I can’t speak to what the average jew in the biblical or medieval period said about gentiles, but I can speak from my own experience growing up in a Conservative jewish home, and living in Israel for a year with my family. I can tell you that no jew I’ve encountered, of any age, ever expressed such sentiments to me. — Joshs
Do religious jews believe their faith offers them a way of thinking about spirituality and ethics which is preferable to that of other religions? I would hope so. Otherwise, why bother to remain within the faith? — Joshs
But you seem to have a stronger notion of ‘superior’ in mind that you may have to spell out for me. — Joshs
They [the "Germans"] worked to try to assimilate everybody into a single identity, but with limited success. One group they had absolutely no success with was Jews. Jews were an obstacle to their goals. In each case where Jews were persecuted, you have to sort through the events to discover why their separateness ended up making them victims this time around. — frank
The majority of Jews for the last 2000 years would say they adhered to their faith because the Torah explicitly condemns straying from the faith. For these Jews, other religions are not alternate paths to God. They're all paths to the Devil. The gods of other religions are false gods, and it's evil to worship them. There's nothing anti-Semitic about commenting on this. It's traditional Judaism. Look into it. — frank
↪Joshs
I know. Likewise, progressive American Christianity is fairly interfaith — frank
Would you agree that the varieties of contemporary anti-semitism expressed by the likes of Henry Ford, Heidegger, Hamas, Charles Lindburgh, Kanye West and Louis Farrakhan have less to do with the judaism of the middle ages than with their interpretation of the motives and practices of the modern world Jewish community? — Joshs
Right, but the actual teachings of Jesus are more against the Sadducees' formalism than the Pharisees. — Count Timothy von Icarus
The NT certainly motivated anti-Semitism at times, but so did the OT. — Count Timothy von Icarus
I just haven't heard this idea flushed out) despite the bulk of Jesus's disputes/criticisms being with the Pharisees. — BitconnectCarlos
↪mcdoodle
Do you think that there is an anti-Jewish bias in Europe stemming from pre-Holocaust ideas of Jewry that is not present in newer Western nation like the US? There are certainly hate groups everywhere but I am wondering if geography influences these trends — schopenhauer1
Europeans brought their prejudices with them when they emigrated to America. Not just anti-semitism ( there were many prominent anti-semites, such as Henry Ford and Charles Lindburgh) but anti-catholicism, and conflict among catholic ethnicities. My grandmother remembered seeing signs posting ‘No jews, catholic or dogs’.
Major cities like New York, Chicago and Boston were divided up into fiefdoms bounded by major streets and centered around local parishes. You ventured beyond your group’s neighborhood at the risk of a beating. This faded by the 1960’s ( with the exception of prejudice against people of color) with the flight to suburbia and the integration of public and private institutions. — Joshs
On August 18, 1790, congregants of the Touro Synagogue of Newport, Rhode Island, warmly welcomed George Washington to both their place of worship and their city. Washington’s letter of response to the synagogue, delivered on the same day, has become famous for reinforcing the ideal of religious liberty in American life. Washington promised the synagogue more than mere religious tolerance, explaining that "It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights." The letter continued with the promise that "the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."1
Washington asserted that every religious community in the United States would enjoy freedom of worship without fear of interference by the government. Washington had already developed a strong reputation for upholding ideals of religious liberty before writing the Touro letter. As a result, his commitment to freedom of practice prompted other religious communities to seek his affirmation. In May 1790, for example, a Jewish congregation in Savannah, Georgia, wrote to Washington with strong praise: "Your unexampled liberality and extensive philanthropy have dispelled that cloud of bigotry and superstition which has long, as a veil, shaded religion . . . enfranchised us with all the priveleges and immunities of free citizens, and initiated us into the grand mass of legislative mechanism."2 — Mount Vernon
It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my Administration, and fervent wishes for my felicity. May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy. — archives
Do you think that there is an anti-Jewish bias in Europe stemming from pre-Holocaust ideas of Jewry that is not present in newer Western nation like the US? There are certainly hate groups everywhere but I am wondering if geography influences these trends — schopenhauer1
It doesn't look like there was ever that many Jewish people in that region until Britain gave them Israel. — TiredThinker
When did some groups start disliking or hating Jewish people? Is there anything particular about their lifestyles that is unappealing? And why do most religions not have a word for anti(that religion)? There aren't actually that many Jewish people in the world on a whole. I don't know what threat some people see. — TiredThinker
