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redditantisemitism · 1 year

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Here’s an interesting one-is this antisemitism? I think so. Let’s discuss:

First, the context. This comment was left on a post containing this meme, poking fun at the messianic “Jews” (they aren’t Jewish) and antisemitic Christians that appropriate Pesach.

Now. This person does make a few correct statements, and I’ll give them credit. They’re right that a lot of Christians and Christianity are antisemitic. But with that out of the way, let’s look at the myriad of ways they’re so very wrong:

I'm not going to pretend to know a lot about Passover

User admits that they are not qualified to be making judgements. As a Christian it isn't their place to tone police Jews anyways, but especially since they admit that they have no idea what they're talking about.

I would refrain from throwing all Christians under the bus

I'm sure they would. That isn't what is happening though, and framing it like this highlights their defensiveness- they aren't trying to have a productive conversation, they just don't like seeing Christianity being portrayed this way. Playing the victim, and not for the last time.

The Catholic church has largely been the main culprit here

Interestingly, there is a Catholic elsewhere in the thread blaming the Protestants. Typical Protestant vs. Catholic stuff, and this user is using it to attempt to distance themself from the "bad" Christians. Also, in my experience, almost every Christian "seder" I've seen or heard of has been held by a Protestant sect of some sort.

it's important to know that all the while the persecution was happening to jews by christians, there have been other christians speaking out against it.

More of the same, see above. "not all Christians!"

Please don't forget about the Christians who are willing to lay down their lives for the Jewish people.

Here's where the fetishization starts. Also, literally nobody asked you to do that, don't use us to feed your martyr complex. Also also, where exactly are these Christians, because they've been doing a shitty job.

Christians like myself are perfectly capable of seeing Yeshua in the Passover without changing it, or preaching to you up and down about it.

And this is where the explicit antisemitism starts, as opposed to the red flags we've been seeing. This person, based on their language, seems to be some sort of "Torah believing Christian"- something inherently appropriative and antisemitic.

Furthermore, YOU SHOULD NOT BE SEEING JESUS IN PASSOVER. That is, at best, idiotic, and at worst, actively antisemitic. It's certainly supercessionist. JEWISH TEXTS DO NOT PROPHESIZE JESUS. Christians should not be touching Pesach uninvited in ANY way, regardless of if they change things or not.

Yeshua didn't change it and neither should we

This person demonstrates an astounding level of ignorance. Any modern Seder would HAVE to be different than any Seder Jesus might have held (assuming he even existed), because it is impossible to do it like him. There is no temple to offer animal sacrifices at, like there would have been at the time. Regardless, not only should Christians not be changing seders, they shouldn't be touching it.

They then rant for a while about how Easter is bad. Which. My dude. That's your holiday. Go fuck around with that and leave Jews alone.

Please have patience and a soft heart for Christians who believe that:

More "not all Christians", this time with an added level of playing the victim. Hard pass.

-Jews don't need to be converted

Even stopped clocks are right twice a day.

-Christians have the holidays and events wrong

Uh? No? Is this some weird Christian intracommunity thing? Your holidays are your holidays, leave ours alone.

-the dietary laws were upheld by yeshua

Regardless of if this is true or not, Jesus was Jewish. This poster isn't. Kosher is for Jews. Christians aren't entitled to Jewish practice just because they worship a Jew.

-all of the torah was upheld by yeshua

see previous bullet point.

-the Jews are the chosen people of God

Typical Christian misunderstanding of "Chosen". "Chosen" to uphold the mitzvot, not to be better, or put on a pedestal. This is another example of how they fetishize Jews, and it does not get better.

-the Jews come first

See previous bullet point. Fetishization like this is disgusting and harmful. It removes humanity and personhood from Jews, instead presenting us as some mystical object of worship that we never claimed to be and can never live up to. We are not a zoo exhibit, we are a vibrant and living culture.

-salvation is of the Jews

See previous bullet point. We are people, not a tool for your salvation.

-the Jews have been entrusted with the words of Yah*weh

See previous bullet point. Also super disrespectful to just throw that name around in Jewish spaces, but I don't know what I expected from an antisemitic, philosemitic Jew fetishist.

-we should be suffering with the Jews, not against them

WE ARE NOT FUEL FOR YOUR MARTYR COMPLEX. Plenty of Jewish suffering would be alleviated if Christians like this person would just leave us alone. But they don't actually want Jewish suffering to stop, because then they'd lose a tool and a way to play victim.

they end with a plea not to lump all Christians together with the "bad" ones- something literally nobody was doing. Once again, it's a lot of "Not all Christians!!!" and their own self-victimhood. They say not all Christians are "like that", which is true. But this one certainly is.

Chag Pesach sameach everybody, and stay off the fuss bus.

#antisemitism #christian antisemitism #cultural appropriation #passover #reddit #messianic judaism #<they aren't jews btw #philosemitism #long post #religious antisemitism

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magnetothemagnificent · 1 year

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Hi! I thought this might be a good question to ask you since you are so knowledgeable. I’m writing an epic fantasy story and I need to do some research on what life was like for Jews right before and after the destruction of the 2nd beit hamikdash because that is the basis of the setting. I would also love some information about the daily life of the kohanim at the time. Could you help me out with some reliable sources? Thanks so much!

Some aspects of Jewish life c. 1st century CE:

Economy:

Large-scale household pottery manufacture

-Pottery manufactured by Jews does not need to be ritually purified

-Certain pots began to be standardized in size, indicating importance of measurements for other industries

Expansion of oil and wine industries (hence the standardized jars)

Culture:

Stone vessels. Varying explanations, but all have to do with maintaining a distinct Jewish identity.

A new type of oil lamp- knife-pared lamp.

Dining rooms for the wealthy.

