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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 do people persecute the Jews?
Historians have listed six explanations as to why some people hate the Jews:
1) Economic: Some people hate Jews because "they possess too much wealth and power."
2) Chosen People: Some hate the Jews because Jews claim that they are the chosen people (Exodus ch.19 and other passages).
3) Scapegoat: Jews seem to be a convenient group to single out and blame for the troubles of society.
4) Deicide: Some hate the Jews "because they killed Jesus."
5) Outsiders: Some hate the Jews "because they are different than us." (Xenophobia.)
6) Racial Theory: Some hate the Jews "because they are an inferior race."
As we examine the explanations, we must ask: Are they causes for anti-Semitism or excuses for it? The difference being, that if one takes away the cause, then anti-Semitism should no longer exist. If one can show a contradiction to the explanation, it demonstrates that the "cause" is not a reason, it is just an excuse.Let's look at some of the contradictions:
Economic -- The Jews of 17th- 19th century Poland and Russia were dirt poor and had no influence, and yet they were hated.
Chosen People -- a) In the late 19th century, most Jews of Germany denied "Chosenness;" and they assimilated. Yet the holocaust started there.
b) Christians and Moslems also profess to being the "Chosen people," but the world and the anti-Semites tolerate them.
Scapegoat -- Any group must already be hated to be an effective scapegoat. The Scapegoat theory does not cause anti-Semitism. Rather, anti-Semitism is what makes the Jews a convenient target. Hitler's ranting and ravings would not be taken seriously if he said, "It's the bicycle riders and the midgets who are destroying our society."
Deicide -- a) the Christian Bible says the Romans killed Jesus, with Jews mentioned as accomplices. (The claims that Jews directly killed Jesus came several hundred years later). Why are the alleged accomplices persecuted, but there hasn't been an anti-Roman movement through history?
b) Jesus himself said, "Forgive them [i.e., the Jews], for they know not what they do." And the Second Vatican Council in 1963 officially exonerated the Jews as the killers of Jesus. Neither of these events lessened anti-Semitism.
Outsiders -- With the Enlightenment in the late 18th century, many Jews rushed to assimilate. Anti-Semitism should have stopped. Instead, for example, the Nazis proclaimed in essence: We hate you, not because you're different, but because you're trying to become like us! We cannot allow you to "infect" the Aryan race with your "inferior genes."
Racial Theory -- The overriding problem with this theory is that it is self-contradictory: Jews are not a race. Anyone can become a Jew - and members of every race, creed and color in the world have done so at one time or another.
When did the name of Luz change to Bethel?
Strange things happened at Bethel. In Genesis 12:8, Abraham had pitched his tent to the east of Bethel and built an altar of stones. Later, in verse 13:3, he returned to Bethel and to the sacred stone altar. Here, the town is portrayed as already being called Bethel.
Yet in chapter 28, Abraham's grandson Jacob slept in a certain place and dreamed of a ladder going up to heaven then he named that place Bethel, but before then it had been called Luz. Here, the town is portrayed as being called Luz, until Jacob chose a new name, Bethel.
Jacob used a stone for a pillow and after waking put it on a pillar and poured oil on it. It has long been known that there was a West Semitic deity named Bethel, associated with the veneration of sacred stones*, thus this and previous passages point to the city being named after the god Bethel. When it first acquired this name will probably never be known.
Bethel can also mean 'House of God', but this derivation does not fit well with either the Abraham narrative, since in this story the town already existed and must have been named as such by its Canaanite inhabitants, nor the Jacob narrative, as there is nothing in the dream that leads to "House of God". Even this less probable alternative does not lead to the date of a change of name for the town.
*Footnote: The Jewish Encyclopedia tells us that the worship of sacred stones constituted one of the most general and ancient forms of religion; but among no other people was this worship so important as among the Semites. Sacred stones are mentioned with great frequency in the Old Testament, with at least ten of these references associated with Jacob.
According to Jewish tradition how did Jewish ideas spread around the Mediterranean world?
