rld Religions discussion Due 6/8
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Esposito-WorldReligionsToday6e-Chapter3PowerPoint.pptx1
Lecture Outline Chapter 3
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Premodern Judaism
Biblical roots
God as divine storyteller
King David established Israel as a nation
Son Solomon built first temple
Time of prophets completes formation of Jewish monotheism
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From eighth century forward
Prophets said people must return to covenant or history would punish them
Second wave of exiles led by Ezra and Nehemiah 458 BCE
Pattern of exile and return established
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Diversity
Maccabean revolt leads to semi-independence, lasts into first century
Diversity of sects and movements
Sadducees, Pharisees, Hellenists, Samaritans, Zealots, Essenes, Nazarenes
No single clear definition of “messiah”
Diversity brought to an end with destruction of temple 70 CE
Pharisees survive and provide new leadership
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Torah to Talmud
Model under Pharisees’ leadership
Center of Jewish life moves from written Torah to oral tradition; from priest to rabbi; from temple altar to family table
Second to fifth centuries
Rabbinic Judaism emerges as insights of oral tradition are written down
Rabbi viewed as man closest to God
Becomes Talmud
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Hillel
Students add Mishnah
Pharisees indirectly choose writings for canon
Commentary on the Mishnah—Gemara—added
Talmud tradition shapes Jewish life until nineteenth century
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Discrimination during Middle Ages
Status of Jews deteriorated with rise of Christianity
St. Augustine’s “negative witness theory”
The “Jewish problem”
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Kabbalah and Hasidism
Kabbalah emerges in late medieval period, during extreme persecution
Zohar, “Book of Splendor” most important Kabbalistic work
Sought to explain the mystery of good and evil in the universe
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Hasidism further embodies Kabbalah
Emerged in Poland, leader Israel ben Eliezer, “the Besht”
Sadness root of all sin
Movement popular because offered poor and unlearned people a way to be in the heart of Judaism through piety and devotion
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Modernity
Reform Judaism first “modern” form to emerge
Open to secular society
Orthodox Judaism emerges and rejects claims of Reform
Resistant to all change
Conservative Judaism emerges and seeks middle ground between Reform and Orthodox
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Secular forms of Judaism emerge: Socialist, Ethnic, and Zionist
End of nineteenth century Jews redefined as a race
Socialist Zionism born out of disenchantment with modernity
Dreyfus affair in France leads to political Zionism
After Holocaust, Jews felt survival depended on own homeland
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Postmodern Trends
Holocaust challenged Jewish faith
Acceptable to argue with God, chutzpah
Post-Holocaust Judaism covenantal pluralism; must accept one another in their diversity
Establishment of state of Israel, 1948, gave Jews new hope for their survival
Jews continue to struggle to find some unity in their own diversity in the Diaspora
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