WAS THE LAST SUPPER A PASSOVER SEDER?

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

Happy Passover to those who observe it.

This year Passover begins on Monday night, April 22, 2024. Some people claim that the Last Supper was a Passover Seder. Is that correct?

The term “Last Supper” refers to the final meal Jesus of Nazareth had with his disciples on the night before his death (for ex. I Cor 11: 23-25). This took place, assuming we are dealing with an historical fact, around 30 CE, when biblical Israelites, during Passover, were asked to offer a Pascal sacrifice, a lamb, in the temple of Jerusalem. On the other hand, the word “Seder” refers to a ritualized family meal that takes place on the eve of Passover, on the 14^th  of Nisan. This was created by the Rabbis after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in the year 70 CE by the Romans, way after the death of Jesus. The first reference to a  Seder is in the Mishnah ( See, Pesahim), compiled in Palestine around 225 CE.

The question is whether this Last Supper was also a Passover Seder.

Many people claim, yes it was. Thus, for example, Grace Theological Seminary  of Indiana affirms that “ Based on the historical context, we know that the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, and we can pinpoint which cup and which piece of bread Jesus was eating at the first communion” ( June 27, 2022, online).

Others have many doubts about it. Here are some of the reasons why I think the Last Supper was not a Passover Seder.

1.     Whereas the synoptic Gospels identify the Last Supper as a Passover meal  (for ex. see, Mark 14:12-16), John does not. In fact, he places the event before Passover (13:1-2). There was no Seder, as we know it,  during the days of Jesus.

2.     Jesus shared his meal only with his male disciples. The Passover Seder is a family dinner, with women and children being present.

3.     During the meal, Jesus and his disciples ate ‘bread’ (artos, in Greek; Mark 14: 22), whereas during Passover Jews are told to eat only “unleavened bread” ( azyma in Greek).

4.     The Passover Seder is held on the eve of 14^th of Nisan, In most of the Gospels, the Last Supper takes place on the 15^th of Nisan.

So, how can we interpret some of the Gospel’s claims?

We need to remember that the Gospels were written in Greek, between 70 CE and 100 CE,  after the death of Jesus and outside of the land of Israel. By that time, the editors’ memory had already started to fail. Most likely, early Christians wanted to connect the lessons of Passover, being the liberation of the Israelites from the slavery in Egypt, with the salvific message of Jesus’ death. I would argue that the Last Supper was held withing the general context of the feast of Passover as it was celebrated while the Jerusalem temple was still standing. It was a memorable Jewish meal, but not necessarily a Passover Seder.

For more details, see ABD, Vol 4, p.234 ff.

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THE SPLIT OF THE KINGDOM; A BIBLICAL STORY WITH A MESSAGE

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

According to the Hebrew Bible, after King Solomon died, his son Rehoboam (mid 10^th cent. BCE), whose mother was an Ammonite woman called Naamah, succeeded him as king. It is not known when exactly this event took place.  He was 41 years old when he became a king, and ruled for 17 years (I K. 14:21), but the numbers are questionable.

 For reasons that are not clear but perhaps in order to get the support of the northern tribes, Rehoboam went first to the city of Shehem. There he met with the representatives of the people. They suggested that if he, Rehoboam, were to lessen the financial burden placed upon them by his father, they would be willing to acknowledge him as their king.

Rehoboam told them to come back in three days for an answer. First, he sought the advice of the elders who told him to deal kindly with the people, using the formula known from other ANE texts regarding royal grants. It is noteworthy that the Hebrew text has: “if you will be a servant (EVED) to those people and serve them” (I K 12: 7). However, the parallel text in Chronicles softens the harsh word “slave,” and has “If you will be good to these people…” (I Chr. 10:7).

Rehoboam ignored the sound advice of the elders, and went with his younger contemporaries. The Bible calls them (YELADIM)  “the boys” ( I K. 12: 10), who told him to get even tougher with them than his father. In fact, they suggested he say to them, “ My little finger is  thicker than my father’s loins” (I K 12: 10), using a euphemism for his machismo. Furthermore, they told him to say, “My father flogged you with whips, but I will flog you with scorpions” ( I K 12:11). The implication of the use of “scorpions” is not clear. BDB suggests that this may refer to scourges with points, stings (p. 785).   

