#jewish religion

[hiddurmitzvah]

In this zine we present you the symbols of the SchUM cities - Speyer, Worms and Mainz. They were important important jewish communities from the High Middle Ages, SchUM is the acronym made up of the first letters of the hebrew names of the cities.

The symbols were taken from tombstones, synagogue ornamentations, floor tiles and even from a mikveh. We used linocut prints for creating the zine, where along with the symbols you can read about its meaning and a bit of history about their place of origin.

The importance of the SchUM cities that they were significant centers of ashkenazi judaism, showcasing early, well-preserved jewish community life, architectural innovation and scholarship. These communities considered as a cradle for ashkenazic judaism, many customs and regulations existing still today actually came from the rabbis living here.

[elder-millennial-of-zion]

I really appreciate your blog.

Your normal about gerim, right? I've seen people use us as a reason to deny Jewish indigeneity, completely ignoring that many if not most Indigenous peoples had practices of "adopting" people into their culture/religion/community before colonialism- the only difference is that instead of getting rid of the practice we just formalized it.

Ilysm <3

This is the second ask I’ve gotten about gerim, which is funny because my dad is one.

Whoever uses gerim as an excuse to delegitimize Jews in any way doesn’t know anything about Judaism. Or indigeneity. Or much about religious and cultural developments throughout history at all really.

If conversion somehow made the Jewish people and Jewish heritage and history less legitimate, Halacha wouldn’t allow it. If hundreds of years of rabbis can be “normal” about gerim, random uneducated goyim on the internet can be too.

[claraameliapond]

Rabbi Dovid Feldman on the misuse of Judaism by the state of Israel : " the state of Israel does not represent all Jews and certainly does not represent Jewish religion. According to Jewish religion all of this is criminal , all of this is forbidden."

[dragoneyes618]

God cannot be much of an Almighty, is has long since been observed, if anything we say in prayer is new to him, or useful, or capable of having an effect. If God exists, he is omniscient. If he knows everything, he knows the future, including any future prayers that we may utter. If he knows the future, it is for practical purposes fixed; and if the future is fixed, prayer is waste motion, the moving of pieces after the game is over. I figured out this neat dead end, or read it somewhere, at the age of twelve or thirteen, and maybe I stopped praying for a while; I cannot remember.

But if I did I started again pretty soon. Dead end or no, a man wants to praise God for the marvels of life, and to ask to be spared its terrors if possible, and to give thanks for what he has in hand, in healthy, family, and work. He wants to, that is, if a sense will not leave him that God is there. In Judaism praying for benefits is a very small part of the liturgy. Most of it is commitment of one's fortunes to God, and meditation on sacred writings which put in clear words the few great points of our religion. Its daily aim is a renewal of religious energy through an act which declares one's Jewish identity and one's hope in the Lord.

- This Is My God, Herman Wouk, page 91

[realjaysumlin]

American Religious Leader Louis Farrakhan Explains Why Whites Fear Black...

Listen to the people who call themselves white and how they refuse to listen to people who attack their whiteness and listen to the Black Indigenous People who speak the white people narrative about themselves.

Jewish People are a religious belief and not a racial identity because they also claim their whiteness even though the Jewish religion is hated as much as Black Indigenous People, Islam and others who don't fit their Christianity beliefs system.

But these same people follow the narratives of what so-called white people tell these people who they are as a racial identity and include the religion of Jewish people as white. This is why racism still exists because of whiteness and everyone is promoting white supremacy instead of rejecting this big lie because there's no such thing as white people on earth, it's a made up title.

[mediaanalexis]

In Hebrew, the word “Chased” translates to the emotion that God feels towards his creation. The grace, benevolence, and compassion that God feels towards us, we as humans, are expected ideally to feel towards God in turn. But just as God loves our imperfection, the same could be said of us towards God. In the book of Genesis, many Jews disagree with God’s actions. He can come across as vengeful, angry, harsh, and even downright cruel. From everything he did to Job, ordering Abraham to kill his son Isaac, the God of the Old Testament seems far from perfect. But this, it seems, is what makes the Jewish religion so fascinating.

God seems blatantly unperfect, but the Jews’ love for God never ceases, even with His faults out on full display. It is far easier to love an omnipotent, omnibenevolent God. If God were perfect, then we’d love Him for being perfect, which is conditional love. But we are not meant to feel a conditional love for God, just as God is not meant to feel a conditional love for us. The Jews’ love for God does not rely on His lovability, perfection, or any of His other traits. Just as we are forgiven, we must forgive Him.

To see all of someone, and still decide to love them forever is the kind of pure love we have for others-and that God wants from us. The Jews believe that all human beings are “Betzelem Elohim”, or created in the image of God. If all humans are created in the image of God, that means all love, not just the love we feel for God, is a kind of holy act.

