I'm not conflicted in my belief: I am realistic.
Atheists claim there is an issue with g-d being perfect. I agree. If you walk into a room with four Jews, you have five different Judaisms. Judaism may not be branched off the way Christianity is, but as a people we have varying beliefs. Many Jews are not even religious.
By claiming that g-d is imperfect, I am not belittling g-d's character. I love g-d, flaws and all.
Actually I was addressing trantrica44, but that's okay....lol Yes, I know many Jews are not religious. the questions I'm asking are interest, nothing more. So how I understand it, is that you all believe the Old Testament (Torah), but there are differences in interpretation of portions of The Law, handed down to Moses, and the Hebrew children in the desert? I know there are different beliefs among the different "sects" concerning dietary laws, dress, etc. Could this be because you all were scattered all over the world, and are now gathering back to Israel? However, you all believe in the study of the Torah as a whole....right?
Sorry, if I'm asking to much, but I'm honestly interested. You all believe in the Sabbath, Passover, ect......right? So the difference is broken down of those beliefs of the Old Testament Law, and how it's interpreted? So that's how the different Judaism's come from? When I was in Israel, I saw some men have those "furry" hats. I asked about those, and was told that they were worn because of some 3rd country ruler who made the Jews wear them for a sick joke, to poke fun at them. Now........it has become a symbol of pride and recognition for that particular sect of Jews.
Everything about your race interests me. I'm going to be studying the Old Testament from a Rabbi myself, and looking forward to it. In order to really understand what is written, I have to understand the times and customs of the day, and the time which they lived, which is just barely touching what can be revealed.
I am actually a convert, and am young in my religion.
I can tell you what I believe, but I promise it won't be universal. Basically, though, in order to really understand the times and customs of the day, you'd need a good background in Hebrew, and even then things are conflicting, since the Torah was written without vowels. The Torah is actually just the first five books of the OT, and, in its entirety, we call it the Tanakh. We also study rabbinic writings; many modern Rabbis quote Moses Maimonides quite a bit as he is one of the most popular when it comes to study.
The major holidays are Shabbat, Pesach, Rosh Hashana, and Yom Kippur. Many Jews will only attend temple on the High Holy days (Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur), and others celebrate all the holidays. Interesting fact, though, is that Hanukkah is not a major holiday; it is not even in the Tanakh. It is actually in the Book of Maccabees and was instituted as a result of the religious tolerance movement in making sure that all religions are celebrated during the Christmas holiday season. The most important thing to remember, though about all Jewish holidays is these seven all-encompassing words: they attacked us, we won, let's eat.
When it comes to language, something I've been noticing on the boards are the misuses of g-d's name. Hashem is not g-d's name; it is actually translated to
The Name. G-d's name is actually referred to as tetragrammaton, meaning literally "four letters", the Hebrew letters Yod Hey Vav Hey. It is often translated as "to be" or "I am." There are no vowels, and there is no pronunciation...
I repeat...No pronunciation for this. The pronunciation was lost during the destruction of the temple. The tetragrammaton is not translated as Yehovah, or Jehovah...that word was created by taking the vowels from the word "Adonai" meaning my ruler and placing those vowels on the tetragrammaton. There are, if I am remembering the number correctly, 72 names for g-d. This makes it difficult, IMO, to take g-d's name in vain, since we actually do not know g-d's name, other than to call g-d "I am." This opens up quite a bit of interpretation of that commandment, IMO. A good, thorough, study of the commandments, though, would take quite some time, considering there are actually 613 of them, using the big 10 as a sort of table of contents.
In parting, a story I think you may find interesting...and it is actually one of my favorites. My favorite quote (Mi Chamocha) actually has an amazing story to it. The quotation was made as the Israelites were standing at the Red Sea and Moses was asking g-d for help. The story goes that they stood on the shore of the sea and cried out
Mi Chamocha! and took a step into the waters. After they took the first step they began walking forward, crying out
ba'elim Adonai? By the time they cried out again
Mi Kamocha, they were head deep in the waters and had begun to choke (the translation in English for Mi Chamocha and Mi Kamocha are both the same
who is like you?, yet this explains the difference in spelling and pronunciation). As they were choking yet still praying, the waters parted, and they were able to cross to their freedom. The moral, to me, of this story, is that you have to take yourself as far as you possibly can before asking for help. Therein lies my belief in self-reliance and responsibility for ones actions. There is no shame in asking for help when its needed, but one should not expect a hand-out.
I hope this helps those who don't understand or would like to know more about Judaism. I am by no means here to convert, but I am more than willing to discuss any aspect of my religion with those that wish to civilly. Shalom.
Community Forum
Topic: Favorite Bible Quotes (Read 40926 times)
May 05, 2011, 09:24:04 pm
