Judaism Religion

I decided that I wanted my paper to focus on a Jewish religion (Judaism). I decided to do this because I do have a lot of Jewish friends and I have always wanted to take a closer look into that religious culture, especially from the perspective of my Catholic values. I took a lot of time to decide which religious service and location to attend and I ultimately decide don Temple Solel which is located in Bowie, MD. I chose this location because I called and initially spoke with a representative and they made me feel the most welcome, coming in and observing services as someone not of Jewish decent.
Before this attending this service, I think I had quite a few misconceptions about the Jewish religion. The first one was that there was just
one type of Jewish religion. Another misconception I had was that in Reform Judaism, the belief is that there is no messiah. I also had the idea that the Jews rejected Jesus. However, I think my biggest misconception about the religion as a whole before I went to the religious service was the difference between Jewish and Judaism. It may sound bad, but it is true. I will use this paper to breakdown my misconceptions versus the truth of what I learned in the religious services and where we can go as a whole country full of different religions in the future when it comes to misconceptions.
Growing up, I always thought there was just one type or form of Judaism.
This is in fact false. There are quite a few such as Reform, Conservative and Orthodox. To briefly break down the different types, Reform Judaism means that the thoughts and views of this particular movement focuses on the views and practices based from North American and United Kingdom. It focuses on the more modernized traditions and making them more compatible with the surrounding cultures. Conservative Judaism is a modern stream that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the early to mid-19th century. However, it only took form in the United States in 1900. Finally, Orthodox Judaism is the most traditional form of Judaism. It adheres and follows the traditional interpretation of laws and ethics directly from the Torah. What I found interesting about these three is that in the United States alone, only about 15% of people are traditional Orthodox Jews. I was expected to attend this service and it be the traditional service that I have always thought Judaism to be. However, it was much more laid back, so to say, which made me do a little more research about the exact type of Temple this place was. Turns out, this particular temple was a Reform Jewish Temple. Throughout my own religious culture as a Catholic, I was always told that in the Judaism religion, the Jews do not believe that there is a Messiah. I always found this particularly interesting because even though there are
such strong differences in our beliefs, Catholics respect the Jewish religion and even call Jews the Chosen People. In the religious service I attended they discussed the Messiah, which personally shocked me. They mentioned that they believe in the Messiah, however, that person just hasn’t arrived yet! In the service they stressed that the main idea of the coming of the messiah is from Judaism – however they are just waiting for the arrival, while Christians are waiting for the second coming. I must say, I was a little embarrassed in my head, because I just never knew that. Or maybe, I just never had the opportunity to learn the way I did now. This also goes a long with my misconception that in Judaism, the Jews have always rejected Jewish, when in fact they just don’t worship Jesus, but they do believe in the Messiah. This brings me to the breakdown of my very last misconception which was thinking Jewish and Judaism are essentially the same thing. During the service, I kept hearing the reference to both, however in quite different contexts. So when the service was over, I asked one of the congregation members, exactly what the different was or rather why it was being used in such different contexts. They explained to me when they use the term Jewish, they are using it as an ethnic group, whereas Judaism is the religion as a whole. Judaism is practiced in counties all around the world, just like other religions. But there is as much cultural and ethnic diversity, in this particular religion as there are in others such as Christianity.
Overall, I think it is pretty clear that my prior understanding of Judaism has been altered but for the better.
The things I went in thinking are things that I learned within my own religion growing up or just what I have seen on TV. I never really took the time to study Judaism and really learn the truth about it. But by going to a worship at this temple, I have learned so many new things about Judaism and I am able to walk away from it being a much better religious person overall. If this is something that I have experience or if these are misconceptions I have previously had, that certainly means that other people probably have the same misconceptions. While I don’t think it is 100% right to necessarily have these misconceptions about other religions that we haven’t taken the time to try and understand, I do believe it is more common than most people think. I have friends who are Baptist who firmly believe that most Catholics are uptight and follow the rules as tightly as possibly, which just isn’t true in my opinion. At the end of the day, this is common and will remain common because we as a society do not take the time to learn and understand different religions and cultures. And until we do this, I think misconceptions will only get worse. Moving forward, I do believe there are things that can be done to minimize the misconceptions about different religions. I think one of the biggest things is a push for religion to be mandatory in schools. A lot of
schools do not teach religion, so people do not know about all of these different cultures, or if the schools do teach religion, they teach their own primarily. I think it is important to educate people about as many different religions as possible. I think the education needs to start at a young age. I went to Catholic school and we started learning about religion in the first grade. But again, we really only learned about one type of religion which was the Catholic religion. I do believe that if I had learned from a younger age about other religions and the differences and similarities I would not have had so many misconceptions. That of course, isn’t a fact and I will never know for sure, but looking back now I think it would have made a significant difference. The time may have passed for me, but there is still plenty of time for kids who are young and around different cultures and diversity. At the end of it all, learning about different religions is the only way, we as a society will ever learn and move forward with a much knowledgeable mind of the world of religions.
For me personally, I am walking away from this research paper with the knowledge of a religion that I never really took the time to try and understand. But overall, I am glad that I had this experience. Not only did I educate myself, but I can also educate others on what I have learned and how I can move forward with the future and not having so many misconceptions about something. I have a lot of friends and family who aren’t necessarily closed-minded to different religious cultures such as Judaism, but just aren’t educated on the correct differences. I can use the knowledge I have gained to teach them the history, what the religion is truly all about and the future of where it’s going in all different aspects. I think I might even take the same experience with this particular lesson and apply it to another religion that I may have had misconceptions about. Either way, the only thing that can come from it is me furthering my education on different cultures and religions and spreading the knowledge that I gain.