That’s because you are taking the Gospels as gospel. Not a good move if you are approaching as critical historian. Depending on your interpretation, Jesus seems to have been quite conversant and possibly somewhat educated in a Hillel Pharisee milieu for much of his halachic interpretation of Torah law. When “condemning” Pharisees, it would be then as one from the inside and possibly contra the Shammaite Pharisees. My more speculative interpretation would be that he was a trained Hillelite Pharisee who later became an apocalyptic Jew as influenced by Essenic John the Baptist. I don’t buy the “merely a peasant” portrayal. He may have been of am ha-aretz tekton background, but clearly somewhere became relatively educated in Pharisee interpretations of Jewish law. His brother James headed this hybrid Pharisee/Essene sect, but the group’s fundamental nature changed amongst the group’s diaspora adherents with the forceful evangelizing of Paul and his interpretations of Jesus as the “Christ”. Other strains like the Johannite strain that conceived of Jesus as the pre-existing Logos combined Greek/Platonic elements as well. By this time, Jesus the itinerant Pharisee/Essenic Jew became something much different in these diaspora communities and those became the gentile/Pauline churches that became Christianity. The original Jamesian sect died out several hundred years later in the Levant. — schopenhauer1
Jesus was educated in the Jewish educational system. — BitconnectCarlos
This seems to be an internal debate, not external.This excerpt from rabbinic literature (Babylonian Talmud, Sota 22b - Soncino translation) describes seven types of Pharisees (Aram. פרושין ; parushin - abstentious people). Some are under the impression that the rabbis who wrote the Talmud were Pharisees. That is not exactly the case, as this passage clearly illustrates that they have no problem criticizing the Pharisees, in some ways with even harsher words than Jesus in Matthew 23. The rabbis quoted here lived in the late 3rd century CE. Explanatory notes in square brackets are mine.
"Our Rabbis have taught: There are seven types of Pharisees: the shikmi Pharisee, the nikpi Pharisee, the kizai Pharisee, the 'pestle' Pharisee, the Pharisee [who constantly exclaims] 'What is my duty that I may perform it?', the Pharisee from love [of God] and the Pharisee from fear. 1. The shikmi Pharisee — he is one who performs the action of Shechem [shechem = shoulder, i.e., the one who carried his deeds on his shoulder for everyone to see]. 2. The nikpi Pharisee — he is one who knocks his feet together [i.e., finds excuses to delay and not to do good deeds]. 3. The kizai Pharisee — R. Nahman b. Isaac said: He is one who makes his blood to flow against walls [walks into the wall to avoid looking atcontact with a woman].
4. The 'pestle' Pharisee — Rabbah b. Shila said: His head is bowed like a pestle in a mortar. [displays humility constantly] 5. The Pharisee who constantly exclaims 'What is my duty that I may perform it?' — but that is a virtue! — Nay, what he says is, 'What further duty is for me that I may perform it?' [constantly reckoning good deeds vs. bad ones]. 6 & 7 The Pharisee from love [serves God out of love] and the Pharisee from fear [serves God out of fear of punishment].
Abaye and Raba said to the tanna [who was reciting this passage], Do not mention 'the Pharisee from love and the Pharisee from fear'; for Rab Judah has said in the name of Rab: A man should always engage himself in Torah and the commandments even though it be not for their own sake, because from [engaging in them] not for their own sake, he will come [to engage in them] for their own sake. R. Nahman b. Isaac said: What is hidden is hidden, and what is revealed is revealed; the Great Tribunal will exact punishment from those who rub themselves against the walls. King Jannai said to his wife', 'Fear not the Pharisees and the non-Pharisees but the hypocrites (הצבועין) who are the Pharisees [present themselves as such]; because their deeds are the deeds of Zimri (Num. 25:11ff) but they expect a reward like Phineas'" (Babylonian Talmud, Sota 22b) — Talmud
Philo Judaeus, a Jewish Plantonist was the first to synthesize faith with reason creating the Logos philosophy, which is responsible for the Evangel of John. Philo’s primary importance is in the development of the philosophical and theological foundations of Christianity. — Vaskane
If I had to speculate, I would suggest that the language and the Book were central along with a rare tradition of universal learning, (hence 'argumentative'?) aided by a tribal religion with strict rules about marriage and something of an obsession with lineage. — unenlightened
Once a Jew has accepted the divine revelation of Jesus Christ he has placed himself outside of Judaism. — BitconnectCarlos
This is very much an anachronism. Like the rest of the ancient world a large percentage of Judean/Galilean Jews were illiterate. And I am willing to say Jesus was also illiterate and that almost every portrayal of him is basically propaganda, but I do think there is a historical person in the trappings that the New Testament writers wanted to portray him as. — schopenhauer1
here was no universal "Yeshiva" system or the kind of educational emphasis on minutia of Mosaic law, as in the post-Temple Rabbinic Judaism — schopenhauer1
This seems to be an internal debate, not external. — schopenhauer1
I do think that it was more like a "Hillel with urgency" approach to law, combining the more lenient views of Halacha of the School of Hillel — schopenhauer1
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