Comparative Religion-Judaism
Required Resources
Read/review the following resources for this activity:
Textbook: Chapter 8
Lesson
Minimum of 1 scholarly source
Initial Post Instructions
For the initial post, respond to one of the following options:
From the following terms, choose two: Orthodox Judaism, Hassidic Judaism, Reform Judaism, and Conservative Judaism. Briefly define these two terms, then explain their relationship to one another. How are they similar, and how are they different? What lead to their development?
The destruction of the 2nd Temple in Jerusalem marks a major shift in the history and character of Judaism. What characterizes Jewish practice before the destruction of the 2nd Temple, and what characterizes Jewish practice after the Temple’s destruction? How are these practices different? What was maintained?
Follow-Up Post Instructions
Respond to at least two peers or one peer and the instructor. Respond to a peer who chose an option different from the one you chose. Further the dialogue by providing more information and clarification.
Writing Requirements
Minimum of 3 posts (1 initial & 2 follow-up)
APA format for in-text citations and list of references
Grading
This activity will be graded using the Discussion Grading Rubric. Please review the following link:
Link (webpage): Discussion Guidelines
After spending two days in Tel Aviv, you leave for Jerusalem and arrive at your hotel near the old part of the city. Once there, you can’t wait to begin exploring. The Old City is a place for walking and wandering, with wonderful sights in its narrow streets.
Drawing you like a magnet is the site of the ancient temple, destroyed by Roman soldiers nearly two thousand years ago. Only its foundation stones remain. On the mount where the temple once stood is now a glittering golden dome. Built by Muslims, the Dome of the Rock covers the great stone beneath it, which is venerated by Muslims and Jews alike, who hold that their ancestor Abraham came to this spot.
You decide to walk down from the city in order to view the mount from below, after which you plan to turn back and travel, like a true pilgrim, “up to Jerusalem.” You buy food for a picnic lunch at stalls as you walk inside the city. Soon you are beyond the Old City gate. Luckily, the day is sunny but not hot. You see a large stone tomb in the valley below and beyond it, in the east, Mount Scopus.
Page 282At last it is time to stop for a rest and to eat your lunch. You sit under a tree and look back, thinking to yourself about the events this site has witnessed. Your mind becomes crowded with the names of biblical kings, prophets, and priests associated with Jerusalem: David, Solomon, Melchizedek, Isaiah, Jeremiah. As the sounds of everyday traffic filter through your thoughts, you imagine the many battles over this holy city and the successive waves of conquerors—Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and European crusaders—who took possession of it in the past. You also think of the more recent battles and problems here. You cannot help thinking of the contrast between the violence that this place has seen and the root of the city’s name—salem. Like shalom and salaam, words to which it is related, the word salem means “peace” and “wholeness.”
You start back, walking uphill thoughtfully. You see the small tombstones in front of the walls, the high walls themselves, and a beautiful double stone gate, now sealed. Slowly, you make your way back through the city streets around to the western side, to what is left of the great temple. The immense foundation stones, set there during an enlargement ordered by King Herod the Great, were too solid to be knocked down and too big to be carted off. At their base is an open area in front of the Western Wall, now used for contemplation and prayer—on the left stand men, and on the right, women. Some hold prayer books, and many touch their hands and foreheads to the wall. You see little pieces of paper, which have prayers written on them, rolled up or folded and placed in the cracks between the stones. These have been left here by people who have come to speak with God and to remember their family members in prayer. You reflect on the historical events that led up to the building of the temple. You think of the long and great history of the Jews, who developed and flourished in spite of persecution in lands far away. It is deeply moving to be here, and you stay a long time in silent contemplation.
