What do Jews think of the other Abrahamic religions?

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My impression is that they don’t really care, that is to say, other religions are not any concern of theirs. They will welcome converts, but they don’t feel the need to evangelize and they don’t have a missionary mandate.

Again, it’s just an impression, so I may be off.
 
porthos11 said:
but they don’t feel the need to evangelize and they don’t have a missionary mandate.
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Well, considering it was illegal and resulted in death for many years, it’s easy to understand.

But it is true. Jews don’t go on missions or evangelize. It’s not a mandate from God and even a convert is discouraged three times before being allowed to begin the conversion process. Jews are to show the world their religion by being a light unto the world. Conversion isn’t necessary to be included in the world to come.

Christianity was unique in Israel in regards to evangelizing and missions. Even Roman religions weren’t about converting. They were all about syncretism, instead.
 
Keep in mind, the Jewish faith does not have an equivalent to the Vatican/Pope/Catechism. There are several different schools of Judaism (think more like denominations in the Christian world).

You could ask your local Rabbi, ask Rabbi’s from various schools of thought, Reformed v Orthodox v Hasidim and sub groups within each of those, etc.
 
@Pattylt, @Kaninchen, @Salibi, @Bithynian, and everyone else here at CAF, Shanah tovah!
 
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Proselytism did happen between Jewish groups in the 1st century, Matthew 23:15 is a witness to this. Scholar of religion, Shaye Cohen writes,
Was Judaism in antiquity a missionary religion? We must be wary of simple generalizations. There were many varieties of Judaism in antiquity and no single one of them was “normative” or “orthodox”. Judaism changed radically during the centuries under review (from Maccabees, mid-second century B.C.E., to the fifth century C.E.), and there is no reason to assume that its attitudes toward conversion and converts (or anything else, for that matter) was uniform or remained unchanged during that entire period. The evidence surveyed here indicates that there may have been missionary trends among some segments of diaspora and Palestinian Jewry in the first century C.E.
Jewish Assimilation, Acculturation and Accommodation: Past Traditions, Current Issues and Future Prospects, p. 20
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I agree that’s probably true. There is much we don’t know about early Judaism. I think that by the time of the rise of Christianity, whatever amount there was, was fading. As far as I’m aware, it’s never been a tenet of the faith…just some sects that may have engaged in it. Honestly, I think we just don’t know!
 
Happy New Year to all of CAF! Here’s to a sweet and peaceful one…and a new decade!
🍸:clinking_glasses:🍷🍢🍧🎉🎊🔔📣
 
Kaninchen said:
Well, on the one hand, while on the other hand, meanwhile on quite another hand altogether
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wait a minute . . . are you telling us the Judaism is a branch of Economics ??? :roll_eyes: 😱 🤣 😜

(President Truman stated that he wanted a one handed economist, as we always add, “but on the tother hand”, followed but he opposite conclusion . . .)

hawk, whose “doc” comes from a Ph.D. in that field . . .
 
Happy New Year To everyone! And, Thanks for making this a good discussion thread along with all the other posters!

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Awww, thank you! Shanah Tovah to you as well. This has been a nice discussion, hasn’t it! We really are all riding the same human train, just taking different tracts with different destinations.

Happy New Year to you as well! Much sweetness for the tear to come. Three more hours in my time zone!
 
@Pattylt , nice discussion! And, good info!

Shanah Tovah U’metukah!

Baruch Hashem!
 
There might have been some Christian influence on Jewish evangelization for various reasons.
 
dochawk said:
wait a minute . . . are you telling us the Judaism is a branch of Economics ???
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Well, Abraham came out of Sumer and I remember reading that a remarkable proportion of Sumerian artefacts turn out to be the equivalent of shop accounts . . . . which was rather disappointing to the archaeologists but makes the Sumerians seem far more sensible than the death-obsessed Egyptians, I think. 😉

Meanwhile, it’s always good when other people admit to having spent a ridiculous amount of time hanging around universities!
 
And a good New Year to everybody here!

Just a thought, do others of what might be described as a ‘certain age’ get the feeling that, since the great Millennium blow-out, New Year seems to have declined as an excuse for celebrations?
 
Absolutely!

NY celebrations for my wife and me:

Standing a front bedroom window, watching other people’s fireworks; comforting the cat; and watching (recorded) firework displays for London, Burj Khalifah and Sydney Harbour.

Ahhh the pulse was racing.

May you have the very best of New Years.
 
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IIRC, the millennium New Year was on Shabbos (eve), so only (Orthodox) Jews did NOT celebrate it, not that some would have anyway. Regardless, I think you’re right. I’ve also noticed, as I grow older, that the time between 2000 and now has passed so much faster than earlier: a psychological phenomenon. Who knows where the time goes?
 
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Certainly (and no doubt because of age) 2000 was the last time I sat up all night and celebrated. Well, celebrated once it was certain our computer systems were up and running. A considerable relief after a lot of work.
 
I spent 2000 at my hospital lab as part of the Y2K team waiting for all the system crashes, doctors unable to view results and other mayhem which all turned into naught. We mostly drank coffee to stay awake and were allowed to go home at 4am without even a thank you!

Took the party right out of me! Now, I’m just too old and value my sleep much more than trying to remember that I’ll have to write a new date on my checks! 😂
 
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