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The Judaic Tradition – Britannica

The Judaic tradition

The literature of Judaism

General considerations

A paradigmatic statement is made in the narrative that begins with Genesis and ends with Joshua. In the early chapters of Genesis, the divine is described as the creator of humankind and the entire natural order. In the stories of Eden, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel, humans are recognized as rebellious and disobedient. In the patriarchal stories (about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph), a particular family is called upon to restore the relationship between God and humankind. The subsequent history of the community thus formed is recounted so that God’s desired restoration may be recognized and the nature of the obedient community may be observed by his people: the Egyptian servitude, the Exodus from Egypt, the revelation of the “teaching,” the wandering years, and finally fulfillment through entrance into the “land” (Canaan). The prophetic books (in the Hebrew Bible these include the historical narratives up to the Babylonian Exile—i.e., Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) also address the tension between rebellion and obedience, interpreting it within the changing historical context and adding new levels of meaning to the motif of fulfillment and redemption.

From this “narrative theology,” as it has been recited throughout the centuries, new formulations of the primal affirmations have been drawn. These have been clothed in philosophical, mystical, ethnic, and political vocabularies, among others. The emphases have been various, the disagreements often profound. No single exposition has exhausted the possibilities of the affirmations or of the relationship between them. Philosophers have expounded them on the highest level of abstraction, using the language of the available philosophical systems. Mystics have enveloped them in the extravagant prose of speculative systems and in simple folktales. Attempts have been made to encompass them in theoretical ethical statements and to express them through practical ethical behavior. Yet, in each instance, the proposed interpretations have had to come to terms with the spiritual and intellectual demands arising out of the community’s experience. The biblical texts, themselves the products of a long period of transmission and embodying more than a single outlook, were subjected to extensive study and interpretation over many centuries and, when required, were translated into other languages. The whole literature remains the basis of further developments, so that any attempt to formulate a statement of the affirmations of Judaism must, however contemporary it seeks to be, give heed to the scope and variety of speculation and formulation in the past.

Sources and scope of the Torah

The concept “Giver of Torah” played a central role in the understanding of God, for it is Torah, or “Teaching,” that confirms the events recognized by the community as the acts of God. In its written form, Torah was considered to be especially present in the first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch), which themselves came to be called Torah. In addition to this written Torah, or “Law,” there were also unwritten laws or customs and interpretations of them, carried down in an oral tradition over many generations, which acquired the status of oral Torah.

The oral tradition interpreted the written Torah, adapted its precepts to ever-changing political and social circumstances, and supplemented it with new legislation. Thus, the oral tradition added a dynamic dimension to the written code, making it a perpetual process rather than a closed system. The vitality of this tradition is fully demonstrated in the way the ancient laws were adapted after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE and by the role played by the Talmud in the survival of the Jewish people in exile. By the 11th century, Diaspora Jews lived in a Talmudic culture that united them and that superseded geographical boundaries and language differences. Jewish communities governed themselves according to Talmudic law, and individuals regulated the smallest details of their lives by it.

Central to this vast structure was, of course, the Jewish community’s concern to live in accordance with the divine will as it was embodied and expressed in Torah in the widest sense. Scripture, Halakhic and Haggadic Midrash, Mishna, and Gemara were the sources that Jewish leaders used to give their communities stability and flexibility. Jewish communities and individuals of the Diaspora faced novel and unexpected situations that had to be dealt with in ways that would provide continuity while making it possible to exist with the unprecedented.

Prophecy and religious experience

Torah in the broad sense includes the whole Hebrew Bible, including the books of the Prophets. According to the Prophets, God was revealed in the nexus of historical events and made ethical demands upon the community. In Rabbinic Judaism the role of the prophet—the charismatic person—as a source of Torah ended in the period of Ezra (i.e., about the time of the return from the Babylonian Exile in the 5th century BCE). This opinion may have been a reaction to the luxuriant growth of apocalyptic speculation, a development that was considered dangerous and unsettling in the period after the Bar Kokhba revolt, or Second Jewish Revolt (132–135 CE). Indeed, there seems to have developed a suspicion that reliance on unrestrained individual experience as a source of Torah was inimical to the welfare of the community. Such an attitude was by no means new. Deuteronomy (13:2–19) had already warned against such “misleaders.” The culmination of this attitude is to be found in a Talmudic narrative in which even the bat qol, the divine “echo” that announces God’s will, is ignored on a particular occasion. Related to this is the reluctance on the part of teachers in the early centuries of the Common Era to point to wonders and miracles in their own time. Far from expressing an ossification of religious experience—the development of the siddur (prayer book) and the Talmudic reports on the devotional life of the rabbis contradict such an interpretation—the attitude seems to be a response to the development of religious enthusiasm such as that exhibited in the behavior of the Christian church in Corinth—as Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians reveals—and among gnostic sects and sectarians. Thus, even among the speculative mystics of the Middle Ages, where allegorization of Scripture abounds, the structure of the community and the obligations of the individual are not displaced by the deepening of personal religious life through mystical experience. The decisive instance of this is Joseph Karo (1488–1575), who was thought to be in touch with a supernal guide but who was at the same time the author of an important codification of Jewish law, the Shulḥan ʿarukh.

Admittedly, there have been occasions when Torah, even in the wide sense, has been rigidly applied. In certain historical situations the dynamic process of Rabbinic Judaism has been treated as a static structure. What is of greater significance, however, is the way in which this tendency toward inflexibility has been reversed by the inherent dynamism of the rabbinic tradition.

Modern views of Torah

Since the end of the 18th century, the traditional position has been challenged both in detail and in principle. The rise of biblical criticism has raised a host of questions about the origins and development of Scripture and thus about the very concept of Torah, in the senses in which it has functioned in Judaism. Naturalistic views of God have required a reinterpretation of Torah in sociological terms. Other positions of many sorts have been and undoubtedly will be forthcoming. What is crucial, however, is the concern of all these positions to retain the concept of Torah as one of the central and continuing affirmations of Judaism.

Haim Zalman Dimitrovsky

Basic beliefs and doctrines

Judaism is more than an abstract intellectual system, though there have been many efforts to view it systematically. It affirms divine sovereignty disclosed in creation (nature) and in history, without necessarily insisting upon—but at the same time not rejecting—metaphysical speculation about the divine. It insists that the community has been confronted by the divine not as an abstraction but as a person with whom the community and its members have entered into a relationship. It is, as the concept of Torah indicates, a program of human action, rooted in this personal confrontation. Further, the response of this particular people to its encounter with God is viewed as significant for all humankind. The community is called upon to express its loyalty to God and the covenant by exhibiting solidarity within its corporate life on every level, including every aspect of human behavior, from the most public to the most private. Thus, even Jewish worship is a communal celebration of the meetings with God in history and in nature. Yet the particular existence of the covenant people is thought of not as contradicting but rather as enhancing human solidarity. This people, together with all humanity, is called upon to institute political, economic, and social forms that will affirm divine sovereignty. This task is carried out in the belief not that humans will succeed in these endeavors solely by their own efforts but that these sought-after human relationships have their source and their goal in God, who assures their actualization. Within the community, each Jew is called upon to realize the covenant in his or her personal intention and behavior.

In considering the basic affirmations of Judaism from this point of view, it is best to allow indigenous formulations rather than systematic statements borrowed from other traditions to govern the presentation.

God

An early statement of basic beliefs and doctrines about God emerged in the liturgy of the synagogue some time during the last pre-Christian and first Christian centuries; there is some evidence to suggest that such formulations were not absent from the Temple cult that came to an end in the year 70 CE. A section of the siddur that focuses on the recitation of a series of biblical passages (Deuteronomy 6:4–9; Deuteronomy 11:13–21; Numbers 15:37–41) is named for the first of these, Shema (“Hear”): “Hear, O Israel! the Lord is our God, the Lord alone” (or “…the Lord our God, the Lord is one”). In the Shema—often regarded as the Jewish confession of faith, or creed—the biblical material and accompanying benedictions are arranged to provide a statement about God’s relationship with the world and Israel (the Jewish people), as well as about Israel’s obligations toward and response to God. In this statement, God—the creator of the universe who has chosen Israel in love (“Blessed art thou, O Lord, who has chosen thy people Israel in love”) and showed this love by the giving of Torah—is declared to be “one.” His love is to be reciprocated by those who lovingly obey Torah and whose obedience is rewarded and rebellion punished. The goal of this obedience is God’s “redemption” of Israel, a role foreshadowed by his action in bringing Israel out of Egypt.

Unity and uniqueness

At the center of this liturgical formulation of belief is the concept of divine singularity and uniqueness. In its original setting, it may have served as the theological statement of the reform under Josiah, king of Judah, in the 7th century BCE, when worship was centered exclusively in Jerusalem and all other cultic centers were rejected, so that the existence of one shrine only was understood as affirming one deity. The idea acquired further meaning, however. It was understood toward the end of the pre-Christian era to proclaim the unity of divine love and divine justice, as expressed in the divine names YHWH and Elohim, respectively. A further expansion of this affirmation is found in the first two benedictions of this liturgical section, which together proclaim that the God who is the creator of the universe and the God who is Israel’s ruler and lawgiver are one and the same—as opposed to the dualistic religious positions of the Greco-Roman world, which insisted that the creator God and the lawgiver God are separate and even inimical. This affirmation was developed in philosophical and mystical terms by both medieval and modern thinkers.

Creativity

This “creed,” or “confession of faith,” underscores in the first benediction the relation of God to the world as that of creator to creation. “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who forms light and creates darkness, who makes peace and creates all things.” It adds the assertion that his activity is not in the past but is ongoing and continuous, for “he makes new continually, each day, the work of creation”; thus, unlike the deity of the Stoic worldview, he remains actively present in nature (see Stoicism). This creed also addresses the ever-present problem of theodicy (see also evil, problem of). Paraphrasing Isaiah 45:7, “I form the light and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil,” it changes the last word to “all” (or “all things”). The change was clearly made to avoid the implication that God is the source of moral evil. Judaism, however, did not ignore the problem of pain and suffering in the world; it affirmed the paradox of suffering and divine sovereignty, of pain and divine providence, refusing to accept the concept of a God that is Lord over only the harmonious and pleasant aspects of reality.

Activity in the world

The second and the third benedictions deal with divine activity within the realm of history and human life. God is the teacher of all humanity; he has chosen the people of Israel in love to witness to his presence and his desire for a perfected society; he will, as redeemer, enable humanity to experience that perfection. These activities, together with creation itself, are understood to express divine compassion and kindness as well as justice (judgment), recognizing the sometimes paradoxical relation between them. Taken together, they disclose Divine Providence—God’s continual activity in the world. The constant renewal of creation (nature) is itself an act of compassion overriding strict justice and affording humankind further opportunity to fulfill the divinely appointed obligation.

The basically moral nature of God is asserted in the second of the biblical passages that form the core of this liturgical statement (Deuteronomy 11:13–21). Here, in the language of its agricultural setting, the community is promised reward for obedience and punishment for disobedience. The intention of the passage is clear: obedience is rewarded by the preservation of order, so that the community and its members find wholeness in life; while disobedience—rebellion against divine sovereignty—shatters order, so that the community is overwhelmed by adversity. The passage of time has made the original language unsatisfactory (promising rain, crops, and fat cattle), but the basic principle remains, affirming that, however difficult it is to recognize the fact, there is a divine law and judge. Support for this affirmation is drawn from the third biblical passage (Numbers 15:37–41), which explains that the fringes the Israelites are commanded to wear on the corners of their garments are reminders to observe the commandments of God, who brought forth Israel from Egyptian bondage. The theme of divine redemption is elaborated in the concluding benediction to point toward a future in which the as-yet-fragmentary rule of God will be brought to completion: “Blessed is his name whose glorious kingdom is for ever and ever.”

