Chapter 3

Judaism

 the religion, philosophy and way of life of the Jewish people

 One of the oldest monotheistic religions
 Foundation text: Torah (part of the larger text known as the Tanakh or Hebrew
Bible); later texts: Mishnah and the Talmud
 Patriarch: Abraham - Abraham gave rise to a nation of Hebrews
 Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the covenantal
relationship God established with the Children of Israel.
 Covenant: God gave Abraham and his family the Land of Israel as a laboratory
where his descendants are supposed to create the nation that’s the model for the
world.
 Jewish religious movements today: Orthodox Judaism (Haredi Judaism and
Modern Orthodox Judaism), Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism.
Sources of difference among groups: approaches to Jewish law, the authority of the
Rabbinic tradition, and the significance of the State of Israel.
 The Jews - Hebrews and Israelites; “Children of Israel (Tanakh, Book of Esther)
 Judaism's texts, traditions and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic
religions, including Christianity, Islam and the Baha'i Faith
 Many aspects of Judaism have also directly or indirectly influenced secular
Western ethics and civil law
 Judaism as a religion cannot be separated from the history of the Jews as a race.
Both the history of the Jews and their religion is found on the pages of the Old
Testament.
 Old Testament - terminates on the note of expectation of the coming Messiah.
Jews await the coming of the Messiah.
 New Testament - the arrival of the expected Messiah, and finally come the birth
of Christianity.

Historical Antecedents

Early Formation
- Judaism had its origin in Abraham; who was called from Ur of Chaldea by a divine
voice
- He was to proceed to the land of Canaan with the promise that his descendants
should live there as a great nation (Genesis 12).
 - The promise was transferred to Isaac and Jacob – Abraham’s son and grandson
respectively. Jacob and his family were settled in Egypt, as a result of famine. In Egypt,
the Jews grew in large numbers and were factors to be reckoned with politically and
socially. As history would have it, as many as they were, the people were turned into
Pharaonic serfs. Moses, one of the Jews rescued them when at the direction of Yahweh,
led them out of Egyptian bondage.
- *The Passover: On their way out of Egypt, Yahweh revealed himself to the
people at Mt. Sinai and He entered into covenant with the Jews therefore asking them
to live according to His instruction, guidance and teaching. The relationship here was
that of a personal God (Yahweh) revealing Himself to a specific people (the Jews). Thus
Judaism had already taken root.

Later Formation
- With the extinct of Moses, Joshua took over the mantle of leadership as the leader of
the Jews. After Joshua came the Judges. Then came Saul, David and Solomon
propagating Judaism in their own times. It was after the rulership of Solomon that the
kingdom of Israel splited into two – Northern and Southern Kingdoms. Between 721
and 587 B.C., the two kingdoms fell into the hands of Assyrians. Jerusalem was razed to
the ground. Several Jews were carried into exile especially into Babylon.
- There in Babylon, because of the absence of Jerusalem Temple worship, the
Jews came as one people with one religion – Judaism. Various houses of prayer called
synagogues were put up. Here, Yahweh was offered worship by the Jews in exile.
- There, the exposition of Torah – the Jewish law, became a fixed institution.
- Judaism is a religious tradition with origins dating back nearly four thousand years, rooted in
the ancient near eastern region of Canaan (which is now Israel and Palestinian territories)

- Originating as the beliefs and practices of the people known as "Israel," classical, or rabbinic,
Judaism did not emerge until the 1st century C.E.

- Judaism traces its heritage to the covenant God made with Abraham and his lineage — that
God would make them a sacred people and give them a holy land.

- The primary figures of Israelite culture include the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the
prophet Moses, who received God's law at Mt. Sinai.

