Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim.
(In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful....)
(From now on, everyone, the above is how I will begin my threads and posts.)
Hmmmmmm....how to start....and where, WHERE!!!!????
Firstly, I will address my thoughts from my individual understanding as a Bahá’í. Of course, everyone, these are my own understandings. Just try not to be too harsh, OK?
In my faith, Judaism is seen as a Divinely Revealed Religion. The Tanakh is given respect as God-Inspired Scripture. The personages of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, later Hebrew Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel....), are given strong references in the Holy Writings of my faith as Messengers of God.
Concerning Abraham, he, to my knowledge, is regarded by Bahá’ís as ‘the establisher of monotheism’. (Is it any wonder why this group of religions bears his name?)
Just a bit of speculation, but I think the fact that there are seven or eight religions in this group, making up over half the world's people, speaks profoundly to the truth of his name meaning “father of multitudes”.
One thing that I've seen is that to varying degrees, many of the fundamentals ideas taught in not only The Bahá’í Faith, but also other Abrahamic religions, find their origins IN JUDAISM... IN THE TORAH.
(Just my own thought, but I feel like Christians, Muslims, Bahá’ís, and members of other Abrahamic religions would do very well to study The Torah.)
Another positive in Judaism is the espect shown towards non-Jews, both among Ancient Israelites, as well as Jews today! For one, Jews do tremendously in commerating Chasidei Umot HaOlam (“Pious of the Nations”) , the non-Jews who helped Jews escape the persecution of the Holocaust. A second is the concept of ger toshav, the Gentile resident in Israel who– by accepting the Laws of Noah – is considered Chasid Umot HaOlam. That’s very cool to me! A third is exemplified in Hebrew Scripture. One instance of this is that Cyrus the Great, a Persian king, a non-Jew, was given the title moshiach (“anointed”)! I don't know how meaningful this would be to my Jewish brothers and sisters, so if you can enlighten me on this, wonderful!
Whew!
Now that that's out of the way, it's time to get even realer.
As a Black American, my people's story is one of hardships and hard-won victories. One of the cues for our struggle for freedom, for liberation, came from Judaism, specifically the story of Moses and the Ancient Israelites. The message of that story, that a group of people, led by an individual (Moses) who put his trust in the Almighty God, could and did rise up against oppression. And win, that's very inspiring to me! This was but one reason why I was at one point considering conversion to Judaism. (Actually, if I wasn't a Bahá’í, I would absolutely convert to Judaism, of course, after I studied for years! The first chance I got....but God had a different plan. So no worries!)
That also makes me wonder why there are not more African-American Jews. Noooooo, the Black Hebrew Israelites DO NOT COUNT! And Rastas? Enhhhhh....status unknown...
*system malfunction*
*SYSTEM SHUTD........*
*rebooting....*
*system restored*
All of this is why I will always have a huge soft spot for Judaism, and I tend to be hard on people who attack it....it means a lot to me. Even as a non-Jew.
Thank you, if you've taken the time to read this. I know it was long-winded...
(In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful....)
(From now on, everyone, the above is how I will begin my threads and posts.)
Hmmmmmm....how to start....and where, WHERE!!!!????
Firstly, I will address my thoughts from my individual understanding as a Bahá’í. Of course, everyone, these are my own understandings. Just try not to be too harsh, OK?
In my faith, Judaism is seen as a Divinely Revealed Religion. The Tanakh is given respect as God-Inspired Scripture. The personages of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, later Hebrew Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel....), are given strong references in the Holy Writings of my faith as Messengers of God.
Concerning Abraham, he, to my knowledge, is regarded by Bahá’ís as ‘the establisher of monotheism’. (Is it any wonder why this group of religions bears his name?)
Just a bit of speculation, but I think the fact that there are seven or eight religions in this group, making up over half the world's people, speaks profoundly to the truth of his name meaning “father of multitudes”.
One thing that I've seen is that to varying degrees, many of the fundamentals ideas taught in not only The Bahá’í Faith, but also other Abrahamic religions, find their origins IN JUDAISM... IN THE TORAH.
(Just my own thought, but I feel like Christians, Muslims, Bahá’ís, and members of other Abrahamic religions would do very well to study The Torah.)
Another positive in Judaism is the espect shown towards non-Jews, both among Ancient Israelites, as well as Jews today! For one, Jews do tremendously in commerating Chasidei Umot HaOlam (“Pious of the Nations”) , the non-Jews who helped Jews escape the persecution of the Holocaust. A second is the concept of ger toshav, the Gentile resident in Israel who– by accepting the Laws of Noah – is considered Chasid Umot HaOlam. That’s very cool to me! A third is exemplified in Hebrew Scripture. One instance of this is that Cyrus the Great, a Persian king, a non-Jew, was given the title moshiach (“anointed”)! I don't know how meaningful this would be to my Jewish brothers and sisters, so if you can enlighten me on this, wonderful!
Whew!
Now that that's out of the way, it's time to get even realer.
As a Black American, my people's story is one of hardships and hard-won victories. One of the cues for our struggle for freedom, for liberation, came from Judaism, specifically the story of Moses and the Ancient Israelites. The message of that story, that a group of people, led by an individual (Moses) who put his trust in the Almighty God, could and did rise up against oppression. And win, that's very inspiring to me! This was but one reason why I was at one point considering conversion to Judaism. (Actually, if I wasn't a Bahá’í, I would absolutely convert to Judaism, of course, after I studied for years! The first chance I got....but God had a different plan. So no worries!)
That also makes me wonder why there are not more African-American Jews. Noooooo, the Black Hebrew Israelites DO NOT COUNT! And Rastas? Enhhhhh....status unknown...
*system malfunction*
*SYSTEM SHUTD........*
*rebooting....*
*system restored*
All of this is why I will always have a huge soft spot for Judaism, and I tend to be hard on people who attack it....it means a lot to me. Even as a non-Jew.
Thank you, if you've taken the time to read this. I know it was long-winded...
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