Judaism
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Judaism (from the Latin Iudaismus, derived from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, and ultimately from the Hebrew יהודה, Yehudah, "Judah" in Hebrew: יַהֲדוּת, Yahadut, the distinctive characteristics of the Judean ethnos is the religion, philosophyand way of life of the Jewish people. A monotheistic religion originating in the Hebrew Bible (also known as the Tanakh)
and explored in later texts such as the Talmud,
Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the covenantal
relationship God established
with the Children of Israel. Rabbinic Judaism holds that God revealed his laws and commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai in the form of both the Written and Oral Torah. This assertion was historically challenged by the Karaites, a movement that
flourished in the medieval period, which retains several thousand followers
today and maintains that only the Written Torah was revealed In modern times, liberal movements such asHumanistic Judaism may be nontheistic.
Judaism claims a historical continuity spanning more than 3,000 years. It
is one of the oldest monotheistic religions, and the oldest to survive into the present dayThe Hebrews / Israelites were already referred to as "Jews" in later books of the Tanakh
such as the Book of Esther, with the term Jews replacing
the title "Children of Israel" Judaism's
texts, traditions and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions,
including Christianity, Islam and the Baha'i Faith. Many aspects of Judaism have also directly or
indirectly influenced secular Western ethics and civil law.
Jews are an ethnoreligious group[ and include those born Jewish and converts to Judaism. In
2010, the world Jewish population was estimated at 13.4 million, or roughly
0.2% of the total world population. About 42% of all Jews reside inIsrael and about 42% reside in the United States and Canada,
with most of the remainder living in Europe.
The largest Jewish religious
movements are Orthodox Judaism (Haredi Judaism and Modern Orthodox
Judaism), Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism. A major source of difference
between these groups is their approach to Jewish law. Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah and Jewish law are divine in
origin, eternal and unalterable, and that they should be strictly followed.
Conservative and Reform Judaism are more liberal, with Conservative Judaism
generally promoting a more "traditional" interpretation of Judaism's
requirements than Reform Judaism. A typical Reform position is that Jewish law
should be viewed as a set of general guidelines rather than as a set of
restrictions and obligations whose observance is required of all Jews. Historically, special courts enforced Jewish law; today, these courts still exist but the practice of
Judaism is mostly voluntary. Authority on theological and legal matters is
not vested in any one person or organization, but in the sacred texts and rabbis and scholars
who interpret them.
Defining character and principles
of faith
Defining character
Unlike other ancient Near Eastern
gods, the Hebrew God is portrayed as unitary and solitary; consequently, the
Hebrew God's principal relationships are not with other gods, but with the
world, and more specifically, with the people He created. Judaism thus begins with an ethical monotheism: the belief that God is one,
and concerned with the actions of humankind. According to the Hebrew Bible, God promised Abraham to make of his
offspring a great nation. Many
generations later, he commanded the nation of Israel to love and
worship only one God; that is, the Jewish nation is to reciprocate God's
concern for the world.[25] He also commanded the Jewish people to love one another; that is, Jews are
to imitate God's love for people. These commandments are but two of a large corpus of commandments and laws that constitute
this covenant, which is the
substance of Judaism.
Thus, although there is an
esoteric tradition in Judaism (Kabbalah), Rabbinic
scholar Max Kadushin has characterized normative Judaism as "normal mysticism",
because it involves everyday personal experiences of God through ways or modes
that are common to all Jews. This is played out through the observance of
the halakhot and given
verbal expression in the Birkat
Ha-Mizvot, the short blessings that are spoken every time a positive
commandment is to be fulfilled.
The ordinary, familiar, everyday
things and occurrences, we have constitute occasions for the experience of God.
Such things as one's daily sustenance, the very day itself, are felt as
manifestations of God's loving-kindness, calling for theBerakhot. Kedushah, holiness, which is nothing else than the imitation of God, is concerned
with daily conduct, with being gracious and merciful, with keeping oneself from
defilement by idolatry, adultery, and the shedding of blood. TheBirkat
Ha-Mitzwot evokes the
consciousness of holiness at a rabbinic rite, but the objects employed in the
majority of these rites are non-holy and of general character, while the
several holy objects are non-theurgic. And not only do ordinary things and occurrences bring with them the
experience of God. Everything that happens to a man evokes that experience,
evil as well as good, for a Berakah is said also at evil tidings. Hence, although the experience of God is like
none other, the occasions for experiencing Him, for having a consciousness of Him, are manifold, even
if we consider only those that call for Berakot.
Whereas Jewish philosophers often debate whether God is immanent or transcendent, and whether people
have free will or their lives are determined, Halakha is a system
through which any Jew acts to bring God into the world.
Ethical monotheism is central in
all sacred or normative texts of Judaism. However, monotheism has not always
been followed in practice. The Jewish Bible (Tanakh)
records and repeatedly condemns the widespread worship of other gods inancient Israel. In the Greco-Roman era, many different interpretations of monotheism
existed in Judaism, including the interpretations that gave rise to
Christianity
Moreover, as a non-creedal
religion, some have argued that Judaism does not require one to believe in God.
For some, observance of Jewish law is more important than belief in God per se.
In modern
times, some liberal Jewish movements do not accept the existence of a
personified deity active in history
Core tenets
13 Principles
of Faith:
1. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, is the
Creator and Guide of everything that has been created; He alone has made, does
make, and will make all things.
2. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, is One,
and that there is no unity in any manner like His, and that He alone is our
God, who was, and is, and will be.
3. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, has no
body, and that He is free from all the properties of matter, and that there can
be no (physical) comparison to Him whatsoever.
4. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, is the
first and the last.
5. I believe with perfect faith that to the Creator, Blessed be His Name, and
to Him alone, it is right to pray, and that it is not right to pray to any
being besides Him.
6. I believe with perfect faith that all the words of the prophets are true.
7. I believe with perfect faith that the prophecy of Moses our teacher, peace be upon
him, was true, and that he was the chief of the prophets, both those
who preceded him and those who followed him.
8. I believe with perfect faith that the entire Torah that is now in our
possession is the same that was given to Moses our teacher, peace be upon him.
9. I believe with perfect faith that this Torah will not be exchanged, and
that there will never be any other Torah from the Creator, Blessed be His Name.
10. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, knows
all the deeds of human beings and all their thoughts, as it is written,
"Who fashioned the hearts of them all, Who comprehends all their
actions" (Psalms33:15).
11. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, rewards
those who keep His commandments and punishes those that transgress them.
12. I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah; and even though
he may tarry, nonetheless, I wait every day for his coming.
13. I believe with perfect faith that there will be a revival of the dead at
the time when it shall please the Creator, Blessed be His name, and His mention
shall be exalted for ever and ever.
-Maimonides
Scholars throughout Jewish history have proposed numerous formulations of Judaism's core tenets, all of which
have met with criticism. The most popular formulation is Maimonides'thirteen principles
of faith, developed in the 12th century. According to Maimonides,
any Jew who rejects even one of these principles would be considered an
apostate and a heretic. Jewish scholars have held points of view diverging in
various ways from Maimonides' principles.
In Maimonides' time, his list of
tenets was criticized by Hasdai Crescas and Joseph Albo. Albo and the Raavad argued that Maimonides' principles contained too many items that, while
true, were not fundamentals of the faith.
Along these lines, the ancient
historian Josephus emphasized
practices and observances rather than religious beliefs, associating apostasy with a failure
to observe Jewish law and maintaining that the requirements for conversion to
Judaism included circumcision and adherence to traditional customs. Maimonides' principles were largely
ignored over the next few centuries. Later, two poetic restatements of these principles ("Ani Ma'amin" and "Yigdal")
became integrated into many Jewish liturgies, ] leading to their eventual near-universal acceptance.
In modern times, Judaism lacks a
centralized authority that would dictate an exact religious dogma. Because of this, many different variations on the basic beliefs are
considered within the scope of Judaism. Even so, all Jewish religious
movements are, to a
greater or lesser extent, based on the principles of the Hebrew Bible and various commentaries such as the Talmud and Midrash. Judaism also universally recognizes
the Biblical Covenant between God and the Patriarch Abraham as well as the
additional aspects of the Covenant revealed to Moses, who is considered Judaism's greatest prophet. In the Mishnah, a core text of Rabbinic Judaism,
acceptance of the Divine origins of this covenant is considered an essential
aspect of Judaism and those who reject the Covenant forfeit their share in the World to Come.
