Comparative Religion-Judaism Paper

After spending two days in Tel Aviv, you leave for Jerusalem and arrive at your hotel near the old part of the city. Once there, you can’t wait to begin exploring. The Old City is a place for walking and wandering, with wonderful sights in its narrow streets.

Drawing you like a magnet is the site of the ancient temple, destroyed by Roman soldiers nearly two thousand years ago. Only its foundation stones remain. On the mount where the temple once stood is now a glittering golden dome. Built by Muslims, the Dome of the Rock covers the great stone beneath it, which is venerated by Muslims and Jews alike, who hold that their ancestor Abraham came to this spot.

You decide to walk down from the city in order to view the mount from below, after which you plan to turn back and travel, like a true pilgrim, “up to Jerusalem.” You buy food for a picnic lunch at stalls as you walk inside the city. Soon you are beyond the Old City gate. Luckily, the day is sunny but not hot. You see a large stone tomb in the valley below and beyond it, in the east, Mount Scopus.

Page 282At last it is time to stop for a rest and to eat your lunch. You sit under a tree and look back, thinking to yourself about the events this site has witnessed. Your mind becomes crowded with the names of biblical kings, prophets, and priests associated with Jerusalem: David, Solomon, Melchizedek, Isaiah, Jeremiah. As the sounds of everyday traffic filter through your thoughts, you imagine the many battles over this holy city and the successive waves of conquerors—Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and European crusaders—who took possession of it in the past. You also think of the more recent battles and problems here. You cannot help thinking of the contrast between the violence that this place has seen and the root of the city’s name—salem. Like shalom and salaam, words to which it is related, the word salem means “peace” and “wholeness.” Comparative Religion-Judaism Paper

 

You start back, walking uphill thoughtfully. You see the small tombstones in front of the walls, the high walls themselves, and a beautiful double stone gate, now sealed. Slowly, you make your way back through the city streets around to the western side, to what is left of the great temple. The immense foundation stones, set there during an enlargement ordered by King Herod the Great, were too solid to be knocked down and too big to be carted off. At their base is an open area in front of the  Western Wall,  now used for contemplation and prayer—on the left stand men, and on the right, women. Some hold prayer books, and many touch their hands and foreheads to the wall. You see little pieces of paper, which have prayers written on them, rolled up or folded and placed in the cracks between the stones. These have been left here by people who have come to speak with God and to remember their family members in prayer. You reflect on the historical events that led up to the building of the temple. You think of the long and great history of the Jews, who developed and flourished in spite of persecution in lands far away. It is deeply moving to be here, and you stay a long time in silent contemplation.

AN OVERVIEW OF JEWISH HISTORY

Jewish history goes back two thousand years or far longer, depending on one’s point of view. This difference of opinion revolves around a major historical event—the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 ce ( Timeline 8.1 ), which brought about the end of the temple-based ceremonial religion of that region and the widespread dispersion of its people to lands far away from Israel. Following the calamity of the temple’s destruction, the earlier religion had to develop in new ways to survive. From the centralized, temple-based religion practiced in Israel, another form of religion arose that could be practiced among the Jews who lived outside of Israel. Jews anywhere in the world could now practice their religion in the home and synagogue. In recognition of this fundamental religious reorientation, a distinction is often made between  biblical Judaism  and  rabbinical Judaism . When we study the Judaism practiced today, what we are really studying are the forms of Jewish belief and religious practice that largely came into existence after the destruction of the Second Temple.

 

 

Timeline of significant events in the history of Judaism.

