Authors: Peter Archer
Religion 101 (6 page)
Modern Hebrew
In the nineteenth century, Hebrew underwent a renaissance. Thanks in large part to Eliezer ben Yehudah (1858–1922), who dedicated himself to the revival of Hebrew and introduced thousands of modern terms to the ancient language, Hebrew regained its status as a vernacular language.
The Roots of Yiddish
Yiddish can trace its roots to the beginning of the second millennium, when Jewish emigrants from northern France began to settle along the Rhine. These emigrants, who conversed in a combination of Hebrew and Old French, also began to assimilate German dialects. The written language consisted completely of Hebrew characters.
At the beginning of the twelfth century, after the horrific pogroms of the First Crusade, Jews migrated to Austria, Bohemia, and northern Italy, taking their new language, Yiddish, with them. When Jews were invited to enter Poland as traders, Yiddish incorporated Polish, Czech, and Russian language traits. As an end result, Yiddish was composed mostly of Middle/High German, with a measure of Hebrew and touches of Slavic tongues and Loez (a combination of Old French and Old Italian).
Yiddish and Jewish
Jews do not speak “Jewish.” Just because
Yiddish
means “Jewish” in the language of Yiddish, these words are not synonymous.
Jewish
is an adjective, while
Yiddish
is a noun that describes a particular Jewish language.
Yiddish served the Jewish people well because it was an adaptable and assimilative language. Consequently, even English words and phrases made their way into Yiddish after the waves of immigration into the United States by European Jewry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Who Spoke Yiddish?
The Yiddish language was the chief vernacular of Ashkenazic Jews (that is, Jews from Central and Eastern Europe), but not all Ashkenazic Jews spoke Yiddish. The language for prayer and study remained Hebrew, although Yiddish was often used in
yeshivas
(religious schools) to discuss the texts. The fact that Yiddish had to do with the daily task of living is reflected in the language itself, and this is one of the factors that makes Yiddish such a unique and alluring language.
The Mother Tongue
Since Jewish women were not taught Hebrew, they spoke Yiddish to their children, who, in turn, later spoke it to their own children. Thus, Yiddish became known as
mame loshen
, the “mother’s language,” as opposed to Hebrew,
loshen ha-kodesh
, or “the sacred language.”
Yiddish is a very social language, replete with nicknames, terms of endearment, and more than a good share of expletives. You will find proverbs and proverbial expressions, curses for just about every occasion, and idioms reflecting the fears and superstitions of the times. To learn and know Yiddish is to understand the Jews who created and spoke the language hundreds of years ago.
The most important factor in the rapid decline of Yiddish in the twentieth century was the
Shoah
(Nazi Holocaust), which destroyed entire communities of Yiddish-speaking Jews. In Israel Yiddish was frowned upon as a language of the “ghetto” that reflected a subservient mentality.
However, in recent decades Yiddish has shown itself to be as stubborn and resilient as the Jewish people themselves. In the United States, colleges and universities offer Yiddish courses, and special organizations and groups promote Yiddish both in the United States and in Israel.
THE TORAH, THE TALMUD, AND THE MIDRASH
The Writings of Judaism
Religious study has always been greatly revered in the Jewish tradition, and there is much to study, such as the Torah, Talmud, the Midrash, and other important texts.
The Torah
The word
Torah
is sometimes translated as “the Law.” It also means “a teaching,” because it represents God’s instructions regarding how Jews should live and what they ought to believe.
In its most limited sense, the Torah comprises the Five Books of Moses, also called the Pentateuch. However, in its broadest sense, Torah encompasses everything that follows the Pentateuch — the whole body of Jewish law and teachings.
In its most general sense, the Torah is composed of two parts. First, there is the written Torah (
Torah Shebichtav
), which in turn has three parts. The first part is the Pentateuch, also known as the Five Books of Moses or
Chumash
. The Pentateuch includes the following five books (named for the first phrase in each book):
- B’reishit
(Genesis) - Shemot
(Exodus) - Vayikra
(Leviticus) - Bamidbar
(Numbers) - Devarim
(Deuteronomy)
The second part of the written Torah is
Nevi’im
(Prophets), which contains the following eight books:
- Yehoshua
(Joshua) - Shoftim
(Judges) - Shmuel
(Samuel I and II) - Melachim
(Kings I and II) - Yirmiyahu
(Jeremiah) - Yechezkel
(Ezekiel) - Yeshayahu
(Isaiah) - Trey Asar
(the Twelve)
Finally, the third part of the written Torah is the
Ketuvim
(Writings), which consists of eleven books:
- Tehillim
(Psalms) - Mishlei
(Proverbs) - Iyov
(Job) - Shir Ha-Shirim
(Song of Songs) - Ruth
- Eichah
(Lamentations) - Kohelet
(Ecclesiastes) - Esther
- Daniel
- Ezra and Nechemiah
- Divrei Ha-Yamim
(Chronicles)
The Oral Torah
In addition to giving Moses the written Torah, God also provided explanations that are called the
Torah Sheb’al Peh
or the oral Torah. These exegeses, which were not written down, were meant to be passed from teacher to student.
From God to the Torah
God transmitted the Torah to His chosen people through Moses. Beginning around the year
A.D.
200, the oral Torah was inscribed into a series of books called the Mishna.
It is axiomatic in Judaism that the Torah is everlasting and immutable. Since Torah comes from God and God is eternal, it follows that the Torah also shares this feature.
