Ask a Jew! What the Heck, why not....?

1) That was essentially my point, given that Catholicism is a close rival of 1700 years, give or take those Papal decrees and such add-ons.
Even in that, there has been little change, in regard to doctrine and dogma concerned with scriptural interpretations.

Both Judaism and Christianity have adapted and changed and revised teaching to better suit the new social and cultural paradigms which have come and gone.
But, by and large, we have insights and the general "Take" on what the religious people long ago, with out the benefit of our hind sight, though about the who explosion of monotheism in 32AD.
And, those archaic ancient emotionally conflicted views have not basically changed since.

2) My observation is not to be critical even in regard to the Jehovah Witness Bible, which was slightly changed so as to better support what they think the actual scriptures were saying.
Nor do I complain about the Book of Mormon, or even the Koran both of which report to us, in stone, exactly what they believe the Hebrew scriptures is saying.

3) Complaint centers on any of these religions asserting that these books close the discussion on scripture, concluding that the adherents in each of these religions are Bible observant, when that is an issue to be discussed.
When Moishe says he is Torah Observant I take issue with that, as it is a big step from his Talmud insight.
I do not accept that Mormons can assert they are Bible observant when it is actually the book of Mormon that they give precedence in actuality.
Nor do I accept that Mohammed's insights translate into Muslims practicing what the Hebrew Scriptures say, because they will defer to the Koran.

In ever incident here, these religious institutions are all claiming they are ones practicing Torah/Bible Observant behaviors.
That is the issue under discussion between us all, today, and always has been.

 

Not only did you miss my point you gloss over facts. But not surprised, So do you think Conservative Jews should rather go to the beach than their shul on Shabbat?

 

I question your claim here and remind you that Banking was a Christian invention that arose within the Knights of the Templars and could well explain along the lines of your rationale, why those men and their whole organization was rounded up and assassinated within a few days.

The Templars had opened the doors for Christian/ European pilgrims to visit the Muslim controlled Jerusalem.
Those pilgrims had previously been attacked and robbed, or held hostage to phony ordinances and laws requiring fines or out and out robbery.
What the Templars did initially was to set a European location where pilgrims could pay money they would with draw from Templar safe sites in the Holy Land after they had made the trip.
That pilgrims carried no gold/silver eliminated the robberies,.

This became so large and profitable an enterprise that a virtual bank grow up under the sole control of these secretly organized Templars, to who kings and aristocrats did appeal for funds later, themselves.

 

I think your analysis is about right, and your point well taken as Jews are much like Christians in this regard.

The Catholic priests and Nuns are analogous to the Orthodox Jews, while the church attending congregation is very much a Reformed type of Christianity which does not practice what the priest preaches.
The Christmas/Easter Christians are really the Conservative Christian analogy here, since they are really secular people who still respect the institution of Religion because it is a useful general statement for Family Values and a conduit for charity.


But, it is short sighted to assume this is a condition originating in the Enlightenment.

This sectarianism in Judaism has been what is and was Judaism since Moses.
From the day of the Golden Calf, these same reformers and conservatives have been admonished by an orthodoxy which is more the mainstay of Torah based arguments for proscribed behaviors, if not a priesthood, itself.

This division during the Babylonian Captivity of 589BC saw Jews so thoroughly assimilated in just two generations that Ezra had to reconstruct the Bible and even the people required some methods to even establish who was actually a Jew.
The Urim and Thummim was lost to them thereafter, as was the construction and full meaning of the Tefillin.
Just before this catastrophe in Judaism, they had even lost ten of the tribes about 20 years before.


What we see today is what Judaism actually has been in the past, inly different in that we assign names to these Jewish groups, Orthodox, Ultra-orthodox, Secular Jews, Karaite Judaism, Messianic Jews, etc.

 

Nah...
It dead right.

It is as reliable a History of the Universe in such a short overview as one could ask for.
It contains the first (and hence, indisputable) Table of the Nations, which at least mentions Nimrod and Babel and Sodom, etc.

It is a book predominantly focused upon Behavioral Science, but it is also the Western Epic that founds the present Western World as a valuable piece of Literature, in itself.

It is the ONLY Empirical Sociology ever presented wherein the private psychological behaviors of people are seen as the basis for Theories that can predict social events and changes well into the future, as evidence in the predicts made which have long been erroneously called "prophecies," rather than experimental expectations to support the science it proclaims.

Is also a mesmerizing technique which has correctly anticipated and "feed into" the human psyche's Need for "mystical peak experiences" to validate peoples person life importance.

It is also a rule book for civilized behavior.
It is one of the twelve basis for Modern Law, everywhere.
It is more, too.

 

This thread has reached post limits....Moishe3rd, feel free to start another.

Shangrila
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