Jewish Prayer Shawl on Christian shoulders as a sign of Judeo-Christian spiritual unity

By VLADIMIR MINKOV
Updated: SEPTEMBER 16, 2016 13:29
Yes, it is another long awaited sign of spiritual unity among Jews and Christians that should make Torah-revering Jews rejoicing. However, that is not the case. Why?
From the news media:
“This is a prayer shawl straight from Israel,” Detroit pastor Bishop Wayne Jackson said as he draped a tallit around Donald Trump’s shoulders, casually appropriating a Jewish ritual item for Christian purposes.
Trump, who had addressed the Great Faith Ministries, a black church, in an attempt to make inroads with African-American voters, accepted the gift with a smile. Immediately, the Jewish Twittersphere exploded — not just because of the inappropriateness of this appropriation, but probably also because it was especially galling to see Trump, a man who has stoked “alt-right” anti-Semitism in this country, wearing this symbolic Jewish garment.
But what about the pastor — what was he thinking? Does he, like some other Christians, think that adopting elements of Jewish ritual makes their worship more “biblical,” and therefore more authentic? Does he think that Jesus wore this same type of “prayer shawl,” and therefore Christians should wear it to emulate Jesus? If so, the pastor badly needs a history lesson, because this whole business with the tallit is historically ridiculous. Imitating Jesus by wearing a modern Jewish prayer shawl during morning prayers? Just…no.
Unfortunately, the author of this article is not alone in his hatred of Judeo-Christian unity – he has many soulmates among Jewish religious leaders. However, they are spiritually wrong, and why they are wrong is explained below.
• A Tallit is an important spiritual part of Jewish rituals-prayers that let a Jew – that is what we the Jews believe in – faster spiritually connect to God in search for God’s guidance. Some Christians, in the case of above story the Black Christians of the Great Faith Ministries, remembering that Jewish rituals are at the foundation of Christian rituals, decided to use Tallit at their prayers and rituals believing it would help them hear God more clearly. If that is the case, we the Jews have to be happy – that is an expression of our common Judeo-Christian spirituality, and possibly even a hidden recognition of the mission of “the Chosen” Those who are against it do not understand the true meaning of the God’s guidance in the Torah.
• Everybody defines the “alt-right” movement in a way, which benefits everybody’s ideology. The pro-Clinton people are coloring this movement by the anti-Semitic paint to connect it to the Trump presidential movement and harm it. However, the ‘alt-right” movement, if such movement exists at all, is no more anti-Semitic than the “Black Lives Matter”, which Hilary Clinton supports wholeheartedly. Moreover, if the “alt-right” movement indeed exists, is anti-Semitic and supports Donald Trump, there much more value in presenting to this movement a Tallit as a symbol of Judeo-Christian spiritual unity where anti-Semitism is absent by definition.
• Yes, Jesus was wearing the Tallit during the prayers – if not as a piece of cloth then undoubtedly as a piece of the spiritual aura over him. The Jews who do not understand it are not truly spiritually Jewish.
The Judeo-Christian spiritual unity does not mean Judaism and Christianity are merging in one religion. It simply means Judaism and Christianity have found their spiritual common roots, based on which they are searching together – in a competitive fashion – the architecture of a God-guided better world for everybody.
 


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