The Jewish Ecosystem
Judaism is not a thing, like a toaster, which has one purpose. When someone talks about a toaster you generally know what he means: a mechanical machine which burns toast. Judaism, however, means many different things to many different people, so it's hard to define it. Judaism is more like an ecosystem which contains a lot of very different things under one name. I will try to give a brief descriptions of some of the different animals that go under the Judaism name:
- Orthodox Judaism - Lithuanian Ghetto Judaism, they are more concerned with trivial ritualistic observances such as microscopic bugs in lettuce.
- Reform Judaism - wish they were Christianity, but unfortunately they aren't, so they try their best to pretend
- Conservative Judaism - a little bit of Orthodox, a little bit of Reform. Generally too scholarly for their own good.
- Secular Judaism - your basic liberal secular humanistic philosophy with a touch of Jewish traditions and nostalgia.
- Something new called "Open Source" Judaism - The anything goes form of Judaism? Beats me what this means.
posted by B. Spinoza at 9:41 AM
6 Comments:
>They all share as their source the inspirational message of the ancient Jewish prophets...
None of the prophets were Jewish (Jewish=from Yehudah). They were Isralites. And anyway you could have included Christians (and possibly Muslims) if this is the criteria. I think what links all 21 centuary Jews is the inspiration (however small), they got from the Mishnaic & Talmudic Rabbis rather than the prophets.
>None of the prophets were Jewish (Jewish=from Yehudah). They were Isralites.
Isaiah wasn't from Judah? I'll have to look that up. Regardless, The ones in Tanach were all accepted by the Judahites eventually. Otherwise they wouldn't have been included in Tanach.
>And anyway you could have included Christians (and possibly Muslims) if this is the criteria.
yes, but I'm talking about Judaism now.
>I think what links all 21 centuary Jews is the inspiration (however small), they got from the Mishnaic & Talmudic Rabbis rather than the prophets.
in theory the Rabbis were inspired by the Torah. It's not like we dance around every year with the holy talmud, right?
>Isaiah wasn't from Judah? I'll have to look that up. Regardless, The ones in Tanach were all accepted by the Judahites eventually. Otherwise they wouldn't have been included in Tanach.
I think his point is to try to get you to think outside the box. We think of these people as "Jewish", but no one was "Jewish" until, at least, the Persian period.
>in theory the Rabbis were inspired by the Torah. It's not like we dance around every year with the holy talmud, right?
Its the point of departure. Karaites venerate the Torah too. But there's a huge difference between Karaite Judaism and Orthodox Judaism, namely, the role the rabbis of the Talmud, pre-and-post, play.
>I think his point is to try to get you to think outside the box. We think of these people as "Jewish", but no one was "Jewish" until, at least, the Persian period.
I am aware of this. I just wasn't precise in my language. Should I have written "They all share as their source the inspirational message of the ancient Hebrew prophets"?
>Its the point of departure. Karaites venerate the Torah too. But there's a huge difference between Karaite Judaism and Orthodox Judaism, namely, the role the rabbis of the Talmud, pre-and-post, play.
I'm not arguing that the Talmud is not very influential in modern Judaism, just that the original source is the Torah not the Talmud. You don't argue with that do you? And I'm not sure that the prophets would have liked modern Judaism very much.
I understand that Judaism is more influenced by Talmud than Tanach, actually I think that I implied it when I said that they don't even teach it in Yeshivah. Oh well, I guess I should have said it explicitly
What about Reconstructionist? You forgot that one. ;-)
Yeah, I also forgot the Karites. How could I forget them?
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