Leaders and Their Research of Our Religion

 Nadene Goldfoot                   

            Abraham (1945 BCE) and wife Sarah started the ball rolling with their different outlook on religion.  They begat Isaac together, but Abe also begat Ishmael with Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian handmaid in order to produce more than one child.  Isaac then begat through 4 women, 12 sons and a daughter, eventually producing the religion coming from them, Judaism.  Ishmael produced  the religion-Islam through Mohammad (born in 570-died in 632).  

The Catholics have had a Pope, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church.  Born Jewish. First pope. Apostle of Jesus. . The Catholic Church recognizes him as the first Bishop of Rome appointed by Christ. Also revered as saint in Eastern Christianity, with a feast day of 29 June. St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City is named after him.  Catholics went on a rampage against Jews in 1492 (Spanish Inquisition) that chased Jews into the 1800s into Mexico. It was a matter of competition between the religions for the Catholics.   

Today's Pope is is Jorge Mario Bergoglio . 

 Pope Francis (Latin: Franciscus; Italian: Francesco; Spanish: Francisco; born 17 December 1936 in Buenos Aires, Argentina),  is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been sovereign of the Vatican City State since 2013. Theirs first began with Peter of Jewish birth according to their religion.  He in turn supposedly was schooled by a Bethlehemite, Jesus, also a Jew that is believed to have been the son of G-d; half man half god like the Greeks and Romans of their day.  (I note that many Jews of the Holocaust escaped to Argentina, where many Nazis also had escaped to here). Catholics came out of Roman meetings held by Constantine starting in the 4th century.     

What do we Jews have?  

In Israel, there is a Chief  Rabbi; usually two of them, one of Ashkenazi customs and one of Sephardic customs.  Mizrachi Jews fall under the category of the Sephardim  and comes from the Hebrew for Egypt, meaning all Jews born in Middle East.                                      

Yitzhak Yosef (Hebrew: יצחק יוסף, born January 16, 1952) is the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel (known as the Rishon LeZion), the rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Hazon Ovadia, and the author of a set of books on halakha (Jewish law) called Yalkut Yosef. Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yitzhak Yosef Yitzhak Yosef Yosef is the son of Ovadia Yosef, former Chief Rabbi of Israel, and bases his halakhic rulings on his father's methodology. His books are considered foundational among large sectors of Sephardic Jews in Israel and the world. For these books, he has won the Rabbi Toledano Prize from the Tel Aviv Religious Council, as well as the Rav Kook Prize.

David Baruch Lau (Hebrew: דוד לאו; born 13 January 1966) is the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel. He was appointed after achieving a majority of the vote on 24 July 2013. He previously served as the Chief Rabbi of Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut, Israel, and as the Chief Rabbi of Shoham. Lau is the son of former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau.

Abraham Isaac Kook (Hebrew: אַבְרָהָם יִצְחָק הַכֹּהֵן קוּק; 7 September 1865 – 1 September 1935), known as Rav Kook, and also known by the acronym HaRaAYaH (הראי״ה‎), was an Orthodox rabbi, and the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine. He is considered to be one of the fathers of religious Zionism, and is known for founding the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva. Upon returning from Europe in 1919, he was appointed the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, and soon after, as first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Palestine in 1921.

Rabbi Borstein came after Kook.  Tragically, Rabbi Borstein died suddenly at age 58, nine months after taking up his duties. Kook died in 1935, and his student, Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Charlap, succeeded him as rosh yeshiva.

Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog (Hebrew: יצחק אייזיק הלוי הרצוג; 3 December 1888 – 25 July 1959) in Lomza in Russian Poland;  also known as Isaac Herzog or Hertzog, was the first Chief Rabbi of Ireland, his term lasting from 1921 to 1936. From 1936 until his death in 1959, he was Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the British Mandate of Palestine and of Israel after its independence in 1948. He was the father of Chaim Herzog and grandfather of Isaac Herzog, both presidents of Israel

    Moses, as played by Charlston Heston, a handsome, intelligent man born in 1391 BCE in Egypt...dodged the bullet of sleeping with the needy wife of his boss as he grew up in the Pharaoh's school as the son of his daughter....and knew the pitfalls....Our religion of Judaism came from the teachings of Moses while on the 40 year Exodus.  He wrote the Torah---1st 5 Books of Moses  -Genesis (Bereishis) Exodus (Shemos) Leviticus (Vayikra) Numbers (Bamidbar) and Deuteronomy (Devarim), also called the Pentateuch.  

