Reddit mentions of Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years (Pluto Middle Eastern Studies)

This is a great idea. I recently read a book about Jewish religion and history and one of the chapters had to do with laws against non-Jews. The main premise of that chapter was to show how the Talmud distinguishes between Jews and non-Jews (Gentiles), and that non-Jews aren't afforded the same rights as Jews under rabbinical law. (This book was written by a Jewish Israeli so I'm inclined to believe most of what he said; plus he added a lot of commentary and research to back up every point).

I'm a Muslim, so I know what it's like for someone to take sections of the Quran out of context to make us look bad, so I don't want to do the same here. I try not to believe everything I read when it comes to religious texts, because they were written ages ago and have been interpreted a number of different ways over the years.

Still, though, I can't help but notice similarities between these laws and the way Arabs are treated in Israel, and I'm starting to wonder if there is some sort of link. I guess I want to know your opinions on the matter - when you were young, were you taught that there was a difference between Jews and non-Jews? What do you know about the education of Israeli children on these issues? Do you think that's why there's so much mistrust between Jewish Israelis and Arabs? Any opinions/thoughts would be appreciated. Also, I'm sorry if this was in any way offensive; I don't mean it to be, I just want to learn more about it and I really appreciate you taking the time to do this.

> If you want to read a good book about Orthodox Judaism, and the concomitant Talmudism, this book is very good: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0745308198/104-2180085-3718365

> "Milking on the Sabbath. This has been forbidden in post-talmudic times, through the process of increasing religious severity mentioned above. The ban could easily be kept in the diaspora, since Jews who had cows of their own were usually rich enough to have non-Jewish servants, who could be ordered (using one of the subterfuges described below) to do the milking. The early Jewish colonists in Palestine employed Arabs for this and other purposes, but with the forcible imposition of the Zionist policy of exclusive Jewish labour there was need for a dispensation. (This was particularly important before the introduction of mechanised milking in the late 1950s.) Here too there was a difference between Zionist and non-Zionist rabbis. According to the former, the forbidden milking becomes permitted provided the milk is not white but dyed blue. This blue Saturday milk is then used exclusively for making cheese, and the dye is washed off into the whey. Non-Zionist rabbis have devised a much subtler scheme (which I personally witnessed operating in a religious kibbutz in 1952). They discovered an old provision which allows the udders of a cow to be emptied on the Sabbath, purely for relieving the suffering caused to the animal by bloated udders, and on the strict condition that the milk runs to waste on the ground. Now, this is what is actually done: on Saturday morning, a pious kibbutznik goes to the cowshed and places pails under the cows. (There is no ban on such work in the whole of the talmudic literature.) He then goes to the synagogue to pray. Then comes his colleague, whose 'honest intention' is to relieve the animals' pain and let their milk run to the floor. But if, by chance, a pail happens to be standing there, is he under any obligation to remove it? Of course not. He simply 'ignores' the pails, fulfills his mission of mercy and goes to the synagogue. Finally a third pious colleague goes into the cowshed and discovers, to his great surprise, the pails full of milk. So he puts them in cold storage and follows his comrades to the synagogue. Now all is well, and there is no need to waste money on blue dye.

> "Similar dispensations were issued by zionist rabbis in respect of the ban (based on Leviticus 19:19) against sowing two different species of crop in the same field. Modern agronomy has however shown that in some cases (especially in growing fodder) mixed sowing is the most profitable. The rabbis invented a dispensation according to which one man sows the field lengthwise with one kind of seed, and later that day his comrade, who 'does not know' about the former, sows another kind of seed crosswise. However, this method was felt to be too wasteful of labour, and a better one was devised: one man makes a heap of one kind of seed in a public place and carefully covers it with a sack or piece of board. The second kind of seed is then put on top of the cover. Later, another man comes and exclaims, in front of witnesses, 'I need this sack (or board)' and removes it, so that the seeds mix 'naturally.' Finally, a third man comes along and is told, 'Take this and sow the field,' which he proceeds to do."

Very weird... one almost gets the sense that there is an unspoken expectation that God would take delight in witnessing such artfully executed subterfuge.