Judaism Religion Issues - Research Paper Example

Judaism Judaism is a Jewish religion. Being an ancient religion of monotheism the belief system has evolved and the original followers of the Jewish faith have dispersed into several categories, some calling themselves secular while the others are militants. The religion was founded in the Middle East more than 3000 years ago. Their primary belief that stands unshaken across all the categories or sects of the religion is that the Jews are the chosen people of God to set an example for the rest of the world with regard to their “holiness and ethical behavior” (BBC 2012). Judaism is the foremost among the three Abrahamic faiths including Christianity and Islam. Most of the Jews around the world reside in Israel or USA according to The Jewish People Polcy Planning Institute. Back in 2001 half of UK’s population claimed to be Jewish as well. What concerns the scholars of religion and theology the most is the original teachings of the religion founded by Moses. For the Jews, however, their history begins from Abraham (BBC 2012). Jews believe in one God and Torah as their Holy Scripture. Theirs is an oral law by tradition and the interpretation of the laws is called “halakhah”. Their spiritual mentors are known as Rabbis and their place of worship is the Synagogue. One of the most tragic events in the Jewish history took place at the time of the Holocaust in which nearly six million Jews were killed by Nazis on Hitler’s command. This gave rise to a lot of hatred and grudge against the Christians and many Jews fought to live for their rights dying on the way. Addressed as “Children of Israel” in the Holy Scriptures who traveled from Sumer (near Babylon) to Egypt with Prophet Abraham in around 1700 BC and from there to Canaan with Prophet Moses around 1200 BC, united under Saul then David then Solomon around 900 BC, fell captive to Assyrians in 722 BC and later to Chaldeans in 587 BC only to fall victim of the enchanting Hellenistic culture during Alexander’s reign along with the Greco-Roman civilization (Miller et al 136). The Scriptures refer to them as the superior race, fallen in the hands of Satan despite all the privileges it received from their God, Yahweh. The Kabbala, according to a Jewish historian, Faber d’Olivet, has its roots in the Ancient Egypt (d’Olivet 28). History tells that during 1200 BC and 1000 BC people living in the Western end of the Fertile Crescent and in Western Asia, called the northern portion Phoenicia and Lydia, while the southern section was known as Canaan and later Israel and then Palestine. Today, the region that is along and near the Mediterranean Sea forms the nations of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and portion of Egypt and Turkey. The early writing system had started and evolved from Egypt and Mesopotamia. However the Phoenicians worked on developing the alphabets for future model of Western alphabets. They were the first great sea traders of the world. During the same time Greek City-States were flourishing. While the Phoenicians did not believe in after life and sometimes sacrificed their own children to win favor from the many Gods they worshiped, Egyptians worshiped the Sun as well as the Moon, attributing to their Gods the characteristics of animals and humans. They thought Pharaoh was the representative of these Gods. On the other hand the Greeks attributed to their Gods and Goddesses the attributes of humans because they considered them superior beings and practiced rituals to win favor from them. They also believed that the priests and priestesses were mediums of communication of the Gods at oracles which were sanctuaries especially meant for them. This was done in the form of question and answer pertaining to the future. They were later conquered by Romans, who like Greeks were very particular about the ritual performance. Early Romans believed that spirits inhabited everything. Some of these were attached to the home which included the ancestral spirits called the “lares”, storeroom guardians called the “penates”, the guardian of hearth and fire, “Vesta” was the center of family worshipping. They were under the impression that by examining the inside of the animal’s body and the movement of birds from north to south they will learn about the working of the God (Miller et al 147). Romans learnt to identify their Gods with a mountain north of Greece called the Olympus which is the highest peak on earth. Similarly the Indo-European sky god Jupiter came to be characterized with the chief god of the Greeks known as Zeus (Miller et al 138). Another empire, Babylon, the place where Alexander died in 323 BC was known for adopting the religious beliefs of the Sumerians. Their chied God was Marduk who was considered to be the God of Babylon along with many local gods ruling different regions (Miller et al 33). Jews unlike all the above