Holy Conversations:  Understanding World Religions-Judaism"

Sermon notes and questions from the sermon on Judaism given on May 24

Hear recorded message
Other messages in series...

The Mishnah or Mishna (משנה, "repetition", from the verb shanah שנה, or "to study and review") is a major work of Rabbinic Judaism, and the first major redaction into written form of Jewish oral traditions, called the Oral Torah.  It is thus named for being both the one written authority (codex) secondary (only) to the Tanakh as a basis for the passing of judgment, a source and a tool for creating laws, and the first of many books to complement the Bible in a certain aspect.  Tosefta acts as a supplement to the Mishnah (tosefta means "supplement or addition").  The Mishnah is the basic compilation of the Oral law of Judaism; it was compiled around 200 CE.

Jews celebrate many Holy Days and Festivals that originate from Bible stories and oral traditions.  Jewish holy days (haggim), celebrate landmark events in Jewish history, such as the Exodus from Egypt and the giving of the Torah, and sometimes mark the change of seasons and transitions in the agricultural cycle.  The three major festivals, Sukkot, Passover and Shavuot, are called "regalim" (derived from the Hebrew word "regel," or foot).  On the three regalim, it was customary for the Israelites to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices in the Temple.  Passover (Pesach) is a week-long holiday beginning on the evening of the 14th day of Nisan (the first month in the Hebrew calendar), that commemorates the Exodus from Egypt.  Outside Israel, Passover is celebrated for eight days.  In ancient times, it coincided with the barley harvest.  It is the only holiday that centers on home-service, the Seder.  Leavened products (chametz) are removed from the house prior to the holiday, and are not consumed throughout the week.  Homes are thoroughly cleaned to ensure no bread or bread by-products remain, and a symbolic burning of the last vestiges of chametz is conducted on the morning of the Seder.  Matzo is eaten instead of bread.  Shavuot ("Pentecost" or "Feast of Weeks") celebrates the revelation of the Torah to the Israelites on Mount Sinai.  Also known as the Festival of Bikurim, or first fruits, it coincided in biblical times with the wheat harvest.  Shavuot customs include all-night study marathons known as Tikkun Leil Shavuot, eating dairy foods (cheesecake and blintzes are special favorites), reading the Book of Ruth, decorating homes and synagogues with greenery, and wearing white clothing, symbolizing purity.  Sukkot ("Tabernacles" or "The Festival of Booths") commemorates the Israelites' forty years of wandering through the desert on their way to the Promised Land.  It is celebrated through the construction of temporary booths called sukkot (sing. sukkah) that represent the temporary shelters of the Israelites during their wandering.  It coincides with the fruit harvest, and marks the end of the agricultural cycle.  Jews around the world eat in sukkot for seven days and nights.  Sukkot concludes with Shemini Atzeret, where Jews begin to pray for rain and Simchat Torah, "Rejoicing of the Torah," a holiday which marks reaching the end of the Torah reading cycle and beginning all over again.  The occasion is celebrated with singing and dancing with the Torah scrolls.  The High Holidays (Yamim Noraim or "Days of Awe") revolve around judgment and forgiveness.  Rosh Hashanah, (also Yom Ha-Zikkaron or "Day of Remembrance," and Yom Teruah, or "Day of the Sounding of the Shofar").  Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year (literally, "head of the year"), although it falls on the first day of the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar, Tishri.  Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the 10-day period of atonement leading up to Yom Kippur, during which Jews are commanded to search their souls and make amends for sins committed, intentionally or not, throughout the year.  Holiday customs include blowing the shofar, or ram's horn, in the synagogue, eating apples and honey, and saying blessings over a variety of symbolic foods, such as pomegranates.  Yom Kippur, ("Day of Atonement") is the most solemn day of the Jewish year.  It is a day of communal fasting and praying for forgiveness for one's sins.  Observant Jews spend the entire day in the synagogue, sometimes with a short break in the afternoon, reciting prayers from a special holiday prayerbook called a "Mahzor."  Many non-religious Jews make a point of attending synagogue services and fasting on Yom Kippur.  On the eve of Yom Kippur, before candles are lit, a prefast meal, the "seuda mafseket," is eaten.  Synagogue services on the eve of Yom Kippur begin with the Kol Nidre prayer.  It is customary to wear white on Yom Kippur, especially for Kol Nidre, and leather shoes are not worn.  The following day, prayers are held from morning to evening.  The final prayer service, called "Ne'ilah," ends with a long blast of the shofar.  Hannukah, also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight day Jewish holiday that starts on the 25th day of Kislev (Hebrew calendar).  The festival is observed in Jewish homes by the kindling of lights on each of the festival's eight nights, one on the first night, two on the second night and so on.  The holiday was called Hanukkah meaning "dedication" because it marks the re-dedication of the Temple after its desecration by Antiochus IV Epiphanes.  Spiritually, Hanukkah commemorates the "Miracle of the Oil".  According to the Talmud, at the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem following the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire, there was only enough consecrated oil to fuel the eternal flame in the Temple for one day.  Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days - which was the length of time it took to press, prepare and consecrate new oil.

