Jews have every reason to celebrate the millennium

You bet your life you should celebrate the millennium.

All politics, they say, are local. In the case of that part of the Middle East we call Eretz Yisrael -- the Land of Israel -- local politics have global impact.

And they always did.

The events that happened in Judea 2,000 years ago still reverberate around much of the world. Otherwise, Dec. 31 would be just another day, not the turning of the millennium. That this date has theological and cosmological implications for so many bears witness to the enduring pull of Israel, whose ideas, literature and fortunes helped shape the course of Western civilization.

Two millennia ago, when the Romans thrust themselves into the Jewish body politic, the stage was set for our subsequent, tortured relations with the non-Jewish world.

How should we, the people who first sanctified time, treat the eve of the new millennium? For Christians, Dec. 31 is a momentous tick of the cosmic clock. For us it's Shabbat. Should we also treat it as special?

On this Shabbat let's recognize that after 2,000 years, Christendom officially has made peace with us and with our faith. Events set in motion so long ago finally seem to have played out. Within our own generation, the Catholic Church and Protestant denominations have recognized their errors of doctrine, admitted their sins of persecution and asked us for forgiveness.

The long, dark night of Christian anti-Semitism, seeded in our defeat by Rome, has ended.

And the darkest hour came right before the flowering of the dawn of our redemption, the establishment of the state of Israel. Decimated, miraculously we emerged in a position of relative strength.

The passing of the millennium is something to celebrate. We are witnessing the era of official Christian repentance, and good Christians are embracing it. They may want to witness to us, but their relationship to us is no longer binary, characterized by either seeking to convert or destroy us.

Acceptance of Jews and recognition of Israel are official church doctrine. And it is good.

I'm not naive. Anti-Semitism isn't dead. We are threatened by an angry, violent fringe. Anti-Semitism will not go quietly into that good night. But neither should our wounds from this terrible century or our suffering from those two millennia blind us to the change that has occurred.

The trials of the past two millennia began with our entanglement with the world's then-greatest superpower, Rome. As we grapple to understand the next epoch in Jewish history, again we are enmeshed with a superpower -- the United States of America -- the greatest power the world has seen since Rome.

Only this time, we and the superpower are on the same side. It has absorbed us. It is impelled by a Christianity that now believes it is a moral imperative to accept us.

It is premature to celebrate, some might argue. I say that not to celebrate the end of Christian enmity is to miss a historic opportunity. After our darkest hour, it is time to come together as Jews, and say, "L'chaim!" Like Israel Independence Day, it is a time to acknowledge that we prevailed against all odds and at enormous cost.

Now we are living at a time of great blessing. Our nation, our language, our religion, our tradition, our stories, our text, and, yes, our future, are all in our hands.

It's amazing.

What better way to celebrate than to embrace Shabbat, however you observe it. But by all means, observe it -- this of all Shabbats.