The Talmudic scholar

I've spent the past few months reading on my Kindle Rabbi Telushkin's insightful synopsis of Jewish history, ethics, and Biblical stories.  So far, these insights have given me a great toolbox to deal with the various dilemmas life throws at you, as well as ways to critically think about arguments.  Knowledge is power, and therefore, here is a list of some particular Jewish thoughts honed over the past thousand years that were quite surprising to a once semi-ignorant like me;


1) Vegetarianism:  God made all the world vegetarians, then changed his mind after the Noah Flood.  The echos of this are still in the commandment to treat animals kindly, without unnecessary cruelty; kosher slaughter to ensure a quick death (so that means an absolute prohibition on hunting); the injunction to feed your household animals and pets first before you partake in breakfast (since animals' hunger is cruel to them since they have no foresight as to when the next meal will come); and a slight nudge of kashrut law towards eating only vegetables, and the final push to eat meat "only when you have an absolute hunger for the taste of flesh, but not more than than", a rule that would make us much healthier as a family, a nation, and the world.

2) Lashaon HaRa; Gossip is bad, very bad.  A character assassination that the victim has no recourse.  Therefore, even the temptation for gossip is so strong that even talking about a third party in good terms is discouraged lest it leads to (and usually does), bad terms.

3) Wealth & poverty:  Judaism has no problem with being a good, pious person, and having material comfort.  The early Christian vows of poverty is utterly alien to Judaism, which equates poverty as being one of the worst states to be in, since one cannot be spiritual and do good when one has to worry about food on their plate.  Therefore, you can be rich, but also give to charity, preferably, 10% of your after-tax income, but no more than 20%, lest you become poor from too much charity.

4) Investment advice:  "pay less than you can afford for your clothes, the equal amount for your food, and more than you can afford for your house" - from the Babylonian Talmud written 2,000 years ago.

5)  Justice:  the concept of forgiving a murderer by others, so prevalent in some societies, is utterly alien to Judaism.  Only the victim can forgive the perpetrator, and since murder is literately a dead issue, a murder cannot be forgiven, and having a third party ask for or bless forgiveness is a grave injustice to the victim.

6) Parenting advice: Don't be so serious, i.e. playful parenting.  As a parable, a wealthy man left a clause in his will that his son shall only inherit his money when the son becomes a fool.  Confused, the lawyer went to the learned rabbi's house to seek his advice, only to see this wise and serious man in his living room on all fours, braying like a donkey to the delight of his young children.  Only then that the clause became apparent - the son shall inherit the money upon having children of his own, and being a good parent by playing with them.

7) Rule of Law: Judaism abhors anarchy, and places strong emphasis on order and justice.  It put great emphasis on who can serve on the Sanehidrin - the Jewish Supreme Court prior to it's dissolution by the Romans in the first centuries.  Judges can only be chosen that are not too young, neither too old, and they must have children of their own in order to temper justice with compassion. Furthermore, when it comes time for a ruling, the order was younger/less experienced judges should speak first, lest their opinion be intimidated by the older and more experienced judges.  As a side note, Jewish law placed such an onus on capital punishment, that any Sanehidrin that put a man to death would be considered a "terrorist" court for 70 years.

8) the Priestly caste; as a Kohen, I was surprised to learn that halachikaly speaking, I cannot marry a divorcee, nor partake in any ritual cleaning of the dead (such as a volunteer Jewish burial society), but can invoke special blessings, either at a synagogue, or at a new Temple in Jerusalem, along with the Spock-like fingers in V formation.

9) Commandments - Non-Jews are bound by only 7 Noah laws, while Jews have to follow the Abrahamic 613 (although about half of them deal with the destroyed Temple)

10) The number 7 - is found again and again in Judaism cycles - the 7 days of creation, the 7 years of a Shmita, year; the 7 steps in a Mikveh, 7 days of Shiva mourning ritual, etc. etc.; apparently, 7 is a number that does resonate in popular culture as well (7 year itch, etc.).  Most people I talked to about the significance of 7 looked back at their own life and found to their amazement that 7 years usually coincided with a major life event (new job, new partner, new city, and so on.).  The age of 7 years old, 14, 21, 28, etc. also signify major changes in an individual life, so this may have a biological basis.

Hope you enjoyed my quick introduction to Jewish insights.  I can only thank Rabbi Telushkin's books for this wisdom.