2. Judaism
• Judaism is one of the
world’s oldest
religions, originating
around 3500 years
ago
• It has influenced
Western civilization
• It is a Monotheistic
Religion believing in
YAHWEH as their God
3. • The core teaching of Judaism is the covenant
of one God with a chosen people vs. other
people with many gods.
4.
5. People of Judaism
• Hebrews refer to
those who accepted
Yahweh as their God
• Israelites refer to the
descendants of the
Hebrew which
originated from
Abraham
6. • Abraham’s grandson, Jacob had 12 sons and
their descendants became known as the 12
tribes of Israel
7. • Israelites or Israeli Jews could also refer to
citizens of the land
• Jew comes from Yehudah or Judah meaning
the Southern Kingdom of Israel
8. • Jew now refers to someone who practices
Judaism and takes part in Jewish culture
9. Sacred Text
• The Hebrew bible, also called the Tanakh, is a
collection of 24 books divided into 3 parts:
– Torah (teaching or law)
– Nevi’im (prophets)
– Ketuvim (wrtings)
10. Torah
• Comprised of the 1st five books of Bible
• Also called as Pentateuch meaning five scrolls
• Includes the stories of creation and of the
early ancestors of Hebrews
11. Nevi’im or Prophets
• Contains the writings
of God’s messengers,
who spoke His words
to Hebrews
12. Ketuvim or Writings
• Literary section of
tanakh, consisting
of stories, proverbs,
psalm, and poetries
13.
14. Book of Twelve
– Hosea
– Joel
– Amos
– Obadiah
– Jonah
– Micah
– Nahum
– Habakkuk
– Zephaniah
– Haggai
– Zechariah
– Malachi
15. • The Torah contains the early history of
Judaism as well as the law and teaching
handed down to Moses by Yahweh or God
Himself
16. • Genesis tells the
mythic origin of the
entire world
– Creation story
– The Fall of Man
– The Great Flood
17. Teachings of Jews from Genesis
• They believe that since
human beings were
created in the image
and likeness of God,
they have a special
responsibility to the
rest of creation
• Veneration for the
Sabbath Day (no work
during the Sabbath
Day)
18. • The rest of Genesis tells us the story of the
Patriarchs and Matriarchs, ancestors of Jews from
Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to the 12 sons of Jacob,
whose descendants would become the 12 tribes of
Israel
19. • One of the sons of
Jacob, Joseph, the
dreamer, was sold
by his brothers to
Egypt as a slave.
• Joseph’s gift of
interpreting dreams
gained him the trust
of the Pharoah
20. • His brothers in Israel
came to Egypt during a
famine to get food,
where he treated them
with compassion.
• He told his brothers to
settle in Egypt
permanently, that is how
the Jews started to
populate Egypt
21. • The second book, Exodus, begins with the
Egyptians being threatened by the growing
population of Hebrews in their land
– The story of Moses
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27. 1. “I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt not have any
strange gods before Me.”
2. “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy
God in vain.”
3. “Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.”
4. “Honor thy father and mother.”
5. “Thou shalt not kill.”
6. “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
7. “Thou shalt not steal.”
8. “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy
neighbor.”
9. “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.”
10.“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods.”
28. • After the return of the
Israelites to Canaan,
Israel slowly developed
into a Nation
• They were led by a
judge which began the
Period of Judges
• The famous judges
were Othneil, Ehud,
Gideon, Deborah,
Jepthah and Samson
29. • The period of
Judges precedes
the period of
the Kings
• The 1st king was
Saul followed by
David as Samuel
asked by
Yahweh to
anoint David as
the next king
30. • David ruled during the Golden Age of their
development as a monarchy and as a nation
• With David’s reign, God’s promise to Abraham
that he would give to him and to his
descendants all the land of Canaan was
fulfilled
31.
32.
33. • Together with the period of the Kings was the
emergence of Prophets
• A prophet is the one who was called by God to
communicate His words to the king and to the people
• Jewish beliefs includes the belief in the words of
prophets
34. • Solomon, son of David succeeded his father as
King of Israel
• His wisdom and with Yahweh’s help the
Monarchy was firmly established
• After his death, the kingdom was spilt into
Israel, consisting the ten northern tribes, and
Judah includes Jerusalem, and two southern
tribes
35.
36. • Babylonian exile change
history of Israel.
