hebrews (9/17)
Ancient Egypt Review and Introduction to Social Solidarity
Ancient Egypt Recap
Theme: How geography shapes human society.
Mesopotamia: A dual river system where farming began around 10,000 \text{ BC}. This was the sixth threshold of human development, leading to cities, Sumeria civilization (inventions, domesticated plants and animals).
Egypt: Technology transfer from Mesopotamia.
Unification: Attributed to Menes.
Dynasties: Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms.
Old Dynasty: Era of the "Big Pyramids" (e.g., Khufu was the largest), kha (soul concept), and mummification of the pharaoh.
New Kingdom: Noted for empire building and Akhenaten's attempt at monotheism (which later fizzled out).
Nile's Influence: Dictated life, providing certainty, predictability, and continuity due to geographical protection (sand, sea).
Historical Periods: Long periods of history compared to Mesopotamia, which was open to foreign invasion.
Social Solidarity: A New Theme
Definition: Group feeling, the dynamics of a particular group of humans, connected by strong or weak ties.
Examples: Music bands, soccer teams, families, countries, schools, workplaces.
Relevance: Useful concept for analyzing group dynamics in the 21st century.
History's Relevance: Sumerians' contributions include beer, writing, and the system of the clock.
World Religions Through the Lens of Social Solidarity
Concept: Religion is the most powerful force of social solidarity, historically binding huge groups of people more effectively than even family ties.
Major World Religions: Five "heavy hitters" in terms of global population.
Christianity: Dominates globally (approx. 35\% of the world's population).
Islam: Second largest (approx. 20\%).
Hinduism: About a billion people, primarily in India.
Buddhism: Primarily in Asia (Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, parts of China).
Judaism (topic for today).
(Sikhism was also mentioned as a smaller but significant religion).
Defining Religion: A 'package' or 'basket' of beliefs.
Community: Requires more than one person (not just an individual preacher).
Transcendental Element: Belief in a higher power/being (e.g., a god), otherworldliness, irrational concepts, faith, an afterlife (good or bad).
Textual Tradition: Major religions have written texts (e.g., Hinduism has thousands of books; Islam and Christianity scriptures can be simplified to about 250 pages).
Leadership and Rituals: Typically includes some form of leadership, rituals, celebrations, or holy days.
Universal Aspiration: Often meant for all humanity, presenting a "true message."
Guidance: Provides a compact message on how to properly live life (right vs. wrong).
Religion vs. Cult: A key differentiating factor might be the number of followers, textual tradition, and outside recognition.
The Emergence of Monotheism
Revolutionary Concept: Monotheism (belief in one god) burst onto the scene in the middle of the second millennium BC (1500 \text{ BC}).
Contrast with Polytheism: People had worshipped varieties of gods for thousands of years (e.g., Sumerians in 3,000 \text{ BC}).
Early Attempts: Akhenaten in Egypt toyed with the idea, but it fizzled out.
Hebrews' Adoption: A group of Semitic speakers called Hebrews latched onto the concept, established a firm written tradition, and subsequently influenced Islam and Christianity, creating a clear connection between these three Abrahamic religions.
Terminology: Hebrews, Israelites, Jews, Israelis
Hebrews: Refers to a language family and a religious group.
Semitic Languages: A branch of Afroasiatic languages found in the Middle East. Hebrew and Arabic are closely linked (like French and Italian).
Israelites: Members of the group of monotheists, descendants of Israel (Jacob).
Jews: Monotheists originating from the province/kingdom of Judah.
Israelis: A person of the modern state of Israel.
Interchangeability: Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews can be used synonymously, referring to the same group of monotheists at different times or contexts.
Jewish Calendar Holidays
Rosh Hashanah: A fun holiday celebrating the birth of humankind (occurred on a Tuesday this year).
Yom Kippur: A somber holiday focused on prayer, atonement, and reflecting on wrongdoings (a couple of weeks after Rosh Hashanah).
Critiquing the Term "Middle East"
Origin: Coined in the early 20th century by American journalists and historians to distinguish the West (Europe, America) from the East (Japan, China).
Problematic Nature: It's a loaded term that lumps together countries with no commonality in religion, language, or general culture (food, dress, music).
Language Diversity: While Arabic is predominant, there are 150,000,000 Persian speakers and 150,000,000 Turkish speakers. Even Arabic varies widely by region (e.g., Oman vs. Cairo).
Religious Diversity: Includes North Africa (Islam, Arabic predominant), but also Afghanistan and Iran with different versions/flavors of Islam.
Conclusion: Be critical of this and other geographic terms, understanding their perspective-dependent nature and potential inaccuracies.
