Ancient religions to Judaism

They have elements of yiddishkeit for the same reason that every old religion did; humanity used to know Torah before idolatry vegan. There was no “start” of Judaism, since Hashem used the Torah to create the world.

>>>Why are there similarities between Hinduism and Judaism or in general Indians and Jews? etc.

Because certain truths are or were universally recognized. I can think of concepts a lot more central to Judaism than walking around going around 7 circles in the Chuppa that are also found in some other religions religions. It makes a lot of sense that those religions would have independently came to do/say the same thing. And it wouldn’t surprise me n the slightest in it was proven that such things were in practice/in writing before Mattan Torah. Do you expect that every mitzvah and concept in the Torah should be something that does NOT resonate with people and something that no one would ever think of their own as being the right thing to do/correct way the world works?

RW: “-There aren’t?”

No, there is not.

FIrst of all, they trace parts of the religion to religions 2 thousand years old that trace parts from another older one etc. Secondly, they don,t have a clear central “mythology” only a central focus ie philosophy. Therefore the claim that judaism comes from them is ridiculous on its face as is not even thought of in the academic world that studies far east religions. It seems to just be what happens when you have people that don’t know anything about judaism or hinduism seeing a couple of similarities and becoming “groiser chachomim”.

Dovid: Yoga is pure Avoda Zora.

ujm: One of us is an ignoramus, and it’s not me.

I heard it was Rav moshe feinstein said yoga is Avoda zara. FACT: The positions that are done in Yoga are for the practitioners to imitate the positions of several different hindu deities, R’L. It is clearly avoda zara

It sounds like the H religion is derived from the place הודו, which is of course known. The נ appears in Aramaic cognate. ( same birth).
There is no קדושין in common law so it is hard to say that customs of קדושין are shared.

Dovid: Pleading ignorance that yoga is Avoda Zora doesn’t excuse continuing to practice it.

“-isnt that before Torah was written?”

No, the Torah was written before Maaisa Bereishis. It was given to us at Har Sinai in 1313 BCE.

Additionally, those documents do NOT mention any of the things similar to Judaism.

RW, again, there’s no evidence that they have been doing it since before Matan Torah.

Saying yoga is kosher is a bit like saying wearing a problematic Indian sheitel is kosher as long as you’re not engaging in AZ while wearing it.

R Twersky highly recommended AA despite the religious origin. What if I just stand on my head with crossed over legs – without even knowing where this comes from? Not in shul , of course.

On the other hand, why would one need yoga other than sound fashionable? You can walk for exercise and meditate before davening.

Ujm, AA started as a religious “non denominational” program and has references to G-d, the way, presumably, they understand Him. Quoting from THE TWELVE STEPS AND JUDAISM article by R Twersky, 1993:
“A.A. is Christian because meetings are held in church basements,” say some. While it is true that the majority of A.A. meetings are in churches, it should also be mentioned that few Jewish facilities have welcomed A.A. … If more rabbis and community leaders would overcome their resistance and denial, there is no question that more meetings will be held in Jewish institutions.

“A.A. meetings involve Christian liturgy,” say others. While A.A. meetings generally close with the Lord’s Prayer, there is no rule in A.A. that precludes substituting a Jewish prayer. While others are reciting the Lord’s Prayer, one may say the 23rd Psalm or any other Jewish prayer.

“All the available literature on spirituality in recovery has Christian origins,” is another common complaint. Like the first objection, this is not inherent in A.A… lack of awareness about alcoholism among Jews is responsible for the absence of literature on spirituality.

He then goes thru 12 steps, explaining how each of them fits into Judaism, such as:
Step Two: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. The Talmud states “A person’s temptations becomes more intense each day, and were it not that God helps him, it would be impossible for him to resist.” (Sukkah, 52b). This statement is universal, applying to all people, great or small, wealthy or poor, learned or unlearned.

Step Five: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. All the works of Jewish moralists and ethicians are replete with need for cheshbon hanefesh.

