it's only, let's say, 25 years after jesus, he writes to the romans, "stop being proud, "stop being arrogant. "consider that you have been grafted into israel. "you have not become the tree. "on the contrary, you have been grafted into israel, "and it is their root that carries you, and not you who carry the root." i would say that the contrast theology, they totally cut off the root. and their replacement teaching, they claimed to be the tree. from the time that the church gained worldly power in the fourth century, the church passed legislation not only prohibiting judaism, violating the jewish community in different ways, but actively and forcibly trying to convert jews. so jews associate mission with violence.

jews associate mission with force. jews associate mission with bloodshed. jews associate mission with conversion. and, of course, mission indicates, again, the theology of supersession -- that the church does not recognize that jews as jews can be saved. it is stunning to see the subtle ways in which, and sometimes not so subtle ways, in which a christian teaching of contempt becomes enshrined in the very habits, the most basic practices of the church. one of the hymns that we've paid very careful attention to is perhaps my favorite -- ♪ o come, o come, emmanuel ♪ and ransom captive israel ♪ that mourns in holy exile here ♪

♪ until the son of god appear ♪ rejoice, rejoice, emmanuel... ♪ leighton: what is implicit in that hymn is that the story, the christian story, is a story of redeeming israel from the conditions of captivity, which could not be overcome until the sinful condition that attended the fall of adam was overcome with the arrival of jesus and his redemptive death. now, the problem with the way in which the christian story has been told is that israel itself is in a condition of desperation, which is a consequence of the terrible fall that occurred when adam sinned and violated the creation.

so the master narrative that becomes enshrined in the christian story suggests that after the creation, the fall rendered the creation broken, fragmented, alienated, and it remains in that condition until jesus comes and redeems us from this woeful condition. which is another way of saying that israel's own story has no relevance to the salvation of the world. so the hymn itself not only carries a triumphalism, a supersessionist bias, but it also writes israel out of its own story. ♪ rejoice ♪ rejoice ♪ emmanuel leighton: if you were to suggest that this hymn

carries the seed of contempt for the jewish people, the vast majority of people in our congregations would look at you as though you'd lost your mind. i mean, this is a hymn that has claimed the imagination that stirs very deep spiritual longings within the community. so i'm not suggesting that we delete or excise a hymn of tremendous power and beauty, but i am suggesting that the priest, the minister, the educators need to be much more intentional in using a hymn like this to teach our history and to cultivate an aptitude for self-criticism. it is a tragedy in the history of art to find that often christians portray jews in a disparaging way.

and how is jesus depicted? as an ideal greek. one of the staples of medieval art were two figures -- the synagogue, synagoga, and the church, ecclesia, they are pictured as two women. and while there are many variants on the theme, in general, the church is presented as a woman who is erect and proud and triumphant. and the synagogue is presented as a woman who is defeated, vanquished, fallen. her crown has toppled from her head. she carries a staff that is broken. typically she's blindfolded. it's to show that somehow the synagogue has been defeated. that is in cathedrals all over europe. many of these works of art provide an almost cartoon-like description of the jews being demonic. and therefore you see images of jews being suckled by swine. you see them involved with --

dirtied by excrement from unclean animals. the filth and degradation that the artist links with the jewish people are one more strategy of demonizing the jewish people. there is certainly a very long tradition of teaching of contempt. the end of which is the extermination of the jewish people. we can say that this teaching created the possibility of the impossible. the end of which are the concentration camps, death camps in europe a generation ago. you cannot get from the new testament to auschwitz directly. that is wrong. and people who lay all of the responsibility at the foot of the church simply do not understand the fundamental difference between christianity and nazism. they are absolutely different things.

on the other hand, you could not have auschwitz had you not had the long pre-history made possible by christian anti-judaism. christianity did so much evil to jews and judaism over the centuries that for many jews it remains the enemy, the bad guy no matter what they do. this was deepened in the 20th century by the holocaust experience, which, of course, was a total genocide, done, not by christians, but for which many jews feel jews were set up for by this long tradition of hatred and isolation. and so this has only deepened the fact that even for secular jews sometimes, the only thing left of their jewish memory is that somehow the christians are the other or the enemy. man: when black citizens, black christians in particular, tour the holocaust museum, i think there are at least two responses -- the first is to remember once again

how much in the black community we tend to parallel our black experience with that of the jewish experience. that's a motif, that's a leitmotif if you will, in black religion that is just historic. that black christians have always seen themselves as sort of repeating, if you will, the experience of the ancient israelites. right here you have this bench sign that says "for aryan only." and this one says "for jew only." was there ever a time in the united states where we had signage that said for one race or the other? what was the whole situation? the jim crow laws. you'll notice that the jews are wearing stars of david, but this was a closed ghetto. and what do i mean by that? what i mean is that this ghetto, the people who lived in this ghetto could not leave this ghetto. to work -- all the work that they did, they did inside this ghetto, if there was any work available.

