Hindu + Judaism (midterm)

Hindu demographics

• Approximately 1.2 billion Hindus in the world’s 3rd largest religious tradition

• Hinduism is characterized by its incredible diversity

3 scriptual-historical layers of Hinduism

• 1st Vedic Layer (c. 1500-500 BCE)

  • The Veda = The Vedas (4 Vedas) & the Upanishads (Vedanta)

    • Vedantic monism: One Divine (Brahma/Atman)

    • One and the many

• 2nd (Epic) Layer (c. 500 BCE – 500
  CE): Ramayana & Mahabharata
  (including Bhagavad Gita)

• 3rd (Sectarian Theistic/Devotional)
  Layer (c. 500– 1500 CE): the
  Puranas & Tantras

  • sectarian theistic traditions to Vishnu, Shiva, &
    the Goddess (Devi/Shakti)

  • rise of vernacular devotional texts

  • temple & domestic worship (puja) to images
    (murtis) of Divine (‘idols’ & natural forms)

The Vedas

• The 4 Vedas [or Samhitas]: Composed in Sanskrit; transmitted orally for 1000 years

• earliest scriptural foundation of Hinduism

• the sacredness & authority of the Vedas are assumed & proclaimed by nearly all HIndus

• the Vedas’ importance comes from their sounds (not their semantic menaing) which bring an ordered universe into being and then sustain that very cosmos

Dharma

• “that which upholds;” Truth/Order/Duty

• that which upholds and sustains the integrity of the universe; the essential foundation of all things

  • 1 - a cosmic, eternal principle (Dharma), and

  • 2 - human behavior in line with that principle (dharma)

• Each thing has its own place and contributes its dharma (ritual duties & moral obligations) to the total Dharma (Truth/order)

Brahman

• supreme, all-pervading, infinite cosmic reality and spirual core of teh universe in Hinduis

• defined as absolute reality, pure consciousness and limitlessness

• the source and fabric of all existence, transcending name, form, and human categories

Atman

• the true, unchanging self beyond the ego (Ahamkara), thoughts, adn physical body

• Often referred to as the indivudal consciouss or soul that persists through lifetimes

• eternal, innermost self or soul of an individual living being

Samsara

• cycle of birth, death, and rebirth

Karma

moral law of cause & effect, action & reaction/consequence

Moksha

liberation/salvation from samsara

the Upanishads

• Vendanta - Yoga/Meditation; asceticism/renunciation; ideology of Moksha (karma & samsara)

Bhagavad Gita
- Three Yogas

3 paths/disciplines to the Divine

• Action (karma yoga) - selfless actions; service, i.e., action without attachment to its fruits

• Knowledge (inana yoga) - meditation, etc. to realize the Divine Self (atman) within

• Devotion (bhakti yoga) - Emotional participation and self-surrender in personal relationship with God

Ramayana

• The Ramayana begins with a prologue in which Valmiki (author) asks his guru, the sage Narada — WATCH VIDEO

3 Main Streams of Theisitcs Devotion
- Vishnu, Shiva, Devi (Shakti)

• Vaishnava

• Shaiva

• Shakta

Rama

• the ideal man (exemplar of dharma, constraint, propriety

• he will consistently place his sense of adherence to truth, dharma, and his public duty ahead of his emotions and personal concerns

Krishna

• God of Play (Lila)

Puja

praise, worship/acts of worship or devotion

• happens in temples, at sacred sites, adn in homes

Murti

• image/form of a deity

Darshan

• seeing teh Divine; visual communion between worshipper & deity

Aarti

• offering light (circling flame) as form of worship

Prasad

• offering & eating sanctified food

Tanakh

• the anthology of books that comprise the Hebrew Bible (A.K.A. “The Old Testament” in the Christian Tradition):

• Acronym for the three major sections:

  • T is for Torah, which means the Law or Instruction

  • N is for Nevi’im, which means the Prophets

  • K is for ketuvim, which means the writings

Torah (Written & Oral)

• tells the origin of Jewish peoplehood; their call into being by God, their trials and tribulations, and their covenant with their God, which involves following a way of life embodied in a set of moral & religious obligations & civil laws

• Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, & Deuteronomy

Pentateuch

• Torah - the first five books of the Tanakh - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy - Attributed to Moses

Mitzvah (Mitzvot)

• the commandments

Covenant (Berith)

• a solemn, binding covenant, treaty, or agreement established by oath and often sealed with blood or sacrifice

Adam & Eve and Israelites (how are their respective stories similar and different)

• Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden

• Cain and Abel

• Noah’s flood

• Adam & Eve were given Paradise but sinned (rebelling against God’s will) and thereby brought pain, suffering and death to the world

Noah

• God found reighteous man, Noah — all life perished except NOah and those with him in teh Ark

• Noah built an altar and made a sacrifice and God made a covenant with Noah…that God would never again destroy all life by a flood, and that the rainbow in the sky would be a sign of this everlasting covenant

• Shem, Ham, and Japheth all becam ancestory of humanity

Abraham

• In the aftermath of the failure of Creation with the fall of Man; in teh restoration that followed the Flood, God identified Abraham to found in the land, the new Eden, a community—Israel—to realize his will, to be God’s abode in humanity, on earth

Jacob & 12 Tribes of Israel

• Issac has son named Jacob → teh latter wrestles with an unknown man (God), who tells him: You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with god and with humans, and have prevailed

• jacob’s 12 sons are the supposed patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel

• was given eden (land of Israel) but like Adam, lost it through sin in form of rebellion against God’s will

• Israel was given to the Torah to guide them so they can recover and hold the land by loyalty to God’s will as expressed in the Torah

Moses

• son of an Israelite family raise dby Egytpians, leads the people of Israel out fo Egupt, after ten miracles, but the sins of the people are such that they are condemned to wander for 40 years in teh wildnerness until they die

• Moses receive shte 10 comandments on Sinai, and many other laws, and the ark of the covenant is built; but eventually, like the rest of his generation, he dies before they reach Canaan.

