Jewish Evolution

Life is change. Nothing stays the same.

Religion is no exception. Every religion has evolved; changed dramatically from what it once was.

I am Jewish, so my focus is on Judaism. I understand it best, I feel it instinctively. It is part of who I am.

But it could be any religion.

Look at Judaism: We used to sacrifice animals, now we pray in temples.

Yet so few religious jews know that temples were an invention of the Greeks, as they shifted from animal sacrifice to prayer in temples. And the Greeks ruled ancient Israel at the time, and the Israelites adopted prayer in temples. As we know from the story of Hanukkah, the majority of Jews at the time were assimilated Hellenists.

Or the concept of heaven and hell, or the messiah; none of which is mentioned in the old testament. jews adopted these concepts from other cultures.

In fact, Judaism originally was a polytheistic religion.

early Jews believed God had a wife.
The bible speaks of witches and magicians and talkers with the dead, all of whom drew their abilities from powers other than Yaweh.
In the 10 commandments it states, I am your God. Thou (you) shalt have no other Gods before me. Before me implies that one may have faith in other gods, but that Yaweh, the God of the Israelites, is the most powerful god of all.


And I read this great article in Haaretz newspaper:

http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/gur-hasidim-and-sexual-separation-1.410811

Gur Hasidim and sexual separation

A really interesting article on how A sect of Ultra orthodox Jews relate to human sexuality.

My personal take is that over the last generation or more, there has been a huge shift where the other ultra-orthodox jews have tilted towards this group's outlook on sexuality.

But a few lines of particular note:

"Gur Hasids drew the inspiration for separation from the heritage of Kotzk, a small Hasidic sect that existed in the early 19th century - the path of which Gur saw itself as continuing.

"The Kotzk Rebbe essentially claimed that love for the Lord and love for a woman do not go together. There is a rivalry between spirituality and sexuality, so sexuality has to be abolished," notes Wasserman, explaining the rationale"

This is the Christian concept of sex. When their system evolved and banned priests from sexual relations this is the exact same concept that was used to create their new reality.


Judaism switched from Polygamy to monogamy directly from the reality of the dispersion from Israel and Jews living in majority non-Jewish countries.


and flash forward to the 19th century and we see the direct adoption of the Christian view of sexuality by Jews who had been living as a minority in Christian countries, for hundreds of years.






Look at the many flavors of ultra orthodox jewry today. The constant battles in Israel over separate seating on public busses, separate functions for men and women, sperate sidewalks on public streets!


all from Christianity. All of it. Every last drop.






Early Judaism was deeply rooted in the present.


The concept of a woman's modesty in Judaism comes from the story in the bible of Rebecca going to the well.


She went through the well, passing shepards, men, and the waters from the well came up to her.


As a tale, this is the story of a woman doing manual work, living in the world with men. She walked past the men, she was grounded in her reality and maintained her dignity.


This is the story which is pro the mixing and interaction and abilities of men and women to co-exist as equals.


Today, ultra orthodox Jew's have taken his empowering moment of our forbearer's history and twisted it beyond all recognition.






Today Jews have a State of Israel. We no longer need to adapt to living as a minority in Christian and Muslim lands.


Let's get back to Judaism. Let's be who we were meant to be; a people living in the world, a people with history and a family with legends and traditions, a people with guidelines on how to live in the real world, not cut ourselves off.

Women and Slaves Take Owner's Last Names, Chivalry is not dead

A conversation here : http://materialmaidel.blogspot.com/2010/03/offering-to-pay-on-date.html

got me thinking about why do women take the last name of their husbands.

Coincidentally, I was reading Simon Winchester's book, 'The River at the Center of the World,' where I came across this interesting fact: "the Moso - a people related to the Nakhi, who lived on the northern side of the Yangtze and whose practices are more rigorously  matriarchal than their country cousins. For instance, their family names pass down from mother to daughter."

So I hopped online and asked the great and wise Google, 'why do women take the last name of the husbands?"

Here is what Wiki-Answers had to say: "In earlier times, women were considered property, so they took on their "owners" last name. Slaves took on their owners' last names, too; that is why not many African Americans have African last names. 

Nowadays it is a choice to take on a husband's last name; some do it out of convention or tradition but it is not mandatory; some combine last names or even take on the wife's name (rare). Practices also vary in gay marriages."

Some other answers I found: Men lack the ability to change. or, women take everything else, why not the man's name too.

But as a Jewish question, Jewishness passes from mother to child. The reason for this matriarchal lineage descent is because while we may not always know who is the father, you always know who is the mother.

So specifically for Jews, wouldn't it make more sense for the man to take the woman's last name?