Living the Jewish life: The Tenakh and the Talmud Flashcards
The purpose and history of the Tenakh
The Tenakh is the Jewish Bible. Its name comes from the initial letters (in
Hebrew) of:
-Torah (the Five Books of Moses)
- Nevi’im (the books of the Prophets)
-Ketuvim (holy writings).
Torah
The Five Books of Moses contain the laws and moral ideas of Judaism set in the context of the history of the Jewish people (Israelites) from the creation of the world through the Exodus to the death of Moses. They contain the stories of the patriarchs, the Egyptian slavery, the Exodus, the long journey to the Promised Land, God’s covenants with Abraham and Moses, and, of course, the giving of the Law to Moses. They are regarded as the holiest part of the Tenakh because they contain the 613 mitzvot which are the basis of Jewish life. Their purpose is to tell the Jews who they are and how they must live to fulfil their part of the covenant and truly be God’s chosen people.
Nevi’im
The fi rst prophet books (Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings) are history books telling the story of Israel from the death of Moses, through the establishment of the monarchy by Saul and David, to the end of the kingdom and the exile of the Jewish people to Babylon. However, their main purpose is to teach the Jewish people how the covenant God made with Moses worked its way out through the Jewish people.The other fifteen books are prophet books, starting with the huge works of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Their purpose is to teach faith in the one God and to proclaim God’s message of justice and compassion.
Ketuvim
The writings are about many things. There are history books (1 & 2
Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther), poetry books (Psalms, Lamentations,
Song of Songs), philosophical books (Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes) and
Daniel, which is a mix of history and prophecy. Their purpose is to show
how the way the Jews behaved towards God affected their history, to
express the ups and downs of living as God’s people, to express thoughts
on the ultimate questions of suffering and death, and to give advice on how
to live a moral life.
The purpose and history of the Talmud
According to Jewish tradition, when God gave Moses the Torah, he also
gave him the Oral Torah to explain how the laws were to be obeyed. The
Written Torah and the Oral Torah together make up the halakhah. As time went on, people wanted explanations of these and also wanted to know how they applied to new situations. Decisions were given by priests, judges and later rabbis and added to the halakhah.
After the Temple was destroyed by the Romans and many Jews started to
leave the Holy Land, Rabbi Judah the Prince saw that different versions
of the halakhah were likely to develop in different countries and so he
organised the writing down of the Oral Torah. This is known as the Mishneh
and was completed in about 200ce.
From this time, the Mishneh was studied by rabbis and their students in
academies in Israel and Babylon and their discussions on controversial
points in the Mishneh were written down and filed into archives. In about
500ce, two Babylonian rabbis sorted out these archives and wrote down
each paragraph of the Mishneh with the discussions that had gone on
around it.
Why the Tenakh is important to
Jews today
The Tenakh is important because:
-The Psalms are an essential part of daily prayers and of much
synagogue worship.
- The Torah is particularly important in synagogue worship and daily
living.
-Portions of the Nevi’im are read at the end of the Torah readings in
synagogue. These readings are known as the haftarot.
-Portions of the Ketuvim form an important part of the festivals of Yom
Kippur (Book of Jonah) and Purim (Book of Esther).
-Jewish people study and meditate on the books of the Tenakh to help
their understanding of, and their relationship with, God.
Why is the Talmud important?
The Talmud is important because:
- It explains the meaning of the 613 mitzvot.
- It explains how the mitzvot should be applied in the daily lives of Jews.
- It is so important that commentaries relating the Talmud to life in the
twenty-first century are still being written (for example, Understanding
the Talmud by Rabbi Yitzchok Feigenbaum, 2012).
-It is the basis of the halakhah, which is the foundation of Orthodox
Jewish life today.
- It is the main subject studied in the yeshivot (Jewish academies for
post-A-level Jewish studies).
The nature and purpose of Jewish food laws
The purpose of Jewish food laws is to obey these mitzvot about food which
God gave to Moses:
“These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, the
deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope
and the mountain sheep. You may eat any animal that has a divided
hoof and that chews the cud.”(Deuteronomy 14:4–6)
However, there are animals that are forbidden:
“You may not eat the camel, the rabbit, or the hyrax. Although they
chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof … The pig is also
unclean; although it has a divided hoof, it does not chew the cud. You
are not to eat their meat”.(Deuteronomy 14:7–8)
The nature and purpose of Jewish food laws.(Fish)
Fish are allowed, but not shellfish, calamari and eels because:
Of all the creatures living in the water, you may eat any that has fins
and scales. But anything that does not have fins and scales you may
not eat; for you it is unclean. (Deuteronomy 14:9–10)
Clean birds are allowed but Deuteronomy chapter 14 has a long list of
birds which are not allowed (mainly birds of prey and birds that eat dead
animals; perhaps because Deuteronomy 14:21 says, ‘Do not eat anything you find already dead’). This is followed by ‘Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk’ (Deuteronomy 14:21).
