Judaism
Misconceptions about various religions have been present for a long period of time. Some of the religions that have been the subject to common misconceptions include Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism. In this text, I address some of the misconceptions I had with Judaism and how they were altered via my encounter. Further, I amongst other things also discuss steps that can be adopted to minimize misconceptions individuals harbor in regard to other religions.

Judaism: A Concise Overview

According to Geldart (2002), "Judaism is the name of the religion that Jewish people follow." An analysis of Judaism is critical for purposes of identifying what those who subscribe to this religion value, the beliefs they profess as well as their practices. According to Faelli (2006), "Judaism is a religion that began about 4000 years ago in the Middle East." Although Judaism is widely referred to as the Jews' religion, it is important to….

Another major practice first set forth by Abraham is that of the practice of circumcision done on all baby boys of Jewish faith. Abraham had initially started the practice on Isaac. It was done primarily to distinguish the Jewish people and represent a mark of the Jewish faith. This tradition has continued on into the modern era, and is still regularly practiced by those of the Jewish faith. As the generations progressed, so did the influence of the patriarchs of this chosen bloodline. Abraham's son Isaac is another major founding figure of Judaism. He continued his father's loyalty after he was chosen above his older half brother Ishmael to be the true heir of Abraham. Isaac was the son who was almost sacrificed to God, and so when God saved him in the nick of time it shows God's love for Isaac. This love is later continued through Isaac's….

Today, Christianity is the belief of more than a billion people in the world, who believe in the teachings and in the life of Jesus Christ. Therefore, to a Christian, 'Jesus of Nazareth was and is the Messiah or Christ promised by God in the prophecies of the Old Testament', and he, through his life, then his death, and finally his resurrection, 'freed those who believe in Him from their sinful state and made them recipients of God's saving Grace'. (Christian General Information)
There are many people, even today, who eagerly await the Second Coming of Christ, with which they feel that the entire plans for Salvation of man made by God, would be finally completed. The Christian faith believes in the word of the Christian Bible, or the Holy Scripture, which describes Jesus Christ as being the Lord and also the Savior of man. The basic tenets of the….

Judaism is a major world religion, honored and practiced by at least ten million people around the world, probably more ("Jewish Population"). The vast majority of Jews live in the United States and Israel, but there is also a sizeable Jewish population in Europe too ("Jewish Population"). Judaism is also one of the oldest religions still practiced in the world today, and its historical origins date back to 1800 BCE ("Judaism," BBC). Thus, the religion is 3,500 years old and continues to thrive. Judaism is a monotheistic religion, meaning that its followers believe in and worship only one God as opposed to many different Gods as they do in religions like Hinduism.
The Old Testament and its History of Judaism: The Old Testament is called the Torah by the Jews, but is also referred to simply as the Hebrew Bible. Two other major world religions use the Old Testament in their….

It is also known as the will and finally the consciousness or vijnana which is the sense of awareness of a sensory or mental object. The human being is thus seen as a cluster of ever changing physical and mental processes with no underlying self. The five aggregates depend on becoming as they dependant on one another. Life is therefore a suffering in itself and one does not merely suffer in itself.
Salvation (reconciliation of humanity with ultimate reality)

In Buddhism, salvation is believed to be through human acts. Salvation means that one has reached Nirvana which is defined as a transcendental, blissful, spiritual state of nothingness and therefore one becomes a Buddha. One attains nirvana through following the Novel Eightfold path which involves accepting the Four Nobel Truths which are the existence of suffering, the cause of suffering, the end of suffering and the end of pain. This is also….

Jews are not a community of proselytizers; they do not seek converts to Judaism. In fact, rabbis traditionally discourage conversions. Jews believe in one God and do not attempt to humanize Him as Christians do, but their tradition has been to leave others to their own beliefs. Jews almost never excommunicate one of their members, nor have they ever in their history been on a crusade to root out heretics (Prothero, 2010, p. 251). The mark that Jews have made in the modern world is as a result of their achievements. It is not for anyone else to say how fervently an individual embraces his religious beliefs, but it certainly seems to the outsider that Jews are guided more by their commitment to community, including the family, than by any other teachings of their faith. Shapiro (2013) argues that American Orthodox Jews have, in some ways, embraced Orthodoxy even….

According to Goldschmidt & Davidson (2009), the conflict between Muslims and Jews could have been intensified by the quarrel that took place between Muhammad and the Jews of Medina. In fact Goldschmidt & Davidson (2009) indicate that there never used to be war between Jews and Muslims even though the Zionist are indicated to have believed that the Jews while under Muslim rule were treated like second-class citizens. Christian anti-Semitism as well held prejudice against Jews. The Diaspora cast Jews in socio-religious seclusion and persecution in a manner that set extremely terrible standards in regard to religious toleration. The worst cases of Jewish persecution by Muslims were in the Medieval times. For instance Bat Ye'or and Stillman were involved in forceful conversion of Jews to Islam by offering them either conversion to Islam or death (Snow,2010,p.8).Christians on the other hand have participated in the socio-religious seclusion as well as….

Judaism
In American Judaism, Nathan Glazer examines the unique way Jewish culture has evolved in the United States. I wanted to interview a member of the local Hillel about how she felt about her Jewish heritage, identity, and community. In particular, I was interested in interviewing someone who had been to Israel because it would provide me with insight into the ways Judaism has evolved differently in the United States vs. Israel.