Page 284The two great spans of time—before and after the destruction of the Second Temple—are also commonly subdivided into two periods each. Over the first great span of time, a landless people established a homeland in Israel and made Jerusalem the capital of its kingdom. Great change occurred and another period began, however, when the Babylonians destroyed the kingdom of Judah and its First Temple (586 bce), forcing the Israelite people into exile in Babylonia (present-day Iraq) for nearly fifty years. These events made clear to the exiled people that religious law and history had to be put in written form to guarantee their survival. As a result, the Hebrew Bible was created, and study of the scriptures and prayer in synagogues became important, even after the temple was rebuilt. Comparative Religion-Judaism Paper

The second great time span comprises the two thousand years of the development of Judaism in the Common Era. It also can be subdivided into two periods. The first period marks the evolution of rabbinical Judaism and traditional Jewish life, from about 100 ce to approximately 1800 ce, the beginning of the modern period. The second period started about two hundred years ago, when a movement began in Judaism as a response to (1) the new thinking of the European Enlightenment, (2) the liberal thought of the American and French Revolutions, and (3) the laws of Napoleon, which were carried widely beyond France. The movement, called the  Reform,  questioned and modernized traditional Judaism and helped produce the diverse branches within Judaism that exist today. The Reform also raised the issue of Jewish identity. Who is a Jew? What is essential to Judaism? These are two questions to which we will return later.

The Hebrew Bible records that the roots of Judaism go back far into the past to a landless people sometimes called Hebrews and more commonly called Israelites, who traced themselves to an ancestor named Abraham. Because much of what we know of the first span of Hebrew history comes from the Hebrew Bible, we will examine it first. We should note, however, that the Hebrew Bible is not a history book in the modern sense; it presents instead what might better be called sacred history. It is the Israelites’ view of their God’s relationship with them in the midst of historical events.

We should note, too, that the Hebrew Bible is significant not only in terms of the history of the Hebrews but also in terms of its role in the development of Judaism over the past two thousand years. When the ceremonial religion of the Jerusalem Temple ended in the first century ce, it was the Hebrew scriptures that provided a foundation for the development of rabbinical Judaism. The scriptures offered a firm basis for Jewish  rabbis  (teachers) to offer their  midrash  (interpretation) of biblical laws and practices: the books outlined the Ten Commandments and other ethical teachings; they established the major yearly festivals that would guide and sanctify the lives of Jews; and they contained the psalms that became the everyday prayers of Jews everywhere.

Thus, we turn first to the Hebrew Bible, to understand its structure and to examine the laws and history of the Hebrew people. After looking at the Hebrew Bible and at Hebrew and Jewish history, we will then consider Jewish belief, practice, and influence. Comparative Religion-Judaism Paper

THE HEBREW BIBLE

Judaism is often associated with the land of Israel, but Judaism is perhaps better associated with its most important book, the Hebrew Bible. Although nowadays the Hebrew Bible is published as a single volume, it is made up of individual “books,” which were once separate written scrolls. The word Bible, in fact, comes from the Greek term biblia, which means “books.” The individual books were originally oral material that was subsequently written down in some form perhaps as early as 900 bce, although the final form was not achieved until about 200 bce. It was once thought that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible—the Torah—but this is no longer commonly held. Instead, scholars see the Torah as composed of four strands of material, which arose in different periods but have been skillfully intertwined by later biblical editors. 1

The Hebrew Bible is divided into three sections: the  Torah  (the Teaching),  Nevi’im  (the Prophets), and  Ketuvim  (the Writings). Considered as a whole, it is often called  Tanakh  (or Tanak), which is an acronym made up of the first letters of the Hebrew names for the three sections: t, n, k.

The Torah is the sacred core of the Hebrew Bible, with its stories of the creation, Adam and Eve, Noah, and the Hebrew patriarchs and matriarchs—the early ancestors of the Hebrew people. It introduces Moses, the great liberator and lawgiver, and his brother Aaron, the founder of the priesthood. It includes laws about daily conduct and religious ritual—material that would be of great importance to the later development of Judaism. Because the Torah comprises five books, it is sometimes called the Pentateuch (Greek: “five scrolls”). (We should recognize that the term Torah is also used more widely to refer to all teachings, both written and orally transmitted, that are thought to have been revealed by God.)

