Judaism 101: The Torah and Other Sources of Holiness

What various sources do Jews consider holy? How they approach and use these various sources? How do Jews of various persuasions differ in their approach to and use of these sources? 

In this installment of Judaism 101, we’ll be talking about the sources Jews consider holy and the various “denominations” within Judaism. Judaism 101 involves ten Jewish readers of my blog answering questions about Judaism in a panel format. (I introduced this project and provided bios of each panelist here.) Feel free to ask questions or ask for clarification, but remember that the goal here is to learn more about other faith traditions and understand differing points of view, not to score points or argue about who is right or wrong on this or that issue.

Let me start with a quote from a previous installment of Judaism 101:

A rabbi once told me that this is the defining distinction between Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Jews: the Orthodox Jews believe that the Torah was given from Hashem and has remained unchanged over time, the Conservative Jews believe that the Torah was given from Hashem but has been changed in the hands of men, and Reform Jews believe the Torah was created by man.

And with that basic outline, let’s get started!

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AztecQueen2000

Orthodox: The Torah in its various forms is considered holy.  Of course this includes both the Written Torah (first five books of Moses—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) as well as the Oral Torah (various commentaries including the Midrash, an explanation of the text of the Torah, and the Mishnah and Talmud, which explain and codify the Torah’s many laws.)  The study of these texts form the backbone of Orthodoxy, to the point where many men will study these texts full-time and not work.

Conservative: The Torah and its various commentaries and explanations are said to have a voice but not a veto.  While the Five Books of Moses are said to be “divinely inspired,” there is considerable argument about whether the books were written by Moses during his lifetime, or by later authors and cobbled together.  The commentaries are studied and used, but are not considered to be the same level of divine inspiration as the Torah.

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Ki Sarita

Agreed, the way you characterize Orthodoxy is pretty much the way I grew up.  The prophets are also part of the canon but not studied nearly as much as the Torah. Not sure how they got lay by the wayside somehow.

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Rachel

I would clarify that the entire Tanakh is considered “holy”—“Tanakh” being a Hebrew acronym for the three parts of our Written Law: the Torah (the Five Books of Moses), the Nevi’im (Prophets), which cover the history between arriving in the land of Israel and the destruction of the first Temple, and the Ketuvim (Writings), which are a mixture of both more poetical books and some later histories.

The Torah is traditionally thought to have been dictated from Hashem to Moses on Mt. Sinai. The rest were written later (obviously, as they can’t be writing a history about things that haven’t happened yet — or can they?!), but were similarly divinely inspired.

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Anat

To ki sarita—The Prophets are more popular in Israel. At school we studied Joshua to Kings in grades 4-6, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Jonah and Micah in secondary school. My school’s motto is ‘walk humbly’ from Micah 6:8. In political discourse there is often a call to follow the teachings of the prophets – except different factions mean different things by that: the secular left means the call for social justice, whereas the religious mean the call to follow Torah.

Somewhere on the internet I saw it claimed that in Orthodox schools in the U.S. girls are taught the Prophets more, as they aren’t taught much Talmud. Don’t know how true this is.

More generally: The parts of Tanakh that are used in Jewish liturgy are the entire Torah, which is split into 54 portions, to be read one a week (some are doubled-up in non-leap years) for an annual reading cycle. Each Torah portion is followed by a short section from the Prophetic books that is considered associated with it. There are special readings for holidays. See Torah Readings for details.

Also, of the Ketuvim the Psalms are read daily and sections of them are integrated in many prayers. Then there are the five Megilot (scrolls) that are read on holidays: Song of Songs (Song of Solomon) on Passover (because of the spring imagery); Ruth on Shavuot (the Festival of Weeks – because of the  harvest theme); Lamentations on the 9th of Av, a fast day commemorating the destruction of the temple(s); Ecclesiastes on Sukkot (Festival of Booths/Tabernacles – anyone know why?) and Esther on Purim (a celebration of the events of Esther, at least traditionally).

