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JUDAISM
Current year = 5775
Divisions of Judaism
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Reformed: 1800s - ethnic over ritual or law
Orthodox: maintains traditional practices and beliefs.
Conservative: 1800s – mid-way.
Reconstructionism: 1920s: Mordecai Kaplan - evolving
Zionist: secular movement to establish Jewish homeland
Rabbinic Judaism
• Ashkenazim: trace cultural influences to Germany and Eastern Europe
where Christianity was the dominate culture. Yiddish language.
• Sephardim: trace influences to Spain, North Africa, Italy and Ottoman
Empire where Islam was the dominate culture. Ladino language.
TNK
Torah
Nevi’im
Ketuvim
There is a story in wide circulation about a question asked of Rabbi Hillel -- a
notable rabbi from the 1st century BCE .
A non-Jew asked the rabbi to teach him everything about the Torah while standing
on one foot. Rabbi Hillel responded: "What is hateful to you, don't do unto your
neighbor. The rest is commentary. Now, go and study."
Mishnah and Midrash
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• Mishnah:
– legal guidelines
• Midrash: by 5th c. CE
– Interpretations of the
Torah
– Legal and non-legal
Talmud
• 5th c CE
• Palestinian and Babylonian
• Ongoing interpretation and application of the
Torah
Yad
Problems with the Trinity
• Shema: Affirms monotheism
• G-d is not human. Man is not G-d.
– The Christine doctrine of the incarnation goes against
the fundamental Jewish belief that G-d in incorporeal
• To worship Jesus violates the commandment
“you shall worship no other G-ds.
• Jews do not believe there is any intermediary
between G-d and man. G-d speaks to everyone
directly. A Jew believe that no one else is
supposed to talk for him, live for him – and
certainly not die for him.
On Jesus
• Joseph Klausner (1874-1958)
– Jesus remains even for the Jews a great teacher of
morality and an artist in parable.”
Jews for Jesus
Rituals
From Womb to Tomb
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Birth
Becoming a Man/Woman
Marriage
Death
Mazel Tov
• Naming a baby:
– Descriptive and prophetic
– Ashkenazim (Western): forbid naming a child after
a living person.
– Sephardic (Eastern): Give honor to someone who
is living. Will only find Jr. with Sephardic.
– Midrash says: “Every man has three names: One
his father and mother gave him, one others call
him, and one he acquires himself.”
Circumcision
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Brit Milah (covenant)
Male children at 8 days
Mohel
Sandek
After procedure all present say: “May he grow
to Torah, to chuppah, and to good deeds.”
Circumcision
Bar Mitzvah
Bat Mitzvah
• Son/daughter of the commandment
– The child is now bound to Jewish Law
• Son: age 13
• Daughter: age 12
– First American: Judith Kaplan
• A Bar/Bat Mitzvahs happens automatically.
Responsibility is the result of coming of age,
not of a party.
Talmud on Marriage
• “When a man is without a wife, he lives
without joy, without blessing, and without
good.”
Wedding
• Not on a holy day.
– Talmud says not to diminish your joy with sharing
it with another.
• Bride = Kallah
Groom = Chattan
– Both wear white
• The veiling (badeken)
• Chuppah
Fun Fact
• At many places that cater to pious Jews, a
special opening is cut out over the place
where the bride and groom stand. This hole
can then be uncovered at the time of a
wedding ceremony so that the couple is
literally standing under the heaven as they
begin their married life.
Ceremony
• At a traditional wedding, the bride circles the
groom 7 times.
• 7 corresponds with the 7 times it is written in
the Bible “when a man takes a wife.”
• Also has a mystical meaning – 7 spheres of her
beloved’s soul
• Can also show that she is captured the heart
of her beloved (Joshua and Jericho story)
Wine and Blessing
• Wine is the symbol of joy and gladness
• Special blessing
• Breaking of the glass:
• Reminder that our rejoicing must be tempered with the
remembrance of our people’s catastrophes.
• Links the future of the couple to Jewish history.
The groom enters the chuppah first
to represent his ownership of the
home on behalf of the couple. When
the bride then enters the chuppah it
is as though the groom is providing
her with shelter or clothing, and he
thus publicly demonstrates his new
responsibilities toward her.
Ketubbah: Marriage Contract
legal document where the groom promises to support his wife –
even in the event of a divorce.
On divorce
• “If a woman says, ‘My husband is distasteful
to me; I cannot live with him,’ the court
compels the husband to divorce her because a
wife is not a captive.”
• Maimonides
Death
• “The day of death is when two worlds meet with
a kiss: This world going out, the future world
coming in.” Talmud
• Judaism refuses to fill in the details of the postlife experience. Just as those before birth would
not have been able to describe life, so too are we
unable to describe the world to come.
• But that does not mean there is not life after
death.
Saying Goodbye
• Keriah: Tearing of ones garment.
• Dead should never be left alone.
– Shomrin are those who stay and pray over the
body of the deceased.
