by Ulf Wolf
The Rabbinic Tradition
Although all forms of Judaism have always been rooted in the Hebrew Bible, it would be incorrect to think of Judaism as just a religion of the Old Testament. In fact, contemporary Judaism derives from the rabbinic movement of the first centuries of the Christian and is therefore correctly referred to as Rabbinic Judaism.
Rabbi is Hebrew for “my teacher.”
The original rabbis were Jewish sages well read in both the Scriptures and their own traditions and who, based on these studies, maintained that God had revealed not one but two Torahs to Moses on Sinai: In addition to the written Torah, what we know as the Scripture, God also revealed an oral Torah, one that has since been faithfully transmitted by word of mouth in an unbroken chain from master to disciple, and that is now only preserved among the rabbis themselves.
For the rabbis, the oral Torah was encapsulated in the Mishnah—that which is learned or memorized— the earliest document of rabbinic literature, edited in Palestine at the turn of the 3rd century.
Subsequent rabbinic study of the Mishnah in Palestine and Babylonia generated two Talmuds—that which is studied—which were wide-ranging commentaries on the Mishnah. The Babylonian Talmud, edited about the 6th century, eventually became the foundation document of rabbinic Judaism.
Worship and Practices
For the religious Jew, all life, from birth to death, is one continuous act of divine worship. “I keep the Lord always before me” (Psalms 16:8), a verse inscribed on the front wall of many synagogues, characterizes this.
Prayers and Services
The Talmud and medieval law codes decree that Jews must offer congregational prayers three times a day: in the morning (shaharith), in the afternoon (minhah), and in the evening (maarib), which times are believed to correspond to the times when sacrifices were offered in the Jerusalem Temple.
This is one of the ways that rabbinic Judaism metaphorically carries forward the structure and spirit of the destroyed Temple cult. A company of ten men forms a congregation, or quorum (minyan), for prayer. Should a community be unable to gather a minyan, individual Jews are nonetheless obliged to offer these prayers, but in a somewhat abbreviated fashion.
As a sign of their devotion to God, the observant adult male Jew during weekday morning prayers should wear both a fringed prayer shawl (tallith) and phylacteries (prayer boxes, called tefillin). These two customs are derived from the scriptural passages recited as the Shema, as is a third custom, the placing of a mezuzah (prayer box) on the doorpost of one’s house, a further reminder that God is everywhere.
Also, as a gesture of respect to God, the head is covered during prayer, either with a hat or a skullcap. Pious Jews wear a head covering at all times, in recognition of God’s constant presence.
Torah
The study of Torah—the revealed will of God—is also considered an act of worship in rabbinic Judaism and passages from Scripture, Mishnah, and Talmud are recited during daily morning services.
On Monday and Thursday mornings, a handwritten parchment scroll of the Torah (that is, the Pentateuch) is removed from the Holy Ark at the front of the synagogue and read and chanted before the congregation.
The major ceremonial Torah readings take place on Sabbath and festival mornings. In the course of a year, the entire Torah will be read on Sabbaths. In other words, the public reading of Scripture constitutes a significant part of synagogue worship; in fact, some hold that this was originally the primary function of the synagogue as an institution.
Benedictions
In addition to these daily prayers, Jews are required to recite a number of benedictions throughout the day before performing commandments and before enjoying the bounties of nature.
A well-known benediction, usually recited by women on Sabbath Eve before the lighting of the mandatory Sabbath candles, is representative: “May You be blessed, O Lord, King of the Universe, who sanctified us through His commandments and commanded us to kindle the light of the Sabbath.”
The benedictions of enjoyments, by contrast, reflect the Jewish conviction that the Earth does not belong to man, but to God—humans are simply tenant farmers or gardeners. Thus the Owner must be acknowledged before the tenant may partake of the fruits.
The most common such benediction occurs at meals, when breaking of bread is preceded by the following blessing: “May You be blessed, O Lord, King of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.”
Dietary Laws
From the very outset, Jews have been recognized among non-Jewish observers through distinctive dietary observances, many of which relate to the ancient Temple cult. The table at home is thought analogous to the table of the Lord that once existed in the Jerusalem Temple, where certain animals, considered unclean, could not be used in sacrificial service at the altar. They are therefore not to be eaten in secular settings either.
Such animals include pigs, donkeys, and camels. The Bible also prohibits eating fish without fins or scales and other creatures deemed to violate in some way certain norms.
Edible domestic animals—though only those that have split hooves and chew their cuds—must be properly slaughtered (kosher) and the blood fully drained before the meat can be eaten.
The Sabbath
The Jewish liturgical calendar honors the divisions of time prescribed in the Torah and observed in the Temple cult. Thus, every seventh day is the Sabbath, when no work is performed. By this abstention, the Jew is seen to return the world to God, its owner, acknowledging that humans extract His produce only on sufferance.
History
Until recently, historians of the early history of Judaism were quite confident that the biblical literature, together with archaeological findings, could safely be used as a guide in reconstructing the origins and history of the Israelite nation.
