Judaism and World Religions Previous Publications Thinking God: The Mysticism of Rabbi Zadok of Lublin (2002). Judaism and Other Religions: Models Of Understanding (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). Judaism and World Religions Encountering Christianity, Islam, and Eastern Traditions Alan Brill Palgrave macmillan JUDAISM AND WORLD RELIGIONS Copyright © Alan Brill, 2012. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-10369-6 All rights reserved. First published in 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States – a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-28803-8 ISBN 978-1-137-01318-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137013187 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brill, Alan. Judaism and world religions : encountering Christianity, Islam, and Eastern traditions / Alan Brill. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Judaism—Relations. 2. Religions. I. Title. BM534.B745 2012 296.3'9—dc23 2011035975 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by MPS Limited, A Macmillan Company First edition: March 2012 Contents Preface vii 1 Recognizing Others 1 2 Jewish Views of Religion 23 3 Christianity: From Disputation to Difference 51 4 Christianity: Covenants and Dialogue 77 5 Christianity: Commonalities and New Understandings 113 6 Islam: Scripture, Prophecy, and Piety 145 7 Islam: Scholarship and Existential Attitude 177 8 Hinduism and Indian Religions 203 9 Buddhist Encounters 235 Notes 255 Selected Bibliography 283 Index 297 Preface In much of the Western World, people believe they will not encounter other faiths and will never have to make intellectual space for those of different religions. Chaim Potok offers us a fictional account of his own reaction to his unexpected meeting with other faiths as a Jewish chaplain in the Korean War: A young rabbi from Brooklyn, on leave from his post in Korea during the Korean War, travels for the first time in Japan. One afternoon he stands with a Jewish friend before what is perhaps a Shinto shrine with a clear mirror in the sanctum, or maybe it was a Buddhist shrine with an image of the Bodhisattva of Compassion. We are not told which, and it really does not matter. The altar is lit by the soft light of a tall lamp. Sunlight streams in the door. The two young men observe with fascination a man standing before the altar, his hands pressed together before him, his eyes closed. He is rocking slightly. He is clearly engaged in what we would call prayer. The rabbi turns to his companion and says, “Do you think our God is listening to him, John?” “I don’t know, chappy. I never thought of it.” “Neither did I until now. If He’s not listening, why not? And if He is listening, then—well, what are we all about, John?” In the above passage from his novel, The Book of Lights, Potok describes the begin- nings of the meetings between American Judaism and world religions during the Korean War. At that time, Jewish soldiers who were returning home from the war had shifted their views on world religion as a result of living and fighting with Christian soldiers and together experiencing firsthand an encounter with Eastern religions. That encounter served as a model for their homecoming to the suburbia of the 1950s where American Protestants, Catholics, and Jews met and learned to identify with each other. The Jewish soldiers returning home to the United States worked hard to fit in among Christian neighbors as part of the unified three American religions of democracy. Today, Christians and Jews are meeting Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and many more as a result of living in a global age. As a result, many people discover other faiths through encounter with their classmates, coworkers, some through travel, others through study, and only a small number through formal interfaith encounters. These informal encounters vary from gentle meetings in suburbia to tumultuous confrontations that occur after natural disasters or the events of 9/11. In the United States, citizens meet the diversity of religions in their daily lives as a direct outcome of migration and travel, as well as globalization and viii PREFACE multiculturalism. We live in a new religious America, one that is multifaith and has an abundance of houses of worship in every neighborhood. As Americans, we try to accommodate this multifaith patchwork; for example, New York traffic regulations have expanded from respecting Christian and Jewish holidays to also accommodating Muslim and Hindu holidays. Globalization leads to an erosion of clear boundaries, involuntary confronta- tion with the other, and a new need for a hermeneutic of the other. We need to think about where are the possibilities of enriching mutual recognition, and enhanced love of God. This period of globalization has created many contact zones where we come to know the other faith in a transcultural space. There will be new attention to the hybridity in our religious thinking because for the many that are crossing borderlines, globalization is a game changer for those involved. We live in a new golden age of interfaith encounter. God is back in the media and political speeches for public discussion. Far from being a public sphere naked of religion, it now seems as if every story has a religious angle. Noting this change, Jürgen Habermas has discussed how we live in a post-secular age; as I see it, after 2001, we were already discussing political and social issues based on the religious aspects. All the religions are interested in putting themselves forward to be known by others. On the collegiate and young professional levels interfaith encounter organizations are growing by leaps and bounds. This book is more intellectual and theological than the aforementioned, informal encounters. It asks the important question of: how do I be true to my own faith and still speak about another religion in a way that rings true both for them and for me? I write as a Jewish thinker who has begun to glimpse some- thing of the richness and importance of the world beyond Jewish frameworks. This is a moment that can be enhanced for new thinking as we advance into a new age. Theology of other religions is not universal but is cultivated from one’s commitment to his own faith. One starts with the teachings of one’s own tradi- tion and with a desire for having one’s own faith confront others with different commitments. At this point in my life, I keep busy with many interfaith activities through many levels and am surprised at the continuous need for interfaith speakers required to deal with new topics, to explain new issues that were not dealt with in prior encounters. We are in a period of openness and acknowledgement that creates ample opportunity to promote border crossings between the faiths. At a junction like this, we need to recognize commonalities without losing sight of the differences. We must move beyond simple dichotomies of same or different or pluralist and exclusivist. New Questions The new issues around the borders of religion are shown in the types of question that I receive from people who are, for the first time, looking to formulate top- ics relating to other religions. How do we relate to the Evangelical concern with end time? What do Catholics mean when they claim Jews share in the covenant PREFACE ix of Abraham? Can one practice meditation, yoga, or tai chi without practicing the religious faith to which they are central? Can one visit a Sikh or Jain Temple grounds? Can one buy for resale native Inuit art? In the recent Orthodox Jewish controversy, over using Temple hair to make women’s wigs. (see Chapter eight for more details). I served as a minor border crossing of knowledge. On the day before the ban on the wigs was going to take effect, one of the Israeli rabbinic figures involved frantically called me as an outside expert. As I started to approach my answer by setting up an explanation of Hinduism and the role of temples, I was cut off with the question, “Hindu, Buddhist, what difference does it make?” The question clearly indicated that there was no basic conceptual category of Hinduism, religion, or other religions. Nor was there any rubric, outside of the Talmud’s presentation of Greco-Roman offer- ings to the gods, to frame unfamiliar activities. The only question was whether this presumed idol was worshiped through a hair offering or not. Afterward, when consulting with another colleague who had received the same phone call, I was told that he, too, had received the same reaction. This book asks what to do when we gain knowledge of the other religions in relation to Judaism? This book starts with the fact that there is a category in our era called religion and expands into the concept and the fact that there are many religions. Most importantly, this book asks: what to do when we gain knowledge of other religions? Do we compare other religions to Judaism? As will be dem- onstrated below, both medieval texts and modern scholars have offered insights into whether we share monotheism, Biblical narrative, or human religious expressions.