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224 C H A P T E R 1 0 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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CHAPTER 10

Learning Outcomes After studying this chapter, you will be able to do the following:

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.

Encountering Judaism:

The Way of God’s Chosen People

BONNIE VAN VOORST © CENGAGE LEARNING

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.

225

Your Visit to the Western

Wall in Jerusalem

I n your hotel the evening before you visit the Western Wall, your tour guide gives you instruc- tions for the next day’s events. “Everyone is wel- 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 head covering. Women must wear clothing that cov- ers their shoulders and knees; they can borrow shawls at the entrance. Proper behavior is a must—be respect- ful of others.” All this is pretty standard stuff , you think, and applies to most important religious sites around the world. But there’s one item that’s unique to a visit to the Western Wall: People are allowed to put a paper note with a prayer written on it into a seam between the stones, where (many Jews believe) God will pay special attention 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 fi nd it off ensive. “Wailing” is sup- posed 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, they may not read aloud from Jewish scrip- tures or wear Jewish prayer shawls. There’s some murmuring in your tour group over

this, but the women do have access to the wall itself and can place prayer notes in it. Second, when you ask an offi - cial about what happens to your prayer, you learn some- thing surprising. More than a million notes are left in the Wall each year, and you see that the cracks between the stones are jammed with papers. Twice a year the notes are collected and buried on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives. Third, most surprising of all is how emotionally moved you are. The closer you get to the Wall, the more it towers over you. The prayerful piety of others at the site impresses you

“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.

Judaism is the best example in world religions of “ethical monotheism.”

Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

What Do YOU Think?

Jews praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem

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226 C H A P T E R 1 0 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

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 fl ow 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 infl uence 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 infl uence 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 indi- vidual 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.

In your study of Judaism, you’ll encounter and study in some depth these unique features:

● For a relatively small religion, about fi fteen mil- lion adherents today, it has had a big impact. The teachings and values of Judaism have spread in

Christianity and Islam, which are closely related to Judaism, to over half the people of the world. However, Islam and

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 infl uential, 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 cen- tered. 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.

L01 The Name Judaism and Related Terms Judaism is commonly and correctly defi ned 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

Judaism [JOO-dee- ihz-um] Historic religion of the Jewish people

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227T 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

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 fi rst 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 patri- arch 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 confu- sion 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 mod- ern 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

Symbols of Judaism

Several symbols have served Judaism over time, and we will begin with the lesser-used ones.

Chai Chai (chigh, with a throat- clearing 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 refl ects Judaism’s general focus on the importance of life. It is a symbol of their Jewish faith for many people who wear it.

Menorah The oldest symbol of the Jewish faith is the menorah, a large usually seven-branched candela- bra. 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

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 fea- tured 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 fi rst 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 move- ment to resettle Palestine. Today it is a well-recognized symbol of Judaism, particularly because it appears on the fl ag of the modern state of Israel.

A Closer Look:

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228 C H A P T E R 1 0 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

LO2 The Jewish Present As Shaped by Its Past

An American college professor leads his class on European religious history through the Dachau (DAHK-ow) concen- tration 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 cremato- rium. 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 horrifi c 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 perse- cuted 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 four- thousand-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 of Israel (ca. 1200–950 B.C.E.); the First Temple Period (950–586 B.C.E.); the Second Temple Period (539 B.C.E.–70 C.E.); revolts and rabbis (70 C.E.–ca. 650 C.E.); Jews under Islamic and Christian rule (ca. 650– 1800 C.E.); emancipation and change (1800–1932); and the Holocaust and its aftermath (1932–present).

From the

Creation to

Abraham (ca.

2000 B.C.E.)

Chapters one through eleven of the fi rst 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 nar- rates and provides a religious perspective on the cre- ation of the world, the rebellion of the fi rst humans against God and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the wide dispersal of people, Noah and the fl ood, 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 narrat- ing the migration of Abraham from Ur in Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan, a journey com- manded 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 young- est 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.

patriarchs Hebrew founding family of the later Israelites and Jews: 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

covenant Agreement 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

229T 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

The Emergence of Israel

(ca. 1200–950 B.C.E.)

The book of Exodus contains the story of Israel’s enslave- ment 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 call- ing 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 fi rst hun- dred years of settlement.

The focal center of early Israelite religion during this period was the movable tent-shrine

housing the Ark of the Covenant, a sacred box con- taining two tablets inscribed with the Ten Command- ments, Moses’ staff, and a pot of manna, with angels on the top. This tent, called the tabernacle, is where the fi rst formal worship of ancient Israel took place, with sacrifi ce, prayer, 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 charis- matic 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

An eight-day-old Jewish boy undergoes circumcision

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Torah [TOHR-uh] Teachings and commandments conveyed by Moses, particularly in the first five books of the Bible

Ark of the Covenant Sacred box in the tabernacle and then the Temple

First Temple Period Era of Israelite history from ca. 950 B.C.E. until the destruction of Jerusalem in 586

Modern replica of the Ark of the Covenant, the holiest object in ancient Israel

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prophets Mostly men and some women who spoke for God to ancient Israel to call them to greater obedience

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 pro- tect 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 con- temporary Jewish scholar Abraham Heschel wrote, the prophets portray the righteousness of God and God’s “pathos” (anguish) over Israel’s disobedience.1 The pro- phetic 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, com- prised 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).

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 fi nally 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 disas- ter, 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 crafts- men. Although some exiles probably assimilated into Babylonian religion, others viewed recent events as confi rmation 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

Judean captives from the town of Lachish on their way into exile in Assyria; a relief from the palace of King Sennacherib, Nineveh

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SYRIA CYPRUS

EGYPT

Byblos

Sidon

Tyre

Samaria

Jerusalem

Damascus

SINAI

Mt. Sinai

Mediterranean Sea

Dead Sea

Red Sea

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Kingdom of Judah

Kingdom of Israel

Phoenicians

Beersheba

Lachish

Gaza

Jaffa

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exile usually spelled the end of a particular ethnic group, as it already had for the northern kingdom of Israel. Despite the disaster of 586 B.C.E. and even larger disas- ters to come, Israelite religion survived and emerged from the ancient world into the medieval and modern periods with a continuous religious identity now called

Judaism. The pattern of exile and return would provide a historical and religious pat- tern that a lead- ing scholar of Judaism, Jacob Neusner, calls “the structure of all Judaism.”2

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 whose empire covered almost the whole Near East (see Chapter 9). Cyrus autho- rized the rebuilding of the Jewish temple of Jerusalem. The exiles would be allowed to return to Judea and live as a subject state in the Persian Empire. In Judea, the new lead- ers Ezra and Nehemiah zealously promoted a renewed commitment to the Mosaic cov- enant. Increasingly, community life was organized around the Torah, which was now in written form as the fi rst fi ve books of the Bible. The Second Temple was completed between 521 and 515, and the Second Temple Period would extend until 70 C.E., when the Romans destroyed the Second Temple. During this time another permanent feature of Jewish life arose: the Diaspora, or “dispersion,” of Jews outside the ancient territory of Israel. Many, perhaps most, of the Jews in Babylon stayed there when oth-

ers returned to Jerusalem in the 530s. Within a hundred years or so, there would be more Jews living outside the territory of Israel than inside it. Large Jewish communities could be found in Alexandria, Egypt, and in Antioch, Syria, and smaller ones in hundreds of cities in what would become the Roman Empire. This

Diaspora situation became per- manent in Judaism and endures even today.

