CHAPTER
10
Learning Outcomes
After studying this chapter, you will be able to do the following:
Encountering
Judaism:
The Way of God’s
Chosen People
LO1 Explain the meaning of Judaism and related terms.
LO2 Summarize how the main periods of Judaism’s
history have shaped its present.
LO3 Outline the essential teachings of Judaism in your
own words.
LO4 Describe the main features of Jewish ethics.
LO5 Summarize Jewish worship, the Sabbath and
major festivals, life-cycle rituals, and the Kabbalah.
LO6 Outline the main features of Judaism in North
America today.
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I
What Do YOU Think?
Judaism is the best example in world religions
of “ethical monotheism.”
n your hotel the evening before you visit the
Western Wall, your tour guide gives you instrucStrongly Disagree
Strongly Agree
tions for the next day’s events. “Everyone is wel1
2
3
4
5
6
7
come at the Wall,” she says. “But you must wear
modest clothing—no one in shorts, sleeveless
tops, or jeans is allowed. Men must wear a hat or other
this, but the women do have access to the wall itself and
head covering. Women must wear clothing that covcan place prayer notes in it. Second, when you ask an offiers their shoulders and knees; they can borrow shawls
cial about what happens to your prayer, you learn someat the entrance. Proper behavior is a must—be respectthing surprising. More than a million notes are left in the
ful of others.” All this is pretty standard stuff, you think,
Wall each year, and you see that the cracks between the
and applies to most important religious sites around the
stones are jammed with papers. Twice a year the notes
world. But there’s one item that’s unique to a visit to the
are collected and buried on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives.
Western Wall: People are allowed to put a paper note with
Third, most surprising of all is how emotionally moved you
a prayer written on it into a seam between the stones,
are. The closer you get to the Wall, the more it towers over
where (many Jews believe) God will pay special attention
you. The prayerful piety of others at the site impresses you
to one’s prayer. Most people write out their prayer before
coming to the wall.
Almost everyone in Israel calls this place
simply “the Wall.” But your guide gives you a
warning: Don’t call it “the Wailing Wall.” This
term is often used today, but many residents
of Jerusalem find it offensive. “Wailing” is supposed to refer to mourning for the destruction
of the temple in 70 C.E. There is typically no
wailing here, so the term is indeed misleading.
Despite the preparation you’ve done for
visiting the Wall, some things still surprise
you during your visit. First, long-established
Jewish rules apply here, so women must go
to their own section and not stand with the
men and boys. Even in the women’s section,
Jews praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem
they may not read aloud from Jewish scriptures or wear Jewish prayer shawls. There’s
some murmuring in your tour group over
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Your Visit to the Western
Wall in Jerusalem
BONNIE VAN VOORST © CENGAGE LEARNING
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is One.” —The Shema
< A Jewish man wearing a prayer shawl blows a ram’s horn to herald the Jewish New Year holy day.
225
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and helps to explain why this is
for most Jews the holiest place in
the world.
Judaism is a monotheistic religion that believes that
the world was created by an all-knowing, all-powerful
God and that all things in the world were designed to
have meaning and purpose as part of a divine order.
God called the Israelites to be a chosen, special people
and follow God’s law, thus becoming the means by
which divine blessing would flow to the world. God’s
law guides humans in every area of life; it is a gift
from God so that people might live according to God’s
will.
The main influence of Judaism stems directly from
its strong devotion to God over more than 2,500 years.
Some of the impact of Judaism has been lost in the
modern world, and Judaism itself is more fragmented
in the modern world than ever before. Its deep influence
on everyday life and on patterns of Western culture is
still clearly visible, however. The belief that there is only
one God, now self-evident for believers in all Western
religions, is the main gift of Judaism. The idea that the
world is a real and mostly good (or at least redeemable)
place has shaped Western religion and thought. Our
seven-day week with its rest on the weekend originates
in Judaism as well. The convictions that all people are
equally human before God, each other, and the law;
that the human race is one family; and that each individual can fully realize the meaning of life regardless of
social or economic class have also come to the Western
world from Judaism.
Key teachings and values of Judaism
have spread in Christianity and Islam to
over half of all the people of the world.
Christianity have often been rivals of Judaism as
well.
●
The world has had a mixed attitude to Judaism
for more than two thousand years. The Jews’
strong, clear monotheism and morality have been
influential, but Jews have drawn near-constant
opposition as well. Prejudice against them, often
leading to violent persecution, has sadly been a
recurrent feature in Jewish life.
●
Judaism is both geographically scattered and centered. Since about 300 B.C.E., most Jewish people
haven’t lived in the traditional Jewish area now in
modern Israel. Instead, they’ve lived in the wider
Middle East, Europe, and North America. In fact,
more Jews now live in the United States (about
5.2 million) than live in Israel (about 4.9 million).
Still, Israel is an essential part of Judaism for most
Jews today.
The Name Judaism
and Related Terms
L01
Judaism is commonly and correctly defined as the
historic religion of the Jewish people. This name
comes from the ancient tribe of Judah, one of the
original twelve tribes of Israel. When the leaders
of the southern kingdom of Israel came back from
exile in Babylon in the 530s B.C.E., the name of their
larger tribe became the name of the political area
(Judah) and the people who lived there became the
Judahites (JOO-duh-ights), or Jews (jooz) for short.
In time their religion became known as Judaism, a
term derived from the ancient Greek language. For
most of the history of the Jewish people, to be Jewish
was to practice Judaism in some way. But around
1800 C.E., it became possible in Europe to give up
Judaism and still call oneself Jewish. Jewishness then
became for many Jews a matter of ethnic status and
cultural identity, not of religion. Other Jews replied
In your study of Judaism, you’ll encounter and
study in some depth these unique features:
For a relatively small religion, about fifteen million adherents today, it has had a big impact. The
teachings and values of Judaism have spread in
Christianity and Islam,
which are closely related
Judaism [JOO-deeto Judaism, to over half
ihz-um] Historic religion
the people of the world.
of the Jewish people
However, Islam and
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CHAPTER 10
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●
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that only by keeping Judaism do Jews stay Jewish.
Although these two positions cannot be completely
separated, this chapter will focus on Judaism as a
religion.
Before 500 B.C.E., the ancestors of the Jews went
by other names. The first was Hebrews (HEE-brewz),
the name of the people during patriarchal times through
the Exodus (1800–1200 B.C.E.). This name is from
Habiru (ha-BEE-roo; also spelled “Hapiru”), a word for
nomads that is found in many languages in the ancient
Fertile Crescent and seems to have been attached to
the descendants of Abraham while they lived in Egypt.
When they settled in Palestine after the Exodus and
became a nation there, they became known as Israelites
(IS-ray-ehl-ights), a name derived from the ancient patriarch Israel (whose original name was Jacob). Historians
speak generically of their religions during this period as
“Hebrew religion”and
“Israelite
religion,”
not as “Judaism.”
A more recent twist
adds some confusion to these names.
The modern nation
of Israel, founded in
1948, calls itself by
the same name as that
of ancient Israel, but
the people of modern Israel (whether
Jewish by religion or
not) are called Israelis
(ihz-RAIL-eez), not
Israelites.
Hebrews [HEE-brewz]
Name of God’s people during
patriarchal times through the
Exodus
Israelites [IS-ray-ehl-ights]
Name for God’s people during
the period of the Judges and
during the First Temple Period
Israelis [is-RAIL-eez] Name of
people who live in the modern
nation of Israel
menorah [men-OHR-uh]
Large candelabra in the
Jerusalem temple, today a
common symbol of Judaism
A Closer Look:
Symbols of Judaism
Chai
BONNIE VAN VOORST
© CENGAGE LEARNING
Chai (chigh, with a throatclearing initial sound), a
symbol of modern origin,
popular and fashionable
in jewelry today, is the
Hebrew word for “living.”
Some say that it refers to
God, who alone is perfectly
alive; others think it comes from the common Jewish toast
“Le chaim” (leh CHIGH-ihm), “To life!” More likely, it reflects
Judaism’s general focus on the importance of life. It is a
symbol of their Jewish faith for many people who wear it.
The oldest symbol of the Jewish
faith is the menorah, a large
usually seven-branched candelabra. It was a prominent accessory
in the Jerusalem temple, and one
sees it today in many Jewish homes
and houses of worship. It’s especially
BONNIE VAN VOORST
© CENGAGE LEARNING
Menorah
prominent during the celebration of Hanukkah, when a
nine-branched menorah is used for the nine days of this
festival. For many Jews, the menorah is a symbol of Israel’s
mission to be “a light to the nations” (Isaiah 42:6). It is featured today on the coat of arms of the state of Israel.
Star of David
The six-pointed Star of David is the
symbol most commonly associated
with Judaism today, but it isn’t
nearly as old as the menorah. A
symbol of two overlaid equilateral
triangles was a common symbol of
good fortune in the ancient Near
East and in North Africa. It appears
occasionally in early Jewish artwork from as far back as the
first century C.E., but not as a symbol of Judaism. In the
1600s it began to be used to mark as Jewish the exteriors of
some Jewish houses of worship in Europe and then began
to be associated with the ancient King David. The Star of
David gained popularity as a symbol of Judaism when it
was adopted in 1897 as the emblem of the Zionist movement to resettle Palestine. Today it is a well-recognized
symbol of Judaism, particularly because it appears on the
flag of the modern state of Israel.
T H E N A M E J U D A I S M A N D R E L AT E D T E R M S
BONNIE VAN VOORST © CENGAGE LEARNING
Several symbols have served Judaism over time, and we
will begin with the lesser-used ones.
