“Jew” retains its shock as a word.
“Judaize” has a negative connotation for those who characterize the Jews as perfidious. The dictionary concurs:
Judaize
Transitive verb
1: to imbue with or deeply affect by the doctrines or practices of Judaism >attempts to Judaize the Christian Sunday into a Sabbath*
2: to make Jewish: convert to Judaism *descendants of Slav tribes Judaized long after the Dispersal— Evelyn Waugh*
Perfidious Jews Judaize, as an act of bad faith. The Church no longer considers the synagogue of Satan or the Jew treacherous but they refuse to be Judaized on the question of the Sabbath. Catholic Passover Seders
are commonplace but the church still has no Sabbath.
In the best of all possible worlds, words, at least from the Rabbis point of view, would retain their plain meaning (Peshat).
In this world:
A fundamentalist practices fundamentals.
An Inquisition is a meeting of scholars to discuss mastering the art of questioning, of inquisitiveness.
Judaize, following Waugh in the above definition, found in Merriam-Webster, would not be a pejorative as in the main definition of “Judaize”.
As noted the issue of the Sabbath, one of the Ten Fundamentals of Judaism, and its replacement by the Christian Sunday remain an issue.. Only a Christian anti- Judaism would assume a judaization that is a return to fundamentals as a negative. Inquiring minds want to know why.
I suggest we all reread The Crucifixion of The Jews by Franklin H. Littell, Harper, N.Y. 1975, one of the ten most important books of the Twentieth Century. I would only add that the Tikkun to this crucifixion is the Judaizing of Christianity, particularly on the issue of Shabbat.
Time to Judaize!
Judaizing is most judicious, for the following reason:
The displacement of all things Jewish by the Replacement Theology of the Church Fathers created a crisis for Jews, and Christians. The people of Israel are replaced by the New True Blue Israel, the Christian. The annual liturgical calendar replaces the biblical holydays and the Sabbath. The weekly liturgical calendar of Torah readings is also replaced, guaranteeing the artificial separation of the old and new. Dr. Littell argues convincingly that this displacement theory rings with a genocidal note, and has murderous implication up to the holocaust and beyond. This is a life and death issue. A Christianity (or Islam, the “Newer”) that assumes the Old replaces The New consigns the Old (Toynbee’s “fossils”) to the fire. Jews are fuel. Judaizing a crime.
This is why it is a sin to use the term “Old Testament”.
The Original Testament, the Five Books of Moses, the Prophets, and the Writings, The Hebrew Bible, ends with a proclamation that The Temple in Jerusalem be rebuilt. The people are called to the ascent. Zion is to be reconstructed with the Final Temple on her mount. This Seder of scripture is radically different then the Christian Bible.
In the Christian arrangement of the biblical library the Old Testament ends with the prophet Malachi. A promise is made to reconcile the Father scripture with The Son scripture, or non-homiletically, The Father to the Son. This means bridging the generation gap and bridging the gap between the competing covenants.
First the heart of the father turns to the son, as we see at the end of Malachi. This is why I Judaize. The text inspires this teaching:
Remember the Torah of Moses my servant, which I commanded him in Horeb, both statutes and judgments.
This includes The Sabbath. Forgetting this has been a curse to all who are Israel.
I Judaize in insisting that in essence Zionism is a vision for world peace. Like the terms “Jew”, “Jewish” and “Judaize”, “Zionism” has taken on a negative meaning. Isaiah is the first Zionist and his Zionism is the Torah that nations will learn war no more. Zionize me!
At the end of his book we are given a vision of the end times. Isaiah, masterful inquisitor, asks about the actual structure of a Temple for God. His playfulness is remarkable. God asks: What House will contain me? Where is the place I should come to rest? In other words, the whole earth
is the final Temple. No more wars over holy places. This will truly be a new heavens and a new earth. If a structure is to be built it will be a house of prayer for all people.
Isaiah is also a Judaizer concerning the Sabbath and biblical time. His final words are a promise that all people will worship every new moon and Shabbat. Those who rebel will be an abhorrence.
Judaism itself will be Judaized. An updated Isaiah demands we lower all flags to half mast and at days end we remove the flags from their poles and sew fringes on each corner. The flag will become a prayer shawl.
Zionizing means transforming nation worship into a true uniting of the nations. See Final Acts. No flag hangs higher than any other when the flag is a prayer shawl.
The flag of Zion?
A Menorah that is A Tree of Life with the spectral emanations of the rainbow shining forth from the Seven Lights.
No cross, no star, but the original symbol of our people in the Torah of Moses. Judaize me!