The result was dramatic. The northerners quickly rejected Rehoboam ,and told him “ We have no portion in David, no share in Jessy’s son” (I K. 12: 16)  echoing the words of Sheba, the Benjaminite, who had led an unsuccessful revolt against king David (cf, 2 Sam. 20;1). In response, Rehoboam sent Adoram, his labor foreman. The text does not give us the purpose of this action. Some say, Rehoboam sent him in order to appease the assembly (Josephus);  others argue, he sent him to raise a work levy (Horn), and others, to threaten the people ( Tullock) or even to put down the rebellion (ABD, 5). The result was not unexpected. The biblical text tells us, the people “pelted him to death with stones” ( I K. 12; 18). Rehoboam then hurriedly got on his chariot and fled to Jerusalem where he was made king only by the smaller southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin.

In this episode Rehoboam comes across as a foolish brat. He not only ignores the calming advice of the elders but, following his peers, assumes that he can even get his way through violence, not realizing that force can never engender loyalty.

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WHERE DOES GOD LIVE?

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

Among those who conceive of God in theistic terms, namely as a father image who is all powerful and all-good, there seems to have a universal assumption that God lives in the heavens above.

Here are a few examples:

In one of the most popular Israeli songs today, Tefilah, the singer Omer Adam, invokes God as being  the Only one, and, in the video, he points to the heavens as the place where God can ben found. Similarly, in the Prayer for the State of Israel, the singer invokes God as the one who is avinu she-bashamayim. “Our Father in Heaven.” This is a popular rabbinic expression, even though the concept is already found in the Hebrew Bible (e.g. Isa. 63:16).  

The idea of a heavenly God originated in the Ancient Near East. According to the Sumerian Deluge myth, this event took place “after ...kingship had been lowered from heaven” (where gods live)( ANET, p. 43). Similarly, we are told that ANU, “the father of the gods, lived in the highest level of the heavens” (Horowitz , Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography, 2001:8-11).

The picture in the Hebrew Bible is not clear. At times, we are told that God is  found in a specific place. For example, according to Deut. 33:2, God lives on Mt. Sinai. According to I K 8: 13, God dwells in the Temple built by King Solomon. In Ps. 74:2, God lives in Zion, namely ,Jerusalem. God can also reveal himself out of a burning bush (Ex. 3:4), or even through a  “still small voice” (meaning unclear, I K 19: 12). On the other hand, according to other biblical passages God is everywhere: “If I ascend to heaven, you are there; If I descend to Sheol (underworld), you are there too” (Ps. 139: 7).

The Hebrew word shamayim, (“ heavens”) often refers to the abode of God: In Deuteronomy, God is called the one  who “rides through the heavens” (33:26). In Genesis, God rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah sulfurous fire “from the Lord out of heaven” (19:24). According to the prophet Isaiah, “The heaven is My throne”(66:1). (For more examples, see BDB, p. 1030 , under shamayim).

This assumption is also present in the Christian tradition, where, in the Lord’s Prayer, a worshiper refers to God as “Our Father in Heaven” (Math. 6: 9-13; Luke 11: 2-4).

 On the other hand, religious naturalists or pantheists like Spinoza, Kaplan or Gittelsohn (and me, as one of the followers) who view God as the power or energy behind the universe, maintain that God is omnipresent, and is not limited to the heavens above. In fact, Spinoza equates God with nature, as the only substance there is.

So, you have a choice, and do not assume that theism is the only answer.

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THE SEFARDI/ASHKENAZI DIVIDE; A SUMMARY

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D.

Sometimes I am asked , what is special about being a Sefardic Jew? Or, alternatively, can a Sefardic Jew become a Reform Jew? Here below is a simplified response.

First, a definition: A Sefardic Jew is one who can trace his/her background to medieval Spain. The word Sefarad in Hebrew means Spain. Jews came into Spain from North Africa in large numbers in 711 CE,  but were expelled by King Ferdinand and Queen  Isabella in the year 1492. Then they spread all over the Mediterranean basin. Today, even though they have never been to Spain, Persian Jews follow the practices of Sefardic Jewry.

On the other hand, an Ashkenazic Jew, is one who comes from many parts of Europe, including Poland and Russia. The Hebrew word Ashkenaz means “German.”

