BY BRIAN LEWIS

ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN

 

Rabbi Schmuley Boteach is best known as Michael Jackson’s unofficial rabbi and the author of relationship books like “Kosher Sex.”

 

But now the rabbi is back in the news for his scholarship; he just wrote a book about Jesus, called “Kosher Jesus,” that portrays the historical Jesus as an observant Jewish rabbi without messianic ambitions. The LA Times summarizes the work:

“The book focuses on the Christian savior's Jewishness, portraying him as a hero who stood up to Roman rule of Palestine and paid with his life. In keeping with Jewish theology, it does not accept his resurrection or his divinity.”

Boteach thinks Jews have been wrongly blamed for Jesus’s Crucifixion. He summarizes his conception of Jesus for Israel’s IBA TV.

“Jesus was a Jew, and he never wanted to abrogate Jewish law. He never sought to stop the fulfillment of the commandments and he certainly wasn’t put to death by the rabbis or the religious authorities.”

But contrary to expectations much of the criticism is coming from rabbis — and not Christian groups. According to the LA Times, some rabbis have banned the book. Boteach responded to the rabbis by name in a series of blogs for the Huffington Post.  Here’s an example of one response to critics.

“Now we have Michael Skobac … attacking ‘Kosher Jesus’ and beginning with an unfortunate, gratuitous, personal, cheap shot … I really have to wonder, is there no one who can discuss this book without getting personal?”

Rabbi Skobac responded on the website of his group, Jews for Judaism, saying his criticism isn’t personal; it’s about the tone of Boteach’s scholarship.

“I inform my readers that the ideas I will be sharing are not conclusive and are controversial. Boteach, on the other hand, doesn’t introduce his work as speculative – it is presented as the truth.”

Still, based upon this interview with Publisher’s Weekly, it would seem that Boteach’s intended audience is decidedly Christian:

“It’s important for Christians to understand from Jewish sources why we reject the divinity and messiah-ship of Jesus. And Judaism deserves to claim a little bit of credit for the light that Christianity has brought to the world.”

That position is likely to rankle Christian readers, as book reviewer Alan Caruda from The Moral Liberal points out.
 

“As word of this book gets out, I suspect he will be contested by Christians because he meticulously reclaims the historical Jesus as quintessentially Jewish without a hint of the Christology that was applied to his life following his death at the hands of the Romans.”

The rabbi will likely remain in the news for a while, as he’s just announced a run for Congress in his home state of New Jersey.