World religions. Рахимбергенова М.Х. - 45 стр.

termed “Haggadah”. Other material related to the Mishnah has been preserved                 A further alteration was in the enforcement of the Law. Under Israelite re-
in the Tosephta (“addition”) and in the Targums, Aramaic translations of the          ligion, many provisions of the Law were enforced by heavy penalties, including
Hebrew Bible.                                                                         the death penalty (see especially Leviticus 20 – although these penalties were
     Much of the Talmudic interpretation of scripture follows the method              probably lighter than the traditional Semitic ones). Adultery, incest homosexual
known as Midrash, in which each word and even letter of the scripture is taken        intercourse, witchcraft, blasphemy, and cursing one’s parents, for example,
as having a definite meaning, indeed many meanings latent or implicit, all com-       were punishable by death. In Rabbinic Judaism these provisions are superseded
plementing one another. Thus each generation can find new lessons in the text.        by the laws of the larger societies in which Jews live. The law of “an eye for an
The term Midrash is also used for the class of writings employing this method.        eye, and a tooth for a tooth” (the “Lex Talionis”) was transformed into mone-
     Following the arrangement of the Mishnah, the Talmud is organized in six         tary compensation, for example.
“orders”, each containing a number of “tractates”. These are further subdivided              Under Israelite religion the festivals had been national and agricultural.
into chapters, and these again into paragraphs or sentences.                          Now their religious aspect became more emphasized. Previously the Passover
     The Talmud is a multi-volume work, rather like an encyclopedia of Jewish         and the Feast of Unleavened bread were two distinct festivals, the one succeed-
lore. It exists in two versions, the Babylonian and the Palestinian. The Palestin-    ing the other; now the name of Passover was extended to include both. The
ian Talmud, the smaller of the two, and a more irregular collection, was com-         Feast of Weeks became the feast of Revelation.
pleted around the fourth century A.D.; the Babylonian Talmud, much larger and               The temple was replaced by the synagogue. But it was also replaced in
more authoritative, in the sixth century. References to the “Talmud” without          some respects by the family. Since Judaism is an ethnic religion, the religion of
qualifications are usually to the Babylonian.                                         a particular people, the preservation of the religion depends upon the biological
      “It is the Talmud which inspires those virtues associated with the Jew, so-     preservation of the people, and that in turn depends upon the family. Rabbinic
briety, benevolence, sense of social justice, strong affection for family ties and    Judaism centers in significant ways on the home. One becomes a member of the
desire for knowledge and social education” (I. Epstein).                              religion by being born of a Jewish mother, not by means of any ceremony of
                                                                                      initiation, not even circumcision. Many important ceremonies are carried out in
                           Enlargement of the Torah                                   the home, such as the Passover Seder. Overall the religious life of the home is
     Correspondingly, the concept of Torah has been enlarged. Originally it           as important as the life of the synagogue.
meant the first five books of the Hebrew scriptures, and the divine law, which              A further difference between Israelite religion, at least in its later forms,
they contain. Now the concept of Torah is widened to include the Talmud. Fur-         and Rabbinic Judaism relates to the question of diversity. During the century or
thermore, the study of torah is considered a form of worship, and is also called      so before the destruction of Jerusalem the religion of the Jewish people flour-
Torah. Indeed the whole of Jewish religious life is now often described as “do-       ished in a great variety of forms and movements, all of which had some claim
ing Torah”.                                                                           to be considered authentically Jewish, including monastic movements and vari-
                                                                                      ous forms of messianism. With the fall of Jerusalem this diversity was brought
                       The transformation of Jewish religion                          to an end. The Talmud created a single paradigm, a single authoritative tradi-
     Although Rabbinic Judaism is continuous in many ways with the earlier Is-        tion, for what could be considered genuinely Jewish, and this tradition has been
raelite religion, it also differs from it in important respects. Some of these dif-   preserved faithfully down to the present day. The best reflection of this main-
ferences have already been touched upon. The most notable is the abandonment          stream tradition is by general consent the Shulchan Aruch of Joseph Caro, pub-
of the ritual sacrifices of animals, grain, and fruits, which had been carried out    lished in 1565.
in the temple in Jerusalem. These had been the centerpiece of Israelite religion.
Even before the destruction of Jerusalem the Pharisees had already largely lost                                         Continuities
interest in them, and, although in might have been possible to resurrect them af-          If Rabbinic Judaism is different in many ways from the earlier Israelite re-
ter the destruction of the temple by the Romans in A.D. 70, no attempt was            ligion, it is also continuous with it in fundamental respects. Above all, it has
made to do so. In Rabbinic Judaism they are replaced by the rituals of the syna-      preserved the Pharisaic conception of God, as the one universal god of all men,
gogue.                                                                                the heavenly Father, in whose image man is made. During the Middle Ages this
                                                                                      conception was further developed by Jewish philosophers and theologians such

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