Second in a series

Re “Jerusalem Belongs to the Whole World, Says Rabbi”

It is fair to challenge how seriously Neil Comess-Daniels, a well-regarded longtime liberal rabbi in Santa Monica, takes his Judaism.

Not very, to be succinct.

In a bizarre, ill-timed, ill-worded,  rambling, address at the Islamic Center of Southern California hours after President Trump declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel, the angry rabbi hurled two sizzling insults at fellow Jews.

Blandly, he called his speech “Let’s Talk About Jerusalem.”

His two main points:

• Jerusalem belongs equally to all religions, and
• There is no difference between and among the religions of the world.

Why be anything when you can gain equal fulfillment, less stressfully, by being nothing?

Rabbi Comess-Daniels’s religiously scorching talk was like being served a hamburger that had been on a fired-up stove since last week.

In the earliest days of his synagogue, Beth Shir Shalom, they rented space from an Episcopal church. Respectfully, said the rabbi, the crosses were covered during services for Jews.

Over time, he said he learned to respect the holy furniture of the church. He concluded there was no difference between “the Lord’s holy table” used by the church and the stand from which members of his synagogue read the Torah each Shabbat.

“I had one of the most amazing experiences of my life when I went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (in Jerusalem) with a group of Jews, Christians and Muslims,” Rabbi Comess-Daniels said.

“I had a similar experience at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

“I was there in the days when Jews were allowed to enter. It was between prayer times. So few people were there, it felt empty – until I felt the old faded prayer carpets speaking to me of the thousands of knees and heads that had used them as an altar, and thus had been in contact with Allah.”

Roaring toward his (merciful) finish line, Rabbi Comess-Daniels ranked himself well above President Trump.

“I cannot and will not dismiss the power of any of these (rival religious) symbols, as our president did,” the rabbi said.

“I have a wonderful teacher who taught us the phrase ‘merely symbolic’ should be stricken from the language. Things are symbolic or they are not. That is Jerusalem – for us all.

“If you treat every problem like a nail waiting to be hit, a hammer becomes your only tool. Our president had the audacity to turn into a nail in the framework of his ow political purposes.”

And here G-d thought Jews would be thrilled to officially have Jerusalem recognized by the most important country in his creation.