 

Synagogue members take turns carrying a new handwritten Torah to their synagogue in London. The Torah is kept in the most important place within a synagogue. Comparative Religion-Judaism Paper

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Deeper Insights

BOOKS OF THE HEBREW BIBLE

· TORAH

· Genesis (Bereshit)

· Exodus (Shemot)

· Leviticus (Vayiqra)

· Numbers (Bemidbar)

· Deuteronomy (Devarim)

· THE PROPHETS (NEVI’IM)

· Joshua (Yehoshua)

· Judges (Shofetim)

· Samuel (Shemuel)

· Kings (Melakhim)

· Isaiah (Yeshayahu)

· Jeremiah (Yirmeyahu)

· Ezekiel (Yehezaqel)

· Book of the Twelve (Tere Asar): Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi

· THE WRITINGS (KETUVIM)

· Psalms (Tehillim)

· Proverbs (Mishle)

· Job (Iyyov)

· Song of Songs (Shir Hashirim)

· Ruth (Ruth)

· Lamentations (Ekhah)

· Ecclesiastes (Qohelet)

· Esther (Ester)

· Daniel (Daniel)

· Ezra-Nehemiah (Ezra-Nehemyah)

· Chronicles (Divre Hayamim)

The second part of the Tanakh, called the Prophets, is named for those individuals who spoke in God’s name to the Jewish people. The books that concentrate on the history of the Israelite kingdom are called the Former Prophets, followed by additional books, which are more strongly visionary and moral in tone, called the Latter (or Later) Prophets. In the Latter Prophets, the voices of the individual prophets tend to predominate.

The third part of the Tanakh, called the Writings, is closer to what we think of as imaginative literature. Although it includes some late historical books, it contains primarily short stories, proverbs, reflections on life, hymn (psalm) lyrics, and poetry.

We will use the term Hebrew Bible for all of this material. (Jews do not refer to the Hebrew scriptures as the Old Testament, as do Christians, because the title implies that the Jewish books have meaning only in relation to the Christian books, collectively called the New Testament. Also, the order of books in the Hebrew Bible, in the format that it assumed by the end of the tenth century ce, differs somewhat from the general order that is found in Christian Bibles.) The commonly used titles of some of the books are Greek, based on early Greek translations. 2

Page 287The historical accuracy of the Hebrew Bible is not always certain, because not all biblical accounts can be verified by archeological finds or references in other historical records. Although we can presume that many of the accounts (particularly those of events after the Jewish kingdom was established) are based on historical fact, we must also recognize that they were recorded by the Jews themselves, who naturally viewed historical events from their own special perspective. Furthermore, many accounts were transmitted orally long before they were written down or assembled in final form, thus affecting the way they were recounted.

BIBLICAL HISTORY

Whatever its historical accuracy, the heroic and mythic power of the Hebrew Bible cannot be denied. It is filled with astonishing people and powerful images. Adam and Eve, for example, stand naked and suddenly aware among the trees and streams of the Garden of Eden. Noah and his wife are surrounded by animals in their big wooden boat, riding out a long flood. Moses climbs to the top of cloud-covered Mount Sinai to speak with God and receive the Ten Commandments. These images and ideas are not only unforgettable, but they are also part of Western culture and have influenced its laws, art, literature, and ways of living. Comparative Religion-Judaism Paper

In the Beginning: Stories of Origins

The earliest stories of the Hebrew Bible, given in Genesis 1–11, have a mythic quality that is universally appealing. The story of the origin of the world presents God as an intelligent, active, masculine power who overcomes primeval chaos. To create order, God imposes separations—separating light from darkness and land from water—and completes his work of creation in stages, spread over six days. At the end of each day, God views what he has done and sees that it is good. Finally, satisfied with the result of all his labor, God rests on the seventh day.

This account (which shows parallels with the creation story in the Babylonian epic poem Enuma Elish) appears in the first chapter of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. This first account is cosmic and measured—possibly written that way in order to be read out solemnly by a priest at temple ceremonies. The second account (perhaps written earlier than the first) begins in the second chapter of Genesis. This account is more human, utilizes colorful dialogue, and focuses on the first human parents, Adam and Eve, and on their moral dilemma.

