Download Judaism-Part 1

Judaism-Part 1
The last several sessions we've talked about Hinduism and
Buddhism, what, at least traditionally have been called more
Eastern religious philosophies, but we're going to make a shift now
to the monotheistic faiths which often are called more Western
with all the globalization. In today's culture I think the EasternWestern notation is breaking down, but we want to start talking
about the monotheistic faiths today.
I want to start with the oldest of the monotheistic faiths and that
would be Judaism. Both Christianity and Islam are deeply rooted
in Judaism. If you look at some of the ancient biblical history at
least of those three traditions, it's virtually the same. There comes
points along the way where either specific facts of the stories are
different from one to the other , particularly you'll find that with
Judaism and Islam , and then there comes points along the way
where the history takes off into very different directions. You find
that especially with Christianity and Judaism in the first century.
We want to start out with talking about Judaism which lays kind of
the ancient roots for the other two monotheistic faiths of
Christianity and Islam. Abraham is generally considered the father
of Judaism. It's believed he probably lived about 4000 years ago.
Basically, he's believed to be the father of Judaism because of what
the Bible says about that, the Hebrew Bible. What Jews
traditionally would say about that is that it's possible that God tried
to invite others into this covenant relationship with Him but
Abraham was the first one to respond to God and to say yes to
God. And so what the biblical story of the history of Judaism says
is that God invited Abraham into a covenant relationship with Him
and basically told Abraham that part of this covenant was that He
would take him to a land that would be a special holy land and in
that land Abraham would have many children and then many
descendants, and they would be a special holy people. And so the
Jews take their roots back into Abraham as do again Christians and
Muslims.
To talk about Judaism , because there's not really a central figure
that carries the definition of Judaism. I mean, you know, when we
talk about Buddhism, you could talk a lot about the Buddha
because so much of his life and teachings are the root of that. And
when we talk about Christianity, we'll probably talk quite a bit
about Jesus and with Islam we'll talk about Mohammed. But even
Abraham doesn't play as significant of a role in tracing out what
Judaism was in its early years and what it's become.
And so rather than trace this religion through the life of a person, I
want to talk about Judaism through four elements or four
dimensions that are important dimensions in Judaism. Certainly
they're not the only dimensions in Judaism but for our purposes
they're probably the four key or important dimensions. And so
we're going to talk about God. Secondly we'll talk about land and
how that's important in Judaism. We'll talk third about history or
historical events and then finally talk about this idea of the
covenant that I mentioned earlier.
So, first of all, as far as God. When you look at the Hebrew Bible,
there's actually a lot of Hebrew words used for God. When you
read an English translation, typically you'll just see Lord or maybe
God. But generally , but when you look at the Hebrew Bible, you'll
find a lot of different words. The name that I want to introduce you
to that Jews most often called God was Yahweh. Yahweh is the
equivalent of Jehovah, another one that you may be familiar with.
It's just from the Hebrew. It's the same word. It's just two different
ways of pronouncing it. Kind of a soft pronunciation and a hard
pronunciation. But Yahweh is basically the personal name for God.
That's the name that Jews called God as far as entering into a
covenant relationship with Him.
When you read the Hebrew Bible, you could find many
characteristics of the God of Judaism but I want to mention some
of the characteristics of Yahweh, of God, that begin to really set
Judaism apart from the other cultures around it. And maybe even
today to some extent does. Now, some of these characteristics,
especially for those of you raised in Judao-Christian culture or
even Islamic culture, you might kind of feel like I'm telling you
that a white horse is white or something as we talk about these
characteristics of God. But as I do this, I want to point out how
Judaism introducing this type of deity, this type of god, was pretty
novel, was pretty new, in the era of time and in the culture in
which Judaism began its early rise in its birth.
So, first of all, the God of Judaism or Yahweh is one. As I
mentioned earlier, Judaism is monotheistic. There's one God. Well,
and that's foundational to Judaism. There's a text in the book of
Deuteronomy and it's something that Jews call the N'Shamah. And
maybe you could equate it with kind of like a confessional
statement or a creed statement of Judaism. I don't know that Jews
would say that, but it's very foundational. It's said often, especially
by devout Jews, because of how foundational the N'Shamah's
teaching is to Judaism. The N'Shamah starts out with the
statement, "Hear O Israel" or "Listen Israel. The Lord our God is
one." There's only one. And that was foundational in Judaism.