- Judaism itself:
- Jewish influence:
As the new religion of Christianity spread, it taught those beliefs which it had adopted directly from Jewish sources, such as the prohibition of infanticide and human sacrifice.
What is the name of Jews settling outside of Israel?
Diaspora communities; exiles; yordim (in recent usage). See also:
Where did the word pogrom come from?
"pogrom" came into common usage with extensive anti-Jewish riots that swept Ukraine and southern Russia in 1881-1884,
What did Nazis tell their kids about Jews?
Every anti-Semitic epithet was spewed out concerning the Jews, including some new canards that the Nazis invented. No need to repeat them here. The Nazis set up a huge, well-funded propaganda ministry (as did the Soviets), which poured out a deluge of hate-material against the Jews.
See also:
What did Queen Isabella have to do with the Spanish Inquistion?
Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain issued the edicts requiring all Jews and Moslems in Spain to convert, flee, or die. When too many non-Catholics converted, these rulers, among others, were worried that they might not be real Catholics and were secretly practicing their original religions. Therefore King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella created the Holy Inquisition as a tribunal to judge whether faith infractions had occurred. They gave control of the Inquisition to Torquemada and allowed him any means necessary to exact a confession. Most victims of the Inquisition were knowingly tortured in heinous ways with the permission of the Spanish Monarchy. (The Inquisition was only disbanded in the 1830s.)
Anti-Zionism has a number of root causes. The following is a non-exhaustive list of the underlying causes of Anti-Zionism:
1) Jewish Blasphemy: There was a prevailing belief among the more religious Jews (Orthodox, Hasidim, Ultra-Orthodox, etc.) that the Galut (the Exile from the Holy Land) was a divine act of punishment because Jews had violated the commandments that God had given them. When God believed that the Jewish people had repented and were ready for the Messiah, this Messiah would come and bring the Jews back to the Holy Land. Until that time, Jews will remain in exile. The Orthodox and some branches of the Hasidim and Ultra-Orthodox eventually came around to supporting the State of Israel, but not on the grounds of it being a Jewish (religious) State. They typically support it because it is a nation with a large percentage of Jewish people. However, there are some very vocal factions in the Hasidic and Ultra-Orthodox communities who see a Return to the Holy Land as being an act of blasphemy because Jews should wait for God to bring them into the Holy Land and not to physically move there of their will.
2) Non-Jewish Holy Sites: Since the Holy Land does not only have Jewish Holy Sites, but also has Christian and Moslem Holy Sites, there was opposition in these communities to Jews having a physical monopoly and control of these holy sites. Therefore, these communities opposed the idea of a Jewish Nation State that could do exactly that.
3) Palestinian Indigenous Rights: The indigenous Palestinians were aggrieved that people from abroad would come to the land that the parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents had lived on and worked for as long as they could remember and buy that land from the Ottomans without consulting them. Moreover, these people had a particular agenda to establish a state on the land they called their own. Understandably, the Palestinians were opposed to the Zionist project for these emotional and political considerations.
4) Arab Nationalism: Arab Nationalism as a movement crystallized in the 1930s and came to the political fore in the 1960s. Arab Nationalism was a movement that sought to create an Arab State or multiple Arab States based on common cultural and historical markers. This movement began to make a tether between Arab cultural identity and Islamic religious identity. This was especially keen in places with large non-Moslem communities because those communities typically worked closely with the European colonizers seen to be repressing the Arab identity. Zionism, which was a movement based on a European cultural identity and a Jewish religious identity was antithetical to the Arab Nationalist movement ideologically and also claimed territory claimed by Arab Nationalists putting them at odds politically.
5) Anti-Semitism: This should be self-evident. The Logic goes thus: Anti-Semites oppose any Jewish aspiration to freedom and/or power. Zionism promotes Self-Determination for the Jewish people which is an aspiration to freedom and power. Therefore, Anti-Semites oppose Zionism.
