Some Basic Concepts in Judaism

Background

Like other traditions we have covered, Judaism is centered in relationship. In this case, it is a relationship between two basic ideas from which all else is generated: the awareness of one transcendent, omniscient and omnipotent God (monotheism) and the concurrent idea of the vital import of human dignity (ethics). The result of this relationship is best understood as ethical monotheism. Central to Hebrew theology is not only the gift of divine chosenness on God's part but the demand for ethical responsibility on humanity's part.

Briefly put, Judaism teaches that God called Abraham to migrate with his family from Mesopotamia to Canaan, i.e., the region that came to be known by many names (Israel, Israel/Judah, Judea, Palestine, culminating, of course, in the modern political state known as Israel). In so doing, God established a covenant with Abraham and with the generations that followed (Isaac, Jacob, Joseph). While the Hebrews were slaves in the Egypt of Rameses II, God called Moses to liberate them and bring them to the aforementioned land of Canaan, "a land flowing with milk and honey," where "I shall be your God and you shall be my people." According to the tradition, it was during this "Exodus" that God revealed his Torah (law, instruction) which became the socio-ethical foundation for the theo-political kingdom of Israel.

Throughout its ancient history, Israel had kings both wise and foolish, both good and evil. The history of the monarchy is recorded in the books of the prophets, a history that ascended in brilliant leadership and an enlightened social vision, and then declined into civil war, division, Assyrian and Babylonian conquest and finally exile. When the Persians defeated the Babylonians, the Hebrews were allowed to return home to rebuild their homeland and recover their identity. In many ways this became and continues to be an ongoing process. Due to its strategic location as a Mediterranean crossroads, Israel continued to be victimized by one political occupation after another: Greece, Syria and Rome, to name a few.

The challenge of occupation is not so much one of withstanding oppression as it is one of maintaining identity in a world that was and is becoming increasingly pluralistic and "muddled." As Psalm 137 asks, "How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a foreign land?" That question, while referring specifically to the exilic experience in Babylon, becomes even more challenging when it seemed as if, through each successive occupation, even Israel was becoming "a foreign land."

The Centrality of History and Memory

The Western consciousness is aware of the present moment as it is experienced in juxtaposition to what has been (past) and what will be (future). For the Jew, history is the medium of human experience. It is the arena into which God enters and acts. If we don't know who we were, then how can we begin to know who we are and who we are to become? Identity is preserved and celebrated in tradition and the rehearsal (the "replaying") of memory. "Memory" is a broad term-- it doesn't necessarily mean that one was physically there at the time that something happened. Obviously a twentieth century Jew was not in 8th century BCE Israel, but through the experience of being a part of a people's overall experience, one claims that history as his/her own. When we open the Hebrew scriptures, we find, for the most part, stories of these actions and the people who were acted upon by God. Those people were much like us: they are presented as ordinary people who, called by God, find themselves in extraordinary situations (and sometimes unwillingly!).

Also, history is, by our very awareness of it, "going somewhere," i.e., from a past, through a present and toward a future point or culmination. It therefore reflects a linear view of time.

The Nature of God

As alluded to above, the transcendence of the holy and the immediacy of history are interrelated. In addition to being experienced as singular, omniscient, omnipotent and ethically conscious (i.e., ethical monotheism), the God of Israel is perceived as "the God Who Acts." Thus, the divine name-- YHWH (Yahweh, related to the Hebrew verb hayah "to be")-- means "The One Who Causes To Be" or "Makes Happen." This is how God revealed himself to Moses, according to the Book of Exodus. YHWH is also referred to as the Tetragrammaton (from the Greek, "four letters").

When the English rendering LORD (all capital letters) appears in some biblical texts, it is a direct translation of the Hebrew YHWH.