Step Nine: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. The Shulchan Aruch, or Code of Jewish Law, states that all the atonement possible is ineffective if an individual has harmed another, unless forgiveness from the victim has been sought. If the wrong action resulted in financial loss, then adequate restitution is required.

He ends with a statement pertinent to a lot of threats here:
It has been said that new ideas often have a three-stage course. At first, the idea is thought to be anti-Jewish. Then it is decided it may be compatible with Jewishness after all. Finally, it is declared that Jews thought of it first. This theory notwithstanding, it is difficult to see how anyone can point to any conflict between A.A. philosophy and Judaism.

Syag, I agree – he is saying that others are saying so and he is responding. I find an interesting nekudah in his explanation: some people are looking for an excuse to not deal with the problem, and saying AA is not kosher is just an easy way for them to deny … In other places, he makes a point relevant to many entrenched positions here, whether on politics or anything else: the smarter the person is, the easier it is for him to convince himself in the correctness of his ways despite all the evidence to the contrary. The smart person can always explain the facts away.

Back to yoga, I don’t know enough to know how much “non-denominational” value is there. I just feel there is no urgent need to consider kashering it, other than keeping up with the Joneses/Cohens. you can walk, bike, swim, do calisthenics, I never heard of diseases that yoga is the only way to deal with. I typed “yoga cure for” into google and first suggestion was “diabetes”, it is all about relaxation and mindfulness, something that a Jewish person could achieve within the Jewish tradition. Without eating sugary cakes, in this case.

Of course, one who needs to use AA methods isn’t, chash veshalom, doing something christian – he’s not praying to yushke, or submitting to him, or even serving Hashem the way they would lehavdil. There’s no avodah zara intrinsically in AA methods, rather a mistaken idea that humanity as a whole and every milchemes hayetzer is to be fought that way.

But he is copying one element of how Christians view humanity as a whole, while really they’re only correct about people with a specific mental health condition. Many false religiona take an idea that’s limited and apply it too broadly.

This is why i disagree with rabbi twersky z”l. He seemed to want to incorporate this idea into the mainstream, seeing the success he had with addicts. He meant well, but that is not the mesorah.

I believe you’re referring to arichus, and I’m not rashi. It’s not one of my strongsuits.

My apology to R Twersky that my quoting him caused a poster to disregard the Rav’s long-held position (confirmed by his many years of practicing psychology). The poster is obviously having mixed feeling as he is. one one hand, avoiding capitalizing the names and title of people he disagrees with, and on the other hands does use proper honorifics and z’ls. So, yesh tikva, maybe time for PA (Poster Anonymous). Anyway, R Twersky was a humble person, but in my opinion, his books are even a better guide for any Jewish person looking for AA or any kind of middos improvement. If you are afraid of thick volumes, you can start with his pshat on Peanuts cartoons.

AAQ – here i was thinking that my honorifics were clear..

I often don’t capitalize names of gedolei hador and my own rebbeim. I used to not capitalize Hashem until reb e convinced me to.

I use rabbi for people who either are run-of-the-mill shul rabbis, speakers, community figures, etc..or controversial rabbis who were big in learning, like rabbi hershel shechter, rabbi kook, rabbi yoshe ber soloveitchik, etc.. because i don’t want to call them “rav”, since that term implies authority and authenticity, whereas rabbi is a general term which isn’t disrespectful, but shows a modicum of torah stature.

Z”l I don’t give much though into; i think i used it by rabbi twersky(here called such because he was a rabbi but not a posek, rosh yeshiva, or gadol batorah) because i was disagreeing with someone who did a lot of good for klal yisroel, and his memory is indeed a blessing.

I don’t need to be someone’s superior in mussar to identify mussar ideas and where something deviates from the mesorah. Rabbi twersky was very knowledgeable in psychology, but that doesn’t mean he was incapable of making an error in hashkofa. Bigger people than him have made bigger mistakes in hashkofa (ralbag, for instance) and we don’t discount them as individuals.