Judaism Exam 1
docx
keyboard_arrow_up
School
North Central Missouri College *
*We aren’t endorsed by this school
Course
101
Subject
Religion
Date
Dec 6, 2023
Type
docx
Pages
10
Uploaded by HighnessMetal11339
Judaism Exam
1.
Explain the story of Abraham and why it is significant not only for Judaism but also for other religions?
He is vital to Jewish history as
the first
point of contact between God and the Jews. It was through Abraham that the idea of the Promised Land, or a homeland for Jewish people, was created. Abraham was the recipient of the first covenant with God!
Explain which other religions and how these religions are classified because of this shared story. Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Islam, and of course Judaism.
Abraham is traditionally considered to be the first Jew and to have made a covenant with God.
Because Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all recognize Abraham as their first prophet, they are also called the
Abrahamic religions
.
2.
Use the 7-question framework for understanding religious worldviews to compare and contrast Zoroastrianism/traditional Middle Eastern worldview and the Jewish worldview. What are the similarities and what are the differences? Differences:
One of the most important differences between Jewish monotheism and Zoroastrian monotheism is that Jews recognize the one God as the source of both good and evil, light and darkness, while Zoroastrians, during all the phases of their long theological history, think of God only as the source of Good, with Evil as a separate principle.
Humans are superior to other living beings with Zoroastrianism/traditional
Middle Eastern worldview
A close relationship between humanity and the creator, and equality between
men and women. There is no human as more superior than the other living being with just the Jewish worldview!
Similarities: There are notable similarities in
notions of:
Sacrifice
Good works
Hospitality
Peace
Justice
Pilgrimage
An afterlife
Loving God with all one's heart and soul.
Life after death
Our existence and what happens after we die.
The disobedience within their religions.
Basic human problems like the outlook on sinning, missing the mark and the
tension with the creator.
All religions include rituals, scriptures, and sacred days and gathering places.
Each religion gives its followers instructions for how human beings should act toward one another.
They all come from Abraham and his sons Ishmael and Isaac.
They all share the Old Testament.
They all believe in God.
A supreme being to worship.
Sacred texts for instructions.
A golden rule to follow for instruction on how people should relate to others.
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
- Access to all documents
- Unlimited textbook solutions
- 24/7 expert homework help
3.
Young describes Judaism as the way of the Torah. What is the Torah? Hebrew for “instruction, law;
” God’s revelation of instructions to the Jewish people. Often used to refer to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. Legal teachings that supplement the written Torah (The Hebrew Bible), which appeared first orally among Torah teachers but were committed to writing by the late second or early third century C.E. as the Mishnah- (teaching, tradition, study) and grew to encompass the whole Talmud. Why is it significant to Judaism
?
They believe that the Torah
shows how God wants Jews to live. The
Torah
is the basis for all
Jewish
sacred texts. Why does Young describe Judaism as "the way of the Torah?"
The Torah plays a big part in the lives of Jews today as
it is believed to be the word of God. All Jews use the Torah to help guide them in their lives, but some Jews use the Torah more strictly than others.
4.
Explain and describe the classic schools of Judaism as well as the modern branches. What are the basic differences of each that provide to the rich expression of the Jewish faith today?
Classic schools of Judaism and modern branches
? R
eform, Orthodox, Conservative, and also Reconstructionism. What are the basic differences of each that provide to the rich expression of the Jewish faith today?
Orthodox
:
Referring to authoritative, right beliefs in a religious community.
Orthodox Jews strictly believes in Torahs, Bible and in the concepts of Messiah, a savior that is yet to come.
Orthodox Judaism believes in the dietary and ritual laws. “Staying kosher.”
Orthodox observance of the Sabbath requires abstention from all forms of labor (except where health is at stake), including riding in automobiles, lighting, or extinguishing lights, and even carrying money.
Orthodox takes the figure of Messiah literally! Reformed takes it symbolically.
Reformed
:
In Judaism, the modern movement that stresses loyalty to the essence of the Jewish tradition while adapting Jewish principles to changing times, world, circumstances, and different cultures.
Reform Judaism, though reveres the writing of sages throughout the ages, does not believe in the divinity of Torahs and other texts and does not believe them to be infallible. Instead of the idea that the coming of Messiah who would lead to Jews back to a restored Israel was dropped, instead emphasis was placed instead on Jews being loyal citizens of the countries in which they lived.
Reform Judaism has tended to focus on the ethical commandments, to the extent that many reform Jews believe ignoring the dietary and ritual laws is not a violation of the will of God. “Kosher is irrelevant.”
In reform community’s individuals decide for themselves which of the Sabbath restrictions or observances have spiritual meaning.
Reform Jews do not believe that the Torah was given to the Jewish people by
God.
Conservative
The in between of Reform and Orthodox.
Reconstructionism
Judaism must be interpreted in a modern scientific framework unlike the others.
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
- Access to all documents
- Unlimited textbook solutions
- 24/7 expert homework help
5.
The creation myth found in the book of Genesis helps shape the worldview
of Judaism. What do we learn from the creation story about what it means
to be human?
Humans are responsible for caring for creation given by God
. Genesis tells us that
humans were created with a purpose, not just to be autonomously unique, but vocationally set apart. When God says he will make humans in his image, he has a purpose in mind that he makes clear. They are going to “rule and reign” and to be “fruitful.”
Genesis, the first book of the Torah,
explains Jewish religious teaching about how the world was created. The creation story in Genesis shows how God made the world and everything in it in six days, resting on the seventh
. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, Bereshit ("In the beginning"). Genesis is
an account of the creation of the world, the early history of humanity, and of Israel's ancestors and the origins of the Jewish people.
Humans are granted authority over all other parts of creation.
The nature of reality?
God is the ultimate reality-the absolute foundation of everything that is, and the end toward which all points
.
The basic human problem and the cause of the problem? Sin (missing the mark), Obedience, following the wrong path, acting on negative human impulses, taking advantage of what god has given you in creation. Humans are responsible for caring for creation given by God. Give examples from the story and how they shape this worldview? Well, I thought of an example is when a baby is born, God
describes creation of human beings, Genesis 1:26 says: “then God said, 'Let Us make (asah) humans in Our image, according to Our likeness'” Now I know that in the book we looked at Genesis 1:27, the first chapter written in Torah that describes the creation of humanity in God’s image. I wanted to point out 1:26 because that relates to a worldview that describes creation of human beings along with 1:27, that also describes the worldview of the human purpose that shaped our worldview in Judaism and Christian religions. When we are born from our mother’s womb from these religions, we are expected to live in gods image through birth and adulthood. So it is important for the parents to show the right path to follow within these Monotheistic religions, just the way it is described as god teaching the children that were the first human beings to walk the earth as he gave life, just like a mother with a womb. I hope you get what I
mean, and I hope you like this answer I have given. I put a lot of thought into it.
Bonus- What is the name of the nation connected to the Jewish people? Hebrews What does the name mean?
A member of an ancient people living in what is now Israel. In world politics,
Jewish state
is a characterization of Israel as the nation-
state and sovereign homeland of the Jewish people
.
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
- Access to all documents
- Unlimited textbook solutions
- 24/7 expert homework help