Judaism/Religion Web Page
Table of Contents
Introduction
Welcome to my links page. While web surfing looking for pages on Judaism,
I found that there were lots of sites everywhere, but that there didn't seem
to be a master list of lots of issues. There certainly wasn't a page that
listed everything I happened to want, because only I knew what those would
be. This is an attempt at making such a master list.
Information and Learning Pages on Judaism
This section's links are for getting the gist of what Judaism is about.
It's for the person who has heard of its existance, but not much more than
that.
This section is in serious need of an overhaul, as it has become a sort-of
"catch-all" section. One of these days I'll get around to doing it.
- Judaism 101: Quite simply, one of the
best FAQs out there on Judaism.
- Transliterated Siddur:
The standard Jewish prayer book online.
- B'nei Noach: This isn't
a website about Judaism, but seemed to fit here. This is a web site for
non-Jews who wish to live good lives without necessarily being
Christians. It describes the 7 laws of Noah, which are binding upon
all of humanity. The 613 laws of Judaism are refinments of these.
- Ohr Somayach: Random articles on
various topics of interest.
- JBuff: Buffalo, NY's Jewish community
on the Web. Has weekly updates with articles.
- Aish HaTorah
- Yom Tov @ Torah.Org:
Learn about the Jewish holidays.
- Being Jewish: Tries to define
just what it means and how it feels to be Jewish.
- Audio Torah:
The Torah both translated into English, transliterated, and in
Realaudio format.
- Shalom USA:
Baltimore's weekly Jewish radio program.
- Birkat Hamazon:
The blessing said after eating a meal with bread.
- Chadish Media: Several prayers
on cassette tape to learn how to recite them.
- The 39
Melachot, the things that you're not allowed to do on Shabbat.
- The Jewish
Federation of Greater Washington
Information on Kashrus (Kosher)
This section related to many things kosher.
- Kosher.Com: Kosher shopping
over the Web.
-
Reliable Kosher Symbols: so you know what that funny little
symbol means.
- Orthodox Union:
One of the biggest kosher certifiers in the country.
- Star-K: Another large certifier,
based out of Baltimore.
- Kosher Bison: You too can
buy kosher buffalo!
- Asian Cooking:
Kosher recipes, sorted by asian country.
- Recipes
- Shwarma,
a yummy food consisting of lamb and veggies stuffed in a pita. That
description hardly does it justice, however.
- Berachot for Foods: Find
out what blessing to say before eating whatever you're about to eat.
Aish HaTorah (aish.com)
I first discovered this site because it has a 24-hour webcam of the
Western Wall in Jerusalem. Later, I learned it's got a number of good
articles about Judaism.
Interesting Articles
These are articles that, for some reason or another, highly interested me.
There's no guarantee you'll feel the same way.
- Diary
of a Soldier: This is a diary written down by a Chassid who
was called up for the IDF reserves for the Jenin offensive that
occured in April, 2002.
- Crash Course in Jewish
History: A 65-part series that gives a history of the events
in the Tanach and what their significance is.
-
Age of the Universe: An attempt at correlating the Biblical
timeline of 6 days and the scientific timeline of 15 billion years.
- Science
Explained:
Similiar to above (in fact, the above link is one of many in this
section), these pages attempt to reconcile Biblical events with the
theories modern science is developing, and shows that they aren't
always mutually exclusive of each other.
- When Was the
Exodus?:
For centuries, archaelogists have been trying to prove or disprove
the events of the Ten Plagues that are recounted in the book of
Exodus. New records have been found that can highly correlate the
events, if current hypotheses on when they occurred are dropped.
- Peace, as
Opposed to Peace: An article attempting to explain the different
definitions of the word "peace" that Jews and Arabs have.
-
Wikipedia: History of the Jews in Scotland
News Services
There are lots of good Jewish news services on the web, giving information
on both here and in Israel.
Calendars and Times
The Jewish calendar is quite different than the standard Gregorian one the
world is used to. For one thing, days start at sundown, not at an arbitrary
"midnight." These are links showing various aspects of the calendar.
Synagogues and Class Centers
These are here cause I had them bookmarked for various reasons. Whether
they're useful or not I can't really say.
- Etz Chaim: An Orthodox
center in Owings Mills, Maryland that teaches classes geared towards
the non-practicing Jew.
- The Fabreng Inn,
a shul/hotel located just outside of Richmond, VA.
- Silver Spring, Maryland
- United Kingdom
- Elsewhere Around the World
- St. Thomas Synagogue:
The second-oldest active synagogue in the western hemisphere, located
on St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, and I've visited the shul.
