Download Judaism

The
religion of Judaism cannot be
separated from the history of its
people:
 A religion, a people/nation, a culture, and
ethnicity
 Jews are those who experience their long
and often difficult history as a continuing
dialogue with God
 The founder was Abraham, but many
consider Moses to be the founder as well.
The
God of Abraham was called El
Shaddai
The God of Moses was called
YHWH (Yahweh)- “I am that I am”
Another name for God used in the
Old Testament was Elohim
 Look
up the roots of the words El Shaddai, Elohim and
YHWH.
 At least Two Paragraphs answering these
questions:
 What do they mean ?
 Is there any connection to Allah?
Judaism is
a strongly earth focused
religion. It is more concerned with this
life than the afterlife- The main focus is
that of ethics and doing God’s will.
 Judaism sees man as having free will and
being constantly faced with the choice
between good and evil
Jewish
path is one of loving God
and trying to be like him
 God offered to share the divine law with
70 nations, but only the tribes of Israel
answered the call to enter into a living
covenant with their creator
 Jews still feel this call is open to all
 “Israel” refers to all who answer the call,
who acknowledge and strive to obey the
one God through teachings given to the
patriarchs, Moses, and the prophets
 Tanakh- Jewish Scriptures

stories end @2nd century BCE
 Talmud- Jewish Law and Lore

compiled in 6th century CE
 Torah- whole body of
Jewish teachings and law
 Pentateuch- 5 books of Moses

Beginning of Tanakh, most sacred part of scriptures
 Most
Hebrews were not truly monotheistic- many
wavered back and forth w/ Old gods and animal spirits

Canaanites were polytheistic
 Main idea in
early Judaism: rejection of gods of
surrounding peoples
Israelites
came to see themselves as
having been chosen by a single
divine patron:
 God was seen as a ruler:

like a parent to children or sovereign to vassals
Judaism
resembles a family
Names/Terms:
 “Hebrew” comes from the term habiru (term for
low class, landless people)
 “Ibri” biblical word for Hebrew- Children of Eber
 “Israelites”- mixed ethnic stock- Hebrews,
Aramaean, and Canaanite
 “Semite”- modern word applied to Jews, Arabs and
others of Eastern Mediterranean origin (often used
inaccurately as an ethnic designation)
 People who 1st became known as “Israelites” were
the offspring of Israel (Jacob)- grandson of
Abraham
Early History:
Stories from the
Pentateuch
 Sweeping
poetic
creation of Heaven and
earth by God in 6 days
 God is a transcendent
Creator w/o origin,
gender or form
 EC assignment:

What happened on each
of the 6 days? At least
one FULL paragraph.

Some creation accounts see
YHWH as a supreme male deity,
created all but woman;
 offshoot of Adam
 blames woman for all troubles
in humanity
 not supported in Hebrew
manuscripts
 This
legend shows though how after being tempted
and having strayed from God’s path= exile

Theme repeats in Hebrew history

People risk God’s displeasure every time they stray from God’s
commandments
OR


Jewish people were spread throughout the world by God’s will, to
be good citizens in whichever land they live, and spread God’s
word.
Way out of exile is through study and righteous living

But.. people continually stray from God’s will
 Noah


legend:
all men wicked but him:
God makes covenant with Noah

catastrophic flood, but spares Noah and his family and two of all
the creatures of the earth
•
God makes covenant- promises to never destroy the world by
flood or interfere with the natural order
 1900 BCE:
left Ur
(present day Iraq),
rejects polytheism,
“chooses” to
worship one God,
God “chooses”
Abram and his
followers.
 Canaan  The
“Promised Land”
Abraham’s Journeys
 Abram promises to
be loyal and obedient to God
 God will protect Abram, his descendants, will make a
great nation
 Settle in the land of Israel
 Circumcise males on 8th day- sign of the living
covenant
 Blood Promise to the one God