Lots of Mikvaot

Rock-cut familial burial caves

Display tombs but only in Jerusalem

Jews regarded as distinct ethnicity both by themselves and by the foreign powers

Prayer developing. Prayer distinct from Temple worship had already begun after the destruction of the first Temple, and continued into the second Temple era.

Lots of apocalyptic and messianic cults especially as the destruction of the Temple grew closer.

Spoken language is Aramaic and Hebrew

Synagogues beginning to appear

Strong relationship between the Jews of Israel and the Jews of Babylonia

Lots of Halakhic debates

Corruption within the Kohanim because of the Hasmonean power vaccuum and the Romans appointing the High Priests instead of the Jews.

Sources:

Jewish Life Before the Revolt: The Archaeological Evidence

Ethnicity and Ancient Judaism: Jewish Identities in 1st Century Alexandria and Antioch

Prayer in the Period of the Tannaim and Amoraim

Aramaic Tombstones from Zoar and Jewish Conceptions of the Afterlife

THE ORIGIN OF THE SYNAGOGUE: A RE-ASSESSMENT

‮אתא אגרתא ממערבא‬ ("An Epistle Came from the West"): Historical and Archaeological Evidence for the Ties between the Jewish Communities in the Land of Israel and Babylonia during the Talmudic Period

Were the Priests All the Same? Qumranic Halakhah in Comparison with Sadducean Halakhah

The Torah of the Jews of Ancient Rome

I'm also tagging @didyoumeanxianity because they have a lot more experience with that era (I'm more biological anthropology than cultural).

Good luck with your novel, it sounds so exciting!!

#jumblr #judaism #jewish history

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creature-wizard · 10 months

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The fact that lilith worship has become radical cultural christianity repackaged for demonolators says a lot, because it has:

Asserting traditional gender roles- check

Reducing a female figure to a mother because of not liking her lore and thinking it was "demonized"- also check

Saying that someone is not really Jewish if they say no to working with lilith "because all my Jewish friends says it's okay"- ALSO CHECK (ALSO THIS EERILY REMINDS ME OF SOME OF THE STUFF SAID IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY ABOUT CHRISTIANS BEING THE "TRUE JEWS" AND THAT IF YOU AREN'T A CHRISTIAN, YOU ARE NOT REALLY JEWISH)

Possibly pretending to be Jewish so that people can appropriate lilith- CHECK (This also eerily reminds me of the stuff messianic "Judaism" did, and I don't want to assume that people are trying to pretend to be Jewish for this lilith thing, but it definately seems like it's happening right now)

Asserting that "Judeo-Christianity" is actually a real thing and that Judaism is exactly like Christianity and that Muslims are "terrorists" and "extremists" because also, their upbringing teaches them this- check

This stuff is just repackaged cultural christianity. And for people who claim to hate Christianity, these people sure are repeating the same behaviors that were brought on by their upbringing.

If you really are about your cause or want to go against what your upbringing taught you, then don't repeat the same things you were taught and make an effort to deconstruct.

That's it. There's my long-ass ramble.

Yuuuuuup.

#answered #christianity #lilith #appropriation #cultural appropriation #islamophobia #antisemitism

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judaicsheyd · 11 months

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About this Blog, its Author, and how to Navigate it.

Shalom, and welcome to my intro, which will be constantly updated. Check out my sideblog where I just repost pretty pictures. 𓂃⊹ ִֶָ — I will shortly be adding my reading list here!

First off, I'll start with a quick rundown of myself / this blog before getting into the heavier details:

— You can call me Carver or Neshama (נשמה), my pronouns are she/him. My gender / sexuality is just whatever (or queer), and I am an adult. — I practice egalitarian Conservadox Judaism. — I am Hungarian (however I live in the USA), and I am white. — I am autistic and have ADHD. — I am a double major and double minor undergrad student. — I do use the label of "Demonolator", but in truth I am just a Jew who works with shedim. I do not worship them, and solely worship HaShem. My counterpart sheyd is Livyatan.

This is not really a personal blog, it's more informational and educational. Its focus is Judaism, however I will mention other areas of my academic interest, mostly linguistics. I will also speak on pressing topics (BLM, indigenous rights, queer liberation, etc.) which are all important parts of my Judaism, especially the idea of Tikkun Olam. Here is a table of contents for what else can be found under the break:

i. Navigation (tags I use) ii. What is this Blog? — Blog Standards — Blog Guidelines iii. Upcoming Posts

border inspo & header art

Without further ado, onto navigation. Here's a list of tags which you can use to navigate my posts. Yes, I have a Lilith tag, and it's just "Lilith" in Hebrew.

— #yeshivawithcarver : All of my original educational Jewish stuff. — #demonologywithcarver : All of my original educational demon stuff. — #askcarver : Every ask I've responded to. — #references : Both my original content and reblogs that include good educational resources / information. — #carverop : All my original posts. Still working on tagging everything with this.

This blog will hold many of my already written, in-the-works, and future informational "articles". From entries on different demons to simple guides to understanding aspects of Jewish life, I am committed to spreading educational content that is anti-appropriative and based within scholarly understandings of religion.

In order to set the stage for what you can expect from my blog, here are some "rules":

— I am not required to answer any asks or DMs. I have a very busy life outside of the internet, and also often don't have the energy for social interaction. If I answer, it is because I have a personal interest in what you have said and the energy to follow through on that interest. — I have a no blocking policy, which means that I will not block most people who I disagree with, even vehemently, on some topics. These include being anti-Zionist (criticizing the Israeli government is completely fine and I do it as well), and other such people. Please do not interact with me. You can still consume all my educational content as the last thing I want is to limit anyone's ability to learn, just don't harass me. — My no blocking policy does NOT extend to Nazis, Kahanists, those who are anti-Palestine, Messianics/"Jews for Jesus", racists, LGBTQphobes, sexists, Islamophobes, etc. — Anyone can ask any question whatsoever. The only stupid questions are those that are left unasked and their answers assumed. This includes anyone who wishes to disagree with me on anything. — My DMs and asks are always open! I love to answer questions, and I promise I don't bite. — Feel free to correct me, ask for elaboration, or ask for sources whenever.

