Unit 7 - Judaism: Beliefs & Teachings

What are the 4 characteristics of G-d (Almighty)?

• One

• Creator

• Law-giver

• Judge

What is G-d known as in Judasim

God is known as the Almighty. We do not write God (we write g-d), because the word God cannot capture his essence.

What is one (the characteristic)?

• Monotheism. Basic teaching of the Torah in the Shema. Mezuzah on door frames, Shema in tefillin worn in prayer.

What is the importance of one (the characteristic)?

• Jewish people have a mezuzah holding the shema on their gates and door frames

• Jewish men bind tefillin to their forehead and arm when they pray each morning

• Judaism teaches of the need to bring unity to society

What is the importance of creator (the characteristic)?

• God’s creation is good

• Jewish people praise God for his creations

What is creator (the characteristic)?

Torah teaches that God is creator and everything belongs to him. The universe and everything in it comes from God and depends on God. God’s creation is good and so Jews look after the earth.

What is the importance of law-giver (the characteristic)?

• Halakhah is the basis of how Jews live their lives today

• The fact that God is a law-giver means that he cares about his creation and cares about humans

What is law-giver (the characteristic)?

The Tenakh teaches this about God. He gave laws to help people look after the earth in the way he wanted. 613 laws given to Moses. God’s laws form the halakhah which is the basis of how Jews live their lives today.

What is the importance of Judge (the characteristic)?

• The good are rewarded and the evil are punished

• The world is protected from chaos

• People will know there are rewards and punishments for those who do and don’t keep the laws.

What is Judge (the characteristic)?

Tenakh teaches that God is the divine judge who ensures that the good are rewarded and the evil are punished.

What is the Halakhah?

The Halakhah is the divine law.

What is the Shekinah?

A way of describing the Almighty’s presence in the world.

How is the Shekinah presented in the Torah?

• God’s presence with Moses to guide him through the wilderness

• A cloud of smoke on Mount Sinai when God gave the commandments

• Moses’ face shining when he came into contact with the divine presence

• God choosing the Tabernacle as the place for his presence which is so holy that nothing unholy can touch it.

What are the different understandings of the shekinah today?

• Some Reform Jews describe the shekhinah as a light created to be a link between God and the world

• Others regard it as an expression for the various ways in which God is related to the world

• Some say it simply means God

• In the kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) it is a gateway to higher consciousness, which brings followers into God’s presence

How is the shekinah important to jews?

• However close Jews may feel to God, God’s presence to so holy and awesome that it must be respected, which is why Jews only use God’s complete name in worship

• Being present at the Temple, Mount Zion and Jerusalem makes those places special for some Jews

• It surrounded Moses when he received the Mitzvot directly from God, so they are God’s words

• It is God’s presence in the world that believers could come across at any time.

What is study?

Study is regarded as an act of worship, and such the shekinah is also present.

What is worship?

• God instructed Moses to build a Tabernacle, a portable temple where God could dwell as they travelled in search of the Promised Land

• The Tabernacle maintained Jewish people's connection with God

• This continues today in the synagogue. A light (Ner Tamid) burns in front of the Ark as a reminder of God's presence.

What is prayer?

• Jews can pray alone or as part of a minyan, when Jews pray as a community they believe God is present.

• Some prayers such as the kaddish can only be said with a minyan

What is the Messiah?

The anointed one

What is the nature of the messiah?

• A descendant of King David

• A human, not a divine being

• A man of great piety and close to God

• Great military leader

• Expert in Jewish law

What is the purpose of the messiah?

• Rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem

• Establish law in the land

• Unite all people’s of the world

• Make all people’s of the world aware of the presence of God

• Bring in the Messianic Age when all will live in peace

What is the messianic age?

The time when the messiah will come (Olam Ha-Ba). The Nevi’im say that during this time there will be peace among all nations and all the Jewish people will return to Israel, the Temple will be rebuilt, and the whole world will accept God and Judaism.

What do orthodox jews believe about the messiah?

Messiah will not come until all Jewish people follow the Mitzvot fully. Most Orthodox say no-one can know when the Messiah will come other than God himself.

What do reform jews believe about the messiah?

Reform Jews no longer believe in an individual Messiah. They believe it is up to Jewish people to change the world.

Why is it important to believe in the messiah?

One of the Thirteen Principles of Faith and Jews pray for the coming of the Messiah, the rebuilding of the Temple, rewarding the righteous, the return of Jews who had to leave three times a day.

What is the Covenant of Sinai (Mosaic Covenant)?

• An agreement between God and the Jewish people

• Written on two tablets of stone kept in the Ark of the Covenant stored in the Tabernacle

• If people kept the 613 laws given to Moses on Sinai, they would be God’s special people.

