World Religions:Judaism BY: DERRICK AGHAMIOGIE, JOHN MARIANO, ROBERTO NUNEZ, JEFFREY VICK

What is Judaism

Judaism is one of the oldest monotheistic religions and was founded over 3500 years ago in the Middle East. The Jews can trace their origins back to Abraham.

Jews believe that God appointed the Jews to be his chosen people in order to set an example of holiness and ethical behavior to the world.

These chosen people( named Israelites) were given the sacred land of Israel.

Throughput history Jews have been major targets for discrimination and persecution.

Judaism: Biblical Period

The beginningGod calls Abraham to leave his country and to journey to a new land.

Abraham and his wife Sarah left Ur in Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan.

God promised the couple a son and that Abraham would be “Father to all Nations”.

God fulfilled his promise giving them a child which they named Isaac.

A covenant was also established between both Abraham and God. The sign of this covenant was the circumcision of the male.

Egypt OriginsIsaac married a woman named a woman named Rachel and together they had 2 sons named: Jacob and Esau.

Because Jacob tricked his blind father, he became the new head of the family not the elder, Esau.

Jacob fathered 12 sons, his favorite Joseph was sold to slavery by his brothers.

Joseph became a high ranking official in Egypt and invited his family to live in Egypt which they did.

Moses and the Exodus Generations and generations after Joseph, the Israelites have been enslaved by a new Pharaoh.

After pleading to God, the Lord sent someone to free them, a man named Moses.

Moses was told this by God in the form of a burning bush.

After plagues befell the Egyptians, the Israelites were set free.

However after being set free it took the Israelites 40 years to get back to the Promise Land.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG55ErfdaeY

0:52- 3:33

MEDIEVAL PERIODTHE MEDIEVAL PERIOD TOOK PLACE FROM ABOUT 638-1783. DURING THIS TIME JEWS BEGAN TO LIVE IN PLACES THEY HAD NEVER LIVED BEFORE SUCH AS WESTERN, EASTERN, AND CENTRAL, EUROPE; ASIA; AND THE ARABIAN PENINSULA. THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD WAS MOSTLY MARKED BY JEWISH PERSECUTION. ANOTHER MONOTHEISTIC , ISLAM, CAME OUT OF THE ARABIAN PENINSULA AND WAS IN COMPETITION WITH BOTH JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY. UNDER MUSLIM RULE, JEWS WERE A PROTECTED PEOPLE AS LONG AS THEY PAID A TAX FOR PROTECTION. THEY WERE ABLE TO WORSHIP AS THEY WISHED AS LONG AS THEIR SYNAGOGUES WERE NOT TALLER THAN MOSQUES. JEWS WERE CLEARLY TREATED AS SECOND CLASS CITIZENS. THERE WERE TIMES WHEN PROTECTION DID NOT HOLD AND THE MUSLIMS PERSECUTED THE JEWS.

FLOURISHING OF THE JEWS

• JEWS PLAYED A VERY LARGE PART IN EXPANSIONISM. A LARGE CLASS OF JEWISH MERCHANTS ROSE. AT THIS POINT, MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS WERE AT ODDS WITH EACH OTHER, AND JEWS PROVED TO BE GOOD MEDIATORS BETWEEN THEM. TRADE HAPPENED BETWEEN MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS INDIRECTLY THROUGH THE MEDIATION OF THE JEWS. THE JEWS OPENED UP MANY TRADE ROUTES BETWEEN THE EAST AND THE WEST. IT WAS SPAIN WHERE JEWS THRIVED THE MOST DURING THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD. JEWS EXCELLED IN SUCH WORKS AS SCIENCE, MEDICINE, PHILOSOPHY, METAL CRAFTS, AND TRADE.

THE PERSECUTIONFRENCH AND GERMAN CRUSADERS MARCHING TO JERUSALEM TO REGAIN THE HOLY LAND FROM THE MUSLIMS BURNED AND DESTROYED ALMOST ALL THE JEWISH COMMUNITIES ALONG THE RHINE RIVER, MURDERING THOUSANDS OF JEWS. OTHER JEWS, ALONG WITH MUSLIMS AND EASTERN CHRISTIANS, WERE KILLED WHEN THE BATTLE REACHED JERUSALEM IN 1099. IT WAS DURING THIS TIME THAT JEWS IN SOME AREAS OF EUROPE WERE FORCED TO WEAR SOME SORT OF CLOTHING AND LIVE IN AREAS OF A TOWN THAT WOULD DISTINGUISH THEM FROM NON-JEWS. DISTINGUISHING JEWS FROM OTHER MEMBERS OF SOCIETY AND DENYING THEM OWNERSHIP OF LAND WAS MEANT TO HUMILIATE THEM. THE VARIOUS PERSECUTIONS OF JEWS IN EUROPE DURING THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD LEFT THE MAJORITY OF JEWS IN GRIM POVERTY.

•HTTPS://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=2KJZKOSJ4AS

Origins: God rested on the 7th day of creation

Begins at sunset on Friday and lasts until sunset on Saturday

Jews are required to refrain from many activities: driving, answering the phone, turning on an electric light etc.

A day of worship and celebration

A time to study Torah and provide services

Special foods are prepared before the onset of the Sabbath

The traditional purpose of the Sabbath was a compassionate one: it was to allow everyone, even slaves and animals, regular rest.

