Sad News WARNING: Bible Discussion

[judyserenity]

Laura Ingalls Huntley wrote:
> the code for living as a "good" Israelite was made deliberately
impossible for a mortal to even comprehend living up to.  The point
being, of course, that no one is perfect and they needed *Jesus* to
save them from their imperfections (this is the purely Christian view
- as I was taught it - on things, btw..I don't know how Jewish people
interpret it).<

Well, I can answer that for at least one Jewish person (me). The
Jewish belief system doesn't talk about a Messiah as necessary for
reconciling individual humans with God. The idea that humans are
inherently sinful in not a Jewish idea; the rules are definitely meant
to be followed. 

It is true that thousands of years ago, there was an idea that sins
could be atoned for by offering animal sacrifices (along with olive
oil, grain, etc) but in modern times the idea is that sins against God
(i.e., breaking of religious rules) can be atoned for with prayer. 
Sins against other *people* must be made up to the injured party as
well as to God, by apologies or restitution as appropriate. 

As for the various biblical passages where the ancient Israelites are
condemned for breaking the rules, I think it is possible that this was
an attempt to cope with "the problem of evil", as opposed to
necessarily listing real infractions.  In other words, now that
monotheism had been adopted, there was a question of why bad things
still happened when the people were worshipping an all-powerful,
benevolent God.  The answer the ancient Israelites came up with was
that they must have worshipped God correctly. So, they believed that
if something really bad happened (such as the Babylonian captivity),
then they must (almost by definition) have done something really bad.
 This idea has also largely been abandoned in Judaism, with a variety
of competing explanations of "the problem of evil" instead.

By the way, I meant to say before that my personal belief is that
animals *do* have souls.  Hey, my understanding is that Mike is a
Theologian, and he's a goat.  So, there you have it!  ;-)

Judy