Otherness and nearness

Within this complex of ideas, other themes are interwoven. In the concept of the divine creator there is a somewhat impersonal or remote quality—of a power above and apart from the world—which is emphasized by expressions such as the trifold declaration of God’s holiness, or divine otherness, in Isaiah 6:3: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts….” The development of surrogate divine names for biblical usage, as well as the substitution of Adonai (“my Lord”) for the tetragrammaton (YHWH) in the reading of the Bible itself, suggests an acute awareness of the otherness of God. Yet the belief in the transcendence of God is mirrored by the affirmation of God’s immanence. In the biblical narrative it is God himself who is the directly active participant in events, an idea that is emphasized in the liturgical narrative (Haggada; “Storytelling”) recited during the Passover meal (seder): “and the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt—not by an angel, and not by a seraph, and not by a messenger….” The surrogate divine name Shekhina, “Presence” (i.e., the presence of God in the world), is derived from a Hebrew root meaning “to dwell,” again calling attention to divine nearness. The relationship between these two affirmations, otherness and nearness, is expressed in a Midrashic statement, “in every place that divine awesome majesty is mentioned in Scripture, divine abasement is spoken of, too.”

Closely connected with these ideas is the concept of divine personhood, most particularly illustrated in the use of the pronoun “thou” in direct address to God. The community and the individual, confronted by the creator, teacher, and redeemer, address the divine as a living person, not as a theological abstraction. The basic liturgical form, the berakha (“blessing”), is usually couched in the second person singular: “Blessed art thou….” This relationship, through which remoteness is overcome and presentness is established, illuminates creation, Torah, and redemption, for it reveals the meaning of love. From it flow the various possibilities of expressing the divine-human relationship in personal, intimate language. Sometimes, especially in mystical thought, such language becomes extravagant, foreshadowed by vivid biblical metaphors such as the husband-wife relation in Hosea, the “adoption” motif in Ezekiel 16, and the firstborn-son relation in Exodus 4:22. Nonetheless, although terms of personal intimacy are used widely to express Israel’s relationship with God, such usage is restrained by the accompanying sense of divine otherness. This is evident in the liturgical “blessings,” where, following the direct address to God in which the second person singular pronoun is used, the verbs are with great regularity in the third person singular, thus providing the requisite tension between nearness and otherness, between the personal and the impersonal.

Modern views of God

The Judaic affirmations about God have not always been given the same emphasis, nor have they been understood in the same way. This was true in the Middle Ages, among both philosophers and mystics, as well as in modern times. In the 19th century, western European Jewish thinkers attempted to express and transform these affirmations in terms of German philosophical idealism. Later thinkers turned to philosophical naturalism, supplemented with the traditional God language, as the suitable expression of Judaism. In the first half of the 20th century the meaningfulness of the whole body of such affirmations was called into question by the philosophical school of logical positivism. The destruction of six million Jews in the Holocaust raised the issue of the validity of concepts such as God’s presence in history, divine redemption, the covenant, and the chosen people.

Israel (the Jewish people)

Choice and covenant

The concluding phrase of the second benediction of the liturgical section—“who has chosen thy people Israel in love”—clearly states that God’s choice to establish a relationship with Israel in particular was determined by divine love. The patriarchal narratives, beginning with the 12th chapter of Genesis, presuppose the choice, which is set forth explicitly in Deuteronomy 7:6–8 in the New Jewish Version:

For you are a people consecrated to the Lord your God: of all the peoples on earth the Lord your God chose you to be His treasured people. It is not because you are the most numerous of peoples that the Lord set His heart on you and chose you—indeed you are the smallest of peoples; but it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath He made with your fathers that the Lord freed you with a mighty hand and rescued you from the house of bondage, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Later rabbinic traditions on occasion sought to base God’s choice upon some special merit of Israel, and the medieval poet and theologian Judah ha-Levi suggested that the openness to divine influence originally present in Adam continued only within the people of Israel.

The Tower of Babel

The background of this choice is the recurring disobedience of humankind narrated in Genesis 2–11 (the stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, and the Tower of Babel). In the subsequent chapters of Genesis, Abraham and his descendants are singled out not merely as the object of the divine blessing but also as its channel to all humanity. The choice, however, demands a reciprocal response from Abraham and his lineage. That response is obedience, as exemplified in the first instance by Abraham’s readiness to leave his “native land” and his “father’s house” (Genesis 12:1). This twofold relationship was formalized in a mutually binding agreement, a covenant between the two parties. The covenant, thought by some modern biblical scholars to reflect the form of ancient suzerainty treaties, indicates (as in the Ten Utterances, or Decalogue) the source of Israel’s obligation—the acts of God in history—and the specific requirements those acts impose. The formalization of this relationship was accomplished by certain cultic acts that, according to some contemporary scholars, may have been performed on a regular basis at various sacred sites in the land before being centralized in Jerusalem. The content of the covenantal obligations thus formalized was Torah. Israel was bound in obedience, and Israel’s failure to obey provided the occasions for the prophetic messages. The prophets, as spokespersons for God, called the community to renewed obedience, threatened and promised disaster if obedience was not forthcoming, and sought to explain the covenant’s persistence even when it should have been repudiated by God.

The choice of Israel is expressed in concrete terms in the requirements of the precepts (mitzwot, singular mitzwa) that are part of Torah. The blessing recited before the public reading of the pentateuchal portions on Sabbath, festivals, holy days, fasts, and certain weekdays refers to God as “He who chose us from among all the peoples and gave us His Torah,” thus emphasizing the intimate relationship between the elective and revelatory aspects of God.

Israel’s role was not defined solely in terms of its own obedience to the commandments. Abraham and his descendants, for example, were seen as the means by which the estrangement of disobedient humankind from God was to be overcome. Torah was the formative principle underlying the community’s fulfillment of this obligation. Israel was to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6) functioning within humanity and for its sake. This task is enunciated with particular earnestness in the writings of the Prophets. In Isaiah 43–44, Israel is declared to be God’s witness and servant, who is to bring the knowledge of God to the nations, and in 42:6–7 it is described as a “covenant of the people, to be a light of the nations, to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prisons, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.” This double motif of a chosen people and a witness to the nations, joined to that of the righteous king, developed in the biblical and postbiblical periods into messianism in its several varieties.

The intimate relation between choice, covenant, and Torah determined the modality of Israel’s existence. Religious faith, far from being restricted to or encapsulated in the cult, found expression in the totality of communal and individual life. The obligation of the people was to be the true community, in which the relationship between its members was open, in which social distance was repudiated, and in which response to the divine will expressed in Torah was called for equally from all. One of the important recurring themes of the prophetic movement was the adamant rejection of any tendency to limit divine sovereignty to the partial area of “religion,” understood as the realm of the priesthood and cult. Subsequent developments continued this theme, though it appeared in a number of other forms. Pharisaic Judaism and its continuation, Rabbinic Judaism, resolutely held to the idea of the all-pervasive functioning of Torah, so that however the various Jewish communities over the centuries may have failed to fulfill this idea, the self-image of the people was that of a “holy community.”

Israel and the nations

The double motif of “treasured people” and “witness” was not without its tensions as it functioned in ongoing history. Tensions are especially visible in the period following the return from the Babylonian Exile at the end of the 6th and the beginning of the 5th century BCE. It is, however, doubtful whether the use of such terms as nationalism, particularism, or exclusivism are of any great help in understanding the situation. Emphasis has, for example, been laid upon Ezra 9:2 and 10:2, in which the reestablished community is commanded to give up wives taken from “the peoples of the land.” This is taken as an indication of the exclusive and nationalistic nature of Judaism, without reference to the situation in which a harassed contingent of returning exiles sought to maintain itself in a territory surrounded by politically unfriendly if not hostile neighbors. Nor does this recognize that foreigners were admitted to the Jewish community; in the following centuries, some groups engaged in extensive missionary activities, appealing to the individuals of the nations surrounding them to join themselves to the God of Israel, the one true God and the creator of heaven and earth.

A more balanced view recognizes that, within the Jewish community, religious universalism was affirmed by the same people who understood the nature of Jewish existence in politically particularistic (i.e., nationalistic) terms. To neglect either side is to distort the picture. In no case was the universalism disengaged from the reality of the existing community, even when it was expressed in terms of the ultimate fulfillment of the divine purpose, the restoration of the true covenantal relationship between God and all humankind. Nor was political particularism, even under circumstances of great provocation and resentment, misanthropic. The most satisfactory figure in describing the situation of the restored community, and one that continues to be useful in dealing with later episodes, is that of the human heartbeat, made up of two functions, the systole, or contraction, and the diastole, or expansion. There have been several periods of contraction and of expansion throughout the history of Judaism. The emphasis within the abiding tension has been determined by the historical situation in which the community has found itself. To generalize in one direction or the other is fatal to an understanding of the history and faith of the “holy community.”

The people and the land

Closely related to the concept of Israel as the chosen, or covenant, people is the role of the land of Israel. In the patriarchal stories, settlement in Canaan is an integral part of God’s fulfillment of the covenant. The goal of the Israelites who escaped from Egypt and of those who returned from the Babylonian Exile is the same land, and entry into it is understood in the same fashion. As there was the choice of a people, so there was the choice of a land—and for much the same reason. It was to provide the setting in which the community could come into being as it carried out the divine commandments. This choice of the land contrasts significantly with the predominant ideas of other peoples in the ancient world, in which the deity or divinities were usually bound to a particular parcel of ground outside of which they lost their effectiveness or reality. Although some such concepts may very well have crept into Israelite thought during the period of the kings (from Saul to Jehoiachin), the crisis of the Babylonian Exile was met by a renewal of the affirmation that the God of Israel was, as Lord of all the earth, free from territorial restraint, though he had chosen a particular territory for this chosen people. Here again the twofold nature of Jewish thought becomes apparent, and both sides must be affirmed or the view is distorted.

Following the two revolts against Rome (66–73 CE and 132–135 CE), the Jews of the ever-widening dispersion continued, as they had before these disasters, to cherish the land. Once again it became the symbol of fulfillment, so that return to it was looked upon as an essential part of messianic restoration. The liturgical patterns of the community, insofar as they were concerned with natural phenomena (e.g., planting, rainfall, harvest, and the annual cycle) rather than historical events, were based on geography, topography, and agricultural practices of the land. Although some Jews continued to live in the land, those in the distant dispersion idealized it, viewing it primarily in eschatological terms—their destination at the end of days, in the world to come. The 11th-century poet Judah ha-Levi not only longed for it in verse but also gave it a significant role in his theological interpretation of Judaism and eventually sought to return to it from his native Spain.

It was not, however, until the 19th century that the land began to play a role other than the goal of pilgrimage or of occasional settlement by pietists and mystics. At the end of the 19th century the power of the territorial concept was released in eastern Europe in a cultural renaissance that focused, in part, on a return to the land and, in western and central Europe, in a political movement coloured by nationalist motifs in European thought. The coming together of these two strains of thought gave rise to Zionism. This predominantly political movement reflected a dissatisfaction with the overall status of the Jewish people in the modern world.

The political emphasis of Zionism aroused considerable opposition from three competing views of the status of the Jewish people. The first opposition came from some traditionalist Jews (now called “Orthodox” or “ultra-Orthodox”) who were convinced that the Jewish nation must remain a solely religious community in the Diaspora and even in the land of Israel. They accepted the political rule of the Gentiles until the time when God will send his messiah to redeem the Jewish people by supernaturally returning all of them to the land of Israel in order to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.