227
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The Jewish Present
As Shaped by Its Past
LO2
A
n American college professor leads his class on European
religious history through the Dachau (DAHK-ow) concentration camp outside Munich, Germany. They walk through
the gate, and the professor explains the macabre meaning of
its inscription, Arbeit macht frei (“Work makes [you] free”). He
explains, as they walk by, the barracks for prisoners and the
other buildings around the site. They see the gas chamber
disguised as a shower room and then inspect the crematorium. This is all a somber experience, but the full horror of this
site doesn’t really register on the students until they go into
its museum, with exhibits of what went on here. A suspicion
and hatred of “alien” groups, especially the long history of
hatred of the Jewish people, reached a horrific outcome in
dozens of camps such as this. Everyone in the class is in tears
as they leave, including the professor, who has been here
before and isn’t an emotional person. He brings his students
here for this searing experience so that they’ll never forget
the evil humans can do, and the courage it takes for persecuted groups to continue on in life.
The Jewish people have a long, storied history that includes
both tragedy and triumph. In Judaism today we can
see important beliefs and practices from the entire fourthousand-year sweep of Jewish history. The periods of this
history that we will consider here are: from the creation of
the world to Abraham (ca.
2000 B.C.E.); the emergence
patriarchs Hebrew
of Israel (ca. 1200–950
founding family of the
B.C.E.); the First Temple
later Israelites and Jews:
Period (950–586 B.C.E.); the
Abraham and Sarah, their
Second Temple Period (539
son Isaac and his wife
B.C.E.–70 C.E.); revolts
Rebekah, their son Jacob
and rabbis (70 C.E.–ca. 650
(Israel) and his wives
C.E.); Jews under Islamic
Rachel and Leah, and
and Christian rule (ca. 650–
Jacob’s twelve sons who
1800 C.E.); emancipation
founded the twelve tribes
of the nation of Israel
and change (1800–1932);
and the Holocaust and its
covenant Agreement
aftermath (1932–present).
God made with Abraham
in which God promised
to be with Abraham
and be the God of his
many descendants and
Abraham promised to
follow God
circumcision Ritual of
the covenant, removing
the foreskin of the penis
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CHAPTER 10
From the
Creation to
Abraham (ca.
2000 B.C.E.)
Chapters one through
eleven of the first book of
the Bible, Genesis, span
the creation of the universe to the time of Abraham,
father of the Jewish people (ca. 2000 B.C.E.). It narrates and provides a religious perspective on the creation of the world, the rebellion of the first humans
against God and their expulsion from the Garden
of Eden, the wide dispersal of people, Noah and
the flood, and other topics. These stories echo the
earlier mythology of Mesopotamia and provide
an Israelite alternative to them. The rest of Genesis
(Chapters 12–50) covers just four generations of one
family of the patriarchs and their wives: Abraham
and Sarah, their son Isaac and his wife Rebekah, their
son Jacob (Israel) and his wives Rachel and Leah, and
Jacob’s twelve sons who founded the twelve tribes of
the nation of Israel. The Israelite and then the Jewish
people emerged from these tribes. Scholars debate the
meaning and historical accuracy of the early biblical
story, but they don’t doubt the role that it played in
shaping Judaism.
Scholars debate the early biblical
story, but not the role that it played in
shaping Judaism.
Genesis 12 begins by narrating the migration of Abraham
from Ur in Mesopotamia to the
land of Canaan, a journey commanded by God. God makes
a covenant with Abraham in
which God promises to be with Abraham, be the
God of his many descendants, and bless the world
through these descendants. In return, God demands
that Abraham follow him faithfully. Abraham then
carries out, on himself and all the males in his clan,
the ritual of circumcision, cutting off the foreskin of
the penis, which is the perpetual sign of the covenant.
Abraham’s son Isaac marries Rebekah; she secures the
line of succession for her younger son Jacob. Jacob’s
simultaneous marriages to Leah and Rachel produce
twelve sons, who are the origins of the twelve tribes.
Genesis 37 to 50 tells the story of Joseph, the youngest of Jacob’s twelve sons. Joseph is betrayed by his
jealous brothers, who sell him to slave traders on their
way to Egypt, but Joseph rises to great power under a
sympathetic pharaoh. All Abraham’s descendants then
move to Egypt and prosper there until a later pharaoh
enslaves the Israelites.
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Ark
of the Covenant,
An eight-day-old Jewish boy undergoes
circumcision
The Emergence of Israel
(ca. 1200–950 B.C.E.)
The book of Exodus contains the story of Israel’s enslavement in Egypt, God’s call to Moses to lead his people
out of Egypt, Pharaoh’s stubborn resistance, and the
Israelites’ escape through the parted waters of the Red
Sea. Moses leads the Israelites to Sinai, a mountain in the
wilderness where they enter into a covenant relationship
with God. The Israelites agree to live by all the teachings
and commandments, the Torah, conveyed to them by
Moses. In keeping the Torah, they will live out their calling to be God’s chosen people. After a forty-year journey
through the wilderness, a new generation of Israelites
arrives at the Jordan River, where they prepare to cross
over and occupy the land
promised to them. The books
of Joshua and Judges relate the
story of the Israelites’ conquest
of Palestine, its division among
the tribes, and the first hundred years of settlement.
The focal center of early
Israelite religion during this period
was the movable tent-shrine
the
Torah [TOHR-uh]
Teachings and
commandments
conveyed by Moses,
particularly in the first five
books of the Bible
a sacred box containing two tablets
inscribed with the
Ten
Commandments, Moses’ staff,
Ark of the Covenant
and a pot of manna,
Sacred box in the
with angels on the
tabernacle and then
top. This tent, called
the Temple
the tabernacle, is
where the first formal
First Temple Period
worship of ancient
Era of Israelite history from
ca. 950 B.C.E. until the
Israel took place,
destruction of Jerusalem
with sacrifice, prayer,
in 586
and praise to God.
Unlike the nations
around it, Israel had
no national government;
the twelve tribes were
bound together in a tribal
confederacy under their
covenant with God. When Israel’s
enemies threatened, the tribes would act together under charismatic leaders, some of them women. Israel changed its form of
government from a tribal confederacy to a monarchy. Saul was
anointed king around 1025 B.C.E. Israel’s second monarch,
David, consolidated the monarchy over all Israel. The Bible
celebrates the reigns of David and his son Solomon as a golden
age, but it doesn’t gloss over their considerable failings.
The First Temple Period
(950–586 B.C.E.)
Solomon’s construction of a temple to God in Jerusalem
(ca. 950) inaugurated the First Temple Period, which
lasted until the temple was destroyed in 586. The royal
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CHESDOVI
housing
Modern replica of the Ark of the Covenant, the holiest object
in ancient Israel
T H E J E W I S H P R E S E N T A S S H A P E D B Y I T S PA S T
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some women who spoke for
God to ancient Israel to call
them to greater obedience
Judean captives from the town of Lachish on their way into exile in
Assyria; a relief from the palace of King Sennacherib, Nineveh
court became increasingly lavish as the power
and size of the state increased. So did the tax
burden on the lower classes. Many viewed
the increasing social and economic divisions,
with “the rich getting richer and the poor
getting poorer,” as a violation of God’s will.
Over the next centuries, a line of prophets,
mostly men and some women who spoke for
God, denounced the leaders of Israel for their
greed, exploitation of the poor, and other
social injustices and immoralities. They also
criticized the leaders’ faith in alliances with
other nations and not in God’s power to protect the nation. Today, prophets are those
who can see the future, but prophets in Israel were much
more “forth-tellers” of God’s will than foretellers of
the future. The importance of prophets to Israelite and
Jewish religion is indicated by the fact that the books of
the prophets are the largest section of the Bible. (We’ll
consider the formation and use of the Bible below, at the
beginning of “Essential Teachings of Judaism.”) As contemporary Jewish scholar Abraham Heschel wrote, the
prophets portray the righteousness of God and God’s
“pathos” (anguish) over Israel’s disobedience.1 The prophetic tradition that demands justice in God’s name
for the poor and oppressed is one of the great gifts of
Judaism to the world.
Today prophets are said to see the
future, but prophets in Israel were much
more “forth-tellers” of God’s will than
foretellers of the future.
When Solomon died in 922 B.C.E., the people
of God divided into two different nations—Israel,
comprised of ten tribes in the north, and Judah, comprised of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin in the
south, each with its own king (see Map 10.1). Each
1
Abraham Heschel, The Prophets, study edition (Peabody, MA:
Hendricksen, 2007).
230
CHAPTER 10
ERICH LESSING/ART RESOURCE, NY
prophets Mostly men and
nation claimed to be the true successor of the united
kingdom of Saul, David and Solomon. Sometimes the
two kingdoms warred with each other, and at other
times they cooperated against common enemies. But
two centuries later the northern kingdom of Israel
was wiped out by the Assyrian Empire in 722. Its ten
tribes would never appear again, becoming in Jewish
lore the “ten lost tribes.” The southern kingdom of
Judah was crippled at the same time by the Assyrians,
who conquered several Judean cities and deported
their citizens. Judah was finally conquered in 586 by
the Babylonian Empire. The temple in Jerusalem was
destroyed and the population decimated by death and
exile. The First Temple Period had ended with a disaster, and Israelite religion was poised to disappear into
the mists of time like the religions of so many other
conquered peoples.
Exile and return provides “the structure
of all Judaism.” —Jacob Neusner
The exiles carried off to Babylon were mostly
members of the Judean ruling class and skilled craftsmen. Although some exiles probably assimilated into
Babylonian religion, others viewed recent events as
confirmation rather than disproof of the sovereignty of
Israel’s God. The warnings of the prophets, remembered
in the exile, helped Israel interpret what had happened
to them as God’s punishment for repeated violations of
the covenant. In the ancient world, military defeat and
E N C O U N T E R I N G J U D A I S M : T H E WAY O F G O D ’ S C H O S E N P E O P L E
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CYPRUS
Byblos
Sidon
Mediterranean
Sea
SYRIA
Damascus
Tyre
Samaria
Jaffa
Jordan R.
Rabbat-Ammon
Judaism.
