A Rabbi once told me that if you pick a random letter on a page of the Torah, for example, the third letter on the first paragraph of page 1, and read that third letter of paragraph 1 of every page, then it makes a new story. Is that true? That would be remarkable if that was true.

Now, for future reference, I am not religious, but am here to answer questions about the Jewish religion. Please nobody make any future posts about how I am waiting for the Messiah to come or other crazy nonsense like that. And yes, I think Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are beautiful religions. They are my favorite religions too. It is so interesting how people today are named after Biblical figures. How we use metaphors to this day that came from the Bible. Etc., etc., etc. But I do not believe in the actual divinity of the Bible. I want to read and memorize the Tanakh for historical reasons. I find it historically interesting. I have a Political Science Degree and find cultures and history very interesting. Also, I was deployed to Kuwait as a U.S. Army Soldier. I even visited Qatar while I was in Kuwait. And I have been to Israel twice. So I have been to three Middle Eastern countries and have a Political Science Degree. This makes Judaism, Christianity, Islam and their history even more important for my study.

I have a copy of the Tanakh. I read the first couple books of the Torah, the first part of the Tanakh. I have not read the rest of it. Too lazy, I guess. I want to get it on audio book so I can listen to it in full. I think it is a great book, even better than Plato. Not equal to Plato, but even better, philosophy-wise. But I don't consider it to be the work of any God. I consider it to be the best work of humanity, when it comes to writing. But not the work of God.

I guess I have a love-hate relationship with religion. I find it interesting philosophy-wise, but I do not agree with some of it. Morality-wise, yes. No tattoos, don't be gay, don't listen to rap, don't cheat on your husband/wife, don't murder, etc. That I agree with. But praying and waiting for a Messiah that may never come is something I don't believe in because the book itself may very well be at least partially a work of fiction. A lot of it is historically accurate but the supernatural parts are most likely fake.

I'm going to break a rule here. In Judaism, when we speak of God, we don't write Elohim (His name), or God. We write G-d, or HaShem. HaShem is Hebrew for The Name. That is how we refer to God. We either write HaShem (The Name) or G-d. We do not write Elohim or God. Does that make more sense?

It is done so that G-d's name is not desecrated. If I delete this thread, then I desecrate G-d's name by essentially deleting His name. That is why I do it; for the religious thread.

If I make a thread about why I am secular, then I will write G-d out. But for purposes of explaining religion, I will write G-d.

I am actually secular. I made this thread to explain the Jewish religion. I am not religious at all.

To be the Messiah, according to Judaism, one would have to reunite the Jews back to Israel. He would have to be a Torah scholar and a great military leader. And he would bring the Jews back to studying Judaism and getting closer to G-d. Jews would want to get closer to G-d when the Messiah comes.

It makes sense for a Messiah to come. When G-d reveals Himself, Israel would need to have a King. That is how it was in the Biblical days. Moshiach means "anointed one". One who is anointed with oil. The King of Israel, basically.

http://www.chabad.org/library/moshia...g-Mashiach.htm

Hastening the Coming of Mashiach
By J. Immanuel Schochet

There are a number of ways conducive to hasten the Messianic redemption prior to its final date. Generally speaking these involve the observance of some special mitzvot which constitute comprehensive principles of the Torah.

A. Special Mitzvot

Teshuvah: First and foremost among these mitzvot is the principle of teshuvah. “When you return unto G-d, your G-d, and will listen to His voice… G-d, your G-d, will return your captivity and have compassion upon you, and He will restore and gather you from all the nations to which G-d, your G-d, has dispersed you…” (Deuteronomy 30:2ff.) Teshuvah will bring about an immediate redemption, “Today, if you will listen to His voice.” (Psalms 95:7)1

