tesuji

I guess the reason I thought of the question was that the Book of Mormon represents a significant intersection between Jews and Mormon beliefs. As you probably know, we believe the BoM is a book of ancient scripture, written by Jews who left Jerusalem during the time of King Zedekiah. The BoM is one of the most important things in our church.

That makes even more sense that what I thought.

No one's replied on this, so - Lehi was the first Jewish prophet in the Book of Mormon. https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/1?lang=eng

He he. "Jewish people." I fixed it

Aish, OK, at the risk of overwhelming you with all my posts here, I do have a question - are you familiar with the Book of Mormon? The real book of scriture, not the broadway musical Introduction to the Book of Mormon, https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/introduction?lang=eng I've always wondered what Jewish people thought of it. It's the book that our nickname "Mormon" comes from.

Aish, OK, at the risk of overwhelming you with all my posts here, I do have a question - are you familiar with the Book of Mormon? Our book of scripture, not the Broadway musical Introduction to the Book of Mormon, https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/introduction?lang=eng I've always wondered what Jew people thought of it. It's the book that our nickname "Mormon" comes from.

Aish, You may also find it interesting that interest in studying Hebrew goes back to the very beginning of our church. Our founder Joseph Smith (we believe he was a prophet) took an interest in Hebrew early on: https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V03N02_43.pdf (if you are interested enough to read a whole article... - please note also that this is not an official church journal) I can't say that a majority of Mormons currently learn Hebrew, but I think most would say they would like to.

No, you haven't done anything. I used to visit a forum on another website. A gentleman living in Jerusalem, an Orthodox Jew I believe, seemed to get offended at everything I said as a Mormon. I think maybe he had a lot of past annoyances from Christians there. I guess some Christians in Jerusalem, maybe mostly the tourists?, can get rather obnoxious, trying to convert Jews, etc. Also, we Mormons have a lot of respect for Jews and value their experience and scriptural teachings very highly. And of course there's the terrible history of anti-Semitism and persecution, which apparently unfortunately continues in some parts of the world today. We Mormons also suffered a bit in our history for being seen as being outside the mainstream as far as religion, so we can empathize at least a little about that experience.

So, Aish (I'll call you Aish) If you don't mind me asking, what kind of Jewishness do you follow? From your user name, I assume you are religious? Do you follow reformed, conservative, etc Judaism? (I forget the categories). Do you know Hebrew? Read the Torah often? Go to synagogue? Once again, pardon anything that might offend. You said you won't be, but I feel particularly strongly about not offending Jewish people, including from my ignorance.

OK, I'm working on some questions. Everything is jumbled in my head at the moment - so much to absorb from that book. But I'm definitely realizing as a Christian I need to know the Old Testament a lot better. And how cool would it be to learn enough Hebrew to read the Tanakh. Is Isaiah as hard to understand in Hebrew as he is in English, I wonder? I love Isaiah, but I can only imagine he is hard to read in a (for me) foreign language (the original Hebrew). He's a very literary writer, from what I gather.

Yep, and many other practical degrees too: http://www.byui.edu/online/degrees-and-programs My wife taught for the online Pathway program and thinks it's great. It's cheap too.

Hello. I'm very new here too, but I think it's great to see a Jewish father here. I happen to have recently started reading the following book, which explains to us clueless Christians how much we don't understand about what Jesus said, because we are ignorant about his Jewish roots. (I hope this does not offend you in any way - no offense intended.) Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewish Words of Jesus Can Change Your Life by Lois Tverberg (Author), Ray Vander Laan http://www.amazon.com/dp/0310330009/ I've also started learning ancient Hebrew recently. For the third time...

I should apologize for starting to derail this great thread. So, mental illness and our youth...

Contact Mr. Dehlin. Maybe he can leak it for you. http://www.sltrib.com/home/3144035-155/new-mormon-policy-would-make-apostates

The subject of psychology is fascinating to me. I think the human brain and mind are going to be the real last frontier in science, and that we've just begun to skim the surface so far. The term comes from Greek psyche ("breath, spirit, soul, mind") and logia ("study of," from Greek logos "word, saying, speech, discourse, thought, proportion, ratio, reckoning") So psychology and religion very much overlap in their subject. I would love it if we LDS had a whole new book of scripture that told us what to do about depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, ADHD, etc. But we don't. So I think God wants us to figure this stuff out, using the mostly general guidelines in the scriptures we do have - and using whatever tools science and medicine can provide. I have little patience for the old idea that mental illness is all in your head ("just snap out of it') or that a person should be ashamed to see a mental health counselor. I personally think most people, if not all, could greatly benefit from some counselling. However, caution is advised. As some people have said, some current ideas in the field of psychology are directly against the gospel. I personally think the field has a long, long way to go. Just look at the recent debacle with the DSM-5. You could probbably say at this point it's one part science, one part witch doctoring. That doesn't mean it's worthless. Many people get real benefit from psychiatric drugs. Many people get real benefit from treatments, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. I myself have battled with anxiety and depression. I knew several kids in my old ward who in just the space of one year returned home from BYU Provo because of debilitating anxiety - they had a real problem, and telling them to just pray or snap out of it wasn't enough. By the way if anyone is interested, I have found the following the most useful books for depression and anxiety. Neither is by an LDS author, but our Mormon religion tells us to find knowledge and truth wherever we can in this world: Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, 2008 by David D. Burns This book gave me the toolbox I needed to manage depression. Most valuable book I have read outside the scriptures. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Zen Living, 2000 by Eve Adamson and Gary McClain This book was life-changing. No, I'm still a Mormon not a Buddhist. But I find many of the tools from the Zen folks to be greatly, practically helpful.

