Know What to Answer When Someone Challenges Your Faith by Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz; Jews for Judaism; © 2024; ISBN 9798218-525606; 228 pages; $14.99.
SAN DIEGO –Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz founded Jews for Judaism in 1984 to counteract the misrepresentations of Jews for Jesus and other Christian evangelical groups posing as authentic Jewish organizations.
In this book, a compilation of his weekly Torah insights, he rebuts the Christian missionaries who say that God replaced Judaism with Christianity. He argues that their “proofs” of the divinity of Jesus either misinterpret Jewish Scripture or intentionally distort it.
I’ll offer one parsha from each of the five books of the Torah – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy – in illustration:
Genesis (Parsha Toldos) – Some Christians emphasize that sinners will be sent to Hell, whereas righteous people will go to Heaven. “Many Jews focus on good deeds and action and don’t talk about heaven and hell,” Kravitz writes. “We see the fulfillment of God’s commandments as an end in themselves. … We also do not want the ‘promise of heaven’ or fear of ‘eternal damnation’ to taint our spiritual service with an ulterior motive.”
Where in this Torah portion (Genesis 25:19-28:9) do heaven and hell even come up? Kravitz extrapolates from the blessings Isaac gives Jacob and Esau as implying the existence of these afterworld realms. “Jacob is blessed with ‘the dew of the heavens and the richness of the earth’ and Esau is blessed with ‘the richness of the earth and the dew of the heavens.”
The identical blessings are transposed so that Isaac “clarifies that Jacob’s priority is spirituality and Esau’s priority is material gain,” Kravitz concludes.
Exodus (Parshot Vayakhel-Pekudei) –Christian evangelists charge that Jews are spiritually blind, that figurative veils cover our eyes so we can’t accept the divinity of Jesus. They base this on the passage in Exodus 34:29-33, when Moses protects the Israelites from his radiance [after talking with God] by placing a veil over his eyes. “However,” writes Kravitz, “when Moses spoke to the Jews, he would temporarily remove the veil, as it says ‘When Moses finished speaking with them he put a veil over his face.’
“The King James Bible mistranslated this verse to state, ‘Until Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face.’ … This mistranslation reflects the Apostle Paul’s corruption of the original text (in II Corinthians 3:13-14). Paul said, “Moses would put a veil over his face to prevent the Jews from seeing God’s glory. But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth.”
Leviticus (Parsha Tazria) – This passage deals with how a mother may give thanks to God for the birth of a healthy child. Kravitz free associates this passage with the claim that Isaiah 7:14 foretold how a virgin mother would give birth to Jesus. They translated the passage as follows: “Behold a virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and she shall call his name Immanuel.” However, Kravitz contends “there are numerous mistakes in their translation, including changing it from present to future tense, and mistranslating the Hebrew word ha almah as “a virgin” rather than as “the young woman.”
In the passage, Isaiah is counseling Judea’s King Ahaz that before the young woman’s child knows the difference between right and wrong, Ahaz will defeat the two nations threatening Judea.
The name Immanuel means “God is with us” and signified that Jews would defeat their enemies with God’s help, but not—as Christians contend—that God would be physically with us in the person of the boy.
Numbers (Parsha Shelach) — Christian missionaries often preach that since the Temple was destroyed, and animal sacrifices could only be made there, atonement for their sins is no longer available to Jews. They point to Leviticus 17:11, which states, “Blood makes atonement.”
Kravitz argues that whereas Leviticus 17:11 indeed says “blood makes atonement,” it doesn’t say that animal sacrifice at the Temple’s altar is the only way to achieve forgiveness. He points out that Exodus 30:16 says atonement may be achieved by giving charity; while Numbers 16:47 suggests incense. Moreover, Numbers 14:19-20 reports that sincere prayer may also earn forgiveness.
Deuteronomy (Parsha Softim) – Deuteronomy 16:19 instructs judges “You many not accept a bribe because a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise.”
Kravitz cites Dr. William Sargent’s Battle of the Mind in reporting that the founder of the Methodist movement, John Wesley, utilized the fear of hell and the devil to induce conversion to Christianity. Kravitz contends that is spiritual bribery.
“Selflessly doing a mitzvah, in and of itself, fulfills our purpose in life, transforms the world into a better place and connects us with the Almighty,” Kravitz teaches.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.