Jewish
Jewish legal literature
The basis of Jewish law and
tradition (halakha) is the Torah (also known as the Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses). According to rabbinic tradition there are 613 commandments in the Torah. Some of these laws are directed only to men or to women, some
only to the ancient priestly groups, the Kohanim and Leviyim (members of the tribe of Levi),
some only to farmers within the Land of Israel. Many laws were only applicable
when the Temple in Jerusalem existed, and fewer than 300 of these commandments are still applicable
today.
While there have been Jewish
groups whose beliefs were claimed to be based on the written text of the Torah
alone (e.g., the Sadducees, and the Karaites), most Jews
believed in what they call the oral law. These oral
traditions were transmitted by the Pharisee sect of ancient
Judaism, and were later recorded in written form and expanded upon by the
rabbis.
Rabbinic Judaism (which derives
from the Pharisees) has always held that the books of the Torah (called the
written law) have always been transmitted in parallel with an oral tradition. To
justify this viewpoint, Jews point to the text of the Torah, where many words
are left undefined, and many procedures mentioned without explanation or
instructions; this, they argue, means that the reader is assumed to be familiar
with the details from other, i.e., oral, sources. This parallel set of material
was originally transmitted orally, and came to be known as "the oral law".
By the time of Rabbi Judah haNasi (200 CE), after the destruction of Jerusalem, much of this material was
edited together into the Mishnah. Over the next four centuries this law
underwent discussion and debate in both of the world's major Jewish communities
(in Israel and Babylonia),
and the commentaries on the Mishnah from each of these communities eventually
came to be edited together into compilations known as the two Talmuds. These have been expounded by
commentaries of various Torah scholars during the ages.
Halakha, the rabbinic Jewish way
of life, then, is based on a combined reading of the Torah, and the oral
tradition - the Mishnah, the halakhic Midrash, the Talmud and its commentaries. The
Halakha has developed slowly, through a precedent-based system. The literature
of questions to rabbis, and their considered answers, is referred to as responsa (in Hebrew, Sheelot U-Teshuvot.) Over time, as practices
develop, codes of Jewish law are written that are based on the responsa; the
most important code, the Shulchan Aruch, largely determines Orthodox
religious practice today.
Jewish philosophy
Jewish philosophy refers to the
conjunction between serious study of philosophy and Jewish theology. Major
Jewish philosophers include Solomon ibn Gabirol, Saadia Gaon, Judah Halevi, Maimonides, and Gersonides. Major changes occurred in response
to the Enlightenment (late 18th to early 19th century) leading to the post-Enlightenment Jewish
philosophers. Modern Jewish philosophy consists of both Orthodox and
non-Orthodox oriented philosophy. Notable among Orthodox Jewish philosophers
are Eliyahu Eliezer
Dessler, Joseph B.
Soloveitchik, and Yitzchok Hutner. Well-known non-Orthodox Jewish
philosophers include Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Mordecai Kaplan, Abraham Joshua
Heschel, Will Herberg, and Emmanuel Lévinas.
Rabbinic hermeneutics
13 Principles
of Hermeneutics:
1. A law that operates under certain conditions will surely be operative in
other situations where the same conditions are present in a more acute form
2. A law operating in one situation will also be operative in another
situation, if the text characterizes both situations in identical terms.
3. A law that clearly expresses the purpose it was meant to serve will also
apply to other situations where the identical purpose may be served.
4. When a general rule is followed by illustrative particulars, only those
particulars are to be embraced by it.
5. A law that begins with specifying particular cases, and then proceeds to an
all-embracing generalization, is to be applied to particulars cases not
specified but logically falling into the same generalization.
6. A law that begins with a generalization as to its intended applications,
then continues with the specification of particular cases, and then concludes
with a restatement of the generalization, can be applied only to the particular
cases specified.
7. The rules about a generalization being followed or preceded by specifying
particulars (rules 4 and 5) will not apply if it is apparent that the
specification of the particular cases or the statement of the generalization is
meant purely for achieving a greater clarity of language.
8. A particular case already covered in a generalization that is nevertheless
treated separately suggests that the same particularized treatment be applied
to all other cases which are covered in that generalization.
9. A penalty specified for a general category of wrong-doing is not to be
automatically applied to a particular case that is withdrawn from the general
rule to be specifically prohibited, but without any mention of the penalty.
10. A general prohibition followed by a specified penalty may be followed by a
particular case, normally included in the generalization, with a modification
in penalty, either toward easing it or making it more severe.
11. A case logically falling into a general law but treated separately remains
outside the provisions of the general law except in those instances where it is
specifically included in them.
12. Obscurities in Biblical texts may be cleared up from the immediate context
or from subsequently occurring passages
13. Contradictions in Biblical passages may be removed through the mediation of
other passages.
Orthodox and many other Jews do
not believe that the revealed Torah consists solely of its written contents, but of its interpretations as
well. The study of Torah (in its widest sense, to include both poetry, narrative, and law, and both
the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud)
is in Judaism itself a sacred act of central importance. For the sages of the Mishnah and Talmud, and for their successors today, the
study of Torah was therefore not merely a means to learn the contents of God's
revelation, but an end in itself. According to the Talmud,
These are the things for which a
person enjoys the dividends in this world while the principal remains for the
person to enjoy in the world to come; they are: honoring parents, loving deeds
of kindness, and making peace between one person and another. But the study of
the Torah is equal to them all. (Talmud Shabbat 127a).
In Judaism, "the study of Torah
can be a means of experiencing God". [ Reflecting on
the contribution of the Amoraim and Tanaim to contemporary
Judaism, Professor Jacob Neusner observed:
The rabbi's logical and rational
inquiry is not mere logic-chopping. It is a most serious and substantive effort
to locate in trivialities the fundamental principles of the revealed will of
God to guide and sanctify the most specific and concrete actions in the
workaday world .... Here is the mystery of Talmudic Judaism: the alien and
remote conviction that the intellect is an instrument not of unbelief and
desacralization but of sanctification.
To study the Written Torah and
the Oral Torah in light of each other is thus also to study how to study the
word of God.
In the study of Torah, the sages
formulated and followed various logical and hermeneutical principles. According to David Stern, all Rabbinic hermeneutics rest on two
basic axioms:
first, the belief in the
omnisignificance of Scripture, in the meaningfulness of its every word, letter,
even (according to one famous report) scribal flourish; second, the claim of
the essential unity of Scripture as the expression of the single divine will.
These two principles make
possible a great variety of interpretations. According to the Talmud,
A single verse has several
meanings, but no two verses hold the same meaning. It was taught in the school
of R. Ishmael: 'Behold, My word is like fire—declares the Lord—and like a
hammer that shatters rock' (Jer 23:29). Just as this hammer produces many
sparks (when it strikes the rock), so a single verse has several
meanings." (Talmud Sanhedrin 34a).
Observant Jews thus view the
Torah as dynamic, because it contains within it a host of interpretations
According to Rabbinic tradition,
all valid interpretations of the written Torah were revealed to Moses at Sinai in oral form, and handed down from teacher to
pupil (The oral revelation is in effect coextensive with the Talmud itself).
When different rabbis forwarded conflicting interpretations, they sometimes
appealed to hermeneutic principles to legitimize their arguments; some rabbis
claim that these principles were themselves revealed by God to Moses at Sinai.
Thus, Hillel called attention to seven commonly used in the interpretation of laws (baraita at the
beginning of Sifra); R. Ishmael, thirteen (baraita at the beginning
of Sifra; this collection is largely an amplification of that of Hillel).[55] Eliezer b. Jose
ha-Gelili listed 32,
largely used for the exegesis of narrative elements of Torah. All the
hermeneutic rules scattered through the Talmudim and Midrashim have been
collected by Malbim in Ayyelet ha-Shachar, the introduction to his commentary on the Sifra. Nevertheless, R. Ishmael's 13 principles
are perhaps the ones most widely known; they constitute an important, and one
of Judaism's earliest, contributions tologic, hermeneutics, and jurisprudence. Judah Hadassi incorporated Ishmael's principles into Karaite Judaism in the
12th century.[57] Today R. Ishmael's 13 principles are incorporated into the Jewish prayer
book to be read by observant Jews on a daily basis.
