The Idea Shop

Judaism

Before I start, I want to give a little disclaimer. We have a saying in Judaism that goes: "Two Jews, three opinions". What I mean is, whenever anyone tells you "Judaism believes this", its not usually the only take (of course, you should believe everything I say...). I try to give the Jewish view of itself, mixing in a little objectivity, which you probably won't notice unless you are Jewish. When I use "we" I am referring to Jews, as opposed to people in general. I encourage you to ask any questions you might have, and even to be critical (in the constructive sense, of course). I don't get offended, in general. If you want to email me instead of posting, its seagull5000@gmail.com. A brief outline of my discussion:

1. Diety and Belief
   
2. Practice and holidays
   
3. Theodicy and Afterlife
   
4. Who is Jewish and Other religions
5. Political issues such as abortion and stem cells.

1. Diety and Belief
Judaism believes in the existence of a single personal God. This God is all powerful and all knowing, and at the same time cares about the individual personally. If the relationship between God and man in Christianity is father and children, in Judaism it is sovereign and subjects. God commands and expects us to obey. God only gives us laws we are able to fulfill, and can therefore can hold us responsible when we break them. Beyond monotheism and the "yoke of the commandments" as it is called, there is little dogma in Judaism in the way of belief. More important, or at least signficant, than belief, is figuring out how god wants us to act. We do that by studying and expounding Gods laws. The most important book in that respect is the Torah. The Torah is like the constitution plus a history book. Traditionally, it is believed God dictated it to Moses around 4000 years ago. It contains the creation story, and the story of how the Jewish people came to be, starting from our forefather Abraham through our enslavement in Egypt for 400 years, which God liberated us from through our leader Moses, to wandering in the desert for 40 years until we reached the land of Israel. It also contains 613 commandments. The rest of the bible (the christian old testament) does not directly contain any commandments. It is the story of the people in the land of Israel up until our dispersion from the land in 70 ce. Afterwards, discussions called the "Oral Torah" on the commandments as well as new laws that were derived from them were collected in the "talmud" in around 400 ce. The talmud contains many debates about the way it is we are to act in different situations and about what the correct laws themselves are. Finally, the laws were officially codified around 1200 ce in the "shulchan orech". From the original 613, 100s or even 1000s more were derived. While many of these laws cannot be found in the torah itself, they are still considered to be the will of god because they are derived from the torah, as we in America might say a law is "constitutional". Judaism is preoccupied with correctly following the laws and thus worshiping god correctly. More on reward and punishment later.

2. Practice and holidays
Some important Jewish practices include prayer, shabbat (sabbath), and kashrut (dietary laws). Other laws deal mainly with a code of ethics (don't kill, don't steal, etc). There are three prayer services everyday, morning, afternoon, and night (or more appropriately, night, morning, and afternoon as the Jewish day starts at nightfall). Prayer can be done individually, but can only fully be done congregationaly (at least 10 people, or traditionally, men).
Kashrut is the system of dietary laws. Jews are only allowed to eat certain animals, and those animals must be killed in the most humane way. Some "unkosher" animals are pig and shellfish. Some Kosher ones are cow and chicken. However, if a cow is not killed in the proper, humane way, it is not kosher. In addition, Jews are forbidden to mix dairy and meat. Many therefore have two sets of dishes for this purpose. Most people wait a certain amount of time between the eating of one and the other (longer between meat and milk than milk and meat).
Shabbat, the sabbath, is every Friday night until Saturday night, and is the most important observance in Judaism, more important than all the holidays, including the "high holidays". (Note an exception- we are obligated to violate the sabbath to save a life). It starts on Friday night at sundown with a traditional meal eaten with family and friends. Through Saturday night, it is forbidden to do all "work". "Work" is a limiting translation of the Hebrew word "malacha". It includes things I do for money, but also other things like cooking, lighting a fire, writing, driving, using electricity, playing music, making plans, use money, etc. The point is to abstain from all things that might keep you from enjoying the day to the fullest as a special day free from normal worries. We take a step back from the world and appreciate the natural order of things, and time with our families. On Shabbat, I like to read, play sports, go outside, play games, and take naps.
There are a number of holidays throughout the year which also require the observances of Shabbat. These celebrate various significant events in Jewish history. Some holidays do not require these observances. In addition, there are a number of fast days throughout the year, all of which (except for yom kippur, the day of attonement) are connected to the destruction of the ancient Jewish temples and our subsequent dispersion and persecution amongst the nations. The high holidays (the new year and yom kippur) occur in fall. (note- the jewish calendar is a mixed solar/lunar calendar, which is why holidays occur at different times relative to the gregorian). On the high holidays, we ask god for forgiveness for the sins of the past year, and pledge to do better this year.