2 Jacob Neusner, “Judaism,” in Arvind Sharma, ed., Our Religions (New York: HarperOne, 1994), 314.

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-ASS- pohr-uh] Dispersion of Jews outside the ancient territory of Israel

Map 10.1 The Monarchies of Israel and Judah, 924–722 B.C.E. The northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of

Judah had expanded beyond the traditional areas of the twelve tribes, especially at times when neighboring kingdoms and empires were relatively weak. The kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrian Empire in 722 to 721 B.C.E.

232 C H A P T E R 1 0 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

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 signifi cantly Hellenized in culture while keeping to Judaism. The two centu- ries after Alexander’s conquests saw the formation of

Jewish movements with diverse understandings of Judaism. The Sadducees were a priestly movement who accepted only the ear- liest books of the Bible as authoritative and cooper- ated with the Romans. The Pharisees were a lay move- ment of Torah teachers who later became religious lead- ers and developed the oral traditions of the Torah. The Essenes (ESS-eenz) prob- ably began the separat- ist ultra-Torah-observant community at Qumran on the Dead Sea. Various prophetic or messianic

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 signifi cant 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 offi ce 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 sacrifi ces were made there. Many Jews were outraged, and when foundational Jewish observances such as cir- cumcision 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 fi rst written accounts of Jewish martyrs. Their example would echo strongly through Jewish history until now. In 142 B.C.E., inde- pendence 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 magnifi - cent 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 deteri- orated, 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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A modern model of the Second Temple in its Jerusalem setting

Pharisees [FAIR-uh- seez] Lay movement of Torah teachers who later became religious leaders and developed the oral traditions of the Torah

Maccabean Revolt Rebellion against Hellenistic Greek rulers led by Judas Maccabeus and his sons

Hanukkah [HAHN- uh-kuh] Winter festival commemorating the rededication of the Temple in 164 B.C.E.

233T 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

might to crush the revolt, engaging in massive slaughter of combatants and noncombatants alike. It destroyed the Temple in 70 C.E., and a permanent transforma- tion of Judaism resulted. The Temple had been the only place that represented the whole nation to God and was the location of great religious events such as Jewish festivals and the Day of Atonement. It was also the only place where sacrifi ces could be offered to God. In addition, the Temple was a forum for Jewish teachers and the location of the high council of reli- gious leaders that governed Judaism. The destruction of the Temple was a disaster for Judaism, and the end

of the revolt against Rome brought the end of every group in Judaism except the Pharisees, who would even- tually take over the religion’s leadership.

Jewish hopes for independence and Roman heavy- handed tactics continued in the ensuing decades, cli- maxing in a revolt in 130 led by messianic claimant Simon Bar Kochba. This revolt was also crushed by Rome. The Jewish population had now been hit hard by two wars of their own making in only sixty years. Yet during this period a small and peripheral group connected to pre-70 C.E. scribes and Pharisees pre- served a Torah-centered, lay-led Judaism. It would be at least two centuries before these teachers, or rab- bis, would begin to win broader infl uence and judi- cial authority over Judaism. In the 300s and 400s, the rabbis gradually became spiritual leaders in local Jewish communities, the synagogues.

When Christianity became the offi cial 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 hostil- ity was often strong. The Code of Justinian in 527 C.E. con- tained discriminatory legislation against the Jews and Judaism that was to infl uence European legal systems for centuries and contribute to anti-Semitism, prejudice and discrimination 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 stron- gest forms of it are found in the Muslim Middle East. Despite these hardships, or perhaps because of them, many Jews chose to form their communities around synagogues. The local synagogue became the chief orga- nization of Jewish life in late antiquity and remained so until the modern period.

The single most important Jewish community from about 600 to 1500 C.E. was in Babylonia, outside the sphere of Greek, Roman, and then Christian power. As we’ve seen, Israelites arrived in Babylonia during the time of their exile in 586 B.C.E. In later periods there was some immigration from Palestine, but schol- ars didn’t made their way to Babylonia and estab- lish a home there until the persecutions after the Bar Kochba revolt in the 130s C.E. Over the next centuries the status of the Babylonian Jewish com- munity grew in prestige, and immigration increased. Although the Babylonian Jewish community con- fronted problems and occasional persecution, its freedom from Christian government and from the hardships that prevailed in Palestine enabled it to

Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum, showing trophies from the Jewish temple

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rabbis [RAB-ighz] Teachers of the law and successors of the Pharisees who eventually gained influence and judicial authority over Judaism

synagogue [SIN-uh- gawg] “Gathering” of local Jews in a congregation for worship and community life, a term later applied to a building

anti-Semitism [SEHM- ih-tihz-um] Prejudice and discrimination against the Jewish people

234 C H A P T E R 1 0 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

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 fi rst on the Mishnah, a collection of primar- ily 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 rab- bis 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 fi nds expression in the vast sea of materials produced by Palestinian and Babylonian rabbis from 70 to 630 C.E., most promi- nently 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.

Jews under

Islamic and

Christian

Rule (ca.

650–1800)

Jews in the medieval period lived under either Muslim or Christian rule. Muslims guaranteed religious tol- eration as long as the Jews recognized the suprem- acy 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 cit- ies; worked in commerce, banking, and the learned pro- fessions; and participated in cultural life, even adopting Arabic as their everyday language.

