The shaping of Jewish identity - Diaspora

Question 1

What are the Rivers of Babylon?

Answer 1

• In the Rastafarian faith, the term Babylon is used for any governmental system which is either oppressive or unjust.
• In Jamiaca, Rastafarians also use Babylon to refer to the police.
• By the Rivers of Babylon refers to living in a repressive society and the longing for freedom, just like the Israelities in captivity.

Question 2

What does the River of Babylon express?

Answer 2

• The River of Babylon expresses the yearnings of the Jewish people in exile following the Babylonian conquest of Jersulalem in 607 BCE.
• The rivers of Babylon are the Euphrates river, its tributaries and the Tigris river.
• It reflects the yearning for Jersulalem as well as hatred for the Holy City’s enemies with sometimes violent imagery.
• The early lines of the poem are very well known.

Question 3

What was the destruction of the Temple?

Answer 3

• According to Jewish tradition, the First Temple was Solomon’s temple. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, when Jersulalem was coinquered and part of the population of the Kingdom of Judah was taken into exile to Babylon.
• The Second temple was the Jewish Holy Temple which stood on the Temple Mount in Jersulalem during the Second Temple period, between 516 BCE and 70 CE.
• Jewish theology includes a belief that the Second Temple will be replaced by a future Third Temple.

Question 4

What effect did the destruction of the Temple have on Jewish diaspora?

Answer 4

I,Gafni

• As in modern times, ongoing Jewish dispersion raised questions that went to the heart of Jewish self-identity.
• Allegiance to the ancestral homeland were frequently accompanied by contradictory expressions of local-patriotism on the part of Jewish diaspora communities.
• The destruction of Jersulalem and its temple in 70 CE forced Jews in Judaea as well as in the diaspora to re-evaluate the nature of the bonds that linked Jews throughout the world to the Land.
• This effected a re-examination of the authority structure for the communal leaders still functioning in Jewish Palestine.

Question 5

What effect did the destruction of the temple have on Jewish diaspora 2?

Answer 5

• The destruction of Jersualem and its temple in 70 CE forced Jews in Judea, as well as in the diaspora, to re-evaluate the nature of the bonds that linked Jews throughout the world to the Land.

Question 6

What did A,I, Kook think?

Answer 6

• Kook argued there is no separation between religious and secular life. He referred to the kabbalah and said Jews have the task of changing earthly aspects of existence to a higher realm.
• Kook believed Israel had the capacity to reach a state of holiness.

Question 7

What did M, Kaplan think?

Answer 7

• Kaplan argued that Jews in the past believed in a supernatural God who revealed himself to the Jewish people and provided a means for salvation. Today this religious view has disintegrated.
• It is no longer possible to believe in a supernatural God who acts in history. The Jewish faith is a civilisation which is evident by holy acts which commemorate what the Jewish people hold most sacred.

Question 8

What did A D Gordan think?

Answer 8

• Believed Jews could achieve redemption in the agricultural settlements of the Holy Land. Being an authentic believer is expressed through a bond between human beings and nature.
• Jews are therefore able to experience a moral rebirth in Palestine which makes the Jewish people an incarnation of ideal humanity.

Question 9

What did Marc H Elllis think about Jewish liberation?

Answer 9

• Ellis sees the Holocaust as the formative event of contemporary Judaism, and he regards Holocaust theology with its strong commitment to Jewish survival.
• He believes the Jewish people have neglected the covenant between God and Israel.
• The oppressed Ellis had in mind are the dispossessed of the Third World, the American Blacks and above all, Palestinian Arabs whose demand for statehood and independence Ellis takes to be a fundamental imperative of his own theology.

Question 10

Marc H Ellis 2.

Answer 10

• According to Ellis, what has rendered many Jews incapable of solidarity with the oppressed is the quest for political empowerment.

Question 11

What did Mendelssohn think about Jewish liberation?

Answer 11

• Encouraged Jews to integrate into secular societies.
• Also encouraged Jews to form positive relationships with other religions and governments.
• In saying this, Mendelssohn believed that Jews should endeavour to abide by Jewish commandments and laws to gain eternal salvation.
• Jews should abide by the laws out of faith and them being God’s chosen people and not out of fear.
• Advocate of modernising Jewish life - Mendelssohn translated the Jewish bible into German.

Question 12

What is the Tikkun Olam?

Answer 12

• ‘World repair’.
• The term is used in the Mishnah and refers to social justice for those disadvantaged.
• Therefore, the idea of repairing the world through religious acts becomes a goal only achievable by human beings.
• The term has become used more by secular Jews for a range of modern issues to consider how do you repair modern society?

Question 13

What is the significance of religious liberation on Jews as the chosen people?

Answer 13

• The concept of the chosen people for Jews today means they have an obligation to do the will of God.
• God the creator has a relationship with his people whom he created in his own image.
• The concept of chosen people is fundamental to Jewish identity and impacts on the life of the whole community.
• The Jewish belief that God has chosen them as his people impacts on the covenant relationship they have with God. It is very significant for their expectationa that God will keep the covenant promise.

Question 14

Significance of religious liberation 2.

Answer 14

• The significance for Orthodox Judaism throughout the diaspora is the hope that the idea of the chosen people gives - this is because God has chosen a land of ‘milk and honey’ for his chosen people and will not break his promise.
• Jewish identity must be preserved because God has intended this for his chosen people. That is why they follow his commandments.

Question 15

What is evolution?

Answer 15

The theory of evolution is a scientific explanation to the origins of human life.

Charles Darwin explains how this happens with his theory of natural selection. This concludes that species have not always existed in the same form, and have changed gradually over a period of time.

The species that have failed to adapt will eventually die out. All that exists in the present are the species that are able to adapt to changes within their environments.

Question 16

When did Jews believe they possessed the knowledge of the structure of the world?

Answer 16

Jews believed that they possessed the knowledge of the structure of the world as a result of Moses recieving God’s word on Mount Sinai.

Question 17

What are the anglo-Jewry responses to science?

Answer 17

The widespread view in Anglo-Jewry is that Jews were uniquely placed to embrace the true convergence between science and religion.

Question 18

Summarise Friendlander’s views on science and religion.

Answer 18

Friendlander - called for science to reconcile with religion.

Question 19

Why did the well-assimilated Jewish communities not view evolution as a threat?

Answer 19

Therefore, the leaders of well-assimilated Jewish communities did not view evolution as a major threat to Judaism. They saw the alliance between Judaism and science as providing support for Judaism.

Question 20

What are the challenges to this view?

Answer 20

• People were worried that the young were being seduced by ideas of Judaism.
• They believed the Torah must not be undermined.