Jewish Mysticism: Kabbalah

By the middle ages, different techniques were employed to achieve superior knowledge deemed unattainable for natural processes. For instance, some people resorted to meditating on divine names as a means of achieving some contact with the deity. The most famous system of mystical contemplation in Judaism is known as Kabbalah.

Kabbalah is the Hebrew word for “tradition”. Whereas the rabbis employed the word Kabbalah to mean the legal tradition, going back to Moses, the mystics opted this phrase to suggest a more hidden tradition. This tradition was passes on to the worthy, not to everyone.

Kabbalah addresses the nature of the deity. It distinguishes between God as He is, what we would call the essence of God; and God as he manifests himself in this world. Kabbalah would say is that the essential God is unknowable. The phrase that they use in Hebrew is the Ein Sof, the limitless. This is something beyond human comprehension.

God’s manifestations descend to us through a series of powers from within the Godhead.These ten powers are known as Sefirot. These Sefirot serve as a sort of bridge between the limitless aspect of God and our imperfect reality. Each of the Sefirot has a name corresponding to the various attributes of God. The attributes are named:

1. Crown
2. Wisdom
3. Understanding
4. Loving kindness
5. Strength
6. Beauty
7. Victory
8. Glory
9. Power
10. Kingdom

These are frequently laid out in diagrams. There are sexual overtones to the relationship between the various Sefirot. Some of them are of male nature and others of a female nature. They create a completeness.

The Zohar

The classic Kabbalistic text is called the Zohar. It appears to be a commentary to the Torah, but it is way beyond that. This book has a very strange history to it. No one really knew when it was written. It appears in 13th century Spain for the first time. Traditionalists would claim that it was written by the rabbis of Galilee in the second century C.E. In particular by one rabbi, Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai.

Ultimately, the Zohar was printed in the 16th century and it became an extremely influential work, although many Kabbalists were actually unhappy with that. They thought that the dissemination of the Zohar among the masses was very dangerous. This is a sort of secret knowledge that should not be accessible to everyone.

Kabbalistic teaching received a further stimulation through the teaching and influence of a rabbi known as Isaac Luria. He is commonly referred to as the Ari. He was a man who lived his final years in 16th century Safed, in Galilee. Luria introduced new ideas into Kabbalah, primarily connected to the nature of the cosmos. God, he claimed, originally had withdrawn into himself, leaving a void, out of which primordial man and the Sefirot were created.

What would ensue now is an ongoing process of God’s withdrawal and emanation. This ongoing process would have practical implications in the nature of the world and the vicissitudes taking place within the Jewish world. They would link the historical development of Israel with the theological development of the deity.

A New Hope in Kabbalah

In the aftermath of the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492, many Jews accepted a mystical explanation of their recent catastrophe. This Kabbalistic teaching offered them, if it was presented properly, some sort of hope. The spread of Kabbalah had major social repercussions among Jewish communities.

Kabbalah offered an alternative system of spirituality. What was the existing one? The traditional commitment to Rabbinic studies. For many people that was not satisfying. They were looking for a spiritual, inner link to the truth. This alternative later encouraged the appearance of different communal contexts. Most notably, the emergence of Hasidism. This movement was based on the notion that God is pervasive and that he requires a constant attachment to him through constant prayer. This cleaving is a behavioral phenomenon, it is not an intellectual study. This intellectual study was the main occupation of the traditional Rabbinic world.

Some scholars have also drawn connections between the political ramifications of a Lurianic Kabbalah and the appearance of a false messianic figure, Sabbatai Zevi. He claimed that at certain times one has to go to the depth of sinning, and then, from there, arise and bring about a certain redemption.

We find that there are two parallel worlds: the philosophical-intellectual world and the mystical-Kabbalistic world. These two are operating simultaneously. Clearly, different people plugged in to one or another of these disciplines.

Historians' History

As we enter modernity, we find scholars choosing sides. At different stages of modern Jewish scholarship, one or the other of these two worlds has the upper hand. In the 19th century, when histories of Judaism were being produced in the aftermath of the Enlightenment, the hero of Judaic scholars was Maimonides. When you read the histories that were produced for the first time, you find that, for them, intellectual Judaism was the standard. They felt that this was the norm. This was the proper presentation of Judaism. They considered mysticism and Kabbalah, and the results of that type of activity, primitive and superstitious.

When we enter the 20th century, things change radically. One of the great scholars of Judaism of the 20th century was named Gershom Scholem. He was a professor of Mysticism and Kabbalah at the Hebrew University. Scholem uncovered a whole world of mystical texts that had never been studied systematically.

Scholem claimed that Kabbalah was far more central that what people ever imagined. He claimed it was a dominant force within mainstream Judaism, and not just something that a few mystics attached themselves to. He managed to convince many scholars that maybe we’ve been reading the wrong texts. Maybe, to really understand Jewish history, we have to address these elements of Jewish theology.

These last 50 years, people began addressing all of Jewish literature. For instance, we know today that Jews were involved in magic throughout history. This was the type of activity that the Talmud would had frowned at. Clearly, this was part of some Jewish behavior.

I think the conclusion is that there is no one normative type of Judaism. We should look at it from each point of view.

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Great Jewish Philosophers

Throughout history, Jews addressed the nature of their religion. Frequently, this search was the result of a perceived need to confront other intellectual or religious groups. At other times, it was inspired by attempts to reconzile between the surrounding world of intellectual inquiry and the world of Jewish thought.

We will discuss the outstanding Jewish philosophers from a a variety of ages and cultural environments. Greek philosophy introduced a revolutionary way of thinking about the world. It represented a challenge to Judaism at diverse times and places. Philosophers investigated the nature of things hoping to arrive at new truths that would explain the order of the world, the nature of change and even aspects of the human soul.

Jews, both in antiquity and in the middle ages, believed that they possesed these truths as part of their religious tradition. Nevertheless, the abstract and conceptual nature of Greek thinking had enormous effects throhout the Greco-Roman world. At least some Jews living in that world adopted aspects of these thought processes.

• Philo: Philo tried to reconcile his Greek philosophical training with a comprehensive knowledge of Jewish religious tradition.

• Saadia Gaon, Revelation and Reason Reconciled: Saadia argues that one should employ philosophical thought in trying to achieve a deeper understanding of all the aspects of Jewish religion. He is using the Greek mode of thought and applying it to his own world. He did not consider this as undermining a belief in the Bible. He argues that this supports the belief in the Bible.

• Maimonides: Greek philosophy spread throughout the world and Jews became very well-versed in scholarship. They felt a need to reply. The greatest of these presenters of Jewish philosophy, and maybe the greatest thinker in all of Jewish history, was Moses Maimonides.

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Maimonides

Greek philosophy spread throughout the world and Jews became very well-versed in scholarship. They felt a need to reply. The greatest of these presenters of Jewish philosophy, and maybe the greatest thinker in all of Jewish history, was Moses Maimonides. Maimonides was born in Cordoba, Spain, in 1135. At the age of 13, his family was forced to leave Spain, and they traveled through North Africa. Ultimately, they arrived in he old city of Cairo, known as Fustat. It is in that city that Maimonides would live until his death.

When he arrives in Cairo, he becomes one of the leaders of the community. He had studied medicine and was appointed the official physician of the local Grand Vizier of Saladin. As a result, he became a very prominent man, not just in the Jewish community, but in the general community as well.

He wasn’t only a great philosopher. Maimonides was also one of the outstanding Rabbinic legal scholars in all of Jewish history. His masterwork in the field of law was a codification of Jewish law in fourteen books, known as the Mishneh Torah. His genius here was in going through all previous Rabbinic literature and thematically organize them.

It is clear, however, that it was his vast knowledge of philosophy and science that contributed enormously to his work. He deals in his legal texts with the basis of belief and the understanding of God’s role in this world. When he discusses God, you can see that he is setting up a system based on the principles of metaphysics. His legal code was written in beautiful Hebrew. It is clear and anyone can understand it. This probably contributed to its wide distribution.

As a philosopher, Maimonides is best known for his work “The Guide for the Perplexed”, Moreh Nevuchim. His philosophical training came to him through Arabic authors who were trained in Aristotelian philosophy. This became a basis for his work.

Who are the perplexed? These are his Jewish readers who, while they were well versed in their religious tradition, were also exposed to rational thought, and consequently, had many difficulties with major portions of the Bible, in particular, the various anthropomorphic allusions to God. God having a body, and having all sorts of visual attributes. This was very perplexing to people.

This led to Maimonides ascribing a spiritualized meaning to many of the biblical descriptions of God. From here, he was not far from attempting to find what we can and can’t know about God. How can God be one and yet have so many different attributes in the Bible? The essence of God’s unity and his existence was a major problem in Maimonides’ thinking.

Another topic that he addressed was the issue of prophecy. For him, prophecy is a result of a highly developed human intellect that receives a sort of emanation from God.