Some rabbis from these Sephardic Jewish com- munities, which centered in the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain, were interested in the philosophi- cal clarifi cation of religious beliefs and the system- atic presentation of their faith, just as Muslim and Christian theologians were doing. The most promi- nent 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 phi- losophy 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 specifi ed neighborhoods. In these neighborhoods, Jews ran their own affairs and maintained their own institu- tions, 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-LIGHK- uhm), which became the basis of the Broadway musical and fi lm 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 distinc- tive clothing (especially hats) or a yellow badge alert- ing 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

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-kuh- NAHZ-ee] Jews in medieval and modern times living in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe

235T 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

founded in Europe; restriction to Jewish neighbor- hoods called ghettos; and special permission required to work outside the ghetto. The rising view of Jews as dangerous was fueled by envy, irrational suspicions, and even hatred, which led to repeated expulsions and massacres. Jews were expelled from France in 1182 and 1306 and from England in 1290. The most devas- tating massacres were in Germany in 1298, wiping out 140 Jewish communities, and in 1348 to 1349 when the Black Plague was falsely attributed to Jews poison- ing wells. In 1492 Spain expelled all Jews, estimated to be between 100,000 and 150,000. Many of them fl ed to temporary safety in Portugal, some of whom eventually went to The Netherlands—one of the few relatively safe havens for Jews in Europe. One reac- tion of European Jews to this continued persecution was the development of Jewish mystical piety, par- ticularly the Kabbalah (kah-BAHL-uh), which we will consider below in the section “Jewish Worship and Ritual.” The Protestant Reformation in the 1500s was a mixed blessing to the Jews of northern Europe. In some places such as The Netherlands and England, Protestant reformers treated them with some toler- ance. But in Germany, the Protestant reformer Martin Luther continued some aspects of anti-Jewish senti- ment, in ways that would echo through later German history.

Emancipation and Diversity

(1800–1932)

Around 1800, mostly under the infl uence of the Enlightenment, many Western European nations began to drop their restrictions on Jews. No longer did Jews have to live in their own neighborhood, be subject to

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 fi gures in sci- ence, medicine, education, commerce, and banking. (This astonishing level of achieve- ment continued in the twentieth century, when one-quarter of all Nobel Prize win- ners 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 conversion to Christianity. Some—for example, Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx— even began systems of thought, science, and

government that rationalized God out of existence and opposed religion in general and particularly Judaism.

Many other Jews responded that Jewish identity was not primarily ethnic or national, but religious. One could be a loyal citizen of a European nation, but still keep the Jewish religion. They urged not assimilation, but accultur- ation, that is, taking on the culture of one’s nation while retaining Jewish religious faith. Just as Christians could practice their religion as citizens of different nations, so too should Jews. The German-Jewish intellectual Moses Mendelssohn (MEN-dul-sohn; 1729–1786) was an infl uential example of those who made embraced moder- nity while staying Jewish. He urged Jews to participate in European culture and to continue in Judaism, what he called the “double yoke” placed on them by God.

Many Jews questioned why they should

shoulder a “double yoke” of being both

Jewish and European—why not just

assimilate completely?

However, many Jews in the early 1800s began to question why they should shoulder this “double yoke”— why not just assimilate completely? This questioning, and doubts about some elements of traditional Judaism that looked increasingly odd to many modern Jews, sparked controversies among mostly German Jews in the mid- 1800s that eventually led

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Street scene in the medieval Jewish quarter of Lublin, Poland

emancipation Jewish freedom from Christian and state control in Europe after 1800

236 C H A P T E R 1 0 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

to the three main branches of Judaism today: Reform, Orthodox, and Conservative. The Reform movement, led by Abraham Geiger (GIGH-gehr; 1820- 1874), was the fi rst new

form of Judaism to arise. Geiger wanted to change Judaism into a modern religion with patterns of worship and devo- tion similar to German Protestant Christianity. Synagogues were renamed “temples,” and services were no longer con- ducted 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 selec- tive appreciation of European civilization. He criti- cized the Reform movement for diminishing Judaism for the convenience and contentment of modern Jews. Instead, he urged the Orthodox movement to elevate

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 birth- rate 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 mid- dle 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 affi rming 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 evo- lution 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 offi cer 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 pow- erful Jews were plotting to take over the world. Modern anti-Semitism was a back- lash 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 national- istic movements that formed new nations such as Germany and Italy, Jewish move- ments 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. In 1897, Theodor Herzl (HURT-zuhl;

A modern Reform synagogue

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Zionism Modern movement for large Jewish immigration into Palestine

237T 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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Sea of Galilee

Dead Sea

Suez Canal

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ul f o f A q a b a

Haifa

Beirut

Tel Aviv

Gaza

Elath

Port Said

Amman

Damascus

SuezCairo

Sharm el-Sheikh

Jerusalem

GOLAN HEIGHTS

WEST BANK

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ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT

H if

Be L E

Jewish state after UN partition of Palestine, 1947

Israel after War of 1948–1949

Area controlled by Israel after Six-Day War, 1967

Israeli-occupied area after Yom Kippur War, 1973

1860–1904) organized the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, which called for an internation- ally recognized Jewish national home in Palestine. The Zionist movement was largely secular in orientation. With con- tinued anti-Semitism in Europe, increas- ing numbers of Jewish immigrants settled in Palestine and began to set up the social infrastructure of a modern nation. The quest for a Jewish nation free from the threats of anti-Semitism was well on its way. In 1917 the British government issued the Balfour Declaration giving British support for a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.

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 set- tlers increased, friction grew with the Arab population. Freedom for European Jews would come at the expense of a future confl ict 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 intoler- ant, 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 confl ict 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 horrifi c story.

The Holocaust and Its

Aftermath (1932–present)

Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party won offi ce in the 1932 German national elections, and in 1933 Hitler quickly moved toward totalitarian power with a variety of

repressive measures. Some of them pursued Nazi ide- ology to “purify” Germany in a series of anti-Semitic

laws gradually introduced between 1933 and 1938. Germans who had just one grandparent who was Jewish by ethnic-

ity—on a synagogue roll, for example, or a member of a secular Jewish organization— were deemed to be Jewish, whether or not

they thought of themselves as Jewish. Jews had to wear a yellow star in pub- lic for identifi cation. Marriage and sex-

ual relations between Jews and so-called Aryan Germans were banned, and by 1938 all German Jews had been stripped of their citizenship, most civil rights, and some from their professional jobs. Some Jews fl ed as these laws were passed, but

most stayed, hoping that each new law would be the last.

Badge worn by all Jews in Nazi Germany. Jude

(pronounced YOO-deh) is German for Jew.

PHOTO COURTESY PHOTOS8.COM

Map 10.2 Arab-Israeli Confl ict, 1947–Present

By Egyptian-Israeli agreements of 1975 and 1979, Israel with- drew 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.

