Judaism

Origins

● Abraham and the covenant

Outline the life of Abraham
Born under the name Abram in the city of Ur in Babylonia (ancient Mesopotamia) in the year 1948, from
creation (circa 1800 BCE). He was the son of Terach, an idol merchant. He lived a city-dwelling life.
- From early childhood, he questioned the polytheistic faith of his father and his town making him seek
the truth. Thus making him believe in a monotheistic God who single-handedly created the entire
universe.
- He began to teach his beliefs to others
Abram tried to teach his beliefs to his father when one day his father left him alone to mind the store when he
took a hammer and smashed every statue except the largest one.
- This identified that the other Gods had no power over the largest one.
God called Abram and made him an offer
- If Abram would leave his home and his family, then God would make him a great nation and bless him.
This being the b’rit (covenant) between God and the Jewish people. → The covenant is fundamental
to traditional Judaism as it is a contract that involves rights and obligations on both sides. The
terms of this covenant became more explicit over time until the Giving of the Torah.
Abram proceeded to live out a nomadic lifestyle, travelling through what is now the land of Israel for many
years. God promised this land to Abram descendants. Famine eventually led him to the fertile lands of the Nile
delta in Egypt. He and his tribe later journeyed back to the north settling in the southern part of Canaan. He
started to become concerned as he had no children

Covenant: In general, an agreement between two parties. Each of the parties has both rights and
responsibilities. In the Bible, the Covenant is an agreement between God and his people.

Describe the Covenant with the Patriarchs, including the promises of a People and a Land
Patriarchs -
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (later known as Israel)
The Patriarchs are seen as the forefathers of modern Judaism, as the covenant was established with them.
God’s promise with Abraham was passed down to his son Isaac and then onto his son Jacob (Israel). The
theme of the covenant that started with the Patriarchs, continued in Jewish history with the further
development of the covenant through Moses.
- This covenant was made with Abraham and is a symbol of the special relationship with God - It is at the
very heart of Jewish belief and practice to this day
→ “This is My covenant With you... I shall make your most exceedingly fruitful, and make Nations of you, and
kings shall descend from you... The whole of the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession and I shall be a
God to them. (Genesis 17:4-8)
- The key stipulation of God’s covenant with Abraham was that every Jewish male is circumcised. Is a
ritual mark that is not restricted to any person, anyone can be a part of the covenant.
→ “You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and that shall be a sign of the Covenant between me and
you... Throughout the generations - he that is born in your household or purchased with money from any
stranger who is not of your offspring…” (Genesis 17:10-14)

● Moses, the Exodus and the giving of the Torah

Outline the story of the Exodus and the giving of the Law at Sinai, including the Ten Commandments
Moses
Is regarded as the founder of Judaism - He transformed the Jewish religion from being a cult of ancestor
worship into a religious tradition.
 - Moses was born into a family of slaves who were under the rule of the Pharaoh.
- The Pharaoh at the time ordered his people to throw every newborn Hebrew son into the Nile river -
Moses was placed into a basket and floated down the river.
- The Pharaoh’s daughter found him in the river and rescued him out of the water - She knew this was a
Hebrew child and took him as her son, named him Moses and raised him as an Egyptian prince in the
Pharaoh's palace.
- When Moses was an adult he witnessed an Egyptian master mercilessly whipping a Hebrew - Moses
killed this guard and out of fear, fled to the desert.
- Moses escaped to the land of Midian. He was taken in by the priest and married Zipporah one of his 7
daughters - They had a son called Gershom.
The Exodus
- The Burning Bush - It was in the desert when he had his first encounter with God
- One day Moses was tending to his flock when he saw a burning bush at Mt Sinai - God spoke to
him from inside the bush
→ “Moses, Moses” and he said, “Here I am.” (Exodus 3:4)
→ “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you’. Thus you shall say to your
ancestors, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God
of Jacob, has sent me to you’”. (Exodus 3:14-15)
- God reveals

● Modern Judaism
Chasidism - Jewish sect - Jewish revivalist movement
Ghetto - Enclosed street or sector in a city where Jews are forced to live, often in substandard conditions. Has
come to mean any section of a city where a minority lives.
Halachah - The Jewish legal tradition or Jewish law, grounded in the 613 commandments of the Torah.
Kippah - Skullcap - worn by men during prayer as a sign of respect in the presence of God.
Kosher - ‘fit to eat’ - a strict method of preparing food, especially animal products, according to Jewish dietary
laws.
Mosaic Law - The laws found in the Torah given to Moses by God.
Shabbat - Sabbath - the holy day of rest
Synagogue - Jewish house of public worship
Talmud - Rabbinic literature - commentary on written Torah. The oral tradition written form.
Torah - The first 5 books of the Tanakh, or Jewish Bible. Literally means ‘teachings’
Rabbi - ‘Teacher’ - Sacred person in Judaism.
Zionism - Political movement concerned with the Jewish development of the State of Israel.

