...Judaism is a religion I knew absolutely nothing about before reading for this assignment. I am still trying to grasp everything and this was a little more complicated to understand then Islam. I did find many things interesting considering the only information I knew, was of the Jews and the Holocaust. This helped me to understand what a Jew was and the religion of Judaism. Judaism contains the idea that there is one belief, and that belief is that of one God, one ultimate creator of all things. From Huston Smith’s Book The World’s Religions, I gathered that Judaism is about praising one creator. The creator they worship is God and they give him full respect and responsibility for everything. I really like the point he makes about how we all derive from someone else. He talks of us being a product of our parents and our parents from their parents. This line of generations would go back for decades but eventually someone (God) had to create a human(s) to get the grandparents and parents. This illustrates that there is one original creator. With this point, Smith brought up the question of God creating the whole universe…this was really turning in my head. From previous schooling, I have been informed about the big bang theory and this “theory” explains that the universe was created by a collision of stars and gases. One of the hardest things for me to do in this class is going to be to separate the science, or the proof, from the accepted religious beliefs of that faith. ...
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...The Five Pillar of Islam Shahadah, have faith that their only one and true God. That you live a life that shows people that God is real in your heart. Not only do you believe in the one true God of Islam you have to believe that Muhammad is the voice of God (his prophet). The book clearly states that Muhammad is a prophet not a God in which a lot of people believe. Muhammad had different higher calling to serve God in a mighty way. According to the book God speaks through Muhammad and not made him a son. God a wonderful name that the Islam people speaks of and you have to believe whole-heartedly that he is the one God to be call a Muslim. Not only believe that he is God but have to know how to pronounce it correctly. Practice and repeated as often as necessary until you can say it correctly. This will prove that you are sincere about your faith in God. The second pillar of Islam is the canonical, prayer is the hardest part of being a Muslim. Muslim faith requires to in constant prayer as you live open this earth. As a prayer is made , it every day, thinking that giving thanks to the creator is the bases of prayer in our life but what we don’t realize is that it the only the outer surface of praying, it goes deeper than that. Praying for the world when someone is sick or someone is in jail. Praying continually everyday till you have satisfied your God. The question comes up, how many times a day does a devout Muslim will pray. That is a question that was left up to Muhammad...
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...Contents Introduction 1 History 1 Evolution of Judaism and Christianity 2 Practices of Judaism and Christian 2 Similarities between Judaism and Christianity 4 Differences between Judaism and Christianity 4 Conclusion 5 References 6 Introduction Religion is a sacred entity in many cultures. Throughout the history and even today we see the practice of religion in all the places of the world. Religion is defined as an organized system of belief, ceremonies, practices and worship that centers on one or more gods. Religion continues to be a dominant force around the world, affecting everything from what people wear to how they behave. There are thousands of religions in the world and from that Judaism is the religion of more than fourteen million Jews throughout the world and it was first major religion to teach the existence of only one god. The basic laws and teachings of Judaism come from Torah, the first five books of Hebrew Bible. Christianity is the largest religion in the world with about two billion followers. It is based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Most of the Christians are member of one of the three groups: Roman Catholic, Protestant or Eastern Orthodox. The following pages concentrate on Judaism and Christianity and their history, practices, similarities and differences. History Judaism began about 4,000 years as the religion of small Middle Eastern group of people called Hebrews or Jews. Hebrew or Jews belief they were protected and...
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...Slide 1 (title) - Huh? That’s what some of you might be saying to yourselves right now. What’s that word? How do you say it? What is Judaism? Well let us talk about Judaism. Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people. Just like some of you may have a certain religion such as Christian, Catholic, Baptist, etc. there are others, including children like you, that practice Judaism and are thus Jews or Jewish. Judaism is the first recorded, meaning first written down, faith or religion that believes in only one God. This makes it the oldest religious tradition still in practice today! Slide 1 (bottom section) - Jews believe in a single God who knows everything, is very, very powerful, and is in all places at all times – no one or nothing can hide from Him. Jewish people also believe that God is always kind and that He created the universe and continues to manage it. This God is fair and forgiving and has no human form or representation. Slide 2 - According to traditional Jewish belief, a Covenant, an agreement between God and the Jewish people was made when God gave his laws and commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai in the form of the Torah. The Torah has 613 commandments from God which are known as “sacred obligations”. In other words these are all the things the Jewish people have to do to make God happy. These are kind of like instructions given by God to the Jewish people that teach them how to act, think, and understand life and death, as well as God’s...
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...Reform Judaism Tamara Rice Instructor: Eric Speir REL 212 March 11th, 2012 Background Over a month ago when I selected the topic of Judaism as the subject for my field research paper, I thought that the outcome would be cut and dry. I knew that Judaism served as the foundation for my own faith (Christianity) and that Jews honored the Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. I also had in my mind the imagery of the Star of David, the Torah scroll and the male rabbi in the synagogue donning a prayer shawl over his shoulders and a kippah on the crown of his head. I believed that I had the general concepts of the Jewish faith in my mind; I just needed to witness a virtual worship service and fill in some of the minor details while gathering some additional intelligence on some misconceptions. So I decided to go over to the Ustream for “Shir Hadash” and witness a Community Shabbat (Sabbath) Service (Ustream, 2011). What I discovered watching the 2.5 hour Shabbat service followed by some additional research gave me a rude awakening. The impression of Judaism that I’ve carried with me up to this point is what is known as Orthodox Judaism. The Jews that I’ve witnessed in tight-knit communities in places such as Brooklyn, New York and Oak Park, Michigan were towns filled with Orthodox Jews. In addition to Orthodox Judaism, there is also Conservative Judaism. Conservative Judaism reverences traditional Jewish practices in America, but...
