Ask me anything (almost) about Judaism

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It’s strictly for health reasons. They can be eaten immediately after one another. We use separate dishes but not a separate SET of dishes. We also eat or drink some token amount that is neither fish nor meat in between them.
 
It is expedient for Christians, as well as many non-orthodox Jewish authors, to present second temple Judaism as a palette of various and competing sects, but the truth (or, “my” truth as “influenced” by being a Rabbanite), was that the Judaism expounded in the Mishna and Talmud was the normative form of Judaism for the majority of Jews at that time. This picture is confirmed in various places in Josephus, where it is clear that he says the masses followed of the rabbis of the “Pharisees”.
 
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That is correct. It stands for: Tihiye nishmatah tzerurah bitzror hachayyim: May her soul be bound up in the bind of eternal life.
 
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I don’t think it’s the largest, but it’s the most visible, vocal and widespread Chassidic movement. Satmar & Gur and maybe others could complete in sheer numbers.
 
Orthodox Jews are not decreasing. They are increasing rapidly with high birth rates as well as a small but modest inflow of newly religious Jews that counters some of the outflow of Orthodox dropouts. In Haredi Orthodox primary schools it’s a given that each school class year will be around 4% bigger than the previous.
 
The Orthodox Jewish community is vigorously battling the problem of genetic diseases. Please Google “Dor Yeshorim” for more info. I think the problem is getting much better, not worse.
 
The only change from female to male would be the suffix of one of the words. It wouldn’t change the abbreviation.
Female:
Tihiye nishmatah tzerurah bitzror hachayyim
תהיה נשמתה צרורה בצרור החיים
Male:
Tihiye nishmato tzerurah bitzror hachayyim
תהיה נשמתו צרורה בצרור החיים

As far as the hidden righteous ones, it’s certainly a part of popular cultural knowledge, but not a central or often-discussed concept. Perhaps more so in Chassidic circles.

 
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Midge said:
You are correct.

While Rambam was not alive during the 16th century during the time of the Protestants coming on the scene, it was his work that came to light during that period that helped Jews counter their proselytizing efforts that would come much later, during mostly the 18th to 19th centuries.

In fact, the great Protestant proselytizing of the Jews eventually led up and climaxed into the Holocaust of the early 20th century. I was writing thinking readers were aware of this aspect of history as I did mention that after the Holocaust Jews began to return to speaking about Judaism in ways that predated Maimonides.
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It’s always better to be correct (not always possible 🙂 ). Your timeline looked a bit stretched and it was difficult to tell who’s who in the narrative.

Two and a half brief questions: Can you be a Reconstructionist Jew and not be a Zionist Jew and how many followers of Reconstructionist Judaism are there currently; do you feel the number is increasing or decreasing?

Thank you.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/who-is-a-reconstructionist-jew
Reconstructionists affirm the attachment of our people to the Land of Israel the site of our origins and the focus of our hope through the millennia. From its inception, Reconstructionism has been a Zionist movement. We are firmly committed to the building of the State of Israel and the establishment of a just and humane Jewish society there. We consider the Jewish national rebirth centered in Israel to be the greater accomplishment of the Jewish people in our century and encourage all Jews to develop their ties with the State of Israel. We emphasize the importance of visiting Israel, and we commend those Jews who commit their lives, through aliyah, to the rebuilding of our people’s homeland. While our support for Israel is unconditional, a variety of opinion exists within the Reconstructionist movement with regard to specific policies of the Israeli government.
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While the movement continues to increase in numbers and grow (but I don’t have exact figures at the moment), we are likely the smallest Jewish denomination at present. For your other questions, you would be better served by visiting the ReconstructingJudaism.org site to see exactly how we view Israel and Zionism.

Reconstructionist Jews are not cookie cutter Jews matching one another. But we tend to love Israel while currently not always loving the way it treats its neighbors. It can be compared to the way we may love a family member but not love some of their bad traits.

Across denominational boundaries it is hard not to be Jew and not be a Zionist due to the fact that the basic fundamentals of Zionism teach that Jews deserve a homeland and the right to defend themselves on that land as much as anyone would. Again, as with modern-day Israel, Reconstructionist Jews don’t always agree with everything all Zionists do or subscribe to.

One thing that Reconstructionist Judaism is above all is far from static. While we are quite unified, we are not uniform in our individual approaches to it. The way one of us believes and practices will differ vastly from another, and our denomination allows for this. So you may want to study this from our official site for yourself to see how we apply the principles of Reconstructing Judaism in our lives.
 
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You fail to understand my points. I’m not concerned over which form was “normative”, rather I’m showing that Christianity came out and was influenced by already established traditions in Judaism of the time, particularly the Wisdom and apocalyptic traditions of the Second Temple period. Jesus fits rather well in the context of Wisdom-apocalyptic prophet, and no doubt he would’ve have seen himself in the same tradition as Elijah and Elisha. The fact of the matter is, Christianity was a Jewish movement influenced by Jewish ideals. Clearly, you failed to read my other posts. It’s rather expedient for Rabbinic Jews to make Christianity out to be this completely alien system that developed completely apart from Judaism.
 
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In what way, if any, do the Psalm fit into Jewish prayer or worship?
The reason I ask of course, from the Catholic perspective, the development of the rosary and it’s relationship, anciently, to the praying of the Psalms by various religious orders.
 
The Psalms make up the main prayers of Judaism. In fact, the main ongoing prayer of the Catholic Church, namely The Liturgy of the Hours, is based on this fact.

Jews use the psalms extensively in Shabbat and Holy Day services as well. And many Haggadot (liturgical books used for Passover Seders) contain psalms as prayers.

Christianity, in fact, borrowed the tradition of incorporating the psalms into their worship and prayers from the Jews.
 
What does “haaretz” mean? Not just as a word but as a concept if there is such a thing as a concept around it.
Thanks in advance for when you will have time to reply and may you have a blessed and happy Passover!
 
Mary888 said:
What does “haaretz” mean?
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“The land”. Ha is the definite article, eretz is land (Eretz Israel, the Land of Israel). The first e changes to a because of the ha.
 
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Thanks. But it has to be some concept attached to it. Because a Jewish Israeli man was saying on his blog once “I am haaretz. I am not talking about [this sort of things].” He couldn’t have said "‘I am land’’… I was shy to ask him back then but still hope to understand one day.
 
It means today “I am the People of Israel” (literally, “I am the Land of Israel”). In other words, each Jew considers himself representative of the whole people.

Thanks for your good wishes. And may you too have a Blessed Easter!
 
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