Abraham

the father of the monotheistic religion; chosen by God to be the father of the chosen people

Monotheism

• belief in one God i.e. Christianity, Judaism, Islam

Hebrew Bible:

• GENLD first 5 books; the Old Testament in Christianity
• Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy

Covenant

Agreement between God & the Jewish people. God says unto the Jews, “You are my chosen ones, I will take care of you if you keep my Law”.

Circumcision:

Physical sign of the Jew’s covenant with God

Israelites/Jews:

The term first appears in an Egyptian document from 1209 BC

Canaan

God’s promised land to the Jews. Originally promised to Abraham and later delivered to the Israelites

Under the Pharaoh the Jews (Canaanites) experienced a period of enslavement but were later saved by God and escaped. They then embarked on a three month journey to Sinai

Moses

Traveled to Egypt to help free the Jews and told the Pharaoh of the coming plagues. Later receives the Ten Commandments.

Plagues

• Ten plagues which occurred in Egypt seen as God’s attempt to persuade the Pharaoh to release the Jews from slavery. Sent because the Pharaoh refused to free Canaanites

Passover = Pesach:

• Homes of the Israelites were “passed over” during the slaying of the first sons in egypt because they put the blood of a lamb on their door. God saves them from slavery and death.

Seder Meal

Also known as the Passover Meal, this feast marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday, Passover. Celebration of remembering the escape/freedom of Israelites

Mount Sinai:

Location where Moses received the Ten Commandments

10 Commandments

Also known as the decalogue, they are ten rules guiding principles of ethics and ritual. God is said to have inscribed them on two tablets and given them to Moses on Mount Sinai

Torah

The central concepts of Jewish tradition, also can be known as the first five books from the Tanakh. Essentially the Torah consists of the foundational narratives of the Jewish people. Acts as a resource for Jews by giving a sense of shared history and belief.

Challachah

• Jewish religious law

David:

Second king of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah. Gave the Jews a nation, capital and law.

Solomon

The final king before the northern kingdom of Israel and southern kingdom of Judah split. Inherited Jerusalem from David and built the temple to create a cohesive nation

Jerusalem:

• King David established this as the capital of the united kingdom of Israel and later his son, Solomon, commissioned the building of the First Temple

Ark of the Covenant

Said to have been commissioned by God, this Ark was supposed to have contained the two tablets which had the Ten Commandments inscribed upon them

Temple of Jerusalem:

God was present here more than anywhere else; destroyed twice, the second time in 70 CE by the Romans and never rebuilt. Center of life in Jerusalem

Babylonians

destruction of temple the first time in 587 BCE. Nearly ended the Israelites

Persian Empire:

Among other things, they helped free the Jewish people from their Babylonian captivity

Roman Empire

destruction of temple in 70 CE

Rabbis

• teachers of the Torah; after the second destruction of the temple, they decided they needed to rethink their belief in God only being present there and decided to start building local synagogues (see below)

Synagogues

• Jewish house of prayer

Dispersion/Diaspora

the spreading out of people

Talmud

• oral tradition, interpretation 600 CE; a central text in Rabbinic Judaism

Rabbinic Judaism

• the mainstream form of Judaism since the 6th Century after the Jewish diaspora; encourages the practice of Judaism in the absence of Temple sacrifice and other practices no longer possible; based on the belief that at Mount Sinai, Moses received the Torah directly from God as well as additional explanation of the revelation

Historical periods

Biblical, Rabbinic cf Irving Greenberg

312 CE Constantine (Roman Emperor):

Christianity is state religion

European Diaspora

• movement of Jews through Europe, namely to Poland

Ashkenazi

• Northern Jews: French, German & English

Gentile

non-Jew; refers to non-Israelite peoples or nations

Deicide

killing God by killing Jesus

1096 Crusades

The Jews were often victims of violent mobs even though they were not the focus of the crusades, because the Jewish people were accused of having killed Jesus

Middle Ages: Christians want conversion of Jews

Anti-semitism spread and intensified

1290-1300 Migration to Poland

• many Jews moved here due to the abundance of fertile land that needed people to work it

Shetl

• Yiddish for “town”; refers to a small town with a large Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe before the pogroms and Holocaust

Yiddish

Unifying language for the Jews which combines Hebrew with other Germanic languages

Pale of Settlement

• a region of Imperial Russia in which permanent residency by Jews was allowed and beyond which Jewish permanent residency was prohibited; included much of present day Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, Moldova, Ukraine, and parts of Western Russia

Pogrom

• any attack against Jews; violence, massacre, or persecution aimed at a particular ethnic or religious group, namely Jews

Zionism & Theodor Herzl

a contemporary term from when the state of Israel was established in 1948; a support of the state of Israel with no religious connotation; Herzl is known as the father of modern political Zionism and in effect the founder of the state of Israel

Eliazer Ben Yehuda:

• the driving spirit behind the revival of the Hebrew language in the modern era

Socialism (Jewish) 1897

“The Bund”; a secular Jewish socialist party that sought to unite all Jewish workers in the Russian Empire (inc. Poland) and ally itself with the wider socialist democratic movement; wanted legal minority status for Jews; remnants of part remain active in the diaspora and Israel

USSR 1917

Russian (Bolshevik) revolutions led by Lenin that caused the collapse of the Tsarist autocracy and the creation of the USSR (Federal Socialist Republic); took place during WWI

Ikkun Olam

Being part of an effort to lead the broken world. “Building the Earth”

Community

Covenant made with God and the people.

Minion “sit shiva”:

the week long mourning period in Judaism for the closest relatives lasting for 7 days following the funeral

Temple

Believe God is not only in the major temple. You can build more (like synagogues, but also personal temples like when you have passover at home with your family)

Shabbat

keeping a day of rest to focus on God and study - Saturday

Yom Kippur

Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people; Sabbaths of Sabbaths; 25 day fasting and intensive prayer

Rosh Hashonna

Jewish New Year

Homeland

• safe area where Jews can call their own after Holocaust destruction

Shekinah

God is present and dwells within every single person, God experiences everything that the person experiences

Dispersion

shifted the center of religious authority from the Temple priesthood to the Rabbi; Jews dispersed throughout Rome

Diaspora

• migration of Jews to other places for work and finding resources, easy to travel within Roman empire

Afterlife

Kaddish

Jewish prayer for the dead that is said everyday for 11 months in purposes of mourning, day of the anniversary is the time when gravestone is set

Deicide

• charge against the Jewish people upon killing Jesus who was God

Antisemitism

• prejudice, hatred, or disagreement with Jews; specifically regarding the Jews’ involvement in the death of Jesus

Teaching of contempt

many different forms where Antisemitism was practiced by the Christians over time against the Jews for the death of Jesus

Supersessionism

our religion is better than yours, Christians believed this