Are there other religions with so many "rules?"

evie

Sun, Nov 11 2012, 2:40 am

Crossed my mind the other day, and I thought I'd post here about it. I kind of don't think that there are - but I could be wrong. Even Islam doesn't seem to have as many "mitzvot" - I'm not trying to count 613 exactly, haha, but I'm wondering if there are any others that are as "strict."

StrongIma

Sun, Nov 11 2012, 2:48 am

there probably are, according to their traditions, but our tradition states clearly that we have more ways of connecting to H’ than other nations have - 613 vs. merely 7.

evie

Sun, Nov 11 2012, 2:52 am

Isramom8 wrote:

I don't think so, not like ours! I know a person practicing Mormonism who cannot believe the detail that our halachos involve. LOL

The more I think about it, I think you're right. We have so, so, so many details within our halachot.

bluebird

Sun, Nov 11 2012, 3:04 am

Zoroastrianism is the only one that I can think of and I believe that most of the practice has fallen out of favor. The Gypsy culture has a lot of laws like that but that's not religious.

DrMom

Sun, Nov 11 2012, 3:17 am

Islam has alot of rules (I don't know how many), and they copied many of their procedures for deriving rules from the halachic process.

I think Judaism is the most "legalistic" religion I know of.

sequoia

Sun, Nov 11 2012, 3:17 am

Nah, Orthodox Christianity has books of rules. They can't go to a bathhouse with Jews, they can't do business with Jews, can't eat blood, very complicated fast days and a very complicated calendar in general (like during Lent you have to be vegan but certain days you can have dairy or fish, and in the week leading up to certain holidays you can't even have vegetable oil). Lots of rules regarding zex, what is and isn't okay, which positions, which acts, which days. Traditionally, certain kinds of work were not allowed on Sunday. Work was divided into "clean" work (e.g. embroidery) which was allowed on Sunday and "dirty" work (e.g. spinning or weaving) which wasn't. There's also a ton of paganism and real outright avoda zara mixed in it, so that further complicates things.

As for Gypsies, they can be any religion (Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, whatever), but aside from their religion they also follow Gypsy law, which is in some respects even more detailed and involved than halachah. They use separate towels for the upper and lower parts of the body, for instance.

etky

Sun, Nov 11 2012, 3:29 am

Catholicism has many, many comprehensive, detailed rules that apply to daily life for people living in religious orders. There are rules for lay people too but not nearly as many.

PinkFridge

Sun, Nov 11 2012, 9:12 am

There's a cute joke about little Chaim Schwartz who used to play with his neighbor Jimmy O'Rourke. One day, in December, Chaim was in Jimmy's house and noticed the tree. In short order Mr. O'Rourke marches Chaim back to his house and rips into his parents over how ill-mannered a child they had. This was quite surprising and they asked him to elaborate. "He saw our tree and right away started rudely asking all sorts of questions. What kind of a tree does it have to be? How tall? What do you do with the fallen needles? What kind of ornaments are you allowed to put on?" Etc.

Raisin

Sun, Nov 11 2012, 9:15 am

catholics are not allowed to get divorced AT ALL. So if you are a strict catholic and have an abusive husband, (or abusive wife) thats it, you can leave him/her but never remarry in a church. (in some cases you can annul a marriage eg if it was never consummated but I don't know how easy that is) Anglicans also. If you think the aguna issue is bad how about that?

(and yes, some catholic countries do not allow divorce or did not allow divorce until recently)

Also lent is a big deal, I know certain foods are not eaten.

marina

Sun, Nov 11 2012, 11:53 am

I have heard of religious groups with more severe kashrus restrictions, like they can't eat anything almost except for water when traveling, generally they pretty much subsist on vegetarianism and dairy.

evie

Sun, Nov 11 2012, 1:58 pm

marina wrote:

Jeepers!

DrMom

Sun, Nov 11 2012, 3:05 pm

evie wrote:

marina wrote:

Jeepers!

Jainists?

imamiri

Sun, Nov 11 2012, 3:09 pm

Raisin wrote:

In the standard RCC, you can get an annulment and it's not that hard. It's about money, and if you are willing to pay you can get it.

Also not being able to re-marry in the RCC doesn't destroy your social life the way women chained to deadbeat husbands who won't give a get does as many Catholics are not 100% observant.

Now if you are talking about the out there, crazy Mel Gibson sect/style Catholics, then you are right.

Last edited by imamiri on Sun, Nov 11 2012, 3:18 pm; edited 1 time in total

iluvy

Sun, Nov 11 2012, 3:14 pm

marina wrote:

My friend's inlaws are Hindu, and they wouldn't come to America for her wedding because they don't eat outside their own home for kashrus reasons. They don't eat TONS of things, like garlic, besides for ANYTHING animal-derived. Another Hindu guy I know told me that growing up his parents had two separate kitchens and were always going crazy making sure everything was separate.

From what I hear, Muslims are also very legalistic. I recently read a quote from an imam bemoaning the practice of "fatwa shopping," in which people go from imam to imam looking for a psak they like Smile