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- The first principle of Judaism is that only G-d can declare religion and
His Will. No mortal, no matter how holy and learned, may invent anything
about G-d’s Will.
- Furthermore, no mortal who claims to speak to G-d can force others to
his will. We don't believe any mortal's claims to allow him to form a religion.
- The Receiving of the Torah by all Israel from G-d at Sinai was a public
event, recorded by the ancestors of the Jews, and accepted by them and their
posterity. All Jews heard G-d speak to them "I am the L-d your G-d."
- At Sinai, G-d gave the Ten Commandments and the Torah Law to Israel.
This event, over 3,000 years ago, is the only time G-d revealed His Will.
Therefore, nobody can ever declare a religion and speak for G-d.
Furthermore, one who creates a new religion, has blasphemed against G-d's
giving of the Law, and has declared G-d a liar for swearing to retain His
covenant with Israel.
- G-d gave the Ten Commandments, which are the main categories for the
many Laws of Judaism.
- G-d also gave to Moses a Written Law, the Five Books of Moses, and an
Oral Law, which culminated in the written Talmud.
- There are, in the Written and Oral Law, and the Ten Commandments, 613
major categories of Law.
- These in turn have various divisions. Thus, in practice there are many
more than 613 commands.
- The Written and Oral Law empowered rabbis to "make fences" for the Torah
by adding protective rulings. The Torah instructs the rabbis to "make
fences," or rabbinical rulings, to protect the Torah.
- There was always a Torah for mankind. Adam and Eve had a Torah, given by
G-d to them in the Garden of Eden. Some of this was taken away after they
sinned, but Adam cried bitterly and got a lot of it back.
- There were great prophets and saints in the world long before the Jewish
people arrived, such as Noah and his son Shem. The Torah or Laws that they
had are known as the gentile Torah or the Seven Laws of Noah.
- The Jewish people began with Abraham, 2000 years after Creation, and
twenty generations after Adam. Abraham received the law of circumcision from
G-d. However, the full Torah was not given to anyone until Moses received it
from Sinai. The Patriarchs were nonetheless able to infer from their
learning and holiness much of the laws subsequently given to Israel.
Prophecy existed before Israel.
- G-d gave the Torah to Moses at Sinai, and taught him the Five Books of
Moses during the Forty Year Sojourn of Israel in the Desert of Sinai, after
they left Egypt.
- Moses taught the Jewish people the Torah and created an elite Sanhedrin,
or group of rabbis, to assist him.
- The Sanhedrin and leading rabbis of the generation transmit the Laws of
G-d as they received it, exactly as Moses heard it from G-d.
- Rabbis also interpret the law according to the Code of Interpretation,
given by G-d to Moses at Sinai.
- In addition, the rabbis must create "fences" to protect the Torah. They
enact rules so that people by following them will not sin. They also must
lead the generation, and see that people know the Torah and obey it.
- Rabbis thus interpret the Law, and tell us the meaning of the Written
and Oral Law. They also add laws of their own, which are of rabbinical,
rather than Torah, status.
- Thus, some laws or DIORAYO, or directly from G-d and the Torah. Some
laws are interpreted by the rabbis with Torah code and keys, and these also
are DIORAYSO. However, laws the rabbis create to protect the Torah are
of rabbinical not Torah law level.
- Dioraso and Dirabonon, Torah and rabbinical level laws, are both rooted
in the Torah. The Torah commanded the Jews to obey the rabbis and what they
decree to protect the Torah.
- One cannot interpret the Written Law without the Oral Law. One cannot
understand Judaism or the Torah without the Oral Law Tradition, written down
partially in the Talmud and various other works. One cannot understand the
words of the Torah, Bible, or Talmud, without a teacher who has imbibed the
tradition, or MESORAH, from Sinai.
- Moses wrote the Five Books of the Torah, and subsequent prophets wrote
various books. Some of these books were books of prophecy, and some of these
books were not prophecy, but holy teachings.
