"Few biblical dicta have been more clearly reflected in history than the statement that those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse it will be cursed, or that those who are blessed bless Israel and those who are cursed curse Israel. The decline of a nation can often be clearly related to the way it has treated the Jew, and its prosperity stands in direct proportion to its sense of equity and human dignity. For if "this people Israel" does rest at the fulcrum of spiritual history, its condition must be essential to the welfare of its environment."
. . .
"To be sure, the world has but rarely given credence to this view. It has not usually seen the Jews as a "great nation," typifying humanity's highest and noblest aspirations. Christians and Muslims have exalted Abram/Abraham as their spiritual father and at the same time have denied validity to the religious quest of the Jews."
I know sadly little about Islam, and I've not had an in-depth conversation about religion with a Muslim (this ought to change), but one thing that has always bothered me about a certain type of Christian (by no means all, just a certain type) is their conviction that Judaism ought to be over. I feel fortunate that I haven't run into the situation described by several of my classmates in my Introduction to Judaism class, in which close friends and family members were horrified at their decision to convert.
According to their own stories, these particular people came from only-casually-Christian backgrounds and were therefore surprised at their kith and kin's vehemence; I'm not sure the rabbi teaching the class really got that those Christians were honestly afraid for my classmates' souls. Judaism isn't so much into the idea of eternal damnation, but a fair amount of Christianity is, and nobody wants to see someone they love condemned to hell for eternity.
Although my personal idea of what happens after death varies from moment to moment, swinging from "nothing" to "Sheol" to "reincarnation" to "it doesn't actually matter, what matters is what we do while we're here", the idea of being condemned to hell forever with no hope of redemption has never quite rung true for me. I can't think of many people who would deserve that, and even if there are, it's not my judgment to make. Clearly.
(As a side note, I am aware that traditional Judaism believes in physical resurrection in the Messianic Age, and that's why cremation is right out. [That, and Shoah, but that happened later.] Of course, many thousands of years have passed for some people, so there is probably less left of them than ashes, and if the Almighty can somehow restore them to a physical body, why can't He restore ashes?)
(As a side note to the side note, if there is an afterlife, do we get to see our pets again?)
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