Any loyal practitioners of Judaism out there?

Question

I am a Christian looking for a practitioner of Judaism to converse with through e-mail or AOL instant messenger. I would like to eventually start participating in Jewish holidays, especially Passover, but I do not know that much about them, so I am looking for someone who can explain the nuts and bolts of the holidays to me. We can share our religious opinions and beliefs, also, and perhaps learn from each other.

My e-mail address is: [e-mail]

My AIM address: Nightmare Sasuke

Answer 1

With friends like stinger and David T, who needs enemies? Oy gevalt!

edit:The QUESTION is seeking a PRACTIIONER of Judaism. The questioner is ALREADY of the Christian faith, but wants to learn about Judaism, not learn about a Hebraicised Christianity. Because it appears this Christian wants to learn about Judaism,
ALREADY a Christian comes to answer FOR JEWS..sheesh. One is so scared you might leave the fold he's come with threats of hell and damnation ,and the other comes with presentation of Christian dogma AS Judaism. No wonder people ask confused questions!

David T, you're not speaking of Judaism. Your answer is inappropriate to the question.

Jewish law determines who is and who isn't Jewish. Torah and Tanakh contain the laws of Judaism. No other religion determines what the religion of Judaism is.
I will now answer with two essays that I took from my 360 blog where they've appeared since 2006.

THIS IS THE ONLY THING ALL JEWS AGREE ON
There is an old saying, “ You get two Jews in a room and you’ll have at least three opinions”. This derives from the longstanding tradition of debate in Jewish history. We’re not taught that it’s a sin to question or to test our beliefs. However, we’re not allowed to alter Torah commandments, and much of the debate over the centuries has been how to apply Torah to changing cultures, times and technologies. There are different ways of Jewish life in every part of the world, but this is one thing none of them debate. The following proclamations I lifted (copy pasted in portions in 1999) from a now defunct page ( it went down in 2001) at amhaaretz.com. However, these proclamations still exist and apply, and Jesus is still entirely insignificant to the religion of Judaism.

THIS IS THE ONLY THING ALL JEWS AGREE ON.
What Jews Think of Messianic Jews

CHIEF Ashkenazi and CHIEF Sephardi Rabbis of Israel

"There are Christian groups that call themselves "Messianic Jews" whose
faith is totally alien to the Jewish faith, and members of these groups who
were born to Jewish parents have a status of apostates who removed
themselves from the Jewish Nation."

-Official proclamation of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, 1998.


--------------------------------------...

Rabbi Y. Eliezer Danzinger of Tzefat, Israel (Chabad)

"Messianic Judaism is both a logical and theological absurdity. It's
perverse goal is to seduce uneducated Jews away from their heritage and
people, without the ensnared realizing the enormity of their betrayal."

"Although Jews who subscribe to such heresy are clearly apostates--and as
such, forfeit all rights as Jews, including the right of being buried in a
Jewish cemetery--the gates of repentance are open to them."


--------------------------------------...

Hebrew Union College / Jewish Institute of Religion (Reform)

....being Jewish and accepting Christ is entirely incompatible. In the Winter
1996 issue of Reform Judaism, Mark Washofsky, called Messianic Jews
"apostates." "We see Messianic Jews as dishonest, deceptive and ultimately
dangerous to our existence as a religious community."


--------------------------------------...

Central Conference of American Rabbis (Reform)

For us in the Jewish community anyone who claims that Jesus is their savior
is no longer a Jew and is an apostate. Through that belief she has placed
herself outside the Jewish community. Whether she cares to define herself as
a Christian or as a "fulfilled Jew," "Messianic Jew," or any other
designation is irrelevant; to us she is clearly a Christian. We should,
therefore, consider a "completed Jew" [Messianic Jew] as an apostate.

....they should be seen as outsiders who have placed themselves outside the
Jewish community. This should be made very clear to them and to the Jewish
and general community, especially as many such individuals are active
proselytizers. Such individuals should not be accorded membership in the
congregation or treated in any way which makes them appear as if they were
affiliated with the Jewish community, for that poses a clear danger to the
Jewish community and also to its relationships with the general community.

We certainly do not want these individuals to speak for Judaism in any
public forum. In conclusion, we should make the distinction between
ourselves and these individuals very clear to them, to the Jewish community
and to the general community around us.

-proclamation September 1983.

