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THE JEWISH TRADITION

THE JEWISH TRADITION. “And I shall maintain my covenant between myself and you, and your descendants after you, generation after generation, as a covenant in perpetuity, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you ...” - Genesis 17:7

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THE JEWISH TRADITION

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  1. THE JEWISH TRADITION

  2. “And I shall maintain my covenant between myself and you, and your descendants after you, generation after generation, as a covenant in perpetuity, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you...” -Genesis 17:7 When asked how we are to act in this world, the rabbis responded: Just as the Holy One is merciful, so shall you be merciful; just as the Holy One seeks justice, so shall you seek justice.

  3. THE HISTORY OF JUDAISM: FIVE PERIODS • ANCIENT ISRAEL BEFORE JUDAISM (PRIOR TO 586 BCE) • THE BEGINNINGS OF JUDAISM (586 BCE - 70 CE) • THE FORMATIVE AGE OF RABBINIC JUDAISM (70 - 640 CE) • THE DOMINATION OF RABBINIC JUDAISM (600 - 1800 CE) • THE AGE OF COMPETING JUDAISMS (1800 - PRESENT)

  4. BACKGROUND • BABYLONIAN ORIGINS • THE EVOLUTION OF JUDAISM

  5. INTRODUCTION: JUDAISM •   THE JEWS • GOD • TORAH AND INTERPRETATION • TRADITION

  6. GROWING UP AND GROWING OLD: THE SHAPE OF JEWISH LIFE IN LIGHT OF TORAH • GROWING UP AND GROWING OLD • THE LIFE CYCLE OF HOLINESS • THE SOCIAL CIRCLES OF HOLINESS

  7. THE JEWISH HOLIDAYS • THE SABBATH DAY: COVENANTAL TIME • PASSOVER (PESCHA): THE SEDER AS ENTREE INTO HISTORY • SHAVUOT: THE CELEBRATION OF REVELATION • ROSH HA-SHANAH -- THE JEWISH NEW YEAR: • THE DAY OF REMEMBRANCE • YOM KIPPUR: THE DAY OF FORGIVENESS • SUKKOT / THE FESTIVAL OF TABERNACLES: SPACE IN HISTORY • HANUKKAH: PURITY AND POLITICS IN HISTORY • PURIM or THE FESTIVAL OF LOTS: THE CELEBRATION OF DISORDER • OUTLINE OF JEWISH LIFE -- CONTEXTS AND CONTINUITY

  8. Central Themes • God • People • Land • Torah **********************

  9. TORAH AS WAY OF LIFE Articulated in the "Books of Moses" or the First Five Books of the Bible Torah as analogous to life: Genesis beginnings Exodus commitment Leviticus living life day to day Numbers wandering Deuteronomy reflection on meaning The Torah as "human life cycle" is lived out through: birth commitment marriage family death This is done in the context of family, synagogue, and community.

  10. ABOUT THE JEWISH HOLIDAYS The Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar, based on the phases of the moon. Creation is dated at 3760 BCE. The Jewish year begins in September or October and there is no division between BCE and CE. There are three classifications of holidays: 1.The High Holy Days: from Rosh Hashanah to and including Yom Kippur -- days of a purely spiritual nature. They are known as the Ten Days of Penitence as they are devoted to praying and fasting for forgiveness of sin and for a good year. 2.The Pilgrimage Festivals: Passover, Shavout and Sukkoth -- days on which Jews were required to make a pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem and bring an offering to God. Each has a three-fold significance: agricultural, historical, and spiritual. 3.The Lessor or Minor Festivals: best known of which are Hanukkah, Purim and Israeli Independence Day. The observance of Jewish holidays always begins at sunset the day before the actual date and ends at sunset on the date itself. The torah states that God considered the evening the beginning of the day -- "Evening passed and morning came, that was the first day." (Genesis 1:5).

