Judaism Today

An Introduction

Dan Cohn-Sherbok

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781441112200
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Jewish Theology

For nearly four millennia Judaism was essentially a unified religious system based on shared traditions. Despite the emergence of various sub-groups through the centuries such as the Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, Karaites, Shabbateans and Hasadim, Jewry was united in the belief in a providential God who had chosen the Jews as his special people and given them a code of law. In the modern period, however, the Jewish religion has fragmented into a series of separate denominations with competing ideologies and theological views. Despite the creation of the State of Israel, the Jewish people are deeply divided concerning the most fundamental issues of belief and practice. Judaism Today gives an account of the nature of traditional Judaism, provides an introduction to the various divisions that currently exist in the Jewish world and identifies and discusses contemporary issues with which the Jewish faith engages in the twenty-first century. This refreshing new approach focuses on how Judaism is actually perceived and practised by Jews themselves and the problems currently facing Jews worldwide.

Chapter 1

The Basics

According to tradition, the beginnings of the Jewish nation stemmed from God’s revelation to Abraham at the beginning of the second millennium BCE. Known as Abram, he came from Ur of the Chaldeans, a Sumerian city of Mesopotamia. The Book of Genesis recounts that God called him to go to the land of Canaan: ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation’ (Genesis 12:1–2). The Hebrew Bible traces the history of this tribe from patriarchal times to the Exodus from Egypt several centuries later, and eventually the conquest of the land of Canaan by Joshua in about 1200 BCE. In later books of the Bible, the period of the judges, the rise of the monarchy, the emergence of the prophets, and the eventual destruction of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms are described in detail. With the growth of rabbinic Judaism in the Hellenistic period, the Jewish faith underwent a fundamental change that profoundly transformed Jewish life until the present. This long history of the Jewish people – stretching back over nearly forty centuries – provides the historical framework for the central beliefs and practices of the Jewish religion.

The Fundamental Beliefs

1. The Unity of God: Throughout the history of the Jewish people, the belief in one God has served as the cardinal principle of the faith. From biblical times to the present, Jews daily recite the Shema prayer: ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.’ According to Scripture, God alone is to be worshipped. Continuing this tradition, the sages of the early rabbinic period stressed that any form of polytheistic belief is abhorrent. For thousands of years, Jews have proclaimed their belief and trust in the one God who created the universe and rules over creation. Such a claim is unconditional and absolute.

The Prophet Isaiah

In the sixth century BCE the prophet Isaiah proclaimed his conviction in the one true God:

I am the Lord, and there is no other,
besides me there is no God …
I form light and create darkness,
I make weal and create woe,
I the Lord do all these things. (Isaiah 45:5a, 7)

2. Creation: According to Genesis 1, God created Heaven and Earth. This belief is a central feature of the synagogue service. In the synagogue hymn before the reading from the Psalms, for example, God is depicted as the creator of everything:

Blessed be He who spoke, and the world existed:
Blessed be He;
Blessed be He who was the master of the world in the beginning.¹

In rabbinic literature scholars speculated about the nature of the creative process. In Genesis Rabbah (midrash on Genesis) for example, the idea of the world as a pattern in the mind of God is expressed in relation to the belief that God looked into the Torah and created the world. Here the Torah is conceived as a type of blueprint. In the Middle Ages, a number of Jewish theologians believed that God created the universe ex nihilo. The kabbalists, however, interpreted the doctrine of ex nihilo in a special sense. God, they maintained, should be understood as the Divine Nothing because, as He is in and of himself, nothing can be predicated. The Divine is beyond human understanding. Creation ex nihilo thus refers to the creation of the universe out of God, the Divine Nothing. This occurred, they argued, through a series of divine emanations.