- There are two levels of divine inspiration. One is prophecy, and the
other is Ruach HaKodesh, or a holy spirit, that enlightens are person. In
ancient Israel, there were academies to prepare people for prophecy and holy
inspiration. Some books of the Bible are prophecies, such as the Book of
Isaiah and the Book of Jeremiah, and some are not prophecies, but holy
teachings, such as the Song of Songs and the Book of Esther.
- Hidden within the words of the Torah are many secrets, and "the secrets
of G-d go to those who fear Him." There are various systems to plum the
depths of the Torah.
- G-d gave a Torah that contains two sections, laws for Jews, and Noahide
Laws for gentiles.
- The first twenty generations of people, from Adam to Abraham, had
Noahide prophets and academies where Noahides studies the teachings of G-d
to Adam and to other prophets. However, what we Jews call Torah was given
only later to Israel at Sinai. The Torah at Sinai incorporates many of the
early teachings.
- The Jewish people began with Abraham and Sarah, about two thousand years
after Creation, or about 3700 years ago.
- The next generation was Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah, who married
Rebecca, from Abraham's family.
- The third generation was Jacob, who married the daughters of Laban, the
brother of Rebecca. From Jacob and his wives came the twelve tribes of
Israel.
- The first three generations of Jews were called Avoth and Imohoth,
literally "Fathers" and "Mothers" and they, as founders and ancestors of
Jews, are indeed the spiritual as well as the physical progenitors of Jews.
- Abraham and Sarah worked diligently to teach the way of G-d to the
pagans, and succeeded.
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Moses was ordained by G-d. Moses ordained
Joshua and the Elders.
-
Joshua and the Elders ordained the leaders
of the next generation. Thus, in each generation, the senior rabbis who are
ordained by the previous generation, ordain those worthy of being rabbis,
and continue the tradition.
- The rabbis derive not only their authority, but also
the process of teaching the Torah, from the elders and the past generations.
- G-d told the Jewish people they would suffer exiles,
but they are the Eternal and Chosen People. Anyone who harms the Jews will
answer to G-d.
- This world is one of short duration. People live for
seventy or so years, and then their souls go to the higher world, to be
judged and to merit paradise.
- Ultimately, the Messianic Era will arrive, great
battles will take place, and evil will be vanquished.
- G-d swore to keep the Jewish people as His Own, and
He will never change His oath.
- Ultimately, a time will come when G-d will explain
even the worst suffering, and comfort the pain of the Jewish people and the
suffering pious of the nations.
- Jews are the clergy of the human race, but most of
the human race is not Jewish.
- The purpose of the Jews is to inspire the nations to
obey G-d and the Torah.
- The Jews are those born of a Jewish mother, or one
converted by a rabbinical court of three rabbis.
- The Jews keep the Sabbath on the seventh day. This
reminds us that G-d created the world.
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Passover, held in the spring, is the time
the Jews were freed from Egyptian Bondage with mighty miracles in the time
of Moses, over 3,000 years ago. Since that time, every Passover, Jews recite
the Haggadah, the story of the Exodus. We recite passages from the Bible
that G-d will one day redeem Israel. He will lead them back to Jerusalem,
and build the Third Temple.
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Seven weeks after Passover comes the holiday
of Shavuoth, or "weeks." Seven weeks between Passover, the Exodus, and
Shavuoth, the Giving of the Torah, allowed the Jews to purify themselves and
prepare for G-d's Presence. G-d spoke to Israel at Sinai publicly, to
everyone, and said, "I am the L-d your G-d who brought you forth from the
land of Egypt. You shall have no other gods before Me."
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In Hebrew, the phrase, "no other gods before
Me" means, literally, gods on My face. That is, some people believe that G-d
is too high for people to know. They therefore invent intermediaries.
However, in the Ten Commandments, G-d warned against this. He spoke to us
Himself, and allows no mortals or images to be intermediaries.