The second opposition came from acculturated Jews in western Europe and North America who believed that Jews are part of larger secular polities and that their role in them should be that of a communion of like-minded religious believers, similar to that of the Catholic and Protestant denominations.

The third opposition came from some eastern European Jews who maintained that the Jewish people should seek their own national status in the territories in which they were presently living, similar to the resurgence of nationalism among a number of smaller nations living under the Austro-Hungarian or Russian empires. It was not until the Nazi Holocaust in the middle of the 20th century that the vast majority of Jews regarded Zionism, if not as the solution to the “Jewish question,” then as something the Jews could not very well survive without. After this time, Jewish opposition to Zionism was confined to peripheral groups on the right who still saw Zionism as pseudo-messianism and to peripheral groups on the left who still saw Zionism as isolating Jews from more important universalist goals.

Modern views of the people Israel

The nature of the people Israel and of the land of Israel has been variously interpreted in the history of Jewish thought. In modern times some interpretations have been deeply influenced by contemporary political and social discussions in the general community. Thus, for example, Zionist theoreticians were influenced by concepts of political nationalism on the one hand and by socialist ideas on the other. Further, the challenge to traditional theological concepts in the 19th century raised issues about the meaning of the choice of Israel, and Jewish thinkers borrowed from romantic nationalism ideas such as the “genius” of the people. In the 20th century, attempts were made to approach the question sociologically, dismissing the theological mode as unhelpful. The concept of the chosen people was accordingly understood as indicating a specific role deliberately undertaken by the Jewish people and similar to that espoused by other groups (e.g., manifest destiny by the American people). The establishment of the State of Israel motivated some thinkers to call for a repudiation of the idea, in keeping with the position that normal existence for the Jews requires the dismissal of such concepts. Although only a small minority of Jewish thinkers espoused this position, the concept of the choice of Israel was not without theological difficulties. In the late 20th century there were also some important attempts by Jewish thinkers to develop a theology of election.

The most important scholarship on the concept of “chosenness” was Michael Wyschogrod’s The Body of Faith (1983) and David Novak’s The Election of Israel (1995). Wyschogrod held that the people of Israel were elected because of God’s exceptional love for them and that God’s love existed prior to the revelation to Moses on Mount Sinai. Novak also accepted the traditional belief that God formed a unique relationship with Israel but maintained that God extends his covenant to the world and that the particularity of Israel’s election is implicated in the general covenant with the world and vice versa.

Humanity

The image of God

In Genesis 1:26, 27; 5:1; and 9:6 two terms occur, “image” and “likeness,” that seem to indicate clearly the biblical understanding of essential human nature: humans are created in the image and likeness of God. Yet the texts in which these terms are used are not entirely unambiguous; the idea they point to does not appear elsewhere in Scriptures, and the concept is not too prominent in the rabbinic interpretations. What the image and likeness of God, or the divine image, refers to in the biblical texts is not made explicit, and, in light of the fact that the texts are dominated by psychosomatic conceptions of the nature of humanity (i.e., involving both soul and body), it is not possible to escape entirely the implication of “bodily” similarity. What the terms meant in their context at the time and whether they reflect mythological usages taken over from other Middle Eastern thought are by no means certain. However, according to Akiba, the most prominent 2nd-century-CE rabbi, the “image” of God seems to mean the unique human capacity for a spiritual relationship with him; this interpretation thus avoids any suggestion of a physical similarity between God and humans.

The earthly-spiritual creature

A dualistic interpretation of humanity was offered in parts of the ancient Jewish community that were deeply influenced by Greek philosophical ideas. In this understanding, the divine likeness is identified with the immortal, intellectual soul as contrasted to the body. Other ancient and modern thinkers have understood the likeness as ethical, placing particular emphasis on freedom of the will. Clearly, no doctrine of humanity can be erected on the basis of these several verses alone—a broader view must be taken. A careful examination of the biblical material, particularly the words nefesh, neshama, and ruaḥ—which are often too broadly translated as “soul” and “spirit”—indicates that these terms must not be understood as referring to the psychical side of a psychophysical pair. A human being does not possess a nefesh but rather is a nefesh, as Genesis 2:7 says, “wayehi ha-adam le-nefesh ḥayya” (“…and the man became a living being”). Humans are, for most of the biblical writers, “a unit of vital power,” not a dual creature separable into two distinct parts of unequal importance and value. While this understanding of human nature dominated biblical thought, in apocalyptic literature (2nd century BCE–2nd century CE) the term nefesh was viewed as a separable psychical entity with existence apart from the body. This conception of human nature was not entirely divorced from the unitary biblical view, but a body-soul dualism (see mind-body dualism) was effectively present in such literature. In the Alexandrian version of Hellenistic Judaism, the orientation toward Greek philosophy, particularly the Platonic view of the soul imprisoned in the flesh, led to a clear-cut dualism with a negative attitude toward the body. Rabbinic thought remained closer to the biblical position, at least in its understanding of the human being as a psychosomatic unit, even though the temporary separation of the components after death was an accepted position.

The biblical view of the human as an inseparable psychosomatic unit meant that death was understood to be human dissolution. Although a human being ceased to be, this dissolution was not utter extinction. Some of the power that functioned in the unit may have continued to exist, but it was not to be understood any longer as life. The existence of the dead in sheol, the netherworld, was not living but the shadow or echo of living. For most biblical writers this existence was without experience, either of God or of anything else; it was unrelated to events. To call it immortality is to empty that term of any vital significance. The concept of sheol, however, along with belief in the possibility of the miraculous restoration of dead individuals to life and even the idea of the revival of the people of Israel from the “death” of exile, provided a foothold for the development of belief in the resurrection of the dead body at some time in the future. The stimulus for this may have come from ancient Iranian religion, in which the dualistic cosmic struggle is eventually won by life through the resurrection of the dead. This idea appeared in sketchy form in postexilic writings (Isaiah 26:19; Daniel 12:2). In this view there is life only in the psychosomatic unit now restored. This restoration was bound up with the eschatological hope of Israel and was limited to the righteous. In subsequent apocalyptic literature, a sharper distinction between body and soul was entertained, and the latter was conceived of as existing separately in a disembodied state after death. Although at this point the doctrine of the resurrection of the body was not put aside, the direction of thinking changed. The shades of sheol were now thought of as souls, and real personal survival—with continuity between life on earth and in sheol—was posited. Greek ideas, with their individualistic bent, influenced Jewish thought, so that the idea of a resurrection that was in some way related to a final historical consummation began to recede. True life after death was now seen as release from the bondage of the body, so that in place of or alongside of the afterlife of physical resurrection was set the afterlife of the immortal soul.

It was not the status of the soul, however, that concerned the biblical and rabbinic thinkers. Instead, the latter’s discussions of biblical themes emphasized the ethical import of the composite nature of human beings. Humans are in a state of tension or equilibrium between the two foci of creation, the “heavenly” and the “earthly.” They necessarily participate in both. But this means that they are the only creatures who can truly serve their creator, for they alone, partaking of both sides of creation, may choose between them. It is this ability to make an ethical choice that is the distinguishing mark of humans. It is not derived from the “heavenly” side but resides in the dual nature of human existence. This view is clearly not a type of body-soul dualism in which the soul is the source of good and the body the basis of evil. Such an attitude, however, did appear in some rabbinic material and was often affirmed in medieval philosophical and mystical speculations and by some of the later moralists. An important development of biblical-rabbinic ideas, these later commentaries represent authentic attempts to come to terms with other currents of thought and with the problems and uncertainties inherent within the earlier materials themselves.

The ethically bound creature

Humankind is then viewed as ethically involved. The central theme of the first 11 chapters of Genesis focuses on this responsibility, for the implicit assumption of the pre-patriarchal stories is the human ability to choose between obedience and disobedience. Rabbinic Judaism, taking up the covenant-making episode between God and Noah (Genesis 9:8–17), developed it as the basis of humanity’s ethical obligation. All humanity, not merely Israel, is engaged in a covenant relationship with God, which was spelled out in explicit precepts—variously enumerated as 6, 7, or even 10 and occasionally as many as 30—that reflect general humanitarian behavior and are intended to assure the maintenance of the natural order by the establishment of a proper human society. The covenant with Israel was meant to bring into being a community that would advance the development of this society through its own obedience and witness.

Human nature, viewed ethically, was explained in Rabbinic Judaism not only as a tension between the “heavenly” and “earthly” components but as a tension between two “impulses.” Here again, fragmentary and allusive biblical materials were developed into more-comprehensive statements. The biblical word yetzer, for example, means “plan,” that which is formed in human minds. In the two occurrences of the word in Genesis (6:5; 8:21), the plan or formation of the human mind is described as raʿ, perhaps “evil” in the moral sense or maybe no more than “disorderly,” “confused,” “undisciplined.” Other occurrences in the Bible do not have this modifier. Nonetheless, the Aramaic translations (Targumim) invariably replaced it with bisha (“wicked”) wherever it occurred. Rabbinic literature created a technical term, ha-raʿ (“the evil impulse”), to denote the source within humans of their disobedience, and subsequently the counter-term yetzer ha-ṭov (“the good impulse”) was used to indicate humans’ obedience. These terms more clearly suggest the ethical quality of human duality, while their opposition and conflict point to human freedom and the ethical choices humans must make. Indeed, it is primarily within the realm of the ethical that Judaism posits freedom, recognizing the bound, or determined, quality of much of humans’ natural environment or physiological makeup.

This ethically free creature stands within the covenant relationship and may choose to be obedient or disobedient. Sin, then, is ultimately deliberate disobedience or rebellion against the divine sovereign. This is more easily observed in relation to Israel, for it is in this connection that the central concern of Judaism is most evident and discussed in greatest detail. The covenant relationship is not limited to Israel, because, according to Judaic tradition, all humankind stands within a covenant relation to God and is commanded to be moral and just; therefore, the same choice is made universally. In technical language, the acceptance of divine sovereignty by the people of Israel and by individuals within that community is called “receiving the yoke of the kingship.” This involves intellectual commitment to a basic belief, as expressed by the Deuteronomic proclamation: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one!” It also imposes obligations regarding communal and individual behavior. These two responses are understood to be inextricably bound, so that rejection of the divine sovereign is manifest as denial of God both intellectually and practically. It amounts to “breaking the yoke of the kingship.” In more specific terms, sin is sometimes summed up under three interrelated headings: idolatry, murder, and illicit sexual behavior, each of which involves rebellion, for it involves activities that deny—if not God’s existence—his commanding relationship and the requirement of human response. Such behavior destroys the community and sets individual against individual, thus thwarting the ultimate purpose of God, the perfected human society.

If humans are free to choose rebellion and to suffer its consequences, they are also able to turn back to God and to become reconciled with him. The Bible—particularly the prophetic writings—is filled with this idea, even though the term teshuva (“turning”) came into use only in rabbinic sources. Basically, the idea grows out of the covenant: the opportunity to return to God is the result of God’s unwillingness—despite human failures—to break off the covenant relationship. Rabbinic thought assumed that even the direst warnings of utter disaster and rejection imply the possibility of turning back to God, motivated by remorse and the desire for restoration. Divine readiness and human openness are the two sides of the process of reconciliation. What was expressed in prophetic literature in relation to the immediate historical and political situation was stated in the synagogal liturgy in connection with pentateuchal and prophetic lessons and the homilies developed from them. Thus, the divine invitation was constantly being offered. Humans are called upon to atone for their rebellion by positive action in the other direction and are summoned to reconstitute wholeness in their individual and communal life.