3. Divine Transcendence and Immanence: For Jews, God is conceived as the transcendent creator of the Universe. Thus in Genesis 1:1–2, He is described as forming heaven and earth. Throughout Scripture this theme of divine transcendence is repeatedly affirmed. In the rabbinic period Jewish scholars formulated the doctrine of the Shekhinah to denote the divine presence. Later in the Middle Ages the doctrine of the Shekhinah was further elaborated. According to the ninth-century scholar Saadiah Gaon, the Shekhinah is identical with the glory of God, which serves as an intermediary between God and human beings during the prophetic encounter. In kabbalistic writings the Shekhinah also played an important role. As the divine power closest to the created world, the Shekhinah is the medium through which divine light passes.

Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev

The song of the nineteenth-century Hasidic master, Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev, is characteristic of Jewish belief through the ages to the present:

Where I wander – You!

Where I ponder – You!

Only you. You again, always You!

You! You! You!

When I am gladdened – You!

When I am saddened – You!

Only You. You again, always You!

You! You! You!²

4. Eternity: Throughout Scripture God is described as having neither beginning nor end. This biblical teaching was later elaborated by the rabbis. According to the Talmud there is an unbridgeable gap between God and human beings. In midrashic sources God’s eternal reign is similarly affirmed. Thus when Pharaoh was told by Moses and Aaron in the name of God to let the people go, Pharaoh declared that God’s name is not found in the list of gods. In reply Moses and Aaron declared: O fool! The dead can be sought among the living but how can the living be sought among the dead. Our God lives, but those you mention are dead. Our God is “the living God and the everlasting King”’ (Jeremiah 10:10). In response Pharaoh asked whether this God was young or old, how old he was, how many cities he had conquered, how many provinces he had subdued, and how long he had been king. In reply Moses and Aaron proclaimed: ‘The Power and might of our God fill the world. He was before the world was created and He will be when all the world comes to an end, and He has created thee and gave thee the spirit of life.’

5. Omnipotence and Omniscience: From biblical times the belief in God’s omnipotence has been a central feature. Thus in the Book of Genesis, when Sarah expressed astonishment at the suggestion she should have a child at the age of 90, she was criticized: ‘The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say ‘Shall I indeed bear a child now that I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord?”’ (Genesis 18:13–14). Paralleling this belief, Jews throughout the ages have affirmed that God is all-knowing. Following the biblical view, rabbinic Judaism asserted that God’s knowledge is not limited by space and time. Rather, nothing is hidden from him.

Exodus Rabbah

According to the midrash, God is capable not only of doing everything, but of doing so simultaneously:

God spoke all these things saying (Exodus 20:1). God can do everything simultaneously. He kills and makes alive at one and the same movement; He strikes and heals; the prayer of the woman in travail, of them who are upon the sea or in the desert, or who are bound in the prison; He hears them all at once; whether men are in the east or west, north or south, He hearkens to all at once.³

6. Providence: In the Bible, the notion that God controls and guides the universe is an essential belief. According to Scripture, there are two types of providence: (1) general providence – God provision for the world in general; and (2) special providence – God’s care for each individual. God’s general providence was manifest in his freeing the ancient Israelites from Egyptian bondage and guiding them to the Promised Land. The belief in the unfolding of his plan for salvation is a further illustration of such providential care for his creatures. Linked to this concern for all is God’s providential concern for every person. In the words of Jeremiah: ‘I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps (Jeremiah 10:23). Subsequently, the doctrine of divine providence was elaborated in rabbinic sources. The Mishnah declares: ‘Everything is foreseen.’ In the Talmud we read: ‘No man suffers so much as the injury of a finger when it has been decreed in heaven.’

7. Divine Goodness: ‘According to the Hebrew Bible, God is the all-good ruler of the universe. In rabbinic literature, He has chosen Israel as his messenger to all peoples – as creator and redeemer, He is the father to all. Such affirmations about God’s goodness have given rise to intense speculation about the mystery of evil. In Scripture the authors of Job and Ecclesiastes explored the question why the righteous suffer, and this quest continued into the rabbinic period. Yet it was not until the Middle Ages that Jewish thinkers began to wrestle with the philosophical perplexities connected with the existence of evil. For the kabbalists, the existence of human suffering constituted a central problem of the Jewish faith. According to one tradition, evil has no objective reality. Human beings are unable to receive all the influx from the sefirot (divine emanations), and it is this inability that is the origin of evil. Another view depicts the sefirah (divine emanation) of power as an attribute whose name is evil. On the basis of such a teaching, Isaac the Blind in the thirteenth century concluded that there must be a positive root of evil and death.