Jewish identity
Origin of the term "Judaism"
The term Judaism derives from the
Latin Iudaismus, derived from
the Greek Ιουδαϊσμός Ioudaïsmos, and
ultimately from the Hebrew יהודה, Yehudah, "Judah"; in
Hebrew: יַהֲדוּת, Yahadut. It first appears as the Hellenistic Greek iudaismos in 2nd
Maccabees in the 2nd century BCE. In the context of the age and period it held
the meaning of seeking or forming part of a cultural entity, that of iudea, the Greek derivative of Persian Yehud, and can be compared with hellenismos, meaning acceptance of Hellenic cultural norms
(the conflict between iudaismos and hellenismoslay behind the
Maccabeean revolt and hence the invention of the term iudaismos). The earliest
instance of the term in English, used to mean "the profession or practice
of the Jewish religion; the religious system or polity of the Jews", is
Robert Fabyan's The newe
cronycles of Englande and of Fraunce a 1513. As an English
translation of the Latin, the first instance in English is a 1611 translation
of the Apocrypha (Deuterocanon in Catholic and Orthodox Christianity), 2 Macc. ii. 21 "Those that
behaved themselues manfully to their honour for Iudaisme.
Distinction between Jews as a people and Judaism
According to Daniel Boyarin, the underlying distinction
between religion and ethnicity is foreign to Judaism itself, and is one form of
the dualism between spirit and flesh that has its origin in Platonic philosophy and that permeated Hellenistic Judaism. Consequently, in his view, Judaism does not fit easily into conventional
Western categories, such as religion, ethnicity, or culture. Boyarin suggests
that this in part reflects the fact that much of Judaism's more than 3,000-year
history predates the rise of Western culture and occurred outside the West
(that is, Europe, particularly medieval and modern Europe). During this time,
Jews have experienced slavery, anarchic and theocratic self-government,
conquest, occupation, and exile; in the Diasporas, they have been in contact
with and have been influenced by ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Persian, and
Hellenic cultures, as well as modern movements such as the Enlightenment (see Haskalah) and the rise of nationalism, which
would bear fruit in the form of a Jewish state in the Levant. They also saw an
elite convert to Judaism (the Khazars),
only to disappear as the centers of power in the lands once occupied by that
elite fell to the people of Rus and then the Mongols. Thus, Boyarin has argued
that "Jewishness disrupts the very categories of identity, because it is
not national, not genealogical, not religious, but all of these, in dialectical
tension.
In contrast to this point of
view, practices such as Humanistic Judaism reject the religious aspects of Judaism, while retaining certain cultural
traditions.
Who is a Jew?
According to traditional Jewish
Law, a Jew is anyone born of a Jewish mother or converted to Judaism in accordance with Jewish Law. American Reform Judaism and British Liberal Judaism accept the child of one Jewish parent (father or mother) as Jewish if the
parents raise the child with a Jewish identity. All mainstream forms of Judaism
today are open to sincere converts, although conversion has traditionally been
discouraged since the time of the Talmud. The conversion process is evaluated
by an authority, and the convert is examined on his or her sincerity and
knowledge Converts are
given the name "ben Abraham" or "bat Abraham", (son or daughter
of Abraham).
Traditional Judaism maintains
that a Jew, whether by birth or conversion, is a Jew forever. Thus a Jew who
claims to be an atheist or converts to another religion is still considered by
traditional Judaism to be Jewish. According to some sources, the Reform
movement has maintained that a Jew who has converted to another religion is no
longer a Jew, and the Israeli
Government has also taken that stance after Supreme Court cases and statutes.
However, the
Reform movement has indicated that this is not so cut and dry, and different
situations call for consideration and differing actions. For example, Jews who
have converted under duress may be permitted to return to Judaism "without
any action on their part but their desire to rejoin the Jewish community"
and "A proselyte who has become an apostate remains, nevertheless, a
Jew". (p. 100-106)[
The question of what determines
Jewish identity in the State of Israel was given new impetus when, in the
1950s, David Ben-Gurion requested opinions on mihu Yehudi ("who is a Jew") from Jewish religious authorities and
intellectuals worldwide in order to settle citizenship questions. This is still
not settled, and occasionally resurfaces in Israeli politics.
Jewish demographics
Main article: Jewish population
The total number of Jews
worldwide is difficult to assess because the definition of "who is a
Jew" is problematic; not all Jews identify themselves as Jewish, and some
who identify as Jewish are not considered so by other Jews. According to the Jewish Year Book (1901), the
global Jewish population in 1900 was around 11 million. The latest available
data is from the World Jewish Population Survey of 2002 and the Jewish Year
Calendar (2005). In 2002, according to the Jewish Population Survey, there were
13.3 million Jews around the world. The Jewish Year Calendar cites 14.6
million. Jewish population growth is currently near zero percent, with 0.3%
growth from 2000 to 2001.
Jewish religious movements
Rabbinic Judaism
Rabbinic Judaism (or in some
Christian traditions, Rabbinism) (Hebrew: "Yahadut Rabanit" - יהדות רבנית) has been
the mainstream form of Judaism since the 6th century CE, after the codification
of the Talmud.
It is characterised by the belief that the Written Torah (Law) cannot be correctly interpreted without reference to the Oral Torah and by the voluminous literature specifying what behavior is sanctioned by
the law (called halakha, "the way").
The Jewish Enlightenment of the late 18th century resulted in the division of Ashkenazi (Western) Jewry
into religious movements or denominations, especially in North America and
Anglophone countries. The main denominations today outside Israel (where the
situation is rather different) are Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform.
§
Orthodox Judaism holds that both the Written and Oral Torah were divinely revealed to Moses,
and that the laws within it are binding and unchanging. Orthodox Jews generally
consider commentaries on the Shulchan Aruch (a condensed codification of halakha that largely favored Sephardic
traditions) to be the definitive codification of Jewish law. Orthodoxy places a
high importance on Maimonides' 13
principles as a definition
of Jewish faith.
§
Orthodoxy is
often divided into Modern Orthodox
Judaism and Haredi Judaism. Haredi Judaism is less accommodating to modernity and has less interest in non-Jewish
disciplines, and it may be distinguished from Modern Orthodox
Judaism in practice by
its styles of dress and more stringent practices. Subsets of Haredi Judaism include: Hasidic Judaism, which is rooted in the Kabbalah and
distinguished by reliance on a Rebbe or religious teacher; and Sephardic Haredi Judaism, which emerged among Sephardic (Asian and
North African) Jews in Israel.
§
Conservative Judaism,
known as Masorti outside the
United States and Canada, is characterized by a commitment to traditional
Jewish laws and customs, including observance of Shabbat and kashrut, a deliberately non-fundamentalist
teaching of Jewish principles of faith, a positive attitude toward modern
culture, and an acceptance of both traditional rabbinic and modern scholarship
when considering Jewish religious texts. Conservative Judaism teaches that
Jewish law is not static, but has always developed in response to changing
conditions. It holds that the Torah is a divine document written by prophets
inspired by God and reflecting his will, but rejects the Orthodox position that
it was dictated by God to Moses. Conservative Judaism holds that the Oral Law is divine and normative,
but holds that both the Written and Oral Law may be interpreted by the rabbis
to reflect modern sensibilities and suit modern conditions.
§
Reform Judaism, called Liberal or Progressive Judaism in many countries, defines Judaism as a religion rather than as a race or
culture, rejects most of the ritual and ceremonial laws of the Torah while observing
moral laws, and emphasizes the ethical call of the Prophets. Reform Judaism has developed an
egalitarian prayer service in the vernacular (along with Hebrew in many cases) and emphasizes personal connection to Jewish tradition.
§
Reconstructionist
Judaism, like Reform Judaism, does not hold that Jewish law, as
such, requires observance, but unlike Reform, Reconstructionist thought
emphasizes the role of the community in deciding what observances to follow.
§
Jewish Renewal is a recent North American movement which focuses on spirituality and
social justice, but does not address issues of Jewish law. Men and women participate
equally in prayer.
§
Humanistic Judaism is a small non-theistic movement centered in North America and Israel that
emphasizes Jewish culture and history as the sources of Jewish identity.
