Avot 2:4 Where Judaism and Christianity Say the Same Message

By Rabbi Alan Yuter
Posted Monday, December 11, 2006

We often judge others and take pride in judging others. We are almost always in discomfort when we are being judged by others. In the first three Gospels, which are taken to be eye-witness reports of Jesus' actions, there are essentially two sets of Tradition. One is based on the earliest Gospel, which is Mark, and the second set of Tradition, which are the sections of Matthew and Luke that are not found in Mark, which is called Q, for Quelle, meaning "source." This "source" is really sayings attributed to Jesus. One of his most famous sayings is "judge not lest you be judged." [Luke 6:37] The rabbinic version says that we do not judge others until and unless we come into the place. [mAvot 2:4]

The final canon of Christian Scripture tried to present a unified with a single canon. In other words, the religion of Jesus, which was Judaism and the Law, was replaced by the religion about Jesus, for which the Law is rejected. Therefore, for Christianity we are all sinners and unless we believe that Jesus is king, we are damned because we are, by definition, guilty.

When we remember that the earliest Christian works represented alternative Christianities, we should assume that at first, the only difference between Judaism and the early Church was the place of the person—not God—Jesus. In the Christian version, one may not judge at all. But the Torah tells us to appoint judges, to preserve, and to make honest, albeit human judgments. We must empathize with the person being judged, putting ourselves in that person's place. Only God, standing as One being, is able to judge with absolute truth. [mAvot 4:8].

We are also told that we will be judged against the benchmarks by which we judge others. [mSota 1:7] This principle explains two problems. The order that we impose reflects the order created by our own interiority. We are able to create the world in our own image, with generosity and empathy or with caprice and cruelty. We are, however, commanded to choose life.

I have always wondered by what justice principle God destroyed the world with the flood after humanity's tenth generation. There was no law given to humankind, no warning for wrongdoing. Later rabbinic notions of seven commands given to Noah are apparently unknown and are for certain unmentioned in the Biblical narrative. The wicked of humankind were judged by the judgments that they imposed on others. If their world was corrupted by violence, hamas, that evil generation is judged by its own criteria.

To preserve justice, we must judge, and we are held accountable in judgment. To preserve mercy, we begin to formulate justice as individuals, with human and humane benchmarks. A world without justice is a jungle, a world without mercy is a jail. The world that the Torah would have us create is a world of beauty, which according to the Kabbalists, is the union of justice, which is necessary, and mercy which is human. And by merging justice and mercy, we make space for God on earth.

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