Changes names to Abraham and Sarah
 Abraham fears he


will not have a son (86 years old) (Wife Sarah 77)
Genesis 16
“And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the
Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of
Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his
wife.”
 Hagar
bears Ishmael
 Sarah becomes jealous; casts out Hagar and Ishmael

Ishmael- Father of Arabs: Muhammad said to be direct
descendant
 Abraham 99
and 1st wife
Sarah 90 have son Isaac
 Isaac- Father of Israelites
 Abraham tested- will
sacrifice own son to prove
loyalty to God
 God stops Abraham’s
hand
 Pleased with his loyalty
 Rosh Hashanah (sept)
and Eid al Adha (nov)
Abraham’s Geneaology
HAGAR
ABRAHAM
Ishmael
SARAH
Isaac
12 Arabian Tribes
Jacob
Esau
12 Tribes of Israel

Jacob received the name “Israel” after wrestling with an
angel
Israel- “One who struggles with God”
 Research the
4 wives of Jacob. Who were they? Why
did Jacob have 4 wives? What role do they play in
Jewish History?
 Dinah was the one daughter of Jacob. Who was she?
What is known about her life?
 Sold


into slavery by jealous brothers
Rose to become Pharaoh’s chief advisor for helping
the Egyptians to prepare for famine
Brought family down from the famine in Canaan to
the land of Goshen in Egypt (1740 BCE)

Israelites lived for 430 years in Egypt until led out of
Egypt by Moses
Land of Goshen, Egypt



Pharaoh ordered midwives to kill
all Hebrew baby boys
 Pharaoh had dreamed of a
leader from the Hebrews who
would destroy him
Moses: son of the tribe of Levimother hid him away for 3
months
 Basket/Nile river
Pharaoh’s daughter found him
and raised him as her own.
 Moses : “to draw”
 Sister Miriam approached the
Queen and offered a wet
nurse for the child
 Grew up
as Egyptian
prince
 discovered heritage
 killed an Egyptian
overseer
 fled Pharaoh’s wrath
 lived with and
married into desert
tribe on Sinai
Peninsula for 40
years
 Zipporah- his wife
Burning Bush- God speaks directly to Moses
 Moses was chosen by God to free the Hebrew’s
very conflicted
 how to free them and lead them back to Canaan?

 Moses
goes back to Egypt; brother Aaron spoke for
Moses.
 Chapters of Exodus tell of the Miracles God
performed.

Each miracle more impressive than the last, but Pharaoh’s
magicians seemed to match them
 Final
miracle- Killing of all the 1st born in the
land- Israelites spared this fate by marking their
doors with blood of a lamb- so that the Angel of
Death would Pass Over them.

Passover holiday- remembers this event.
 Research the

10 miracles/plagues of Egypt
Name and describe each; take into account how these
plagues would have affected the people of Egypt
@1450 BCE
Pharaoh
frees the Hebrews.
 Red Sea incident

Reed Sea? Translation error?
 travel to Mt Sinai to
reestablish the
covenant btwn God
and his people
Route of the Exodus
God
gave the people a set of rules
through Moses:
 Ten Commandments
 Set of social norms
 Prescribed religious feasts

Detailed instructions for the holy
ark- Ark of the Covenant- keep stone
tablets on which God inscribes the
commandments
A new Covenant with Yahweh
Mount Sinai
St. Catherine’s Monastery
at Mount Sinai
 40
days on the mountain: people became impatient
 Wanted a God they could see- melted down gold
jewelry and cast it into the form of a golden calf- Idol
worship- strictly forbidden!
 Moses smashed the stone tables and destroyed the idolordered the Levites to slay the 3000 who had strayed
from YHWH
 Moses
again


went back up on Mt Sinai and received tables
Aaron and sons became priests
constructed the Ark and went to Canaan w/ the word of the
Lord with them
 Wandered 40
years/ long sojourn in the wildernessmetaphor for spiritual search- faith is continually
tested by difficulties

Even in the wilderness, God did not abandon them. Manna
and water, protection from enemies
1410-1050 BCE
of Israel

