What is your opinion on Judaism?

[jeancrowley]

Also, if anyone could explain the theory of similarity between Islam, Christianity and Judaism

[CD]

I am not an expert on all three religions.  But.  This is what I understand.

• All three religions trace their origins back to the prophet/patriarch Abraham/Ibrahim
• All three religions worship the One Creator god,  YWH / GOD / ALLAH.  Same dude, different name.
• All three respect, on some level, the genesis account of creation
• All have a concept of heaven or paradise, and this being fulfilled on earth, and being associated with a messianic figure.  The Jews have a name for him (I don't know what) and Muslims call him the Madhi.  The Christians only differ in that this messiah has already arrived, and will come back for a visit later to do this Zion (the old name for paradise on earth) business.
• All three religions think Jesus Was a Nice Guy.  Jews see him as just another prophet.  Same with Islam, but Islam puts a pretty big emphasis on the "holy family", and Jesus is up there with the Really Cool Prophets but isn't As Cool As Mohammed.
• All three religions are patriarchal  - men are the boss.
• All three religions have very strong emphasis on rules governing family life
• All three religions have a 40 day festival honoring sacrifice and renewal.  Jews have passover, Christians have lent, and Muslims have Ramadan.

There are very little differences between them!

[Hutch Hogan]

I see Judaism, Christianity and Islam as voluntary (in the best case scenarios) political systems that people ascribe themselves into beyond the borders of their government.  In terms of the case for children, I see Judaism, Christianity and Islam as generally a thing parents will put their children through to teach them how to be "moral" people (it's particularly annoying whenever I hear someone say 'well, I don't go to church now, but I will when I have kids, not because I believe in god but because I want my kids to learn how to behave' (It's surprisingly often that I hear this)). 

There are loads of similarities between Islam, Christianity and Judaism, for starters they are all prophetic monotheistic religions.  According to the Pentateuch and the Qu'ran, Abraham is the forefather of their religion, giving birth to two different lineages, Isaac and Ishmael.  

All of the religions believe in the phenomenon of sin and believe that there are sets of rules to follow to enter into a happy afterlife. 

I hope that helps. 

-Hutch

[jeancrowley]

Thanks =) 

With so many similarities, it is safe to assume, also history proven that Christianity, Judaism and Islam were from the basis. What makes it so divided now? They have so many similarities is teaching, but so many difference is their worshipers. The jews, christians and muslim all act very differently and have different mindset  

[Vertigo_One [Ops Mod]]

The main differneces are as follows

1. Judaism is, at it's heart, much more national than the other two. It traces its heritiage more directly to the nation of Israel etc, where as Christianity is less concerned with nationality as your reaction to Jesus, and the same sort of thing with Islam and Mohammad (although it is more your reaction to what Mohammad said, than him himself).

2. All three have VERY different understandings of the concept of "salvation". Jews, to my understanding, have one on a similar basis to Islam, but it is more universal. Basically, in both cases, it is about being good. In the case of Islam, it is that your good deeds should, on the day of judgement, outweigh your bad deeds, and assuming you have made a profession of faith, you can enter heaven. For Jews, as far as what many Jewish friends have told me, there isn't even a necessary profession of faith. Christianity however is very different. Christianity does not treat works as a means of salvation, but rather symptomatic of faith. IE In Christianity, the only way to get to heaven is to place faith in Jesus (be sorry for your sins, thank Jesus for what he has done). In so doing, logically, so the Christian argument goes, you would want to stop sinning assuming you were sincere for the other two. But good deeds, in and of themselves, are not enough to get you to heaven.

3. Christianity and Islam have a very differnet conception of heaven. Islam's conception of heaven is very much a sensual paradise that does not fade. It is basically like all of the good things we already experiance in this world, but without their damaging effect when taken to excess. Good food, good drink, good sex etc. This is what is meant by the phrase "land of milk and honey" etc. Whereas the Christian concept of heaven is more spiritual and less specific about any physical considerations. It is more about being in the presence of God and the spiritual joy that brings.