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The Zionist slogan was “a land

without a people for a people

without a land.”

238 C H A P T E R 1 0 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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The Nazi aim in the “Final Solution” was

to make not only Germany, but all

of Europe, “Jew-free.”

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” sacrifi ce) 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 thou- sands of Jews who lived in villages and towns in newly conquered territory. But this soon proved “ineffi cient.” In 1942, the German government erected concentration camps in western Germany and occupied Poland, after the model of the fi rst camp in Dachau. The purpose of these camps was not to “concentrate” Jews, but to kill them with all the effi ciency 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 facto- ries. 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 three- quarters 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 indus- trialist 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-oh- caust] Nazi genocide of Jews and other groups in World War II

Liam Neeson (center) as Oskar Schindler in Schindler’s List, walking through lines of his Jewish workers, whom he saved

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 diffi cult. 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 accel- erated. On the other hand, Emil Fackenheim and oth- ers 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 fi eld 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 fi lm 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 vee- ZEHL), particularly his moving novel Night, are widely read. Hollywood fi lms on the Holocaust—Schindler’s List, Sophie’s Choice, Life Is Beautiful, and many others—have portrayed it in especially powerful ways.

239E S S E N T I A L T E A C H I N G S O F J U D A I S M

“Most Israelis don’t belong to a

synagogue, but the synagogue they don’t

belong to is Orthodox.” —Israeli quip

We should close this sec- tion with a consideration of Judaism in Israel today. The Orthodox movement is the only movement legally rec- ognized in Israel. Until about 2000, only Orthodox Jews could serve on religious coun- cils. Today, only Orthodox rab- bis 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 non- Orthodox 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 obser- vant than are their counterparts in Europe and North America. For example, many secularists in Israel observe some traditional practices, such as lighting Sabbath can- dles 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.”

LO3 Essential Teachings of Judaism

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 refl ection.

Judaism as a whole has no offi cial statement of its essen- tial teachings. Unlike many other religions, it has rarely argued over doctrine to the point of division. The clos- est 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 tra- ditional 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 situ- ation 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 fi rst 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 fi nalized only at the beginning of the fi rst 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 consolidation of Judaism that occurred after the Jewish revolt, the status of this Greek translation, called the Septuagint (sep- TOO-uh-jint), fell. Soon only the Hebrew Bible

Tanak [TAH-nahk] Name for the Hebrew Bible, an acronym formed from the first letters of Torah (the law), Nevi’im (the prophets), and Kethuvim (the writings)

240 C H A P T E R 1 0 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

Shema [sheh-MAH, or shmah] Basic statement of faith from Deuteronomy 6 that begins “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is One”

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Observant Jews wear kippahs out of reverence for God.

was used in synagogues, even though many Jews could not understand it.

Even more important than the particular docu- ments 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 sig-

nifi cant sense. The Jewish use of their scriptural canon has deeply infl uenced the forma- tion, contents, and use of scrip- ture 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 signifi cant 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 teach- ings, the notions of obedience to God’s will in the Torah and the concept of ethical monotheism, below in the section “Essential Jewish Ethics.”)

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 chil- dren after Canaanite gods, and Solomon built a shrine to a Canaanite fertility goddess outside Jerusalem.

Full, formal mono- theism seems to have come in the Babylonian exile in the 500s B.C.E. As we saw above, the return from Babylon featured a strict enforcement of mono- theism, and Judaism has continued in it ever since.

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 transcen- dent, far above the world and human ability to compre- hend 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 exis- tence, 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-trah- GRAM-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 (YAH- weh). Nevertheless, this discussion is irrelevant to most Jews, because they don’t pronounce God’s name. When

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the Torah is read aloud, Adonai (ad-oh-NAI), mean- ing “Lord,” is read in place of YHWH. This practice is refl ected 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 prohi- bition 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 mod- ern Judaism do not follow them in this practice, saying that God is a generic noun, not a biblical name.

The Jews As God’s Chosen

People

Most religions that believe in gods have seen them- selves 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 fi rst found in the Torah and is elabo- rated 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 estab- lish my covenant between me and you and your descen- dants 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 amaz- ing this is: “For you are a holy people to YHWH your God, and God has chosen you to be his treasured people

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).

Jews throughout history have found that

being God’s chosen people is mostly a

blessing, but sometimes a mixed blessing

that brings trouble.

The “fl ip side” of this chosen status is demanding, even ominous at times. Alongside the positive things said about being chosen, there is the necessity of obedi- ence: “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 tetragrammaton, or name for God in Hebrew, YHWH (Hebrew reads from right to left)NA

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threat, that this demand for obedience entails is empha- sized by the prophet Amos: “You only have I singled out of all the families of the earth; therefore will I pun- ish 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 through- out history have found their belief in being God’s cho- sen 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 diffi culties, 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 cov- enant 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, discrimi- nation, 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 affi rmed 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.

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 fi res of hell and the hope of heaven to motivate good con- duct 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 coffi ns 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 under- world, 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 bibli- cal 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 fi nal 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 medi- eval times through today affi rms 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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will go into hell for an eleven-month period of purifi ca- tion and then enter heaven (Babylonian Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 16b-17a, Eduyot 2.10). This belief is prob- ably 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 typi- cally 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 affi rmation of

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.

“I don’t believe in [an afterlife]. I believe

this is it, and I believe it’s the best way

to live.” —Natalie Portman

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 chil- dren 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 Israeli- American actress Natalie Portman, who was raised “Jewish but not religious,” was asked about her con- cept 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.

LO4 Essential Jewish Ethics

In 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

Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives facing the former site of the Temple, now occupied by

the Dome of the Rock mosque

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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 profi t, 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 refl ect 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, call- ing 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 guide- lines. 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, espe- cially 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

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 intrinsi- cally evil about the evil impulse, because it was cre- ated 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, pro- creating, 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 fi rst fi ve 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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commandments that teach about life and death. The rabbis enu- merated 613 commandments (mitzvot): 248 positive com- mandments (“You shalls”) and 365 negative commandments (“You shall nots”). Moreover, all the commandments are held to be binding and more or less equal. Some Jews in the modern age would make a distinction between the “moral law” and the “ceremonial” and “ritual law.” This isn’t found in the Bible and Talmud, but history seems to have ratifi ed it, because some of the 613 commands cannot be fulfi lled now that the Jewish temple is gone. All com- mandments come from God, the ancient and medieval rabbis said, so all are binding forever. Today, all Jews consider the Ten Commandments to be the most impor- tant commandments in the Torah, though not all Jews adhere to the 613 mitzvot, forming one of the main dif- ferences between the different branches of Judaism.

