No matter how much most secular pop Christmas music gets on
my nerves (and it really gets on my
nerves), I still appreciate traditional religious Christmas music and classical
Christmas-inspired pieces. That might
seem odd, since I’m a convert to Judaism, but the traditional Christmas music
touches the part of my brain that likes to think about spiritual matters, even
though I don’t come to the same religious conclusions Christians do.
Consider the beloved choral piece “For Unto Us A Child is
Born,” as translated for Handel’s Messiah.
“ For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
The lyrics are the King James English translation of Isaiah 9:6, as sacred to Jews as to Christians. But the lyrics have a different significance to people of each faith. To Christians, they are confirmation of the fulfillment of prophesy through Jesus. To Jews, they are a promise that has not yet been fulfilled. And the text is absolutely legitimate when imagined through either world view.
“ For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
The lyrics are the King James English translation of Isaiah 9:6, as sacred to Jews as to Christians. But the lyrics have a different significance to people of each faith. To Christians, they are confirmation of the fulfillment of prophesy through Jesus. To Jews, they are a promise that has not yet been fulfilled. And the text is absolutely legitimate when imagined through either world view.
From my Jewish point of view, the idea that
“the government shall be upon his shoulder” is a pretty clear indication that
the literal and supposedly historical figure of Jesus could not be the promised
Messiah. But Christians have other ways
of interpreting this phrase. And in a
way, it doesn’t really matter, because whether you see the Messiah as having
arrived in a literal sense, or whether you see the Messiah as a metaphor for a
new birth of spirituality and human kindness that is yet to take place, as I
do, joy and hope are the end result.
Joy, hope, and peace are the hallmarks of
traditional Christmas music. The quiet
beauty of “Silent Night,” the jubilance of “Joy to the World,” and the stately reverence
of The Messiah are universal in
nature, though not in the specific religious interpretations of their texts. Rather, the large body of traditional Christmas
music that has survived the decades and even the centuries has survived because
it speaks to a broader spiritual yearning that the major religions all have in
common. So, though I am Jewish, I still listen.