Now, the N'Shamah is what goes on and says, "And you shall love
the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength,"
and all that.
But what I want to talk about particularly right now is this idea that
God is one, that Judaism is monotheistic. Again, it's the oldest
monotheistic faith as far as we know. Of all the traditions, of all
the spiritualities, of all the religions that had existed up until
Judaism came along 4000 years ago, monotheism was not an
aspect or not a common aspect among other religious traditions. So
for Judaism to come along and say there's only one God and He is
the God that we are in covenant relationship with, it made them
seem pretty exclusive with regard to the other faiths around them.
And this is probably one of the things that began to set the Jews up
as being very separate from the people that were their neighbors.
There was this monotheistic concept that Judaism carries, that
there's only one God. It was a new idea that Judaism brought into
humanity.
The second quality or aspect of a God of Judaism is that God or
Yahweh gives meaning. He gives meaning to the world, He gives
meaning to humanity. Again, from a Judao-Christian culture and
Islamic culture, we might take that for granted. But that wasn't the
case when Judaism was born and began its rise into the world
scene. Because up until that point, by and large, gods did not give
meaning and significant to the world and to humanity. The world
might've been the playground of the gods, or humans might've
been the play pieces of the gods. Humans might've been
interruptions or problems for the gods to have to deal with. Often
in a lot of the stories about where humanity in the world came
from, a lot of the earlier traditions, the coming into being of the
world and humanity was not planned and purposeful but by and
large accidental and even problematic and interruptive in the
bigger scheme of things.
And so you have Judaism coming on the scene and Judaism taught
that God created the world and that God created humanity, and that
He saw those creations as good. Even saw humanity as very good,
is what the creation story of Judaism says. Again, this was a new
idea. That God would give significance and meaning and even
purpose to the world and to humanity. Religions up to that point,
by and large, did not say that. Again, humanity was more of a
problem or an interruption or a play piece for the deities, not
something that was purposefully created and intended by a deity.
Another quality of the God of Judaism is that He is characterized
throughout the Hebrew Bible as just. That there are standards that
the God of Judaism is true to. We could say a lot theologically
about that, but to some extent that God's very nature is a just nature
is what Judaism teaches. And that God never compromises the
nature that He is. And so when He is characterized in the Hebrew
Bible, maybe characterized through the law as far as what His
heart and intentions are, maybe characterized through how He acts
in relation to humans, the idea that He's just is that He's consistent
with a standard and He himself to a large extent is that just, true
standard that He's always faithful to.
And so Judaism introduced this idea that there was a God who had
standards, who was ethical and who was true to those ethics and
those standards himself, and that He expected that of those who
were followers of Him, who were part of the covenant relationship
with Him. Now, again, we take that a little bit for granted and
actually, I think, often, especially in American culture, we kind of
don't like that idea of talking about God as a just God. But when
Judaism came on the scene and was talking about this idea of a just
God, there was almost something welcoming about that. Because
the deities of the other religions and spiritualities by and large
justice was not even part of trying to describe the divine realm.
Deities tended to be more capricious. They tended to be more
driven by their moods or day in and day out by what they wanted
maybe from other deities in the realm of deity. But God, the God
of Judaism, was portrayed as just and true to standards. In a sense,
almost predictable. And you didn't have that with other religions of
the time.
When I think about that, I think about this story as far as kind of
the , almost the welcome and the relief of a just system. I have a
cousin who lives in East Africa. He's been there for 20-some years
now. I went over and spent some time a few summers ago with
him and with his family, and we traveled throughout East Africa ,
Tanzania, Kenya, the island of Zanzibar. It wasn't uncommon for
us to get stopped by police when we were over there. Generally
we'd get stopped and my cousin would get out of the vehicle, and
he'd go , my cousin is very fluent in Swahili. Sometimes he'd have
a 3-minute conversation and sometimes a 20-minute conversation,
and then he'd come back and he'd get in the vehicle and I'd say,
"What was that about?" Often he didn't know why they stopped us.