8. Revelation: According to tradition, the entire Torah (Five Books of Moses) was communicated by God to the Jewish people. In the twelfth century the Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides formulated this belief as one of the cardinal principles of the faith:

The Torah was revealed from Heaven. This implies our belief that the whole of the Torah found in our hands this day is the Torah that was handed down by Moses, and that it is all of divine origin. By this I mean that the whole of the Torah came unto him from before God in a manner which is metaphorically called ‘speaking’; but the real nature of that communication is unknown to everybody except to Moses to whom it came.⁴

In rabbinic literature a distinction is drawn between the revelation of the Five Books of Moses and the prophetic writings. This is expressed by saying that the Torah was given directly by God, whereas the prophetic books were given by means of prophecy. The remaining books of the Bible were conveyed by means of the Holy Spirit rather than through prophecy. Nonetheless, all these writings constitute the canon of Scripture. According to the rabbis, the expositions and elaborations of the Written Law were also revealed by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. Subsequently, they were passed on from generation to generation, and through this process additional legislation was incorporated. Thus traditional Judaism affirms that God’s revelation was twofold and binding for all time.

9. Torah and Commandments: According to tradition, God revealed 613 commandments (mitzvot) to Moses on Mount Sinai; they are recorded in the Five Books of Moses. These prescriptions, which are to be observed as part of God’s covenant with Israel, are classified in two major categories: (1) statutes concerned with ritual performances characterized as obligations between human beings and God; and (2) judgements consisting of ritual laws that would have been adopted by society even if they had not been decreed by God (such as laws regarding murder and theft). These 613 commandments consist of 365 negative (prohibited) and 248 positive (duties to be performed) prescriptions.

Traditional Judaism maintains that Moses received the Oral Torah in addition to the Written Law. This was passed down from generation to generation and was the subject of rabbinic debate. The first authoritative compilation of the Oral Law was the Mishnah composed by Judah Ha-Nasi in the second century CE. In subsequent centuries sages continued to discuss the content of Jewish law: their deliberations are recorded in the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds. Subsequently, rabbinic authorities continued the development of Jewish law by issuing answers to specific questions. In time various scholars felt the need to produce codes of Jewish law so that all members of the community would have access to the legal tradition.

10. Sin and Repentance: In the Bible, sin is understood as a transgression of God’s decree. According to rabbinic Judaism, sins can be classified according to their gravity as indicated by the punishments prescribed by biblical law. The more serious the punishment, the more serious the offence. A distinction is also drawn between sins against other human beings and offences against God alone. Sins against God can be atoned for by repentance, prayer, and giving charity. In cases of offence against others, however, such acts require restitution and placation as a condition for atonement.

Yom Kippur

On the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) the faithful are to repent of their sins and ask God for forgiveness:

Our God and God of our fathers, hear our prayer; do not ignore our plea. We are neither so brazen nor so arrogant to claim that we are righteous, without sin, for indeed we have sinned.

We abuse, we betray, we are cruel. We destroy, we embitter, we falsify. We gossip, we hate, we insult. We jeer, we kill, we lie. We mock, we neglect, we oppress. We pervert, we quarrel, we rebel. We steal, we transgress, we are unkind. We are violent, we are wicked, we are xenophobic. We yield to evil, we are zealots for bad causes … May it therefore be your will, Lord our God and God of our fathers, to forgive us all our sins, to pardon our iniquities, to grant us atonement for all our transgressions.⁵