Maimonides, as great as he was, was not accepted by all Jews. Certainly, not by all rabbis. Some considered him to be on the very edge of heresy, because of his rationalistic approach and interpretation of major aspects of Jewish religion.

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Saadia Gaon: Revelation and Reason Reconciled

Saadia Gaon lived from 882 to 942. He was born in Egypt, but he moved to Babylonia and he became a very prominent leader of the Rabbinic movement. Saadia encountered a number of challenges that confronted Judaism in the 10th century. One of them was the challenge of Karaism. This was a group that raised serious challenges to the authority of the rabbis and Rabbinic Judaism, specially to what was called the “oral Torah”. They claimed that a loyalty to the text alone is what is required. Everything else has absolutely no basis in the Bible itself.

Some Karaists went even further by raising questions regarding the role of God in creation. They suggested some kind of mediation of angels even in the process of creation. This, of course, was a very dangerous idea for the rabbis, because it suggested all sorts of other powers that existed, it was no longer man and God. By removing God from an active interest in this world, they possibly might have been conjuring a Sadduceean teaching.

Saadia had another challenge that he had to address. That was the discovery by Arab thinkers of his day of the Greek philosophical discourse and their application of rational thought processes to the examination of religious truths. This Islamic scholastic theology was known as Kalam. It served as the background for Saadia’s major philosophical work, which is a book known as the Emunoth ve-Deoth, meaning “Beliefs and Opinions”. He wrote it in Arabic and was later translated into Hebrew.

This is the first philosophical defense of Judaism that we have in our possession. In many ways, it is the earliest example of a systematic Jewish theology. Saadia distinguished between those beliefs that are the fruits of rational thinking and those truths that can only be achieved through revelation. For Saadia, this two, revelation and reason, are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are complementary.

Saadia argues that one should employ philosophical thought in trying to achieve a deeper understanding of all the aspects of Jewish religion. He is using the Greek mode of thought and applying it to his own world. He did not consider this as undermining a belief in the Bible. He argues that this supports the belief in the Bible.

He tells a parable of a man who is shown a pile of coins. He was told by the person showing him the coins “the number of coins here is such and such”. We have no reason to disbelieve that person. Why would he make up a lie? But if we count the coins ourselves, we would achieve a degree of certainty that we did not have prior to this.

He is suggesting that we have an inherited belief, but what’s wrong with examining that belief using logic? He is convinced that we can support that belief through philosophical contemplation. He was clearly responding to fears that rational argumentation could challenge faith.

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Philo

Philo was an observant Jew. He kept the commandments as they are described in the Bible. He lived in Alexandria in the 1st century C.E. Philo was one of the few Jews of the Hellenistic and Roman world whose works survive relatively intact, although they were preserved not by the Jewish community, but by the Christian Church.

This was the case for most Jews who wrote in Greek, such as the historian Josephus. The Jewish community, for one reason or another, did not embrace these works. They did not include them not only in their canon, but even in the Jewish library. We were fortunate enough to have them preserved by the Christian Church.

A New Interpretation of the Bible

Philo tried to reconcile his Greek philosophical training with a comprehensive knowledge of Jewish religious tradition. He read the Bible most probably not in its original Hebrew. He probably read the Bible in its Greek translation known as the Septuagint. This was the standard Greek translation that would be used by Jews in the Hellenistic world and would be also ultimately be embraced by the Church.

Much of Philo’s writings are in the form of a commentary to the Bible. He employed, as he was explaining the Bible, an allegorical approach as a means of presenting the laws, and even the stories, with a far deeper meaning that it would appear at face value. For instance, if Abraham was told to migrate from his land, for Philo this is not simply a physical migration, but it came to symbolize the soul departure from bodily confinement. This is clearly a well-known Greek idea, in particular part of Stoic philosophy. The soul is within a sort of a jail and is constantly yearning to brake away.

In Abraham’s case, his soul was yearning to brake away from the confinement of an idolatrous world. Abraham comes from Ur of the Chaldeans. The word Chaldean in the Greek mind always represented astrology. This is a spiritual migration for Philo. This is the type of interpretation that Philo uses as he reads the Bible. In other words, there are stories but these have a spiritual meaning to them .

Rabbis could live with that type of interpretation were they only used to interpret the story parts of the Bible. Philo, however, employed allegory to show that the laws of the Bible also posses a deeper and more profound meaning than what meets the eye.

Spiritualizing Law?

Philo knows that the signs of a kosher animal, an animal that may be eaten, are two: a cloven hoof and a chewing of the cud. For instance, a pig has a split hoof, but it does not chew its cud, so it may not be considered a kosher animal. Philo say that these are the signs that are in the Bible as you read it, but they really come to suggest spiritual traits that all of mankind should strive for. The split hoof symbolizes the capability of distinction between good and evil. The chewing of the cud is the power of constantly going over things, rethinking things. Here he is spiritualizing the Bible. He is attributing to it a far deeper meaning.

Rabbinic Judaism would frown at such exercises. The rabbis would be very uncomfortable with this, because if there is a deeper meaning to the text and things are not quite how they appear, where will that leave us with he practical face value imperative? Maybe once I derive the deeper meaning, the practical is no longer imperative. The potential for doing away with the practical keeping of the religious law was obvious. Philo, however, never drew those conclusions. He continued to keep the law.

It is not surprising that it was the Christian Church and not the rabbis that would preserve his writings.

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Beliefs of Judaism

A 15th century Jewish philosopher said: “if I knew God, I would be God”. As with so many aspects of Judaism, even the basic perception of the deity, as well as the nature of God’s relationship to man, cannot be reduced to one all-embracing mandatory and universally accepted creed. Some scholars are fond of saying that Judaism has no dogma or creed in the Christian sense. Rabbinic Judaism, medieval philosophers, Jewish mystics and modern theologians have all tried to formulate a definitive statement about what a Jew is expected to believe. The very profusion of such attempts points to their futility.

Here we will touch on some major issues of faith that appeared on the Jewish scene throhout history. Issues of free will, fate, determinism, reward and punishment, individual afterlife and the world to come. If you want to know what some people consider to be the basic tenets of Judaism, go to the article: What is Judaism.

1. Fate and Free Will in Judaism. Pharisee, Sadducees and Essenes: During the last centuries B.C.E., Judaism seems to have experienced a certain diversification. Different groups with widely varied beliefs regarding the essence of God and God’s role in this world appeared on the scene.


2. The Afterlife in Judaism: By the Middle Ages, Jewish philosophers, such as Maimonides, claimed that there is reward and punishment after death. They considered belief in reward and punishment to be a major article of faith. They, too, had no doubts that these rewards are primarily connected to a future existence.


3. Messianic Judaism: The idea of the Messiah has wielded an enormous influence in Jewish history, but the nature of the belief always was in constant flux. There seems to be a tension between varying perceptions of the Messianic phenomenon.

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Messianic Judaism

The idea of the Messiah has wielded an enormous influence in Jewish history, but the nature of the belief always was in constant flux. There seems to be a tension between varying perceptions of the Messianic phenomenon.

The word Messiah comes from the Hebrew word that means to anoint. This already suggest or alludes to the monarchal aspect of the Messianic figure. Kings of Israel were anointed. If you call someone a Messiah, you are suggesting that he is part of a dynastic leadership that once existed and will exist in the future.

The Two Opposing Views of Messianism: Restorative and Futuristic

At some point in time, this was understood to allude not merely to an existing historical dynasty, but to a future heir to the throne that would appear. He would be the Messiah. We refer to this as the coming of the personal Messiah. This idea understands the Messianic figure as being a particular person.

The nature of the future reestablishment of a son of David was also interpreted to mean different things at different times. At times, there was emphasis on the belief in a return to the old glory of Israel. When you talk about the Messianic king, you talk about a king that would recover Jerusalem and restore the grandeur of Israel to what it was.

At other times, this expresses an utopian vision of the future as an age of perfect peace. The restorative vision is far more Judaic-centered and it looks to the past as its model. The futuristic utopian image not only looks to the future, but is far more universal. It encompasses all the nations.

There is another important difference between these two perceptions of the Messianic phenomenon. In the restorative account, the process would be apparently this-worldly. That is to say, the Messianic phenomenon would take place in a world whose laws of nature are those that are in practice in our world today. Whereas the utopian image suggests almost by definition a total revision of the laws of nature. Animals that were natural enemies would now be friendly neighbors and lie down peacefully one near the other.

These two visions did not always alternate and replace one another, but they probably coexisted at times among different sections of Jewish society. History played a role in determining when the restorative would have the upper hand and when the more spiritualized view would.

For example, the last military attempt by Jews to remove Roman rule from Palestine occurred in the years 132 to 135 under the leadership of Simon bar Kosiba. Simon bar Kosiba appears to have had Messianic aspirations. He was actually described by rabbi Akiva as the potential Messiah. When you examine his image, you note that he is not a rabbi nor a spiritual figure, he is a military commander. His one aim in life was to kill Romans and kick them out of the land.

