Religion 211
Review of Unit 2
Modern Judaism

Dr. Fred Kellogg
Emory & Henry College

 

   In this program, we will review basic Jewish beliefs, worship, calendar, life cycle, the Holocaust and Zionism, and the challenge of the future.  Then we will go through key places for Jewish history.  You'll need the map of The World of Judaism at the end of your syllabus.  If you don't have a map, please stop now, and come back when you have a map, so that you can follow along as we travel from place to place.  This review relates especially to Leo Trepp, Judaism:  Development and Life, 4th ed. (Belmont, CA:  Wadsworth, 2000). 

BASIC JEWISH BELIEFS

    The most appropriate starting point for a study of Jewish beliefs is in the understanding of God.  Jews share with Christians and Muslims the belief in one God, a concept which scholars call monotheism.  Christians usually name the Deity either God or the Lord.  The Muslim name for the Deity is Allah.  Jews have a number of names for the Deity, including the following:

    Judaism holds that we human beings are created in the image of God.  Someone may have told you that you are the "spittin' image" of your father or mother.  That is intended to be a compliment.  Likewise, to be in God's image is something unique to humanity.  Not even the angels have that compliment paid to them.  If we are created in God's image, that means that we have been given a special role as God's representatives.  By living in accordance with the Torah, we benefit not only ourselves but the whole world.

    However, we often fail to live up to our potential.  Sin is a part of our world that we cannot ignore.  Human beings are susceptible to several types of sin.  We fail to give our absolute commitment to God, putting our loyalty instead into transient things.  We want what other have, and we use immoral ways to satisfy our desires.  The Jewish understanding of the human personality is that each of us is born with something that can lead us into sin.  It is called in Hebrew the Yetzer Ha-Ra.  If I tell you that yetzer means "drive," do you remember what the Yetzer Ha-Ra is?

    If you were thinking of Maximum Overdrive, I'll have to tell you no, that's a movie by Stephen King.  As in his other movies and books, there's plenty of evil in it.  Nor is the proper translation Skyline Drive.  It's possible for sin to be committed there or on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but most people see these highways as sources of beauty and of feelings of closeness to God and nature.  Yetzer Ha-Ra should be translated as "evil drive," or in Freudian terms, the Id.  In fact, I'll bet that Anne and Jason can recognize in the Jewish understanding of the human personality some of the concepts that they've learned in psychology courses!  According to Judaism, all of us are born with the basic desire for self-satisfaction which is important for the survival of individuals and of humanity as a whole.  Ha- is the Hebrew definite article "the," and Ra means "evil."  When we allow this drive to govern our lives, the imbalance leads us into sin.  But when we balance it with the Yetzer Ha-Tov, the "good drive" that Freud called the Superego,  the "evil drive" makes very important contributions to our personality.  In fact, those manifestations of the "evil drive" that are potentially destructive can be transformed into love of family, success in business, and other aspects of life that are beneficial to all humanity.

 

WORSHIP

    One very important way in which we become attuned to God and fulfill God's image in us is worship.  Christians worship in a church.  Muslims worship in a mosque.  Judaism often uses the term congregation for the religious community, including the house of worship.  For example, the nearest Jewish place of worship, between Bristol and Blountville, is Congregation B'nai Sholom, meaning literally "Children of Peace." (The English equivalent of the Hebrew word shalom or sholom, "peace," is Salem, as in the town near Roanoke.)  Some Reform Jewish congregations also use the term Temple.  Conservative and Orthodox Jews hold that there has been only one Temple, in Jerusalem.  It was first built by Solomon, destroyed by the Babylonians and rebuilt in the 500's B.C.E., and destroyed again by the Romans in 70 C.E.  The most common Jewish term for a worshipping community is synagogue.  The Greek word syn (like the sorority SUN) means "together," and ago in Greek means "to lead."  So a synagogue is a place where people are led together in study and prayer.  Synagogues are open to all people; I have worshipped in Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative synagogues, and I've felt welcome in each.  Music is an integral part of Jewish worship services; both Steve Sieck and Lisa Withers would be very much at home in them!

    The most important time for worship is the Sabbath, which extends from Friday at sundown to Saturday at sundown.  The Friday evening service is for many congregations the main service of the week, although a Saturday morning service is also significant in some synagogues.