What happened at the Covenant of Sinai (Mosaic Covenant)?

Moses led the Jewish people out of captivity in Egypt and then spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness preparing to enter the Promised Land. It was during this time that God appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai and made a covenant.

Why is covenant important today?

• The 613 Mitzvot were given by God on Sinai provide the way of life for Jewish people and separate them from Gentiles

• It means that Jewish people have a duty to keep the Mitzvot as part of their side of the covenant to make them God’s people

• The Tenakh teaches that by keeping this covenant, the Jewish people will fulfill their destiny of bringing the whole world to worship God

• The laws given to Moses are so important for modern Jews that the divisions into Reform and Orthodox are based on interpretations of how Jewish people should obey the Mosaic covenant

What’s more important, the 613 Mitzvahs or the 10 commandments?

Although Moses was given the 613 commandments from God, Jews regard the Ten Commandments (Decalogue) as special because they are commandments to be kept by all Jews, women as well as men, children as well as adults.

What is the importance of the Decalogue?

• Jewish people remind themselves that they worship one God only every time they touch the mezuzah and three times a day in prayer

• Jewish people ban any form of statue from the synagogue and their home and argue about what art is permitted in Judaism

• Jewish people do not use God’s name in any form of swearing and say ‘the Almighty’ or ‘Hashem’ rather than speaking the word God

• Orthodox Jews do no work on Shabbat, which begins at sunset on Friday and ends when the stars appear on Saturday

• They help Jewish people in their family life and parents in their task of bringing up their children to be good Jews

• The last five commandments for making moral decisions as they give clear moral guidance – do not steal, commit adultery, kill, lie or desire other people’s things

• Applying the Ten Commandments means Jewish people should act against all forms of greed and materialism.

What is the Covenant with Abraham (Abrahamic Covenant)?

• God’s side of the covenant was his promise to make a great nation from Abraham’s son and give the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants.

• Abraham’s side of the agreement was for Abraham and every male descendant to be circumcised and for Abraham and his family to worship God alone.

What happened at the Abrahamic Covenant?

1000 years before Moses, the Torah says that God called Abraham to leave his family and travel to Canaan to worship the one true God.

What do Jews do to represent the covenant (Abrahamic)?

Jewish males are circumcised and Jewish people worship God alone.

Some Liberal Reform Jews feel it is the Mosaic Covenant that is important for Jewish people, not the Abrahamic one, so they do not circumcise their children.

Any ethnic Jew is a descendant and has the right to be a citizen of the state of Israel whether they follow the religion or not.

What did G-d, do to Abraham’s Grandson?

Abraham’s grandson, Jacob was renamed Israel by God and his twelve sons became the children of Israel and inherited Abraham’s promise.

Why is the Abrahamic covenant important today?

• Most Jewish baby boys are circumcised at 8 days old and enter into the covenant of Abraham (Brit Milah)

• The Brit Chayim for Liberal/Reform girls welcomes them into the Jewish faith and claims them as an heir to the covenant.

• It gave rise to the idea that Jewish people had a right to live in the area that was the ancient Kingdom of Israel.

What is Brit Milah?

At 8 days old, Jewish baby boys are circumcised to enter the covenant of Abraham.

What is Brit Chayim?

Liberal/Reform girls are welcomed into the Jewish faith and claims them as an heir to the covenant.

What is the Sanctity of Life?

Judaism teaches that life is sacred, a gift from God. It follows that as God is the author of life, life itself is holy and must be valued and preserved. Judaism teaches that people should respect all human life. God is the Creator of life and so it is up to God alone to say when life will begin and end.

What is Pikuach Nefesh?

Saving life and is the principle in Jewish law that the preservation of human life overrides almost all the other commandments in Judaism. The rabbis have stated that the Mitzvot are for Jews to live by not to die by. This means that even the Sabbath laws may be suspended to safeguard the health of an individual. A Jew is actually required to disregard a law that conflicts with treating a person whose illness may prove dangerous.

Why is Pikuach Nefesh important today?

• It is a means of deciding when and where the Mitzvot take priority

• It means that if the mother’s life is at risk then abortion must be allowed

• The Mitzvah preventing the use of condoms can be broken to save people being infected with HIV

• It means the mitzvah not allowing dead bodies to be interfered with can be broken to allow transplant surgery.

Where does the principle of Pikuach Nefesh come from?

The Torah verse ‘Do not do anything that endangers your neighbour’s life’ – a person must do everything in their power to save the life of another.

