Thread by @Delafina777

It's weird how both Christians who want to ignore Jesus's Jewishness and Christians who want to "reclaim" Jesus's Jewishness both end up being supercessionist as hell.

Like, traditionally Christians have defined Christianity over against Judaism, which means that they've treated Judaism as the problem Jesus came to solve, and assumed that whatever he did or said, Jews must have been doing and saying the opposite.

So in that formulation, Judaism is the problem, Christianity is the solution, and Christianity thus replaces Judaism.

And part and parcel of this was treating "Judaizing" Christians as heretics and, usually, trying to wipe them out.

So fast forward to the 19th century, when Christians start getting interested in Judaism, and not purely as a negative foil for Christianity or a bogeyman for their communities.

They're like, oh, hey, Jesus was Jewish, we should probably learn more about that.

Post-Holocaust, this also takes on "oops, maybe we went too far in our 2000 years of vilification" vibes.

So in theory, this should be good for Jewish communities living with Christian neighbors. Recognition of Jesus's Jewishness, interest in Judaism, interfaith dialogue and all that.

Yet what actually *happens* is the Christian emphasis shifts from "Christianity solved and rightfully erased Judaism" to "Christianity fulfilled Judaism and is the REAL Judaism."

So instead of "Jews use the blood of Christian children to make Passover matzah for their evil seders" we get a proliferation of Christian "seders".

Like, it becomes "if Judaism isn't bad, then it must be OURS."

And I feel like the real challenge for Christians in the 21st century, vis-a-vis Judaism and learning to be neither genocidal nor appropriative toward Jews and Judaism, is understanding that Jesus's Jewishness is neither a problem to solve nor something to appropriate.

Like, can you both understand that Jesus's Jewishness is a core, inalienable part of who he was AND that there are parts of his Jewish context that Christians ought not to appropriate?

Jewish holidays are a big one, obviously.

The founders of Christianity very deliberately created Christian alternatives to Jewish holidays. Passover became Easter. Shavuot became Pentecost.

And other Jewish holidays are in conflict with Christian theology. Jesus obviates the need for Yom Kippur in Christianity, making Christian observance of it redundant at best and contrary to its own theology at worst.

Like, what need in Christianity is actually met by having a Christian "seder"? It's not something Jesus practiced (the seder is a rabbinic innovation that came considerably later).

And, I mean, that aspect of it is something we've been talking about for a while now.

But honestly, even if it were *possible* to observe Pesach as it would have been practiced in Jesus's time--if the Temple were standing, and you could go sacrifice a lamb and BBQ it and have it for dinner--what, other than historical curiosity, would that satisfy?

Like, for the overwhelming majority of Christians, the Jewish practices of Jesus's day that *weren't* incorporated into Christianity by early Christians still aren't anything Christians want to appropriate.

Y'all aren't giving up bacon or regularly going to the mikveh.

So what purpose does appropriating Jewish holidays to duplicate your own holidays serve? It can't just be that you want to do everything Jesus did, because you aren't doing that with other aspects of Jewish practice.

So yeah, I really think the challenge there is to understand and appreciate without appropriating.