Shalom.
This is the second in the series of Ask the e-Rabbi questions. Several questions on conversion, one is, are converts equal to born Jews in the status of Judaism? Answer is absolutely yes. Second of all can you convert to Judaism? Absolutely yes. And are conservative converts recognized by all Jews? The answer is no, a lot of the orthodox do not recognize conservative conversions, unfortunately they cast to the small portion of the Jewish people and it is very difficult to convert with orthodox rabbis. I do not think you learning absolutely correct Judaism; you are learning a version of Judaism. I think conservative Judaism is the most authentic way to convert. But they are not recognized by all. See my videos on conversion which are on the various sites for answers for those questions.
Second of all, somebody wanted to know if conservative Jews considered the tomb unholy and whether it is studied in conservative Judaism. The answer is yes, we have a long tomad requirements of the rabbinical school. We definitely consider tomad to be holy, sadly it is not, frankly not often that studied in conservative synagogues, sometimes Rabbi have a tomad class but it certainly not studied as much as it is in orthodox although it certainly should be.
Then somebody wanted to know that they are learning Hebrew and they have come across the Hebrew letter (foreign language) and they do not know how to pronounce it. Well, sometime it is the grammatical form to be but usually it means God. We just do not pronounce the name of God anymore, only the high priest did on Yom Kippur day in the holy of holies and we do not have a high priest anymore. We do not have the Holy of Holies. we just do not know how to pronounce it and so we do not. We pronounce that formation of letters Adonoi. Jehovah witness obviously tried to pronounce it all of those no J in Hebrew. And we just have no idea how to pronounce it. You can see my video on names of God for further explication.
Then somebody wants to have a kashrut question, a couple of them actually. One question was, can you have fowl with milk and the answer is no, you should see my milk and meat video. There was a time in Jewish history when fowl was considered parve, neither milk nor meats so you could have it with milk but today it is considered in the meat category for the last many hundred years and therefore you cannot.
Then someone wanted to know about courtier wine. Well, the sure answer is that we consider all wine courtiers, the orthodox do not for dubious reasons. They worry about idolatry, but today, what kind of wine is idolatry is. Well, so they are concern that if you drink wine, that is made by Gentiles, you might mix with gentiles, were all the Jews mix with Gentiles any so the rabbinic assembly recommends for religious purposes when you making kiddish for Shabbath or holiday you should use wine made under a rabbinic supervision otherwise, any wine is considered courtier.
Then a series of questions about people have encountered people who are supposedly Jewish or say they believe in Jesus. Why you can see my four videos on this subject Jesus and the Jews, or Jews not for Jesus 1, 2 and 3. On you tube; they are number 35 and then 200, 201, and 202. Somebody whose had and claimed to be Jewish and believes in Jesus is no longer viewed as Jewish by the Jewish people. The supreme court of Israel has ruled twice on that.
Then somebody want to know about converting to Judaism were they did the hatafat on brit on themselves. they wanted to know if that was courtier. Well, strictly speaking, some orthodox ruled to orthodox would say it is not, this rabbi said it was fine. They showed the gauze with the blood to the witnesses. I said, after the fact, we are much more lenient than eve before the fact even of somebody who said that she be done by morial or a doctor, so you are Jewish and do not worry about it.
Then somebody wants to know about converting to Judaism and they currently work on Shabbath, do they need to find a new job. Well, that depends on your philosophy of Judaism. Of course the Orthodox would say yeah, you cannot work on Shabbath. I would say that too, you should not work on Shabbath. But if you are already have a job, you should work towards not working on Shabbath, frankly most of our Jews today who have a retail job and need to work on Shabbath do. That is why at the beginning of the century, the 8:00 Friday night service came to be, but definitely it would be good to work towards the place where you can get home in time to light candles at the proper time, that you do not have to work on the Sabbath but the reality of the world is that many do and certainly would not need to jeopardized your financial situation to stop. In my opinion, right now you should definitely work towards it if you can. The Orthodox rabbi would say absolutely you should not be working on Shabbath.
In terms of Gematria, you should see my video on Gematria, but somebody wants to know if Gematria is done in other languages. Specifically aeromek and the answer is yes, it is done in many languages. In fact, I know a Rabbi who does in English A is 1 Z is 26 and he makes up words in numerical meaning based on the numerical meaning with particular words. There is no basis for that and pray as Jewish history. The significant one was Hebrew and then a little bit in aeromek. The best answer to that question.
And then finally, this series of question this week. Somebody wanted to know about a whether the Messiah is going to be named as Emmanuel. And that comes from a verse in Isaiah but not in Jewish history have we believed that is the name of a specific person who is the going to bring usher in the Messianic Era. Other many opportunities for that been name specifically throughout the bible and were not and so we do not pay attention to the idea that in person has to be Emmanuel. Emmanuel simply means God Ell is to us. It is our way; it is a general generic idea, not a specific name.
So those were the questions on for this week for e-Rabbi. I have videos on virtually all of these questions. They will elaborate more and please ask or email me your questions for the next week version.
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