4. Islam is a much more political organisation than Judaism or Christinaity. Islam's concepts of law, war, tax and politics in general often have no comparable equivalent in Judaism or Christianity.

5. Christianity, unlike Islam or Judaism, believes in fundimentally the divinity of an individual. Mohammad is important to Islam, but he is not worshiped, and essentially he himself is not as important as the message he shared. Where as in Christianity, the whole of it's truth or untruth as a religion hinges upon whether or not Jesus was divine and whether or not he rose from the dead or not.

6. Christiantiy, unlike Islam or Judaism, ultimately believes that the first movement in religion is from God. To explain what I mean, in Islam and Judaism, it is man's duty to reach up to God, and that reaching will in turn be rewarded. But in Christianity, God has already done the reaching out. Not only in terms of giving instruction (both Islam and Judaism have that) but in terms of actively doing something that makes being closer to God physically possible in the long run.

[CD]

Ahh cool, more detail.  Cheers.  I have some observations, though.

1. Judaism is, at it's heart, much more national than the other two.

Sort of - and this is actually a product of long term historical anti-Semitism more than the notion of the covenant.  You see Judaism is not a converting religion but you can join the Jewish faith (under certain conditions), and the mark of the covenant is a physical mark, not a mark generated by who your ancestors are.  So in theory if a person(male in this case) is properly initiated into the Jewish faith with the mark of the covenant, they also become part of the Jewish Nation, with associated duties and rights.

I also wouldn't ignore some of the nationalistic aspects of Christianity and Islam.  Islam has a concept of the Muslim Brotherhood (not to be confused with any given group) where, upon becoming Muslim, a person is united with every other Muslim the world, and has the associated social obligations to those other Muslims, family, or otherwise, in a diaspora style nation not too dissimilar from the structure of Jewish disapora.   Christianity is only different in this way now because it is no longer structurally the state, as was the case until the events that unfolded from the Protestant Reformation (unless I'm missing something)  which, along with a few other events coincided with the peeling back of the Islamic structural authorities until they were locally placed in specific cultures, and as such, structurally distinct from the overall nation of Islam....a similar story to Christianity.

3. Christianity and Islam have a very differnet conception of heaven. Islam's conception of heaven is very much a sensual paradise that does not fade.

I wonder if this is denominational or if there is a difference between what official church doctrine says and what people on the ground, in the church, are actually teaching each other?  Because it seems very much to me like Christians think of heaven as the one you're describing as Islamic. Although some cultural references I recall talk about it being a 'boring place with angels playing harps'.

4. Islam is a much more political organisation than Judaism or Christinaity. Islam's concepts of law, war, tax and politics in general often have no comparable equivalent in Judaism or Christianity.

See what I said about the historical peeling back of things.  The Divine Right of Kings in Christendom (the old name for Europe) was backed up by the Pontifex Maximus (Pope) even when it was called the Roman Empire.  It was Henry VIII and a bunch of other stuff that changed that.  Effectively, for many points in history, even recent ones, the Pope had the final say on the law, and who was in charge.  The main difference between Islam in this case is that the actual Qu'ran and hadith I understand are actually law books sprinkled with poetry,  whereas the bible is more of a poetic work sprinkled with a few rules.

[Maya Hollander]

Being Jewish, I think I can help (though I've seen there are a lot of comments and I haven't read them all, so I don't know what has already been said).

What is in common between Judaism, Christianity and Islam is that they are all Monotheists, as in they worship a single god and not a few (like, for example, was done in ancient Greece and Rome).

Also, Christianity is originated from Judaism. From what I know the difference between Christians and Jews are that Christians believe Jesus was the Messiah while Jews believe that the Messiah is still to come (there are probably many more differences than that though). I could use this point to argue that being a Jew is better because, frankly, Jesus didn't do such a great job in saving the world (no offence, Jesus).

