This is AWESOME

There are 19 parts to this. I really enjoyed this. This is why I have no doubt that if I ever decided that I believe in God I would go back to Judaism. No other religion makes any sense to me at all.

WTF!!!!!!!!

This guy is nuts. There is no impetus in Judaism for anyone to convert and become a Jew. A gentile can have all the rights of a Jew by simply believing in Judaism and keeping the seven laws of Noah. In fact, trying to convert people to Judaism is against the Torah. I'm protesting this video and the message he is trying to send.

God and the Cosmic Background Radiation

What if there is something to all the "hocus pocus" of Kabbalah? What if the ancients really did have insight to the true workings of the universe?

According to Kabbalah there are ten emanations of God. Tiferet is "God" and Malchut, the lowest emanation and the closest to us is the one we pray to. Malchut is the one the ancients claim to have "risen" towards. Malchut is female and Tiferet is male. They have sex through Yesod. When we are good they have sex and all is well with the world. When we are bad the stop having sex and the world goes crazy (Do you think they need to have more sex?). Malchut, aka Shechina, is supposed to be everywhere.

According to the Rambam, aka Maimonedes, Malchut was emanated in a flash of light (see Guide for the Perplexed).

When the big bang happened there was a big flash of light. The remnants of that flash of light are everywhere. They are the cosmic background radiation (CMBR).






What if there is something to the ramblings of the ancients and Malchut is CMBR? Could the rest of the emanations be outside the universe? What if they are in another dimension? What if each emanation is the CMBR of a big bang and we are a universe within a universe within...?

The Term Judeo-Christian is an Oxymoron

Christianity claims to be based on Judaism. The more I learn about Christianity the more absurd this claim seems to be.

According to Judaism the Messiah is a direct descendant of King David. The Messiah is human, not a "son of God". It is impossible to be both a direct descendent of David and a son of God. Descendency from David follows the pateranl line. The Messiah is suposed to come after Gog Umagog and resurect the dead. There was no Gog Umagog before Jesus nor did he resurrect all the dead. The Messiah was supposed to rebuild the Temple. Jesus did not rebuild the Temple.

Jesus is much closer related to the Pagan God Mithra.

Mithra was born of a virgin on December 25th in a cave, and his birth was attended by shepherds.
He was considered a great traveling teacher and master.
He had 12 companions or disciples.
Mithra's followers were promised immortality.
He performed miracles.
As the "great bull of the Sun," Mithra sacrificed himself for world peace.
He was buried in a tomb and after three days rose again.
His resurrection was celebrated every year.
He was called "the Good Shepherd" and identified with both the Lamb and the Lion.
He was considered the "Way, the Truth and the Light," and the "Logos," "Redeemer," "Savior" and "Messiah."
His sacred day was Sunday, the "Lord's Day," hundreds of years before the appearance of Christ.
Mithra had his principal festival of what was later to become Easter.
His religion had a eucharist or "Lord's Supper," at which Mithra said, "He who shall not eat of my body nor drink of my blood so that he may be one with me and I with him, shall not be saved."
"His annual sacrifice is the passover of the Magi, a symbolical atonement or pledge of moral and physical regeneration."

Oddly enough all Christian holidays coincide with pagan holidays. For example today is Easter Sunday and one of the traditions of Easter is to eat chocolate eggs and bunnies. Ever wonder where that came from? You can find the answer here
http://www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn63/easter.htm
http://www.religioustolerance.org/easter1.htm
http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t020.html
http://www.history.com/content/easter/pagan-origins

There are many major differences between Judaism and Christianity, here are a few of them.

1. Prayer. Christians pray to God telling him what they want from him. Jews pray to God thanking him for what they have. Judaism finds it repulsive to ask God for things. God knows your needs and provides them. If you ask that means you think you know something God does not know. The only time Jews ask for anything from God is on Yom Kippur when they ask God to forgive their sins.

2. Charity. Christians make a huge deal out of giving charity. Judaism views charity as something to be done quietly and secretly. By no means should the person receiving know who the giver is and vice versa. That would be humiliating to the receiver.

In ancient times portions of the crops were left in fields for the poor to come at night and collect. Today there are organizations that collect the money and redistribute it where needed. No one knows who their money went to or who their money came from. This continues the tradition of "matan baseter" secret giving.

3. Faith. Christianity is based on faith. The most important thing is to accept Jesus as your savior. In Judaism there is no requirement to have faith in anything. You don't even have to believe in God. Judaism is a set of laws to live by. The Mishna and Talmud do not deal with belief or faith they deal with daily issues like if person A borrows X from person B and ruins it does person A have to replace it? It goes into every possible scenario you can think of depending on the conditions of the loan and what X is rendering judgment on each one (often two or three, we love to split hairs and argue). So while Christianity is faith based Judaism is civil law based.

4. Heaven and Hell. There is no heaven and hell in Judaism. There was however heaven and hell in Paganism.

5. Original sin. There is no original sin in Judaism.

6. The Bible. In spite of being spread out with no communication for thousands of years when European Jews united with other Jews from around the world and the Torah from each community was examined they were identical down to the last letter and symbol. There are many versions of the "New Testament" there is only one "Old Testament". If you want to read you'll have to learn Hebrew. If you've read a translation you haven't read the Bible.

The earliest folowers of Jesus were the Nazarenes. The Nazarenes were Jews who viewed Jesus as a Rabbi, Prophet or Messiah depending on the text you read. None of the Nazarenes considered Jesus the "Son of God". The Nazarenes demanded that anyone who wanted to be accepted as a Nazarene must first convert to Judaism. Some of the apostles decided that this was not necessary and the rift between Judaism and Christianity began.

