D&D Religion's "Ask About Judaism" Thread

I've seen the term "Hebrews" used to describe the Jewish people. To say that an Israelite is a Jew is like saying that an Athenian is a Greek. Don't forget Judea by the way. It was more powerful than Israel and existed for a longer time period.

Just about everyone has a system of hierarchy. I'm sure there were elders and wise men who had greater power than your average Jew. Then again, it wasn't really an issue because Jews lived under someone else's control until shortly before Judaism was created. Matrilineal descent existed before the Torah was given to the Jewish people. One was a member of the Jewish nation if his/her mother was Jewish.

Because all Israelites were Jews, but not all Jews were Israelites. Also see point about Judea above.

Because the concept of interlinked Jewish tribes existed before the Jewish religion. You were a Jew if you were a member of one of the twelve tribes. A Jew is someone descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

My guess is that it had to do with the animal being unclean, which is why other animals that have features of insects are also banned.

Is that suposed to be a Joke? 12 tribes is taken as fact and so for you to be disproving this, i guess you must have gone and done original research as part of your RE course in order to hypothasize that.

Jewish people existed from Abraham. A Jewish nation did not exist until most Jews fled Egypt. A lot of the confusion has to do with the use of the word nation, which in ways means nation and in some ways state.



In close knit communities, everyone knows who each other's parents are...



God made a covenant with Abraham (for being a monotheist), thus making him the first member of a Jewish nation. His wife became a Jew by merit of being a monotheist and wife to Abraham (you can't exactly have a ceremony when there are no other Jews). Isaac was thus Jewish. Isaac's wife became Jewish the same way, which means Jacob was Jewish, and so on.



It's something to do with eating cud and having split hooves. I'm not an expert on ancient biology.

What? I didn't do any research in RE. I don't know much about Judaism that is why i came to this thread. I don't know much about the tribes and I don't disapprove anything i don't know about. All I know is they were taken somewhere near Iraq.

I thought it was dominated by those individuals at that time. Obviously, lending your support to any cause most of the time does not have to be made based on your own religious, ethnic, racial etc preferences etc. (not sure if preferences if the word I should be using there. )

Ok, I appreciate that it has a religious significance for you and the conclusion I come to is that at least for you, the creation of a homeland is highly based on religious significance. And the Muslim holy land is Mecca sure. Shias and Sunnis go there, even though its Sunni dominated. Israel could still be a holy land for Jews no matter who dominates it etc. Mecca isn't a homeland though, so it's quite a different example.

If i remember my RE classes most of these Tribes are missing. There were only two tribes and the name Judaism comes from the biggest one Judea. Are the missing going to come back?

During the time period of Herzl etc. Zionism tended to be 'Secular Zionism' yes. However, the concept of Zionism itself doesn't correlate to any particular branch of religion/ethnicity etc. as I stated above. Indeed, around Herzl's era was Rav Kook, who was the founder of 'Religious Zionism' and, as indicated by his title, was a Rabbi.

You catch my drift though - due to the reasons explained above we can only have Israel as our homeland.
Israel could still be our holy land and indeed homeland, no matter who controls it; however not all those who would wish to govern Israel would be willing or even accepting of that fact and would be rather unfriendly towards the Jews wanting to visit or live in Israel.


I presume you're referring to the '10 Lost Tribes'. Some of them are believed to have been ''found'' e.g. the Ethiopian Jews. The rest will return/be found when the Messiah comes.

I thought you said "during the time of Helzerel". You had me worried for a moment.

I thought you said "during the time of Helzerel". You had me worried for a moment.

Well I don't how prominent that group was, you'd need to say for more clarification.

I'm not sure about the comparison, but I get the point your making. (but I'm also bearing in mind that you're a religious Orthodox Jew)

Carl is Zionist but he isn't a religious Jew...he's not even Jewish!!

Well, you say that...

That's what I was referring to

Yes; but in an ironic way, referencing my own clearly Jewish nature.

I wish! I'm not that important!


Which group?

Nuhuh. My religious level has no bearing on the subject at hand - I'm a Zionist hence I'm pro-Israel.
As said before - Zionism isn't correlated to one's religious level. It's become labelled as such due to its popularity amongst varying people but the theory of Zionism isn't so. e.g. Carl is Zionist but he isn't a religious Jew...he's not even Jewish!!

I’m going to be asking this question in Ask a Jew, Ask a Muslim and Ask a Christian and if possible I’d like answers from the various perspectives in their own thread. It’s possible that the answers will be quite different:

Why does God no longer perform the great signs etc. that he used to?

(I’m not talking about the small things you may believe he does from day to day but about the truly epic things on the parting the Red Sea kind of scale.)

The erm ... ''kook'' group. (I'm sorry, but that really is an unfortunate name)

I'm talking in relation to the original question. I'm not sure at which bit you jumped in at, but its the real link between religious vs cultural foundations for israel etc. I was questioning the religious aspects of its creation, but then got told I'm ignoring cultural aspects of Judaism. I don't know how that directly answers anything but 'tis the response I got. (and I still managed to say thank you at some point etc. I'm too nice, this has got to stop.)

Why not in the Ask An Atheist thread too?

I figured asking an atheist about the nature of God would meet a rather predictable response.