Quick Facts
  Formed: Though the Jewish calendar goes back more than 5000 years, most
scholars date the beginning of the religion of the Israelites to their forefather in
faith, Abraham, whose life is generally dated to circa 2000-1800 B.C.E.
 Origin: Canaan is the biblical name for the area between the Jordan River and the
Mediterranean, approximately the equivalent of what today comprises the state
of Israel and the Palestinian territories.
 Followers: The worldwide count of adherents of Judaism is difficult, as some
Jewish movements dispute the legitimate Jewish identity of others. Many do not
affiliate with any particular branch, and may then be left out of census reports.
 Sacred Texts: Tanakh is an acronym of Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim. Torah is the
name given to the first five books — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and
Deuteronomy — also called the Pentateuch. The Nevi'im and Ketuvim are the
books of history, prophecy, poetry, and other sacred writings. Other sacred texts
include the Talmud and Midrash, the rabbinic, legal, and narrative
interpretations of the Torah.
 Headquarters: While Jerusalem remains the center of Jewish spirituality, the lack
of a Temple or any administrative or jurisdictional authority prevents it from
being an organizational center.
 The four main movements within Judaism today are Orthodox, Conservative,
Reform, and Reconstructionist, respectively ranging from traditional to liberal to
religiously progressive in their application of Torah.
 Judaism tends to emphasize practice over belief.
 Religious leaders are called rabbis, who oversee the many rituals and ceremonies
essential to Jewish religious practice.

Core Tenets (13 Principles of Faith)

1. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, is the Creator and
Guide of everything that has been created; He alone has made, does make, and will
make all things.
2. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, is One, and that
there is no unity in any manner like His, and that He alone is our God, who was, and is,
and will be.
3. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, has no body, and
that He is free from all the properties of matter, and that there can be no (physical)
comparison to Him whatsoever.
4. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, is the first and the
last.
5. I believe with perfect faith that to the Creator, Blessed be His Name, and to Him
alone, it is right to pray, and that it is not right to pray to any being besides Him.
6. I believe with perfect faith that all the words of the prophets are true.
7. I believe with perfect faith that the prophecy of Moses our teacher, peace be upon
him, was true, and that he was the chief of the prophets, both those who preceded him
and those who followed him.
8. I believe with perfect faith that the entire Torah that is now in our possession is the
same that was given to Moses our teacher, peace be upon him.
9. I believe with perfect faith that this Torah will not be exchanged, and that there will
never be any other Torah from the Creator, Blessed be His Name.
10. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, knows all the
deeds of human beings and all their thoughts, as it is written, "Who fashioned the
hearts of them all, Who comprehends all their actions" (Psalms 33:15).
11. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, rewards those
who keep His commandments and punishes those that transgress them.
12. I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah; and even though he may
tarry, nonetheless, I wait every day for his coming.
13. I believe with perfect faith that there will be a revival of the dead at the time when
it shall please the Creator, Blessed be His name, and His mention shall be exalted for
ever and ever.

Basic Principles

 One and Only One God. Jews believe in one God and this God is the only God.
They believe that this God created the universe and is still present in this world.
They have a personal relationship with God that is unique for each person.
Therefore each person believes they interact with God in different ways. Some
people connect with God during prayer, others connect with God through the
natural world, and so forth. It is a deeply personal relationship.
 Community is Important. Community is a very central part of Judaism. The
belief is that all Jewish people around the world are connected as the same
people. As members of the Jewish community there are many activities that
people must participate in and contribute to. There is a belief that God made the
Jewish people a chosen people to be an example for ethical behavior and holiness
for the rest of the world.
 Keeping the Faith. Being a Jew means incorporating the faith into your life.
Almost everything a Jewish person does can be offered as an act of worship. Jews
 have made a bargain with God; a person agrees to live by His laws and must do
things that will keep this bargain. It is not about following the laws to the letter
but following the spirit of the laws. A person can make their whole life an act of
worship. They seek to bring holiness into all that they do.

Philosophy of Man

Doctrine of Human Nature:

 At the heart of Jewish social thinking is the high estimate of man.
"And Thou hast made him (man) a little lower than the angels.“
 In the words of the rabbis, "Beloved is man for he was formed in the image of
God.”
- man must contain within himself the elements of nobility and moral grandeur.
- Judaism asserts the faith that man will gradually rise above his imperfections
and build the more perfect society.
 Jewish tradition constantly reaffirms its faith in man's capacity to finally conquer his
imperfections and build more perfect forms of personal and group life

The Status of the Individual

 The focal point in the entire social process is the individual. The individual is so
sacred and must not be oppressed.
 When human life was at stake, all the requirements of the Law were to be
disregarded, for the Law was made for man and not man for the Law.
 The individual was meant to be free. Even where he wanted to, the individual
could not renounce his personal freedom and sell himself into slavery. He could
only sell his services for a certain period of time after which he resumed his
status as a free man.
 The individual also enjoyed the very precious right to think and speak freely.
There is no explicit declaration of personal liberties in any traditional text, but
they are implied in the entire social process for which tradition bears witness.