And now the second blog entry:

The following I wrote and have copyright on it

I AM A JEWISH BELIEVER IN MONOTHEISTIC JUDAISM

Sound redundant? Of course it does. Judaism's primary tenet is belief there is only one eternal God of all creation. Judaism brought monotheistic belief to the world.

Hear O' Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is ONE

There is absolutely no need to designate any particular branch of Judaism as monotheistic. It is every bit as illogical and redundant to have a phrase naming a separate branch of the Jewish religion as "Messianic Judaism".

The very notion of a Davidic Messiah of Israel, Judaism presented to the world and its still very much a part of Judaism. The religion of Judaism is messianic. It is one of the principles of the faith of Judaism to have belief that God will make good the promise of an anointed human King of Israel who will deliver Israel and all who are persecuted and oppressed and usher in an age when all peoples shall know and worship God. The events of the Messianic age prophesied quite obviously would require no sales pitch to convince anyone on the planet if they had transpired.

So, when you ask a person of the Jewish faith, " Are you a messianic believer?" You may get a mixed reaction before you get an answer. The straightforward, logical, and truthful answer from anyone whose faith is found in the religion of Judaism would be to answer in the affirmative. Belief that God will do as promised to bring the Davidic messiah is one of the 13 principles of Judaism. If you know what Judaism is about, a single simple yes would suffice, yet, because there is a fast growing number of Christians who willfully misrepresent Christian dogma as a part of a sect of Judaism, an answer in the affirmative usually requires clarification. My hope is that here I can help at least one person understand why they may get an exasperated look or a frustrated response from a Jew if they ask a Jewish believer, " Are you a Messianic Jew? Are you a Jewish believer?" Perhaps this may in some small way help slow the growth of misinformation, misunderstanding and and misrepresentation, and a better understanding may develop and allow for actual dialog.

As I have done many times, I offer a wonderful web page from my friend Rabbi Stuart Federow has presented on the internet to help demystify for our Christian brethren just what it is Jews believe that is so different from Christianity. Whether you are curious or confused about Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist, or Reform Judaism, this web page found at http://www.whatjewsbelieve.org will help you to understand the basic beliefs from a purely Scriptural perspective, while acknowledging and addressing the target audiences Christian perspective in relation to it. Hint: The major irreconcilable difference isn’t over the messiah.

I repeat, there is absolutely no reason to distinguish one sect of Judaism as " Messianic Judaism". If you follow the Christian doctrine found in the New Testament no matter how you Hebraicise the terms or Jesus name, you're not following the Jewish faith. You misrepresent yourself and in so doing, you are committing a sin according to Torah. If you call yourself a "Messianic Rabbi" and you are leading worshippers in prayers to or through Jesus or in his name you are misrepresenting yourself to others. You are no Rabbi. The Jewish concept of messiah is very different than the Christian as you can learn in detail at the web site listed above.

I rarely claim to speak for anyone other than myself, however, as a Jew, and on this issue, I believe I can speak for all Jews in my request. Please, be honest with yourself, your fellow man, and God if you follow the religion of the New Testament by any name, do not call it Judaism.

I wonder if the evangelic Hebrew Christian realizes what harsh feelings they are stirring up within their own children in teaching them a false identity and teaching that Jews who do not “accept Yeshuah” hate them for their beliefs. This teaches those children to mistrust Jews and believe that the very people they identify with in name, reject them as their own out of hate! These young people then go on to ally themselves with evangelic Christians ( because their beliefs are identical ) while cloaking their dogma in Jewish custom and practice that is often more outwardly Jewish “looking” than that of modern Orthodox Jews! They also assign meaning to deeply reverent Jewish customs or prayers, which were never intended and usually offensive or contradictory to the aspect of faith the custom is intended to honor. The customs and rituals of Jewish people around the world developed to honor the laws of Torah and teach each generation about the faith of Judaism. To see these customs and rituals used to honor a replacement theology is extremely disturbing to the believing Jew for whom these things have deep spiritual significance. The feeling of a Jew watching a Christian use the Passover to represent Jesus as a deity, or represent the blood of the Passover lamb as a sin sacrifice and try to change every deeply significant aspect of the service and remove the meaning to replace it with another is incredibly painful. to the faithful Jew. The Passover is deeply important as a part of our spiritual identity as Jews and of our connection to God. . How can a people who claim to love Torah or who claim to love Jews do such a thing?