Jewish New Year Is observed for two days A religious event

involving both festivities and serious contemplation

Reflection on the deeds of the past year and on the need for redemption

The shofar, ram’s horn, is blown

It produces a solemn tone of warning to remind people that they stand before God

A time to pay off debts

Day of atonement= community ritual To atone means to make up for one’s faults This day has traditionally been kept by

prayer and strict fasting, with no food or drink during the entire day

a day deeply personal and solemn It emphasizes repentance through confession

of sin Confessions are said as a group= Unity

Reminder of the harvest Festival of Booths (shelters) In early days it was common

for families to sleep outdoors in the fields during the autumn harvest season- which enabled them to begin work in

the fields early, to stay late, and to protect what they have harvested

Eating or sleeping in the shelters came to symbolize the period of wandering in the desert, before the Israelites entered the land of Canaan

A sukkah (Hebrew for shelter) is a shelter made of light wood it is set up in or near the home It is commonly decorated with branches

and fruits

Feast of Lights

•Rededicatio

n of

the tem

ple

•Menorah-a

candela

brum

Commemorates the Jews (Maccabees) overcoming the Syrians

Tradition says that oil that

should have lasted only one

day miraculously kept

burning for eight days

• Recalls the story of Ester– Ester becomes a queen– She finds out that Haman is turning the

king against the Jews • Haman wants the king to kill the Jews

– Ester risks her life when she goes to the king’s court without permission

– She saves the Jewish people from the destruction • Aka Feast of Lots

• Customary to have carnivals and masquerade parties

Aka Passover Commemorates the Escape from Egypt The blood of the lamb killed for the Passover meal

was placed over the doors of the Hebrews keeping the angel of death from entering their homes while the power of God “passed over” Egypt

SHAVUOT = PENTECOST

Jewish Pentecost

Aka feast of weeks

Moses receives the 10 Commandments

Birthday of the Jewish religion

RABBINIC PERIOD

Rabbinic Judaism is based on the belief that at Mount Sinai, Moses received from God the Written Torah. This is also the period that Jews today use as there guideline of practicing Judaism.

Hellenization:Jews during 323 BCE were driven out there homes in Judea into Diaspora. Alexander the great and his conquest led to Hellenization of Jews. During this time Jewish theology and Greek philosophy was being integrated. The Hebrew bible was translated into Greek in the third century BCE.

Hellenization- The adoption of Greek ways and speech as happened in the case of Jews living in the Diaspora.

Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes:

Sadducees: Jews who defined themselves as biological descendants of Zadok, the last High priest before the Babylonian exile. The Sadducees held a strict position in the interpretation of the Torah.

Pharisees: Jews who held a looser interpretation of the Torah, using oral tradition and popular customs in their interpretation of the Law of Moses. They also accepted the doctrine of resurrection.

Essenes: A community that lived in caves near Qumran. The Essene Jews are described in writings called Dead Sea Scrolls, which are fragments of biblical and early Jewish documents.

Rabbis

Rabbi- Someone who is authorized to teach and judge in matters of Jewish Law.

When the sects disappeared, Rabbi’s started to arise and are to this day spiritual leaders in Judaism. Rabbis transformed temple rituals for practice outside the temple. Schools began to spring and many different interpretations were made for how Jews were supposed to live.

Talmud- Long collections of Jewish literature on Mishnah the Hebrew code of laws.

Separation of JewsBy the end of the first century Jews began to fight amongst themselves over

whether there was or wasn’t a messiah. Certain Jews thought the messiah was a warrior-king who would get an army to fight their enemies and retake their homeland, leaving Diaspora. Both groups of Jews basically had different interpretations of the Hebrew bible. Gentiles started to come and increase and were followers of Jesus causing more separation. It became traditional Jews and Jewish Christians.

During the second century, emperor Hadrian wanted to establish a Roman city in Jerusalem. Years later a rebel named Kochba led a revolt, but was stopped short by Hadrian who ended the Jewish rebellion. He built his city and changed the name of Judea to Palestine and banned Jews from returning to Jerusalem.

Banishment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYRi-Hbi2Sg

Life Cycle Celebrations

The life cycle celebrations focus on transitional moments in their personal lives

Until recently, most of these ceremonies were male-oriented with no female counterpart.

Bar Mitzvah(“Son of the Commandment”) is the ceremony for a 13 year old boy representing his coming of age.

Bat Mitzvah is the counterpart ceremony, but instead for girls turning 12 years old. (Created in the Twentieth century)

Other ways Jews mark important times in life include the following:

-Birth

-Coming of Age

-Marriage

-Death

Birth

Circumcision- the cutting away of the foreskin of the penis, takes place 8 days after birth.

Circumcision derives from the time God ordered Abraham to circumcised all his male descendants.

Circumcision is a covenant with God and his People.

The ceremony for an infant girl involves the giving of her name.

She is brought to the synagogue where she is welcomed into congregation.

The full Hebrew name of the child is revealed for the first time by the rabbi.

Coming of Age

A Jewish child becomes a mature individual, responsible for keeping the Torah.

Recognizing that the 13 year old boy and 12 year old girl has become an adult and is responsible for religious and moral training.

The Jewish children, who become right of age, are called to read the Torah publicly.

Marriage

The three major elements of the marriage ritual include the chuppah(wedding canopy), the blessings, and the breaking of the glass.

The huppah is a canopy held up by four poles representing the future of the bride and groom.

There are vegetative symbols on the company, representing the notion that the bride and groom are in the Garden of Eden and are the first man and woman.

The breaking of the glass is linked with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE.

The Chuppah and the Breaking of the Glass

Death

Funerals takes place as soon as possible.

Often within 24 hours of the death

At the burial, blessings are made, prayers are said, and psalms are read aloud.