Early Jewish History: Source Challenges
Primary Source: The Hebrew Bible (also known as the Tanakh).
Tanakh: Comprises 24 books, what Christians call the Old Testament.
Torah: The first five books of the Tanakh, meaning "law." It tells the story of creation (Adam and Eve) and the founding fathers (patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob).
Authorship: Composed by a variety of unknown people, stemming from several traditions (folklore, priestly advice, community law), and eventually arranged.
Challenges of Reconstruction: Early Jewish history is difficult due to limited non-religious evidence.
Archaeology: Attempts to corroborate the Torah have been largely elusive. Scholars have studied this seriously for centuries.
Methodology: Reconstructing history involves sifting through the Torah for potential historical information, hoping for archaeological matches, and forming hypotheses.
The Torah: Founding Stories
Genesis (first book):
Creation Story: God created the sun and moon on the fourth day. "Let there be light" illustrates God's power.
Nature of God: Portrayed as awe-inspiring, super powerful, loving, and compassionate towards humanity (e.g., creating Eve for Adam). Also portrayed as scary (thunder and lightning, punishment).
Relationship with Humans: God created Adam in His image and likeness, a positive relationship.
Blame for Trouble: The woman (Eve) is blamed for humanity's troubles, especially by male authors of the text. Her punishment is painful childbirth.
Man's Punishment: Man must toil and sweat for his food.
Early Family Line: Abraham, his wife Sarah, sons Isaac and Jacob begin the tradition.
Patriarchs and Migration: Semitic-speaking nomadic people wander Mesopotamia, eventually reaching Canaan (or Palestine) around 1,800-2,000 \text{ BC}. They become sedentary and prosper for a few centuries. A drought and famine around 1,700-1,600 \text{ BC} force them to flee to Egypt.
Exodus (second book):
Context: The Hebrews (chosen by God via a covenant with Abraham) are suffering as slaves under the pharaoh in Egypt.
Egyptian Corroboration: Some evidence exists, such as a stele from 1,200 \text{ BC} mentioning "Israel being barren" and inscriptions about "wandering Habiru people" (linguistically linked to Hebrew).
Moses: Born in a basket, discovered by an Egyptian princess, raised as a nobleman. Experiences a vision in the desert where God proclaims, "I am who am" (Yahweh), appointing Moses to lead the chosen people from slavery.
Story: Moses rallies the Israelites, leads them across the Red Sea (Pharaoh's army is swallowed), and through the Sinai Peninsula.
Mount Sinai: God gives Moses the Ten Commandments (rule book).
Promised Land: Moses leads them back to where they started, the promised land (he dies before entering).
Other Torah Books: Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
After the Torah: The Kingdom
Archaeological Evidence (around 1,200 \text{ BC}): Evidence of destruction and new nomadic people arriving, some cities in turmoil, suggesting social problems. The arriving group is connected by their single god belief.
Book of Joshua: Describes fighting between the Israelites and Philistines.
Modern Parallel: Connects to the 20th-century birth of Israel, where indigenous populations and returning people both claim ancestral rights.
Ark of the Covenant: A special container for the Ten Commandments.
Emergence of the Kingdom: The Philistines are defeated, and a unified kingdom is established.
Kings of Israel:
King Saul: First king, charismatic leader, unified the region, defeated the Philistines.
King David: General under Saul, then enemy. Fought Goliath, a poet and musician (wrote Psalms), immensely wealthy. Founded Jerusalem as the capital, establishing state bureaucracy and taxation.
King Solomon: Son of David, renowned for his wisdom.
Kingdom Collapse and Diaspora: After Solomon's reign, the kingdom collapses, dividing into the "Kingdom of Israel" and the "Kingdom of Judah." Later, the group the of monotheists in Palestine is politically and militarily defeated, forcibly removed, and relocated to Babylon in Mesopotamia.
Diaspora: A community of people living outside their homeland.
Textual Genesis: During this exile, the urgency to remember what happened prompts the composition and recording of their stories, leading to the texts of the Old Testament (Tanakh).
The Ten Commandments
One God, worship only Him.
Be careful with God's name.
Give God a day to celebrate (Sabbath).
Respect your parents.
Do not kill.
Do not commit adultery.
Do not steal.
Do not lie.
Do not be jealous.
(Minor changes in the Deuteronomy version for reminding).
Pedagogical Note
Mel Brooks: Shout out to History of the World for humorous historical references (e.g., the 15 commandments becoming 10).
Challenges of Film in Class: Discussion on the difficulty of finding historically relevant yet universally acceptable films for a diverse student audience.