To Rachel:

(obviously, as they can’t be writing a history about things that haven’t happened yet — or can they?!)

Well, Jacob claims to prophecy what will happen to his descendants, and traditionally Genesis 49 was pronounced under prophetic spirit. Non-traditionally, perhaps it was composed by the same person who composed Judges.

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Rachel

Anat, this explains why, when I sat in on a sixth grade classroom in Israel, they were reading from Kings — I was very impressed, because in my day school we never made it much past Samuel.

The Schecter institute has a bunch of explanations for why we read Ecclesiastes on Sukkot, most connecting it either to the season or to tempering the joy of the holiday.

The haftorot (the selections from Prophets) are *supposed* to be linked, either thematically or explicitly, to the Torah portion of the week. Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews differ here in their selections.

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AztecQueen2000

You’d be surprised.  According to some Midrashim, the entire Torah (both halacha–laws and aggada–stories) was known even in the time of Abraham.  Of course, that leaves a lot of unanswered questions.  Like why did Jacob spend 22 years mourning for his missing son?

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Rachel

I remember that midrash! Yes, the patriarchs had ruach hakodesh (the divine spirit) and could see the future/were able to observe the Torah and all of its commandments before it was given. Nevertheless, Jacob had the information on where Joseph was hidden from him, as punishment for deceiving Isaac that he was his brother Esau. Midah keneged midah (measure for measure), after all. 

This is perfectly logical, obviously. However, the Midrashic explanation for why Jacob married two sisters, even knowing it was forbidden by the Torah, was fishier. (Being named Rachel, I was very concerned by that story, as I figured I might have some measure-for-measure dealt out my way.)

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Ki Sarita

Yes, Orthodox girls schools study the Prophets, we made it through Isaiah. But it remains theoretical, obscure, quickly forgotten unlike the Torah, you are right probably because of the Torah reading yearly cycle…

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Hilary

I’m much more familiar with my prayer book then the Torah or Talmud.  What I believe and what I learned about God comes from the siddur, and it doesn’t always line up much with what I read in parts of the Torah.  Some of that I’m sure is because of multiple ‘inspirational’ translations, and Reform did change some of the liturgy.  But as I’ve been thinking about how to explain the interplay between my denomination, my understanding of religious text, and how that’s shaped my beliefs, I keep coming back to the Gates of Prayer.  I’ve got three different editions of Gates of Prayer, and the High Holiday siddur the Gates of Repentance.  When I’ve explained Jewish belief and theology before, online or in person, I reach for those first.

One common mistake about my denomination: it’s Reform, present tense, not Reformed, past tense.  It’s a common mistake, not an insult, nothing I take offence over, but it is a red flag to me that whoever is using that term doesn’t know much about Reform Judaism, or probably Judaism in general.  Or they are getting it mixed up with Reformed Christianity, which is very different.

Reform Judaism—very liberal, with a strong emphasis on social justice and working together with other people as equal co-partners in tikkun olam, repairing the violence in the world.  100% committed to full women’s equality in religious and social life from the beginning, and recently committed to full social and religious equality for GLBT people.

Reformed Christianity—pretty much the exact opposite, especially the American Calvinist Conservative types.

Reformed Judaism—no such thing, but a common mistake.

Refrom Judaism—a typo, and one I sometimes find in my own work only after I hit send or reply.

Like I said, not an insult, not anywhere near anti-semitism, but if you can’t get my name right I’m assuming you don’t know much else until proven otherwise.  I will be happy to be proven otherwise, and I’m happy to clear up any misinformation or lack of experience.

This set of questions about denominations, text, and scripture easily falls under the category of ‘google it yourself.’  I’ve seen several online conversations about where is the balance of responsibility between minority and majority cultures for education of the minority culture.  These questions are pretty easy to answer with a internet search, but that wouldn’t convey what it’s like living in our denominations, or how we live with our scripture on a personal level.  I could just provide a set of links, or try and type out a detailed essay about the history of Reform.  I think I am going to provide the links, and highlight a few key points that IMO have the greatest effect on our lives, and what it’s like living with those changes from traditional Orthodox Judaism.  Please understand that when I do that I’m speaking from my perspective  I’m not trying to do a point by point comparison with Orthodoxy.  If the women here who have personal experience with Orthodoxy want to compare their experiences to mine, that’s fine.

