Download RELI 205 Comparative Religion Monotheistic Religions

RELI 205 Comparative Religion
Monotheistic Religions
Quick Facts
 Ranks #10th or 11th in the world with less
than 20 million adherents (15,600,000)
 As a faith, it arose in Mesopotamia in
about 1800 B.C.E.
 Has no single founder
 The sacred text is the Tanakh
 Critical in the later development of
Christianity and Islam
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Abraham – the first patriarch
 father of the Jewish people, born in Ur, now Iraq
 held as an example of obedience to God’s
commands
 tested by God by demanding sacrifice of son, Isaac
Lisa Ramjattan
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Abraham – the first patriarch
(video)
 saw an apparition of
God who challenged
him to immigrate
from Harran, north
Mesopotamia to the
land surrounding the
Sea of Galilee and
the Dead Sea
(Palestine)
http://religi3.securesites.net/jesusm/maps.htm
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Abraham – the first patriarch
(video)
Chief places Abraham Lived
http://www.jesuswalk.com/abraham/0_intro.htm
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Abraham
 Entered into a covenant with God on behalf
of the Jewish people – that God would
protect Abraham and his descendents
 On this basis, Judaism is considered a
convenantal religion, where the people are
expected to be obedient, and God protects
and grants special favours to followers.
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Abraham
The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your
country, your people and your father's household
and go to the land I will show you. "I will make
you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will
make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever
curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you." So Abram left, as the
LORD had told him. Genesis 12:1-4
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Moses
 A leader of the Hebrews
 Born to Hebrew slaves and hidden by his
mother to escape annihilation
 Grew up in the Pharaoh’s court
 Outlawed for killing an Egyptian
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Moses
(video)
 Chosen by God to deliver the Hebrews from
slavery in Egypt
 A series of ten plagues convinced the
Pharaoh to free the Hebrews, and Moses led
them to cross the parted Red Sea
 Passover marks the last of the ten plagues
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Moses
 Received the ten commandments of God on
the top of Mt. Sinai – the covenant between
God and his people renewed
 If Hebrews serve God exclusively, he would
give them a promised land and make them a
great nation. Obligations: moral,
ceremonial and cultural, living life under
the command of God (a theocracy).
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 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ3ff-ifk-8
 2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqpiANlMzlw&N
R=1
3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXCCqhHyiwM&f
eature=related
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Sacred Writing
 Tanakh, a collection of scriptures organized
under three major headings, a different
version of which Christians call the ‘Old
Testament
 The most important heading is the Torah
(means divine instruction and guidance)
(video)
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Sacred Writing
 The Jewish Bible is considered the
foundation upon which a Jewish life is built.
 It traces God’s activities in beginning the
world, and tells the story of the covenant
between God and his people.
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Its books are:
 Genesis
 Exodus
 Leviticus
 Numbers
 Deuteronomy
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The Pentateuch
 This is the five books of Moses,
considered the most sacred portion of
the Tanakh.
 Believed to be divinely revealed to
Moses and are spiritually significant for
both Judaism and Christianity.
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The Pentateuch
 Stories found in the Pentateuch
include the Creation, the Garden of
Eden, the Great Flood, and the Tower
of Babel.
 Gives group identity and sense of God’s
active role in Jewish history.
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P 266 Matthews; teachings of the Torah p271 Fisher
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Central Beliefs
The worldview of Judaism
today, reflects about four
millennia of God’s interaction
with the children of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob.
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Central Beliefs
 Jewish teachings are known as the Torah. In
its narrowest sense, the Torah refers to the Five
Books of Moses. On the next level, it means
the entire Hebrew Bible and the Talmud
(written and oral law), and for some, it refers to
all sacred Jewish literature and observance.
 At the highest level, Torah is God’s will, God’s
wisdom.
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Central Beliefs
 The central Jewish belief is
monotheism.
 In traditional Judaism, God is often
perceived as a loving Father who is
nonetheless infinitely majestic.
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Central Beliefs
 The essential commandment to
humans is to love God.
