interested in learning about being jewish....

right now i go to a catholic school. my mom makes me go, and makes me go to church every week. i dont really believe in Jesus. I believe he was a person, but not the son of God. I know Jews dont believe the Jesus was the son of God. but im interested in learning more about the jewish faith. we were actually studying some about it at my school (yes i know, shocking) and they had a rabbi come in and talk with us about things like being kosher and what not. isnt there like different kinds of judaism? like there is one kind that allows women to be rabbis and they dont have to be kosher? but then there are stricter jews? well anyways, if any of you would mind answering some of my questions and maybe telling me where i can find some good info, it would be great

 

Hi Tink.

The traditional answer to what you've asked might be to tell you that you don't need to be Jewish to pray to God because God is the God of all people and made a covenant with Noah for all time which contains 7 mitzvot (commandments) for all of humanity. This answer might continue and say that you can serve God in your own way as a non-Jew without converting.

I agree that a person does not have to be Jewish to pray to God. My bias is that I do not believe that any of the Tanach, the Jewish scriptures, are an accurate portrayal of history and I believe they are very much myth. So I would say to you that you should do research and look for what makes sense to you, which is what you are doing anyway, so I don't need to say it, but I already did.


So the questions you's asked. There are different types of Judaism but different from Christianity these are not sects but rather denominations or movements so the barriers aren't so great and nobody's denying anybody else's Jewishness. The theology is also generally more similar, and when it's not similar this dissimilarity may be found in the other denominations as well.

Before I say anything else, I should mention something about peoplehood. Judaism isn't simply a belief system. It's really the religion of the Jewish people. When a person because Jewish, they become a member of the Jewish people. A convert is not regarded as a convert, but rather as a Jew. According to a midrashic reading of a verse, all Jewish souls were at Sinai for the revelation, including those who weren't born in Jewish bodies.

Orthodox. Orthodox Jews believe that Moses received the Torah and the oral Torah at Sinai, and then the oral Torah was passed from generation to generation until it was finally put down within the mishna, which was then elaborated in the gemara, and when their powers combine they are... The Talmud. Although beliefs do vary, they generally are connected to Rambam's(Maimonides) 13 articles of faith which you can find here:

http://www.panix.com/~jjbaker/AniMaamin.html

Practice would mean following all of the active mitzvot because they are the will of God for the Jewish people. Judaism is a very ritualistic religion and so there are special observances with diet, with dress, with everything. God belongs everywhere. My experience is that ritual helps draw a person closer to God by reminding them He's there. And there are also of course more mitzvot (commandments) regarding moral activity as well.

Conservative Judaism is more liberal than Orthodoxy. They believe that Torah was written by man over time but that it was divinely inspired and that something happened at Sinai. But their beliefs vary a bit. They have an ambiguous stance regarding same sex marriage. They also have mixed seating and woman can be rabbis. In Orthodoxy there are no female rabbis and men and women sit separately, on either side of a divider called a mechitza. But the ideal Conservative Jew still fullfils all mitzvot. They're just understood a little differently. In practice this isn't always what happens.

Reform says the ritual law is no longer binding, and only the moral law is. Sometimes they'll have a choir or a lot of English in their services or an organ which all is not traditional. But some of this can be found in Conservative synagogues too. On Hebrew. Hebrew is the Jewish language of formal prayer. Most synagogues pray in Hebrew, with some English depending on the denomination and the shul. Even though it's no longer binding, Reform Jews still practice ritual law. But only because they choose to.

Reconstructionist Judaism rejects the idea of a supernatural God, that is it rejects the idea that God interferes with the laws of physics. It says that Torah is the product of the Jewish people. It may define God as the "power that makes for salvation" or the "sum of the animating, organizing forces and relationships which are forever making a cosmos out of chaos." Those are the words of Mordecai Kaplan, its founder. It sees Judaism as the "evolving religious civilization of the Jewish people." and says that a mitzvah(commandment) should be called a folkway, with tradition getting a vote but not a veto. Reconstructionism tends to be more interested in ritual than Reform although their ideas are more liberal.

Jewish Renewal is a movement that is extremely liberal. They try to integrate Jewish mysticism, which is also found in Orthodoxy at times, into the liberal movements and are very tolerant and they look to other religions for insight as well. Beliefs vary, but beliefs actually vary a bit in all of the liberal denominations. They also vary in Orthodoxy, but somehow connected to the 13 of Rambam. Renewal has innovated in some ways, like eco-kashrut(eco-dietery law) which at its most stringent would mean being a vegeterian. They focus much more on direct experience of the Divine.

For investigation on Judaism, I would suggest this website:

http://www.myjewishlearning.com/

But if you are more interested in the Orthodox view, I would suggest this site:

http://jewfaq.org/

However Orthodoxy is also represented on the other site, which has info from all denominations.

 

thanks alot! that really helped and thanks for the websites as well.

 

http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/index.htm


shalom...

 

mmm interesting.

 

i just dont really think that Jesus is all that important. What makes him the son of God? just because he preformed miracles or died for his faith? no i dont think so. i believe that Jesus was a prophet or something...not the son of god. and all the stuff with saints and what not. why are they saints anyways? there are plenty of holy people out there that have died for their faith and do great things...but they arent saints. i feel that the catholic church thinks they are superior to other religions and thats not something that i want to be part of. for me judaism is something that i feel i can connect with. does this make any sense to anyone? im just kind of rambling on...sorry..

 

Tink,

Islam says Jesus was a prophet. Judaism does not. Although some liberal Jews are open to his teachings along with the teachings of all other religions as long as they don't conflict with Judaism.

I think that in any orthodoxy, in any religion, you're going to find some claim to superiority as a religion. It's called triumphalism. This you can find in some form in Judaism too. But not so much in liberal Judaism. There's also liberal Christianity which might not necessarily view Jesus as the son of God. If Judaism speaks to you it's good that you've been able to find a meaningful paradigm for encountering the Divine, but it's good to keep an open mind too. Just my two cents. Good luck in it all.

Dauer

 

I am a little iffy about whether or not Jesus ever claimed to be the son of God. I mean, I think Jesus was, most likely, a very very kind, loving person who just had his story told wrong. I don't believe HE created Christianity either, however, I do believe he was somewhat of a wayshower (NOT a prophet). History is much to subjective to really have an educated response to what Jesus thought of himself. Perhaps he called himself A son of God (instead the one and only). Pff, I don't know.

 

The concept of the Messiah in Christianity is much different than in Judaism. If we look in the Torah and the Tanach we find the Messiah is a man like Moses and NOT G-d Himself and further more there is not one thing in the Torah and Tanach that says we HAVE to worship, follow or even believe in the Messiah in order to have salvation. It simply is not there.

The Seven Noahide Laws and it’s Mitzvahs:

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/2120/noahidelaws66.html

A great site about B’nai Noachs:

http://www.rainbowcovenant.org/

A good online book about Noahides:

http://www.lightcatcherbooks.com/products_books_rainbowcovenant.shtml

 

Sorry I forgot, you can chat with a rabbi about any and all questions you may have at AskMoses.com.