Judaism
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Comment by Julie on January 7th, 2013 at 8:31 am
You missed the thesis of Judaism, tikun olam, which means heal the world. The genesis story in Judaism is very different from the Christian and Islamic version. Eve and Adam were set up by God to eat the apple to they could have free will and bring the rest of the world into existence. The two challenges, reinterpreted by Christians and Muslims as sins, are to be overcome by the whole world before there is a messianic era marking a permanent utopia. The two challenges, that men work but by the sweat of their brow and that women are cursed to have hard lives of 2x the labor and be under men, must be un-done everywhere on earth before utopia can happen and be made permanent. This is the point of the rules of Judaism and the point of what Jews were ‘chosen’ to do – which is to let the world know that these are the challenges to be overcome, as well as not lose the torah.
Also, Jews always accepted converts, however the laws of the controlling power (Romans, Muslims, Christians of Europe) made it a crime punishable by death to convert to Judaism. Because life is sacred a rabbi would not convert a person except in secret and only when the person insisted and would not take no for an answer. Putting a life in danger is never ok. There was a sentence about not accepting gentiles into the congregation of Israel. All Jews are converts at some point in time, conversion is considered full Jewishness and always has been.
Comment by Jennifer Tanabe on January 16th, 2013 at 3:39 pm
Thank you, Julie, for your feedback.
Yes, conversion to Judaism has always been possible, although not always openly encouraged. I have removed the sentence regarding conversion in ancient times, as it was confusing.
The concept of “tikkun olam” is somewhat complex – while always connected to human responsibility for repairing what is wrong with the world, it ranges from a mystical meaning in the kabbalah to social action and the pursuit of social justice. Maimonides’ 13 principles of faith, which are the most widely accepted Jewish principles of faith, does not include “tikkun olam.” Given that Judaism has no centralized authority or binding dogma, detailed discussion of this and other principles of faith are beyond the scope of this article.
Thank you again for your comment and for helping to make NWE a valuable informational resource.
Jennifer P. Tanabe, Ph.D.
Social Sciences Editor, NWE
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