Reading Resposne 4

In chapter 5 of Karen Armstrong's book she starts to talk about the Israelites time in Babylon and how they wanted to make themselves separate from their Babylonian neighbors.  From her point of view it seems this is where customs like circumcision and food laws really become important for the Jewish faith.  Another important thing that appears to have come out of this time period is the idea of god or Yahweh being mobile.  This idea is one we still carry around today believing that we can pray from basically any physical place that we are.  Something that was hard for me to grasp was after saying Yahweh was moblie, Armstrong states he left the Israelites who stated in Jerusalem.  While this isn't really factual and is passed down oral tradition, I would assume, this is just the interpretation of those who were exiled to Babylon.  I sometimes find it hard to keep in mind this book is simply peoples interpretation of history, whether through written accounts or oral tradition or however she found her sources. I constantly find myself thinking how does she really know that is what happened or what the people thought.  Though there are some obviously important changes made during this period to the religion of Judaism, the exact stories she gives of how they happened are often hard to follow and believe.