Judaism

Judaism

EXODUS Exist in genesis book. Is a human from Egypt. Most important event in Judaism Remembered annually in the various

major holidays of Judaism. Became a part of Jewish history.

Little Story Of : EXODUS

God promised Abraham that a great nation would arise from his seed, that this nation would have homeland (Canaan).

Book of Genesis closes with descendant of Abraham, they were not in Canaan but in Egypt.

Where they bound in slavery. Exodus from Egypt and their slavery, journey

back to Canaan. Events and characters of the Exodus became

the heart and soul of Jewish religion.

The Book Of: EXODUS

Open with descendants of Abraham , the Israelites, crying out for deliverance from their enslavement by the Egyptians.

Key figure of this salvation is Moses.

The Book Of: EXODUS

Moses:- (a) endangered as an infant by the fores of

evil. (b) after recognizing his Israelite and killing

an Egyptian, Moses exiled to Sinai Desert. (c ) Lived for 40 years as a shepherd. (d) God Of Abraham spoke to Moses through

a bush.

The Book Of: EXODUS

God declared his name was YHWH & commanded Moses to lead the Israelites from their slavery.

The waters of the sea of Reeds were parted by YHWH and Israelites crossed through the dry land.

Egyptians attempted to follow, the waters returned and Egyptians were trapped and drowned.

Sinai and the Law

Next significant event, was giving of the law on Mount Sinai.

Israelites crossing the Sea of Reeds Mt. Sinai

Canaan Mt Sinai- YHWH communicated the law to the Israelites through Moses.

The Laws-Basic to Jewish life

1. I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.

2. You shall not make any graven image.3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in

vain4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.5. Honor your father and mother.6. You shall not kill.7. You shall not commit adultery.8. You shall not steal.9. You shall not bear false witness against your

neighbors.10. You shall not covet your neighbor's property.

The Laws-Basic to Jewish life

Purported to have been given by God through Moses, during the wilderness experience.

Legal material in the Pentateuch (the first books of the Bible) became the most important part of the bible of Judaism.

Judaism defined as a religion of the law and Jews as a people primarily concerned with obedience to the laws of God.

Post-Sinai Religious Institutions

In addition to the laws of God, the years in the Sinai wilderness gave the Israelites two other religious Institutions:-

(a) Ark of the Covenant (b) Then of Meeting.


(a) Ark of the Covenant• Was a coffin like box that contained the

sacred relies of the Exodus.• May have been the portable throne of

YHWH.• Box, was the most treasured sacred

possession of the Israelites.• Eventually place in Solomon’ s temple in

Holy of Holies,10 century B.C.E.• Presumably remained until the temple was

destroyed by Babylonians,586 B.C.E.


(b) Tent of Meeting• Not so popular or long-lived as the

Ark.• Moved from place to place with

nomadic Israelites• After Israelites entered Canaan. It is

mentioned only once in connection with the cult at Shiloh.

Religion in the Time of the Hebrew Monarchy

The religion of Israel took more formal turn when David became the first truly effective king of the Israelities.

David:- (a) needed a central capital and a cult ti unify his

nation. (b) captured Jurusalem and made it his capital (c ) made Jurusalem one of the most important, most

disputed cities in the world. (d) as a military leader and administrator helped

Israel develop into a fairly powerful and wealthy small nation of the ancient Middle East.

(e) Wish to build a magnificent temple in Jurusalem but was forbidden by YHWH.


The Temple(a) Remained for Solomon, David’s son and

successor, to build the temple.(b) Designed by Tyrian builders.(c) Naturally took the form of other Canaanite

temple built for the Baalim.(d) The Ark of the covenant placed on the

temple.(e) In the temple, prayers were offered to YHWH.


The Prophetic Movement(a) danced, sang, breathed incense, and worked

themselves into an ecstatic state to hear the voices of their gods.

(b) Healed the sick, cursed, blessed and produced food for their followers and worked other miracles.

(c) In contemporary English, the word prophet has the connotation of prediction.

(d) In the social and political upheavals, the prophetic movement produces for classic figures.

I Amos III Isaiah

II Hosea IV Micah


(e) The prophetic movement of ancient Israel stands out as one of the major moral and literary contributions to any religion of the world.

- Israel were split into two, Israel (Northern) and Judah (Southern) in 992 B.C.E. after the reign of Salomon

-Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians in 721 B.C.E. and its people disappeared from history.

-Judah however survived the Assyrian year but was destroyed by the Neo Babylon Empire in 586 B.C.E.

