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Israel Chai:
Also, how come Jews say Baruch Hashem whenever I ask "how's it going"? Every opportunity to thank G-d is wonderful, but I usually have that as an opportunity to say "I'm sick" before I shake their hand. Baruch Hashem in this context is good, or are you supposed to say that always, or is it a being separate thing?

muman613:

--- Quote from: LKZ on October 16, 2013, 01:58:09 AM ---Why did G-d make people write Torah, instead of handing it written himself?

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Shalom LKZ,

Interesting question... According to the Torah the first set of luchos (tablets) of the 'Ten Commandments' was actually written by the 'finger of Hashem' and they were subsequently broken by Moshe when he witnessed the incident of the Golden Calf.

Hashem commanded, in the Torah, that every Jew should write his own copy of the Torah so that he should be able to learn it. There are many commandments from Hashem which seem to teach us that this world is a world of action, requiring effort from us to complete the creation. If Hashem did everything for us there would be no merit nor reward. In order to reward someone it is necessary for them to deserve the reward, and this is why we must actively exert effort in this world. Thus we have the command to write for ourselves a Torah scroll.

muman613:

--- Quote from: LKZ on October 16, 2013, 07:12:51 AM ---Also, how come Jews say Baruch Hashem whenever I ask "how's it going"? Every opportunity to thank G-d is wonderful, but I usually have that as an opportunity to say "I'm sick" before I shake their hand. Baruch Hashem in this context is good, or are you supposed to say that always, or is it a being separate thing?

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Another good question...

When I ask my Rabbi how things are he ALWAYS says 'Baruch Hashem'. As I have said before there is a concept in Judaism of saying 100 blessings a day. We are supposed to praise him whether things are good, or even if they are bad. Usually when I hear this reply I think of the expression 'It could be worse but I am happy it is not'.

We should thank Hashem much more than we do. I witness so many small miracles every day that sometimes I feel like I don't even deserve this. Being Thankful when we rise in the morning and say 'Modeh Ani' (I Acknowledge) we affirm this feeling of thankfulness.

Saying 'Baruch Hashem' in reply to a question about how you are is another way of affirming our thanks to our creator for everything we have, and everything we don't have.

muman613:
http://www.aish.com/jw/id/48898442.html

"Mah nishma?" is the Hebrew version of "What's new?" It's an innocuous, universal greeting which needn't mean much more than a passing hello. The answer given is usually Baruch Hashem -- Thank God, which can mean anything from "Great!" to "Don't even ask. My enemies should have my troubles!" Often, upon hearing a dubious sounding Baruch Hashem, the questioner will respond with, "Gee, what's wrong?"

At one momentous point in my life, I promised myself that I would always respond with a hearty and cheerful Baruch Hashem. I'd mean it, and if I didn't, I'd say it as if I did (which I'm sure my innermost soul always does. It's just that there are so many outermost factors which factor in and influence us!) After all, even when life doesn't meet all our expectations and things are not quite perfect (how many things in life are perfect?); and even in times of great sorrow and distress, there are still countless things to be grateful for, things which deserve a hearty Baruch Hashem.

I will admit, however, that these past two years in Israel have tested my resolve, and my Baruch Hashem's have often been lacking in gusto. Not that I am not cognizant of the many miracles which accompany us every day; not that I am not thankful enough for the many blessings I enjoy. But it's difficult to be upbeat when you are surrounded with enemies, terror, hatred and death; with actual attacks and the anxiety of anticipated ones.

The funny part is that when my spirits are low, one thing that really helps is driving down to spend Shabbat with our children in Gush Katif, a bloc of eleven Jewish communities in the Gaza area. (I hesitate to say "settlements." The world has turned Jewish "settling" in the Holy Land into a sin, although America was "settled", as was Canada, as were scores of other countries around the world.) Historically, in biblical times, Gaza was part of the inheritance of the tribe of Judah. The city retained a Jewish population after the Destruction of the Temple, throughout the Middle Ages and up until the 20th century (1938) when four synagogues still functioned.

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t_h_j:

--- Quote from: muman613 on October 15, 2013, 06:06:49 PM ---Shalom t_h_j,

Haven't heard from you in a while... Welcome back...

Rome persecuted the Jews long before they persecuted the 'Christians' at the time. The Romans were actively trying to destroy the Jewish faith by outlawing the basic rituals such as circumcision, Torah study, and the Sabbath. They killed so many of our Rabbis (Read the 10 Martyrs which we read during the Yom Kippur liturgy).

I believe that there may have been a sect of Jews who engaged in what Jews consider heresy (I can relate several examples from their scriptures) which did not catch on very much with the Jewish people. Remember that after the destruction of the Temple the Jewish people were willing to believe Moshiach was coming soon because they even accepted the great Bar Kochba who actually accomplished a lot of the things Moshiach must accomplish... But in the end the Romans prevailed, and we were exiled.

When the Romans needed to destroy the Jewish resistance  they adopted the Christian faith and inserted other ideologies which would be accepted by the Romans (things such as the Trinity, etc.).

Again, this is only my opinion. The history of that period was ripe for establishing a 'false messiah'. This happened at other times in Jewish history also.

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right, they did persecute jews, but why would they persecute a christianity that spread all over the empire when it was created by the roman government just to trick jews into being more loyal? The romans were never in the business of appeasing people that were not content to accept their place in the empire. A good example of this would be the aftermath of the bar kochba revolt, the aftermath of spartacus's slave uprising, and so on. After the bar kochba revolt, they didn't try to subtly convert the jews to christianity. They did everything they could to humiliate and destroy them by expelling them and destroying religious items they could get.

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