There are many differences in religious practices between Sefardic and Ashkenazic Jews:

1.    Hebrew is pronounced and written differently by these two groups. When the State of Israel was established in 1948, they adopted the Sefardic pronunciation and the Ashkenazic script.

2.    There are major differences in the use of food, based on the background of each group. For example,  Sefardic Jews are allowed to eat rice during Passover, whereas Ashkenazic Jews are not.

3.     There are many different religious customs unique to each group: For example, Sefardic Jews do not mark Yahrzeits, they have Meldados at home. Selihot is celebrated by Sefardic Jews many times before the High Holidays, whereas Ashkenazic Jews have a special day for it. During the High Holidays, Sefardic Jews greet each other by saying, Tizku leshanim rabbot (“ May you merit to celebrate it for many years”), whereas Ashkenazic Jews simply say, shanah tovah (“a good year”). The chanting of the Torah differs between Sefardic and Ashkenazic Jews. Sefardic Jews name their children after living parents. Ashkenazic Jews do not. In a Sefardic cemetery, the stones are flat; in Ashkenazic cemeteries, they are placed standing.

4.    The physical structure of the synagogue depends on whether or not it is a Sefardic or Ashkenazic: In a Sefardic synagogue, the pulpit is in the center, whereas among Ashkenazic Jews, it is usually placed before the Ark.

5.    In Europe, the “home” language of the Sefardic Jews is Ladino, which is a mixture of medieval Spanish and Hebrew with various additions from the country of residence . Ashkenazic Jews speak Yiddish.

Presently, these differences are slowly disappearing, because of migrations, inter-religious marriages  and the realities in Israel today where the two communities live close to one another. Reform Judaism emerged out of an Ashkenazic milieu; so did many non-Orthodox Jewish denominations, such as Conservative or Reconstructionist. Sefardic Jews tend to be Orthodox in their religious practices or totally secular. This too is changing, in as much as there are many non-Orthodox Jews who have a Sefardic background. I grew up as a Sefardi and became a Reform Rabbi.  In the modern world, there is a greater tendency to eliminate differences.

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THE FESTIVAL OF HANUKAH; MIRACLE: YES OR NO?

 

This year, the first candles of Hanukah will be lit on Thursday night, Dec. 7, 2023. The festival lasts 8 days.

The traditional explanation of why the festival of Hanukah is celebrated for eight days is based on a Talmudic passage: Oil for one day, miraculously lasted eight. . However, this is a late development. Early texts do not mention this so-called miracle. It is time we give up this irrational explanation and find a better one. And that historical explanation does exist.

The history behind Hanukah is, briefly, this: In the second cent. BCE, Antiochus IV, the Syrian king, set out to conquer Egypt. While he was fighting there, Jason, who was deposed from his position as the Jewish High Priest in Jerusalem, left the Ammonites with whom he had taken refuge, and attacked Menelaus, his brother in Jerusalem, in order to regain the High Priesthood. A civil war broke out between the two, and Jason successfully entered Jerusalem. King Antiochus was furious. On his way back from Egypt, the king attacked Jerusalem, imposed restrictions on Judea, and eventually desecrated the Temple. In reaction, a priest by the name of Mattathias, and his sons (called the Maccabees), fought against the Syrians, and were able to clean and rededicate the temple of Jerusalem to the worship of one God in the year 165 BCE. This rededication is called Hanukah (“dedication” in Hebrew).

The First Book of Maccabees (c.mid-2^nd cent. BCE), states that Hanukah ought to be celebrated for eight days but does not indicate the reason for it (see, 4:59). It is in the Second Book of Maccabees (c.125 BCE) that we find a rational explanation: It happened that on the same day on which the sanctuary had been profaned by the foreigners, the purification of the sanctuary took place, that is, on the twenty-fifth day of the same month, which was Kislev.  And they celebrated it for eight days with rejoicing, in the manner of the feast of booths, remembering how not long before, during the feast of booths [Sukkot], they had been wandering in the mountains and caves like wild animals. (10: 6). So, Hanukah was really like a delayed Sukkot that lasts seven days plus Atzeret, a one day festival (See, Lev. 23: 33-36; cf. v.39).

