u/ultimaterogue11

A little note: I am Jewish, although my Jewish education was a little spotty, so if I get anything wrong please let me know. 

Ok this post might be a little longer than my previous post because I’m writing this under the assumption that most of y’all only know surface level stuff about Judaism so I’m going to explain the concepts when they come up.

I will also note that this is how I think Judaism would change within the setting of trench crusade, it thus needs to fit the themes and aesthetic of Trench Crusade. I don’t think this is an accurate representation of how real world Judaism would turn out if similar events happened. As we can see from the many catastrophic events that have happened throughout Jewish history did not make Judaism like a religion in Trench Crusade. So all of the points and thoughts I have on this topic are based in the idea that the Judaism that emerges from this needs to fit within the setting of Trench Crusade

Alright now on with the post.

The first major change in the development of Judaism is the giant portal to hell destroying Jerusalem. What is the significance of Jerusalem in Judaism? Well it's the only holy site in the religion and the last time there was significant destruction there with the destruction of the second temple, Judaism fundamentally changed and is still in perpetual mourning. So the complete destruction of Jerusalem would create massive ripples through Judaism. 

But probably the largest change would come from the confirmation of Hell as described in Christianity. In Judaism the concept of an afterlife is a subject of debate let alone Hell. So this would spark a major crisis of faith over the question of why G-d did not put a description of Hell in the Torah (Christian Old Testament) and why Christianity did and from that what else was left out in Judaism. This might cause some people to convert to Christianity but many others wouldn’t and Judaism would definitely still exist as explained in the next section.

The Talmud!!!! (This is the main reason I decided to explain these concepts because there's a lot of people saying incorrect things about it)  Ok the Talmud is a commentary on the Mishnah which is a completion of oral Jewish religious law. It is filled with different rabbis arguing with each other, sometimes with rabbis that have been dead for hundreds of years. The Talmud also contains a lot of wisdom stories and folk tales.

So what role does the Talmud play in the trench Crusade? Well the whole Christian depiction of Hell would spark a debate in the Talmud and the changes to Judaism would stem from that. To be clear these changes would have to happen in Jewish religious law and people's interpretation of the Torah, if any changes were made to the Torah, which would be considered to blasphemous to many Jews especially those that consider the Torah to be the word of G-d which almost every Jew did during the time period of TC would, that would not really be Judaism but a new and different religion. 

So in summary of this section the changes to Judaism would appear in Jewish interpretations of law not in the Torah itself.

Another major change for Judaism in Trench Crusade would stem from the fact that the apocalypse has clearly arrived. In Judaism the apocalypse is less of a world ending event and more of a time of great struggle that will herald the coming of the Messiah, who will then lead the Jewish people back to the land of Israel and begin the Messianic age. There is a pattern in Jewish history that after a large amount of persecution Messianic expectations rise and people begin waiting for the imminent arrival of the Messiah. So in the setting of Trench Crusade Messianic expectations would be at an all time high in the Jewish world and would have been that way for the last 1,000 years. This would probably start turning into a more active search for the Messiah, and Judaism in the modern day of Trench Crusade would definitely be actively searching for the Messiah.

Now I’m going to move away from over view to some specific thoughts and ideas rattling in the back of my mind about this

Judaism could also take on a more, well, Crusadey feel to it. In this setting unholy forces have literally taken over the holy land and I could see Judaism becoming very desperate to take it back. TO BE CLEAR, this was and is not a position that Jewish people have about Christianity or Islam, the only reason why I think it could develop is because of the literal forces of hell being in control of the holy land.

For more specific changes I could see Tikkun Olam (repairing the world) taking on a very different meaning. Turning from acts of charity to an interpretation where hitting a Heretic legionary with a hammer counts are repairing the world.

The Synod of Strategic prophecies is a clear sign that the gift of prophecy has entered back into the world, In Judaism it no longer became a gift many thousands of years ago. So this would spark searches for Jewish prophets. And also this could create fun pieces of conflict/ stories where Synod of Strategic prophecies kidnaps a Jewish person with said ability pulling the church into a conflict with the Jewish faction.