Rabidwriter --

There is much good advice here; consider and evaluate all of it for personal "fit." A few minor things I want to add:

1. Don't make too big a deal over a (slightly) different religious outlook from your husband. We don't (or at least, we shouldn't) temper our religious views to suit another, and if he truly respects you, he will accommodate himself to who you have become. ("A woman marries a man, thinking she can change him. A man marries a woman thinking she will never change. They are both wrong!")

2. Judaism is focused, not on belief, but on action. Never mind the hereafter; take care of the here and now.

3. (I can't believe, I forgot!)

Good luck.

Oct 12, 2009 -- 1:35PM, rabbijonathan wrote:

Judaism, agnosticism, and even atheism are totally compatible - Judaism does not prescribe a personal theological belief system.

So then, can I be both a Jew and a Christian? A Jew and a Muslim? A Jew and a Buddhist?

 I am a Christian who is fascinated with Judaism. I enjoy reading Jewish writers, studying the Jewish scriptures, learning about Jewish morality, and I see certain value in Jewish practice. However, I don't think I could ever possibly stop believing in the divinity of Jesus. Could I ever be both a Jew and a Christian? If not, how could I be an atheist and a Christian, then?

What exactly does it mean to be a Jew? Is it purely a matter of action? But then why do some Jews keep most of the laws, some very few of the laws? Aren't some practices (i.e. practices of worship) rather inseparable from belief? These are questions I am interested in having englightened. I would like to better understand the Jewish perspective. Is it varied among denominations? Is it more a matter of birth than anything else?

Dec 31, 2009 -- 2:53PM, withfearandtrembling wrote:

Oct 12, 2009 -- 1:35PM, rabbijonathan wrote:

Judaism, agnosticism, and even atheism are totally compatible - Judaism does not prescribe a personal theological belief system.

So then, can I be both a Jew and a Christian? A Jew and a Muslim? A Jew and a Buddhist?

 I am a Christian who is fascinated with Judaism. I enjoy reading Jewish writers, studying the Jewish scriptures, learning about Jewish morality, and I see certain value in Jewish practice. However, I don't think I could ever possibly stop believing in the divinity of Jesus. Could I ever be both a Jew and a Christian? If not, how could I be an atheist and a Christian, then?

What exactly does it mean to be a Jew? Is it purely a matter of action? But then why do some Jews keep most of the laws, some very few of the laws? Aren't some practices (i.e. practices of worship) rather inseparable from belief? These are questions I am interested in having englightened. I would like to better understand the Jewish perspective. Is it varied among denominations? Is it more a matter of birth than anything else?

Jews are a family. Judaism is the religious expression of the family. The family (better: tribe) has it's own language (Hebrew), it's own customs, it's own holy days and it's own distinctive dress and dietary customs.

Not everybody who is a MOT (member of the tribe) will express every single aspect of those distinctive ways, habits, customs and language - but most will express some. Others may maintain a lot. The tribe has a defined method of adopting people into the tribe, and of those adoptees, a certain amount of adherence to Judaism's practices, customs, laws and dietary habits - and theology - is usually required.

Think of it as sort of like being a Cheyenne. Members of the tribe are born into the tribe. They may live in Cheyenne country, speak the old language, follow the traditional religion and so on - or they may move to Manhattan and become stock brokers. However, they remain members of the Cheyenne Nation. But if a non-member wants to join, he can't just decide he wants to be Cheyenne and start going around saying so - no matter how much he studies about Cheyennes, he isn't one - unless the nation decides to 'adopt' him.

As for the 'agnostic/atheist' aspect - Judaism teaches that there is only one divine being, and that the divine being has certain characteristics - an agnostic, being not certain whether there is a god or not, may be able, with a clear conscience, to affirm that there are certainly no OTHER gods than this one. An atheist, being fairly sure there aren't any gods at all, can at least affirm that the god of Judaism is just that: the god of the Jews. What a convert may NOT affirm, is that this god is something other than the being defined by Judaism (for instance, the god of Judaism is not triune, and a prospective convert who believes that would 'fail the entrance exam').