Christianity vs. Judaism

Let's take a deeper look at the church vs. Judaism.

The church focuses on the New Testament only. They feel as though Jesus' death on the cross has done away with the Torah and therefore we are no longer under the Law. I disagree with this because Torah is the guidelines and the rules in which we were given to live by. The Torah as gives us the consequences if we do not abide by those rules. If you do away with the Torah and the laws then all you are left with is chaos. And I don't know about you, but I don't want to live in chaos.

The church also has no structure or order to their services. You walk in, sit down, sing some songs, say a prayer or two, and listen to the pastor preach. But not all churches have the same format. So you could do any of those things in any whatever order they decide to do. A lot of the churches I have been to have their format as, sing, pray, and preach. They also have to get you in and out in 1 hour so you are limited to how much singing and praying and preaching actually takes place. Most attendants also don't hang around and fellowship with one another and become part of a community. Too many of them have too many other things to do that day to take the time and fellowship.

Most christians believe that they are able to eat whatever they want. There are no dietary laws for them to follow and therefore make it difficult for Torah observant people to hang out with them. But in the same vein they believe they are supposed to bring the Jews to the messiah. How are they to do that with a pork chop in their mouth?

One other thing I would like to touch on before looking at the Jewish side of this is... story telling. In the church I got told lots of stories that where supposed to be based in scripture, but yet a lot of them were elaborated to sound better and be more interesting to a child. The thing I find interesting is that now I find myself reading or listening to biblical stories in a jewish setting and actually get more out of them and find them to be way more detailed and educational. Why can't the church just tell the child the story like it is? No need to sugar coat it or add details that never happened, just put a picture with it for them to look at and what-do-ya-know the child actually learned the story as it was meant to be told.

In Judaism the Torah is the most important part of their focus. Everything that Jews do is centered around the Torah and therefore centered around G-d. They devote a whole 24 hours to doing nothing other then worshiping G-d not just 1 hour. They build up communities and get to know everyone in the synagogue. Therefore when they pray for one another it is truly heartfelt and meaningful. They also do not buy, sell, or work on the Shabbat, so they have no need to hurry through services and run away from everyone.

Jews use liturgy as a way of having an order of service that keeps everyone focused and mentally set on G-d. Liturgy is prayers put to music and/or action (meaning standing for some prayers, dancing during others.) I know, for me personally, I prefer this type of structure because without it my mind would tend to wander and I would then lose my focus on G-d(which happened to me a lot in church), which is the reason for being in any sort of religious service. They also allow the children to be apart of the service and don't mind the occasional disruptions made by the smaller children (in church this never happened. You were made to be quiet and/or placed in a nursery/sunday school room to be entertained and taught by someone else.)

I have chosen to make a choice between being a church goer or a synagogue goer. I chose the synagogue because I want to be more in line with what the scriptures say other then what 1 man says from a pulpit and not having to be accountable for what I am being taught. Trust me it has not been easy to get rid of all the things the church as embedded into my brain. I still say things that make people ask where I got that from. I then have to figure out if it was actually scriptural or church theology. But if you have been raised like me, you are also probably having to do the same thing. Please consider making a choice. Pick one or the other but don't try to do both. And if you are married and raising your children in both worlds... my advise is to stop! You are only confusing your child/children.

Living in two worlds

My name is Maija-Lisa Weinberg. My father is Jewish. My mother is gentile. So growing up was very interesting.

My mom was raised christian. She even went to bible college. While she was in college the group Lamb did a concert on campus. Like most of the other students, mom attended the concert. It was this concert that sparked her interest in Judaism.

My dad was not raised with any sort of religious upbringing. He knew he was/ is Jewish because my grandfather (his dad) would play a game with him when he was young. He would cover his nose and ask "guess what nationality I am". But as far as celebrating holidays and going to synagogue was concerned, my dad had no clue what they were.

Once my parents met and got married they both started studying and trying to figure things out for themselves. The problem was they hadn't quite figured it all out before I was born.

They knew that we needed to go to synagogue but mom wasn't ready to give up church yet. So for years we went to erev shabbat service on Fridays, Torah service on Saturday mornings, and church on Sundays. We also celebrated both Jewish and Christian holidays. We celebrated them all.... Christmas, Hannukkah, Easter, Passover, Purim, Halloween, Sukkot, and all the others. Out of all the holidays, my parents didn't really care for Halloween but they sent my to Harvest parties at Church instead. I still got candy and I still got to dress up, but it was easier on them to know I wasn't out on the streets.

As you are starting to see I was getting mixed messages from every side. I grew up with a belief in G-d and a Messiah. Only in the church we would call him G-d and Jesus, but in Jewish setting we used other words such as Hashem and Yeshua. I had no clue that they were interchangeable for the same person. So truly who was I worshipping. As I got older it became easier to separate the names and understand why Jews say it one way and Christians say it another. However, it wasn't quite as easy to separate christian theology vs. the truth in Torah. (This is a subject for another blog, so stay tuned.)

So my goal of blogging all of this is to hopefully reach out to people like me. People who were raised in two worlds and may find comfort knowing they are not alone in their journey to discover who they really are.