L'Chaim to All Friday, April 02, 2004

L'Chaim to All
On the eve of Passover, a nice thought from Michael Novak:

There is an important asymmetry between Jewish and Christian faiths. Christians must of necessity accept the essential truth of Judaism, for without Judaism Christianity does not make sense in its own terms. The Catholic worship service, the Mass, is a rite whose backbone is the sacrifice of Abraham, Melchisedech, and the Passover Seder. It is replete with prayers taken from the Jewish liturgy. The daily Office of the Hours that spreads that central worship over the whole day, from Matins before dawn until Vespers at twilight, is composed by a measure of some seventy to eighty percent of Jewish prayers, most notably (but not only) the Psalms.

By contrast, Jewish faith is not at all dependent on Christian faith. It may (or may not) have respect for Christian faith, the faith (as it were) of a problematic daughter, and it can scarcely avoid judging Christian faith to be seriously erroneous. One of my Jewish friends chides me that Christianity is "far too optimistic" about man, far too unrealistic about so many things...Pretty perhaps, but not really, he says, a livable faith.

Yet the whole world tends to pair Christianity and Judaism, as in some mysterious destiny fatefully intertwined. ... We are in fact, blessedly, linked forevermore. For Christians, it is very good--it is even essential--that until the end of time there should always be a vital Jewish religious community, alive with intellect and knowledge and wisdom, for without such a community from whom to be nourished, we could never come to understand accurately our own earliest and deepest heritage. Spiritually, it might be that Jews could get along quite well without Christians; but the reverse is not true.

I would only add that, when your birthday is Christmas Eve, and you are canvassing for people to go out to dinner, you discover who your real friends are: Jews, pagans and Rich T. To broaden the theme a bit, the people who have been closest to me in my life, people with whom I've shared my best times and leaned on in my worst, oftentimes haven't had the singlest bit of philosophy in common with me. And I couldn't get along without them.

Like I said, l'chaim to all, my Jewish friends especially. If he's reading this, here's hoping the one who left comes home this year.

@ 9:26:00 AM,

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