Behold the truth of thine foes!

[BilboTheHobbit]

Why would jewish priests be lawful good? I don't really think they liked the romans laws, I could go for chaotic good because they would do slightly illegal things to help their people.

[Leonidas]

Originally posted by BilboTheHobbit:
<STRONG>Why would jewish priests be lawful good? I don't really think they liked the romans laws, I could go for chaotic good because they would do slightly illegal things to help their people.</STRONG>

The Jewish religion has a huge number of rules and customs. Everything from how to eat, how to marry, wear clothes, speak, address your elders.....So on and so forth. The model Jewish priest would follow these rules, making him lawful. He would recognize these rules above any man made (Roman/German) rules which happened to be placed over him at the time.

[Doltan]

I completely agree that Jews would be lawful. I don't believe it is a mischaracterization to say that most of the Jewish scripture is a blueprint on how to live your life (essentially laws).

Originally posted by Saruman:
<STRONG>Doltan, If you are interested for further reference on the Jewish perceptions of God and the creation of good and evil have a look at this page;

[url="http://www.jewfaq.org/g-d.htm"]http://www.jewfaq.org/g-d.htm[/url]</STRONG>

Thanks Saruman for referall to this very interesting web site. As a Christian (Catholic), I found the following passage to be extremely interesting:

<STRONG>G-d is the Creator of Everything
Everything in the universe was created by G-d and only by G-d. Judaism completely rejects the dualisticnotion that evil was created by Satan or some other deity. All comes from G-d. As Isaiah said, "I am the L-rd, and there is none else. I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create evil. I am the L-rd, that does all these things." (Is. 45:6-7). </STRONG>

Certainly this is not emphasized in most Christian faiths (I have experience with a few of them). Numerous modern Christian writers have dealt with the "problem of Evil" and there has been quite an evolution of Christian thought on this topic. I'm curious how modern Jewish writers (non-Orthodox) have approached the problem of Evil and pain. Most Christians would not say that God causes disease and pain, but instead allows the presence of it for various reasons (i.e. God is good but allows evil). While the passage from Isaiah says that God creates the evil, the web site goes on to state that God in His omnipotence allowed the persecution of the Jews (rather than caused it, making God still good but allowing evil) for reasons that cannot be understood with our limited perception. There is obviously more to this issue...

[cgardenh]

Fellows of the board, We all know that good has to be a matter of personal or societal perception in some cases. Hence killing is "good" or justified in war but is not as such in everyday life such as killing your wife. Almost everyone considers they're god to be good, except patently evil deitite like Kali in India etc. The Jewish god is certainly a law giver and is definitely considered good by Jews and Christians alike(I will spare you numerous biblical quotes.) Back to what I said to Metatron, I think you are somewhat right in that hermetic cabbalism is like D+D magecraft, however,pure cabbalism is an outgrowth of the inherent power in the symbols of the Torah. It is an invocation of the mystical symbols which unlocks the cabbalists path toward God. Saruman's comment on golem creation and sticking the parment in the mouth is a perfect example of this. These symbols channel the life giving power of god into dead clay much in the same way that God channeled power into Adam. Hence I hold my position that this is much more like priestly magic in D+D. I always have preferred to change the rules of my D+D campaigns so that priests do not have to memorize spells but have access to certain spells based on their nearness to their deity(level). This also makes them a little more powerful, i've always felt they're a little underpowered compared to mages. Anyway end of sermon, good topic guys you made me think a little.