I like what you're saying. However, in my case, my daughter wants to be an artist. I will encourage her 100%, but I will also tell her to have a plan B to fall back on. My sister majored in humanities, but also got a minor in business. I thought that was wise.

I agree with you, but what I meant is that God is a physical being that exists in our same physical universe. Apparently, other Christian churches do not believe God is in our same physical universe, nor do they believe he has a physical body. See the book Wrestling the Angel: The Foundations of Mormon Thought: Cosmos, God, Humanity, by Terryl L. Givens, 2014, chapter 11 "The Embodied God" Since he is a physical being in our universe, he must logically be present somewhere. Does he live all the time on a planet? I think we have no idea, yet, about this kind of thing.

I am all for using common sense. But as graduate with a literature degree I have been saddened to see many people in recent years bashing liberal arts. So far in my working life, I have had good careers in two different career areas. So majoring in "less sane" areas is by no means a recipe for unemployment. You just have to be more creative, sometimes, in finding a career. Just having a college degree, in anything but especially in liberal arts, opens a lot of doors. Liberals education teaches you how to learn and how to communicate, which are valuable skills. Education is for both 1) education and 2) jobs. I hope we never forget #1. If everyone only ever learns STEM subjects, we are on a quick path to being a world of highly skilled barbarians.

Just adding my two cents. Mormonism is rather unusual among religions in that it preaches that God has a body. He is a physical being that exists in the same physical reality that we do. He is a glorified person, but all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful. I think we have little concept of what God's life is like. As Isaiah says, his ways are not our ways, his thoughts not our thoughts. It is actually by design, that we have forgotten what our pre-mortal life was like, so that we can be tested and "stretched" in this life. Personally, I would be surprised if he just hangs out on a planet somewhere sitting on throne all the time. Short answer is, we don't know. The Book of Abraham tells some info, but I think it's unclear and not anywhere near the full story.

I apologize if I was wrong. I'm new to this site and, no, I don't know you. I was just going by what you said. In my circles I'm used to hearing conservatives bash liberals without any clue of what they're are talking about. Most of my relatives are what I would consider "very conservative," pretty far right of center. So I get tired of it. Again, I apologize and I did not mean to offend you. I jumped to conclusions. Politics sucks. Please remind me to stay out of it. I'm sick of it...

Most liberals I know would say this also applies perfectly to conservatives. It shows how little each side understands the other. My point is that you appear to be so conservative that you do not understand what liberal means. It's a different worldview. I think it might even be largely genetic, for both sides. I think conservative and liberal brains might work differently, at least partially. Neither is wrong, in my opinion. Just different. "Seek first to understand, then to be understood" is one of Covey's principles. Ideally, you would understand the liberal worldview well enough to tell a liberal how he/she sees the world, and they would say "Yes, that's pretty close." I don't think you're close yet. [added] Neither "liberal" nor "conservative" has much to do with being a disciple of Christ, in my opinion. Politics and the gospel are not the same thing.

I good definition of "liberal" would be one that liberals read and say, OK that's pretty accurate. I don't think many liberals would say that here. I don't think you all understand the way liberals view the world. That's OK. Many liberals don't understand how conservatives see things either. By the way, there are many liberals who believe in God. Including Mormons who are liberals and in good standing with the church. I see real problems with both liberal and conservative worldviews. They each emphasis some things at the expense of other crucial factors. I think the ideal political solutions are reached when they work out a compromise that accounts for both worldviews.

No, this is not even close to a definition of liberals. "Liberal" is a broad general term, but one of the main things most of them believe is that the status quo needs to be reformed and improved. They usually want change, for the better. In my experience, they tend to be more idealist and maybe less practical. But there is a place for dreamers in this world - most historical progress and improvement has come because of them. You could even say that according to this definition, that Jesus was in some ways a liberal. He rejected the status quo and wanted a better way.

Here's something I found almost at random on google. An example of what it's like to have one kind of mental illness. It's horrible http://www.npr.org/2013/07/19/171270996/whats-it-like-to-have-a-psychotic-episode