Jewish existence, as it developed under rabbinic leadership following the two disastrous rebellions against Rome, was an attempt to reconstitute a community of faith expressed in worship in an ordered society in which the individual would live a hallowed life of response to the divine will. Although this plan was not spelled out in detail, it was probably understood to be the paradigm for the eventual reconstruction of humanity.

Medieval and modern views of man

Although the Jewish view of human nature was centrally concerned with ethics, metaphysical issues, however rudimentary in the beginning, were also included in the developing discussion. Medieval philosophers, for example, sought an accommodation between the doctrine of the resurrection of the body and the concept of the immortality of the soul. The greatest of them, Moses Maimonides (1135–1204), propounded an extremely subtle position that equated immortality with the cleaving of the human intellect to the active intellect of the universe, thus limiting it to philosophers or to those who accepted a suitable philosophical theology on faith. Little or no consensus was evident in the modern period, though the language of resurrection or immortality was still used, even when its content was uncertain. Alongside this lack of agreement, however, Judaism’s basic affirmation about human nature remained the same: a human being is to be understood, however else, as a creature who makes free ethical choices for which he is responsible.

Ethics and society

The ethical emphasis of Judaism

Jewish affirmations about God and humans intersect in the concept of Torah as the ordering of human existence in the direction of the divine. Humans are ethically responsible creatures who are responsive to the presence of God in nature and in history. Although this responsiveness is expressed on many levels, it is most explicitly called for within interpersonal relationships. The pentateuchal legislation sets down, albeit within the limitations of the structures of the ancient Middle East, the basic patterns of these relationships. The prophetic messages maintain that the failure to honour these demands is the source of social and individual disorder. Even the most exalted members of society are not free of ethical obligations, as is seen in the ethical confrontation of David by Nathan (“Thou art the man”) for seducing Bathsheba and arranging to have her husband killed (2 Samuel 12).

What is particularly striking about Jewish ethical concerns is the affirmation that God is not only the source of ethical obligation but is himself the paradigm of it. In the so-called Code of Holiness (Leviticus 19), imitation of divine holiness is offered as the basis of human behavior in both the cultic-ceremonial and ethical spheres. The basic injunction, “You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am Holy,” underlay the concern for economically vulnerable members of the community; obligations toward neighbors, hired laborers, and the physically handicapped; interfamilial relationships; and attitudes toward strangers (i.e., non-Israelites). Acceptable human behavior was therefore “walking in all His ways” (Deuteronomy 11:22). The dialectical relation between God and man in the literary prophets also exhibits divine righteousness and divine compassion as patterns to be emulated in the life of the community.

This theme, imitatio Dei (“imitation of God”), is expressed succinctly in a commentary on Deuteronomy 11:22 that answers the question of how it is possible to walk “in all His ways”: “As He is merciful and gracious, so be you merciful and gracious. As He is righteous so be you righteous. As He is holy, strive to be holy” (Sifre Deuteronomy 85a). Even more daringly, God is described as clothing the naked, nursing the sick, comforting the mourners, and burying the dead, so that human beings may recognize their own obligations.

Interpenetration of communal and individual ethics

What stands out in the entire development of Jewish ethical formulations is the constant interpenetration of communal and individual obligations and concerns. A just society requires just people, and a just person functions within a just society. The concrete expression of ethical requirements in legal precepts takes place with both ends in view, so that the process of beginning the holy community and the process of forming the ḥasid (“pious”), the person of steadfast devotion to God, are concomitant. The relationship between the two is, of course, often mediated by the historical situation, so that in some periods one or the other moves to the center of practical interest. In particular, the end of the Judaean state (70–135 CE) truncated the communal aspect of ethical obligations, often limiting discussion to apolitical responsibilities rather than to the full range of social involvements. The reestablishment of the State of Israel in the 20th century therefore reopened for discussion areas that for millennia were either ignored or treated as mere abstractions. This implies that the full ethical responsibility of Jews cannot be carried out solely within the realm of individual relationships but must include involvement in the life of a fully articulated community.

This double involvement is most vividly apparent in the biblical period, when both were equally present as divine command and demand. In the rabbinic period, because of the new political context, the communal aspect receded, so that discussion was mainly oriented toward relationships between members of the Jewish community or between individuals as such and away from political responsibilities. Nonetheless, the virtues that were understood to govern these relationships were, in their biblical setting, communal as well. Righteousness and compassion had been obligations of the state, governing the relationship between political units, as the first two chapters of Amos make evident. At the same time, as Micah 6:8 shows, doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God were obligations of the individual as well. Given the situation of the Jewish Diaspora following the revolts against Rome in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, the individual pattern became the primary object of concern. Theoretical ethical systems were not developed until the Middle Ages, but even in the early period it was understood that the dynamic of ethical theory stood behind the practical system of Halakhah, the enumeration of legal precepts. This meant that the law assumed an ethical core that existed prior to revelation and that the laws were just and merciful because God was just and merciful. Thus an attempt was made to reduce the hundreds of precepts to a small number expressing the ethical essence of Torah.

The key moral virtues

In keeping with the rabbinic understanding of Torah, study also was viewed as an ethical virtue. Passages from the Mishna, which are repeated in the traditional prayer book, enumerate a series of virtuous acts—honouring parents, deeds of steadfast love, attendance twice daily at worship, hospitality to wayfarers, visiting the sick, dowering brides, accompanying the dead to the grave, devotion in prayer, peacemaking in the community and in family life—and conclude by declaring that the study of Torah is the premier virtue. The extracts enumerated in the Mishna and the prayer book exhibit the complex variety of ethical behavior called for within the Jewish tradition. To parental respect and family tranquillity are added the responsibility of parents for children, the duties of husband and wife in the establishment and maintenance of a family, and ethical obligations that extend from the conjugal rights of each to the protection of the wife if the marriage is dissolved. The biblical description of God as upholding the cause of the fatherless and the widow and befriending strangers, providing them with food and clothing (Deuteronomy 10:18), remained a factor in the structure of the community. Ethical requirements in economic life are expressed concretely in passages such as Leviticus 19:35–36: “You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin” (ephah and hin are units of measure); another example is Amos’s bitter condemnation of those who “sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes” (Amos 2:6). Such injunctions, together with many other specific precepts and moral requirements, established the basis for a wide-ranging program that sought to govern, both in detail and in general, the economic life of the individual and the community.

Relations within the human sphere are not the only object of ethical concern; nature also is so regarded. The animal world, in the biblical view, requires merciful consideration, so that on the Sabbath not only humans but also their domestic animals are required to rest (Exodus 20:10; 23:12). Mistreatment of beasts of burden is prohibited (Deuteronomy 22:4), and wanton destruction of animal life falls under the ban (Deuteronomy 6–7). In the rabbinic attitude toward creation, all of nature is the object of human solicitude. Thus, the food-yielding trees of a city under siege may not be destroyed, according to Deuteronomic legislation (Deuteronomy 20:14–20). The enlargement of this and other biblical precepts resulted in the generalized rabbinic prohibition, “You shall not destroy,” which governs human use of the environment.

The relation to non-Jewish communities and cultures

Although the end of the Jewish state reduced the scope of ethical judgments in the political sphere, relations between the Jewish community and other polities—particularly the Roman and Christian empires and the Islamic states—provided opportunities for the exploration of the ethical implications of such encounters. Because most of these situations were characterized by gross disparities of power, with the Jews the weaker party, prudential considerations were dominant. Despite this, Jewish authorities sought to bring to bear upon these external arrangements the ethical standards that governed the internal structures.

The problem of the relationship between the Jewish community, in whatever form it has existed, and other social units has been vastly complicated. The relation is ideally that of witness to the divine intent in the world. Practically, it has swung between the extremes of isolation and assimilation, in which the ideal has, on occasion, been lost sight of. Culturally, from its earliest beginnings, the people of Israel have met and engaged the ideas, forms, behaviors, and attitudes of their neighbors constructively. Israel reformulated what it received in terms of its own commitments and affirmations. On more than a few occasions, as in the period of settlement in Canaan, it rejected the religious and cultural ideas and forms of the indigenous population. On other occasions—as in Islamic Spain from the 8th to the 15th century—it actively sought out the ideas and cultural patterns of its neighbors, viewing them from its own perspective and embracing them when they were found to be of value. Indeed, the whole history of Israel’s relationship with the world may be comprehended in the metaphor, used previously, of the heartbeat with its systole and diastole. No period of its existence discloses either total rejection of or abject surrender to other cultural and political structures but rather a tension, with the focal point always in motion at varying rates. Judaism’s adjustment to and relation with other social and political units has involved larger aspects of communal and individual life. Whether or not under such circumstances it is helpful to describe Judaism as a civilization, it is important to recognize that, viewed functionally, much more must be included than is usually subsumed under the term religion in modern Western societies.

The formulation of Jewish ethical doctrines

The ethical concerns of Judaism have frequently been expressed in literary works. Not only were rabbinic writings constantly directed toward the establishment of legal patterns that embody such concerns, but in the medieval period the issues were dealt with in treatises on morals; in ethical wills, in which a father instructed his children about their obligations and behavior; in sermons; and in other forms. In the 19th century the traditionalist Musar (“Moral Instructor”) movement in eastern Europe and the philosophical discussions of the nascent Reform movement in the West focused upon ethics. Indeed, since the political and social emancipation of the Jews, ethical and social rather than theological questions have been given priority. Often the positions espoused have turned out to be “Judaized” versions of ethical theories or political programs. In some instances, as in the case of the distinguished German Jewish philosopher Hermann Cohen (1842–1918), the result has been a compelling restatement of a secular philosophical ethics in Jewish form. In others it has resulted in no more than a pastiche. More crucial, however, is the question of the uniqueness and authority of Jewish ethics. The reestablishment of the Jewish state renewed the possibility that the full range of ethical decisions, communal and individual, may be confronted. In such a situation the ethical task of the people moves out of the realm of speculation to become actual again.

The universe

Creation and Providence: God’s world

Although Genesis affirms divine creation, it does not offer an entirely unambiguous view of the origin of the universe, as the debate over the correct understanding of Genesis 1:1 discloses. (Was there or was there not a preexisting matter, void, or chaos?) The interest of the author, however, was not in the mode of creation—a later concern perhaps reflected in the various translations of the verse, “In the beginning God created,” which could signify what medieval philosophers designated creatio ex nihilo (“creation out of nothing”). He was concerned rather to affirm that the totality of existence—inanimate (Genesis 1:3–19), living (20–25), and human (26–31)—derived immediately from the same divine source. As divine creation, the universe is transparent to the presence of God, so that the Psalmist said, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the expanse proclaims [that it is] the work of his hands” (19:1). Indeed, the repeated phrase, “And God saw how good it was” (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 25, 31), may be understood as the foundation of this affirmation, for the workmanship discloses the workman. The observed order of the universe is further understood by the biblical author as the direct result of a covenantal relationship between the world and God: “So long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22). This doctrine of the providential ordering of the universe, reaffirmed in Rabbinic Judaism, is not without its difficulties, as in the liturgical change made in Isaiah 45:7 to avoid ascribing evil to God. Despite the problem of theodicy, Judaism has not acquiesced to the mood reported in the Palestinian Targum to Genesis 4:8: “He did not create the world in mercy nor does he rule in mercy.” Rather, Judaism has affirmed a benevolent and compassionate God.