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In the fall, we have the Hebrew month of
Tishrei, filled with holy days. First, there is Rosh HaShana, the New Year,
when the world is judged. Ten days later is Yom Kippur, a fast and Day of
Atonement. Five days after Yom Kippur comes Succose, the Festival of Booths,
when we remember the Exodus and the Forty Years in the Desert, when G-d
sustained us miraculously with Manna and the clouds of glory.
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Succose thus represents revealed miracle.
Tradition says that the great battle of Gog and Magog, the war before the
End, will take place during this time.
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The eighty day of Succose is Shemini
Atseress, the end of Succose, when we rejoice at the completion of the
reading of the Torah. We read a bit of it each week, and conclude the
reading on Simchas Torah, the Rejoicing of the Torah.
Jewish
History
-
Jewish history begins with
Creation, 6,000 years ago.
Science, they say disagrees, and posits the age of the world as very old. We
will have to discuss this another time, but suffice it to say here, that
evolution violates the law of physics known as entropy. Entropy is a law of
physics that a system cannot produce a more complex system. Einstein's Big
Bang violates another law of physics, that something cannot come from
nothing. Entropy also tells us that simple plasma cannot turn into complex
systems and people. The Big Bang violates another law of physics, that a
huge mass shrunken into a small ball has such a terrific gravitational pull
that even light cannot escape from it. Such a ball is pulled smaller and
smaller and cannot expand. Thus, if it is true that the universe began with
a tiny dot, it could not have expanded.
Originally, for about 2,000 years, there was no Jewish people. Righteous
gentiles, such as Noah and Shem taught Torah to the world. There were,
however, prophets. Until the time of Moses, there were gentile prophets.
Once the Jews received the Torah and became the clergy of the human race,
prophets carrying messages to people from G-d came exclusively from Israel.
Before Abraham,
however, there were great prophets and scholars who taught the Torah at a
sublime level. We have certain deep Kabbala books that historically contain
teachings ascribed to the earliest people.
Abraham began the Jewish people about 3,700 years ago.
Abraham's wife,
Sarah, was the major prophet of her time. G-d told Abraham, "All that Sarah
tells you hearken to her voice."
Abraham and Sarah
went from Babylonia, then the center of civilization, to Israel and Egypt
and back to Israel.
Isaac was Abraham's son and Jacob was Isaac's son. Jacob had twelve sons,
and they are the founders of the Jewish people, as the Twelve Tribes of
Israel. Jacob was also known as Israel.
Jacob and his family went to Egypt during a famine. Eventually, the
Egyptians enslaved the Jews. G-d rescued the Jews at Passover about 500
years after Abraham, brought them to Sinai to receive the Torah and Ten
Commandments, and forty years after that, brought the Israelites, under
Joshua, to Israel.
Thus, the entrance of the Jews to Israel under Joshua took place about 2,500
years after the Creation, about 3,300 years ago.
The Jews conquered Israel and divided it into twelve tribes or sections.
Abour 500 years after the Jews entered Israel, Solomon built the First
Temple. King David was the generation before Solomon. David prepared the
material for the Temple, but did not build it, because he was a warrior. The
Temple needed a king who was a man of peace.
Solomon brought the Jewish people to great prosperity. As happens in Jewish
history, this was also a period of spiritual decline. After Solomon died,
G-d punished the Jews by splitting the Jewish Kingdom into Northern and
Southern kingdoms.
The Jewish people
lived in Israel after Solomon for about four centuries. However, some people
began to emigrate, due to the constant conquests and wars, or for other
reasons.
The Jews originally
came from the area of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, near Babylonia, or
present day Iraq. There was always a relationship between the Jewish family
and those of the ancestors of the Jews. We find, for instance, Jacob, the
grandson of Abraham and Sarah, the first Jews, going back to the place of
his ancestors to find a wife. His mother, Rebecca, was born in Haran, and
was a daughter of relatives of Abraham, the first Jew.