11. Chosen People: The concept of Israel as God’s chosen people has been a constant feature of Jewish thought from biblical times to the present. Through its election Israel has been given a historic mission to bear divine truth to humanity. Divine choice demands reciprocal response. Israel is obligated to keep God’s statutes and observe his laws. In doing so, the nation will be able to persuade the nations of the world that there is only one universal God. Israel is to be a prophet to the nations, in that it will bring them to salvation. In rabbinic sources the biblical doctrine of the chosen people is a constant theme. While upholding the belief that God chose the Jews from all peoples, the rabbis argued that their election was due to an acceptance of the Torah. According to the rabbis, there is a special relationship between the children of Israel and God based on love – this is the basis of the allegorical interpretations in rabbinic sources of the Song of Songs and it is also expressed in the Talmud by such sayings as: ‘How beloved is Israel before the Holy One, blessed be He; for wherever they were exiled the Shekhinah (divine presence) was with them.’ Rabbinic literature also emphasizes that God’s election of the Jewish people is due to the character of the nation and of the patriarchs in particular; according to the Talmud, mercy and forgiveness are characteristic of Abraham and his descendants.

Prayer Book

The Kiddush prayer for the Sabbath refers to God’s choice of Israel as his people:

Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, king of the universe, who has hallowed us by thy commandments and hast taken pleasure in us, and in love and favour hast given us thy holy Sabbath as an inheritance, a memorial of the creation – that day being also the first of the holy convocations, in remembrance of the departure from Egypt. For thou hast chosen us and hallowed us above all nations, and in love and favour hast given us thy holy Sabbath as an inheritance. Blessed art thou, O Lord, who hallowest the Sabbath.⁶

12. Promised Land: Throughout their history the Jewish people have longed for a land of their own. In Genesis God called Abraham to travel to Canaan, where he promised to make him a great nation. This same declaration was made to his grandson Jacob who, after wrestling with God’s messenger, was renamed Israel (meaning ‘he who struggles with God’). After Jacob’s son Joseph became a vizier in Egypt, the Israelite clan settled in Egypt for several hundred years. Eventually Moses led them out of Egyptian bondage, and the people settled in the Promised Land. There they established a monarchy but, due to the corruption of the nation, God punished his chosen people through the instrument of foreign powers, which devastated the Northern Kingdom in the eighth century BCE and the Southern Kingdom two centuries later.

Though the Temple lay in ruins and Jerusalem was destroyed, Jews who had been exiled to Babylonia had not lost their faith in God. Sustained by their belief that God would deliver them from exile, a number of Jews sought permission to return to their former home. In 538 BCE King Cyrus of Persia allowed them to leave, and under the leadership of Joshua and Zerubbabel restoration of the Temple began. Centuries later, however, the Temple was destroyed by the Romans and the Jews were bereft of a homeland. The glories of ancient Israel had come to an end, and the Jews were destined to live among the nations. In their despair the nation longed for a messianic figure of the House of David who would lead them back to Zion. Basing their beliefs on prophecies in Scripture, they foresaw a period of redemption in which earthly life would be transformed and all nations would bow down to the one true God. Such a vision animated rabbinic reflection about God’s providential plan for his chosen people.

Psalms of Solomon

The Psalms of Solomon extol the messianic king who will rebuild the land and draw all nations to Zion:

He shall gather together a holy people whom he shall lead in righteousness. And he shall judge the tribes of the people that has been sanctified by the Lord his God … And he shall divide them according to their tribes upon the land. And neither sojourner nor alien shall sojourn with them any more. He shall judge peoples and nations in the wisdom of his righteousness. Selah. The people of the nations shall serve him under his yoke: He shall glorify the Lord openly in all the earth; And he shall purge Jerusalem making it holy as of old. So that nations shall come from all the ends of the earth to see his glory. (Psalms of Solomon 17:26, 28–31a)⁷

13. Prayer: According to the Jewish tra...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Dedication
• Preface
• Introduction: The Historical Background
• 1 The Basics
• 2 The Enlightenment and Modern Jewish Life
• 3 The Holocaust and the State of Israel
• 4 Modern Jewish Movements
• 5 Modern Challenges to Judaism
• 6 The Future of Judaism
• Appendix: Jews Worldwide
• Notes
• Select Readings
• Index