SUPERB JOSHUA! THANK YOU! All our Jewish brothers and sisters should be proud of their wonderful heritage. They are still here while others have long ago perished. They're still strong, and they're still blessing the entire world. Hooray for the Jewish people!!!
Good invitation. Now how do you take that invitation off the digital page and turn it into an action? Invite people to enjoy a Shabbat dinner or lunch at your home. Start a small Torah study group. Send questions on the weekly parsha for friends to ask at their own Shabbat table. Help them put up mezzuzot in their homes. Bring them to your neighbourhood shul and to meet the rabbi. Anybody have other ways to act?
Thank you for the encouragement to explore Judaism more deeply. My experience of going to Hebrew school after a full day of public school 3X a week until I was 12 y/o hardly qualifies as a meaningful Jewish education.
Re: "Judaism gave the world a moral language that later flowed through Christianity and Islam"
As far as I can see none of Judaism's moral language forward through Islam. Unlike Judaism's rabbinic tradition, which allows for the reinterpretation of the Torah, Islam apparently has no equivalent change mechanism. This is why they remain stuck in the 7th-century, barbaric and hateful thinking of their founder.
Just because you have a book that talks about a god and claim connectedness to earlier actual religions shouldn't qualify you as a religion, at least not in the way we think of Judaism and Christianity.
When a group of people adopt a supremacist ideology that all non-believers must be killed, converted, taxed or enslaved, or that the highest reward you can earn is as a martyr, that is not a religion. It is a death cult.
Joshua Hoffman I still struggle with god (even so I am almost 80) and I have learned that it has nothing to do with my Jewish pride!!! at all the achievements and accomplishments and inventions that have come from my Jewish heritage! I am just amazed at the way you put it in writing and with such eloquence it gave me a very simple way to look at it and not always question (even so we always question! It’s in our DNA) thank you so much for clearing it in a simple and beautiful way……thank you Joshua!
SUPERB JOSHUA! THANK YOU! All our Jewish brothers and sisters should be proud of their wonderful heritage. They are still here while others have long ago perished. They're still strong, and they're still blessing the entire world. Hooray for the Jewish people!!!
Good invitation. Now how do you take that invitation off the digital page and turn it into an action? Invite people to enjoy a Shabbat dinner or lunch at your home. Start a small Torah study group. Send questions on the weekly parsha for friends to ask at their own Shabbat table. Help them put up mezzuzot in their homes. Bring them to your neighbourhood shul and to meet the rabbi. Anybody have other ways to act?
Thank you for the encouragement to explore Judaism more deeply. My experience of going to Hebrew school after a full day of public school 3X a week until I was 12 y/o hardly qualifies as a meaningful Jewish education.
Re: "Judaism gave the world a moral language that later flowed through Christianity and Islam"
As far as I can see none of Judaism's moral language forward through Islam. Unlike Judaism's rabbinic tradition, which allows for the reinterpretation of the Torah, Islam apparently has no equivalent change mechanism. This is why they remain stuck in the 7th-century, barbaric and hateful thinking of their founder.
Just because you have a book that talks about a god and claim connectedness to earlier actual religions shouldn't qualify you as a religion, at least not in the way we think of Judaism and Christianity.
When a group of people adopt a supremacist ideology that all non-believers must be killed, converted, taxed or enslaved, or that the highest reward you can earn is as a martyr, that is not a religion. It is a death cult.
Awesome essay!
Fantastic piece. Should be read & studied in public high schools across the US.
You make me proud to be a JEWESS!
This spoke to me deeply. Thank you, Chaver.
Joshua Hoffman I still struggle with god (even so I am almost 80) and I have learned that it has nothing to do with my Jewish pride!!! at all the achievements and accomplishments and inventions that have come from my Jewish heritage! I am just amazed at the way you put it in writing and with such eloquence it gave me a very simple way to look at it and not always question (even so we always question! It’s in our DNA) thank you so much for clearing it in a simple and beautiful way……thank you Joshua!
I simply cannot understand these individuals.
This is the best summary of Judaism I’ve ever read. Thank you. I will pass it on.