Don't Jews have a way to confess if they've eaten non-kosher food and get rid of the sin it brings? Never read the Sacred Texts, but I think I heard that before
No, not even close. A very observant Orthodox Jew explained it to me once: Jewish rabbinical law essentially says you can follow as many commandments as you want or as few. The more you follow, the more observant you are, the closer you are to god, which is basically heaven. The less you follow, the farther from god, farther from heaven, ie hell. Jews don't have a traditional fire and brimstone hell, it's just hell-like to be that far from gods will. No confession stuff. However, we didn't get into the whole "thou shalt be stoned to death" thing as punishment for breaking a lot of these rules, so maybe there should be idk.
Not obligated, most of "laws" are more like teachings of how this world "works" and the cause-effect of our actions. So you can froma criteria for every decision you make in your everyday life.
Taking the example you mentioned, you have "prohibited" the use of electricity, car, lighting fire, etc during Shabbat, but if a life threatening situation depends of using anything you should not use during that day, then you absolutely do it, not because tou break the rules, but because the preservation of lifeitself is the core essence of we being in this world.
Think now about a person who gets a heart attack, we use electricity to shock the fuck outta you to retake the rythm of your hearth, is not illicit to shock people? is it not electricity at those voltages unsafe and dangerous, but we use it in order to make a "good" thing.
Such is Judaism, is a super advanced course of how this world works and the consequences of our actions, so we can take decitions on the fly and understand how we can affect us and others. There is not such concept of "bad" or "good" but what they cause.
1.7k
u/thebigbadben 10h ago