[Sca-cooks] Judaism- was Re: Seder, etc

[Randy Goldberg MD]

> OK, that mostly makes sense to me. Only objection I
> can see right off, would be to number 3- I don't
> really see where Jews would have the right to dictate
> non-Jews' beliefs.

We're talking about JEWS' beliefs about non-Jews' beliefs. Polytheism
and idolatry are forms of blasphemy, by Biblical definitions.

> Considering how much we've
> discussed about the appearance of things being
> important, I can see that this might cause some strife
> with Christians, for example, with the Trinity being
> perceived both as thrre separate Persons, and aspects
> of One, and the ever-present Crucifixes, with or
> without a bleeding Jesus on them.

And, in fact, in some times and places, some rabbis have stated that
Catholicism is both polytheistic and idolatrous, for precisely those
reasons... for some reason, I think Martin Luther made a similar
charge....

> But otherwise,
> prohibitions against Murder, Theft, Rape, Lawbreaking,
> Animal abuse, and Blasphemy are reasonable, and
> generally are the basic rules which any society should
> observe.

That was sort of the point. :-)

Av