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Judaism Eliezer Segal 1 Judaism Eliezer Segal The term Judaism, which implies a definable belief-system, has no real equivalent in the traditional vocabulary of the reli­ gion itself. Its widespread use in European languages owes largely to the encounter with Christianity, which attaches greater im­ portance to creeds and doctrines. In Jewish tradition, theology and religious concepts rarely have been perceived as defining features. It is more accurate to employ the term Judaism in a broader cultural sense to denote the full range of religious expressions of the people of Israel (as they almost invariably have referred to themselves). This usage correctly underscores the national char­ acter of the religion, inextricably bound to historical experience, without attaching disproportionate weight to its theological com­ ponent. As we shall observe, Judaism contains a complex variety of elements, including law, ethics, morality, observances, wor­ ship, and beliefs. Technically, the wordJudaism-like its cognate termsJew and Jewish-refers to a more narrowly defined time frame within the longer national history, commencing at the conclusion of (he biblical era. Whereas earlier epochs had known of cwelve tribes of Israel, or of the cwo rival monarchies ofJudah and Israel, a sequence of conquests and exiles brought about a situation in 11 Judaism 13 12 ElrezerSegal Torah can refer to the rich spectrum of Jewish religious tradi­ which only a vestige of the original people, dominated by the tions as they evolved through the ages. The delicate interplay of ancient tribe of Judah and inhabiting its ancestral territory Oral and Written Torahs will be very much in evidence when we Uudea), was able to maintain its religious and cultural identity attempt to trace the evolution ofJewish conceptions of the after­ through subsequent generations. In some recent scholarship and life. theological writing it has become common to restrict the use of Judaism's cl1aracteristic subordination of creed to practice Judaism to those manifestations that emerged after the allowed for a surprising range of theological expression over Babylonian exile, as distinct from earlier Israelite or Hebrew re­ the ages, frequently in response to foreign stimuli. In keeping ligion. We must take care not to construe this terminological with the evolving, historical character of Jewish religion, we preference as an assertion that the Judaism of the Second Temple shall divide our treatment of the topic into several chronologi­ erJ (sec below) WJS a new and original invention, unconnected cal stages. to the religion of the Hebrew scriptures. If indeed there is a term from Judaism's own conceptual vo­ cabulary that can serve as a meaningful alternative to Judaism, THE FIRST COMMONWEALTH (until ca. 539 B.C.E.)' it is undoubtedly Torah. From its basic connotations of "teach­ ing" or "guidance," Torah came to be equated with the scrip­ The authors of the Hebrew Bible, apart from its latest strata, tures that were revealed by God to Israel through the agency of .., did not teach that individuals survive death in any religiously Moses, the greatest of God's messengers or prophets. The text of i significant way. Although there are several terms and passages this revelation was written down in the volumes that Jews refer ! in the Hebrew scriptures that could allude to some sort of after­ to as the Torah, usually designated in English as "the Five Books I life conception, and others that would be creatively interpreted of Moses" (reflecting the old Greek term Pentateuch). Although I in that vein by Jews of later generations, their place in the broader the Torah consists largely of laws and observances, it contains I context of biblical world views is negligible. other elements, particularly a historical narrative. The Torah of Take, for example, the words of those classical prophets who Moses is the most sacred and authoritative component of the devoted their lives to instilling in their contemporaries a zeal for Jewish scriptures, which also include two other sections: the I God and the Torah. If they had anticipated that the dead would "Prophets" [Hebrew: Nevi'im] and the "[Sacred] Writings" [He­ i be judged in a future world, or that their spiritual immortality brew: Ketuvim; Greek: Hagiographa]. Taken together, the Jew­ ,\ was contingent upon their religious and moral conduct in their ish scriptures arc usually referred to as the Hebrew Bible; Chris­ I present lives, then it is inconceivable why this argument is ab­ tians designate them the Old Testament (OT). I sent from their impassioned preaching. Neither is one's destiny According to the view that would eventually become norma­ j I in the afterlife cited as a reason for sacrificial atonement or to tive in Judaism, the five books of the Written Torah were paral­ explain the necessity for cleansing