Judaism is very messy.....

[atpollard]

That was funny (and a little sad).

---

ON THIS TOPIC:

Given what I know about Judaism [which is limited], the very concept of what Judaism is "like" [the Title of this Topic] is nonsensical. Reformed Judaism, Hasidic Judaism, Orthodox Judaism and Messianic Judaism are all Judaism and very little "alike". It is as nonsensical as describing what a "Christian" is like.

The OP wrings its hands about why Christanity appeals to Judaism as its source. While I am not qualified to speak 'Ex cathedra' for all Christianity , I know a 'little' about Judaism and a 'LOT' about why I care to learn a little about Judaism. So I am probably qualified to speak for ME and MY reasons.

I learned that among the First Century "thinking Jews" ... their version of our Academia ... there was a burning debate raging on about "which OT Laws were the most important". This debate makes an appearance in the Gospels when Jesus is asked "Which Commandment is the greatest?"

[Knowing this fact about the Historic Context, sheds a little light on those passages and events. That question was directed JUST for Jesus, it was a common question for any Rabbi in that time/place. Jesus was being called to weigh in on THE academic question of His day by EXPERTS IN THE LAW. They were taking the measure of the Christ as a Rabbi (teacher).]

There is a Hebrew phrase that I can never remember (it is a non-intuitive language from English) that means "comparison of equals". It is an annoying teaching technique employed by Jewish Rabbis way back then [they may still do it, what do I know about such things]. The gist is that the Teacher (Rabbi) identifies two verses with a common word. That word LINKS those two verses of scripture. Boom, that's it. He then leaves the students to figure out the rest for themselves. However, there are rules to this game: The verses expound on each other. The second verse teaches something important about the first verse.

So what does this have to do with anything?

Go back to THE burning question of the day, asked of Jesus by an EXPERT in the law: "Which is THE GREATEST Commandment?"
What was Jesus answer?

Jesus quoted TWO OT verses that EVERYONE in that community knew by heart. Duh, Jesus answered with a "comparison of equals" and left them to figure it out.

We (me) miss it because I don't have the books of Moses memorized like every Jewish boy over 10 years old did back then. I never heard of "comparison of equals" growing up, so I didn't know the rules. So I just thought Jesus listed the Top Two rules instead of the Top One rule.

That is NOT what Jesus did. The word that links those verses is LOVE. Love God and Love Neighbor. Jesus was saying that the SECOND verse was explaining the FIRST verse and together created the GREATEST COMMAND. [BOOM - mind blowing stuff]

The WAY you "love God with all your everything" is BY "loving your neighbor as yourself" ... and the only way to really be able to love strangers with that sort of love, comes from God ... from "loving God with all your everything". They are NOT two distinct commands, they are the ONE GREATEST COMMAND ... hopelessly intermingled and inseparable.

... and the only way to UNDERSTAND what Jesus said to that audience, is to 'get a clue' about what they all knew. [That means Judaism.]

So that is why I "appeal to Judaism as a source" ... it illuminates the NT teachings.

 

[360watt]

That was funny (and a little sad).

---

ON THIS TOPIC:

Given what I know about Judaism [which is limited], the very concept of what Judaism is "like" [the Title of this Topic] is nonsensical. Reformed Judaism, Hasidic Judaism, Orthodox Judaism and Messianic Judaism are all Judaism and very little "alike". It is as nonsensical as describing what a "Christian" is like.

The OP wrings its hands about why Christanity appeals to Judaism as its source. While I am not qualified to speak 'Ex cathedra' for all Christianity , I know a 'little' about Judaism and a 'LOT' about why I care to learn a little about Judaism. So I am probably qualified to speak for ME and MY reasons.

I learned that among the First Century "thinking Jews" ... their version of our Academia ... there was a burning debate raging on about "which OT Laws were the most important". This debate makes an appearance in the Gospels when Jesus is asked "Which Commandment is the greatest?"

[Knowing this fact about the Historic Context, sheds a little light on those passages and events. That question was directed JUST for Jesus, it was a common question for any Rabbi in that time/place. Jesus was being called to weigh in on THE academic question of His day by EXPERTS IN THE LAW. They were taking the measure of the Christ as a Rabbi (teacher).]

There is a Hebrew phrase that I can never remember (it is a non-intuitive language from English) that means "comparison of equals". It is an annoying teaching technique employed by Jewish Rabbis way back then [they may still do it, what do I know about such things]. The gist is that the Teacher (Rabbi) identifies two verses with a common word. That word LINKS those two verses of scripture. Boom, that's it. He then leaves the students to figure out the rest for themselves. However, there are rules to this game: The verses expound on each other. The second verse teaches something important about the first verse.