Jewish movements in Israel
Main article: Religion in Israel
Most Jewish Israelis classify
themselves as "secular" (hiloni), "traditional" (masorti),
"religious" (dati) or Haredi. The term
"secular" is more popular as a self-description among Israeli
families of western (European) origin, whose Jewish identity may be a very
powerful force in their lives, but who see it as largely independent of
traditional religious belief and practice. This portion of the population
largely ignores organized religious life, be it of the official Israeli
rabbinate (Orthodox) or of the liberal movements common to diaspora Judaism
(Reform, Conservative).
The term "traditional"
(masorti) is most common as a self-description among Israeli families of
"eastern" origin (i.e., the Middle East, Central Asia, and North
Africa). This term, as commonly used, has nothing to do with the official Masorti(Conservative) movement. There is a
great deal of ambiguity in the ways "secular" and
"traditional" are used in Israel: they often overlap, and they cover
an extremely wide range in terms of ideology and religious observance. The term
"Orthodox" is not popular in Israeli discourse, although the
percentage of Jews who come under that category is far greater than in the diaspora. What would be
called "Orthodox" in the diaspora includes what is commonly called dati (religious) or haredi (ultra-Orthodox)
in Israel. The former term includes what is called "Religious Zionism" or the "National
Religious" community, as well as what has become known over the past
decade or so as haredi-leumi (nationalist haredi), or "Hardal", which combines a largely haredi lifestyle with
nationalist ideology. (Some people, in Yiddish, also refer to observant Orthodox Jews
as frum, as opposed to frei (more liberal
Jews)).
Haredi applies to a populace that can be roughly divided into three separate
groups along both ethnic and ideological lines: (1) "Lithuanian"
(non-hasidic) haredim of Ashkenazic origin; (2) Hasidic haredim of Ashkenazic origin; and (3) Sephardic haredim.
Alternative Judaism
Karaite Judaism defines itself as the remnants of the non-Rabbinic Jewish sects of the Second Temple period, such as the Sadducees. The Karaites
("Scripturalists") accept only the Hebrew Bible and what they view as
the Peshat ("simple" meaning); they do not accept non-biblical writings as
authoritative. Some European Karaites do not see themselves as part of the
Jewish community at all, although most do. The Samaritans, a very small community located
entirely around Mount Gerizim in the Nablus/Shechem region of the West Bank and in Holon, near Tel Aviv in Israel,
regard themselves as the descendants of the Israelites of the Iron Age kingdom of Israel.
Their religious practices are those of Judaism, but they regard only the
written Torah as authoritative scripture (with a special regard also for the Samaritan Book of
Joshua).
Jewish observances
Jewish ethics
Jewish ethics may be guided by halakhic traditions, by
other moral principles, or by central Jewish virtues. Jewish ethical practice
is typically understood to be marked by values such as justice, truth, peace,
loving-kindness (chesed), compassion, humility, and
self-respect. Specific Jewish ethical practices include practices of charity (tzedakah) and refraining from negative speech (lashon hara). Proper ethical practices regarding
sexuality and many other issues are subjects of dispute among Jews.
Prayers
Traditionally, Jews recite
prayers three times daily, Shacharit, Mincha, and Ma'ariv with a fourth
prayer, Mussaf added on Shabbat and holidays. At the heart of each service is the Amidah or Shemoneh Esrei. Another key
prayer in many services is the declaration of faith, the Shema Yisrael (or Shema). The Shema is the
recitation of a verse from the Torah (Deuteronomy 6:4): Shema Yisrael
Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad—"Hear, O Israel! The Lord
is our God! The Lord is One!"
Most of the prayers in a
traditional Jewish service can be recited in solitary prayer, although communal
prayer is preferred. Communal prayer requires a quorum of ten adult
Jews, called a minyan. In nearly all
Orthodox and a few Conservative circles, only male Jews are counted toward a minyan; most Conservative Jews and members of other Jewish denominations count
female Jews as well.
In addition to prayer services,
observant traditional Jews recite prayers and benedictions throughout the day
when performing
various acts. Prayers are recited upon waking up in the morning, before eating or
drinking different foods, after eating a meal, and so on.
The approach to prayer varies
among the Jewish denominations. Differences can include the texts of prayers,
the frequency of prayer, the number of prayers recited at various religious
events, the use of musical instruments and choral music, and whether prayers
are recited in the traditional liturgical languages or the vernacular. In
general, Orthodox and Conservative congregations adhere most closely to
tradition, and Reform and Reconstructionist synagogues are more likely to
incorporate translations and contemporary writings in their services. Also, in
most Conservative synagogues, and all Reform and Reconstructionist
congregations, women participate in prayer services on an equal basis with men, including roles traditionally filled only by men, such as reading from the Torah. In addition, many
Reform temples use musical accompaniment such as organs and mixed choirs.
Religious clothing
Further information: kippah, tzitzit, and tefillin
A kippah (Hebrew: כִּפָּה,
plural kippot; Yiddish: יאַרמלקע, yarmulke) is a slightly rounded brimless skullcap worn by many Jews while praying,
eating, reciting blessings, or studying Jewish religious texts, and at all
times by some Jewish men. In Orthodox communities, only men wear kippot; in
non-Orthodox communities, some women also wear kippot. Kippot range in size
from a small round beanie that covers only the back of the head, to a large,
snug cap that covers the whole crown.
Tzitzit (Hebrew: צִיציִת)
(Ashkenazi pronunciation: tzitzis) are special knotted "fringes" or "tassels" found on
the four corners of the tallit (Hebrew: טַלִּית)
(Ashkenazi pronunciation: tallis), or prayer shawl. The tallit is worn by
Jewish men and some Jewish women during the prayer service. Customs vary
regarding when a Jew begins wearing a tallit. In the Sephardi community, boys
wear a tallit from bar mitzvah age. In some Ashkenazi communities it is
customary to wear one only after marriage. A tallit katan (small tallit)
is a fringed garment worn under the clothing throughout the day. In some
Orthodox circles, the fringes are allowed to hang freely outside the clothing.
Tefillin (Hebrew: תְפִלִּין), known in
English as phylacteries (from the Greek word φυλακτήριον, meaning safeguard or amulet), are two square leather boxes containing biblical verses, attached to the
forehead and wound around the left arm by leather straps. They are worn during
weekday morning prayer by observant Jewish men and some Jewish women.
A kittel (Yiddish: קיטל),
a white knee-length overgarment, is worn by prayer leaders and some observant
traditional Jews on the High Holidays. It is traditional for the head
of the household to wear a kittel at the Passover seder in some communities,
and some grooms wear one under the wedding canopy. Jewish males are buried in a tallit and sometimes
also a kittel which are part of the tachrichim (burial garments).
Jewish holidays
Jewish holidays are special days
in the Jewish calendar, which celebrate moments in Jewish history, as well as
central themes in the relationship between God and the world, such as creation, revelation, and redemption.
Shabbat
Shabbat, the weekly day
of rest lasting from shortly before sundown on Friday night to nightfall
Saturday night, commemorates God's day of rest after six days of creation.
It plays a
pivotal role in Jewish practice and is governed by a large corpus of religious
law. At sundown on Friday, the woman of the house welcomes the Shabbat by
lighting two or more candles and reciting a blessing. The evening meal begins
with the Kiddush, a blessing recited aloud over a cup of wine, and the Mohtzi,
a blessing recited over the bread. It is customary to have challah, two braided loaves of bread, on the
table. During Shabbat Jews are forbidden to engage in any activity that falls
under 39 categories
of melakhah, translated literally as "work".
In fact the activities banned on the Sabbath are not "work" in the
usual sense: They include such actions as lighting a fire, writing, using money
and carrying in the public domain. The prohibition of lighting a fire has been
extended in the modern era to driving a car, which involves burning fuel, and
using electricity.
Three pilgrimage festivals
Jewish holy days (chaggim),
celebrate landmark events in Jewish history, such as the Exodus from Egypt and
the giving of the Torah, and sometimes mark the change of seasons and
transitions in the agricultural cycle. The three major festivals, Sukkot,
Passover and Shavuot, are called "regalim" (derived from the Hebrew
word "regel", or foot). On the three regalim, it was customary for
the Israelites to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices in the
Temple.
§
Passover (Pesach)
is a week-long holiday beginning on the evening of the 14th day of Nisan (the first
month in the Hebrew calendar), that commemorates the Exodus from Egypt.