However, with the increasing realization that much of the surviving literature appears to have its reached current form centuries or even millennia after the events described, historians have now become more guarded.
Such well-established Biblical personalities as the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the matriarchs Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah cannot be found by disciplined historical study. They only exist by way of Genesis.
Similarly, it is no longer certain when, or under what circumstances, or if at all, the ancestors of Israel lived in Egypt during the time of the pharaohs.
The origins of the dynasty of David are also unclear. So, too, is the precise nature of its relations with what the biblical historical books recall as the wicked northern kingdom centered in Samaria.
Probably the most we can say with any degree of certainty, is that the people recalled in the Bible as the Israelites were a largely agricultural people acknowledging a covenantal relationship to the God of Israel. This God, in exchange for their love and obedience, would on His part protect them from invasions of other peoples and the dominion of foreign gods.
By the chronicled events of the Bible, however, Israel and its kings were often disloyal to their chosen God and participated in a variety of activities that did in fact constitute worship of other gods. In a tit for tat, the God of Israel then imposed upon his people a series of punishments, culminating, at the end, in the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the expulsion of the royal house of David and its entire priesthood from the land of Israel.
And it is here, with the exile of Israel at the hands of the Babylonian Empire, that the history of Judaism begins to acquire some confirmed facts and, thus, focus.
Babylonian Exile
The exile of the Israelites to Babylonia in 586 BCE was a major turning point for Judaism, which led to a reinterpretation of Israel’s prior history and so laid the foundation for the biblical Pentateuch, prophetic canon, and historical books to follow.
Accordingly, the prophets Ezekiel and Deutero-Isaiah now held that God had pressed the Babylonian Empire into service in order to punish the Israelites for their sins. But seeing as He was capable
of this, He was also (quite logically) capable of redeeming them from captivity if they repented.
From this developed a truly monotheistic religion wherein the God of Israel is now seen as not only their God but as the God of universal history and the ruler of all destinies and nations.
This messianic hope for a restored Judean kingdom under the leadership of the royal house of David seemed to have been vindicated when Cyrus the Great, after conquering Babylon in 539 BCE, permitted a repatriation of subject populations and a restoration of local temples.
The now restored Judean commonwealth did not fully realize this hope, however, since Cyrus did not allow the restoration of a Judean monarchy, but only a temple-state with the high priest as its chief administrator.
Maccabean and Roman Periods
Beginning with the 331 BCE conquests of Alexander the Great, Greek culture made southern inroads into the Middle East, which in turn put the indigenous cultures on the defensive.
This eventually led to the Maccabean revolt of 165 to 142 BCE, an event which had begun as a civil war between Jewish Hellenizers and offended nativists and ended, successfully, in Judean political independence from Syria.
All this cultural turmoil and subsequent warfare had a major impact on Judaism. In fact, the earliest apocalyptic writings—the genre of cryptic revelations—were composed during this period, and they interpreted the wars of the time as part of a cosmic conflict between the forces of good and those of evil that would ultimately end with victory of God’s legions—the good guys.
This was also the first time that bodily resurrection at the time of God’s Last Judgment was promised to those righteous Jews who had been slain in the conflict. (Before this time, immortality meant survival of the individual’s children and people or in a shadowy afterlife in Sheol, the netherworld.)
Even though the Maccabean victories launched eighty years of Judean political independence, religious turmoil persisted.
Though not of true lineage, the Hasmonaean priestly family that had led the successful revolt now proclaimed themselves hereditary kings and high priests. This affront, along with their Hellenistic monarchical trappings, prompted fierce opposition from groups such as the Qumran community, known to modern scholars from the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Led by dissident priests, this sect proclaimed that the Jerusalem Temple had been profaned by the Hasmonaeans and saw itself as a purified Temple exiled in the wilderness.
This Qumran group is most likely the Essenes described by Jewish historian Flavius Josephus and other ancient writers. Josephus also reports the existence of two other groups, the Sadducees and the Pharisees.
The Pharisees, like the Qumran group, put forth their own traditions of biblical law, which were then disputed by the Sadducees, an aristocratic priestly group.
The Messianic-apocalyptic fervor was rekindled when Judean political independence was brought to an abrupt halt by the Romans in the middle of the 1st century BCE which was to climax in the outbreak of an unsuccessful revolt against Rome in 66 to 70 CE. In fact, Christianity began as one of these messianic-apocalyptic movements.
Development of Rabbinic Judaism
The Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE and their suppression of a second messianic revolt in 132 to 135 (led by Simon Bar Kokhba) were, for the Jews, religious catastrophes on par with the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE. As a result, the existing priestly leadership was discredited and soon ousted by the rabbinic movement.
Since the Jewish people had now—and quite thoroughly—lost control of their political destiny, the rabbis began instead to emphasize communal and spiritual, rather than political, life. They taught that by conforming to the Torah as elaborated in the rabbinic traditions (reportedly handed down by word of mouth, remember), and through study, prayer, and observance, the individual Jew could achieve salvation while waiting for God to bring about the messianic redemption of Israel as a nation.