The holy name is never spoken by the devout Jew, even when it appears in the Hebrew scriptures as the Tetragrammaton. Other names are spoken in its place, such as Adonai ("my Lord"), or Ha Shem ("the name"). The often-heard "Jehovah" is not an actual word, Hebrew or otherwise, but an artificial construct of the Christian church of the Middle Ages that resulted from the erroneous combining of the Hebrew consonants for YHWH and the Hebrew vowels for Adonai. The original reason for the vowel insertion was to remind the devout Jew to say Adonai and not YHWH when the latter appeared in the Hebrew scriptural text. . They were never intended to be uttered "as one."

The Covenant

Covenant refers to the pact that serves as the channel of relation between God and Israel. While "contract" is grounded in the premise of "protection from" one's contractual partner, "covenant" is based in the premise of "mutuality with" one's covenantal partner. But it is not simply a bilateral relationship between the divine and the human. The covenantal relationship itself comprises two interrelated paths of experience:

• the relationship between YHWH and Israel: "You shall be my People and I shall be your God;" this is the path of chosenness and giftedness. YHWH will take care of this people and they in turn are to respond with worship, loyalty and the oath that they will never place any gods before them but YHWH. This path is often referred to as the "Vertical."

• the relationships between the people themselves: loyalty and worship are important, but just as important is to "let justice roll down like waters,and righteousness like a flowing stream," for "what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?" (e.g., Amos 5.24, Micah 6.8) This path is often referred to as the "Horizontal."

The creative tension of these two paths lifts up the spirit of ethical monotheism. One can't simultaneously worship God and deny one's neighbor. One can't presume the privilege of "chosenness" without acknowledging one ethical and egalitarian responsibility for others. Both paths have to present and acted upon in order for covenant to be in place. One relational path simply cannot exist without the other. Even the Decalogue ("the Ten Commandments") expresses this creative tension: commandments 1 through 4 concern responsibility to God, and commandments 5 through 10 concern responsibility toward one another.

Ethical responsibility is to extend beyond Israel herself: "The stranger who sojourns (stays, lives) with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were once strangers in the land of Egypt" (Leviticus 19.34). This refers once again to the vital importance of historical memory.

Essentially, then, the entire biblical history is about what happens when the creative tension between these two covenantal paths is in balance and what happens when it is upset, i.e., when one is presumed over the other. In a way, one can compare this to the Yin and the Yahng of Taoism.

The Scriptures

The Hebrew Bible in its entirety is often referred to as the Tanakh. This word is something of an artificial construct that combines the Hebrew words Torah, Nevi'im, and Khetuvim (TaNaKH). These words mean "the Teaching," "the Prophets," and "the Writings." The Torah contains the accounts of creation, the calling of Patriarchs (the original "fathers" [and mothers, we should add] of the nation of Israel) and the record and outline of the Covenant. The Nevi'im is the history of the prophetic tradition and the monarchy from its creation to its twofold fall to Assyria and Babylon, followed by the exile. The Khetuvim is a compilation of "wisdom literature" and various stories and writings that present a wide array of theological and philosophical questions. This very logical Hebrew canonical order was not maintained in the "Old Testament" of the Christian canon. While all of the original books are present in the "Old Testament," they have been placed in a different order for various reasons that we will discuss in class.

As discussed above, the Hebrew scriptures constitute a record of historical memory-- the acts of God as embraced in the collective life of a people. Thus, it is not so much a matter of history as "objective fact" but of history as "subjective experience." At one level, every event that has been documented and reported as "history" is presented from the point of view of a human being, i.e., it is "experienced" in a particular subjective manner. That perspective is not necessarily shared by another who was present at the same event. But both perspectives are nevertheless "true" in the sense that they are experienced. This is what mythos is all about. Question: can the story of Adam, Eve and the Fall from grace be "mythic" and still be "true?" Answer: yes, because it is a profound expression of the Hebrew "experience" of sin as separation from God. The divine question to Adam and Eve as they hide from God in the garden is "Where are you?" This is the continual question to humankind as they flow in and out of covenantal relationship with God. In the "experience" of a people, this is "truth." Some experiences are so profound that they are ineffable; we tell stories in order to bear them. Enough said.