    The family has a special role in Jewish worship -- not only in congregational worship, but also at the family meals.  In traditional Judaism, the dining table is regarded as the equivalent of the altar of sacrifice in the Temple.  Since the destruction of the Temple, the home has a significant place in worship.  The blessing after each meal is a dedication of the food to God.  On Friday evening, the mother does something else to make the Sabbath meal a worship experience.  Here's a hint:  in Judaism, light is often seen as a symbol of God's Presence.  Think of the menorah, the seven-branched lampstand in the ancient Temple.  The mother provides corresponding symbolism for the Sabbath meal.  Yes, she lights Sabbath candles and recites a prayer before the meal.  The Sabbath meal is supposed to be the biggest and best meal of the week, a time for the family really to enjoy being together.  The very poorest Jewish families try to find something special to make the Sabbath meal a true celebration.

 

THE JEWISH CALENDAR, LIFE CYCLE, AND FAMILY

    In addition to the Sabbath, many other days are significant in Judaism.  In fact, the whole year is punctuated by festivals and celebrations to commemorate agricultural seasons in ancient Israel and events in Jewish history.  Let's review a few of these.

    The High Holy Days or Days of Awe come each fall to begin the liturgical cycle.  They include Rosh Hashanah, the "Beginning of the Year" (New Year), which has a synagogue service and special foods.  The holiest day of the year is also a part of the Days of Awe:  Yom Kippur, the "Day of Atonement."  It is a time for confession, forgiveness, and reconciliation with God.  In ancient Hebrew times, sacrifices were offered to God in the Temple.  Today some Orthodox Jewish families maintain a symbolic representation by sacrificing animals that were not ever used in the Temple offerings, so that the modern practice is not viewed as conflicting with the centrality of Jerusalem as the place of sacrifice.  The Orthodox Jewish father offers a rooster for the male members of his family, and a hen for the female members of his family.  After the ritual of atonement, the chickens are killed and given to the poor or to a Jewish school cafeteria.  For Jews, the Day of Atonement is a time for reflection on the events of the past year, seeking God's mercy.  Many families fast for a day, and then the congregation comes together for a fellowship supper, to celebrate the end of the period of looking back and the beginning of a new year together.  Yom Kippur thus serves as a rite of annual renewal for the community.

    Passover is the major spring festival of Judaism.  It too provides time for renewal, in this case traditionally linked with the beginning of the new harvest.  As an agricultural celebration, Passover marks the spring ceremonies of the birth of lambs and the production of grain.  However, the farming cycle has been associated with a specific event in the lives of the Jewish people:  the Exodus, when the Hebrews were freed from slavery in Egypt.  The Exodus is celebrated during Passover as an indication that God identifies with the oppressed rather than with their oppressors.  This is a major theme throughout the Passover ceremony, and it has given the Jewish people courage during many situations of oppression.

    In addition to the Days of Awe and Passover, there are other days throughout the year that give special meaning to Jewish life, such as Sukkot, "Booths" or "Tabernacles," a festival of joy recognizing God's sheltering Presence.  It concludes with Simhat Torah, "Rejoicing in Torah," beginning each year a new cycle of readings from the Torah.  Hanukkah, "Dedication," is familiar to Christians because it comes about the same time as Christmas each year.  It commemorates the rededication and purification of the Jerusalem Temple after it was liberated by the heroic Maccabees.  Purim, "Casting Lots," is anchored in the story of the biblical role model Esther.  Shavuot, "Weeks," is celebrated on a week of weeks plus one day after Passover. 7 X 7 + 1 = 50, so this festival is also known by the Greek name Pentecost, meaning "fiftieth" [day after Passover].  Special readings on Shavuot are the Ten Commandments and the biblical book of Ruth.

    Not only is the Jewish year marked by times of reflection and celebration; the life cycle of a Jew also includes rites of passage in which religion helps him or her to make significant transitions.  One such ritual that is probably familiar to you is the coming-of-age ceremony known as Bar Mitzvah, "Son of the Commandment."  It usually occurs at age thirteen for a boy, signifying that he is now part of the community which defines its life by God's commandments.  This ceremony allows him to take his place in the community, showing his ability to participate in worship.  He can now be counted in the minyan, the quorum of ten men required for a worship service to be held in the synagogue.  Throughout most of Jewish history, a Jewish girl had no such ritual.  But in recent years, Reform Jews have developed an equivalent ceremony for a girl:  Bat Mitzvah, "Daughter of the Commandment."  The Hebrew word for "daughter" is spelled variously as bat, bath, or bas.