Exodus Story

• Time where Pharaoh of Egypt makes the descendants of the Isarelites slaves.

  • the biblical account of which spans Exodus itself, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy — the rest of the Torah

  • prophet in Tanakh

Ten Commandments

Exodus 20: 1-17

• You shall have no other gods before me

• You shall not misuse the name of the lord

• You shall not make for youself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them

• Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy

• honor your father and mother

• you shall not murder

• you shall not commit adultery

• you shall not steal

• you shall not give false testimony against your neighbor

• you shall not covet your neighbor’s house…your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servats, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor

Passover/Passover Seder

• riutal feast and ceremonial meal held at the start of passover (on the 15th of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar) to retell teh biblical story of the Exodus from Egypt

King David

• Leader of the tribe fo JUdah who became the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. David’s reign may have occured around the 9th century BC

• defeated the Philistine giant Goliath with a slingshot, uniting tribes of Israel and making Jerusalem the nation’s capital

King Solomon

• famed for wisom who rules for 40 years after David

• credited with building the great Temple of teh God in Jerusalem

First Temple (who built, when destroyed, by whom, what happened after)

• King Solomon, 586 BCE - destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem (by the babylonians)

  • all forms of Judaism are based on writings that were composed in the aftermath of destruction of First Temple, namely the Torah (Pentateuch) and some key prophetic works

  • Jews taken to BAbylon, after one generaion Babylon fell to the PErsians. Then Jews returned to their homeland and rebuilt temple

Second Temple (when built, when destroyed, by whom, what happened after)

• Bult c.500 CE to 70 CE.

• Fell in 70 CE by the Romans

• Jews scattered; Jewish identity no longer defined in territorial terms. Beginning of form of Judaism - “Rabbinical Judaism” that will define JUdaism until modern period

Rabbinic Judaism

• based on beleif that Moses at Mount Sinai received both the written Torah and the ORal Torah from God. The ORal Torah transmitted orally, explains teh Written Torah

• Rabbis decided to write down the Oral Torah in hte Talmud and other rabbinic texts for preservation

Talmud

Central text of rabbinic judaism and the primary source of Jewis religious law and theology

• rabbinic study & interpretation of and commentary & judgement on the Torah, serves to bring its commandments and principles ot bear in everyday life

Jewish demographics

• Among AMerican Jews who affilate with a synangogue

• Orthodox (9%) - Work hard to observe the letter of the many commandments found in the Torah. COnsider Jewish legal precedent binding; often not recognize validity of Conservative and Reform movements

• Conservative (42%) - considers itself bound by Jewish legal tradition, but sees that legal tradition as subject to historical development (i.e. Jewish authority comes from assent of the people more than from divine revelation)

• Reform (45%) - Reject the authority of Jewish legal tradition (Halakha); espouses religious pluralism

• ~16 million Jews worldwide (0.2% of world population)

• ~75% of Jews live in either the United States or Israel

Shema Yisrael

Part of the structure of synagogue services

• first verse of the Shema, observant Jews consider the Shema to be the most imporant part of the prayer service in Judaism, adn its twice-daily recitation as a mitzvah

• Traditional for Jews to say the Shema as their last words, and for parents to teach their children to say it before they go to sleep at night

The Amidah

• The stanading prayer

• central prayer of Jewish liturgy; the Amidah is the core of every worship service

• recited silently in the Conservative and Orthodox synagogues and chanted together in reform and reconstructionist synagogues

• Contains 19 blessings, each ending with signature “Blessed are you O’lord'l” 3 blessings of Praise, 13 blessings of Request, and 3 blessings of Thanksgiving

Judaism-Hinduism parallels

• both traditions are ancient, unbroken chains of culture and faith that can trace themselves back to humanity’s earliest experiences

• both traditions also share the reality of being geographicaly defined, serving as the religious expressions of specified groups of people

• In both Hinduism & Judaism, we find:

  • strong emphasis on riutal practice and law, over belief

  • Identity often inherited, not chosen

  • minimal missionary activity

  • reituals reinforce ethnic and communal belonging over universialism & indivudlaism

• Embodied communities

• land functions as sacred and idenity defining elements

Brahmins and Rabbis

• religious elites who embody and interpret scripture, codifying the norms fo their respective traditions in scriptural canons

Zionism and Hindu Nationalism

Zionism (late 19th century)

• emerged in response to European antisemitism and exclusion

• recast Jewish identity as ethno-national and tied to ancestral land

Hindutva (early 20th century)

• Developed under colonial rule and Protestant influence

• reimagined Hinduism as unfiied, scriptural and national identiy, tied to India as both fatherland and holt land

Both movements:

• asserted ancestral belonging as the basis of national identity

• were shaped by colonial pressures and modernist critiques