Vorlesung: Einführung in die Jüdische Geschichte und Literatur

Wintersemester 2010/11

„Amidah“ Gebet

ברוך אתה ה' אלהנו ואלהי אבותנו, אלהי ...אברהם, אלהי יצחק, ואלהי יעקב

ברוך אתה ה' מגן אברהם

„Gepriesen seist du, Ewiger, unser Gott und Gott unserer Väter, Gott Abrahams, Gott Isaaks und Gott Jakobs…“

„Gepriesen seist du, Ewiger, unser Gott, Schutzschild Abrahams“

Moses, the greatest prophet

Deut. 34,10:

עֹו ָד< ר י@ Aֶׁש Cה, א AֶׁשDמ ל, ְּכ@ Fא ר< ִיְׂש@ יא עֹוָד ְּב@ Jב ם נ< ֹלא-ק< ו@ים Jנ ל-ָּפ< Aים א Jנ ה, ָּפ< הו< .י@

“Und es stand hinfort kein Prophet in Israel auf wie Mose, den der HERR erkannt hätte von Angesicht zu Angesicht.”

Mose trifft Akiva

• Es sagte R. Jehuda im Names Rabs:• Als Mose in die Höhe stieg, traf er den Heiligen, gepriesen sei er,

an, wie er dasaß und den Buchstaben Kronen wand.• Er fragte ihn: Was hält dich [mit solchen Vorsichtsmaßnahmen] auf?

[Gott] antwortete ihm: Es ist ein Mensch, der nach einigen Generationen auftreten wird; Aqiba ben Josef ist sein Name. Aus jedem einzelnen Häkchen [der Tora] wird er Haufen um Haufen von Halakhot ableiten.

• Er bat ihn: Herr der Welt, zeige ihn mir! Dieser antwortete: Dreh dich um! Da ging er und setzte sich hinter die achte Reihe [im Lehrhaus des R. Aqiba]. Doch er verstand nicht, was sie redeten. Da erlahmte seine Kraft.

• Als [Aqiba] zu einer bestimmten Sache kam, fragten ihn seine Schüler: Rabbi, woher weißt du das?

• Er antwortete ihnen: es ist eine Mose am Sinai gegebene Halakha.• Da beruhigte [Mose] sich wieder.

Pharisees (Heb.: פרושים)

For the present I wish merely to explain that the Pharisees had passed on to the people certain regulations handed down by former generations and not recorded in the Laws of Moses, for which reason they are rejected by the Sadducean group, who hold that only those regulations should be considered valid which were written down (in Scripture), and that those which had been handed down by former generations (lit., by the fathers) need not be observed. [Jewish Antiquities 13.10.]

Saducees (Heb.: צָדוקים)But then as to the two other orders at first mentioned, the Pharisees

are those who are esteemed most skillful in the exact explication of their laws, and introduce the first sect. These ascribe all to fate [or providence], and to God, and yet allow, that to act what is right, or the contrary, is principally in the power of men, although fate does co-operate in every action. They say that all souls are incorruptible, but that the souls of good men only are removed into other bodies, - but that the souls of bad men are subject to eternal punishment. But the Sadducees are those that compose the second order, and take away fate entirely, and suppose that God is not concerned in our doing or not doing what is evil; and they say, that to act what is good, or what is evil, is at men's own choice, and that the one or the other belongs so to every one, that they may act as they please. They also take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul, and the punishments and rewards in Hades. b

Essenes (Heb. ?)

• The doctrine of the Essenes is this: That all things are best ascribed to God. They teach the immortality of souls, and esteem that the rewards of righteousness are to be earnestly striven for; and when they send what they have dedicated to God into the temple, they do not offer sacrifices (3) because they have more pure lustrations of their own; on which account they are excluded from the common court of the temple, but offer their sacrifices themselves; yet is their course of life better than that of other men; and they entirely addict themselves to husbandry. It also deserves our admiration, how much they exceed all other men that addict themselves to virtue, and this in righteousness; and indeed to such a degree, that as it hath never appeared among any other men, neither Greeks nor barbarians, no, not for a little time, so hath it endured a long while among them. This is demonstrated by that institution of theirs, which will not suffer any thing to hinder them from having all things in common; so that a rich man enjoys no more of his own wealth than he who hath nothing at all. There are about four thousand men that live in this way, and neither marry wives, nor are desirous to keep servants; as thinking the latter tempts men to be unjust, and the former gives the handle to domestic quarrels; but as they live by themselves, they minister one to another. . .

(Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 18.11-23)

Jerusalem and the Judean Desert

Qumran from the Air

Qumran at -1000 feet

Cave 4, Qumran

Jar from Qumran

A Dead Sea Scroll

One of Thousandsof itsy-bitsy fragments