Children and Christian Services

A boy belonging to our congregation attends an Epis copal day school. He sings in the choir, each member of which is required to wear a cross. What is the atti tude of Jewish law to the Jewish boy participating in the choir-singing and wearing the cross? (From Rabbi William Braude, Providence, Rhode Island)

As for the cross itself, that does not necessarily involve too strict a violation. In the Shulchan Aruch (Yore Deah 141 : 1), Isserles says that such crosses as are bowed down to—for example, those at a church altar or at a wayside shrine—are forbidden (for a Jew to own or to handle) but “those that are hung on the neck as mementos are not technically ‘tzalem,’ an idol, and are permitted.” By the way, our small Shulchan Aruchs use the word “zuros” (images) but the Shulchan Aruchs not printed in Russia use what must have been Isserles’ original phrase, “shesi v’erev” (a cross). The commentators make it clear that if this cross is not directly adored in worship (i.e., if that particular cross is not bowed down to), it is not forbidden. This law is old, going back at least to Raviah in the Rhineland (twelfth century). Of course it means that a Jew may own such a cross and handle it and accept it as a pledge for a debt; it does not mean that he may wear it, although the law indicates at least that an ordinary cross worn but not worshiped is not too strictly forbidden.

However, the more important question here is whether a Jewish boy may participate in or help conduct an Episcopal service. The service is trinitarian. That does not mean that we do not consider the Episcopal service to be a true worship of God. The fact that they add “Son” and “Holy Ghost” to the name of God when they worship, does not make it for them, in the eyes of Jewish law, false or idolatrous worship. Christians are “children of Noah” and as such are not forbidden “shittuf,” the addition of other personages in their worship of God. This is clear, for example, from the famous Tosfos to b. Sanhedrin 63b, in which Rabbenu Tarn says: “Although they may take oaths by their other sacred personages, saints, et cetera, they are really taking their oath to God, and although they associate God’s name with others, the sons of Noah are not forbidden to do so.” So, too, it is codified in the Shulchan Aruch (Orah Hayyim 156, note of Isserles). For further reference, see Reform Jewish Practice, II, 37-38. But the Jewish boy in the Episcopal choir worships with Christians and reads Christian responses, et cetera. This is forbidden to him. Being a Jew, he is forbidden any “shittuf” and may not participate in any trinitarian worship.