Question from a Gentile

[d0c markus]

Greetings Brothers and Sisters.

I have a question.

Is today's Judaism (AD 70 - present) the same as Biblical Judaism (pre AD 70)?

(Hypothetically lets say the Messiah hasnt come yet)

Would a practising Jew today be considered apostate by Biblical standards?

 

[Talmidah]

With the Temple not standing, there is no way for it to be the same.

 

[d0c markus]

With the Temple not standing, there is no way for it to be the same.

The Jews have worked without a temple before havent they? Does the current situation align with the ancient?

 

[visionary]

Nothing is ever exactly the same, and history of the scattering and regathering has shown up in the different rabbical understanding, and even in costumes and languages.
How much different and how much have they retained? Good question.

 

[moriyah]

Judaism today is not what it was in biblical times, far from it.

 

[d0c markus]

Judaism today is not what it was in biblical times, far from it.

From the hypothetical standpoint that the Messiah hasnt come, would you say that Judaism as it stands they are apostate from what the fathers taught?

 

[Henaynei]

From the hypothetical standpoint that the Messiah hasnt come, would you say that Judaism as it stands they are apostate from what the fathers taught?

No, I would not.

This is going to be simplistic - others will, I'm sure, correct and flesh it out.

Current Orthodox observance is based on one of the two competing schools of thought in first century Judaism. The one was Temple based and the other community based. The debate between these two had been going on for several hundred years by that time. With the destruction of the Temple the second school won by default. Was it that HaShem was choosing one over the other?, or perhaps has He provided a vehicle by which Judaism could survive the millenia without the Temple?

As with every other system in which man is involved, Judaism has picked up it's share of flotsom and jetsom over the last 5,000 years - but I'd wager that they have deviated less from the original blueprint in 5,000 years than the Christians have in 2,000 years.

 

[debi b]

If one is going to talk about a comparison concerning Judaism as it is recorded in Scripture and Rabbinic Judaism as it presents itself today you have to understand what happened at Yavneh. Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai established his Talmudic academy of Torah study and a new Sanhedrin at Yavneh after the Second Temple was destroyed. It was here that ben Zakkai began to adapt the practices of Judaism to a new reality - a social climate that lacked the centrality of the Temple in Jerusalem.

 

[Sephania]

but I'd wager that they have deviated less from the original blueprint in 5,000 years than the Christians have in 2,000 years.