Jews and Pagans

Cerridwyn Raventree

Some of the realities of relationships between Jews and Pagans relate
to a Western cultural stance, not a religious imperative, which states
that anyone who is not "Of The Book" (Jews, Christians and Muslims) are
evil, or wrong. In most cases, however, the relationship is much more
cordial. That friendly, or at least non-adversarial, position is based
on the Jewish Scriptures (the Torah), and on the fact that Judaism is a
minority religion which has been strongly persecuted by the Christian
majority for a long time. I am attempting to show just one example of
the possibilities in the Hebrew Bible through this example.

The first book of the Hebrew Bible (Berishit) which corresponds to the
Christian Bible (Genesis) has two creation stories. The story that most
Christians know as "The Creation Story", is the story of Adam and Eve
and the Garden of Eden. That story is actually the second "creation".
The first chapter holds a completely different tradition. This tradition,
virtually ignored by the mainstream Christians, is NOT abandoned by the
traditional Jew. This story is read in synagogue at least as often as
the second story is repeated.

    In the first creation, God (Elohim) created the earth in six steps.
The final step of this creation was the creation of "man". [One tidbit of
Hebrew grammar; the '-im' ending is a plural ending, therefor Elohim =
gods, plural] In Genesis 1:26 it states that on the sixth day:

(26) Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our
likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of
the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creeps on the earth. (27) And God created man in His
own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created
them. … (31) And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very
good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

    The next verse deals with the establishment of the Sabbath, as on the
seventh day, God rested. The second story, the familiar Eve out of
Adam's rib story, the source of "original sin", is a totally separate
tradition, which starts at Genesis 2:4.

    Oberon Zell noted that this can be viewed as two separate creations.
First all of humankind were created in the image of God/Goddess. Then
the Jewish race was started by YHVH, a God usually seen as male, and
placed in the Garden of Eden. This is reinforced by the fact that Adam and
Eve's sons found wives someplace, although they were the only two
created by YHVH.

    The religious Jewish stand does NOT go that far, but they ARE sure
that YHVH is THEIR DEITY, thank you, and He has a special relationship with
their tribe. Nobody else is held to the same Covenants, and nobody else
is gifted with YHVH's grace. To their mind, the Christians are not
covered by the same book, because they do not have the genetic history,
which would cause YHVH to look kindly on them. The concept of believing in
YHVH as "your personal savior" is anathema. YHVH is a very specific
Deity, a Deity who is concerned with the Jewish people, or community, not
random individuals.

    Pagans, though not “of the book” or Jewish, do not claim to be. We
freely admit that Jews have a special relationship to their God. And, we
are not really upset that we are not welcomed at their table, except as
understanding friends. Because we avoid the cultural theft perpetrated
by Christians, and to a lesser extent Moslems, we are outside of their
dismay.

    The original pagan cultures may not have been universally for the
Jews, but they were certainly not universally against them. They would be
attacked, ignored or supported by whatever political stand was then in
power, but it was basically the politicians, not the clerics, who caused
problems. That ease between the religions does not hold as much today,
but mainly, I believe because most neo-Pagans come out of a Christian
background, and our prejudices came out with us.

    It is not as a neo-Pagan that a Jew would distrust us, but as bigoted
ex-Christians. As neo-Pagans, we have a chance to accept the Jews as
they are; not part of a mythical “Judeo-Christian” culture; but as
religionists who have kept their ancestral faith, in the face of great odds,
since the times when our ancestors were living, and dying as Pagans.