The Garden of Eden, which God has created for his refreshment, is based on the pattern of a walled garden, complete with fruit trees, birds, exotic animals, a central fountain, and streams to cool the air. God creates Adam to live in the garden as its gardener and caretaker, forming his body from the dust of the earth and breathing life into Adam with his own breath. In some way, Adam is a copy of God himself, for the human being, the Bible says, is made “in the image of God” (Gen. 1:27), 3  bearing some of the dignity of God. Soon, though, because Adam is lonely, God decides to give him a companion. Taking a rib from Adam while he is in a deep sleep, God forms Eve around that rib. In the first account of creation, male and female were created simultaneously, but in the second account, the male is created first and the female afterward—leading to the interpretation that while the male is a copy of God, the female is only a copy of the male. Comparative Religion-Judaism Paper

288Interestingly, the conception of God in the creation stories is somewhat different from many later views. For one thing, although the biblical God has no apparent rivals, he does not appear to be alone, and when he declares “Let us make man” (Gen. 1:26), 4  he is most likely addressing his heavenly counselors, some of whom are identified in later texts (such as Psalms and Job). In addition, God is not represented as pure spirit. The account in chapter two of Genesis says that God walks and eats; and having made the garden to enjoy, he strolls in it when he wants to enjoy its cool breezes. God allows Adam and Eve to eat from almost all the trees, but he forbids them to eat fruit from one of the trees that he especially needs to nourish his supernatural life and insight. Eve, tempted to eat from the forbidden tree, does so and then urges Adam to do the same. For their disobedient act, they are exiled from God’s garden. God can no longer trust them, knowing that if they were to remain they might become his rivals. Now they must live outside the garden, work, and suffer for the rest of their amazingly long lives.

To some, the portrait of Eve—a temptress who brings down punishment on Adam and herself—is distressing. But it should be pointed out that Eve is the one with ambition and personality, while Adam seems far less colorful. Whatever the interpretation—and there have been many—the story of Adam and Eve has influenced Western views of women, men, and marriage for several thousand years.

Next is the story of Adam and Eve’s children, Cain and Abel (Gen. 4:1–16), whose sibling rivalry ends in Cain’s murder of Abel. This tale may reflect ancient rivalries between farmers and herders.

Following this is the story of the Great Flood (Gen. 6–9), which echoes a Mesopotamian tale, the Epic of Gilgamesh. Disgusted with the rapidly growing, immoral human population, God sends a flood to do away with humanity—all of humanity, that is, except the righteous Noah and his family. He warns Noah to build a large wooden boat (an ark) and fill it with animals, because only those in the boat will survive the coming downpour. At the end of the flood, God makes a pact with Noah never again to destroy the earth by water. As a sign of this promise, God places his “bow” (perhaps an archer’s bow) into the sky. The rainbow is a reminder of his solemn promise. Like several of the early stories, this account gives an explanation for a natural phenomenon. This story also explains how, from the three sons of Noah, different races arise.

 

 

New Beginnings, a contemporary painting by Bruce David, is a reminder of the rainbow that signaled God’s promise at the end of Noah’s journey. The Hebrew inscription quotes Isaiah 11:9: “For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Comparative Religion-Judaism Paper

Page 289Chapter eleven of Genesis tells the story of the tower of Babel (or Babylonia). Wanting to reach the heavenly realm that they believe exists above the skies, people begin building a very tall tower. God, not willing to have his private world invaded, stops the construction by making the builders speak different languages. Because they can no longer understand each other, they cannot finish their tower. This story also gives a convenient answer to the question, Why are there different languages in the world?