Lamentation, Suffering and Meshiach

As noted above, Israel has known the experience of political occupation and religious oppression for much of her history. Through the words of the Prophets and the reflections of the Psalmists, these experiences have developed into what might best be called a kind of "Theology of Lamentation." The Hebrew scriptures contain numerous accounts of individuals crying out to God. While the Khetuvim contains psalms of celebration and praise, there is a powerful collection of psalms of lament and suffering: "How long, O LORD; will you ignore me forever?" "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"(Psalm 13 and 22). For the Jew, the experience of crying out to God is not an act of irreverence but an act of faith-- it presupposes a Hearer. In fact both of the Psalms cited above conclude in the spirit of faith in a God Who Hears. As Elie Weisel said in the video (and I paraphrase), "You can be happy with God, you can praise God, you can be angry at God, but never indifferent to God."

Why do bad things happen to good people? In the Khetuvim's Book of Job, we are presented with just this question. Sometimes bad things "just happen." It is when we spend our time trying desperately to find reason and rationale-- "purposefulness"-- behind suffering that we find ourselves running down blind alleys. When we conduct objective and desperate searches for God's purpose ("It's God's will," et al.), we lose sight of subjective faith in God's presence. Job learns that whether there was any purpose or not to his suffering is beside the point; his faith-- even in the experience of crying out to god in anger-- is located in the acknowledgement of divine presence.

In our own experience with those who suffer, our tendency to search for rhyme, reason and resolution allows us to walk away from those who suffer. In other words, if we make it "reasonable," we no longer have to "deal with it." We end up denying our presence to those who need it. As I related to you in class, in hospital chaplaincy, there is an old twist to an old expression: "Don't just do something, stand there!" It's better to be silently present than to try to place things into some kind of perspective. In other words, "Don't talk to me about divine purposes and schemes of the universe; just sit with me."

From the perspective of the Nevi'im, and in particular writings of the prophets, suffering centers on the experience of the Babylonian exile. As Psalm 137 phrases it, "How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a foreign land?" The Prophets saw this disastrous defeat and exile as God's judgement upon the forsaking of the covenantal guidelines. But instead of responding to it with an "I told you so" sort of attitude, the prophets discerned a deeper significance to this experience that reached in two different directions:

• Israel needed to recover the vital worth of her own freedom and identity as a covenanted people of YHWH, who had not forsaken Israel, but had remained present to Israel, even in judgement; I am angry at you beyond words," a parent might say, "but you are still my child." The Hebrew uses the word hesed, which translates as "caring responsibility for another." In other words, one has to be accountable for one's lapses, but God will always "be there." Again, presence over purpose.

• Furthermore, this experience would be redemptive for all humankind in the sense that Israel's experience becomes a mirror in which the world is reflected, from which the world may realize that all the nations need to understand what it is to be responsible to God and to one another. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, Israel is "the suffering servant" who "was wounded for our transgressions . . . bruised for our iniquities" (see Isaiah 53.1-12).

From this arises the idea of meshiach, or "messiah." Messiah means "anointed one." Originally, it is a political term which refers to the royal figure of the king who is anointed with oil at his crowning. In the king dwells the well-being and future of the nation-- her hopes, dreams, and possibilities. In post-exilic times (3rd-1st Century BCE), meshiach comes to refer to a "deliverer," i.e., one who will restore Israel and gather her people back to their homeland. It does not take a big leap to see how the messianic concept can refer not only to a "person" but the very "reality" of the well-being and fulfillment of Israel. Judaism still awaits the fulfillment of meshiach; various sects of Judaism interpret it in various ways, e.g., as an actual person who will rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem (at the site upon which currently stands the Muslim Dome of the Rock), as one who will restore Israel, regather her people who are dispersed throughout the world, and thereby establish a worldwide covenantal kingdom, or as the overall socio-political "condition" of justice and peace in the world.

Messianic language looks toward the future "day" of fulfillment, from the perspective of a time and place when that reality has yet to be achieved. For a contemporary application of this concept, read Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech, given in Washington, D.C. in 1963. In this wider sense of the term, Martin Luther King, Jr. is a messianic figure.