-In 538 B.C.E. many Jews were freed and returned to Jerusalem to reestablish their live after the Persians captured Babylon

-During the Babylonian conquest, the people of Judah held on to their identity, customs and religion during captivity, led by Ezekiel, a prophet and a priest. It was during this time that the Jews faced theological changes about YHWH.

-Ezekiel answered that YHWH are mobile and can be anywhere for his people either in Babylon or Jerusalem.

-Another prophet, Isaiah added that YHWH isn’t only the true god for Israelites but also the world.

-Ezra, a priest who return from Babylon to Jerusalem, is one of the most influential Jew to return.

-It is because he brought together a copy of Scripture, which he read to the people of Jerusalem and they reformed their lives according to the book.

-From this time onward, it was believed that god no longer speak to the prophets but through his book.

-Means scattering of the Jewish people all around the world

-Caused by the destruction of Israel by the Assyrian on 721 B.C.E. and Babylonians, by force. (586 B.C.E.)

-As a result, large Jewish community appeared in Alexandria, Egypt (250 B.C.E.) and at cities such as Toledo, Lyon, Cologne, Bonn and other cities throughout the Roman Empire.

The Sygnagogue

-Derived from greek word synagoge which means ‘assembly’

-Started after Jewish diaspora around the world forced to accept a new concept for god and institutions for worship.

-Sygnagogue can exist when there’s a copy of the Scripture (Torah) and ten adult over the age of thirteen. A prayer and instruction can take place if these conditions met.

-Can be performed anywhere.

-Because of this, there was a need for someone to study the Torah and teach it to the community, thus the Rabbi are born.

-The word Rabbi literally means ‘my master’ and is not considered a priest or minister in a traditional sense.

-In addition, the Diaspora communities separate themselves from others such as refusal to work one day out of seven (Sabbath) and refuse to eat foods that other gentiles eat. Besides that, the Jews also practiced circumcision, a ritual which is looked upon with disgust, especially the Greeks.

-However the Diaspora Judaism faced theological diversity.Parties such as the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes differed the belief of death resurrection, authority of temple and priests, and the way Jews should live their religion.

-In another hand, the Zealots argued for a rebellion against the Roman government

-In 66 C.E, the Jews and Romans fought each other because of hatred. The Jews were successful at first but two years after that, under the commandment of Titus, the Romans captured the land and conquered Jerusalem.

-Jewish revolutionaries were slaughtered or enslaved,and their temple were destroyed and never rebuilt.

-However, a new Judaism arose during the siege.A rabbi, Yohanan Ben Zakkai,asked permission from Titus to establish an academy on the Mediterranean coast of Israel.

-Titus granted his permission, and Yohanan gathered all rabbis of Israel to discuss and debate the future of Judaism.They debated about the authority and inspiration of books that belonged in the sacred Torah.

-The books of law (Genesis through Deuteronomy) are accepted, as were most of the books of the prophet.

The Mishnah

-Is the first major redaction into written form of Jewish oral traditions.

-It is created after Judah ha-Nasi (Judah The Prince) brought together all the legal commentary that has been collected since the days of Ezra.This commentary are collected into a series of tractates arranged in six divisions.

-The purpose of the Mishnah is to add complementary law as an adjunct to the primary law, so that it’ll be more suitable for current lifestyle.(Example:Sabbath day)

The Talmud

-Is a combination of Mishnah and Gemara.

-Gemara is a compilation of Mishnah with more additional intepretative, illustrative and sermonic material.

-There are two kinds of Talmud, the Palestinian Talmud and Babylonian Talmud.

-Both Talmud are written mainly in Aramaic with some Hebrew mixed on.Both are also made up of two kinds of materials, Halachah (The Proper Way) which consists legal matters, discussions and decisions; and Haggadah (Tale, Narrative) which consists history, folklore and sermons.

-The Babylon Talmud are more larger and influential of the two

-The Talmuds have become the most important non biblical material in Judaism.They have become the object of many commentaries and endless study by all generation of Jews.

-During the period of 600-1000 C.E., Talmudic Judaism had become one of the leading religions in Judaism.One of the great Gaon (President of Talmudic Judaism Academy) during that time is Saadiah ben Joseph.

-He is best known for speaking against Karaites, a group within Judaism who denied the authority of Talmuds and wanted to live by the legal material within the Hebrew Bible.

Havdalah Service (to mark the end of the Sabbath). 14th c. Spain

15th c. Italian depiction of synagogue interior

♥ In the seventh century C.E., a new religion and a new culture sprang from the Arabian desert; the religion was Islam.

♥ Muhammad (570-632), the founder and prophet of Islam, had contact with Judaism through the Jewish tribes in Arabia.