The
pattern of exile
and
return
would provide
a historical and
religious
pattern that a leading scholar of
Judaism, Jacob
Neusner, calls
“the structure of
all Judaism.”2
Second Temple
Period Era of Jewish
history from ca. 539 B.C.E.
to 70 C.E., when the
Romans destroyed the
Second Temple
Diaspora [dee-ASSpohr-uh] Dispersion of
Jews outside the ancient
territory of Israel
The Second Temple
Period (539 B.C.E.–70 C.E.)
In 539 B.C.E. the Babylonians were defeated
by Cyrus (SIGH-rus) of Persia, a Zoroastrian
Gaza
Dead Sea
whose empire covered almost the whole
Near East (see Chapter 9). Cyrus authoLachish
rized the rebuilding of the Jewish temple of
Beersheba
Jerusalem. The exiles would be allowed to
return to Judea and live as a subject state in
the Persian Empire. In Judea, the new leadPhilistines
ers Ezra and Nehemiah zealously promoted
Kingdom of Judah
a renewed commitment to the Mosaic covenant. Increasingly, community life was
Kingdom of Israel
SINAI
organized around the Torah, which was now
Phoenicians
in written form as the first five books of the
Bible. The Second Temple was completed
Mt.
between 521 and 515, and the Second
Sinai
EGYPT
Temple Period would extend until 70 C.E.,
0
100
200
300 Kilometers
when the Romans destroyed the Second
Temple. During this time another permanent
0
100
200 Miles
feature of Jewish life arose: the Diaspora,
Red Sea
or “dispersion,” of Jews outside the ancient
territory of Israel. Many, perhaps most, of
the Jews in Babylon stayed there when othMap 10.1
ers returned to Jerusalem in the 530s. Within
The Monarchies of Israel and Judah, 924–722 B.C.E.
The northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of
a hundred years or so, there would be more
Judah had expanded beyond the traditional areas of the twelve tribes,
Jews living outside the territory of Israel than
especially at times when neighboring kingdoms and empires were
inside it. Large Jewish communities could be
relatively weak. The kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrian Empire in
found in Alexandria, Egypt, and in Antioch,
722 to 721 B.C.E.
Syria, and smaller ones in hundreds of cities in
what would become the Roman Empire. This
exile usually spelled the end of a particular ethnic group,
Diaspora situation became peras it already had for the northern kingdom of Israel.
manent in Judaism and endures
Despite the disaster of 586 B.C.E. and even larger disaseven today.
ters to come, Israelite religion survived and emerged
2
from the ancient world into the medieval and modern
Jacob Neusner, “Judaism,” in Arvind Sharma, ed., Our Religions
periods with a continuous religious identity now called
(New York: HarperOne, 1994), 314.
© CENGAGE LEARNING 2013
Jerusalem
T H E J E W I S H P R E S E N T A S S H A P E D B Y I T S PA S T
231
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JAMES EMERY
A modern model of the Second Temple in its
Jerusalem setting
In the 330s B.C.E., Alexander of Macedon (in
northern Greece) began conquering and amassing the
largest empire yet seen, taking Israel in his conquest. In
Alexander’s time tens of thousands of Greeks migrated
to all parts of his vast empire. Greek culture in Palestine
extended until the rise of Islam in the 600s C.E., because
many Jews in Palestine were significantly Hellenized
in culture while keeping to Judaism. The two centuries after Alexander’s conquests saw the formation of
Jewish movements with
diverse understandings of
Judaism. The Sadducees
Pharisees [FAIR-uhwere a priestly movement
seez] Lay movement of
who accepted only the earTorah teachers who later
liest books of the Bible as
became religious leaders
and developed the oral
authoritative and coopertraditions of the Torah
ated with the Romans. The
Pharisees were a lay moveMaccabean Revolt
ment of Torah teachers who
Rebellion against
later became religious leadHellenistic Greek rulers led
ers and developed the oral
by Judas Maccabeus and
his sons
traditions of the Torah. The
Essenes (ESS-eenz) probHanukkah [HAHNably began the separatuh-kuh] Winter festival
ist ultra-Torah-observant
commemorating the
community at Qumran
rededication of the
on the Dead Sea. Various
Temple in 164 B.C.E.
prophetic or messianic
232
CHAPTER 10
movements also arose within Judaism from time to time,
including one led by Jesus of Nazareth (4 B.C.E.–30 C.E.)
that would later become the Christian religion.
Alexander’s successors had a significant impact
on Judea and Judaism. After gaining control of Judea
in 198 B.C.E., the Seleucid (sell-YOO-sid) dynasty
of Greek rulers that controlled most of the Middle
East rewarded the pro-Seleucid faction of Jews. But a
struggle soon arose over the office of high priest. The
Seleucid king suspected a revolt, captured the city, and
plundered the Temple in 168 B.C.E. The Temple was
rededicated to the Greek high god Zeus, and pagan
sacrifices were made there. Many Jews were outraged,
and when foundational Jewish observances such as circumcision and Sabbath observance were forbidden on
pain of death, the Maccabean Revolt broke out. The
revolt was led by Judas Maccabeus, of the Hasmonean
clan, and his sons. The Seleucid armies were defeated,
and the Temple was liberated and rededicated to God
in December, 164 B.C.E., an event commemorated by
Jews to this day in the winter festival of Hanukkah.
Before and during the revolt, many devout Jews were
tortured and killed, leading to the first written accounts
of Jewish martyrs. Their example would echo strongly
through Jewish history until now. In 142 B.C.E., independence from the Seleucids was secured, and the
Hasmonean family ruled the small kingdom of Judea
for several generations. The Hasmoneans ruled until
the Roman general Pompey captured Jerusalem in
63 B.C.E. and took Judea into the Roman Empire.
King Herod ruled Israel by Roman appointment from
37 to 4 B.C.E. He undertook extensive and ambitious
building projects, including a complete rebuilding of the
Temple in Jerusalem, making it one of the most magnificent temples in the Roman Empire. However, he was hated
by many Jews not only for cruelty and his loyalty to Rome,
but also because many Jews doubted if he really was Jewish
by birth. Relations between
the Jews and their Roman
overlords
steadily
deteriorated, and Rome appointed
its own governors of the area
after Herod died.
Revolts and Rabbis
(70 C.E.–ca. 650)
In 66 C.E., a full-scale Jewish revolt broke out against
Rome. Although it began well, with the Romans
being chased out, it ended very differently than the
Maccabean Revolt. Rome summoned all its military
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When Christianity became
the official faith of the Roman
Empire around 400 C.E., Jews
were allowed to survive but not
thrive. From about 100 to 400
C.E., Christianity and Judaism
had been in the process of
separation, and mutual hostility was often strong. The Code
of Justinian in 527 C.E. contained discriminatory legislation
against the Jews and Judaism
that was to influence European
legal systems for centuries and
contribute to anti-Semitism,
Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum, showing
prejudice
and discrimination
trophies from the Jewish temple
against the Jewish people.
Anti-Semitism isn’t Christian
or even European in origin or
expression. Its oldest forms can
be traced to 500 B.C.E. in Egypt, and today the stronmight to crush the revolt, engaging in massive slaughter
gest forms of it are found in the Muslim Middle East.
of combatants and noncombatants alike. It destroyed
Despite these hardships, or perhaps because of them,
the Temple in 70 C.E., and a permanent transformamany Jews chose to form their communities around
tion of Judaism resulted. The Temple had been the
synagogues. The local synagogue became the chief orgaonly place that represented the whole nation to God
nization of Jewish life in late antiquity and remained so
and was the location of great religious events such
until the modern period.
as Jewish festivals and the Day of Atonement. It was
The single most important Jewish community from
also the only place where sacrifices could be offered to
about 600 to 1500 C.E. was in Babylonia, outside the
God. In addition, the Temple was a forum for Jewish
sphere of Greek, Roman, and then Christian power. As
teachers and the location of the high council of reliwe’ve seen, Israelites arrived in Babylonia during the
gious leaders that governed Judaism. The destruction
time of their exile in 586 B.C.E. In later periods there
of the Temple was a disaster for Judaism, and the end
was some immigration
of the revolt against Rome
from Palestine, but scholbrought the end of every
ars didn’t made their way
group in Judaism except the
rabbis [RAB-ighz]
to Babylonia and estabPharisees, who would evenTeachers of the law
lish a home there until
tually take over the religion’s
and successors of the
the persecutions after the
leadership.
Pharisees who eventually
Bar Kochba revolt in the
Jewish hopes for independence and Roman heavygained influence and
130s C.E. Over the next
handed tactics continued in the ensuing decades, clijudicial authority over
Judaism
centuries the status of the
maxing in a revolt in 130 led by messianic claimant
Babylonian Jewish comSimon Bar Kochba. This revolt was also crushed by
synagogue [SIN-uhmunity grew in prestige,
Rome. The Jewish population had now been hit hard
gawg] “Gathering” of local
and immigration increased.
by two wars of their own making in only sixty years.
Jews in a congregation for
Although the Babylonian
Yet during this period a small and peripheral group
worship and community
Jewish community conconnected to pre-70 C.E. scribes and Pharisees prelife, a term later applied to
a building
fronted problems and
served a Torah-centered, lay-led Judaism. It would be
occasional persecution, its
at least two centuries before these teachers, or rabanti-Semitism [SEHMfreedom from Christian
bis, would begin to win broader influence and judiih-tihz-um] Prejudice and
government and from the
cial authority over Judaism. In the 300s and 400s,
discrimination against the
hardships that prevailed
the rabbis gradually became spiritual leaders in local
Jewish people
in Palestine enabled it to
Jewish communities, the synagogues.
T H E J E W I S H P R E S E N T A S S H A P E D B Y I T S PA S T
233
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develop into a vibrant center of Jewish intellectual and
cultural life. By 600, it had surpassed the Palestinian
community in its leadership of world Judaism.