I base my understanding of religion within tradition and history, but I understand these things to be constantly evolving and adaptable. I am not a fan of new-age beliefs which appropriate Judaism, Hinduism, and countless other practices to no end. To make things simple, I will establish these beliefs:

— The Divine are not our friends. They are our mentors and guides which want nothing but the best for us. — Demons and angels/G-d do not hate each other. — G-d is not inherently evil, and neither are "Abrahamic" religions. — Interacting with the Kabbalah or Qlippot as a non-Jew is highly appropriative of Judaism. — Lilith is closed. — I do not believe that divine beings are romantically or sexually interested in humans at all. — I do not believe that humans can be reincarnated divine beings, the children of divine beings, etc.

As always, please feel free to request / recommend a topic for me to cover! If you have any interesting information that you think would be helpful for any topics I'm working on, send them my way as well (please).

Near-Complete — I AM: Understanding G-d's Many Names in Jewish Thought and Practice

Old, Need to Rewrite — 'Daemon' vs. 'Demon' — Emperor Leviathan, He Who Devours — Empress Unsere, Breath of Life — Lucifuge Rofocale, Master of Pacts — Princess Elelogap, Lady of the Tides

Drafting — Jewish Conceptions of Demons — G-d's Divine Council & the Polytheistic Roots of Judaism — A Short History of Lucifer & Satan — Demonolatry 101: An Expansive Introduction

Future Projects & Ideas — On Lilith, and the Silencing of her Narrative — Stars of David: Astrology in Jewish Tradition — Jewish Conceptions of Angels — Jewish Conceptions of Demons — The Demonic Divine Feminine — Why Being 'Anti-Solomonic' is just Antisemitic — Jewish Golems: We too can Partake in the Divine Act of Creation — Traditional Demonolatry 101 — G-d's Pronouns? — Asherah's Legacy: Reclaiming the Lost Goddess of Judaism — The Jewish Afterlife — The Eight Genders of Judaism — Messianic 'Judaism' is Antisemitic — The Torah in the Tarot — Jewish Folk Creatures 101 — An intro to Gematria — The Aleph-Bet in Divination — Behemoth & Ziz — King Bael — Metatron — King Paimon

Thank you for reading, ב״ה

#judaism #demonolatry #demonology #jewish #jumblr #demonolator #occult #left hand path #shedim #leviathan #carverop

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othercat2 · 2 years

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You fuckers need to learn a thing

In reference to a post I just saw, but don't want to interfere with.

Jewish poster: Messianic Jews (Christians) piss me off for valid reasons, including they worship a man.

Christian: But. But. Jesus is Lord/God!

Jewish poster: No. He. Fucking Isn't. My religion has nothing to do with yours

I'mma gonna predict here the Christian is going to try to point out all the prophets allegedly predicting the birth of Jesus. Because Christians have a hard time conceptualizing "people are not just being stubborn and pretending not to believe what you believe. They literally and completely believe something else. And often, they have proof you are wrong." (Usually they don't believe the proof anyway.)

#christianity #judaism #christians not reading the room #when you have completely valid reasons for being pissed off at appropriation and the other party doesn't get it

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yonadave · 1 month

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A Quick Guide for Writing Comics with Kabbalah - Don’t

A few months ago, Louise Simonson and Kireon Gileon compared the Phoniex’s White Room as the Jewish Kabbalah term Tiferet - תפארת. I was quite surprised, not just because I didn’t remember that was the title of Al Ewing’s Defenders Beyond issue 3, but also because it didn’t make sense. So after some comments on Twitter led me to read that issue, I still didn’t get why the White Room would be associated with Tifferet, of all the sefirot. This is not the first time that happened to me.

I was always confused when hearing X-fans talking about some common knowledge regarding how Morrison used Kabbalah to explain the Phoenix. Now, it’s been some time since I’ve read that run (which I did read again before writing this) so I must have missed it. But you’d think I would remember something like that. The same thing happened with The Resurrection of Mangeto Issue 01, where others online noticed the Kabbalistic elements in the story while I didn’t. Obviously, many of the people I follow on social media and/or read and listen to their articles and podcasts are more fluent in X-Men comics than I am, but I can confidently say that I am more fluent in Kabbalah than they are. So how come I keep missing it?

The answer was clear once I read a thread about the Resurrection of Magneto and the symbolgies shown in the issue. The thread, by @arakkosuperstar made a lot of sense when it came down to explaining Ewing’s storytelling. But it didn’t make a lick of sense when it came down to Kabbalah. This makes sense, since I don’t think Ewing is even fluent in Hebrew and the 3 dialects of Aramaic that are needed just to understand basic Kabbalistic texts.

So let’s start with what Kabbalah is. Kabbalah is a general name for several Jewish mystic traditions. It literally means “being received” as those traditions are supposed to be moved on from Rabbi to student throughout the generations. But when we say the word Kabbalah today it is most likely referring to the teachings of Ha’Ari - Rabbi Issac Luria who was active in 16th century Safed (Tzfat) and, alongside Rabbi Yosef Karo, reshaped all of Judaism in modern times.In his teaching you will find terminology like The Tree of life, Sefirot, Ein Sof and others that come up in western culture (and Anime for some reason). If you ask most religious Jews they will tell you that you are not supposed to study Kabbalah until you are 40. But that is a rather late tradition that came as a response to two connected messianic cults in Europe. Before that, most traditions suggest learning it only after you are 25, married, or “filled your belly with Talmud”.

