tuluum's Diaryland Diary

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One Of Those A-HA Moments (non-Norwegian)

(Subconscious: Knight Of Swords)

Personal and communal Passover plans seem to be well underway. Yay! Matzah will be arriving soon :)

The reversed Emperor seems to be pointing towards some kind of imbalance in my life that is currently undermining my sense of personal power and stability.

I think I know what is going on here and it's good that it's come up. The only way I can turn the Emperor back to right side up is through the Knight Of Swords. Mental clarity, brutal honesty, and forthright communication.

I've been handing over my power and that's dangerous, especially when it's so voluntary on my part, yet still undeserved. Gotta stay in cold and rational mode here. It's time to defend, honor and value my inner worlds, even when (though?) my guard is down...

March 12, 2004

Week 16, Day 5

19 Adar 5764 �

Much has been written in anticipation and in response to the new film The Passion of the Christ. We are reminded that our ideology unites us as Reform Jews, not our fear of anti-Semitism or the fact that we are not Christians. Rabbi Michael Cook's article articulates some of the historical issues which are connected to the Passion plays and by extension, to the movie The Passion of the Christ.

The Play That Plagues the Jews

By Rabbi Michael J. Cook

For nearly 400 years, Oberammergau's religious extravaganza has been at the heart of the Bavarian hamlet's life and folklore. When the dreaded bubonic plague swept across Europe during the 1600s, half the village's population perished. Desperate for God's intervention, in 1633 the Oberammergau elders vowed that if there were no further deaths, the town would stage its passion play every ten years "forever." Evidently, the plague receded, and the play became a mainstay of the community, first culturally and later economically.

From medieval to modern times, the story line of passion plays has remained basically the same: the villains, the deicidal Jews, find the Christian Savior guilty of "blasphemy" and turn him over to the Romans for punishment. A Jewish mob demands Jesus' death and the Roman prefect, Pontius Pilate, reluctantly satisfies the clamoring crowd by consigning Jesus to the cross.

Defenders of Oberammergau's play refute charges of anti-Semitism; the script, they say, faithfully renders the holy Gospel texts. Critics of the play-Christian as well as Jewish-counter that portrayals of Jesus' death in the Gospels themselves are anti-Jewish, and Oberammergau's script is more objectionable still because it improvises a hateful fervor absent even from the Gospels. Moreover, the power of drama can heighten anti-Jewish emotions, so much so that, in some European communities, local authorities used to seal off the Jewish quarter during and after these performances to prevent mob retaliation against the Jews.

In medieval passion plays, the Jews were usually portrayed as colluding with devils to kill Jesus. During the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century, the demons were dropped from the script, leaving the Jews as Jesus' sole enemies. Thereafter, the Jewish priests and "rabbis" were commonly clad with grotesque horned hats - so Jews could now assume the role of the devil as well.

...criticism has come from the Vatican, urging this Catholic village to temper the drama's anti-Jewish tenor. Oberammergau's script seems inconsistent with the Second Vatican Council's landmark declaration (1965) that Jesus' death "cannot be blamed upon all the Jews then living, without distinction, nor upon the Jews of today" (Nostra Aetate ["In Our Time"], Section 4) Actually, however, even this decree leaves blame for Jesus' death lodged solely with the Jews, now just fewer of them. Nowhere in official Church teachings are the Romans held directly accountable.

Revisions Under Pressure

In response to German, Vatican, and Jewish pressure over the last thirty-five years, Oberammergau has gradually been incorporating changes. In 1990's performances, for example, Jesus and his followers wore skullcaps and other Jewish apparel identifying them as Jews. Also, Jesus was addressed as "Rabbi." The Jewish Sanhedrin judges wore less menacing costumes, and their horned hats were retired. Even though Jews were still blamed for Jesus' death, some Roman soldiers now appeared among the executioners. Pontius Pilate was no longer dressed in the white of the innocent, but in maroon, and portrayed as a resolute representative of Roman occupation. This year, 2000, the infamous "blood curse" - "his blood be on us and our children" (Matthew 27:25)-has been cut from the play.

