Origins of Judaism By Ramez Naguib and Marwan Fawzy
Introduction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyeaacpgaha
The Patriarch of the Covenant- Abraham. Around 2000 BCE, Abraham received a vision from god that instructed him to leave his home in the Mesopotamian city of Ur and move to Haran and later to Canaan. In the vision, god instructed Abraham to move to a special land to raise a nation. He did what he was commanded.
Two ideas emerged at this point: 1- the idea of god s chosen people. 2-the idea of promised land Moses Abraham Isaac Jacob. They tried to keep the covenant with god and develop a community in the promised land. These two ideas are the agreement that God made with Abraham. Humanity, they key of the Jewish faith
The Law and the Covenant: Moses Covenant is another word for agreement According to Jewish tradition the covenant between God and the Hebrew people took new significance during the time of Moses God agreed to love Humanity and humanity agreed to love God rather than many gods (Monotheistic) The descendants of Abraham had to move to from Canaan to Egypt The Hebrews were treated like slaves from the Egyptians Slavery was a fact of a Hebrew life Moses was born of a Hebrew slave and was later adopted by the Pharaoh s daughter
The Law and the Covenant: Moses (Cont d) The Pharaoh loved Moses until he killed an Egyptian who harassed a Hebrew slave Moses ran to Midian fearing the wrath of the Pharaoh He was received into the home of a Midian priest which is called a Jethro Moses went to the mountain of God which is also called Mount Horeb where he encountered God for the first time through a burning bush God revealed that he heard the cries of the Israelites and he would set them free and give them the promised land. It would be a land flowing with Milk and Honey. (Exodus 3:8)
The Law and the Covenant: Moses (Cont d) Moses asked God what to say God responded by saying Ehyeh-asher-Ehyeh. There is no exact meaning of this name but it can be translated to I am in the process of becoming or I ll be who I ll be Moses embarked on his mission and despite the overwhelming power of the Pharaoh and his army, he set them free God brought ten plagues on the Egyptians in order to convince the Pharaoh to let the Hebrew people go The tenth plague was called on the angel of death to descend on Egypt and take the first born of all who lived in the region
The Law and the Covenant: Moses (Cont d) God instructed Moses to tell the Hebrews to put lamb s blood on their doors and in that way death would pass over Until now Jewish people celebrate this happening in the Pass over festival It was the plague and the death of the Pharaoh s son that convinced him to let the Hebrews free Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt across the Red Sea into Sinai This emigration is called Exodus The word Exodus means going out or departure
The Law and the Covenant: Moses (Cont d) On Mount Sinai God appeared to Moses again and shared with him the Ten Commandments The commandments emphasized the nature of God s existence as well as the laws that the people need to follow in order to keep the covenant with God
Judges, Kings and Prophets The Israelites (members of ancient Hebrew nation) lived for 40 years in the Sinai until they reached the land of Canaan. This was the beginning of the period of judges and kings. First, the Israelites were led by people called Judges. They led them through periods of crisis help establish a sense of identity.
By 1000 BCE, the Hebrew wanted a king to lead them. God was reluctant about it, but then agreed to give Saul the status because of growing threats from Philistines. Saul was succeeded by David, whose kingship marked the high point of Jewish imperial history. David has made a lot of military victories and established Jerusalem as his capital city. His son then also built a temple for the Jewish Faith.
Around 921 BCE, Northern and southern tribes were separated, taking on the name Israel. Jerusalem became became known as Judah. The era of king was coming to an end, outside forces would impose themselves on the Hebrew again It was predicted by the prophets (a person who receives a message from god and delivers that message to gods people)
The Exile In 721 BCE, the Assyrians invaded and captured the territory of Israel Then in 586 BCE, Babylonian invaders captured Judah and destroyed Solomon s Temple in Jerusalem 10,000 Jewish community leaders were taken prisoners and sent into exile in Babylon They were held there until the Great of Persia, Cyrus released them in 538 BCE when he defeated the Babylonians During the period of the Exile, Hebrews were looking for a new way to honour God as the Solomon s Temple was destroyed
The synagogues were created and they are places for worship that emerged during the Exile and became important in the period after the destruction of the temples in 586 BCE and 70 CE During the period of the Exile, Jewish scholars or teachers emerged and they are called Rabbis Finally the Jews had hoped that a great king will come to lead them and was also called the Messiah which also means the anointed one
The Diaspora Is a Greek word that means sowing of seed or dispersal. to do something that will cause something to happen in the future. It is also the term used when referring to the Jewish population living outside Israel. By the third century BCE, the majority of Jews lived in the diaspora so they created a new set of standards for their traditions.
The Jews who chose to remain in Babylon rather than return from exile formed a sizable population in the region. Other pockets of Jewish communities spread up on the perimeter of the Mediterranean sea.
In 332 BCE, Alexander the great conquered a lot of countries including Persia, Egypt and India. The Jewish people of diaspora fell under the influence of the Greek culture Hellenization. The bible was then translated into Greek by the Egyptians. it is known as the Septuagint.
The Maccabean Revolt In 168 BCE, the temple was converted into a shrine to the Greek God Zeus A group of rebels called the Maccabees started a revolt By 164 BCE the Maccabees were in control of Jerusdem The temple was then dedicated to God
The Romans In 64 BCE, the roman general entered Jerusalem as a part of a campaign to expand the roman empire. Jews were subdued to harsh Roman rule. This lead to the founding of several Jewish sects which further encouraged the belief that a Messiah will come to lead the Jews out oppression. The city of Jerusalem was taken and the temple was destroyed.
Rabbinic Judaism A series of incidents posed a serious threat to the faith of the Jews Jews endured tremendous hardship at the hands of the Romans In 66 CE, the Jews in Jerusalem revolted and eventually gained control of the Temple Mount The Jews outside Jerusalem also challenged the Roman authority by attacking the occupiers in their cities Rabi Yohanan ben Zakkai convinced the Romans to allow him to relocate the supreme judicial body of the Jews (which is also called the Sanhedrin) to the town of Yavneh
Rabbinic Judaism This provided the Jews the opportunity to preserve their way of life and to redefine themselves In Yavneh, the Jews maintained their scriptures and developed a Jewish calendar The most significant contribution of the rabbinic movement was the Judaism of the dual laws: the written Torah and the tradition of Mishnah and later the Talmund
Rabbinic Judaism Mishnah: Early rabbinic teachings on how to live a life in accordance with the Torah Talmund: Rabbinic teachings derived from the Mishnah, it s the main source of Jewish teaching from the medieval period to the present By 100 CE, the rabbis compiled a substantial body of commentary on the Bible known as Midrash
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