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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.