♥ In the years following the death of Muhammad, the religion of Islam exploded out of Arabia into the entire Fertile Crescent and across North Africa.

♥ By the end out seventh century and beginning of the eighth century, Jews living in Babylon, Palestine, Egypt, Turkey, North Africa and Spain came under the control of Muslim rulers.

♥ Muslims treated Jews and Christians better than other non-Muslims under their control. Muslims considered Judaism and Christianity to be God-given faiths.

♥ Jews and Christians were not polytheists and had sacred books (Scripture), which Muslims accepted as revelations from God.

♥ The Umayyad Caliphs, who were the first Muslim dynasty (640-750), sporadically persecuted then tolerated the Jews.

♥ The Abbasid dynasty, which followed the Umayyads, was known for religious tolerance.

♥ Its capital at Baghdad became the center of science, philosophy, and medicine in the Middle Eastern world.

♥ Jews became part of a golden society.♥ The golden age did not last long, however. In 874

C.E. heavier taxes were levied against non-Muslims, and some Jewish synagogues were converted into mosques.

♥ Jews were in Spain as early as the first century C.E., and St. Paul mentions his hopes of visiting the Jewish community there.

♥ When the Roman Empire converted to Christianity in the late fourth century, Jews in Spain were given the choice of conversion or expulsion.

♥ Apparently, however, this was not evenly enforced; Jews continued to survive in Spain as Jews.

♥ Judaism probably welcomed the conquest of Spain by the Muslims in 711.

♥ With the Muslim conquest began a golden age of freedom and tolerance for Jews.

♥ With the decline of the Babylonian community, Spanish Jews became the leaders of worldwide Judaism.

♥ Muslim Spain began to decline at the beginning of the thirteenth century.

♥ The subsequent rise of Christian rulership meant hardship for the Jewish people.

♥ Persecutions and forced conversions increased. Thousands of Jews were massacred in 1391.

♥ Many accepted conversion rather than endure persecution, while others converted openly but secretly continued to practice Judaism.

♥ These persons were called Conversos (the converts).

♥ The pressure continued until 1492, when the King Ferdinand and his queen, Isabella, not only sent Columbus on his historic mission but also expelled the Jews and Muslims from Spain.

♥ Thousands of Jews fled into Portugal, Italy, Morocco, the Balkans, and Turkey from yet another area that had once been their home.

♥ Although Jews resided in most of the European regions from the time of the Roman Empire onward, Babylon and Spain were the favored sites for Jewish life in the early medieval period.

♥ With the decline of these areas, Jews began to move throughout Europe in greater numbers.

♥ They were found in Italy, Germany, Portugal, and England.

♥ There were small, but influential Jewish communities in India and China.

♥ However, the condition of Jews in Muslim lands was far better than it was in Christian Europe.

♥ The Christian Crusades were instituted by Pope Innocent ll in 1096 and set off widespread attacks on Jews in Europe.

♥ He urged Christian rulers to attack the Muslims and win back the holy places in Palestine.

♥ Christian princes and their knights took up the challenge for a variety of religious, economic, and political reasons.

♥ However, it was easier to attack defenseless Jews who lived in Europe than it was to vanquish Muslim armies in Palestine.

♥ Jewish communities all over Europe, particularly those in Rhineland, were ravaged by the Crusaders.

♥ Many were killed, others were forced to convert to Christianity, and still others committed suicide. A few were hidden by sympathetic Christian bishops.

♥ The wave of persecution set off by the crusades was so severe by 1286 that many Jews fled to Poland or to Islamic countries, where authorities were more tolerant.

♥ Kabbalah is a discipline and school of thought discussing the mystical aspect of Judaism.

♥ Jewish mysticism is as old as Judaism.♥ Elements of the occult in Judaism have been found in

the Bible, the Talmud, and in the writings of many of their leading figures.

♥ The concern for angels, demons, magical incantations, charms, witches, ghouls, interpretation of dreams, the date of the coming of the Messiah, numerology, and the name of God have been lumped together under the term of Kabbalah (tradition).

♥ The codification of these elements in Judaism probably began in Babylon between approximately 500 and 900 C.E.

Sefer Yetzirch( the book of creation )♥ Came from the

Babylonian Jewish community.

Sefer Hazohar( the book of splendor )♥ Known as the Zohar.♥ Attributed to Tanna

Simeon Ben Yohai, a Jewish leader of the 2nd century C.E.

♥ Internal evidence has caused modern scholars to attribute the Zohar to Moses de Leon, a 13th century Spanish mystic from Cordova.

♥ The Zohar is concerned with such themes as the nature of God, the theory of the emanations from God, cosmogony, the creation of humankind and of angels, the existence of evil, and the work of angels in the world.