Social Philosophy

Nationalism and Universalism

 There is no explicit declaration of personal liberties in any traditional text, but
they are implied in the entire social process for which tradition bears witness.
The state might in certain exigencies restrain an individual's conduct, but the
individual had the moral right to defy the state.
  The basic equality of all human beings remained a fundamental doctrine of
Judaism.
 Bible reference: all mankind is pictured in the Bible as tracing its descent from the same
human family.

War and Peace

 Picture of the Ideal Society: a warless world – a state in which men will beat
their swords into ploughshares and practice the arts of war no more.
 There was a recognition on the part of the rabbis that world peace cannot be
achieve through some kind of romantic gesture, but that it must come as the
byproduct of a type of social order from which the causes of friction have been
removed.
 The only ultimate guarantee of an enduring peace is widespread economic
plenty (Mil Tehillim on Psalm 72:3).
 More generally peace is pictured as resting on justice.
"He who increases justice increases peace."
"There can be no peace for the wicked.“
 The rabbis do not define for us the meaning of justice in relation to the total
structure of the social order, but they repeatedly exhort men to "seek peace and
pursue it."

Property Rights and Social Welfare

 The rights of private property were entirely superseded when matters affecting
public welfare were at stake.
e.g., Natural resources like a road, a river or a well, indispensable to the
community, could not be owned privately but were to be left freely accessible to all.
 Society had a right to dispose of the property of individuals for the sake of public
welfare.

Jews’ View of Freedom and Justice

 Throughout a great part of their group history, Jews had to struggle against the
pressure from majorities in whose midst they lived, or the aggressive designs
of imperialist neighbors. An oppressed group will generally accentuate the
virtues of freedom and justice.
 Recognizing some of the circumstances conditioning the development of a
tradition, Jews find inspiration and are challenged to contribute to the building
of a more ethical society.
Political Philosophy

The Jewish Polity as a *Covenantal Society

 The Jewish polity is a product of a unique blend of kinship and consent: a
family of tribes that becomes a nation by consenting to God's covenant.
Note: the term *federal is derived from the Latin foedus meaning covenant.
 Covenantal Foundation
In Jewish law, every Jewish community is a partnership of its members; no such thing
as "the state" existing independently of the people
ultimate constitutional basis of partnership: the original covenant made between God
and the twelve tribes of Israel at Sinai
*from that covenant came the Torah, the traditional constitution of the Jewish
 When Jews speak of Torah, they do not refer to the five books of Moses alone but
to the Torah as it has grown, with the Talmud added to it, with the
interpretations and commentaries added to both, in the light of the historical
experience of the Jewish people. Until modern times, nobody disputed the
traditional constitution. Jews accepted the Torah. They may have argued over its
interpretation, but they accepted it. And out of that acceptance the Jewish polity
was given constitutional form.

What is a Covenant?
 a morally informed agreement or pact between parties having an independent
and sufficiently equal status based upon voluntary consent and established by
mutual oaths or promises involving or witnessed by a transcendent authority
 provides for joint action to achieve defined ends, limited or comprehensive,
under conditions of mutual respect in a way that protects the respective
integrities of all the parties to it
 involves consenting, promising, and agreeing; meant to be of unlimited
duration, if not perpetual
 can bind any number of partners for a variety of purposes, but in essence they
are political in that their bonds are used principally to create relationships best
understood in political terms.
 Covenant links power and justice -- the two faces of politics -- and preserves the
classic and ancient links between ethics and politics. Again, the emphasis is on
*relationships rather than structures as the key to political justice.
 Structures are always important, but ultimately, no matter how finely tuned the
structures, they come alive (or fail to) only through the human relationships that
inform and shape them.

The Idea of a Covenantal Society

 Covenantal societies emphasize contractual arrangements at every level of
human affairs.
 In its political form, covenant expresses the idea that people can freely create
communities and polities, peoples and publics, and civil society itself through
such morally grounded and sustained compacts, establishing thereby enduring
partnerships.
 The covenantal approach is closely connected with constitutionalism. A covenant
is the constitutionalization of a set of relationships of a particular kind.
Biblical Model: covenant provides the basis for constitutional government by first
establishing a people or civil society which then proceeds to adopt a constitution of
government for itself.
Covenantal Approach: the constitution involves the translation of a prior
covenant into an actual frame or structure of government; constitution includes the
covenant within it.
Note: The covenantal approach not only informs and animates the Jewish polity but
represents the greatest Jewish contribution to political life and thought.