My interview subject describes herself as Jewish and says that she has always been proud of being Jewish and has had no direct experiences of anti-Semitism because she was born and raised in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood. All her close friends from high school were Jewish, and her identity was socially constructed in this way. When she came to college, she was concerned about anti-Semitism, but claims that the presence of the Hillel on campus has helped her to integrate….

According to the Koran, Jews (and Christians) are considered to be "People of the book," or to have a similar heritage. (Goldschmidt, 2006, p. 35) As a result of this belief, many Muslim kingdoms and empires maintained a certain amount of respect for the Jews. However, Jews were still forced to pay a special tax in order to practice their religion without any official persecution. (Goldschmidt, 2006, p. 67) Later, during the Ottoman Empire, Jews were still treated as official second class citizens, or "re'ayas." Goldschmidt, 2006, p. 131) While there may not have been outright persecution of the Jews under Muslim domination, Jews were still not afforded the same rights as Muslims.

While the Muslims treated the Jews with a certain amount of respect, the European Christians did not. Throughout European history Jews were forced to live separated from European society, denied basic rights, outright persecuted, and often the subject….

The Christian notion of Trinity is that God is made up of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Jewish think that such a division can't be possible, because God is a unique as a creative force. God is the creator of all that we like and all that we don't. There is no evil force with an ability to create equal to God's.
About good and evil all three religions have in common the fact that they believe that there is an opposing force in the religions that is the enemy of god and will be defeated in the end. At the end times God will judge the people and decide whether they shall live in happiness in heaven or burn in hell. In general, Jewish thinkers have focused on the ways to lead a good life on Earth and improve this world, leaving….

Judaism is a religion of ethical monotheism, centered on the belief in an all-powerful and all-knowing God who created the universe and revealed his plan in the Tanakh (Bible), starting with the Torah (Pentateuch or first five books that are still attributed to Moses). In addition to the Written Torah, the Oral Torah of the rabbis, compiled in the first to sixth centuries AD, is also a vital part of the legal and ethical tradition of Judaism. Both the Jerusalem and the Babylonian Talmud date from this period, although the latter is now "dominant…in Jewish theology and law" (Fisher, p. 245). Jewish history is based on repeated stories of exile, persecution and extermination, with the worst being the genocide of six million Jews by the Nazis, which led to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, almost 1,900 years after the omans destroyed the last one. Almost all….

This has particularly been the case since the attacks on 9/11. Nevertheless, like Judaism, it is one of the most popular monotheistic religions in the world. The equivalent of the Jewish God in Islam is Allah, who is also incorporeal and eternal. Communication with God or Allah occurs mutually between God and people. God communicates through revelation and scripture, while human beings communicate with God through worship and prayer. While there are many common elements, there are also fundamental differences. These are often responsible for bitter feuds between the adherents of these two religions. The Jews for example do not believe in the validity of the revelations to Mohammed, while Muslims cannot reconcile with the Jewish idea of adhering without change to the ancient texts. Furthermore adherents from both these religions believe that theirs is the only true faith, and that all who do not believe as they do….

Judaism, Islam, And Christianity
Judaism was the world's first monotheistic religion dating back several millennia. The origins of Judaism arise from a variety of Middle Eastern cultures and, unlike Christianity and Islam, Judaism actually developed into an actual nation with an established monarchy whose capital city was in Jerusalem where the religion's centralized temple was also located.

The Jewish nation suffered a serious blow when the omans destroyed their Temple in Jerusalem and destroyed the nation of Israel. The destruction of the temple and the fall of the Israeli government resulted in the Jewish nation spreading throughout the world. At approximately the same time, a new religion identified as Christianity developed. Allegedly based on the teachings of a young Jewish man named Jesus Christ, Christianity grew dramatically from humble beginnings in Israel into the world's largest religion. It eventually fragmented into multiple branches such as Eastern Orthodox, ussian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Protestant….

Judaism in Kafka
The highly allegorical language Kafka uses in his literary work is leading the reader into looking for clues as to their interpretation in Kafka's real world. Looking into the history of the Jews of Prague, one will find traces of their ancient struggles with themselves as well as with the rest of the world in Kafkian stories and characters like Odradek, in "The Cares of A Family Man," the half kitten half lamb pet, "a legacy from my father" in the short story "A Crossbreed," the Arabs in the story "Jackals and Arabs," or "the man from the country" who prays for admittance to the law in the story "Before the Law." There are however, limitations when it comes to incorporating in one allegory or character the single meaning of the idea of the German-Jewish situation in Prague at the dawn of the twentieth century.

There is no doubt….

Judaism and Christianity are two important religions of the world, which share a common abrahamic origin. Christianity has its roots from Judaism and hence there are many common percepts between the two religions. However, there are some striking differences between them in their appreciation of the attributes of godhead, sin, suffering, atonement, etc. A comparison between the two religions would highlight the commonalities and the differences that exist between them. Let us consider two related aspects namely 'Sin and Evil' and discuss as to how the two religions interpret them.
Treatment of Evil

One important difference between Judaism and Christianity is that Judaism does not consider the existence of an evil force. The purely monotheistic stand of Judaism does not consider any opposing force to god. This leaves Judaism wanting when it comes to explaining the underlying cause for evil in this world. However Judaism does offer an explanation for this problem,….