Posted on 01/29/2006 10:16:44 AM PST by ChicagoHebrew
Would you say that Reform Judaism is like Unitarianism? Actually Unitarians do not reject anything :)
The Samaritans are called Cutheans. They were brought into the area by Sennacherib after the Assyrians scattered the 10 Tribes of the Israelites. The Samaritans accepted the five books of the Torah and the book of Joshua as sacred, because the rebellious Israelites rejected the later biblical books that were written for the Davidian kings. The Samaritans never claimed to be Jews or Israelites.
Would you say that Reform Judaism is like Unitarianism? Actually Unitarians do not reject anything :)
That sounds like a pretty fair comparison to me.
That's the Rabbis version. The Samaritans don't accept it. The Samaritans claim (and secular history supports their claims) that the Assyrians only exiled the Israelite nobility, but that the commoners were left behind. They claim to be descended from that Israelite population that got left behind.
The Samaritans never claimed to be Jews or Israelites.
They don't claim to be Jews [because they believe they descend from the 9 northern tribes, excluding Judah, Benyamin and Shimon, and parts of Levi]. But they do claim to be Israelites.
Yes, Reform Judaism is a lot like Unitarianism, except that it affirmatively denies the divinity of Jesus, and affirmatively denies divine authorship of the Bible.
Kabbacrap is an ancient cult...it just happens to also be a "new age" cult among those that have no moral compass.
Rabbi Kaduri sharply criticized Madonna and the new-age Kabbalists for desecrating Kabbalah. He was NOT a fan of them.
Can you cite me a single example? Surely there must be something out there on the Net you can link me too... what I have seen is either: i) explicit endorsement of this Rebbe is Mashiach nonsense; ii) silence; or iii) at best, questioning "maybe he is, maybe he isn't" -- no Chabad rabbi I know has ever affirmatively said "The Rebbe was a great guy, but Mashiach doesn't come from the dead." Does this allegedly strong anti-Rebbe as Messiah movement have a website or an organization?
Also, I've never liked how Chabad blatantly violates Halacha by trying to get (otherwise religious) Jews to adopt Chabad minhagim. Reaching out to hilonim is admirable, and I respect them for it. But why was Chabad's first outreach center in Morrocco, which had a strong Torah-observant community? And why have more than few Chabad Rabbis given me dirty looks (or worse) when I tell them that I don't want to go to Chabad institutions because I am Sephardi and prefer to go to Sephardi beit knesset? And why has Chabad affirmatively refused to recognize Ethiopian Jews as Jewish, and scornfully refused to give them any aid?
"The State of Israel considers them Jews, and Karaites are eligible under the law of return, but they are listed as Karaites on their ID cards."
I would think this statement by ChicagoHebrew is either true or not true, and could somewhat easily be researched to find out, Cinnamon Girl. Chicago's point is that the Karaites have a direct lineage to the ancient Israelites, and therefore aren't some group that just out of the clear blue sky to call themselves Karaites and consider themselves Jews. Their beliefs come from a distinct history that like the Orthodox Eastern Christians as vs. the Western Roman Christians, ended up in schism with other of their religious heritage at some point in history. However, both consider themselves either as Jews or as Christians.
Whether Orthodox Jews consider Karaites to be Jews or not is somewhat beside the point. How does the State of Israel treat them and consider them as to being Jewish? How do they consider themselves? Do they have a direct historical basis for their beliefs that, as far as I can see from what I've read here, pre-dates the need for belief in the oral tradition (Talmud) part of Judaism which ended up being the predominant belief system of most Jews. That doesn't negate what was the belief of those that came before the split between Jewish sects.
There are a lot of Christians that want to make a direct split between Judaism and Christianity, basically denying there is any connection between the two, even though there is a direct lineage of one flowing out of the other. I've been in quite a few verbal debates about this recently, with some friends who are basically pre-Vatican II types, and who believe that Paul took Christianity in an entirely different direction from Judaism, and therefore there was a split of such magnitude between the two, that they are now totally unrelated. Also usually thrown into the mix is the Jews killed Christ line of thought.
My own beliefs are that there is a direct flow from Judaism to Christianity, and from reading here, that there is a direct flow from the Karaites' beliefs to the current Judaic beliefs. Each religion chose different stopping points though in their beliefs. Karaites chose as their stopping point the validity of only the 5 books of the Old Testament. Jews add the oral tradition but chose as their stopping point the denial that Christ is the Messiah, so Judaism stops and Christianity starts. Christians use Christ's martyrdom (and, among some say his murder by Jews) as their same stopping point for the end of Judaism and the beginning of Christianity as a separate and distinct religion. Muslims take a bit from both, mix it up and bastardize it to make it their own, and say their stopping point is when all Christians and Jews are either dead or dhimmi's. It's all pretty interesting and is a good example of why religion has been argued over from whenever it was man was capable of doing so. And we haven't even touched other world religions and their beliefs, have we? So many religions, so little time.
The divisions and arguing does not mean that there is no Truth. And that none of the arguing sides is right.
The divisions and arguing does not mean that there is no Truth. And that none of the arguing sides is right.
Yes, but whose side it truth and whose side is right? How do you differentiate?
Or rather who is on the side of truth.
How do you differentiate?
You asked a big question :)
Yes, I can imagine.
Oh, I thought it was the 700 club with a 10% markup.
unsubscribe me please
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.