I guess what sometimes happens in some regions in that area is
that, you know, police will just , especially if they see that you're a
foreigner , they'll stop you. If it's possible that they could get a
bribe from you so you won't be taken into jail or they won't arrest
you or they won't do something, it's kind of seeking an opportunity
with the foreigners, more or less. And my cousin and his wife both
have stories even of being taken to jail and not ever knowing why.
Spending a night in jail and not ever knowing why. Because the
system of justice is not upheld there.
So that's kind of the environment that he has lived in for several
years. Well, some time ago he was visiting here in the United
States and he was coming to see me. And he was a little late and
when he got to my house, he told me the reason he was late was
that he was flying down Interstate 44 and he got stopped by a
police officer. Interestingly, as he told me about that encounter
with the police officer, my cousin used the phrase "I almost wanted
to hug and kiss that officer when he came to my car." Well, and the
reason was, he said, because he knew what the deal was. He knew
he was speeding, he knew that's why he was stopped, he knew
what the officer was going to do, he knew what the punishment
was going to be, and that actually was a pretty secure feeling as
opposed to the other culture that he lives in and what it's like when
a police officer comes to your vehicle.
Well, it's kind of the same idea with the justice of a God of
Judaism. Being punished doesn't sound like fun. Getting in trouble
for things you do wrong doesn't sound like fun. Being rewarded for
what you do right does. But the God of Judaism had those
standards that it's taught that he's true to. And the gods of the other
nations or the other cultures previous to Judaism and surrounding
the early Jews was more like the culture that my cousin lives in as
far as with the police justice system. It's how the deities were. You
never knew if they were mad at you or not, if they were looking
out for your best interests or not. But Judaism taught that God was
just and true to the standards of justice.
One other characteristic of the God of Judaism that I want to
mention is that the God of Judaism is characterized as a god that
loves, particularly that loves humanity and loves people. That was
a new idea. We take that for granted, I think, in Judao-Christian or
Islamic culture, but in this era when Judaism came on the scene
that was a new idea that the divine realm would even care that
much about humanity, and especially would love humanity.
Again, humans are by and large an interruption, a problem, a
playground for the deities and not the object of the love of a deity.
Judaism taught that. You can find that in many places throughout
the Hebrew Bible. There's a story about a prophet of ancient
Judaism that really characterizes that well. Some of you may be
familiar with the Book of Hosea from the Hebrew Bible or from
the Old Testament. Hosea was a prophet. And what a prophet's role
was was basically to speak God's truth to the people of the time.
Generally, that was through preaching, through speaking a
message. But God used, according to the Hebrew Bible, Hosea and
his life as more of an object lesson to the children of Israel, to the
Jews, to communicate His love to them.
And so the basic gist of the story is that, according to the Book of
Hosea, God told Hosea to go out and marry a woman, a particular
woman, as a matter of fact. There were a few curious things about
this woman. One was her name. Her name was Gomer which is a
little curious but she was a woman. And so Hosea married this
woman named Gomer. She also had an interesting occupation for a
prophet of God to have as his wife's occupation. She was a
prostitute. But according to the Book of Hosea, God told him to go
marry this prostitute named Gomer. So he did. And she came and
lived with him and they had children. They had, I believe, three
children.
But eventually Gomer went back out on the streets. She left Hosea,
even though he had been good and loving to her, to go back to the
life that she'd known before. Well, when she went back out on the
streets, essentially now she was older and she couldn't really sell
herself. And so she worked for a man who basically sold her to
other men. So even though this isn't a Hebrew word, basically she
worked for a pimp now there in that culture.
Well, after some time the story of Hosea says that God went to
Hosea and said, "Okay. Go find Gomer. Tell her that you still love
her and that you want her to come back home and you want to be
her husband." So Hosea goes and he says that. By this point,
Gomer has found that life back out on the streets is not all that she
wants it to be. And so when Hosea came to her, she couldn't
believe that he still loved her, that he still wanted to be her
husband, that he still wanted her for his wife.