The main subject of Kabbalah is trying to study and maybe understand the divine as a religious act of warship. Some, Like Ha'Ari, took it to the worlds of theology, while others took it to the world of ethical codes of conduct. The Hasidic movement, founded by Rabbi Israel Ba’al Shem-Tov popularized the theological aspects of Kabbalah and applied them to the realms of human psychology. While trying to understand the decision making behind the use of Kabbalah in modern comics, I was introduced to the term Kabbalah magic, which is not a thing. The closest thing we have is “applied Kabbalah'' which comes down to amulets or invoking a specific aspect of the divine. A nice way to describe it is that the world was programmed and built using the Hebrew language and that is why we can input cheat codes. Yes, we are breaking the rules of the game, but only because the divine programmer put those options in the first place.

The more I looked into the “Kabbalah” origins of these ideas I found out more and more about Hermetic Qabalah and how much it’s not Kabbalah. I found out about terms like Sefirot-Shakras-Tarot as if those things are the same. Since the religious act of worshiping in Kabbalah is to study and seek to understand the divine, mixing these terms so bluntly is not only not accurate - it’s offensive. Using an outside, non-Jewish tradition in order to better understand Kabbalah is one thing, but mixing these religions up is just a brutal act of cultural appropriation.In that aspect, I actually liked that Exodus is the character that ‘explains’ the White Room as Tiferet, it makes absolute sense that a christian zealot from the middle ages will appropriate Jewish texts without understanding it.

Other than being offended, I couldn’t stop thinking about how obvious it was that Ewing chose the wrong sefira. I mean, Keter (crown) the first sefira is right there. And once you choose the “correct” one, you could do so much more with it than just to use its name as a reference. What did we, as readers, get from using the term Tiferet? Does it expand the phoenix mythos in any meaningful way? No, because it’s a shallow use of something that I happen to hold very dear. But Keter? There is so much to do with it. You could call the white room the first spark of creation, which is a creative translation that goes really well with the fact we are talking about an emotional bird made of fire. It can explain why the white room is white, just like white light will become the entire color spectrum.

And then we have The Resurrection of Magneto issue 02, which in my opinion is one of the more Jewish comics I’ve read from a mainstream outlet in a long time. And it’s the same writer who failed before in doing the same thing - incorporating Jewish traditions into his texts… And I do think that it all starts from the choice of text. Instead of going to Kabbalah - an esoteric text that even most Jews aren’t familiar with, he uses basic, well known texts such as the Torah and Pirkei Avot from the Mishna. This choice also works from a narrative point of view since Magneto may have left the Jewish world as a child, but these are texts he would probably know. The sources are not name dropped, like Tiferet was used back in Defenders Beyond and Immortal X-Men/Jean Grey. Instead, we are left with the actual meaning of the words instead of the “cool factor” that Kabbalah has had in the last few decades.

#x men #x spoilers #judaism #x men comics #kabbalah #al ewing

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officialyourdailyinspiration · 2 years

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Three Angels with Messages

6 And then I saw another angel flying high in the sky, having a timeless message of good news to proclaim to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation and tribe and tongue and people. 7 He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship the One who made heaven and earth and sea and springs of water.”

8 Another angel, a second one, followed, saying,

“Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great— she who made all nations drink of the wine of the fury of her immorality.”

9 And another angel, a third one, followed them, saying in a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he shall also drink the wine of God’s fury, poured full strength into the cup of His wrath. And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone before the holy angels and before the Lamb. 11 The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. Those who worship the beast and its image and those who receive the mark of his name have no rest day or night.”

12 Here is the perseverance of the kedoshim—those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Yeshua.

13 Then I heard a voice from heaven saying,

“Write: How fortunate are the dead—those who die in the Lord from now on!”

“Yes,” says the Ruach, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.” — Revelation 14:6-13 | Tree of Life Version (TLV) Tree of Life Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society. Cross References: Genesis 19:24; 1 Samuel 6:5; Job 21:20; Psalm 115:15; Isaiah 13:1; Isaiah 21:9; Isaiah 34:8; Isaiah 34:10; Daniel 12:13; Romans 14:8; 1 Peter 1:25; 1 John 2:3; Revelation 2:13; Revelation 3:10; Revelation 7:3; Revelation 13:12; Revelation 20:6; Revelation 22:17

#the three angels #Babylon's fall #fear #reverence #God #praise #worship #glory #judgment #Book of Revelation #New Testament #Revelation 14:6-13 #TLV #Tree of Life Version #Holy Bible #The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society

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unbidden-yidden · 1 year

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Just as like, a general note: if you are leaving a messianic background (whether you chose it yourself or not) in order to seek a true connection to Judaism, most rabbis and Jewish communities are going to be thrilled, actually. (And if they're not, they're in the wrong and they should be happy to have you.)

The thing is that while Judaism doesn't proselytize, we DO want klal Yisrael (the whole People Israel) to be Jewish and doing Jewish instead of avodah zarah (foreign worship, idolatry.) Some take that in an unfortunately fundamentalist direction, but most just want to have a strong Jewish community free from predatory missionaries and hucksters and pressure to assimilate.

#I wish I could still refer people to sorekbekarmi's blog #because he was a powerful voice for gerim with a messianic background #but unfortunately he deleted for (iirc) safety reasons :(#you can still find some of his posts by searching my blog though #I reblogged a lot from him

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sigynsilica · 10 months

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So I've been tagging a few of my posts as an exvangelical. I feel I need to elaborate on that. I'm an ex-messianic "Jew" and in this essay I will explain what I find problematic about the very movement I grew up in.

Christians are polytheistic.

