Common Prayers: Faith, Family, and a Christian's Journey Through the Jewish Year

by Cox, Harvey

• ISBN13: 9780618067435
• ISBN10: 0618067434
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-09-01
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Summary

Harvey Cox, the distinguished Christian theologian and scholar of religion, has a Jewish wife and son. From the Passover meal to the weekly Sabbath candles, from the marriage chuppah to the walls of old Jerusalem, he has shared in the joys and responsibilities of the Jewish faith. Celebrating the Jewish holidays, he has had the opportunity to reflect on the essence of Judaism and its complex relationship to Christianity, an experience that continues to deepen his understanding of his own faith. In COMMON PRAYERS, Cox takes readers on an intimate journey through the Jewish year. An insightful and charming guide, he illuminates the meanings of Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah and the "December madness" of Chanukah and Christmas, as well as those of less well known holidays such as Sukkot and Simchat Torah and of events such as death and marriage. Describing in elegant, accessible language the holidays' personal, historical, and spiritual significance and the lessons they offer us, Cox brings a unique perspective to this encounter with a faith not his own. As seen through his eyes, the Jewish holidays become a wellspring of discovery and reflection. For many Christians, this book will offer a revelation of the rituals and traditions practiced by Jewish friends and relatives and an occasion to reflect on their own faith. For Jews, a Christian theologian's thoughtful view of their religion is certain to bring new and refreshing insights. And for every reader, COMMON PRAYERS promises a deeply touching journey, full of surprises, across the lines of faith and an opportunity to contemplate the wider context of his or her own spirituality.

Author Biography

HARVEY COX is the author of the groundbreaking The Secular City and many other books, including The Seduction of the Spirit, which was nominated for the National Book Award. A professor of theology at Harvard Divinity School, he lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(9)
A Cathedral in Time: Sabbath	9	(15)
Starting Over at the Right Time of Year: Rosh ha-Shanah	24	(16)
Closing the Big Book: Yom Kippur	40	(16)
The Strength of Fragility: Sukkot	56	(14)
Gamboling with God: Simhat Torah	70	(11)
December Madness: Chanukah	81	(19)
Funny Masks and Texts of Terror: Purim	100	(12)
A Night Different from All Others: Passover	112	(21)
After All the Apologies: Yom ha-Shoah	133	(23)
The Meaning of the Land: Yom ha-Atzma'ut	156	(23)
``Next Year in Jerusalem''	179	(32)
Death Among the Jews: Sitting Shivah	211	(17)
Lady Sings the Blues: Tisha B'Av	228	(16)
Under and After the Canopy: Wedding and Marriage	244	(16)
The Boy Becomes a Man: Bar Mitzvah	260	(11)
Afterword: In the Court of the Gentiles	271	(6)
Notes	277	(9)
Bibliography	286	(4)
Index	290

Excerpts

IntroductionFor my house shall be called A house of prayer for all peoples. -- Isaiah 56:7In keeping with the vision of their prophets, the builders of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem designed it to be a house of prayer for all peoples. There was an inner area where only Jews were admitted. Here stood the Holy of Holies, which only the high priest was permitted to enter, and that only once a year, on the Day of Atonement. There was also a section explicitly named "the Court of the Gentiles." Throughout the ancient world, many gentiles worshiped with Jews without ever converting to Judaism. The Jews welcomed them as "God-fearers," and their presence in the Temple reflected the age- old Jewish hope that one day all nations and peoples, including "strangers and sojourners," would join in praise of the One who created them all. The word "gentile" is not synonymous with the word "Christian." Our English "gentile" is derived from the Latin term for "nation," and in Jewish usage it means anyone who is not a Jew. (I sometimes enjoy informing my Jewish friends that among Mormons, "gentile" refers to anyone who is not a Mormon, including Jews.) Of course, the distinction between gentile and Christian meant nothing during the years of Herods temple, since the newborn Christian movement was still a sect, among many others, within Judaism. But this changed after 70 C.E. when, during the reign of the emperor Titus, the Roman legions razed the Temple and expelled the Jews, including those Jews who were followers of Jesus, from Jerusalem. It was only after that catastrophe that the division between what we now call Judaism and Christianity began to set in. Decades passed before it became a complete rupture. Today, only the famous Western Wall of the Temple remains. But I sometimes think of myself as one of those strangers or "sojourners" mentioned by the Jewish prophets. For a decade and a half, in addition to following my own spiritual tradition as a Protestant Christian, I have also lived and prayed with Jews. I have a special reason for doing so. Fifteen years ago I married a Jewish woman. Nina had been raised in a family of largely nonobservant Jews in New York City. As a teenager, partially (she now concedes) in a display of adolescent rebellion, she began attending activities at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue. But when she left home for college and graduate school, she also became nonobservant. Later in life, however, after some painful personal experiences, she began to reclaim her Jewish heritage. She was still engaged in this quest when we met. Today her Jewish faith is deeply, and increasingly, important to her. I was raised in a small town in Pennsylvania. My own parents were quite casual about churchgoing, but they dutifully dispatched my two brothers, my sister, and myself to the Baptist Sunday school next door. My grandparents attended it also but were not at all what I would call devout. Our family never said grace b

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Excerpted from Common Prayers: Faith, Family, and a Christian's Journey Through the Jewish Year by Harvey Cox
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