Visited the Dome of the Rock again. I took a copy of the Quran this time and read the first sura up there. I few more visits and maybe I will stop taking pictures and get some good quality thinking in. Anyway, I wanted to mention something briefly I learned in class.
We are in two modern history classes, one on Israeli history and one on Palestinian history. They are also focused on Jewish history vs Muslim history. Anyway, this was in the Jewish class which is taught by a practicing Jewish/American professor.
1st cool thing. We were talking about what it means to be Jewish. Modern life has made it a complicated definition and elusive term. Along with that question is when did it begin? Our professor gave the opinion that for him, Judaism began when the Jews were taken to Babylon and they sat by the rivers and wept remembering Zion. His reasoning was that this was when the Israelites finally understood what it meant that there was only one God collectively. For c.600 years they had been covenanted to the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. But they, as a people, never understood that there was only one God. The tradition at that time period was that every people and land had a God that they worshiped. If you were conquered by your neighbors it meant that their God was more powerful then your God. You would then abandon your God and worship the more powerful God which clearly conquered your inferior God. So for all that time from Moses to Isaiah the Jews were following one God, when it was convenient and clearly the most powerful. That is why we have some many account during this time of golden calves, high places, and the constant warning against idolatry. The people kept whoring after other Gods. They were not really monotheistic. They didn’t realize that not only should they worship only the one God but that all the other gods weren’t even options because they didn’t exist. That moment came when the people were conquered and the Babylonians came to them and invited them to worship their gods. The Jews wept because they finally realized that all the other gods didn’t even exist. That was when they really became monotheistic and truly became Jews and no longer Israelites. Kind of a cool thought, even if it is nothing but a theory at this point.
Point 2. The Jews still have very strict laws about the sabbath, especially here. Now it is known that Shabbot begins at sundown. It is also part of the law that fire cannot be kindled on the Sabbath. So how do you light candles for the evening Sabbath meal? In the Jewish neighborhoods a bell, or siren goes off warning about the beginning of sabbath, not at sundown, but 20 minutes before so that all the fires and candles can be started early with no threat of breaking the law. This is what they mean by building a fence or a hedge around the law. For the same reason Sabbath ends not at sundown (when it actually ends) but when three stars appear. By adding a buffer zone around the law they are able to more perfectly keep it. Kind of clever. Now the alternate interpretation of this phrase (which comes from the Mishna or written oral version of the Torah) is that the Law (Torah=teachings) is to be elaborated on, or built upon by the rabbis and the people. Thus the teachings of God (Torah is better translated as teachings) at not restricted to the previously defined books but open to expansion and exposition as the ability of the people and needs of the time progress. Kind of cool
The quote from my teacher that best summarized this for me is thus “it is permissible to add some of the profane to the sacred but you can never add the sacred to the profane. Thus the Jews observe a 25 1/2 hour sabbath to avoid breaking the divinely ordained 24 hours” Not a direct quote.
I wonder if the deep thinking members of most churches don’t end up at the same conclusions concerning the correct doctrine more often than not. Sorry there are no pictures, it’s kind of a difficult concept to visualize. Keep cool!
Erev Tov!
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