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Judaism
A Covenant with God
Jewish tradition depicts the
universe as being governed by an
all-powerful personal God who
intervenes in history to reward the
righteous and punish the unjust.
“Israel” refers to all those who answer
the call and who acknowledge and
strive to obey the one God, through the
Torah…given to the patriarchs, Moses,
and the prophets.”
Israel also means “one who struggles
with God”.
Brief History
• Begins with Tanakh –
The Old Testament
• Creation of the world
by God
• Moses spoke to God-received the Ten
Commandments
• After 70 CE.– Talmud
evolved
The Pentateuch
• Five books of the Old Testament
• Given by Moses
• Assumed its final form in the days
of Ezra the Scribe in the fifth
century BCE.
Four Views of the Old
Testament
• Traditional view – texts dictated by God
to Moses
• Or… Moses divinely inspired, but not
dictated by God
• Or…Moses inspired like poet or artist
• Or…there were different texts written
by four different authors
Old Testament
Timeline
• 1250 B.C. – oral history of the conquest
of the land of Caanan
• 1000 – united tribes under King David,
stories written by J-author (Judah view)
• 900 – death of Solomon sees kingdom
split into Judah & Israel (10 tribes
north). The northern view written by
E-author that emphasize Moses
• 722 B.C. – Assyria conquers Israel and
some flee back to southern Judah. Two
versions combined into JE version
document. Thus two creation stories,
two Ten Commandments, etc.
• 650 – Temple rites given in Pdocument, most is in Torah today
• 609 – “lost” scroll of Moses found,
called the D-document, book of
Deuteronomy
• 580 – Judah conquered by Babylon
and exiled for 50 years.
• 450 – A “Redactor” with lots of
cuts and pastes, combines JE, P,
and D into one smooth flowing
narrative. The five books of Moses
are assembled. There have been no
more changes since that time.
Two Creation Stories
• Genesis 1 – poetic account of
creation in seven days, man &
woman placed as masters of the earth
(Priestly source)
• Genesis 2 – Earlier version, supreme
male diety, woman is offshoot and
cause for man’s trouble (Yahwist source)
Abraham
• Born Ten generations
after Noah,
• Has son with Egyptian slave woman
Hagar – Ishmael is Arab ancestor
that gives birth to the Arab world and
Islam
• Wife Sarah has son when 90 – Isaac ,
father of Jacob, who gives birth to
Judaism and eventually Christianity
Fork in the road…
Ishmael:
birth to Islam
Isaac: birth to
Judaism & Christianity
Abraham – the common source
Jacob re-named Israel
• Twelve sons
• Left for Egypt during famine
• Four centuries later had many
descendants
• Too powerful so Pharaoh makes
them slaves
Moses
Moses orders 3,000 killed
who worshipped the idol.
David – The First King
• after centuries of
wandering
• Captures Jerusalem
• Begins Israelite
empire
• Grandson is Solomon
King Solomon
• Gains great personal
wealth
• Built altars to wives
• 10 tribes leave to
create Kingdom of
Israel
• Solomon creates
Kingdom of Judah
Ten Tribes of Israel
•
•
•
•
Corrupt government
Assyria captures Israel
Many return to Judah
Judah is eventually captured by
King Nebuchadnezzar of
Babylonia
• People taken from Judah were
thenceforth known as Jews
Return to Jerusalem
• 50 years of exile in Babylon
• Rebuilt temple in 515 BCE
• Those who did not return were said
to be living in the “Diaspora”
• Ezra “redacts” or edits the
Pentateuch for the last time
• The Torah established as the
spiritual foundation for a dispersed
people
Zoroastrianism
Satan, hierarchy of
angels, reward or
punishment in an
afterlife, final
resurrection of the body,
and the Day of Judgment
influence Judaism
Roman General
Pompey
The last independent Jewish nation was
conquered by Roman General Pompey 63
years before the birth of Jesus. It would take
another twenty centuries before there would
be another Jewish state.
