Torah [The Five Books of Moses] and Judaism are really not the same thing. But neither is Christianity that same as the Five Books of Moses.
The Law of Moses does need a Background and explanation but neither Judaism nor Christianity provide accurate believable background.
Judaism as defined by what Jews do and believe could just as well be defined as belief in the Golden Calf since that was what the vast majority of Jews believed at Mount Sinai.
Nor is it believable that the Law of Moses is just a shadow of things to come. Any honest reading of it will show it was meant to be obeyed and observed for all time.
Clarity about these things came to me in stages. You could say learning the Talmud was helpful because of the rigorous examination and attempt to understand the Law of Moses. Mainly in the beginning of Yevamot and Nedarim and also in the Shar Yashuv Yeshiva it became clear to me that the Law of Moses is rigorous and has a well defined meaning that is objective and not dependent on who is reading it.
A real defining moment of clarity came to me in Geula [a neighborhood in Jerusalem] when a beggar woman was reading the book of Deuteronomy all the time. I asked her about this. She told me Moses came to her in a dream and asked her "What flaw did people find in my book that they feel it is unnecessary and irrelevant? Why do they not read it and keep it?" [I don't remember her exact words. But it was something along the lines of Moses asking her why people ignored the Law of Moses. This refers to all the Five Books but she was concentrating of Devarim Deuteronomy for some reason]
Of course, the Law is used as a cover up for worship of idols. Worship of people is the common way this is done. You have con men, supposed saints, that make a show of keeping Torah and then people worship them. This is more insidious than open idolatry. I will simply not walk into an religious synagogue because it is a place of idolatry. But if there was an authentic Litvak yeshiva (orBeit Midrash) in my area, I would run to be there as much as possible.
The Law of Moses does need a Background and explanation but neither Judaism nor Christianity provide accurate believable background.
Judaism as defined by what Jews do and believe could just as well be defined as belief in the Golden Calf since that was what the vast majority of Jews believed at Mount Sinai.
Nor is it believable that the Law of Moses is just a shadow of things to come. Any honest reading of it will show it was meant to be obeyed and observed for all time.
Clarity about these things came to me in stages. You could say learning the Talmud was helpful because of the rigorous examination and attempt to understand the Law of Moses. Mainly in the beginning of Yevamot and Nedarim and also in the Shar Yashuv Yeshiva it became clear to me that the Law of Moses is rigorous and has a well defined meaning that is objective and not dependent on who is reading it.
A real defining moment of clarity came to me in Geula [a neighborhood in Jerusalem] when a beggar woman was reading the book of Deuteronomy all the time. I asked her about this. She told me Moses came to her in a dream and asked her "What flaw did people find in my book that they feel it is unnecessary and irrelevant? Why do they not read it and keep it?" [I don't remember her exact words. But it was something along the lines of Moses asking her why people ignored the Law of Moses. This refers to all the Five Books but she was concentrating of Devarim Deuteronomy for some reason]
Of course, the Law is used as a cover up for worship of idols. Worship of people is the common way this is done. You have con men, supposed saints, that make a show of keeping Torah and then people worship them. This is more insidious than open idolatry. I will simply not walk into an religious synagogue because it is a place of idolatry. But if there was an authentic Litvak yeshiva (orBeit Midrash) in my area, I would run to be there as much as possible.
