A thank you and an invitation to continue the journey

The Final Week, literally

Friends, this week we read the final chapter of Professor Amy-Jill Levine’s book, Entering the Passion of Jesus. This week is also the time that Christians recognize the final week of Jesus’s earthly life. Plus this week begins Pesach, or the Passover festival, for our jewish siblings.

Stay tuned for details on a Maundy Thursday service livestream, where I’ve been invited to offer a homily, or message, within a Christian Community. Thursday evening, April 6, 7:30 pm EST, view the live stream here! I’ll send a little more detail Thursday morning!

Just because we’re wrapping up the Lenten study, I hope you’ll make it a priority to continue the journey! I’ll continue to produce regular content all year long! Suggestions for additional topics are always welcome! Drop Them in the comments below!

Happy reading! -a. xx.

Transcript

Welcome to notes from the diaspora, the podcast. 

00:00:09 

This is our final week of study with Professor Amy Jill Levine’s text entering the passion of Jesus, A beginner’s guide to holy. 

00:00:18 

The week. 

00:00:19 

For those of you who have read along with Professor Levine’s text and have engaged here on this sub stack, thank you. Thank you. 

00:00:28 

Thank you. 

00:00:29 

This was my second year providing this kind of a synchronous study. 

00:00:34 

As some of you were around last year when we did this asynchronous study last year, we had a different platform for disseminating our contributions with each other for disseminating the information to kind of guide us through the texts. 

00:00:48 

It included some videos. 

00:00:50 

It included a Google Groups approach and this year we did a sub stack. 

00:00:55 

I would be thrilled to hear your feedback on how you appreciated or did not appreciate this platform, especially for those who participated last year on a different platform. 

00:01:08 

But of course, all that is a little bit self-serving. What I really want to do is again to thank you. 

00:01:15 

This is such deeply important work to me, for those of you who know me, some of the elements of this story will be family. 

00:01:23 

Here for others who do not know me well, you’ll get to know a little bit more of the autobiography of who your host is of me, of Adam. 

00:01:32 

The person writing notes from the diaspora now, different components and pieces and little Nuggets here and some other over there. 

00:01:40 

Some crumbs right here are included within some of the introductory material here. 

00:01:45 

On this publication. 

00:01:46 

So if you’ve read things about like who I am and. 

00:01:48 

My approach to the. 

00:01:50 

Bible and things like that. 

00:01:51 

Then maybe you’ve, you know, come to know who this character, Adam, is this character. 

00:01:57 

Adam, I could be summed up maybe in two ways. 

00:02:01 

The 1st way is that I take my religious identity very. 

00:02:06 

Very seriously. 

00:02:09 

And the 2nd way is that I am very confused about my religious identity. 

00:02:17 

Now if you could see me if this were a vlog, not a podcast, you’d see that I’m smiling as I say that the truth is that one of the people closest to me in the entire world is my own. 

00:02:29 

Who I was. 

00:02:30 

And admire, and who has taught me so much about the world. 

00:02:35 

Another person who I love and respect and who I hold in highest regard, right up there with my dad is my mom, and it is through my mom that we are connected and to a beautiful Jewish tradition that has. 

00:02:50 

Influenced me greatly and it is this intersection of these two competing and yet somehow complementary religious identities that stand behind my motivation to engage in Mato. 

00:03:04 

Like that, we’ve been moving through for these past six weeks, so I hope my, you know, meager contributions to the terrific work of Professor Amy. 

00:03:16 

Jill Levine has gone some way towards elevating some of the key points that she wishes to make within the text. 

00:03:25 

I certainly do not come close to rivaling Professor Amy Jill Levine in her scholarship and presentation of this material to you, but I hope that I have at least been a helper along the way and not someone who has detracted from Professor Levines message. 

00:03:41 

I hope that this study has, for those of you who identify within the Christian community. 

00:03:46 

I hope that this has helped to enrich and to uplift your recognition, your somber reflection, your time of preparation, your time of personal sacrifice as you have moved through these past. 

00:04:00 

Two weeks approaching the week we are now in Holy Week or Passion Week. 

00:04:06 

This is the time of awe. 

