My friend Mark Gerson has long been pushing me to write a column about how
“being religious” should be defined first by ethical behavior and only after by
ritual observance. Boy was he prophetic.
Unless you’ve been a
space-tourist with Virgin Galactic the past few weeks you will know that on
February my new book will be published.
Kosher Jesus is the true story of
Jesus’ Jewish life – culled from early Christian and Jewish sources – that
portrays Jesus as a Torah-observant teacher who instructed his followers to keep
every letter of the Law, whose teachings quoted extensively from the Bible and
rabbinical writings, who fought Roman paganism and persecution of the Jewish
people, and was killed by Pontius Pilate for his rebellion against Rome, the
Jews having had nothing whatsoever to do with his murder.
Though a
revolutionary theory,
Publisher’s Weekly has just glowingly reviewed the book as
an “informed and cogent primer on Jesus of Nazareth.... a brave stab at
re-evaluating Jesus through an intensive look at the New Testament and
historical documents... and a well-researched analysis that will certainly
reopen intra-faith and interfaith dialogue.”
But the book’s announcement
has led to a vicious assault against me by religious Jewish extremists who have
described
Kosher Jesus as heretical and sure to open Jewish doors to Christian
missionaries, even though the book does precisely the opposite by educating both
Christians and Jews in the source materials of why Jesus could not have been
divine or the Jewish Messiah. The book grants immunity from missionary
encroachment.
AT THE forefront of these attacks has been a Chabad
website, COLLIVE, which published a tirade from Rabbi Yitzchok Wolf, dean of a
Chabad day school in Chicago, who demanded that I be publicly condemned and
thrown out of Chabad over a book he admitted he had not even seen, let alone
read (and this man is responsible for educating young minds!).
My request
for a right to reply was originally granted but was removed within the hour by
COLLIVE editor-in-chief Mica Soffer, who wrote “I removed your
response... [because] its contents were not on par with our editorial
standards, being that we are a frum [Orthodox] website. Parents do not want
their children to be reading a discussion about J[esus] or reading quotes from
J! ...It goes without saying that impressionable Jewish children should not be
reading about this topic.”
Huh? If your concern is for children, I wrote
back, then why did you publish a venomous public assault, rabbi-on-rabbi,
especially if you’ve declared the whole subject of Jesus to be taboo? What on
earth did this have to do with a website that for the most part publishes
wedding and birth announcements? And is it fair that I get attacked without the
right of reply? Soffer quickly shot back, “You do have a point. Rabbi Wolf’s
article will be removed.” And so it was, for about 12 hours, until Wolfe’s
tirade was re-posted, without Soffer informing her readers of her commitment to
remove it, and this time with 209 incendiary comments so severe that some my
friends told me to get security and avoid Crown Heights.
Soffer followed
this e-mail with a public post on COLLIVE where she defended her actions in
publishing “the back-and-forth exchange...” as having been done “in the spirit
of unity and love for one another, and in consultation with the COLLIVE
editorial advisory board – comprised of a select group of respected rabbis and
educators.”
Here are some of the comments COLLIVE published about me in
“the spirit of unity and love,” all overseen by unnamed “rabbis” and for the
express purpose of “protect[ing] children”: “Boteach has to be crushed to a
pulp, as he deserves.”
“S.B. is the’ real ‘
mesis umadiach’ (sinner who
incites others to sin).... and there is a
chiyuv (obligation) on
rabbonei-Lubavitch (Chabad rabbis) to ‘
uvi’arto horo mikirbecho‘ (exterminate
the evil from your midst).”
“Nothing goes down... other than Boteach, may
this happen speedily in our days and let us say Amen.”
“Shmuley, if I
ever see you I will throw rocks at your car, spit on you and chuck dirty diapers
at your house.”
“The
soton (Satan) has in every generation someone in who
he dresses up to do his work.”
“It is time for Boteach to print a book
with the name The Kosher Chazer (pig) – and to put his picture on the front
cover” “...We must take action to stop this ego-maniacal monster.”
Other
choice nuggets, posted on a second leading Chabad website, Crown- Heights.info,
which at least allowed me to respond, albeit once, included: “SB needs to be
crucified with yoshke (Jesus)” “BURN!” “Unless he burns his own book on YouTube
and publicly denounces his own writings, I think it is safe to say he is as
dangerous to our children as molesters.”
“Chop Boteach down.”
“He
needs to be brought down on this one, not survive it! we should throw all
Boteach’s book into garbage.”
“your filth should be peddled under your
own, independent label.”
“Please get off your pills, we don’t want to
find you overdosed.”
“our friends they’d burn you first.”
“I only
wonder if they could turn the fires of hell up any higher, considering all the
Jews already
nichshal (misled) through his previous books. RIP
Shmuley.”
I SHOULD mention that these were some of the tamer posts. The
more incendiary ones, including the mention of my name in the same sentence as
Hitler, having been scrubbed under my threat of legal action for
incitement.
Why does all this matter? Because a battle is being waged for
the soul of Judaism between a lunatic fringe who are slowly encroaching on the
mainstream – as we have seen recently with religious men spitting on little
girls in Beit Shemesh, Israel – and those who believe Judaism must always be
informed, educated, open and loving. But the religious middle risks being cowed
into submission by the crazies. And I love Judaism in general, and Chabad in
particular, too much to ever allow ignorant hate-mongers to overrun it, which is
why I have fought back against these hateful attacks.
Young Jews,
especially in Chabad, are now watching these public threats against me carefully
to see what might happen to them if they do something unconventional to spread
the light of Judaism. Will they too be ostracized and subject to incendiary
incitement and attack – the fear of which might explain why Chabad, for all its
emphasis on “Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge,” is not producing the world-class
thinkers that were once its hallmark – or will those who might disagree with
them do so respectfully and ethically? The Rebbe especially distinguished
himself as a world-class intellectual possessed of encyclopedic scholarship on
an endless array of religious and secular subjects which he utilized to bring
Jews back to their roots.
It remains to be seen whether the Chabad
leadership in Chicago and Crown Heights will distance themselves from these
extremists. Because if Chabad – the most open, loving, devoted and tolerant of
all Jewish religious groups – risks being corrupted by fanatics, then God help
everyone else.
The writer was the London Times
Preacher of the Year at
the Millennium and won the American Jewish Press Association’s highest award for
excellence in commentary. Kosher Jesus will be published February 1. Follow him
on Twitter @RabbiShmuley, or go to www.shmuley.com.