Religion 101 (5 page)

Understanding with Your Heart

An important thing to understand when speaking about things such as the Torah being all names of God and other striking statements is that these are not intended as intellectual concepts. This is part of the esoteric nature of Kabbalah. When these statements remain “ideas” or “concepts,” they are truly hidden. It’s only when one begins to experience what is implied by these words that Kabbalah ceases to be a cerebral activity and becomes a much more spiritual one. The process is achieved, if ever, by entering the lifestyle of contemplative study, meditation, kavana (awareness), and so on. As Pirkei Avot (one of the tractates of the Mishna) says, “it’s not study that is most important, but practice” (1:17).

Ein Sof and the Sefirot

Kabbalah embodies two major experiences of Divinity. One is that God is transcendent, eternal, and unchangeable. The other is that God is also deeply personal, in other words, the very same Transcendent One is also dynamic and immanent throughout Creation. Kabbalah depicts these two perspectives through the terms
Ein Sof
and the
Sefirot.

Rabbi Meir Ibn Gabbai explains that we cannot grasp Ein Sof — a term first used by Isaac the Blind, which literally means “without end,” or “infinite” — through contemplation or logic. The ultimate nature of God is beyond our grasp, though we may experience a glimpse of that reality and recognize the existence of that which is so far beyond our comprehension. Ein Sof itself is a negative formulation, meaning that there is no end. This is similar to Maimonides’s explanation that we can only say what God is not, because God transcends our human ability to define. To define is to limit, whereas God is limitless. The Kabbalists understood that Ein Sof is beyond language and thought, so nothing could actually be said about it.

The Cosmic Influence of Our Acts

Part of what may account for Kabbalah’s impact on Judaism and its prominent position for a number of centuries is that it invigorated the everyday acts of people by attributing cosmic influence to them. Kabbalists understand their
kavana
, meaning a person’s focus and consciousness, as having an effect beyond their immediate obvious influence. Though people have always had to grapple with the clear lack of connection between a person’s moral qualities and their fate and fortune in this world, Kabbalah teaches that our actions have an impact, nevertheless, in ways that are not plainly evident.

Religion 101 Question

Who are some famous Americans who adhere to Kabbalah?

Madonna, Demi Moore, and Ashton Kutcher are among the celebrities who say they have been influenced by Kabbalah.

BRANCHES OF JUDAISM

Orthodox, Reform, Conservative

Throughout history, various movements in Judaism have sometimes split up, like different branches growing from a trunk of the same tree. The oldest records we have of an explicit difference of opinion took place in the second century
B.C.
In that period Jews lived under Greek occupation. The Greeks were an enlightened people and tolerant of their subjects. As a result, many Jews were attracted to Greek culture, known as Hellenism. Those Jews who allowed themselves to be influenced by Hellenism were known as Hellenistic Jews; the Hasideans (not to be confused with Hasids) formed their conservative opposition.

Essenes, Sadducees, and Pharisees

At a later period in history, when Rome conquered the lands of the ancient Israel, Judaism had split into three sects:

• The Essenes formed an ascetic and mystical order that consisted mostly of adult males who took an oath of celibacy.
  
• The Sadducees embraced some of the Hellenistic elements of Judaism.
  
• Pharisees, the most powerful group among the Jews, believed that both the written and oral Torah came directly from God and were therefore valid and binding. In accordance with the Torah, the Pharisees began to codify the Halakhah (the Law), insisting upon its strict observance.
  

Origin of the Synagogue

Because of their disagreements with the Sadducees, who had control of the Temple, the Pharisees developed the synagogue as an alternative place for study and worship. Their liturgy consisted of biblical and prophetic readings and the repetition of the
Shema
(Judaism’s central prayer).

The Orthodox

What ultimately did lead to divisions within Judaism was the same old controversy, that is, the difference of perceptions concerning the Halakhah and the Torah. During the last millennium and up until the nineteenth century, the Orthodox branch of Judaism was by far the most prevalent.

The essential principle governing Orthodox Judaism is
Torah min Hashamayim
. This means that the Torah, both the written Law (Scriptures) and the oral Law (rabbinic interpretation and commentaries), is directly derived from God and therefore must be obeyed.

Synagogue services are conducted in Hebrew and men and women sit separately. Women are not ordained as rabbis, nor do they count in a
minyan
(the group of ten necessary for public prayer). While the synagogue is the domain of men, women clearly have dominion over the home.

When Jews were segregated in ghettos or the “pale of settlement” (regions in Russia that were designated for Jews to inhabit), they had no access to the secular society of the “outside world.” They therefore led their lives according to the customs that had been practiced for generations before them.

As the Enlightenment spread through Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, many societies began to open at least some of their doors to Jews. Suddenly, Jews now had access to new ideas and new occupations; the barriers that had encased their own closed society were broken down.

Strict observance of Halakhah made it difficult, if not impossible, to integrate into secular society. Moreover, many Jews incorporated aspects of the Enlightenment into their own way of thinking. Such were the circumstances that brought forth Reform Judaism.

Reform Judaism

In the early nineteenth century, several synagogue congregations in Germany instituted fundamental changes in the service, including mixed-gender seating, a shortened service, use of the vernacular in the liturgy, single-day observance of holidays, and the inclusion of musical instruments and a choir.

American Reform Judaism was born when some of these reformers immigrated to the United States from Germany in the mid-nineteenth century. Under the leadership of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, Reform Judaism became the dominant belief held by American Jews.