Intermarriage
The pros and cons of intermarriage.
- InterfaithFamily.Com:
This web site is an online magazine and discussion forum as a support
site for interfaith couples, to read about the success stories and
for people who need advice in taking this route.
-
"Our Jewish-ish Wedding": Article on the above URL about some of
the specific issues related to making a two-faith ceremony and how not
to offend either set of parents.
- USCJ Interfaith
Stance: This page was set up by the United Synogague of
Conservative Judaism to give some reasons against interfaith
marriages, and instead to marry within the faith. For anyone
wondering, the Conservative stance on intermarriage seems to be,
on average, "we don't support it if you want to get married, but
if you're already married to someone who's not Jewish, then we'll do
our darndest to support you and make sure the non-Jewish partner is
included in our synogague and your kids are raised good."
- Why Marry Jewish?:
A web page about why Jews should marry only within their faith, and
the arguments for it.
- Rabbinic Center for Research and
Counseling: Resources for couples seeking an interfaith wedding,
including rabbis who perform such a service.
Conversion to Judaism
- Conversion to Judaism Home Page:
Written from a Conservative point of view, gives a good intro to the
reasons for converting, how to tell your friends and family, what's
involved in the process, and more.
- Open Letter about Conversion
- Converting to Judaism:
An online resource for converting, this site gives specific issues
and questions that may be asked by a rabbi before he feels you know
enough to go through with the conversion.
- Chozrim: Support group
for converts.
-
Becoming Jewish: An essay on the pros and cons and how to do it.
- Rabbi Asher Wade: A former Methodist
minister turned Orthodox rabbi, R. Wade has several tapes of his
lectures available online. He also still occasionally goes on tour
in the United States.
Reasons Promoting Judiasm / Leaving Christianity
Many pages that have helped me have dealt with the topic of how and
why Christianity formed, and why Jews (and many others) both today and
2,000 years ago can't believe in it.
- Outreach
Judaism: A counter-missionary organization that answers questions
about Christian theology and how said theology tries to find validation
for Jesus's coming and resurrection in the Old Testament.
- Jews for Judaism: Another
counter-missionary organization. Some people may have heard of the
Christian missionary group called Jews for Jesus; well, this is meant
to be the opposite of that.
-
Questions regarding Christianity and Judaism: These seem to be to
be many of the questions Christians have when thinking about both
Judaism and their own religion. A number of them had occurred to me
and were answered by this. I wish I could find a similiar one going
the other direction, but have not yet.
- A Former
Minister: This is a letter from a former minister who has lost
his faith in Christianity and is thinking of converting to Judaism.
- Leaving
Christianity: This page isn't about someone who became Jewish, but
who became either athiest or agnostic (the page doesn't specify). It's
the story of a man who was brought up mildly religious, and then tried
to learn as much as he could about his religion in college; it was there
that he discovered he didn't like the answers he found.
- We are NOT Going
to Hell: A book published intended to be a Jewish response to
the arguments given in Christianity.
- Differences Between
Judaism and Christianity: A web page that tries to explain the key
differences between the two religions on various critieria of beliefs.
- Arguments Against
the Virgin Birth: Arguments from the New Testament that suggest it
wasn't a virgin birth after all.
- History of
Christianity: I can't speak for its validity, but this page
definately offers a different point of view than I was brought up with.
- Things We
Didn't Find Out In Sunday School: A page that sumarizes many of
the problems people have with the Christian New Testament.
- The Problem With Matthew:
The original site, www.drashi.com, has unfortunately vanished. I
originally did not have this PDF version available on my site, but
the only other site I found with a copy had an incomplete version.
It is an ebook written by an observant Jew who went through
the book of Matthew chapter by chapter and analyzed its problems.
Be warned, it's a 3MB file and it will take a while to download it
from me.
- Did Jesus
Exist?: An article giving arguments that not only was Jesus not
the Messiah, but that it's possible he never even existed.
- The Counter-Missionary
Homepage: More articles, from the point of view of defending
yourself from missionaries.
- Torah for Gentiles:
What does the Hebrew Bible hold for Gentiles? What are their laws and
obligations? This page tries to say.
- Noah's Covenant: Articles for
Gentiles. Of particular interest may be
Who is the Son of G-d?
and Who was Jesus?.
Tours of Israel
Here is some bundled-together information on different well-known
organizations offering tours and classes in Israel.
Support Israel!
There's lots of ways to help support Israel, financially or otherwise.
Miscellaneous
This section is for random links that I couldn't find a home for
elsewhere.
Last modified:
Sun Apr 22 01:00:52 EDT 2007