The Ten Commandments run as follows, with short explanations in brackets:

1. I am the Lord your God [not a commandment in grammatical form, but the basis of the people’s relationship with God].

2. You shall not recognize any as god beside Me [the root of monotheism].

3. You shall not take the Name of the Lord your God in vain [God’s name, symbolic of God’s essence, must be respected].

4. Remember the day of Sabbath, to keep it holy [the Sabbath is a day of rest and rededication to God].

5. Honor your father and your mother [parents are to be respected as long as they live].

6. You shall not murder [not all killing is murder, but unlawful killing is].

7. You shall not commit adultery [breaking marriage vows breaks marriage].

8. You shall not steal [other people’s property is to be respected].

9. Do not give false testimony against your neighbor [lying in legal settings undermines justice].

10. You shall not covet the possessions of others [desiring to have things that others have].

The rest of the Torah’s legal mate- rial is based on these Ten Commandments. The rabbis of

the ancient world compiled the Mishnah and the Gemara, fi nally combining them into the Talmud, expanding on these commandments and bringing them into every aspect of the life of the Jewish people. Judaism’s emphasis on justice and love in community, rather than on just the letter

of the law, has enabled it to keep to its moral tradition while adapting to changing circumstances in life.

General Jewish Ethics

Beside these Torah-based commands that originate with the Hebrew Bible, the biblical tradition also has broad legal injunctions, wisdom narratives with moral lessons, and prophetic teachings. These other teachings became important in the fi rst millennium B.C.E., although the Torah commands remain central and foundational. In modern times, as the Torah commands became prob- lematic for many Jews, the more-general ethical prin- ciples became paramount for them.

The biblical prophets exhorted their audiences to lead a life that honored their covenant with God. They pointed primarily to obedience to the Torah, but they also spoke of more-general moral duties: kindness to the needy, benevolence, faith, relief for the suffering, a peace-loving disposition, and a humble spirit. Civic loy- alty and obedience, even to a foreign ruler, is urged as a duty (Jeremiah 29:7). This was also important in later times, as Jews lived under non-Jewish governments. What the prophets viewed as the end-time is uncertain, but the moral vision was clear: the end-time will be one of peace and righteousness (Isaiah 2:2).

In early rabbinic Judaism, the oral Torah both interpreted the Bible and delved afresh into many other ethical topics. Jewish morality, encompassing both com- mandments and general ethics, is known to Jews today as halakhah, literally “walk” of life. God has a way for the chosen people to walk in.

The best-loved and most infl uential rabbinic text on ethics is the Mishnah tractate of Pirke Avot (PEER-kay ah-VOHT), the “Sayings of the Fathers,” often translated as “Ethics

The Ten Commandments in Hebrew, in their shorter form. Writing on stone suggests the permanence and seriousness of the commandments.

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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 codifi ed in

the Mishnah. The idea behind this “fence” is that by keep- ing it one would also be keep- ing the written Torah that it protects.

Modern Jewish Ethics

In the modern period, Jewish ethics sprouted many off- shoots, 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 infl uential 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 objectifi es 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 con- trast, the “I” in an I-Thou relationship doesn’t objectify

any “It” but has a living, mature relationship with others. It rec- ognizes 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 relation- ships with other people.

LO5 Jewish Worship and Ritual

In 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 fi nally 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

Reading glasses on the Torah suggest the importance of knowing the scriptures as a basis of Jewish morality.

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already discussed, in “The Jewish Present As Shaped by Its Past,” language and music differences between these three branches. But the three branches all share the same basic structure of service: gathering into the main syna- gogue room; hymns and prayers often lead by a cantor, or singer; and readings from scripture.

In synagogue worship, the readings themselves are very musical. The worship leader chants the words in Hebrew, guided by marks written in the Hebrew text and also employing traditional Hebrew melodies. The place where the Torah scrolls are kept is the ark, a ref- erence to the Ark of the Covenant. It is a special closet or recess in the synagogue wall on the side nearest Jerusalem and is usually the focal point of the syna- gogue. The scrolls themselves are typically covered with richly embroidered cloth, and the upper ends of the wooden rollers are adorned with gold and silver deco- rations. Their use follows a prescribed ritual:

● 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.

● 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 mod- ern Jewish households the candle blessing is performed together as a family. After the candles are lit, this bless- ing is recited over them: “Blessed are You, Eternal One our God, Ruler of the Universe, who makes us holy with mitzvot [commandments] and gives us this mitz- vah of lighting the Sabbath lights.”

The command goes on to say that no work may be done on the Sabbath. This rest from work is connected to both the creation of the world and the giving of the Torah. The Talmud interprets this strictly; that is why tra- ditional Jews have tended to live within walking distance

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Reading the Torah scroll in a synagogue A Jewish mother and daughter light the Sabbath candles.

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of the synagogue, because to walk too far is consid- ered work.

Jewish Annual

Festivals

The Jewish year has several annual festivals. Most of them have both a historical reference and a contemporary meaning to build faith and obedience in those who cel- ebrate them. We can deal with them quickly here. Rosh Hashanah (rohsh ha-SHAH-nah) is the Jewish New Year, in September or October, depending on how the Jewish lunar calendar matches the solar calendar. It begins a ten- day solemn period of repentance and self-examination. This period ends on Yom Kippur (yohm kip-PUHR), the “Day of Atonement” that is the holiest day in the year. Sukkot (SOOK-koht) is the festival of “tabernacles” or “booths,” a seven-day harvest celebration linked to the wandering of the Hebrews after the Exodus; people often live in special outdoor huts during this time. Passover cel- ebrates the escape of the Hebrews from Egyptian slavery. A special meal, called the seder (SAY-duhr), with various foods including unleavened bread (matzoh), is the high- light. Hanukkah we have explained above. Purim (POOR- eem), “lots,” recalls the Queen Esther story in which Persian Jews were saved from genocide when the drawing of lots exposed that evil plan. Costumes and plays, as well as special foods, are featured. Finally, Shavuot (SHAHV- oo-oht), meaning “weeks,” comes fi fty days after Passover; it cel- ebrates the giving of the Torah.

Kosher Food

Kosher means “fi tting or proper,” not (as is often read) “pure or clean.” A body of ritual Jewish law deals with kosher: what foods can and cannot be eaten, and how those foods must be prepared and consumed. Contrary to popular opin- ion, rabbis don’t “bless” food to make it kosher, but they do inspect it and its pro- cessing to assure kosher consumers that the

food is kosher. All sorts of ethnic foods can be kosher; in fact, kosher Chinese res-

taurants can often be found in Jewish neighborhoods.

