Back in the 'Eighties, I found myself teaching Chaim Potok's The Chosen to a Year 12 class, a system-shock, since I was, by then, as school librarian, largely free from classroom duties. But it was a book I liked, and the best book, by far, on that year's required reading list, and the English Coordinator, the class teacher, had declared himself an avid antisemetic and thus unwilling to add the text to his repertoire..though quite willing to allow ME to "borrow" his class to demonstrate the book's worth.And so I came to research Judaism the first time..
The second thrust toward Judaic enlightenment was differently inspired, prompted, in fact, by a stroll around New Orleans with a Jewish met-on-the- internet-friend from New York, with me miserably aware that I was registering only a fraction of his conversational vocabulary (and that several paragraphs behind). And it seemed to me that if so obviously intelligent a man could find meaning in Judaism, perhaps the faith,and its inherent disciplines, were worth a second look..
But where to look first? Other Jewish friends proffered advice.
Herman Wouk's' This Is My God was recommended.
But I wanted to input some other, more openminded ideas, and tried Amazon Books.
Amazon came up with a list of twenty or more, a list which threatened to go on, and on, but I started with nine, the shelf since much augmented, and browsed them all, before selecting Basic Judaism, by Rabbi Milton Steinberg, subtitled :
And as a starting point, as an overview, as a balanced, heart-warming, conscious-of-all-faiths introduction to the Jewish way of life, I doubt you can go past Rabbi Steinberg's positive little text which manages, in just 172 pages, to render the seemingly impenetrable, quite translucent... sunlit, even!
Educated in my formative years by Sisters Of Joseph nuns, indoctrinated that only baptised Christians can "enter the Kingdom Of Heaven", I was unprepared for the welcoming warmth this little book exudes. There is no hint of a restricted heaven here, nor babies in limbo, with Rabbi Steinberg reminding us, over and over, that , to a Jew, heaven is for the righteous, all righteous, regardless of creed, something my Islam-convert son has pointed out to me as a major difference, also, between Christianity and his adopted faith.
As well, Rabbi Steinberg continually clarifies both the traditionalist and modernist Jewish stances on each point at issue...something else that came as something of a shock to me after my rather frustrating attempts at broadbased discussion with my classically trained, Ashkenazic Jewish friend from New York.
But remember, this is an OVERVIEW of Judaism, and not the book in which to delve for obscure points of pre-Passover procedure, though its eleven sections cover Judaism from historical foundations , through current practice, to a "World To Come" section and Epilogue, noting, at each step, the differences in interpretation between the main Jewish divisions, and explaining how these interpretations affect daily life for a Jew.
I have read many books on Judaism since, and attended classes, and "discussed the Holy Books" with some very learned men indeed, and had many questions thus answered, but this book, with so many passages highlighted by my yellow pen, is the text that made me want to continue to find out.
And if YOU, with a Jewish friend or workmate, or perhaps reading the daily papers and watching televised news of the conflict in Israel, would like to understand better, to maybe offend less, to be more in the picture, read Rabbi Milton Steinberg's Basic Judaism....as a starting point.
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I was interested, too, to see that there is no equivalent of the Catholic Pope, and no parent "CHURCH" to grow rich and powerful, that each synagogue congregation is an independent, autonymous entity..
Interested,too, to see how much emphasis Judaism places on individual learning and scholarship, even for women,and on rights for women, NOT things the Christian churches have exactly emphasised down the years.
Almost certainly you will want to go on and read more!
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