Bar Kosiba failed. With his failure, something very interesting happens. The pendulum of Messianic thought turned to the totally opposite direction. From a military this-worldly Messianic figure that would restore the grandeur of Israel, now comes a much more spiritualized hope.

Messianic Pretenders in the Middle Ages

As we head into the Middle Ages, messianism becomes much more spiritualized. At the same time, there is a downplaying of activist messianism.

By the 12th century, Maimonides could categorically state that the Messianic age was not about politics. It was a period that would enable the study of Torah in preparation for the coming world.

Messianism would constantly appear on the scene in Jewish history. The medieval period knew a number of Messianic pretenders. One of them, called Sabbatai Zevi, appeared in the mid 17th century, and vast numbers of Jews, both in Europe and in the Middle East, embraced this figure as being a potential Messianic leader. The only problem was that this fellow was influenced by all sorts of mystical teachings. As strange as it may sound, in the end, this Messiah actually converted to Islam. This brought about a tremendous devastation within Jewish communities. It was one of the great tragedies of the late medieval period.

Zionism: Secular Messianism?

Many would argue that the appearance of Zionism in modern times was a result of Messianic aspirations. It also thrived for restoration by returning to the land. The only problem was that Zionism is a secular movement. In many ways, we encounter here something that can be called secular messianism. Many people would claim that Zionism is in fact a secular Messianic movement.

The issue that constantly came up in Zionism was about “can you haste the coming of the Messiah?”. There seemed to have been two strands within Judaism. There were those who believed it was totally in God’s hands. According to them, there is no way of hastening the process. It is fixed in a future time. In fact, this people thought that if you try to haste the Messianic age, you show a lack of faith. In other words, you do not believe in the promises that were made for a restoration.

Others believed that you have to take the first step. There were some Zionist leaders who tried to put these two movements together. They tried to combine religiosity with activist Zionist mentality, creating something that some people referred to as Religious Zionism.

In the recent generation, there were groups of Jews that actually believed that their rabbi was an image of the Messiah. In their lifetime they were convinced that he was the ultimate Messianic figure. Even upon his death, many of them still believed that he was a potential Messianic figure that somehow never came to ultimate flourishing.

I think that all this tells us what a potent force the belief in a restorative process was. Many people actually consider it to be the dominant force in Jewish history. That might be an exaggeration, but not by very much.

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The Afterlife in Judaism

By the Middle Ages, Jewish philosophers, such as Maimonides, claimed that there is reward and punishment after death. They considered belief in reward and punishment to be a major article of faith. They, too, had no doubts that these rewards are primarily connected to a future existence. The great advantage of this is, of course, that you cannot judge God simply by seeing how people thrive in this world. There is no way of denying God’s ultimate truthful dealing with mankind just by looking at this world.

Some medieval thinkers, nevertheless, had problems with this doctrine of reward and punishment, whether in this world or in the next. Claiming that God would reward and punish is not that simple. First of all, God appears to be vindictive. Does a real God take offence if someone does not pray to him eight times during the day or something like that? Maybe even more critical, how can the suffering of children be justified by the sins of their parents?

Some modern writers attempted to solve these issues by quoting Rabbinic statements that also seemed to suggest that good deeds are their own reward. That is to say, if one behaves properly, the reward is in the good deeds themselves. That sounds suspiciously close to what the Sadducees claimed.

Resurrection of the Dead

One of the rewards that became a staple in Jewish belief was a belief in resurrection. It could be that this is one of the ultimate rewards. While this was one of the main points of Jewish belief, the nature of resurrection is far from clear throughout Jewish history. I would venture to say that this continues to this very day.

First of all, there are very few biblical proof texts for the whole idea of resurrection of the death. There are a few. For instance, in the book of Isaiah, chapter 26 verse 19, we find “your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.”

A scripture like this is so difficult. From this, to a personal resurrection of the dead is a major leap of faith.

Post-biblical literature was not clear about how all of this would occur. One thing seems to be fairly obvious. This resurrection of the death does not appear to be an individual phenomenon, something to happen to each and every person separately. Rather, they slowly began to envision a sort of a general resurrection of the death. In some future time, this would be a national event.

On the other hand, another staple of Jewish belief which was just as crucial was the belief in the ongoing existence of the soul. That is to say, the soul does not perish with death. This, as opposed to resurrection, appears to be understood on an individual basis. Each and every person has a soul, and upon that person’s dead, that soul is removed or moved to some sort of celestial courthouse, where it will be judged to either perdition or reward.

By medieval times, there were already disputes not only about what happens to the soul, but also how that relates to resurrection. If the soul continues to exist, what would happen in the end? Would that soul then later be returned to the original body? Will the body rise up with another soul?

Indeed, some people accused philosophers such as Maimonides of denying the resurrection of the actual body. Maybe this resurrection of the death is a bit more spiritual that what we originally imagined. The dead souls should be resurrected, not the body. There is a book that was attributed to Maimonides where he claims “I do believe that the body will actually rise up, but I believe that even the resurrected body will ultimately die as well”. Then, again, he was attacked for not having total faith on the resurrection of the dead.

We must remember that resurrection of the dead was a staple of Jewish belief that was recited three times a day at the beginning of the Amidah prayer. The central prayer of the Jewish liturgy stresses that God resurrects the dead.

After a person’s death, the first stage would be the afterlife of the personal soul of that person. This would be followed by a Messianic era in this world on earth. The third stage would be some sort of a general resurrection of the dead.

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Fate and Free Will in Judaism: Pharisee, Sadducees and Essenes

During the last centuries B.C.E., Judaism seems to have experienced a certain diversification. Different groups with widely varied beliefs regarding the essence of God and God’s role in this world appeared on the scene. Our sources describe at least three different groups.

What is interesting is that the Jewish historian Josephus uses the Greek term for “philosophies” or “schools of thought” when he describes these groups.

These groups appeared on the scene in the last centuries B.C.E. One group, called the Sadducees, believed in a God who was totally removed from any active involvement in this world. God does not determine or preordain human affairs. There is no such thing as fate. Man has absolute control over his deeds. If there is something called reward and punishment, they would claim that these are the immediate results of human action. They are the direct consequence of how man behaves, not the retribution of an external all-powerful force. This group also denied any form of resurrection of the dead.

A second group, which Josephus calls the Essenes, frequently associated with the authors of some of the Death Sea Scrolls, maintained almost the total opposite of Sadducean teaching. At least regarding free will and fate. They claimed that everything was preordained by God. Man really has no choice or free will to act as he wishes.

The third group, also mentioned by Josephus, is called the Pharisees. They seemed to have chosen a middle path. For many of us, choosing the middle path sounds very pleasing to the ear, but in fact, the conclusions of this path are really the hardest to understand.

They believed that everything that occurs is the will of God, and nevertheless, man has free will to choose between evil and good. Any child who hears that statement is obviously going to ask the crucial question. If God knows everything, I obviously do not have free will. If he knows things in advance, they were all determined before I made any choice.

The Pharisees’ approach attempted to reconcile an omnipotent and all-knowing God with man’s power over his actions as the only justification for receiving either reward or punishment. If man has no free will, there is no justification for reward or punishment.

The attempt to reconcile these two was embraced by most mainstream Jewish thinkers. The rabbis of the Talmud put it in a very simple way: “All is in the hands of God, save the fear of God”.

There is a touching rabbinic legend that describes how at the moment of a child’s conception, the seminal crop which would develop into that child is brought by an angel. The angel brings this seminal crop before God and asks of God what would become of this crop. Would it be a person strong or weak? Wise or foolish? Rich or poor? The angel only refrains from asking one question: would this person be wicked or righteous? It is forbidden to ask that, because that is in the hands of the child himself.

The understanding of the nature of reward and punishment also seemed to cause problems for Jewish thinkers throughout history. The biblical book of Job realizes that the righteous frequently suffers, while the wicked thrives. By Second Temple times, this seems to have been partially resolved by assigning much of man’s reward to a future existence, a world to come. The evil man may thrive in this world and the righteous man may suffer, but this world is nothing compared to the world to come. In that ultimate world, true reward and punishment would be dispensed.

The Sadduceess probably found no overt allusion to a future life or a world to come in the Bible, so they denied the idea totally. For them, everything ceases in this world. With man’s death, there is no afterlife of the soul. This is very interesting, the Saduccean teaching, that God is removed from this world and that there is no afterlife, is very close to the Greek philosophy of the Epicureans. The Epicureans claimed that men should strive for wellbeing in this world, the phrase in Greek was ataraxia. You should strive for wellbeing in this world because there is nothing after this world.

I think that it is not by chance that the rabbis chose as the epitome of the heretic the name Epicurs. In fact, it was this Epicurean philosophy that denied almost all of the basic tenets of Pharisaism, which would develop into Rabbinic Judaism.