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Anat

What interests me is what kind of structures, institutions, or methods (if any) Reform Judaism in the U.S. formed to come up with consensus regarding practices and policies. For instance when they started accepting patrilineal descent as well as matrilineal—was it a matter of some communities changing and others deciding individually to follow or was there a discussion of leadership followed by a central decision or something in between? And if anything on this scale turns up now or in the near future, how does Reform Judaism do it?

In Israel Reform Judaism is known as ‘hatnua leyahadut mitkademet’—The Movement for Progressive Judaism. I think the sector most likely to get involved there are secular Jews seeking a connection to tradition without compromising on western values. However, I expect few of these choose a long term involvement because there is a secular Jewish culture in Israel that is the dominant culture in much of the country. It is more common for people to get involved for a short while, around a child’s Bar/Bat Mitzva or a couple’s wedding (Progressive Judaism weddings are not recognized by the state of Israel, but there are couples who have a civil marriage abroad and a Reform or Conservative ceremony).

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Anat

I notice when we mentioned Tanakh or Bible we did not specify exactly the extent of the Jewish canon. I just wanted to point out that Christians include the books of the Apocrypha in their Old Testament (with differences between Catholics and Protestants as to which books exactly should be included). Neither of these are part of Tanakh.

So just to clarify, the Tanakh includes the following:

Torah: 5 books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

Nevi’im (Prophets): 8 books: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, The Twelve (minor prophets – Hosea to Malachi).

(Note that Samuel and Kings are considered one book each.)

K’tuvim (Writings): 11 books: Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra&Nehemiah, Chronicles.

The 3 major divisions represent stages of canonization. The Talmud preserves some debates about whether some books, such as Esther, belonged in the canon. Since the Apocrypha didn’t make it into canon they are not very well known among Jews. Some were only preserved in translation.

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Rachel

Thanks, Anat! Along those lines, I think we should include a timeline of major events in Jewish intellectual history, because it seems like people have this idea that Judaism crystallized around the same time the Red Sea parted. I’ll work on it tomorrow . . . while I take breaks from Passover cleaning. 😛

(Would Passover cleaning be such a resonant topic if we were men?)

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Hilary

Anat—Good point to actually list all the books in the Tanakh. I’ll admit though sometimes I just get lazy and use “Torah” to cover everything, a general catch-all term for any type of Jewish study.

Rachel—“Would Passover cleaning be such a resonant topic if we were men?” No. By whatever forces of self-selection, Libby got a minyan of Jewish women. This would be a different conversation with a man in it. Not better or worse, but different.

Penny and I noticed that too.  Like, what did you guys think we’ve been doing the last 2,000 years—playing dreidle?  But it’s not surprising.  From a general Christian education, people would learn enough about 1st century Judaism from their perspective to put Jesus in context.  From secular education the only time you learn about Jews is the Holocaust and Israel.  Everything in between gets ignored.  I remember in high school my western civilization class spending a week studying the Holocaust.  Of course I was the only Jew in the entire grade, probably in the entire school for all I know, including all the teachers.  I decided to speak up and the teacher let me give a half hour talk about what normal Jewish life is – celebrating shabbat, the holidays, and learning Hebrew. I said the Shema, and brought my family’s shabbat candlesticks and kiddish cup and went through the prayers for candles, wine and bread. I had some students afterwards tell me they had never talked to a Jew before, I was the first one they had met.  If I hadn’t been there to speak up, what would those blond suburban kids have ever gotten?  Sunday school lessons, Schindler’s list, and Israel in the newspapers.