  11. Months of the Jewish calendar: Fall Tishri (tish REE) September-October Heshvan (hesh VONN) Kislev (liss LEV) Winter Tevet (TAY vet) Shevat (shu VOTT) Adar (ah DARR) Spring Nisan (nee SONN) IYAR (ee YARR) Sivan (see VONN) Summer Tammuz (tah MOOZ) Av (av) Elul (eh LOOL) August-September

  12. FEASTS IN THE JEWISH TRADITION PASSOVER (eight days) ======================== SHAVOT (Feast of Weeks) (seven weeks after Passover) LIBERATION ------------------------------REVELATION ROAH HA SHANA (New Year)=========================YAM KIPPUR (ten days later) REMEMBRANCE--------------------------FORGIVENESS SUKKOT (Feast of Tabernacles) (fifteenth of Tishre -- September/October) SPACE IN HISTORY HANUKKAH (December) PURITY AND POLITICS PURIM (February/March) DISORDERS

  13. CHRONOLOGY OF JEWISH RELIGIOUS HISTORY (1 of 3) DATES MAJOR CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS EVENTS 2000 TO 1250 BCE Ancestors of the Jews migrate from Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan Formation of nomadic and early settlement traditions of the patriarchs; development of tribal lineage's 1250 to 1050 BCE Exodus from Egyptian bondage; formation of covenantal community; conquest and initial settlement of Cannan Development of tribal structures and forms of national leadership 1050 to 587/6 BCE Rise and establishment of monarchy under David (ca. 1013-973); First Temple built by Solomon, son of David Palestine divided into Northern Kingdom of Israel and Southern Kingdom of Judah (c. 975 BCE) Development of ancient Israelite institutions and literature; religious creativity; emergence of classical prophecy with Amos (mid-eighth century) Assyrians conquer Samaria; exile of the ten northern tribes (722/1 BCE) Jerusalem temple and Judea destroyed by Babylonians; exile of Judean to Babylon 587/6 BCE) 539 BCE to 70 CE Beginning of return to Zion; restoration of ancient institutions and leadership; Temple rebuilt 515 BCE) and prophecy revived Emergence of classical Judaism, centered around the law (revelation) and its interpretation (tradition); Torah is edited

  14. CHRONOLOGY OF JEWISH RELIGIOUS HISTORY (2 of 3) (c. 400 BCE) Rise of Greek power and hegemony in Palestine (331 BCE); Judaism prohibited by Antiochus IV, Maccabees revolt (168 BCE), temple restored and purified (165 BCE) Development of different religious groups in Palestine, including the community around the Dead Sea; and the development of Jewish life in Alexandria; Philo combines Jewish culture with Hellenistic thought Emergence of Pharisees as dominant religious movement, and its consolidation of the ideals of scholarship and piety rise of Roman rule; conquest of Palestine in 93 BCE 70 to 700 CE Rabbinic Judaism in formation; development of class of sages and rabbinical schools of study and interpretation Fall of Second Temple to Romans (70 CE); Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai founds center for legal study and administrative rule in Yavneh (Jamnia); conference of canonization of biblical literature at Yavneh (90 CE) Rabbi Judah the Prince compiles the Mishnah, the written digest of the oral traditions and rules of Tannaim Establishment of Babylonian rabbinical academies and the development of vast commentaries on the Mishna called Talmud, by Amoraim; consolidations of these comments and other traditions produce Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds (mid-fifth and sixth centuries) Midrashic (non legal) creativity in Palestine and Babylonia 700 to 1750 CE Consolidation of legal traditions and liturgy; Massoetes establish traditional text of the Bible (Rabbinic bible) Jewish life spreads form Israel to Spain, Morocco, Iraq and beyond; development of Jewish institutions and literary creativity Jewish life influenced by Christianity and Islamic civilizations Repeated persecutions and massacres of Jews, as in the Rhineland (1040); York, England (1190); Spain (1391); Poland (1648). Ritual burning of Talmud in Parish (1244) and