mentioned empires received scriptures from their God ‘Yahweh’ through a Messiah, meaning “the Anointed One”. The Scriptures narrate the story of how the world came into being and what was the special mission of the Jews, how they escaped from the shackles of the Egyptian Gods and as to how their culture and beliefs evolved and progress over the next thousand years. About one third of these scriptures is devoted to Jewish history. The remainder includes poetry, prophecy, and religious instruction and laws. The mission of Jews according to the Bible came in the form of the Ten Commandments, three of which are as follows: 1. “You shall have no other God to set against me. 2. You shall not make a carved image for yourself nor the likeness of anything in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. 3. You shall not make wrong use of the name of the Lord your God; the Lord will not leave unpunished the man who misuses his name.” The Ten Commandments and other code of laws were named after Moses, known as the Mosaic Law in the Torah (the Old Testament). For the Jews, Yahweh was a being who loved his creation and cared for them. This was very different from the religious concepts of Mesopotamia and Egypt. As we saw above, other ancient peoples thought of their Gods as having human qualities but as being more powerful than humans. The kings were viewed as Gods or as the representatives of Gods (in other words pagan idolatry). The Hebrew kings were not Gods. Only Yahweh was divine. Yet the Hebrews also believed that Yahweh had made humans in his own image. Humans were not intended to be Yahweh’s slaves, but to serve him out of love (Miller et al 42). However, the system of Kabbala which is one of the sources of inspiration for some poets was rooted in pagan idolatry long before the Torah. “It is accepted as Jewish mysticism but some of the elements it contains show that it was composed much earlier than the Torah” (Ayfer 298). With the coming of Alexander the Great and the period between his death to the Roman conquest in 146 BC known as the Hellenistic Age came the pendulum shift of ideas from one place to another, from East to West, in other words, the blending of Hebraic and Hellenic ideas. The idea that Yahweh had made humans in his image urged Greeks and Romans to question their existence and explore their skills making their way to be the Gods of Earth, despite the Prophets reminder to Hebrews that man was just made out of soil and that symbolized humbleness and devotion to God. However one creature remains out of sight in the debate on man’s existence and his quest for hidden knowledge. This is the figure of Satan in Hebraic tradition. He is Prometheus in Greek mythology, son of Uranus and Gaia who defied Zeus, grandson of Uranus and king of Gods in order to free mankind from darkness and ignorance (Evslin 229). Judaism has not existed in a single branch ever since the ancient times. From the Orthodox Judaism to the Reform Judaism there has been a universal as well as mutual acceptance in the transcendence of the supreme God. However Reconstructionist and Humanistic Jews disagree in the concept of God’s active role in the history of the Jews. They eradicate the supernatural and adopt the naturalistic origin of the human history. Jews believe in the Eternity of God and their Scriptures inform of the presence of God without any beginning or an end. This concept is known as “netzah” in the Scripture meaning everlasting. The speculation of this everlasting Being was discouraged by the rabbis who strongly believed in such existence but showed reluctance to explore it further. Another central feature as mentioned earlier was their belief in God being omnipotent. Within Jewish theology many lay stress on the need to reformulate the concept of God especially in the “post-Holocaust world”. What challenges many Jews according to one rabbi is the existence of extraterrestrial beings which makes them question the existence of humans; the generation of life which makes them question the doctrine of God as creator of other planets and lastly the de-personalized vision of God which allows them to redefine the universe (Cohn-Sherbok 373). These challenges and many more conflicts revolve the religion of Judaism in the present times. Works Cited Ayfer, Murat Ozgen, Masonluk Nedir ve Nasildir (What is Freemasonry and What is it like?) (Istanbul 1992), 298-9 BBC. Religions: Judaism. 2012. Web 9 May 2012. Cohn-Sherbok, Dan. Judaism: History, Belief, and Practice. London: Routledge, 2003. Print. Evslin, Bernard. Gods, Demigods & Demons: An Encyclopedia of Greek Mythology. New York: Scholastic Book Services, 1975. Print. Fabre, d'Olivet A, and d'Olivet A. Fabre. La Langue He?brai?que Restitue?e. Lausanne: Ed. L'Age d'homme, 1991. Print. Miller, Sue et al, World History: People & Nations Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2000. Print Read More