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...The concept of identity is a complex and ambiguous one to say the least. What is it about society that makes us feel the need to add the footnote: Jewish, Black, Muslim, etc., to our existence? This self-imposed segregation of our own species thus far, has only served to assist discrimination and hysteria. The blight this casts on society according to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, entertainer Bill Cosby, and writer Tony Judt, is caused by ourselves, creating these race and religious identities in order to feel safer, blame others for own problems, and an attempt to make a perfectly imperfect world uniform. After the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001, Americas view on Muslim society drastically changed, Muslim Americans went from neighbors and citizens, to potential enemy combatants in the eyes of an overwhelming amount of Americans. Determining whether or not someone was a Muslim became of paramount importance to Americans. Citizens, who were once doctors, lawyers, and politicians especially, now had to identify themselves as a Muslim doctor, Muslim Lawyer, or the dreaded Muslim Politician. It was this type of fear that promoted the controversy over whether Mosque being built near the former site of the twin towers should stand; to which Mayor Bloomberg said “Let us not forget that Muslims were among those murdered on 9/11, and that our Muslim neighbors grieved with us as New Yorkers and as Americans. We would betray our values and play into our enemies’ hands...
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...The Different Movements of Judaism and How The Dietary Laws Differ The Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Movements are the three main levels of modern day Judaism around the world. These three Movements are all very similar to one another but at the same time they are also vastly different. The main topic that I am going to cover in this report is how the three Movements differ when it comes to the laws governing the consumption of food. First I am going to give a bit of background information on each of the three major Movements. The Reform Movement The Reform Movement of Judaism is the least strict when it comes to following the Mitzvot found in the Torah. The Reform Movement began in Germany in the early 1800’s in response to the perceived rigidity of the Orthodox Movement and due to Germany’s increasingly liberal political climate (ReligionFacts.com). The Reform Movement is designed to allow people to be able to celebrate their Jewish roots and heritages in a much less constricting way than with traditional or Orthodox Judaism. This quote, from the Union of Reform Judaism (URJ) is an effective way to describe the approach of the Reform Movement: “Reform Jews accept the Torah as the foundation of Jewish life containing God’s ongoing revelation to our people and the record of our people’s ongoing relationship with God. We see the Torah as God inspired, a living document that enables us to confront the timeless and timely challenges of our everyday lives.”(URJ...
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...for work, they are fit for killing. And this is what happened to the Jews: while they were making themselves unfit for work, they grew fit for slaughter.” He is claiming that the Jews should be killed. That statement is the worst kind of anti-semitism. He even cites other prominent members of the church, such as Saint Paul the Apostle and Saint Stephen the Martyr, as speaking out against the Jews. Since such major church leaders are actively speaking out against the Jews, one would suspect that many Christians acted upon the saints’ teachings. These saints are against those who follow Judaism and its traditions. John Chrysostom has said that Christians should not partake in Jewish customs. Because he believes that Christianity is above Judiasm, he is preaching anti-semitism. These teachings of a major leader in the early Christian church further solidify the causal link between Christianity and anti-semitism. A third example of the causal link between Christianity and anti-semitism is the Spanish Inquisition. The Spanish Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella wanted their kingdom to remain Catholic, so they tried, killed, and expelled many Jewish people, as well as other religious people. Historians estimate that hundreds of thousands of jews were massacred as a result of the inquisition. The Spanish killed these Jews because they refused to convert to Catholicism. The Spanish thought Catholicism was better than Judaism. They persecuted the Jews because of their Catholic religion...
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...TO OUR FRIENDS NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE BAR MITZVAH Bar Mitzvah is an expression that means “subject to the commandments,” meaning that an individual is old enough to take personal responsibility for fulfilling and celebrating the laws of the Torah. This traditionally occurs in his 13th year. By reading from the Torah, saying the blessing for the reading, and by helping to lead the service, the Bar Mitzvah will show he has acquired the knowledge and skill to accept this responsibility and its privileges. Becoming a Bar Mitzvah is not itself a religious service. That is, the Sabbath services are not being conducted because of the Bar Mitzvah. The reverse is true: The boy marks the fact that he is a Bar Mitzvah by participating in the Sabbath service. If no one was celebrating a Bar Mitzvah, the services would still be conducted and the portions read by the boy would be read by another adult member of the congregation. The Sabbath service at Congregation Tifereth Israel is a traditional service conducted almost entirely in Hebrew, the Jewish language of prayer. The form and structure of the service are 1,800 to 2,000 years old, with some sections dating back 2,500 years. For example, the "Musaf" service dates almost to the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E. and was written to replace the sacrificial ceremony in the temple. (It is interesting to note that the synagogue itself, as an institution, dates to that event, when the Jews were...
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