“Watchman (i.e., G-d), what will be of the night (i.e., the galut)? Said the Watchman: ‘Morning (i.e., the redemption) has come, and also night (i.e., retribution for the heathens and oppressors of Israel); if you will request, request. Return and come!” (Isaiah 21:11-12) G-d says that He is ready, indeed anxious, to make the ‘morning’ shine for us. Upon Israel’s question ‘when?,’ the Divine response is: “Whenever you want, He wants! If you want to make your request to hasten the end, request!” What then is deterring the redemption? The lack of teshuvah; thus “Return and come!”2

Teshuvah, the comprehensive principle of submission to G-d and His will, thus is the most obvious means to bring about the immediate coming of Mashiach.3 It does not require any extraordinary action or undertaking: the simple though sincere thought of regretting misdeeds with determination to better our ways is already complete teshuvah.4

Shabbat: If Israel will keep just one Shabbat properly, Mashiach will come immediately.5

Torah-study: “Torah-study is equivalent to all [the mitzvot].” (Pe’ah 1:1) By virtue of Torah they will return to the Holy Land and be gathered in from the exile.6 Israel shall be redeemed by virtue of ten people sitting one with the other, each of them studying with the other.7

Especially significant in this context is the study of pnimiyut Hatorah, the mystical dimension of the Torah: “In the merit thereof ‘You shall proclaim liberty throughout the land’ (Leviticus 25:10).”8

Tzedakah, too, is equivalent to all the mitzvot.9 Our compassion for the needy and downcast evokes a reciprocal compassion from Heaven, thus hastening the day of the scion of David (Mashiach) and the days of our redemption.10 “Zion shall be redeemed by justice and her repatriates by tzedakah.” (Isaiah 1:27) “Keep justice and do tzedakah, for My salvation is near to come and My tzedakah to be revealed.” (Isaiah 56:1)11

Other mitzvot charged with special efficacy to bring about the redemption are procreation (Genesis 1:28),12 the four species of Sukot (Leviticus 23:40),13 and the sending away of the mother-bird (Deuteronomy 22:6-7).14

B. Unity of Israel

Before Jacob passed away, he addressed all his sons: “Gather together and I shall tell you that which shall occur to you in the end of days. Assemble yourselves and hear…” (Genesis 49:1-2) With these words he warned them against any dissension among themselves.15 He said to them:

“Though it is not known when the Day of Judgment will be, I do tell you that the hour you gather and assemble together you shall be redeemed, as it is said, ‘I will surely gather Jacob, all of you [i.e., when all of you are together]…’ for then immediately ‘their king shall pass before them and G-d at the head of them.’ (Michah 2:12-13).”16

The unity of Israel, all being as one, is the preparation and condition for the ultimate redemption.17

“It is presently ‘dark’ for you, but the Holy One, blessed be He, will in the future illuminate for you as an everlasting light, as it is said, ‘G-d shall be for you an everlasting light’ (Isaiah 60:19). When will that be? When all of you will be a singular band… Israel will be redeemed when they shall be a singular band, as it is said, ‘In those days and in that time, says G-d, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together…’ (Jeremiah 50:4); and it is said, ‘In those days, the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together from the land of the north to the land I have given as a legacy to your fathers’ (Jeremiah 3:18). When they are bound together they shall receive the Face of the Shechinah!”18

Internal unity, ahavat Yisrael, peace and harmony, safeguard even against punishment for the worst sin;19 but when “their heart is divided, they shall bear their guilt.” (Hosea 10:2)20

Notwithstanding the idyllic ritual observance in the days of the Second Temple, dissension, gratuitous hatred and divisiveness, caused the destruction of the Bet Hamikdash and the present galut.21 Rectification of this condition will bring about the restoration of the Bet Hamikdash and the Messianic redemption.22

One other principle to hasten and actualize the Messianic redemption, of utmost significance and in fact at the very core of our affirmation of the fundamental doctrine of Mashiach, is the very belief in, and anticipation of, the coming of Mashiach:

One thing I forgot to mention was that Jews follow the complete Tanakh (Hebrew Old Testament), and not just the Torah. I don't know why so many people think that Jews stop reading the Old Testament after they finish the Torah.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/...m/messiah.html

