Compare the teaching of judaism to other people with many gods
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Rabbi Dr. Alan Brill teaches at Yeshiva University and Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and is also the Founder and Director of Kavvanah: Center for Jewish Thought. He is the author of a forthcoming monograph on Orthodox approaches to other religions. The following is a summary and sample of it. Omitted are chapters on encountering Easter religions, a phenomenology of common techniques, and the implications for this paper of Rabbi Soloveitchik's dialectic position. This paper was commissioned by the World Jewish Congress for the "World Symposium of Catholic Cardinals and Jewish Leaders," January 19-20, 2004 in New York City.
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In this paper, I present a range of traditional sources bearing on the encounter between Judaism and other religions. These have been selected with an aim of highlighting the widest array of opinions, for the purpose of beginning discussion; this is not designed to be either a complete anthology of relevant sources, or a definitive word on the meaning of these texts. These selections will, I believe, clarify the wisdom of Alon Goshen-Gottstein’s recent assertion that the entry of Orthodox Jews to the Jewish-Christian dialogue "has expanded the boundaries of the conversation and introduced new dimensions."[1]
These traditional opinions highlight a key difference between the conceptualization of encounter in the 20th Century, and the way prior generations viewed the question of Christianity. In particular, while contemporary Jews have seen themselves as members of the Jewish community, and conceptualized their dialogue partners as members of a corresponding Christian community, prior generations took a theological rather than sociological approach, examining the role of Christianity, as a religion, within the theological constructs of Judaism.
One very important piece obvious from the texts is how they disprove the narratives of recent historians, who claimed that the historical shifts from medieval to modern times were matched by a parallel movement from “exclusiveness to tolerance,” to quote the title of a volume by eminent Jewish historian Jacob Katz. In this view, Jews moved from the Ghetto restrictions to enlightenment enfranchisement and emancipation, and, corresponding to changing Gentile attitudes, their own views toward Christians moved from one of polemics to the universal tolerance of a Mendelssohn.[2]