Welcome to Gaia! ::

I am a Christian who enjoys learning about the Jewish Faith. I have many questions, mainly about the Torah and beliefs of the modern Jewish church. One of my main questions is how the the modern Jewish person rationalize the idea of sacrifice to G*d? This has been a topic of interest for me, and I have read some literature on it, but would like some real-live feedback. I'll have many more questions later, but this is my first and foremost question. Thankyou for your time and consideration.

There's lots of members that would be more than happy to tell you, as I'm not even fractionally as knowledgeable as them on Judaism, but just to let you know- it's Shabbos, which means most people are logging off now if they haven't already with the time zones. So you'll get an answer sometime, but probably after Saturday night- sorry. sweatdrop

Welcome to the guild, by the way!

After the second temple was destroyed, there was a need for a replacement for the sacrifices. According to the Torah, sacrifices can only be offered only at a specific spot, and since the temple was destroyed, there was no avoda (service), and thus no place to bring sacrifices. This was a great problem, as Am Yisrael needed a way to be able to connect with G-d spiritually.

Therefore, the Sanhedrin set up three daily prayers, which were an alternative way for the nation to connect with G-d:

• Sha'chrit (= morning service) is the replacement of the daily morning sacrifice (which was called "Korban Tamid shel shaharit").
• Min'cha (= afternoon service) is the replacement of the afternoon sacrifice ("Korban Tamid shel Min'cha"), and
• Ma'ariv/Arvit (= evening service) is the replacement of the evening burning of the left-over fats on the altar.

Though one may ask - Why was there a need for the sacrifices in the first place?

Imagine a piece of metal is bent, and you wish to straighten it. You would have to bend it over a little to the other side in order to get it to become straight again. This is the same concept of sacrifices. When the nation left Egypt, they were still used to bringing sacrifices to the Egyptian g-ds. G-d did not wish them to stop, as they still had a strange attraction to these sacrifices, and it would be a difficult challenge for them. Instead, in order to eliminate that feeling, he bent the metal the other way - the nation would continue bringing sacrifices, only to him.

The Talmud has many discussions on this, as today we don't feel the need for sacrifices anymore, which leads to some opinions that state that there will be no animal sacrifices in the future temple when it is built be'ezras hashem.

I hope this helps 3nodding !

Thank you all for your information. It was interesting to hear the remarks about the Temple or Tabernacle. I never stoped to consider that to enter into the requirments of a sacrafice. Another question that I might ask is "As there are many different types of Christanity, I know there are thoughts about Judaism. How does a non-Jewish person attempt to understand the general differences, such as in Christanity, there are many people that believe in water Baptism, but there are some that do not. Can anyone give me some insight?"

Only a coulple of minor corrections to LordNeuf's post.

There's no such thing as "ultra" Orthodox. Orthodox means "obeying the laws." Either you obey the Jewish laws and therefore are Orthodox, or you don't and therefore you aren't. What you mean is the difference between modern-looking, modern-acting Orthodox and the Chareidi, who don't bother trying to look modern, though if it happens by accident, so be it.

Chassidism is one subset of Charedism. It was begun in the Ashkenazi parts of Europe by a man whose nickname was The BeSHT, or Ba'al Shem Tov, Master of the Good Name, and more mundanely as Isaac Luria.

There are more than just Ashkenazim and Sephardim. There are also Mizrachim, Jews of the East, who are from Asia and the Middle East. There are the Teimani, Jews of Africa, especially Yemen, who follow an older, pre-rabbinic, pre-Talmud form of Judaism. There are the Samaritans, who use a slightly different biblical text, do not hold by the Talmud, and who consider the proper Temple site to be Mount Gerizim instead of the Temple Mount as understood by mainstream Judaism; this community have a continuous presence in the Holy Land, rather than having sprinkled out in the Diaspora.

Reform Judaism (not Reformed) started around the 1850s in the Ashkenazi communities within Germany. They questioned, then discarded, halachah (Jewish law) as binding upon themselves, including head/hair covering, kosher dietary laws, strict adherence to the Sabbath, the laws of family purity, and so on.

Conservative Judaism was an outgrowth of Reform Judaism, not the other way around, and not a parallel development. They did consider halachah binding upon Jews, unlike the Reform movement's originators, but wanted the freedom to reinterpret halachah in the light of modern scientific information and social change.

Reconstructionist Judaism is just as LordNeuf put it, or so I understand; I don't have much experience with this.

Humanist Judaism and Jewish Renewal are two even-newer movements, and I hope that you'll look these up. I don't know enough about either to be able to state anything with authority, except that Jewish Renewal was begun in part by Shlomo Carlebach, who was ordained as an Orthodox rabbi and then broke off from Orthodoxy.

The difference between Judaism and Christianity, at least in regard to the various movements/sects/subsets thereof, is this: One Christian can say that another person isn't a Christian, based on their differences of opinion, faith, doctrine, or practice. That's because one's Christianity is based on faith, doctrine, and practice. Judaism is based on heritage. As long as a person is born to a mother who is halachically (according to Jewish law) Jewish, that person is a Jew. And as long as a person converts halachically to Judaism (no matter who their parents are or were), that person is a Jew. Period. It doesn't matter what they're raised like. It doesn't matter what they believe. It doesn't matter how they practice, or don't practice, their Judaism. They are Jewish. The ONLY way to make that person not a Jew is for them to (1) convert to another religious faith, repudiate their Jewishness, and live entirely as a member of another faith, AND to (2) die without repenting of this course of action. No matter what that person says, thinks, or does, the rest of us still claim them, and still hope that they'll return to Judaism. We're always family.

That's a sticky wicket.

You see there are some Jews who are isolationists. They don't care to rub elbows with the goyim let alone have one marry into the family. However others do not see a problem and will gladly have a christian inlaw and let their children raise their grandchildren with a mix of faiths.

So yeah there's no homogenious view on that.

Thank you for the insight into this topic. I was not aware that the current Pope had reinstated those masses (since I am not Catholic, it's a little harder to know that information.) This brings me to my next question: "There are many reasons that Christians believe Jesus to be the Christ, can anyone enlighten me to the reason that most Jewish people view Jesus as a good teacher, but not the Messiah." (I understand this may rub some people the wrong way, and I do not intend for that to happen, but this is merely to gain an understand between the differences of the faiths, since they share many aspects.)

Not getting that much into it.

Yes, Christians believe that Jesus was the Messiah, and Jews, do not.

Wether he was a teacher, a prophet, a rabbi, or even existed, is up to historical debate.

There's a leap of faith involved with every religion. No one had a cam-corder when Jesus resurrected in a cave, nor did they have one when Abraham nearly killed Issac but was stopped by an Angel of The Lord.

Faith is faith, history is history.