What is Judaism? What is it not?

For that first question so many Christian's ask "why don't Jews believe in Jesus?", I wrote this as part of my pat answer. I tried to summarize Judaism from a Jewish point of view & not the usual, "how we differ" view.

Briefly, Tikkun Olam (focus on this world & repairing it), a steady dialog for over 4000 years of how to live THIS life morally based on Torah, a style of doing that dialog that is central to being Jewish, a whole complicated list of wonderful religious days, a way of being just one religion amoung others where non-Jews too can have a place in the world to come.

Hum, that answer is missing key pieces...

The relating to God as a way to be a partner in creation in this world. And to bring God into ourselves to elevate to our better selves.

This is a question I would love to see good answers to. How to describe Judaism withou contrasting it to other religions.

My quick answer: A dialogue on how to best live ethically with ourselves, each other and the world that's been going on across generations for at least 3500 years.

Hillel's summary says it best:

'That which is hateful to yourself do not do to another. That is the whole of Torah. All the rest is commentary.

'Now go and study.'

See http://www.jewfaq.org/toc.htm.

Excerpt: Is Judaism a Religion?

Clearly, there is a religion called Judaism, a set of ideas about the world and the way we should live our lives that is called "Judaism." It is studied in Religious Studies courses and taught to Jewish children in Hebrew schools. See What do Jews Believe? for details. There is a lot of flexibility about certain aspects of those beliefs, and a lot of disagreement about specifics, but that flexibility is built into the organized system of belief that is Judaism.

However, many people who call themselves Jews do not believe in that religion at all! More than half of all Jews in Israel today call themselves "secular," and don't believe in G-d or any of the religious beliefs of Judaism. Half of all Jews in the United States don't belong to any synagogue. They may practice some of the rituals of Judaism and celebrate some of the holidays, but they don't think of these actions as religious activities.

The most traditional Jews and the most liberal Jews and everyone in between would agree that these secular people are still Jews, regardless of their disbelief. See Who is a Jew? Clearly, then, there is more to being Jewish than just a religion.

response: Judaism is a religion that worships God and God alone

the study of Torah, repairing the world, doing Tzedakkah (sp?) and keeping God's commandments and helping others

(Ruth, hope i got that right)

What it isn't - it isn't "Messianic Jews"

--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

As a rabbi - someone who is, one might say, a Jew by profession - I have given a fair amount of thought to this issue.

The most obvious first answer, I believe, is that a person is a Jew by religion. In fact, that is a hard argument to make, as odd as it might seem. There is no basic set of meaningful principles to which all Jews would agree. And there are huge variations in both practice and belief.

Are Jews members of a race? This is clearly not the case. Jews come in every color and exhibit every combination of ethnic features.

Do Jews belong to a nation? Following the involuntary exile inflicted on us many centuries ago, the notion of Jews as a people living in one place, speaking one language, or even sharing one culture does not fit.

Even linguistically, we are splintered. Hebrew is our official 'shared' language, the language of the land of Israel and of our sacred texts, but many Jews have no knowledge of it at all.

What we are - I propose - is a family."

“Torah Today/Exodus” Pinchas Peli

The task of bringing holiness into the world, which is the main obligation of the Jew, has always been seen in the Hebrew Bible as a partnership, a combined project of humans and God. The Holy, or the Godly, can be manifested in the three dimensions of the real: in space, time and the person (depicted in an ancient Jewish mystical book as olam-space, shana-time and nefesh-person). God desires to encounter human beings by meeting them half-way as partners. In time: the Sabbath, which He sanctified (Genesis 2:3) and commanded them to sanctify (Exodus 20:8); in space: the sanctuary, about which we are told here; and in person: through the mitzvah, the sacred deed, which brings us into His presence every time we perform it.

The in-dwelling of God among the people cannot take place as long as the people are passive and do nothing to help bring the sacred into the world. “And let them make me a sanctuary – that I may dwell among them” (25:8). My dwelling among them is on condition that they make my sanctuary. The same expression used here in the sanctification of space is used elsewhere (Exodus 31:16) in the sanctification of time: “And the children of Israel shall observe the Sabbath to make the Sabbath unto their generations.” Man must start out on the path towards God, both in time and in space, in order to God to meet him half-way as his partner in the act of sanctification.

“Who Needs God?” by Harold Kushner

The purpose of religion is not to explain God or to please God, but to help us meet some of our most basic human needs.

Religion helps us not by changing the facts, but by teaching us new ways of looking at those facts.

It makes an immense difference whether we see ourselves as isolated individuals at war with the rest of the world, or as links in a network of human beings working for each other’s happiness as well as our own and depending on other people to help us find what we cannot get for ourselves. On this question, the teaching of religion is clear: “It is not good that man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18). In the Bible, God creates the world of nature by separating, introducing divisions and distinctions: “And God SEPARATED the light from the darkness (Genesis 1:4); “And God made the firmament and SEPARATED the waters which under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament” (Genesis 1:7). God creates trees, birds, fish, and animals each after its own kind. But when he brings forth human beings, we read: “The rib (or “side”) which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman AND BROUGHT HER TO THE MAN … and they became one flesh.” (Genesis 1:22, 24)

What does religion offer that we lonely human souls need? In a word, it offers COMMUNITY. Our place of worship offers us a refuge, an island of caring in the midst of a hostile, competitive world. In a society that segregates the old from the young, the rich from the poor, the successful from the struggling, the house of worship represents one place where the barriers fall and we all stand equal before God. It promises to be the one place in society where my gain does not have to mean your loss. The man worshiping next to you may be an insurance salesman or the manager of a rival business, but for the hour you spend together he is not trying to sell you anything or get ahead of you.

Durkheim concluded in his findings about primitive religions that the purpose of religion in its earliest manifestations was not so much to bring people to God as to bring people together, to protect them from having to see the world as a lonely, hostile place. In times of famine or flood, war or earthquake, people find comfort in facing the danger together. …When a child is born, when a daughter marries, when a husband dies, our joy is increased or our sorrow eased when it is shared with others. There is perhaps nothing sadder than experiencing intense joy or intense grief and having no one to share it with.

I disagree with the televangelists’ privatizing of religion, making it a matter of the individual’s relationship with God rather than calling the individual to become part of a worshiping, celebrating community. And that is why I feel there is something lacking in the life of a person who says, “I believe strongly in God; I don’t need a building or a formal service to find Him.” Religion is COMMUNITY. It is a way people learn to relate to each other and to belong to each other in truly human ways.

The word “religion” comes from the same Latin root as the word “ligament.” It means “to bind.” As Durkheim discovered, what it does best is bind us to the people around us. Religion is not only a set of statements about God. Religion is also the COMMUNITY, the family through which we learn what it means to be human, and by which we are reinforced in our efforts to do what we believe is right. Religion puts our joys and our sorrows into a context. The birth of our children, the death of our parents are not just statistics. They serve as ways of strengthening or diminishing the community through which we make our lives matter.

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God. You can type it out.

It is: A religion

It is not: A logical way to live your life