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The Stages of Life in Judaism

Judaism finds its expression throughout the year at all major stages of an individual’s life. Here we will present the major religious events in a Jew’s life, the rituals and the rights of passage that accompany men and women from birth to death.

1. Circumcision: Following the model of Abraham’s covenant through circumcision, all males are circumcised.


2. Coming of Age: After circumcision, the next right of passage for all Jewish children is the coming of age. That is, the assuming of all of the obligations of an adult.


3. Marriage: In Judaism, marriage is the normal and highly preferable state of life for adults. God’s love for Israel was commonly compared to marital relations.


4. Divorce in Judaism: The fact that the groom writes the Ketubah is really a reflexion of an asymmetric relationship between husband and wife in historical Judaism. It was the husband’s prerogative to divorce his wife. The wife could not equally divorce her husband.


5. Death and Burial Ceremonies in Judaism: Ideally, a dying person should recite the Shema and confess his or her sins before death.

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Death and Burial Ceremonies in Judaism

Ideally, a dying person should recite the Shema and confess his or her sins before death. That cannot always be the case. After a person dies, the corpse is cleansed and dressed in plain white shrouds. The idea being that we are all equal in death.

Men frequently have their tallit placed on them as their about to be buried. In Judaism, burying in the ground is the only system accepted by tradition. In ancient times, people might be buried in caves, family mausoleums also were used.

In antiquity, it was actually common to have burial carried up in two stages. At first, they would place a corpse in a cave. They would let that corpse decomposed for a period of a year. They believed that during that year the corpse was actually being purged of all its sins. After a year, the family would return to the cave and gather the bones. That was considered a holiday for the family. They then placed the bones in a small container. We have discovered over the years hundreds and hundreds of such containers throughout ancient Palestine. Some of them had beautiful artwork.

Quite frankly, one has to wonder whether that system would be introduced at some future stage in the State of Israel, since burial can only take place in the ground, and they are running out of ground. This is not a very economical system. The system of gathering bones together in a small container might be a solution.

In many places throughout Israel today no coffins are used. The death are placed directly in the ground. Cremation still is shunned by most Jews today. Some people consider it outright forbidden. Others say it is not a problem.

After burial, a series of mourning periods begin. The first period lasts for 7 days, hence the phrase shiva. Shiva in Hebrew is seven. During that period, mourners refrain from all everyday activities. They usually remain at home and receive condolence visits. It is customary to conduct daily prayers at a mourner’s house during those seven days.

The second stage lasts 30 days, when mourning ends for all except the immediate offspring of the dead, meaning the children of the death parent. A third stage lasts for one complete year. During that year after death, the child of the dead parent would recite a special prayer known as the kaddish. The word kaddish Aramaic means sanctification.

There is a misconception about his prayer. The prayer itself was not written as a prayer about the dead. It was a prayer that was recited originally at the end of prayer sessions and at the end of study sessions. It is a prayer that describes God’s kingdom in this world. It is just one long list of phrases for God. Beginning in medieval Germany, this prayer was assigned to be recited by mourners.

People would visit the cemetery one year after the death of parents. Very often, in some communities, a tombstone is only set up a year after death at the cemetery. Then they would visit the same cemetery on a yearly basis. On the anniversary of the death, the child again recites the kaddish.

Jewish Cemeteries

Jewish cemeteries have an interesting history to them. According to Jewish tradition, only Jews may be buried in a Jewish cemetery. As a result, some very distressing cases took place where people had doubtful Jewish pedigrees about them. All sorts of discussions and debates arose. Should this person be buried in the Jewish cemetery or not? In fact, in the modern State of Israel, the major debate that split the country into two, about who is and who is not a Jew, began with the question of burying in the cemetery.

Burial is obviously a very sensitive issue. Jews connect all sorts of beliefs with burial. One of them in particular has a fascinating history. Jews want to be buried in the land of Israel, even if they had never seen the land. This is a custom that probably goes back to the 2nd or 3rd century of the Common Era. This was due to all sorts of religious beliefs. Some believed that if you were buried in the land, your sins would be atoned for. Another belief was the dead who are buried in the land of Israel would rise up first when the Messiah comes.

We read stories of people having their coffins sent to Israel for burial. There is one Rabbinic story that describes two rabbis on the outskirts of the city of Tiberius. They see coffins coming for burial from the diaspora. One of them says, “now you come, in death. You had no need for God’s inheritance to Israel during your lifetime. Now, by sending your bones, you are contaminating the land”. This issue of burial was a very sensitive one throughout Jewish history.

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Divorce in Judaism

The fact that the groom writes the Ketubah is really a reflexion of an asymmetric relationship between husband and wife in historical Judaism. It was the husband’s prerogative to divorce his wife. The wife could not equally divorce her husband. Certain groups within Judaism have tried to restructure the Ketubah in such a way that it will equal the play field between husband and wife.

Judaism considers divorce to be an act taken by the parties involved. Divorce does not require a court’s ratification. If the husband and the wife go through the procedure properly, they are divorced. What is interesting is that this is not always considered a great tragedy. This was not to be and they should be divorced and get with life.

Divorce was of mutual consent, although the husband had the initiative. It was he who initiated the process. That was the unequal status. A husband gives the divorce document, which in Hebrew is called the get, of his own free will. The woman must receive it at her own free will. If this equal free will is not experienced, then the divorce is not valid.

Over the centuries, steps were taken to grant some greater leverage to the wife. The wife can petition a court to force her husband to divorce, based on a variety of claims, such as the husband’s improper behavior towards her. Unfortunately, if the husband refuses to offer the get, he place his wife in a situation of limbo. She cannot marry again because she is still technically married to him. The husband has to consent. If he refuses, for all sorts of reasons, he is imposing upon his wife a life of misery.

When the husband refuses to grant his wife the divorce, and the court believes that the wife’s claims are justified, it can enforce all sorts of coercion, even jail, to pressure the husband to grant the divorce.

The Rabbinic formulation consisted in pressuring him until he says “I conses”.

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Marriage

In Judaism, marriage is the normal and highly preferable state of life for adults. God’s love for Israel was commonly compared to marital relations. By the way, the same thing is to be found in the Catholic Church, where the relation between God and the Church is like a husband’s love for his wife. The rabbis frequently referred to God’s presense in a good marriage as sort of a third part. Today, Judaism is monogamous. Although nothing in the Bible or even in later Jewish law actually forbade men from having than one wife.

A decree was issued by one Rabbinic sage in Western Europe somewhere in the late 10th century, his name was Rabbeinu Gershom. The decree issued prevented Jews from Western Europe from having more than one wife. This was not accepted at the time by other Jews. There were other areas of the Jewish community where Jews continued to have more than one wife. Up until the 20th century, after the founding of the State of Israel, Jews were brought to Israel and many of them still had more than one wife. This, of course, is totally fordibben today. And today, it is fodbidden not only in the State of Israel, but no Jews today are permitted to marry more than one wife.

The Stages of Marriage

In ancient times, the marriage process and the ceremonies took place in stages. Today, all of these are concentrated and performed at one time, at the marriage ceremony. It used to be a much longer process.

The first stage of marriage was engagement, in Hebrew the word is kiddushin. At this time, the groom would give the bride an object of specific value. In front of two witnesses, he would declare that with this object, you are engaged to me. This ceremony created the initial bond between the two, so the woman could no longer look for a husband elsewhere. The marriage was not consumated. It was not complete yet until they reached a second stage.

The second stage, in antiquity, might had taken place only months later. At that stage, the groom would have written and signed a document known as Ketubah. The Ketubah is a marriage document, which is primarily a comittment to pay the wife a specific sum if he should divorce her in the future. This, of course, was the great guarantee for a woman. A husband would not want to dismiss his wife, because he knew this would cost him a significant amount of money.

The Ketubah also declared that if the husband should die before the wife, the heirs of the husband must continue to support the woman until she may remarry again. The Ketubah is crucial for the status and for the protection of a woman. As a result, it was considered totally unacceptable for a man and a woman to live together unless the woman possesed her Ketubah. Popular custom had it that, after received, the bride would immediately give the Ketubah to her mother.

What is fascinating is that in excavations that were carried out near the Death Sea in recent years, we we have actually discovered Ketubot. These marriage documents were written almost 2000 years ago. This is a practice that goes way back in Jewish history.

The wedding ceremony today puts all of these stages together. The engagement, the signing of the Ketubah, all of these takes place at the wedding ceremony. The Ketubah is signed, and after it is signed, the couple enters under a canopy, a huppah in Hebrew. This symbolizes the house into which the bride is being introduced.

A number of benedictions are recited. The groom performs the kiddushin ceremony to engage by giving his bride a ring, and reciting “behold, you are consacrated to me with this ring in acordance with the law of Moses and Israel”. The Ketubah is read. By the way, the Ketubah is read in the language in which it was written, in antiquity it was Arameic. The idea is that this is a commitment document that everybody should know what said. As a result, in subsequent generations, in the United States there are very often versions written in English.