Identity and Ritual

It is sometimes said that while Christianity is characterized by the abstraction of creeds and doctrines, Judaism is grounded in the concreteness of things done, i.e., ritual action. Judaic ritual is a channel of Judaic identity and tradition. And the word "grounded" is appropriate, for the ritual action of any religious tradition is usually based in, on, or around a very mundane or "everyday" activity, such as eating, bathing, telling a story, or simply remembering. As such, all aspects of Judaic life are "covenantal" and are therefore elevated to holiness. Life is worthy of celebration-- its passages, its gatherings, its successes, its failures, and its memories of where it came from and how it arrived here.

Shabbat-- the "Sabbath," or day of rest and worship. Shabbat is often described as a sanctuary not in space but in time. It runs from sunset on Friday until sunset on Saturday. In addition to being the "time outside of time" during which one attends synagogue services on Friday evening or Saturday morning, it is also the time in which the gathering of the family and/or community at the table becomes central. The Shabbat meal is initiated with prayer and the sharing of bread. Following the meal itself, it is concluded with prayer and sharing of wine. The significance dwells not so much in what is shared but in the corporate (communal) act of sharing it.

At the same time, that which is shared at the table often does have significance in and of itself, as what and how one eats can be a reflection of who one is. The Jew who "keeps kosher," either at Passover or always, is observing dietary laws that are recorded in the Torah. Kosher means "fit" or "proper." Food is to be prepared and/or presented in certain ways, e.g., animals must be killed in a prescribed and humane manner, while meat products and dairy products are not to be mixed. Some foods are, by their very nature, kosher, while others are forbidden altogether, such as pork, shellfish, or any other sea animal without scales. While it is certainly possible to locate some practical health concerns behind some of these ordinances, the overall import is one of identity. This can be observed on two levels:

• Particular cultures and religious traditions practice particular food-oriented rituals. For the sake of her own identity, Israel is not to be mistaken for one of the goyim ("the nations") by partaking of the same foods that they utilize in their ritual activities.

• The mixing of certain foods together can also be regarded as a metaphor for cultural assimilation. Historically speaking, this has been the constant challenge of native Israeli and "Diaspora" Jew alike. It is all too easy to allow oneself to be engulfed by "pluralism," thereby losing one's identity altogether. The result of cultural assimilation is usually cultural amnesia.

A Summary of Important Texts from the Hebrew Scriptures

Exodus 3.1-15: the call of Moses; God's name revealed
Exodus 20.1-17: the Decalogue (The Ten Commandments)
Leviticus 19.33-34: from the Holiness Code
The Book of Ruth (compare to texts from Ezra, Nehemiah)
I Samuel 8.1-22: the consequences of human kingship
I Kings 21.1-29: King Ahab and Naboth's vineyard
Ezra 9.1-2: the post-exilic call for purity (compare to Leviticus, Ruth, Jonah)
Nehemiah 13.23-27: the post-exilic call for purity (compare to Leviticus, Ruth, Jonah)
The Book of Jonah (compare to texts from Ezra, Nehemiah)
Isaiah 44.9-17: the absurdity of idolatry
Amos 5.21-24: what does covenant require?
Micah 6.6-8: what does covenant require?

Important Vocabulary Terms and Concepts

Myth
Historical memory
Linear time
Canaanite religion
Ethical monotheism
Yahweh
Adonai
YHWH, Tetragrammaton
Hebrew
Covenant
Israel
Prophet, Prophetic Tradition
Suffering, Lament
Tanakh
Torah ( the Teaching, Instruction)
Nevi'im (the Prophets)
Khetuvim (the Writings)
Meshiach/Messiah
Shabbat
Kosher

Discussion Questions

1. Why is history so important to the Hebrew identity? How does the action and nature of the God of Israel relate to this historical consciousness? Contrast this perspective with that of other religious traditions we have studied this semester.

2. Why are purity and identity so important in Judaism? Give examples from the text, the lecture and ritual practices to support your answer.

3. What is "covenant?" Describe its nature and purpose, giving an analysis of its components and the reasons behind them.

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