Socio-political Influence

A culture or civilization must emerge that embodies and reflects the idea of a Covenantal
Society.
 First civilization/culture: ancient Israel; they used* vassal treaties/pacts secured
by oath
 international or intra-imperial pacts which included 5 elements--a prologue
indicating the parties involved, a preamble stating the general purposes of the
covenant and the principles behind it, a body of conditions and operative
clauses, an oath to make the covenant morally binding, and stipulated sanctions
to be applied if the covenant were violated.
 Parallel or derived from these ancient vassal covenants, emerged domestic
political and religious usages of covenant
 classic foundation of the covenant tradition:
 God's covenant with Israel established the Jewish people and founded it as a
body politic, while at the same time creating the religious framework that gave that
polity its  *raison d'etre,  its norms, and its constitution, as well as the guidelines for
developing a political order based on proper, that is, covenantal, relationships.

Influence to Christianity

 With the rise of Christianity and the beginning of the long exile of the Jews from
their land, covenant was taken on a more strictly religious character for some, in
which the political dimension was downplayed, if not downright ignored by
Christian theologians on the one hand and diminished by Jewish legists on the
other.
 Christianity embraced the covenant idea as one of its foundations but
reinterpreted the old biblical covenant establishing a people and a polity to be a
covenant of grace between God and individual humans grated unilaterally and
mediated by Jesus.

Judaism 11th – 14th Century

 the political dimension of covenanting received new impetus to provide a basis

for constituting local Jewish communities throughout Europe.
 It was to ease the process that model covenants for setting up communities and
communal institutions came into existence.
Model covenant
 includes model laws for every contingency, all of which are in
accord with the Torah, that is, constitutional
 includes model covenants or contracts for establishing welfare
societies, for organizing synagogues, for organizing assistance to
widows and orphans, for establishing schools, etc.
 includes a model covenant for establishing a kehillah, a local
community
NOTE: The model covenant continues to describe how the community, by this action,
establishes its right to enact ordinances, establish institutions, levy and collect taxes -- in
short, carry on all the functions of a municipal government.

Socio-political Influence (The Edah As Classic Republic of the Jewish Polity)

Jewish polity has followed the covenant model since its inception, adapting it to
various circumstances in which Jews have found themselves over the millennia -- as a
tribal federation, a federal monarchy, a state with a diaspora, a congress of covenantal
communities, a network of regional federations or confederations, or a set of voluntary
associations. The classic Hebrew name for this kind of polity is edah.
Edah (modern orthodox Jewish organization)
 the assembly of all the people constituted as a body politic; a congregation; an
institutionalized gathering of people who congregate (come together) that meets
at regular times or frequently for common action and decision making
 Hebrew equivalent of “commonwealth” or “republic”
The characteristics of the original edah  can be summarized as follows:
1. The Torah is the constitution of the edah.
2. All members of the  edah, men, women, and children, participate in
constitutional decisions.
3. Political equality exists for those capable of taking full responsibility for Jewish
survival.
4. Decisions are made by an assembly that determines its own leaders within the
parameters of divine mandate.
5. The edah is portable and transcends geography.
6. Nevertheless, for it to function completely, the edah  needs The Land of Israel.
Jewish republicanism is rooted in a democratic foundation based on the equality of all
Jews as citizens of the Jewish people. All Jews must participate in the establishment
and maintenance of their polity.
The Jewish polity often has been governed by a kind of trusteeship. It is a trusteeship
because the community is republican, it is a res publica,  a public thing or a
commonwealth -- a body politic that belongs to its members.
NOTE: The West pioneered in the idea and practice of republican government. The
Jews were among the first many centuries ago, then came the Greeks and the early
Romans.

Socio-political Influence (The Covenant As Basis for Federalism)

 The covenantal approach is closely connected with constitutionalism. A

covenant is the constitutionalization of a set of relationships of a particular
kind.
 the term *federal is derived from the Latin foedus meaning covenant.
  Sources of federalism lie in Hebraic biblical sources and indeed throughout the
Jewish historical experience, which emphasized the element of covenant [Elazar]
 Covenantal Approach: the constitution involves the translation of a prior
covenant into an actual frame or structure of government; constitution includes
the covenant within it.
 Western Philosophers John Locke, Baruch Spinoza, Thomas Hobbes, Jean Jacques
Rousseau, etc secularized the covenant theory - One result was the American
Constitution. All of this was articulated in the commonplace of natural law,
understood to be divine in origin, but worldwide in application.

