Hi Zandi,
I love your independent research on the idea of man’s depravity in Judaism. I personally have heard Dennis Prager, a famous Jewish commentator whom I enjoy listening to, say that the difference between Judaism and Christianity is that Christianity is focused on the heart, while Judaism is focused on outward actions. I find this a very interesting take, as 1 Samuel 16:7 says (God is referring to David) “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” In the same way, we could glean so much about the context, history, and perspective of different passages in the Bible if we tapped into the wealth of knowledge coming from a Jewish perspective. Perhaps we could each benefit from the other’s perspective if we were able to come together and focus on common ground.
I have a huge heart for the Jewish people. I think we should have compassion and understanding when considering why they (rightly) are apprehensive about Christians, considering the history of Jew hate coming from Christians that we learned about in this class–and which still exists today, if you look at social media. However, I believe that if we approach these subjects with love and understanding, and a goal of coming together, we would find we have much more in common than we think.
