I kinda thought, without real certainty, that the words Jew, Jewish, Judaism probably derived from one of the 12 tribes, named for Jacob's (also called Israel...maybe the Children of Israel?) sons. One was Judah, his tribe sort of became the Kindgom of Judea...I'm close if not accurate.

Mix in some ancient Aramaic (spoken at the time of Jesus, who was from the Tribe of Judah) some ancient Greek and/or Latin and it ends up today as what we use for the words.

This is a start, Russ, not to be used as a source.

Why is it that many Jewish folks I know do not believe in God?

Haven't they read the Torah? They gotta know how this is gonna go... and it's headed that way. 🌫

Am always looking to learn. Directional knowledge is good. I won't quote your words as ..... scripture.

Brings another question, and then a thought.

Are there significant differences between the Torah and what Christians call the Old Testament?

Shawn,
Think there is a similar malady with Christians a generation younger than us. I hear many people say they were raised Christian, don't go to church of believe in God.

^Yes, that is also true.

I do believe the first 5 books of the old Testament are the same as the Torah. If it isn't exactly the same, it's pretty close to it.

I have a hard time not believing that there is some power greater than me (call it God or whatever) that created what we see around us. Was there a master plan by some supreme being that has all the insight on how things will work and evolve? I don't know. Maybe it just dipped it's finger into the celestial pool to start a chain reaction to get us where we are now and see how it works out. Maybe there's a bunch of others "experiments" that it dipped it's finger into.

Here on this rock that we call Earth
- Plants, animals, insects, bacteria, etc... all live in a symbiotic relationship.
- Animals breath oxygen and exhale CO2, plants breathe CO2 and give off oxygen.
- Bees buzz around to collect nectar and in doing so, pollinate plants to make fruit and veggies and seeds for more plants to grow.
- Bacteria can kill life but most life need it to live.

So on and so forth. There are so many moving parts in this world that need to fall into place for life, as we know it, to exist.

I get it, there are billions and billions of stars, billions and billions of solar systems, billions and billions of planets. With that amount of trial and error, eventually all the pieces could fall together to create life (the infinite monkey theorem - monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will eventually create a work of Shakespeare).

Does this relate to the original post and question? Probably not... Dude, pass the bong...

8trackdisco,

Major differences of translation to English by Christians. Also, there are some Christians whose translation and interpretation include foreshadowing of Christ, which Jews don't agree with.

Identical in Hebrew, but not necessarily English translations by non-Jews.