and that was by choice or that was by force? that's by force. and nobody did anything about it or said anything about it? no... because if you did, then you would be eliminated. to see what happened to the jews of europe between 1939 and 1945 is to be reminded, it seems to me, that there but for the grace of god, we might have been as well. we shouldn't be so complacent, because slavery has been since time immemorial. and we have to make sure that others are safe and that we should treat each other kindly. the separation for jews-only on a bench, or access to a store, or being able to shop -- and for me it touches a part of how we live today. so it's hard for me to see it as history because it's only been in the last 25 years that we've given birth to children who haven't lived that experience or been born into that in this country.

i come from a universe where my people were condemned to torture, to death, for no other reason but because they were jewish, even the children. and i was about your age or much younger when i was going through that. we do realize that not all the victims were jewish. but all the jews were victims. one of the things that we're hoping to achieve is to make people think about this history and to apply its lessons and its parallels to what's happening around us today. do you think that there are still people today who have anti-semitic views towards jewish people? i think there is a big difference between my experience during those years of darkness and today.

and you know what the difference is? the difference is that then we were alone. and today, we are no longer alone. today we have the community behind us. when we had an anti-semitic outbreak a couple of years ago, the whole community showed up at a rally. there were as many christians as jews. rosen: john xxiii, who many people saw as quite a simple guy -- he brought about what's called the second vatican council. and one of the profound areas of focus of the second vatican council was its relationship with the jews. coming out of this second vatican council was a document called nostra aetate, meaning "in our times." and this document is a revolutionary document. and basically what this document says is any attempt to try to present the jews as cursed or rejected by god is illegitimate from a christian point of view.

it's not what christianity teaches. and that the covenant between god and the jewish people is an eternal covenant, never broken, never to be broken, quoting paul in support of this position. and for the first time, the catholic church, in this document, publicly condemned anti-semitism, regardless of where it may come from. martin luther in his old age wrote some of the most despicable anti-jewish pamphlets that have ever been written. and that's painful for a lutheran to read that stuff. so that, for example, in the united states a couple of years ago, there was an official statement by the evangelical lutheran church in america which said this is a shameful part of luther, and let us say it openly and not try to explain it away.

there has been this remarkable attempt at repentance, self-correction on the part of christianity. it can be misjudged as simply a confession of fault and of evil, but in my judgment, it only shows the remarkable power and spiritual depth of religion that's willing to self-criticize and correct matters that are at the very heart of its own scriptures. for all those statements which can be construed correctly as anti-jewish, there are other people who read this text. christians at le chambon, in france, for example, which protected jews during world war ii, read the new testament not as anti-jewish but as very pro-jewish and said because the new testament comes from jewish roots, because it speaks of jewish people as god's people, therefore it is our responsibility to protect jews from nazi atrocities. does the new testament have to be read as anti-jewish? no.

has it been and can it be? unfortunately, yes. woman: i want to welcome all of you this afternoon and to thank you for taking the time to come and talk about teaching the passion stories. as catholic teachers, at whatever level we teach, given the mandate of nostra aetate, we cannot altogether avoid the question of who killed christ. if we want to teach a bible story, we have to make sure that we understand how kids are hearing it. sirois: you're the teacher. what are you going to tell them? think about it -- let's talk about it. woman: i've seen them role play in the school yard being crucified. we were studying the passion and they're taking each other up against the wall and i'm being crucified. i'm like, oh, boy, should i let this go or stop this? i didn't know what to do with it. and i let them go on and, i mean, the name "jews,"

and, i don't know, i don't see it as an issue at that level. sirois: what are they hearing? it would be bad men killed jesus. i don't think they could articulate the jews did it or would even know what jewish is or jews are. the problem there is, of course, jews are associated with bad people. you know, which is something that you may have to deal with later on. though we now know the gospels were not by any means intending to indict all jews of all time for the death of jesus, the way in which the gospels were read sometimes served to do just that. and so this is one of the issues that we take on. [ blows shofar ] very good, excellent. woman: for their own christian experience,

