Rabbi
Jewish religious leader. The term literally means “teacher” or “scholar”
Ethical monotheism
Foundational principle of Judaism that encapsulates three main ideas; the need to ..
recognize only one God
act appropriately toward God
act appropriately toward other people
Bar/bat mitzvah
“son/daughter of the commandment”
Refers to Jewish girl/boy reaching age of a religious adult (boy13, girl12)
Name of the ceremony held to celebrate
Torah
“The Law”
Refers to the first books of the Hebrew bible. However, the word can also be used to denote all Jewish religious texts and all Jewish law.
Jewish definition of God
Created the universe Has no physical form Needs no proof of existence Is the only God Has no gender Is always present Knows everything Exists eternally Judges fairly and mercifully Is holy and perfect
Tanakh
Refers to three sets of religious texts - “the law” (Torah), “the prophets”, and “the writings” that constitute the Hebrew bible.
Ashkenazi
A Jew of central or Eastern European descent. More than 80% of Jews today.
They preserve Palestinian traditions and some still use Yiddish
Sephardi
Middle East and North Africa
A Jew of Spanish or Portuguese descent. They retain their own distinctive customs and rituals, preserving Babylonian Jewish traditions.
Yiddish
Language spoken by Jews in central/Eastern Europe before holocaust.
Today mainly in US, Israel and Russia
Yud-Hay-Vav-Hay
** YHVH
“To be” the eternal nature of God.
Midrash
Interprets the Torah with an emphasis on everyday life.
Talmud
“Oral Torah”
Historical collection of rabbinical writings and commentaries on the Torah
Mishnah: oral law
Gemara: commentaries
Legal decisions/ interpretations
Clarify and amplify the commands of the Torah.
Mishnah
Is a compendium of opinions and teachings on the Talmud
Gentiles
Non-Jews
Laws of Noah
Set up courts of justice Refrain from blasphemy Refrain from idolatry (one true God) Refrain from sexual immorality Refrain from committing bloodshed Refrain from robbery Refrain from eating the flesh of a live animal
Mitzvot
Commandments of God found in the Torah
Essenes
Created a quasi-monastic movement on the edges of Jewish society. They focused on ritual purity, small communities and spiritual discipline.
Zealots
Hoped to drive Romans from Israel and reinstate a Jewish state. Led uprisings against Rome and suffered a dramatic defeat at Masada in 73 ce
(Romans demolished the 2nd temple)
Sadducees
Came from among the priestly Levites and emphasized the need for temple sacrifice and following the written Torah.
They rejected the oral Torah & questioned life after death.
Pharisees
Devoted to the idea that anyone, not just priests, could become holy.
Applied the laws of ritual cleanness to everyone.
defended the oral Torah as a relevant part of Jewish tradition
Diaspora
Jews exiled from Israel to live around the world.
Hasidim
Members of a mystical and pietistic in Judaism
Haskalah
Hebrew word for the Jewish enlightenment.
What does it mean to be the chosen ones?
God chose Jews as his chosen people, but they chose God too through free will.
Jews must follow stricter commandments (and sometimes suffer more) than Gentiles do.
Rabbinic Judaism
Emphasized that all people, not just priests, can achieve ritual purity and holiness by following god’s commandments as set out in the Torah. Humans have the opportunity to interpret the commandments through the Talmud
Sacrificial worship replaced with prayers
What crucial event happened prior to the Jewish diaspora?
Roman legions crushed an Israelite uprising (zealots) in 70 ce, and destroyed the second temple leaving nothing but the western wall.
Jews were exiled. Roman army forces them to leave their historic land of Israel & the city of Jerusalem
Shabbat
Hebrew word for sabbath, the day of rest
Eruv
Symbolically contained space within which observant Jews may move about, even on the sabbath
Shema
A prayer that reminds Jews to remember God and the commandments at all times
Amidah
Jewish prayer made up of 19 sections and includes praise, request, and thanksgiving.
Kaddish
Prayer used to express the hope that the world will become holy and that god’s will may be done.
Kashrut
Set of Jewish dietary laws
Kosher
The appropriate kind of food to be consumed according to Jewish dietary laws
Eg. no camels or rabbits
Birds and mammals must be killed in accordance with Jewish law
Meat cannot be eaten with dairy, including cross contaminated utensils
All blood must be drained. Certain parts may not be permitted
Passover
Commemorates the exodus from Egypt
Jews avoid bread and grain products
Passover usually overlaps with Easter
Kabbalah
Refers to a tradition that offers mystical insight into Judaism
Begins after age 40 when a person has already learned the traditions of rabbinic Judaism
Belief in reincarnation
Sefirot
10 attributes through which God is revealed
Ancient Hebrews
No idea of an immortal soul
By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground,
Since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.
