Letter from Alabama: 'Rabbi, will you take my dog when the Rapture comes?'
Last edited Fri Jan 24, 2020, 11:34 AM - Edit history (1)
I was blessed to spend the bulk of my rabbinic service in a place I didn’t belong. I am a Yankee, born in New York, who served a synagogue in the Deep South. When I first arrived decades ago, I found myself anxiously striving to keep Judaism — and Jews — from being submerged in the waters of Bible Belt Christianity. Gradually, I learned to relax and float on top of the water and not try to swim against the current. I learned so much about faith and religion, which reinforced my appreciation for my own.
Many Christians in my part of the country live in a state of constant anticipation of what they call the “Rapture.” They believe the end of time will come in stages. The first stage, the “Rapture,” will draw believers into heaven to be close with Jesus so they can avoid the end of time travails; Armageddon, in other words. After that, God will judge those who remain behind and bring some to heaven and cast the rest to eternal perdition. We Jews are not lost, entirely, because we’re in the first group. We have reservations on the train to eternal bliss — it just leaves a little later.
That I live amid this view of reality came home to me in an especially poignant way a few years ago. It was the Spring of 2016. In Alabama, no time is more beautiful. I had anticipated a quiet, uneventful day in the office. The phone message light was on when I came in, so I pushed the button. A man with a southern country drawl had left me this:
“Rabbi, my name is Renferd Higgins (not his real name) and I need me a Jew to take care of my dog. Sure would ’preciate you to call me back at … “
https://forward.com/news/national/438780/rapture-rabbi-armageddon/
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