Worship in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

[arctic splash]

A friend of mine had a very interesting thought, and I wondered what you all have to say about it:

"Judaism worships infinity. Christianity worships purity. Islam worships perfection."

It sounds pretty accurate to me!

[Morr]

A friend of mine had a very interesting thought, and I wondered what you all have to say about it:

"Judaism worships infinity. Christianity worships purity. Islam worships perfection."

It sounds pretty accurate to me!


I'm not familiar with Islam enough to comment on that, however, I'm not sure if Judaism worships infinity - it depends what kind of Judaism you're talking about. The Concept of "infinity" ("ein sof" in hebrew) is really a Kabalistic concept. There is more to Judaism than just infinity, and it most certainly worships purity.
As for Christianity, I would say it worships Perfection because essentially it worships the Perfection of Christ and God.

But thats just my humble opinion.

[punxzen]

interesting concept

i dont think that the religions mentioned are unified enough for that though

though some people may worship similar aspects of deity, i think the basic idea behind each of those religions is that god is beyond such definitions. were the followers of any of those religions to be worshipping any of those ideals, they would be worshipping something other than god, aka false idol. i believe such may be the case when it comes to a lot of the individual followers of such religions, but i dont think that the religions themselves are based around such earthly concepts as purity or infinity or perfection.

[Protagonist]

Yeah, I sort of agree with Punx. I think they all three tend to worship the monotheist god of the Israelites.

[Being and Time]

Eh, Jews worship money. Christians and Muslims worship death.

For those who can't tell, I'm joking.

Sort of.

[LittlePerson]

As far as the inifnity of Judiasm, I think it's the opposite. They are very charitable people who focus more on the here and now than infinity.

[bluglass]

As far as the inifnity of Judiasm, I think it's the opposite. They are very charitable people who focus more on the here and now than infinity.

Well, I'm game to take a try. My kids are now in the first year of religious school and so my exposure to my religion is from the beginning again. What our school teaches is very different from what I learned. A couple of the first things taught are zedakah, tefillah and tikun olam. You could also add torah but that sort of comes later. These mean unselfconscious charitable giving of some kind; prayer and healing the world. Torah is the study of the 5 books of Moses in a formal sense. Tikun olam and zedakah are really stressed.

One of the facets of healing the world is responsibility for one's actions. Once you act you can never take that action back. If it is negative you are stuck with that energy and action, that hurt going out into the world. There are things you can do to mitigate the negative act but you can't get it back as if it never happened. Therefore you need to be mindful at all times of what you say and do so that you heal the world, or at least don't cause any inadvertent or accidental hurt and certainly don't do anything deliberately or maliciously harmful.

The idea being that you are borrowing this body in this life from G-d [insert whatever you concept of the devine is here] in order to experience life. One should do all one can in a life to make it the best not only for your self but for others and for posterity. One doesn't do this to gain paradise in the afterlife or even to get an afterlife in paradise but because it is the right thing to do.

All the learning, prayer, ritual is all an attempt simply to live the best life possible while the soul is in the body.

And when you think about it really all three religions have many of these elements, especially Islam. The rituals and words differ but really the point is to behave well in life and have a good life.

There is a part of a prayer, the Shema -- which Jews say at least twice daily:

If you will earnestly heed the commandments that I give you this day, to love the Lord your God and serve God with all your heart and all your soul, then I will favor your land with rain at the proper season, rain in autumn and rain in spring, and you will have an ample harvest of grain and wine and oil. . . (Deut. 11:13-14)

My take is that G-d doesn't say this because he wants to be worshiped or demands that you behave a certain way but because it is a blueprint for good living. We look at these words though modern eyes and with modern understanding of our society but try to put yourself in the place when these words might first have been heard and they make a great deal of sense.

[LittlePerson]

So Blue, does that mean you agree with me and what I've learned about the here and now compared to infinity? I have studied Judiasm, though you as practicing have probably learned more, as compared to me who only studied about it.

[bluglass]

Basically I am in agreement. Though the concept of infinity is not simple. The concept of G-d as an infinite source remains. Jews don't worship infinity itself, nor the concept of infinity itself, rather you might say it is a part of the superstructure that is relied upon but not much thought about unless you are a scholar -- a realm traditionally held by men though there are now modern women scholars in all the traditions.