To broaden the appeal of the new religion of Christianity in those early centuries, the powerful Roman religious authorities, with the backing of the Roman Empire, simply co-opted the rites and practices of pagan religions, relabeled them as "Christian" and created a new brand of Christianity with customs and teachings far removed from the Church Jesus founded.

The rift grew to the point that the Nazarenes who were the first followers of Jesus but maintianed their Jewish way of life were persecuted by the Gentile Christians and all contact between the two sects were broken. This broke the tie between Christianity and Judaism.

The New Testemant was written after this rift occured. The writers of the New Testament deliberately changed the testimony of how Jesus died shifting the blame from the Romans to the Jews and opening the door to the vilification of Jews throughout the next 1500 years. Even the Holocaust would never have happened if Christian hatred for Jews had not been so strong. The Nazi's preyed on this hatred incitng the hatred to get the German people to agree to the extermination of the Jews.

http://books.google.com/books?id=5aEwmJURmPUC&pg=PA221&lpg=PA221&dq=judeo-christian+winkler&source=bl&ots=rcRfRC93IH&sig=l2ste9LGM3tFyZJDraNB0FXHEKU#PPA223,M1

http://www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn63/easter.htm

http://www.gospel-mysteries.net/nazarenes.html

http://www.ancientpaths.org/APJTnazandeb.html

It's a Process

When I was 24, after six years of soul searching I came to the conclusion that God was a figment of mans imagination. When I say God I mean the god that watches over us and cares what we do and judges us. I went through a process of breaking every taboo I could think of. The first thing I did was turn on a light on Shabbat. Next I ate bread on Passover. I tried pork (didn't like it at all), and shellfish (ewwwwwwww). The big test was eating on Yom Kippur. I had been fasting on Yom Kippur for 14 years already and half expected to be struck down by lightning when I did it. I had to force each mouthful down. By the third year I wasn't even thinking about it.

For years I shrugged off every ritual and symbol and Judaism.

When I moved back to the US something inside me changed (see my post "Does it Matter?). I started looking for other Jews and decided to take a course in Jewish Mysticism to fulfill my humanities requirement for my environmental sciences degree. I had never studied Jewish Mysticism growing up. Tanach, Mishna, some Talmud and Jewish Philosophy were the mainstream areas of study. This was also the first time I studied Judaism in a secular setting. It was disconcerting in some ways.

The course opened up a new interest in Judaism. I realized that I could study Judaism without having to "believe". I also realized that I wanted to do it. Judaism is so complex and it's a huge part of who and what I am. My family for the past few hundred years were all Hassidic Rabbis. Reverence for study and a thirst for knowledge is ingrained in my genes.

This is part of what made me who I am today and learning it from that point of view is fascinating. Every now and then I'll come across something that makes me ponder whether there is a God (but like I said not the judgmental overbearing one) and what part this "God" plays in the Universe. But every time I think I found something I can believe in I find holes in the logic. Oddly enough it's my Jewish upbringing that makes me crave logic in everything.

I'm still going through the process and I'm still Agnostic.

Does it Matter?

I was seven years old when my family moved to Israel. I basically grew up surrounded by other Jews. Yes there was a sea murderous Arabs surrounding us and wanting to kill us but like most Israelis I did my best to push that to the back of my mind and not think about it. Thinking about it would drive you crazy. Sometimes I think that Israelis are masters of denial. It's an essential survival mechanism. 

When I came back to the US I found myself faced with a dilemma. For the first time in my life I was asking myself whether being Jewish mattered to me. I had long since stopped believing in "God" so what difference did it make? Why was I even asking myself the question?

I was asking myself the question because it did matter. Until then I always felt that people were people and it didn't matter. Being surrounded by non Jews for the first time I realized that there was a difference. It isn't something I can point to and say "that's it! That's the difference!" All I know is that it is there. And once again I think it's biological. 

My ancestors went through every type of persecution and died in droves to keep our identity alive. 

It definitely does matter.

I don't believe in "God" but I am Jewish through and through.

Judaism

I grew up Jewish Orthodox. It's probably the strictest most life encompassing religion ever followed. From the moment you wake up in the morning until you close your eyes at night there is nothing you do without saying a blessing. There is even a blessing for when you go to the bathroom. 

I've often wondered how it became like that and I have a theory. While we live in Eretz Yisrael there was no reason for us to differentiate ourselves from others. There was no need to strive to keep our identity. Everyone was Jewish. Then the unthinkable happened and we were conquered and thrown off our land. The whole fabric of our existence was destroyed and a set of intricate ritulas and prayers and blessings were put in place to help remind us that we were indeed different.

As the years went by some strayed while others became more obstinate in their preservation of Judaism. Rules got stricter, rituals became more meaningful. Various communities developed their own minhagim (habits-ways of doin things) based on the constraints of the societies they lived in.

After two thousand years what we had was the most obstinate of the original Jews clinging to their identity with a maze of laws and rituals. 

Then we returned to our land.

Most Israeli's are secular. The majority do have a belief that god exists but they don't follow the religion. About 25% are non believers but still consider themselves Jews.

I got into an argument with several people about being able to be an atheist or agnostic and still be Jewish. After all, you can't be a Christian or Muslim of you don't believe in God. I had someone else tell me that she dated a Jewish guy once and felt alien. It was like everyone else belonged to this exclusive club and she didn't. I understand why she felt that way. After so many years of preserving our way of life there is an intangible bond between us. It has nothing to do with god it's genetics. Those of us who preserved our identity carry certain genes, traits that are unique to our "family". We can sense each other. It isn't "mystical" it's biological.

Regardless of what you believe you are Jewish if your mother was Jewish. We are in a sense a spread out collective that can't agree on anything. Being Jewish is a trip. I love it and wouldn't want to be anything else. But I can totally understand why other people don't get us.