Q&A: Why do rabbis refuse to debate Messianic Jews?
Why do rabbis refuse to debate Messianic Jews?
Question
With God’s help,
Background to the question:
There is a podcaster named “Ryan Hatzbani” who is a Christian preacher claiming to be a Messianic Jew (even though he is Arab, so it is not clear to me how he is Jewish), and he is trying to organize a debate about the authority of the Oral Torah, with the missionary “Golan Broshi” from the iGod channel, against some rabbi. He claims that he approached more than 30 rabbis, and maybe three seriously considered coming. Supposedly, one of the rabbis he approached agreed to come, but at the last minute canceled on the grounds that “the great Torah authorities forbade him from participating in the debate.” I do not know whether that is true, but he showed his correspondence with that rabbi, and with the operator of the YouTube channel that the rabbi may know, “The Lies of Missionary Work and the Truth of the Torah.” That same Anonymous who runs the channel “The Lies of Missionary Work and the Truth of the Torah” also refused to participate in the debate, this time with the claim that “I do not like participating in public debates, because each side tries to show how right it is, and not really to try to understand the other side.”
So basically my question is: are these reasons just excuses? If they approached the Rabbi, as they already have several times in the past but this time against atheists, would the Rabbi agree?
Answer
I am waiting for an invitation to a debate with a cat that claims to be a carrier pigeon.
I have no interest in such a discussion because it is not interesting. Whoever wants to be a Christian can be a Christian. My argument is with atheists, not with Christians.
Discussion on Answer
Rabbi, are you not concerned about Jews who convert to Christianity because of those missionaries?
That is not a question of what interests me. If someone believes in Christianity, I have nothing to say to him. This is not a philosophical or logical debate based on arguments.
Hello Rabbi, why are there no arguments?
An argument, for example: Christianity too admits that Judaism was accepted as true, so if they want to claim that Christianity is true they would need to account for strong arguments, which is probably almost impossible because the Hebrew Bible can be interpreted.
In Israel, the field is not developed enough.
It is not that rabbis are afraid; it is simply due to lack of knowledge.
There may also be an issue of discomfort. Many Jewish commentators throughout history interpreted certain prophecies as prophecies about the messiah (from the plain meaning of the text this is not really derived), similar to Christians.
Be that as it may, their statements are usually nonsense.
I assume they need to know whom to approach.
They should approach rabbis whose main area is Christianity, like Rabbi Tovia Singer, or outreach rabbis who deal with theology or have a broad perspective, like Rabbi Yehoshua Enbal (I do not know whether he goes to debates in general).
I think an ordinary rabbi is put off because Christianity is seen as something very archaic and not something that troubles the general population, unlike atheism, which is the other side nowadays.
And in general there are rabbis who like debates less, and there are also many people who would not go to debates.