Judaism

Judaism in all its variations has remained consistent in its religious principles of belief and faith. According to Jewish belief there is only one God or G-d and he is the one that created the world. G-d also created a covenant with the Jewish people and placed his laws and commandments to the Jewish people in the Torah. The Jewish religion is devoted to the study of the commandments as they are written in the Torah. The Torah is simply the five books of Moses and is the entire basis of Jewish law. There are 613 commandments in the Torah. "Less than 300 of these commandments are still applicable today" (Wilkipedia).

Although Jews believe in the Torah they also believe in what they call the Oral Torah. The Oral Torah was transmitted by the Pharisee sect and then later on was written down by the Rabbis. According to the Torah someone is considered to be a Jew if they were born to a Jewish mother or they were converted to Judaism in accord with Jewish law. Once you become a Jew you retain your status forever. Even if you convert to another religion you are still considered to be a Jew but not in good religious standing. In the Jewish religion they base your status in Jewish Law by how religious someone is.

The Jewish community has divided itself into four different denominations. Those are the Orthodox, conservative, reform, and Reconstructionist denomination. Each denomination has its own understanding of the Torah and the beliefs surrounding it. They also believe that Jews have different beliefs that they should hold and live by as Jews. The Orthodox Denomination is considered the original Judaism. They believe that the Oral and Written Torah was created by G-d and taught to Jews. They also believe that changes to the Torah are not necessary because the Torah can be adapted to any and all situations. The Orthodox Denomination does govern their lives by the written word of the Torah and there is to be no exceptions.

The Conservative Jewish Denomination believes that the Torah was created by Jews with the Divine Guidance. They also believe that the Oral and Written Torah was written at different times in history. According to Mordechai Housman in his website Being Jewish he wrote that "Conservative Judaism came about as a break-off group from Reform by people who felt that reform was leaving traditional Judaism at too fast a pace." Although they believe that both forms of the Torah was written at different times the books themselves proves this to be wrong.

The Reform Jewish Denomination isn't as strict on their beliefs as the others. Essentially the belief of this denomination is that you decide what you believe in. They believe that the Torah is "man made" and has been changed over time. They believe that the Torah has been adapted to fit the needs of the Jewish community. Also they do not believe that there is a heaven or hell they only believe in the immortal soul.

The Reconstructionist Jewish Denomination believes that if there is something that you don't understand or isn't very clear in the Torah then you can believe that the Torah is wrong and you are the one that is correct. This can be considered the most relaxed denomination that the Jewish religion has. So no matter what denomination a Jew is they are still considered to be a Jew.

After learning about the difference in denominations I decided that I would go and visit two temples in this area. The first one that I chose to visit was the B'Nai Abraham Congregation located in Hagerstown Maryland. Upon entering this synagogue I realized that I looked like a foreigner and that I was not dress appropriately. In this church being an Orthodox denomination the women wear dresses that go from the neckline to your ankles covering your complete arm. They also wore veils to cover their hair and sat separately from the men. The Rabbi was very professional and spoke to everyone, but I didn't feel welcome in their church.

Upon entering the second church, the B'Er Chayim Temple located in Cumberland Maryland, I was greeted by many and made to feel at home. This temple is what is known as a reform denomination and Rabbi Stephen Sniderman suggested to me a few different members of the church that could help me with my paper about Judaism. There were two different ladies that were happy to help one was Amy Horowitz which is converting from Catholicism to Judaism. The other was Debbi Blank; she was born a Jew and has always been part of the Temple. The Rabbi felt that, between the two women, I would be able to see the religion from two different viewpoints, converting and a born Jew.

When I spoke to Amy Horowitz, she informed me that she was converting to Judaism from the Catholic Church because she was marrying a Jewish man. Amy spoke about how converting has given her a true sense of herself and she has become enlightened by the Torah. During the interview, Amy stated that "There were many things about this religion that no one knows about and are wrong in their beliefs because no one takes the time to ask questions." When I spoke to her about what was the hardest thing she had to do in order to convert, she laughed and then explained to me that finding a Rabbi to do the conversion and getting him to actually see her was another big obstacle (Personal Communications October 4, 2006).

When someone wants to become Jewish it is the Rabbis job to persuade them against it. The Rabbi may set up appointments with you and never show up or they might say that they will call you back and never do. The reason for this is because they only want the very sincere person/gentile to complete the process which is very time consuming and not an easy one. According to an interview that I had with Amy Horowitz, she told me "that to truly be Jewish you need to forget everything that you have learned about and were taught about spirituality because it will now be irrelevant and wrong" (Personal Communications October 4, 2006). In many ways, to fully understand this religion means that you need to drop all your beliefs and misgivings that were taught to you by other religions. For instance, the Christian religion believes in the "Ten Commandments" but according to the Jewish religion these same commandments are referred to as the "Ten Statements".

There are many misgivings that are taught to Christians that Jews do not believe in. Take for instance Jesus, Christians believe that he is their personal savior and Jews do not believe in him because their Jewish Doctrine about G-d is core and immolate. Jews do not believe that Jesus rose from the dead, nor do they believe that he will come again. This second arrival is what Christians call a second coming. Christians believe that Jesus is their savior and that he will redeem them from their sins.

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