Religion 2: The historical, cultural, and evolution aspects of Judaism (v1.0)
A key reference is Professor Grant Hardy at University of North Carolina at Ashville.
In a previous essay I covered the historical, cultural,
social and evolution aspects of Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. I will cover
one of the remaining two of the major religions here – Judaism. Buddhism will
be covered later.
The Aleppo codex is considered the oldest existing, most
complete, and most accurate known Hebrew bible created around 930 CE in
Tiberius on the western shore of the sea of galilee. It was created from
earlier manuscripts by hand by Aaron Ben Asher. Since the 1940’s however
significant parts of it mysteriously disappeared (only about 300 of 487 leaves exist today). The codex Sassoon created in the late 9th century is the most complete oldest one today (only 12 leaves missing). The Leningrad Codex is fully complete and came a century later. It is called the Tanakh by
Jews. Tanakh is an acronym consisting of the first letters of the three major
divisions: Torah (the first five books, ascribed to Moses), Nevi’im (the
Prophets), and Ketuvim (the Writings). Together, they constitute a library of
Hebrew texts in many different genres, written over a 1,000-year period. For a
long time, these writings circulated separately, with some books being regarded
as authoritative in some communities but not others. Eventually, all Jews recognized
a core group of documents as sacred, though this worked out differently for
each of the three biblical divisions of Tanakh.
The oldest compositions of the ancient Hebrews were originally passed down orally. Starting around the 10th century B.C.E., perhaps at the court of King David, various oral traditions were combined and recorded. Over the next few centuries, during the time of the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah and the destruction of Israel by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.E., the texts were further revised. By the time of the Babylonian Conquest in 586 B.C.E., it appears that the Torah as we know it today had taken shape. The Torah includes the five books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Talmud is a long series of interpretations of the Torah by esteemed Rabbis for centuries. Jews assume that the Torah was revealed by God to Moses, who then wrote it all down. Traditionally Judaism holds that Yahweh, the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the national god of the Israelites delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and gave them the Laws of Moses at Mount Sinai as described in the Torah. Jews traditionally believe in a monotheistic conception of God.
The second section of the Tanakh, the prophets, has two
subdivisions – the Former Prophets (Joshua through Kings) and the Latter
Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the 12 Minor Prophets). Eventually, a
standard collection for this book came to be accepted as canonical around 200
B.C.E.
The third section of the Tanakh, the Writings, was still open-ended in the 1st century C.E. Today, the Writings include Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, Chronicles, and the Five Scrolls that are associated with Jewish festivals. This list of works was not agreed on until the 2nd or 3rd century C.E., and even then, it was not decided by a specific leader or a council. Rather, over time, the rabbis gradually came into agreement.
The Dead Sea Scrolls were
discovered in 1946/47 and mostly dates from 1st and 2nd sentury BCE to 1st
century CE. Owing to the poor condition of some of the scrolls, scholars
have not identified all of their texts. The identified texts in the scrolls fall
into three general groups:
- About 40% are copies of texts from the Hebrew Scriptures.
- Approximately another 30% are texts from the Second temple period which ultimately were not canonized in the Hebrew Bible.
- The remainder (roughly 30%) are sectarian manuscripts of previously unknown documents that shed light on the rules and beliefs of a particular group (sect) or groups within greater Judaism.
The Hebrew Bible is similar but not identical to the
Christian Old Testament. Christians have a few extra books and parts are different
because their versions were originally derived from the Greek Septuagint rather
than the Hebrew Masoretic text.
Jews are often referred to as people of the book and following tradition and custom and adherence to living life as the Jewish bible says is a big part. For Jews, it is important to dress according to modesty codes and men have codes too like the kippah or skullcap. The Hebrew word “kosher” literally means “fit.” It has come to refer more broadly to anything that is “above board” or “legit.” The laws of kosher define the foods that are fit for consumption for a Jew.
Between
70 CE and 1492 CE, five major events rocked the Jewish world during those
1,422 years: the destruction of the Second Temple, the rise of Christianity;
the birth of Islam; birth of modern Christian Europe; and the Mongol
invasion. These events would have a profound impact on modern Jews.
After
the year 70 when the temple was destroyed, the priests who ran the Temple were
no longer in the ascendency, yielding power to the Jewish rabbis and scholars
who ultimately wrote the Talmud over the next few centuries. Most Jews (and
most of everyone else) were farmers back then. After the destruction of the
Temple, the worldwide Jewish population dwindled not just because of war and
massacre, but because of economics. If you were devout and wealthy, you
were likely to pay for your sons' Jewish education. If you were spiritual
but did not have much money, you became a Christian or joined one of the other
popular groups that did not require an expensive Jewish education. What good is
a son who can read the Torah if you just want him to help harvest pomegranates?
So, economics dictated who stayed and who strayed.
When
Muhammad appeared in the seventh century, Jews began to move from farms into
new Moslem-built cities including Baghdad and Damascus. There they went into
trades that proved far more lucrative than farming, most notably international
trade and money lending. In those arenas, Jews had enormous advantages:
universal literacy; a common language and religious culture; and the ability to
have contracts enforced, even from a distance of thousands of miles. The Muslim
world then stretched from the Spain and Portugal to halfway across Asia.
Anywhere in the Arab ambit, Jews could move, trade, or relocate freely and
benefit from their extensive religious and family networks. According to
thousand-year-old documents found in the Cairo Genizah, business documents
linking Jewish traders across the Arab world would have Jewish court decisions
written on the back. So, Jews could send money or goods thousands of
miles, certain their investments would be safe.
If
Islamic culture offered Jews a warm welcome, Western Europe was a mixed
blessing. Seemingly every few dozen miles in Western Europe, a different
prince or king was in charge, with different laws, different requirements for
citizenship, and different attitudes about the Jews. Some places were extremely
welcoming of Jews, others less so. Monarchs might boot out their Jewish
populations in tough economic times, so that Gentile citizens would not have to
repay their loans, only to welcome them back when the economy improved. On
the upside, they could do business, live their Jewish lives, and establish some
of the finest Talmudic academies in Jewish history. Alas, Jews were also
subject to massacres and expulsions, which happened with terrifying regularity
across the centuries, culminating in the Spanish Inquisition of 1492.
The
relative freedom and safety the Jews enjoyed under Muslim rule came to an
abrupt halt in the early 13th century when Genghis Khan and his marauders
attacked and leveled most of urban civilization that the Muslims had so
painstakingly built up over the centuries. With the destruction of cities
and urban institutions, those Jews fortunate enough to survive the Mongol
invasion had no option other than going back to farming. Some stayed; some
converted to Islam. So, the numbers of Jews in formerly Arab lands
would remain low for hundreds of years, until all traces of Mongol civilization
were wiped out and the world began to rebuild.
The
Nazi extermination of millions of Jews in Europe in the mid 1940's
called the holocaust was a calamity for Jews and jews were not safe until
Israel was established that they could call home. But that left in limbo the aspirations of Palestinians who also call it home. This problem continues to fester to this day. Antisemitism is still a problem in many countries today.
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