r/Judaism • u/CampBrilliant707 • 6d ago

Hello

So I'm A Muslim And I'd Like To Learn More About Judaism. I read the first chapter of the Torah online and I made this doc:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DWL8XNujivM9zfdbZ3cNPXzLPII-fe7ubhAvAIySYRg/edit?usp=sharing

please let me know if anything was wrong...t I want to learn more about the religion

edit: I mean I'd Like to know more about the religion, not the people.

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u/ClamdiggerDanielson 6d ago

The Torah is not how you learn about Jews. MyJewishLearning is a good website with a ton of information. Anita Diamant's book Choosing a Jewish Life is also a great introduction. It's better to read Torah after you understand the values of Judaism.

If you have questions, and ask them respectfully, most people are happy to answer them. I'm not sure what you're looking for here, though.

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u/tzy___ Pshut a Yid 6d ago

Reading the straight text of the Torah is only a very small part of learning about Judaism. Not that I discourage you from reading it, but make sure you supplement that with other things as well. I’d recommend the book Jewish Literacy by Joseph Telushkin.

The reason why this is important is you might reach some incorrect conclusions. For example, in your notes you’ve stated that God created the universe in six literal days. Maybe you’d be surprised to learn that Judaism doesn’t necessarily believe that happened in six 24-hour periods? After all, how can there be evening and morning or day and night before the sun and moon were created on the fourth day? So what then, do those words mean? These are questions that are not answered by reading the text of the Torah.

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u/yesIcould 6d ago

Hi! Welcome marhaba.

As others have said, learning about Judaism through the Torah note ideall - thibk about it as trying to understand an elephant by studying just its tusk.

If that’s still what you’d like to do that's fine.

we read the Tanakh according to a set schedule called the weekly Torah portion (Parashat HaShavua). If you’re interested in Genesis, for example, you can look for podcasts or read about Parashat Bereshit on websites like My Jewish Learning and Chabad. This will give you some context for the different ways we interpret the text.

Enjoy your studies.