In his book, Gender and Judaism: The Transformation of Tradition, Harry Brod, a Professor of Philosophy and Humanities in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Northern Iowa, writes:

* Gender and Judaism

: Gender and Covenant in Judaism, pg 25, the Torah only commands circumcision ( milah.

* " Gender Healing in Messianic Judaism ," and " Heteroglossic Identity in Messianic Judaism " at the Pacific Northwest Regional AAR, April 1994.

) in Men and Women ; Gender, Judaism and Democracy.

Three academic centers were established, The Center for Jewish Ethics ( 1994 ); Kolot: The Center for Jewish Women ’ s and Gender Studies ( 1996 ) and Hiddur: The Center for Aging and Judaism ( 2003 ).

* Issues, a Jewish magazine published by the American Council for Judaism

Voices of Messianic Judaism: Confronting Critical Issues Facing a Modern Movement.

Issues in Contemporary Judaism.

Orthodox Judaism holds that takkanot ( Rabbinical decrees ) can only supplement and can never nullify Biblical law, and significant decisions must be accompanied by scholarly responsa citing sources and halakhic precedent.

In Conservative Judaism, the Rabbinical Assembly's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards has issued several responsa ( legal rulings ) which hold that the prohibitions against weddings in this timeframe are deeply held traditions, but should not be construed as binding law.

Conservative Judaism confers rabbinic ordination after the completion of a rigorous program in the codes of Jewish law and responsa in keeping with Jewish tradition.

Conservative Judaism has less stringent study requirements for Talmud and responsa study compared to Orthodoxy but adds following subjects as requirements for rabbinic ordination: pastoral care and psychology, the historical development of Judaism ; and academic biblical criticism.

Thus, while early Jewish literature has few historical works, many notes on the history of Judaism have been introduced into the responsa.

Conservative responsa are the body of responsa literature of Conservative Judaism ( also known as Masorti Judaism ).

In Judaism, views on abortion draw primarily upon the legal and ethical teachings of the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the case-by-case decisions of responsa, and other rabbinic literature.

* 20th and 21st century rabbis in Conservative Judaism have also produced legal responsa on a wide range of topics.

In a series of responsa on the subject of Niddah in December 2006, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of Conservative Judaism reaffirmed a requirement that Conservative women use a mikveh monthly following the end of the niddah period following menstruation, while adapting certain leniencies including reducing the length of the period.

Conservative Judaism requires responsa citing a full range of precedential authorities as part of any halakhic decision.

A later responsum of Conservative Judaism was issued by Rabbi Elliott Dorff, who argued, based on precedents in 15th-19th century responsa, that many foods, such as wheat and oil products, which had once been forbidden when produced by non-Jews, were eventually declared kosher ; on this basis he concluded wine and grape products produced by non-Jews would be permissible.

The CCAR issues responsa, resolutions, and platforms, but in keeping with the principles of Reform Judaism, their positions are non-binding on individual rabbis or congregations.

In 2006, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards adapted a series of responsa on the subject of the role of Niddah in Conservative Judaism, in which it discussed Conservative Judaism's view of the role of Temple-related concepts of ritual purity in contemporary Judaism.

Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism and Sikhism, etc., place particular emphasis on altruistic morality.

Germain Morin broke new ground by suggesting in 1899 that the writer was Isaac, a converted Jew and writer of a tract on the Trinity and Incarnation, who was exiled to Spain in 378-380 and then relapsed to Judaism ; but he afterwards abandoned this theory of the authorship in favour of Decimus Hilarianus Hilarius, proconsul of Africa in 377.

The Samaritans of Samaria ( see map at Iudaea Province ), had their temple on Mount Gerizim, and along with some other differences, see Samaritanism, were in conflict with Jews of Judea and Galilee and other regions who had their Temple in Jerusalem and practiced Judaism.

Rudolf Steiner wrote and lectured on Judaism and Jewish issues for much of his life.

He served on the faculty of Hebrew Union College ( HUC ), the main seminary of Reform Judaism, in Cincinnati for five years.

Heschel then goes on to explore the problems of doubts and faith ; what Judaism means by teaching that God is one ; the essence of humanity and the problem of human needs ; the definition of religion in general and of Judaism in particular ; and human yearning for spirituality.

: Heschel wrote a series of articles, originally in Hebrew, on the existence of prophecy in Judaism after the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE.

The contents are correspondingly varied: a confession of sin and a plea to God not to maintain his anger forever ( ch. 63: 7 – 64: 11 ); a poem on the theme that God has no need of a temple because Heaven is his throne and Earth his footstool ( Isaiah 66: 1 – 2 ); verses setting out conditions for admission to the community ; complaints of sin, incompetence and paganism ; and distinctions between the " righteous " and the " sinners ", foreshadowing the categories used in much later Judaism and early Christianity.

In Judaism it is traditionally recited on the fast day of Tisha B ' Av (" Ninth of Av ") the saddest day on the Jewish calendar mourning the destruction of both the First and the Second Temples in Jerusalem.

Papers from a recent Rabbinical Assembly conference on theology were printed in a special issue of the journal Conservative Judaism ( Winter 1999 ); the editors note that Kaplan's naturalism seems to have dropped from the movement's radar screen.

They believe that the Orthodox Jewish movements, on the theological right, have erred by slowing down, or stopping, the historical development of Jewish law: " Conservative Judaism believes that scholarly study of Jewish texts indicates that Judaism has constantly been evolving to meet the needs of the Jewish people in varying circumstances, and that a central halakhic authority can continue the halakhic evolution today.

* The Core Principles of Conservative Judaism, by Ismar Schorsch on behalf of the Jewish Theological Seminary

* Research and articles on Conservative Judaism on the Berman Jewish Policy Archive @ NYU Wagner

* Conservative Judaism on My Jewish Learning

* An intro to Conservative Judaism on Soc. Culture. Jewish Newsgroups

* Southern Baptist views on Judaism and other faiths

Judaism places emphasis on the right conduct ( or orthopraxy ), focusing on the Mosaic Covenant that the God of Israel, made with the Israelites, as recorded in the Torah and Talmud.

Jews hold that other nations and peoples are not required ( nor expected ) to obey the Law of Moses, with the notable exception that the only laws Judaism believes are automatically binding ( in order to be assured of a place in the world to come ) on other nations are known as the Seven Laws of Noah.

Christians explain that such selectivity is based on rulings made by early Jewish Christians in the Book of Acts, at the Council of Jerusalem, that, while believing gentiles did not need to fully convert to Judaism, they should follow some aspects of Torah like avoiding idolatry and fornication and blood, including, according to some interpretations, homosexuality.

Some Christians agree that Jews who accept Jesus should still observe all of Torah, see for example Dual-covenant theology, based on warnings by Jesus to Jews not to use him as an excuse to disregard it, and they support efforts of those such as Messianic Jews ( Messianic Judaism is considered by most Christians and Jews to be a form of Christianity ) to do that, but some Protestant forms of Christianity oppose all observance to the Mosaic law, even by Jews, which Luther criticised as Antinomianism, see Antinomianism # Antinomian Controversies in Lutheranism and Luther # Anti-Antinomianism for details.