Rishon Rishon

This is very interesting. It seems that other religions agree on ideology but disagree about rules, and Judaism is broadly the opposite way round.

Other religions *have to* agree on ideology, because that's their identifying factor, whereas Jews are born Jewish- unless they convert, but then, that's very difficult, because to follow halacha properly without having been brought up in it means learning a whole culture in enormous detail.

Not sure how much sense that makes, but Judaism does seem both unique and structurally the opposite way round to other religions, to me, in this sense.

Alice: Islam is not far from Judaism in this regard.

but then, that's very difficult, because to follow halacha properly without having been brought up in it means learning a whole culture in enormous detail.

It is not a committment that is made lightly, that is for certain.

Did Jesus actually tell his followers to do anything outside of halacha?

Wasn't it what other people said about him afterwards that was the problem?

This is very interesting. It seems that other religions agree on ideology but disagree about rules, and Judaism is broadly the opposite way round.

if you do a headcount of "religions" more are like judaism than not. hinduism, confucianism and shintoism are more like judaism. christianity and to a lesser extent islam are probably what you have in mind as contrasts with judaism, and buddhism is probably somewhat like the universalist monotheistic religions, but the preponderance of tribal religions through africa & asia are more like judaism.

re: david, i think he is write to emphasize that islam is skewed more toward orthopraxy than orthodoxy in comparison to christianity. but i would say it is not nearly as fixated on orthopraxy as judaism, because my personal experience is that only religious professionals and a small cadre of hard-core believers know the hadith directed correct practices with any level of fluency. the shia vs. sunni belief for example, and the concomittant charges of apostasy that occassionally fly, are more due to orthodoxy and orthopraxy. the analogy works better within the sunni tradition.

Interesting it seems from Acts 9:2, 19:9,23 and 24:23 that early Christianity [possibly before receiving that name]was known as "the way".The Acts 24 reference is actually speaking about the resurrection. Did or does halakha ever include beliefs as in #1 and #2 in your piece as necessary to the "walk" of life? Peter.

Peter: Halakha means "way". Its root, h-l-kh is used to form a lot of words that have to do with walking and going, e.g. halakh - "to walk", hithalekh - "to walk around", halikha - "walking"

I think, a Jew could believe in the entire Greek pantheon and still be Jewish, as long as he didn't call the Greek gods God, or worship them.

That is good news for us pagans! ;)

Neal Stephenson says it better than i--
If you think of the greek gods....as patterns of neurological activity that the mind uses to represent things that it sees, or thinks it sees, in the outside world....so Athena isn't a supernatural being that lives on a mountain in Greece, et cetera, but rather whatever entity, pattern, trend, or what-have-you that, when perceived by ancient Greek people, and filtered through their perceptual machinery and pagan worldview, produced the internal mental representation that they dubbed "Athena"...

They are not really "gods", but templates or recognizable patterns. A way of thinking about the world. I don't believe the greek concept of gods included the love of mankind, or a group of mankind. Occasionally a god or godess would love a particular mortal. Mortals were like pets or cattle. Reciprocal love is a thing i admire in the relationship of G-d with his people, the Jews. And loving-kindness.