00:04:09 

As Professor Levine explains to us, finding lint to be in some ways analogous to the Jewish days of all standing. 

00:04:17 

Roshana and Yom Kippur, the most holy day in the Jewish liturgical year. 

00:04:23 

That is a time for atonement, for making amends, but for also to recommit ourselves to a life of justice and righteousness and peace and of non violence. 

00:04:36 

And those themes are shared here in the Holy Week of Christian liturgical tradition, as well as in Jewish liturgical tradition. 

00:04:45 

In those days of awe here in the season of Pesach, or of Passover, Jewish communities around the world are preparing in a remembrance. 

00:04:56 

To retell the story of the Exodus, to remember that we are called and specially comma. 

00:05:03 

To work towards the liberation of all people, because within each of our ancestors there is some connection to the enslavement of other people, and we must confront that history. 

00:05:17 

We must confront our ancestors. 

00:05:19 

We must hold our ancestors to account, and we must also be accountable. 

00:05:24 

To our. 

00:05:25 

That is a deeply Jewish view. 

00:05:28 

On the liturgical calendar, it is a view that I take very seriously, as I just shared the two people who I hold, maybe in the highest esteem in my life are my mother and my father, which also is a pretty Jewish view, I’d say. 

00:05:42 

I hope that this has been uplifting and enriching and has enhanced your time of the liturgical season of Lent. 

00:05:49 

As you prepare for. 

00:05:51 

Essentially Thursday, Monday, Thursday, or Holy Thursday, as you prepare for Good Friday or Great Friday, whatever those days may be. 

00:05:59 

Called in your. 

00:06:01 

I hope that you have a special, more robust portrait of the things that are happening in these final days of Jesus life on. 

00:06:12 

These days they are preserved for us that we remember these days. 

00:06:17 

Now they are not preserved by eyewitness testimony, they are not preserved in the way that a Ken Burns documentary may seek to preserve the past, but they are preserved in ancient values. 

00:06:29 

They are preserved in the triumphal entry that it doesn’t matter if the story happened that way or not, it is true. 

00:06:37 

It is true that Jesus came with such, ah, moving power and charisma and commitment to ancient values of peace. 

00:06:49 

And non violence and of justice that Jesus grip. 

00:06:53 

A Jewish community and that those stories are preserved in a way that those ancient values of repairing the world and of working and loving kindness and working towards Shalom and working towards the heavenly realm instituted in the here and the now right here in the earthly realm. 

00:07:11 

Those are the ancient values that Jesus. 

00:07:13 

Embodied and Jesus embodied them with such charisma and with such care and with such loving kindness that those core stories have been preserved for 2000 years. For those in Christian communities these days. 

00:07:29 

This Holy Week, this passion week, it is one of your windows into your Jewish roots and that has been kind of the organizing principle for these six weeks that we’ve spent. 

00:07:42 

I hope you will continue to stay subscribed to notes from the diaspora. 

00:07:46 

I’m going to continue writing here. 

00:07:48 

So of course we’re going to shift our focus. We won’t be discussing Professor Amy Jill Levine’s text, at least not that text. I’m sure that AJ Levine will show up in many future. 

00:07:59 

Writings because I tried to consume all of her work. 

00:08:02 

If you enjoyed this text entering the passion, then the next one I think you should read is the misunderstood Jew. 

00:08:10 

The misunderstood Jew is a terrific, more robust, better characterized depiction of who Jesus was. 

00:08:19 

In his first century Jewish context. 

00:08:21 

Also written by Professor Amy Jill Levine, you may also be interested in the short. 

00:08:26 

Stories of Jesus that. 

00:08:27 

Professor Amy Jill Levine takes a kind of. 

00:08:30 

A Jewish look. 

00:08:31 

Some of the parables that are reported within the gospel account. 

00:08:35 

And so those are some, you know, some next places to go for you. 

00:08:38 

If you enjoyed this study, but by and large, I hope you’ll stay tuned. 

00:08:41 

Right here I. 

00:08:42 

Hope you’ll continue to be a subscriber for notes from the diaspora. 

00:08:46 

I hope as opportunities arise. 

00:08:48 

For live stream connections, I hope that you will consider attending those and carving out time to be in community with people who are just like you. 

