Judaism II

Review
• Exile

• Diaspora

• Cyrus the Great

• Alexander the Great

• Hellenization

• Antiochus IV Epiphanes (Seleucid Greek)

 Holy Ark from
Conegliano Veneto,
1701
Torah Scroll
Torah Scroll
Yad, “hand,” or Torah
Pointer
Yad, “hand,” or Torah
Pointer
• Roman general Pompey

• Herod the Great

• Renovated the Temple in Jerusalem
 Jewish Revolts
• The Maccabean Revolt (Hasmoneans)

• The Zealots

• Simon bar Kokhba

 Persian Empires
• Achaemenid or Achaemenian (559 - 331 BCE)
• Founded by Cyrus the Great

• Parthian (c. 246 BCE – 226 CE)

• Sassanid or Sasanian Empire (226 – 641)

• Safavid Dynasty (1501 – 1736)

• Twelver School of Shia Islam
 Muslim Empires
• Umayyad Dynasty (661-750 CE)

• Abbasid Dynasty (750-1258)

 A Variety of Judaisms

• Sadducees and Pharisees

• Essenes

• Therapeutae

• Zealots
 Enter the Romans (63
BCE)
• Conflict among the Hasmonean leaders
eventually led to a bloody civil war.

• In 63 BCE the Roman general Pompey was

called to Judea to settle the rivalry among the
various contenders for the Hasmonean
throne.
 Enter the Romans (63
CE)
• “In 63 BCE the Roman General Pompey was
called to Judea [to] settle the rivalry among
the various contenders for the Hasmonean
throne. Instead, he took control of the land.
Thus began approximately four centuries of
repressive rule over Judea” (Murray 98).
• “In 37 BCE the Romans put an end to the
Hasmonean dynasty by naming Herod the
Great king of Israel” (ibid.).
 Herod the Great
• In 37 BCE the Romans put an end to the
Hasmonean dynasty by appointing Herod the
Great as king of Israel.

• Herod was devoted to Rome and Hellenistic

culture, but he made many advances on behalf of
Judean culture and religion.
o The kingdom of Judea prospered under his
leadership.
o His famous project was the renovation of the Temple
of Jerusalem.
 Herod the Great
• “Herod … replaced what had been a rather
modest building, more than four centuries
old, with a stunningly beautiful structure on a
much-enlarged site” (99).
 Destruction of the
Second Temple
• “In 70 CE the Romans destroyed the Second
Temple, which was never rebuilt.”
• Following the destruction of the second
temple (the western retaining wall is still
standing in Jerusalem), ritual sacrifice was
replaced by the ritualistic interpretation of the
oral and written Torah. This shift is the
beginning of Rabbinic Judaism.
• The Western Wall
 The Rabbinic Period (70–
700 CE)
• The tradition of the Pharisees outlived those of all
the other groups, except for the Samaritans.

• The interpretations of the Rabbinic movement

have defined Jewish beliefs and practices for the
past 2000 years.

• After the devastating loss of the temple in 70 CE,

sacrificial worship was replaced with liturgical
prayer and there was a new emphasis on ethical
behaviour.
 The Rabbinic Period (70–700
CE), cont’d
• Because of the centrality of Torah study to
Judaism, literacy rates tended to be higher among
Jewish males than among their non-Jewish
counterparts.

• By the end of the first century CE, the majority of

Jews were living outside of Judea.
The Rabbinic Period (70-700
CE)
• “According to rabbinic tradition, God gave
Moses the Oral Torah at the same time as the
written version.”
• The written form of the Oral Torah is called
the Mishnah.
Another Clash with Rome
• The last major Jewish revolt against Roman
rule took place between 132 and 135 CE.

• It is associated with messianic figure of

Shimon Bar Kosiba, known as Bar Cochba.

