abomination-of-gender:

abomination-of-gender:

christianity: the lord is my shepherd and i am a lamb whom He will guide to safety

judaism: we call ourselves “the god-punchers”, bc we like to remind Him of that time He lost a fight against our great-great-great-granddad

i see a lot of confusion in the tags so here’s an explanation of the joke!

• the joke of this post is referencing the story of Jacob in Genesis. Jacob is one of the legendary Patriarchs of Judaism whom all non-convert Jews claim descent from, so he technically is my great-great-….-granddad.
• At one point, Jacob meets a stranger on the road, who he ends up fighting for a reason the text is unclear about. Jacob wins the fight, and the angel reveals that he was actually a holy spirit in disguise. 
• The precise identity of the man is a point of contention in all traditions- there’s an even split between if it’s God himself or an angel sent as an emissary.
• Regardless, the man blesses Jacob and names him Israel- ישראל, yisra’el. The name is complicated to translate, but one popular one is “he who wrestles with God”. His descendants adopted this as one of their ethnonyms- בני ישראל, b’nei yisra’el, the children of Israel, the Jewish people.
• So saying we Jews call ourselves “the god-punchers” is a loose translation, definitely, but I’d give an honest argument that it accurately portrays the spirit of the phrase, especially by giving it a glib and boastful modern phrasing.
• for the nitpickers: yes, “The Lord is my shepherd” is a part of Jewish belief too! It’s from a passage in Psalms, which is a book that Jews and Christians do share.
• But the relationship that we Jews have with HaShem is complicated and occasionally even adversarial. The Christian relationship, on the other hand, is much more, well, patriarchal. Jesus is a father figure who is always good and never needs a stern talking-to from His creations. 
• In contrast, the Torah and Talmud are full of stories of Jews arguing with HaShem- and winning, and HaShem being ecstatic that He lost the argument. Bickering with our deity is a sacred Jewish tradition that continues to the present day.