The Jews always
spoke Aramaic, the language of the Talmud and the language of the official
translation of the bible, which was the language of Babylonians. The Jews
also used at times an alphabet called IVRI from the land of their ancestors.
IVRI means "beyond" and could mean someone who lived beyond one of the great
rivers such as the Euphrates.
The First Temple stood 410 years. From Creation until the Destruction of the
First Temple, about 2,500 years ago, G-d spoke to humans who were prophets.
He told them to rebuke people, and He told them the future. After the
Destruction of the First Temple, prophecy remained for about a century, and
then ceased. However, rabbis who were worthy still merited various divine
inspiration on an individual basis, but G-d did not speak to them to tell
things to the general community.
The seventy years
between the Destruction of the First Temple and the Building of the Second
Temple were some of the most constructive and exciting years in Jewish
history.
This period,
roughly 2500 years ago, was the time of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
However, the Jews were not in Greece, but in Persia and Babylonia, and until
Aristotle, we have no record of rabbis talking with the great Greek savants.
Several biblical
books originated in this time, such as the Book of Daniel, the Book of Ezra,
the Book of Nechemiah, as well as various prophets, such as Ezekiel,
Malachi, and Chagi.
Towards the end of
the seventy years, Haman, the Prime Minister of Persia, attempted to wipe
out the Jews, but there was a miracle, and Haman died and the Jews were
saved.
Esther, as Jewess,
was taken by the King for his wife, and she was instrumental in saving them.
After the death of Haman, Mordechai, the uncle of Esther, became the Prime
Minister. This led to a period of great prosperity for the Jews.
After Achashverush
died, his son, the son of Esther, became king, and allowed the Jews to
return to Israel and rebuild the Temple.
Alexander the Great
conquered the Persian Empire and befriended the rabbis. Our tradition says
that Aristotle accompanied Alexander to Israel and befriended the great
rabbis.
After Alexander,
however, the Greek successors to his throne persecuted the Jews.
Finally, the High
Priest Matisyohu rebelled against the Greeks and drove them out of Israel.
For this, we celebrate each year the miracle of Hanuka.
The Second Temple was built under the Persians, and thrived for a while
under the Greeks. However, the Greeks turned against the Jews and tried to
force them to worship idols. The Jews rebelled, and the miracle of Hanuka
celebrates the victory of the Jews over the Greeks.
The Second Temple lasted 420 years, and was destroyed by the Romans about
70.
The Talmud had been organized for many generations during and after the
Second Temple, and the Mishneh was redacted about 200 by Rabbi Judah the
Prince.
In Israel, a generation after the Mishneh, the first part of the Talmud,
Rabbi Yochonon redacted the Jerusalemic Talmud, interpretations of the
Mishneh, that was written with brevity.
Around 500 the rabbis of Babylonia produced another interpretation of the
Mishneh entitled the Babylonian Talmud.
Rabbis called Rabbonon Savrui continued with the work of the Talmud for a
short time. Their era was followed by a longer era, that of the Babylonian
Geonim, or Torah princes, who were descendents of King David and were
treated by the Babylonian government as royalty.
About a thousand years ago the Geonic period was followed by the early
Rishonim, "earlier scholars" such as Rashi, Rif and Rabbeinu Tam. Then came
Rambam, Ramban, and Rabbi Meir of Rottenburg. Then came the Rosh, Tashbats
and others.
The next era was that of Kadmonim, such as Terumas haDeshen, and then came
Acharonim, such as Rabbi Joseph Karo. Kadmonim means "earlier" relative to
the latter "acharonim" meaning "latter." Rabbi Joseph Caro wrote the Code of
Laws around 500 years ago.
The following era
was that of "acharonim," or latter scholars. From after the Kadmonin to the
present is one long era, but as time goes on, the generations generally
decline. There are, however, a few very great rabbis, such as Rabbi Elijah
of Vilna, who are considered throwbacks, and who achieve a status of the
earlier Rishonim.
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