Judaism

I have not gone to temple or church in five years, so I was a tad impressed with myself by how much I remembered. However, there were a few sections in the reading that I was surprised by. First off I did not know that the Jewish faith evolved from a polytheistic faith to a monotheistic faith. I always just assumed that one day Abraham claimed Yahweh was the one and only god and everyone just accepted that as fact. Never realized that Israelites were divided between other gods such as Ball the storm god and Ashram the fertility god. I also never really thought about the transition from tribal groups to a single monarchy. I knew there were Jewish tribes and I have heard Jewish kings, but I never really put two and two together to come to the conclusion there was a transition. From personal experience I understand that Israelites have a large emphasis on rules. My fathers side of the family strongly dislikes my mother because she turned off a stove on the Sabbath. We came over for a party and my aunt left the stove on the night before because she would not be allowed to turn it off the following day. My mother saw the stove was on and turned it off. She has gotten the cold shoulder from my cousins since.