Whenever possible, whenever we were allowed to, we Jews have lived side by side with Christians, Muslims, and pagans, without causing them any trouble. We have no desire to proselytize to them; we have no desire to turn them into Jews. In fact, we have no Commandment in our religion to make any non-Jew into a Jew.

As such, Jews have no problems with people of other religions, and they shouldn’t have a problem with us.

Unfortunately, many Christians do have a mandate to proselytize, and they do feel that they must proselytize to Jews and turn them into Christians.

And that is a problem.

First of all, there can be no peace if people do not accept each other for what they are. If you are unhappy with what I am, you will not be at peace. If you keep trying to change me, you will be disturbing my peace as well.

Our purpose, that is, what Jews do, is to fulfill what Hashem wants us to do. How do we know what Hashem wants us to do? Hashem gave us a Torah, and told us to follow the Torah always. So we study the Torah, and fulfill the Commandments.

Missionaries feel we have that wrong. Continue reading →