There's no two ways about it, and that isn't a bad thing. The bad thing is that Christians chronically put down polytheists for being heathens and heretics while worshipping three separate (but also not separate I promise) entities at the same time.

Let me elaborate. Christians believe that their deity is a three-in-one package deal. They worship God the father, who is the Big God who created the universe and typically is the one just referred to as "God," Jesus the son, who came to earth and was tortured to death as a living sacrifice, and the Holy Spirit/Ghost, who is mainly responsible for personal conviction, and has the ability to grant human beings supernatural gifts like prophecy or speaking other languages.

These are three separate entities, but also the same entity. I've heard it explained by saying that your arm is not you, but it is a part of you, in the same way that Jesus is not God, but he is a part of God. If that makes any sense. Most of the time when I ask Christians about the three-in-one unit known as the Trinity, they say it isn't supposed to make logical sense, but it's true, and you're to take it on faith.

Now that would be fine and dandy, if they didn't insist they weren't polytheistic. But they are, and they do. Throughout many religions, there are many deities that have this multiple-but-also-singular phenomenon, like the Norns in Norse mythology, or even arguably Cerberus.

Here's where the problem comes in.

Many Christians believe that it is okay for them to both worship Jesus, and dabble their toes into Jewish tradition and culture.

Judaism is monotheistic. That means that a polytheistic worldview is completely incompatible with their own worldview. It doesn't mean Jewish people can't be friends with Christians, but it does mean their separate religions are dynamically opposed. If you pray to Jesus, sing worship songs to Jesus, ask Jesus for help in times of trouble, you are not worshipping the same God the Jews are when you're doing that.

Jesus was a Jewish man. That doesn't make you Jewish for worshipping him, and it doesn't make you Jewish for worshipping in a way that you think he worshipped like. You, as a Christian, have no claim to Jewish tradition or culture.

There are more reasons than just that by which Judaism and Christianity differ, and many Christians pull random information about Jews and what they believe out of their butt and sell it as objective fact to make themselves feel better about themselves and closer to who they believe is one of their gods. For instance, I was taught it's the Jewish tradition to hold a funeral for your child if they convert to Christianity. Baloney, hogwash, and ick. Many Christians are taught that Jews believe they are saved from Hell by their works. Well let me clue you in on something... A lot of Jews don't even believe in Hell.

Anyway, my parents first got into Messianic "Judaism" (I'm going to keep putting the quotation marks there because my parents aren't Jews, they never have been, they don't claim to be, and for the most part, they won't admit this, but they're definitely still Baptists at heart) through the celebration of Passover, or Pesach. They believed that they were commanded in Scriptures to hold a Passover Seder for themselves if they wanted to do the will of God.

Here's the thing though. The very first time Passover is mentioned in the Torah (which is the first five books of Moses and the Jewish rulebook) it's stated very explicitly that you have to be Jewish to celebrate it. Well, it says you have to be circumcised, but given that there are Jews who cannot be circumcised, and there are non-Jews who are circumcised anyway, it's most definitely referring to a belief in Judaism. You've got to be Jewish to celebrate Passover.

I bring this up to illustrate that Passover in particular, and Judaism as a whole, is what we in the Pagan community would refer to as a "closed practice". That means that if you are not Jewish, you can't do the Jewish thing. It's disrespectful and rude to claim the Jewish stuff for yourself while not being Jewish.

The way it's been explained to me by a Jewish friend is that the main problem comes in a misunderstanding of the word "chosen". Yes, the Jews are God's chosen people... But that doesn't mean they're his favorites. Chosen, in this context, is referring to the way the Jewish people believe that God selected them in particular to do his commandments. It's an honor, but it isn't for everyone, and you can't become a chosen one just by doing the commandments. It's like if my dad told me to do the dishes, I am the chosen one. I am not my dad's favorite. If I wanted to honor my dad, I would do the dishes when he told me to do them. If my sister does the dishes, that doesn't make her the one my dad chose to do the dishes. She just did my job for me.

Obviously it's more complicated than that when a non-Jew decides they're allowed to do the commandments detailed in the Torah without actually converting to Judaism. It's way more problematic because in the Jewish perspective (at least from what I understand, if there are Jews out there reading this pls pls correct me if I'm wrong) y'all have your own chores to be doing. Non-Jews serve a purpose in God's world, which is why it's completely okay for you guys to not keep the laws. In fact, I know there's allowances in the Talmud that say you can sell unkosher food to non-Jews, because there's not a single problem with you eating it. Most Jews don't think people are morally wrong for eating pork, for instance. It's just something they've been asked not to do.

In my house growing up, we weren't allowed to scream unless we were in immediate danger. That doesn't make screaming inherently morally wrong. It means my mom has sensory issues and so she told us not to scream. If a kid screamed for no reason at the playground, we wouldn't have looked at him like they'd murdered someone, nor would we assume they were in immediate danger, because we all understood it was just our parents who'd told us not to scream.

It's just the Jewish people who've been told by their God to adhere to the Jewish tradition.

Just read the Wikipedia article on Messianic Judaism. Y'all aren't Jewish. Judaism is so fundementally different from Christianity that you can't just duct tape Jesus to Judaism and call it good. It doesn't work that way. You've completely misunderstood the very nature of Judaism.

And this is totally beside the fact that historically, it was the Christians who've been hurting the Jewish community for the very traditions you're now trying to edge your way into. Maybe not you personally, but I don't blame the Jewish community for being extremely wary when non-Jews start reaching for their traditions.

The both of you guys sharing half a Bible does not equate to you believing the same thing.

Furthermore, I've recently been introduced to the concept of philo-semitism. I'm by no means an expert on this phenomenon, but I'll do my best to explain it. It's a certain style of anti-Semitism that places Jews up on a pedestal and glorifies them as The Chosen People Of God (misunderstanding that word Chosen again) and claims they are doing Everything Right because that's what God told them to do.