All modern forms of Judaism are built
on, or react to, the foundation of the
Babylonian Talmud.
The work of the rabbinic academy in Babylon
centered first on the Mishnah, a collection of primarily legal traditions on all aspects of the Torah—what
we today would call civil, criminal, and religious law—
produced in Palestine and brought to Babylonia in the
early third century C.E. Generations of Babylonian rabbis discussed the Mishnah and related teachings, adding
to them and ultimately producing a huge legal work
known as the Babylonian Talmud. Rabbinic Judaism
is the Torah-centered way of life that finds expression
in the vast sea of materials produced by Palestinian and
Babylonian rabbis from 70 to 630 C.E., most prominently the Babylonian Talmud. The Talmud achieved
a remarkable degree of power in Jewish communities
worldwide, a power that withstood serious challenges
well into the early modern period. Almost all forms of
Judaism in the medieval and
modern ages are built on, or
react to, this foundation of the
Talmud as interpreted by the
rabbis.
Babylonian Talmud
[TALL-mood] Jewish law
code, a compilation of the
“oral Torah”
Sephardic [seh-FAR-dik]
Jews in medieval and
modern times living in the
Middle East, North Africa,
and Spain
Ashkenazi [ash-kuhNAHZ-ee] Jews in
medieval and modern
times living in Western,
Central, and Eastern
Europe
234
CHAPTER 10
Jews under
Islamic and
Christian
Rule (ca.
650–1800)
Jews in the medieval period
lived under either Muslim
or Christian rule. Muslims
guaranteed religious toleration as long as the Jews
recognized the supremacy of the Islamic rule.
They had a second-class
but protected status. On
the whole, Jews adapted
well to the Islamic regime
and the political, economic, and social changes that it
brought. They lived predominantly in major Arab cities; worked in commerce, banking, and the learned professions; and participated in cultural life, even adopting
Arabic as their everyday language.
Some rabbis from these Sephardic Jewish communities, which centered in the Middle East, North
Africa, and Spain, were interested in the philosophical clarification of religious beliefs and the systematic presentation of their faith, just as Muslim and
Christian theologians were doing. The most prominent medieval Jewish philosopher was Rabbi Moses
ben Maimon (1135–1204), known as Maimonides
(my-MAHN-uh-deez). He addressed his Guide for
the Perplexed to a student whose education in philosophy left him confused about his religious faith—a
common situation for many students from a religious
background! Maimonides was a brilliant legal scholar
whose fourteen-volume work on Jewish law became
almost instantly authoritative. In modern editions of
the Talmud, his views are often cited.
Jews were outsiders in medieval Christian society in
western, central, and eastern Europe where they called
themselves Ashkenazi Jews, as distinguished from
Sephardic. Rulers granted them permission to live in
specified neighborhoods. In these neighborhoods, Jews
ran their own affairs and maintained their own institutions, such as social-relief funds, schools, a synagogue
led by a rabbi, a council and court for religious affairs,
a bathhouse for ritual cleansing, kosher meat shops,
and so on. They developed their own language, Yiddish,
a combination of Hebrew and German that originated
in Germany but spread to almost all European Jews.
Most Jews in Western and Central Europe lived in
cities. Many of those in Eastern Europe (Poland and
Russia) lived in small villages centered on farming, the
kind of society depicted in an 1894 collection of short
stories by Sholem Aleichem
(SHOH-luhm
uh-LIGHKuhm), which became the basis
of the Broadway musical and
film Fiddler on the Roof.
In the 1200s, decrees by the Roman Catholic
Church after the Fourth Lateran Council altered the
life of European Jews. Christians were now forbidden
to lend money at interest, so Jews were free to move
into banking, which they did with great success. Direct
restrictions on Jews arose at this time: wearing distinctive clothing (especially hats) or a yellow badge alerting others to their presence; exclusion from most crafts
and trades by guilds that controlled access to training
and jobs; exclusion from the new universities being
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PHOTO COURTESY PHOTOS8.COM
the local rabbi, or dress and talk like Jews
had in Europe for more than a thousand
years. In less than a century, many Jews rose
to become some of the leading figures in science, medicine, education, commerce, and
banking. (This astonishing level of achievement continued in the twentieth century,
when one-quarter of all Nobel Prize winners were Jewish.) Their emancipation
prompted many nineteenth-century Jews
to wonder why they should continue to
be Jews when they could be citizens of
European states. Many modern Jews chose
to assimilate, which sometimes included
Street scene in the medieval Jewish quarter
conversion to Christianity. Some—for
of Lublin, Poland
example, Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx—
even began systems of thought, science, and
founded in Europe; restriction to Jewish neighborgovernment that rationalized God out of existence and
hoods called ghettos; and special permission required
opposed religion in general and particularly Judaism.
to work outside the ghetto. The rising view of Jews as
Many other Jews responded that Jewish identity was
dangerous was fueled by envy, irrational suspicions,
not primarily ethnic or national, but religious. One could
and even hatred, which led to repeated expulsions and
be a loyal citizen of a European nation, but still keep the
massacres. Jews were expelled from France in 1182
Jewish religion. They urged not assimilation, but acculturand 1306 and from England in 1290. The most devasation, that is, taking on the culture of one’s nation while
tating massacres were in Germany in 1298, wiping out
retaining Jewish religious faith. Just as Christians could
140 Jewish communities, and in 1348 to 1349 when
practice their religion as citizens of different nations, so
the Black Plague was falsely attributed to Jews poisontoo should Jews. The German-Jewish intellectual Moses
ing wells. In 1492 Spain expelled all Jews, estimated
Mendelssohn (MEN-dul-sohn; 1729–1786) was an
to be between 100,000 and 150,000. Many of them
influential example of those who made embraced moderfled to temporary safety in Portugal, some of whom
nity while staying Jewish. He urged Jews to participate
eventually went to The Netherlands—one of the few
in European culture and to continue in Judaism, what he
relatively safe havens for Jews in Europe. One reaccalled the “double yoke” placed on them by God.
tion of European Jews to this continued persecution
was the development of Jewish mystical piety, particularly the Kabbalah (kah-BAHL-uh), which we will
Many Jews questioned why they should
consider below in the section “Jewish Worship and
Ritual.” The Protestant Reformation in the 1500s was
shoulder a “double yoke” of being both
a mixed blessing to the Jews of northern Europe. In
Jewish and European—why not just
some places such as The Netherlands and England,
Protestant reformers treated them with some tolerassimilate completely?
ance. But in Germany, the Protestant reformer Martin
Luther continued some aspects of anti-Jewish sentiment, in ways that would echo through later German
However, many Jews in the early 1800s began to
history.
question why they should shoulder this “double yoke”—
why not just assimilate completely? This questioning, and
doubts about some elements
Emancipation and Diversity
of traditional Judaism that
(1800–1932)
looked increasingly odd to
emancipation Jewish
Around 1800, mostly under the influence of the
many modern Jews, sparked
freedom from Christian
Enlightenment, many Western European nations began
controversies among mostly
and state control in
to drop their restrictions on Jews. No longer did Jews
German Jews in the midEurope after 1800
have to live in their own neighborhood, be subject to
1800s that eventually led
T H E J E W I S H P R E S E N T A S S H A P E D B Y I T S PA S T
235
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Jews to classical Judaism in a fresh and vigorous way.
The Orthodox movement has several different internal
groups, some of them now called (especially in Israel)
the “ultra-Orthodox.” Because of their high birthrate and ability to keep their children in the faith, the
Orthodox continue to grow in numbers in Europe and
North America.
A third main branch of Judaism, originally called
“Positive-Historical” in Germany, came to be known
in North America as Conservative Judaism. It was led
by the German-Bohemian rabbi and scholar Zecharias
Frankel (FRAHN-kul; 1801–1875). It claimed the middle ground between Reform and Orthodoxy. In that
sense, “moderate Judaism” would be a better name for
it than “Conservative Judaism,” but the latter name
stuck. (In Israel and Europe today, this movement is
known as Masorti [mah-SOHR-tee], “traditionalist.”)
It opposed Reform’s sweeping changes by affirming
the positive value of much of past Judaism in which
the voice of God could be discerned. It opposed the
Orthodox movement by asserting the historical evolution of the Judaic tradition, which Orthodoxy
denied with its claim that the whole Law of God—the
written form that became the Bible and the oral form
that became the Talmud—was revealed to Moses on
Mount Sinai.
Although many European Jews modernized rapidly
in the 1800s and were optimistic about the future of
Judaism, a wide outbreak of hostility toward the Jews
in the 1870s and 1880s cast a dark shadow on their
sunny optimism. For example, in France the Dreyfuss
affair, in which a Jewish army officer was falsely
accused of crimes, stirred up wide anti-Jewish feelings.
In Russia, the czar’s secret police authored a vile book
entitled the Protocols of the Elders of Zion
that purported to relate how rich and powerful Jews were plotting to take over the
world. Modern anti-Semitism was a backlash against Jewish success in Europe, a sign
that Jews were still considered outsiders. In
earlier times, anti-Semitism had a mostly
religious basis, but in modern Europe it was
mainly based on ethnicity.
In the light of this revived anti-Semitism,
and in a time of rising European nationalistic movements that formed new nations
such as Germany and Italy, Jewish movements sprang up emphasizing newfound
Jewish nationalism. Most important was
Zionism, so called after an ancient Hebrew
name for Jerusalem, which aimed for large
Jewish emigration from Europe to Palestine.
A modern Reform synagogue
In 1897, Theodor Herzl (HURT-zuhl;
to the three main branches
of
Judaism
today:
movement for large
Reform, Orthodox, and
Jewish immigration into
Conservative. The Reform
Palestine
movement, led by Abraham
Geiger (GIGH-gehr; 18201874), was the first new
form of Judaism to arise. Geiger wanted to change Judaism
into a modern religion with patterns of worship and devotion similar to German Protestant Christianity. Synagogues
were renamed “temples,” and services were no longer conducted in Hebrew, but German. Sermons by the rabbi and
music by trained choirs were introduced; candles were put
at the front of remodeled synagogues that now resembled
Christian churches; and the ethnic and national aspects of
Judaism were no longer mentioned. Reform Judaism gave
up kosher food regulations, Jewish dress and hair codes,
the Yiddish language, and most other traditional aspects.