Outline the unique features of:

- Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism - The term was first used in 1795 and defines itself as the only authentic Judaism. It is an
umbrella term used to describe Jewish traditionalists who accept the authority of the code of traditional Jewish
Law and reject the modernist adjustments of the Progressive movement.
- Their view is that the Bible is literally the word of God and therefore, is infallible.
MODERN ORTHODOX
→ Balances the requirements of living in modern circumstances while being faithful to the Torah.
Focuses on the Mosaic Laws and the Talmud and a continuing stream of books of interpretation, commentary
and rulings individual cases. They are faithful to ALL practices of Judaism law.
- They believe that the law is not open to interpretation or change → even in the face of modern social
and economic conditions.
- They believe the Torah can be applied to new situations but not altered or changed
They consider religious rites and practices to be of equal importance with their religious beliefs
Kosher - Food dietary laws
Synagogue - A sacred building in which Jewish adherents meet for worship or instruction. Worship in orthodox
synagogues is conducted in the Hebrew language and men and women sit separately in the synagogue.
They are not run by a central authority.
- Synagogues are established by groups of people who raise their own funds and construct their own
buildings
- The congregation usually elects a voluntary board of management which employs their own rabbis and
other officiants within the faith.
- There are 25 independent Orthodox Synagogues in Sydney - they are smaller and more abundant due
to the law that forbids Jews to drive on Shabbat. The Great Synagogue
- in Elizabeth Street and the Central Synagogue in Bondi Junction.
- Orthodox Synagogues serve particular suburban areas, some are connected with the Zionist
movements and a number are simple gatherings of all Jewish variants.
ULTRA-ORTHODOX
Rejects much of the modern world. This is symbolised by denigrating secular studies and often dressing in
stylised ghetto clothing - long black coats, flowing beards and tall top hats mostly a uniform of a religious
movement.
Chasidism - Search for ecstasy in prayer, its interest in medieval mysticism, and it’s emphasis on the possible
immenance of Messianic era. Minority within Orthodox Judaism.

- Progressive Judaism
Progressive (reform) Judaism
Began in Germany, 1810
- Believes in continuing revelation, teaching that God allows for different interpretations of the Torah in
light of Western thought and culture, providing this re-interpretation does not conflict with the basic
principles of Judaism.
- Believe that God allows for different applications of the truth of the Torah which allows them to
introduce innovations in Synagogue services and other parts of Jewish life.
- They understand the Bible to be the work of human beings who wrote the text, inspired by god and
seeking to understand God. - They story of Exodus is showing messages of freedom and peace which
adherents can reflect in their own lives.
→ It is has never been a fixed religion and is always evolving due to new cultures and thoughts.
Features of Progressive Judaism
(distinguishing from tradition)
- Synagogues are called Temples
Reject beliefs in:
- A personal Messiah
- Resurrection of the dead
- Return to the Holy Land
- Rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem
- The eventual re-introduction of Temple sacrifice
Significant innovations
- Religious services in the local language (not Hebrew)
- Men and women sitting together during worship
- Lessening important of tradition Jewish laws
- The Torah needs to be interpreted in order to capture the spirit of the age.
- Equality for both genders - ordination of women rabbis, women and men reading the Torah during
services.
- Use of the organ and other liturgical features during services - derived from Churches
- Bar Mitzvah and confirmation ceremonies
 - Adaptation of the Jewish prayer book to include modern Jewish writings and reference to modern
situations
- Tikkun Olam - repairing of the world.
- The Talmud is not sacred, but wise readings
Significance
- Committed to the principle of inclusion, not exclusion.
- Since 1978 the Reform Movement has been reaching out to Jews and interfaith families, encouraging
them to embrace Judaism.
- Committed to full participation of gay and lesbians in society.
- Since the Holocaust they have been more supportive of Zionism.
There are over 1.5 million followers in US, make up 20% of the Jewish Community in Australia.

- Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism - Broke away from Progressive Judaism after the Pittsburgh Conference of 1885.
- Is sympathetic to modern Western ways of thinking, but is more traditional than Progressive Judaism.
- Similarities with Orthodox Judasim
→ Heads are covered in synagogues
- Similarities with Progressive Judaism
→ No segregation men and women at synagogue, driving to the synagogue on shabbat.
Features of Conservative Judaism
- Services is in Hebrew but includes prayer in English
- Conservative synagogues use the organ
- Unlike Progressive Judaism, Conservative Judaism accepts the authority of the Oral Law, but reserves
the right to reinterpret it in keeping with changing needs.
- Places great importance on the universal people of Israel, the centrality (the quality of being essential
or of the greatest importance) of the land of israel, the continuation of the Jewish tradition and the
sponsoring of Jewish scholarship.
- Women have been allowed in Conservative Rabbinical schools.
→ largest major subdivision of Judaism.
Significance
- Acts as a middle ground between Orthodox and Progressive Judaism.
→ Does not accept that God literally dictated the Torah to Moses (Orthodox), they also believe that
Progressive Judaism was too ready to change traditional ideas and practices that offered stability that
was essential to Judaism.
- Rabbinical Assembly of America
→ 1960 - agreed to allow the use of travelling by car on sabbath day
→ 2985 - allowed the ordination of women rabbis

ADD TABLE

Principal Beliefs

- The story of Abraham had introduced some of the most fundamental aspects of Jewish theology

● Belief in a single God who is the creator and ruler of the universe
Discuss the belief in the one God and the attributes of God
- The belief of one God is established in the Torah
→ “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one”. (Deut 6:4)
→ He has formed the universe and all things in it (Genesis 1)
→ “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me” (Exodus 20:2-3)
Adherents believe that God’s attributes are:
- Transcendent - Beyond the living creation and materialistic world
- Immanent - Within the living creation and materialistic world (through the Holy Spirit)
- Omnipotent - All powerful
- Omniscient - All seeing/knowing
- Omnipresent - always present
- Eternal - never ending
Anthropomorphic - expressed in terms of human thought, action and being. Having human characteristics.
Incorporeal - without body or material form
Iconography - the symbolic representation of a tradition through art, especially paintings and other symbolic
representations.
The bible and Jewish religious literature have used anthropomorphic language to refer to God, the incorporeal
nature of God remains central in Jewish belief. God is without form and this is why images of God are never
found in synagogues or as a part of Jewish iconography.
- The transcendent nature of God indicates that he is not human-like, but humans strive to emulate
God’s moral attributes.

The unutterable name of God - ‘Yahweh’ - is made up from the four Hebrew consonants, Y-H-W-H. This
combination of the four letters is called the Tetragrammaton, or unutterable name of God. They regard the
name of God too sacred to utter

Importance

● The concept of a moral law prescribed by God

Outline the concept of a divinely inspired moral law
The belief that God has provided Jewish adherents with a code of ethics which is intended to guide them with
their everyday ethics.

Importance

● The idea of the Covenant

Identify the importance of the covenant for the Jewish people
The idea of the covenant is fundamental to traditional Judaism
- Contract with God that involves obligations on both sides.

The idea of the Israelites as the ‘chosen people’ of God is one of the most famous and

Importance

Sacred Texts and Writings

● The Hebrew Scriptures

Identify the importance of the:
- The Hebrew Bible
The Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) - Written Tradition
Judaism is a religion of the book and it’s divine revelation is
manifest in written form.
- Christians refer to this as the Old Testament.
- Records the words of God to the children of Israel.
- Made up of 24 books which are divided into 3 sections.
Torah - Teachings
- The most important part of the Jewish scripture
Made up of the first 5 books of the bible - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy
→ Sometimes called the Pentateuch (five scrolls) because it is said that they were written by Moses
→ Orthodox Jews believe that these books are the literal word of God that Moses had heard and recorded.

Neviim - The Prophets

- Prophets contains 19 books - bearing the name of the prophet who wrote it
→ Prophet = One who speaks on behalf of another - This ‘another’ being God.
- The prophet books are subdivided into:
→ Early Prophets - Spoke generally to the people as a whole community
→ Later Prophets - show a stronger sense of the individual within the community.

Ketuvim - The Writings

Includes the remaining books of the Tanakh

Importance

- The Talmud
The Talmud - Oral Tradition
- Is the second most important source of law and lore (a
body of traditions and knowledge on a subject or held by
a particular group, typically passed from person to
person by word of mouth).
- It is a compendium of faith, which includes stories,
traditions, customs and laws, that interpret the Torah by
applying
- In the 11th century - French Rabbi and Talmudic
academic, Abbi Shlomo Ben Isaac wrote commentary on
the whole of the talmud. This is taught to his students
and written on the inner column of each page.