After the Ketubah is read out loud, a glass is crushed underfoot by the groom. You break something in rememberance of the destruction of Jerusalem. This was an event that was not forgot even in the mometns of joy. In many ceremonies today, Psalm 137 is sung when the groom breaks that glass. Psalm 137 says “if I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill”.

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Coming of Age

After circumcision, the next right of passage for all Jewish children is the coming of age. That is, the assuming of all of the obligations of an adult. Girls are formally considered of age and required to keep all the religious laws pertinent to women at the age of 12. Boys, at the age of 13.

Upon reaching these ages, children are required to keep Mitzvoth, which means commandments. Hence, a boy is referred to as a Bar Mitzvah. Translated literally, that means son of a mitzvah or son of commandments. In essence, it means belonging to the commandments. A girl is a Bat Mitzvah, a daughter of commandments, but actually meaning belonging to the commandments.

Historically, the reaching of majority was not a cause for extraordinary celebration. The fact is that neither the Bible nor the Talmud really devotes any space to ceremonies when a person reaches that age. Today’s festivities are really a much more recent development

A Jewish boy who arrives at the age of Bar Mitzvah will now take an active part in all synagogue rituals. Women were precluded from actively participating in many of these rituals, so it was simply not that manifest that a girl had reached her majority.

Sensitivity towards sexual equality, however, has led both the reform and conservative communities to level up the religious playing field for girls. Bat Mitzvah ceremonies are now common in the synagogues. Orthodox Jews who also wish to celebrate a Bat Mitzvah, would usually do this in a manner unconnected or not connected directly to synagogue ritual.

I should really insert here that this is an issue that has being addressed the past few years by the modern orthodox elements within Judaism. They are constantly reassessing the role of women in ritual and in religious life. This is going to be one of the defining issues in future years in the development of Judaism: a reappraisal of the role of women.

The Education Process

A more informal right of passage, but not less significant than the technical reaching of majority, is the introduction of children into the education process. The study of Torah was historically considered one of the central religious obligations of Jews. In antiquity, male children were introduced into this context at the age of 6 or 7, and they would stay on as far as their intellectual talents or their family finances might carry them.

This was the situation in modern times as well in countries from Eastern Europe and North Africa. Although many children would enter the education process at its most elementary level, that is to say learning how to read the Torah, the fact is that very few stayed on for the higher levels of learning. Families that were wealthy or that recognized that their child was a young genius worth supporting through higher levels of academic pursuit could afford this. In only those cases a child would remain in some sort of academic framework.

Girls were usually left out of this process, not withstanding some frequently cited exceptions in Rabbinic literature. Those exceptions probably prove the rule.

In recent years, more and more women are becoming involved in higher levels of traditional education. Even among the ever-growing orthodox circles, women are now regularly being introduced into the entire corpus of Judaic learning. Women are now beginning to study and teach Talmud at the highest levels, and this is something almost totally not existent just one generation ago. This is a huge change in Jewish communal life, and its effects on future generations will be very significant.

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Circumcision

The birth of a child sets into motion a series of religious observances. Following the model of Abraham’s covenant through circumcision, all males are circumcised. The preferred age for circumcision is 8 days old. However, if the baby is not entirely healthy, the ceremony would be postponed as long as necessary. This is determined by a doctor, not necessarily by a rabbi. The idea of preservation of life is a medical issue to be determined by those who are capable of making the decision.

An adult Jew could had been not been circumcised as a child. This can happen in many contexts. One relatively recent would be the case of many Jews who were born and grew up in the former Soviet Union, were circumcision at times was not only not practiced but could actually be dangerous.

A grown-up Jew would be required to have himself circumcised. It is the preeminent right of entering Jewish life. As a result, converts are required to circumcise themselves.

All sorts of rationalizations for this ritual have been put forth. From claims of hygienic nature to the moderation of sexual desire. There is even a story in the Talmud that has a Roman official asking Rabbi Akiba “if your God really prefers men not to have a foreskin, why did he not create them without a foreskin?”. Rabbi Akiba answered that is exactly the purpose. Man was created imperfectly, and it is he that is required to strive towards perfection.

Nevertheless, Rabbinic Judaism usually kept a distance from this type of rationalization. The Torah requires circumcision and we follow its requirements.

In the early stages of reform Judaism, particularly in the 19th century, opposition was expressed to circumcision in Germany. The main reason was a general distaste for particularistic behavior by Jews. It set Jews apart.

The fact that the practice distinguished also between the sexes contributed to some of this opposition. Today, however, circumcision is almost universally practiced by all branches of Judaism.

Circumcision was historically considered the ultimate physical mark of a male Jew. Various persecutions often involved identifying Jewish males through this sign.

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Jewish Holidays

We will try to understand the significance of the holidays and to examine the nature of the Jewish calendar. A somewhat apocryphal story tells of a Jew who is about to be taken to a ghetto. He manages to ask the local rabbi the following question: if there might be the possibility of smuggling one book to the isolated labor camp, what book should that be?

We might imagine the rabbi suggesting a prayer book or possibly the Bible. Yet, the response was “take the Jewish calendar”. If you know that you are celebrating the various holidays and also keeping the days of communal mourning and fasting, together with the rest of the Jewish community dispersed throughout the world, you have maintained your identity.

The Jewish calendar is probably one of the best ways of studying Jewish history. The calendar itself is a reflection of ancient Jewish history and ongoing events up until modern times.

1. The Jewish Calendar: Judaism today has a fixed calendar that determines all of its holidays. This is arguably the most important unifying factor in what is otherwise a frequently fragmented religious community. Not withstanding all the disputes, the calendar is universally accepted by all practicing Jews.


2. The Sabbath: The only holiday in Judaism that is not determined by a particular day of a month is the Sabbath. The word in Hebrew is Shabbat, which basically means to rest.


3. High Holy Days in Judaism. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur: The most solemn of Jewish holidays are known as the “High Holy Days”. They are the New Year and the day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.


4. Seasonal Holidays. Passover, Sukkot and Shavuot: Some Jewish holidays are considered seasonal. They signify the agricultural activity of the autumn and the spring, the harvest days and the days of sowing. All these three holidays have close associations with chapters of the biblical exodus story.


5. Post-biblical Holidays. Purim and Hanukkah: A third category of festivals was added after the Bible, in Second Temple times.


6. Mourning Holiday. The 9th of Ab: Numerous fast days commemorate the destruction of the two Jewish temples. The are a number of days throughout the calendar that are linked with the destruction of the temples, as well as other disasters that marked the saga of Judaism. The most solemn of these days is the 9th of the lunar month of Ab.


7. Modern Jewish Holidays: Events of the last few generations have aroused calls for an updating of the Jewish calendar. Numerous special dates have been added to the Jewish cycle of the yearly calendar.
   

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Modern Jewish Holidays

Events of the last few generations have aroused calls for an updating of the Jewish calendar. Numerous special dates have been added to the Jewish cycle of the yearly calendar.

For instance, since the ethnic and national aspect of Judaism is there, Israel’s day of independence is celebrated not only in the State of Israel, but by Jews outside of the State who identify with that State. Here something very interesting takes place. The extent of each community’s religious commitment determines to what degree that date would be celebrated as a religious holiday or as a secular one. For instance, in the State of Israel you would find that the religious community actually gathers at the synagogue and introduces a whole series of new prayers based on psalms and other portions of the Bible to celebrate that day of independence, whereas the secular community celebrates it as a secular holiday.

Obviously, there are those Jews who do not celebrate that day. These are those who never identify with the Zionist enterprise. In particular, members of the ultra-orthodoxy within the Jewish community never really supported the Zionist movement. They never celebrate that day.

One week after Passover, the tragic events of the holocaust are remembered on the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. This day is a day commemorated in the State of Israel and throughout most Jewish communities.

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Mourning Holiday: the 9th of Ab

Numerous fast days commemorate the destruction of the two Jewish temples. The are a number of days throughout the calendar that are linked with the destruction of the temples, as well as other disasters that marked the saga of Judaism. The most solemn of these days is the 9th of the lunar month of Ab. It usually coincides with late July or early August. It is a day of fasting beginning in the evening and until the evening of the following day.

As it is in late July and early August, it means that days are longer. Some Jewish communities really suffer. The further North you go, the longer the day extends. People in certain parts of Russia and Scandinavia find themselves fasting until eleven at night, and it is really difficult.

This day, the 9th of Ab, commemorates not only the destruction of the two Jewish temples, but all sorts of other misfortunes, whether it took place on that day or another day. It is as if things were concentrated into one day that would be a conglomerate of difficult Jewish memories.

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Post-biblical Holidays: Purim and Hanukkah

A third category of festivals was added after the Bible, in Second Temple times. For instance, one feast known as Purim, is based on the events of the biblical book of Ester. It is celebrated a month before Passover. The nature of the story in the book of Ester is about an evil official in the Persian kingdom that wanted to annihilate all the Jews because there was one Jew that refused to bow down to him, his name was Mordecai. The official was thwarted, in the last minute everything was overturned. Clearly, this was a story that resonated deeply with Jews throughout their history.