Theater vs. Truth

Were the play revised to be more historically accurate, it would cast Jesus as a faithful Jew who views himself as God's last envoy in announcing the coming of the "Kingdom of God" - to result in the elimination of evil and evil-doers, the acceptance of outcasts (the poor, meek, and lowly), the reassembly of the people of Israel, and the building of a new and more glorious Temple. Picture the scene: Jesus overturns furniture in the Temple to symbolize the overturning of the current world order in favor of its replacement by the ruling power of God. Those most acutely provoked are the chief priestly elements, essentially Roman designees who maintain order on behalf of their overlords. Hailed by some followers as a "king," the charismatic Jesus attracts the attention of the power structure-Roman as well as Jewish-who see him as a threat and intercede against him. The high priest Caiaphas (with no Sanhedrin trial) reports Jesus' activities to Pilate, the Roman governor, who (with no interrogation of Jesus) orders the renegade Galilean crucified as a subversive (the title atop the cross reading "King of the Jews"). Jesus is thus executed by Roman officialdom operating in conjunction with the priestly elite-with whom the vast majority of Jews share virtually nothing in common.

The writers called "Mark," "Matthew," "Luke," and "John," who completed their Gospels from forty to seventy years after Jesus' death, were less concerned with historical accuracy than with protecting fellow Christians from Roman persecution. The danger commenced with the Emperor Nero (54-68 C.E.)...the Jewish revolt against Rome in Palestine (66-70) raised the ominous specter of Roman vengeance against both Christians and Jews, as the two were still commonly confused in Roman eyes. To distinguish their Christian constituents from the rebellious Jews, the Gospel writers carefully cast Jesus as a pacifist ("all who take the sword will perish by the sword" [Matthew 26:52]) loyal to Rome ("render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's" [Mark 12:17]), and cast Pilate as inclined to free him ("I did not find this man guilty of any of your [the Jewish leaders] charges against him" [Luke 23:14])-in sum, shifting all blame for Jesus' death to the Jews alone ("his blood be on us and our children" [Matthew 27:25])

A major challenge for Gospel authors was explaining away Jesus' crucifixion, a punishment Rome customarily meted out to seditionists-and which suggested in turn that the same stigma be attached to Jesus' later followers as well. Out of an urgency to establish Jesus' loyalty to Rome, two fictions arose: Jesus' acquittal before Pilate and an earlier Sanhedrin trial condemning him for "blasphemy" - a religious offense to Jews but inconsequential to Rome. Both of these invented trials may well have been crafted by the author of Mark (around 70 C.E.) and embellished further by the later Gospels. By emphasizing Jesus' pacifism and loyalty to Rome, and by absolving Rome of any blame for Jesus' death, the Gospels made Christians appear allies of Rome and the "rebellious" Jews the enemies of both. A Jew put to death by Romans thus became a Christian put to death by Jews. Hence arose the notion of the Jews as "Christ-killers," a canard later reinforced by the Church Fathers, by Christian artists, and eventually by scripts of passion plays as well.

A fundamental question for Christians now becomes whether they can bring these plays into consonance with Christianity's high moral principles, i.e., uplifting the spirit without denigrating Jews or Judaism. To be true to Jesus' own teaching, passion scripts should shun destructive impulses, and instead, teach love and benevolence among all peoples. Ironically, producers of dramas which continue to malign the Jews thereby assume the same unjust prosecutorial role vis-�-vis the Jews which they customarily assign to the Sanhedrin vis-�-vis Jesus. This begs, in turn, the question: were Jesus to witness the hatred exuded and directed against his fellow Jews by passion plays today, might he not view their theaters as modern temples needing his cleansing?

This article is reprinted with permission from Reform Judaism magazine and Rabbi Cook.

Rabbi Michael Cook is Sol and Arlene Bronstein Professor of Judeo-Christian Studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, OH.

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