  15. CHRONOLOGY OF JEWISH RELIGIOUS HISTORY (3 of 3) Italy (1553) Repeated exile of Jews, as from England (1201), France (1309), Spain (1492), and Portugal (1496); ghetto introduced in Venice in 1516 Major thinkers (most notably Rashi, in 1040) emerge to comment upon or consolidate the biblical and rabnbinical traditions; development of systematic philosophical expressions of Jewish theology (most notably by Maimonides, born in 1128); emergence of new trends in Jewish mysticism in Spain and Germany Revival of Jewish mysticism in Safed, Palestine (sixteenth century), led by Joseph Karo and Isaac Luria; major compilation of Jewish law by Karo (ShulkhanArukh) Important period of Talmudic study in Poland (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) Jewish community founded in new Amsterdam, new York in 1654 1750 CE to present Emergence of new patterns of Jewish life, due to social and ideological revolutions in Europe and challenges to old rabbinical structures in Eastern Europe Development of secular Jewish enlightenment and religious reform movements in Western Europe; pietistic revival, known as Hasidism, under spiritual leadership of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem, in Eastern Europe; resistance of traditional Orthodoxy in eastern Europe; accommodations to European culture develop in the West Spread of new religious developments in America in the nineteenth century; foundation of Union of American Hebrew Congregations (Reform) in 1873 and of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (Conservative) in 1886 Revival of Jewish nationalism, called Zionism, from 1881; Herzl writes Zionist manifesto (The Jewish State, 1896) and the Zionism movement is founded in 1987; resettlement of land of Israel and revival of Hebrew language; Tel Aviv founded in 1909 Nazi war against the Jews of Europe, 1933-45; six million Jewish noncombatants murdered during World War II; development of Jewish resistance in Europe (Warsaw Ghetto uprising, 1943) resistance spreads to Jews in Palestine Jews return en masse to land of Israel and develop social, cultural, and political institutions; state of Israel founded in 1948 Partition of Palestine between Jews and Arabs; request conflict; Six Day War (1967) and Jewish reunification of Jerusalem; ancient temple wall recovered and ancient holy sites declared accessible to all Revival of Jewish cultural and religious institutions in America; cultural ties deepen between Jews of Israel and Diaspora

  16. JEWISH SECTS At the beginning of the first century CE, Judea was under Roman control. At this time, there were various Jewish groups who reacted to Roman rule and expressed their spirituality in different ways. • Pharisees: arose in the time of the Hasmoneans as a sect that was more representative of the people than the aristocratic Sadducees. They emerge as the dominant Jewish group after 70 CE. Contrary to the priests, they stressed the holiness in all of life. They believed in the resurrection of the dead and their liberal interpretations of the Torah created a chain of new laws that became known as the Oral later (later forming the Talmud) as opposed to the Written Law, that is, the Torah. • Sadducees: wealthy aristocrats and priests who backed Rome in return for its support of the Temple cult. They interpreted the Torah strictly, respecting its authority and therefore, for example, rejecting the notion of resurrection, but they gradually lost their influence in religion and politics. In 70 CE, when the Romans destroyed the Temple, the focal point of the Sadducees' power, they practically disappeared. • Essenes: believed to have been based at Qumran in the Dead Sea region, they were a religious fellowship that led a strict communal life based on ascetic practices and rites of purification. According to one of the texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, found near Qumran, not all the Essenes lived at Qumran--some may have lived as ordinary citizens throughout Judea. • Zealots: a general term for Jewish political activists fighting militarily and politically to liberate Judea form Rome. Members of its extreme wing were known as sicarii ("dagger-men"), a group which some scholars think was founded by Judas of Galilee in 6 CE to fight Rome. The Zealots had a distinctive religious dimension: they were passionate and uncompromising in their service of God.

  17. BRANCHES OF JUDAISM • The practice of Jewish life comes from the Bible via the interpretations of Jewish law (Halacha), which is based on the Talmud. However, the practice of orthodox law is changed by Progressive Jews--those of the Reform Liberal, and Conservative traditions. • Reform and Liberal Judaism arose at the end of the 18th century and blended modern scholarship with the rejection of what was, to them, antiquated Halacha. Together with Conservative Judaism, which developed in the United Sates a century later, they adopted new customs, such as allowing men and women to sit together in synagogues, the use of more English in services, modified dietary laws, and new prayers. • Israel's religious Jews are largely Orthodox, but the Progressive movement is growing. In the United States, Orthodox Jews are in the minority. In Great Britain, 25 percent of the (approximately) 300,000 Jews are Liberal or Reform. While Jews are still one community, there are growing tensions within Orthodox and Progressive Judaism.

