people in their search for equality in marriage and civil rights and everything else. That’s why the question was raised.

The end of my Jewish week will be a discussion this afternoon with the Philadelphia Commonweal Local Community (CLC) on “Interreligious Dialogue: Judaism & Christianity.” The introduction to the various articles to be read includes this sentence: “Indeed, for most of its two millennia, Christianity has (willingly or not) antagonized Judaism: by supersessionistic theology, by blaming the Jewish community for the death of Christ, by calling into question the validity of God’s original covenant with the Israelites, by praying for their conversion—and so on.” Oh, there I am! I have rid myself of most of these sins, but not the first, despite the best efforts of Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza and others. Yahweh, I repent of secessionism!

Then my Jewish step-grandson called, and I explained my guilt about what I had said about Christian love superseding Jewish rules, and Matthew said not to feel bad. The only bad thing would be if such analysis led to anti-Semitism! That is the point of the articles, especially the last by John Connelly, and Matthew got it immediately. One can separate theology from prejudice – but does that really happen?

All of the Commonweal articles examine the Church’s official repentance in the years since Vatican II: well-intentioned but ineffective, rarely preached and superficially understood. Connolly says of the document, “Nostra Aetate celebrates the church’s origins in Judaism, and asserts that God holds the Jews ‘most dear.’ The church says such a thing about no other religion or people.” This means that Judaism continues as valid an expression of Yahweh’s covenant as Christianity is. No supercessionism because “Mysteriously, the old and new people of God coexist.” Our lives are our witness.

This brings tears to my eyes, thinking of my Jewish family and friends. Also this week, the SEPA WOC group expanded my understanding of guilt and shame as a detour during its regular meeting. I look forward to the Commonweal discussion today, and hope that some members of that community will comment on this post. And I’ll send it to my book club.