It ended beliefs and practices it considered not a part of
the spiritual essence of Judaism. Of course, this entailed
an almost complete rejection of the Talmud. The Reform
movement quickly spread through much of Europe and
North America.
Traditionalist Jews condemned these reforms
as a betrayal of Judaism. They viewed their form
of Judaism as the only legitimate continuation of
Rabbinic Judaism and biblical Israel. The leader of
modern Orthodoxy was Samson Raphael Hirsch
(hersh; 1808–1888). Hirsch urged a combination of
most traditional Jewish religious practices and selective appreciation of European civilization. He criticized the Reform movement for diminishing Judaism
for the convenience and contentment of modern Jews.
Instead, he urged the Orthodox movement to elevate
© RON ZMIRI/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
Zionism Modern
236
CHAPTER 10
E N C O U N T E R I N G J U D A I S M : T H E WAY O F G O D ’ S C H O S E N P E O P L E
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
1860–1904) organized the First Zionist Congress in
repressive measures. Some of them pursued Nazi ideBasel, Switzerland, which called for an internationology to “purify” Germany in a series of anti-Semitic
ally recognized Jewish national home in
laws gradually introduced between 1933
Palestine. The Zionist movement was
and 1938. Germans who had just one
largely secular in orientation. With congrandparent who was Jewish by ethnictinued anti-Semitism in Europe, increasity—on a synagogue roll, for example, or a
ing numbers of Jewish immigrants settled
member of a secular Jewish organization—
in Palestine and began to set up the social
were deemed to be Jewish, whether or not
infrastructure of a modern nation. The
they thought of themselves as Jewish.
quest for a Jewish nation free from the
Jews had to wear a yellow star in pubthreats of anti-Semitism was well on
lic for identification. Marriage and sexits way. In 1917 the British government
ual
relations between Jews and so-called
Badge worn by all Jews
issued the Balfour Declaration giving
Aryan
Germans were banned, and by
in Nazi Germany. Jude
British support for a national home for
(pronounced YOO-deh) is 1938 all German Jews had been stripped
the Jewish people in Palestine.
German for Jew. of their citizenship, most civil rights, and
some from their professional jobs. Some
PHOTO COURTESY PHOTOS8.COM
Jews fled as these laws were passed, but
The Zionist slogan was “a land
most stayed, hoping that each new law would be the last.
without a people for a people
without a land.”
Jewish state after UN partition
of Palestine, 1947
Israel after War of 1948–1949
SYR IA
Haifa
H
if
Port Said
GOLAN
HEIGHTS
Sea
of Galilee
WEST
Jordan
R.
Med i t erra n ea n
Sea
Tel Aviv
BANK
32°E
ISR AEL
Amman
Jerusalem
Gaza
Dead
Sea
J OR DA N
Suez
Canal
EGY P T
Suez
32°E
SAU DI
AR AB IA
R ed Sea
28°E
36°E
© CENGAGE LEARNING 2013
z
Sharm
el-Sheikh
Elath
o f A qa b
a
ARAB-ISRAELI
CONFLICT
SINAI
PENINSULA
G ulf
Nile R
.
Cairo
ue
T H E J E W I S H P R E S E N T A S S H A P E D B Y I T S PA S T
Damascus
fS
Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party won office in the 1932
German national elections, and in 1933 Hitler quickly
moved toward totalitarian power with a variety of
LE
LEBA
N ON
Be
Beirut
fo
The Holocaust and Its
Aftermath (1932–present)
Israeli-occupied area after
Yom Kippur War, 1973
G ul
The Zionist slogan was “a land without a people for
a people without a land,” but the Jewish settlers there
found that Palestine wasn’t really a land without a people.
Palestinian Arabs in the tens of thousands, both Muslims
and Christians, had been living in that small territory for
more than a thousand years. Moreover, Palestinians were
among the most culturally advanced Arabs in the Middle
East, and still are today. As the numbers of Jewish settlers increased, friction grew with the Arab population.
Freedom for European Jews would come at the expense
of a future conflict between Israeli Jews and Arabs, in
which they would be locked in a long struggle for a land
they both considered holy. Islam had been tolerant of
Judaism for 1,300 years but now became mostly intolerant, largely because of Muslim resistance to non-Muslims
taking their holy land. Several wars were fought between
Israel and its Arab neighbors from 1948 through today,
all of them won by Israel, sometimes at a high cost (see
Map 10.2). A few peace treaties have been signed, but
the conflict continues. Jewish settlement in Israel grew
quickly after the events of World War II, especially after
Germany’s extermination of most European Jews. We
now turn to a brief examination of this horrific story.
Area controlled by Israel after
Six-Day War, 1967
Map 10.2
Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1947–Present
By Egyptian-Israeli agreements of 1975 and 1979, Israel withdrew from the Sinai in 1982. By 1981 Israel annexed the Golan
Heights in Syria. Through negotiations between Israel and the
PLO, Jericho and the Gaza Strip were placed under Palestinian
self-rule, and Israeli troops were withdrawn in 1994. In 1994
Israel and Jordan signed an agreement opening their borders
and normalizing their relations.
237
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These hopes were in vain. When World War II
began, Hitler ordered a “Final Solution” of the “Jewish
Question.” The term Holocaust (literally, a “completely
burned” sacrifice) came after the war, used to describe the
Nazi genocide of Jews and other groups; the Hebrew term
Shoah (SHOW-uh, “destruction”) is also used. When the
war in the East broke out, “special assignment groups” of
German troops held mass executions of hundreds of thousands of Jews who lived in villages and towns in newly
conquered territory. But this soon proved “inefficient.”
In 1942, the German government erected concentration
camps in western Germany and occupied Poland, after the
model of the first camp in Dachau. The purpose of these
camps was not to “concentrate” Jews, but to kill them
with all the efficiency of state-run mass murder. Jews from
Germany and Poland were brought by train to be killed by
poison gas or to work as slave laborers in adjoining factories. Then Jews from every other nation in Nazi-occupied
Europe—especially Russia, Hungary, The Netherlands,
and France—were hunted down and brought by train to
the camps. The Nazi aim in the “Final Solution” was to
make not only Germany, but all of Europe, “Jew-free.”
Approximately six million Jews perished, almost threequarters of Europe’s Jewish population.
Relatively few Germans dared—or cared—to risk
almost certain death by opposing the actions of their
government. Among the most famous examples of those
that did are the Roman Catholic industrialist Oskar Schindler, who protected
1,200 Jewish workers from death, and the
Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer
(BAHN-haw-fuhr), who spoke out against
anti-Semitism and Nazi control of the
German churches. He also participated in
a failed plot to kill Hitler. Bonhoeffer was
hanged by the Nazis shortly before the war
ended; when Schindler died in 1974, he
was buried with great honors in Jerusalem.
Holocaust [HAUL-ohcaust] Nazi genocide of
Jews and other groups in
World War II
238
CHAPTER 10
Liam Neeson (center) as Oskar Schindler in Schindler’s
List, walking through lines of his Jewish workers, whom
he saved
© UNIVERSAL/COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION
The Nazi aim in the “Final Solution” was
to make not only Germany, but all
of Europe, “Jew-free.”
The Holocaust brought a
crisis of faith to Judaism like no
event before it. To adapt Jacob
Neusner’s phrase, it was an
“exile” from which “return” was
extremely difficult. Orthodox Jews in general explained
the Holocaust as punishment for recent Jewish sins, as
a test of faith, or even as an opportunity to die for the
faith. For many other Jews, it shook the foundations of
Judaism. Some Jews, such as Richard Rubenstein, said
that the only possible valid response to the Holocaust was
the rejection of God. If God could allow the Holocaust,
then there was no God. Many Jews agreed with this, and
the abandonment of traditional beliefs and practices of
Jewish religion begun in the Jewish emancipation accelerated. On the other hand, Emil Fackenheim and others insisted that the Holocaust did not show that God
was dead. To reject Judaism’s God, Fackenheim said,
was to aid Hitler in the accomplishment of his evil, even
demonic goal to destroy Judaism.
Whatever the best response to the Holocaust—not yet
a settled question in Judaism—the field of religious studies
has given it a large and important place in teaching and
research. Holocaust museums have sprung up in several
major North American cities. Popular literature and film
have also dealt extensively with the Holocaust. The Diary
of Anne Frank, authored by the Dutch Jewish teenager
who wrote about her life in hiding, has become required
reading in secondary schools all over the world. The works
of Holocaust survivors such as Elie Wiesel (EHL-ee veeZEHL), particularly his moving novel Night, are widely
read. Hollywood films on the Holocaust—Schindler’s List,
Sophie’s Choice, Life Is Beautiful, and many others—have
portrayed it in especially powerful ways.
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“Most Israelis don’t belong to a
synagogue, but the synagogue they don’t
belong to is Orthodox.” —Israeli quip
We should close this section with a consideration of
Judaism in Israel today. The
Orthodox movement is the
only movement legally recognized in Israel. Until about
2000, only Orthodox Jews
could serve on religious councils. Today, only Orthodox rabbis may perform marriage and
conversion and grant divorce
in Israel. Orthodox men are
exempt from military service, and some of them receive
lifelong stipends from the government in order to
devote themselves to full-time Torah study. Some nonOrthodox Israelis bristle at this preferential treatment.