AN OVERVIEW OF JEWISH HISTORY
Jewish history goes back two thousand years or far longer, depending on one’s point of view. This difference of opinion revolves around a major historical event—the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 ce ( Timeline 8.1 ), which brought about the end of the temple-based ceremonial religion of that region and the widespread dispersion of its people to lands far away from Israel. Following the calamity of the temple’s destruction, the earlier religion had to develop in new ways to survive. From the centralized, temple-based religion practiced in Israel, another form of religion arose that could be practiced among the Jews who lived outside of Israel. Jews anywhere in the world could now practice their religion in the home and synagogue. In recognition of this fundamental religious reorientation, a distinction is often made between biblical Judaism and rabbinical Judaism . When we study the Judaism practiced today, what we are really studying are the forms of Jewish belief and religious practice that largely came into existence after the destruction of the Second Temple.
Timeline of significant events in the history of Judaism.
Page 284The two great spans of time—before and after the destruction of the Second Temple—are also commonly subdivided into two periods each. Over the first great span of time, a landless people established a homeland in Israel and made Jerusalem the capital of its kingdom. Great change occurred and another period began, however, when the Babylonians destroyed the kingdom of Judah and its First Temple (586 bce), forcing the Israelite people into exile in Babylonia (present-day Iraq) for nearly fifty years. These events made clear to the exiled people that religious law and history had to be put in written form to guarantee their survival. As a result, the Hebrew Bible was created, and study of the scriptures and prayer in synagogues became important, even after the temple was rebuilt.
The second great time span comprises the two thousand years of the development of Judaism in the Common Era. It also can be subdivided into two periods. The first period marks the evolution of rabbinical Judaism and traditional Jewish life, from about 100 ce to approximately 1800 ce, the beginning of the modern period. The second period started about two hundred years ago, when a movement began in Judaism as a response to (1) the new thinking of the European Enlightenment, (2) the liberal thought of the American and French Revolutions, and (3) the laws of Napoleon, which were carried widely beyond France. The movement, called the Reform, questioned and modernized traditional Judaism and helped produce the diverse branches within Judaism that exist today. The Reform also raised the issue of Jewish identity. Who is a Jew? What is essential to Judaism? These are two questions to which we will return later.
The Hebrew Bible records that the roots of Judaism go back far into the past to a landless people sometimes called Hebrews and more commonly called Israelites, who traced themselves to an ancestor named Abraham. Because much of what we know of the first span of Hebrew history comes from the Hebrew Bible, we will examine it first. We should note, however, that the Hebrew Bible is not a history book in the modern sense; it presents instead what might better be called sacred history. It is the Israelites’ view of their God’s relationship with them in the midst of historical events.
We should note, too, that the Hebrew Bible is significant not only in terms of the history of the Hebrews but also in terms of its role in the development of Judaism over the past two thousand years. When the ceremonial religion of the Jerusalem Temple ended in the first century ce, it was the Hebrew scriptures that provided a foundation for the development of rabbinical Judaism. The scriptures offered a firm basis for Jewish rabbis (teachers) to offer their midrash (interpretation) of biblical laws and practices: the books outlined the Ten Commandments and other ethical teachings; they established the major yearly festivals that would guide and sanctify the lives of Jews; and they contained the psalms that became the everyday prayers of Jews everywhere.
Thus, we turn first to the Hebrew Bible, to understand its structure and to examine the laws and history of the Hebrew people. After looking at the Hebrew Bible and at Hebrew and Jewish history, we will then consider Jewish belief, practice, and influence.
THE HEBREW BIBLE
Judaism is often associated with the land of Israel, but Judaism is perhaps better associated with its most important book, the Hebrew Bible. Although nowadays the Hebrew Bible is published as a single volume, it is made up of individual “books,” which were once separate written scrolls. The word Bible, in fact, comes from the Greek term biblia, which means “books.” The individual books were originally oral material that was subsequently written down in some form perhaps as early as 900 bce, although the final form was not achieved until about 200 bce. It was once thought that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible—the Torah—but this is no longer commonly held. Instead, scholars see the Torah as composed of four strands of material, which arose in different periods but have been skillfully intertwined by later biblical editors. 1
The Hebrew Bible is divided into three sections: the Torah (the Teaching), Nevi’im (the Prophets), and …