God’s creation, the physical world, provides the stage for history, which is the place of the human encounter with the divine. An early Midrash, responding to the question of why Scripture begins with the story of creation, asserts that it was necessary to establish the identity of the Creator with the giver of Torah, an argument basic to the liturgical structure of the Shema. This relationship is further emphasized in the Kiddush, the prayer of sanctification recited at the beginning of the Sabbath. That day is designated “a remembrance of creation” and “a recollection of the going-forth from Egypt.” Thus, creation (nature) and history are understood to be inextricably bound, for both derive from the same divine source. This being so, redemption—the reconciliation of God and man through and in history—does not ignore or exclude the natural world. Using the imagery of an extravagantly fecund world of nature, rabbinic thought expressed its view of the all-inclusive effects of the restored relationship.

Humanity’s place in the universe

The human creature is, of course, subject to the natural order. Humans carry on their relationship with God in the world and through the world. The commandments of Torah are obeyed not solely as observances between humans and God but as actions between humans themselves and between humans and the world. The creation story describes the human as ruler over the earth and its inhabitants (Genesis 1:26–28; Psalms 8:5–9); nonetheless, far from being an arbitrary master, human dominion is limited by Torah. The regulations in the Torah are concerned not only with transactions between humans but also with human responsibilities to cultivated land, to the produce of the soil, and to domesticated animals. Bound in the network of existence, humans as moral creatures are responsible for creation in all its parts.

Even the destruction of the Jewish commonwealth in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE did not alienate Jews from these responsibilities, as the elaborate system of Mishna and Gemara reveals. The gradual but consistent exclusion of the Jews from immediate connection with large segments of the natural world, through legislation in Christendom and Islam, tended to dull their awareness of it. The recurring references to the natural world in the religious calendar, however, and the observation of harvest festivals even by city dwellers continued to remind the community of its ties. Thus, at the end of the 19th century, the nascent Zionist movement recognized that the regeneration of the Jewish people involved, among other requirements, a responsible relation to the natural order expressed in its attitude toward and treatment of the land.

If nature as the place of divine disclosure has, during long periods of Jewish existence, assumed a somewhat subordinate role, it has never been rejected or been seen to be irrelevant to the divine purpose. Indeed, in Jewish eschatology, its restoration is part of the goal of history.

Intermediary beings: angels and demons

The exact nature of nonhuman beings mentioned in Scripture—angels, or messengers (angel is derived from the Greek word angelos, which is the equivalent of the Hebrew word mal’akh, “messenger”)—is not altogether clear, and their roles seem ephemeral (see angel and demon). In the postexilic period, perhaps under Iranian influence, and in the late biblical and postbiblical literature, these beings emerge as more complete and often as clearly identifiable individuals with their own personal names. The unfocused biblical view gave way to an elaborate hierarchy of functionaries who acted, in some apocalyptic visions, as a veritable heavenly bureaucracy. Despite a consensus concerning their existence, there was little agreement about their role or importance. In some Midrashim, God takes counsel with them; in other sources, the rabbis urge Jews not to involve them but to approach God directly.

Like their counter-figures the demons, angels have a residual existence rooted in various layers of the Jewish experience and interpretation of the universe. At some times they are highly individualized and sharply realized; at others they are much more imaginary. The medieval philosophers and the early mystics saw them through Aristotelian or Neoplatonic categories. The Kabbalists continually invented new angels and fitted them into their complicated network of cosmic existence. Their role, however, even in periods of considerable emphasis, was peripheral, and they were outside the great movements and meanings of Jewish thought.

Contemporary philosophical speculation about the nature of the universe has, of course, required a response from Jewish thinkers. But, given the particular temper of a period in which metaphysics has not been central to much of theological discussion, no major statement has developed that has taken hold of the dominant positions and attempted to view them from the Jewish creationist perspective. The attempt within Reconstructionism to provide a naturalistic framework for Judaism, while courageous, seems to be based on a philosophical naturalism that many consider outmoded.

Eschatology

The future age of humankind and the world

The choice of Israel, according to the Bible, occurred because of humankind’s continual failure, by rebellion against its creator, to fulfill its divine potential. The subsequent inability of Israel to become the holy community and thereby a witness to the nations gave rise to the prophetic movement that summoned the people to obedience. An integral part of prophetic summoning, side by side with threats of punishment and warnings of disaster, was the vision of a truly holy community, a society fully responding to the divine imperative. This kingdom of the future was conceived of as entirely natural, functioning as any normal social and political unit. The future kingdom would be governed by a human ruler, who would carry out his tasks within the sphere of divine sovereignty, serving primarily to exhibit his own obedience and thus to stimulate the obedience of the entire people. This future monarch was often, though not always, portrayed in terms of an idealized David, using features of his life and reign that would emphasize submission to God, social stability, economic satisfaction, and peace. During the period of the monarchy, the prophetic demand was directed toward each succeeding king, with the hope—or even the expectation—that he would be or become the new David, the ideal ruler.

The Babylonian Exile added a new measure of urgency to this expectation, but it was not expressed in any uniform fashion. The later chapters of the Book of Ezekiel provide the constitution for the new commonwealth but do not describe the peculiar characteristics of the ruler, while the later chapters of the Book of Isaiah focus on several figures—including Cyrus II the Mede, who conquered the Babylonian Empire and freed the Jews from Babylonian captivity—who are seen as the divine instruments ushering in a new era. Although the virtues ascribed to these figures are extraordinary, they are neither superhuman nor suprahuman; indeed, they are required of all Israel and of all humanity. The frustrations of the postexilic period, when several attempts to bring the holy community into being were largely thwarted by the imperial designs of the great powers—as they had been in the preexilic period—led to an emphasis on the futuristic quality of messianic hope. This was abetted undoubtedly by external influences, such as Iranian thought, in which the cosmic rather than the historic aspect of a future era dominated. Because ancient cosmic myths had been part of the Israelite intellectual inheritance, as seen in literary usages throughout Scriptures, the impact of such ideas was to reinvigorate the mythic elements in Judaism. Thus, hopes for the future at the end of the Persian period and through the Hellenistic period comprised both historical expectations focused upon an earthly community and cosmic-mythic visions that moved on a broader stage. The latter were, of course, never entirely absent from historical expectations, for a renewal of nature was viewed as integral to the functioning of true society. The obedient community required, and was to be granted, a natural world in which true human relations could exist. In its most vivid form, the apocalypse (i.e., a visionary disclosure of the future), the literature of the period affords a remarkable insight into the agonies and urgencies of the people (see apocalyptic literature). After the disappointments of the past are recounted, the present, in transparent disguise, is portrayed, and the imminent and desired intervention of God is described in awesome detail as a means of affirming and confirming the faith of those who saw themselves as the remnant, or perhaps the promise, of the holy community.

The king-messiah and his reign

Israel’s hope was for the restoration of divine sovereignty over all of creation. Among the variety of expressions of such hope, that which centered around the idealized king assumed an ever more important (but never exclusive) role. Many of the writings that report the ideas and attitudes of the Jewish community in the period immediately preceding and following the rise of Christianity are either ignorant of or more probably indifferent to the personal element. God is envisioned as the protagonist of the end, actively intervening or sending his messengers (i.e., angels) to perform specific acts in ending the old era and inaugurating the new one. On the other hand, in some writings of the period the anointed king-messiah (Hebrew: mashiaḥ, “anointed”)—the title reflects the episode in 1 Samuel 16 in which David is thus singled out as the divinely chosen ruler—becomes more sharply defined as the central figure in the culminating events and, given the cosmic-mythic components, assumes suprahuman and, in some instances, even quasi-divine aspects. Although the doctrine of last things in Judaism is not necessarily messianic, if that term is properly limited to an inauguration of a future era through the action of a human, suprahuman, or quasi-divine person, the messianic version of eschatology played a more compelling role in Rabbinic Judaism than other modes. The same is true with regard to the locus of the “world (or age) to come.” Given the ingredients noted above, it was possible to construct various eschatological landscapes, ranging from the mundane to the celestial, from Jerusalem in the hills of Judah to a heavenly city. Indeed, medieval theologians, confronted with an embarrassment of riches, sought to combine them into an inclusive system that involved as many of the possibilities as could be brought together. In such patterns the messianic this-worldly emphasis was understood as a preliminary movement toward an ultimate resolution. The ideal ruler, the new David, would reestablish the kingdom in its own land (in Zion, or Palestine) and would reign in righteousness, equity, justice, and truth, thus bringing into being the holy nation and summoning all humankind to dwell under divine sovereignty. As a component of this reestablished kingdom, the righteous dead of Israel would be resurrected to enjoy a life in the true community that did not exist in their days. This kingdom, however long it was destined to endure, was not permanent. It would come to an end either at a predetermined time or as a victim of unrepentant nations and cosmic foes, at which point the ultimate intervention by God would take place. All the wicked throughout history would be recalled to life, judged, and doomed, and all the righteous would be transformed and transported into a new world; i.e., creation would be totally restored.

The particular emphases that one or the other of these ideas received and the ways in which they were interpreted—philosophically, mystically, and ethically—were determined most frequently by the situations and conditions in which the Jewish community found itself. With a considerable body of ideas at its disposal and with the details of none of them ever receiving the kind of affirmation given to statements about God, Torah, and Israel, freedom of speculation in the realm of eschatology was little restricted. Thus, Joseph Albo, in his work on Jewish “dogmas”—the Sefer ha-ʿiqqarim (1485; “Book of Principles”)—was not inhibited from denying that belief in the messiah was fundamental. The mystical movements of the Middle Ages found in eschatological hopes a crucial center. The early Kabbala was little interested in messianism, for it reoriented such expectations in the direction of personal redemption. However, following the disasters of the late 15th–17th centuries (e.g., the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and the Cossack massacre of the Jews in Poland), messianic speculation in all its varieties underwent a luxuriant growth, finally running wild in the movements surrounding Shabbetai Tzevi of Smyrna and later Jacob Frank of Offenbach. These tragedies for the Jewish communities once again resulted in deferring eschatological hopes or at least limiting their application.

Secularization of messianism

In the 19th century, with the political emancipation of the Jews in western Europe and the development of an optimistic evolutionism, messianism was transformed by many liberal thinkers into a version of the idea of progress, a goal that was often thought of as immediately attainable through enlightened social and political action. When disillusionment with emancipation set in, messianism was even more completely secularized by segments of the community who saw its meaning and fulfillment in some form of socialism. In others it was absorbed into the emerging political nationalism—Zionism. Similar developments took place in eastern Europe, with parallel transformations. In the 20th century, particularly after the events symbolized by Auschwitz (a Nazi death camp in Poland, where more than one million Jews were killed), the earlier modern interpretations, particularly of messianism, but also of eschatology as a whole, were considered inadequate. Although no compelling statement was forthcoming, Jewish thinkers beginning in the second half of the 20th century attempted once again to come to grips with eschatological concepts in all their varieties and forms.