So she of course said, "I really want to come back," but she was
owned by this man. And so Hosea went and paid whatever price he
needed to pay to be able to take Gomer back as his wife. Now,
there's a whole lot more to that story, but that story is used by God,
according to Jewish tradition, through the prophet Hosea to say
that's how God is toward the Jewish people. He has the same type
of committed love toward the Jewish people that Hosea
demonstrated toward Gomer. That even though Gomer had been
unfaithful to Hosea, Hosea still loved her. And even though she'd
been unfaithful to Hosea, if she wanted to come back and be his
wife he wanted her to come back and be his wife. If there was a
price to be paid so that could happen, that God was willing to pay
that price as Hosea was willing to pay that price.
And some of the words in the Book of Hosea are words like that
God has compassion toward the Jews, that his passion is aroused
for them, that He wants to lead them along with cords of love. I
mean, it's very much a love story about God toward the Jewish
people. Well, this idea of a God that had that kind of commitment
to humanity was a new idea but Judaism teaches that. And, you
know, Hosea probably encapsulates that, but you can find that
throughout the Hebrew Bible and certainly throughout history as
far as teaching and Jewish tradition.
So the God of Judaism is really , if there's a central character to at
least the origin of Judaism and Jewish teaching, it would be God. It
would be Yahweh. A God that is one, a God that gives meaning to
humanity and to the world, a God that is just, and a God that loves.
Not just about loving other deities , that's how it was in the other
religions , but a God that loves humanity. So the idea of God is an
important element in Judaism.
A second important element in Judaism is the land. Now, certainly
this is more significant for some Jews than others. But throughout
Jewish history, throughout Jewish tradition, land has been a very
important aspects. Again, going back to Abraham. Because the
promise that Jews understand that God made to Abraham was that
not only would Abraham's descendants who the Jews believe
themselves to be , not only would they be holy, sacred, special
people to God, the object of His love, but also that they would live
in a land that was a holy, sacred land that God loved.
And so in this first covenant with Abraham, God established that
there would be a special land, a holy land, a sacred land, for His
people. Sometime later as the Jews established themselves in that
land, one of the kings of the Jews, Solomon, built a temple in that
land. And the belief was that that temple was God's dwelling place
on earth. The belief was that his presence was in some way in a
part of that temple. And so not only was the land holy because God
said it was in the first covenant made with Abraham and then kind
of reinstituted through Moses, but it was also considered holy
because it was believed that God lived in that land for a time while
the first temple and the second temple were there. That made it a
holy land.
And so this land has been very important for Jews to be able to be
in, to be able to have access to, to be able to call their own. And if
you're familiar at all with anything in the world today, as far as
what goes on, as far as current events, you know that that land is a
source of much contention. It's actually not a large piece of land.
The biblical land of Israel actually is about the size of the State of
Rhode Island. You could fit it very easily within the State of
Missouri. We're not talking about a country the size of the United
States or even the size of the State of Texas. We're talking about a
country that's much smaller than even the State of Missouri. But
this land is considered to be a sacred land by the Jews and there are
sacred sites there, especially where the temples once stood which
were believed to be God's dwelling place, that makes it important
for them to have access to that land.
Now, as I said at the beginning in talking about the idea of the
land, for some Jews it's more so than others. I mean, there's a
movement within Judaism , it's a movement from the 19th century
called Zionism , and the movement of Zionism is a political
movement largely motivated by religious reasons that says that the
original boundaries of Israel should be fully restored to the Jews,
that that's God's will. And so Zionists believe that whatever needs
to happen for those original boundaries of Israel to be restored, that
God wants that to happen and that should happen.
There are other Jews that kind of stand back and say, "Well, that'd
be nice if we had our own place," and there are other Jews that
believe if they could just have full access and control of parts of
Jerusalem that are sacred , I mean, it varies among Jews as far as
how important that is. And certainly there are other Jews that
probably are just tired of hearing people wrangle over the land and
believe that it's much more about the heart than about the land. But
historically the land has been very important, and that's going to tie
in here in a minute as we talk about history.
That's the third element, the third aspect of Judaism, that's very
important is historical events. You may be familiar , or maybe
even just on a calendar. If you're not Jewish, you may see holidays
show up on your calendar that you know, you know, maybe you
don't celebrate but other religions do or the religion of Judaism
does. Judaism does have many sacred days, many holidays, many
festivities throughout the year. By and large, those connect back to
historical events or to festivals or remembrances or maybe times of
rededication that the Hebrew Bible teaches that God set apart for
the Jews in history. So events are sacred in Judaism. Because in
these historical events, typically humanity and God intersected in
some way in that place or in that time. And so these events are
very sacred and there are many holidays in Judaism.