Religious experiences of Pikuach Nefesh

The Talmud contains several instances where the laws of the Sabbath are to be broken to save the life of another, such as rescuing a child from the sea, breaking apart a wall that has collapsed on a child and extinguishing a fire. Pikuach nefesh is based on the sanctity of life and shows the importance of this belief to Judaism.

How did the 613 Mitzvot come to be?

Moses received 613 Mitzvot on Mount Sinai. These are recorded in the Torah and the Jewish people are to observe them as part of their Mosaic Covenant.

The Mitzvot in The Torah

• According to Jewish tradition, God gave this to Moses in the form of the ‘Oral Torah’, which was passed on by priests, judges and later rabbis.

• The Oral and written Torah made up the halakhah.

• The grear rabbi Judah the Prince decided that the Oral Torah should be written down to prevent different forms of the halakhah developing in different areas. So he compiled the Mishneh.

• The rabbi’s discussions on the Mishneh were written down in the Talmud.

Mitzvot vs Free Will

Although the Mitzvot are commandments, each Jew must decide whether or not to follow them of their own free will. Judaism understands humans being made in God’s image to mean that just as God is free to do whatever he wants, so humans have been created with free will: every human person is free to choose whether to do good or evil. In particular they are free to choose whether to obey the Mitzvot or ignore them, which means it is something on which they can be judged.

Why is the Mitzvot important?

• Only if Jewish people really understand the Mitzvot will they keep them properly.

• The Mitzvot are God’s way of reaching out to humans, and keeping the Mitzvot is the way to develop a relationship with God.

• Understanding the Mitzvot leads to better relationships between people – for example, the laws about borrowing and lending teach compassion for those less well off than oneself.

• Some Mitzvot come with no given reason, for example on keeping kosher, and it is important to understand that these Mitzvot were given by God as a test of faith.

Orthodox jews and the Mitzvot

Mitzvot are God’s direct words to Moses and cover the whole of life.

There is a right and wrong way to do anything e.g. how to dress, what to eat, who to marry, when to work etc

Mitzvot should be understood at a much deeper spiritual level. They are a way for individuals to connect with God as the word Mitzvah is closely related to the Hebrew word for connection and by keeping the Mitzvot, Jewish people can communicate with God so becoming the ‘People of God’.

Liberal jews and the Mitzvot

Do not believe the Mitzvot came to Moses directly from God, so observing them is a matter of choice e.g. some keep kashrut, some just eat kosher food, others ignore the food laws altogether.

What does the Torah say about the afterlife?

Reunion with loved ones after death. This suggests an afterlife exists and involves meeting with dead relatives.

What does the Tenakh say about the afterlife?

• God ends the world

• Raises the dead

• Creates a new world

• Rebuilds Jerusalem and the Temple

• Judges people based on life and beliefs.

Differing views on resurrection

Most believe in resurrection (13 Principles of Faith):

• Some believe in the messianic era

• Some believe after the messianic era

• Some believe only the righteous

• Some believe everyone

Olam Ha-Ba

• Other Rabbis argue the soul lives on as a spiritual being.

• Olam Ha-Ba = Spiritual World to Come. God dwells here. Sometimes seen as a parallel universe.

What is the nature of judgement after death?

Different views:

• Purely based on behaviour

• All good people go to heaven, even non-Jews (Maimonides).

• Combination of belief and behaviour.

Modern Rabbis and the Afterlife

Focus on this life, rather than uncertain afterlife details.

What is Gan Eden?

Heaven, for the totally righteous. Similar to Gan Eden - The Garden of Eden

What is Gehinnom?

A place of punishment (some rabbis equate to 'Hell' but most see it as purgatory). Souls are purified through punishment and fire.

Differences in beliefs about Gehinnom

Differing views: Some believe the truly wicked are eternally damned in Gehinnom; others believe wicked souls are destroyed/cease to exist.

Why is belief in life after death important for Jews today?

• Foundational belief from Torah - Direct communication from God

• Reinforced by Tenakh and Talmud: consistency across Jewish texts.

• 13 Principles of Faith: Core Jewish beliefs

• Link to Values: A belief in afterlife emphasizes the importance of living ethically in this life. Justice and fairness are upheld, as good is rewarded and evil is punished. Gives meaning to life's struggles.

Gehinnom vs. Hell (Christian Concept)

• Gehinnom: Generally understood as a temporary purification process, not eternal damnation. Even the wicked can eventually be cleansed.

• Hell: Often understood in Christianity as eternal punishment for the unredeemed.

The Afterlife and Free Will

• If actions in this life determine the afterlife, how does this impact the concept of Free Will?

• Does God's foreknowledge of a soul's fate conflict with Free Will?