I'm officially considered Jewish, but when it comes to beliefs I'm Agnostic. Which means I believe that there could possibly be a god out there, but it's not certain, and there could also be nothing, and if there is a god or some greater force it could be very different from what religion depicts it to be. For example, god could be a giant peep that controls our world, and so people who hate peeps will, after death, burn forever in the fires of hell, while murderers and rapists who enjoy peeps will get a place in heaven.

Anyway, I would consider Judaism the better religion to be in out of the three (but that's just my opinion).

My reasons for that are as follows:

1. Judaism clearly bans murder, it's one of the ten most important laws of Judaism. I don't know if the other two do, but I'm pretty sure those suicide bombers were real. As for Hitler, I'm pretty sure he was Christian... A Jew knows they must NOT kill, even to protect their religion.

2. Our holidays are seriously awesome. Rosh Hashanah = Food. Passover = Food. Hannukah = Food. Just about every holiday on the Jewish calendar means eating, and a lot of it, and some really good food too. You got your donuts, your apples in honey, mazzah with all kinds of random stuff on top. And on the saddest day of the year when you have to fast? You also aren't allowed to drive cars which means literally ALL of the children from the ages of about 6-16 go out, on their bikes or rollerblades or whatever, and enjoy the completely empty streets. Though this happens only in Israel. But still.

3. As I said before, the whole Messiah thing. If Jesus was the Messiah, we're kind of screwed. Just saying.

4. We were first! It sounds kind of immature to say as an argument, but we came first out of the three religions you mentioned. Oh, and by the way, did you know that Jesus WASN'T EVEN CHRISTIAN? He was Jewish, and yeah, he was probably a really cool guy, but he didn't have any intention for anything that happened after him and in his name. So yeah.

5. The language. Is just. So epic. It's very ancient and may I just say that it sounds beautiful... Having a language like that, just for you and the people who share your religion and heritage is really nice :)

6. It's literally a family. We all come from the same place, in the end. Even if you don't actually believe in the religion, like me, you still feel like a part of that heritage. There's still that feeling of, hi, we're all together, we were all hated and persecuted and we may not necesarrily believe in god but we do know that we share a history, a language, and currently a country, and we're brought together in so many ways. It's part of your identity.

That's that for my arguments for Judaism. If I got anything wrong, please correct me. Please also remember that I'm not actually a religious believer, only a Jew and an Israeli who is proud of her heritage. I don't mean to hate or bash any other religion.

-Maya

[CD]

Cool, what's mazzah?

I know you're not religious but you may have some cultural knowledge to educate on this.

I understand that if a person follows the proper intitation rites, the convenant, mitzvah and so on, they could become Jewish, even though Judaism doesn't go and seek new members (unlike some other religions).  So there seems to be a distinction between religiously-Jewish and heritage-Jewish.  I was wondering if the ancientness of Judaism has something do with that,  with Judaism evolving from being 'just a religion' to becoming a heritage as well (a bit like Zoroastrianism).  Also how does this apply to Jews living in Asia or Africa?   And if you know anything about why Judaism stopped being a converting religion?  If we had an answer to that question maybe the converting religions could learn a thing or two :P

Also, Islam and Christianity both condemn murder, as does Hinduism and Buddism, but all religions (and non religious) have their extremists.  The laws of numbers seem to mean that if extremists occupy 0.5% of the group (a tiny fraction) that if the group is very large, there will be more extremists.  So  Hindus, which are the largest religious group in the world, have the most extremists in total, but the same per capita.  Islam and Christianity have a large chunk of the global population, and once again, about the same per capita.  Judaism is no exception,  it has an equal proportion of extremists, only a lower percent of the global population. Same is with atheists and agnostics :)  although we're in a minority as well.  In the end, about 0.5% of the world (or some other tiny fraction) are actually extremists.  The sad thing is it only takes one or two of the bad apples to spoil the barrel.....being squeaky wheels they get grease...and that's when things get nasty.  But as always most people don't agree with murder, whether we have a religious code or not.

