Analysis of Judaism and Its Beliefs and Its Comparison with Christianity - Term Paper Example

 Informative Religion Report Judaism Abstract Judaism is one of the most controversial religions in the world. Earlier Jews were at the receiving end, suffered a lot from the hands of Nazi Germany led by Hitler; but at present they are at the dominating end, accused of their massacres against the Palestine people. Judaism is one of the oldest religions which have a close relationship with the Christian religion. It is one of the three Abrahamic religions; Judaism, Islam and Christianity and many of its principles, customs and traditions resembles with other Abrahamic religions Islam and Christianity. Even though, Jews have close relationships with Muslims and Christians, in their beliefs and traditions, it is not reflected in the present history of relationships between Jews, Islam and Christians. This paper briefly analyses Judaism and its beliefs and its comparison with another religion, Christianity. Introduction Judaism is the oldest among the Abrahamic religions. Jews history begins when Abraham married Sarah. Isaac was one his sons and Jacob (Israel) was the son of Isaac. The Jewish people are believed as the sons of Jacob and their history is described in the Jews sacred book Torah and the Christian sacred book Holy Bible. “The book of Genesis describes the events surrounding the lives of the three patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (Joseph, who is recognized as a fourth patriarch by Christians is not considered one by Jews). Moses was the next major leader of the ancient Israelites. He led his people out of captivity in Egypt, and received the Mosaic Law from G-d. After decades of wandering through wilderness, Joshua led the tribes into the Promised Land, driving out the Canaanites through a series of military battles” (Description of Judaism) Jews people are believed to be one of the wisest and courageous parsons in the contemporary world. In fact, most of the Nobel prize winners of science and technology re from the Jewish community. How can a person forget the names like Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Steven Spielberg etc. Israel, the home country of Judaism is believed to be one of the strongest and wealthiest nations of modern time. It is impossible to forget the heroics of Israelis when the world faces crisis situations. It is impossible to forget the incident in which the Israeli commandos were able to save the lives of innocent people captured and put on custody by the terrorists in Entebbe air port. “Within THREE minutes of landing, four of the seven terrorists had been killed by the Israeli commandos and they rescued the whole people from the hijacked plane” (Operation Jonathan -the Israeli rescue operation at Entebbe) In order to know more about Jews religion I have visited one of my nearest Jews families and interviewed an elder person from that family. The excerpts of the interview are given below. For convenience I call the Jew person interviewed by me as X. Interview summary In response to my question regarding the rituals in Jews community, X said that as per the Jews beliefs, Abraham is considered as the father of all believers in God. All Jews male babies should undergo a ritual called circumcising in order to keep the covenant between God and Jews. At the age of the Jewish boys need to perform this ritual in order to respect the covenant. “To remind Jews of the importance of the Torah, Jewish homes have on their doorframes (normally the front door) a Mezuzah – a parchment scroll in a small box which contains the first paragraphs of the Shema (basic prayer of Jewish belief)” (Judaism). My next question was about Jews’ concept about God. X told me that as per their beliefs, God exists, God is one and unique, God is incorporeal, God is eternal, Prayer is to be directed to God alone and to no other. Moreover, they have valued the worlds of prophets more than anything else. X also told me that even though they have many prophets, Moses was supposed to be the greatest of all of them. “The Written Torah (first 5 books of the Bible) and Oral Torah (teachings now contained in the Talmud and other writings) were given to Moses, There will be no other Torah, God knows the thoughts and deeds of men, God will reward the good and punish the wicked, The Messiah will come, The dead will be resurrected” (What Do Jews Believe?) I heard something about the Star of David and had no definite ideas about it and I asked X about it. He told me that the Star of David is a six-pointed star made up of two triangles superimposed over each other. In Judaism it is often called the Magen David, which means the "shield of David" in Hebrew. It doesn’t have any religious significance in Judaism but it is one of the symbols most commonly associated with the Jewish people (Pelaia) X told me that the star of David is the symbol of unity for them. He explained that the six points in the Star of David represents the God’s rule of the world from all the possible six directions in the world. Moreover, they believe that the dual triangles in the star represent the good and evil in the world. The overlapping nature of the triangle is a clear indication of the close relationship between the God and the human as per Jews’ belief. “The star that points up symbolizes God and the star that points down represents us here on earth. Yet others have noticed that there are twelve sides on the triangle, perhaps representing the Twelve Tribes” (Pelaia) In response to my question about the Jewish food habits, X told me that they are so particular in selecting their foods. They will never eat or drink anything which was marked as unholy by the God. They will never eat the meats of certain animals like pigs which are considered as non- holy animals. Generally the Jews people will not eat the meat of which don’t have hoops. My next question was about Jewish holidays. X has told me that all the Jewish holidays begin at the evening before the date specified on most calendars. This is because a Jewish "day" begins and ends at sunset, rather than at midnight. Work is not permitted on Rosh Hashanah, on Yom Kippur, on the first and second days of Sukkot, on Shemini Atzeret, on Simchat Torah, on Shavu'ot, and the first, second, seventh and eighth days of Passover. The "work" prohibited on those holidays is the same as that prohibited on Shabbat, except that cooking, baking, transferring fire and carrying, all of which are forbidden on Shabbat, are permitted on holidays. When a holiday occurs on Shabbat, the full Shabbat restrictions are observed. (Rich) Comparing and contrasting of Judaism with Christianity Because of the close association of Jews and Christians, their beliefs are also having lot of similar elements. Most of the beliefs and traditions of Christians and Jews are one and the same. In fact both of them accept the existence of same God and believe in prophets up to Moses. 