World religions. Рахимбергенова М.Х. - 44 стр.

                              Rabbinic Judaism                                      characterized Hebrew religion, was preserved, the conception of the divine law
                                                                                    was transformed.
                             The Spirit of Judaism                                       The Law of Moses had been given to the Jewish people as the law both re-
         Rabbi Bunam used to tell young men who came to him for the first           ligious and civil of an independent political state, the Jewish nation. After A.D.
    time the story of Rabbi Eisik, son of Rabbi Yekel in Cracow. After many         135, however, this no longer existed. In Palestine only a remnant of the people
    years of great poverty, which had never shaken his faith in God, he             remained. The center of Jewish population moved first northwards, to Galilee,
    dreamed someone bade him look for a treasure in Prague, under the               and then eastwards, to Mesopotamia, the land of Babylon between the two riv-
    bridge, which leads to the king’s palace. When the dream recurred a third       ers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, now part of the Persian Empire. A Jewish
    time, Rabbi Eisik prepared for the journey and set out for Prague. But the      population also existed in the cities of the Roman Empire, and in 212 they were
    bridge was guarded day and night and he did not dare to start digging.          made Roman citizens, but in the fourth century the Empire became officially
    Nevertheless he went to the bridge every morning and kept walking around        Christian, and Jewish religion, previously held in honor, came under condemna-
    it until evening.                                                               tion. The Jewish community retreated into itself, and the absorption of Graeco-
         Finally the captain of the guards, who had been watching him, asked        Roman culture came to an end.
    in a kindly way whether he was looking for something or waiting for some-            Under these circumstances much of the Law could not be carried out. The
    body. Rabbi Eisik told him of the dream, which had brought him here, from       temple sacrifices could no longer be offered. The powers of government could
    a faraway country. The captain laughed: “And so to please the dream, you        no longer be used to enforce the often severe punishments attached to infrac-
    poor fellow wore out your shoes to come here! As for having faith in            tions of the Law. The festivals could no longer be the national events they were
    dreams, if I had had it, I should have had to get going when a dream once       intended to be. The synagogue, however, could and did survive, and with it the
    told me to go to Cracow and dig for treasure under the stove in the room of     study of the Law. With the synagogue survived the Pharisees, who possessed
    a Jew – Eisik, son of Yekel, that was the name! Eisik, son of Yekel! I can      the only form of Jewish religion that appeared to be still viable.
    just imagine what it would be like, how I should have to try every house
    over there, where one half of the Jews are named Eisik, and the other                                             The Talmud
    Yekel!” And he laughed again. Rabbi Eisik, traveled home, dug up the                 The basis for a readjustment and reinterpretation of Jewish religion was
    treasure from under the stove, and built the house of Prayer, which is          provided by the tradition of the Oral Law. This was law, which, it was believed,
    called “Reb Eisik’s Shul”.                                                      had been revealed by God to Moses, but not written down, and which had been
         “Take this story to heart”, Rabbi Bunam used to add, “and make what        transmitted from generation to generation by word of mouth. This contained,
    is says your own: There is something you cannot find anywhere in the            for example, the “fences of the Law”, various prescriptions regarding the wash-
    world, not even at the zaddik’s, and there is, nevertheless, a place where      ing of hands, tithings, fasts, etc., which served to “protect” the Torah, and
    you can find it”.                                                               which had been condemned so strongly by Jesus. The concept of an oral law
                                     (Martin Buder, Tales of the Hasidim, 1947)     provided the flexibility needed in order to adapt the Torah to the new circum-
                                                                                    stances.
Questions for discussion:                                                                The discussion of this Oral Law by the rabbis of the period, who were
   1. What is this thing cannot be found anywhere in the world?                     called the Tannaim, were collected and codified by Rabbi Judah (135–217) in a
   2. If it cannot be found in the “world”, where can it be found?                  document called the Mishnah, or “Repetition”. The discussions of the Mishnah
                                                                                    by a later group of rabbis, the Amoraim, were collected in a further document,
                           The emergence of Judaism                                 the Gemara, or “Completion”. The Mishnah and the Gemara together make up
    The religion called Judaism today was developed during the centuries            the Talmud, a word which means “teaching” or “learning”. It is the Talmud,
which followed the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, as a result of the      rather than the Bible directly, which provides the foundation of Rabbinic Juda-
new political circumstances in which the Jewish community found itself. Thus        ism.
Judaism properly so-called developed not before Christianity, but contempora-            The legal material in the Talmud, including how a Jew must act, is termed
neously with it, and as an alternative to it. While the ethical monotheism, which   “halakhah”; in addition there is material representing the sermons of the rabbis,

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