Some rabbis even held that if all Jews towed the Torah line, the Messiah would simply be compelled to come.
Institutionally, and going forward, the synagogue and the rabbinic study house now replaced the destroyed Temple.
Shift of Power
The eventual rabbinization of all Jews was a gradual process that had to overcome strong challenges from the Karaites and other anti-rabbinic movements.
However, as it happened, the Arab 7th-century conquest of the Middle East did much to facilitate the spread of a uniform rabbinic Judaism when the heads of the Babylonian rabbinical academies—closely allied with the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad—attempted to standardize Jewish law, custom, and liturgy in accordance with their own practices—which they set forth in their replies (responsa) to inquiries from Diaspora communities.
Thus, since the political power rested with Baghdad, ultimate Jewish religion authority also passed from Palestine to Babylonia, and the Babylonian Talmud ended up as the most authoritative rabbinic document.
Medieval Judaism
Medieval Judaism was to develop two distinctive cultures: Sephardic Judaism, which was centered in Moorish Spain, and Ashkenazic Judaism, which was prominent in the lands of the Holy Roman Empire.
The Sephardic branch concentrated on philosophy and a systematic legal codification of the teachings, whereas the Ashkenazim preferred intensive study of the Babylonian Talmud.
What has since been dubbed the great Rhineland school of Talmud commentary began with the musings and commentary writings of 11th-century scholar Solomon bar Isaac of Troyes, a mantle which was subsequently donned by his grandsons and students—later known as the tosaphists—who were to produce the literature of tosaphoth, also known as the “additions” to Rashi’s Talmud commentary.
Throughout the otherwise dark medieval period, Judaism was revitalized again and again by mystical and pietistic movements, the most important of which were the 12th-century German Hasidic movement and the 13th-century Spanish Kabbalah, which produced Sefer ha-zohar (The Book of Splendor) by Moses de León.
The Kabbalah is an esoteric theosophy that contains elements of both Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, which describes the dynamic nature of the God and which offers a mystic-symbolic interpretation of the Torah and the commandments.
The Kabbalah arose in small, elite scholarly circles but was to become a major popular movement after the calamitous expulsion of the Jews from Catholic Spain in 1492. The further spread of the Kabbalah was fostered by the mythical, messianic reinterpretation of the teachings made by Isaac Luria of Safed.
This interpretation—now known as Lurianic Kabbalah—explained to the exiles the cosmic significance of their suffering and gave them a crucial role in the cosmic drama of redemption. Thus, Luria’s ideas paved the way for a major messianic upheaval, centered on the figure of Sabbatai Zevi, which affected all Jewry in the 17th century.
Luria’s ideas also influenced the popular 18th-century Polish revival movement called Hasidism. Spawned by Israel Baal Shem Tov, Hasidism proclaimed that through fervent, rapturous devotion, the poor, unlearned Jew could serve God better even than the Talmudist.
This view was, naturally, opposed by the rabbinic branch, but this opposition was eventually mitigated in the face of a more serious threat to both groups: the western European Age of Enlightenment and the move to more modern thinking within Judaism.
Modern Tendencies
The Age of Enlightenment saw the civil emancipation of European Jewry—a process complicated by lingering anti-Jewish sentiment—evoke several different reformulations of Judaism in western and eastern Europe.
In the west, particularly in Germany, Judaism was reformed as a religious movement much like modern Protestantism. This German Reform movement abandoned all hope of a return to Zion, the Jewish homeland, shortened and beautified the worship service, emphasized sermons in the vernacular, and rejected as antiquated much Jewish law and custom.
In fact, the Reform rabbi took on many of the roles of the Protestant minister.
/> In eastern Europe, where Jews formed a large and distinctive social group, this reformation of Judaism took the form akin to cultural and ethnic nationalism. Like other resurgent national movements in the east, the Jewish movement emphasized a revival of the national language—Hebrew, later also Yiddish—and the creation of a modern, secular literature and culture.
Zionism, another movement that initially took hold in eastern Europe, vowed to create a modern Jewish society in the ancient homeland. Founded by Leo Pinsker in Russia and Theodor Herzl in Austria, Zionism was a secular ideology rooted in traditional Judaic messianism.
It was Zionism that led to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.
Judaism in America
The American Jewish community of today descends largely from central European Jews who immigrated in the mid-19th century and, particularly, those from eastern Europe who arrived between 1881 and 1924, as well as many survivors of the Holocaust.
American Judaism takes many forms: Reform, Conservative, Orthodox. All, however, are the product of adaptation by these Jewish immigrant groups to American life and their accommodation to one another.
Institutionally, Judaism in America has adopted the congregational structure of American Christianity, and while affiliated with national movements, most congregations today retain considerable autonomy.
Reform Judaism
As mentioned above, Reform Judaism, the first movement to really define itself, was primarily German at the outset. In America, however, it was informed by both liberal Protestantism and, particularly, by the Social Gospel movement.