10 commandments are accepted as the base of belief by both the religions. Moreover both the religions accept the existence of same God and they describe the authority and power of God in a similar fashion. Till the arrival of Jesus Christ, Christianity was not there. But the arrival of Christ as the Saviour of human kind has created lot of divisions in the Jews religion. Some of the Jews people accepted the doctrines and power of Jesus Christ followed his way and became Christians whereas the fundamentalists were not ready to accept the doctrines of Jesus. Jesus taught Jews that the observance of 10 commandments alone may not help a person to attain salvation. He taught them that the rich have a moral responsibility of helping the poor and asked the Jews to sell all their property and give all the money to poor people. The rich Jews were reluctant to accept this advice. “Christianity came to regard Jesus as in some sense God's presence in human form. This was unacceptable to most Jews. Judaism is defined by a covenant made between God and the Jewish people” (What are Major Christian Beliefs?) The main difference between the beliefs of Jews and Christians lie on the issue of Jesus Christ. Jews are expecting the arrival of another Messiah to save them whereas the Christians believe that the Messiah has already arrived in the form of Jesus Christ. Christians believe that Jesus was the son of God, the Messiah promised by the God and human can attain salvation only through the belief in Jesus Christ. But Jews believe that the Messiah is yet to come and Jesus Christ was not the one offered by the God. Jews does not believe in miracles and the miracles performed by Jesus Christ were not acceptable to them. They believed that Jesus has performed these miracles with the help of magical powers rather than any Godly power. Moreover, as per the Jews’ beliefs the offered Messiah will come as a natural person using the natural means of birth. “Jews thought that the coming Messiah will definitely build one more temple where as the Jesus has not even attempt to make any temple. (The Good News Bible, Ezekiel 37:26-28) “Biblical verses "referring" to Jesus are mistranslations and Jewish belief is based on national revelation” (Rabbi Simmons) Jews, not even consider Jesus as a prophet and they believe that he has taken birth on earth after the prophecy was ended. The failure of Jesus Christ to bring the dispersed Jews back to a common place has again increased their suspicions against Christ. Jesus has criticized all the superstitions and customs of the Jews community which forced them to disregard the doctrines of Jesus Christ. Jews believe that the individual actions may not yield salvation whereas Christians believe that a person cannot attain salvation because of his birth in Christian community. In other words, Christians believe that one’s actions are the determining factors in deciding salvation. Christians believe that the salvation for the human kind is only through Jesus alone. Those who believe in Jesus and do things as per the doctrines of Jesus Christ will get salvation, as per the Christian doctrines. “The Creed has an overall form based on the Trinity. It deals first with the Father, then the Son, and finally the Holy Spirit” (What are Major Christian Beliefs?) Jews on the other hand believe in collective salvation principle. They believe that the strict observance of customs and traditions may bring salvation to them. As per Christian beliefs, nothing going inside the stomach can make a person a sinner, only the things or the words come out of the mouth determines whether the person commit a sin or not. But as per the Jews beliefs, even some kind of foods can make a person, sinner. Moses was supposed to be the greatest prophet for Jews whereas for Christians, Jesus Christ has the number one place in their beliefs. Conclusions Jews religions are one of the most controversial religions in the world. At one point they became the major sufferers whereas in another point of time, they are alleged as the cause of sufferings for others. Judaism is one of the oldest Abrahmic religions in the world. It has lot of similarities and differences with other Abrahamic religions. The major difference in beliefs between Judaism and Christianity is about the acceptance of Jesus Christ as Messiah. Jews are still waiting for the Messiah whereas Christians believe that the Messiah has already arrived in the form of Jesus. Jews and Christians have lot of differences in their customs and traditions like circumcising and the observance of Shabbat day. References 1. Description of Judaism, Retrieved on 13 October 2009 from http://www.religioustolerance.org/jud_desc.htm 2. Good News Bible. Today’s English Version.2003. Published by The Bible Society of India. Bangalore. 3. Judaism, Retrieved on 13 October 2009 from http://www.world-faiths.com/Judaism/JUDAISM.HTM 4. Operation Jonathan -the Israeli rescue operation at Entebbe, Retrieved on 13 October 2009 from http://www.specwarnet.net/miscinfo/entebbe.htm 5. Pelaia Ariela,2009, Does the Star of David Have Religious Significance in Judaism?, Retrieved on 13 October 2009 from http://judaism.about.com/od/judaismbasics/a/starofdavid.htm 6. Rabbi Simmons, Shraga, For 2,000 years Jews have rejected the Christian idea of Jesus as messiah. Why? Retrieved on 13 October 2009 from http://www.aish.com/jw/s/48892792.html 7. Rich Tracey R, 2007, Jewish Holidays, Retrieved on 13 October 2009 from http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday0.htm 8. What are Major Christian Beliefs?, Retrieved on 13 October 2009 from http://geneva.rutgers.edu/src/christianity/major.html 9. What Do Jews Believe?, Retrieved on 13 October 2009 from http://www.jewfaq.org/beliefs.htm Read More