Life-cycle events, or rites of passage, occur throughout a Jew's life that serve to strengthen Jewish identity and bind him/her to the entire community.  Brit milah - Welcoming male babies into the covenant through the rite of circumcision on their eighth day of life.  The baby boy is also given his Hebrew name in the ceremony.  A naming ceremony intended as a parallel ritual for girls, named zeved habat, enjoys limited popularity.  Bar mitzvah and Bat mitzvah - This passage from childhood to adulthood takes place when a female Jew is twelve and a male Jew is thirteen years old among Orthodox and some Conservative congregations.  In the Reform movement, both girls and boys have their bat/bar mitzvah at age thirteen.  This is often commemorated by having the new adults, male only in the Orthodox tradition, lead the congregation in prayer and publicly read a "portion" of the Torah.  Marriage - Marriage is an extremely important lifecycle event.  A wedding takes place under a chupah, or wedding canopy, which symbolizes a happy house.  At the end of the ceremony, the groom breaks a glass with his foot, symbolizing the continuous mourning for the destruction of the Temple, and the scattering of the Jewish people.  Death and Mourning - Judaism has a multi-staged mourning practice.  The first stage is called the shiva (literally "seven", observed for one week) during which it is traditional to sit at home and be comforted by friends and family, the second is the shloshim (observed for one month) and for those who have lost one of their parents, there is a third stage, avelut yud bet chodesh, which is observed for eleven months.

Orthodox Judaism is characterized by belief that the Torah and its laws are Divine, were transmitted by God to Moses, are eternal, and are unalterable, and a belief that there is also an oral law in Judaism, which contains the authoritative interpretation of the written Torah's legal sections. Conservative Judaism is characterized by a commitment to following traditional Jewish laws and customs, including observance of Shabbat and kashrut, a deliberately non-fundamentalist teaching of Jewish principles of faith, a positive attitude toward modern culture, and an acceptance of both traditional rabbinic modes of study along with modern scholarship and critical text study when considering Jewish religious texts. Reform Judaism’s defining characteristic with respect to the other movements is its rejection of the binding nature of Jewish ceremonial law as such and belief instead that individual Jews should exercise an informed autonomy about what to observe.  Reform Judaism initially defined Judaism as a religion, rather than as a race or culture, rejected most of the ritual ceremonial laws of the Torah while observing moral laws, and emphasized the ethical call of the Prophets.

The term "mipnei tikkun ha-olam" (perhaps best translated in this context as "in the interest of public policy") is used in the Mishnah (the body of classical rabbinic teachings codified circa 200 C.E.).  There, it refers to social policy legislation providing extra protection to those potentially at a disadvantage - governing, for example, just conditions for the writing of divorce decrees and for the freeing of slaves.  In reference to individual acts of repair, the phrase "tikkun olam" figures prominently in the Lurianic account of creation and its implications:  God contracted the divine self to make room for creation.  Divine light became contained in special vessels, or kelim, some of which shattered and scattered.  While most of the light returned to its divine source, some light attached itself to the broken shards.  These shards constitute evil and are the basis for the material world; their trapped sparks of light give them power.

Since Judaism focuses primarily on the “Law” and its application in one’s life, and Christianity places emphasis on right belief (or trust), I believe the best way to have a Holy Conversation is to focus on this shared concept of Tikkun Olam, or repairing the world.  In my ministry I have seen Christianity in its most winsome witness to Jews when we focus on social justice and social action.  Elliot echoed this remark to me in our interview and I believe it is the key to our ongoing conversation.