I generally don’t hold it against people when they just don’t know anything about Judaism, and I’m always happy to find out when they do.  There’s a lot of things I don’t know about all kinds of people, and just as I would want someone to be patient with me if I was well meaning but clueless and ignorant, then I should be the same.  What is hateful to yourself . . . .  Besides, if I’m the first human encounter with Judaism and I make a bad impression, there might not be someone after me to give a more rounded human experience.**  Reading the online discussions about privilege, it’s something I think about.  I’m on both sides* of that line—white, middle class, college educated, home owner: there is a lot of privilege in that backpack.  Jewish, lesbian: now it looks a little different.  So I’ve felt being both majority/clueless and minority/do I really need to be a walking wiki again?  I guess being on both sides gives me some insight to be patient with each side. (Except when I’m tired, cranky, and hungry   Then I’m more inclined toward”‘just fucking google it yourself.”  But that condition is easily fixed with a nap and some food.)

* with apologies to Joni Mitchell:

“I’ve looked at life from both sides now

Privaledged and not, yet still some how

It’s life’s illusions I recall

I really don’t know life at all”

** It just occurred to me double-checking before I hit ‘send’ how much that statement comes from a minority culture POV.  I don’t have to worry about representing all white people, but I don’t even think twice about how I come off representing all Jews.  “I’ve looked at life from both sides now . . .” indeed.

Speaking of Jewish history, to help answer Anat’s question about Reform Judaism, some quick history. Reform Judaism was a response to the Enlightenment, as a way to join Western civilization and still be Jewish. When given the choice to be citizens or be Jewish, some people chose to be citizens.  Different nations had different histories with regard to their Jews, and researching for this question I’ve come across some different perspectives.  But in general being a national citizen meant giving up the part of Judaism that was a peoplehood.  As Napoleon Bonaparte said regarding Jews in France in 1806, “To the Jews as individuals, all rights.  To the Jews as a people, no rights.”  The other “Passport to civilization” was baptism.  Not that all of a sudden Jews were finding Jesus, but in the 1800’s being part of the new modern Enlightenment meant leaving behind the dress, kosher laws, and external trappings of traditional Judaism. Reform Judaism was created as a stopgap measure between the all or nothing choices of traditional Orthodoxy, or baptism. What happened was Judaism got stripped down of almost all ritual observance  ditched the concept of Jewish peoplehood for just being a religion, and what was left was a strong emphasis on the Prophets. “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof—Justice, justice thou shalt pursue” became central.  200 years later, a lot of ritual has come back, even in my lifetime I can remember changes increasing the use of Hebrew, more traditional prayer, and more observance around the holidays.  But choosing that one core unshakable foundation of ethics and hope for a messianic era of universal peace and brotherhood has left it’s stamp of Reform Judaism.

Here is a good article that touches on Reform history. I’m going to pull out a few quotes on the start of Reform:

The first Reform temple opened its doors 200 years ago in the town of Seesen, Germany. At the inaugural ceremony on July 17, 1810, a parade of rabbis, Christian ministers, and political dignitaries passed under a chiming bell-tower and entered the sanctuary, while an adult choir, accompanied by a pipe organ, sang hymns in German and Hebrew. The businessman and philanthropist who had founded this temple, Mr. Israel Jacobson (1768-1828), delivered the sermon while draped in a black clerical robe. Standing behind a pulpit at the front of the sanctuary, the man who had also established an egalitarian, religiously pluralistic boarding school for 40 Jewish and 20 Christian children told the august assembly: “On all sides enlightenment opens up new areas for religious development. Why should we Jews be left behind?”

Jacobson’s call struck a responsive chord. In the decades that followed, Reform Judaism spread through Europe and then to North America.

Even before the Seesen synagogue set Reform Judaism in motion, Jews had entered modernity. Decades earlier, Napoleon had thrown open the doors of medieval ghettos. As Jews freely mingled with fellow Europeans, they were exposed to the cosmopolitan bustle of cities, the sophistication of theaters and opera houses, the rational inquiry of universities. Eager to participate and demonstrate to their neighbors what loyal and productive citizens they could be, many Jews decided to jettisonkashrut and other traditional laws and practices which prohibited them from eating at the homes of their gentile friends or attending social gatherings at cafés.

