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History of Judaism
The History of Judaism is the history of the Jewish people, their religion and culture, tracing back to the Biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob of the 18th c. BCE. The earliest mention of Israel as a people was discovered in an inscription on the Merneptah Stele from the 1200s BCE.
1,396 Questions
Why is Abraham an important figure in Jewish history?
Because he founded Judaism.
According to tradition, Abraham founded Judaism, and Moses later received the Torah from God.
Abraham, tenth generation descendant of Noah, of Hebrew lineage, was the son of Terah, uncle of Lot, father of Isaac, grandfather of Jacob, and ancestor of the Israelites. His story is in Genesis ch.11 (end), through ch.25. Jewish tradition states that he was the first to teach belief in One God; and it is in his merit that Jews continue to exist (Genesis 18:19, and ch.17).
Abraham (18th century BCE) came from ancestry that had been God-fearing a couple of centuries earlier but had afterwards slipped into idolatry (Joshua 24:2). Nimrod, the idolatrous tyrant, had brought Abraham's father (Terah) from the Semitic ancestral seat near the conjunction of the Balikh and the Euphrates, and instated him in a position of power in his army in the royal Babylonian city of Ur, where Abraham was born. Nimrod persecuted any who would question his idolatrous cult.
The Kuzari (Rabbi Judah HaLevi, 1075-1141) states that Abraham was gifted with high intelligence; and, as Maimonides (1135-1204) describes, Abraham didn't blindly accept the ubiquitous idolatry. The whole populace had been duped, but the young Abraham contemplated the matter relentlessly, finally arriving at the conclusion that there is One God and that this should be taught to others as well. This is what is meant by his "calling out in the name of the Lord" (Genesis ch.12). As a young man, he remonstrated with passersby in public, demonstrating to them the falsehood of their idols; and our tradition tells how he was threatened and endangered by Nimrod.
Subsequently, Terah relocated to Harran; and it is here that Abraham began to develop a circle of disciples (Rashi commentary, on Genesis 12:5).
Later, God told Abraham in prophecy to move to the Holy Land, which is where Abraham raised his family.
He continued his contemplations, eventually arriving at the attitudes and forms of behavior which God later incorporated into the Torah given to Moses.
Abraham, with God's help, singlehandedly trounced the supremacy of the evil Nimrod. He received God's promise of inheriting the Holy Land (Genesis 13). He strove to raise a family (Genesis ch.15, 17, and 24) which would serve God (Genesis 18:19); and God eventually blessed his efforts, granting him many children (ibid., ch.16, 21 and 25), as He had promised (Genesis ch.17). Abraham founded the Jewish people and lived to see his work live on in the persons of Isaac and Jacob; and he taught many other disciples as well (Talmud, Yoma 28b). He saved the population of the south of Canaan from invading foreign kings (Genesis 14); and he was feared by neighboring kings (ibid., ch.12 and 20). Abraham gave tithes (Genesis ch.14), entered into a covenant with God (Genesis ch.15 and 17), welcomed guests into his home (Genesis ch.18) unlike the inhospitable Sodomites (Genesis ch.19), prayed for people (Genesis ch.18), rebuked others when necessary (Genesis ch.20), eulogized and buried the deceased (Genesis ch.23), and fulfilled God's will unquestioningly (Genesis ch.22). He became renowned as a prince of God (Genesis 23:6).
All of these forms of behavior were based upon the ways of God, which Abraham comprehended through his contemplations. These, and similar personality traits, were the teachings of Abraham and his descendants (unlike idolatry, which had tended to go hand in hand with cruel, licentious and excessive behavior, since the caprices which were narrated concerning the idols were adopted as an excuse to imitate those types of behavior).
It is therefore clear why God expresses His love for Abraham (Isaiah 41:8) and calls Himself the God of Abraham (Genesis 26:24), and says that Abraham obeyed Him fully (Genesis 26:5). And this is why, according to our tradition, Abraham is credited with having begun the religion which became known as Judaism. However, Abraham and his descendants observed their traditions voluntarily, until the Giving of the Torah to Moses 3325 years ago, when God made it obligatory.
Where do most of tribe of Judah live today?
The tribe of Judah is now what you probably know as Jews. There are roughly 14 million Jews in the world, 6.5 million of which live in Israel, around 6 million across the US and the rest spread in communities mainly across Western Europe and North and South America.
What is the reason the Jews were taken as prisoners of war to Babylon?
1) The general spiritual reason was that God found the people of Judah to be below the spiritual level that was a requisite for remaining in their land. The prophets had warned them (Jeremiah 7:25) but were not sufficiently heeded (2 Chronicles 36:16). Once God's presence no longer felt welcome in the Holy Temple, its destruction and the exile were just a matter of time (Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 31a, and midrash Eichah Rabbah 1:43).
