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Judaism Jews And Sikhs: How Similar Can We Get?

Jan 9, 2012
78
107
If you go to Israel today, squarely in the Middle East/North Africa (separated by the Suez canal in the the 1860's), and look around you, you feel you are in Europe. The prevailing race, culture and lifestyle is overwhelmingly European.

Well, I've been living in Israel for over half my life. first of all, Israel is not in North Africa - but, Asia. Secondly, the nation consists of so very many national and ethnic groups, it's just about impossible to say where you "feel" you are. Shkunat HaBukharim in Jerusalem retains much of the character of the residents' native Bukhara, in Central Asia. The HaTiqva neighborhood in Tel-Aviv is still largely populated by Jews from Yemen. My own neighborhood boasts immigrant communities from former Soviet Georgia, India, Ethiopia, Iraq, Hungary, Russia, France, etc., as well as every imaginable mixture. If you "feel you are in Europe", it may have more to do with the advanced living standard, relative to that of the surrounding countries. Yes, it was brought about within the last 100 years by Jewish pioneers from Europe - although I hasten to mention that they found Jewish communities when they arrived; communities that had been here since the dispersion of the greater masses of Jews at the hands of the Roman conquerors.

Today the ethnic balance has tilted in favor of the Maghrebi and Mizrachi Jews (from North Africa and the Middle East, respectively). For this we can thank the Arab world, which made the lives of the centuries and millenia-old Jewish communities in their midst so miserable that emigration became the norm - as the remaining options were forced conversion to Islam or death (as Christian, Baha'i, and other communities who have long-resided in the Middle East and North Africa are experiencing today; ask the Sikhs of Afghanistan how welcome they feel in the land where they have lived for hundreds of years!).

It is no secret that the 'Hebrew' language used today is a modern construction reconstituted from ancient elements of a largely 'dead' language, dreamed up by one individual, a Russian named Ben-Yehudah, together with some other European jews. This language is vastly different from the actual tongue of the African Hebrews in Old Testament times.

A "largely 'dead' language", in that it hadn't been spoken, but it has most certainly been an active literary language (in which the majority of male Jews of every diaspora community have always been literate) from the very beginnings of the Jewish People. To the best of my knowledge, the only surviving language of an African Jewish community is Ge'ez, which is the liturgical language of the Beta Israel of Ethiopia, the overwhelming majority of whom were recently airlifted in two dramatic operations to the modern State of Israel. I have also heard that the Ibo of Biafra claim themselves to be descendants of the 10 lost Tribes of the ancient Northern Kingdom of Israel, but their claim is much more tenuous than that of the Beta Israel.

Similarly, the belief systems of contemporary, Rabbinical Jews is greatly changed from what was the living faith of the ancient residents of that region.

The practices have certainly developed, as they would need to have been adapted to an existence outside the Land of Israel, without the service of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. This adaptation process had already begun in the Babylonian exile, centuries before the Roman exile that ended Israel as an independent national entity, and it continues to this day - with rabbinic responsa from Israel and diaspora communities the world over contributing learned opinions, based on the Jewish People's original documents of nationhood (the Written Torah - also known as the Pentateuch, or, Five Books of Moses; and the Oral Torah, which was written down and redacted in Babylon and Israel - and popularly known as the Talmud). But the belief system is surprisingly consistent.

Truth is Truth.

Indeed, but Malcom X, along with the other Afro-centrists (some of whose support texts you have kindly listed above) define "history" as, "his story". Truth, taken in such a context, becomes something of an elusive commodity. Therefore, ... if you want to present your findings as theory, I've got no problem. If you're telling me it's, "The Truth",... Jio, I think you're skating on rather thin ice.
 

LittlePrem

SPNer
May 1, 2013
28
65
New York, N.Y
I joined just so I could post in this thread. I was actually searching on google using simple keywords, looking to find info on if and how the Jewish community was supporting the Sikhs in activism. But that's another story.

So, here I am. A Jewish girl who has been learning about and gravitating towards Sikhi for the past few years. That's my intro..
 
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LittlePrem

SPNer
May 1, 2013
28
65
New York, N.Y
actually, Randip veer ji, that's not exactly true. Jews believe that they have a unique "covenant" or agreement with God, and that they are bound to fulfill this. however, they believe that jewish law applies to jews only, that all others are free to worship as they choose. kind of like sikhs. :) they are quite unlike christianity and islam in this sense.

they also believe in the concept of ONE universal God: "God of the spirits of ALL flesh" (Numbers 27:16).


