Messianics, especially in the One Law, Two House, and independent variety, tend to have poor knowledge of Judaism and Jewish culture, sadly. (And, no exaggeration, I really am the worst of the lot.)
I’d like to see that changed; our Master Yeshua was a Jew, his disciples were Jews, and the faith he practiced was, I am fully convinced, Judaism. We ought not be ignorant of this stuff, whatever variation of Messianic theology you adhere to.
To that end, I’m helping to get a great Jewish site off the ground: judaism.stackexchange.com
The site is a question-and-answer site. Each question and each answer can be voted on. Good answers rise to the top. For example, in the following image, the most up-voted question, marked as the answer by the person asking the question, has risen to the top, with other answers following:
The site is not Messianic, to be clear. It’s currently in beta form, with the potential for full release if things go well.
Here are some Q&As to pique your interest:
- Why are angelic icons not prominent in Judaism as they are in Christianity? Did you know that some Jews take issue with the traditional song Shalom Aleichem because it’s borderline praying to angels? I, too, have felt uncomfortable with that song; nice to know I’m not alone!
- Are there any Jewish people alive today who can identify themselves as coming from a particular tribe? This question contains 2 quotes from the New Testament to assert there was knowledge of tribal identity in the first century.
- Where did matrilineal descent come from? Is it true that this practice comes from the Roman period where gentile rape of Jewish women was prevalent? I add a few comments to the discussion, suggesting that it is a viable alternative viewpoint that membership in Israel can be traced through the father.
- Is it lawful to steal a thief's stolen goods? An amusing post that makes one think about the Torah-legality of taking the law into one’s own hands.
Personally, I’m blown away by some of the questions. Things are way over my head. It’s made me realize just how dumb I am. Hahah. Here’s to changing that.
Check it out! judaism.stackexchange.com
Good shabbat!
Awesome! I see the benefit of a site like this as two-fold. 1) I, like you, might finally be able to get smart (but I'd have to read to do that, wouldn't I?). And B) It should serve as enough of a beacon to blog-bombers, thread-thwarters, and all-around troublemakers, that we might be able to have an intelligent (if I get smart, that is) discussion here every now and then.
ReplyDeleteI could be wrong on both of these points, though, and probably am.
Not to throw a monkey wrench into the machine, but since there are a number of other Jewish sites available that provide similar educational information, how will this site be different/unique? Do you see (non-Messianic) Jews being significant or even primary "customers" of the site? How will you manage any "discussions" that may occur between non-Messianic and Messianic Jews/Gentiles?
ReplyDeleteInquiring minds want to know.
First, this is a question and answer site. At judaism.stackexchange.com, the questions (and answers) are front and center, the meat. It is a place to get answers about Judaism, and the answers come not from an individual or single religious group, but from the broad Jewish community on the web.
ReplyDeleteExisting sites like Chabad.org tend to have a static set of answers provided; questions by the community aren't really featured.
And forum-style sites out there tend to encourage lots of posts, but the problem is that good answers are buried in the sea of bad answers or non-answers.
This site fixes that by bringing good answers to the top, and not just answers from a single expert (as in the case with AskMoses), but multiple answers from the whole community.
To be clear, I don't own this site. I, along with many others, helped get it off the ground by committing to provide answers, moderate, all that. So the question of how discussions between Messianic and non-Messianic go down will vary between individuals.
There already a number of Christian-Jewish overlap question on the site; I linked to a few at the end of the blog post.
And James, you may have been referring to the silly comment I posted. I was just kidding around, but I meant that if enough people went there to blow off steam, Kineti might have more productive discussions. I probably didn't communicate that well enough (as it was well past lunchtime and I was getting loopy).
ReplyDeleteIf you weren't referring to my comment, then Judah has provided a fine answer to your question, no?
At any rate, we'll just have to see how it goes, but at least the model seems very beneficial to folks like me that still have a ton to learn.
Shabbat shalom, you guys.