Basic practices and institutions

The hallowing of everyday existence

Systematic presentations of the affirmations of the Jewish community were never the sole mode of expressing the beliefs of the people. Maintaining an equal importance with speculation—Haggadic, philosophic, mystical, or ethical—was Halakhah (Oral Law), the paradigmatic statement of the individual and communal behavior that embodied the beliefs conceptualized in speculation. Life in the holy community was understood to embrace every level of human existence. The prophets vigorously resisted attempts to limit the sovereignty of the God of Israel to organized worship and ritual. The Pharisees, even while the cult of the Jerusalem Temple was still in existence, sought to reduce priestly exclusiveness by enlarging the scope of sacral rules to include, as far as possible, all the people. Rabbinic Judaism, Pharisaism’s descendant, continued the process of democratization and sought to find in every occasion of life a means of affirming the presence of the divine. Some critics of Rabbinic Judaism, however, have seen the legal aspect of Jewish life as stifling. Although legalism is always a danger, spontaneity is not necessarily lacking in a world governed by Halakhah. Moreover, the intention of the Halakhic attitude is to remind Jews that every occasion of life is a locus of divine disclosure. This is most clearly seen in the berakhot, the “blessings,” that are prescribed to accompany the performance of a broad spectrum of human actions, from the routines of daily life to the restricted gestures of the cultic-liturgical year. In these God is addressed directly in the second person singular, his sovereignty is affirmed, and his activity as creator, giver of Torah, or redeemer—expressed in a wide variety of eulogies—is proclaimed. There are no areas of human behavior in which God cannot be met, and the Halakhic pattern is intended to make such possibilities realities. The situation of the Jewish community, however, determines how this intention is realized. On more than one occasion, the Halakhic pattern has served as a defense against a hostile environment, thus becoming a kind of scrupulousness (an obsessive concern with minute details), but, just as often, the dynamic of the intention has broken through to reestablish its integrity and to hallow life in its wholeness.

The traditional pattern of individual and familial practices

The traditional pattern of an individual’s life can be discerned by examining a passage from the Babylonian Talmud (tractate Berakhot 60b) that was reworked into a liturgical structure but which in its original form exhibits the intention discussed above. In this passage, the blessings accompanying one’s waking and returning to the routines of life are prescribed. There is a brief thanksgiving on awakening for being restored to conscious life; then a benediction is offered over the cock’s crowing; following this, each ordinary act—opening one’s eyes, stretching and sitting up, dressing, standing up, walking, tying one’s shoes, fastening one’s belt, covering one’s head, washing one’s hands and face—has its accompanying blessing, reminding one that the world and the life to which he has returned exist in the presence of God. These are followed by a supplication in which the petitioner asks that his life during the day may be worthy in all of its relationships. Then, as the first order of daily business, Torah, both written (Bible) and oral (Mishna), is briefly studied, introduced by doxologies to God as Giver of Torah. Finally, there is a prayer for the establishment of the kingdom of God, for each day contains within itself the possibility of ultimate fulfillment. As indicated, this was originally not a part of public worship but rather was personal preparation for a life to be lived in the presence of God (even today it is not, strictly speaking, part of the synagogue service, though it is frequently recited there).

Synagogue

Such individual responsibility marks much of Jewish observance, so that the synagogue—far from being the focus of observance—shares with the home and the workaday world the opportunities for divine-human encounter. The table blessings, Kiddush (the “sanctification” of the Sabbath and festivals), the erection of the booth (sukka) for Sukkoth (the Feast of Tabernacles), the seder (the festive Passover meal) with its symbols and narration of the Exodus, and the lighting of the lamps during the eight days of Hanukkah (the Feast of Dedication) are all the obligation of the individual and the family and have their place in the home. It is here too where the woman’s role is defined and where, as contrasted with the synagogue, she functions centrally. Given the traditional dietary regimen of the Jewish community—the exclusion of swine, carrion eaters, shellfish, and certain other creatures, the separation of meat and dairy products, the ritual slaughtering of animals, the required separation and burning of a small portion of dough (ḥalla) when baking, the supervision of the Passover food requirements, and many other stipulations—there exists a large and meticulously governed area in the home that is the sphere of woman’s religion. There seems not to have been a hierarchy of values in which the home-centered—as contrasted with the synagogue-oriented—practices were given an inferior status. In modern times, however—particularly in Western societies, where the pervasiveness of religious obligation has been replaced by ecclesiastical institutionalism on the prevailing Christian model—this whole crucial area has lost much of its meaning as a place of divine-human meeting. Thus, for many it is only the synagogue that provides such an opportunity, and the individual act has been reduced on the scale of values. With this downgrading, woman’s religion has lost much of its significance. However attenuated personal religious responsibility may have become, the intention of the Halakhic structure, the hallowing of the individual’s total existence, remains a potent force within the Jewish community.

The traditional pattern of synagogue practices

Capernaum synagogue

The other focus of observance is the synagogue. The origins of this institution are obscure, and a number of hypotheses have been proposed to account for the appearance of this lay-oriented form of worship. According to various ancient sources, during the period of the Second Temple—following the return from Babylon and continuing until the Temple’s destruction in 70 CE—various non-sacrificial modes of worship emerged that were independent of the priesthood and the official cult. The reports by the philosopher Philo Judaeus and the historian Flavius Josephus in the 1st century, buttressed by the Dead Sea Scrolls, provide some knowledge of the practices of the contemporary Essenes. Rabbinic sources, including the earliest layers of the traditional order of worship, provide insights into an apparently Pharisaic mode, and passages from the Acts of the Apostles concerning James and other Jewish Christians suggest still other varieties. In any case, the practitioners of what eventually became Rabbinic Judaism observed a form of worship that, with the destruction of the Temple cult, provided a new center and even absorbed enough from the defunct priestly institution to suggest continuity and legitimacy with the Judaic past. This was probably the basic pattern for synagogal liturgy in the millennia that followed.

At the heart of synagogal worship is the public reading of Scriptures. This takes place at the morning service on Sabbaths, holy days, and festivals, on Monday and Thursday mornings, and on Sabbath afternoons. The readings from the Pentateuch are currently arranged in an annual cycle so that, beginning with Genesis 1:1 on the Sabbath following the autumnal festivals, the entire five books are read through the rest of the year. The texts for festivals, holy days, and fasts reflect the particular significance of those occasions. In addition, a second portion from the prophetic writings (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, as well as the three major and 12 minor Prophets, but not Daniel) is read on many of these occasions. The readings take place within the structure of public worship and are incorporated into ceremonies in which the Sefer Torah (“Book of the Torah”), the pentateuchal scroll, is removed from the ark (cabinet) at the front of the synagogue and carried in procession to the reading desk; from it, the pertinent text is chanted by the reader. The text for the service is divided into subsections varying from seven on the Sabbath to three at the weekday morning service, and individuals are called forward to recite the blessings eulogizing God as Giver of Torah before and after each of these. The order of worship is composed of the preparatory blessings and prayers, to which are added passages recalling the Temple sacrificial cult (thus relating the present form of worship to the past); the recitation of a number of Psalms and biblical prayers; the Shema and its accompanying benedictions, introduced by a call to worship that marks the beginning of formal public worship; the prayer (tefilla) in the strict sense of petition; confession and supplication (taḥanun) on weekdays; the reading of Scripture; and concluding acts of worship. This general structure of the morning service varies somewhat, with additions and subtractions for the afternoon and evening services and for Sabbath, holy days, and festivals.

The prayer (tefilla) is often called the shemone ʿesre, the “Eighteen Benedictions”—though it actually has 19—or the ʿamida, “standing,” because it is recited in that position. It is made up of three introductory benedictions (praise of the God of the Fathers, of God the Redeemer who resurrects the dead, and of God the Holy One who fills the earth with his glory) and three concluding acts (a prayer for the acceptance of the service, a thanksgiving, and a prayer for peace). Between the introductory and concluding sections there is a series of intermediate petitions for knowledge, well-being, acceptance of repentance, forgiveness of sin, and others. On the Sabbath and on festivals the petitions are replaced by benedictions that mention the specific occasion but are not petitionary; it is considered inappropriate to attend to workaday concerns at these times.

The general outline of this order of service is found throughout the entire Jewish world, but the details have varied in different periods and geographic and cultural areas. The public service, requiring the presence of at least 10 males, the minyan (“quorum”), is generally led by a synagogal official, the ḥazzan, or cantor, but any Jewish male with the requisite knowledge may act in this capacity, since there is no clerical class in the community to whom such leadership is limited.

Torah crown

The synagogue room itself has a very simple basic form, though it may be embellished considerably. The only requirements are a container for the Torah scroll(s), called the aron ha-qodesh (“the holy ark”), a chest against the east wall or a recessed closet with doors and a curtain; a prayer desk (ʿamud) facing the ark, at which the reader stands when reciting the service; and the pulpit (bima)—in or close to the center of the room, according to some requirements—from which the Torah is read. In the Spanish-Portuguese tradition, only one desk (called teva) is used. The ark contains one or more scrolls, on which are written the Five Books of Moses. These are variously ornamented, depending upon the cultural region: European communities deck them in coverings of cloth, and Eastern communities (North African and Near Eastern) place them in wooden or metal containers. In addition, silver ornaments (rimonim) in the form of towers or crowns are often set on the tops of two rods on which the scroll is wound, and a breastplate (hoshen) and a pointer (yad) are suspended from them.

Accommodations for the worshippers vary according to the cultural milieu, from rugs and cushions in Eastern synagogues to pews and standing desks in European ones. Given this essential simplicity, the synagogue room itself may be used for purposes other than worship—e.g., study and community assembly. Again, this varies with the cultural pattern.

Ceremonies marking the individual life cycles

The life of the individual is punctuated by observances that mark the notable events of personal existence. A male child is circumcised on the eighth day following birth, as a covenantal sign (Genesis 17); the rite of circumcision (berit mila) is accompanied by appropriate benedictions and ceremonies, including naming. Females are named in the synagogue, generally on the Sabbath following birth, when the father is called to recite the benedictions over the reading of Torah. A firstborn son, if he does not belong to a priestly or a levitical family, is redeemed at one month (in accordance with Exodus 13:12–13 and Numbers 18:14–16) by the payment of a stipulated sum to a cohen (a putative member of the priestly family). At age 13 a boy is called to recite the Torah benedictions publicly, thus signifying his religious coming-of-age; he is thenceforth obligated to observe the commandments as his own responsibility—he is now a bar mitzvah (“son of the commandment”). Many Conservative and Reform congregations have instituted a similar ceremony, called the bat mitzvah, to celebrate the coming-of-age of girls. Marriage (ḥatuna, also qiddushin, “sanctifications”) involves a double ceremony, performed together in modern times but separated in ancient times by one year. First is the betrothal (erusin), which includes the reading of the marriage contract (ketubah, or ketubba) and the giving of the ring with a declaration, “Behold you are consecrated to me by this ring according to the law of Moses and Israel,” accompanied by certain benedictions. This is followed by the marriage proper (nissuʾin), consisting of the reciting of the seven marriage benedictions. The ceremony is performed under a ḥuppa, a canopy that symbolizes the bridal bower.

The burial service is marked by simplicity. The body, prepared for the grave by the ḥevraʾ qaddishaʾ (“holy society”), is clad only in a simple shroud and interred as soon after death as possible. In Israel no coffin is used. There are observances connected with death, many of which belong to the realm of folklore rather than Halakhic tradition. A mourning period of 30 days is observed, of which the first seven (shivah) are the most rigorous. During the 11 months following a death, the bereaved recite a particular form of a synagogal doxology (Kaddish) during the public service as an act of memorial. The doxology, devoid of any mention of death, is a praise of God and a prayer for the establishment of the coming kingdom. It is also recited annually on the anniversary of the death (yahrzeit).

Holy places: the land of Israel and Jerusalem

The land of Israel, as is evident from the biblical narratives, played a significant role in the life and thought of the Israelites. It was the promised home, for the sake of which Abraham left his birthplace; the haven toward which those escaping from Egyptian servitude moved; and the hope of the exiles in Babylon. In the long centuries following the destruction of the Judean state by the Romans, it was a central part of messianic and eschatological expectations.