00:08:57 

We do have close to 40 subscribers here on this sub stack. 

00:09:02 

That’s pretty impressive for having just stood this up a few weeks ago. 

00:09:05 

I hope that you will continue to refer friends right here to this publication, because building a. 

00:09:12 

That is resisting some of the power hungry movements that we’re seeing, particularly within Western and even more particularly within American Christianity that we can see. 

00:09:24 

As a reminder of the ancient values of peace and justice and nonviolence that stand at the heart of both the Jewish and the Christian tradition, and I hope, just like the way that I started today’s podcast episode by saying my religious identity is so serious and very important. 

00:09:45 

To me, and yet my religious identity is so confusing to me, I love. 

00:09:50 

Attention, I love that I wrestle with who I am in the light of the Holy 1:00 every single day of my life. 

00:09:58 

Now I can’t demand that commitment of you. 

00:10:01 

That would be unfair because, you know, we all have different interests. 

00:10:04 

It just so happens that this interest for me is at the top of my list, but I can promise you. 

00:10:10 

That in the coming days and weeks and months as I continue to produce material for this sub stack publication that that orientation. 

00:10:20 

Towards both the reference I have for my religious identity and you know, the call to navigate and negotiate what that religious identity means to me in light of a Jewish ethno religion that I feel in my beating heart every day, combined with the rich. 

00:10:40 

A 2000 year tradition of Christianity to see how it has borrowed from some Jewish concepts, how it has also created its own concepts and has come to be its own ancient tradition in the 1st century Jesus movement, the ancient tradition was Judaism. 

00:10:58 

But now, for Christians in the 21st. 

00:11:02 

Your ancient tradition still draws from Judaism, but is its own ancient tradition that begins right here that begins in Holy Week. 

00:11:11 

Of the 1st. 

00:11:12 

Century and you are now in a unique position to recognize the starting point of your ancient tradition here this week. 

00:11:22 

In Monday, Thursday and good or Great Friday, and particularly within Easter. 

00:11:27 

Turn Easter Sunday, not eastern, unless maybe you live on the East Coast. 

00:11:33 

So Easter Sunday, here it is coming this Sunday, the starting point for the ancient tradition of Christianity. 

00:11:41 

And it could be your starting point to recommit yourself to your ancient values, to learning and understanding and taking seriously your religious identity, even if it is set. 

00:11:52 

Within a place of confusion and a little tension, can I get an Amen? 

00:11:58 

To all of those who have been along for the ride. 

00:12:00 

Thank you. 

00:12:01 

Thank you, thank you. 

00:12:03 

And I hope you will continue to stay subscribed to see what comes. 

00:12:07 

I’m going to just take a little bit of a break from the regular Monday and Friday and Wednesday chatting and so you may get just a couple of Sunday posts from me in the next. 

00:12:19 

Two or three weeks, but rest assured we will pick up a new topic soon enough. 

00:12:23 

And for those of you that continue to stay subscribed, by all means, let’s join together. 

00:12:28 

Let’s continue to dialogue to interface, to unlearn, and to relearn our traditions of friends. 

00:12:34 

It has been a joy and an honor. 

00:12:37 

And if you want to see me do yet even more, then you can look for some information coming on Thursday for how you can watch a live streamed Monday, Thursday service from a Christian community where I am humbled to be invited to deliver about a 10 minute to humbly or message that evening. 

00:12:56 

And I hope you will pay attention. 

00:12:58 

And to the rights and the rituals and the cultic practices from a Christian tradition to see how it negotiates its Jewish. 

00:13:05 

This year on Holy Week and then Sunday Post and we’ll see where it goes from there. 

00:13:12 

So friends, with my sincere gratitude and appreciation and invitation to stay in dialogue here. 

00:13:18 

I am signing off for the first, you know new study on this sub stack. 

00:13:25 

Publication and so next Monday’s podcast may go in a different direction, but here we are encountering and entering the passion of Jesus with Professor Amy Joe Levine in the final chapter of her book, A Beginner. 

00:13:40 

Guide to Holy Week more from me soon friends with appreciation and community. 

00:13:45 

Shalom and love.