Hanukkah: the Night of Candles

Another festival, lasting eight days, is the feast of Hanukkah. It is celebrated in December. Often it falls literally on the same days that Christians would celebrate Christmas, sometimes it is a little before Christmas. Its focus is on the cultural clash between Judaism and Hellenism in the Second Temple period. An attempt was made by a despotic king, Antiochus IV, to outlaw Jewish religious practice and to impose pagan rites in the Temple of Jerusalem. This led to a Jewish uprising, led by a family of priests, known as the Hasmoneans, sometimes referred to as the Maccabees.

Their victory in 164 B.C.E. symbolizes for many the principle of freedom of religion. On Hanukkah, candles are lit. Eight candles are lit, every day one more. The first night one candle, the second two, etc. The reason for lighting candles is very interesting. If you were to ask most Jews, they will tell you a well-known fable that appears in the Talmud. That is when the Hasmoneans defeated the Greeks and they entered the despoiled temple, they found no sacred oil with which to light the candelabrum, save for a tiny little portion that had enough for one night alone. They lit and the oil sufficed for eight days. So, we light the candles for eight days to remind us of that miracle.

People had, I think erroneously, pointed to that legend and claimed that it was an attempt to redirect Jewish history from the political and the military defeat of the Greeks to a more spiritualized aspect. The light, sort of a metaphor for the brilliance of the Torah. I think that it is a nice idea, but I have serious doubt whether that is the case. The rabbis themselves gave all sorts of other reasons, some of them stressing the military victory of the Hasmoneans. I think that the two components really come together.

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Seasonal Holidays: Passover, Sukkot and Shavuot

Some Jewish holidays are considered seasonal. They signify the agricultural activity of the autumn and the spring, the harvest days and the days of sowing. All these three holidays have close associations with chapters of the biblical exodus story.

Sukkot: Feast of Tabernacles

The first of these, if we are counting from Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, is the festival Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles. It is just five days after Yom Kippur. One realized very quickly that the months of September and early October show probably the densest concentration of Jewish holidays. The fact is that Israel begins its classes only after all of the holidays.

On this festival of Sukkot, people leave their houses, because the holiday is connected to the Israelites who dwelt in huts as they traversed through the desert, following their exodus from Egypt. Just as they lived in these huts, today we will leave our houses and go outside of life, as a way of reexamining ourselves. Jews today build these huts and they eat in them for the entire holiday. Many Jews actually sleep in them as well.

The final day of the holiday marks the move into the coming winter. An special prayer is recited for rain on that day. This same day, the 8th one, is also when the reading of the Torah is finished and recommenced again. In diaspora communities, this happens on a 9th day. The reason for this is very interesting. This has to do with a problem in antiquity. When holidays were declared in Israel, it sometimes took weeks until some diaspora communities found out about this. As a result, in the diaspora it was customary to add another day of festival simply because they had a problem in knowing for sure which day was chosen in Israel as the day of festivities. This is an old custom that quite frankly could be obviated today. Yet, for purposes of tradition, has not been obviated. Many festivals in Israel today have one day less than in the diaspora.

Passover

Six months after Sukkot, the festival of Passover is celebrated. The first night is probably the most extraordinary one of the Jewish year. It is when the Seder takes place. This is no ordinary fest of dinner. Even the food is intended to recall memories of bondage in Egypt and the miraculous redemption. You eat an unleavened sort of cracker-like bread, it is called matzah. This symbolizes the haste with which our fathers were forced to flee from Egypt. They had no time to make bread, so, they ate this unleavened bread.

Jews eat bitter herbs on this night, to remind them of the bitterness of slavery. This is reliving the exodus not just through a retelling of the story, but actually eating food that would recount aspects of this deliverance.

Jews recite a text, the Haggadah, which recounts the exodus story by the recitation of biblical scripture, Rabbinic accounts and later medieval poetry. The poetry comes at the very end, and it is sung in a rather festive manner, because people already had drunk some coups and wine.

Children are payed special attention at the Seder. The whole elaborate procedure is intended to make them ask what is this all about. Part of the Haggadah has children asking questions. You are supposed to do everything to make them ask these questions.

Shavuot

Seven weeks after Passover, another festival takes place. We refer to it as Shavuot, literally “weeks”. While biblically this was linked to an agricultural feast, the rabbis determined that this was the day that commemorates the revelation at Sinai and the giving of the Torah. We read on that day the portion of the Torah that describes the revelation. Some Jews spend all night studying the Torah on the eve of Shavuot.

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High Holy Days in Judaism: Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur

The most solemn of Jewish holidays are known as the “High Holy Days”. They are the New Year and the day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. Both fall in the month of Tishrei, which is just as the summer is about to end and autumn begins. Usually, these holidays would fall in the month of September, and sometimes early October.

Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, is considered the yearly Day of Judgement. God is projected as King of Judge of all mankind, not just of Israel. So, while Rosh Hashanah is a Jewish holiday, there is a universal aspect to this day. The prayers of Rosh Hasanah actually describe how all of mankind literally parades before God in some sort of a Judgement, and he deals with them.

Along with extended prayer, the most outstanding element of the service in the New Year, is the blowing of a ram’s horn. The Hebrew word is shofar. A ram’s horn is used to remember that story of Isaac’s binding on the altar and his almost sacrifice. At the last moment, Isaac was replaced by a ram. God chose a ram. So, we blow the ram’s horn on Rosh Hashanah, among other things, to remind God of Abraham’s faith.

The fact is that medieval Jewish scholars considered this blowing of the horn as a wake up call, arousing mankind from its moral slumber. This is the day of Judgement, this is the day when people should change their lives.

Ten days are counted from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. These are designated as the days of repentance. This is a period of personal introspection. The ideal being to take stock of your life, in particular behavior with others. These ten days of introspection reach their peak on the tenth day of Tishrei, which is the Day of Atonement. This is a day of total fast, from sunset on the day before until the end of the following day.

Yom Kippur is not intended as a sad day. People sometimes get this wrong. They assume that if you fast you must be sad. Not at all. It’s a solemn one, ending with one final blast of the ram’s horn, and affirming that God is the Lord. The whole day is taken up by ongoing prayer. Technically, you are only required to fast from the age 13. Women are required to fast from the age of 12. One of the great rights of passage is when a child for the first time begins fasting on Yom Kippur.

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The Jewish Sabbath

The only holiday in Judaism that is not determined by a particular day of a month is the Sabbath. The word in Hebrew is Shabbat, which basically means to rest. For many, it is the crowning jewel of the Jewish time cycle.

We should remember that Sabbath is the only sacred day mentioned outright in the Ten Commandments. Other holidays are not mentioned. The Sabbath is. The Ten Commandments actually appear twice in the books of Moses. In the book of Exodus, in chapter 20, the reason for resting on the 7th day is emulating God. Just as God created the world in six days and the rested on the 7th, so we should also rest on the 7th day.

However, in the second version of the Ten Commandments, which appears in Deuteronomy chapter 5, this is expressed far more as a social issue. On the 7th day you should not do any work. This phrase, “not to do work on Sabbath”, engenders and causes enormous discussions among the rabbis to define work. What does work mean? Whole books are written about it. But it goes on. Your son, your daughter, your servants, your cattle and the stranger that lives withing your gates may rest as you.

This is, when we think of the chronological context in which this was formulated, a tremendous advanced social awareness of the needs of people. They need to have a day of rest. If you did not get the point, the Ten Commandments continue, remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt and that the Lord your God took you out of there. You ought to know how a servant in fact requires a day of rest.

The Sabbath, like all days in the Jewish calendar, begins at sunset. It continues until the evening of the following day. It does not begin at midnight, it begins at sunset. This is based on the way the scriptures described creation. When God creates the world, every day of the creation is concluded by “and it was evening, and it was morning, day 1”; then, “it was evening, it was morning, day 2”, and so on.

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The Jewish Calendar

A somewhat apocryphal story tells of a Jew who is about to taken in Russia to the ghetto. He manages to ask the local rabbi the following question: if there might be the possibility of smuggling one book to the isolated labor camp, what book should that be? We might imagine the rabbi suggesting a prayer book or possibly the Bible. Yet, the response was “take the Jewish calendar”.

If you know that you are celebrating the various holidays and also keeping the days of communal mourning and fasting, together with the rest of the Jewish community dispersed throughout the world, you have maintained your identity.

Judaism today has a fixed calendar that determines all of its holidays. This is arguably the most important unifying factor in what is otherwise a frequently fragmented religious community. Not withstanding all the disputes, the calendar is universally accepted by all practicing Jews.