Reform Judaism in America

Some of the first Reform congregations in the United States:

• Beth Elohim in Charleston, South Carolina (1825)
  
• Har Sinai in Baltimore, Maryland (1842)
  
• Bene Yeshurun (I.M. Wise) in Cincinnati, Ohio (1854)
  
• Adath Israel (The Temple) in Louisville, Kentucky (1842–43)
  
• Keneseth Israel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1856)
  

Principles of Reform Judaism

Along with the great deal of room it offers for individualism, Reform Judaism includes the following beliefs:

1. The Torah was divinely inspired but authored by humans.
   
2. There is only one God.
   
3. The reinterpretation of Torah is continuous and must be adapted for new circumstances and challenges.
   
4. The moral and ethical components in the Torah are important.
   
5. The sexes are to be treated equally.
   

Conservative Judaism

Despite its many supporters, some Jews felt that Reform Judaism had admirable intentions but that it simply went too far. Out of this middle-ground movement came Conservative Judaism.

Like Reform Jews, Conservatives believe that written and oral Torah were divinely inspired but authored by humans — that it does not come to us directly from God. Conservative Judaism parts with Reform in that it generally accepts the binding nature of Halakhah. However, Conservatives agree that Halakhah is subject to change and that adaptations may be made to it based on the contemporary culture, so long as the Halakhah remains true to Judaism’s values.

In the synagogue service Conservative Judaism has provided a distinct middle ground for Jews who are not satisfied with either the Orthodox or the Reform approach. Hebrew is the predominant language of the liturgy, but the native language of the worshipers is used as well. In Conservative congregations, men and women may sit together, and many Conservative congregations have choirs and even organs.

Reconstructionism

This is Judaism’s youngest movement. It germinated from an eloquent and momentous article written by Mordecai Kaplan (1881–1983) in 1920, in which he called for a reinterpretation of Judaism in keeping with modern thought and the strengthening of ties with Jewish communities in Palestine. Two years later, he resigned from the pulpit of a Conservative congregation in Manhattan and founded a congregation based on his philosophy of Judaism that came to be known as the Society for the Advancement of Judaism (SAJ).

Kaplan had no desire to create a new branch of Judaism, but given his unique philosophy, this was inevitable. As of the 1970s, Reconstructionism has been recognized as the fourth branch on the Judaic tree. It remains the smallest movement, with 100 congregations worldwide, but its impact belies its numbers, given Kaplan’s legacy and the philosophy developed by his followers.

Reconstructionists reject the notion that the Jews are God’s “chosen people.” Each culture and civilization, Kaplan postulated, has a unique contribution to make to the greater human community. Judaism is only one of these cultures. There is nothing special or divine about it.

Furthermore, Halakhah need only be observed if one chooses to do so; if a person does follow an aspect of Halakhah, this is not because it is binding law from God but because it is a valuable cultural remnant. In fact, the entire notion of a supernatural God acting in history is discarded. Instead, God is considered to be a process or power — an expression of the highest values and ideas of a civilization.

Kaplan taught that Judaism is more than a religion. It’s an evolving religious civilization that incorporates traditions, laws, customs, language, literature, music, and art. While he believed in the need for all Jewish communities to thrive in the Diaspora, Kaplan foresaw a Jewish state as the hub on the Jewish wheel. Therefore, Zionism and the establishment of Israel have always been fundamental to Reconstructionism.

HEBREW AND YIDDISH

The Languages of the Chosen People

Hebrew is one of the world’s oldest languages, dating perhaps as far back as 4,000
B.C.
The early Israelites conversed in Hebrew, a Semitic idiom of the Canaanite group that includes Arabic. The patriarchs spoke Hebrew as they made their way into the Promised Land, and it remained the language of the Israelites throughout the biblical period.

However, in the fifth century
B.C.
, when Jews began to return to Israel from Babylon, where many had lived after the destruction of the First Temple in 586
B.C.
, most of the inhabitants of Palestine conversed in Aramaic, which gradually infiltrated the language of the Israelites. A few centuries later, Hebrew had all but ceased to exist as a spoken language. It would not be re-established as such for two millennia.

Learn Hebrew

If you would like to learn Hebrew, there are books and websites available to you and courses that you can take. As a matter of fact, there are intensive courses in conversational Hebrew of which you may avail yourself, should you be planning a visit or a stay in Israel and desire to be fluent in its vernacular language.

Writing in Hebrew

Hebrew is read from right to left, just the opposite of reading English. You have to learn a new alphabet, which consists of twenty-two consonants, five of which assume a different form when they appear at the end of a word. And if this isn’t enough of a challenge, Hebrew is generally written without vowel sounds!

In contrast to the block print that is customarily seen in Hebrew books, sacred documents are written in a style that uses “crowns” on many of the letters. These crowns resemble crows’ feet that emanate from the upper points. This type of writing is known as “STA’M” (an acronym for
Sifrei Torah
,
Tefillin
, and
Mezuzot
).

A more modern cursive form of writing is frequently employed for handwriting. Yet another style, Rashi script, appears in certain texts to differentiate the body of the text from the commentary. This kind of text, named in honor of Rashi, the great commentator on the Torah and Talmud, is used for the exposition.

Why More Than One Spelling?

Hebrew words are spelled out in English letters according to a transliteration system, and there is more than one system to choose from. For example, the distinctive throaty Hebrew
h
is sometimes transliterated as
ch
, so the word
Hanukah
may be spelled as
Chanukah
, as it is in this book.

Hebrew Letters Have Numerical Values

The Hebrew numerical system uses letters as digits. Each letter of the alphabet has a corresponding numerical value. The first ten letters have values of one through ten; the next nine have values of twenty through 100, counting by tens; and the remaining letters have values of 200, 300, and 400, respectively.

Since every Hebrew word can be calculated to represent a number, Jewish mysticism has been painstakingly engaged in discerning the hidden meanings in the numerical value of words. For example, the numerical value of the Hebrew word
chai
(life) is eighteen. Hence, it is a common practice to make charitable contributions and give gifts, especially for weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs, in multiples of eighteen.