Outside Israel, Passover is celebrated for eight days. In ancient times, it
coincided with the barley harvest. It is the only holiday that centers on
home-service, the Seder. Leavened products (chametz) are removed from the house prior to
the holiday, and are not consumed throughout the week. Homes are thoroughly
cleaned to ensure no bread or bread by-products remain, and a symbolic burning
of the last vestiges of chametz is conducted on the morning of the Seder. Matzo is eaten
instead of bread.
§
Shavuot ("Pentecost"
or "Feast of Weeks") celebrates the revelation of the Torah to the Israelites on Mount Sinai. Also known as the Festival of Bikurim, or first fruits, it
coincided in biblical times with the wheat harvest. Shavuot customs include
all-night study marathons known as Tikkun Leil Shavuot, eating dairy foods
(cheesecake and blintzes are special favorites), reading the Book of Ruth,
decorating homes and synagogues with greenery, and wearing white clothing,
symbolizing purity.
§
Sukkot ("Tabernacles" or "The Festival of Booths")
commemorates the Israelites' forty years of wandering through the desert on
their way to the Promised Land. It is celebrated through the construction of
temporary booths called sukkot(sing. sukkah) that
represent the temporary shelters of the Israelites during their wandering. It
coincides with the fruit harvest, and marks the end of the agricultural cycle.
Jews around the world eat in sukkot for seven days and nights. Sukkot concludes with Shemini Atzeret, where
Jews begin to pray for rain and Simchat Torah, "Rejoicing of the
Torah", a holiday which marks reaching the end of the Torah reading cycle
and beginning all over again. The occasion is celebrated with singing and
dancing with the Torah scrolls. Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are
technically considered to be a separate holiday and not a part of Sukkot.
High Holy Days
§
Rosh Hashanah, (also Yom Ha-Zikkaron or "Day of
Remembrance", and Yom Teruah, or "Day
of the Sounding of the Shofar").
Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year (literally, "head of the year"),
although it falls on the first day of the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar, Tishri. Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of
the 10-day period of atonement leading up to Yom Kippur, during which Jews are
commanded to search their souls and make amends for sins committed,
intentionally or not, throughout the year. Holiday customs include blowing the
shofar, or ram's horn, in the synagogue, eating apples and honey, and saying
blessings over a variety of symbolic foods, such as pomegranates.
§
Yom Kippur, ("Day of Atonement") is
the holiest day of the Jewish year. It is a day of communal fasting and praying
for forgiveness for one's sins. Observant Jews spend the entire day in the
synagogue, sometimes with a short break in the afternoon, reciting prayers from
a special holiday prayerbook called a "Machzor". Many non-religious
Jews make a point of attending synagogue services and fasting on Yom Kippur. On
the eve of Yom Kippur, before candles are lit, a prefast meal, the "seuda
mafseket", is eaten. Synagogue services on the eve of Yom Kippur begin
with the Kol Nidre prayer. It is customary to wear white on Yom Kippur,
especially for Kol Nidre, and leather shoes are not worn. The following day,
prayers are held from morning to evening. The final prayer service, called
"Ne'ilah", ends with a long blast of the shofar.
Purim
Purim (Hebrew: פורים (help·info) Pûrîm "lots") is a joyous Jewish holiday that
commemorates the deliverance of the Persian Jews from the plot of the evil Haman, who sought to exterminate them, as recorded in the biblical Book of Esther. It is characterized by public
recitation of the Book of Esther, mutual gifts of food and drink, charity to the poor,
and a celebratory meal (Esther 9:22). Other customs include drinking wine,
eating special pastries called hamantashen, dressing up in masks and costumes,
and organizing carnivals and parties.
Purim is celebrated annually on
the 14th of the Hebrew month of Adar,
which occurs in February or March of the Gregorian calendar.
Hanukkah
Hanukkah (Hebrew: חֲנֻכָּה,
"dedication") also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight day
Jewish holiday that starts on the 25th day of Kislev (Hebrew calendar). The festival is observed in
Jewish homes by the kindling of lights on each of the festival's eight nights,
one on the first night, two on the second night and so on.
The holiday was called Hanukkah
(meaning "dedication") because it marks the re-dedication of the
Temple after its desecration by Antiochus IV
Epiphanes. Spiritually, Hanukkah commemorates the "Miracle of
the Oil". According to the Talmud, at the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem following the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire, there was
only enough consecrated oil to fuel the eternal flame in the Temple for one day. Miraculously, the oil
burned for eight days - which was the length of time it took to press, prepare
and consecrate new oil.
Hanukkah is not mentioned in the
Bible and was never considered a major holiday in Judaism, but it has become
much more visible and widely celebrated in modern times, mainly because it
falls around the same time as Christmas and has national Jewish overtones that
have been emphasized since the establishment of the State of Israel.
Other holidays
Tisha B'Av (Hebrew: תשעה באב or ט׳ באב, "the
Ninth of Av") is a holiday of mourning and fasting
commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain.
The modern holidays of Yom Ha-shoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) and Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) commemorate the horrors of the Holocaust and the
achievement of Israel independence, respectively.
Torah readings
Main article: Torah reading
The core of festival and Shabbat prayer services
is the public reading of the Torah,
along with connected readings from the other books of the Tanakh, called Haftarah. Over the course of a year, the whole
Torah is read, with the cycle starting over in the autumn, on Simchat Torah.
Synagogues and religious buildings
Synagogues are Jewish houses of
prayer and study. They usually contain separate rooms for prayer (the main
sanctuary), smaller rooms for study, and often an area for community or
educational use. There is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural
shapes and interior designs of synagogues vary greatly. The Reform movement
mostly refer to their synagogues as temples. Some traditional features of a
synagogue are:
§
The ark (called aron ha-kodesh by Ashkenazim and hekhal by Sephardim) where the Torah scrolls are
kept (the ark is often closed with an ornate curtain (parochet) outside or inside the ark doors);
§
The elevated
reader's platform (called bimah by Ashkenazim and tebah by Sephardim), where the Torah is read (and services are conducted in
Sephardi synagogues);
§
The eternal light (ner tamid), a continually lit lamp or lantern used as a reminder of
the constantly lit menorah of the Temple in Jerusalem
§
The pulpit, or amud, a lectern facing the Ark where the hazzan or prayer leader stands while praying.
In addition to synagogues, other
buildings of significance in Judaism include yeshivas, or institutions of Jewish learning,
and mikvahs,
which are ritual baths.
Dietary laws: kashrut
The Jewish dietary laws are known
as kashrut. Food prepared
in accordance with them is termed kosher, and food that is not kosher is also
known as treifah or treif. People who
observe these laws are colloquially said to be "keeping kosher"
Many of the laws apply to animal-based
foods. For example, in order to be considered kosher, mammals must have split hooves and chew their cud. The pig is arguably the
most well-known example of a non-kosher animal. Although it has split hooves, it does not chew its cud. Forseafood to be kosher,
the animal must have fins and scales. Certain types of seafood, such as shellfish, crustaceans, and eels, are therefore considered non-kosher.
Concerning birds, a list of non-kosher species is given in the Torah. The exact translations of many of the species have not survived, and some non-kosher birds'
identities are no longer certain. However, traditions exist about the kashrut status of a few birds. For example, both chickens and turkeys are permitted
in most communities. Other types of animals, such as amphibians, reptiles, and most insects, are prohibited altogether.
In addition to the requirement
that the species be considered kosher, meat and poultry (but not fish) must
come from a healthy animal slaughtered in a process known as shechitah. Without the
proper slaughtering practices even an otherwise kosher animal will be rendered treif. The slaughtering process is intended to be quick and relatively painless
to the animal. Forbidden parts of animals include the blood, some fats, and the area in and around the sciatic nerve.
Jewish law also forbids the
consumption of meat and dairy products together. The waiting period between
eating meat and eating dairy varies by the order in which they are consumed and
by community, and can extend for up to six hours. Based on the Biblical
injunction against cooking a kid in its mother's milk, this rule is mostly
derived from the Oral Torah, the Talmud and Rabbinic law. Chicken and other kosher birds are considered the same as meat under the
laws of kashrut, but the
prohibition is Rabbinic, not Biblical.
The use of dishes, serving utensils, and ovens may make food treif that would
otherwise be kosher. Utensils that have been used to prepare non-kosher food,
or dishes that have held meat and are now used for dairy products, render the
food treif under certain conditions.