Leviticus 11 gives a list of clean and unclean foods, and the Talmud treats them in detail. The types of unclean

animals specifi ed are (1) four-footed animals that

do not chew the cud and have a split hoof (pigs, for example); (2) meat-eating

birds; (3) insects with wings; (4) water animals without fi ns and scales, for example shrimp; and (5) small creep- ing (“swarming”) animals. In order to be kosher, accept- able animals must be butchered in a humane way and prepared for sale in a clean way. Also, kosher food must be served and eaten according to kosher regulations (for example, no mixing of dairy products and meat in cook- ing or serving). In general, raw vegetables are always kosher, and so are cooked vegetables as long as they are cooked and eaten correctly.

Kosher rules are observed at all times, but addi- tional kosher restrictions come during Passover. Some foods that are kosher for year-round use are not kosher for Passover, because they have leaven in them. A bagel, for example, can be kosher for regular use but is cer- tainly not kosher for Passover.

Kosher food is so closely linked with Jewish identity that the misconception has arisen that it’s only for Jews. In fact, in 2009 almost 85 percent of kosher meat sales were to non-Jews, who appreciate the quality of the meat and its general healthfulness. (If you like hot dogs, for example, and are concerned more about taste and health than about price, a kosher hot dog is for you.) In 2010,

kosher food was served for the fi rst time at the Super Bowl, and it almost sold out.

Circumcision, the Sign

of the Covenant

Circumcision is the most important life- cycle ritual in Judaism and probably the one most universally observed among Jews. Its most common name is the bris milah (brihs MIL-luh), Yiddish for

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Even though its beef may be kosher, the cheese on this burger makes it not kosher.

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kosher [KOH-sher] Body of ritual Jewish law dealing with what foods can and cannot be eaten, and how those foods must be prepared and consumed

Seder plate with special Passover foods; the Hebrew word is Pesach, meaning “Passover”

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“covenant of circumcision” and usually called “bris” for short. Most secular Jews who observe no other part of Judaism regularly practice this rite; to be Jewish is to be circumcised. Orthodox Jews affi rm the Talmudic view that a person of Jewish descent who is not cir- cumcised will not enter heaven. A few Reform and Reconstructionist leaders oppose circumcision today, but they’re in the extreme minority.

As we have already seen, the commandment to cir- cumcise is given fi rst in Genesis 17:10–14 as an essen- tial part of God’s covenant with Abraham. According to God’s command to Abraham, circumcision is per- formed only on males as the sign of the covenant and membership in God’s people. (Some Reform Jews argue that circumcision is sexist, so they have a “naming cer- emony” for baby girls, with most of a circumcision ritual except for the actual cutting.) Circumcision is often perceived by Reform and Conservative Jews to be a hygienic measure. Orthodox Jews disagree and cor- rectly point out that this rationale isn’t found in the Torah. Instead, circumcision is a religious measure: It is an outward physical sign of the eternal covenant between God and the Jewish people. It is done not for any health benefi ts, but because God commands it.

Circumcision is performed on the eighth day of a child’s life. If this falls on the Sabbath, circumcision is still done then, even though the drawing of blood is ordinarily forbidden as work. Circumcision (from the Latin for “cut around”) involves surgically removing the foreskin of the penis. The circumcision is performed in a home or synagogue by a mohel, a respected Jewish man educated in the relevant Jewish laws, skilled in hygienic practices, and possessed of a steady hand. While the cutting is done, an honored man holds the baby still on his lap. Blessings of God are recited, and a drop of wine is placed in the baby’s mouth. He is then given a formal Hebrew name. As with most Jewish rituals, circumcision is a joyous, celebrative occasion (except for the baby, of course) and is followed by refreshments or more often a festive meal.

Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah

A Jewish young man in a coming-of-age ceremony becomes a bar mitzvah, which literally means “son of the commandment.” A young woman becomes a bat (or bas) mitzvah, “daughter of the commandment.” The singular mitzvah (“commandment”) is used here even though the Torah as a whole is meant. Although these terms literally refer only to adult standing in the Jewish community, they are also commonly taken to mean the ceremonies themselves, for example in the

expression that someone is “having a bar mitzvah.” In Reform and Conservative Judaism, the ritual for females is the same as for males. In all Orthodox practice, women are not permitted to participate in rituals such as these, so a ceremony is usually little more than a modest party to mark a female’s thirteenth birthday, if it is held at all.

What does it mean to become a bar/bat mitzvah? In Jewish law, children are not obligated to obey the Torah, although they are encouraged to do so. (Like any religion passed through the generations, Judaism raises its children in the faith, as the Shema commands. Moreover, historic Jewish teach- ing knows nothing of the modern con- cept of “teenage” years between child- hood and adulthood; when one comes near to puberty, one is an adult.) When they are

mohel [MOI-uhl, rhymes with oil] Jewish man who officiates at a circumcision

bar mitzvah [bahr MITZ-vuh] “Son of the commandment,” the assumption of responsibility before God for keeping the Torah

bat (bas) mitzvah [baht (bahs) MITZ-vuh] “Daughter of the commandment,” the assumption of responsibility before God for keeping the Torah

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At a bar mizvah ceremony, a young man carries the Torah scroll with pride and joy.

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at an “age of understanding” to know the difference between right and wrong and choose between them— traditionally thirteen for boys and twelve for girls— children become obligated in God’s sight to obey the Torah. The bar/bat mitzvah ceremony marks the begin- ning of that obligation, but it doesn’t create it. Now the young people gradually begin to assume the privileges and responsibilities of Jewish adults. They help to lead religious services, count in a minyan, enter binding con- tracts, and may even marry (although most marriages are not carried out until later).

The bar/bat mitzvah is an innovation of the last few centuries, to mark the passage into Jewish adulthood in a ritual way. In its earliest, most basic form, it is the cel- ebrant’s fi rst participation in leading a service. During a Sabbath service or a weekday service, the young person is called up to the Torah scroll to recite a blessing over the weekly reading. The common practice today for one becoming a bar/bat mitzvah is to do more than the bless- ing. The celebrant learns the entire Torah reading for the day in its chanted form and recites it during the ser- vice. He or she sometimes reads the entire weekly Torah portion, leads part of the service, or leads the congrega- tion in certain important prayers. The celebrant is also generally required to make a short speech, which tra- ditionally begins, “Today I am a man/woman.” All this

requires a good deal of training by the rabbi, often over some months. The father tradition- ally recites a blessing thanking God that his child has become an adult. The often-elaborate post-ceremony parties that are commonplace today in North America arose around 1900 among more-prosperous Jews.