A more specific spiritual reason was the egregious sins of Menasheh, king of Judah (2 Kings 21:11-13 and 24:3).
2) The temporal circumstance was the fact that King Yehoiakim, after having been obedient to Nevuchadnezzar (king of Babylonia), became insubordinate (2 Kings 24:1); and Nevuchadnezzar responded by conquering the land of Judah, destroying the First Temple and exiling the populace.
Some positive results: the false prophets, at long last, were silenced forever. They had predicted that Judah would remain independent of Babylonia (Jeremiah ch.27) and no Destruction would take place.
Also, the lure of idolatry finally weakened, since the Destruction and Exile happened exactly as predicted by the true Prophets, who were the same ones who had spoken ceaselessly against dabbling in idolatry.
What role did judges played in the Jewish history?
They functioned as political leaders, similar to governers or mayors.
What feast did Hannah and Elkanah go to year after year?
It wasn't a feast. It was a sacrifice.
1 Samuel 1
3 Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the LORD Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the LORD.
According to Leviticus 3, you could make sacrifices at any time, to ask something in prayer.
When you offer sacrifices to ask my blessing, you may offer either a bull or a cow, but there must be nothing wrong with the animal.
What conflicts are caused by zionism in the middle east?
Zionism is one of numerous causes of the Arab-Israeli Conflict and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Zionism is the philosophy that the Jewish people should have a nation-state just like the German people, Turkish people, Greek people, and so on. Without Zionism, there would be no State of Israel, and hence any conflicts associated with that state would not exist. However, the mere existence of the State of Israel does not cause conflict; the existence combined with its rejection by its neighbors for various reasons.
What important idea are the ancient Hebrews credited for starting?
The concept of having a week composed of 7 days, may be a Hebrew invention.
Answer 2
Monotheism, the Ten Commandments, the Torah and the Prophets.
Judaism is egalitarian and values all individuals, both men and women. The wealthy have no privileges; and the poor are valued, treated well and their opinions listened to. (Compare this to those societies in which only mature, land-owning males had any legal status.)
Judaism applied laws, and rules of moral behavior, to all its members equally. The laws of Moses form much of Western legal background.
Quote:
"I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation ... fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations" (John Adams, 2nd President of the United States).
"Certainly, the world without the Jews would have been a radically different place. Humanity might have eventually stumbled upon all the Jewish insights, but we cannot be sure. All the great conceptual discoveries of the human intellect seem obvious and inescapable once they had been revealed, but it requires a special genius to formulate them for the first time. The Jews had this gift. To them we owe the idea of equality before the law, both Divine and human; of the sanctity of life and the dignity of human person; of the individual conscience and of collective conscience, and social responsibility" (Paul Johnson, Christian historian, author of A History of the Jews and A History of Christianity).
According to Jewish tradition are Judaism and Zoroastrianism connected?
Since the two groups lived side by side in Babylonia, there may have been some borrowing in language or other minor matters. But in terms of beliefs, the two are quite different.
Judaism, according to tradition, has always been monotheistic. Even at the height of the unfortunate spread of idolatry among the less-loyal Ten Tribes, there were thousands who remained loyal to God (1 Kings 19:18).
The Zoroastrians, however, believed in two gods, not one. The Jewish Sages who redacted the Talmud in the early centuries of the Common Era lived in Babylonia, witnessed the practices of the Zoroastrians, and recorded this fact (Talmud, Sanhedrin 39a). In addition, Zoroastrianism is unlike Judaism in that:
its deity is not immanent
it believes in worship through intermediaries, who are themselves "worthy of worship"
evil has its own creator, Angra Mainyu or Ahriman, which had always existed
Why did Hitler hate Jews so much and would he have killed you and your family?
yes because my whole family is Jew and so am i he hated them and pretty much killed them all
What challenges did the Israelites face when they returned to Canaan?
The Canaanites were by that time in full possession of the land (see Rashi commentary on Genesis 12:6). They had at least 150 fortified cities and towns. They were war-like, and would band together against the Israelites in battle (Joshua 9:2); and they would be fighting on their own turf, with which they were more familiar than the Israelites. They had a population that exceeded the number of the Israelites (Deuteronomy 7:17).In addition, the Israelites as yet had no permanent homes, or stockpiled weapons. Also, the camp that they set up at Gilgal included their wives and children and would be vulnerable.
See also:
Contents of the Book of Joshua
Jewish music during the Holocaust?
See the related link below.
As well as over 300 articles, this site has 100s of links, images and recordings.
How have the Germans compensated for their wrongdoings to the Jews?