Most Israelis today don’t formally identify with the
three movements known in North America. Instead,
they describe themselves in terms of their degree of
observance. More than half of all Israelis call themselves
“secular.” About 15 to 20 percent describe themselves
as “Orthodox.” Most of the rest in the wide middle are
“traditionally observant.” However, the secular and the
traditionalists (Masorti) of Israel tend to be more observant than are their counterparts in Europe and North
America. For example, many secularists in Israel observe
some traditional practices, such as lighting Sabbath candles on Friday evening, limiting their activities on the
Sabbath day of rest, having a full Passover home ritual,
or keeping some Jewish dietary laws (avoiding pork, for
example). These practices are almost nonexistent among
American Jews who call themselves “secular.” An Israeli
quip on this combination of secularism and observance
runs, “Most Israelis don’t belong to a synagogue, but
the synagogue they don’t belong to is Orthodox.”
Essential Teachings
of Judaism
LO3
A
Jewish woman enters her home in Los Angeles. Just
before she goes through her front door, she looks at a
small box fastened to the right frame of the door. It contains
a small scroll with three short passages from the Hebrew
Bible, especially the key words of Deuteronomy 6:4–9: “Take
to heart these instructions. . . . Recite them when you stay at
home and when you are away, when you lie down and when
you get up. . . . Inscribe them on the doorposts of your house
and on your gates.” She touches this box reverently as a
reminder to remember God and keep God’s teachings within
her home. This little ritual act displays a key characteristic of
Judaism: that it is a religion of action more than a religion of
reflection.
Judaism as a whole has no official statement of its essential teachings. Unlike many other religions, it has rarely
argued over doctrine to the point of division. The closest it came to a confession was the Thirteen Articles of
Maimonides, but this was never widely accepted as a
formal statement of Jewish teaching, in its time or later.
Persons are Jewish whether they hold a system of traditional Jewish teachings, have simple beliefs associated
with rituals such as the Passover meal, or even don’t
hold to any traditional Jewish teachings at all. This situation arises largely because actions in accordance with
the Torah, not beliefs, are the most important aspect of
Jewish religious life. Today, Jewish describes a people
and a culture as well as a religion, so some who call
themselves Jewish have little
interest in any Jewish religious
practices and even less in the
teachings of Judaism.
Foundation of Jewish
Teachings: The Tanak
The foundation of Jewish teaching and ethics is the
Jewish Bible, commonly called the Tanak. This name
is an acronym formed from the first letters of the three
divisions of the Bible: the Torah (instruction, law); the
second division, called the Nevi’im (prophets); and the
third, the Kethuvim (writings). The Jewish scriptures
arose over a period of more than a thousand years, and
the Tanak was finalized only at the beginning of the
first century C.E. Around the second century B.C.E., a
translation into Greek was made in Egypt for Jews who
had lived so long in the Diaspora that they had lost
their knowledge of the
Hebrew language. In the
Tanak [TAH-nahk] Name
consolidation of Judaism
for the Hebrew Bible, an
that occurred after the
acronym formed from
Jewish revolt, the status
the first letters of Torah
of this Greek translation,
(the law), Nevi’im (the
called the Septuagint (sepprophets), and Kethuvim
TOO-uh-jint), fell. Soon
(the writings)
only the Hebrew Bible
ESSENTIAL TEACHINGS OF JUDAISM
239
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One God
Judaism is a monotheistic faith, meaning that Jews
believe that only one God exists. Hebrew and Israelite
religion acknowledged the possible existence of other
gods, but only one God for Israel. This henotheism—
the belief in one God while accepting that other gods
may exist—seems to have been prevalent in ancient
Israel. For example, Canaanite gods were worshiped at
Israelite holy places shortly after Israelite settlement in
their promised land, King David named some of his children after Canaanite gods, and Solomon built a shrine
to a Canaanite fertility goddess outside Jerusalem.
Full, formal monotheism seems to have
come in the Babylonian
Shema [sheh-MAH,
exile in the 500s B.C.E.
or shmah] Basic
As we saw above, the return
statement of faith from
from Babylon featured a
Deuteronomy 6 that
strict enforcement of monobegins “Hear, O Israel, the
theism, and Judaism has
Lord our God is One”
continued in it ever since.
240
CHAPTER 10
Israel’s God is eternal, holy, all-knowing, all-present,
all-powerful. God is a divine being, not a principle or
a force. God guides not only those who know him, but
also the nations and human history. God is transcendent, far above the world and human ability to comprehend God; but God is immanent as well, present in the
world and in each human being. Because God is holy
and just, God punishes humans for their disobedience,
particularly those who know the Torah; but because
God is merciful, God forgives and renews relationships.
How individual Jews choose to relate to God has
varied in different times and places. Some have related
to God by studying and keeping the Torah, by formal
worship in the two Temples and in synagogues, with
piety and emotion, even with mysticism such as the
Kabbalah. An important part of Jewish piety relating
to monotheism is the Shema, a basic statement of faith
from Deuteronomy 6 that begins “Hear, O Israel: The
Lord our God is One.” Some Jews today even relate
to God by denying God’s existence, but ironically this too
has become a Jewish option.
Judaism’s names for God
are an important aspect of its
teaching about God. The most sacred name of God,
as God revealed to Moses in the book of Exodus, is
YHWH. This name seems to be built on the Hebrew verb
to be and means either “I am” or “I will be.” YHWH is
sometimes referred to as the tetragrammaton (TEH-trahGRAM-mah-tahn), from the Greek for “four lettered.”
When vowels were added to Hebrew in the Middle Ages,
this name was considered too holy to be changed, so
we don’t know its original pronunciation. The common
word Jehovah (jeh-HOH-vuh), however, is incorrect as a
vocalization. A more grammatically correct spelling and
pronunciation, one used by scholars, is Yahweh (YAHweh). Nevertheless, this discussion is irrelevant to most
Jews, because they don’t pronounce God’s name. When
Observant Jews wear kippahs out
of reverence for God.
PHOTO COURTESY PHOTOS8.COM
was used in synagogues, even though many Jews could
not understand it.
Even more important than the particular documents of the Bible is the authority that most Jews have
invested in the biblical canon. These documents are said
to be the written revelation of God—they are God’s
very words. The Bible is especially authoritative in
expressing what God expects the Jewish people to do in
response to the divine self-revelation. They express and
shape the faith and action of Jews through all times.
Jews have debated the meaning of the Bible, have often
strongly disagreed about it, and in modern times have
studied it with modern scholarly methods, but most
Jews accept the Bible as their special book in some significant sense. The Jewish use
of their scriptural canon has
deeply influenced the formation, contents, and use of scripture in Christianity and Islam.
Despite this lack of primary emphasis on teaching,
the Bible and Talmud contain a great deal of teaching
about God, humanity, and the meaning of life. Jewish
history has seen significant theological and mystical
inquiry into religious concepts. We’ll consider three
main teachings: one God, the chosen people, and life
after death. (We’ll consider other foundational teachings, the notions of obedience to God’s will in the Torah
and the concept of ethical monotheism, below in the
section “Essential Jewish Ethics.”)
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NATHAN LEVECK
from all the nations that are on the face of the earth”
(Deuteronomy 14:2). This choice is grounded in God’s
love and faithfulness to the covenant promises made to
Abraham, not on Israel’s own qualities: “The Lord did
not set his love upon you or choose you because you
were more in number than any people, for you were
the fewest of all people. It was because the Lord loved
you, and because he would keep the oath which he had
sworn unto your ancestors” (Deuteronomy 7:7–8).
The tetragrammaton, or name for God in Hebrew,
YHWH (Hebrew reads from right to left)
the Torah is read aloud, Adonai (ad-oh-NAI), meaning “Lord,” is read in place of YHWH. This practice is
reflected in most English translations, including in the
Christian Bible, in which YHWH is rendered as “Lord.”
Many traditionalist Jews also refer to God as
Hashem (hah-SHEHM), “the Name,” understanding
that God, not just God’s name, is meant. The prohibition against pronouncing God’s name expresses a
profound human reverence for God. Some modern
Orthodox Jews carry this reverence for God’s name one
step further. They refrain from writing the word God,
replacing it instead with G-d. Other branches of modern Judaism do not follow them in this practice, saying
that God is a generic noun, not a biblical name.
Jews throughout history have found that
being God’s chosen people is mostly a
blessing, but sometimes a mixed blessing
that brings trouble.
The “flip side” of this chosen status is demanding,
even ominous at times. Alongside the positive things
said about being chosen, there is the necessity of obedience: “If you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my
covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me
above all people” (Exodus 19:5). The obligation, even
The Jews As God’s Chosen
People
Jewish clothing, hair styles, and the hidden
sign of circumcision have helped to define
Jewish status as a chosen people. Here a
young Orthodox Jew stands behind his
father in Jerusalem.
ESSENTIAL TEACHINGS OF JUDAISM
© ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/LUOMAN
Most religions that believe in gods have seen themselves as having a special relationship with their gods,
a relationship that makes them “chosen” or otherwise
special. The Jews believe that they are God’s “chosen
people,” chosen to be in a covenant with God. They
didn’t choose God; God chose them. The Jewish idea
of being chosen is first found in the Torah and is elaborated in later books of the Tanak. This status carries
both responsibilities and blessings, as described in the
biblical accounts of the covenants with God.
According to the Tanak, Israel’s character as the
chosen people goes all the way back to Abraham and
the eternal covenant God made with him: “I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting
covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after
you” (Genesis 17:7). Being chosen as God’s people
brings a call to be holy and a realization of how amazing this is: “For you are a holy people to YHWH your
God, and God has chosen you to be his treasured people
241
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threat, that this demand for obedience entails is emphasized by the prophet Amos: “You only have I singled
out of all the families of the earth; therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities” (Amos 3:2). Despite
their status as a part of the chosen people, the ten tribes
of the chosen people were wiped away in 721 B.C.E.
because they disobeyed God continually. Jews throughout history have found their belief in being God’s chosen people mostly a blessing, but sometimes a mixed
blessing that brings troubles with both God and other
people. One of the most wry expressions of this mixed
blessing is in the musical Fiddler on the Roof, when
Tevye, the main character beset by difficulties, prays,
“I know we are the chosen people. But once in a while,
can’t you choose someone else?”