We also have his Oral Law, from oral information handed down from generation to generation  by the tradition that it was given to Moses on Sinai together with the Written Law.  During the 2nd Temple Period, it was upheld by the Pharisees and supported by the majority of the people.  Sadducees and Essenes did not validate it because they had their own traditions regarding the interpretation of the Written Law.  So what you read in the Torah is not the complete references Jews use.  The book, The Mishnah, holds the Oral Law and is the legal codification compiled by Rabbi Judah has-Nasi and arranged logically.  Copied and recorded later, it was referred to as the Talmud (Gemara).   We have 2 Talmuds;  The Babylonian one and the Palestinian one.  They are the collected records of academic discussion and judicial administration of JEWISH LAW by generations of scholars and jurists in many academies and in more than one country during several centuries after 200 CE when the Mishnah was completed.                                

The Karaites of the 8th century CE of Persia rejected the Oral Law and denied the validity of the Talmud, so they broke off from the main body of Jews.  They simply did not go along with these Babylonian gaonates (intellectual leaders).  

Hillel, "The Elder" born in 1st century BCE (100 BCE) scholar of Judaism, founder of school "House of Hillel (Bet Hillel) and ancesator of a dynasty of patriarchs which held office until the 5th century.  He was born in Babylonia and settled in Palestine as a manual laborer.  He studied with the greats, Shemaiah and Avtalyon.  Later he became President of the Sanhedrin.  His friend Shammai  was his debate partner (Zugot). Hillel was noted for his humility and tendency to leniency. We need to remind our religious parties of Hillel. 

Our Jewish belief was stated by Rabbi Hillel as the Golden Rule, and all else was just commentary.  It goes like this:  "Do not do unto others that which you would not have them do unto you."  Our religion is all about the here and now and how we behave, not about what happens when we die.  That's where trusting in G-d comes in.  We try to do the right things (Mitzvot)  and figure it couldn't hurt.  

Outside of Israel, we have only our preferred rabbi to speak to about our Jewish Law.  We have many avenues of Judaism from Reformed, Conservative to several forms of Orthodoxy.  It's like finding the right shoe that fits your foot;  what fits your outlook about Judaism.  We have no people policing us.  We practice according to our Synagogue or Temple expectations or just ourselves as we do what we want or can. 

         Some people found to be Jewish from varied cultures;  an ingathering is happening right now in Israel...

Most of us are very individualistic, anyway, people that were born to be leaders, not followers.  We're debaters, thinking and speaking about all sides of an issue. Many of our 14 million world-wide have become lawyers for this reason.  We're a small group of people, 0.02% of the world population, but seem to float to the top of the milk as cream, garnering a lot of attention. Maybe defying the world's population's beliefs and remaining with Moses' teachings do define us as such, people who took an oath and will not defy it.       

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Francis#:~:text=Pope%20Francis%20(Latin%3A%20Franciscus%3B,Vatican%20City%20State%20since%202013.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Peter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chief_rabbis_of_Israel_and_Mandatory_Palestine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yitzhak_HaLevi_Herzog

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercaz_HaRav#:~:text=Tragically%2C%20Rabbi%20Borstein%20died%20suddenly,succeeded%20him%20as%20rosh%20yeshiva.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lau#:~:text=David%20Baruch%20Lau%20(Hebrew%3A%20%D7%93%D7%95%D7%93,Ashkenazi%20Chief%20Rabbi%20of%20Israel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Isaac_Kook

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yitzhak_Yosef#:~:text=Yitzhak%20Yosef%20(Hebrew%3A%20%D7%99%D7%A6%D7%97%D7%A7%20%D7%99%D7%95%D7%A1%D7%A3,Jewish%20law)%20called%20Yalkut%20Yosef.