Mishnah
- Orthodox Jews believe that God taught the oral torah to Moses and then he taught it to others.
→ The oral torah was written down in 2nd Century CE - this is the mishnah.
- Records the opinions of the Tannaim (learned rabbis in the 2nd Century) who interpreted the Torah in
the terms of their own time
→ The discussions of the laws were compiled into the 6 Sedarim (orders)
Sedarim:
1. Zeraim (seeds) - deals with prayer and agricultural laws
2. Mo’ed (festival) - deals with Shabbat and festivals
3. Nashim (women) - deals with marriage and divorce and contracts and the status of women
4. Nezikin (damages) - deals with civil, financial and criminal laws
5. Kodashim (Holy things) - deals with the Temple and sacrifices
6. Toharot (purities) - deals with the laws of ritual purity and impurity.
→ Dealing with a large variety of subjects that have relevance to all adherents.

Gemara
- The Mishnah was discussed further by a group of rabbis called the Amoraim. Their understandings
were compiled into the Gemara
 → It provides detailed support for the assertion that the Mishnah gains its authority from the Torah.
→ It gives practical help by applying Mishnah logic and rulings to contemporary situations.
→ Shows why certain decisions are made by rabbis according to the circumstances

Importance

Examine the extracts from the Hebrew Scriptures which demonstrate the principal beliefs of Judaism

Core Ethical Teachings

● The Commandments of the Torah

- The ethics of Judaism come from the legal system, or halacha (the living out of the Torah in everyday
life), it prescribes how adherents should act and behave.
- It is based on the written Torah, being the primary rule of Jewish life since Moses delivered the 10
commandments.
Mitzvot (Commandments) - There are 613 moral and ritual mitzvot in total - 248 positive and 365 negative
→ They are expressions of God’s will
→ There are so many laws do adherents aren’t conflicted on how their actions will please God. No confusion,
→ Guide people in achieving the right relationship with God, neighbours and oneself.
- “Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest” - The law of the shabbat
(Exodus 23:12)
- “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” - laws on loving others (Leviticus 19:17)

● The Prophetic Vision

- The prophetic vision is the vision that the prophets were given, showing they need to repair the world in
a time of oppression and difficulty.
Hebrew Prophets - Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Minorones
Tikkun Olam and Social Justice
Tikkun Olam - Repairing the world
- Highlights commitment to social justice and order
- Partnership with God
Initiative
Tzedakah - translates as ‘charity’
- The sages (sage rabbi) teach that the world was built upon kindness and sharing what we have with
others.
Not shown as a generous act - it is simply an act of justice and the right thing to do
→ E.g Giving to charity - Caritas Australia
Importance -
- Repairing the world by making resources available to everyone
- Working towards equality through distribution of wealth.

● The Book of Proverbs - Wisdom, righteousness, purity and generosity of spirit

● A collection of wise sayings (short, sharp and easy to remember) to help adherents live a life that is 
pleasing to God 
● Helps adherents to become more peaceful with the world and mankind in the name of God
Describe the importance of ethical teachings in the life of adherents
- Similar to the other Jewish teachings, it helps to guide adherents in living righteous and good 
lives  
- Helps to make the world more united and peaceful
Observance
Judaism places great emphasis on the observance of ceremony and tradition
Observance - An act that is performed for religious and ceremonial reasons.
- Spiritually - the rites and rituals of the faith focus on the attention of one God
- Socially - ceremonies and practices have taken place for over 3000 years
→ They have preserved faith of individuals, families and communities in times of adversity.
Observances have remained unchanged since their inception but are all united by common words, actions,
prayers and practices
- This has allowed Judaism to stay relevant even with the disintegrating effects of time, space and lack of
land.
- Essential to the continuation of the religious and cultural identity of adherents.
- Observance of the religious laws give general shape and direction to practical behaviour on a daily
basis.

● Shabbat
Describe the importance of the shabbat
Shabbat - Day of rest (Sunday)
- The most important day of the week for Jewish adherents.
- Believed that God had ordained it the Holy day
- The Torah (Exodus 20:8-9) specifies that there is no work to be done on this day
→ It is a day of rest to commemorate that God rested for a day after the completed creating the
universe (Genesis 31:12-17)
- There are restrictions against cooking, operating machinery, driving cars, writing, lighting fires, turning
lights on and off etc.
→ These prohibitions have clear cultural consequences. E.g - In Israel, the whole country comes to a
virtual standstill for 24 hours.
Importance
- By observing the holiness of this day, adherents symbolically share in God’s own creative, sustaining
and fulfilling activity.
- It is a happy and positive day - frees adherents form worldly worries and enables them to deepen their
spiritual and practical relationship with God through observance and prayer.
- Busy everyday lives are put aside in favour of religious devotion.
Method of practice
- Shabbat begins in the home on friday evening - lighting shabbat candles and sharing of a shabbat meal
→ Family to gather together, for friends to meet, for study, discussion and for praising God.
- Shabbat ends with the dousing of a candle in wine and the smelling of sweet herbs to symbolise the
lingering beauty of shabbat as it departs.