Portrait

by Rabbi Herbert Bronstein

Senior Rabbi, North Shore Congregation Israel, Glencoe, Illinois; member of the Board of Trustees of the Council for a Parliament of the World Religions

Hear O Israel, the Lord Our God, the Lord is One. And you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your might, with all your soul. And these words which I command you this day, shall be upon your heart that you may remember, do all my commandments and be holy unto your God.

Deuteronomy (D'Varim) 6.4-9

When the Holy One created the first human beings, God led them around the Garden of Eden and said, `Look at My works. See how beautiful they are, how excellent! For your sake I created them all. See to it that you do not spoil or destroy My world -- for if you do, there will be no one to repair it after you.'

Midrash Eccclesiastes Rabba 7:13

Though often spoken of as a "Western" religion and linked with Christianity (as in "Judeo-Christian tradition"), Judaism has its origins in the Middle East.

Judaism is a spirituality which indeed gave birth to Christianity, and later played a role during the emergence of Islam. But Judaism as we know it began almost 4,000 years ago among a pastoral/nomadic and later agricultural people, the ancient Hebrews.

The religion of the people Israel was and is the loving and faithful Covenant devotion to one God who revealed Divine Teaching through the mothers and fathers of the people of Israel (the Patriarchs and Matriarchs), through Moses and the Prophets and Sages whose spirituality is documented in the 22 books of the Hebrew Bible.

The goal of this Covenant consciousness in alliance with the Divine is clearly put in the ancient texts as:

A good life for all, through adherence to God's Teaching (Torah) and Commandments (Mitzvot), harmony on earth on the individual and social levels culminating in peace and well-being for all humanity.

Thus Judaism is characterized as a religion of deed, a "Way" by which human beings are capable of understanding and responding to God's teaching.

Because over the centuries every major power that entered the Middle East (namely Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece and Rome) coveted the land of Israel (a strategic joining point of Africa, Asia and Europe), the religion of Israel changed, not in central principles or institution, but in form, in response to the demands of changing conditions, including oppression and exile.

After the Roman destruction of the central Temple in Jerusalem and the end of Jewish independent existence in the Holy Land, Judaism was separated from the sacrificial cult, the priesthood disappeared, and Judaism became a religion of congregations all over the world in which worship, deeds of loving kindness, and the study of God's teaching replaced the central cult of the Temple in Jerusalem. Nevertheless, Jerusalem remained a central spiritual symbol of Jewry throughout the world linked with the vision of redemption of the Jewish people from exile and oppression, and peace for all the world (the Messianic vision).

In Judaism as it developed, prayer services emerged which recapitulated the main stories and themes of Judaism, from the universal Creation by the Universal God to the Revelation of God's Teaching to Moses and the people at Mount Sinai to the Redemption of Israel and all humanity. It is a way of life in which all Jews are equally responsible as "a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy People."

Over the centuries a vast body of teaching and lore has grown up, often taking the form of exegesis or interpretation of the ancient Biblical texts. This has included the elaboration of actual religious practice (the "Halacha" or "Way") and philosophical texts, stories, homilies, parable, and poetry (the "Aggadah"). The vast rabbinic text known as the Talmud (again, "Teaching"), is second only to the Bible in importance. There is also a continual mystical stream in Judaism embodied in the various texts known collectively as Kabbalah (the "received" tradition) such as the Zohar (the "Book of Splendor or Illumination"), which teach the emanation of the Godhead into the world, the experience of communion with God in transcendence of the self, and the maintenance of the cosmos through human action in Covenant with God. Again the basic mythos or narrative embodied in Judaic consciousness is "from" the universal God, Creator of all of existence "through" particular Jewish Covenant existence "to" the universal redemption of all Beings and all Being from bondage.

The basic symbol of Judaism is thus a seven-branched candelabrum which embodies cosmic images of all Time and Space. It is also a symbol of the Redemption which is the goal of human existence. This symbol is reducible to Light, which is expressed many times in Jewish observance: the kindling of the Sabbath and Festival lights in the home; the braided candle at the end of the Sabbath; the kindling of lights in the eight-day midwinter Festival of Lights (Chanukha), which commemorates the rededication of the holy Temple from pollution and therefore of the sacred from profanity; the memorial lights to remember the dead; and the Eternal Light over the Ark in the synagogue which contains the Scroll of the Torah.

Jews celebrate the recreation of the moral order of the world and the rebirth of the soul at the beginning of the religious year (Rosh Hashanah) and the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), a ten day period of spiritual introspection and moral resolve. The home celebration or service which relives in story and song, ritual and prayer, the Exodus from Egypt at the Passover (Pesach) season is called a Seder celebration. Its themes reenergize Jewish social consciousness, Jewish hope and vision of a better day for all.

Jews are not divided into creedal denominations, strictly speaking, in the same manner as Christianity. There are "streams" of Jewish religious life which express varying responses to the encounter of Jews with the modern world. The most liberal of these is usually designated as Reform or Liberal Judaism, which has responded by adapting to more Western styles of worship. Reform leans toward the vernacular in worship and has modified considerably the forms of observance passed down by tradition.

Orthodox Judaism conceives of the entire corpus of Jewish observance, the received tradition, as equivalent to having been given by God at Sinai and therefore unchangeable except through procedures which were themselves given at Sinai.

Conservative Judaism finds its way between these two positions.

Reconstructionism is the most recent stream to emerge in modern Jewish life. It conceives of Jewish religious forms and observances as part of an historic Jewish culture or "civilization." Reconstructionism values this culture, linking its preservation with a naturalist theology. Reconstructionism has recently been hospitable to neo-mystical themes and observances.

However, this does not begin to describe the considerable varieties of Jewish religious life in all of its dimensions and degrees in our time. The number of Jews is in the world is estimated at 12,807,000; the number of Jews in North American is estimated at 5,880,000.