Page 290Did Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Noah, and the others really exist? For centuries, Jews have thought of them as historical figures. Now, however, influenced by the views of scholars, many Jews view them instead as symbolic figures who set the stage for the events that follow. The first eleven chapters of Genesis are, in effect, a great allegorical introduction to the rest of the Hebrew Bible. There are many indications of this nonhistorical, symbolic purpose. For example, Adam and his immediate descendants are described as living to great ages—Adam is said to have lived to be 930 years old (Gen. 5:5) and Methuselah, the longest-lived, 969 years old (Gen. 5:7). Moreover, many names are apparently symbolic; for example, Adam means “humankind” and Eve means “life.” Scholars, as pointed out earlier, believe that the stories of the creation and the flood derive from earlier Mesopotamian tales. What is important to understand, though, is that these stories were given new meanings by the Israelite scribes who adapted them. Comparative Religion-Judaism Paper

The World of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs

Abraham is the first Hebrew patriarch (Greek: “father-source”). He is introduced in chapter twelve of Genesis, the point at which the book becomes more seemingly historical. Abraham, first known as Abram, is called by God to leave his home for another land. Originally from Ur (in present-day Iraq), Abraham migrates via Haran (in Turkey) to the land of  Canaan . “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation’” (Gen. 12:1–2a). 5  This passage is significant to Judaism because it is seen as establishing a claim to the region now called Israel. Abraham’s migration becomes a pilgrimage of great importance, making him, his son Isaac, and his grandson Jacob the patriarchs of Judaism.

After assuring Abraham of land and many descendants, God enters into a solemn  covenant,  a contract, with Abraham. In return for God’s promise to provide land, protection, and descendants, Abraham and his male descendants must be circumcised as a sign of their exclusive relationship with God (Gen. 17). Comparative Religion-Judaism Paper

The most famous story of Abraham concerns his son Isaac. Abraham has long been unable to have a son by his wife, Sarah. At Sarah’s urging, he fathers by her maid, Hagar, a son named Ishmael. But then, to the amazement of all, Sarah herself has a son (Gen. 19). Soon, though, Sarah jealously demands that Ishmael and Hagar be sent away. (This aspect of the story will be important later on in Islam.) Shockingly, God then asks (in Gen. 22) that Abraham offer Isaac, the beloved son of his old age, as a sacrifice. (Perhaps this is a vestige of an earlier practice of human sacrifice.) Abraham agrees and sets out with his son to Mount Moriah, believed by Jews to be the hill on which Jerusalem now rests. Just before the boy is to die, God stops Abraham, and a ram, whose horns had become tangled in a bush nearby, is used as the sacrifice instead. God has thus tested Abraham’s devotion, and in so proving his absolute loyalty to God, Abraham has shown himself worthy of land, wealth, fame, and the joy of knowing he will have innumerable descendants. (This passage may show the replacement of human sacrifice with the sacrifice of animals.)

 

 

Marc Chagall’s Abraham and the Three Angels includes Abraham’s elderly wife Sarah, whose pregnancy is an important part of matriarchal history. (© 2017 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris)

Genesis also contains stories about some extremely memorable women, the matriarchs of the Hebrew people: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah. Although these women are always linked with their husbands, they all have strong and carefully drawn personalities. Sarah, for example, stays modestly inside the tent when strangers arrive but laughs so loudly that they hear her and then question her about why she is laughing (Gen. 18:10–15).

The stories in Genesis also tell of mysterious contacts with God—called  theophanies —which are sometimes friendly in nature but at other times fierce and frightening. God appears to Isaac, for example, and promises him protection and many descendants (Gen. 26:24). One of Isaac’s sons, Jacob, has a vision of God in a dream (Gen. 28). He sees a stairway leading from earth into the sky. God is at the top, and angels are ascending and descending, linking heaven and earth. A more unusual theophany occurs when Jacob wrestles all night long with a mysterious stranger—God or God’s angel. At dawn the fight is over, and Jacob receives from the stranger a new name: Israel (“wrestles with God”). Because Jacob and his sons would settle the land of Canaan, it came to be called Israel after his new name. Jacob, with his two wives and two concubines, has many sons, who would become the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel.

