Religious Identity and Appropriation
Someone I'm friends with on Facebook just had a bunch of stress dumped on her and her family and posted "Please be praying for us that things will fall into place quickly and smoothly. I praise Hashem for his amazing grace and his son Yeshua (Jesus) for dying on the cross. (I know not everyone believes and that is okay, but the first person that makes negative remarks will be deleted from my friends list.) We are under a lot of stress."
I don't know this person very well, we're more of acquaintances, and I'm not likely to go commenting in her space about her personal beliefs (despite any arguments about an open Facebook post not quite being personal space) but her comment about Hashem and Yeshua weirded me out. And in trying to figure out why, I went and checked her info page and, as I expected from what I know about her, her religion is listed at Christian. Then I realized why it weirded me out.
Hashem is a Hebrew name for God. The reason we call God Hashem is because God's real name is too holy to be said out loud so we came up with a title, essentially, to use instead. (I'm skipping past the fact that there are multiple names for God in Judaism, as that's not really my point here.) My point is that Hashem means The Name, literally, and it's Hebrew, and it never appears in the Pentateuch, so how can she lay claim to it at all? Does she know the meaning, the origin of that name for God? And even if she does, does she know the cultural assumptions surrounding that name? Probably not.
According to Facebook, she grew up in Arkansas and Texas, not locations known for huge Jewish communities. And even so, she's not part of the Jewish community. Her taking the name Hashem and using it to refer to God in the same context as Jesus (whom she also calls by his Hebrew name) feels to me like cultural appropriation, or something very similar. She's taking a word that has a lot of significance and importance and using it out of context and it's my word and my significance and how dare she.
I think it would weird me out much less if a Messianic Jew used Hashem and Yeshua as names for God and Jesus. (Actually, I care much much much less about using Yeshua than I do Hashem because I lay no claim to Jesus/Yeshua as a religious figure so call him what you will.) Because if you're a Messianic Jew -- a Jew, culturally and religiously, who also believes that Jesus was the messiah, then at least you know the appropriate context and history and assumptions for using Hashem as a name for God. And if you follow Jewish practices (at least in your own way) and try to be part of the Jewish community (as much as you are comfortable with) and understand Judaism and consider yourself Jewish (yes, I know people who fall under that definition of a Messianic Jew -- this does not include what I know of Jews for Jesus) then I have no problem with you using Jewish names for God. You understand them. They're part of your culture as well. You have a right to them, too.
But someone who has no significant understanding of Judaism? Call God what you will, but use your name, not mine.
I don't know this person very well, we're more of acquaintances, and I'm not likely to go commenting in her space about her personal beliefs (despite any arguments about an open Facebook post not quite being personal space) but her comment about Hashem and Yeshua weirded me out. And in trying to figure out why, I went and checked her info page and, as I expected from what I know about her, her religion is listed at Christian. Then I realized why it weirded me out.
Hashem is a Hebrew name for God. The reason we call God Hashem is because God's real name is too holy to be said out loud so we came up with a title, essentially, to use instead. (I'm skipping past the fact that there are multiple names for God in Judaism, as that's not really my point here.) My point is that Hashem means The Name, literally, and it's Hebrew, and it never appears in the Pentateuch, so how can she lay claim to it at all? Does she know the meaning, the origin of that name for God? And even if she does, does she know the cultural assumptions surrounding that name? Probably not.
According to Facebook, she grew up in Arkansas and Texas, not locations known for huge Jewish communities. And even so, she's not part of the Jewish community. Her taking the name Hashem and using it to refer to God in the same context as Jesus (whom she also calls by his Hebrew name) feels to me like cultural appropriation, or something very similar. She's taking a word that has a lot of significance and importance and using it out of context and it's my word and my significance and how dare she.
I think it would weird me out much less if a Messianic Jew used Hashem and Yeshua as names for God and Jesus. (Actually, I care much much much less about using Yeshua than I do Hashem because I lay no claim to Jesus/Yeshua as a religious figure so call him what you will.) Because if you're a Messianic Jew -- a Jew, culturally and religiously, who also believes that Jesus was the messiah, then at least you know the appropriate context and history and assumptions for using Hashem as a name for God. And if you follow Jewish practices (at least in your own way) and try to be part of the Jewish community (as much as you are comfortable with) and understand Judaism and consider yourself Jewish (yes, I know people who fall under that definition of a Messianic Jew -- this does not include what I know of Jews for Jesus) then I have no problem with you using Jewish names for God. You understand them. They're part of your culture as well. You have a right to them, too.
But someone who has no significant understanding of Judaism? Call God what you will, but use your name, not mine.