10 Little-Known Things about Judaism

[cnorman18]

I first posted this about a year ago. We have a lot of new members, so here it is again, corrected and edited.

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Like many Christians, I once thought I knew all about Judaism; but, also like many Christians, I actually only knew a little about first-century Judaism from the point of view of first-century Christians, and practically nothing about modern Judaism as it is practiced today. Just to get this party started: here are ten things you probably didn't know about Judaism.

1. Jews do not believe that one must be Jewish to go to Heaven. An ancient dictum in the Talmud states that "the righteous of all nations have a place in the Life to Come." That means that anyone, of any belief or none, can be "saved" if God deems him or her "righteous"--and only God gets to say what that means.

2. Belief in Heaven is not particularly important in Judaism anyway. An afterlife is not mentioned in the Torah, and very many Jews do not believe in a life after death. Those who do, as a rule, do not speculate on what it might be like.

3. Jews are not generally concerned with "salvation." The subject is of very little interest to us. We believe that God is the sole Judge, and that we have no warrant to anticipate His judgment in any way. Our concern is proper conduct in this life; we leave the next life, if there is one, to God.

4. Jews do not pronounce any other religion to be "false." Excepting only the literal worship of idols as divine beings, Judaism has no opinion on the truth or falsity of any other faith. We claim to know only how God has chosen to speak to us; if He has chosen to speak to another people in another manner, that is no business of ours.

5. There is no hierarchy in Judaism. There is no Jewish Pope, no High Priest, no Supreme Council, no person or body that is qualified or empowered to make pronouncements on the proper beliefs or practices of Jews. Every congregation is independent; even the broad "movements" in Judaism--Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox--are a matter of voluntary association on the part of independent congregations, and have no power to prescribe practice or doctrine. There are advisory committees, but that is their only function.

6. There is no "doctrine" in Judaism anyway. Judaism has no Creed, no Confession of Faith, no list of specified beliefs or articles of faith. "Beliefs" in Judaism are very much a matter of individual choice, and are of relatively little importance anyway. No one much cares what anyone BELIEVES; we are concerned with what they DO.

7. There is no such thing as a "Messianic Jew." Jews who believe in Jesus are properly called "Christians." There are few, if any, beliefs that Jews are required to hold, but there are a few that are forbidden; and belief in Jesus as the Messiah is one of them.

8. There is no Jewish "race." Though the Jewish religion began with members of a single family, that of Abraham, it has accepted converts from the very beginning, and there are Jews of every ethnicity on Earth. There are communities of Chinese Jews, Indian Jews, Black African Jews, Arab Jews, and Persian Jews that go back for millenia; and very many literal descendants of Abraham (of Ishmael and Esau, to name a son and grandson) are not Jewish.

9. Jews do not read the Bible as literal history, and haven't for centuries. The early chapters of Genesis are spiritual and symbolic, and not literal. Tne Hebrew word "Adam" means "Mankind" as well as being a personal name; and Jewish scholars estimated the time of the Creation as being around 15.3 billion years ago--about the same time as modern astrophysicists--at least as early as the first century of the common era. There are very few Jewish "creationists." And it is, after all, OUR Book.

10. Jews do not believe the Bible is the supreme authority on faith, belief and practice, but the tradition of interpretation of the Bible as expressed by the consensus of the Jewish community. The Bible is opaque and unintelligible without the guidance of that tradition, and no individual human has the right or the capacity to determine its meaning and intent without its guidance. It should be noted that the tradition is still evolving; the conversation among the sages of old, the authors and editors of Scripture, the Jewish people, and presumably God, has never ended.

[JoeyKnothead]

Have a good Hannakuh friend, I hope all read this. I know I had a tandem dump full of preconceptions (none overtly negative) about Jews when I first got here.

[OnceConvinced]

I didn't know about the "no hight preists" deal. Don't Rabbis fit the bill there? And what about those special people who were the only ones allowed into the Holy of Holys.

[Goat]

I didn't know about the "no hight preists" deal. Don't Rabbis fit the bill there? And what about those special people who were the only ones allowed into the Holy of Holys.

There hasn't been the 'holy of holies' since the temple was destroyed in 70 c.e. Rabbi's aren't 'high priests' at all... there is no central authority since the temple was destroyed.

Rabbinical Judaism is the descendant of the Pharisees for the most part. A 'high priest' is associated with the temple, and a central authority. You have to go back 1900 years for there to be a 'holy of holies' and 'high priests'.