Letter sent to the Editor of UNITED ISRAEL (N.Y.C.); reply thereto; and the rejoinder.
Editor United Israel Bulletin: Thank you for being so kind as to favor me with a copy of your interesting publication. The Christian embracing Judaism, pictured on the cover of your Bulletin, is a portrayal of something that is as impossible, from a rational or historical point of view, as a butterfly reverting back to its caterpillar stage.
Surely the gentleman could not "embrace" the Judaism of the Old Testament, as it is non-existent, having fulfilled its Divine mission in the coming of the Messianic Son of David, Who was born in the time, place, family, and manner foretold in Jewish Scripture. This took place over nineteen centuries ago; during the closing days of the Mosaic era, when the Jews ceased to have an Aaronic priesthood, etc.
The ardent hope of present-day Orthodox Jews, expressed in their prayers for the coming of the predicted Messiah, and the reinstitution of the Aaronic priesthood is, in my opinion, hoping for the impossible. One of the reasons for this declaration is the non-existence of a House of David, or a House of Aaron, from which a future Messiah or Old Testament priesthood could come. This, in my opinion, is providential, as those Houses fulfilled their glorious mission during the first century of the Christian era.
Sincerely in the Messiah,
David Goldstein
Dear Dr. Goldstein: I am grateful for your letter of recent date ... If you take the trouble of studying the Bible carefully you will clearly note that Isaiah 44, 45, and 46 contain clear hints about the one you and all Christians have substituted for the True God of Creation. "I am YHVH, that is My name (said the true God by way of Isaiah), and I will not give My glory to another (no matter who that other is), nor My praise to graven images." Of course, if you accept the Nazarene as God Incarnate on Earth, then you will not be able to recognize Isaiah's statement.
Sincerely in the One and only God, the Father of all,
David Horowitz
Dear Rabbi Horowitz: You failed, in your acknowledgment of receipt of my letter, to answer the vital point therein, or rather you wisely dodged it. The point is that Judaism, the Judaism recorded in the Old Testament, which is God's revealed, Aaronic High-priestly sacrificial religion, is non-existent, having been providentially displaced by the Messiah-instituted, predicted priesthood and Sacrifice of a higher order, as seen in the Catholic Church. It is therefore as unreasonable to expect to find the Judaism of the pre-Christian ages in the world today, as it is to expect to find the caterpillar in the butterfly into which it evolved. Hence the only Judaism that God brought into being, through Moses and Aaron, that anyone can "embrace" today, is the Judaism full-blossomed into Catholic Christianity.
Your reference to chapters 44, 45 and 46 of the Book of Isaiah should be brought to the attention of your fellow rabbis in our country, the majority of whom deny belief in the One True God, YHVH; instead of to the attention of a convert of Israelitish parentage who, by the grace of God, was brought to the recognition that the faith of his holy Old Testament forebears had full-blossomed into Christianity.
For evidence of rabbinical denial of the God of the Old Testament, one need but read "The Disciples of the Wise," written by Rabbi Joseph Zeitlin, Ph.D., of Temple Anche Chesed (N.Y.C.), which is listed as one of the most influential synagogues in America. Dr. Zeitlin presents, in his highly recommended book, the tabulated result of a questionnaire survey of American Jewry; its doctrinal, religious, moral and social concepts. This Jewish statistical authority shows that only a majority of the Orthodox, and eight percent of the Conservative and Reform groups, "think of God primarily as a creator." The Rabbi proceeds further to say, on page 76 of his informative book, that "only two rabbis in the entire group of 218 (who responded to inquiry) define God as the first cause, and only one out of seven, as literal creator of the universe. The remainder believe that the nature of God is best expressed as (a) 'the sum total of forces which make for greater intelligence, beauty, goodness; (b) the unitary creative impulse which expresses itself in organic evolution and human progress; (c) the symbol of all that we consider good and true.' The first of these views of God is by far the dominant one." All this is in line with Spinoza, Einstein and Freud; and not in line with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose God all Catholics worship.
If it were not for your inherited unfavorableness toward the Catholic Church; and your acquired misunderstanding of Her teachings, you would realize that acceptance of "the Nazarene as God incarnate" is in accord with the prophetic teachings of Isaiah. It was that great Jewish prophet who foretold (Isa. 7:14) that "a sign" would be given by God; that a miraculous birth of "the Emmanuel" would take place; the "Emmanuel", Whom your Jewish Bible interprets to mean "God with us"; that is "God incarnate." This means that God would take unto Himself a human nature, which He did in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth.
If God was to appear in time, as He did; and if He was to be Wonderful, Counselor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace," as the expected Nazarene was called by Isaiah (Isa. 9:6), then to accept Him as "God Incarnate," as did I, is an appreciation of the Almightiness of God, rather than a denial of His Oneness.
Every Christian Creed proclaims the Oneness of the Divine nature of God, which you assume Christians deny. For instance, the Athanasian Creed positively denies the plurality of the nature of God; He being One in substance and three in Persons. This Creed contains an explanation of the Triunity of God and climaxes with the declaration that there is "God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, nevertheless there are not three Gods, but one God." I suggest that you study the Athanasian Creed before taking issue with Catholics in the future, as to the nature of God.
Surely there is evidence aplenty in nature to prove that a thing though one, from one aspect, may be three, so long as its triunity is from different aspects. This was put in rhythm, and taught thus to the children of Ireland:
Three folds of cloth, yet only one napkin is there,
Three joints in the finger, but still only one finger fair;
Three leaves of the shamrock; yet no more than one shamrock to wear.
Frost, snowflakes, and ice, all in water their origin share,
Three Persons in God; to one alone we make prayer.
Sincerely in the One and only God; Who cares for you and me, as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier,
David Goldstein