Most people have a simplistic understanding of this joyous season. Although this is not bad, there is so much symbolism that is hidden and to truly appreciate the holiday message, one needs to delve a little deeper …

To appreciate the fullness of Christmas one must take a few steps backward in time … back through Hanukkah … and even further into Israel’s history. Because the connections are greater than you may suppose. After all, Jesus was Jewish … born to Jewish parents … and as the Jewish Messiah, his life and identity is forever entangled with the Jewish people.

Drawing from the Luke narrative in the Gospels, last week's Torah portion, and the Hanukkah story, I basically gave a d'rash on the concept of hipuch (הפוך) - which literally means to turn upside-down. This is actually one of the major themes that runs throughout the biblical text. We repeatedly see how G-d takes a situation and unexpectedly turns it on its head.

Joseph

For example, in the last few weeks the Torah portions have centered on the life of Joseph. This young lad was despised by his brothers, rejected, and sold into slavery in Egypt. Despite his innocence, he was accused of rape and thrown in prison. And even in prison things were not going so well.

And then ... all of a sudden, hipuch! G-d turned the situation on its head. The downtrodden, least likely character (from a human perspective) is placed into a position of authority over all Egypt and ends up becoming the redeemer of not only the Jewish people, but the entire generation.

Hanukkah

In the Hanukkah story, the small outnumbered rag-tag army of Jewish farmers and townsmen, led by the Maccabees defeated the well-trained and equipped army of the Syrian-Greeks. Apart from a miracle, they should not have been able to defeat their foes and recapture Jerusalem and re-cleanse the Temple. But it was another act of hipuch. HaShem took the least likely scenario, and flipped it around.

The Incarnation

Finally, we turn to the incarnation of Messiah. A powerful story of the indwelling of G-d in a physical form. Christmas is essentially about the revelation of a Jewish Messiah to the world.

The message is not so much about the birth of a baby, as much as it is about the incarnation of G-d in the earth (Immanuel). It is the establishment of Messiah as the redeemer of not only the Jewish people, but of all humanity. The story is also a continuation of a common theme that appears throughout the Bible – hipuch – of G-d turning things upside-down, the opposite of what you would expect.

The reality is that a helpless baby was born in an animal trough. His parents were unable to be welcomed anywhere, and the only place they could find for shelter was some type of cave or covering for animals. Miriam had to give birth in a dank and dusty environment, surrounded by animal dung, rotting food, and the smell of livestock.

Furthermore, it was probably better that he was born in Bethlehem and not Nazareth, because back home, he was the center of a perceived local scandal. His mother became pregnant out of wedlock, Joseph himself did not even believe her at first. Just imagine – “Yea right! You were impregnated by the Ruach HaKodesh!” So he made plans to break-off the engagement. It was only an angelic visitation that convinced him to do otherwise (see Matthew 1:19-20). Why do you think Miriam spent the first three months of pregnancy with her relative Elizabeth (who experienced her own hipuch miracle)? In a small town, word gets around - whether it's true or not.

Yeshua was born amidst a scandal and was not recognized by many of his own people. Yet, it is this figure, born in the middle of 'nowhere Judea' (an occupied territory of the great Roman Empire) who ends up becoming the redeemer of all humanity! He was the least likely candidate from an earthly perspective. Yet, Yeshua was the physical manifestation of G-d in the Earth. There is no greater hipuch! For this idea continues to baffle many great minds to this very day.

How can the least likely scenario become the reality? G-d has a way of taking our lives and turning them upside-down in unexpected ways - empowering the powerless, healing the broken, helping the helpless, loving the unloved. This idea of hipuch is actually one of the great cardinal lessons of the story.

At least … that’s the way a rabbi would explain it. ((wink))

My friend and colleague, Derek Leman, has already beaten me in responding to the article, but his response particularly deals with the figure of Yeshua. I want to rather focus on Rabbi Shmuley’s concept of a more global and open form of Judaism.

According to Rabbi Boteach:

“Judaism for Jews is too narrow, too particular to really inspire. The vast majority of the world’s Jews want to live mainstream and fully integrated lives. But every form of Jewish outreach – from Reform to Orthodox – is designed to bring them back to the Jewish community. News alert. They left 200 years ago during the great emancipation and they aren’t coming back.

There is, therefore, only one solution: Judaism for non-Jews. A global movement to disseminate Jewish values and spirituality to all Earth’s inhabitants, making no distinction between Jew and gentile.”