During the early period of settlement, there apparently were many sacred localities, with one or another functioning for a time as a central shrine for all the tribes. Even the establishment of Jerusalem as the political capital by David and the building of a royal chapel there by Solomon did not bring an end to local cult centers. It was not until the reign of Josiah of Judah (640–609 BCE) that a reform centralized the cult in Jerusalem and attempted to end worship at local shrines. Although Josiah’s reform was not entirely successful, during the Babylonian Exile and the subsequent return, Jerusalem and its Temple defeated its rivals and became—in law, in fact, and in sentiment—the center of Jewish cultic life. This did not inhibit, however, the rise and development of other forms of worship and even—on a few occasions—other cult centers. Nonetheless, no matter how unpopular the priesthood of the Jerusalem Temple became with some segments of the population—the Qumrān community seems to have denied its legality, and the Pharisees complained bitterly about its arrogance and exactions, attempting, when feasible, to impose and enforce Pharisaic regulations upon it—reverence for the Temple seems to have remained a widespread sentiment. With the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 CE, such reverence was transformed both by messianic expectations and by eschatological hopes into fervent devotion, which, over the following centuries, became idealized and even supernaturalized. The most ardently articulated statement of the crucial role of the land of Israel and the Jerusalem Temple is found in the Sefer ha-Kuzari of Judah ha-Levi, in which the two are seen as absolutely indispensable for the proper relationship between God and his people.

Symbolizing the significance of the land and of the city is the practice of facing in their direction during worship. The earliest architectural evidence derived from synagogue remains in Galilee indicates that the attempt was made to arrange the building in such a way that the worshippers faced directly toward Jerusalem. This practice may have continued even in the Diaspora, but at a later date the present practice of setting the holy ark in or before the east wall was established, so that “facing Jerusalem” is now more symbolic than actual.

The sacred language: Hebrew and the vernacular tongues

The transformation of Hebrew into a sacred language is closely tied to the political fate of the people. In the period following the return from the Babylonian Exile, Aramaic, a cognate of Hebrew, functioned as the international or imperial language in official life and gained a foothold as a vernacular. It did not, despite claims made by some scholars, displace the everyday Hebrew of the people. The language of the Mishna, far from being a scholar’s dialect, seems to reflect popular speech, as did the Koine (common) Greek of the New Testament. Displacement of Hebrew—both in its literary form in Scriptures and in its popular usage—occurred in the Diaspora, however, as illustrated by the translation of Scriptures into Greek in some communities and into Aramaic in others. There seems also to have been an inclination on the part of some authorities to permit even the recitation of the Shema complex in the vernacular during the worship service. Struggles over these issues continued for a number of centuries in various places, but the development of formal literary Hebrew—a sacred tongue, to be used side by side with the Hebrew Scriptures in worship—brought them to an end. Although the communities of the Diaspora used the vernaculars of their environment in day-to-day living and even—as in the case of the communities of the Islamic world—for philosophical, theological, and other scholarly writings, Hebrew remained the standard in worship until modern times, when some western European reform movements sought partially—and a very small fraction even totally—to displace it.

The rabbinate

Legal, judicial, and congregational roles

The rabbinate, with its peculiar nature and functions, is the result of a series of developments that began after the disastrous second revolt against Rome (132–135 CE). The term rabbi (“my teacher”) was originally an honorific title for the graduates of the academy directed by the nasi, or patriarch, who was the head of the Jewish community in Palestine as well as a Roman imperial official. The curriculum of the school was Torah, written and oral, according to the Pharisaic tradition and formulation. The nasi appointed rabbis to the law court (the bet din) and as legal officers of local communities; acting with the local elders, they supervised and controlled the life of the community and its members in all aspects. A similar situation obtained in Babylon under the Parthian and Sāsānian empires, where the resh galuta, or exilarch (“head of the exile”), appointed rabbinical officials to legal and administrative posts. In time the patriarchate and exilarchate disappeared, but the rabbinate, nourished by independent rabbinical academies, survived. An authorized scholar, when called to become the judicial officer of a community, would at the same time become the head of the local academy and, after adequate preparation and examination, would grant authorization to his pupils, who were then eligible to be called to rabbinical posts. There was thus a diffusion of authority, the communities calling, rather than a superior official appointing, their rabbis. The rabbis were not ecclesiastical personages but communal officials, responsible for the governance of the entire range of life of what was understood to be the qehilla qedosha, the “holy community.”

In modern times, particularly in the Western world, the change in Jewish communal existence required a transformation of this ancient structure. The rabbinate became, for the most part, an ecclesiastical rather than a communal agency, reflecting the requirements of civic life in modern nation states. The education of rabbis is now carried on in seminaries whose structure and curriculum have been influenced by European and American academic institutions. The majority of their graduates serve as congregational rabbis, in roles similar to those of ministers and priests in Christian denominations but with some other functions deriving from the particular situation and nature of the Jewish community.

In the State of Israel certain larger areas, such as that of family law, are still reserved for the rabbinate. Even here, however, the rabbinate functions more as a counterpart to other ecclesiastical organizations, such as Christian and Muslim, than as an overarching and all-inclusive communal agency.

Chief rabbinates

The existence of the offices of chief rabbi in the State of Israel derives from the situation in the Ottoman Empire, where the various religious communities functioned as quasi-political entities in a multiethnic conglomerate. Israel has two chief rabbis, one for the Ashkenazic (European) and one for the Sephardic (Eastern) community; they no longer function as the heads of whole communities but only of ecclesiastical organizations. The same is true in countries outside Israel that have the office of chief rabbi (e.g., Great Britain and France); in these countries the chief rabbi’s relationship with the government is like that of his ecclesiastical counterparts in the Christian churches. While the chief rabbis have certain kinds of limited authority because of their official position, they have jurisdiction only over those members of the Jewish community who are ready to accept it; others form their own ecclesiastical units and act without reference to the chief rabbinate. In some situations—particularly in the United States, where there is no similar structure—the title chief rabbi or grand rabbi has been assumed occasionally by individuals as a means of asserting superior dignity or even (fruitlessly) authority.

General councils or conferences

The nature of the Sanhedrin in the last years of the Jewish commonwealth is a much disputed matter. The several councils mentioned in Talmudic literature are equally difficult to define with any precision. References scattered throughout medieval literature suggest the existence of councils and synods, but their composition and authority are uncertain. About the year 1000 a synod was held in the Rhineland in which French and German communities participated under the guidance of Rabbenu Gershom, the leading rabbinic authority of the region. In the late Middle Ages, representatives from the communities of Great Poland, Little Poland, Russian Poland (Volhynia), and Lithuania came together to form the Waʿad Arbaʿ Aratzot (Council of the Four Lands). At the beginning of the modern era, Napoleon in 1806 summoned the Assembly of Notables—representatives of communities under French dominion—to deal with questions arising from the dissolution of the older status of the Jews and their naturalization as individuals into the new nation-states. Decisions of the assembly that involved questions of Jewish law were subsequently submitted to a Grand Sanhedrin called by Napoleon to provide Halakhic justification for acts that the French imperial government had required of the Jewish communities.

During the 19th century the demand for the reform of Jewish life—principally the liturgy of the synagogue but many other aspects as well—prompted a series of rabbinical conferences and synods. A similar course of events took place in the United States. In both instances, after an initial period in which radicals, moderates, and conservatives argued their respective cases in the same forum, polarization set in and intellectual differences were transformed into competing organizations. In the 1970s the several tendencies within the Jewish communities in North America were institutionalized in rabbinical conferences and congregational unions—Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform—whose influence was in large measure limited to their adherents. There is also a worldwide body of Reform or Liberal Judaism—the World Union for Progressive Judaism. One result of these developments was the hardening of denominational differences, particularly in North America, especially between Orthodox and non-Orthodox (Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative) Judaisms.

Modern variations

The preceding sketch of basic practices and institutions has attempted to describe the so-called traditional situation, though it has been indicated that even here there are variations—actually more than have been noted. Reference has also been made to changes that represent the abandonment of traditional practices on the basis of intellectual decisions about the nature of Judaism, its beliefs, practices, and institutions. Such changes are far too numerous to describe in detail, but it is important to indicate their motivation. The Halakhic system, both as a whole and in all of its parts, is viewed not as divinely revealed but rather as a human process that seeks to expose in mutable forms the meaning of the divine-human encounter. The practices and institutions, therefore, are understood as historically determined, reflecting the multifaceted experience of the people of Israel as they have sought to live in the presence of God. Historical scholarship has disclosed the origins, rise, development, and decline of these structures in the past and thus suggests the propriety of changes in the present and future that appear to fulfill the needs of the community and its members. However, this kind of historicism (the explanation of values and forms in terms of their historical conditions) has been applied in widely different ways since it was first used in the 19th century. Some have seen it as justifying a disengagement from much if not all of the traditional pattern and a recognition that only the spiritual essence is of consequence for Judaism. Others have argued that the burden of proof is always upon those who would introduce changes. Since the end of World War II, the question has been whether a reconstituted Halakhic system might not be a requirement of the day.

The Jewish religious year

The calendar of Judaism includes the cycle of Sabbaths and holidays that are commonly observed by the Jewish religious community—and officially in Israel by the Jewish secular community as well. The Sabbath and festivals are bound to the Jewish calendar, reoccur at fixed intervals, and are celebrated at home and in the synagogue according to ritual set forth in Jewish law and hallowed by Jewish custom.

The cycle of the religious year

According to Jewish teaching, the Sabbath and festivals are, in the first instance, commemorative. The Sabbath, for example, commemorates the Creation, and Passover commemorates the Exodus from Egypt over 3,000 years ago. The past is not merely recalled; it is also relived through the Sabbath and festival observances. Creative physical activity ceases on the Sabbath—as it did, according to Genesis, when Creation was completed; Jews leave their homes and reside in booths during the Sukkoth festival, as did their biblical ancestors. Moreover, Sabbath and festival themes are considered to be perpetually significant, recurring and renewed in every generation. Thus, the revelation of the Torah (the divine teaching, or law) at Sinai, commemorated on Shavuot, is considered an ongoing process that recurs whenever a commitment is made to Torah study.

An important aspect of Sabbath and festival observance is sanctification. The Sabbath and festivals sanctified the Jews more than the Jews sanctified the Sabbath and festivals. Mundane meals became sacred meals; joy and relaxation became sacred obligations (mitzwot). No less significant is the contribution of the Sabbath and festivals to communal awareness. Thus, neither Sabbath nor festival can be properly observed in the synagogue, according to the ancient tradition, if fewer than 10 Jewish males are present. Again, a Jew prays on Rosh Hashana and mourns on Tisha be-Av not only for his own fate but for the fate of all Jews. The sense of social cohesiveness fostered by the Sabbath and festival observances has stood the Jews well throughout their long, often tortuous history.

The seven-day week, the notion of a weekly day of rest, and many Christian and Islamic holiday observances owe their origins to the Jewish calendar, Sabbath, and festivals.

The Jewish calendar

Lunisolar structure

The Jewish calendar is lunisolar—i.e., regulated by the positions of both the Moon and the Sun. It consists usually of 12 alternating lunar months of 29 and 30 days each (except for Ḥeshvan and Kislev, which sometimes have either 29 or 30 days) and totals 353, 354, or 355 days per year. The average lunar year (354 days) is adjusted to the solar year (3651/4 days) by the periodic introduction of leap years in order to assure that the major festivals fall in their proper seasons. The leap year consists of an additional 30-day month called First Adar, which always precedes the month of (Second) Adar. A leap year consists of either 383, 384, or 385 days and occurs seven times during every 19-year period (the Metonic cycle). Among the consequences of the lunisolar structure are these: the number of days in a year may vary considerably, from 353 to 385 days; and the first day of a month can fall on any day of the week, that day varying from year to year. Consequently, the days of the week upon which an annual Jewish festival falls vary from year to year despite the festival’s fixed position in the Jewish month.