Jews settle in the land
There they divide into 12 tribes each of which is led by a
judge.
Merge
with people who lived there,
often strayed from YHWH, worship
other gods, idols/ easy prey for other
tribes
1050-933 BCE
 Saul, 1st King of Israel unites the 12
tribes
 David, 2nd King: chosen by prophet
Samuel: anointed with oil, God’s
choice, Israel’s greatest king

made several alliances, defeated several
nations, captured city of Jerusalem and
made it his capital, wanted permanent
place for Ark.
King David’s Empire
Solomon’s
Kingdom
• Solomon, 3rd King:
Constructed the Holy
Temple. permanent place
for Ark, place for
offerings, God was said to
have blessed the Temple,
Central place for sacrifice
for Israelites
Recreation of Ancient Jerusalem
King Solomon’s Temple Floor Plan
The First Temple
Inside the Temple Tabernacle
The Arc
of the
Covenant
The Temple Mount, Jerusalem Today
Solomon’s Temple Wall: The “Wailing” Wall
 After
Solomon’s death the
kingdom was divided
into the Kingdom of
Israel and the Kingdom
of Judah


Kingdom of Israel: 10
northern
tribes/independent of
Jerusalem and dynasty of
David
Kingdom of Judah:
continued allegiance to
House of David and kept
Jerusalem as its capital
 Prophets:
 Early ones,
like Elijah- spoke out against idolatry, later
ones spoke out against social injustice and moral
corruption
 Prophets speak God’s words- not necessarily to predict
the future but to keep people on the path

Offer “corrections”
 EC
assignment: research two Prophets from the Torah;
Summarize their lives and their message
 586 BCE- Babylonians conquer the
and destroy the Temple

Many taken to Babylonia became known as Jews (from
Judah), build new places of worship-synagogues
 538 BCE

a new Babylonian King:
King Cyrus allows Jews to return to Judah and rebuild the
Temple

Temple completed in 515, central symbol to the scattered Jewish
people.
 Many Jews

Kingdom of Judah
chose to remain in Babylon
very profitable city, not much in Jerusalem
Israelites in Captivity
 In
the 400s the priestly Class under Ezra began to edit
and revise the Pentateuch

430 BCE Ezra began reading for hours- the scrolls in
public- setting the precedent to read and study them
(sacred covenant)
 New ideas blended with early Jewish thoughts
as more
Jews were exposed to Persians, Greeks and Romans

Concepts of Satan, angels, reward or punishment in afterlife

Resurrection of body on Day of Judgment are
thought by many to have been introduced by
Zoroaster’s. (Persians)
 322- 164 BCE
 King Antiochus and


the Greeks:
Tried to force Greek ways upon Jewish peoples.
Abolished the Torah as Jewish law
Burned copies of Torah
 Killed families with Circumcised sons
 Built an altar to Zeus in Temple of Jerusalem
 Sacrificed a hog on the altar
Goes against Mosaic law against eating
/touching dead pigs as unclean

 Under
the leadership of the Hasmoneans
(particularly Judah Maccabee) the Judeans
successfully revolt against Antiochus

This established a new independent Kingdom once again
called Israel.
 Btwn
164 BCE and 63 BCE Hasmonean Family
ruled Israel



family of priests
This only lasted 100 years- conquered by the Romans in 63
BCE (Pompey)
Last independent Jewish nation until 1948 CE
3 Sects of Jews formed
1. Sadducees priests, wealthy business people,
conservatives intent on preserving the
letter of the law
2. Pharisees liberal citizens from all classes,
wanted to study how Torah could
apply to everyday life
3. Essenes
thought the priesthood was corrupt. Very strict in
interpretation, set up a fortified compound at Qumran (near
the Dead Sea).

Leader “Teacher of Righteousness”
priest/reformer- name not uttered
 Their library found in 1947 (Dead Sea
Scrolls)

Essenes emphasized discipline, communal
living, obedience, study and preparation
for Day of Judgment
 Under Roman rule Messiah idea began to
grow- a
man who would rescue his people from suffering.