    Marriage is another ritual that has distinctive Jewish elements, such as a canopy representing the wedding tent of biblical times, a marriage contract spelling out the bride's and the groom's responsibilities, and the drinking of two cups of wine.  If you've seen "Fiddler on the Roof," you' may remember that a glass is broken in a Jewish wedding.  This action has a variety of symbolic meanings.  One interpretation is that even in a time of great joy, such as a wedding, people should remember that times of sorrow are also part of us, as when the wall of the Temple was broken and the holiest of all places was destroyed.  The ritual also symbolizes the breaking of the hymen after the wedding, in the privacy of the couple's time together.  In traditional Judaism, the bride would save the bloodstained sheet from the breaking of the hymen as proof of her virginity.  The breaking of a glass in the wedding ceremony represents the couple's beginning a new life together with that intimate act, since sex is part of God's goodness in creation for husbands and wives.

    Judaism is a family-centered religion.  We've studied the roles of parents and children in both large and small stages of the life cycle.  Jewish law deals with all aspects of life:  how food is prepared, what may or may not be eaten, ritual purifications, conditions for divorce, and mutual responsibilities of all members of the family.  While Judaism is a patriarchal religion in many ways, the male rabbis who established many of the oral and written laws that govern the religion would be surprised by how the roles of women are changing today.

   You are most likely to find a woman rabbi in a Reform Jewish synagogue or temple.  No Orthodox Jewish congregation or seminary in the world permits a woman to be ordained as a rabbi.  The ancient patriarchal Jewish tradition limited the priesthood and later the rabbinate to males, and that is likely to remain true for Orthodox Jews in the foreseeable future.  In 1980, Conservative Judaism first allowed the ordination of women as rabbis.  But many Conservative congregations do not yet accept this ruling, so you would be unlikely to find a woman rabbi in most Conservative synagogues.  Sally Priesand, the first woman rabbi in the world, tells the fascinating story of how she became a Reform rabbi, in her book Judaism and the New Woman, which we have in our library.

    Death does not mean the end of Jewish rituals.  The week after a person has died, his or her family spends their time together in mourning, receiving visitors and sharing memories.  During the following year, the family members say the Kaddish, a special prayer recited during synagogue services by all who have lost loved ones in the preceding year.  On the first anniversary of the death, the family buys a headstone for the grave, burns a candle in the home, and again recalls memories of the deceased.  This anniversary and each succeeding one is called in Yiddish the Yahrzeit, a time to remember the loved one who is now with God.

 

THE HOLOCAUST, ZIONISM, ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

    Your textbook has a powerful and touching chapter on the Holocaust, the Nazis' carefully planned execution of six million Jews in the 1940's.  The author, Leo Trepp, tells how he was arrested in Germany and sent to a concentration camp for some time.  Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List is one of many recent attempts to portray the horror of the Holocaust, and the courage of certain individuals in that very dark period of human history.  In this course I have tried to help you see the beauty of Jewish religion, and the faith which would enable a people to withstand such evil.  It was really the Holocaust which gave the most force to the Zionist movement to establish a Jewish nation in the land of Israel.  I'll never forget the camp at Dachau in Germany, or the Yad vaShem memorial in Jerusalem, or some of the Israelis who shared with me their own stories.  Some of the best insights into the Holocaust and Zionism come from the pen of Elie Wiesel.  As you come to terms with the relationships of Jews and Arabs in the Middle East today, you must always keep in mind that much of the bitterness and tension does not come from peoples who had lived together for many generations, but from the shattering experience of the Holocaust, which reaches far beyond the twentieth century in its impact on the world.

 

THE CHALLENGE OF THE FUTURE

    Jews today are part of a heritage that stretches back for millennia.  They have successfully avoided being absorbed into much more powerful cultures with strong syncretistic programs.  They are facing questions of intermarriage and assimilation in the United States which are of a quite different character, but which are nevertheless questions of survival.  The challenge for Judaism is to draw on the strengths of its past, while being open to the future in such a way as not to remain static or to die.  The vitality of Jewish faith in God's commitment to the people of the covenant will be at the heart of Judaism in the future.

 

MAP REVIEW:  THE WORLD OF JUDAISM

    Now please open your syllabus to the first map, The World of Judaism.  If you don't have your syllabus handy, please get it before you continue this review.  Remember that on the test you'll need to be able to identify place names and write two complete sentences for each place, describing the distinctive significance of that place in the history of Judaism.

    Shalom!  My name is Fred Kellogg, and I will be your pilot and tour guide aboard my hot-air balloon, the Wasp.  No jokes about how you know from my lectures that we'll have plenty of hot air, or how you got stung on the first test!  H. G. Wells has modified my balloon so that it can cross all the boundaries of space and time.

