Chapter 5: Judaism "The Way of Exile and Return"

The Way of Exile and Return

Material Judaism

• ^^The Kippa^^
• Clothing is a distinguishable mark, but the head is the most common place to express one’s religiosity in cloth
• Men cover their heads with a kippa, and the mystical text warns that a man who dares to walk the distance without a head covering could be struck dead
• The Kippot
• Are not worn at work or wear them only to eat or while attending services or studying Torah

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The Western Wall

• If u visit the wall, you’ll meet Jews who see Israel as their sacred homeland, Jerusalem as their sacred city, and Kotel as the place where all Jewish belief and practices converge
• However, not everyone stands in reverence before this wall
• Feminist may criticize sex segregation, or a skeptic may say that its just a wall
• Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom, an American-born activist, rejects the notion that a wall could stand as the central symbol of all religious tradition. In his view, there’s nothing Jewish about this politcal symbol of Israeli power cordoned off by security checkpoints and manned by armed soldiers
• Judaism isn’t abou talking land and holding it, forever dividing Jews from their enighbors. ^^It’s about study and learning, “talking texts to each other^^^^”^^ (Prothero 176)

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Judaism by the Numbers

• Laws given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai are inscribed on 2 stone tablets are known as the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, or the Ten Words
• Jewish tradition speak of 613 commandments, and the Hebrew Bible, which contains two of these lists, never numbers them

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Our Story

• One tale Jewish communities tell is how a Third temple will someday rise again, and with it the sacrifical rites of the ancient Israelites
• A more commons story looks to the past instead explaining how the one God called a people to be his own and then summoned them to a new life in a new place

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Judaism in Today’s World

• Judaism is the leading religion in one country, Israel, which has roughly 6.2 million Jews
• In the U.S., Judaism is divided into ^^3 main groups: Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform^^
• Orthrodox Jews who view all these commandments as divine revelation work to follow them without asking why
• Reform Jews view these commandments more symbolically and emphasize the ethical over the ritual laws
• When it comes to specific legal matters, Conservative and Orthodox congregations insist on the observance of kosher dietary laws (^^kashrut^^)
  • Ex: Reform and Conservative congregations defy older traditions of gender segregation by seating men and women together during worship
• Judaism is a very small religion in population terms. There’s only about 15 million Jews worldwide, or roughly the population of metropolitan L.A.

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Judaism 101

• The term ^^“israel”^^ derives from the Hebrew term Yisra’el meaning, “he who struggles with God” (Prothero 184)
• It originated in the biblical book of Genesis with the patriach Jacob, who was renamed Israel after he wrestled all night with a mysterious angel. It was then also given to Jacob’s descendants, the Israelites
• So, Jews are those who wrestle with God - aruging with God, one another, and even themselves
• To be a Jew is not to agree on a common creed, but to participate in an ongoing conversation
• Judaism is not a missionary religion, even though there have been times when Jews misisonized
• Rabbis historcially discouraged conversions

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God

• Jews today are strict monotheists who rejected the incarnation of the civine in human form anf the soft monotheism of the Christian Trinity
• “One could deny God and still be a Jew, but to deny the unity of God would be to remove oneself from the Jewish fold” (Prothero 185)
• The ^^purpose of Judaism was to keep a particular community together^^, and that job was best performed by collective action
• In Jewish tradition, God is said to be above and beyond human comprehension. This God is described as a merciful being who heeds our prayers, acts in human history, and maintains a conventional relationship with his people
• Bc its God is said to be good, - both lawgiver and judge - Judaism has been described as ethical monotheism

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Torah

• A 2nd symbol is the Jewish tradition is ^^Torah^^, meaning “teachings” or “instruction”
• One of the most important ways that the God of Israel acted in human history was by delivering the Torah to his ppl thru Moses on Mount Sinai
• Torah refers to the ^^Five Books of Moses^^ (the Pentateuch): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy
• It refers more broadly ro the Written Torah (the Hebrew Bible), referred to as the ^^Tanakh of three parts^^: Torah (or the 5 Books of Moses), Neviim (the prophetic books), and Ketuvim (assorted writings)

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The Tanakh

• Jews refer to their Bible as the Tanakh, an acronym derived from its 3 parts: ^^Torah, Neviim, and Ketuvim^^
• ^^Torah^^ refers to the 5 Books of Moses
• Genesis: 1st biblical book, beginning with creation and including stories about the expulsion of Adam and Eve, Cain’s murder of his brother Abel, and Noah’s Ark
• Exodus: account of the mass escape of the Israelites, under the leadership of Moses, from enslavement by Pharaoh in Egypt
• Leviticus: book of laws concerning sacrifice, diet, and purity and impurity
• Numbers: narrative book of the suffering and rebelliousness of the Israelites as they wander in the wilderness with the promised land ahead of them
• Deuteronomy: collection of speeches delivered by Moses as the Israelites are about to enter the promised land
  • The Torah doesn’t refer solely to the Written Torah, IT CAN ALSO REFER TO the ^^Oral Torah^^, which was eventuallt written down in the Talmud (“learning”), a vast collection of rabbinic commentary on virtually every aspect of Jewish life that appeared between 400 and 500 ce. (Prothero 187)
• ^^__Neviim __^^includes 8 prophetic works divided into 2 parts:
• The Former Prophets (historical books: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings)
• The Latter Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and book devoted to the 12 minor prophets)
• ^^Ketuvim^^, a catchall category that includes 11 books spanning genres from apocalyptic literature (Daniel), love poetry (Song of Songs), songs (Psalms), history (Chronicles), wisdom literature (Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, and short stories (Ruth and Esther)

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Judaism at a Glance

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• In short, Judaism is the religious tradition of the ppl of God, led by interpreters of the words of God, who seek to return from exile by telling their story following God’s law

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Judaism History

The Talmud

• It is the defining text of Jewish tradition
• The text reproduces the Mishna alongside rabbinic discussion known as the Gemara
• The Talmud includes both law and storytelling
• Its discussion of legal matters are referred to as ^^halacha^^
• Nonlegal discussion are folklore and ethics are called ^^aggadah^^
• The Tamlud contains contradictions, and revel in them, and are designed around them
• Two rabbis, Hillel and Shammai, joust in this anthology of arguments about 300 different issues

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