Jewish Concepts:
The Messiah

Many Jews have long been skeptical of predictions announcing the imminent arrival of the Messiah (Ma*shi*akh). The first century sage Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai once said: "If you should happen to be holding a sapling in your hand when they tell you that the Messiah has arrived, first plant the sapling and then go out and greet the Messiah." An old Jewish story tells of a Russian Jew who was paid a ruble a month by the community council to stand at the outskirts of town so that he could be the first person to greet the Messiah upon his arrival. When a friend said to him, "But the pay is so low," the man replied: "True, but the job is permanent."

Yet, the belief in a messiah and a messianic age is so deeply rooted in Jewish tradition that a statement concerning the Messiah became the most famous of Maimonides's Thirteen Principles of Faith: "And Ma'amin, I believe with a full heart in the coming of the Messiah, and even though he may tarry, I will wait for him on any day that he may come." In the concentration camps, it is reported that many Jews sang the Ani Ma'amin while walking to the gas chambers.

On the one hand, ironic jokes and skepticism; on the other, passionate faith: What then is the Jewish position on the Messiah?

Most significantly, Jewish tradition affirms at least five things about the Messiah. He will: be a descendant of King David, gain sovereignty over the land of Israel, gather the Jews there from the four corners of the earth, restore them to full observance of Torah law, and, as a grand finale, bring peace to the whole world. Concerning the more difficult tasks some prophets assign him, such as Isaiah's vision of a messianic age in which the wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the calf with the young lion (Isaiah 11:6), Maimonides believes that Isaiah's language is metaphorical (for example, only that enemies of the Jews, likened to the wolf, will no longer oppress them). A century later, Nachmanides rejected Maimonides's rationalism and asserted that Isaiah meant precisely what he said: that in the messianic age even wild animals will become domesticated and sweet*tempered. A more recent Jewish "commentator," Woody Allen, has cautioned: "And the lamb and the wolf shall lie down together, but the lamb won't get any sleep."

The Jewish belief that the Messiah's reign lies in the future has long distinguished Jews from their Christian neighbors who believe, of course, that the Messiah came two thousand years ago in the person of Jesus. The most basic reason for the Jewish denial of the messianic claims made on Jesus' behalf is that he did not usher in world peace, as Isaiah had prophesied: "And nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore" (Isaiah 2:4). In addition, Jesus did not help bring about Jewish political sovereignty for the Jews or protection from their enemies.

A century after Jesus, large numbers of Palestinian Jews followed the would*be Messiah, Simon Bar*Kokhba, in a revolt against the Romans. The results were catastrophic, and the Jews suffered a devastating defeat. In 1665*1666, large segments of world Jewry believed that Shabbetai Zvi, a Turkish Jew, was the Messiah, and confidently waited for Turkey's sultan to deliver Palestine to him. Instead, the sultan threatened Shabbetai with execution and the "Messiah" saved his life by converting to Islam.

In the modern world, Reform Judaism has long denied that there will be an individual messiah who will carry out the task of perfecting the world. Instead, the movement speaks of a future world in which human efforts, not a divinely sent messenger, will bring about a utopian age. The Reform idea has influenced many non*Orthodox Jews: The oft*noted attraction of Jews to liberal and left*wing political causes probably represents a secular attempt to usher in a messianic age.

Among traditional Jews, the belief in a personal messiah seems to have grown more central in recent years. When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, the subject of the Messiah was rarely, if ever, mentioned at the Jewish school I attended, the Yeshiva of Flatbush. Today however, one large movement within Orthodoxy, Lubavitch, has placed increasing emphasis on the imminence of the Messiah's arrival. At gatherings of their youth organizations, children chant, "We want Ma-shi*akh now."