• Jewish Sacred Society: a group of pious Jews
that assist in the final preparations – ritual
washing of the body and dress the body of the
shroud
• Simple pine coffin
Chessed shel emet
(A kindness of truth)
• Every other act of kindness may have in it a
personal motive: I’ll do something for you so
that in the future you will do something for
me. Showing kindness to the dead is a “true
act of piety” because it cannot possibly be
tinged with any hope of reciprocity
Sitting Shiva
• 7 days
• Mitzvah of
sitting
• At end of 7
days, the
mourner
walks around
the block
Kaddish
• Ritual prayer said 11 months after the death of a
loved one
• It makes no mention of the deceased. Rather it is
a statement in which the mourner affirms the
justice of G-d and the meaninglessness of life. It
expresses hope for the redemption and ultimate
healing of all of suffering humankind. By
extending the preoccupation with is own tragedy
to a more universal concern, the kaddish elevates
the mourner to a higher level of consciousness.
Reincarnation?
• Not a universal Jewish belief – although many
especially in the mystical tradition of Kabbalah
believe in reincarnation.
Signs and Symbols
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Yarmulke
Tallit
Menorah
Star of David
Mezuzah
Shofar
Kosher
kippah or kipa
yarmulke
Tallit
Jewish Prayer Shawl
Menorah
7 branch candelabrum used in temple
8 branch for Hanukkah
The Star of David , known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David
The precise origin of the use of the hexagram as a Jewish symbol
remains unknown, but it apparently emerged in the context of medieval
Jewish protective amulets.
Star of David
• A Star of David, often yellowcolored, was used by the Nazis
during the Holocaust as a
method of identifying Jews.
• If a Jew was found without
wearing the star in public, they
could be subjected to severe
punishment. The requirement to
wear the Star of David with the
word Jude (German for Jew)
inscribed was then extended to
all Jews over the age of 6 in the
Reich.
Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is
One. You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, and with all your
might. These words which I command you this
day shall be in your heart. You shall teach them
diligently to your children. You shall recite them
at home and away, morning and night. You
shall bind them as a sign upon your hand. they
shall be a reminder above your eyes, and you
shall inscribe them upon the doorposts of your
home and upon your gates. (DT 6)
Shofar
Kosher?
The most common symbol of kosher
certification, from the Union of
Orthodox Jewish Congregations,
New York.
Other Symbols of Kosher.
Inside a Temple/Shul/Synogogue
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Architecture
Bimah
Ark of the Covenant
Ner tamid
Yizkor tablets
Siddur
Architecture
• Must have windows: ideally 12
• Windows teach us to look out to the world
around us. Not to be self-centered.
• Mechitzah: Orthodox. Divider sepaerate men
and women during prayer
Bimah
• An elevated
platform from
which the
Torah is read.
Sometimes,
places in the
middle of the
synogogue.
Ark of the Covenant: Faces east in the west
Ner Tamid
• Hangs in front of the
Ark
• Symbol of G-ds
constant guiding
light. (Ex 27:20-21)
Yizkor
• Tablets of
remembrance of
the dead.
Siddur
Clergy
• Rabbi: teach and preach
• Cantor (chazan): lead congregation in prayer
ad chooses the melodies/heads choir
• Shammash (sexton): practical matters of the
synogogue
• Lay leaders
Rabbi
Cantor
20th Century
• Yom-ha-Shoa: 27th Day of Nissan – Holocaust
• Yom-ha-atzma’ut: 5/14/1948 Israel
Independence
• Jerusalem Day: The Six-Day War of June 5-10,
1967
Holidays
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Rosh Hashanah: Jewish New Year
Yom Kippur: Day of Atonement
Sukkot: “Tabernacles/Booths”
Hanukkah: “Dedication”
Purim: Queen Ester saves the day!
Shavuot: “Weeks”50 days after Passover
Pentecost: Giving of the Law to Moses
Celebrate!
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Passover, or Pesach is held each Spring to recall the Jews' deliverance out of
slavery in Egypt circa 1300 BCE. A ritual Seder meal is eaten in each observant
Jewish home at this time. Six different foods are placed on the seder plate in the
order in which they area eaten:
Karpas (vegetables dipped in salt water) recalls the bitter tears shed during slavery
Maror (bitter herbs) to symbolize the bitterness of slavery.
Chazeret (bitter vegetables) also to symbolize the bitterness of slavery.
Choroset (apple, nuts & spices with wine) represents the mortar used by Hebrew
slaves.
Also placed on the seder plate, but uneaten during the Seder meal:
Zeroa (lamb shankbone) to recall the Passover sacrifice in the ancient temple.
Beitzah (roasted egg) symbolizes mourning, sacrifice, spring, and renewal.
Not placed on the Seder plate, but often eaten, is a boiled egg.
After women were first allowed to become Rabbim, some Jews commented: "A
woman belongs as a Rabbi like an orange belongs on a seder plate." As such, many
Reform Jews now include an orange with their Seder Plate to commemorate
female Rabbim.