Dear LD: Seder refers to the order of the
Passover service, or the celebration of the feast, or
festival, of Passover. The celebration follows a
specific order, both in the necessary accoutrements
as well as in the actual progression of the service
itself. The Hebrew word seder means "to set in a
certain order."
Frequently, rather than referring to the Haggadah
of Passover, or the legend, or telling, of the
Passover, because they all follow a certain order, it is
referred to simply as the Seder.
Your second question, or statement by the young
Jewish man, is indicative of the fact that Jews are not
without fault when it comes to prejudice and
misinterpretation. The passage to which you are
referring is Galatians 3:13-14, "Christ has redeemed
us from the curse of the law being made a curse for
us: for it is written, `cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree': That the blessing of Abraham might
come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we
might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith."
In Galatians, Paul quotes from Deuteronomy
21:21-23, "...and if a man has committed a sin
worthy of death by stoning and he shall be stoned to
death... and thou hang him on a tree: His body shall
not remain all night upon the tree, but you shall
bury him that day (for he that is hanged is accursed
of God) that thy land be not defiled which the Lord
thy God giveth thee for an inheritance."
Notice the crime for which the person was to be
stoned was that of a stubborn and rebellious son
who did not obey the voice of his father or mother.
This passage in Deuteronomy is considered written
law. In the Oral Law, namely the Mishnah, on
Order Nezikin (damages) in Tractate, or Chapter,
Sanhedrin 6:4, it further elaborates on the subject of
stoning. Then we are told that the blasphemer and
the idolater who was stoned was then hanged on a
tree. It is described thusly, "How did they hang him?
They sank a post into the ground and a piece of
wood protruded from it and one placed together his
two hands, one upon the other, and hanged him."
Rabbi Yosi says, "The post is leaned against a wall
and one hangs him thereon in the way that butchers
do and they undid him at once for, if it remains
suspended overnight, a negative commandment
would be transgressed thereby, as it is said, `His
body shall not remain all night upon a tree, but thou
shalt surely bury him the same day. For he that is
hanged is cursed of God,'" etc., meaning, "Why was
this man hanged? Because he blasphemed the name,
and the name of heaven was found profaned."
It is interesting to further note how the corpse must
be buried before sunset. The stone, or stones, used
in carrying out the execution and the post from
which the corpse was suspended were all buried with
the corpse. In Joshua 10:26-27, we read of this
practice being carried out by Joshua and his men
against five kings that made war against Israel.
"And afterward, Joshua smote them and slew them
and hanged them on five trees, and they were
hanging upon the trees until the evening, and it came
to pass at the time of the going down of the sun, that
Joshua commanded, and they took them down off
the trees, and cast them into the cave wherein they
had been hid, and laid great stones in the cave's
mouth, which remain until this very day."
Recent archaeological evidence indicates that the
tree upon which Jesus was crucified was not a cross
like the typical Christian cross but was, rather, in the
shape of a T (see the illustration in our book,
Understanding the Dfficult Words of Jesus, pages
64 and 65).
It was not until the Church spread to the West that
Christians began to adopt the cross as a symbol of
their faith. From the second century onward, it
began to be used in Christian circles as an amulet to
ward off evil spirits and to keep its possessor from
harm.
To say that Christian churches today are cursed
because of this passage is a gross misinterpretation.
If they stand condemned at all, it is for theological
error, false doctrine, and heresy, and not for the
offering up of the innocent in behalf of the guilty.
As to your question of the difference between
"Jewish" and "Hebrew," generally speaking, when
one uses the word "Jewish," he is referring to
Yiddish, the language of the European Jewry, as
opposed to Hebrew, the language of the Bible and
modern Israel. Yiddish is largely a fabricated
language made up of bits and pieces of many
European languages, principally German. If one
knows German, he usually does not have difficulty
in understanding Yiddish, and vice versa.