6) Political Antagonism: If State A has a lot of wars with State B, State A and B will develop a mutual animosity towards each other and their raisons d'être. There are a number of politically independent or partially independent Peoples and States that came into conflict with the Halutzim (Jewish Pioneers in the British Mandate of Palestine), the Haganah et al. (Jewish Militias), and Tzahal (the Israeli Army).
There are currently other additional causes, but these came later as other perspectives were added.
Why is Jewish monotheism a significant development in the history of civilization?
Jewish monotheism has become the heritage of the Western world. Before Judaism, ancient religions believed in polytheism.
What not everyone is aware of is that idolatry 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.
Compare that to God, who reveals His attributes in the Torah as wise, kind, holy, and pure. God is One, so the command to imitate His attributes (Deuteronomy 8:6) was (and is) a straightforward matter once one is even minimally familiar with the Torah.
- Accordingly, Judaism was the only ancient religion in which a large percentage of its adherents were literate and scholars.
- It was the only religion in which the people were ruled by God, with no need for a king, for several centuries (see Judges 8:23 and 1 Samuel 8:4-7).
- The concept of morality was also the work of the Israelites' religion, including the dignity and value of a person. It was/is the responsibility of the community to support the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the stranger passing through.
- Under the law of Judaism, everyone had recourse to the courts. A child, widow, wife, etc., could initiate legal action against any citizen to redress perpetrated harm. Compare this to those societies in which (at most) only mature, land-owning males had rights.
- Government was accountable to a higher authority. In other ancient societies, the monarch was all-powerful. Among the Israelites, however, the king was under the constant scrutiny of the Divinely-informed prophets, who didn't hesitate to castigate him publicly for any misstep in the sight of God. And, other than for the crime of rebellion, the king couldn't punish any citizen by his own decision. He was obligated by the Torah-procedures like everyone else.
- A robber had to repay double to his victim, or work it off. Unlike in many other ancient societies, in Judaism debtors are not imprisoned or harmed. They are made to sell property and/or work to repay what they owe. Compare this to the Roman practice by which anyone could accuse a man of owing them money and the debtor could be killed.
What was the significance of the Balfour Declaration to Zionists?
The Balfour Declaration was the first promise by the British empire to give the Jewish people a national home in Palestine. As the Zionists worked to create a Jewish state, the support of one of the world's largest powers, that was soon to take over Palestine, was crucial.
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It is to be remembered that Palestine was nothing more than desert land; the people of Palestine were poor Syrians who were few in number living in tents and mud homes scattered haphazardly throughout "Palestine". One has to remember that Jerusalem and modern day Israel was ALWAYS Israeli land; they were cast into the desert, out of Israel by the Romans, as per the bible. For many years Israel was unsettled; Jewish settlers were often killed by nomad Arabs crossing the desert land.
Syria, once a country reliant on its production of textiles from cotton farmers, exiled a small portion of its lowest class citizens and crimminals out to settle in one small part of the desert in the modern day Gaza Strip and in the Eastern part of Jerusalem.
In fact during large surveys conducted in 1943-1947 most of the land of the then "Planned Israeli State" was uninhabited; with exception to the Eastern part of the city of Jerusalem and surrounding areas.
It was commonplace prior to 1948 to kill Jewish families and people who for many years tried to take up residence in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the uninhabited desert lands surrounding Jerusalem, peacefully, alongside the Muslims.
It was only after Britain and the U.N went public with their unanimous decision to create a "Jewish State" that thousands of Syrians and Muslims from all surrounding countries rushed onto this land claiming it as "Palestinian"; when in fact a large portion of it sat barren for more than 200 years.
The significance was that the Jewish People were promised a home in Palestine; a "State" of Israel once again to be theirs as it was originally mainly due to the fact that no country would accept Holocaust survivors who numbered only in the hundreds out of 6 million hard working people across Europe.
Throughout Europe and even the United States refused to absorb Holocaust survivors; the decision to once again establish an Independent State of Israel was largely done by the U.N. in recognizing the land belonged to the Jewish people in biblic times and creating the Independent Democratic State would give survivors a place to regroup in a peaceful State to rebuild their lives.
