Rebuilding

Both of one's worlds, inner and outer, were destroyed because of our iniquities. Rachel cries over both. Both will be rebuilt. Rebuilding our inner world depends upon our acquiring a new dimension of understanding of who we are and where we're going. Rebuilding our outer world depends on our joining hands together to re-form society in accordance with the vision of the Torah. -Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh

Bilateral Ecclesiology and the Gentiles Series

Gene Shlomovich just said something interesting on my previous blog post:

This is NOT about any sort of immediate "implementation" - we are all waiting for the Messianic Age for that. The last 2K teach us that whatever man touches eventually turns to dung, but it doesn't mean that we are to fold our hands and stand idly by. We can still do things, one thing at a time, one congregation at a time and go from there. We have to start somewhere. We implement things starting with ourselves and those who G-d brings our way, and pray that G-d blesses it over the coming years.

The first thought that popped into my head was this:

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” Exodus 32:1-4

Yes, human beings have a tendency to mess up a free lunch whenever we can. I like to think that the reason the trials of the Children of Israel are so heavily chronicled in the Tanakh isn't to pick on them but to show how all of humanity continually fails God, yet keeps striving to be close to Him. It's also a continual picture of God's faithfulness, not just to the Jewish people, but to the rest of us (see the book of Jonah for a display of God's love to a non-Jewish people).

My understanding of Judaism is that it pictures man as the junior partner with God in an effort to repair the world, both our inner spiritual world and the world we see around us. In some of my recent blog posts, I've been trying, using marital metaphors, to describe a "partnership" between Jews and Christians joining together under one Messiah and one God, using the Torah as the blueprint for rebuilding our inner and outer worlds.

We aren't doing such a good job, but as Gene pointed out, we don't have the luxury of simply folding our hands and stand idly by, either. We have to do something. In fact, God requires that we do something:

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. - James 2:14-18

That's right. Rebuilding the world doesn't necessarily require establishing a megachurch and attracting 10,000 followers or performing some monumental act of righteousness or heroism. Repairing our inner and outer world can be as simple as providing one meal to one hungry person, or visiting a sick friend in the hospital.

But what about rebuilding the relationship between Christians and Jews?

I don't know.

I suppose ongoing conversations like this one are part of that process. Yes, the Messiah will come and he will repair the world, but in the meantime, we still have a responsibility to do all we can to move the process along. Like the Children of Israel and the Golden Calf, we have a tendency to misuse the time we have when we aren't constantly re-enforced by God, but that's the struggle of an imperfect humanity serving a perfect God. The standard quote I use at the end of each of these blogs should be the motto, not just of Jews, but of everyone.

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark, ignoring the light of the world. Look for the lamp who lights your path or you may become lost in the dark forever.

"A Jew never gives up. We're here to bring Mashiach, we will settle for nothing less." -Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh