re: #2 CuriousLurker

Understood. That being said, and based on the reviews, do you think Living Judiasm would be okay as a starting point in becoming more familiar with Judaism?

Sure. Just begin, and ask questions. ‘What the hell?’ can be an important step in understanding.

It’s the same with the Qur’an. It would probably be more accurate to call them interpretations instead of translations. And even when you have the 9-volume scholarly commentary, there are still other layers of meaning (e.g. going into the more Sufi spiritual symbolism territory).

Probably true. It’s always the folks with the most certainty that cause the most problems.

So then the Chasidim are sort of the Jewish Sufis? I thought Kabbalah was the mystical part. In Islam we had/have Sufi who are also scholars, but then are/were also Sufis who weren’t, who were just sort of…”lovers”. Never mind, too hard to explain. I’m so confused (already). Heh.

Yeah. ;-)

A man came upon a group of Sufis sitting in a circle chanting, “La illaha il Allah”. He asked them what it meant. They replied that they would answer by way of demonstration. They resumed chanting: Every time they said “La ilaha” (there is no god), they would disappear; every time they said “il Allah” (but God) they would reappear.

Very much a Chasidic Tale. Although, there are similar stories in the Talmud.

There’s no test on this, so take your time.