2009/06/17 Fourth Introduction to Judaism Class Notes

Rabbi Micah Streiffer was our teacher. Someone asked if the Judaic tradition had any angels. Rabbi Micah answered that thre are 4 archangels, all ending in the letter L (in English). This letter stands for God. These archangels represent pieces of God. (1) Uriel - Uri (I missed this one) so this angel is represents ?. (2) Michael - Micah means one who is like God so this angel is like God. (3) Gabriel - Gabri means strength so this is the strength of God. (4) Raphael - Rapha means healing so this represents the healing god. God is known also as the Lord of Hosts which is a phrase used often by Christians and is a sense of God as one who commands both the earthly and the heavenly world. The hierarchy of God, Angels, Humans, Animals was outlined. There are two levels of Creation, the heavenly world with God and Angels and the lower world, Humans and animals. God can create and make decisions, Angels do God's bidding but do not make decisions. Humans are like God in that they can create life and they can make decisions. Animals do not make decisions.

The real topic for tonight is Sacred Texts. The Jews were called People of the Book by the Muslim world. The Book is Torah. Torah is the basis of Judaism, which is like the constitution of Judaism. Judaism is the religion based on Torah. Other Jewish writings come from the base of Torah. Torah is at the center of Judaism and all laws of Judaism draw their authority from Torah.

Page 4 of pamphlet handout: Torah is the first 5 books of the Tanach. A portion is read each week and the Torah is divided into 52 sections so that it is read in full each year. For the most part (there are a few exceptions), the same passage is read everywhere alike. In Reform Judaism, belief is that it was written by humans and it is the Jewish way of approaching God. It was divinely inspired through the writers. The prophets were divinely inspired. The divinely inspired writers of Torah experienced God but the Torah was not dictated to them by God. Many Orthodox believe God wrote the Torah.

When was the Bible written down - Why, of course, during the Biblical period and when was that? It was around 585 BCE. The first Temple was destroyed in 586 BCE and people scattered out somewhat so it became necessary to carry on traditions in a little more documented manner than the oral tradition had allowed when everyone lived near the Temple.

Bible is called Tanach and it is contains the same books as the Christian Old Testament but not in the same order. Jews order their books by Torah (the first 5 books), Nevi'im - The Prophets and Ketu'im (Writings). (1) Torah is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. (2) Nevi'im (Prophets) includes Joshua, Judges, Samuel (2 books), Kings (2 books), Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the 12 minor prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habbakkuk, Zephaniah, and Malachi). (3) Ketuvim includes Writings and they are Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles (2 books).

Torah is the only portion of Tanach read in full each year. Other books are read on holidays. These are Song of Songs (read on Passover), Ruth (read on Shavuot, a holiday commemorating the receiving of the Torah), Lamentations (read on Tisha B'Av, a holiday commemorating the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem and other Jewish tragedies), Ecclesiastes (read on Sukkot, a harvest holiday in the fall), and Esther ( read on Purim, a holiday celebrating the story of Esther). The writings were originally oral and then were written down. Some were performed. Poems have more archaic language than the stories. So it appears they came first. In Exodus, there is a Song of the Sea that likely came first. All these books were oral at first and it was easier to remember song than just words so songs and poems likely came first and were easiest to remember in their original form and words.

Noah - 2 stories. In one Noah takes 2 of each animal into the ark and in another he took 7 of each animal. In Genesis - Chapter 1 has earth being created in 7 days. In Chapter 2, tells creation story again with different order of creation. In Jewish tradition, Chapter 1 is seen as God's eye view of creation and Chapter 2 is the people's eye view of creation.

900 BCE - Period of David/Solomon.
586 BCE - First Temple destroyed and the beginning of the Babylonian exile (first diaspora). This is when we think the writing down of the Bible occurred because the Jewish people needed to do so to prevent their sacred texts from being lost.
587 BCE - Biblical era - Bible began being written down.
516 BCE - People were allowed to rebuild the Temple and this is the Second Temple period. Judaism begins to bifercate. (1) Lower class - Pharisees - priests who were into priestly sacrifice. (2) Upper class - Sadducees - Only Torah is basis of Judaism. No ability to expand. The Pharisees were the ancestors of rabbinic Judaism and they began to talk of writing Torah from the Oral Torah that had been passed down.

70 CE - Destruction of the second Temple. Again, started writing other things. Mishnah was written down around this time. This was the first Jewish code of law and was not based directly on the Torah.

Kiddish is a blessing over wine on Friday. Rabbis of Mishnah - Rule is you have to say something out loud about Shabbat. Shabbat Shalom is an example of a short saying that can be said out loud that makes people know it is Shabbat and remembers it out loud. This is the Law of Kiddish and this is where it came from - Mishnah. This is an example of legal creativity. Mishnah is the book of Law. It shows how to put Torah into practice.

Another rising literature is the Midrash. It is a homelike creativity and is non-legal. It is stories that arise surrounding the Torah. S

Stories and laws are both important.

Minutia of laws - Reform Jews are less concerned about the minutia. Torah is the source of law.
Mitzvah - means commandment and it is a good thing to do but not necessarily a good deed. Mitzvah is one of the 613 commandments. There is no list of these 613 commandments and ther are different lists with different commandments but all the lists have 613 and the first commandment is "Be fruitful and multiply."

The 613 Mitzvot are all found in Torah and find new meaning in the ancient text. Torah says to "remember the day of Shabbat." But how. Midrash and Mishnah tell you.

Over 300-400 years, mush discussion on how to be Jewish and it was hard to research because there were volumes and volumes of argument coming from every learned opinion. So in 500CE or 600 CE, these opinions were arranged by subject in the Talmud. Each page of Talmud tells the Mishnah (commandment) which is about 3 lines or so, then tells the Gemara (commentary or gathering place for all the ideas). The Gemara may be pages long.

The Talmud - if read one page per day it takes 7 years to complete reading it. It was originally written in modern day Iraq which was Babylonia at the time it was written.

After the Talmud cam the post Talmudic period which matches with the Medieval period as we are taught it in history books. In post Talmudic period, 2 main ways to get new information:

(1) Mishnah Torah - code of law not related to either Torah or Mishnah even though named for both. The Mishnah Torah tells you how to be Jewish. (page 14 in pamphlet handed out in class). The Mishnah Torah said not to read the Talmud anymore but it is okay to study it to see how history developed and see how ancestors made meaning out of their Jewish texts.

(2) Responsa - is a question and answer writing. It is exactly Q & A. You ask a rabbinic authority and this authority finds answer and writes you back with an answer. Rabbis kept copies of their answers. There are responsa committees that discuss questions of Jewish tradition. These can be new questions that arose only in modern life such as intermarriage, etc.
Our blue book that was given us as a text is a code of Jewish law. The author is interested in the minutia of the law.

In the 1500's Kabalah started. This is Jewish mysticism. "In 1492, Columbus sailed the Ocean blue and all the Jews got kicked out of Spain too" is a Jewish saying.

Each time there is calamity such as the destruction of the Temples, there has arisen out of that calamit new ways of Judaism. Torah can mean the 5 books of Moses but also can be all literature of Judaism which is all descended from those first five books.