 This love of God should compel
humans to study the Torah and fulfill
the commandments.
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Central Beliefs
 Human life is sacred since humans are
made in the image of God.
 This is interpreted in an ethical sense,
that humans can mirror God’s qualities
such as justice, wisdom, righteousness
and love.
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Central Beliefs
 The written and oral Torah provides
laws by which humans can remain
faithful and fulfill the purposes of
Creation – they may live responsibly
because of the laws given by God.
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Central Beliefs
 Suffering is a part of being chosen by
God.
 In the parable of Job, a blameless God-fearing and
wealthy man, he is tested by Satan who destroys
all that he has, including his children and his
health. After cursing his life, and questioning
God’s justice, Job comes to acknowledge God’s
wisdom and power. God then rewards him with
long life and greater riches than he had before.
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Sacred Practices
Daily scriptural study
Boys were traditionally taught how to read
and write ancient Hebrew and how to
interpret scripture. This required extensive
knowledge of the scriptures and concentrated
intellectual effort.
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Sacred Practices
Ritual Circumcision
Boys are ritually circumcised at eight days old
to honor the seal of God’s commandment to
Abraham.
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Sacred Practices
Mikva
Orthodox Jews consider women ritually
impure during their menstrual periods and
for seven blood-free days afterwards. At the
end of this forbidden period, women must
undertake complete immersion in a mikva, a
special deep bath structure, symbolizing their
altered state.
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Sacred Practices
Marital sex is sacred
The Sabbath night is the holiest time for
making love.
Adultery is strictly forbidden as one of the
worst sins against God – maintaining pure
lines of descent is extremely important for
Jewish tradition.
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Sacred Practices
What one eats must be KOSHER
What one eats is of cosmic significance – the
Torah instructs with regard to ritually
acceptable foods, and unclean foods.
E.g. kosher meats are those from warm
blooded animals with cloven hoofs which
chew their cuds, and butchered in particular
ways. Care is taken to avoid eating blood.
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Sacred Practices
 Prayer
Traditional observant Jews begin the morning
with a prayer before they open their eyes to
thank God for restoring the soul.
For weekday morning prayers, men also put
t’fillin, small leather boxes containing Biblical
verses about the covenant with God, on the
forehead, and the upper arm, held against the
heart.
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Sacred Practices
 Prayer
Three prayer services are chanted daily in a synagogue
by men if there is a minyan (quorum of ten).
Women can say them also, but they are excused from
rigid schedules partly because of household
responsibilities, and partly because of the belief that
women have a more intuitive sense of spirituality.
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Sacred Practices
 Sabbath
Observed as an eternal sign of the covenant between
the Jews and God.
It runs from sunset Friday night to sunset Saturday
night, because the Jewish “day” begins with nightfall.
Just as God is said to have created the world in six days
and rested on the seventh, all work is to cease when the
Sabbath begins.
(video)
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Sacred Practices
Bar Mitzvah (“son of the commandment”)
Recognition of coming of age at 13 for Jewish boys.
He will have undertaken some religious instruction
and is called upon to read a portion of the Torah
scroll, recite a passage from one of the books of the
Prophets in Hebrew, and perhaps to give a short
teaching from the reading.
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Sacred Practices
Bar Mitzvah (“son of the commandment”)
Following the readings, there may be a
simple kiddush – a celebration with
blessing of wine and sweet bread or cake,
but a big party is more likely.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZgSx
acJBr4
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Sacred Practices
Bat Mitzvah (“daughter of the commandment”)
The custom of welcoming the boy to adult
responsibilities has been extended to girls in nonOrthodox congregations.
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Sacred Practices
Passover (Pesach)
The most important holiday in the Jewish year,
the meal is a constant repetition of the meal
that Hebrews ate when the angel of the Lord
passed over the homes of the Hebrews and
killed the firstborn of the Egyptian who had
enslaved them (10th plague). It marks the
beginning of their pilgrimage to freedom under
the leadership of the Lord and Moses.
