Jews: Share with me, please?

Question

Tell me about your beliefs, what most people don't know about Judaism. I am trying to learn more about all people here. Thanks!

Answer 1

It would be hard to tell you much in this little box! Jews are like Christians except they don't believe Jesus was the Messiah. They believe the Messiah is coming some day to lead us into the 'Messianic Age'--not the end of the world but a new period of history.

I would say Judaism is more pragmatic and practical than Christianity, not so much based on belief as on principle. In fact we have very little 'doctrine'. We don't believe the Bible is 'inerrant', a lot of it is meant to be symbolic and allegorical--for instance the creation story in Genesis is not true word-for-word, it's just a really good story and it teaches us principles.

I was brought up in Reform Judaism (not 'reformed') which is more liberal. We were taught to consider many different perspectives rather than one doctrinal interpretation. Actually I think the idea is to -believe- as little as possible but -consider- a range of views. If you were to become a Jewish scholar you'd study the Talmud, which is a collection of writings written over thousands of years by great Jewish thinkers of the past, who disagree on many points.

Consequently if you ask a Fundamentalist Christian minister some deep, profound question, he will point your nose to a particular verse, usually in the New Testament, and he'll say 'THIS is what this means. There is only one thing it -could- mean. We have no choice but to believe it.' If you ask the same question of a Rabbi, he'll say 'Well, Moses Maimonides in the 9th century said such and such. Rabbi Hillel in the 10th century said so and so. Thomas Aquinas said so and so. Go home and think about it and decide for yourself!' (And notice, he will quote Aquinas or Augustin or other -Christian- thinkers if their thoughts are relevant to the question, if they give us some insight.

To me, that is really the biggest difference.

Answer 2

There are many aspects of " being Jewish" it is not only a linage or bloodline, but a religion as well. The most stated difference between Jews and Christians is that we do not believe Joshua a.k.a. Jesus to be " The Messiah " The reason being that when the Messiah comes not a soul will not realized that He has finally arrived.
There is also the way of life and eating, duty to the community and less fortunate. There are also Kabalists which are akin to the Jewish Pagans. The tree of life being aspects of G-d, having both female and male aspects. Keter= The crown, Binah (female) = The Womb of G-d Chokkmah( male )and so on. As I was raised Jewish but not orthodox, we rarely observed the Sabbath( Fri evening to Sun Evening or Mon Sunrise. But there is also Koshur meals to consider, being, do not mix meat and poultry, cheese and fish, any pork what so ever, nor crab lobster. Eels, and other bottom feeders.
I recomend that you go to chabad.org for more on that subject. I don't think that we have enough room here for all of it.

Answer 3

www.jewfaq.org

There are three major sects of Judaism: Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform. I will give the Orthodox view on things here. All of them basically accept what we call Rambam's Thirteen Principles which sum up what Jews basically believe in:

1. G-d exists
2. G-d is one and unique
3. G-d is incorporeal (nonmaterial)
4. G-d is eternal
5. G-d alone is to be worshipped and no other
6. G-d's prophets are truthful
7. Moses was the greatest of the prophets
8. The whole Torah was given to Moses on Mt. Sinai (Written and Oral)
9. There will be no other Torah and the Torah will not be changed or annulled
10. G-d has foreknowledge of men's actions, thoughts, and words
11. G-d will deliver retribution
12. The Messiah will come
13. The dead will be resurrected at the coming of Moshiach (Messiah)

[Please note that Conservative and Reform generally have a differing opinion on #8.]

Messiah (Moshiach):

Judaism does NOT believe that the messiah will be divine. He will be a mortal, normal person like us who knows Jewish law and follows it all. (I think there is a midrash that says that every Jewish child before being born knows all of the Torah and law inside and out--but in being born, s/he forgets all of it and must learn again. The messiah will be the one who does not forget.) He will fulfill all of the prophecies without dying first, and will only come ONCE. He will not die, because in showing himself he will have accomplished world peace and the resurrection of the dead and established the World to Come on this world, etc.

Judaism believes that only you can be responsible for your sins. Nobody else can take them on or ask forgiveness on your behalf. Yes, we used to do animal sacrifices, but not at every sin because sacrifice alone could not atone for sin. We would do it at festivals and holidays. Still, sacrifice alone cannot atone for sin (and human sacrifice is ABHORRED by G-d). To atone for sins, a person must do teshuva, which includes: 1. recognizing the sin [knowing you did wrong] and feeling remorse for it 2. asking forgiveness of the wrong by the person you wronged (example: if you broke a Jewish law, you apologize to G-d, but if you broke your neighbor's favorite flowerpot, you must apologize to your neighbor for no one else can forgive you) 3. try to right the wrong you did--if you broke the flowerpot, either buy a new one or try to repair the old one sufficiently 4. actively resolve and try not to commit the wrong again--if you broke a law, create a reminder for yourself so that next time the opportunity comes up, you will remember.

We do not believe in proselytizing because we believe that nobody has to be Jewish to warrant a place in heaven. A non-Jew has as much right to the World to Come as a Jew does--a Jew just has more rules to follow to get there. We do accept converts (we are NOT a race!!) although it is a hard road because Judaism is a hard life to live. [notice I say life, not religion. Judaism is a way of life, not just a religion.] It takes years of study to convert and the rabbi wants to make sure the convert is sincere because nobody wants to waste at least a year of the rabbi's life (or the convert's life, for that matter). Once you are Jewish you can never be a non-Jew again UNLESS you take on another believe system directly contrary to Judaism's. For example, you can be an atheist but still be Jewish because your believe system does not contradict with Judaism--you do not believe in G-d, but you don't believe in another false god either. But you cannot be a Jewish Xtian because Xtianity is contrary to Judaism. If you are a Jew and suddenly start to believe in Xtianity, you are an apostate and not Jewish unless you repent and come home to Judaism.

We have two books: the Tanakh and the Talmud. The Tanakh contains Torah, Nevi'im (Prophets) and Ketuv'im (Writings)--> TNK--> TaNaKh. The Tanakh contains the Written Torah while the Talmud contains the Oral Torah plus the commentaries on the laws written by our sages and rabbis over history. (Oral Torah written down=Mishna, a part of the Talmud and commentary=Gemara, the other part of the Talmud)

Judaism is a religion of arguing. You hear the phrase "two Jews, three opinions," and it's completely true. One of our texts is a book of arguments on the laws. So the Judaism you get in one Jew is not necessarily the Judaism you get in another Jew, although most will have all I've said here in common.

I hope I've covered as much as possible while keeping it simple. If you need any more information or detail, feel free to IM me or drop me an email. Hope I've been helpful.

Peace,
L.S.

Answer 4

jews and judaism the former denotes usually the israelites or descendants of jacob(israel)

Answer 5

I am a religious scholar with some family heritage that is jewish, though I am A CHristian (Episcopalian). I can tell you but there is soooo... much to know, I am providing some inks instead that I believe may help you more.

Take care!

Shalom!