What might it be the Jewish identity in modern Judeo-Christian world

By VLADIMIR MINKOV
Judaism is unique in that every single Jew is commanded to know the Torah. The first sentence that a Jewish child is taught is "Torah was commanded to us through Moses and it is the inheritance of every Jew." Torah was meant for everybody. It is not the exclusive domain of some priestly class. Rather, it is a living, breathing document ― the lifeblood of our Jewish nation.
If it is so, then why this “living, breathing document ― the lifeblood of our Jewish nation” do not unite all Jews in the social and political battles in America and Israel, why we are divided, and bitterly divided, on almost every challenge of the modern life?
When they digest everyday news, many Jews are wondering whether there is any fundamental spiritual unity in what looks to be disunited, and even hostile toward the others, actions of various Jewish communities concerning political and social upheavals in America and Israel and around the world.
In the historic past when we were escaping the Egyptian slavery and were wandering forty years in the Sinai desert, we the Jews were all united as a nation – we knew then what we were looking for. Do we, all the Jews as a nation, know where we are going while wandering now in America and Israel in the complex contemporary world?
In the historic past, we the Jews believed in the guiding and uniting power of the Supreme Power called One God – we believed we knew how to behave to get favors and avoid punishment. Do we, all the Jews – orthodox and reform, atheist and agnostic, now have a common understanding of the essence of One God that may unite all of us?
In the historic past of Jewish isolation from the others, it was certain that the Jews always remain Jewish in our isolated communities – in the historic isolation from the others there was no way to challenge and change this. Do we the Jews know how to preserve our Jewishness now when we are a respected part of the entire non-Jewish society and the influence of our rabbis and synagogues is reduced and significantly supplemented by the influence of other spiritual and ideological forces?
In the historic past, we the Jews thought we knew how to define our mission as the Chosen – to be in the unique relationship with God, to have the Torah-guided ritual life and to leave all other things in the world to God. Do we know now how to be the Chosen when we are freely involved in all social and political ventures of the contemporary world?
In the historic past, we the Jews were rightfully scared of the Christians persecuting us in spite of the fact that we created the Christianity. Do we recognize now that Judaism and Christianity have the common Torah-based spiritual foundation and that the historic hostility between the Jews and Christians was just due to the fight for human spiritual power between the priests and rabbis – not because of the two “hostile spirits”?
Now we the Jews are fighting the evil of anti-Semitism as something abhorrent that we do not deserve. However, we may not realize that the anti-Semitism might be a normal reaction of the “heathen” communities resisting our “genetically”-guided efforts to make their lives the Torah-guided ones. If it is so, may it be that the anti-Semitism may be a positive sign that we the Jews are changing the world the right Torah-guided way?
All those questions and much more are analyzed in the two new books with similar content but different goals:
"In intellectual search for spiritual Torah-based union between Jews and Christians" published by the Christian publisher Xulon and could be found at
https://www.amazon.com/Intellectual-Spiritual-Torah-Based-Between-Christians/dp/154560875X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1504295618&sr=1-1&keywords=vladimir+minkov
and
“In search for Jewish intellectual identity in the modern Judeo-Christian world” published by the Jewish publisher Targum Press and could be found at
https://www.amazon.com/Search-Jewish-Intellectual-Identity/dp/1387187961/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1504492554&sr=1-3&keywords=vladimir+minkov
These books are not trying to answer the unanswerable questions – the books describe and analyze how intellectual Jews and Christians may (and should) identify the Jews in modern Judeo-Christian world.
 


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