Many people have been commenting on my last post about the contest, "are you Jewish?" Let me tell you. Yes, I am. Just because I am however, doensn't mean you should judge me or anyone that follows my religion. You also mustn't think that I am VERY religious just because I am Jewish. I thought since that most others are not Jewish that it would be interesting for you to learn a little about it and a little about me and my Jewish life.
When you think of Judaism, you may think, Israel, Hebrew, or even "ponytails." All of that is true about Judaism (while others could debate about the "ponytails" part). Israel is the mecca of Judaism where most Jews in the world live. Hebrew is their native language, and most prayers are written in Hebrew. When I said ponytails, I was referring to Orthodox Jews who strictly follow the rules of Adonai our God. I've been a Jew ever since I was born, and I still don't know why Orthodox Jews have curly-cued sideburns. The reason I do not know is because I am actually a Reform Jew.
In Hebrew, you read right to left, which some may find extremely difficult. Either I find this easy, or it was inherited from my ancestors. For people that can speak fluent Hebrew, they do not need vowels when they write or read. For others like me, I need vowels to read as they help me pronounce the word. I'm not fluent in Hebrew, so don't think that I can speak a full two languages... For our services at my Temple/Synagogue, we use vowels always when reciting prayers or reading a section of Hebrew. The only case where we do not read with vowels is if someone knows the material really well or if we are reading from the Torah. Overall, Hebrew comes easy to me.
I am at the age where I am studying for my Bar Mitzvah which is coming up on March 24th (the day after my birthday!) and I am really excited. A Bar Mitzvah, or Son of the Commandment, is a Jewish ceremony welcoming children as young adults in to the Jewish community. The age that kids receive a Bar/Bat Mitzvah (B'nei Mitzvah for both genders) is usually on their 13th birthday. For me, there is a lot of responsibility when becoming a Bar Mitzvah. The main goal of a Bar Mitzvah is not just to receive gifts and party - it is to be able to lead a congregation in worship and be welcomed in to the Jewish community as an adult. I have to learn four Aliyot (plural of Aliyah) which is a paragraph from the Torah (or as Christians may call the Old Testament) written in Hebrew. I also need to know how to read them without vowels and look for little cues that help you remember the word. I also need to be able to conduct a whole worship service with lines of Hebrew, English readings, etc. all in front of a congregation of over 100 people that I may or may not know. I have a terrible issue with stage freight, and I hope by the time that my Bar Mitzvah comes, I will be ready.
Now, when you are arguing with someone, never argue about religion or politics. I'm just sharing more information. Most people in the world are of Christian descent or are a sect of Christianity. According to my History teacher, a little more than 0.02% of the world's population is Jewish. Our class had a lesson on religion and practices, and she showed us this pie chart:
She showed us the chart and explained a bit of each of them. When she went to Judaism, she explained it as "a dieing religion" and "not as popular as it used to be." Coming from the only Jew in the class, that really offended me. It is NOT a dieing religion and it is GROWING! Let's take a look at what factor caused Judaism to decrease...
Wars. The holocaust was the worst war the Jews have faced. I do not want to argue all about the holocaust, but for people that are new to the subject, it was a drastic war that had killed over 6,000,000 Jews. If those Jews survived, Judaism would be as popular as any other religion. I do not want to summarize the holocaust for everyone, so if you would like to know more, Google it or do something in that nature.
The main difference between Judaism and Christianity is obviously that Christianity teaches that Jesus Christ is the messiah or the expected deliverer of Judaism. Christians are the ones who believe that Jesus is God's son, but also God himself, which I do not yet completely understand and hope to understand soon. To me, Judaism seems like the most neutral and practical religion. If you think about it, everyone has the opportunity to believe what they want. Whomever believes in a God, which most people should, then wouldn't Judaism be well suited for that? It's simple; we have a God, we have holy books, and we have holidays. Possibly, there was never a messiah, or never any God (I DO NOT BELIEVE THIS AT ALL I AM JUST SAYING TO PROVE A POINT)! What I'm trying to say is, if there was no religion at all, no anything, but you still needed something to believe in, Judaism would be the way to go since there isn't much complexity of rituals or whatsoever. I hope I got the point through here, but I am thinking 49% of people are going to respond to this as, "MY RELIGION IS BETTER THAN YOURS AND HERE'S WHY YADAYADAYADA..." and another 49% of people are going to say "I didn't quite understand that..." and the last 2% are going to think, "I got that, and that was interesting." Frankly, I don't even know what I was saying, and it is really hard to explain for me and would be much easier to explain verbally or just keep it in my head and don't share it at all. This was quite a long blog post and I am really happy that I got some fascinating information for you. My question for this week is...
What is your religion (if you have one) and what do you think makes it so special to you?
Yoohoo! I read you post(obviously) and found it very interesting, well actually, I know quite a bit about Judaism due to the fact that 1) I've gone to the JCC as long as I can remember and 2) we learned about it in school. I am Catholic (Branch of Christianity) and thought I might explain the "Christians are the ones who believe that Jesus is God's son, but also God himself, which I do not yet completely understand and hope to understand soon" thing. There is one Holy Trinity, three spirits in one "person" if you will. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Each part is a part of God. God is pretty much demonstrated through Jesus and the Holy Spirit is what helps us demonstrate God. When Jesus preached, it was kind of god teaching through his mouth. When humans teach (as I guess I am) the the Holy Spirit is God working though us. However, Jesus is also God's son, who is currently seated at the "right hand of the Father" and is watching over us currently (say hi!). He was born of the Virgin Mary who accepted God's plans for her to bring him into the physical world. I hope you understand because after about 7 years of religious education, it is still an iffy topic.
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