Determined to bring Jewish life into the modern age, the early German-Jewish reformers of the mid-19th century emphasized the universalist ethical teachings of biblical prophets. They no longer viewed ritual observance as ordained by God and inviolate, but as a means to reinforce the prophetic ideals of justice, freedom, and peace. In synagogue worship, they began to pray in unison and introduced a professional choir and organ to render their hymns. The rabbi led services covered in ministerial robes as bareheaded worshipers listened in solemn silence. Later in the century, when Reform Judaism spread to North America, the main Shabbat service shifted to Friday night, allowing Jews to pursue their occupations on Saturdays, in concert with many of their gentile compatriots.

Thus, in this first stage of Reform Judaism’s development—a period of adaptation to the wider gentile community—Reform Jews abandoned codes of diet, dress, and ritual practices which set them apart from fellow citizens. These changes in Jewish practice were accompanied by a new theology, which also led to amendments to Reform prayer books. Traditionally, Jews had prayed for the coming of the Messiah, who would usher in a universal age of peace, resurrect the dead, and lead all Jews back to the restored Kingdom of Israel, where the Temple would be rebuilt and sacrifices once again offered upon its altars. The early reformers changed the focus of this national restoration to what they called the “Mission of Israel”: the Jews’ historic task to bring social justice to the world from within the lands where they lived. Now that the Jews of Europe or America had finally become prosperous, they had little desire to leave their “new homeland” for an uncivilized, swamp-ridden land halfway around the globe. They taught instead that “the Messianic Age,” rather than the Messiah, would come to all enlightened nations—and, better still, it was just around the corner.

In my studies of Jewish history, some of the hardest things to read are the hope and optimism in some sources dating 1900’s and early 1910’s. On the other side of WWI and WWII, it just hurts to read about the hope and belief in universal brotherhood in 1912.

In the U.S., the main organization for Reform Judaism was the Union for American Hebrew Congregations, which changed it’s name to the Union for Reform Judaism in 2003. Here’s the website. It’s about 900 congregations in the U.S. and Canada, ~1.5 million people, so ~11% of worldwide Judaism (13.5 mil. Jews/1.5 mil URJ = 11%).

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Alexis

Hey all, sorry I haven’t been around much. I just started class last week along with a bunch of other stuff, so I got a little overwhelmed for a few days. But I’m back. 🙂

Personally I’ve always felt a strong connection to the Psalms. I love the imagery and the lyricism, and the melodies we used in my synagogue were beautiful. As part of the Friday night service, Libby, we sang a series of psalms to represent the six days of creation and then the Sabbath day. I don’t know if it will be useful for the blog, but this was my favorite melody we used:

(The translation for the Hebrew is in the video description. Also the recording isn’t the best quality but you can hear the melody clearly.)

In the siddur (prayerbook) we used in my synagogue, there were writings interspersed throughout the service. Some of them were interpretive poems, some were analytical essays. Despite them not being actual “holy texts” I always honored them as providing a connection to the Jews who had gone before me.

I think something interesting to bring up to your readers might be that the physical process of fashioning a Torah scroll hasn’t really changed in centuries. They’re still made from parchment that’s hand-finished, hand-sewn panel-by-panel into a continuous strip long enough for the entire Torah, hand-written in ritualized calligraphy by a specially trained scribe (called a sofer, plural soferim) with specially made inks, and then hand-fitted onto carved wooden holders. The entire process can take months if not years, and requires highly advanced training. I say this might be interesting because this means that not only is the text contained within the Torah a connection to the roots of Judaism, but so is the physical Torah itself. Other sacred texts are made to nearly the same standard of quality, too.