Maccabees
Believed in resurrection and advocated prayer for the dead - possible physical resurrection
Beliefs around deaths
Focussed on the present
Similar to Christian heaven
Reincarnate (Kabbalah)
Wait the coming of messiah & resurrection of dead
Relationships
Mutual obligations
Scriptures tell of the development of these relationships
Disagreement over nature of obligations (absolute or changing)
Nature of God
God exist and is one: Shema He is the creator of everything He is all seeing, all knowing and all powerful. He is eternal He is just, he is merciful
Five Books of Moses
Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy
The Hebrew bible (Tanakh)
Torah (Law) : 5 Books of Moses
Nevi’im (prophets) : 19 books
Kethuvim (writings) : 11 books
Prophets
Joshua Judges Samuel Kings Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel The Twelve Teachings (often in poetry)
Writings
Prayers (psalms) Stories (Ruth, etc) Love poetry (song of songs) Proverbs Philosophy and theology (Ecclesiastes, job) Lament over Jerusalem (Lamentations) Apocalypse (Daniel)
Human nature
No set belief (dogma)
Created in likeness of God (ability to understand and discern)
Blessed by freedom of choice
The body and pleasure is good (wine, lawful intercourse, food, dance, music etc)
Nature of sin
Humans are capable of good and evil
Good impulse and evil impulse (moral conscience)
Evil impulse conceived as selfish nature with regard for moral consequence
Evil seen as alienation from God, self and from nature and disobedience of gods commands.
Jewish mysticism
Kabbalah
God is known only by what God is not
A major paradox. How can we, who are finite, understand God, who is infinite
Jewish practice: a way of life
Halakah: Judaic law and observance
All acts take on religious significance
Practice more central than doctrine
Rosh Hashanah
Jewish new year
Happy, festive holiday
Yearly re-coronation of God as king of the world
Time to look back at the past yet and make resolutions
Yom Kippur
Day of atonement, a day of fasting and repentance for mistakes
Usually in late September or early October
Chanukkah
Festival of Lights, commemorating the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem
Light candles with the family
Modern Jewish movements
Orthodox
Conservative
Reformed
Orthodox Jewish movement
Most traditional. Commitment to Jewish law as interpreted by traditional rabbinic authority
No centralized institution structure
Variety of ideological types: scholarly, mystical, Zionist, and anti-Zionist etc
Conservative Jewish movement
Ideologically liberal but traditional in practice
Commitment to Jewish peoplehood: Judaism is an evolving historical culture, as well as theology and ritual system.
Bound by halakhah, but interpret it more flexibly than the orthodox
Reformed Jewish movement
Least traditional. Originally commited to defining Judaism as a theological and ethical system, without ritual or nationalist components
Reject binding authority of tradition.
Central ideals are important but specific implementations evolve from age to age.
Tradition must be adapted to modern needs and standards
Abraham
Called to leave home by God
Father of the Jews
Became enslaved in Egypt
His children would become a great nation, be enslaved and be liberated
Moses
Communicated with God through Torah
History of humanity from creation to Moses
Revelation of Torah at mount Sinai
Resettling and temple focussed period
God acted and spoke through prophets
Possession of the promised land - Canaan
Jerusalem became capital
Animals, grains and oil sacrificed to God
Broken kingdom
Split in two - Israel and Judah
Prophets warned against idolatry (warships other than God)
722 BCE. Assyria conquered Israel and exiled its people
596 BCE. Judeans were exiled to Babylonia
Periods of exile
Exiled by God will for idolatry, social injustice and moral corruption Belief that God ruled the world Messiah Belief that The exile was temporary End of prophecy
Diaspora
Return to Judea in early 500 BCE but ruled by Greeks and Romans
Rebellion against roman rule
Destruction of temple
Holocaust and Zionism
Pogroms in Christian Europe & Russia
WWII German nazis created program of extermination (6million Jews)
Zionism was a Jewish movement beginning in the nineteenth century to establish a Jewish state predicted on the vulnerability of Jews living in diaspora
Israel
Britain established Israel in Palestine in 1948
Long standing Arab Israeli conflict