Would a Christian wish to see their customs and rituals they perform to honor their faith in Jesus being used to justify a belief in Vishnu or Allah or any other deity that Christianity does not believe to be a deity? Why do Christians expect Jews to EMBRACE their doing so to Judaism or most often demand that we tolerate them? Why is a Jew speaking out against such a hijacking called intolerant? What kind of logic allows accusations of hate to be hurled unchallenged to Jews when we cry out for others to stop trying to hijack Judaism? Tolerance does not require that one must accept misrepresentation and ignore it.

They also speak of the Jewish faith as being narrow and blinded to God. Christians and the Christian religion should not define for the Jewish people the dogma of Judaism. This is what I see happening today. I see Christians teaching other Christians what is and isn’t REAL Judaism and the Christians ignoring the Jewish voice of what Judaism is. I see a widespread practice has emerged whereby Christians presenting themselves as Jews go to churches and teach their fellow Christians that Jews are taught to hate Jesus and Jews who come to embrace him. That is the most dangerous lie of all being spread today.


Judaism does not teach this. I know of no Jewish synagogue, rabbi or Jewish parent who teaches our children to hate Christians or those who convert to Christianity. It pains us to see one convert away from Judaism, but we do not hate them as a people. I cannot deny that there are individual Jews who hate or those who may hate a Jew who converts and then misleads other Jews. No one is immune to feelings of hate and no group immune to bigotry. Some Jews, who have felt abuse and hate, react likewise. That too, is human nature. It is not the best part of our nature but no group is immune. Jews are also known for being hardest on our own that turn to bigotry.

I find myself often feeling hate when I see someone teach a child to hate.. I am human. I work on that and do my best not to let my gut reaction to such abuse lead me into irrational behavior in response. Instead, I resort to writing things such as this.

What I hate is teaching children lies. Teaching lies lead to fear and hate of others.. When I hear an adult tell another adult or a child tell a Jewish child, “You are the kind of “unbelieving” Jew who hates me because I believe in Yeshua“, .the level of frustration I feel is off the chart. That is a lie without a shred of truth, but one that cannot easily be refuted. No matter what the Jew who was told this responds with, they will not be believed or trusted because the speaker holds so many misconceptions about Judaism! I can understand sometimes the denial by Jews in not dealing with this because this task can feel overwhelming at such a moment ..What CAN we do other than educate? But who will listen? Are their voices already louder and more accepted as being “Jewish” among non-Jews?

A Jew who embraces the Jewish faith and refuses to abandon it for acceptance of the New Testament dogma is not an “unbelieving“ but a “believing Jew“. Jews simply hate our religion being DERAILED. Jews the world over loathe seeing every aspect of Jewish life HIJACKED and completely misrepresented to support beliefs that are completely contradictory to the faith of Israel. I hate watching children be taught lies! I cannot hate those children who grow up thinking they are Jewish. I am greatly saddened, often to the point of tears because they are being taught that believing Jews hate them! That means they have NO CLUE what Judaism’s CORE ESSENCE of TORAH teaches us about being Jews! To Israel, the chosen part means the Jew chooses to be a light unto the nations in our path of life in Tikkun Olam. (Repair of the world, fixing what is wrong and working alongside all peoples in our walk with God and the ongoing creation of life in the world we are blessed with) Evangelizing, selling, or coercion is not necessary if your life reflects a walk with God, NO MATTER WHAT religion you embrace... It makes no difference if you are a Jew or not..Jews believe that ANYONE CAN WALK with GOD in righteousness! There are righteous among all peoples and every human, Jew or Gentile, atheist, theist, agnostic etc, has worth. However, you cannot be of the Jewish faith if you do not accept the TERMS OF THE COVENANT OF TORAH. The differences in the sects of Judaism have to do more with observances and customs of how to honor this covenant, not over the nature of God or the covenant itself. The prophetic belief is that in the messianic age one day all will come to know God. “Faith” will essentially be unnecessary because “knowing” and understanding will replace that. This has not happened and you are free to believe it will not ever happen. I cannot help but hope with faith that it will one day happen because right now religiosity, bigotry and greed are tearing apart the human species and the balance of life on earth itself..