Marriage

Judaism strongly encourages marriage and family life. If asked what the fi rst commandment in the Torah is, an observant Jew will reply, “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28), which is indeed God’s fi rst command to the human race. Among Ashkenazi Jews, monogamy has been the rule since the 900s C.E. Among Sephardic Jews, whose rules refl ect the Bible and Talmud more closely on this point and have been infl uenced by the Muslim context, polygamy was permitted until the 1950s, but still wasn’t common. For both groups, Jews married only Jews. But in the last century, intermarriage has become more common. This has posed a problem for Reform and Conservative Jews, because Jewish

identity is traced through the mother, not the father, and intermarriage leads more often to assimilation of the Jewish spouse to the Gentile world than it does to the conversion of the non-Jewish spouse to Judaism. Lately, Reform Jews have urged, and sometimes insti- tuted, either matrilineal or patrilineal descent for mem- bership in the Jewish people.

Jewish marriage has engagement (sometimes pre- ceded by the work of matchmakers), rings, a vow or a document certifying marriage obligations, and a grand celebration to follow. Ceremonies are often held outdoors or in hotels, not in the synagogue, as long as there is a rabbi to offi ciate and a canopy called a chuppa (CHUP-uh, with a guttural ch). But the Jewish ceremony has something unique. As the last part of the wedding, the groom crushes under his foot a glass wrapped in a cloth, a reminder in a time of great joy of the sorrow that came to Judaism when the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 C.E. Then there are loud cries of “Mazel tov!” (MA-zul tahv)—literally “Good luck,” but in celebratory situations with more a nuance of “Congratulations”—and the wedding recep- tion begins.

Funeral Rituals

Jewish practices relating to death and mourning have had two purposes, primarily to comfort the mourn- ers and secondarily to help, as much as possible and appropriate, the deceased into the next world. In what follows, we will deal with long-established Jewish prac- tices that go back hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years. Some variations to this pattern will be found among Conservative/Masorti Jews today, and more among the Reform.

After a person dies, burial must be carried out in less than forty-eight hours. The body is never left alone. In the past, most Jewish communities had an organization to care for the dead; these societies are now making something of a comeback as a replace- ment for more-conventional funeral home arrange- ments. Autopsies are forbidden as a desecration of the body, but they are permitted where civil authorities require it. Embalming of the body is strictly forbid- den as desecration, and organ donation is likewise not done. However, some contemporary Jewish ethicists have argued that organ dona- tion is permitted, even meri- torious, if the recipient’s body is buried at death.

Both the dress of the body and the coffi n are simple, so

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that all people are equal in death. The upper body is wrapped in a prayer shawl with its fringes cut short. The body is never viewed at funerals; open-casket cere- monies are forbidden by Jewish law. The body must not be cremated, but buried in the earth. If coffi ns are used, which is common in the Western world, they must be made of wood, and must rest directly in the earth. Some Orthodox groups go so far as to poke holes in the bot- tom of coffi ns to facilitate the process of “dust to dust.”

Jewish mourning practices have periods of decreasing intensity. When a person fi rst hears of the death of a close relative, it is traditional to express the initial grief by tearing one’s clothing, or sometimes a piece of cloth that is then worn on one’s clothing. During the fi rst two days after death, the family is usually left alone to allow for the full expression of their grief. The next period of mourning is known as shiva (SHIHV-uh), the Hebrew word for “seven,” because it lasts seven days, beginning on the day of burial. This process is often called “sitting shiva.” Shiva is observed by the entire family of the deceased in the deceased’s home. They wear the clothing they had on when they tore it in mourning. Mourners sit on low stools or the fl oor. They don’t wear leather shoes, shave their faces or cut their hair, wear cosmet- ics, work, or do things for comfort, entertainment, or pleasure.

After shiva, lighter mourning of eleven months continues for the immediate family. Kaddish, a prayer of faith and petition, is to be said every day. After the period is complete, the family of the deceased is not permitted to continue formal mourning. Jewish law requires that a tombstone be prepared. Many Jewish communities delay putting it up until the end of the

twelve-month mourning period. Where this custom is followed, a formal unveiling ceremony for the tombstone is usually held at the cemetery.

The Kabbalah

While offi cial rabbinic Judaism preoccupied many middle- and upper-class Jews who had the leisure to study the Talmud, unoffi cial folk religion grew in the medieval period to become a permanent feature of Judaism. The intense rationalism of medieval Jewish philosophy and Talmudic studies was countered by the rise of Jewish mysticism, emphasizing the immedi- ate, personal, and nonrational experience of God. In twelfth-century France and thirteenth-century Spain, mystical forms of Jewish religiosity would combine

with mainstream Judaism to produce the Kabbalah. The rabbis strongly condemned such practices, but they grew nonetheless.

The Kabbalah pictured God not as a simple unity but as a structured Being with an inner confi guration of ten attributes. Evil is believed to be provoked by human sin and set right by good deeds, fulfi llment of the com- mandments, prayer, and mystical contemplation. Other Kabbalistic beliefs have included the transmigration of souls and the practice of sexual intercourse as a mir- ror of the union among the divine attributes. Many of these ideas are found in the Zohar, the leading book on Kabbalah by Moses de Leon (1250–1305). The Kabbalah spread quickly, and in the sixteenth cen- tury, Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534–1572 C.E.) reformu- lated this esoteric system in a manner that emphasized messianic redemption. Another offshoot of Kabbalah arose around an itinerant folk healer named Israel ben Eleazar (1700–1760)—known as Baal Shem Tov (bah- AHL shehm tohv), or “Master of the Good Name.” This was Hasidism, a Jewish mystical movement that stresses joyful emotion. Hasidism soon attracted Jews in Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Romania. The mes- sage of the Hasidic masters was that God is present and directly accessible in the world, that God is best experienced and worshiped in joy, that even the most evil persons and events are capable of redemption, and that each Jew has an essential role to play in making the world holy. The new Hasidic pietism drew on the Kabbalah in a way that overcame its esoteric character.

Rabbinic authorities opposed Hasidic movements, criticizing their fervor and their ecstatically emotional worship. They disliked the Hasidic fi gure of the char- ismatic man holding strong religious authority in his movement. But Hasidism soon became established in the Jewish communities of Poland and the Ukraine. It split into smaller groups, and by the early 1800s Hasidic dynasties had formed that still exist today. In Lithuania, Lubavich (LOOB-uh-vich) Hasidism emphasized a dis- tinctive blend of Kabbalistic speculation and rabbinic learning. Despite Hasidism’s anti-traditionalist origins and history, it has ironically come to represent ortho- doxy, even so-called “ultra-orthodoxy,” in the modern world, especially to non-Jews. Hasidism is strong in North America and Israel.

