Hamas War

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Genuine Judaism

To break a commonly believed myth, I must say that there were maybe a couple of minutes in time, besides when the only Jew was Avraham Avinu, Our Forefather Abraham, when every single Jew followed G-d's Commandments.  Those few minutes, or seconds were at that magic spiritual moment when G-d spoke to the Jews who had exodused from Egypt, and the Jewish People, including the souls of all Jews to be born for eternity, answered נעשה ונשמע "na'aseh vinishma," "we will do and we will listen."  That was the pledge that cemented our relationship with G-d.

But before then and since then, there have always been Jews who, for whatever reasons, ignored, disobeyed or were totally ignorant of the mitzvot commandments G-d has given to us.

Not only have there been individual, personal refusals to follow the mitzvot, but over the millennium various alternative "versions" of Judaism have emerged.  Christianity is actually one of them, and even Islam in a sense is one, too.  Christianity claims to keep our Jewish Bible, but they added another volume and customs which directly contradict Judaism.  Islam adopted some of our history and forefathers but distorted them.

And there are the more modern versions of Judaism, like Reform, Conservative, Liberal, Reconstructionist and various Chassidic  and even Chareidi sects which contradict the basic mitzvot.  Yes, I may surprise you by saying that there's a distortion of Judaism in the Judaism practiced by some Chassidic and Chareidi Jews.  Chassidim consider their Rebbe to be at best an intermediary between themselves and G-d, which is very problematic.  Some of the Chabad/Lebovitch have gone even further and worship their dead Rebbe as Moshiach, Messiah.  This is extremely problematic according to Jewish Law.

IMHO, Chareidi Jews have adopted certain non-Jewish customs, like the one saying that "men of the cloth*," yeshiva students, those dedicated to religion shouldn't defile themselves by serving in the army.  And their insistence that it's preferable to learn full-time and never to work, learn a profession goes against basic Jewish Law. 

Jewish Life, like the Jewish Calendar, which combines the Lunar and Solar Calendars, is supposed to combine  kodesh and chol, the holy and the material/profane.  We must know how to separate it, keep Shabbat versus doing the ordinary, real life stuff of building, creating etc during the weekdays.

Now, how did I get onto this topic?  I saw an article on Arutz 7 that the leading candidates to be the next Chief Rabbi of Israel are from the National Religious community.  They are those who teach a Judaism more like what I believe in, including seeing the mitzvah in serving in the IDF and the importance of the State of Israel.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I enjoyed reading your post.

"נעשה ונשמה"
By the way, the last letter in ונשמה is ע.

P.S. You can delete my comment once you update.

MAOZ said...

Thanks for your forthrightness. Eshet Chayil!

Edward F. Villa said...

Dear Batya,

There are Laws of Qualification of who The Mashiach is and will be .
The Torah has not and will never change.

It is a Living Document which is not bounded by Time.

The Prophets and The Writings are guidelines and are in fulfillment of The Law of Moses.

There have been Moshiachs for many generations even since ancient times .

King David , Shimshon , to name a few .

They were deliverers God sent to Israel in times of trouble .

In the event of Dovid Ha Melech ,
He was a truly Righteous Man of God that despite his own true short comings of sin ( The Averah of Adultery he committed to Uriah, The Hittie who fell at the siege of Rabbah ) , He loved God .

In the event of Shimshon son of Manoah, an Israelite from the tribe of Dan ,
Shimshon was sent as to be a Judge over The Israelites when they could not even go out to work publicly in fear for their lives .
Although Shimshon was to be a Nazerite from birth to all of his life ( The Laws of The Nazerite - Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazirite#Laws_of_the_nazirite ) , his lack of adherence to The Laws he was incumbent (liking it or not) to fulfill .
I want to note that what made the story of Shimshon so heartbreaking was that despite all The Victories God gave Shimshon, the 'selling-out' quote on' quote by his own brethern to The Philistines is what was the most tragic in this unsung Hero .

Goes to tell you in the particular case of Shimshon Son of Manoah where (sadly to say) how distant the heart of The Israelties was in feeling of compassion for their own brethern.

Take care Israel .

I am preparing to
Return back home to

The Land of God's Promises.
The Land of where My Forefather's Dwelled.

With a warm prayer of hope, courage, strength and zeal,
To humbly and loyally fulfill The Torah of HaShem,

Batya,
Put in a kind word of blessing, courage and strength to God

In return to,

Israel
Edward F. Villa

Edward F. Villa said...

Dear Batya,

There are Laws of Qualification of who The Mashiach is and will be .
The Torah has not and will never change.

It is a Living Document which is not bounded by Time.

The Prophets and The Writings are guidelines and are in fulfillment of The Law of Moses.

There have been Moshiachs for many generations even since ancient times .

King David , Shimshon , to name a few .

They were deliverers God sent to Israel in times of trouble .

In the event of Dovid Ha Melech ,
He was a truly Righteous Man of God that despite his own true short comings of sin ( The Averah of Adultery he committed to Uriah, The Hittie who fell at the siege of Rabbah ) , He loved God .

In the event of Shimshon son of Manoah, an Israelite from the tribe of Dan ,Shimshon was sent as to be a Judge over The Israelites when they could not even go out to work publicly in fear for their lives .
Although Shimshon was to be a Nazerite from birth to all of his life ( The Laws of The Nazerite - Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazirite#Laws_of_the_nazirite ) , his lack of adherence to The Laws he was incumbent (liking it or not) to fulfill .

I want to note that what made the story of Shimshon so heartbreaking was that despite all The Victories God gave Shimshon, the 'selling-out' quote on' quote by his own brethren to The Philistines is what was the most tragic in this unsung Hero .

Goes to tell you in the particular case of Shimshon Son of Manoah where (sadly to say) how distant the heart of The Israelites was in feeling of compassion for their own brethren.

Take care Israel .

I am preparing to
Return back home to

The Land of God's Promises.
The Land of where My Forefather's Dwelled.

With a warm prayer of hope, courage, strength and zeal,
To humbly and loyally fulfill The Torah of HaShem .

Batya,
Put in a kind word of blessing, courage and strength to God

In return to,

Israel
Edward F. Villa

-
p.s. Reposting my comment above to reflect the correct spelling and punctuation of words.

Batya said...

a, thanks, fixed it, I do need a proof-reader...

Edward, Jewish History is full of false-prophets.
Shimson is a complicated story. G-d "planted" him to be a Nazarite and serve, but having free will, he didn't have the right nature for it.
David grew into the job being descended from Yehuda, Ruth and Boaz gave him better genetic potential.
Nu, when are you coming here?