This is one reason Judaism takes upon itself the responsibility to be true to the Torah and to maintain it as part of the Jews’ very existence. According to Judaism, God chose the Hebrews for the task of receiving and preserving the Torah, and this task cannot be abrogated.
The Talmud
In the years after the destruction of the Second Temple (
A.D.
70), there was a danger that the oral Law, passed down from teacher to student, would be forgotten. In order to prevent this from happening, a group of scholars and jurists, led by Rabbi Yehuda Ha-Nasi (died c. 217), assembled a basic outline of the oral Law into the Mishna by about 200.
A Saintly Rabbi
Rabbi Yehuda Ha-Nasi was variously addressed as Rabbi, Rabbi Judah the Prince, and our Master the Saint. He was referred to as “Rabbi” because he taught the Torah; he was designated “the Prince” because he was elevated and made the prince and most honored of Israel; he was called “our Master the Saint” because it was said that his body was as pure as his soul.
But the students and scholars of Torah had not completed their work. Over the next several hundred years, they continued to seek explanations for the text and its laws. Once again, in order to keep the results of their efforts from being lost, Rav Ashi (352–427) and Ravina (died 421) guided the compilation of the material into the Gemara. Together, the Mishna and Gemara form what we know as the Talmud.
The Talmud is a record of the way rabbis and scholars and jurists have applied the laws of the Bible to the life they faced. Consequently, it covers “all of life” because it encompasses everything that went on in those people’s daily existence. Themes include the social and the private, urban and rural, civil and criminal, public and domestic, everyday and ritual. Virtually nothing was overlooked.
Two Talmuds
There are actually two Talmuds — the Jerusalem Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud. Generally, when people speak of the Talmud, they are referring to the more comprehensive of the two, the Babylonian Talmud.
Organization of the Talmud
The Talmud is divided into six sections called
sedarim
(orders). Each
seder
contains several books called
masekhtot
(tractates); in total, there are sixty-three
masekhtot
. Although the respective
sedarim
seem to address rather specific and narrow topics, each
seder
in fact contains diverse and assorted subjects.
The six
sedarim
are the following:
- Zera’im
(seeds): This
seder
deals primarily with agricultural laws but also laws of prayer and blessings; it is comprised of eleven
masekhtot
. - Mo’ed
(season): This
seder
addresses
Shabbat
and festivals; it includes twelve
masekhtot
. - Nashim
(women): This
seder
deals with the laws of marriage and divorce; it contains seven
masekhtot
. - Nezikin
(damages): This
seder
deals with civil law and ethics; it contains ten
masekhtot
. - Kodashim
(holy things): Sacrifices and the Temple are considered in this
seder
, which includes eleven
masekhtot
. - Toharot
(purities): This
seder
deals with laws of ritual purity and impurity, and contains twelve
masekhtot
.
A Work of Many Genres
Despite the fact that it deals with legalisms and extremely specific issues, the Talmud is not a code or catechism that lays down the law in summary, categorical form. In fact, the Talmud is filled with legend, folklore, parables, reminiscences, prayers, theology, and theosophy.
The Talmud is the end result of a process by means of which the law is made clear. Hence, the tensions, conflicts, and arguments of its collaborators come alive before the reader’s eyes.
The Midrash
Between the third and twelfth centuries, rabbis and religious scholars compiled ideas and arguments in the form of stories that sought to explicate and probe even deeper the underlying truths and meanings of the biblical text. These stories eventually became known as the Midrash.
In the Midrash, each interpretive story is designed to expand on incidents in the Bible, to derive principles and laws, or to offer moral lessons. Moreover, because of their nature,
midrashim
can be used to gain a glimpse into the way the rabbis read the biblical text and into their thinking processes.
What’s It Mean?
The Hebrew word
midrash
translates as “commentary” or “interpretation.” It is based on a Hebrew root meaning, “to investigate” or “to study.”
Midrash
is a method used to inquire into what a biblical text might mean.
Some Midrashim
Many
midrashim
deal with the story of Creation. For example, when God was ready to create man, He said, “Let us make man.” But who is “us”? Wasn’t God alone? The
midrash
explains this by concluding that, indeed, God was not alone and that God consulted with the ministering angels.
In contemporary times, there is much controversy over the matter of capital punishment. But the issue is raised much earlier, in the biblical story of Cain killing his brother Abel. While the Bible does allow for capital punishment, God does not inflict this penalty upon Cain. Why not?
The
midrash
addressing this question suggests that since Cain had never witnessed death, he could not possibly have known how his physical assault on Abel would culminate. Therefore, it would not be just to have taken Cain’s life — that’s why he was sentenced to permanent exile instead. In modern legal jargon, this equates to American and English jurisprudence, where there is a distinction between involuntary manslaughter and voluntary manslaughter as well as among other degrees of murder.
JEWISH HOLY DAYS
Celebrations of Triumph and Tragedy
The Jewish Holy Days begin with the Days of Awe, a ten-day period that generally falls sometime in September or October. These include Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Other important holidays include Chanukah, Purim, and Passover.
Rosh Hashanah
The phrase “Rosh Hashanah” emerged sometime during the Talmudic times (the first five centuries
A.D
.). However, the holiday itself was well established by the fourth century
B.C.
, when some Jews had returned from exile to Jerusalem to construct the Second Temple.
Given the importance of this period, preparations for the Days of Awe begin in the preceding month of
Elul
, when it is customary to blow the
shofar
during weekly services in synagogue.
What’s a Shofar?
