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Yes...I really am. Moderator cut: orphanedIt's an honest question...I've always wondered why Jews don't make sacrifices anymore or why they don't try to rebuild a temple in Israel.
Jews don't sacrifice anymore because there is no temple. The temple hasn't been rebuilt yet, because Orthodox believe the 3rd Temple will be rebuilt during the era of the Messiah. The deadline for that event is in 228 years.
All other sects of Judaism, and some minority Orthodox oppose returning to sacrifice.
Last edited by Miss Blue; 12-31-2011 at 12:17 PM..
Fascinating, your use of the word 'us', meaning Jews I presume. On the other thread, I read that Jews can ignore Torah completely and be Jewish. Not believe in God and be Jewish. Torah is central to some Jews, I won't even guess at a %. I will guess that the % is much higher among Orthodox than Reform Jews.
some jews have no involvement with Judaism. They are still considered Jews, for reasons that have been explained ad nauseum (to the point of digestive problems). The Torah is central to all forms of Judaism however. It is central to Reform and to Orthodox Judaism, though in different ways. To the extent that there are many Reform jews to whom torah is not central to their lives, thats only because their (REFORM) Judaism not that central to their lives.
Interesting. How do you reconcile modern psychological knowledge about our negative human emotions born of our human weaknesses with the fact that you seem to believe God has these same weaknesses? I specifically refer to things like jealousy, anger and vengeance. If it is just ignorance of psychology, is it deliberate?
The official answer (per Rambam) When we speak of G-d using human terms, we speak in metaphor. G-d is radically different from man - we can no more charecterize His emotions than speak about or (heaven forbid) picture His body. To deny such radical difference - to consider G-D LIKE Man - is to commit idolatry, same as someone who carves a graven image.
Less official answer - you are referring to texts from an earlier state of religious development, when Jews were still reaching out in their existential commitment to G-d. They emphasized what is the core of religion - mans profound, loving, relationship with G-d. In doing so they necessarily charecterized their divine lover, as a lover, with emotions appropriate to a VERY intense human relationship. Not being philosophers, they didnt realize the traps this would leave for people as the Jewish view of G-d evolved. Later generations, however, kept Judaism fresh, renewed, meaningful, by creatively reinterpretating older texts. That chain of interpretation, that keeps us linked to the old texts, yet renews them for our time, is the genius of Judaism.
auntieannie, I hate to tell you this, but there is exactly zero Jewish literature discussing Jesus and his time on earth. The Torah doesn't mention him. The epic Talmud, written partially in the time of Jesus, does not mention him. And to this day, a significant number of Jews think Jesus never actually existed. You simply will not find a Jew, and surely not a rabbi, who has much of anything to comment about Jesus' Jewishness.
Re-reading your question, I'm not sure if you want info on Jesus' level of Jewish observance, or just general info on the time period. If the latter, you can go to the The Jewish Website - aish.com,where there's lots of good Jewish history links.
A good source would be the mishnah - that was compiled 200 years after the time period in question, but is the closest "official" jewish source. There have also been attempts to tease out what the halacha was at the time, using the mishnah, the christian scriptures, Josephus, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Dr/rabbi Joseph Baumgarten (z''l) was an expert on the matter, IIUC. Joseph M. Baumgarten - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (and yeah, flip, he was Orthodox)
Originally Posted by orogenicman
What do you think of reform Jews, particularly since so many don't take a lot of the Torah literally?
I simply said that many Jews don't take the Torah literally. Not just reform Jews. I think that is important because to focus on one group is not helpful.
There are other groups within Judaism that don't hold the Torah as literal.
No jews take the torah as literal in the Christian fundamentalist sense (every word is true, literally, in a plain sense)
There are four traditions of how Jews read torah - peshat (plain meaning) ramaz (allegorical, philosophical) drash (homiletical, hyperliteral) sod (mystical) (together - Pardes - the garden - paradise)(note they are ALL considered proper approaches by traditional Jews)
The closest to literal are the peshat and the drash. Drash however is hyper literal - it posits that since torah is the word of G-d, EVERYTHING in it has meaning - EVERY hebrew grammatical partical, every repetition, every deviation from an expected form or spelling - in order to explain all those things, it often comes up with readings that would seem VERY strange to someone used to a "literal" reading.
Peshat probably comes closer - but it allows for the use of metaphor and other figures of speech, for poetic readings, etc. So its not really literal either.
As far as you know...How similar or different are the Torah and The Old Testament of the Christian Bible?
Which "Old testament"? Their have been differing translations, into different languages for 1800 years. The greek septuagint (originally done under jewish auspices) latin vulgate, and hundreds if not thousands of other christian translations. Some rely on the septuagint, some go back to hebrew texts. Most take christian positions (while the much smaller number of modern jewish translations do not) on some issues of interpretation.
The oldest texts prior to the discovery of the dead sea scrolls, were the greek septuagint, the hebrew masoretic texts. The masoretic texts were later, but did not represent a translation. There have been disputes about whether differences represented mistranslations in the greek or mistransmissions in the hebrew (some issues are clearly ones of translation). The dead sea scrolls seem to indicate some mix (including also places where the samaritan textual tradition is correct).
Last edited by brooklynborndad; 12-30-2011 at 08:44 AM..
flip - i admire you taking on this thread in earnest despite the thinly veiled -- and frankly, surprising to me -- attacks from those with different beliefs.
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