it's important for them to understand the relationship between judaism and christianity, to understand the hebrew roots of the christian faith. i think it's also extremely important for them to be able to relate to judaism, to relate to jewish people. that we can begin at a very early age to fight anti-semitism. now, remember when we talked about abraham this morning? and he was the only one that knew that there was only one god. and the debt that we owe to the jewish people for always passing that on to us -- the idea of one god comes to us through them. okay, what is mezuzah? mezuzah is a hebrew word. what does it mean, mezuzah? deuteronomy 6:9. but what does it mean? door post, yes. yes, the thing that goes around the door. this was important to god. it's important to god's chosen people. it's says something to us. what does it say to us? and you should learn how to read hebrew so you can read what it says. hauer: that's a good idea,

but we don't all have time to do that, do we? well, i guess the thing i would like you to learn from this is "i want you to remember what's governing your life. "i want you to remember me. "i want you to honor me in all of your goings-out and your comings-in." and so we can look at this -- we can respect this as a very important part of jewish tradition, and we can learn from it for ourselves. john, why don't you come up here? boy: they usually wear it every saturday when they're having a torah meeting. hauer: steven, what would he do with this if he was going to pray, just leave it like this? no. no. put it over his head. i can't see. i think there's something for us to learn there. where can he see? straight ahead. straight ahead. can he see to the right? no. no. can he see to the left? no, no. can he get distracted, then? no, no, no. what is he? all he has to do is move it. he's shut in with god, isn't he?

this is part of the what experience? jewish. we believe that if we start with the children and they learn it young and build on it as they grow, it will make a very big difference in a very short period of time. [ singing in hebrew ] because is judaism, if somebody dies... man: the catholic-jewish educational enrichment program, we call it c-jeep, is one of the most exciting things that's probably going on in america right now in christian-jewish relations. this is probably the first time in history that ordained clergy have taught on a regular basis in each others high schools. [ singing ] man: i recognize this as a way to god. that is why i will join them in the synagogue in the morning

and be very much part of the religious life that goes on here at the school. i would hope that in the end when they are adults they might see the fruits of this effort as creating -- seeing two groups as partners in faith rather than as people who might be in competition with each other or being diametrically opposed to each other. what was the question you were going to ask? i was going to ask -- man: our students don't know a lot of jewish people, most of them. their information about jews comes second hand. could be that they have misconceptions about who jews are, about how jews behave, so that when they experience the rabbi, when they come to meet this man face to face, their perception of who jews are has changed.

rabbi: let me ask you a question. what do you think jewish people believe about god? that jesus wasn't the savior, and you're still waiting for him to come. jewish people don't identify god as jesus, or the son of god as jesus, and one of the things that we should know, that you should know, is that even though i might say things that i believe that aren't consistent with what you believe, i'm not trying to challenge your faith. [ singing in hebrew ] woman: the students just were ignorant of christianity and catholicism until they met father massey. they had read about it in books, in particular in their history books, and they, of course, know christian people, but hadn't really engaged these people on issues of religion. so father massey put a face to catholicism

and gave them an address for their questions and their concerns. but what are some of the questions you have about catholicism? how does it affect you? is it strange? is it frightening? is it mysterious? is it benign? yes? why do you feel that people need a bridge to god? why do you feel that you are that bridge and why can't they just talk directly to god? the priest kind of represents in one person the whole community. the whole community at that moment. okay, so do you believe in one god or three, like the trinity? one god, three distinct experiences of that one god. what did you hear about jews, about judaism? were there any stereotypes, any things that you had heard that you didn't, you know, you didn't have any way to kind of challenge? sara, go ahead.