Germans have a number of standing laws and edicts enacted by the West German Government in the late 1940s and 1950s concerning Jewish property and the State of Israel. Germany gives Israel a set reparations payment every year and exports to them additional German products such as automobiles and electronics at subsidized prices. In addition, Germany has set up a collections fund to provide individual reparation payments to Jewish families that request reparations subject to general proof of loss.
The German people as a nation have, for the first time in any country, taken on a national sense of guilt and remorse for the actions of the Holocaust and have politically done everything in their power to preserve the memory of those acts by saving former synagogues, collecting former Jewish property for exhibitions and compensations (upon request), and building innumerable museums and memorials to the Holocaust. No other nation in history that committed genocide has ever gone as far out of their way to atone for that sin as Germany.
As with many so-called "Jewish names," the surname Rossner is sometimes used by Jews and sometimes used by families with no Jewish connection.
explain the development of monotheism be sure include the Hebrews and the Zoroastrianism.
What is a raid on a Jewish community conducted by government troops called?
Pogroms, or raids on Jewish communities.
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Actually, pogroms were generally not 'conducted by government troops'. Pogroms were outbreaks of mob violence, often encouraged by governments, against Jews.
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It depends on the time and region. There is no single word, but in Nazi-occupied Poland the term lapanka was sometimes usd.
Why didn't people like the Jews in 1888?
The terms "religious antisemitism" and "anti-Judaism" are sometimes used to refer to animosity towards Judaism as a religion rather than to Jews defined as an ethnic or racial group. Antisemitism is prejudice .against or hostility towards Jews. But a person obviously cannot be held responsible for what some distant ancestor did almost 20 centuries ago. The persecution persecution of Jews for the past 2,000 years of Jews for the past 2,000 years has been a serious issue.
In 1888, such perceptions were strengthened when a series of vicious and grotesque crimes like the Jack the ripper muders seemed to implicate a Jew or Jews in England. The news quckly spread to the United States and other countries.
Why the history of Babylon is important to Jewish History?
The Babylonians destroyed the First Temple and exiled the Jews.
A Jewish community numbering in (at least) hundreds of thousands lived and flourished in Babylonia for over 1500 years, with autonomy under the Exilarch and with some of the greatest of all Yeshivot and sages.
When did the number of Jews decrease?
This happened several times in history. However, the most recent and largest decrease in the number of Jews occurred during World War II, when the Holocaust claimed the lives of 6 million European Jews.
How did the land of Israel affect Jewish history?
The experiences of the Israelites in the Holy Land reflected their relationship with God. When they obeyed God, the Land was fertile and peaceful. When they began disobeying Him, the Land vomited them out and lost its fertility (Leviticus 26).
The Patriarchs and their family lived in the land of Israel (Canaan) for 220 years. The era from Joshua until the First Destruction (including the Judges and Kings) was 850 years. The Second Temple era was, according to traditional chronology, another 420 years (not 586), which included the Hasmonean dynasty. That's a total of 1490 years.
After the Second Destruction, there were thousands of Jews who remained in Israel (Judea; Palestine) throughout the Talmudic era and beyond (see for example the Talmud, Sanhedrin 17b). They were the majority of Palestine's population well into the fourth century, with records attesting to at least 43 Jewish communities, most of them in the Galilee and Jordan valley. After that, there were still Yeshivas in Israel with at least some thousands of community-members.
According to the biblical account, much of which is impossible to verify in the archaeological record until late in the monarchial period, Jewish history begins with the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who considered Canaan (an area comprising present-day Israel and the West Bank) their home.
How many men named Jesus in Jewish history?
The name Jesus is the Greek form of 'Joshua', but the Greek form is only used in the Bible when referring to Jesus Christ. Joshua is one of the most common names in the entire Bible, but always as a great leader or high priest.
Of course, we have Joshua, son of Nun, who is reported to have conquered the Canaanites. There were also Joshua the Bet-Shemite and Joshua, governor of the city of Jericho (2 Kings chapter 23). Later, Zechariah had apocalyptic visions, in which Joshua the high priest had been found guilty of iniquity, but the Lord needed Joshua and was willing to offer him inducements and honour.
Interestlingly, the Bible says that the high priest Joshua, son of Jozadak or Josedec (Joseph), assisted Zorobabel in rebuilding the Temple following the Return from Exile of the Jews. In the list of Israelites that returned from the Babylonian Exile, Ezra also records that a Joshua was head of the priestly family of Phahath Moab, while another was head of the priestly family of Idaia, or Jedaia. This is an improbably high proportion of heads of priestly families who were called Joshua, yet no other person listed, not even anyone's father, was called Joshua. Either the name Joshua was quite common at the time of the Return, or it was not, and there could be statistical evidence in the Bible that the name Joshua (Jesus) already had important religious associations.