What I want to do is, starting in the biblical history that some of
you may be familiar with, I kind of just want to trace some of those
events and try to hook those in then with holidays that you may be
familiar with in Judaism, and then bring that up into some of the
current events that you find in Judaism. This is definitely
skimming the surface. I want to try to connect some dots that
maybe some of you are aware of.
As I said earlier, we'll have a time-line up here that you can see as
we trace this out. As I said earlier, Abraham is considered the
father of Judaism and it's believed that Abraham probably lived
about 4,000 years ago. When Abraham was first believed to have
been approached by God, he lived in what the biblical text calls
Hurran or Mesopotamia which today is probably a region within
what we call Iraq. Then when he traveled to this other land that he
believed God called him to go to that would be a sacred land, that's
too what we could call Palestine or Israel today.
And so Abraham went and established himself in that land.
Abraham and his descendants lived there for several generations ,
or for some generations. Abraham had many children, probably the
most famous that you might be familiar with is Isaac. Isaac had
many children. Probably one of the most famous would be Jacob.
Jacob was actually, eventually his name was changed to Israel. The
Hebrew Bible says that God changed his name to Israel. So that's
where the name Israel comes from, is from Abraham's grandson's
name that was given to him by God.
He was given that name because -- the Hebrew Bible records a
story that basically says that Jacob got into a wrestling match with
some sort of spiritual being. In the text it's a little unclear as to
whether that was an angel or whether that was God himself,
because it would seem to be an angel throughout the story and yet
at the end of the story Jacob says, "I have seen the face of God."
But then he was given the name Israel. What Israel means is one
who struggles or wrestles with God and that name was given to
Jacob because he had struggled or wrestled with God. And then
that name is the name of the people, the descendants of Abraham.
Israel: those who struggle and wrestle with God.
So they're still there in the land: Abraham's generation, Isaac's
generation, Jacob or Israel's generation. Jacob had several sons,
probably the most famous of whom was Joseph. A series of events
happened but basically because of drought, that generation ended
up leaving Israel , or leaving this land, Canaan, and going to Egypt
because there wasn't drought and famine in Egypt. But what
happened in Egypt was that over time the Jews became slaves of
the Egyptians. When they were ready to go back to Israel, they
couldn't go because they were captive slaves in Egypt.
And so the story goes, at least in ancient Jewish history, that
eventually a man named Moses rose up and brought the Jews back
to Israel. That event is called the Exodus. You can kind of see a
common root in the word exodus with the word exit, and that's
what Exodus means: the exit. And so the Book of Exodus that's in
the Hebrew Bible is about the exit, the going out, of the Jewish
people, the ancient Jews, from Egypt back to Israel. That event is
commemorated every year by Jews at a holiday in the spring called
Passover. The main way that Passover is commemorated is with a
meal. At this meal, every part of the meal, every aspect of the food,
and also even ways that the food is handled are basically parts of
retelling the story of the Exodus. So it keeps that sacred, historical
event alive in homes as people basically reenact that story through
this long meal. It has several different actions that go with it,
several different representations of the food that are a part of that
meal. But that's what that commemorates is this Exodus back to
Israel.
So they got back to Israel. Other people were living there and so
there was a time that basically they had to have a lot of battles and
wars to try to regain control of the land. Eventually, a king came
into power in Israel named David. David was a great military
warrior and so he kind of established the sovereignty of Israel and
that land through his military. And then he was also a great king
there for Israel. And so there was a time of peace there in the land
while David ruled. And also then David's son's generation,
Solomon's generation, was when the temple was built in Jerusalem.
That was the first temple that was built at that time through David's
son, and that's his son's generation.
But in David's grandson's generation, basically what happened was
a civil war and Israel split, north and south. And so you had the
northern part called Israel which was the larger land mass and then
the southern part called Judah. Jerusalem was in Judah and so that
kind of became the real focal point as far as Jewish history, as far
as Hebrew history, because Jerusalem is so important because of
the presence of the temple there.
