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Teaching About Other Religions - Page 1
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| Welcome to our discussions! |
Author: InterfaithFamily.com Editors
Date: 03-27-02 13:52
We're pleased to tell you that we've changed our online discussions--and we invite you to join them! When you submit a message, it will be reviewed by our moderators before it is posted. While we will accept messages that are realistic about the challenges posed by interfaith relationships, we won't allow people to vent their opposition to intermarriage, as has happened in the past. Our goal is to make our discussions a welcoming and safe place for people dealing with interfaith relationships to turn for helpful information and support. So please--join our discussions! |
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| Re: Finding a Middle Way |
Author: Clinton Nauert
Date: 08-30-04 19:01
Are we speaking here about the ger toshav living among American Jewry ?
As I understand it the Orthodox of The Land do not recognize a Reform or Conservative marriage between two Jewish partners. Reform and Conservative marriages must marry again under an Orthodox Rabbi when desiring to live in Yisrael, is this true ? |
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| Teaching about Jesus |
Author: Lesley Williams
Date: 12-21-04 00:23
At Christmas time, with "Silent Night" playing at the mall and creches under our friends' trees, I've been struggling with explaining to my Jewish daughter what this baby-in-a barn thing is all about. My husband and I don't celebrate Christmas in our home, but most of our extended family are Christian. There is surprisingly little material available to Jewish parents on presenting Jesus from a Jewish perspective. Here's what I came up with: please feel free to use this if it's helpful, or to offer comments.
Once a long time ago, after Pharoah and Haman, but before the Nazis, the Jews were conquered by some people called the Romans. The Romans weren't quite as bad as Haman or the Nazis, because they didn't try to kill all the Jews, but they did kill anyone who made them mad. Most of the Jews really hated the Romans and a lot of them tried fighting them to make them go away. This made the Romans mad so they killed those Jews who were fighting.
Well, after awhile some of the Jews started dreaming of an ideal king who would come along and kick out the Romans. This person would have to be very special, so the Jews started thinking he would be extra special from birth and that G-d would mark him as the Mashiach, or Messiah or chosen one.
A lot of people thought they were the Messiah, but none of them could beat the Romans. Then one day, a man named Jesus started preaching in his hometown of Galilee and later in Jerusalem. Some people thought he might be the Messiah, and this made the Romans mad, so they killed him in a mean bad way called crucifixion, (which was how they killed anyone they were especially mad with).
Jesus had been a good kind person and his followers were so sad he died that some of them refused to believe it, and they started saying that he'd come back to life. Soon a lot of people started to think he had come back to life, and that if they listened to Jesus' followers, they would be able to come back to life too after they died. Many of Jesus' new followers weren't Jews, but other people who wanted to not die. These new followers of Jesus were the first Christians, and that's where Christianity (what Grandma and Grandpa believe in ) comes from. Most of them didn't understand what "Messiah" really meant to Jews.
Anyway, because Jesus was such a special person, Christians began to tell stories about how he was born and what he was like as a baby. Some people say that an angel came to his mother Miriam, (Mary in English) and told her she was going to have a special baby. Some people say the angel came to her husband Joseph.
In one story, Miriam and Joseph were traveling when Miriam went into labor, and because all the hotels were full she had to have the baby in a barn with the animals. That's why the little dolls under Grandma's Christmas tree are in a barn with sheep and cows.
In another story, angels visited some shepherds near the barn and told them that a special baby who would be the Messiah had been born, and then the shepherds went to see the baby. So Grandma has shepherd and angel dolls too.
The 3rd story is that the man who was king of Palestine was not a very nice man and was jealous when he heard this new baby was going to be the Messiah. So he sent a group of astrologers, wise men or Magi, who thought they could tell the future by looking at the stars, to look for the baby. They saw a mysterious star which led them to the barn where the baby was, and they brought him rich mysterious gifts. So that's why Grandma has 3 dolls dressed like kings riding camels and carrying presents for the baby.
These are stories that all Christians know and that are very important to them, and most of the Christmas songs you hear tell parts of these stories. Your Christian family may believe them, but I don't...except the part about Jesus getting killed. They are NOT part of Judaism, and Jews don't believe that they really happened, even though the stories are about Jewish people and use bits of the Jewish bible. A lot of Jews don't like these stories because they give people kind of a mixed-up view of what Jews are like. We can enjoy the songs and stories though, the same way we enjoy folk tales and fairy tales that aren't about things that really happened.
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God. In traditional Jewish circles, it is forbidden to write or say God\'s name, so God is typically written with the vowel (o) replaced by a hyphen.
Spiritual leader and teacher. Typically, but not always, leads a congregation.
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