Judaism
Monotheism: belief in one God.
Judaism: monotheistic religion based on the belief of the Israelites becoming God’s Chosen people.
Hebrews: peoples before Jacob / tribal peoples
Israelites: Jacob’s descendants
Jewish: group of people; culture and modern day religion.
Scriptures
Tanakh: core teachings of the Jewish faith and is compiled in three parts.
Tanaka: the Hebrew word for the sacred writings of Judaism; formed from the first Hebrew letter of the Three Parts (Torah, Neviim, Ketuvim)
Torah or The Teaching (The Law)
First 5 books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers & Deuteronomy)
Also called the Pentateuch: five books of Moses.
Catholics do not interpret Leviticus and Deuteronomy as literal.
The Prophets (Neviim)
12 minor prophets
Contains warnings to Jewish people to stay faithful, practice justice, take care of widows and orphans.
The Writings (Ketuvim)
Written during the time of exile
Wisdom books - contains sayings and proverbs by wise people that reveal ways of living Jewish people.
Songs and poetic form
Shemah: creed of beliefs
Does not write or say God, rather, “Adonai” → Lord.
Important Stories of the Israelites
Genesis 1:1 - 3:24: the story of Creation
God created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th.
Saturday: the Sabbath.
Sunday: start of the week.
Genesis 2:4-3:24: second story of creation
God created Adam from the clay of the Earth and Eve was created from Adam’s rib. Lived in paradise where they disobeyed God by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree. Fell into temptation by a snake.
Story of Abraham - most important
Called by God to have descendants as numerous as the stars.
A covenant is formed between God and Abraham
Covenant: an agreement of mutual faithfulness between two parties that have mutual privileges and obligations.
Story of Moses: - most important
A prophet called by God to free the Hebrew peoples from slavery in Egypt. After freeing the people, he received a code of ethics from God at Mount Sinai (the Ten Commandments), which established a covenant with the Chosen people.
Within the Tabernacle (a tent): the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s Staff (Moses’ staff of which water would come from), and the Manna, God-provided sustenance.
Initially, Moses smashes the tables; all the Israelites are sent to exile in the desert for 40 years for their belief in fake Gods.
Moses cannot enter the Promised Land for his loss of faith; water staff (Aaron’s rod)
The Ten Commandments: a Code of Ethics, the primary Commandments of Judaism.
In reality, there are 613 commandments in the Torah.
Philistines: enemies of the Jewish people at this time; conflict over water, resources and land.
Saul: 1st king of Israel, the warrior king; appointed by Samuel.
David went to battle, won because of the faith.
Son killed; Saul kept sending David to go and die in battle. Instead, Saul and his son is killed.
Story of David: the second king of Israel after King Saul.
Known as the “Greatest King of Israel.”
United all the tribes of Israel and dreamed to build a temple to honor God.
Solomon: David’s son, completed the Temple where the Arc of the Covenant was kept.
Lust present: affair with his best friend’s wife; keeps sending his best friend to die in battle.
David is purified; loses his first son.
Solomon: the 3rd King of Israel:
The Wise King
Built the first temple containing the Arc.
Judgement & ruling ability
After Solomon, a split occurs into Israel and Judea.
Talmud: book of Jewish civil and religious laws, ethical teachings. Central teachings of Rabbinic Judaism; contains two parts
Mishnah: record of oral traditions, debates and opinions
Gemara: means completion, an interpretation of the Mishnah (the first major collection of Jewish oral teachings)
Mishneh Torah: written by Maimonides, codified Jewish Laws; law of Shabbat, holidays, prayers, dietary laws, all factions of Jewish life.
Halakhah - “the path” of Jewish life — ways to apply the commandments found in the Torah. Pharisees kept strict laws about ritual purity and things that are impure, including foods, corpses, menstruating women and reptiles. Observing this increases one’s spirtuality.
Mitzvot: commandments of ethical rules (the 613 commandments) in the Torah
248 duties, 365 prohibitions.
History of Judaism
Origins began 3800 years ago to Abraham and Sarah — patriarch and matriarch of the Hebrews (Israelites)
First Jerusalem temple: destroyed in 586 BC by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon
After Jesus was crucified (Jewish Messiah), and the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE by the Romans, Judaism changed.
After the Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks and Romans conquered Israel, many Jews were forced to leave their homeland and live in foreign lands.
Diaspora: dispersion or scattering; in 135 CE, the Romans expelled Jews from Judea.
Rabbinic Judaism: began with the Pharisees after the temple was destroyed in 70CE. Jewish people were to gather at synagogues or houses to study the Torah. Scriptures were translated to Aramaic and interpreters of the Torah were known as scribes or rabbis.
Jewish Mysticism: search of God through a life of prayer, meditation and reflection.
Kabbalah: 12th century movement
Search for the nature of God, the divine realm and the universe through prayer, meditation and reflection.
the Zohar: the central text of Kabbalah.
