That was very interesting. Thanks very much. On the one hand Judaism seems to have a lot of rules, but there's no central clearing house for rule interpretation, e.g., a Jewish Pope, or synod. So there ends up being a lot of personal interpretation of the rules. I asked a friend once whether there were any particular groups, e.g., Orthodox, Reformists, et al., that believed in an afterlife. He said that was an individual belief/interpretation. I find that odd. Eating shrimp is a defintie no-no, but belief in an afterlife is optional??? Seems odd.
Christianity has it's own oddities. Roman Catholics can deal quite easily with statues, but Greek Catholics have a major problem with them. I think the Greek Catholics go back to the graven images and worshipping idols sections of the bible for the same justification. Though the Greek Catholics can deal with images, just as long as they are two dimensional.
One of the major "theological" issues that contributed to the split between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches was whether the eucharist should be leavened or unleavened bread. I would expect that God would have us worry about more important theological issues than the presence of yeast.
Every once in a while I try to find an English version of the entire Talmud on-line, but haven't been able to find one. Is there some reason for that?
jttmab |