Socio-political Influence (The Covenant As Basic for Constitutionalism)

 Covenant, natural law, and constitutionalism became intertwined:

When, for example, the Americans formally declared themselves an independent
people in the Declaration of independence -- itself a covenant creating a new
relationship based on natural law precepts -- they then saw constitution-making as a
way of further covenanting or compacting together in order to create civil
instruments designed to carry out the promises of the Declaration.
The resulting state and federal constitutions were seen as compacts embodying the
principles of natural law, especially in their bills of rights.
A covenant precedes a constitution and establishes the people or civil society which
then proceeds to adopt a constitution of government for itself. Thus a constitution
involves the implementation of a prior covenant -- an effectuation or translation of a
prior covenant into an actual frame or structure of government.
In politics, covenant connotes the voluntary establishment of a people and body-
politic. e.g., American Declaration (inhabitants of the thirteen colonies consented,
through their new state and general government institutions, to become a people)

Synthesis (Jewish Political Thought is embedded in the Covenant)

 Covenant is one of the major recurring principles of political import which

informs and encompasses all three themes -- an idea which defines political
justice, shapes political behavior, and directs humans toward an appropriately
civic synthesis of the two in their effort to manage political power.
 Covenant is an idea whose importance is akin to natural law in defining
justice and to natural right in delineating the origins and proper constitution
of political society
  It is a factor shaping political behavior in those civil societies whose
foundations are grounded in the effort to translate that idea into political reality
 The Covenant as a political conceptualization, mode of political expression,
source of political ideology
 Covenant, then, is the oldest of several terms that deal with the formation of the
political order through consent as manifested in a pact or an appropriate level
of mutual binding.

Modifications of the Torah

Jewish history can be divided into fourteen constitutional epochs, each of

approximately three centuries' duration and each of which can be seen to possess a
distinct political character of its own, as follows:
1. Ha-Avot/The Forefathers c. 1850-c. 1570 BCE
2. Avdut Mizrayim/Egyptian Bondage c. 1570-c. 1280 BCE
3. Adat Bnei Yisrael/vThe Congregation of Israelites c. 1280-1004 BCE
4. Brit ha-Melukhah/The Federal Monarchy 1004-721 BCE
5. Malkhut Yehudah/The Kingdom of Judah 721-440 BCE
6. Knesset ha-Gedolah/The Great Assembly 440-145 BCE
7. Hever ha-Yehudim/The Jewish Commonwealth 145 BCE-140 CE
8. Sanhedrin u-Nesi'ut/The Sanhedrin and the Patriarchate 140-429 CE
9. Ha-Yeshivot ve Rashei ha-Golah/The Yeshivot and Exilarchs 429-748 CE
10. Yeshivot ve-Geonim/Yeshivot and the Geonim 748-1038 CE
11. Ha-Kehillot/The Kehillot 1038-1348 CE
12. Ha-Va'adim/Federations of the Kehillot 1348-1648 CE
13. Hitagduyot/Voluntary Associations 1648-1948 CE
14. Medinah ve-Am/State and People 1948- CE

Each epoch extended over nine historical generations (the years available to mature
humans for participation in public affairs), between 25 and 40 years in length.

The shortest epochs were approximately 280 years in length and the longest 320. This
seems to indicate rise and decline of historical epochs within a similar general pattern.

Each of these epochs corresponds with parallel periods of general history which had
their impact on the Jewish people but what is of the essence in this scheme is the
Jewish response to whatever challenges are posed, external as well as internal.

The structure of each constitutional epoch reflects the generational rhythm of human
affairs.
 Judaism cannot be separated from the history of the Jews as a race.
 The Jews believe in the distinctiveness of the Jewish race
 Judaism acted on its central doctrines.
 Judaism festivals keep the Israelites informed of their background.
Thought Paper for Chapter 3

1. Discuss the significance of the following to the social and political thought of
Judaism:

Importance of Community
High Estimate of Man
Nationalism and Universalism
War and Peace
Property Rights and Social Welfare
Freedom and Justice

2. Relate how Judaist philosophy directly/indirectly contributed to how society

today recognizes Covenant as a basis of Federalism and Constitutionalism.