Throughout its history, Judaism has usually linked
being the “chosen people” with a mission or purpose,
such as being a “light to the nations,” a “blessing to
the nations,” or a “kingdom of priests” between God
and the world. This special duty derives from the covenant God made with Abraham and was renewed at
the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. Through the
long history of Judaism and Israelite religion before it,
the idea of being God’s chosen people sustained many
Jews throughout military defeat and exile, discrimination, persecution, even the Holocaust. In modern
times, more secular Jews have understood it to mean
that their human abilities should be put to use for the
good of all humankind. Even among secularized Jews
there is a continuing feeling for the special status in
having a Jewish heritage. In sum, the British historian
Paul Johnson once wrote that historians cannot deal
well with the religious claim that God actually chose
the Jews and guided their history, but it can be affirmed
that “The Jews believed that they were a special people
with such unanimity and passion, and over so long a
span, that they became one.” 3
Life after Death?
As the Hebrew Bible book of Job (johb) puts it, “If
mortals die, will they live again?” (Job 14:14). Most
religions of the world address this question, because
clarity on the issues of life after death means a great deal
to how they think about life before death. However,
the Tanak has little to say about what happens after
death, and Judaism as a whole today doesn’t dwell on
it. This may seem surprising to non-Jews, because the
sacred texts of Christianity and Islam, both of which
3
Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews (New York: Harper and Row,
1987), 587.
242
CHAPTER 10
have their foundations in Judaism, speak often about
life after death. But with Judaism’s focus on actions
more than beliefs, it is actually to be expected that
it not speculate about the world to come. Because
many religions, including Judaism’s sister faiths of
Christianity and Islam, rely in part on fear of the fires
of hell and the hope of heaven to motivate good conduct in their adherents, it is remarkable that Judaism,
with its strong emphasis on morality, hasn’t usually
done the same.
An early common theme in the Bible is that death
means joining one’s ancestors in the land of the dead—
being “gathered to one’s people” (Genesis 25:8, 25:17,
35:29, 49:33; Deuteronomy 42:50). Another image
emphasizes the reality of mortality. God made humans
from the dust of the ground, and because of their sins they
die and return to dust (Genesis 3:19). Most Jews take this
literally—they regularly today use wooden coffins that
over time allow the body to rejoin the ground. The most
common biblical image of the afterlife is as a shadowy
place called Sheol (SHEE-ohl), which is similar to the
Greek conception of Hades. Sheol is a shadowy underworld, a place of darkness (Psalms 88:13; Job 10:21, 22)
and silence (Psalms 115:17). Good and evil people alike
go there, and God isn’t present there. These early biblical descriptions of death indicate a belief that the person
continues to exist in some way after death, but not with
a full or happy life. Much later in the biblical tradition
the concept arises of the resurrection of the dead and a
final judgment leading to either a blessed or a damned
life. Daniel 12:2 declares, “And many of them that sleep
in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting
life and some to reproaches and everlasting abhorrence.”
Fully developed concepts of the resurrection of the
dead and eternal life came into much of Judaism around
200 B.C.E. When rabbinical Judaism—based largely on
the earlier Pharisees—took over, belief in resurrection
was near-universal in Judaism all the way to the Jewish
Enlightenment in 1800. The resurrection of the dead is
one of the Thirteen Articles by Maimonides, and a prayer
said regularly in traditionalist synagogues from medieval times through today affirms the resurrection. One
early rabbi, Hiyya ben Joseph, suggested that the dead
will travel through the ground and rise up in Jerusalem;
the unrighteous will arise naked and ashamed, and the
righteous will rise up clothed and happy (Babylonian
Talmud, Ketubot 111b). The hope of being raised in
Jerusalem has led to large cemeteries there, especially on
the Mount of Olives. Despite belief in a divine judgment
that separates those whose deeds are on balance good
from those whose deeds are not, some rabbis held that a
middle group of people of more mixed accomplishments
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
the resurrection in the Thirteen Articles, Maimonides
held that there is no material substance in heaven at
all, only souls of the righteous without bodies (Mishneh
Torah, Repentance 8). This purely spiritual view of
heaven never became a mainstream Jewish teaching,
because Judaism had long held that “soul” and “body”
belong together. Both Islam and Christianity give much
more importance to the teaching of resurrection and
eternal life.
ALAN KOTOK
“I don’t believe in [an afterlife]. I believe
this is it, and I believe it’s the best way
to live.” —Natalie Portman
Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives facing
the former site of the Temple, now occupied by
the Dome of the Rock mosque
will go into hell for an eleven-month period of purification and then enter heaven (Babylonian Talmud, Rosh
Hashanah 16b-17a, Eduyot 2.10). This belief is probably connected to the Jewish practice of eleven months
of mourning deceased loved ones.
Most Jews have believed that one need not be
Jewish to enter heaven. Because God judges actions and
not beliefs, those who do what God commands will
be rewarded. Maimonides, for example, wrote that all
good people of the world have a portion in the next
world. Those who are “righteous among the Gentiles”
(non-Jews) by virtue of their deeds, even if they belong
to a different religion, will enter heaven. Heaven is typically called the “Garden of Eden,” a place of joy and
peace that recaptures the original home of humanity
on earth. The Babylonian Talmud’s imagery of heaven
includes sitting at banquet tables (Taanit 25a), enjoying
lavish banquets (Baba Batra 75a), and even enjoying
heavenly sex with spouses (Berachot 57b). A few rabbis
didn’t like this imagery and held that there will be no
eating, drinking, or sex in heaven—or if there is, they
won’t be so enjoyable. Instead, the blessed will enjoy
heaven in a purely spiritual way (Babylonian Talmud,
Berachot 17a). For example, despite his affirmation of
As stated above, this Talmudic teaching on the
afterlife prevailed in virtually all of Judaism from about
400 to 1800 C.E. Today, Orthodox Jewish movements
still teach the resurrection of the dead, judgment by
God, and life in heaven or hell. Reform Judaism, on the
other hand, rejected these doctrines as binding. Instead,
its members are allowed to form their own opinions
on life after death. The general view in Reform, drawn
from Enlightenment ideas, is that even if there is a life
after death, we can’t know much about it here, so it
shouldn’t play a large role in how people live. Human
immortality, Reform Jews hold, is mostly in one’s children and the spiritual legacy one leaves behind. As a
result, many Reform Jews and secular Jews have no
belief in life after death. For example, when the IsraeliAmerican actress Natalie Portman, who was raised
“Jewish but not religious,” was asked about her concept of the afterlife, she said, “I don’t believe in that. I
believe this [life] is it, and I believe it’s the best way to
live.” The Conservative movement, between Orthodoxy
and Reform on most teachings, holds to the continued
importance of the main lines of traditional teachings
on this topic, but notes its historical conditioning and
interprets its more vivid imagery as symbolic.
Essential Jewish
Ethics
LO4
I
n Grand Rapids, Michigan, a short controversy breaks out
in the press over the religious implications of a museum
exhibit called “Bodies Revealed." This exhibit, which has
played in several other North American cities, shows fourteen
full human bodies and “hundreds of organs” in various states
ESSENTIAL JEWISH ETHICS
243
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
of dissection. The museum’s website says it has anticipated
the controversy that has followed this exhibit as it travels, so
it has consulted ethical and religious experts on bringing the
exhibit to town. Although it’s a popular exhibit with excellent
ticket sales, some controversy does break out in the open.
The most articulate examination is in a newspaper column by
a local rabbi, David Krishef, leader of the local Conservative
synagogue. Rabbi Krishev examines the good that can come
from the exhibit but, he asks, at what cost? He raises the
traditional Jewish moral command
to honor the bodies of the dead,
not to display them to the public
for profit, entertainment, or even
education.
The moral life of the Jewish people, of all branches
today, rests on biblical foundations. God created the
world as a good place, to reflect God’s own glory
and goodness. God created the world as a place for
human culture in all its fullness. When human beings
rebelled against God, God went in search of them, calling Abraham to live in covenant with God. But God
not only searches and redeems humans; God also
commands them to follow his way. For the rabbis of
antiquity and the Middle Ages, and for Orthodox and
most Conservatives today, the moral code of the Bible
is composed of laws that demand obedience—they
are indeed commandments, not general moral guidelines. In their understanding, God didn’t give the “Ten
Suggestions.”
God didn’t give the “Ten Suggestions.”
Ethics in the Image of God
Jewish morality and ethics rest on the foundation of
ethical monotheism. Not only is God one and the only
God, but God is perfectly right and righteous. Holiness
is at the center of God’s nature; God is good, just, and
compassionate. The good world that God made, especially the people in it, are created to live in conformity
with God’s nature and will. The Torah given by God
enables people to know more exactly what God’s will
is, but a basic notion of God’s will is written in every
human heart. In contrast with other religions of the
ancient Near East, evil is not built into the structure
of the universe but is the product of human choices.
Humans are free moral agents.
A fundamental Jewish teaching shared by almost
all Jews today (except those who reject the existence of
244
CHAPTER 10
God, of course) is that human beings are created in the
“image of God.” Israelites and Jews never took this to
mean that humans somehow physically look like God,
because God is a spirit and invisible to the human eye.
Although the Bible doesn’t explain the “image of God”
in detail, Jews have interpreted it to mean that humans
can think rationally and have a moral sense to know
what is right. Because humans are created in God’s
image, humans have the ability to know and even act
like God. The “image of God” is related to the human
mind and spirit, but it means that humans are like God,
not that a part of them is God.
The good impulse and the evil impulse
are like having an angel on one shoulder
and a devil on the other, each urging a
particular course of action.