Unfortunately ,to give them a state would have meant sharing part of Jerusalem with the Arab People of Palestine, and giving the Jews roughly half of the land that the British monarchy colonized. Most of the land given was uninhabited, and consisted of swathes of desert land.
Still nursing their losses from backing Hitler and the German war efforts, many Arab States were openly defiant to both the U.N. and Britain in their decision to "take" land that was deemed occupied by Palestians when in fact the land sat devoid of humans and was nothing more than sand.
It was nothing more than racist mantra that Arab leaders used to their advantage to anger its people to once again take up arms against the Jews.
The Palestinans, Syria, along with Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon, upon Israel's declaration of Independence in 1948 jointly attacked the newly established State of Israel without provocation, in defiance of the United Nations and Britain's efforts to resettle the Holocaust survivors.
From 1967 through 1973 the Syrians in particular deluged the newly established State with daily attacks via strategic mountainous area along its' border adjacent to Israel that killed many Israeli civilians. The Israeli Army pushed back the Syrians well into Syria, claiming the land for its' own; the Golan heights.
In 1973 the Golan Heights comprised of a few small farms and mainly unsettled land. Most notable of the farms was Bersheeba Farms. It is to be noted that Israel removed the many munitions and land mines that were plenty on the land, imported millions of pounds of top soil and with the help of the U.S. and Britain planted hundreds of trees, groves and fields, in where they employed many Muslim farmers in attempts to cohabitate peacefully and assist the otherwise unemployed poor people of Palestine that their motherland had left to fend for themselves.
Resentment and bitter racism mainly by Muslims but also by a minority in Israel remain an obstacle to peace. Confounding this is Hezbollah and Hamas; the "Hama" people of Syria and Iran [minorities, similar to Alawites] and Hezbollah, Lebanese and Iranian funded; are both considered terrorist groups. Both groups pledge "death to Israel and her people".
Average civilians in both the State of Palestine and Israel have conscribed to a civil relationship; younger generations have found friends on the other side. This small albeit first step towards peace continues to be hampered by terrorist groups and poor and young people alike with limited opportunity elsewhere are forced into joining them, often to be used as human bombs.
When Moses saved the people what did God give in return?
Moses didn't act on his own accord. He was following the command of God (Exodus ch.3) in freeing the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. God gave the Torah, but that wasn't "in return" for freeing the Israelites; it was the purpose for which the Israelites were freed.
What prohibitions existed during the Sabbath at the time of Jesus?
There were many things that were not allowed during the Sabbath in His time. The Sabbath worship started Friday evening at sundown and ended Saturday morning as sunrise. The Sabbath continues through Saturday. During the Sabbath, you may only walk a certain amount of steps that day. And even less steps before stopping and praying and then walking again. You may not exceed the amount of steps that day. You were not allowed to heal, help, or work that day. Any violation with that law would lead to death. This is a reason that the Jews wanted to kill Jesus. (Let it be noted that the Jews never actually killed Him, it was the Romans.) He went against the Sabbath rules. He helped, He healed, and He worked nonstop. That includes the Sabbath. It really angered everyone that He did that on the Sabbath, and it angered them more that at the same time, He was saying that He was the Son of God. In the Jews minds and point-of-view, Jesus was this random man that broke the sacred rules of the Sabbath and claimed to be God's Son. In their eyes, Jesus was mocking God, when in fact He was just preaching. And He was the Son of God. Of course, few believed this until after Hid death. Once He died, they all realized that He was the Son of God.
Please see the Related Questions linked to below.
Why do people hate the Jews?
Why did the Nazis hate the Jews
Why do some Christians hate Jews?
Why do some Muslims hate Jews?
What is the traditional Zionist movement?
I am not entirely sure what the term "traditional Zionist" means.
Zionism is a modern nationalist movement advocating for a Jewish Nation-State in the historical "Land of Israel" and did not exist in any form prior to the late 1800s. (While there was certainly a desire among Jews to return to the "Land of Israel" prior to Zionism, this was based solely on the hope of divine action to bring the Jews home, not a political movement to attempt to create a mechanism for this.)