To me this has the same vibes as saying that pre-colonization people were perfect angels who did no wrong and it was the White Guys who came in and ruined everything and brought evil into the world Pandora's box style.

The belief that a certain ethnic group is inherently better is racism. It's not the systemic racism we know and hate in it's form in the modern day, but it's very closely linked, and the people it hurts the most may not be who you think it is. If you're claiming that first-nation people can do no wrong, you're taking away their humanity. You're claiming that they aren't people, because People Do Bad Stuff. All the fricking time. It's what makes us human.

So to believe that the Jewish people are inherently better because of their Jewishness? That is a racist belief. Don't try to be like the Jewish people because you think they're spiritually superior to you. That's a racist ideology. There are practicing Jews out there who are Bad People. That's because they're humans, and some humans are just really crappy humans. Their Judaism does not inherently make them a good person in the same way that Christian faith does not make someone a good person.

And if you act on those racist beliefs by celebrating a holiday that was never yours to celebrate, you are doing racist things. The very last thing Jewish people need is for the religion that's been responsible for so many years of oppression and pain to swallow them whole, until people don't even remember that Passover is for the Jews, and the Jews only.

So yes. No matter what they say, my parents are still evangelical Christians. They raised me to be—you guessed it—an evangelical Christian. This is why I refer to myself as an exvangelical, and not ex-jewish, even though I may talk about not going home for Sukkot instead of not going home for Christmas.

#exvangelical #ex-messianic “Jew”#racism #cultural appropriation #im so sorry you guys have to put with so much #including tiny!me who legitimately believed i was morally superior to you because i was stealing your culture #oof #judaism #not Christianity #My father was not a wandering Aramaen.#He was a DJ #I'm so glad im out #I never want to declare moral high ground again #🤢

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aronarchy · 2 months

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… there’s something very strange about the way the official mouthpieces of the zionist project behave towards the figure of the Jew as such. There’s a constantly repeated line, that anti-zionism is just a veiled form of antisemitism—but if you look at it closely, it becomes something highly unpleasant: if an insult to Israel is an insult to all Jews, then it follows that we’re all united, borg-like, behind the Jewish state, and that we’re all complicit in whatever it does. If this position were articulated by a Gentile, we’d rightfully accuse them of antisemitism. But this is how Israel expects us to behave. Why do they get away with it? Netanyahu describes himself as the leader of the Jewish people, empowered to speak on my behalf. The Jewish people have been around far longer than Benjamin Netanyahu, or the State of Israel for that matter. I never asked for him. Whenever Jews are attacked somewhere else in the world, some Israeli minister commands us all to flee to historic Palestine and shelter under his nuclear umbrella: the dream of state zionism is of a Europe without any Jews. Did they dream it themselves?

What does it mean to be a Jew? Over the centuries, Jews in every corner of the world have led any number of different modes of life; there’s very little to unite the Jewish experience beyond the Tanakh (some Jewish communities split before the composition of the Talmud) and the fact of being in exile. From Sinai to Babylon to Persia to Brooklyn, we’ve spent far more of our history pining after the Land of Israel than actually living in it. Throughout, this loss has been felt as a critical gap between how things are and how things ought to be, a recognition that things have gone wrong; this is why Jewish thought has always tended towards the Utopian. … For almost all of this period, the idea that the Messianic gap could be closed by simply sending thousands of armed men to the Levant to boot out the existing inhabitants and set up a Jewish state would have not just been premature, but ridiculous.

At the same time, Jewish thought—in Europe at least—has consistently veered towards universalism: the resolution of differences and the global confraternity of all humankind. (Again, see Christ, Spinoza, and Marx.) In the Tanakh, the Jews are forever backsliding; they’re perversely eager to worship any old object as long as it’s not the God of their forefathers. The idea of a separate Jewish identity in Europe has always been more of a European fixation than a Jewish one. For Europe, its Jews were a constitutive other; Christendom could define itself (and unite itself) as that which was not Saracen, not Indian, and not Jewish. (The situation was slightly different in the United States, in which the role of the internal other was largely imposed on the Black population.) European Jews served an important sacrificial function, acting as a collective pharmakos: in times of crisis, they would be exiled or massacred, a mass catharsis restoring the metaphysical separation between within and without. This is why, despite the fervent Christian hope for a grand conversion of the Jews, actual Jewish converts were treated with such suspicion: Conversos and their descendants were a primary target of the Spanish Inquisition; secular, integrated Jews were often the first to be slaughtered in the Nazi genocides. Behind the violence there’s a desperate thirst for identity: the antisemite needs to Jew to constitute himself; Europe is not Europe without its Jews.

Jews have lived on every continent, for hundreds of years, but zionism arose in 19th-century Europe. This is because zionism is not, in terms of its ideological content, a particularly Jewish project, but a European one. This was a period when national groups within the great multi-ethnic empires—Russia, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman caliphate—were increasingly agitating for self-determination along strict ethnic lines, while at the same time other European states were brutally capturing and colonising areas of land elsewhere on the globe. Early zionism, with its demand for a Jewish national homeland outside of Europe, wasn’t much more than a combination of these two tendencies. Zionism was simultaneously a hypostatisation of Jewish difference, and assimilation by other means. The Jews would finally become just like any other respectable European people: we would colonise like them, ethnically cleanse like them, and set up a perfect imitation of the despotic European ethnic state in the Middle East. This is how we got to where we are today, with Jews messing around with tank battalions, repressive state infrastructures, the systematic dispossession of a colonised population, and other such fundamentally goyische inventions.