However, some Jewish writers feel the opposite. Philip Roth, for example, in The Dying Animal, sees all love as a form of obsession. He believes that the act of loving-not just romantic, but also platonic love- makes people feel as if they are empty and that only through the love of another, can you be filled up. He believes that people are born whole but that “love fractures you. You’re whole, and then you’re cracked open.” And while he does make an interesting point, time and again, Jewish literature mirrors the love humans have for each other with the relationship we have with God. Just as Roth proposes, Love doesn’t make you any more whole; however, it is a form of connecting with the sacred within you that is a mirror of God. To love is to practice radical kindness and compassion which catapults positive change. And that positive change ripples outward, and through that human action, holiness on Earth can ensue.

Love is more than the sum of its parts-it’s so large and encompassing that it becomes intertwined with religion in its own right. For example, Psalm 145:8 exemplifies how we become more holy when we love. When we unconditionally love, we become more like God who is “abounding in steadfast love,” ultimately creating a better world. Love makes humans kinder, more devoted, more forgiving: it ultimately creates salvation on Earth. Through love, we mirror God, creating heaven on Earth.

I.L. Peretz, in his short story If Not Higher, reveals that through love for humanity, every action with this in mind can release the divine into the world and reveal God. His protagonist in the story, the Rabbi, not through traditional prayer in Temple, but through charitable action reveals his love towards God, and therefore by extension, his love towards humanity. By expressing his love through kind acts, he mirrors the steadfast love that God has for us and helps to build a heaven on earth.

Peretz posits through subtext that religion should be less about rigid rules or traditions, and more about the practical love we must have for humankind. His story “If Not Higher” shows how heaven is in our reach: it is not unattainable, because it exists in our hearts. If God made us in His image, then God lives in us. The idea of having so much love at our disposal to spread just like God does is a responsibility we must not take lightly.

[liberty1776]

Exposing Kabbalah & Mysticism

[anonymousdandelion]

A general tip for students who are sending those dreaded Religious Absence Emails to your professors: Rather than asking permission to take the day(s) off, politely let them know that you will be taking the day(s) off.

In other words, consider not saying this:

"May I miss class on [date] so I can observe [holiday]?"

It's not that there's anything wrong with the above, per se. But because it's phrased as a request, it risks coming across as optional — a favor you hope to be granted. Problem is, favors are not owed, and so unfortunately asking permission opens the door for the professor to respond "Thanks for asking. No, you may not. :)"

Instead, try something along the lines of:

"I will need to miss class on [date] because I will be observing [holiday]. I wanted to let you know of this conflict now, and to ask your assistance in making arrangements for making up whatever material I may miss as a result of this absence."

This is pretty formal language (naturally, you can and should tweak it to sound more like your voice). But the important piece is that, while still being respectful, it shifts the focus of the discussion so that the question becomes not "Is it okay for me to observe my religion?", but rather, "How can we best accommodate my observance?"

Because the first question should not be up for debate: freedom of religion is a right, not a favor. And the second question is the subject you need to discuss.

(Ideally, do this after you've looked up your school's policy on religious absences, so you know what you're working within and that religious discrimination is illegal. Just in case your professor forgot.)

[mysharona1987]

[hiddurmitzvah]

I’m thrilled to introduce my hand-crafted Jewish Symbols Print Set – a collection of linocut prints inspired by the rich Jewish heritage of the SchUM cities: Speyer, Worms, and Mainz.

What’s special about this set?

Each print captures motifs from tombstones, synagogues, and ancient architecture, bringing centuries of history to life. Hand-carved and printed on eco-friendly A5 recycled paper. A perfect blend of traditional craft and historical research, designed to inspire and connect.

Available now in my Etsy Shop! You can explore the collection and bring a piece of Jewish heritage to your home or gift it to someone who cherishes history and art.

[ani-tolaat-bli-toelet]

"Jews are not indigenous because they actually came from..."

Are you aware that all humans were nomadic once upon a time? And that humans only started settling in one place when we as a species developed agriculture, which tied us to one land because that's where we put in the hard work, time and resources to make food? If you want to deny Jews are indigenous because we were "somewhere else first" then, by your own logic (and the history of humanity) nobody is indigenous to anywhere!

I o realize this is a real niche post but I cannot tell you how many damn times over the past 10 months I've seen gentiles tell Jews some version of, "Your own holy book SAYS God doesn't want you to have a country yet!"

And it's such an incredibly blatant and weirdly specific tell that they're not part of something that grew from progressive grassroots, but something based on right-wing astroturfing.

1. Staying in your own lane is a pretty huge progressive principle.

Telling people in another group that their deity said they couldn't do X is, I think, as far as you can get from your own lane.

2. It's also very clearly Not In Your Own Lane because I've never seen anyone actually be able to EITHER quote the passage they're thinking of, OR cite where it is.

It's purely, "I saw somebody else say this, and it seemed like it would make me win the debate I wasn't invited to."

3. It betrays a complete ignorance of Jewish culture and history.

Seriously? You don't know what you're referencing, its context, or even what it specifically says, but you're... coming to a community that reads and often discusses the entire Torah together each year, at weekly services... who have massive books holding generations of debate about it that it takes 7 years to read, at one page per day....

And saying, "YOUR book told you not to!"