If you mean "traditional" as in "most historical", then Zionism (until around the 1950s) was predominantly a secular Jewish movement. It was eschewed by the Religious Jewish community as an act of blasphemy, since it was a rejection of God's mandated Exile for the Jewish people. (Some religious Jews such as Neturei Karta still hold to this objection.) Therefore, the historical and original Zionist movement is secular.
If you mean "traditional" as in "most religious", then Religious Zionism as a movement started with Rabbi Avraham Kook who claimed that the secular Jewish State was insured survival by God so that the beginnings of the Messianic Plan for the world could occur. This movement has since grown and expanded with the occupation of the West Bank, further "legitimizing" God's protection of Israel.
Is Anti-Semitism still a problem in today's society?
Certainly. It is mostly an issue in places where there are large numbers of both Jews and Anti-Semites, such as France, but it occurs elsewhere too. Anti-Semitism is much more common in the Islamic World than elsewhere.
A few recent examples:
- In Poland, 48 percent of the population shows deep-seated antisemitic attitudes.
- "In Hungary, Jews can feel the hatred in the streets."
- In the Pine Bush school district in upstate New York, Jewish students were being bullied, beaten, taunted and harassed while authorities looked the other way (New York Times). According to ADL polls, 35 million Americans hold anti-Jewish attitudes.
- Antisemitism has increased in Europe since 2000, with increases in verbal attacks as well as vandalism such as fire bombings of Jewish schools, and desecration of synagogues and cemeteries. These incidents take place not only in France and Germany, but also in counties like Belgium, Austria and the U.K.
- Recent physical assaults against Jews in Europe include beatings, stabbings and other violence, in a number of cases resulting in serious injury or death. Holland and Sweden have also had high rates of antisemitic attacks since 2000.
How was the Jewish Star enforced on the Jewish people?
They would break into synagagous and use the directory to find people and enforce the Jewish star
Are Nazism and Zionism basically the same only with Chosen People replacing Master Race?
Answer 1
Jews do not believe that "Chosen" means superior. Zionism is only the longing to return to the Jewish homeland, not to conquer or hurt anyone.
Answer 2
There is often hyperbole in the media about comparing Zionist Israeli policy to Nazi German policy in order to create sympathy for the Palestinians. However, there are vast differences in the organization of ideals and direction of the governments, making these ideologies very different.
Persecution and Genocide
One of the hallmarks of Nazi policy was the quarantining of "Undesirables" in ghettos which were partial cities without sufficient food or living space. Then the "Undesirables" would be trucked to forced labor and extermination camps. This led to the deaths of 6 million Jews and 5 million non-Jews (primarily Slavs and Romani/Gypsies).
Israel has never organized any sort of genocidal campaign against any group. Although life is difficult for Palestinians in the West Bank under Israeli occupation, they are not rounded up, quarantined or subject to mass murder. The Palestinians in Gaza are under a blockade since the Hamas government almost always uses surplus supplies to wage war on Israel, but Israel still continues to provide the Gaza Strip with all of its electricity and 80% of its foodstuffs, the exact opposite treatment afforded by the Nazis to their "Undesirables". Of course, this fails to note how Arab Israeli citizens (ethnic Palestinians, Druze, Bedouins, and Arab Christians) receive equal treatment under Israeli Law and even have political parties which have participated in every Israeli Parliament, some of which are opposed to the Jewish State.
Industry Nationalization and Human Rights
Economically, the Fascist State tends to co-opt private industry and create an unholy political-industrial complex that makes the rights of its citizens secondary to the whims and desires of industry. This is to create a stronger impetus for production of military arms and manufactures. The Nazis were well known for their extensive collaboration with industrial manufacturers and the lessening of workers' protections.