Rabbi Shmuley is hardly the first person to advocate for a more welcoming and global form of Judaism. This has been proposed by Reform, Reconstructionist, and Renewal movements; as well as the B'nai Noach Movement and even the Kabbalah Center. And of course ... this has been the similar position of Messianic Judaism.

Just to clarify, Rabbi Shmuley (and the other Jewish movements) are not advocating that all distinctions be removed, but rather that the rich legacy and teachings of Judaism should be more readily shared with the world. Our services should be more welcoming, spiritual, and user friendly; and a greater level of participation granted to intermarried couples and non-Jews.

I am one such person who shares this position. Especially as a follower of our Messiah, Yeshua, I feel there is a Messianic mandate to include those from the Nations. The question is what will this look like? How do you share the universal message of HaShem with the world, while at the same time affirm the unique covenantal role of the Jewish people? Afterall, Messianic Judaism, for example, is supposed to be a JEWISH movement for Yeshua within both the wider Jewish community and Ecclesia.

It is true that the current wave of non-Jews drawn to Torah and the Jewish roots of their faith is a move of HaShem. Yet, there is a just as significant role in Jews coming to faith in the Jewish Messiah, and in many circumstances, re-embracing Jewish life and covenantal responsibility (which is different for Jews and non-Jews).

In every aspect of life, balance is always key. So what does that look like for a more open and tolerant form of Judaism? Although in many respects I agree with Rabbi Shmuley in this regard, I am not sure I necessarily agree with his action points.

In his recent article (and in a forthcoming book) Boteach advocates a global campaign for a seven-step program of living:

1. Observe Friday night as family night by tuning out all electronic interference and focusing on children, friends and community.

2. Eat kosher food (20 percent of Americans already look for kosher symbols for cleanliness and purity) and separate milk from meat as a symbol of the affirmation of life and its negation from all forms of corrosion and death.

3. Celebrate the themes of the Jewish festivals …

4. Studying Judaism’s great texts …

5. Observing the marriage laws, including the monthly act of sexual separation thereby creating an erotic barrier that enhances lust and pleasure.

6. Appreciation of, and respect for, the feminine, including codes of alluring modesty for women ...

7. A commitment to acts of communal kindness, such as regular visits to hospitals and homes for the elderly and giving 10 percent of one’s income to charity.

Although I am not sure the above seven steps are indeed THE STEPS, I do agree that these recommendations could certainly bring added meaning and a deeper spirituality into our world. Judaism indeed has much to offer. However, the struggle is that Judaism cannot escape this continually percolating tension between universality and exclusivity. We as Jews are to be both an Or L'Goyim (a Light to the Nations) AND an Am Segulah, a unique and set-apart people. There are so many mitzvot given within the Torah for the specific purpose of keeping us different. And when these distinctions are entirely removed, history continually demonstrates that it always leads to the assimilation (and disappearance) of the Jewish people (also a problem).

I think there is an answer. However, we know from experience that neither removing all distinctions nor keeping ourselves isolated from the rest of the world works. We MUST for the sake of ourselves and the benefit of the world try to find a healthy balance between the age-old tension of universality and exclusivity. We MUST find a way to have open and welcoming communities that at the same time affirm the unique covenantal role of the Jewish people. This is especially true in a day and age when the make-up within the Jewish community itself is more complex and diverse as never before. A feat not as easy as one would think. There is no silver bullet. However, for the sake of the future it must be done. This is both our prophetic and necessary task.

"In shortest order, actions against Jews and especially their synagogues will take place in all of Germany. These are not to be interfered with."

Instead of arresting the perpetrators of these events, police began rounding up and arresting the victims – Jews all over German occupied territories. Fire companies stood by synagogues in flames with explicit instructions to let the buildings burn. They were to intervene only if a fire threatened adjacent “Aryan” properties.

In two days and nights, more than 1,000 synagogues were burned or damaged, over 7,500 Jewish businesses were looted and ransacked, and at least 91 Jews were killed. Rioters also vandalized Jewish hospitals, homes, schools, and cemeteries. The attackers were often neighbors.

Some 30,000 Jewish males between 16 - 60 were arrested, and deported to concentration camps. Kristallnacht marked the beginning of the Holocaust.

72 years later we still remember, and will never forget!

On May 10th, 1933 the Nazis burned 25,000 books - including those written by Jewish poet Heinrich Heine, who had predicted in 1820 that "where books are burned in the end people will burn." Eight years after the Nazis began burning books, they began burning people.