fbpx
52.6 F
Spokane
Wednesday, May 1, 2024
HomeCommentaryAskAsk a Jew: If the Jewish people believe the Savior is yet...

Ask a Jew: If the Jewish people believe the Savior is yet to come, why have most Jews forgone the written law in the Hebrew Scriptures?

Date:

Related stories

Ask an EOC: Can You Confess in Private to God but not in Church Confession and be Forgiven?

Concerning the sacrament of Confession, Christ directly gave the authority to his Church to remit or retain the sins of the penitent. 

Ask a Hindu: Why Do You Not Believe in a God?

Why, as a Hindu, do you not believe in a God and everything in the universe indicates his existence?

Ask a Baha’i: Would a Christian need to pray to Bahá’u’lláh, not Jesus, if converting to the Baha’i faith?

If I followed the teaching of Baha’i would I need to change my lifelong relationship with Jesus? I wonder how can I, as a lifelong Christian, focus my prayers from Jesus to Bahá’u’lláh?

Ask a Bahá’í: How Do Bahá’ís Get Clergy?

There are no clergy in the Bahá’í Faith. Each person is enjoined by Bahá’u’lláh — the Promised One of all Religions, who founded the Bahá’í Faith — to investigate truth for ourselves, to learn and not rely upon “the knowledge of [our] neighbor” and “see with [our] own eyes.”

Ask an Evangelical: Do Evangelicals Believe in Scientific Evolution?

Do Evangelicals believe in scientific evolution or do they believe each and every species was individually created?

Our Sponsors

spot_img
spot_img

What questions do you have about Judaism? Submit them online, or fill out the form below.

By Neal Schindler

If the Jewish people believe the Savior is yet to come, why have most Jews forgone the written law in the Hebrew Scriptures?

I recently wrote about Judaism and its long tradition of legalism. You seem to be asking why the majority of Jews — i.e., most Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist Jews, along with plenty of other progressive and/or secular Jews — aren’t obeying all or even most of the laws found in the Torah. I would refer you, first of all, to a previous column of mine, titled “Are there any biblical texts that you clearly understand to be not for our time?” Personally, the answer is a definite yes.

And just for the record: “The Jewish people” aren’t a monolith. Some Jews and some communities of Jews hold certain beliefs. But when you come down to it, every human has a unique faith (or lack thereof). I don’t believe a savior is yet to come. If I did, then I probably would do my best to obey Jewish law as I understood it, as many religious Jews do.

As I explained in my article on legalism, this would mean not only consulting the Torah but also observing laws developed by rabbis over the centuries and abiding by customs that may or may not have the full weight of Jewish law. As for why a Jew who believes the Messiah is coming would forgo “the written law in the Hebrew Scriptures” — well, perhaps simply because human beings are imperfect and often maddeningly contradictory, and also because obeying millennia-old laws to the letter can be really, really hard in modern times.

Neal Schindler
Neal Schindler
A native of Detroit, Neal Schindler has lived in the Pacific Northwest since 2002. He has held staff positions at Seattle Weekly and The Seattle Times and was a freelance writer for Jew-ish.com from 2007 to 2011. Schindler was raised in a Reconstructionist Jewish congregation and is now a member of Spokane's Reform congregation, Emanu-El. He is the director of Spokane Area Jewish Family Services. His interests include movies, Scrabble, and indie rock. He lives with his wife, son, and two cats in West Central Spokane.

Our Sponsors

spot_img
spot_img
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x