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Sacred Practices
Passover (Pesach)
Celebrates the liberation from bondage in Egypt
and the spring-time advent of new life. Israelites
were warned to slaughter a lamb for each family
and mark their doors with its blood so that the
angel of the Lord would pass over them. They
were to roast the lamb and eat it with
unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
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Sacred Practices
Passover (Pesach)
The beginning of Pesach is still marked by a
Seder dinner with the eating of unleavened
bread (matzah) to remember the urgency of
the departure, and bitter herbs as a reminder
of slavery, so that they would never impose it on
other peoples.
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Sacred Practices
Passover (Pesach)
Also on the table for the Seder dinner, are
charoset (a sweet fruit and nut mixture, a
reminder of the mortar that the enslaved
Israelites molded into bricks) and salt water (a
reminder of the tears of the slaves) into which
parsley or some other plant (a reminder of
spring life) are dipped and eaten.
(video)
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 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2ePd43aon8&feat
ure=related
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Hanukkah
 Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday celebrated for eight days
and nights. It starts on the 25th of the Jewish month of
Kislev, which coincides with late November-late
December on the secular calendar.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VfChLAADS8&fe
ature=related
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Major Branches of Judaism Today (p 258 Fisher)
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Major Branches of Judaism Today
(Fisher, 2008, p258)
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Major Branches of Judaism Today
Modern Orthodoxy
This branch values secular knowledge
and integration with non-Jewish society
so that its members can be enriched by
interaction with the modern world and
also help to uplift it.
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Major Branches of Judaism Today
Modern Orthodoxy
It also is dedicated to the national and
religious significance of Israel and to
Jewish law as divinely given.
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Major Branches of Judaism Today
Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox)
Generally in favour of a degree of
detachment from non-Jewish culture, so
that the community can focus on the
study of the Torah.
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Major Branches of Judaism Today
Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox)
Some groups completely withdraw from
the secular world and the rest of the
Jewish community, while others are
devoted to extending their message to as
many Jews as possible.
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Major Branches of Judaism Today
Reform / Liberal Movement
Began in 19th c. Germany as an attempt
to help modern Jews appreciate their
religion, rather than regarding it as
antiquated, meaningless or repugnant.
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Major Branches of Judaism Today
Reform / Liberal Movement
Synagogues were redefined as places for
spiritual elevation, with choirs added,
and Sabbath service shortened and
translated into the vernacular.
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Major Branches of Judaism Today
Reform / Liberal Movement
Men and women were allowed to sit
together in contrast to traditional
separation.
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Major Branches of Judaism Today
Reform / Liberal Movement
Has been at the forefront of
establishment of interfaith dialogue and
faith-based social activism in
cooperation with non-Jewish groups.
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Major Branches of Judaism Today
Conservative
Sought to maintain (‘conserve’)
traditional Jewish laws and practices,
while also using modern means of
historical scholarship
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Major Branches of Judaism Today
Conservative
An intermediate position with regard to
the liberalization processes.
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Major Branches of Judaism Today
Conservative
Believe that Jews have always searched
and added to laws, liturgy, and beliefs to
keep them relevant and meaningful in
changing times.
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Major Branches of Judaism Today
Conservative
Conservative women have been ordained
as rabbis since 1985.
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Major Branches of Judaism Today
Reconstructionism
Founded by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, an
influential American thinker who died
in 1983.
Branched off from Conservatism.
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Major Branches of Judaism Today
Reconstructionism
Kaplan held that the Enlightenment
changed everything, and that strong
measures were needed to preserve
Judaism in the face of rationalism.
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Major Branches of Judaism Today
Reconstructionism
Kaplan denied that the Jewish people
were specially chosen by God – rather
they had chosen to try to become a
people of God.
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Major Branches of Judaism Today
Reconstructionism
Kaplan created a new prayer book, deleting
traditional portions he and others found
offensive, such as derogatory references to
women -the physical resurrection of the body,
and passages describing God as rewarding or
punishing Israel by manipulating natural
phenomena.
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 The end!!!!
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