that you think jews are cheap and they hold their money real tight, they're always counting their money and they're always kissing their money like they love money. cove: kissing their money, okay. the stereotypes that we have nowadays may have come from the shakespearean play "the merchant of venice" where the main character was a jewish merchant named shylock, which is actually a terminology used today for a person who's uptight with their money. cove: that's right. money was seen as something dirty, it was seen as something that ordinary human beings shouldn't get involved in. because the jewish people were always seen as a separate, apart community, never really being accepted as full citizens of a particular host country -- and in some societies really seen as sub-human -- so the jews were given the ability

to handle the currency of the particular place. and so they became the money lenders. but to characterize as shakespeare has done in "merchant of venice" that this is the way jews operated through and through the community, this is what created the stereotype. so, tell me what you believe about death and what your tradition has taught you. on the high holidays and other holidays there's remembrance services. yizkor service? yeah, and every day there's also the kaddish yahrzeit for someone who's died. so it never really ends, there's always that -- you're always remembering them. one of the things that we do, and it's very similar to the way that you describe, is we remember the dead every day. there is a mention of all of those

who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith at every time that we pray. can you tell me what a priest and a rabbi have in common? we believe in the best of human nature, that we believe in the ability of human beings to change and to evolve and to grow and to be able to come to new understandings mostly about ourselves and how we relate to other people and to god. that's part of our role is to be in many ways prophetic, to be able to see you and to say god's got great things in store for you, god's got a wonderful life, god has done a wonderful miracle in the person that you are, and we're kind of calling you to that awareness. and that's where the ministry comes from, i believe. we were afraid that if we were exposed to other religions it might cause problems in terms of our own faith. that fear has gone out of roman catholicism, and what has happened now

is that we see ourselves in terms of our relationship. so that having a rabbi come into our school now has a tendency to give us insights into the origins of our religion. they can relate better to christians now through a position of knowledge. but they also understand that there are low fences that will remain, meaning that the catholic community and the jewish community need to preserve their own identities. and that just because you understand someone and can co-exist well with someone else it doesn't mean that you have to become that person. we're not the same, jews and catholics. jews and christians are not the same, and need to preserve their own identities, but they can do that through peaceable co-existence. woman: anyone like to offer something like that? for jewish people to understand

what makes the christian people uncomfortable? is there anything? that i am somehow responsible for all of the hurt and anguish of the jewish people in the past. and i have to say it prevents me then from hugging this man next to me and feeling good about him. right, in answer to that, that's the point. if there were more people like her who would be uncomfortable because i am here, then maybe we might have an answer to where we're going. woman: if we had more christian people who felt the way she does, absolutely. oh, good, and he gets a hug after all. why is it difficult or impossible for a jewish and christian couple

to marry in the jewish faith? how could you possibly ask a person to suddenly turn off their heart and turn off their emotions and turn off possibly 20 years of an upbringing to what seems to them a rejection of everything that was instilled in them? so whether it's right or wrong or how it should be dealt with, we cannot simplify the emotions that exist in parents. i hear your response, and i receive that, but i struggle with the why in the face of the pain and the division within families over this issue. that this is really hard, that there are things that are conflicts that you're going to do the best with, but they remain conflicts. the statistics are there about intermarriage. then following intermarriage,

the small number who actually raise their children jewish, did that ever get to you as you got close to marriage, that cultural lesson that's been drummed into your head over and over again about the destruction of the jewish people? judaism would be lost on my kids. we don't live in a predominantly jewish neighborhood, they're not going to a jewish -- no one else i know at their school is jewish. so unless i'm intentional about it, that we really talk about the holidays and the stories and the history, i think it would be lost. so i feel much more intentional then i might be if i were with a jewish partner. my mother was a holocaust survivor, and her mother and step-father perished in the holocaust, that i do feel strongly and one of the concerns i had before we got married was wanting to pass on a sense of jewishness to my children.

what are those times when you realize that you're in a relationship that's different? like december is this black month for terry. i think that oftentimes he feels like it's this big party that jews aren't invited to. and i remember one of first discussions that we had was over a christmas tree and what a big, loaded deal that was. and we've talked about it and we've worked it out and we have our own kind of celebrations, and we do hannukah and christmas. but i think that was when i first realized this is different from what other people go through. and we celebrate a traditional jewish christmas. we have chinese food and go to a movie. i think one of the challenges i feel as a catholic is that there are certain ceremonies that our children would need to pass through -- baptism and then first holy communion and things like that, in order to sort of fully participate in that tradition.