I can't say I know more than you just because I live the tradition. I can say that I suspect there is a difference in how we digest what we know. You know from an emperical position and I from practical. Doesn't mean we don't have passion for what we know that might very well be the same. How we behave from the heart and soul (the neshamah) might be the same. You might be stronger than I. But it isn't an appropriate thing to measure.

Rather it is an interesting discussion to compare and contrast how what we each know affects and effects how we live.

For instance I was reading a traditional Comanche myth of self sacrifice to end famine and drought to my children. It is called the story of the Bluebonnet (a flower). The shaman prays to the great spirits for guidence. Great spirits say the people should burn heir most important possession and scatter the ashes to the four corners of the earth to be bourn away by the wind. Not their most prized possession or their most valuable. People go away grumbling about not giving up their new bow or their wonderful blanket. But one little girl, whose whole family has perished and she has nothing left but the doll her father made for her. It has blue jay feathers in the war bonnet. Well she hears the people and sees that no one is rushing to comply so she waits until everyone sleeps , creeps from her tent with a smoldering ember from the fire. She goes to the hill where the shaman prayed and says to the great spirits that the doll is all she has. It is the most important thing to her because it is all she has left of her family, but she is completely willing to burn the doll if it wills save her people so she does. She scatters the ashes on the wind to the four corners of the earth and falls asleep. When she wakes the earth is carpeted with blue flowers and it rains. She is renamed to she who loves the people. A wonderful story. It contains all the elements of healing the world, giving charity unselfconsciously and prayer. All these things are what I previously mentioned. And for my kids I drew a further parallel that the little girl reminds us of Namah. The wife of Noah who was charged by G-d to save two of every plant and growing thing in the world. After the flood Nama goes out and plants everything and makes the world fruitful again. The name Namah means mother of the earth.

These are lessons on how to do the hard thing. That it is o.k. to have many strong emotions but not to let any of them rule you. They also show how even when we would be ruled by our heart to think with our brain and, how thinking with our brain is tempered by our hearts.

In the end I think any religion is just a blueprint for different ways of living that help us to move through society successfully, to have a successful society. We are not a homogeneous people so there is not one way of living successfully but many.

[LittlePerson]

Sorry, I didn't mean to compare knowledge. I didn't mean to be petty. (I feel like I don't really know anything compared to you. I didn't learn much). I didn't know that noah's wife was supposed to be mother earth. I mean I also think of how literal Torah is interpretated, whether they believe it was physically possible for the miracle to happen as it did or if it was a metaphorical parable instead. I understand your meaning of infinity as you see it.

[bluglass]

Sorry, I didn't mean to compare knowledge. I didn't mean to be petty. (I feel like I don't really know anything compared to you. I didn't learn much). I didn't know that noah's wife was supposed to be mother earth. I mean I also think of how literal Torah is interpretated, whether they believe it was physically possible for the miracle to happen as it did or if it was a metaphorical parable instead. I understand your meaning of infinity as you see it.


I'm so sorry. Bad thing about posting is no tonal inflection. I meant that I didn't want anyone to think I was being petty or comparing in a negative way. I certainly didn't think any of those things of anyone on the thread. I cannot say I've found anyone on this site to be petty for that matter. Certainly in such a discussion comparison must take place. And, please I am not a Rav (learned person) on this or any topic for that matter. I simply know what I know and that isn't much. I am in possession of a huge amount of personal ideas.

I believe that a great many things are possible expecially when the impossible happens. Who knows if we will ever really know what happened historically. I don't know what is literal and what isn't. What I am learning though my kids is the interpretation. Children are naturally spititual beings. My son has a particularly beautiful soul, in my humble opinion. My daughter is a much harder person though in life she can be amazingly affectionate, gentle, kind and considerate when she chooses to be and care taking -- and is always caretaking of her brother. But for both, I want them to appreciate the wonder and beauty in all things at all times and to respect and honor all life and all things in this universe. I personally will use whatever I find useful to impart this. I want my kids to embrace or ate least respect different traditions and ways of understanding.

But to get to the original post: Judaism worships infinity. Christianity worships purity. Islam worships perfection

Without samples I'm not sure this is accurate. My gut says if you break this down they are all striving to reach exactly the same thing and this phrase is taking a piece prominent to each out of context.