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Petticoat Philosopher

As the child of agnostic parents, who grew up in a family with many atheist and agnostic Jews (and even the believers are pretty out there), “holy” was not a term that had a lot of currency among us. I have already stated what I see the value of studying traditional “holy texts” is to me, which has less to do with holiness and more to do with cultural identity, philosophy, and yes, sometimes (maybe) spirituality.

Much of the Jewish writings that have been influential to my life has nothing to do with the Jewish religious canon, from Baruch Spinoza to Tony Kushner (my favorite playwright) and many others. To be sure there is not always a bright line between religious and secular and what frequently fascinates me is the intersection of the two and the way religious and non-religious Jewish thought and experiences influence each other. For example, it is fascinates me to think about how Jewish teachings on, say, justice, or on the nature of God or humanity’s relationship to God inform the worldviews and perspectives I find in Jewish literature or philosophy which is one reason I value studying both “holy texts” and “not-so-holy texts.” (And, also, many Jewish thinkers that are important to me were at least some version of religious—some even Orthodox—and some, such as Emmanuel Levinas, wrote talmudic commentaries as well as philosophy.) In fact, I think both are necessary to understanding the many facets of Jewish identity.

And yes, I think there is a lot of leeway in Reform Judaism, including for secular Jews. I mean, I’m pretty sure my mom’s Reform rabbi growing up was an atheist so there you go . . .

And Alexis, I also prefer to attend services in communities that intersperse other writings into their prayer books and for the same reasons. This is another example of their not necessarily being a sharp divide between sacred and secular in many progressive Jewish communities. There is often a secular application of the sacred, and a sacredness to the secular. 

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Anat

In my teens, when I was pondering becoming a more observant Jew at some point, I read the Torah with Rashi and other commentaries—my father had  set of Chumashim with more than 20 different commentaries. Some looked like the work of people genuinely trying to understand, some looked more like the work of people trying to fit the text to an ideology, others like an attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable no matter what twists of logic are required to achieve it. Nowadays I recognize the various approaches as the equivalent of what happens in fandoms. Essentially the commentators were the Torah fandom, writing meta and fanfic for their favorite canon.

In my thirties I was more interested in attempting to understand the origins of the Biblical texts and the historical background. I read the popular works of archaeologists and a bit about ancient Near-East literature.

Nowadays when I want to feel Jewish I read the poetry of Yehuda Amichai. For example Passover or Sabbath Lie.

Also, in my youth I read large sections of Bialik and Ravnitzki’s Sefer ha’Agadah, The Book of Legends. It is a huge collection of the non-halakha parts of the Talmud, discussions, commentaries on Tanakh, tales (some rather fantastic) about the lives of famous rabbis, sayings. That gave me even more of a sense of a fan community. And I learned some really odd bits of Jewish folklore from there. I even found a recipe for a magical concoction to visualize the demons that supposedly accompany people wherever they go (according to some).

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Rachel

I would not be a practicing Jew today if not for the works of Chaim Potok, because his work—mostly fiction, though I’m currently reading a collection of interviews by him and they’re fascinating—provided me with a framework wherein I could believe in Judaism and yet understand that the texts we think of as holy are not the direct unembellished word of Hashem. I started reading The Chosen at a time of great disillusionment with Judaism, and they helped me find a voice and like-minded thought.

A congregation movement I really enjoy—I can’t tell how helpful they’ll be to laypeople, sadly—is Mechon Hadar, which is egalitarian and rigorously intellectual.

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Ki Sarita

In my community that I grew up, secular music was forbidden and instead we listened to Orthodox Jewish singers who set prayers and biblical verses to music. Those songs still nourish me today.

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Hilary

Anat asked: “What interests me is what kind of structures, institutions or methods (if any) Reform Judaism in the US formed to come up with consensus regarding practices and policies.” I got some background on the founding of Reform then had to stop for the night.  Now I’ll actually answer the question. The main institution of Reform Judaism in the U.S. is the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), and the Rabbinic institution is the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) and the Hebrew Union College -Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) .