jmercer said:
Good post, Shera - and I agree, Hell is a matter of dispute within Judaism, which is why I made my original comment.
Regarding current Judaic teachings, they (like Christian teachings) have changed over the years. Some of the stories in the Talmud and related texts pretty clearly show Holocausts were done to appease God, and it was the intention that counted... but often, that intention was measured by the degree of value the individual assigned to the Holocaust. Sacrificing a bull or a sheep meant a heckuva lot more in those days that it would to us today. (The thought of sacrificing ones brand-new car might put that in perspective. 
)
Nowadays, though, you're right - people are taught that it's how they conduct themselves daily that matters. A concept I wholly and fully endorse, I might add. 
Hi Jmercer
I thought your posts were good also.
They reminded me what some of my Catholic friends had told me a long time ago -- that some parts of Jewish history, as understood through the perspective of Catholic history, is taught in Catholic parochial schools. Sounds like you went to one and it also sounds like you may have spent more time learning about the sacrifices that took place back during the days of the Temple then I did!
If so, this doesn't surprise me. From what I can gather from your posts it sounds like your teachers were teaching this subject as part of the background knowledge necessary to understand the Christian teachings on why JC was crucified -- as a sacrifice.
From my Jewish high school teachers' point of view sacrifices were no longer relevant and had not been for almost 2000 years. They treated the subject matter accordingly and spent very little time on it. The only other things I would add to my post from April 19 on the subject is that my teachers also taught:
* Sacrifices were rationalized as something that God had indulgently allowed a primitive people to continue because they were familiar with it from before receiving the Torah (OT) and it was a very common practice in those days. (I realize that this may be a weak rationale and perhaps not logical or believable, but I'm just presenting what I was taught.)
* Prayer was an acceptable substitute for sacrifices. For example, if the Hebrews could not travel to Jerusalem for the festivals to make their sacrifices it was not a sin. (Sacrifices could only be made at dedicated places -- not just anywhere.) Eventually prayer completely replaced sacrifices.
* There were different types of sacrifices -- not just livestock -- for example, some could be wine or grains.
Another factor is that I'm old enough that my high school did not teach the girls Jewish religious law directly from the Talmud but from some other religious literature. (Hebrew classes were separated by gender, the secular classes weren't -- I think now most Orthodox Jewish high schools do teach their female students the Talmud.). The boys were taught Talmud. And I would bet that they may have learned a little more about sacrifices in their Talmud classes because although it was no longer relevant, it was it was a sizable chunk of the Talmud. (The Talmud has 6 books and about a third of one book deals with sacrifices).
You did get my curiosity going on this subject though, so I found a
web page on sacrifices from one of the sources I regard as credible in relaying the Jewish point of view on Judaism. Personally I think the web page is a little boring -- but if one plods through it perhaps you will agree with me that Jewish teachings about what sacrifices were required and what it meant back than differs at least a little from the Christian teachings (assuming I understood your posts on this correctly). The religions' teachings after all do differ in some areas, otherwise they would not have branched off -- so it makes sense that this will happen sometimes.
Personally, I'm just glad that sacrifices are no longer an active practice in anyone's religion.
Edited to fix link.