Furthermore, all Orthodox and some Conservative authorities forbid the consumption of processed grape products made
by non-Jews, due to ancient pagan practices of using wine in rituals. Some Conservative authorities permit wine and grape juice made without
rabbinic supervision.
The Torah does not give
specific reasons for most of the laws of kashrut. However, a
number of explanations have been offered, including maintaining ritual purity,
teaching impulse control, encouraging obedience to God, improving health,
reducing cruelty to animals and preserving the distinctness of the Jewish community.[82] The various categories of dietary laws may have developed for different
reasons, and some may exist for multiple reasons. For example, people are
forbidden from consuming the blood of birds and mammals because, according to
the Torah, this is where animal souls are contained. In contrast, the Torah forbids Israelites from eating non-kosher species
because "they are unclean". The Kabbalah describes
sparks of holiness that are released by the act of eating kosher foods, but are
too tightly bound in non-kosher foods to be released by eating.
Survival concerns supersede all
the laws of kashrut, as they do
for most halakhot.
Laws of ritual purity
The Tanakh describes
circumstances in which a person who is tahor or ritually pure may become tamei or ritually impure. Some of these circumstances are contact with human corpses or graves, seminal flux, vaginal flux, menstruation, and contact with people who have
become impure from any of these. In Rabbinic
Judaism, Kohanim, members of the hereditary caste that served as priests in the time of
the Temple, are mostly restricted from entering grave sites and touching dead
bodies.
Family purity
An important subcategory of the
ritual purity laws relates to the segregation of menstruating women. These laws are also known as niddah, literally
"separation", or family purity. Vital aspects of halakha for
traditionally observant Jews, they are not usually followed by Jews in liberal
denominations.
Especially in Orthodox Judaism, the
Biblical laws are augmented by Rabbinical injunctions. For example, the Torah mandates that a
woman in her normal menstrual period must abstain from sexual intercourse for seven days. A woman whose menstruation is prolonged must continue to
abstain for seven more days after bleeding has stopped. The Rabbis conflated ordinary niddah with this extended menstrual period, known in the Torah as zavah, and mandated that a woman may
not have sexual intercourse with her husband from the time
she begins her menstrual flow until
seven days after it ends. In addition, Rabbinical law forbids the husband from touching
or sharing a bed with his wife during this period. Afterwards, purification can
occur in a ritual bath called a mikveh
Traditional Ethiopian Jews keep menstruating women in separate huts and, similar to Karaite practice, do not allow menstruating
women into their temples because of a
temple's special sanctity. Emigration to Israel and the influence of other Jewish denominations have led to Ethiopian Jews
adopting more normative Jewish practices.
Life-cycle events
Life-cycle events, or rites of passage, occur
throughout a Jew's life that serve to strengthen Jewish identity and bind
him/her to the entire community.
§
Brit milah - Welcoming male babies into the covenant through the rite of circumcision on their eighth day of life. The baby boy is also given his Hebrew name in
the ceremony. A naming ceremony intended as a parallel ritual for girls, named zeved habat or brit bat, enjoys limited popularity.
§
Bar mitzvah and Bat
mitzvah - This passage
from childhood to adulthood takes place when a female Jew is twelve and a male
Jew is thirteen years old among Orthodox and some Conservative congregations.
In the Reform movement, both girls and boys have their bat/bar mitzvah at age
thirteen. This is often commemorated by having the new adults, male only in the
Orthodox tradition, lead the congregation in prayer and publicly read a
"portion" of the Torah.
§
Marriage - Marriage is an extremely important lifecycle event. A wedding takes place
under a chupah, or wedding
canopy, which symbolizes a happy house. At the end of the ceremony, the groom
breaks a glass with his foot, symbolizing the continuous mourning for the
destruction of the Temple, and the scattering of the Jewish people.
§
Death and Mourning - Judaism has a multi-staged mourning practice. The
first stage is called the shiva (literally
"seven", observed for one week) during which it is traditional to sit
at home and be comforted by friends and family, the second is the shloshim (observed for
one month) and for those who have lost one of their parents, there is a third
stage, avelut yud bet
chodesh, which is observed for eleven months.
Community leadership
Classical priesthood
The role of the priesthood in
Judaism has significantly diminished since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, when priests attended to the Temple and sacrifices. The
priesthood is an inherited position, and although priests no longer have any
but ceremonial duties, they are still honored in many Jewish communities. Many
Orthodox Jewish communities believe that they will be needed again for a future Third Temple and need to remain in readiness for future duty.
§
Kohen (priest) - patrilineal descendant of Aaron,
brother of Moses.
In the Temple, the kohanim were charged with performing the sacrifices. Today, a Kohen is the first
one called up at the reading of the Torah, performs the Priestly Blessing, as well
as complying with other unique laws and ceremonies, including the ceremony of
redemption of the first-born.
§
Levi (Levite)
- Patrilineal descendant of Levi the son of Jacob.
In the Temple in Jerusalem, the
levites sang Psalms,
performed construction, maintenance, janitorial, and guard duties, assisted the
priests, and sometimes interpreted the law and Temple ritual to the public.
Today, a Levite is called up second to the reading of the Torah.
Prayer leaders
From the time of the Mishnah and Talmud to the present,
Judaism has required specialists or authorities for the practice of very few
rituals or ceremonies. A Jew can fulfill most requirements for prayer by
himself. Some activities—reading the Torah and haftarah (a supplementary portion from the Prophets or Writings), the prayer for
mourners, the blessings for bridegroom and bride, the complete grace after
meals—require a minyan, the presence
of ten Jews.
The most common professional
clergy in a synagogue are:
§
Rabbi of a congregation - Jewish scholar who is charged with answering the legal
questions of a congregation. This role requires ordination by the congregation's
preferred authority (i.e. from a respected Orthodox rabbi or, if the
congregation is Conservative or Reform, from academic seminaries). A
congregation does not necessarily require a rabbi. Some congregations have a
rabbi but also allow members of the congregation to act as shatz or baal kriyah (see below).
§
Hassidic Rebbe - rabbi who is
the head of a Hasidic dynasty.
§
Hazzan (note: the "h" denotes voiceless pharyngeal
fricative) (cantor) - a trained vocalist who acts as shatz. Chosen for a good voice, knowledge of traditional tunes, understanding of
the meaning of the prayers and sincerity in reciting them. A congregation does
not need to have a dedicated hazzan.
Jewish prayer services do involve
two specified roles, which are sometimes, but not always, filled by a rabbi
and/or hazzan in many congregations. In other congregations these roles are
filled on an ad-hoc basis by members of the congregation who lead portions of
services on a rotating basis:
§
Shaliach tzibur
or Shatz (leader—literally "agent" or "representative"—of the
congregation) leads those assembled in prayer, and sometimes prays on behalf of
the community. When a shatz recites a prayer on behalf of the congregation, he is not acting as an
intermediary but rather as a facilitator. The entire congregation participates
in the recital of such prayers by saying amen at their conclusion; it is with this act that the shatz's prayer becomes
the prayer of the congregation. Any adult capable of reciting the prayers
clearly may act as shatz. In Orthodox
congregations and some Conservative congregations, only men can be prayer
leaders, but all Progressive communities now allow women to serve in this function.
§
The Baal kriyah
or baal koreh (master of the reading) reads the weekly Torah portion. The
requirements for being the baal kriyah are the same as those for the shatz. These roles
are not mutually exclusive. The same person is often qualified to fill more
than one role, and often does. Often there are several people capable of
filling these roles and different services (or parts of services) will be led
by each.
Many congregations, especially
larger ones, also rely on a:
§
Gabbai (sexton) - Calls people up to the Torah, appoints the shatz for each prayer
session if there is no standard shatz, and makes
certain that the synagogue is kept clean and supplied.
The three preceding positions are
usually voluntary and considered an honor. Since the Enlightenment large synagogues have often adopted the practice of hiring rabbis and
hazzans to act as shatz and baal kriyah, and this is
still typically the case in many Conservative and Reform congregations.
However, in most Orthodox synagogues these positions are filled by laypeople on
a rotating or ad-hoc basis. Although most congregations hire one or more
Rabbis, the use of a professional hazzan is generally declining in American
congregations, and the use of professionals for other offices is rarer still.
