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.

God's Wife - Judaism Revealed

I've long argued that Judaism was originally a polytheistic religion, there are more than enough clues in the bible to make that argument. And now researchers have uncovered more evidence that early Jews prayed to multiple Gods, that Yaweh, the Jewish God, had a wife.


http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/03/22/fertility-goddess-asherah-was-gods-wife-edited-out-of-the-bible/

Fertility Goddess Asherah: Was 'God's Wife' Edited Out of the Bible?

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/03/22/fertility-goddess-asherah-was-gods-wife-edited-out-of-the-bible/#ixzz1HSghYZYK




Of course no evidence will ever sway believers, because belief isn't rational. If you have an idea you can change your mind, like a rational adult. A belief is based on a person's need to have security, to have answers. Even if you say you don't understand the answers you can rely on your belief that something out there is controlling things, that there is reason, that nothing happens without reason. Believers fear randomness, it insults and assaults their sense and sensibilities. So no evidence will sway their belief, but still, sometimes you have to let out a mighty yawp.

Answering Big Jewish Life Questions

I came across this blog:

 

http://rogueregime.blogspot.com/2009/12/is-anyone-else-like-me-out-there.html#comments

He writes:

"I'm trying to find personal answers to some big questions:

• How can a truly liberal person take seriously religion in general and Judaism in particular?
• What is the meaning of Jewish community if I only cherry pick the elements of Judaism that "speak" to me personally? But once I surrender autonomy to some other authority -- God, Chazal, my rebbe -- then how can I stay liberal?
• I cannot believe the Torah was dictated to Moses by God, and I simply can't accept that Oral Torah could be binding for all Jews for all time. But then how do I read and understand these texts? How am I to relate to them?"

These are good questions. These are questions which trouble many people as their religion conflicts with their senses.

I would like to propose some answers. I don't accept that there is a conflict between liberalism and religion. I think their is a conflict between living as a human and religion.

I have long thought that religion serves and has served a useful purpose in the world. But I do not believe in the concept of god and I don't think anyone else does either. A belief is all encompassing. If one believes that they should look both ways before crossing the street, they don't shut their eyes and jump into the road to test their belief. Similarly, if people actually believed in God, their behavior would reflect that truth. All too often it does not.

So why is/was religion important? For thousands of years people had no way of explaining the world. They understood some physical truths about the world and attempted, as do we all, to make sense of the world around them. Religion fulfilled that function. As people realized that incest causes a threat to survival of their little tribe, they banned incest. As people realized that eating uncured pork can threaten the survival of their little tribe, they banned pork. The people saw the results but not the causes. The language of science had not yet been invented. God made sense. Do not eat pork because god said so. How did he say so? by killing a bunch of people who ate bad pork. A leader needed to galvanize troops or people? God endowed the leader with special powers, like King David or Solomon, who are remembered not for their humanity, but for their special connection to God.

But this does not mean one has to reject their Judaism. One can accept that after thousands of years, a book and tribe developed. You can then decide what, if anything, from Judaism you wish to retain.

For example, Shabbat. The concept of a 7 day week has NO astronomical value. A 7 day week with a day for rest was, by current records, invented by the Mesopotamians (where Abraham came from) about 7000 yrs ago. They didn't have the science to explain why a day off was healthy for people and families, so they used the words 'God commanded' to guide people towards healthy behaviors or just the behaviors leaders wanted.

Does science have all the answers? not yet and maybe not ever. But science has provided enough answers to show that we no longer need to use the term god to fill in the blanks. If you went back to the middle ages and explained how a virus work they might kill you for sorcery, or they might promote you for sorcery. Now we know that viruses are real and sickness is not caused by an imbalance of humours.

How do you retain your Jewishness without accepting the Torah and Moses and all the rest? You read the books as histories, as tales and fables intermingled with histories and laws. You read the books as the development of your tribe, your family.

Does everyone in your family need to think and feel and behave the same for you to love them and still feel connected as family?

So you look at the book and say, I am so thankful I don't live in an era where genocide is commanded by god and women who are raped are sent off to marry their rapist. Those laws and events made sense at the time, but I like medicine and hotels and television. I like having a family day once a week. I like celebrating holidays with my family, celebrating the history and development of my large extended family. But I can reject all that offends my sensibilities because it is not truth. The books contain truths, but each truth is individualized.

Enough for now. Its a beautiful day. Enjoy.