The Lunar Months

We have to understand how the calendar functions and what are its components. The basic characteristic of the Jewish calendar is its system for reckoning time and time cycles. The system is commonly described as lunisolar. In other words, it goes both by the moon and by the sun, which is rather complicated. The months of the Jewish calendar are lunar. Each new month is determined by the renewed conjunction of the moon with the sun. That is, the positioning of the moon precisely between the earth and the sun. In other words, the month begins when the moon is totally invisible.

This alignment of sun, moon and earth takes place every 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 3 seconds. As a result, the Jewish month would be always either 29 days or 30 days.

A lunar year, meaning twelve such lunar months, would extend for approximately 354 days. However, a solar year is the one that determines our seasons. The position of the Earth opposite to the sun is what determines our seasons. A solar year lasts for 365 days. There is an eleven days differential between a lunar year and a solar year. This is crucial for the Jewish calendar. The holidays of the year in the Jewish cycle commemorate, among other things, the seasons of the year. As a result, they are determined by the solar year. Passover, for instance, is, by biblical definition, a spring festival. If the yearly cycle were determined simply by counting 12 lunar months, something very interesting would happen to that Passover. Passover would slowly retreat back from the Spring into Winter.

The Added Month

The problem of the Jewish calendar was to align between the lunar year and the solar year. This was done by adding a 13th month every three years. So, let’s say that at every time that Passover started creeping back into the winter, we would add just prior to Passover a 13th month, moving it again back into spring.

In ancient times, the decision to proclaim such a leap year was taken by recognized authorities. These authorities might have been connected to the Temple in Jerusalem prior to its destruction, and afterwards connected to some sort of Rabbinic institutions. The problem was that different bodies and different persons or authorities often claimed the right to regulate the calendar. This led to some major clashes within the Jewish community.

For instance, the Jews of Babylonia and the Jews of Palestine a number of times clashed among themselves who has the right to determine the Jewish calendar.

The Calendar and the Christian Church

In the 4th century, pressure was placed on the Jewish calendar for the first time by an outside source. This was the young Christian Church. The reason for this was very interesting. Some Christian groups in the Eastern Roman Empire would wait until the Jews proclaimed their Passover to know when to celebrate Easter. Easter happened on Passover. This created a very uncomfortable situation. Does that mean that we have to wait until some rabbis gather together to proclaim their Passover for us to know when to celebrate Easter?

As a result, two things took place. On the one hand, the Church Council of Nicaea in 325 gathered, and one of its goals was to determine a fixed date for Easter that would not be dependent on the Jewish calendar anymore. They came out with that day, and it would be the first Sunday after a full moon in the Spring equinox. By doing this, of course, they dissolved any connection between Passover and Easter, because Passover always falls on the day of full moon.

The Fixed Calendar

There was a pressure being placed on the authorities that were involved not only in proclaiming the Jewish calendar, but then announcing it to the diaspora communities. This is a very interesting phenomenon. Once decisions were made in Palestine, how did the Jewish diaspora found out about this?

We know that, in antiquity, at least in those countries in the immediate vicinity of Palestine, they received words from a system of flares or flames that were lit at the tops of mountains. From Jerusalem towards Jericho. From Jericho up into the Jordan Valley. Then into Syria, then to Iraq.

Ultimately, that system changed for obvious reasons, and messengers were sent. We know that in the 4th century all sorts of interference was being run against these messengers.

Clearly, by the 4th century, there was a need within the Jewish community to establish a fixed calendar. This fixed calendar, according to tradition, was established by one of the heads of the Rabbinic community in Palestine, somewhere around the year 359 C.E. From that time on, Judaism had a fixed calendar. You knew in advance when it would be a leap year and so on. Some centuries later there were still some skirmishes between Babylonia and Palestine regarding the calendar. It is a very very crucial issue, because the calendar really manifests Jewish leadership. The official institutions that regulated the calendar, basically regulated Jewish life throughout the world.

In a normal year, it was decided that it would always be of 12 months, but every three years, a 13th month would be inserted as a leap year.

The names of the Jewish month all go back to the ancient Babylonian period. What is interesting is that these names were universally accepted by Jews until this very day.

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Daily Practices of Judaism

Here we will set out to describe the numerous ways in which Judaism manifests itself in the daily lives of its adherents. We are really going down into the field. Our aim would be two-fold. To provide a historical context for understanding the unique development of the institutions and practices of Judaism, and at the same time we would address contemporary religious behavior and frameworks. That is to say, how Judaism is practiced today. The goal is to provide us with an understanding of the daily and periodic practices of Judaism.

Here we will address the emergence of prayer as a major means of religious behavior and expression. We would note that prayer is removed from its biblical precursor, the offering of animal sacrifices. The questions we will ask are: what the Jewish prayers contain. When are they conducted? In what language are they recited? Are these texts fixed or they are constantly being changed? Can prayers only be recited in synagogues? This would lead us to an examination of the nature of the institution of synagogue. When did it begin. What are the physical designs. Are there requisite physical designs for a synagogue? How is the synagogue operated today?

In many ways, if we do look at the prayers, they tell us a tale. The constant prayer tells a tale of Jewish aspirations and hopes for a future. It is telling that the last blessing in the Amidah is a blessing to God who blesses his people with peace. We then look at those additional prayers that were added over the generations, they tell the sometimes sad tale of what happened and what Jews were forced to address in their synagogue liturgy over the years.

1. The Origins of Prayer: Prayer in the Bible: Turning to God in moments of need, what we call praying, definitely appears in the Bible. It was performed by private individuals as well as public figures. Prayer was not, however, the standard means of worshipping God in the Hebrew Bible.


2. Main Jewish Prayers: The destruction of the second temple in the year 70 C.E. required new modes of worship. Indeed it was then that prayer emerged almost universally as the substitute for sacrifice.


3. The Language of Jewish Prayer: In what language do Jews pray? Until the 19th century, the universal language of prayer in Judaism was Hebrew.


4. Jewish Public Prayer: Almost all prayers, specially the Amidah, are recited in the plural form. This is a communal expression. “We are praying to God, not I”.


5. The Jewish Synagogue: Today, synagogues are recognized as the main setting for prayer. This was not the case in the earliest synagogues of antiquity. First of all, there is absolutely no mention of synagogues explicitly in the Hebrew Bible.

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The Jewish Synagogue

Today, synagogues are recognized as the main setting for prayer. This was not the case in the earliest synagogues of antiquity. First of all, there is absolutely no mention of synagogues explicitly in the Hebrew Bible. When synagogues appeared for the first time, they carried all sorts of other functions, like the reading of the Torah, but not prayer.

The word synagogue, in fact, suggests that it serves a communal purpose. The word synagogue in Greek means “assembly”. The Hebrew equivalent is beyt knesset, literally “house of assembly”. I think this suggests that the role of early synagogues was that of a place for communities to gather for all sorts of reasons. The ancient Jewish historian Josephus describes a gathering in the synagogue of Tiberius in Galilee to prepare for an imminent war against the Romans. This is clearly not a function of worship.

Services in the Synagogue

The major function of synagogues before the destruction of the temple in 70 C.E. was the public reading of Torah and its exposition through the delivery of a sermon. The New Testament, among other sources, describes Jesus and Paul delivering sermons in synagogues.

The Torah is regularly read in the synagogue as part of the service. Larger portions are read on the Sabbath and on the holidays. On weekdays, small portions are read. What is important is that the complete Torah is read in the course of one year. The day in which Jews reach the final portion of the Torah is the very same day in which they begin the new yearly cycle.

Prayer, Torah reading and a sermon would become the core of synagogue service in many synagogues today as well. The first two, prayer and Torah reading, are required. The sermon, on the other hand, is not.

Synagogue Architecture and Design

There is no required architecture for synagogues. In principle, a synagogue service can be conducted anywhere, even in a private house. In fact, this phenomenon occurred in recent generations, where young people have an aversion towards entering cathedral-like synagogues. They actually prefer much smaller and simpler surroundings in which to pray.

Certain common characteristics, nevertheless, appear in most synagogues. For instance, the scrolls of the Torah are usually deposited in an arc which stands at the front of the hall. Prayers are usually recited and directed while facing that arc. In fact, in religious law, one does not pray towards the Torah, one faces the city of Jerusalem while praying, in a manner similar to the Islamic direction of prayer towards a particular site.

Orthodox synagogues would have separate sittings for men and women. They have some kind of barrier between the two. Conservative and reform synagogues today have dismissed that separation completely.

Ancient synagogues were frequently designed in the manner of other public buildings of the surrounding culture. For instance, we have unearthed in the last few decades scores of ancient synagogues in Roman Byzantine Palestine. What is striking is that their architecture is very similar to the Christian churches that are to be found in the very same area.

Not only is the architecture similar. At times, the artistic motives that are found on mosaic floors are also very similar. For instance, depictions of Bible scenes are to be found in synagogues and the early Christian churches. One of the most popular Bible scene was the binding of Isaac, which was considered one of the great stories of ultimate faith.

There seems to be a common influence, or mutual influence between early synagogues and early Christian churches, certainly in the Middle East.