Prophet Daniel in Babylon exile days had spoken of a
man who would come and save his people.
 By
1st century CE this Messiah would set up Jewish
sovereignty over the land of Israel again.

All nations would then recognize that Israel’s God was
the God of all the world.
 This
messianic time would 1st be preceded by a
time of great oppression and wickedness
 Many felt Jesus was the Messiah, his followers
became the 1st Christians

Most Jews saw Jesus as a radical who did not fulfill
prophecy
 Zealots:
Romans


Jewish resistance fighters who fought the
66-73 CE Revolt fails miserably, Romans destroy the 2nd
Temple.
Only foundation stones remain.
 Temple has
never been rebuilt- foundation stones are
Western Wall- a place of Jewish pilgrimage and
prayer
The Temple Mount, Jerusalem Today
Solomon’s Temple Wall: The “Wailing” Wall
 By
135 CE Jews were forbidden to read the Torah,
observe Sabbath or circumcise sons

None allowed to enter Jerusalem

On anniversary of destruction of the Temple, the Romans would
allow Jews to go to the remaining wall.
 had to pay to enter city
 Judea renamed Palestine- after ancient

Philistines
Judaism no longer has a physical heart or geographic
center.
 Judaism could have died after the
of the Temple

2nd destruction
people spread throughout Mediterranean and Western
Asia
 Two reasons for
survival of ideas:
1. Rabbis- Jewish teacher


today spiritual leader of Jewish congregation
Kept Jewish law and lore alive
2. Christians also survived and carried on a lot of Jewish
ideas
 Both
groups have kept teaching of Tanakh alive,
both use Hebrew Bible as a foundation document
 Rabbis:
teachers, religious decision makers,
creators of prayers


No longer priests for Temple sacrifices
Substitute for animal sacrifice was prayer and ethical
behavior
 W/O Temple-
tight knit


communities of Jews became very
Synagogues (house of assembly)
Torah read, worship together, praying to God
 Minyan:
ten adult males had to be present for
community worship

All learn basics of Torah
 Only men

allowed formal study
originally only male rabbis
 Literacy highly valued for

men
Jews sometimes only ones who knew how to read
 Centering the
religion in books and teachings replaced
a geographic center, has unified the people with
common law, language and practices
American

By 1880, @ 250,000 Jews had immigrated to the US



Judaism:
More in the 1920s
Mainly from Eastern Europe
 Anti Semitism in Germany and Russia
Today US has 2nd largest Jewish Population in the world



Israel: 5.3 million
US: 5.2 million
World wide: 13.2 million
Zionism:
 The
Jewish movement to establish a
politically viable, internationally
recognized Jewish state in the Biblical
land of Israel

Late 1800s
 Rise
of Anti Semitism in Western Europe
encouraged immigration
EC assignment: Dreyfus Affair: Two
Paragraphs
 British support for
Jewish settlement in
Palestine after
WWI

Also supported a
continued Palestinian
state
 Part of the cause of
continued conflict
today
1948
United
Nations
creates a
modern
Israel
1. Daily Study of the Torah:

Boys education must include knowledge of Hebrew


More girls included today
Keeps the Word alive
2. Daily prayer and observance of commandments
3. Circumcism
4. Sabbath:

Sundown to sundown ( Fri-Sat)
Reading the Torah
5. Kosher:

Ritually acceptable meats

Warm blooded animals with cloven hooves that eat greens
 Cows, goats, sheep..
 Only if prepared by Jewish Slaughterer





Sharp knife
Traditional cuts
Drain blood
Meats must be soaked in water and drained before cooking
Try to avoid eating blood
 Poultry is
kosher; not birds of prey
 Shellfish is NOT Kosher
 Meat and Milk cannot be eaten together

Separate dishes maintained for preparation and serving
 Eggs, meat,
milk, organs of forbidden animals cannot
be eaten
 Fruits and vegetables are permitted