The early rabbis taught that God built two moral
impulses into each human being: the “good impulse”
called the yetzer hatov (YAY-tser ha-TOHV) and the
“evil impulse,” the yetzer hara (YAY-tser ha-RAH). The
good impulse is the moral conscience that reminds a
person of God’s law and creates an urge to follow it.
The evil impulse is the urge to satisfy one’s own needs
and desires. Despite its name, there’s nothing intrinsically evil about the evil impulse, because it was created by God and is natural to humankind. The “evil”
impulse, acting with the good impulse, drives us to eat,
drink, procreate, and make a living—all necessary and
good things. However, it can easily lead to sin when
not held in check and balanced by the good impulse,
and this is why it is called “evil.” Eating, drinking, procreating, and making a living can be taken to extremes
and destroy human life. The good impulse and the evil
impulse are like the modern image of a person who
has an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other,
each urging a particular course of action. Some rabbis
have been uncomfortable about talk of a created “evil”
impulse and have preferred to speak of one impulse
that can be used in two different ways.
The Torah
The Torah, the first five books of the Bible but in a wider
sense the whole teaching and law of Judaism, is this
religion’s most important text. It contains stories and
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© ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/JAMES STEIDL
The rest of the Torah’s legal matecommandments that teach about
rial is based on these Ten
life and death. The rabbis enuCommandments. The rabbis of
merated 613 commandments
the ancient world compiled
(mitzvot): 248 positive comthe Mishnah and the Gemara,
mandments (“You shalls”) and
finally combining them into
365 negative commandments
the Talmud, expanding on
(“You shall nots”). Moreover,
these commandments and
all the commandments are held
bringing them into every
to be binding and more or less
aspect of the life of the Jewish
equal. Some Jews in the modern
people. Judaism’s emphasis on
age would make a distinction
The Ten Commandments in Hebrew, in their
justice and love in community,
between the “moral law” and
shorter form. Writing on stone suggests
rather than on just the letter
the “ceremonial” and “ritual
the
permanence
and
seriousness
of
the
of the law, has enabled it to keep to
law.” This isn’t found in the Bible
commandments.
its moral tradition while adapting
and Talmud, but history seems
to changing circumstances in life.
to have ratified it, because some
of the 613 commands cannot be
fulfilled now that the Jewish temple is gone. All comGeneral Jewish Ethics
mandments come from God, the ancient and medieval
Beside these Torah-based commands that originate with
rabbis said, so all are binding forever. Today, all Jews
the Hebrew Bible, the biblical tradition also has broad
consider the Ten Commandments to be the most imporlegal injunctions, wisdom narratives with moral lessons,
tant commandments in the Torah, though not all Jews
and prophetic teachings. These other teachings became
adhere to the 613 mitzvot, forming one of the main difimportant in the first millennium B.C.E., although the
ferences between the different branches of Judaism.
Torah commands remain central and foundational. In
The Ten Commandments run as follows, with short
modern times, as the Torah commands became probexplanations in brackets:
lematic for many Jews, the more-general ethical prin1. I am the Lord your God [not a commandment in
ciples became paramount for them.
grammatical form, but the basis of the people’s
The biblical prophets exhorted their audiences to
relationship with God].
lead a life that honored their covenant with God. They
pointed primarily to obedience to the Torah, but they
2. You shall not recognize any as god beside Me
also spoke of more-general moral duties: kindness to
[the root of monotheism].
the needy, benevolence, faith, relief for the suffering, a
3. You shall not take the Name of the Lord your
peace-loving disposition, and a humble spirit. Civic loyGod in vain [God’s name, symbolic of God’s
alty and obedience, even to a foreign ruler, is urged as a
essence, must be respected].
duty (Jeremiah 29:7). This was also important in later
4. Remember the day of Sabbath, to keep it holy
times, as Jews lived under non-Jewish governments.
[the Sabbath is a day of rest and rededication to
What the prophets viewed as the end-time is uncertain,
God].
but the moral vision was clear: the end-time will be one
5. Honor your father and your mother [parents are
of peace and righteousness (Isaiah 2:2).
to be respected as long as they live].
In early rabbinic Judaism, the oral Torah both
interpreted
the Bible and delved afresh into many other
6. You shall not murder [not all killing is murder, but
ethical topics. Jewish morality, encompassing both comunlawful killing is].
mandments and general ethics, is known to Jews today as
7. You shall not commit adultery [breaking marriage
halakhah, literally “walk” of life. God has a way for the
vows breaks marriage].
chosen people to walk in.
8. You shall not steal [other people’s property is to
The best-loved and most influential rabbinic text
be respected].
on ethics is the Mishnah
9. Do not give false testimony against your neighbor
tractate of Pirke Avot
halakhah [hah-luh-KAH]
[lying in legal settings undermines justice].
(PEER-kay ah-VOHT), the
“Walk” of life, the way of
“Sayings of the Fathers,”
10. You shall not covet the possessions of others
moral obedience to God
often translated as “Ethics
[desiring to have things that others have].
ESSENTIAL JEWISH ETHICS
245
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
PHOTO COURTESY PHOTOS8.COM
Reading glasses on the Torah suggest the importance
of knowing the scriptures as a basis of Jewish morality.
of the Fathers.” The Pirke Avot traces the transmission
of the oral Torah from Moses to the second century
C.E., when the Mishnah was compiled. Throughout
this work, the word Torah refers especially to the oral
Torah, a “fence around the [written] law,” the body of
legal opinions developed by the rabbis and codified in
the Mishnah. The idea behind
this “fence” is that by keeping it one would also be keeping the written Torah that it
protects.
Modern Jewish Ethics
In the modern period, Jewish ethics sprouted many offshoots, due to developments in modern secular ethics
and to the formation of Jewish branches, each needing
clarity on ethical teachings. The nineteenth-century and
early twentieth-century Reform movement promoted the
idea of Judaism as pure ethical monotheism. Since about
1900, liberal Reform and Reconstructionist rabbis have
fostered novel approaches to Jewish ethics—in the work
of Eugene Borowitz, for example. Also in these centuries,
Orthodox rabbis have often engaged in applied ethics by
interpreting the Talmud for bioethics: end-of-life issues,
in vitro fertilization, genetic therapy, and other topics.
Perhaps the most influential work of Jewish social
ethics is I and Thou by Martin Buber (BOO-buhr;
1878–1965). In this profound work, which is reputed
to have changed the lives of many of its readers, Buber
uses two pairs of words to describe two fundamentally
different types of relationship between one’s self and the
world: “I-It” and “I-Thou.” For I-It relationships, the
“It” refers to other people as objects. It objectifies and
devalues them. In other words, the “I” looks upon others
as “Its,” not as people like oneself. Buber held that most
human problems are caused by I-It attitudes. By contrast, the “I” in an I-Thou relationship doesn’t objectify
246
CHAPTER 10
any “It” but has a living, mature
relationship with others. It recognizes that the “Thou” is a
whole world of experience
within one person, just as one’s
“I” is. Buber taught that God is
the “eternal Thou” known by
direct encounter with God and
indirect encounter with God as
one develops I-Thou relationships with other people.
Jewish Worship
and Ritual
LO5
I
n London, a prominent Jewish rabbi criticizes pop singer
Madonna’s practice of Jewish mysticism known as the
Kabbalah. Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet of London’s Mill Hill
Synagogue strongly objects to Madonna’s use of the
Kabbalah, arguing that it tarnishes Judaism when people who
don’t observe Jewish law engage in Jewish mysticism. Rabbi
Schochet and many other traditional, observant Jews are
particularly upset by the tattoo on Madonna’s right shoulder
of the ancient Hebrew name for God, which most Jews regard
as so holy that they don’t use it. (They forbid permanent
tattoos as well, so this is a double fault.) Madonna’s interest
in the Kabbalah began with her 1998 Ray of Light album,
was strengthened by her 2007 visit to the Kabbalah center in
Jerusalem, and continues today. Public fascination with her
use of the Kabbalah also remains
strong, and she has become the
leading celebrity voice of the
Kabbalah.
Because Judaism is a religion of practice, it has a full
set of rituals for synagogue worship, home practices,
and community-based religious festivals. We’ll begin
with synagogue worship, then consider the Sabbath
and the main festivals; the major life-cycle rituals of
circumcision, bar/bat mitzvah, and funerals; and finally
the Kabbalah.
Worship in the Synagogue
The main synagogue service takes place on either Friday
evening or Saturday morning, both of which fall on the
Sabbath day. In Orthodox synagogues, males and females
sit separately; in Conservative and Reform, they may sit
together. A minyan (MIHN-yahn), or minimum number
of men to have a service (usually ten), is necessary. We’ve
E N C O U N T E R I N G J U D A I S M : T H E WAY O F G O D ’ S C H O S E N P E O P L E
Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
When a scroll is removed from the ark during the
service, everyone in the synagogue stands and a
special song is often sung.
●
The scroll is placed on a reading desk.
●
The readers use a special pointer, often made of
solid silver, to keep track of their place in the text
and avoid touching it with their hands.
© ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/GEORGE CORBIN
●
Reading the Torah scroll in a synagogue
●
When the reading is complete, the scroll is rolled
up, its covers are put back on, and it is returned to
the ark with great solemnity.
Then the rabbi sometimes preaches a short sermon
based on the texts that were read, especially the Torah
reading.
The Sabbath
One of the Ten Commandments orders that the
“Sabbath” (seventh) day of the week be kept holy. This
day begins at sunset on Friday and concludes on sunset
on Saturday. Sabbath usually begins at home, with a
festive meal for which the whole family is present. The
meal leads off with the lighting of the Sabbath candles.
At least eighteen minutes before sundown on Friday,
the mother and daughters light candles, usually on the
dining table, to welcome the Sabbath. In many modern Jewish households the candle blessing is performed
together as a family. After the candles are lit, this blessing is rec...
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