  18. DEATH AS A PART OF LIFE • Orthodox and Progressive Jews believe in the immorality of the soul, and Orthodox Jews also believe in the resurrection of body and soul, and in a final judgment. There is no unanimous agreement about the nature of heaven and hell. Variant teachings of the transmigration of the soul and of heaven as a place where Jews can devote themselves totally to the study of scriptures abound. Few Jews believe in hall, and judgment is left to God. Jews line one world at a time, and a good deed is regarded as being its own reward--as the Talmud states "do not be as servants...expecting a reward." • Mourning rites are patterned according to the Bible, moving from the expression of absolute grief to acceptance that death is part of life. The brief funeral which is preceded by the chief mourners ritually cutting their garments (k'riah), takes place in a Jewish cemetery. It usually involves burial, although Progressive Judaism permits cremation. The funeral is followed by shiva, which involves seven days of mourning in the home, when friends visit the bereaved family who are required to sit on low chairs as a mark of humility. • There is also sh'loshim, a period of 30 days after the funeral during which mourners must abstain from festivities or entertainments. For a year after the funeral, the chief mourners should attend the synagogue daily to say Kaddish--a memorial prayer glorifying God--before the gravestone is set with due ceremony. • On each yahrzeit, or anniversary of the death, a 24-hour candle is lit in the home or synagogue, and the name of the deceased is recited at synagogues at various festivals during the year. Special prayers for the six million Jews who died during the Holocaust are also recited in April on Yom Ha-Shoa (Holocaust memorial Day). Jews may remarry after the death of a spouse. Indeed, if there are now children to continue the tradition, some Jews would consider remarriage a duty.

  19. DEFINITIONS (1 of 2) • MEZUZAH Literally, "doorpost"; the scroll and container affixed by Jews to the exterior doorposts (at the right side of the entrance) of their home. by custom, interior doorways are also often marked by the mezuzah. The practice is based on Deuteronomy 6:1-4. • MIDRASH Literally, "exposition" or "inquiry" into the language, ideas and narratives of the Torah. It constitutes a major literary achievement in classical and later Judaism. Its two major divisions are legal midrash and non legal midrash which includes grammatical explications, theology, ethics, and legends. • MISHNAH Ancient code of Jewish law collated, edited and revised by Rabbi Judah the Prince at the beginning of the third century CE. the code is divided into six major units and sixty-three minor ones. the work is the authoritative legal tradition of the early sages and is the basis of the legal discussions of the Talmud. • SHEMA Title of the fundamental, monotheistic statement of Judaism, found in Deuteronomy 6:4 (Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one). This statement avers the unity of God, and is recited daily in the liturgy and customarily before sleep at night. • TALMUD Literally, "learning" or "study," the word is primarily used to refer to the classical rabbinic discussions of the Mishna. These discussions are also known as gemara; and this has become in colloquial, generic terms for the Talmud and its study. There is a Babylonian Talmud and a Jewish Talmud. The first was completed in the fifth century CE; the second, also known as the Palestinian Talmud, was edited in the early fourth century CE. • TORAH The first five books of the Bible, also known as the Five Books of Moses or the Pentateuch. The Torah, literally "instruction" is commonly used to refer to the entire range of Jewish teaching and practice. Torah also refers to the comprehensive Jewish way of life. • ELOHIM A term for G-d.

  20. DEFINITIONS (2 of 2) • AGGADAH Aggadahmeans narration and connotes all in the Talmud that is not legal in nature: stories, homilies, legends, maxims. Aggadic describes something from the aggadah. • BAR (BAT) MITZVAH Literally, "son or daughter of the commandment(s)." The phrase originally referred to a person responsible for performing the divine commandments of Judaism; it now refers to the occasion when a boy or girl reaches the age of religious majority and responsibility (thirteen for a boy; twelve years and a full day for a girl). • COVENANT In the Bible, it refers to the religious bond between G-d and Israel contracted at Sinai with the giving of the Torah. For Judaism, it refers to the eternal bond between G-d and the people of Israel grounded in the nation's obedience to the divine commandments. It is a major theological concept, expressive of divine grace and concern for he Jews and their reciprocal obligations to God.   • HALAKAH Any normative Jewish law, custom, or practice--or the entire complex. Halakah is law established or custom ratified by authoritative rabbinic jurists and teachers. Colloquially, if something is deemed halakhic, it is considered proper and normative behavior. • KADDISH Prayer recited by mourners for the dead. The prayer extols God's majesty and kingdom. Most off the Kaddish is in Aramaic. • MESSIAH Literally, "anointed one." Based on an old biblical belief hat a descendant of King David (a royal "anointed one") would establish an era of peace and justice for the nation of Israel and the world, expectations of a universal or cosmic redeemer developed in classical Judaism and were further refined and developed over the centuries. The messianic age was believed by some Jews to be a time of perfection of human instructions; others believed it to be a time of radical new beginnings, a new heaven and earth, after divine judgment and destruction. The period known as "days of messiah" may thus refer to this period of renewal and not necessarily to an individual who inaugurates or rules the time.