This dangerous shift in Jewish identity would not be possible without some kind of violence. Early zionism was fixated on the idea of a “New Jew”: while Jews in the diaspora were sedentary, spiritual, intellectual, and the objects of state violence, the New Jew would be an active, tanned, muscular agricultural fascist, the subject of state violence, a creature virtually indistinguishable from the porcine Gentile peasants who had so brutally suppressed the Jews over the centuries. The birth of this figure required the erasure of all Jewish history up until its creation. The past would be prologue, a brief coda between the Kingdom and the State of Israel, expressible only as that period in which the Jews allowed themselves to suffer. Diaspora could only ever mean suffering; the Jew in exile—in other words, the Jew as such—became an object of near-pathological loathing. Every antisemitic slander was repeated: the Jews really were weak, ugly, etiolated, usurious; the goal of zionism was to put a spade in one hand, a rifle in the other, and turn them into something else. With bullets and bloodshed they would get rid of the cringing Jews of the past: it was an article of faith among those zionist pioneers that, before long, all Jews would become the New Jew.

Of course, this was impossible. The problem was that, alone among the European settler-colonial projects, the Jewish state was a colony without a metropole. Unlike any other imperialist outpost of the 19th century, it didn’t have any mother country to support its wars against the natives. And when the zionist project first emerged, the attitude of a great many Jewish populations—especially those Jews already living in Palestine—was one of total hostility. … The idea that any facet of organised Jewish life might be entirely indifferent to the State of Israel is now absurd. Israel spends millions providing young Jews from around the world with subsidised Birthright tours of the country, to emphasise the deep and organic connection between the Jewish people and the Holy Land. But if this connection really were so deep and so organic, why would this vast ideological operation even be necessary?

The Israeli state doesn’t regard diaspora Jewry as its progenitor, or as a community in which it is embedded… We are unable to speak, and so the state of Israel will speak for us: it knows what we want better than we do ourselves, and what we want is war. … When Jews refuse to submit, when we break ranks to speak out against Israeli atrocities or the mad, antiquated idea of zionism, … the fury that rises against an anti-zionist Jew is far more terrible than that which faces any ordinary Gentile antisemite. Israel barfs the history and diversity of the Jewish people in the face of the world, all sparkles and tapestries, but when we’re alone together it grabs us close by the lapels and hisses through bloodstained teeth: know your place.

If being a Jew isn’t just about kvetching and chicken soup, if it means living with the ambivalence of otherness and the hope for Utopian justice, then Israel is not a Jewish state. The idea of a Jewish state is, once stated, already contradictory and meaningless. In practice, it’s a monster. A state that tries to erase Jewish history, Jewish subjectivity, and Jewish life is not something that has anything to do with any Judaism I recognise. There’s a word for this kind of behaviour. It’s antisemitism.

#repost of someone else’s content #food for thought

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magnetothemagnificent · 1 year

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this is a weird question and i don't know if you're the right person to ask, but i also don't know who would be the right person: is church architecture based in appropriation of jewish synagogue architecture?

i recently moved to a very church-heavy small city. there is like a church on every block of some different denomination. i've noticed that a lot of them look eerily similar to famous synagogues i've seen posted on jewish blogs. the ones that don't look literally the same still retain most of the same design elements: the dome center roof, domed towers framing the building, rounded archways and windows, etc. there was a lutheran church i drove by the other day that looks exactly the same as the only synagogue in the city. i had to actually do a double take, driving by, because i saw a crucifix on the roof and for a minute i though it was a messianic building until i saw the "lutheran" sign out front. the only church in the entire city that doesn't fit this trend is the one catholic church, which is a stereotypical chapel (a dark rectangle with a single steeple.)

writing this out, i feel like it might be nothing, because i mean a lot of architecture is universal (only so many ways to design a building.) but its just gotten me thinking, because a lot of christian culture seems to come from taking or warping judaica or jewish lore and i am wondering if the church is an instance of that.

I mean, there's definitely some Churches that try to mimic what they envision the Beit HaMikdash (Jewish Holy Temple) looked like, but the reason some Church and synagogue architectures look similar is because the architecture of houses of worship just reflect the styles and fashions of where they were built, and modern Churches and synagogues might just emulate past fashions. So Churches and synagogues built during the same time period in the same place are going to have similar architectural features, in the same way Churches and Mosques and Mosques and synagogues built during the same time and place are going to have similar features.

There's also a phenomena, especially in the US but likely in other countries, of Churches buying the buildings of old historic synagogues and using them without changing much and just slapping a cross on them. Where I live, for example, there's so many Churches and community centers that very clearly used to be historic synagogues, because sometimes the Star of David motifs are still there, and there's often still Ten Commandments and menorah reliefs in the architecture. This isn't appropriation, it's often not intentional, and there's also lots of synagogues that used to be Churches, Mosques that used to be synagogues, etc etc etc. It just happens that buildings with a large prayer hall are really only cycles among different religious congregations (and sometimes get turned into community centers), because what else are you going to do with a building with ornate architecture and a very large main hall? It's always funny when I drive around my city with gentile friends and am able to point out all the former synagogues in places where hardly any Jews live now. I live in an area without many Jews, and yet if I walk a few blocks there's a historic synagogue from the turn-of-the-century that's in the midst of being demolished/rebuilt into a housing complex.

#history #architecture #jumblr

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jasper-pagan-witch · 2 years

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This question isn't intended to start a fight or be rude, I want to legitimately ask this question because I don't want to be rude to you.

I am researching witchcraft and seriously considering getting into it, however I have mixed feelings about religion: I was raised Christian, but now I'm a pro-minority, pro-LGBTQ , pro-trans, pro-sex-worker, pro-non-binary and feminist Christian who doesn't attend a church or take shit so damn serious, especially about sin. I will probably practice my witchcraft separately from my spirituality.