So during this time of civil war the Jews , they weren't getting
along with each other and then they weren't getting along with
their neighbors either very well. And so that era of time was when
you have the prophets of Israel, people that came speaking on
behalf of God, trying to relay God's truth and God's desires to the
Jewish people. If you're familiar with the Hebrew Bible, that's a
whole big section of books that runs from Isaiah to Malachi and
that's that era of time when Israel and Judah are split from one
another. Not getting along with each other, not treating each other
right, and also not dealing with their neighbors right. And so the
prophetic time was a time of trying to call the Jews back.
One other thing that happened during the time of the prophets was
that that first temple was destroyed in the 6th century B.C.E.
Eventually that temple was rebuilt a few hundred years later and
reestablished there in Jerusalem. And that was the last temple, the
second temple, that was built.
Let me mention an event that's kind of , it's near the end or just
past the end of the prophetic era. It's not a biblical story, but it is
from the history of Jews and it's the root of a very famous holiday
in Judaism. In the second century B.C.E., at that point the Jews ,
they had their temple in Jerusalem. They had access to the temple
in Jerusalem. They were living in the area around Jerusalem but
they did not have control of the area. The Syrians had actually
conquered them and basically the Syrians had said, you know,
"You can live here but we rule. You don't rule. We do."
Well, what eventually happened about the second century B.C.E. is
that the Syrians began kind of this onslaught of persecution, of
torture, of really getting in the face of the Jews. Even doing things
like desecrating the temple by sacrificing a pig on the altar in the
temple. And so this little group of freedom fighters, the
Maccabeans, they came together and this very small Maccabean
army revolted against the larger Syrian army. And after a battle of
several days, the Maccabeans actually won and so they gained
control of the temple and of Jerusalem, and in that they rededicated
the temple. Now, basically Hanukkah is a holiday that celebrates
that rededication of the temple in the second century B.C.E.
Let me connect a little bit of a , I think a famous practice and
symbol of Hanukkah with what the story goes went on in Jewish
tradition. What Jewish tradition says is that when the Jews
regained of the temple and they went in to cleanse the temple from
its desecration that had been experienced through several things
that had happened, they could only use purified, sacred,
consecrated oil in any of the lamps in the temple. They didn't have
much of that oil when it came time to do the ceremony. There was,
I think, one small vial and they thought, you know, that won't last
very long. And so what the Jews decided is, "Well, we'll put this in
the lamps and we'll start the celebration. When we run out of oil,
we'll do the rest of the celebration in the dark." But what Jewish
tradition says is that that 8-day cleansing of the temple ended up
having the lamps in the temple burn the whole time. The oil in
some way didn't last just a few hours but lasted the full eight days
of the cleansing ceremony. And so what you may be familiar with
is that a common symbol for Hanukkah is the eight-candlestick ,
no, actually there's nine candlesticks but the one in the middle is
used to light the other eight. That's the significance of the eight
days of Hanukkah. That's the significance of it being called the
Festival of Light and why candles are lit during that celebration.
Again, it goes back to this sacred event of the rededication of the
temple in the second century B.C.E.
Eventually, that second temple was destroyed. Near the end of the
first century, around 70 C.E., the Common Era, Jerusalem and the
temple were destroyed by the Roman army this time. That temple
has never been rebuilt. There's an ancient wall that stands in
Jerusalem. It's believed to be the west wall of that second temple
and so that's considered a very sacred area for Jews. Jews go there
still today to pray because it's still part of that ancient temple. But
since the first century, the Jews have not had a temple in Jerusalem
and they really hadn't had much access to Jerusalem. Because of
what happened with the Roman army, basically the Jews fled
Jerusalem and they scattered throughout the area of the Middle
East and eventually into Europe and other parts of the world.
And that's pretty much how it stayed. That the Jews always
anticipated going back to the homeland, but from the first century
on did not have access to that homeland until after World War II.
Again, I'm sure you're familiar with the Holocaust of World War
II, the killing of over 6 million Jews and the persecution of many
more that didn't die. And so after that Holocaust of World War II,
one of the efforts to make restitution to the Jews was to make a
way for them to be able to go back to the land that they'd wanted to
go back to for now hundreds and hundreds of years. And so
basically an area was marked off by the United Nations led by
Great Britain and the United States and that would be where Israel
could go back to.