Yes, this true. I actually would have to go and look for it, but there is also Jewish text that has general comandments for non-Jews, and acknowledges that they have a righteous path to God as well.
 
Nov 14, 2008
283
419
I joined just so I could post in this thread. I was actually searching on google using simple keywords, looking to find info on if and how the Jewish community was supporting the Sikhs in activism. But that's another story.

So, here I am. A Jewish girl who has been learning about and gravitating towards Sikhi for the past few years. That's my intro..

welcome Littleprem a Jewish girl :sippingcoffeemunda: , we have a very respected member a member "Akiva " ji from Jeruslam here on SPN
 

spnadmin

1947-2014 (Archived)
SPNer
Jun 17, 2004
14,500
19,219
LittlePrem ji

Welcome to SPN. I hope you go to the Introductions thread to introduce yourself to the forum at large.

http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/announcements/5626-introducing-myself.html

Would you be able to direct us to the document with laws for non-Jews? Some of us with an interest in comparative religion would probably like to read it.

Replies to your 3 comments should be coming by soon. A lot of members are either asleep (US, Canada) or at work (Europe, India) and all the other possibilities for other continents and countries because of time zones.

Anyway, glad you signed on :welcomekaur: :welcomekaur: :welcomekaur:
 

LittlePrem

SPNer
May 1, 2013
28
65
New York, N.Y
I think the similarities are interesting, because they are purely a coincidence. The two religions grew out of different cultures, far away, at different historical periods and had no influence on each other.
Here's a fun fact, Shera/Sherni:

There's a "Lion of Punjab" (Maharaj Ranjit Singh Ji) and a "Lion of Judah" - ancient Jewish patriarch/kingdom who's nickname was "Gur Aryeh", which means young lion in hebrew. The lion is an ancient symbol found all over Israeli artifacts and still used today. I've known a few Jews named Aryeh too.
 

LittlePrem

SPNer
May 1, 2013
28
65
New York, N.Y
LittlePrem ji

Welcome to SPN. I hope you go to the Introductions thread to introduce yourself to the forum at large.

http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/announcements/5626-introducing-myself.html

Would you be able to direct us to the document with laws for non-Jews? Some of us with an interest in comparative religion would probably like to read it.

Replies to your 3 comments should be coming by soon. A lot of members are either asleep (US, Canada) or at work (Europe, India) and all the other possibilities for other continents and countries because of time zones.

Anyway, glad you signed on :welcomekaur: :welcomekaur: :welcomekaur:

Thank you for the welcomes (all three), Spnadmin Ji:kaurkhalsaflagblue:
I promise I will find it tomorrow. It's super late and I should be in bed myself, hehe.
 

LittlePrem

SPNer
May 1, 2013
28
65
New York, N.Y
"What is understood as 'jews' today is very different from the original seeds of that faith, racially, and doctrine. The reason this matters is because so many of these questions and comments deal with modern-day Judaism. In actual fact, the faith has its roots in Canaan, North-East Africa, and the ancient African Hebrews who lived out the history reflected in the Bible were a very different people than the largely ''ashkenazi" jews who flowed to the Palestinian region from Poland, Russia and Eastern Europe and took on the mantle of Judaism after the original Israelites were driven out, scattered and exhiled by the conquering Romans. These original African Hebrews were driven into the continent of Africa where we find many traces of their dispersion. The Judaism being referenced in this forum is the hybrid faith devised by the ashkenazi and, as such, reflects as much Eastern European tradition and lifestyle as ancient Semitic religion. Thus the Eastern European garb, the Yiddish and modern Hebrew language, the European racial characteristics we associate with contemporary Judaism. "

Brother_Onam Ji,
Yes, there are in fact African Jews and as Awakeand Singh has mentioned, they have been found and mostly brought to modern day Israel. However, the topic of the 12 Tribes, DNA and Jewish diaspora is vast and complex. Your description is not inclusive of all. For example, there was also a group of Indian Jews called "Bene Israel", believed to be part of a lost tribe, who have also mostly returned to modern Israel. Perhaps the European culture of the Ashkinazi is more prevalent in the U.S.A? This is more likely the case.
 

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