    My GPS is taking us to the center of the world, the navel of the universe, to begin our trip.  No, that's not Emory, but Jerusalem!  This city has been significant to Judaism for 3,000 years because of the identification of the Temple as the holiest place in the whole world.  Solomon built the original magnificent Temple; it was destroyed by the Babylonians 500 years later.  The Second Temple lasted for another 500+ years until it was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 C.E.  The rabbis proclaimed that the Messiah will some day build a third Temple in Jerusalem to be the center for God's people.

    Over here you can see the Western Wall, the only remaining portion of the Second Temple, where Jews come from all over the world to lament the destruction of the Temple and to offer special prayers to God.  People are putting little rolled-up pieces of paper in the cracks in the wall and bowing or nodding in prayer at this most holy place.

    Before the destruction of the Temple, Rabbi Hillel was the great spiritual leader in Jerusalem in the first century C.E.  He embodied the very best of the teachings of the Pharisees, focusing on a person's inner intention, not just his or her outward actions.  Hillel saw one key principle as the essence of Judaism:  "Don't do to other people what you don't want them to do to you."

    It's a short flight from Jerusalem to Jamnia.  A disciple of Hillel, Rabbi Yohanan ben Zaccai, established an academy here not long after the Temple was destroyed, and this academy became a well-known center for rabbinic interpretation of Jewish law.  The rabbis of Jamnia built a symbolic fence around the Torah -- that is, they gave many interpretive commandments in addition to the 613 laws of the Torah, to protect the Torah laws from violation by any pious Jews.  Later Akiba came to Jamnia as an uneducated shepherd.  With the support of his wife Rachel, he poured himself into the study of the Torah for many years, and emerged to become one of the most highly respected rabbis of his time.

    Gaza is next on our itinerary.  We hear about Gaza on the news whenever there are heightened tensions between Israel and Palestinians associated with Hamas.  It's sad, but we can see those tensions going all the way back to biblical times, when Gaza was inhabited by Philistines.  Do you remember Samson, who brought the house down in Gaza?  In this course we've learned about Nathan of Gaza, an exorcist who became the leading advocate of Sabbatai Zevi as the fulfillment of Messianic prophecy.  Nathan proclaimed him all over the world to be the Messiah, and he didn't even back down when his hero was imprisoned and converted to Islam.  People have followed fake Messiahs throughout history.  Even the great Rabbi Akiba supported the pseudo-Messiah Simon bar Kochba, who drove the Romans out of Jerusalem for a short time in the 130's C.E. 

    I really hurt for people who are led astray by charismatic individuals like David Koresh or Jim Jones.  One way to avoid making that mistake is to learn as much as you can about religious history, as you're doing right now.  The best place in the ancient world to find collections of material on religion was Alexandria, our next stop on the tour.  Swoooooosh!  The Wasp brings us to the great library.  What is the secret password to get in?  Hmmm... macte virtute?  No, that's Latin for "increase in excellence," a motto over the entrance to the Emory & Henry Library.  Oh yes, it's LOGOS = logos.  The secret password means "word." 

    Over here are some Jewish scholars translating their scriptures from Hebrew into Greek, so that they can be studied by people from all over the world.  That Greek translation of Jewish scriptures will eventually be called the Septuagint.  One of the greatest Jewish scholars who lived in Alexandria was Philo.  He used Greek methods of allegorical interpretation to find new meanings in the classic stories of the Torah.  Philo thus combined the insights of Jewish rabbis and the methods of Greek philosophers.  He developed the concept that in creating the universe, God used an intermediary which Philo called the Logos = the Word.  I hope that you recognize the similarity to the opening of John's Gospel:  "In the beginning was the Word..."

    There's another famous scholar not far from here, in Cairo.  Let's go see him.  Knock-knock!  The door is opened by Maimonides, who is working on a creed to summarize thirteen key Jewish beliefs.  Christians have the Apostles' Creed; now Jews will have the Yigdal of Maimonides, starting with an affirmation of God alone as Creator, and concluding with affirmation of the resurrection of the dead.  Maimonides has also written some great books about Jewish law, including the Mishneh Torah and The Guide of the Perplexed.  He offers us some Turkish coffee.  Wow, that stuff is almost as strong as the Caf-Pow that the Goth Abby drinks on NCIS!  Maimonides never heard of that TV show, but he says that he calls his caffeine drink the Ram-Bam, and he makes it with pure Nile water.