Specialized religious roles
§
Dayan (judge) - An ordained rabbi with special legal training who belongs to a beth din (rabbinical court). In Israel, religious courts handle marriage and divorce
cases, conversion and financial disputes in the Jewish community.
§
Mohel (circumciser) - An expert in the laws of circumcision who has received
training from a previously qualified mohel and performs the brit milah (circumcision).
§
Shochet (ritual
slaughterer) - In order for meat to be kosher, it must be slaughtered by a shochet who is an
expert in the laws of kashrut and has been trained by another shochet.
§
Sofer (scribe) - Torah scrolls, tefillin (phylacteries), mezuzot (scrolls put on doorposts), and gittin (bills of divorce) must be written by a sofer who is an
expert in Hebrew calligraphy and has undergone rigorous training in the laws of
writing sacred texts.
§
Rosh yeshiva - A Torah scholar who runs a yeshiva.
§
Mashgiach of a yeshiva -
Depending on which yeshiva, might either be the person responsible for ensuring
attendance and proper conduct, or even supervise the emotional and spiritual
welfare of the students and give lectures on mussar (Jewish ethics).
§
Mashgiach - Supervises
manufacturers of kosher food, importers, caterers and restaurants to ensure
that the food is kosher. Must be an expert in the laws of kashrut and trained by
a rabbi, if not a rabbi himself.
History
Origins
At its core, the Tanakh is an
account of the Israelites' relationship with God from their
earliest history until the building of the Second Temple (c. 535 BCE). Abraham is hailed as
the first Hebrew and the father
of the Jewish people. As a reward for his act of faith in one God, he was
promised that Isaac,
his second son, would inherit the Land of Israel (then called Canaan).
Later, Jacob and his children were enslaved in Egypt, and God commanded Moses to lead the Exodus from Egypt. At Mount Sinai they received the Torah - the five books of Moses. These books, together with Nevi'im and Ketuvim are known as Torah Shebikhtav as opposed to
the Oral Torah, which refers to the Mishna and the
Talmud. Eventually, God led them to the land of Israel where the tabernacle was planted in the city of Shiloh for over 300 years to rally the nation against attacking enemies. As time
went on, the spiritual level of the nation declined to the point that God
allowed the Philistines to capture the tabernacle. The people of Israel then told Samuel the prophet that they
needed to be governed by a permanent king, and Samuel appointed Saul to be their
King. When the people pressured Saul into going against a command conveyed to
him by Samuel, God told Samuel to appoint David in his stead.
Once King David was established,
he told the prophet Nathan that he would
like to build a permanent temple, and as a reward for his actions, God promised
David that he would allow his son, Solomon, to build the first permanent temple and the throne would never depart from his children.
Rabbinic tradition holds that the
details and interpretation of the law, which are called the Oral Torah or oral law, were
originally an unwritten tradition based upon what God told Moses on Mount
Sinai. However, as the persecutions of the Jews increased and the details were
in danger of being forgotten, these oral laws were recorded by Rabbi Judah haNasi (Judah the Prince) in the Mishnah, redactedcirca 200 CE. The Talmud was a compilation of both the Mishnah and the Gemara, rabbinic commentaries redacted over the
next three centuries. The Gemara originated in two major centers of Jewish
scholarship, Palestine and Babylonia.
Correspondingly, two bodies of analysis developed, and two works of Talmud were
created. The older compilation is called the Jerusalem Talmud. It was
compiled sometime during the 4th century in Israel. The Babylonian Talmud was
compiled from discussions in the houses of study by the scholars Ravina I, Ravina II, and Rav Ashi by 500 CE,
although it continued to be edited later.
Some critical scholars oppose the
view that the sacred texts, including the Hebrew Bible,
were divinely inspired. Many of these scholars accept the general principles of
the documentary
hypothesis and suggest
that the Torah consists of inconsistent texts edited together in a way that calls attention
to divergent accounts. Many suggest
that during the First Temple period, the people of Israel believed that each
nation had its own god, but that their god was superior to other gods. Some suggest that strict monotheism developed during the Babylonian Exile,
perhaps in reaction to Zoroastrian dualism. In this view,
it was only by the Hellenic period that most Jews came to believe that their god was the only god, and that
the notion of a clearly bounded Jewish nation identical with the Jewish
religion formed.[
John Day argues that the origins of biblical Yahweh, El, Asherah, and Ba'al, may be rooted in earlier Canaanite religion, which
was centered on a pantheon of gods much like the Greek Pantheon.
Antiquity
The United Monarchy was established under Saul and continued
under King David and Solomon with its
capital in Jerusalem. After Solomon's reign the nation
split into two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Israel (in the north) and the Kingdom of Judah (in the south). The Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrian ruler Sargon II in the late 8th
century BCE with many people from the capital Samaria being taken captive to
Media and the Khabur River valley. The Kingdom of Judah continued as an independent state until it was conquered by a Babylonian
army in the early 6th century BCE, destroying the First Temple that was at the center of ancient Jewish worship. The Judean elite were
exiled to Babylonia and this is
regarded as the first Jewish Diaspora. Later many of them returned to their
homeland after the subsequent conquest of Babylonia by the Persiansseventy years later, a period known as
the Babylonian Captivity. A
new Second Temple was constructed, and old religious practices were resumed.
During the early years of the
Second Temple, the highest religious authority was a council known as the Great
Assembly, led by Ezra of the Book of Ezra. Among other accomplishments of the
Great Assembly, the last books of the Bible were written at this time and the
canon sealed.
Hellenistic Judaism spread to Ptolemaic Egypt from the 3rd century BCE. After the Great Revolt (66–73 CE), the Romans destroyed the Temple. Hadrian built a pagan
idol on the Temple grounds and prohibited circumcision; these acts of ethnocide
provoked the Bar Kokhba revolt 132–136 CE after which the Romans banned the study of the Torah and the
celebration of Jewish holidays, and forcibly removed virtually all Jews from
Judea. In 200 CE, however, Jews were granted Roman citizenship and Judaism was
recognized as a religio licita ("legitimate religion"), until the rise ofGnosticism and Early Christianity in in the fourth century.
Following the destruction of
Jerusalem and the expulsion of the Jews, Jewish worship stopped being centrally
organized around the Temple, prayer took the place of sacrifice, and worship
was rebuilt around the community (represented by a minimum of ten adult men)
and the establishment of the authority of rabbis who acted as teachers and
leaders of individual communities (see Jewish diaspora).
Historical Jewish groupings (to 1700)
Around the 1st century CE there
were several small Jewish sects: the Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, Essenes, and Christians. After the
destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, these sects vanished. Christianity survived, but by breaking with Judaism and becoming a separate religion;
the Pharisees survived but in
the form of Rabbinic Judaism (today, known simply as "Judaism"). The Sadducees rejected the divine inspiration of the Prophets and the Writings, relying only on the Torah as divinely
inspired. Consequently, a number of other core tenets of the Pharisees' belief
system (which became the basis for modern Judaism), were also dismissed by the
Sadducees. (The Samaritans practiced a similar religion, which is traditionally considered separate
from Judaism.)
Like the Sadducees who relied
only on the Torah, some Jews in the 8th and 9th centuries rejected the
authority and divine inspiration of the oral law as recorded in
the Mishnah (and developed
by later rabbis in the two Talmuds),
relying instead only upon the Tanakh.
These included the Isunians, the Yudganites, the Malikites, and others. They soon developed oral
traditions of their own, which differed from the rabbinic traditions, and
eventually formed the Karaite sect. Karaites
exist in small numbers today, mostly living in Israel. Rabbinical and Karaite
Jews each hold that the others are Jews, but that the other faith is erroneous.
Over a long time, Jews formed
distinct ethnic groups in several different geographic areas — amongst others,
the Ashkenazi Jews (of central and Eastern Europe), the Sephardi Jews (of Spain, Portugal, and North Africa), the Beta Israel of Ethiopia, and the Yemenite Jews from the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Many of these groups have
developed differences in their prayers, traditions and accepted canons; however
these distinctions are mainly the result of their being formed at some cultural
distance from normative (rabbinic) Judaism, rather than based on any doctrinal
dispute.
Persecutions
Antisemitism arose during the Middle Ages, in the form of persecutions, pogroms, forced conversion, expulsions, social
restrictions and ghettoization.