The Synagogue: Universal Symbol of Judaism

For much of Jewish history, throughout the last 2000 years, synagogues served as the most recognizable symbol of Judaism. In fact, it is interesting that opponents to Judaism usually would single out particular books and particular buildings in times of persecution. The Talmud, for instance, was the classic book to be burned if you wanted to get at the essence of Judaism. There were public burnings of the Talmud throughout the Middle Ages. The same is true regarding synagogues.

Synagogues would be singled out in times of persecution as the first structure to be destroyed. This has a history going to back to the Byzantine period. One of the law books describes how they should actually attack synagogues, destroy them or confiscate them and hand them off as a gift to the Church. What is interesting is that some early Roman emperors actually came out against this. There were times where there were tensions between the Roman emperor and the Catholic Church.

The destruction of synagogues has a very long and sad history, down to our generation. On the 9th and 10th of November 1938, hundreds of synagogues in Germany and Austria were destroyed within the period of 24 hours. This evening was known as Kristallnacht, the “the night of the shattered glass”. It was clear that the synagogue epitomized the essence of Judaism.

In many ways, if we do look at the prayers, they tell us a tale. The constant prayer tells a tale of Jewish aspirations and hopes for a future. It is telling that the last blessing in the Amidah is a blessing to God who blesses his people with peace. We then look at those additional prayers that were added over the generations, they tell the sometimes sad tale of what happened and what Jews were forced to address in their synagogue liturgy over the years.

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Jewish Public Prayer

Certain modern realities have found their way into Jewish liturgy. For instance, most diaspora communities, including those of the United States today, publicly recited a prayer asking for God’s guidance and protection for the officers of government. I remember myself seeing this in synagogues in the former Soviet Union. Clearly, it was important for Jews there to pray for the government. Whether they believed that God was listening or not, they knew that somebody else was listening. That was clearly the prudent thing to do.

Many synagogues today include prayers on behalf of the State of Israel. Here, again, we encounter that unique link in Judaism between religion and a particular land.

Almost all prayers, specially the Amidah, are recited in the plural form. This is a communal expression. “We are praying to God, not I”. Public prayer requires a quorum of ten, known as a minyan. Orthodox Jews today requires ten males, whereas conservative and reform Judaism expresses egalitarianism and consider men and women equal as part of the quorum of ten.

What is important, though, is that any ten people can constitute a quorum. No rabbinic or priestly officials are required for prayer. Although those blessed with a good voice and a knowledge of the traditional tunes would commonly requested to lead the service. Anybody, however, can do it.

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The Language of Jewish Prayer

In what language do Jews pray? Until the 19th century, the universal language of prayer in Judaism was Hebrew. The rabbis of the first centuries permitted prayer in other languages if Hebrew was unknown. For instance, we hear that Jews in the Greek city of Caesarea, actually said the Shema in Greek. The rabbis, however, always preferred Hebrew. This was the common language of Jewish as well as religious literature. In many ways, it was one of the most important unifying factors. Jews might not speak the same language on a daily basis, but they would pray in the same language.

When we arrived to the 19th century, this became an issue. In particular, among the reform movement in Germany, Jews raised the question of language. The issue was not only regarding prayer in Hebrew, but the sermon. In fact, this was even more important.

While most of traditional jury maintained Hebrew as primary language of prayer, other groups began to introduce some more portions of prayer in other languages. What is interesting is that in the 20th century, the revival of the Hebrew language as part of the Jewish national movement led to an enhanced use of Hebrew even among non-orthodox groups. In other words, Hebrew received some sort of renaissance in prayer.

Poetry and Prayer

Liturgy in Judaism has a basic structure to it. It was, however, constantly enhanced. In different periods of Jewish history, additions found their way into the liturgy. For instance, in the byzantine period, in Palestine and later in Muslim Spain, poets would write prayers. They would bring them into the synagogue and they would not just offer these to be read, they would actually recite them. I can almost say that they performed them.

Quite frankly, the community did not always understand these compositions. They required a very precise knowledge of Hebrew, what even more familiarity with the corpus of biblical and rabbinic literature. They are full of allusions to them. These are, however, some of the most beautiful prayers that we have today. Moreover, certain calamities throughout Jewish history, such as the destruction of European communities during the Crusades period, also encouraged the composition of poems that were recited on certain days of mourning.

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Main Jewish Prayers

The destruction of the second temple in the year 70 C.E. required new modes of worship. Indeed it was then that prayer emerged almost universally as the substitute for sacrifice, with the rabbis actually quoting scripture that would support this contention and transformation. They quote one of the prophets saying “instead of bulls, we will pay the offering of our leaps”. So, the offering of the leaps instead of the offering of an animal.

Rabbinic Judaism, beginning in the aftermath of the destruction, set up a foremost system of prayer. They never denied permission to individuals to pray when they desired, but the rabbis were intent on establishing a fixed framework that would determine when people prayed, where they prayed and what the major components of that prayer would include. The basic frameworks that were established in the first centuries of the common era exist until this very day.

In as much as the prayer took the place of sacrifice, originally there seems to have been two mandatory times for daily prayer. One in the morning and another in the afternoon. These two prayers replaced the two daily sacrifices that were offered up in the temple. There was a morning sacrifice and there was an afternoon sacrifice. At some later stages, a third evening prayer was also declared obligatory by the rabbis. Ultimately, they would tell us in a classic anachronistic style that it was the three patriots, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that established prayer. Abraham the morning prayer. Isaac the afternoon and Jacob the evening prayer.

The Amidah Prayer

All three daily prayer gatherings, as well as those of the Sabbath and the holidays, contained a central prayer comprised of 19 blessings. This major prayer is known in Hebrew as the Amidah, “the prayer said while standing”. It contains 19 blessings that detail God’s attributes. Reviver of the death, dispenser of wisdom, builder of Jerusalem, etc. The concluding one praises God for blessing the people of Israel with peace.

The Amidah projects prayer not merely as a list of praises and requests to God, but as a public declaration of the national and religious aspirations of the Jewish community. I think that a study of Jewish prayer would probably be the ideal way of examining Jewish self-identity. It is critical to know what people aspire to, what they are hoping for.

Shema Yisrael

In the morning and evening service, the Amidah was preceded by the recitation of three chapters from the Torah, from Deuteronomy chapters 6, 11 and 15. These chapters together frequently are considered the ultimate affirmation of the Jewish faith. The opening line of that first chapter from Deuteronomy that I mentioned says: “Hear, Israel, the Lord our God. The Lord is one.” The Hebrew words that open the scripture, Shema Yisrael, determine the name of the prayer. It is known as the Shema prayer.

This prayer assumed an importance far beyond daily prayer. It is possibly the ideal prayer that a person shall recite just as the soul is about to depart. There is a beautiful scripture in the Talmud that describes a rabbi about to be taken out to death. He is reciting the Shema and he gets to the scripture that says you shall love the lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. He expands the phrase with all your soul, adding “even if it takes your soul”. His disciples are in awe. The rabbi said: “all my life I used to recite this prayer in this way, and I used to ask myself when would this actually be required of me. Now that it is required of me, how can I resist?”. This became the prototype for martyrdom.

In an e-mail sent by the Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon on the 12th day of his flight into space, he wrote to the President of Israel the following words: “From space, I can easily spot Jerusalem. While looking at Jerusalem, I pray just one short prayer.” And then he writes the Shema prayer.

The Garments of Prayer

The Shema prayer contains two chapters of the Bible that allude to particular articles. In Deuteronomy, chapter 11, verse 18 says “take these words of mine into your heart and soul. Bind them at your wrist as a sign, and let them be a pendant on your forehead.” The rabbis understood this scripture to refer to what is commonly known in Hebrew as tefillin. The Greek translation for tefillin is phylacteries, but that is a very unsatisfactory translation. The word phylac in Greek means something that guards, like an amulet that guards against demons. I don’t think that any Jew would be happy with the term phylactories. Tefillin would be much better.

These tefillin are really black leather boxes. Inside these boxes are parchments with bits of scripture from the Bible. One of these is attached to the arm, as the scripture says “you shall put on your arm”. The other one is placed on a person’s forehead.

The teffilin are worn every morning on weekdays at prayer. Together with teffilin, there is another article. Again, one of the chapters of the Shema says that you “shall make fringes on the borders of your garments for all of your generations”. So, a Jew would actually create a garment, which is known as tallit. It has fringes on it. The tallit is worn not only on weekdays. The teffilin are worn only on weekdays, the tallit is worn on every morning service, both on weekdays and holidays and Sabbath.

These are probably the two most outstanding garments that participate in all portions of Jewish prayer.

On a regular basis, there are a number of blessings that precede the Shema, and a number that appears between the Shema and the Amidah. Prior to the two first blessings there is a call to prayer: “Let us all bless God”. People respond. This response is the main portion of the prayer itself. On weekdays and in morning prayers in general, a number of psalms are also recited.

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