Judaism

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ARTICLE UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Judaism is one of the world’s oldest religions, a monotheistic faith founded nearly 4,000 years ago in the Mideast. The book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible recounts the relationship of Abraham and the Hebrew God, including a covenant made when Abraham was 99 years old. At that time God promised him that “you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.” (Genesis 17:1-5) This was not the first, nor would it be the last, of God’s covenants with the Jewish people. Arguably the most important one was made with the entire Jewish population through the person of Moses, who brought the Ten Commandants down from his meeting with God on Mt. Sinai. These are considered holy laws issued directly from the Divine. Other ancient prophets important to Judaism include Abraham’s son Isaac and his grandson Jacob, as well as Solomon and others.

Judaism regards its teachings as not just for Jews --- it provides guidance and a way to redemption for all of humanity. Jacob Neusner (1932-2016) was a well-known scholar of Judaism who apparently was not Jewish; his views are often controversial. Many people, however, agree with his assertion that the elements of Judaism “express a single & whole conception of the world, of the human being, of the character of humanity, and of the supernatural meaning of the Jewish people. … Judaism is a mode of creating and of interpreting the world … each and every element relates to all other elements.”

History

The history of the Jews is largely one of resilience in the face of oppression. One of the earliest stories is that of a Jewish population being enslaved in Egypt in the 13th century BCE. Eventually these people were freed by Moses and traveled with him to Mt. Sinai, where the great covenant of the Commandments was carried out. While this ancient tale is often considered mythical, some scholars believe there is both archeological and textual evidence for it.

Later events are better documented. The Jews were expelled from Spain and Portugal in the 1490s for refusing to convert to Christianity. From 1894 to 1906, the Dreyfus Affair scandalized all of France: a Jewish captain in the French Army, Alfred Dreyfus, was wrongly convicted of spying for the Germans. In 1896 new evidence pointed to another French officer, but the immediate effect was prosecution of the whistle-blowers. Eventually the actual culprit, a man named Esterhazy, was court-martialed but found innocent. Amid the continuing outcry over Dreyfus’ wrongful arrest, Esterhazy fled the country. It was 1906 before Dreyfus was cleared of charges and reinstated in the Army. The events of these years fueled a great deal of anti-Semitism in France.

The Holocaust of World War II is, of course, the greatest disaster to have ever befallen the Jewish people. Six million Jews died in the Nazi camps, a genocide that has political reverberations to this day. The State of Israel, considered the Jewish homeland, was established three years after the Holocaust ended. As we all know, there has been contentious arguing among Jews and Muslims ever since. Whether these two peoples can live in peace together remains to be seen.

Scriptures

The heart of the Jewish tradition is the Torah or Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Tradition has it that these were received by Moses on Mt. Sinai. The term “Torah,” however, may also refer to all of Judaism’s scriptures. In addition to the Pentateuch, these include:

• the Nevi’im, Old Testament books of the prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Trei-Assar or twelve minor prophets);
• the Ketuvim, Writings (Psalms, Proverbs, and others); as well as
• the Talmud, commentary on the teachings of the Torah, written by various rabbis in the early centuries of the Common Era;
• the Mishnah, a written version of the Oral Law received by Moses; and
• the Midrash, a collection of writings explaining Jewish law and traditional stories.

Note that this is not an exhaustive list! Jewish writings are many and varied, in keeping with the view that Judaism is a way of life, its festivals and rituals to be incorporated into daily activities.

Judaic scripture is a gold mine of stories that help people make sense of the laws and rituals. Clive Lawton, a Jewish man from Britain, in 2009 wrote a BBC piece on “Jesus Through Jewish Eyes.” His comments on the New Testament Gospels tell us something about Jewish literature:

"The world Mark describes sounds not dissimilar from the world I know from the Talmud and the Midrash, those compendia of rabbinic debate, quoting about 1000 rabbis, spanning nearly 1000 years.

"I recognised the pleasure in argument and verbal honing, the clever use of proof texts, the camaraderie and generosity underlying disagreements, as the rabbis call them, for the sake of Heaven. I couldn't detect anything much Jesus says in the Gospel of Mark which couldn't also be found in the mouth of some rabbi --- I want to say, some other Rabbi --- in these great treasure stores of the Jewish relationship with revelation. …

"Argument and polemical exaggeration are the stuff of Jewish debate. If a teacher condemns something and says it doesn't matter in comparison to something else, you shouldn't take their comments out of the context of how they actually behaved or what they said elsewhere. They may have just been making a point. …[T]he rabbinic tradition did not suppress opinions which didn't chime with the consensus. All the variant opinions are recorded in the Talmud. Disagreeing wasn't a crime."

Studying the Torah is a primary responsibility in the Jewish tradition, and it appears that this task is often enjoyable.

Basic Tenets

Perhaps the most important principle of Judaism is what Arthur Hertzberg calls “human dignity and potential,” what another text refers to as “inwardness.” That is, since humans were created in the image of God, we are responsible for cultivating that understanding and acting on it. This requires us to pay close attention to our thoughts and behaviors, to see ourselves in every other human being and to treat our fellow humans accordingly. There is a well-known story that a pagan asked the sage Hillel to teach him the Torah while he (the pagan) stood on one leg, and if this could be done the pagan would convert to Judaism. The great teacher replied, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow human being. This is the essence, the rest is commentary. Go and learn.” (This, of course, is the Christian Golden Rule from Matthew 7:12, commonly translated as “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”) As one rabbi notes, “Jewish tradition is fully aware of the discrepancy between what we know is the right thing to do and is painfully aware of our failure to do it.” This is why there are so many Biblical calls to reflect on our actions and our true identity.

The Sanhedrin was the judicial system of ancient Judaism. The Great Sanhedrin oversaw all of Israel, and there were smaller religious ones in every town, as well as individual civic/political sanhedrins. Because documents pertaining to these councils tend to be “fragmentary, apparently contradictory, and often obscure,” scholars continue to research their character and functions. However, what is known of its records has been translated by various scholars. It lays out many of the basic precepts of Judaism, occasionally in rather amusing ways --- such as this verse on humility:

“Why was man created on the sixth day [after the creation of all other creatures]? So that, should he become overbearing, he can be told ‘The gnat was created before you were.’ ”

Additional resources

Articles

• Reincarnation in Judaism and the Bible by W. Q. Judge
• Judaism in Theosophy World
• Enoch, Books of in Theosophy World