I've been to services where we discussed just one word from the reading the whole time. The etymology. The connotations. The use of it in this passage versus in other passages.

And then there is the famous saying, "Ask two Jews, get three opinions." There is a culture of questioning and discussion and debate throughout Judaism.

You think maybe, in the decades and decades of public discussion about whether to buy land in Eretz Yisrael and move back there; whether it should keep being an individual thing, or keep shifting to intentional community projects; what the risks were; whether it should really be in Argentina or Canada or someplace instead; how this would be received by the Jews and gentiles already there, how to respect their boundaries, how to work with them before and during; and whether ending up with a fuckton of Jews in one place might not be exactly as dangerous for them as it had always been everywhere else....

You think NOBODY brought up anything scriptural? Nobody looked through the Torah, the Nevi'im, the Ketuvim, or the Talmud for any thoughts about any of this?? It took 200 years and some rando in the comments to blow everyone's minds???

4. It relies on an unspoken assumption that people can and should take very literal readings of religious texts and use them to control others.

And a sense of ownership and power over those texts, even without any accompanying knowledge about what they say.

It's kind of a supercessionist know-it-all vibe. It reads like, "I know what you should be doing. Because even if I'm not personally part of a fundamentalist branch of a related religion, the culture I'm rooted in is."

Bonus version I found when I was looking for an example. NOBODY should do this:

There are a lot of people who pull weird historical claims like "It SAYS Abraham came from Chaldea! That's Iraq!"

Like, first of all, a group is indigenous to a land if it arose as a people and culture there, before (not because of) colonization.

People aren't spontaneously spawning in groups, like "Boom! A new indigenous people just spawned!!"

People come from places. They go places. Sometimes, they gel as a new community and culture. Sometimes, they bop around for a while and eventually assimilate into another group.

Second: THE TORAH IS NOT A HISTORY TEXTBOOK OMFG.

It's an oral history, largely written centuries after the fact.

There is a TON of historical and archaeological research on when and where the Jewish culture originated, how it developed over time, etc. It's extremely well-established.

Nobody has to try to pull what they remember from Sunday school for this argument.

[awakefor48hours]

I saw a post about this so now I'm curious

New poll with more options if you want there

please consider reblogging for a larger sample size unless you're planning to say something that's anti-theistic

[sunbeamedskies]

If you see articles and tweets about how the Star of David is now a symbol of fascism and think to yourself "maybe they have a point," then whatever you define as your antizionism has absolutely crossed the line into antisemitism

The Star of David is one of the most important symbols in Judaism. The fact that it is on the flag of Israel does not make it fascist. The government of Israel is separate from the symbol. Labeling such a widely used symbol by a marginalized people as fascist is incredibly dangerous and seeks to conflate Jews as a whole with the Israeli government- something antizionists continually claim people shouldn't do. So why are some doing it?

High control groups slowly ease you into believing nonsensical things. They provide "reasoning" and "logic" which goes largely unchallenged within echo chambers. People in these echo chambers are prone to believing it because they start to see it as real logic instead of bigoted, twisted reasoning. Even otherwise intelligent people can fall for their prejudices as they begin to view it as a form of justice

It is a fantasy that high control group leaders go from 0 to 100 in five minutes or refuse to answer any questions- they are usually much more manipulative

Please confront your biases. The Jews are tired

[buddhistmusings]

I'm feeling very alienated from people around me because of my refusal to participate in antisemitism, and I'm not even Jewish, so I can't IMAGINE how so many of you are feeling out there. I almost feel silly for feeling alienated about it. It's causing some real reflections when it comes to how I view myself politically. It's like here I am thinking, "No, we're against ALL oppression, right guys? .... right, guys?" 🦗🦗🦗 And it sucks knowing that a. the alienation I'm describing pales in comparison to what Jewish people might be feeling and b. that it probably isn't even that surprising to you all. Antisemitism is so perennial, cyclical, it insists on coming back again and again, rooting itself in places where people otherwise wouldn't expect it. It's Samsaric.

I almost feel like I'm being gaslight- "I'm not antisemitic, I'm just saying that Jews are harvesting the blood and organs of children!"

Like, bro, what else would that be? If blood libel isn't antisemitism, what counts as antisemitism?

This post is probably a bit jumbled, but I hope you're all doing well. ❤️

[thejewitches]

This post has been in the works for the better part of three years. The language around observance, religiosity, and identity is more important than ever. What it means to be a Jew is more important than ever.

Whether or not Jews are ‘religious’ in a world of non-Jewish religion has always been political: from the public debates Jews were forced into throughout Europe (like the Paris and Barcelona Disputations) to modern alt-right Republicans weaponizing their designation of only right-wing Jews as ‘religious’ enough to be taken seriously, this has always been more than a personal label.

This doesn’t mean you have to change your personal label, but rather it asks that you consider more than how you personally identify when you engage in public discourse. How we understand the unique, multi-faceted aspects of Jewish life is vital: disentangling it from the Christian hegemony that we are both crushed beneath and uphold is important work.