2006-08-30 07:09:14 · 11 answers · asked by sshhmmee2000 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I really want to answer this question, although I'm Christian (never been Jewish), and probably don't know what I'm talking about! :)
In my studies, the essential key to understanding Judaism is to believe that God exists and is helping the ppl of the world know who He is through His relationship with a relatively small group of ppl.
As a Christian, I believe the Jewish were "God's choosen" in the aspect that He wanted to use them to give all humanity a clear understanding of who He is. God is forgiving, God is pragmatic, God is love, God is everything we will ever need, God is our guide, God will be on our side even through the most insane battles. We understand who God is spiritually by seeing how He performed for the Jews literally. He constantly forgave them, He led them through the wilderness and provided for them food and fire, He was always with them in battle to conquer the enemies who were residing on their promised land. In my faith, He remains these things supernaturally, He forgives me individually every day for my sins, He always gives me food and clothing, and He helps me when I'm dealing with struggles at work.
In summing it up, Judaism is a very literal religion, imho.. So, to understand it, you have to see God in a very literal way.
2006-08-30 07:34:15 · answer #1 · answered by retro 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Understanding Judaism
2016-11-14 08:33:55 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's too hard to sum up in a few paragraphs...go to a Judaism website or to a synagogue and ask questions and study. Oh, and the New Testament is certainly NOT the essential key to understanding Judaism...how can anyone say that?
2006-08-30 07:43:30 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
A key to understanding Judaism is that it's texts are about functioning in the world, not a spiritual hereafter. It is meant to be utterly pragmatic. The first letter of the Torah is the the Hebrew B, which is shaped like [ . Since they read from right to left, the first letter literally brackets off the transcendental divine from the words being written, indicating they are about the world and not God per se.
2006-08-30 07:21:08 · answer #4 · answered by neil s 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The key is an open mind.
The source is the Torah (bible). To understand it properly you would need it explained.
Judaism in a nutshell is that there was this guy name Abraham who believed it was crazy that idols of stone should be diety and concluded that there must be a single source of everything. Eventually, "thing" said,"hi, I'm God and thanks for believing in me, it's about time." Thing, now we'll call God continues, go to a certain land and I'll give it to you and make you into a great nation. He has kids and I'll skip down to them ending up in Egypt. Eventually God takes them out with many miracles and gives the the Torah (bible).
More than giving them a book God spoke to everyone at Sinai the ten commandments until they couldn't take it (to great) and Moses relayed the rest and with time the whole Torah. These are more than just ethics and morals but what God wants, there are things for Jews and things for non-Jews (who don't have to convert, they could just keep the 7 Noahide universal standard ethic laws). What is the point? To grow close to God and eventually get reward in the afterlife.
2006-08-30 16:01:39 · answer #5 · answered by Scane 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In a nutshel, Jews believe that G-d chose them to recieve his laws and to ollow them, thus being an example to other nations. As judaism evolved, A set of discussions about the Torah laws became alrge part of judaism. This is called the talmud, and it mainly consists of discussions about specific ways to perform the laws described in the Torah.
2006-08-30 11:51:39 · answer #6 · answered by abcdefghijk 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
there's just a creator of the universe.
everything else is open to conjecture.
jesus buddha vishnu jehovah and allah/mohammed are not god
they are demgogues.
if we closed their temples dedicated to our subservience, we would find our true selves as private intelligent beings. our wars would largely end and we could own our future. until we remove the shackles of religion and these demogogues from our planet we are as nothing but sheep (just like the 'bible' makes clear)
we will not advance or improve.
2006-08-30 07:19:09 · answer #7 · answered by Thetruth 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The New Testament
2006-08-30 07:14:00 · answer #8 · answered by Johnny S 1 · 0⤊ 2⤋
The idea of the two Torahs: written and oral.
2006-08-30 07:13:24 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You have to hate anyone who dosent. So its pretty much like all religions.
2006-08-30 07:13:00 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