At the same time, the subject of the Messiah has become increasingly central to many religious Zionists in Israel, particularly to many disciples of the late Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook. The event that helped set the stage for a revived interest in the Messiah was the Six*Day War of 1967, in which Israel captured the Old City of Jerusalem and, for the first time in over two thousand years, achieved Jewish rule over the biblically ordained borders of Israel.

A sober reading of Jewish history, however, indicates that while the messianic idea has long elevated Jewish life, and prompted Jews to work for tikkun olam (perfection of the world), whenever Jews have thought the Messiah's arrival to be imminent, the results have been catastrophic. In 1984, a Jewish religious underground was arrested in Israel. Among its other activities, the group had plotted to blow up the Muslim Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, so that the Temple Mount could be cleared and the Temple rebuilt. Though such an action might well have provoked an international Islamic jihad (holy war) against Israel, some members of this underground group apparently welcomed such a possibility, feeling that a worldwide invasion of Israel would force God to bring the Messiah immediately. It is precisely when the belief in the Messiah's coming starts to shape political decisions that the messianic idea ceases to be inspiring and becomes dangerous.

So he is saying that the prophecy is that the Messiah is coming but will never come? I disagree with him.

According to Jewish belief, when the Messiah comes, he will bring all the Jews back to Israel. Afterwards, he will rebuild the Third Temple. Then G-d will reveal Himself. Afterwards, the people chosen to live on in Olam Haba (The World To Come) will work hard to improve the world they live in and will work hard to get closer and closer to G-d's knowledge. We can never completely know G-d, but we can strive to get closer and closer to His knowledge.

There are Ashkenazi Jews who share a similar genetic profile. There are Ethiopian Jews who share a similar genetic profile. And there are Middle Eastern and North African Jews who share a similar genetic profile. But Jews are not really a race but a people and a religion. That is the most important thing about the Jewish people. They are a people and a religion.
I don't know much about that. Sorry.

I would say Jewish people donate generously to charity. Also, many Jewish doctors work on cures to diseases and share them with the whole world.

I think that Jews get citizenship within 24 hours, while non-Jews have a five year residency period before getting their citizenship. I could very well be wrong about this. Tizanabi is a better person to ask about this than me.

I am curious: Are most Chaldeans Christian? The ones I met are.

I have to add:

Jews pray and do rituals before G-d not because G-d needs anything from us. G-d is perfect. He doesn't need anything. It is because it helps us know His greatness.

I forgot to add that on to Key Points. Sorry about that.

Jews believe some of the miracles in the Bible happened for G-d to show us his power and mercy, and some were metaphorical. But G-d does not allow one to depend on miracles. One must physically repair the world. The Jewish belief is the Messiah will be a descendant of King David. He will be a great military leader. He will unite the tribes of Israel. And he will be a great Torah scholar.

But, with all due respect, Jews and Christians do have their differences. And that is worth arguing because the Old Testament (Tanakh) came first. And that is what Christianity and Islam are based on.

I don't think he was asking you to write a definition. I think he was asking you what possible use you would have for that classification. It doesn't have a lot of application to the average person. Why would you be considering using it?

Alright. I am arguing this from a Jewish perspective, you see.

G-d never becomes human or projects himself through a human directly. There are prophets and writings in the Tanakh as well as the Torah which G-d dictated through Moses. But G-d as a man or G-d having a son are all human traits which G-d does not show. The brilliance of G-d is that he created all of Humanity. He does not need to show a miracle birth. In fact, G-d tells us to repair the world through works. He tells us not to rely on miracles.

Not necessarily. Some of what King David and King Solomon did in the Bible (Tanakh) is real. Like building temples, having reigns as Kings, making decrees, fighting wars against neighboring tribes. Some of that is historical.

The Book of Genesis is mainly symbolic in nature. The six days of creation could have been billions of years. A day for God is like a thousand years for us or a billion years for us.

And whether or not the Bible is true, a lot of cultures, when speaking about their kings, would create stories about how they talked to the Gods. This is how history was passed down in ancient times. They would make up myths and legends to talk about their civilization's origins and to talk about their kings.