♥ The nature of God is truly incomprehensible to humanity.

♥ Therefore, God reveals himself through ten emanations, named for the various attributes of God, such as “wisdom”, “strength”, and “beauty”.

♥ Through the work of these ten forces, the sensual world was created.

♥ Humans are the highest of all creation and are endowed with three souls. These souls are pre-existent and immortal.

♥ The Kabbalahists also taught that evil is non-existent. That which is called evil is but the negative side of good.

♥ By such teaching, Kabbalahism differed markedly from Orthodox Judaism.

♥ By the end of the fifteenth century, Jews had been officially expelled or made to feel unwelcome in nearly every European nation.

♥ Many fled the persecution of Christian governments and found homes in the Muslim states of the Ottoman empire.

♥ Other refugees turned to Eastern European.♥ By the end of the sixteenth century, it is estimated

that there were more than a half million Jews in Poland, the largest concentration of Jews in the world.

♥ Jews in Eastern European became known as Ashkenazim.

♥ In the sixteenth century, Christianity was seized by a revolution that became known as the Protestant Reformation.

♥ The leader of this movement in Germany was Martin Luther.

♥ The Counter-Reformation of the Catholic Church against the Protestant movement in the sixteenth century reinstituted the Inquisition, and the Jews again became its victims.

♥ Another feature of the Counter-Reformation in Rome was the formation of the Ghetto.

♥ Jews of that city were forced to move into a special section, known as the Ghetto, where they were confined.

♥ In the seventeenth century, Jews living in Poland saw the end of their sheltered existence.

♥ Between 1648 and 1656, an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 Jews were slaughtered. Many of those who survived fled into Western European.

Prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem

•Born in Smyrna 1626

•declared Messiah

•Entered Constantinople to dethrone Sultan of Turkey in 1665

•Caught and imprisoned him – convert to Islam or die

•He converted = FAIL

Arrived in Berlin in 1743

Passion for learning

Wrote essays in German making him widely accepted

Encouraged Jews to leave the ghettos and enter the modern world

•1750, Podolia, Isreal ben Eliezer

•Preached that God was not to be found in scholarly research in the Bible or Talmund but in simple, heartfelt fait

•Widely accepted by the Jews of Eastern Europe

•Strong dissaproval from Orthodox rabbis

•Complete opposite of Moses Mendelssohn

Mendelssohn encouraged the Jews of Western Europe to come out of the ghettos and join Christian societies in the adventure of modernity

Baal Shem Tov and his followers in the Hasidic movement encouraged the jews of Eastern Europe to strive to maintain Judaism within Christian societies

•Revolution in North America and a subsequent constitution which stated that all people are to be treated equally under the law.

•France: 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man

•Wherever the armies of France went in the following years, ghettos were torn down and Jews were given civil rights

• Jews were admitted into European universities

Many felt that some of the historical practices of Judaism were out of place

1843: German Jewish leaders met up and made the following declarations (basis of Reform Judaism):

- There is a continuation in the development of Judaism

- The Talmud has no authority for the modern Jew

- We seek no Messiah, and we know no homeland but the land of our birth

•Reform Jews:

- Use more vernacular and less Hebrew in their worship

- Synagogues were called temples

- Kosher food laws were relaxed

- Choirs and organs were introduced

- Many of the Jewish Immigrants in the US were Reform

• Jews in Western Europe enjoy new freedom but Eastern Europe had scarcely changed in 200 years.

• Czarist Russia allowed fierce pogroms against its Jewish population (harassment & second class citizenship).

After the assassination of Alexander II, pogroms escalated. Thousands of Jews fled to other countries; mostly to the US.

Civil rights granted, Jews making great contributions in every profession; but anti-Jewish feeling still resided in Christian Europe

Dreyfus Case, 1894: - Hostility of French towards Jewish

people erupted

Theadore Herzl: - covered the Dreyfus trial from his newspaper- believed that regardless of the liberal facade of European countries, Jews will never be treated fairly until they had a land of their own.- Herzl and others pleaded the case for a Jewish state

• New Land

• Early 1900s, Jews began buying land and developing settlements in Palestine.