  21. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE JEWISH SCRIPTURES (1 of 2) TORAH c. 1250 BCE Five books of Moses: Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy PHARISEES' oral interpretations of the Torah c. 100 BCE - 70 CE MISHNAH MIDRASH c. 200 CE c. 200 - 500 CE Interpretations Rabbis' sermons of the Torah on the Torah arranged by subject

  22. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE JEWISH SCRIPTURES (2 of 2) PALESTINE GEMARA c. 400 CE Record of Palestinian Rabbis' debates _______________ JERUSALEM TALMUD c. 400 CE Mishnah plus Palestinian Gemara BABYLONIAN GEMARA c. 500 CE Record of Babylonian rabbis' debates _______________ BABYLONIAN TALMUD C 500 CE Mishnah plus Babylonian Gemara

  23. COMMENTARY (1 of 2) • The Torah (Law), the Nevi'im (Prophets), and the Ketuvim (Writings) became the Hebrew Bible and were to determine future Jewish conduct and thought.   • Inevitably, there were texts whose sacred status was questioned. The texts were examined at the end of the first century CE at an assembly of rabbis convened at Yavneh to determine the canon. The rabbis had no doubts about the Torah as God's revelation. And while many prophets had not produced their own written texts, their words many of which had been recorded by others, were also deemed to be inspired by God. • The rabbis also grouped the historical writings with the prophetic texts and made a distinction between the Nevi'imRishonim (the earliest prophets: Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings) and the Nevi'imAcharonim (the later prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, also called the major prophets because their texts were longer). The other prophets were included in the Book of the Twelve (minor) Prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micha, Nahum, Habbakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. • Then the arguments began. The Ketuvim which are canonized are the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruch, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 and 2 Chronicles. Many rabbis felt that the Song of Songs, with its erotic imagery, did not belong in a sacred book. However, the great rabbi Akiva ben Joseph (c. 40 - c. 135) made the case that the symbolism was allegorical and that the book was not a love story between a man and woman, but between God and Israel, and the text was admitted to the canon.

  24. COMMENTARY (2 of 2) • A controversy also arose over the Book of Esther. Unlike every other book in the Bible, tit did not contain God's name. Eventually the rabbis accepted the book. The excluded books, including the books of the Maccabees and the Wisdom of Ben Sirach, were late writings, too recent to have acquired holy status. They became known as the Apocrypha ("hidden away"), outside the canon, yet were still revered and used in the Jewish liturgy. • The cornerstone of the Jewish Law is the Torah, which was first fully promulgated as the constitution of Jewish life by Ezra the Scribe. To make it relevant to changing circumstances, Pharisees made oral interpretations of this constitution from about 100 BCE until the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE. • Later, in about 200, Rabbi Judah the Prince arranged these different oral interpretations into the Mishnah. From then on, the collection of writings known as the Midrash came to be written down. The Midrash, sermons on the Torah, concentrates on ethical teachings through stories (Aggadah), whereas the Mishna was concerned with the Law (Halacha). • Between 200 and 500 CE, the Mishnah received its own commentary--the Gemara, which combined Aggadha with Halacha. • In about 500 CE, Babylonian rabbis created the Babylonian Talmud by adding their Gemara to the Mishna. Rabbis in Palestine had done the same, in about 400, to create the smaller Jerusalem Talmud.

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