• The Babylonian king,
Nebuchadnezzar
defeated Jerusalem and
five years later he exiled
Jews to Babylon
• With the loss of a
political leader, prophets
were sent by Yahweh to
keep the people’s faith in
his promise
37. • When Persian
conqured Babylon in
537 BC, it was decreed
that people who are
capable of governing
themselves may be
permitted to establish
a nation themselves
and so the exiled
Israelites were allowed
to return to Judah
38. • When they returned, Jerusalem was destroyed and
enemies were around the land
• The community focused on rebuilding the Temple,
Second Temple, and it was finished about 20 years
later
39. Beliefs of Judaism
• There is no official creed, only a set of central
beliefs formulated by Jewish medieval
philosopher Moses:
– Belief in a God that is one, formless, all-knowing
creator and judge both loving and just
– Belief in the words of prophets
– Belief that God gave law to Moses
– Belief that the Messiah will come
– Belief that there is resurrection of the good in the
world to come
40. Dietary Practices
• Food consumption and handling must be done
according to religious laws
– All blood must be drained before the meat is
cooked and eaten
– Do not eat pork and shellfish
– Kosher refers to food preparation and
consumption
42. Messiah
• One of the most
fundamental Jewish beliefs
is that a Messiah or a
saviour will come
• During Jesus’ time, the
founder of Christianity, Jews
believed that they were
living at the end of time
• They were expecting their
Messiah, who will be a
political, military leader and
will liberate them from the
Romans
43. • It was the figure of Jesus
who drew the wedge
between modern Jews
and early Christians
– The traditional Jews
refused to accept Jesus as
the Messiah and so
remain waiting for the
Messiah
– The followers of Jesus,
who they call the Christ,
were Jews, believed in
Him, and became the First
CHRISTIANS
44. • The belief in the coming of
the Messiah is one of those
doctrines that have changed
across different versions of
Judaism
– some believe that Messiah
will be a political leader who
will rule Israel as a model for
the rest of the world
– Other believe that Messiah
will bring peace and love
among nation which may not
necessarily originate from
Israel
45. Passover
• Commemorates the
Liberation of Hebrews
from Egypt
• The Jewish liturgical
year with the month of
Nisan in spring and the
Passover begins on the
15th of Nisan,
celebrated for 8 days
46. • One of the parts of the
Passover is the Seder,
or the Paschal meal
shared by the family on
the eve of the first day
of the feast
• Traditionally, 1st born
sons fast on the day
leading to seder to
commemorate the
killing of the Egyptian
first-born
47. • The primary food ingested
during the Passover is
matzah, or unleavened
bread. It symbolizes
freedom and liberation
• All leavened food must be
removed
• Wine is also served. All
participants are supposed
to drink four glasses
throughout the ceremony
• There is a table set for
Elijah, whom Jews believe
will come again to prepare
the way of the Messiah
48.
49. • Item Number 1: The Hardboiled Egg (often
roasted)
• “A hard-boiled egg represents the holiday
offering brought in the days of the Holy
Temple. The meat of this animal constituted
the main part of the Passover meal.”
50. • Item Number 2: The Horseradish
• “Bitter herbs (maror) remind us of the
bitterness of the slavery of our forefathers in
Egypt. Fresh grated horseradish, romaine
lettuce, and endive are the most common
choices.”
51. • Item Number 3: The Charoset (a sweet, dark-
colored paste made of fruits and nuts)
• “A mixture of apples, nuts and wine which
resembles the mortar and brick made by the
Jews when they toiled for Pharaoh.”
52. • Item Number 4: The Shank Bone
• "A piece of roasted meat represents the lamb
that was the special Paschal sacrifice on the
eve of the exodus from Egypt, and annually,
on the afternoon before Passover, in the Holy
Temple."
53. • Item Number 5: The Bitter Herbs/Lettuce
• The lettuce symbolizes the bitter enslavement
of our fathers in Egypt. The leaves of romaine
lettuce are not bitter, but the stem, when left
to grow in the ground, turns hard and bitter.”
54. • Item Number 6: The Parsley/Boiled Potato
(dipped in salt-water)
• "A non-bitter root vegetable alludes to the
backbreaking work of the Jews as slaves. The
Hebrew letters of the word karpas can be
arranged to spell 'perech samech.'"
• "Perech means backbreaking work, and samech is
numerically equivalent to 60, referring to 60
myriads, equaling 600,000, which was the
number of Jewish males over 20 years of age who
were enslaved in Egypt."
