“Kosher Jesus” by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Gefen Publishing House, $26 hardcover, January 2012.
Jerusalem — Shmuley Boteach is not only a very fast-speaking rabbi, but he is very charismatic, knowledgeable and engaging and one of the world’s leading relationship experts. His 26 books (including the best-seller, “Kosher Sex”) have been translated into 20 languages.
MediaCentral, the Jerusalem resource agency for foreign journalists, recently invited the rabbi to speak about his newest book, his first published in Israel. Rabbi Boteach was in Israel on a private visit.
The rabbi declared that this book is “the true story of Jesus the Jew.”
“Christianity is perceived as an enemy of the Jewish people, personalized in Jesus, who became a diety,” he declared. “I wrote the book to create the theological bridge between Christians and Jews.”
He said some Jews even feel it is inappropriate to mention the name of Jesus in a synagogue. “Most Jews are deeply suspicious of the relationship with Christians.”
On the other hand, he asked if Christians know the Jewish Jesus. Christians have to discover the Jewish Jesus who was teaching Jewish values.
The rabbi explained that Jesus was a man who felt the rabbis of his time were hypocrites and Judaism was corrupt. He asked, why then did the rabbis want Jesus dead? Because he allowed people to pick wheat on the Sabbath, they did not know he was a Torah-observant Jew all his life, he predicted the destruction of the Temple, he claimed to be the messiah and he claimed to be divine, calling himself the son of man and referring to G-d, as my father.
“There was nothing blasphemous so who wanted him dead? The Romans wanted Jesus dead.” The rabbi also questioned why the Romans were not mentioned in the New Testament and why is Pilate white washed. “They were the brutal occupiers, mass murderers.”
Rabbi Boteach admitted “Christians will not accept everything I wrote in this book but everything he (Jesus) taught came straight from Jewish sources.” For example, he pointed out sources of Jesus’s “Sermon on the Mount,” from Psalms 35 and 24, and Lamentations 3.
“Christianity is an extension of Judaism. Jews can accept him as a teacher and martyr,” he said.
“This is why Jews are easy prey for missionaries — if you don’t know what Jesus said about Jews in the New Testament.”
“I expect there will be a lot of resistance to this book,” said the rabbi, “but the research was very compelling…. Christians don’t have to reject the divinity of Jesus. We can look at Jesus in different ways. This is my rendition of the Jewish Jesus.”
Summarizing the book, he said, “This is a serious and honest look at the Jewish Jesus by a well-known rabbi which leads to an honest conversation.”
At times during his presentation he digressed from the topic of his book. For example, he mentioned Mel Gibson, whom he characterized not as an anti-Semite but as the “Jew hater” and his “blood libel film,” “The Passion of the Christ.”
But he did praise evangelicals for their stalwart support of Israel. He noted that over the past 30 years there has been a change no one could have predicted — that being a new political alliance between the Jewish community and the Christian evangelicals. “The Jews are not sufficiently appreciative of the Christian evangelicals,” he said.
