Raven’s Range
Blather around a virtual range

Tuesday, 18 November 2008 12:13

Judaism: A Very Short Introduction by Norman Soloman

Filed in Blog, Reviews

I bought this book because I have several friends who are Jewish while knowing next to nothing about their religion. I figured that a read through would give me a sense of what they believed in, and what their various festivals were about and for, and that’s exactly what I got.

And more.

With the kind of very dry humor that I’ve come to expect from these guides, I was introduced to the underlying principles of Judaism and some of the important characters from its history. Particularly interesting to me was that around the time of Jesus’ birth there was no distinction between “Jews” and “Christians”–while one set thought they’d found the Messiah and the other was still waiting, they were still all Jews.

Only in later centuries was there a formal attempt on both sides to write down what they believed and capture it in writing. Each side, of course, has a matching story to explain what happened and paint the other in a negative light. ;)

I found that rather…telling, especially since, even today with the different divisions of Judaism (for example Orthodox and Reform), not to mention the hundreds of different churches, there are different ways of following one’s path within the broad framework of “Being a Jew.”

I also came to understand how deeply spiritual true Judaism is wont to be. It is a religion of the conscious, with everything related to the Torah, or Law (their governing book). In fact, the book gave me a different insight into something that I had simply thought of as one of the “book religions.”

At least as presented by this author, it seemed more of a faith that requires one to examine one’s own conscience, and interpret what to do on that basis as opposed to following a doctrine blindly. It’s also a faith that is actively trying to adapt itself to the modern world instead of staying stuck a century or more in the past.

The hundred or so pages of this little volume gave me an interesting overview of the religion and expanded my mind just a little bit further.

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6 Comments, Comment or Ping

Sherrie (1 comments.)

Hee hee yes! But that one is strictly for cash. :P I dont even give the link out that often as I figure my friends do enough chasing me over the net with the other 2 plus Journizer. So I guess its really 4. :P

Nov 18th, 2008
Buffra

I lived with a Jewish family for my first year of seminary and it was really interesting — some of the discussions we had were fascinating, too.

In fact, last summer (not this past, but 2007), I created a Vacation Bible School based on the Jewish holidays. I sort of hoped to help them realize — tiny backwater that the place was — that Jesus WAS Jewish and learn something about that faith.

Also, because I’m a total nerd, I would also point out that the Hellenistic influence was really significant on the development of some of the ideas of Christianity that are most different from Jewish thought — those ideas are NOW Christian, and have been for centuries, but at the beginning, they were not-so-much.

Nov 18th, 2008
Linda R. Moore

Seems like there’s a bit more blogwork to be had lately. :)

I love the way you weave the links into your articles, though I’m not sure how you get away with some of it sometimes *chuckle*

You’re braver than me. ;)

Dec 13th, 2008
Linda R. Moore

It’s fascinating, isn’t it, how the different religions all borrow from each other, but at their core seem to have the same basic truths?

If only people would *get* that!

Dec 13th, 2008
Sherrie (1 comments.)

Hee hee, i find that i dont have as much work from pay per post so I went with pay u 2 blog, they give constant work, but you dont get any choices, you just get a link that you have to use, but usually its free form so it doesn’t matter how you use it. But yeah, my friends all know that I love to travel and that is a major source of how I am able to do it, so they forgive me the blatant commercialism. Although some just stopped reading. :P

Dec 14th, 2008
Linda R. Moore

Yeah, I kind of like to pick my topics. And to delete the posts after a certain period of time, too (I assume PU2B doesn’t allow that). ;)

Dec 15th, 2008