Judaism in Contradistinction to the Idol Worship of the Gentiles

Someone asked: "Did Jesus come to India? A British film," Young Jesus: The Missing Years" is being produced. Ken Walwin, the producer is in Delhi scouting for locations in India."

Someone commented: "THE CHRISTIAN CONCEPT OF THE TRINITY I THINK IS INFLUENCED BY THE THREE HINDU gods: Brahman, the creator; Vishnu the Preserver and sustainer and Shiva the god of death and destruction."

Another comment was: "The important thing for people to remember,Jesus was a Jewish Rabbi, that lived in the East, not the west! Which means he practiced Hindu and Buddhist philosiphies, as did most Jewish people of His Time. He was NOT a Christian, and He never intended to start a religion! And yes, he is said to have traveled a lot, India, being one place, and even England. Christians always try to deny all of this, but it is the Truth!"

Another person said: "Hinduism in no way is idol worship.Just like the Muslims use the Holy Kabba as a form to be adored and they circumnabulate it, in the same manner Hindus use idols as means of concentration. So when the jews condemned the son of God to the cross no wonder they can't reach the heights or purity of the Hindu religion, not only a ten feet pole but a thousand feet pole would not be enough to get you close to God."

When they were talking about Yeshu I kept thinking of this incident:

"The Rabbis taught: The left should always be used to push away, and the right, on the other hand to draw nearer. But one should not do it as Elisha who pushed Gehazi away, nor as R. Joshua ben Perachiah, who pushed away Yeshu with both hands. What was the problem with R. Joshua ben Perachiah? When King Yannai ordered the extermination of the Rabbis, R. Joshua ben Perachiah and Yeshu fled to Alexandria. When it was safe to return, Rabbi Simeon ben Shetach sent him a letter:

From me, Jerusalem the holy city, to the Alexandria in Egypt, my sister. My spouse tarries in your midst, and I sit desolate.
Joshua set off at once. During the trip they happened upon an inn in which they treated him with great respect. Joshua commented, "How fair is this inn[1]." Yeshu replied, "But Rabbi, she[1] has unattractive eyes."[2] Joshua replied, "You godless person, do you fill your mind with such things?" Then he had 400 trumpets sounded and anathematized him. Yeshu often came and said to him, "Receive me back." Joshua paid no attention. One day, while Joshua was reciting the Shema, Yeshu came to him, hoping for a reprieve. Joshua made a sign to him with his hand. [3] Yeshu misunderstood, thinking he had been repulsed, so he went away set up a brick and worshipped it. Joshua said to him, "Repent!" Yeshu replied, "I learned this from you: 'Anyone who sins and causes the people to sin, is not allowed the possibility of repentance.'"

[The Teacher said: "Yeshu practiced sorcery and corrupted and misled Israel."]"

It doesn't matter if the brick that Yeshu worshipped was an idol in the Middle East or if he travelled to India to worship one of the statues on one of your temples or a shiva linga.

What is important is that it is idol worship of the grossest kind.

It stuns me that you are so self unaware that you don't think that idols on temples and shiva lingas are idol worship.

It repulses me to think that people who burn widows alive and have a caste system such as yours think that we Jews had to learn compassion from you. Some of our greatest Rabbis were, throughout the ages, simple workers, some engaged in dirty and hard physical work. What bearing does that have on a person's moral/spiritual worth??

Hindus and Buddhist societies are marked by some of the most atrocious human rights abuses in the world. We Jews? Learn compassion from you???

It is clear from what someone said about the Muslims using the kabba that we Jews are the only true monotheists in the world. No other people is able to connect to God without imagery, symbols, statues, personifications and other idol worship.

You will never understand us and you will always hate us because only we are capable of such a relationship to God.

The pity of it is, it is neither God nor we who exclude you from a similar relationship direct with God. It is you. You insist upon your idols - and the horrific human rights abuses that invariably come from idol worship because you can't see God in all beings, despite your pretty words.

In the end, all you have is your words of love and actions of hate.

The Rabbis teach: This is the lowest of the worlds. I did not understand what they meant and I left off my Torah studies to talk to people. They were right. The tragedy is, it is not necessarily so. You love this hell that you live in. We Jews were sent into this world to show you how to connect to God directly, without any intermediaries. Ah, but it requires moral excellence in deeds, not in flowery words. So you prefer to worship your bricks.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com