At the end of the twentieth century, the Kabbalah was popularized and spread beyond Juda- ism. Its psychological and social aspects were emphasized, and its Torah-related

Hasidism a Jewish mystical movement that stresses joyful emotion that arose in the 1700s

252 C H A P T E R 1 0 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

and messianic elements were muted. This is controver- sial among many observant Jews, but today there are

hundreds of Kabbalah centers, conferences, books, and other sources of information about Kabbalah practice, almost all of them catering to non-Jews.

LO6 Judaism in North America Today

On a Friday night in Chicago, a Jewish family gathers in their home to welcome the Sabbath with a traditional ritual meal. As the sun is just about to set, the wife, assisted by her daughter, lights two Sabbath candles on the dining room table. It has been set for dinner, and on its white tablecloth are a wine cup and two loaves of challah (soft braided bread), covered with a special cloth. The father blesses each of his children and then recites a prayer of blessing over the wine, remembering how God rested on the seventh day of creation and hallowed the Sabbath day. Everyone around the table has a sip of the

wine, and then all leave the table to wash their hands ritually. Gathered around the table again, they recite a blessing of God for the gift of food. Each receives a slice of the bread to eat, and the main meal begins. At the end of the meal, special Sabbath songs are sung by all, and the meal is concluded with a prayer. This Sabbath ritual is so meaningful in Judaism that it is practiced in much the same way by Orthodox and Conservative families in North America. It is even making something of a comeback in Reform Judaism.

Jews have been in North America as early as the 1600s, settling fi rst in New Amsterdam (modern New York City). For almost two hundred years, most North American Jews were Sephardics of Spanish and Portuguese ancestry. The fi rst American synagogue was established in 1677 in Touro, Rhode Island, a colony that was a center of religious toler- ation. Although they couldn’t hold offi ce or even vote in most colonies, Sephardic Jews became active in their civic communities in the 1790s. Until 1830, Charleston, South Carolina, had the largest Jewish community in North America. Large-scale Jewish immi- gration, however, didn’t take place until the mid-1800s, when Ashkenazi Jews from Germany, many of them secularized, arrived in the United States, primarily becoming

merchants and shop owners. There were approximately 250,000 Jews in the United States by 1880.

Jewish immigration to North America increased sharply in the early 1880s, mainly as a result of per- secution in Russia and Eastern Europe. Most of the new immigrants were Yiddish-speaking and religiously observant Ashkenazis from the poor rural areas of these lands. They came to America seeking freedom and a better life. Over 2 million Jews arrived between about 1880 and 1924, when the U.S. Immigration Act of 1924 and National Origins Quota of 1924 all but ended immigration from Eastern Europe. Many settled in the New York metropolitan area, particularly the Lower East Side of Manhattan, establishing what became one of the world’s major Jewish population centers.

Around 1900, newly arrived Jews began to build many synagogues and community associations. American Jewish leaders urged speedy integration into the wider American culture, which most Jews quickly accomplished. After World War II, in which almost half a million American Jewish men fought against Germany and Japan, younger Jewish families joined the

I n 2004, pop star Madonna and then husband Guy Ritchie visit the grave of Kabbalist author Rabbi Jehuda Ashlag.

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American trend of settling in new suburbs. There they became increasingly assimilated as previous anti- Semitic discrimination began to lessen. For example, in the 1950s many leading American universities and colleges began to drop their quota systems that held Jewish enrollment to very small lev- els. Enrollment in Jewish religious schools doubled between 1945 and 1955, and synagogue affi lia- tion jumped from only 20 percent of Jews in 1930 to 60 percent in 1960. Reform and Conservative congregations experienced the most rapid growth. In the 1970s and 1980s, waves of Jewish immigration from Russia largely joined the mainstream American Jewish community. However, most of these immigrants had been secularized by gen- erations of Soviet Communist rule and anti-Semitic pressures.

Today, approximately 5.5 million of the world’s 15 million Jews live in North America. Three major movements are found in North America: Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox. A fourth movement, the Reconstructionist movement, is more liberal than Reform and is substantially smaller than the other three. Orthodoxy has several different groups: the mod- ern Orthodox, who have integrated into modern North American society while strictly keeping the Jewish law from the Talmud; Hasidic Jews, who live in their own, separate neighborhoods and dress distinctively; and the Yeshiva Orthodox. They all believe that God gave Moses the whole Torah at Mount Sinai, including both the “written Torah” that became the fi rst fi ve books of the Bible and the “oral Torah,” an oral tradition inter- preting the written Torah that became the basis of the Talmud. The Orthodox believe that the Torah contains 613 mitzvoth (commands), binding upon Jews but not upon non-Jews. A survey of American Jews in 2000 found that 10 percent identify themselves as Orthodox. The Orthodox tend to have large families and resist assimilation, so their overall numbers are growing.

Reform Judaism doesn’t believe that the Torah is divinely written or inspired. It views the entire Bible as a record of Jewish religious experience.

Reform Jews don’t believe in observance of most tradi-

tional commandments, but they attempt to preserve much of what they consider the spiritual essentials of Judaism, along with some selected Jewish practices and culture. A recent survey found that 35 percent of American Jews identify themselves as Reform. Approximately nine hundred Reform syna- gogues are found in the United States and Canada.

Conservative Judaism grew out of the tension between Orthodoxy and Reform at the end of the 1800s, and its efforts to mediate between them is an American impulse. Conservative Judaism main- tains that the truths found in Jewish scriptures and the Talmud come from God but were transmitted by humans and contain a human component. It generally accepts the binding nature of Jewish law but believes that law should change and adapt, absorbing aspects of the pre- dominant culture while remaining true to Judaism’s values. Because Conservative Judaism occupies the large middle ground between Orthodoxy and Reform, there’s a great deal of variation among Conservative synagogues. This fl exibility is deeply rooted in Conservative Judaism. Twenty-six percent of American Jews identify themselves as Conservative. There are approximately 750 Conservative synagogues in the world today, most of them in North America.

All told, the varieties of Judaism in North America all attempt, in their widely diverse ways, to continue the mission of God’s chosen people to be a “light to the nations.”

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The oldest synagogue in America, the Sephardic congregation in Touro, Rhode Island; the building dates to 1763.