1909: Jewish city of Tel Aviv was founded 1920: Approx 50,000 Jews had migrated to

Palestine End of WWI, Palestine became governed by

mandate by the British 1917, Chaim Weizmann persuaded British

Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour to issue a declaration that stated that the British government approves Palestine as a national home for Jewish people

Arab Christians & Muslims threatened by the Jews and put pressure on the British to restrict immigration

British government issued a white paper setting a quota to limit Jewish immigration. (when Jews were running from the Nazis)

•1933: Adolf Hitler established Nazi dictatorship

•Rights of Jews taken away

•Nuremberg Laws 1935

•Jews tried fleeing

•Non-Jewish citizens happy to cooperate with Nazis

•Ghettos of the Middle Ages were restored

•Hitler wanted to exterminate Jews•First “solution”: - Concentration camps - work until to death•Final “solution”:

- Extermination camps - Cheapest and most efficient death by

Zyklon B gas - first they will be killed in gas chambers - then their valuables are taken - skin, bones and even body fat were put to use by the thorough Nazi’s- Bodies were then cremated

•Approx 6 million Jews killed

•Suggested explanations for the Nazi Holocaust:-German racism: ~race superiority-German troubles following WWI:~Defeated in WWI, claimed that a Jew betrayed them~Economic inflation, accused Jews~Jews were also accused of being the Marxist enemy of capitalist economies

- Nazi madness:

~ sometimes the destruction of Jews was top priority. - Modern efficiency:~technology made it possible for the mass killings- The silence of the rest of the world:~ when Jews needed refuge, other countries refused~ little was done to help the Jews

The holocaust reduced the Jewish population by 1/3

Israel came quickly after WWII Palestinian Arabs threatened UN voted to partition Palestine into a

Jewish & Arab state British left Palestine in May 1948 and Israel

immediately proclaimed its statehood Israel attacked by 5 neighboring Arab

states but survived Thousands of Palestinian Arabs fled Israel

and lived in refugee camps

•Arab-Israel war, 1967, more Arab territories occupied by Israel

•much remains to be done before true peace is established in the region

•The fact that Muslims & Jews regard Jerusalem as sacred territory makes it more difficult

Approx 14 million Jews in the world 1.8 million in NYC, largest

concentration

Variations:Orthodox ReformConservativeReconstructionist

The most important and distinctive of all Jewish holidays.

The Sabbath begins on Friday at sundown and continues until sundown on Saturday.

They belief blessings are recited over candles, wine, bread, children and more.

Blessing the children This tradition gently reminds parents to

express their love for their children out loud and gives children a feeling of warmth that they can carry with them throughout their lives.

Blessing the wine This blessing is called Kiddush, which

means sanctification. Blessing the bread

This blessing praises God and thanks God for "bringing forth bread from the earth." Bread, in this blessing, is the symbol of all food

Pesach begins on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Nissan.

It is the first of the three major festivals with both historical and agricultural significance.

Agriculturally, it represents the beginning of the harvest season in Israel, but little attention is paid to this aspect of the holiday.

The primary observances of Pesach are related to the Exodus from Egypt after generations of slavery.

The fifty days after Pesach the celebration of Shavuot occurs.

This holiday called the Pentecost in the New Testament.

Shavout was the orginally a festival celebrating the first grain harvest

Rosh Hashanah occurs on the first and second days of Tishri.

In Hebrew, Rosh Hashanah means, literally, "head of the year" or "first of the year."

The new year is celebrated by special prayers and by eating sweets in the hope of a good year to come.

Yom Kippur is probably the most important holiday of the Jewish year.

Many Jews who do not observe any other Jewish custom will refrain from work, fast and/or attend synagogue services on this day.

Yom Kippur occurs on the 10th day of Tishri. "Yom Kippur" means "Day of Atonement," that

explains what the holiday is. It is a day set aside to "afflict the soul," to atone for the sins of the past year.

The Festival of Sukkot begins on Tishri 15, the fifth day after Yom Kippur.

This a celebration of autumn harvest. Sukkot has became attached to the Exodus

experience and is now kept as remembrance of the times when Israelites wandered in the Sinai wildness.

The Jewish festival of rededication, also known as the festival of lights, is an eight day festival beginning on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev.

Judas retook the Temple from the Syrian Greeks and rededicated it.

Judas retook the Temple from the Syrian Greeks and rededicated it.

There was only one light available to light the temple and it should lasted for only one day.

But than, it lasted for eight days. In rememberance of that event, Jews

light a candle each day for eight days.

Thus, it is festival of lights as well as a festival of dedication.

Purim is one of the most joyous and fun holidays on the Jewish calendar.

This festival celebrated on the fourteenth of Adar9 Feb-march).

As a remembrance of the victory over gentile foes.

At the beginning the twenty –first century, one of the pimary tasks of Judaism continues to be interpreting the holocaust.

Judaism has understand the Exodus experience.

The Mishnah and Talmud seek to reinterpret Jewish life after the destruction of the temple.

Spiritual

Judaism