so in a certain sense not doing that perhaps excludes them. so i don't know if that's anything we'll ever clearly resolve, but it's definitely children and how to educate them is the hard time. i think i grew up noting more of the similarities, the close family value and value on education. but the whole jesus thing, i think, does raise issues. and i remember first when steve wanted to hang a cross in one of our first homes together and thinking "now that i'm uncomfortable with." you've got some strong feelings about it and you've got some strong feelings also. i'm just wondering if that was something you ever have talked about. i have to ask though, do you have a cross in your home? did you put up the crucifix? isn't it up, sara? [ laughter ] it is up, it's up. it falls down sometimes. we need to get a better nail. but it's in location where you might not see it if you were there. how many christian people have taken one time

to go to a temple and listen to the word of god and their service? how many jewish people, on the other hand, have gone to a christian church and listened to the word of god and the service? [ singing in hebrew ]

man: and so i'd like to welcome on behalf of our entire congregation, guests from the first congregational church in hamilton. and we as a congregation will likewise go to your congregation, to your church for palm sunday services. and so for the guests from first congregational church, we do welcome you. you may have noticed in picking up the prayer book that the prayer book opens from right to left, going hebrew. that's because english goes backwards. so just follow along that way. all of the italicized portions in english are intended to be read together in unison by the congregation. and once again, welcome. please take a moment to look around you, to introduce yourselves to those seated around you. and wish each other a good shabbat shalom. tomorrow morning we will celebrate as a congregation as richard hoffman is called to the torah as bar mitzvah.

and so keeping with our long-standing tradition, richard, i'd like to invite you forward now along with your parents, charlie and linda, and your brother alex, your sister katherine, to lead us in the kindling of the sabbath lights. barukh atah adonai, elohaynu, melekh ha-olam asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu l'had'lik neir shel shabbat. blessed is the lord our god, ruler of the universe, who hallows us with his mitzvah and commands us to kindle the lights of shabbat. woman: even though the hebrew was not familiar and i didn't understand, yet there were words that came though -- adonai and the amens that i recognized.

and so while i didn't know the words, i could participate through knowing that it was scripture and that it was from the torah. and that was very meaningful and very special. [ singing in hebrew ] hear, o israel, the lord is our god... rabbi: judaism has been described as a combination of god, torah, which is god's revelation and our sacred word, and israel, the jewish people. but the oldest and most enduring symbol of the jewish people is not the star of david, again, that's modern. it's the menorah. and even as menorah is a symbol of the jewish people, so too we can see this lamp, and that eternal light is a symbol of god, who like that light is eternal.

finally, in addition to the menorah and the ner tamid you will find in every house of worship, just like our torah portion this week commands, a holy ark containing, today, the scrolls of torah. it's our hope and prayer that by immersing ourselves and connecting with these ancient symbols we will find the way to perfection. we will help illuminate for the world a path to perfection. a return, as it were, to that original garden, to that primordial paradise. that's what it means to be a jew. our house of worship is filled with images that remind us of just that. i felt he was unexpectedly familiar. i really felt that i had a genuine worship experience, and was able to worship and pray -- other than maybe the hebrew and things that i didn't readily understand. it was a wonderful, worshipful atmosphere.

and talking about all the history of the old testament, i'm just so saddened when i look and realize that these people have not recognized the messiah. and that jesus came and he died on the cross for my sin and for the sins of all. and i'm just saddened by that, because the service was beautiful and i appreciated so much of it. but i'm just sad. the old testament is filled with examples of god's love for his people. now, to me his ultimate love climaxed in the gift of his son, and that's where we part company. but without god's chosen people i would not have the faith that i have.

it's tragic, it's absolutely tragic that we all worship a god that has taught us through his scripture that we should love one another and that love, i saw that love present tonight that we should have one for another. and i felt that love for us, that community experience tonight. and that's a very positive understanding that i'll take away from the visit here tonight. man: i'm glad that you're here tonight, and we especially want to welcome our friends from temple emanu-el in marble head. take out the book of psalms and turn to page 17, and we'll sing together psalm 23. ♪ my soul he doth restore again ♪ ♪ and me to walk doth make ♪ within the paths of righteousness... ♪

woman: i was interested in the reference to god, and how that reference to god made me feel very comfortable, because the god that i know was the same god they were referring to. our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. give us this day our daily bread. one of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. noticing that jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him "of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "the most important one," answered jesus, "is this." "shema yisrael adonai elohaynu adonai ehad." "hear, o israel, the lord our god, the lord is one."