Israel has some of the most comprehensive worker protections in the world and an incredible number of regulations for private industry. Israeli domestic policy would be considered socialist by American standards or Lib-Dem by British Standards or Moderate Gaullist by French Standards. While there is significant military expenditure in Israel, it is not co-opted by the government. Rather private manufacturers receive grants and subsidies, similar to what happens in the United States. Israel also has one of the most productive start-up economies, entirely outside of the government's interference.
Eugenics
The Nazis made very clear that they were trying to create a master race with a certain set of discernible physical features: blond hair, blue eyes, small nose, pale face, and had anatomical drawings of the Ãœbermensch which resembled the typical Swede. The Nazis researched the best ways to promote reproduction among those who "had desirable traits" and to limit reproduction among the Undesirables. Women in concentration camps, for example, were experimented on to prevent them from ovulating and thus effectively prevent their reproduction.
Aside from the fact that Jews in Israel are from all over the world (roughly 1/3 from Russia, 1/3 from the Arab World, and 1/3 from Western Europe and the USA, with sprinklings from elsewhere), there is no view in Israel of how a Jew should look. Further, there is no attempt to alter demography by preventing non-Jews from marrying and reproducing. In fact, aside for Religious Jews, Arab Israelis have the highest birth rates in Israel. While there are demographic concerns in Israel, no Israeli politician or organization has ever contemplated trying to prevent Arabs from marrying or having children, because this is not what Israel is about.
Is Edith schwalb from hiding Edith still alive?
Yes is you people mean Edith from the book by Kathy Kacer the ya and she lives in Toronto according to the back of the book.
What was the outcome of the third stage in God's plan for the return of the exiled Jews to Judah?
Several tens of thousands of Jews returned; some under Zerubavel, and others a couple of decades later under Ezra and Nehemiah. They gained governorship of the land of Judea under the hegemony of the Persians, and rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem. See also:
Who are israel's native people?
According to the Bible, Adam and Eve because they were formed from the soil. You can't get any more "native" than that. However according to academic concensus, e.g. University historians and archaelogists, the natives of Israel are the ancient Canaanites, semitic peoples who inhabited those lands from the time of the earliest stone age. Archeological evidence shows, the Canaanites predated even Babylon, and there is dispute now, as to whether or not to call Babylon the "cradle of civilization" because Canaanite cities in fact predate it. There is evidence of organized settlements in ancient Canaan, going all the way back to 10,000 B.C. Controversy surrounds such theories however because they suggest, the peoples of the middle east were already civilized, having well organized societies, while Europe was still inhabited by Neanderthals. Whether they had organized settlements or not as early as that, remains contentested, and largely unproven, however what IS proven, is that the semitic people who went on to become the Canaanites, have been living there since their ancestors first left Africa, making the area one of the oldest continually inhabited and farmed places on earth. The reason, some have theorized, that most of the Arabian peninsula is desert, is because people have been living there so long, the soil was simply exhausted. That, is the general concensus and agreement; that the "natives" are the ancient Canaanites, who have been living there since early paleolithic times, almost since humankind learned how to make tools.
How did the spread of nationalism affect Jewish people living throughout Europe in the 19th century?
It inspired a movement aimed at creating an independent state for Jews from around the world called Zionism.
Where were the ancient hebrews located?
The Jewish people are descendants of Abraham the Hebrew, whose Semitic ancestors lived in the Fertile Crescent and who lived most of his life in the Middle Eastern country of Israel (Canaan) 3800 years ago. Abraham is called a Hebrew (Genesis ch.14) because "Hebrews" (Ivrim) means descendants of Eber (Ever). They were Western Semites and lived in northern Mesopotamia.
In 1934-39, excavations were conducted at ancient Mari on the Euphrates River. They found that ancient towns were named after the ancestors of Abraham:
The city of Nahor was found near the city of Harran which exists to this day. Equally clear signs of early Hebrew residence appear in the names of other towns nearby: Serug (Assyrian Sarugi), Terah (Til Turakhi, "Mound of Terah"), and Peleg (Paliga, on the Euphrates near the mouth of the Habur). All these names are found in Genesis ch.11.