Must be checked for bugs
 Wine made by
non-Jews NOT Kosher
6. Morning Prayer:

Before opening eyes and at bedtime


Should offer at least 100 prayers/benedictions a day



Thank God for restoring the soul
Before eating bread, drinking wine, upon seeing the ocean….
etc…
 “Blessed are you, Oh God, Ruler of the Heaven, who gives us
bread”
Hands must be washed before reciting blessings
3 prayer services are chanted daily in Synagogue
7. T’filllin:

Small leather boxes on forehead or upper right arm

Prayers/verses
8. Talit:

Fringed Prayer Shawl

Fringes are reminders of
God’s commands
9. Coming of Age

Bar/Bat Mitzvah





Religious instruction
Learning to read and pronounce Hebrew
Read a portion of the Torah
Recite a passage from book of Prophets
Celebrate and party!!!
 Spiritual
new year begins with High Holy Days
1. Rosh Hashanah:

New Year’s Day


Celebrated on the 1st two days of the 7th month


A time of spiritual renewal
@ the fall equinox
30 days prior to Rosh Hashanah

Each morning synagogue service brings
blowing of the Shofar
 To remind people that they stand before God
At the service on the eve of Rosh
Hashanah, a prayer is recited asking:
• that all humanity will remember what
God has done
• that there will be honor and joy for
God’s People and
• that the righteous will triumph while
all wickedness vanishes like smoke
•
 Ten

Days of Awe follow R. H.
People are encouraged to change inwardly
look at mistakes of the past year
 Ask forgiveness from any you have wronged

http://www.history.com/videos/ask-a-rabbirosh-hashanah#ask-a-rabbi-rosh-hashanah
2. Yom Kippur



Completes the High Holy Days
Day of repentance and forgiveness
Renewal of the sacred covenant with God in a spirit of
atonement and cleansing
 Celebration of

When Jews regained access to Temple



Burned for 8
Judah Maccabee declared this to be a time of remembrance
and prayer


Found only one jar of oil undefiled
Still sacred and blessed by a priest
Was only enough for one day/night


the victory of the Maccabee Rebellion
Now a gift giving time
http://www.history.com/videos/ask-a-rabbi-roshhashanah#ask-a-rabbi-hanukkah
 Celebrates the
liberation from bondage in Egypt and
the spring time renewal

Beginning of Passover

Seder Dinner
 Eating of unleavened bread and bitter herbs

http://www.history.com/videos/ask-a-rabbi-roshhashanah#history-of-passover
Holocaust Memorial Day
5.
April 30/May 1


Close to date of Warsaw uprising
 Orthodox Judaism:

Stand by the Hebrew Bible as the Revealed Word of God and
the Talmud as the Legitimate Law



Bound by Tradition
Very Family oriented
 Ex: Hasidic Jews
Growing in #, esp in Israel
 Reform Judaism:


began in the 19th Century Germany as an attempt to
modernize
Religion applied to today; not an ancient practice




Open ended, evolving religion
Making it more modern could help it survive
Choirs added to services
Sabbath was shortened and translated into Vernacular
 Conservative Judaism:


Largest group in the US
Traditional in interpretation of the Law

But restructure and modernize to keep it alive
 Reconstruction Judaism:

Rejects the idea that Jewish People were specially chosen by
God



An exclusionist idea
They see it as they chose to be a people of God
New prayer book
 More respect given to women and gentiles
 Women accepted fully in synagogue participation
 Messianic Judaism:



Accept that Jesus was the Messiah
Keep to traditional Jewish Calendar, holidays and practices
Growing in number
 Judaism as

a whole is shrinking
Over 50% of Western Jews marry non-Jews
 Being
counted as minyan
 Emphasizing the importance of women in the Torah

How women shaped the stories
 Becoming cantors and rabbis
 More gender neutral

texts
Original Hebrew scripture describes God as formless;
neither male nor female essence
 More accepted today
than ever before in history
 Less fear about the unknown
 More people researching Judaism
 Continues to influence Christianity and Islam