But I saw that you said this blog isn't safe for Messianics, which I'm not sure if I count as. I don't argue over Jesus on the internet, and I'm totally not out to convert anyone or talk about him all the time. Still, if you find my presence uncomfortable, and you would rather that I not follow you, I understand completely and will keep my distance. Just wanted to be sure I wasn't bothering you.

By the way, I love your respect of Cernunnos. Celtic spirituality is beautiful.

Hey friend! Welcome to the blog!

"Messianics" refers to "Messianic Judaism", which is actually a variation of Christianity that's trying to put the Jesus in Judaism in a very appropriative, very "we kinda want you to die so Jesus can come back" type of way. This post by deactivated user sorekbekarmi describes it and its problems well, and I recommend talking to @will-o-the-witch (a Jewish witch who is a dear and loved friend of mine!) if you want to learn more.

Personally, I'm pretty neutral about Jesus. I'm not Christian but I'm in a heavily Christian area (rural as fuck Missouri) so it's kinda shoved down my throat in a way that makes me want to scream.

As for my stuff about Cernunnos, thank you! He's become pretty active in my life in the past two weeks (though I have worshiped and worked with him longer than that) and I'm trying to learn more about Gaulish history and polytheism out of respect for him. A big problem I run into is that people use "Celtic" as a (technically correct) catch-all term and then use it as an excuse to mash all kinds of cultures together in ways that are just...untrue. It's a lot of research and work!

I hope you have a fun time on this blog, and I hope I helped you find an answer to your question! Feel free to send more asks or a DM on Discord (you can find my Discord handle in my pinned post) if you wanna chat!

~Jasper

#answered #bbbb1 3 #loooots of topics covered all at once in this one

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creature-wizard · 6 months

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The relationship that Jewish people have with their religious text and G-d is so different than what Christians, or at least evangelicals, have with the bible and God. Like you’re telling me that Jewish people aren’t taught to simultaneously love and fear God, the way a child would love and fear an abusive parent? You’re telling me that Jewish people don’t get told that they have to believe everything written in their text or else God will punish them and send them to hell for eternity?

You mean to tell me that they don’t get scared into believing in their religion and that they’re not told that everyone who is not part of their religion is going to hell and that all humans are disgusting human beings, but as long as they believe in Jesus Christ and have the Holy Spirit in their hearts they’ll get saved and they’ll go to a heaven in which you worship Him forever?

No? Just us?

Damn. All the pastors said that Christians are “Messianic Jews” aka “Jewish with extra steps” and that we needed to save the Jews and convert them into Christianity because they’re Jesus’ people and are special.

Right???????

#answered #religion #judaism #christianity #religious trauma #christian trauma #antisemitism

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brightgnosis · 1 year

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whats the difference between noahidism and messianic judaism? like, both seem antisemitic to me, at first glance.

Messianic Judaism is a modern, Gentile-created religion that emerged out of the Hebrew Christian movement in the 1900's. They're people who legitimately believe in Christian theology that Jesus is and has appropriately fulfilled all conditions to be considered the Mashiach. Adherents often consider themselves to be fully or partially Jewish (despite being derisive towards Judaism and actual Jews- who they consider to be "lost" or "astray" because they "haven't accepted their true Messiah yet"). However, they are not and have been actively been rejected by all movements and groups within Judaism- which considers them a fully Christian (and entirely antisemitic) religion.

Noahidism, however, is Jewish created, Jewish taught, and Jewish led. It dates back (at minimum) to the Second Temple era, and is based on Jewish theology and their own interpretations of their religion and its doctrines. And it's been repeatedly confirmed by Jewish Rabbis and Sages throughout the ages.

Noahidism is also not necessarily a religion in and of itself (and indeed, leaders of the modern Noahidic movement have explicitly prohibited us from making it into its own religion), so much as it is a system of rules and guidelines for Goyim for how to live and worship alongside the Jewish community as "righteous Gentiles". And that itself is centered on the Judaic belief that you don't have to explicitly be Jewish to have a place in Olam Ha-Ba ... But that you do, at bare minimum, have to follow the 7 Laws of Noah as divinely ordained commandments from HaShem for all of Humankind.

It can sometimes be considered / suggested as an option for those who don't actually have the capability of full conversion for various reasons (such as in my case) -- or as a sneaky way of trying to get someone not to convert (if you really want to be rude). Though it's incredibly frowned upon to actually suggest Noahidism to a prospective convert unless you're actually specifically their Rabbi.

It has the support of at least the Orthodox movement (though not without controversies). I'm unsure of how well it's acknowledged and accepted by other movements currently, though. But due to gaps in its history because of antisemitism, it's still reemerging as a modern movement- and so a lot of people are no longer familiar with it and its history within Judaism in general. Regardless of that gap in modern knowledge, though, from what records show us the two have always been intertwined.

That gap also means, however, that there's still a lot of ongoing discussion regarding how Noahides may approach and participate appropriately; without using Jewish rituals and celebrations incorrectly, or overstepping inappropriate boundaries laid out by the Jewish community surrounding their stuff. But thankfully, there's enough literature to work from (Rambam arguably wrote the most comprehensive series on Noahides), to aid Rabbis in figuring out an appropriate path for us to follow in the modern era.

TLDR: Messianic Judaism Christianity is a bunch of Christians antisemitically larping Judaism as part of a decades (actually over half-century, now) long ploy to convince the Jewish people to finally "accept Jesus", and no one in the Jewish world likes or accepts them.

Noahidism, on the other hand, may be little known today but is a historically attested Jewish created movement that's explicitly intended for Gentiles who want to worship HaShem with them without being Jewish; with a lot of rules for how to do that right and respectfully according to their rules, and what they're willing to share and let us participate in with them.

#Answered Asks #Anonymous #Noahidism #2023 Asks #2023 #A Direct Look At My Practice #Witchcraft Asks

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