Jack’s Winning Words 4/15/14
“Passover and Easter are the only Jewish and Christian holidays that move in sync, like the ice skating pairs we saw during the winter Olympics.”  (Marvin Olasky)  Paul Bradshaw and Lawrence Hoffman co-authored “Passover and Easter” which is part of their quest to bridge the liturgies of Christians and Jews.  “On Being a Jew at Christmas”  is the title of a Hoffman article.  My Jewish friends and I look for similarities in how we believe and worship.  The differences do not keep us from being friends.    ;-)  Jack

FROM TARMART REV:  So true...learned that at Temple Kol Ami...even have a few Muslim friends in my area today who feel the same about our faiths. Happy Passion Week, Jack!!====JACK:  Too bad that the Kol Ami partnership had to end.  It would have been a real positive statement to the community.  But, it was good while it lasted.

FROM PH IN MINNESOTA:  Jack, you are as much of an insomniac as i am!  Holy Week blessings to you and yours.  if i recall my church history, the origins of Lent began around the Council of Nicea in 325 AD and the two holy-days were deliberately separated to distinguish one from another.  at the same time,  they are both built around the paschal moon (not totally sure why this was the case) and therefore they do "track" each other.  google "history of Lent" sometime and you get a LOT of info. ====JACK:  Right now, the search engine I use is called, Dogpile.  It seems to work as well as Google.  When you want an answer, it says, "Go Fetch!"  This year, some of the synagogues here are locking their doors, because of the recent shooting.in Kansas City.

FROM SHARIN' SHARON:  Over the years, I've bought quite a few books of Jewish commentary on their scripture and also receive Rabbi Wein's weekly sermon and commentary on some story from the Torah and don't know if my self-understanding is deceived or something but always feel that I have "received well" the Jewish reflections, they don't seem "alien" to my own way of thinking and receiving scripture. It would be interesting if any observant Jewish person would write commentary on the New Testament--there may be where we part ways. Some pastors are dilly-dallying with going with a "narrative" lectionary--I hope we still continue using a large dose of Hebrew Scriptures because I think the future of religion on this earth is moving towards reconciliation and more perfect love and understanding and appreciation for each other. Thanks for your wonderful WW today again!!!!!====JACK:  There's something to be said for living in a diverse community (religiously, economically and racially).  It helps toward understanding others and reexamining our own beliefs.

FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY:  Good words!  There's enough in this world to keep us divided...beliefs in God shouldn't.  We may believe in different ways to worship but that should be a good thing not bad.  Seeds are sown on different soils.====JACK:  There is so much good in the worst of us,
 And so much bad in the best of us,  That it hardly behooves any of us  To talk about the rest of us. (Edward Wallis Hoch)

FROM EDUCATOR PAUL:  Amen.====JACK:  I knew that we'd agree on this.

FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER:  Am I wrong, or wasn't Christ a Jew? Maybe that's what should bind us. (Theology is not my forte. Obviously.)====JACK:  Jewishness can refer both to a person's religion and nationality.  It appears that Jesus was a Jew in both senses of the word.  His purpose was not to set up a new religion, but to appear as God in human form, so that people, both Jew and Gentile, could see and hear God's will and God's love for them.  The choice was to accept or reject or yawn.  It's the same choice for each generation.

FROM INDY GENIE:  Love this:)====JACK:  The religious part or the skating part?  I liked both. ====GENIE:  I also like that you and your friends talk about your similarities...I'd like to be in on that conversation.

FROM MY LAWYER:  Amen brother!!!====JACK:  Do people ever shout "Amen!" in the synagogue like they do in some churches

FROM WATERFORD JAN:  While involved with the first Bethel Bible Class at church many years ago, we visited Temple Beth El and were hosted by a very learned gent who revealed his knowledge of the New Testament beyond ours!  We were invited to attend a Bar Mitzvah service and were pleasantly surprised at the similarity in some of their service to ours.  Our class agreed that Christians need to know the Old Testament  as well as the New Testament, and we need to know other believers, whatever their history--and that some of it is also ours.====JACK:  While he said it in another context, I like what the father cried to Jesus, "I believe.  Help my unbelief."  There is so much to learn about God.

FROM HUNGRY HOWIE:  There is a gefilte fish shortage! Oh no.  Apparently there was an 11th plague this winter, the polar vortex, that caused extensive freezing of the Great Lakes limiting the white fish catch resulting in many Jewish families in New York being  unable get the white fish needed to make their gefilte fish, a traditional dish at the Passover Seder.  This was a lead story in today’s NY Times. It was written in mock seriousness and with a sense of “oh well, we’ll just have to soldier   on thru another hardship”====JACK:  One of the differences between Passover and Easter that I can live with is Honey Baked Ham instead of gefilte fish...but, in all honesty, I've never tasted gefilte fish. 

FROM FACEBOOK LIZ:  easter eggs derive from jewish passover seder... =====JACK:  I haven't been able to a source that connects the Easter egg with the seder, but it may be true.  Most cultures see the egg as a symbol of rebirth, so the Easter "rebirth" of Jesus seems to fit with that.  Some see the egg as a smaller representation of the stone that sealed the tomb.  ...and, some have the custom of dying the eggs red, symbolizing the spilled blood of Jesus.  Most anything can be turned into a symbol of something, if you try hard enough.

FROM SBP IN FLORIDA:  Right or wrong, I've always felt that almost every group of humans has the need for attribution to higher deities/beings, support from, with many requiring obedience and praise and sacrifice.....And we, here, in an ever increasing amalgam that is population.... anywhere..... have the opportunity to explore the differences and likenesses in the wide range of beliefs. I believe that -many of the tenets we hold as Christians are present in some form or other in most other religions/beliefs. And in lieu of personal contacts we have Google (and such) for expanding our knowledge and understanding.====JACK:  That's why what we believe is called, faith.  One problem some people have with religion is that they want to be SURE.  A man that I know was a nuclear physicist.  He would sit in the parking lot, while his little girl attended Sunday School.  One Sunday the pastor of the church (I know him, too) went out to the car and invited the man into church, saying: "You know, you don't have park your brain in the car when you go to church.  Let's go inside."  They became good friends.  Eventually the man left his job as a physicist and became a pastor...and later a bishop.