Ask about Judaism

[margin overa]

Culturally - then, Jews value:
Education
Family
Smarts

(we even see that in Genesis - who 'wins'? Jacob, the smart one)

Look at other Biblical heroes? Generally speaking (with at least one notable exception) they 'win' by being smart, by being clever - this is how you survive violent times when you aren't really very strong or important: by being clever, and smart, and fast. David was all three.

A lot of this is stereotypes, but all stereotypes start somewhere - they just mask a lot of diversity under a single 'face'.

I think I've posted before that one of my good friends throughout jr. high and high school was (and still is!) a Conservative Jew, and we had talked at length about these very things. When I was in college, I was in a Sunday School class discussing Jacob, and I brought the very things up that you're pointing out in this particular discussion, and the teacher - a very sententious guy - shut down the discussion and ripped me a new one for being "anti-Semitic". My attempts to explain the whys and hows only seemed to infuriate him, no matter what I said.

All this to say that I once in early jr. high asked my friend if his parents were like mine - you know, encouraging him to really only associate with kids of his faith - and he burst out laughing. "If that's the only friend I could have, I'd be out of luck!" The Jewish congregation in that area was tiny - maybe 3-4 families. Anyway, as we got older and I got to know his family a bit better, he once said his parents approved of me as a friend, because I had "a bit of a head on my shoulders". That's one of the better compliments I've ever received.

I think that he and his own immediate family are the only Jews left in the community I grew up in. They drive about an hour or so for services on holidays.

[agricola]

My masseuse had a question about that just the other day - basically, do we have a 'church' (synagogue) here? Answer in brief, no. Answer in some detail: it's complicated.

The thing is, there are a lot more differences between Judaism and Christianity than most people realize (Christians AND Jews), and we often are using the identical words for non-identical things - and a good place to start is exactly there: synagogues.

A synagogue is not church, and it isn't just because churches are Christian and Synagogues are Jewish.
Also, a rabbi is not a 'minister' (and definitely not a priest). Prayers are only SOMETIMES 'praying' and - well - we use 'sin' differently. also 'repentance' and 'forgiveness' and 'charity'. Salvation is REALLY a totally different thing, and 'sacrifice' - well. Not the same thing.

Mind you, quite a few of these things are ANALOGOUS - but that doesn't mean the same thing with a different name.

Imagine a community of Christians gathering in a new city, a group with similar beliefs and customs, and this new city (for some reason) totally lacks any other Christians. What is about the first thing they do, or want to do?
They want to 'build a church' (building, usually). Why do they want to do that? Because 'gathering together on the first day of the week' (usually) is what they DO. It defines them. It is their faith community's physical expression in the world (even it if it brother Johnson's basement the rest of the week). And they need this place because they NEED to 'gather together' in order to WORSHIP GOD.

A synagogue: not so much.

This topic is actually covered in the Talmud, probably because Jews would frequently find themselves settling in a new city without any other previous Jewish presence.
Their first priority is a school. The second is a mikvah (ritual bath). A place to gather as a group for public prayers might come third, but certainly not first, and very likely the PRIMARY use of such a space is for the school. In Yiddish (which means 'Jewish'), the popular name for synagogue actually IS 'school' (shul).

What Jews typically do to 'worship God' isn't getting together to 'pray', but getting together to STUDY. There's even a Talmudic discussion about whether or not it is actually proper to STOP studying when the regular time for PRAYER comes around. I don't think the discussion resolved the question though.

The Hebrew name for synagogue is 'beit knesset' and if you've ever noticed, that is the same name as the Israeli Parliament - it is also a 'beit knesset', which means, actually 'house of assembly'. A synagogue is partly a school and partly a community center, and only secondarily a 'house of prayer'.

So - no we don't have a synagogue. We DO have a 'chavurah' which is a 'community of friends', or something rather analogous to 'house church'. Sort of. Not exactly. It's complicated.

[Moogy]

Even our west Texas town has a synagogue. (Not the tiny town near the ranch, the somewhat larger town an hour away.) One of their long-term members (is that even the right word?) came to live in the nursing home where I worked. He kept kosher, and no one except me seemed to understand any of the rules. This adorable, extremely talkative, elderly man further confused everyone because he was very anti-Monsanto foods. I don't think that was a particularly religious stance, but he took it every bit as seriously as no pork. He had a touch of dementia which also made it difficult to understand his wishes. The kitchen made a list of what he would eat and kept it posted. I know it wasn't totally kosher, maybe not even close. He would ask, sometimes several times a day "Do they serve kosher food here?" His niece in Boston (closest relative) said to just tell him yes.
Eventually his niece moved him to Boston, into a Jewish retirement center. We hated to lose him, but I hope he was happier there. I wonder if he quizzed the new retirement center about Monsanto products?

His food requests made more sense than those demanded by the daughter of another patient. She claimed to be vegan, but fish, chicken, eggs, and cheese were ok!

[agricola]

'keeping kosher' is probably THE most idiosyncratic practice of practically every Jew across the whole spectrum of movements - despite probably the easiest and clearest directions available according to each and every community. It is something most people 'negotiate' in their minds. You would find the most consistency of practice within the orthodox groups, but even there, you will find some variation.

For me - having to develop a 'practice' that would WORK, living where we do - it was pretty confusing. I did read several well-respected books on the subject, including a well-regarded and basic text recommended by many people as a good and comprehensive guide. But it was clearly written by a guy who never actually COOKED! when he started in on keeping separate racks for dairy dishes and meat dishes in the DISHWASHER plus running it empty between loads - I mean, how much kitchen space does he think the regular person HAS? (and how much TIME)

The best 'practical' advice comes from a great book (How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household - Blu Greenberg) by a rabbi's wife, who is an authority herself. She, at least, has actually DONE it (kept a kosher home for years, with children).