    The coffee gives us enough of a boost to fly all the way northeast to Babylonia, where the Amoraim are debating the meanings of the laws in the Mishnah and adding their own interpretations.  Their debates, recorded as a kind of free association, will be recorded thoroughly and over the years will produce a huge body of work much larger than the Mishnah, just as as the Mishnah is much larger than the Torah on which it was based.  Around 500 C.E. the debates and interpretations will be edited to produce the Babylonian Talmud, the greatest-ever compilation of interpretations of Jewish law.  Applications of Jewish law today are based on the Talmud, which continues to be studied and itself interpreted.

    The next point on our tour is Smyrna.  Not where the Nissans are manufactured in Tennessee, but the city with the modern name of Izmir, in Turkey.  Maybe we can get some more of that Turkish coffee!  The sign at the entrance to the city says "Welcome to Izmir, home of Sabbatai Zevi."  The name is marked out.  Apparently no one wants to admit that Sabbatai Zevi grew up here!  I guess I don't blame them.  After all, even though he was brilliant and sang beautiful songs that he had composed, he pronounced aloud in public the most sacred name of God, Y H W H, and declared that God had given him a secret revelation that he was the Messiah.  It's no wonder that the rabbis banished him from his own home town of Smyrna.

    Let's fly north, into the territory of the Ashkenasic Jews.  You remember that the biblical word Ashkenas was interpreted by the rabbis as "Germany."  In fact, the majority of Jews throughout the world today come from the Ashkenasim.  Great centers of Jewish learning were established in Germany and Poland.  We can even find evidence of an established Jewish German community in the 300's C.E.  So we know that although Hitler argued that the Jews were an inferior race, they had in fact lived in Germany longer than any other ethnic group!  We see the worst side of anti-Semitism represented in the concentration camp of Auschwitz, in Poland.  There the Nazis forced thousands of Jews into slave labor to support the war, under the cruel motto, "Arbeit macht frei" -- "work will set you free."  Your textbook has entire chapter on the theology that came out of the killing of six million Jews in the Holocaust, led by such profound thinkers as Elie Wiesel.

  But Poland is also the place where a great movement known as Hasidism arose, founded by a charismatic healer and mystic known as the Baal Shem Tov (Master of the Good Name).  He poured himself into study of the Kabbalah, collections of mystical writings that few people could understand.  As he roamed around Poland, he taught that people could find happiness and fulfillment in joyful service to God.  People flocked to the Baal Shem Tov and expressed their worship of God with ecstatic dancing.  The Hasidim established their own synagogues, with their own leaders, who were called Rebbes.  Hasidism became widespread throughout Eastern Europe.

    Heading west, we come to France.  Jews had lived there for many years when the French Revolution in the late 1700's proclaimed equal rights for Jews as citizens.  But the liberation of the Jews from unequal treatment came with a price, embodied in the sentence:  "To Jews as individuals we shall give everything, to Jews as a nation, nothing."  Jews would have to redefine themselves and their role in the nation.  That process continued under Napoleon, who took away the structures of self-government that Jews had developed.  He now forced leading rabbis in Paris to form a Sanhedrin to represent Jewish interests and to bring Jewish laws into conformity with French laws.

    The last stop on our journey is Spain.  The term "Sefardic Judaism" comes from an interpretation of the biblical word Sefarad as referring to Spain.  Jews lived in Spain for centuries before Islam came to the peninsula.  Under Muslim rule, Judaism flourished, developing a rich culture that interacted positively with Islamic culture.  Earlier in our journey we met Maimonides in Cairo; now we come to his home town of Cordova.  Unfortunately, in his lifetime a group of fanatic Muslims known as Almohades had taken over large areas of Spain and North Africa.  They treated Jews so harshly, trying to force them to convert, that many Jews fled, including the family of Maimonides.  That's how he ended up in Egypt, far from his Spanish homeland.

    We are about as far from our starting point of Jerusalem as we can get on this map, so it's time to take the Wasp home to Emory.  I hope that this review has been helpful for you.  Any comments, suggestions, or questions are welcome.  If you wish, you can send me e-mail:  fkellogg@ehc.edu

To look at one of my other syllabi or to review a unit in a different course, go to my Home Page.

To review a different unit in this course, go directly to one of the following:

    Unit 1, Foundations of Judaism
    Unit 3, Foundations of Islam
    Unit 4, Modern Islam

If you prefer, you may return to the Emory & Henry College Home Page.

 

Last updated:  February 20, 2009