Again, remember we're talking about an area that fits in the State
of Missouri. It's a very small area. And so the Jews started going
back to Israel. But when they get there, there's already people
living there. They've been living there now for hundreds of years
and a lot of them are Muslim. They've been Muslim now for , well,
since the seventh century and now we're at the twentieth century,
so for 1300 years Muslims have been living there in this land. And
now the Jews are coming back and saying, "Okay, we're home
now. You can go or you can scoot over and let us in," or however
that might be said on a very informal level. Obviously, the people
that had been possessing land , well, they weren't interested in
leaving, either. And, by the way, they saw themselves as
Abraham's descendants who were promised this land. We'll talk
more about that when we get to Islam.
And so since 1948, that's when all the fighting began in that land.
Because you have the occupying predominantly Muslims and then
you have the Jews returning to what they believe is rightfully their
land, and they're fighting over who gets that land and who gets
what parts of the land. So one of the roles of the United States and
the U.N., and all that, has been to try to figure out how to divide up
that land so both can live in the land peacefully. The problem is
they share a lot of the same sacred sites. Back during the
administration of President Clinton, there was a lot of effort made
to bring peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis. In one set
of meetings, it looked like they were working toward peace
between these two nations. But when they got to talking about
Jerusalem and the sacred sites in Jerusalem, neither could let go of
their sacred sites. And so basically everything fell apart and
everybody went home. Because they're trying to make the same
area of land work for both of them.
Well, that's kind of this brief whirlwind , but you see what's
common, what's a thread throughout that, is the land. Being in the
land, returning to the land, holding possession of the land, sacred
sites in the land , that throughout history, the land has been a part
of that history that's been very important.
The final thing that I mentioned, a final element of Judaism but I
said is important, is the idea of covenant. Basically, what Judaism
teaches, what the Hebrew Bible teaches, is that God and Abraham
entered into a covenant with one another and Abraham did that on
behalf of his descendants who would come. Later, probably 500 or
600 years after Abraham, you have Moses and that covenant was
reestablished through Moses to the Jewish people, and outlined in
what's often called the law or Torah of Judaism, the teaching of
Judaism.
But what this covenant was , it basically was an agreement
between God and people. I guess what I see that sets a covenant
apart from just a contract is that a contract is just like a legal
document. There's no heart in it. There's no , I mean, you just sign
on the dotted line. But a covenant , it's a contract, but it's a contract
that's intended to help preserve a relationship. People enter into a
marriage covenant. Well, they make some agreements with one
another about their commitment to one another but they make that
agreement because there's a relationship that they really want to
have. And so this agreement , it's supposed to help protect the
relationship.
And that's the idea of the covenant between God and humanity or
God and the Jews. God wants a relationship with the Jews and the
Jews want a relationship with God, and so they have this covenant
that outlines how they will take care of that relationship and
preserve that relationship. And again, that covenant is largely
outlined in what's called the law that's contained in the Torah of
Judaism. We'll talk about that more specifically when we talk
about the scriptures in Judaism.
So as far as in Judaism, the important elements that I want to, I
guess, extract are that there's one God, that their land is very
important, that historical events are sacred and those are
commemorated through lots of holidays that Jews celebrate, and
that this idea of the covenant is foundational in Judaism. As a
matter of fact, the covenant , kind of the general outline of the
covenant is what we would call the Ten Commandments. In the
Hebrew Bible -- at least what Jewish teachers say is that the
Hebrew Bible actually contains 613 commands. So it's got the 10
plus 603 more. But the 10 are kind of the basic outline of all those
commands.
What you find in the Ten Commandments is that the first four
commandments talk about how God and the Jews relate to one
another and then the last six commands talk about how the Jews
will relate to each other. And so the idea of the covenant is about
this relationship between God and the Jews, and also among the
Jews with one another. And that's what the Ten Commandments
outlines, is this covenant. Basically, the other 603 commands kind
of illuminate all of that and tell specifically, you know, how not to
steal from your neighbor or what constitutes murder or how to
honor God and keep the Sabbath. But those Ten Commandments
give the basic outline of this covenant between God and humanity
and among the Jews as they relate to one another.
Well, in the next session we'll talk more specifically about the
teachings of Judaism.