• Until the establishment of the state of Israel

in 1948 Judaism would be predominantly a
religion of the Diaspora.
 Rabbi Hillel
• Rabbi Hillel was a popular teacher who was
active between 30 BCE and 10 CE
o An older contemporary of Jesus of Nazareth.
o More than 300 arguments between the House of
Hillel and the House of Shammai are recorded in
the Talmud, and in most cases it was Hillel’s
interpretation that the rabbinic scholars
followed.
 Rabbi Hillel
• “What is hateful to you, do not do to your
neighbour: that is the entire Torah. The rest is
commentary; go and learn it!”
The Androcentric Perspectives

of the Rabbis
• The foundational literature of rabbinic Judaism
reflects the interests and concerns of the
male rabbis.
• Women were typically expected to fulfill only
those commandments that were negative.
o While rabbinic Halakhah gave women more
freedom and protection than biblical law did, the
status of most women was clearly subordinate
to that of men in all areas of life: judicial,
religious, sexual, and economic.
 Two Main Rabbinic Centres:
Palestine and Babylonia
• After the Bar Kochba revolt, Judaism
developed under the guidance of the rabbis,
the successors of the priestly leaders of the
previous period.
o There were two main centres of development: in
the Galilee region of northern Palestine, and in
Babylonia which was now ruled by the
Parthians.

• Rav was a Palestinian rabbi who arrived in

Babylonia in 219 and introduced Babylonian
Jews to the Mishnah.
 Mishnah and Gemara: The
Talmud
• Mishnah – Written form of the Oral Torah

• Gemara – commentaries on the Mishnah

• “The Gemara contains both Halakhah (legal

material) and Aggadah (narrative material).
• Palestinian (or Jerusalem) Talmud

• Babylonian Talmud
 The Rise of Christianity
• In 380 CE Christianity was decreed the official
religion of the Roman Empire. All inhabitants
of the Byzantine Empire were expected to
practise the Christian faith.

• Whereas Christianity started as a Jewish sect,

by the end of the second century most people
joining the movement were Gentiles.
o Attempts were made to differentiate the
followers of Jesus from other Jewish groups and
those who were called “Judaizers” and followed
certain Jewish practices.
 The Rise of Christianity,
cont’d
• Others such as Justin Martyr argued that
Christianity had superseded Judaism.

• By the fourth century there was out right

hostility being preached by Christian
advocates such as John Chrysostom.

• Certain Christian literature such as the

Gospel of Matthew blamed the Jews for the
death of Jesus.
 The Rise of Christianity,
cont’d
• By the early fifth century the Roman Empire
was decidedly Christian. Laws were
introduced to restrict Jewish religious and
commercial activities.

• Jews were prohibited from owning Christian

slaves which meant that they cold no longer
compete in agriculture.
 The Rise of Christianity,
cont’d
• Certain Christian leaders favored banning
Judaism forcing conversion or death.

• Augustine advocated that Jews be allowed to

live but in suffering.
 Jewish Life Under Islam:
Seventh–Twelfth Century
• In the early seventh century a new force
appeared that would shape the course of
Jewish history.
o Islam had seized Palestine and Egypt from
the Christian Byzantine Empire, and Persia
from the Persian Empire.

• For Jews, life under Muslim rule was

considerably better than it had been under
Christian Rome.
o From the seventh to the thirteenth
 The Rise of Christianity
• “When the Roman emperor Constantine I
gave Christians the liberty to practice their
faith in 313, he began a process that led to
Christianity’s becoming the official religion of
the Roman Empire in 380” (104).
Jewish Life under Islam:
Seventh-Twelfth
Century
• Muslims considered Judaism and Christianity
their partners in monotheism and respected
them for possessing, as did Islam, a divinely
revealed book.
• For Jews, life under Muslim rule was
considerably better than it had been under
Christian Rome.
• Muslims understood that with Jews they
shared not only belief in a single god, but
opposition to the use of images in the worship
of Yahweh/Allah”(ibid.).
 The Gaonic Period
• Gaonim were leaders of the academies of
Pumbeditha and Sura.
• Rabbis wrote to ask them questions about
problematic cases.
• Opponents of the Goanim, the Karaites
maintained that only the Tanakh was
authoritative.
• They rejected the rabbinic interpretation of the
Oral Torah/ Talmud, that it had the status of
divinely revealed truth.
• The Karaites were the first Jews to make an
intensive study of Hebrew grammar and the
 The Gaonic Period
• “In 750 CE the Abbasid dynasty overthrew the
Umayyads, and as a result the capital of the
Muslim Caliphate moved from Damascus to
Baghdad” (117).
• Gaonim – leaders of the Talmudic academies,
originally located in Pumbeditha and Sura, but
moved to Baghdad in the 9th and 10th
centuries, respectively
• Answers to questions that rabbis posed to the
Gaonim were called responsa, which
“provided the foundation for later legal and
philosophical developments” (ibid.).
 Maimonides
• By the eleventh century, the influence of the
Gaonim was waning, and instability in Baghdad
prompted many Jews to leave Babylonia for more
promising lands.
o Some Babylonian Jews headed to Spain. That
period came to an end when the Almohads, a
Puritanical Muslim sect from Morocco, invaded
during the twelfth century and banned both
Judaism and Christianity.
• Moses Maimonides, or Moses Ben Maimon (1135–
1204), whose family escaped Spain for Egypt, was
one of the most famous of all Jewish philosophers
and legal scholars.
 Maimonides, cont’d
• Maimonides produced a 14-volume code of
Jewish law called Mishneh Torah.