As Jews, I call out to every Jewish parent to teach our Jewish children what Judaism is so they are not fooled by the missionary who appeals to their desire to belong to a larger group. It is a natural desire to want to share in belief with all around you and to feel connection in that manner. Once a child is an adult, they can choose to remain in the path of Judaism or not, however they will know the difference between coercion based on deceit or embracing a belief because their heart and mind lead them to do so. I believe that it is important to realize that if one feels a genuine love for Jewish identity and things Jewish and Israel, they would NOT try so very hard to remove from the Jewish nation/family/religion the very thing that has kept our existence intact. It is not the food or symbols, it is the faith. The covenant is not about RACE. There is no Jewish “race”. There is no “Gentile” race or races. The word gentile means nation or nations. It is a lie when the evangelic Hebrew Christian teaches of adoption of Hebrew Christian dogma, “a Jew stays Jewish and a Gentile becomes grafted into the commonwealth of Israel. Gentiles don't become Jews. Jews don't become Gentiles. Both races simply become a Torah-driven people, while maintaining their separate physical identities.” Uri Marcus and others who say this lie in their attempt to evangelize to the Jews and to convince Christians that this method of evangelic attempt is justified. Ruth, a GENTILE became a Jew by adopting the faith. That is right IN the Tanakh. Ruth a Moabite, a person who was of a nation cursed for eternity in Torah, became a Jew. Gentiles can become fully Jewish according to Jewish law. It was true then and it is true now. If you want to be a Jew, you can. However, it is and has never been necessary to become a Jew to know God or be blessed by God. If you want to call yourself a Jew and be honest about it, the way you do that is through adoption of the Jewish faith.

The fact is that the majority of these people claiming to be Messianic Jews were never of the Jewish faith to begin with. The largest number are converts from other evangelic Protestant Christian denominations who wished to feel a connection to the Jewish people, the land of Israel itself and their adaptation of the Hebrew Bible they know as the Old Testament. There are more Christians claiming to be Jews in some communities of the United States now than there are Jewish people. The surrounding larger non-Jewish community and their children come to see the outward Jewish appearance of those people and base their belief of what is and is not Jewish on those Christians posing as Jews. This should be disturbing to any Jew.

A Christian convert to Judaism is not a Christian without Jesus, an Islamic convert to Buddhism isn't a Muslim for Buddha, a Baptist convert to Catholocism isn't a Baptist for the Pope and a Jewish convert to Christianity is not a Jew for Jesus.
Shalom

Answer 2

A good place to start learning is at www.chabad.org .

If there is a synagogue near you, visit it and tell them exactly what you posted here. It's best to learn from a Rabbi.

In most synagogues, you are welcome to come even if you want to remain Christian. Just make your views clear to the rabbi and be polite. (In other words, don't try to convert them.)

You can email through yahoo answers, and I'll likely respond. But I won't be able to teach you everything about Judaism.

One thing though, I don't discuss Christianity at all. Nor will I try to change any beliefs you have.

Becoming Jewish is a process that can take many years. 3 is about a minimum. Enjoy the process if it's for you. There is no rush as the Torah says G-d loves the proselyte more.

Be prepared for rejection by many Jews. Especially those who have converted to Judaism. Mostly those who reject don't know what they are talking about, but it's hurtful just the same.

Answer 3

Baruch HaShem.

G-d is giving many people this revelation, to leave the evil Christmas trees, the Christian system, etc. Take up what Y'shua was...a MESSIANIC JEW. He was the first Jew who practiced Judaism BUT believed He was Messiah. That is who we are, both Jew and Gentile. We practice Judaism, keep feasts, love Torah. But YES, we believe in Y'shua as Mashiyach.

He never said that keeping Saturday sabbath was wrong, observing the Biblical feasts was wrong, beards and tzit tzit were wrong! He was not here to start a new religion. He was here to fulfill the Jewish religion, not end it. BUT Christians take the fact that he disciplined the Pharisees as this: "Jesus told us to forget the old testament, put up christmas trees, live like pigs eating bacon and call ourselves righteous cuz of grace...."

NOT Biblical, thats the teaching of man. Mr Stinger above us is a fine example of what bad teaching does to your doctrine.

Email me through Answers if you want to talk.

Shalom!

EDIT: Mama_paj, has it ever occurred to you I don't care what Rabbis who deny Y'shua was Messiah have to say??? Yawn.

Answer 4

so basically you wanna become a jew? you need to go read your bible, we are no longer required to follow the old covenant which was temporary, we are under a new covenant which is everlasting. i love the jews, but i love them enough to tell them they must repent and be born again.. anyone who dies without Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior is going to hell, and it doesn't matter how righteous a person thinks they are. without the Blood of Christ to wash away their sins they are hellbound.. Jesus was and is the passover

Answer 5

Not here...