 

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Joseph, Jacob’s next-to-last son, is the focus of the final section of Genesis. Because Joseph’s brothers sense that his father loves him best, they scheme to have him killed. Ultimately, though, they sell him as a slave, and he is taken to Egypt ( Figure 8.1 ). There, through his special gifts, he rises in importance to become a government minister. When a famine in Israel brings his brothers down to Egypt to look for grain, Joseph is not vengeful but invites his brothers to bring their father to Egypt and to settle there permanently. They do so and settle in the land of Goshen in northeastern Egypt. The Book of Genesis ends with the death of Jacob. Comparative Religion-Judaism Paper

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How historically true are these stories, especially that of Abraham? Traditional believers and some scholars think that the stories surrounding Abraham do express historical truth, though shaped by oral transmission. Other scholars, however, argue that the Israelites arose in Israel itself, possibly as a landless peasant class that revolted against its rulers. If that view is true, then the story of Abraham and his entry into Israel from elsewhere may not be historically accurate. In addition, no archeological evidence has yet been found to prove the existence of Abraham. The debate about the historical existence of Abraham may never be resolved. Comparative Religion-Judaism Paper

Moses and the Law

The Book of Exodus records that the population of Hebrews in Egypt grew so large after several centuries that the Egyptians saw them as a threat. As a solution, the pharaoh commands that all Hebrew baby boys be killed at birth. However, the baby Moses (whose name is probably Egyptian) is spared by being hidden. After three months, when his Hebrew mother is afraid to keep him any longer, she and her daughter fashion a watertight basket, put him inside it, and place the basket in the Nile River. There an Egyptian princess discovers him and raises him as her own. As a young adult, Moses sees an Egyptian foreman badly mistreating an Israelite slave. In trying to stop the cruelty, Moses kills the foreman. Moses then flees from Egypt.

Our next glimpse of Moses comes when he has found a new life beyond the borders of Egypt, where he is now a herdsman for a Midianite priest named Jethro, whose daughter he has married. One day, when Moses is out with his father-in-law’s herds, he sees a strange sight: a large bush appears to be burning, but it is not consumed. As Moses approaches the bush, he hears the voice of God, who commands Moses to return to Egypt to help free the Hebrews. Comparative Religion-Judaism Paper

Living in a world that believes in many gods, Moses is curious to know the name of the divine spirit speaking to him. The deity, however, refuses to give a clear name and says mysteriously, “I will be who I will be,” and then commands Moses to tell the Hebrews “that ‘I will be’ sent you” (Exod. 3:14). 6  In Hebrew the mysterious answer provides an etymological clue to the name for God. The name for God, usually associated with the verb hayah (“to be”), is Yhwh, and it is often translated as “I am.” The name is usually written Yahweh, but the exact pronunciation is unknown.

As mentioned, Moses lived in an age when people believed in many gods, and he had grown up in the polytheistic culture of Egypt. People everywhere believed in multiple gods and thought of them as guardian deities of particular groups and regions. Could Moses—or the patriarchs and matriarchs before him—have really been monotheistic? We do not know. A possibility is that Moses and the Hebrew patriarchs and matriarchs believed in the existence of many gods, of whom one, possibly a major deity, declared himself the special protector of the Israelites. If this is true, monotheism was not the original belief system of the Israelites but evolved over time. Some scholars wonder whether the actions of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten (Ikhnaton, reigned c. 1352–1336 bce) influenced the development of Jewish monotheism. Akhenaten gave sole worship to the sun god Aten, and he unsuccessfully attempted to suppress the worship of all other Egyptian gods.

Page 294Ultimately, the god of the Jews would come to be proclaimed “the one true God.” We see two traditions in the Torah. In one (possibly older) tradition, Yahweh is embodied and appears directly to human beings. In another (possibly later) tradition, Yahweh exists as a spirit, separate from human beings. The notion of God as being transcendent and distant grew stronger over time, and the transformation was complete when Yahweh came to be considered pure spirit and any reference to his body was considered to be metaphorical. In addition, God’s name eventually was thought of as being too sacred to be pronounced; instead of speaking the name Yahweh, priests and lectors substituted the Hebrew word Adonay (“the Lord”). 7  Ultimately, all other gods were considered false gods; images of anything that could be construed as a god were prohibited; and Yahweh at last was considered the one God of the entire universe.