• His most important philosophical work was

The Guide of the Perplexed.
• In it, Maimonides sought to diminish the
tension between faith and knowledge and
emphasized that science (i.e., learning)
ought not to undermine faith.
 Maimonides (1135-
1204)
• The Guide of the Perplexed.

• Under the influence of Muslim philosophers

who translated the texts of Plato and Aristotle
from Greek into Arabic, Maimonides
attempted to reconcile faith and reason.
 Jews in the Christian World:
Seventh to Fifteenth Century
• The best-known expulsion of Jews was the one
ordered by the Christian monarchs of Spain,
Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1492.
o Having finally taken the last Muslim
stronghold, in Granada, they completed
their “reconquest” of the land by
commanding that the Jewish population
either convert to Christianity or leave the
country.
Expulsion and Migration of
Jews from Europe, c. 1000–
1500 CE
 The Spanish Inquisition

• Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain petitioned the

Pope for permission to establish an inquisition
to punish Jews who still practice Jewish rites in
secret.
• The Spanish Inquisition was known for the
ruthlessness of its interrogation methods
and the punishments imposed.
 The Kabbalah

• The Kabbalah (“to receive”) appears to date

from the twelfth century when many Jews
took a renewed interest in mysticism in
response to the pain caused by the expulsion.
• The most authoritative Kabbalah text is
commentary on the Five Books of Moses
called the Zohar.
o It is thought to have been written in
Aramaic by Moses de Leon, a thirteen-
century Spanish-Jewish Mystic.
 The Kabbalah, cont’d
• Isaac Luria (1534–72)
o He was an enormously influential later
scholar of the Kabbalah.
o Best known concept of Lurianic teachings is
concept of tikkun olam, the process of
restoring the created order to its original
state (Murray 112).
 The Kabbalah
• The Zohar

• Describes the Ayn Sof (“Without End” or

“Infinite”) and the ten Sefirot, or emanations
of the Divine.
 The Kabbalah
• Crown • Beauty

• Wisdom • Splendor

• Understanding • Victory

• Loving Kindness • Foundation

• Might • Sovereignty
The Kabbalah
 The Kabbalah
• Isaac Luria (1534-72)

• Tikkun (mending the world, restoration of the

original balance of the ten Sefirot).
 Eastern Europe
• The charismatic founder of Hasidism was
Israel ben Eliezer (1698-1760).
o He encouraged his fellow Jew to worship
God with joy and delight, from the heart
rather than the head.
• Today the movement continue to flourish in
certain communities
 Hasidism
• The founder of Hasidism was Israel ben Eliezer
(1698–1760).
o He encouraged his fellow Jew to worship God
with joy and delight, from the heart rather than
the head.
• Hasidic leaders are not rabbinic scholars but
charismatic leaders known as tzaddikim
(“righteous men”) whose authority rests with
what are believed to be their supernatural
powers.
o The ordinary person through attachment to a
tzaddik can attain a state of devekut
(“attachment” or “cleaving” to God).
 Hasidim vs Mitnagdim
• The eighteenth century was a dark time for
Eastern European Jews. The Baal Shem Tov
taught that everyone no matter how
impoverished or uneducated could commune
with God.
• A group called Mitnagdim objected to
Hasidim, especially their introduction of the
Kabbalah into the daily life of the masses.
• Today Hasidim makes up an important
component of Orthodox Judaism.