[Chen]

As a Jew, I might know a thing or two.

First, when it comes to Judaism, the main thing are the rules (at least that's how it is in orthodox Judaism). Basically, the thinking goes that if you adhere to the rules you're a good Jew, the spiritual thing of faith in God isn't the main issue because it is such a complex and personal matter that comes with years of study and experience. You're supposed to do as you're told now and as you get older (and presumably study the Tanach more and more) you'll understand the meaning of it later.

In other branches of Judaism this concept is a little different. For example, reformist Jews believe that not all rules are equally important. This branch started out as a way of modernizing the religion to the ideals of the time. The thinking was that some rules need to change because the ideology of the time changed. On the other hand, there are the Hasidic Jews. Originally they believed that if your hart is pure   in your faith then it doesn't really matter HOW you adhere to the rules (it's the thought that counts). But through the years their sects actually became more rigid than orthodox Jews, ironically.

Second, I'd like to add that Judaism is also a political organization of sorts. The Talmud and Oral Torah detail laws and regulations of every aspect of life, including laws that detail how to divide chickens between neighboring farmers, if there was a storm and their chickens got loos and mixed together.

Also, when it comes to conversions, according to the story Judaism started out as a tribe/clan rather than people being converted (sort of). Basically, a guy named Abraham had an epiphany and raised his children with his beliefs, who raised their children, who raised their's and so on. Personally I like the story of his epiphany as it's basis is skepticism and logical thought:

As a child, Abraham helped his dad sell miniature statues of their gods - at the time people believed the statues held the spirits of the gods or something. When his dad was out, he started playing with the statues and broke one of them, and when he came back Abraham lied and said the statues came to life and broke the other one. His dad, being a reasonable guy, said he knew he was lying and that it was illogical for the statues to come to life on their own and fight each other. So Abraham retorted: Then why do we pray for them? His doubt was why God chose to enlighten him later on in his life.

PS, I was never raised religious, and am actually an atheist so if anyone wants to correct me or add something, feel free...

[CD]

The Talmud and Oral Torah detail laws and regulations of every aspect of life, including laws that detail how to divide chickens between neighboring farmers

That makes Judaism (through the Talmud) sound more like Islam than Christianity, as I understand the Hadith has a similar function.  And both the Torah and the Qu'ran have a lot of stuff about laws.  Although the Christian bible's first five chapters are actually the Torah, which is interesting.

Also, when it comes to conversions, according to the story Judaism started out as a tribe/clan rather than people being converted (sort of). Basically, a guy named Abraham had an epiphany and raised his children with his beliefs, who raised their children, who raised their's and so on

I was aware of that part.  But I also understand that at some point in history, people moved, and there was a kingdom of sorts, which practiced conversion.  This is thousands of years ago. But it resulted in practitioners of Judaism living in North Africa and even as far as China who aren't descendants of Abraham,  but they had kids and grandkids and all the rest....who are still practicing Judaism even now. Which branch I have no idea.

What's the Tanach?

[Chen]

All the books of Judaism. It's divided into 3 parts: Torah - first 5 books, Nevi'im - the books that detail the prophets and the establishment of the Kingdom of Israel, and Ktuvim - which is basically what happened to the Jews after they were dispersed by the Babylonians and Romans etc

[CD]

okidokey.

[jeancrowley]

I was aware of that part.  But I also understand that at some point in history, people moved, and there was a kingdom of sorts, which practiced conversion

During this time, the time after Abraham and before Muhammad, according to the quran was the dark ages because rules were not abide and people were killing their daughters and then prophet Muhammad came and brought Islam which brought humanity out of darkness, again this is according to the quran. Now, during this time, Christianity (from jesus) and Judaism (from abraham) was already born, from the christianity and judaism's history point of view, did the age of darkness really happen during that specific time? and did the birth of islam really did save humanity of that time?