But these changes would all occur after the time of Moses. In the Book of Exodus, Yahweh, the god of the Hebrews, simply needs to show himself to be more powerful than any of the gods of the Egyptians (Exod. 12:12). It is by his power that ten plagues strike the Egyptians and convince the pharaoh (possibly the great builder Ramses II, c. 1292–1225 bce) to let his Israelite slaves leave.

The last and greatest of the plagues is the death of the first-born sons of the Egyptians. The Israelites’ sons are spared because they have followed Yahweh’s warning and have marked the doors of their homes with the blood of a substitute—a sacrificial lamb (Exod. 12:13). Because God has “passed over” Egypt, the event is thereafter called the  Passover (Pesach),  and its yearly memorial has become one of the major Jewish festivals (which we will discuss later).

The Bible tells of the Hebrews’ journey out of Egypt through a large body of water, the Red Sea, on their way to the Sinai Peninsula. (The Hebrew term may be translated as either “Red Sea” or “Reed Sea.” The second translation may refer to the reed-filled marshes of northeastern Egypt.) Movies have dramatized the event, showing two walls of water held back as the Hebrews marched between them. But the reality was possibly less dramatic. Although Egyptian records do not mention it, the exodus from Egypt has become a central theme of Judaism. A whole people, protected by God, leaves a land of oppression and begins the march toward freedom. Comparative Religion-Judaism Paper

The Books of Exodus and Numbers describe in detail the migration back to Israel—a migration that lasted a full generation, about forty years. The most significant event during this period of passage is God’s encounter with Moses at Mount Sinai. The Book of Exodus (chap. 19) paints a terrifying picture: the mountain is covered with cloud and smoke; lightning and thunder come from the cloud; and the sound of a trumpet splits the air. The people are warned to keep their distance, for only Moses may go to meet God at the top of the mountain. Moses enters the cloud and speaks with God. Comparative Religion-Judaism Paper

Page 295When Moses descends, he returns to his people with rules for living—the Ten Commandments (Exod. 20). The strong moral orientation of Judaism is apparent here, for Moses does not return with an explanation of the universe, with science, or with art, but rather with ethical precepts. Parallels have been drawn to several other early codes, particularly that of the Babylonian King Hammurabi (c. 1792–1750 bce).

Undergirding the commandments is the conviction that a covenant—a contract—exists between Yahweh and his people. He will care for them, but they must fulfill their half of the bargain by following his laws and giving him sole worship. Such an agreement had already been made between God and Noah and would later be made with Abraham. The covenant is reaffirmed with Moses and solidified by the laws and commandments, which give it legal form.

The Book of Leviticus begins with detailed laws about animal sacrifice (chaps. 1–7) and then takes up the complexities of ritual purity. In addition to laws about general honesty and humaneness, Leviticus outlines many special laws that would be important to the later development of Judaism: laws specifying which animals may and may not be eaten (chap. 11), laws prohibiting the consumption of meat with blood in it (17:10) or the cutting of one’s beard (19:27), and laws governing the observance of the major religious festivals (chap. 23). The Book of Numbers returns to historical themes, recounting specifically the years of wandering before the Hebrews entered Canaan. But it also spells out laws about ritual purity and the keeping of vows. The Torah ends with the Book of Deuteronomy, which repeats the Ten Commandments and describes the death of Moses, an event that occurs just before the Hebrews enter the Promised Land of Canaan. 8

The historicity of Moses is, like that of Abraham, another focus of debate. Virtually all Jews believe him to have been a real person. So far, however, no Egyptian archeological records have been found that mention Moses, a slave rebellion, or an exodus from Egypt. Specialists in mythology point out parallels between the story of Moses and Egyptian religious tales. Also, no archeological evidence has yet been found to give proof of the forty years of wandering in the desert. The lack of historical evidence, however, does not disprove the historicity of Moses. A common view sees the biblical account as representing basic historical truth that has been magnified and embellished over time. Comparative Religion-Judaism Paper

The Judges and Kings

After Moses’s death, the Israelites were led by men and women who had both military and legal power, called judges. To think of them as military generals is more accurate than to envision them as modern-day courtroom judges.

 

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