Hasidism: 18th century movement
the “pious ones”
Ba’al Shem Tov: founder of this sect
practices Jewish mysticism, strict observance of Jewish laws
e.g. forbidden to cut sides of hair.
Fear of worldly influence
Founded in Ukraine
Manhattan: high concentration of American Jewish peoples, including Hasidics.
Closely knit communities; Kosher internet; apprehension to film: work
During the 17th century, divisions presented: Reform, Conservative & Orthodox
Reform: men and women sit together in synagogue; women can be rabbis; less concern of purity and kosher laws; individuals decide which beliefs and practices are key to spiritual life; social action to repair world
Conservative: follows most of the 613 laws; focuses on prayer, dietary laws, participation in Synagogue; men and women sit together; women rabbis; largest branch of Judaism in Canada
Orthodox: observes all 613 laws of the Torah; observes Sabbath, Jewish holidays; use Hebrew in synagogue; Kosher food laws; men and women separate in synagogue.
Rituals
Synagogue: the temple: place of worship, prayer, main sanctuary and chapels, a large prayer space plus small study rooms. A house for the Torah and the Tanakh.
The Ark and Torah scrolls: Arc of the Covenant houses the Torah scrolls, owned by the Synagogue and the community who worship there.
The Arc of the Covenant was carried around for 40 years as a housing for the Torah during exile in the desert. The Tabernacle was built and established as Holy Ground: the Holy of Holies.
Menorah: a lamp; 7 candles for 7 days of creation; during Hanukkah, a 9 candled menorah is used to commemorate the 9 days of the miracle of oil.
Bimah: raised platform for the Torah/Haftarah (publicly red in synagogue) to be read from; elevates from ground.
Ner Tamid: eternal light in synagogues, symbolic of the Torah scrolls in the Arc and Temple of Jerusalem
Holidays & Celebrations
Shabbat/Sabbath: day of rest — begins at sunset on Friday, ends at sundown on Sunday. Focus is the family — often celebrated in the synagogue. No work — relaxation. Begins when 3 stars can be seen in the sky.
Bar Mitzvah: the assumption of adulthood by reciting a passage from the Tanakh
Rosh Hashanah: Jewish New Year - biblical: Yom Teruah — late summer, early Autumn; first of the High Holy Days.
Shofar: a horn → a wakeup call to repent.
Common foods: wine, apple, pomegranates, honey; first day of Tishrei.
Yom Kippur: the most sacred day; the day of atonement → reparations and repenting; God sealing the fate in the Book of Life
traditional foods: challah: a traditional bread
Sukkot: Feast of the Tabernacles → 5 days after Yom Kippur, 7 days of celebration and a general pilgrimage to the temple.
Hanukkah: rededication of the temple, the festival of lights. Lasts 8 days and nights, commemorates the miracle of oil in the Temple during the Maccabean revolt.
Purim: commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people from a plot to exterminate them from ancient Persia by the Acmaeid Empire
Pesach - passover: commemorates the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt; unleavened bread.
Seder: a meal held at Passover; blood of the lamb
Shavuot: feast of ‘Weeks’, marks the time that the Israelites were given the Torah on Mount Sinai.
Types of Prayer
Shema: “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One”
Kaddish: prayer of mourning for the dead.
The Holocaust
A period in which Jewish peoples were persecuted at the hands of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime; determined to be the cause for German ruination.
Resulted in the deaths of 6 million Jewish people.
5 million Yiddish speakers to less than 600,000.
Other Symbols
Payot: long sidelocks; based on an injunction from the Torah against shaving the sides of one’s head → adopted by the Hasidics
Tefillin: small black leather boxes with leather straps containing Torah excerpts
Yamaka/Kippah: a brimless skull cap, fulfilling the requirement that the head is covered and a reminder to worship God above.
Tallit: a prayer shawl, wool woven, worn during Yom Kippur and Jewish synagogue prayer.
Yad: a pointer device used to point and touch the text of the Torah.
Shofar: a horn blown into on Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah), intended to act as a wake up call to repent.
Shtreimel: a fur hat made from tails, worn on Shabat as a further reminder of God’s presence above.
Bekishe: a traditional Jewish jacket, put on right side (kindness side) first, rather than the left (judgement side).
Challah: traditional Jewish bread, bringing of peace.
Kosher Food Laws
Kosher: food that is in compliance with the 613 Commandments.
Land animals must have split hooves and eat grass. No pigs.
Seafood must have fins and scales; eating shellfish is not allowed.
Forbidden to eat birds of prey; only clean birds can be eaten.
Meat and dairy cannot be eaten together; do not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
Treif: food that is not allowed.
Parev: natural foods that can be eaten with either meat or dairy.
Kashrut: the rules pertaining to Jewish foods.
COR: Council of Rabbis, who approves food.