As a result of the mitzvot, Judaism developed quite complicated food laws known as kosher (fitting or correct), which leads to the term kashrut (the state of being kosher) for keeping the laws. The main points are:
- Cows, sheep, goats, deer, chicken, turkey, duck and all fish (with fins and scales) can be eaten.
-Pigs, camels and shellfish must not be eaten (any such foods and anything that is not kosher is called treifah).
- Animals must be slaughtered by the shechitah method of slitting the
throat with a razor-sharp knife and draining out the blood (this is done
by a specially trained slaughterer called a shochet, who must also be
learned in the Torah).
-When meat is brought home it must be soaked in salt water for
30 minutes, then rubbed in salt and drained before washing in cold
water (nowadays this is often done by the butcher before the meat is
sold).
-Kitchens should be in two halves, one for meat and one for dairy, with
separate crockery, pans and utensils for each – many will have two
sinks.
Divergent implications of the food laws(Orthodox)
Keeping kashrut is very important for Orthodox Jews because:
- By eating non-kosher foods or not keeping a kosher kitchen they
have broken many of the mitzvot. This importance can be seen on
supermarket shelves where many items now have a label (called a
hechsher) showing that the food is kosher.
- It gives a sense of Jewish identity.
-It gives a bond with fellow Jews.
- It makes them think about God every time they decide to eat because
they have to think about what God wants them to eat and how God
wants them to prepare it.
Purpose of Jewish prayer
Prayer is an attempt by humans to communicate with God.
Jewish people believe that prayer is very important because they believe
that when they pray, they not only build up their relationship with God,
but also believe they are serving God with their heart, so obeying God’s
commandment:
to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and
with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 11:13)
The Talmud tells Jewish people, ‘What is service of the heart? That is
prayer.’
Judaism teaches that through prayer, people have the opportunity to speak
directly to God and that God will listen and respond to their prayers.
In a sense, there are only two types of prayer: formal prayers, where a set
form of prayer is used; and informal prayers, where a person makes up
their own spontaneous prayer to express their feelings to God (covered in
Topic 2.3b.3, page 295).
The formal prayers of Judaism are contained in the Siddur (prayer book;
there are different ones for Orthodox and Reform Jews) and are said in
Hebrew by Orthodox Jews.
Prayer in the home
Much of Jewish worship and prayer is centered on the home. Some prayers
at home are said as private prayers:
- When a Jews wakes up in the morning, they thank God for waking
them before pouring water on their hands to purify themselves for the
coming day.
- The day should end, as it should begin, by praising God – the Shema is
said followed by these words,
“may it be Your will that You should lay me down in peace and raise
me up to good life and peace. Blessed are You God who lights up the
whole world with His glory.”
- The mezuzah on each door of the house is a constant reminder of
God’s presence and God’s blessing:
“You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.”
(Deuteronomy 28:6)
– so Jewish people touch the mezuzah and thank God whenever they pass it. - Eating food requires prayers as Jewish people bless God before food:
“Blessed are you Lord our God, King of the universe who brings food
out of the ground”
and bless him again when they have
finished eating.
The three daily prayers
During the day a Jew should pray a set formal prayer three times:
- shacharit is morning prayer
- minchah is afternoon prayer and
- arvit is evening prayer.
These prayers take place in an Orthodox synagogue but many Jews say the prayers at home. Orthodox men wear their tefillin and tallit for the
shacharit prayers and will pray as a family group.
The format of the prayers is set out in the Siddur (daily prayer book) and each prayer includes the shema, and the amidah, and readings from theTorah and the Nevi’im.
In Orthodox families, the prayers are said in Hebrew, but in Liberal/Reform
families the prayers will be said in English. In Liberal/Reform synagogues
women can make up a minyan.
Private prayers
Private prayers
Judaism teaches that people should develop a relationship with God
and that when they reach out to God, God listens and answers. In such a
relationship prayers are not restricted to set forms and set times.
Jewish people pray whenever they feel the need to communicate with God,
and obviously when they say these prayers, they use their own words. In
private prayer, people can contact God when they want and can express
their own thoughts and feelings rather than using other people’s words. In
such prayers they can ask for God’s help for other people, and they can ask
for God’s help for themselves.