55. Origin and development of Judaism
• Judaism finds its origin
in two sequential
happenings, which
forms a single event
– 1st is in 586 BC when
Temple of Jerusalem was
destroyed
– 2nd , 3 generations later,
when Babylonian empire
fell to Persian, thereby
allowing Jews to rebuild
the Temple
56. • Jewish history told
in the Hebrew Bible
ends after the
building of the
Second temple,
when the Hebrews
returned to
Jerusalem after
Babylonian exile
57. • With Disaspora, some Jews migrated to
central and western Europe and America
• The traditional Jews adapted the western
modern world
• Thus the traditional authorities and unity of
judaism were compromised
58. • Before the Romans destroyed the Second
Temple of Jerusalem in 70 CE judaism was a
centralized, temple-based religion
• With the destruction of the their temple and
dispora of their people, a new form of judaism
emerged:
– Biblical Judaism
– Rabbinical Judaism
59. • The era after the destruction of the second
temple marks the beginning of the
development of Rabbinical Judaism
Rabbinical Judaism
60. Rabbinical Judaism
• The Hebrew
scriptures were first
collected and the
rabbis selected,
which were to be
included in their
sacred canon.
61. • Then the rabbis
interpreted the
scriptures, and this
took about 250 ,
until it was finalized
by 400 CE as the
Talmud of the Land
of Israel
Rabbinical Judaism
62. Biblical Judaism
• Divided into two subperiods:
– 1. the Jews settled in Israel with Jerusalem the
capital of their kingdom until the destruction of
the 1st Temple by babylonians
– 2 they were exiled in Babylonia for 50 years,
where they wrote their religious doctrines
preserving them in what we now read in the
Hebrew bible
63. Group output
• Role play a story from the Old Testament that
demonstrates the Jewish belief in one God
64. Varieties of Judaism
• Cultural differences in
judaism
– Sephardic Jews who came
from west Israel and Spain
– Ashkemazic Jews who came
from central europe
– Falashas who are in Ethiopia
65.
66. • Different Judaism based
on their observances
– Orthodox Judaism
– Reform Judaism
– Conservative Judaism
– Beit Yaacov Synagogue
Varieties of Judaism
67. Orthodox Judaism
• Observe the traditional practices and beliefs
of Biblical Judaism
• They strict in the implementation of laws such
as traditional dietary practices, Sabbath,
ritually clean foods
• They believe that God gave torah both written
and oral by rabbi
• They keep the law as God-given
68. Reform Judaism
• Aims to modernize Judaism, by integrating
themselves in European Culture
• Progressive revelation – a religion without
dogmas and subject to the criteria of reason,
the predominance of moralism, a liberal
humanism, hostile to all particularism
• They reject practices that seem out-dated
• They abandoned much of the original torah as
no longer relevant
69. Conservative Judaism
• Recognizes that change has always been part
of religion but they discern carefully which
changes must be accepted
• They try to reconcile the traditional
orthodoxy and the liberal reform of judaism
• They affirm the God-given standing of the
Torah but accommodate change
72. • Antisemitism (also
spelled anti-Semitism or anti-
semitism) is hostility to,
prejudice, or discrimination
against Jews.
• A person who holds such
positions is called
an antisemite.
• Antisemitism is generally
considered to be a form
of racism.
73. • is the national movement of the Jewish
people that supports the re-establishment of
a Jewish homeland in the territory defined as
the historic Land of Israel (roughly
corresponding to Canaan, the Holy Land, or
the region of Palestine).
Zionism
74. • Modern Zionism emerged
in the late 19th century
in Central and Eastern
Europe as a national revival
movement, in reaction to
anti-Semitic and
exclusionary nationalist
movements in Europe.
75. Holocaust
• The Holocaust, also referred to as
the Shoah, was
a genocide during World War II in
which Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany,
aided by its collaborators,
systematically murdered some six
million European Jews, around two-
thirds of the Jewish population of
Europe.
• From 1941 to 1945, Germany
targeted European Jewry for
extermination as part of a larger
event that included the persecution
and murder of other groups.
76. • Germany
implemented the
persecution in stages.
• Following Hitler's rise
to power in 1933, the
government passed
laws to exclude Jews
from civil society,
most prominently
the Nuremberg
Laws in 1935.
77. • After the invasion of
Poland in 1939, the
regime set
up ghettos to
segregate Jews.
• Over 42,000 camps,
ghettos, and other
detention sites were
established
78.
79.
80.
81. • The deportation of Jews to
the ghettos culminated in the policy of
extermination the Nazis called the "Final
Solution to the Jewish Question".
• In 1941, as German forces captured
territories in the East, all anti-Jewish
measures were radicalized.
• Paramilitary units
called Einsatzgruppen murdered around
two million Jews in mass shootings in less
than a year.
82.
83. • By mid-1942, victims were being deported
from the ghettos in sealed freight
trains to extermination camps where, if they
survived the journey, they were killed in gas
chambers.
• The killing continued until the end of World
War II in Europe in April–May 1945.