3. Theodicy and Afterlife

Unlike Christianity, there is no definitive concept of an afterlife in Judaism. It is something that is not highly emphasized or explored in Judaism. It is not even mentioned in the Torah. I want to reemphasize as I mentioned above about the relative unimportance of beliefs, that observance of the laws in this life is what is important. Beliefs about an afterlife come as an explanation for why bad things happen to good people (ie that rewards come in the afterlife not this life). Some Jews don't even believe there is an afterlife, that it and reward/punishment were introduced just to give those people who couldn't just obey because god says so a reason to observe. Other conceptions of the afterlife include reincarnation, a nirvana like state, a "world to come", or a revival of the dead in this world. Coming up with explanations for why bad things happen to good people became especially important after Jews lost self rule in 70ce, and were subsequently persecuted nearly everywhere they went for practicing Judaism.
Personally, I believe that whatever happens after this life, it is still better to do "good" things even if there is no reward. The "reward" is being closer to the eternal (god). The reason to do good, even when it may bring us harm, is that we have a partner in god as the one who commands us to do good.

4. Who is Jewish and Other religions.

You are Jewish only if your mother is Jewish or you converted. There are no half Jews. Judaism accepts converts, but not easily. This perhaps rises from the dual character of Judaism as a religion and a nation. It must be something one really wants to do. Judaism does not proselytize. If someone approaches you and asks to convert, you are supposed to turn them away three times. Then, if they persist, you are supposed to ask them "what do you see in this? Don't you know that the Jewish people are exiled, abused and harassed, and that great troubles befall them from time to time?" and if they still want to convert, they are then admitted to a process that takes around two years.
All people are required to observe 7 basic laws (against idolitry, blasphemy, murder, adultery, theft, eating the limbs off animals, and an obligation to set up a just judiciary system).
There was a request to specifically deal with why Judaism does not accept Jesus and Mohamed as prophets, and to explain the Jewish messiah. Note, here I'm not saying that Christianity and Islam are invalid, just why i don't practice them. Prophets in Judaism were really only meant to serve one function: bring the people back to obeying God's laws. A prophet who introduces something new or outside of the original law is not believed to be a Jewish prophet. This comes from the belief that God said everything he had to say in the Torah, and he has no more to say. I think the differences between Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are evident enough to show that these religions were something "new". From my understanding, Judaism is much closer to Islam practically and theologically in terms of submission to the will of God and prayer style amongst other things. Also, the trinity doesn't fit with Jewish theology.
Again, there is no real dogma in Judaism, so the concept of messiah is ambiguous. It isn't mentioned at all in the bible (allow some will say it is indirectly). It was more fully formed after the dispersion in 70 ce. After we were exiled from the land and the temple was destroyed, a major focus of Judaism became mourning these events and hoping that we will one day return. Messiah arose as the belief in someone who would ultimately redeem us from our oppression and bring us back to the land. It is more of a political leader than anything. There are varying views on what exactly this Messiah will do. Some say he'll bring world peace, some say he'll rebuild the temple and reincarnate the dead. Some say he'll only come after we make world peace. According to the most popular tradition, in order to be the Messiah you must be Jewish, male, descendent of Solomon, rebuild the temple, and revive the dead.

5. Political issues such as abortion and stem cells

The views of Judaism get often misassumed here. Abortion is not against Jewish law. Life begins at birth, not conception according to Judaism. Still, Judaism would not have you say "I'm too lazy to put on a condom, you can just get an abortion". But it recognizes that the most important thing is the health of the mother- mental and physical.
Judaism is also for stem cell research, as it can be used to save living people. However, it believes the right way to do this is using embryos that would be discarded anyways as opposed to creating ones just for this purpose.


Please let me know if I have been unclear anywhere, or what needs more explaining. Also, please ask me questions. I don't get offended by anything.