The first reference to the lights of Hanukah appears in the writings of Josephus (1sr cent. CE) who calls the festival “Lights” by saying: I suppose the reason was this liberty beyond our hopes appeared to us and that hence the name given to that festival. (Antiquities, 7:7).

In it only in the Talmud, which was edited in Babylonia in the 5-6^th centuries CE that the so-called “miracle” makes its appearance (under Persian influence?): What is [the reason of] Hanukah? For our Rabbis taught: On the twenty-fifth of Kislew [commence] the days of Hanukkah, which are eight on which a lamentation for the dead and fasting are forbidden.  For when the Greeks entered the Temple, they defiled all the oils therein, and when the Hasmonean [i.e. Maccabees] dynasty prevailed against and defeated them, they made search and found only one cruse of oil which lay with the seal of the High Priest, but which contained sufficient for one day’s lighting only; yet a miracle was wrought therein and they lit [the lamp] therewith for eight days. The following year these [days] were appointed a Festival with [the recital of] Hallel and thanksgiving. (BT Shab. 21b). 

Later on a midrashic text (c. 9^th cent.) provides another explanation: When the Hasmoneans defeated the Greeks, they entered the temple and found there eight iron spears. They stuck candles on these spears and kindled them. (Pesikta Rabbati 2: 5).

It is clear that the explanation of why Hanukah was celebrated for eight days changed over the years, some legendary, and some more historical. For me, the simplest and the most reasonable explanation is that, in its own time, Hanukah was a delayed Sukkot. No miracles. The festival today proclaims many important values, such as courage, dedication, thanksgiving, and above all, the right to be different. These are the values we need to stress, and not the miracle of oil which is not rational, historical or even believable in our time.

HAPPY HANUKAH

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

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WHAT'S SO SPECIAL ABOUT BEING JEWISH? A KEY TO THEIR SURVIVAL

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

Jews have survived for centuries, often living under very poor conditions. Yet, they made it. Jews are in general not more or less capable than others. The question is what is the secret of their survival? What keeps Jews Jewish in good times or bad? A few ideas come to mind.

1.    Survival skills

When the second temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, Jewish sovereignty ended in the land of Israel. From then on, Jews had to live under the hegemony of other people and cultures. Many lived in Christian societies, and others, later on, in Muslim countries. Even though they lived as tolerated minorities, they somehow managed to create a culture of their own by absorbing the best of what the dominating societies had to offer. In the Greco-Roman period, Jews created an imposing rabbinic literature. Living in Muslim Spain, they gave rise to a rich literature of poetry and philosophy. They survived by adapting to the environment.

2.    Kinship

There is a rabbinic saying that “All of Israel are responsible for one another.” (Shevuot 39a). This is the basis of the notion of communal responsibility in Jewish law. In other words, if a Jew sees another on the verge of sinning, he/she has an obligation  to step in and help. But the concept goes even beyond that. Jews are expected to look for one another, especially when living in hostile countries.

3.    Intellectual pursuit

According to a rabbinic teaching, “the study of Torah is equal to all other religious obligations “ (Peah 1:1). This dictum has been the center point of Jewish life throughout the centuries. Jews soon realized that in order to advance in life and survive as individuals, they needed to pursue science and special skills. In the past, many Jews were not allowed to practice all types of trades and were forced to concentrate on limited choices of work. For example, until the 16th cent. Catholics were forbidden by the church to engage in money lending. So, Jews were forced to do that. Many Jews in the past could not work as farmers because they were not allowed to own lands. So, they excelled in only those professions that were still open to them. And most of them did well.

4.    Religious cohesion

The Jewish religion has been a powerful unifying element in Jewish life. Some in the past and many even now believe that God has had a special covenant with the Jewish people, that will guarantee their survival. Reading through Esther Rabba, an early rabbinic Midrash (c.500 CE),  one comes out with the realization that many past kingdoms have disappeared (i.e. Greco-Roman, Babylonian, Persian etc), and yet we Jews are here. This belief has been a comforting message to Jews who were suffering. Furthermore, the practice of Jewish rituals and festivals, albeit in different forms, have had a unifying force that kept Jews strong and hopeful.  

The Nazis did not destroy the Jewish people, nor will Hamas in our time.

Am Yisrael hay! The Jewish people will live.

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