Download Jewish Beliefs and Texts

Jewish Beliefs and Texts
How did the
writings in
the Torah
shape
Judaism?
Jewish Beliefs and Texts
The Big Idea
The central ideas and laws of Judaism are contained in
sacred texts such as the Torah.
Main Ideas
• Beliefs in God, education, justice, and obedience
anchor Jewish society.
• Jewish beliefs are listed in the Torah, the Hebrew Bible,
and the Commentaries.
• The Dead Sea Scrolls reveal many past Jewish beliefs.
• The ideas of Judaism have helped shape later cultures.
The Big Picture
The Torah, or Hebrew Bible, is the Jewish
People’s record of their history and religion.
Judaism is
the religion
of the
Jewish
people.
The laws God gave
Moses on Mt. Sinai
are known as the
Ten
Commandments.
When Moses came
down from the
mountain he saw
the people
worshipping a
golden calf, and
broke them in
anger.
The first five books of the Hebrew Bible are known
as the Torah. Some laws are similar to
Hammurabi’s Code.
The god of the
Hebrews forbade
them to worship
any other gods.
This belief in one
God became
known as
monotheism.
For the people of Israel, the Torah was the basis
of life and faith, providing them with laws to
live by
The Torah commands
the Jews to “remember
the Sabbath, and keep
it holy.” The Sabbath is
the weekly day of rest,
prayer, and study
which begins on Friday
at sundown and
continues to Saturday.
Belief in God, education, justice,
and obedience anchor Jewish
society.
• Belief in one god
– Judaism is the world’s oldest and possibly the first monotheistic
religion. Monotheism is the belief in only one god.
• Belief in education
– Teaching children, mostly boys, has always been important to
Jewish society.
• Belief in justice and righteousness
– Jews are expected to be kind and fair in dealing with other
people, in a display of justice.
– They are also supposed to be righteous and do what is proper.
• Belief in obedience and law
– They obey moral and religious laws such as the Ten
Commandments and Mosaic law.
Jewish beliefs are listed in the
Torah, the Hebrew Bible, and the
Commentaries.
The Torah
• This is a
collection of
five books that
make up the
most sacred
text in
Judaism.
• Nearly every
synagogue
has one.
The Hebrew
Bible
• This is made up
of the Torah,
the Proverbs,
and the Book
of Psalms.
• It is also made
up of eight
books that
describe the
messages of
the prophets.
The
Commentaries
• Because some
laws are hard to
understand,
scholars wrote
commentaries to
explain them.
• They can be
found in the
Talmud.
Some teachings in the Torah are presented in story form
to teach a lesson such as Daniel in the Lion’s Den.
Prophets played a special role in both Judaism and
government. The Bible tells how a prophet named
Samuel chose a king.
Samuel annointed or
named David as the
future king of Israel.
David went on to
become one of Israel’s
most important kings.
The prophet Jeremiah began to predict that
God would force the Israelites out of Israel as a
punishment for being unfaithful to God.
As the prophets
predicted, the
Jewish nation
was destroyed
and thousands of
Jews were forced
to leave Israel.
This is known as
the Exile.
Historians trace the first written version
of the Torah to around 100 B.C. Great
care was taken to preserve these writings.
Because of the
importance the
ancient Hebrews
gave to writing and
keeping history,
today we have a
very complete record
of their thought.
Solomon became
known as a very
wise ruler, and
became famous
for writing poetry
and proverbs. A
proverb is a brief,
wise saying about
human nature.
If your enemy
is hungry, give
him bread to
eat; if he is
thirsty, give
him water to
drink.
(Proverbs
25:21)
“
During Solomon’s
time, priests and
scribes began to
write the Torah.
This was the
Hebrew code of law.
It included the
words of the
prophets. The
Massoretes carefully
copied the texts.
The Dead Sea Scrolls reveal
many
past Jewish beliefs.
• The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in
1947.
• It is suspected that they were written
between 100 BC and AD 50.
• The scrolls included prayers,
commentaries, letters, and passages
from the Hebrew Bible.
The ideas of Judaism have
helped
shape later cultures.
• Judaism helped shape the largest religion of
Western society today, Christianity, as well as
Islam.
• Many people still look to the Ten
Commandments as a guide and do not work on
the weekends, to honor the Sabbath.
• People also give to charities, which is largely
based on Jewish teachings.