Jewish thoughts on Cain and Abel are far more extensive than you’d think, given how short the story is. Thanks to Midrash, creative ways the ancient Rabbis explained, understood, and expanded on various biblical themes, we can see stories like Cain and Abel through new eyes and discover a lot of different morals that we otherwise wouldn’t have seen. Cain v. Abel is a fantastic book on this subject written by Rabbi Dan Ornstein and it combines many Midrashic views with his own modern Midrashic spin as well. It’s worth noting that the story he presents is not meant to be taken literally. Jews tend to read the Bible both through surface level reading and by finding the hidden meanings and morals of the stories. As far as midrashic works go, accuracy is far less relevant than the moral teachings underlying them. Another great source for understanding Cain and Abel is the book Messengers of God by Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor who wrote extensively about Judaism. The Story of … [Read more...] about Cain and Abel
Judaism
Are Jews Too Legalistic?
Many non-Jews consider the vast number (613) of Jewish laws to be a bit cumbersome. This way of thinking often leads to negative views about the laws, and many people begin to consider the Jewish people to be too legalistic of a group. Non-Jews often say that the Jews care too much about the laws and not enough about “what really matters.” But is this a fair conclusion to make? We will back up a touch and look at the concept of Jews being the “chosen people” in the first place. Jews don’t view themselves being chosen with arrogance, they tend to look at it with humility. If we look at the Bible, it becomes painfully clear that the people God chooses aren’t always the best and brightest people out there. They are often seriously flawed just like everyone else. It seems that God chooses them to see what potential this unlikely group could achieve with a little divine guidance. This covenant and giving … [Read more...] about Are Jews Too Legalistic?
5 TAKEAWAYS FROM THE CREATION STORIES
5 TAKEAWAYS FROM THE CREATION STORIES Stories? The first strange thing you might notice is the word “stories” instead of "story." There are in fact two different versions of the creation story that are back to back in Genesis, with the cut off from one leading into the other being in the middle of Genesis 2:4. Some people take these two different versions of creation to be a contradiction and others think it works out just fine. We are going to work under the assumption that these two very different stories don’t pose a contradiction. The first story seems to focus more on terrestrial order whereas the second story focuses on the relationship between the human and divine. When taken together, we get a full and lively picture of creation. A very quick recap of the creation stories can be found below, which you can reference throughout. The First Story (Genesis 1:1-2:4): In the first Genesis story we hear that the heavens and earth were created in seven days. On day 1 we see … [Read more...] about 5 TAKEAWAYS FROM THE CREATION STORIES