This was different in quality to
any repressions of Jews in ancient times. Ancient repression was politically
motivated and Jews were treated no differently than any other ethnic group
would have been. With the rise of the Churches, attacks on Jews became
motivated instead by theological considerations specifically deriving from
Christian views about Jews and Judaism.
Hasidism
Hasidic Judaism was founded by Yisroel ben
Eliezer (1700–1760),
also known as the Ba'al Shem Tov (or Besht). It
originated in a time of persecution of the Jewish people, when European Jews
had turned inward to Talmud study; many felt that most expressions of Jewish
life had become too "academic", and that they no longer had any
emphasis on spirituality or joy. His disciples attracted many followers; they
themselves established numerous Hasidic sects across Europe. Hasidic Judaism
eventually became the way of life for many Jews in Europe. Waves of Jewish
immigration in the 1880s carried it to the United States. The movement itself
claims to be nothing new, but a refreshment of original Judaism. Or as some have put it: "they merely re-emphasized that which the generations had lost". Nevertheless, early on there was a serious schism between Hasidic and
non-Hasidic Jews. European Jews who rejected the Hasidic movement were dubbed
by the Hasidim as Misnagdim, (lit. "opponents"). Some
of the reasons for the rejection of Hasidic Judaism were the overwhelming
exuberance of Hasidic worship, its untraditional ascriptions of infallibility
and alleged miracle-working to their leaders, and the concern that it might
become a messianic sect. Since then differences between the Hasidim and their
opponents have slowly diminished and both groups are now considered part of Haredi Judaism.
The Enlightenment and new religious movements
In the late 18th century CE,
Europe was swept by a group of intellectual, social and political movements
known as the Enlightenment. The
Enlightenment led to reductions in the European laws that prohibited Jews to
interact with the wider secular world, thus allowing Jews access to secular
education and experience. A parallel Jewish movement, Haskalah or the
"Jewish Enlightenment", began, especially in Central Europe and Western Europe, in response to both the
Enlightenment and these new freedoms. It placed an emphasis on integration with
secular society and a pursuit of non-religious knowledge through reason. With
the promise of political emancipation many Jews saw no reason to continue to
observe Jewish law and increasing numbers of Jews assimilated into Christian
Europe. Modern religious movements of Judaism all formed in reaction to this
trend.
In Central Europe, followed by Great Britain and the United States, Reform Judaism and Liberal Judaism developed, relaxing legal obligations (especially those that limited Jewish
relations with non-Jews), emulating Protestant decorum in prayer, and emphasizing the ethical values of Judaism's
Prophetic tradition. Modern Orthodox
Judaism developed in
reaction to Reform Judaism, by leaders who argued that Jews could participate
in public life as citizens equal to Christians, while maintaining the
observance of Jewish law. Meanwhile, in the United States, wealthy Reform Jews
helped European scholars, who were Orthodox in practice but critical (and
skeptical) in their study of the Bible and Talmud, to establish a seminary to
train rabbis for immigrants from Eastern Europe. These left-wing Orthodox
rabbis were joined by right-wing Reform rabbis who felt that Jewish law should
not be entirely abandoned, to form the Conservative movement.
Orthodox Jews who opposed the Haskalah formed Haredi Orthodox
Judaism. After massive movements of Jews following The Holocaust and the creation of the state of
Israel, these movements have competed for followers from among
traditional Jews in or from other countries.
Spectrum of observance
Countries such as the United States, Israel, Canada, United Kingdom, Argentina and South Africa contain large Jewish populations. Jewish religious practice varies widely
through all levels of observance. According to the 2001 edition of theNational Jewish
Population Survey, in the United States' Jewish community—the
world's second largest—4.3 million Jews out of 5.1 million had some sort of
connection to the religion. Of that population of connected Jews, 80%
participated in some sort of Jewish religious observance, but only 48% belonged
to a synagogue, and fewer than 16% attend regularly.[104]
Birth rates for American Jews
have dropped from 2.0 to 1.7.(Replacement rate is 2.1.) Intermarriage rates range from 40-50% in the US,
and only about a third of children of intermarried couples are raised as Jews.
Due to intermarriage and low birth rates, the Jewish population in the US
shrank from 5.5 million in 1990 to 5.1 million in 2001. This is indicative of
the general population trends among the Jewish community in the Diaspora, but a focus on total population
obscures growth trends in some denominations and communities, such as Haredi Judaism. The Baal teshuva movement is a movement of Jews who have "returned" to religion or
become more observant.
Judaism and other religions
Christianity and Judaism
See also: Judeo-Christian, Christianity and
antisemitism, Judaism's view of
Jesus, Cultural and
historical background of Jesus, and Christian-Jewish
reconciliation
Historians and theologians
regularly review the changing relationship between some Christian groups and the
Jewish people; the article on Christian-Jewish
reconciliation studies one
recent issue.
Islam and Judaism
See also: History of
the Jews under Muslim rule and Islam and
antisemitism
The relationship between Islam and Judaism is
special and close. Both religions claim to arise from the patriarch Abraham, and are therefore considered Abrahamic religions. As
fellow monotheists, Muslims view Jews as
"people of the book",
a term that Jews have subsequently adopted as a way of describing their own
connection to the Torah and other holy texts. In turn, many
Jews maintain that Muslims adhere to the Seven Laws of Noah. Thus,
Judaism views Muslims as righteous people of God. Jews have interacted with Muslims since the 7th century, when Islamoriginated and spread in the Arabian peninsula, and
many aspects of Islam's core values, structure, jurisprudence and practice are
based on Judaism. Muslim culture and philosophy have heavily influenced practitioners of Judaism in
the Islamic world.
In premodern Muslim countries,
Jews rarely faced martyrdom, exile or forcible conversion, and
were mostly free in their choice of residence and profession Indeed, the years 712 to 1066 CE under the Ummayad and the Abbasid rulers have
been called the Golden age of
Jewish culture in Spain. Non-Muslim monotheists living in these
countries, including Jews, were known as dhimmis. Dhimmis were allowed to practice their
religion and to administer their internal affairs, but they were subject to
certain restrictions that were not imposed on Muslims. For example, they had to pay the jizya,
a per capita tax imposed on free adult non-Muslim males, and they were also forbidden to bear arms or testify in court cases
involving Muslims. Many of the
laws regarding dhimmis were highly symbolic. For example, dhimmis in some
countries were required to weardistinctive clothing, a practice not found in
either the Qur'an or hadiths but invented in early medieval Baghdad and
inconsistently enforced. Jews in Muslim countries were not entirely free from persecution—for
example, many were killed, exiled or forcibly converted in the 12th century, inPersia and by the rulers of the Almohad dynasty in
North Africa and Al-Andalus. At times, Jews were also restricted in their choice of residence—in Morocco, Jews were confined to walled quarters
(mellahs) beginning in the 15th century and
increasingly since the early 19th century.
In the late 20th century, Jews
were expelled from nearly all the Arab countries. Most have chosen to live in Israel. Today, antisemitic themes have become
commonplace in the propaganda of Arab Islamic movements such as Hizbullah and Hamas, in the pronouncements of various
agencies of the Islamic Republic of
Iran, and even in the newspapers and other publications of Refah Partisi.
Syncretic movements incorporating Judaism
There are some movements that
combine elements of Judaism with those of other religions. The most well-known
of these is Messianic Judaism, which arose in the 1960s.
It blends evangelical Christian theology with elements of Jewish terminology and ritual. The movement states that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, and generally that he is part of the Trinity, and salvation is only
achieved through acceptance of Jesus as one's savior. Some members of the movement are ethnically Jewish, and some of them argue
that Messianic Judaism is a sect of Judaism. Jewish organizations and religious movements
reject this, stating that Messianic Judaism is a Christian sect.
Other examples of syncretism include Judeo-Paganists, a loosely organized set of
Jews who incorporate pagan or Wiccan beliefs with some Jewish religious practices, like Messianic Judaism; Jewish Buddhists, another
loosely organized group that incorporates elements of Asian spirituality in
their faith; and some Renewal Jews who borrow freely and openly from Buddhism, Sufism, Native
American religion, and
other faiths.
The Kabbalah Centre, which
employs teachers from multiple religions, is a New Age movement that
claims to popularize the kabbalah, the Jewish esoteric tradition.
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