Three Sects of Jews
• Sadducees – priests & business
people
• Pharisees – liberal citizens from
all classes
• Essenes – the mystics and strict
living at Qumran
The Dead Sea
Scrolls
• 2,000 year old
scrolls
• Spiritual
disciplines
• Ready for the
Messiah…Jesus?
Bible Scholarship
• Look at the facts verses myth or
symbolism
• Understand the time period each
piece was written
• Understand the purpose of the
writing
Book of Ruth
• Jews recovering from defeat by
Babylon
• Thought Judah was punished
because lack of purity
• Started “ethnic purification”
• Ezra said must be full-blooded Jew
back to 10th generation
Story of Ruth
• Ruth married Moab, a Jew. His
mother was Naomi
• Jewish men all die, Naomi tries to
get Ruth to leave to find safety
• Ruth swears her allegiance to her
mother-in-law…
Ruth
“…for whither thou goest, I
will go; and where thou
lodgest, I will lodge: thy people
shall be my people, and thy
God my God…”
(Ruth 1:16)
Ruth acted in the highest standards of the Jewish
Torah by caring for her mother-in-law. Ruth
eventually re-married and had a son Obed. Obed had
a son Jessie………the father of the future King David.
(David was not full-blooded Jew!)
Jesus was born
Romans destroy the Jews
• 70 CE - the Roman
army slaughter the
Jews
• They destroy the
Temple in Jerusalem
• All that was left was
the Western Wall today
called the “wailing
wall”
The Jews are dispersed again
• Judaism could
have died then
• Many turn to the
rabbis and the
Torah
• Some turn to Jesus
as the Jewish
Messiah
• Both groups build
on Hebrew Bible
The Talmud
A vast compendium of laws.
Maimonides
1200 CE
“What is man’s singualr function here on
earth? …to contemplate abstract
intellectual matters and to discover truth…
And the highest intellectual contemplation
that man can develop is the knowledge of
God and his unity.”
In the Middle Ages Jews tended to dominate
international trade between Muslim and
Christian realms because of their facility
with languages and ability to find supportive
co-religionists in virtually any community.
Jews expendable
The literacy still belonged to the Church in
the Middle Ages. Eventually Christians took
over financial institutions and the Jews were
expendable. The Jews of Spain in 1492 were
forced to leave a country where they had
lived for over a thousand years. The next
500 years they were taxed heavily and often
isolated in ghettoes all over Europe.
Holidays
• Bar Mitzvah – coming of age at 13
• Rosh Hahanah – spiritual renewal
• Yom Kippur – renewing covenant
with God
• Hanukkah – celebration of ancient
victory resulting in right to worship
• Passover – liberation from bonds
of slavery in Egypt
Hebrew Teachings – Three
Levels
The Torah
Law & The Prophets
And………
Crown
The
Holy
Kabbalah
Understanding
Wisdom
Strength
Mercy
Power
Beauty
Intuition
The World
Glory
• “Kabbalah subscribes to the idea of
reincarnation, called Gilgulim or the
Turnings in Hebrew. Our free will,
leading to willful, will-less or willing
actions, generates what in India is
called karma, and in Kabbalah
reward and punishment (unto the
third and fourth generation).”
Kabbalah Tradition of Hidden Knowledge,
Z’ev ben Shimon Halevi
Crown
The
Holy
Kabbalah
Understanding
Wisdom
Strength
Mercy
Power
Beauty
Intuition
The World
Glory
The Tarot Connection
Many use 22 cards of the major arcana of
The Tarot to study and meditate on the 22
paths within The Holy Kabbalah. The
following few slides give some indication
of how this process can be useful.
(The remaining material requires
a lengthy oral presentation.)
The Fool
The Magician
Outward & Return
Journey
Crown
The
Holy
Kabbalah
Understanding
Wisdom
Strength
Mercy
Power
Beauty
Intuition
The World
Glory