oneself ofsins and impurities. leled by an oral revelation that is an equally authentic and holy Several passages in the Torah present ghastly lists of curses that part of the divine revelation to Moses. Though the earliest men­ will befall the Israelites should they fail to hearken unto God's tions ofthe Oral Torah referred to venerable ancestral traditions word. Among these stark descriptions of the consequences of that had been transmitted over the generations, the concept of disobedience, we read about plagues and fevers, defeat and con­ Oral Torah evolved to encompass additional aspects of religious I quest, famine, desolation, and exile. Yet nowhere do we encoun­ lore, including the enactments and teachings ascribed to the sages ter any mention of the fate that awaits the sinners upon conclu­ of various generations, interpretations of biblical precepts, and I sion of their days on earth. Even when the Torah is emphasizing so forth. Thus, in its broader and dynamic meaning, the word I J 14 ElieurSegal Judaism 1S that God's grace or wrath will continue beyond a person's life Samuel lingered on in a restful state until his repose was dis­ span, it docs so by extending it to one's progeny. For better or turbed by the terrified Israelite monarch. It is not entirely clear (or worse, it was believed that immortality would be achieved from the narrative whether Samuel was aware of the events that .~ . through the continuity of future generations rather than in a had been troubling Saul or if he was merely drawing conclusions 1 supernatural afterlife. based on the information supplied by Saul and his own memory Alongside these eloquent arguments from silence, we must of God's hostili~ toward the king. ack.nowlcd~e that t~ere arc texts in the Hebrew Bible that give Several details raise doubts about the narrator's perspective a different ImpreSSIOn, that seem to refer to at least a limited on the episode. The fact that Saul himself did not behold the I kind ~f a.fterli~e. In the following pages we shall survey some of prophet but relied on the witch's description suggests that she i the pnnClpal pieces ofevidence that have been adduced by schol­ might have staged a hoax for his benefit, although the wording ars. implies that it was Samuel who spoke the words that Saul heard. The Bible frequently speaks of deceased persons being "gath­ Some have preferred to construe the whole apparition as a vi­ i; ered unto their fathers" or "sleeping with their fathers." The sion manufactured by God for the occasion. Nevertheless, it is .. 1 I:, . expressions evoke a picture of the dead ancestors existing in some probable that the story's author truly believed that deceased souls I f! state, awaiting reunification with their recently deceased descen­ linger on in a state of repose, subject to disturbances by necro­ I dants. However, they could mean no more than "they followed mancers and other mortal nuisances. I· their forefathers into death and the grave." Even if the raising up of Saul at Endor does testify to a wide­ Ii Another common biblical expression for death is to "go down I spread belief in the survival of human ghosts, it is clear that that f to slJe'ol." It has become almost universal to render the term as belief did not occupy a central place in the Bible's religious con­ "the underworld," or even as "hell," and to describe it as a shad­ iciousness. As Yehezkel Kaufmann characterizes the situation: owy place of disembodied spirits, similar to the Greek concep­ "That the spirit of the deceased lives on apart from the body is tion of Hades. the belief of the people, but biblical faith draws no religious or When we examine the actual passages in which the wordshe'ol moral inferences from this notion.". The afterlife is at most a appears, we find few, if any, that cannot plausibly be understood fact ofnature that carries no visible implications as regards one's simply as "pit" or (by extension) "grave," which became a figu­ moral or religious behavior. Death will not bring the individual rative equivalent for death. In some passages slJe'ol refers to closer to God, nor will the afterlife be the setting for eternal underground realms that have no associations with death. Even rewards or punishments. Neither the ritual nor the moral pre­ those texts that present slJe'ol as a frightening fate in store for cepts of the Torah are commanded with a view to preparing the wicked do not necessarily imply more than that the sinners people for life in the hereafter. will bring upon themselves an early death.2 Early scholarly at­ Most modern historical scholarship has assumed that the Isra­ tempts to identify an etymological link with an Assyrian term elite popular religion postulated a more tangible and active sur­ for the abode of dead spirits have proven to be spurious, based vival of the soul in an underworld.
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