At any rate, there's 'Biblical kosher' and there's 'rabbinic kosher' and there's variations on that depending on WHICH rabbinical tradition you follow, and then there are the personal tweaks people have, or the community and/or family traditions...

For instance, what does one do when one has inadvertently used a meat utensil with a dairy dish?
Separating utensils and plates and pots and pans is a 'fence' around the Biblical rules of not mixing and not eating these things together - it also means most Jews who even minimally keep kosher need twice as much of everything (and twice as much storage space). It is truly far easier to be vegetarian (the mild variety, where eggs and milk and fish are okay) because 90% or more of the food restrictions involve meat.

One tradition has you burying your abused fork in the ground for three days (this purifies it or something).
A friend of mine, when I asked her, told me her tradition:
'you look at it and you say 'oops' and then you wash it'

works for me.

One big thing that keeping kosher according to the customs of your community does:
it keeps the community together and 'separate', because the only places you can eat away from home are the homes of other members of the same community.

(not quite true, because you can, of course, always bring your own food - and plates, and silverware - when invited out. I know some people who do that.)

The Conservative movement recently began an initiative towards extending 'keeping kosher' from just the technical rule to considering the ethical treatment of the animal pre-slaughter AS WELL AS the ethical treatment of the industry's EMPLOYEES, when considering whether or not some meat product is indeed 'kosher'. The point being: what is our obligation, as consumers, toward the well-being and proper treatment of our suppliers of the things we eat (and use). This could be extended beyond just food, but into everything we buy - for instance, clothing made by child slave labor would not be 'kosher' either.

Kosher means 'fit and proper'.

[agricola]

Now I've scared everybody away again, I guess.

Where was I?

[ena]

1 - God is speaking in the Royal Plural (as Queen Victoria put it once: 'We are not amused')
2 - God is metaphorically speaking to the assembled heavenly court, because inventing humans is a serious Big Deal, and all rulers would naturally consult with their court before taking a MAJOR position (this was popular in the Middle Ages).
3 - (and my favorite) God is speaking to all created life - because who else was around for God to be talking to, after all? The life on earth - and what is man, but something earthy and partaking of the same life as all other life on earth, with that little bit 'extra' that makes mankind 'different' - 'the image of God' of course CANNOT be our humanoid FORM, or anything physical at all, because God doesn't HAVE a 'form' for us to be an 'image' of. So whatever 'image of God' may mean, it can't be our physical selves.

there, three possibles, of which I personally much prefer number 3.

Elohim is the plural of El. The Godhead is itself a plural. The site attempts to explain but I question the existence of Trinitarian Jews. I am mixing Christianity and Judaism probably this site. I do like your thinking.
http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Names_ ... lohim.html

[ena]

'keeping kosher' is probably THE most idiosyncratic practice of practically every Jew across the whole spectrum of movements - despite probably the easiest and clearest directions available according to each and every community. It is something most people 'negotiate' in their minds. You would find the most consistency of practice within the orthodox groups, but even there, you will find some variation.

I have noticed a wide variation among Jews from conversations. I even asked a Jew once if he would eat a Cheese Burger. He said no. I am aware of the rule against cooking a kid in it's mother's milk. Some are not dietary observant. I would not make a good Jew nor would I last long in the CoC. If ever I am able I would like to ask my father why the CoC? Love your thinking as it fits with what I see.

[agricola]

Trinitarianism is absolutely not 'Jewish' and has nothing to do with Judaism. It is, in fact, one of the prime 'differences' between Judaism and Christianity. On that topic, Judaism is much closer to Islam.

El is Canaanite for 'god'. It is also the word for 'high'. Elohim in the Hebrew scriptures generally is variously translated as 'gods', as 'God', and as 'high ones' - which refers generally to judges, authorities, aristrocracy and so forth. It is not a NAME.

When the word is used for God, the verbs are invariably singular verbs. This is far more obvious in Hebrew than in English, by the way.

So in Genesis 1 where it says 'Elohim created etc' (which my father was very please to point out was a plural) the verb 'created' is quite clearly and unmistakable third person SINGULAR (that is 'he created').
In other words, that dog don't hunt.

There are other Hebrew words that have a plural ending (the 'im') which refer to singular things - mayim, for instance. That is a plural form, referring to a single thing (water). There are other examples. The point being that 'elohim' as a reference to God cannot be used to infer that God has three 'parts'. Or any number of 'parts', especially since in much of the Hebrew scriptures - over and over again - the clear point is made that God is in fact 'one'.

[B.H.]

God is God, and that's just the way it is.

[ena]

Trinitarianism is absolutely not 'Jewish' and has nothing to do with Judaism. It is, in fact, one of the prime 'differences' between Judaism and Christianity. On that topic, Judaism is much closer to Islam.

El is Canaanite for 'god'. It is also the word for 'high'. Elohim in the Hebrew scriptures generally is variously translated as 'gods', as 'God', and as 'high ones' - which refers generally to judges, authorities, aristrocracy and so forth. It is not a NAME.

When the word is used for God, the verbs are invariably singular verbs. This is far more obvious in Hebrew than in English, by the way.

I suspected something like that. The Trinity is Father, Son and Spirit. Jews would not see Son in that respect. I did not realize El was Canaanite. I am aware of sacrifices in the pagan world. I wonder if the idea in the Jewish world had roots in that kind of thinking. Not wishing to offend. I know the Jews have had to historically fight off pagan inclinations within the tribal group.