this acknowledgment, that the lord god is one, that he is the supreme ruler over all of life and even death, this was the central theological strand and core in jesus' faith. he did more than give it lip service, he believed it. ♪ praise thy faithfulness, praise thy faithfulness ♪ ♪ morning by morning new mercies i see ♪ ♪ all i hath needed thy hand hath provided ♪ ♪ praise thy faithfulness when i think about the way that i as a jewish woman think about christianity and church services,

this was so counter to my own supposition about what goes on in a church that i was really surprised. i think the one time where i found i was having difficulty was when the pastor referred to, again, jesus is the christ, at some particular part. my own personal thinking is that jesus was a great teacher. and in some ways we all have a lot to learn from what he taught. it's his divinity connection that i'm not comfortable with. i came with trepidation tonight. how was i going to feel? was i going to be able to listen to jesus, the son of god, and not feel my mother and grandmother were looking over my shoulder? i lived in a very small town in texas with only --

well, let me say we were the best jews because we were the only ones in the town. and i was brought up with all christian people. and i was one of them, i went to church. and when they would sing or something, i wouldn't say "jesus" or "christian." i never expressed my opinion either way on it. and i guess just by being brung up by my parents, they would permit me to go to church, but they would always make sure that i knew i was jewish. and the people in the town knew i was jewish, and they respected us for it. what i expected to hear was a much more harsh view of god. and instead the message was exactly the same message that you hear in jewish prayer -- one of love, hope, faith. it was really the same thing, but you wouldn't know that necessarily from the popular myths, which tend to, i think,

emphasize the differences rather than the similarities. ♪ praise thy faithfulness, lord unto me ♪ man: not in 2,000 years has there been a chance for jews and christians to really reconcile, to come together after all the blood and the persecution and the discrimination by christians against jews in the past. we have a chance to change the course, literally, for the next millennium. the struggle is worth it, because i have seen change, i have seen people really revamp their attitudes towards jews and judaism, and jews change their attitudes towards christians. i would call us to this common vision we have of god's kingdom.

to work side by side towards a common understanding of what the world is supposed to look like, what god had in mind for it to look like from the beginning. christians and jews share that common vision of the kingdom. the one thing i'd like to change would be that both jews and christians see each other, first of all, most of all, and continuingly as individual persons made in the image of god. i don't know if we can develop a humility, a modesty, a sense of humor with respect to the kinds of theologic claims that we make. but if we can't, i think the contribution that our traditions can make to the building of a world that our children and our grandchildren can enjoy, will be greatly diminished.

in the christian/jewish dialogue there's a lot of well-meaning talk. but it ends up so often being shallow and superficial unless one can go to the other and ask "what pains you?" can we develop that sense of modesty, that sense of awareness that none of us has absolute answers, none of us has access to absolute truth? we're all struggling to have some understanding of the nature of the human experience. we can learn from each other. we can grow from each other. we can engage in this process of tikkun olam, of repairing the world together, whether we're christians or jews or muslims, if we choose to do so. if there is ultimately one god that unites us -- as a jew shall we say i'm giving you a christian answer on the subject now, to wit, that we need to pray in a deeper sense, both jews and christians, so god can simply guide our paths

as we move on into a better future. the interfaith dialogue has to go through a process of inner reckoning of the soul. but the starting point is faith. that is our faith in god, our faith on the goal of god, and our faith in the other person as a person of god, not an object of contempt. if we are to overcome the divisions that scar our land, whether they are divisions that are religious or the painful divisions of racial hostility or ethic hatred, we must learn that peoples who have a painful history can come together, can begin the process of reconciliation. but the real trick is what i call "holy envy." there is something in the other that is beautiful,

that even tells you something about god, but it ain't yours, it's different. and unless there is that element of holy envy but not like american imperialists then immediately trying to incorporate it. that becomes cut flowers in our garden. we are different. and that we should celebrate that diversity. okay, so we'll get along together, we'll be loving and kind of understanding? and we'll work to bring the messiah. and then the messiah will come, and you'll see, it'll turn out, the jew thought, "it's the first time." and of course this will be a proof that judaism was right all along. and the christians thought, it'll be the second time, and it'll prove that christianity was right all along. and i thought that for many years, and then one day i woke up and realized i underestimate,

as usual, god's love and god's sense of humor. i know exactly what's going to happen now. the messiah's going to show up, and of course the world will be redeemed, and they'll call a press conference and you all know the first question. the first question is going to be "is this your first coming or your second coming?" now i know what i thought in the old days, but now i'm absolutely convinced i know the correct answer. the messiah will smile and say "no comment." and then we will realize it was worth it all along, not that we were right and they were wrong, but it was worth it to be the vehicle, however unworthy, however partial, of this infinite love that transformed the world. that's what it was all about. the relationship between jews and christians cannot be compared to any other relationship precisely because christians are for, affirm, the revelation at mount sinai, the divinity of the torah, of the five books of moses, of the hebrew bible, and of the events that formed the children of israel.