So what does this have to do with anything?

Go back to THE burning question of the day, asked of Jesus by an EXPERT in the law: "Which is THE GREATEST Commandment?"
What was Jesus answer?

Jesus quoted TWO OT verses that EVERYONE in that community knew by heart. Duh, Jesus answered with a "comparison of equals" and left them to figure it out.

We (me) miss it because I don't have the books of Moses memorized like every Jewish boy over 10 years old did back then. I never heard of "comparison of equals" growing up, so I didn't know the rules. So I just thought Jesus listed the Top Two rules instead of the Top One rule.

That is NOT what Jesus did. The word that links those verses is LOVE. Love God and Love Neighbor. Jesus was saying that the SECOND verse was explaining the FIRST verse and together created the GREATEST COMMAND. [BOOM - mind blowing stuff]

The WAY you "love God with all your everything" is BY "loving your neighbor as yourself" ... and the only way to really be able to love strangers with that sort of love, comes from God ... from "loving God with all your everything". They are NOT two distinct commands, they are the ONE GREATEST COMMAND ... hopelessly intermingled and inseparable.

... and the only way to UNDERSTAND what Jesus said to that audience, is to 'get a clue' about what they all knew. [That means Judaism.]

So that is why I "appeal to Judaism as a source" ... it illuminates the NT teachings.

Yeah, I heard about the Jewish concept of agency.

This is where the agent carrying a message, is effectively seen 'as the man themself'.

The agent is seen effectively as the owner of the message.

This is where Unitarian and JWs see Jesus doing things by the hand of the Father..but don't acknowledge this concept, that puts Jesus on equal footing with the Father.

Why did the Pharisees and Scribes want to stone Him?

I think it was because of them knowing this agency operation.

 

[D Koberstein]

So you refuse to honor Christ with the origins of The Religion that has His name?

It was church leaders who were first responsible for passing discriminatory laws against Jews, forcing them to wear a yellow star,
herding them together in ghettos, and even expelling them from their countries (to mention just a few of the indignities).
The Nazis merely renewed previously instituted anti-Semitic measures, but with an unprecedented vengeance, cruelty, and
cold calculated murderous hatred.

As Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin pointed out:

Christianity did not create the Holocaust----indeed, Nazism was ant-Christian----but it made it possible. Without Christian
antisemitism, the Holocaust would have been inconceivable......

Hitler and the Nazis found in medieval Catholic anti-Jewish legislation a model for their own, and they read and reprinted
Martin Luther's virulently anti semitic writings. It is instructive that the Holocaust was unleashed by the only major country
in Europe having approximately equal numbers of Catholics and Protestants. [Both traditions were saturated with Jewish-hatred]....

While it is true that many Nazis were anti-Christian (and that Nazism itself was anti-Christian), they were all, as the Jewish philosopher
Eliezer Berkovits has pointed out, the children of Christians.

This was the terrible end result of fifteen hundred years of church- sponsored or church -approved anti-Semitism. And, in perhaps
the greatest perversion in the history of religion, hatred of the Jews was carried out in the name of Jesus----himself a Jew to his
dying breath. How did a faith that was founded by a Jewish rabbi (and whose first adherents were all Jews) become so hostile
to the Jewish people?

Raul Hilberg charts the progression:
Since the fourth century after Christ there have been three anti-Jewish policies: [forced] conversion, expulsion, annihilation.
The second appeared as an alternative to the first, and the third emerged as an alternative to the second.....The missionaries
of Christianity had said in effect: You have no right to live among Jews. The secular rulers who followed proclaimed: You have
no right to live among us. The Nazis at last decreed: You have no right to live....
The German nazis, then, did not discard the past; they built upon it. They did not begin a development they completed it.
Shabbat Shalom שבת שלום

 

[praise_yeshua]

That was funny (and a little sad).

---

ON THIS TOPIC:

Given what I know about Judaism [which is limited],

Why did you write anything more than this? You don't know enough to even have an opinion. Yet, you proceed to try to express your thoughts as if they were no other conclusions to be drawn from the facts of Judaism.

So that is why I "appeal to Judaism as a source" ... it illuminates the NT teachings.

So much for inspiration. God is the source of the NT writings. BTW. When Jesus appealed to "loving your enemies"..... He was speaking from experience.

How is that going for you? It rather obvious that only ONE JEW has really loved His enemies. Jesus Christ loved His enemies. Yet here you are giving glory to others.