Sacred texts are essential for scholars or even the common person to gain knowledge about the foundation that a specific religion is built upon. For the religion of Judaism, the Jewish community relies heavily on the sacred text of the Torah, which can be considered as their guide through life; the Jews follow the Torah as their covenant or connect to Yahweh. However, another book has also emerged from Judaism that traditionally holds great meaning, but has lost prestige, called The Talmud or The Oral law. The Talmud is traditionally known for containing a variety of religious laws, folktales, and guidance through a balanced life all condensed into a one script; this causes the book to not be ideal for most people because of the rigorous challenges of studying involved. While considered out dated and irrelevant today, the Talmud is look upon as undervalued, but is essential for Jewish faith.
The Talmud came about in the Middle Ages, facing constant revile and rejection along with Judaism. In the beginning, the stories and religious laws that make up the text were not in written form, but passed down orally from generation to generation, thus the name The Oral Law. To understand the historical and modern day importance of the Talmud, a person must know what exactly the text is considered to be. In the book, The Essential Talmud, Adin Steinsaltz states, “If the Bible is the cornerstone of Judaism, then the Talmud is the central pillar, soaring up from the foundations and supporting the entire spiritual and intellectual edifice” (3). For the Jewish culture, this book represents the historical significance of the interpretation of the oral law given to Moses by God, so that Moses may extend knowledge on how to follow the teachings a...
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...the most common person, Jewish or not, to learn and take away a greater understanding from the arguments within the volumes. The book is not limited on laws nor is it limited on the person; the purpose and what gives this historical text such great value is how essential the Talmud is to the Jewish faith in order to clarify the Torah, and the connection that is created from the spiritual world to the real world. Centuries may pass, but wisdom carries on. No matter who the person is, dig deep enough into the Talmud, and the answers to the universe may be revealed
Works Cited
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Steinsaltz, Adin. The Essential Talmud. New York: Basic, 1976. Print.
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Wisse, Ruth R. "Sutzkever, Avrom." YIVO. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2014.
In Judaism, there is the Torah and then there is the Oral Law. The Torah is the written scriptures and laws of the Judaic people. The Oral Law came as a parallel to the Torah. It was law as passed down orally through tradition. It was forbidden to write down the Oral Law. The Pharisees had a strong sense of superiority to peoples and Judaic sects that didn't abide by the laws of the Torah and Oral Law. Many of their neighboring peoples, they considered heathen nations. They were taught to maintain an absolute...
Along the way Jewish religion took on new teachings and practices. But with the lengthy development of Judaism and its many changes it is incorrect to posit, as some have done, that Jewish history produced two separate religions: an OT religion of Israel and the postexilic religion of Judaism. Despite the shifting phases of its history, the essence of the religious teaching of Judaism has remained remarkably constant, firmly rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures (OT). Judaism is a religion of ethical monotheism. For centuries many Jews have sought to distill its essential features from one biblical verse that calls Israel "to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God" (Mic. 6:8). The Babylonian exile brought certain modifications in Jewish religious life. Deprived of land, temple, and cultic priestly ministrations, Judaism began to adopt a nonsacrificial religion. Jews began to gather in homes for the reading of Scripture, for prayer and instruction. Here may be traced the earliest roots of the synagogue. Now "lip sacrifice" (prayer and penitence) rather than "blood sacrifice" (sheep and goats) became central to the life of piety.
Robinson, B. A. (2008, March 30). Books of the Hebrew Scripture . Retrieved May 7, 2011, from Religious Tolerance: http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_otb3.htm
Sacred texts and writings are integral to a living and dynamic religious tradition. Such texts are materials that can range from verbally spoken stories to writings. Sacred texts and writings provide followers with information on core ethical behaviour, rituals and ceremonies, as well as beliefs. The idea of the texts and writings being sacred refers to the texts encompassing divine inspiration. Christianity’s sacred texts and writings, such as the bible (conveyed as the word of God), are continually studied/interpreted throughout generations. The teachings of the bible and the ‘Ten Commandments’ provide Christians with morally accepted standards of behaviour to live their lives by and thus directly influence the day-today actions of its adherents. Furthermore, sacred texts and writings provide information on beliefs, which assist adherents in understanding and even answering significant enduring questions of life. For instance, the creation story ...
Moses Maimonides (1135 – 1204) was a medieval scholar and physician and the Jewish worlds most influential codifier of Jewish law. An influence on both Jewish and non-Jewish people, he was the great interpreter of sacred texts, interpreting both the Misnah and Talmud contributing to the development of Judaism by providing references based on the Torah. Maimonides’ writing and theological thought was able to draw together ideas from the Greek & Roman, Muslim & Arab as well as the Jewish and western worlds, and is often said to be the greatest Jewish writing aside from the Torah. Following his publications of works he had both supporters and detractors of his thinking and writings however both became influential in the years that followed. All Jewish scholarship since Maimonides has used his work as the basis of their studied with his writings still available in multiple languages. His Mishneh Torah remains one of the most influential. The Mishneh is a code of all Jewish law, designed to cover all times and places. It presents the laws in a system that is both clear and logical to both Rabbi’s and lay-people. This was much more efficient and logical than the Talmud for consultation of issues and presented it’s rulings without long-winded explanations, making it easier to follow. These codes of law are studied and used today in both academic and scholarly circles and by lay people as when they were first written.
One translation for the word “Torah” is law (Lawton, 2007). This is because the Torah is largely made up of laws, containing 613 rules for how devout Jews should conduct their lives (Lawton, 2007). The purpose of these laws, or mizvots, is to define the right or ideal relationship, one should have with God.
Hadda, Janet. “Gimpel the Full.” Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History 10.1 (1990) : 283-294.
The Talmud was created between the second and fifth centuries, Rabbinic Judaism – which is a sect of Judaism associated with the oral and written Torah, emerged as the perceptions of the traditional oral Torah were written and unified into a fundamental Jewish text. It was this Talmud tradition that aided in shaping Jewish life from the fifth century up until modernization in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Talmud was influenced by two leading rabbis of the oral tradition in the first century named Hillel and Shammai (Esposito 131). Their disagreements on how to interpret the Torah became the foundation for the Talmud and its characteristic dialogue-like form. Their influence and desire to incorporate the Talmud into everyday life is
understanding of the book because it was eyewitness account, divine dictation; it also tells the biography of Jesus,
Although both religions believe in monotheism, Judaism is based on an absolute deity called Yahweh. The beginning of the Jewish religion and the creation of the world is told throughout the Tanakh or the Hebrew Bible. And the Jewish teachings are known as the Torah. However, the five books of Moses are taught to be the most sacred books of all the scriptures. Just like Muslims, Jews believe that there was prophets that God sent to spread his word, but they do not stand on the belief that just one prophet heard revelations. They belief that all the prophets heard them and there teachings can be found in the Bible. The Jews feel that history begins the same way as the Muslims with the creation of the world by God, but after this they tend to veer off from the Islamic beliefs. They believe that God sent “patria...