JEWISH SACRED TEXTS
The importance of Judaism's sacred texts extends far beyond their religious significance. These ancient documents embody not only Judaism's religious precepts, but also the historical, cultural and social heritage of the Jewish people. In Israel, where attitudes towards tradition range from the ultra-orthodox to the secular, sacred texts carry a variety of meanings - from a spiritual, moral and practical guide to everyday life, to a historical and cultural wealth of information, which is critically examined and studied.
The Hebrew Bible
The Jewish Bible is known in Hebrew as the Tanakh (TNK), which is an acronym of the names of three sets of books that comprise it: The Pentateuch (Torah), the Prophets (Nevi'im) and the Writings (Ketuvim).
The Torah
At the basis of all Jewish sacred texts is the Torah. The Torah is the Pentateuch - the five books of Moses, which tell the story of the Creation of the world, God's covenant with Abraham and his descendants, the Exodus from Egypt, the revelation at Mt. Sinai (where God enunciated the Ten Commandments), the wanderings of the Israelites in the desert, and a recapitulation of that experience shortly before the entrance to the Promised Land. The principal message of the Torah is the absolute unity of God, His creation of the world, His concern for it, and His everlasting covenant with the people of Israel. The Pentateuch embodies the heritage of the Jewish people - retelling its history, setting forth its guiding precepts and foretelling its destiny. It also carries universal messages of monotheism and ethical social conduct, which have been adopted by western civilization.
The Prophets
These books include the historical record of the Jewish people from the days they conquered and settled in the Promised Land, through the periods of the Judges and kings, until the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the First Temple. Next come the books of the Prophets, which represent the spiritual and ethical aspects of Judaism during the same, with some overlap into the period of the Babylonian exile and the return of the exiled to Judea, reconstructing the Temple in Jerusalem.
The Writings
These books include philosophical (e.g., Job), didactic (e.g. Proverbs), poetic (Song of Solomon), liturgical (Psalms) and historical works(e.g. Nehemiah, Esther and Chronicles), written predominantly in the period of the Second Temple. The Christian Bible includes, in addition to the books of the Hebrew Bible, also The New Testament, i.e., books that were written, mostly in Greek, after the time of Jesus.
Religious Observance
Jewish society in Israel today is made up of observant and non-observant Jews, comprising a spectrum from the ultra-observant (Haredim) to those who regard themselves as secular. However, the differences between these groups are not clear-cut. Unlike American secular people, secular Israelis study and know the Tanakh even if they do not observe many of the practices of traditional Rabbinic Judaism. In addition there is a minority of Jewish atheistic Marxists, who denounce Jewish nationalism.
As Israel was conceived as a Jewish state, the Sabbath (Saturday) and all Jewish festivals and holy days have been instituted as national holidays
and are celebrated by the entire Jewish population. The majority of Israeli Jews may be characterized as secular Jews who manifest modern
lifestyles, with varied degrees of respect for and practice of religious precepts. A large segment of the Jewish population comprises of traditional
Jews who refrain from violating Jewish explicit prohibitions but do not fulfill many of other the practices. This group is characteristically strongly
nationalistic. Then there are orthodox Jews who adhere to every iota of Rabbinic Judaism. There are also small groups of American conservative
and reform Jews.
At the far end of the Jewish religious spectrum is the minute group of Haredim, who believe that Jewish sovereignty in the Land can be reestablished only after the coming of the Messiah. Maintaining strict adherence to Jewish religious law, these people reside in separate a neighborhood in Jerusalem, run their own schools, dress in traditional medieval Eastern European clothing, maintain distinct roles for men and women and are bound by a closely circumscribed lifestyle. They may be compared to the American Amish communities.
Jews who observe Rabbinic Judaism say their blessings, which start with “Blessed by you our God, King of the Universe…,” throughout the day for every activity they undertake or new observation they make. If an activity fulfills a commandment of the Torah one says “… who blessed us with his commandments and ordered us to …”. In addition, observant Jews say their prayers three times a day, in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening in memory of the sacrifices offered in the Temple at those times. It is preferred whenever possible to say those prayers in a group of at least ten people. Central to each formal prayer is the prayer of eighteen blessings that affirm the beliefs of Judaism starting with God who protects Abraham and his descendents. When the group prayer is performed in a synagogue, a portion of the Torah is read as part of the service.
Most important religious rituals in Judaism include circumcision, Bar Mitzvah, wedding and burial prayers. The major holidays include Rosh Hashanah (New Year), the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) the feast of Tabernacles (Succoth) and Passover with its ceremonial family meal, the Seder.
Observant Jews will never eat meat of animals, fowl or seafood explicitly prohibited in the Torah. Furthermore, they will not eat meat and milk products in the same meal. On Passover they will not eat leavened bread or any other food that may be contaminated with fermented dough. Many Jews refrain from eating dairy products together with meat, even if this meat is Kosher (permitted). This tradition stems from a Rabbinic interpretation of the verse “Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk.”(Exodus 23:19)
Jews as a religion, race, or nation
Judaism can be thought of as being simultaneously a religion, a nationality and a culture.
Throughout history the world agreed that Jews constituted a distinct nation. This concept of nationhood does not require that a nation must have either a territory or a government. A nation is any distinct group of people with a common language and culture (including religion). Only in the 19th century, following the political philosophy of nationalism, some people assumed that each nation must have its own distinct government. In fact, Jews, who had communities all over Europe, had a remarkable degree of local self-government until the 19th century. So long as Jews lived in their ghettos, they were allowed to collect their own taxes, run their own courts, and otherwise behave as citizens of a landless but distinct Jewish nation.
Suffice it to say that the Jewish nation expressed more features of “nationality” than many other national entities that have been recognized as such. These include the Welsh in Grate Britain, the Valones in Belgium, the Kashubs in Poland, the Bretons and Alsatians in France, the Sorbs in Germany, the Lapps in Finland and Russia, etc. Only with the Napoleonic emancipation of Jews as citizens with equal civil rights, there were some Jews who by wishing to assimilate in the native non-Jewish ruling society, tried to define Judaism solely as a religion like Catholicism without national connotations. The Nazi Holocaust proved them wrong! Jews are members of a nation, probably the oldest nation there is.
Judaism is the religion of the Jewish nation. This religion forms the central element of Jewish culture. This religion defines foods as being kosher and non-kosher, and this underlies Jewish cuisine. This religion sets the calendar of Jewish feast and fast days, and has preserved the Hebrew language.
Is Judaism an ethnicity? Although Judaism may have arisen out of a single ethnicity in the Middle East (even this is not true except perhaps for some branches of Jacobs family; remember Joseph’s and Judah’s descendents!), there have always been conversions into and out of the Jewish nation. Thus, there are those who may have been ethnically part of the original group who are no longer part of the Jewish nation (remember the ten tribes), and many people of other ethnic groups who have accepted the Jewish religion and culture and thus became fully fledged members of the Jewish nation, very much like naturalized Americans.
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