Transcript Slide 1
An Introduction to Judaism by Rabbi Yeshaya Balog Judaism: Life of Obligation 1) Learning 2) Life 3) Food 4) Dress 5) Business 6) Family and sexuality 7) Spirituality 8) Calendar 1) The Obligation of Torah Study The Jews study the life of the nation, in order to live it. The Jews live the life of the nation, in order to learn it. Life and learning are one. Judaism is a community of learning. What Do We Learn? Mitzvot: 248 Positive Commandments, 365 Prohibitions 2 parts of the Torah: Written: Pentateuch Oral (written down 200-700 CE): Mishna, Talmud Trinty: Nation, Land and Teachings 2) The Most Important Principle: Life The Torah is the teaching of life „Never again“: will the Jewish nation be victim Kosher animals Kosher fish: fins and scales Slaughter 3) Food No mixing milk and meat No eating of blood 4) Dress If married: hair covering Kippa Tzitzit Modest 5) Business Always with honesty Helping poor people (Tzedaka) Give money for just causes 6) Marriage and Sexuality No physical contact before marriage In marriage: no marital relations during menstruation Marrital intimacy: for children and love Divorce is allowed 7) Spirituality Prayer: anywhere, in minjan 10 Jewish adult men Blessings: always 8) Calendar Shabbat: every week one day of festival Friday evening: Creation of the universe Friday Evening: Creation „Thus the heaven and earth were finished, and all array. By the seventh day God completed His work which he had done, and He abstained on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because on it He abstained from all His work which God created to make.“ (Genesis 2, 1-3) Shabbat - Revelation „Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it. Six days shall you work and accomplish all your work; but the seventh day is Sabbath to HASHEM your God; you shall not do any work – you, your son, your daughter, your slave. Your maidservant, your animal; and your convert within your gates for in six days HASHEM made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day. Therefore, HASHEM blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.“ (Exodus 20, 8-11). Shabbat Afternoon: Salvation „May the compassionate One let us inherit that day that shall be all Sabbath and rest for life everlasting“ (from Grace After Meals) Festivals Agricultural Historical Spiritual The Three Agricultural Festivals Pessach (Passover): Creation Sukkot (Tabernacles): Salvation Shavuot (Pentecost): Revelation Four Historic Festivals Purim (4. c. BCE) 9. Beav (70 CE) Chanukka (2. c. BCE) Independence Day (1948) The Spiritual Festivals: Rosh Hashana – New Year Day of History Kingdom of God The veil between Creation and Nature is torn off Yom Kippur – Day of Atonement „Man stood alone ..., with nothing to lean on, without nation or mankind ..., on the day of atonement in the gaping silence and had to find his way to God, to his God ...“ (Isaac Breuer The New Kuzari)