She shooed them off earlier by pointing out the Magen David affiches on the windows and saying good by.
Next time, there were three, and at least one tried with me to be somewhat more diplomatic, noting the previously mentioned decorations and the mezuzot on our doors -- asking me to explain them (I wonder if they were hoping I would stumble).
The conversation had some interesting dialog I would like to mention.
Missionary: Have you ever met missionaries before?and
Jew: More than you can possibly imagine.
Missionary: Have you read the book of Mormonand then the subject monotheism* and the origin of evil came up
Jew: Yes, and the Koran, what you call the New Testament, and the Bhagavad Gita
Missionary: What did you think of it
Jew: Honestly? A poorly written fraud. [Would you want me
to lie?]
Missionary: God is the source of truthand finally:
Jew: ...and lies. Jews are fairly thorough monotheists, we don't have a
trinity or a devil, so all has to come from God.
Younger Missionary: But Lucifier is written about in Genesis.
[This is the reason for the title of this blog]
Jew: [Long slow look]
You really should read the book before you talk
about it.
Lucifer isn't mentioned until Isaish.
Satan isn't mentioned in Genesis -- just a snake.
The first mention of 'a' satan I can recall is in the
story of Balaam's Ass.
[A lecture on satan as a word and the meaning
of the character followed]
Missionary: Well is there anything we could do for you?
Jew: Yes let me enjoy the rest of my sabbath in peace.
I don't often get gifts like this.
*For the record, and seriously the concepts of the trinity and the Devil inherent in the creed really do lead me to think of Christianity as a polytheism.
4 comments:
A minor correction:
Satan () שטןis not mentioned in Tanach at all.
The term is "The Satan" (השטן) which can means evil inclination, when referring to ourselves, or other humans, or "The Adversary" (more properly "The Prosecutor) in the case of Job.
So, you could have told the missionary that we are all Satan, (more accurately that we all have the Satan inside us) and you would have been technically correct, and you would have f%$#ed with the missionaries even more.
My understanding ( coming from being raised in Batshite crazy ( can't spell crazy with out AZ) Az in a cult of Penecostal Xians, then to a Morman household that I rented a room from, to a study of Zen for 5 years with a master teacher, to then finding out I am Ta-da actually Jewish....so I simply did "Jew-bu" backwards and learned slanted biblical lore, which has been tricky to say the least--my children raised as ( upper class episcopalians--private school) Xians everything a bit view askew--but I learned that satan was the principle of thought being bound into matter...there for the earth is Satan's realm, every thought we don't think with God binding ideas into reality to be worked through and released (since we are no longer in paradise, but in the realm of that principle.
Actually the idea that the earth/matter is the Devil's realm and spirit God's is not Christian. It is Manichean.
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