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Chapter Three Ethical Values in Judaism

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Chapter Three Ethical Values in Judaism Chapter Three Ethical Values in Judaism 1 3 4 3.1 The History of Israel Judaism Although Judaism does not enjoy a great number of followers in the world, it has greatly been subject to extensive studies and hot discussions for a couple of reasons. To many exegetists, the word “Judaism” derived from “Judah”- south Palestine- is obviously best concerned with the religious and cultural events that happened since the time of Jews’ return from Babylon to Palestine in 538, before the Common Era'. This religion is the oldest one among all Semitic ones, viz. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, sometimes also called Abraham Religions, because they are said to come all form an original patriarch, Abraham. Christianity has the greatest number of adherents across the globe and has been effective on the Western civilization today more than all others. It is believed to be the child of Judaism, as there are many commonalities between the two. That being the case, a large part of the history of Judaism and the totality of its holy book- the Old Testament- has been of great conaem to and revered by Christians and the West alike. Compared to other religions now alive, Judaism has to special attributes; 1. The intense intermingle of ethnicity and religion: They art? so much interblended that it is hard to state from another. Thus, it is scarcely possible to define what ‘Judaism’ is without having an understanding of what it means ‘to be a Jew’. The nation/tribe which sees tljie religion 1 3 5 its own, is the nation of Israel. It is implied by the scriptures that the word ‘Israel’ was an epithet of Jacob", the son of Isaac, and the grandchild of Abraham. Seeing Abraham as its progenitor, this nation calls itself the ‘tribe of Israel’ because it considers Jagob as its forefather. Another appellation for the same tribe is Hebraic/Hebrews. The language special to this tribe gets its origin from this word. The word ‘Hebrew’ is first used in Torah to refer to the tribe of Abraliam^ to be saved later to refer to the tribe of Israelites'*. There are two probabilities for this appellation: a) One of the ancestors of Abraham was called ‘Aber’^ b) Abraham and his tribe adventurously passed the Euphrates River (Arabic Al-Furat), and migrated to Canaan. Therefore, Cannanites called them Ebraninas (English Hebraic) (literally meaning The Passesrsf’. Anyhow, a tribe which is called ‘the Israelites’ or ‘the Hebraic’ is soon damned and afflicted with divine retribution in the strange- for them- land of Egypt. God the Almighty appoints one mar» from the same tribe- Moses- to deliver the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery and lead them to the promised land of Canaan which had already been promised to the patriarch Abraham. Another mission was promulgation a religion. He had the great undertaking of introducing and preaching a special religion to his nation, bringing to them ultimate salvation, independence and freedom. Therefore the tribe of Israelites and their religion were felicitously coupled. 1 3 6 2. The second attribute very probably related to first one is that much of the Hebrew Scripture of Judaism serves to express the history of this nation. The original Hebrew Scripture is a collection called the Testament by the Jews and the Old Testament by the Christians- who do accept it. It is called the Old Testament because the Jews (and the Christians) have it that there is a covenant (another word meaning testament) between the Jewish nation and God by which they have to submit to the divine religion and live in accordance with that. The covenant was in the first instance between Abraham and God to be reaffirmed later between Moses and God^. Political History of Jews Qamus e Kitab e Muqaddas (meaning ‘Dictionary o f the Bible’) categorizes the political history of the Hebraic/Jews into Five payts^: 1, Since Abraham to the time of Moses during which the forefathers of this nation stayed in Egypt contributing to a considerable population growth. 2. Since Moses to the time of Saul during which the Israelites were saved from worshipping Egypt, and established divine order in Mount Sinai where they wandered some forty years. The tribe passed Jordan to the promised lands. During the same period, Prophet Moses passed away and Joshua was divinely commissioned the successor of Moses and military leader of Israelites when there were many wars and conquests including the Conquest of Canaan. The conquered lands were then divided among asbdt (tribes) and the Four Judges- the most famous of 137 which is Samuel- were appointed. “In those days, there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.^” 3. From Saul to the division of the Jewish Nation, when the Hebraic were at the acme of progress, prosperity and fortune. The Nation was under the rules of King David and his son King Solomon- proverbial for his wisdom. This period which lasted approximately 120 years, there were plenty of prophets’*^ and most sciences were well perfected". 4. Since the division of the Jewish land to the time the compilation task of the Old Testament was brought to conclusion. This period lasted five hundred years. Solomon passed away and the religion tl>at was in decline soon began to be revived by later prophets. Then came the downfall of the kingdom of Israelites and the Jewish tribe were taken into captivity and driven to Babylon in 721 B.C. A complete account of their captivity can be found in Ezra and Nehemiah. 5. From their return from captivity to the coming of Jesus as a prophet. In 538 B.C. Cyrus the Great took Babylon and made it the capital of his new empire. When he looked about him, he found grouped together the Jews in the heart of Babylonia and on inquiring about them, he heard their plaints and finally liberated them giving them permission to return to Jerusalem*^. 1 3 8 3.2 The Life of Moses Birth and Youth of Moses The story of Moses has come down to us in the narratives (known ^o scholars as “J” and “E”) intertwined in Exodus and Numbers. The written form of these traditions dates from four to six hundred years after his time'^. In Exodus, the tale of Moses’ infancy has been preserved; So Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is bom to the Hebrews, you must throw into the Nile, but you are to let all the girls live.” Now a man belonging to the House of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi. The woman conceived and bore a son, and seeing he was robust, she hid him for three months. When she could no longer hide him, she procured an ark of papyrus reeds for him and daubing it with bitumen and pitch, she put the child in it, and placed it among the reeds beside the bank of the Nile. His sister posted herself some distance away to see what would happen to him. Presently, Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe at the Nile; while-her maids wajked at the Nile. Then she saw the ark among the reeds and sent her maid to get it. On opening it, she saw the child, and it was a boy crying! She took pity on him, and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Thereupon his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and summon a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, to nurse the child for you?” “Go,” said Pharaoh’s daughter to her. So the girl went and called the child’s mother, to whom Pharaoh’s daughter said, “Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will pay the wages due you.” 1 3 9 So the woman took the child and nursed him; and when the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She called his name Moses (meaning drawn out)-, “For” said she, “I drew him out of the water.”'"^ The tradition continues that Moses, when grown to manhood, saw one day an Egyptian beating an Israelite, “one of his people.” Moyed by ungovernable rage, to which he allowed full scope because they were in a lonely place, he smote the Egyptian and killed him. The next day, finding that the deed was becoming known, he fled eastward beyond the Red Sea to the Land of Midian, where, while in hiding, he joined the household of a Midianite priest by the name of Jethro (or Reuel). He married Jethro’s daughter Zipporah and had two sons by her'^ Moses and the Covenant with Yahweh (about 1250 B.C.) While Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro the priest of Midian, he led. the flock to the western, side, of the. desert,, and came to the Mountain of God, Horeb. Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire, rising out of a bush. He looked, and there was the bush burning with fire without being consumed! ... When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look at it, God called to him out of the bush “Moses, Moses!”. “Here I am!” said he. “Do not come near here,” He said; “Take your sandals off your feet; for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” ... then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. “I have indeed seen the plight of my people who are 1 4 0 in Egypt,” the Lord said, “and I have heard their cry undeif their oppressors; for I know their sorrows, and I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and bring them up out of that land to a lan,d, fine and large, to a land abounding in milk and honey, to the country of Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivvittes, and Jebusites...
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