in other words, as martin buber put it, "we share a book, and that's no small thing." [ singing in hebrew ] ♪ praise to the living god ♪ all praised be his name ♪ who was, and is, and is to be ♪ ♪ and still the same ♪ the one eternal god ♪ ere aught that now appears ♪ the first, the last ♪ beyond all thought ♪ his timeless years

♪ his timeless years ♪ his timeless years [ singing in hebrew ] ♪ praise to the living god, all praised be his name ♪ ♪ who was, and is, and is to be, and still the same ♪ [ singing in hebrew ]

♪ we worship him purchase this program for your home video use for $29.95. if you wish to use this video for educational purposes in schools, churches, synagogues, or libraries there is an additional public performance fee. please inquire. this program was made possible by an investment from... additional funding by konover investments corporation and its founder simon konover.

stocks fell on worries that china might... announcer: the new pbs for ipad app. you'll never know what you'll find. [dog barks] announcer: available now in the app store.

[soft instrumental music] ♪ it's my pleasure to welcome you to this performance by the raleigh ringers coming to you from meymandi concert hall at the bti performing arts center in raleigh, north carolina. the raleigh ringers is a community-based handbell ensemble that gave its first performance in 1990, but our instrument, the english handbell, has been around for hundreds of years. the ringers of the large bells found in the towers of so many english churches developed complex methods of repeatedly changing the order in which the bells were rung according to a memorized pattern. all this needed a lot of practice standing in a non-climate-controlled stone tower, hauling on a rope to control a massive bell, whose voice would unavoidably be heard for miles around. hoping to make their practice sessions more comfortable and less public,

the ringers asked bell manufacturers to make them some small bells tuned to pitches that matched the bells in their tower. once these little bells existed, it was only natural to start playing tunes on them. and, well, here we are today. [playing handbells allegro and mezzo piano] ♪ [playing fortissimo] ♪ [playing mezzo forte] ♪ [playing fortissimo] ♪

[playing mezzo forte] ♪

[playing fortissimo] ♪

[playing mezzo forte] ♪ [playing mezzo piano] ♪

[playing mezzo forte] ♪

[applause] [playing handbells lento and pianissimo] ♪ [playing allegro and mezzo forte] ♪

[playing fortissimo] ♪ [playing mezzo piano] ♪

[playing mezzo forte] ♪ [playing mezzo piano] ♪

[playing mezzo forte] ♪ [applause]

[playing handbells andante and pianissimo] ♪ [playing allegretto and mezzo piano] ♪

[playing andante and pianissimo] ♪

[playing allegretto and mezzo piano] ♪

[playing mezzo forte] ♪

[applause] the raleigh ringers started out with one bell set of 61 notes. we gradually added more bells for higher and lower notes, but we also had another idea. some of us had heard groups perform on bells made by other manufacturers. in some cases, those bells had tone qualities noticeably different from our bells. we thought we could use bells of other manufacturers in combination with our original set to produce a more varied sound. no one, to our knowledge, had tried this before. we bought our second set, tried it in combination with the original set,

and liked the effect so much that we now own and use six sets of instruments made by four different manufacturers. of course, there was no published handbell music that exploited the range and variety of instruments we were acquiring. however, we commission four to six new handbell pieces every year, and in so doing, we now offer composers the opportunity to write for a unique diversity of bell voices. [playing handbells allegretto and mezzo forte] ♪

[playing mezzo piano] ♪ [playing allegro] ♪

[music stops abruptly] [playing handbells and choirchimes pianissimo] ♪

[playing mezzo piano] ♪

[playing allegro and mezzo forte] ♪

[music stops abruptly] [applause] [playing handbells andante and mezzo piano] ♪

[playing allegro and mezzo forte] ♪

[playing pianissimo] ♪ [applause]

[playing handbells largo and pianissimo] ♪

[playing largo and pianissimo] ♪

[playing handbells and choirchimes allegretto] ♪

[playing mezzo forte] ♪