Months and notable days

The months of the Jewish religious year, their approximate equivalent in the Western Gregorian calendar, and their notable days are as follows:

Circular diagram of the Jewish religious year showing Hebrew months around the outer ring and Gregorian months inside, with major holidays and fasts such as Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Hanukkah, Passover, and Purim labeled with their dates.

The cycle of the Jewish religious year. The months and holidays of the Jewish religious year.

Tishri (September–October)

1–2 Rosh Hashanah (New Year)

3 Fast of Gedaliah

10 Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)

15–21 Sukkot (Tabernacles)

22 Shemini Atzeret (Eighth Day of the Solemn Assembly)

23 Simchat Torah (Rejoicing of the Law)

Ḥeshvan, or Marḥeshvan (October–November)

Kislev (November–December)

25 Hanukkah (Feast of Dedication) begins

Ṭevet (December–January)

2–3 Hanukkah ends

10 ʿAsara be-Ṭevet (Fast of Ṭevet 10)

Shevaṭ (January–February)

15 Tu biShvtṭ (15th of Shevaṭ: New Year for Trees)

Adar (February–March)

13 Taʿanit Esther (Fast of Esther)

14, 15 Purim (Feast of Lots)

Nisan (March–April)

15–22 Pesach (Passover)

Iyyar (April–May)

18 Lag BaOmer (33rd Day of the ʿOmer Counting)

Sivan (May–June)

6, 7 Shavuot (Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost)

Tammuz (June–July)

17 Shivaʿ ʿAsar be-Tammuz (Fast of Tammuz 17)

Av (July–August)

9 Tisha b’Av (Fast of Av 9)

Elul (August–September)

During leap year the Adar holidays are postponed to Second Adar. Since 1948 many Jewish calendars list Iyyar 5—Israel Independence Day—among the Jewish holidays.

Origin and development

The origin of the Jewish calendar can no longer be accurately traced. Some scholars suggest that a solar year prevailed in ancient Israel, but no convincing proofs have been offered, and it is more likely that a lunisolar calendar similar to that of ancient Babylonia was used. In late Second Temple times (i.e., 1st century BCE to 70 CE), calendrical matters were regulated by the Sanhedrin, or council of elders, at Jerusalem. The testimony of two witnesses who had observed the new moon was ordinarily required to proclaim a new month. Leap years were proclaimed by a council of three or more rabbis with the approval of the nasi, or patriarch, of the Sanhedrin. With the decline of the Sanhedrin, calendrical matters were decided by the Palestinian patriarchate (the official heads of the Jewish community under Roman rule). Jewish persecution under the Roman emperor Constantius II (reigned 337–361) and advances in astronomical science led to the gradual replacement of observation by calculation. According to Hai ben Sherira (died 1038), the head of a leading Talmudic academy in Babylonia, the Palestinian patriarch Hillel II introduced a fixed and continuous calendar in 359 CE. A summary of the regulations governing the present calendar is provided by Maimonides, the great medieval philosopher and legist, in his Code: Sanctification of the New Moon, chapters 6–10.

Fragments of writings discovered in a genizah (a depository for sacred writings withdrawn from circulation) have brought to light a calendrical dispute between Aaron ben Meir, a 10th-century Palestinian descendant of the patriarchal (Hillel) family, and the Babylonian Jewish authorities, including Saʿadia ben Joseph, an eminent 9th–10th-century philosopher and gaon (head of a Talmudic academy). Ben Meir’s calculations provided that Passover in 922 be celebrated two days earlier than the date fixed by the normative calendar. After a bitter exchange of letters, the controversy subsided in favor of the Babylonian authorities, whose hegemony in calendrical matters was never again challenged.

Calendars of various sectarian Jewish communities deviated considerably from the normative calendar described above. The Dead Sea, or Qumrān, community (made famous by the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls) adopted the calendrical system of the noncanonical books of Jubilees and Enoch, which was essentially a solar calendar. Elements of the same calendar reappear among the Mishawites, a sect founded in the 9th century.

The Karaites, a sect founded in the 8th century, refused, with some exceptions, to recognize the normative fixed calendar and reintroduced observation of the new moon. Leap years were determined by observing the maturation of the barley crop in Palestine. Consequently, Karaites often celebrated the festivals on dates different from those fixed by the rabbis. Later, in medieval times, the Karaites adopted some of the normative calendrical practices while rejecting others.

The Sabbath

The Jewish Sabbath (from Hebrew shavat, “to rest”) is observed throughout the year on the seventh day of the week—Saturday. According to biblical tradition, it commemorates the original seventh day on which God rested after completing the creation.

Scholars have not succeeded in tracing the origin of the seven-day week, nor can they account for the origin of the Sabbath. A seven-day week does not accord well with either a solar or a lunar calendar. Some scholars, pointing to the Akkadian term shapattu, suggest a Babylonian origin for the seven-day week and the Sabbath. But shapattu, which refers to the day of the full moon and is nowhere described as a day of rest, has little in common with the Jewish Sabbath. It appears that the notion of the Sabbath as a holy day of rest, linking God to his people and recurring every seventh day, was unique to ancient Israel.

Importance

The central significance of the Sabbath for Judaism is reflected in the traditional commentative and interpretative literature called Talmud and Midrash (e.g., “if you wish to destroy the Jewish people, abolish their Sabbath first”) and in numerous legends and adages from more-recent literature (e.g., “more than Israel kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath kept Israel”). Some of the basic teachings of Judaism affirmed by the Sabbath are God’s acts of creation, God’s role in history, and God’s covenant with Israel. Moreover, the Sabbath is the only Jewish holiday the observance of which is enjoined by the Ten Commandments. Jews are obligated to sanctify the Sabbath at home and in the synagogue by observing the Sabbath laws and engaging in worship and study. The leisure hours afforded by the ban against work on the Sabbath were put to good use by the rabbis, who used them to promote intellectual activity and spiritual regeneration among Jews. Other days of rest, such as the Christian Sunday and the Islamic Friday, owe their origins to the Jewish Sabbath.

Observances

The biblical ban against work on the Sabbath, while never clearly defined, includes activities such as baking and cooking, travelling, kindling fire, gathering wood, buying and selling, and bearing burdens from one domain into another. The Talmudic rabbis listed 39 major categories of prohibited work, including agricultural activity (e.g., plowing and reaping), work entailed in the manufacture of cloth (e.g., spinning and weaving), work entailed in preparing documents (e.g., writing), and other forms of constructive work.

Havdalah

At home the Sabbath begins Friday evening some 20 minutes before sunset, with the lighting of the Sabbath candles by the wife or, in her absence, by the husband. In the synagogue the Sabbath is ushered in at sunset with the recital of selected psalms and the Lekha Dodi, a 16th-century Kabbalistic (mystical) poem. The refrain of the latter is “Come, my beloved, to meet the bride,” the “bride” being the Sabbath. After the evening service, each Jewish household begins the first of three festive Sabbath meals by reciting the Kiddush (“sanctification” of the Sabbath) over a cup of wine. This is followed by a ritual washing of the hands and the breaking of bread, two loaves of bread (commemorating the double portions of manna described in Exodus) being placed before the breaker of bread at each Sabbath meal. After the festive meal the remainder of the evening is devoted to study or relaxation. The distinctive features of the Sabbath morning synagogue service include the public reading of the Torah, or Five Books of Moses (the portion read varies from week to week), and, generally, the sermon, both of which serve to educate the listeners. Following the service, the second Sabbath meal begins, again preceded by Kiddush (of lesser significance), conforming for the most part to the first Sabbath meal. The afternoon synagogue service is followed by the third festive meal (without Kiddush). After the evening service the Sabbath comes to a close with the havdalah, or havdala (“distinction”), ceremony, which consists of a benediction noting the distinction between Sabbath and weekday, usually recited over a cup of wine accompanied by a spice box and candle.

The Jewish holidays

The major Jewish holidays are the Pilgrim Festivals—Pesaḥ (Passover), Shavuot (Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost), and Sukkoth (Tabernacles)—and the High Holidays—Rosh Hashana (New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). The observance of all the major holidays is required by the Torah and work is prohibited for the duration of the holiday (except on the intermediary days of the Pesaḥ and Sukkoth festivals, when work is permitted to avoid financial loss). Purim (Feast of Lots) and Hanukkah (Feast of Dedication), while not mentioned in the Torah (and therefore of lesser solemnity), were instituted by Jewish authorities in the Persian and Greco-Roman periods. They are sometimes regarded as minor festivals because they lack the work restrictions of the major festivals. In addition, there are the five fasts—ʿAsara be-Ṭevet (Fast of Ṭevet 10), Shivaʿ ʿAsar be-Tammuz (Fast of Tammuz 17), Tisha be-Av (Fast of Av 9), Tzom Gedaliahu (Fast of Gedaliah), and Taʿanit Esther (Fast of Esther)—and the lesser holidays (i.e., holidays the observances of which are few and not always clearly defined)—such as Rosh Ḥodesh (First Day of the Month), Ṭu bi-Shevaṭ (15th of Shevaṭ: New Year for Trees), and Lag ba-ʿOmer (33rd Day of the ʿOmer Counting). The fasts and the lesser holidays, like the minor festivals, lack the work restrictions characteristic of the major festivals. Although some of the fasts and Rosh Ḥodesh are mentioned in Scripture, most of the details concerning their proper observance, as well as those concerning the other lesser holidays, were provided by the Talmudic and medieval rabbis.

Pilgrim Festivals

In Temple times, all males were required to appear at the Temple three times annually and actively participate in the festal offerings and celebrations. These were the joyous Pilgrim Festivals of Pesaḥ, Shavuot, and Sukkoth. They originally marked the major agricultural seasons in ancient Israel and commemorated Israel’s early history; but, after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, emphasis was placed almost exclusively on the commemorative aspect.

In modern Israel, Pesaḥ, Shavuot, and Sukkoth are celebrated for seven days, one day, and eight days, respectively (with Shemini Atzeret added to Sukkoth), as prescribed by Scripture. Due to calendrical uncertainties that arose in Second Temple times (6th century BCE to 1st century CE), each festival is celebrated for an additional day in the Diaspora.

Pesaḥ commemorates the Exodus from Egypt and the servitude that preceded it. As such, it is the most significant of the commemorative holidays, for it celebrates the very inception of the Jewish people—i.e., the event which provided the basis for the covenant between God and Israel. The term pesaḥ refers originally to the paschal (Passover) lamb sacrificed on the eve of the Exodus, the blood of which marked the Jewish homes to be spared from God’s plague; its etymological significance, however, remains uncertain. The Hebrew root is usually rendered “passed over”—i.e., God passed over the homes of the Israelites when inflicting the last plague on the Egyptians—hence the term Passover. The festival is also called Ḥag or Matzot (“Festival of Unleavened Bread”), for unleavened bread is the only kind of bread consumed during Passover.

Leaven (seʾor) and foods containing leaven (ḥametz) are neither to be owned nor consumed during Pesaḥ. Aside from meats, fresh fruits, and vegetables, it is customary to consume only food prepared under rabbinic supervision and labelled “kosher for Passover,” warranting that they are completely free of contact with leaven. In many homes, special sets of crockery, cutlery, and cooking utensils are acquired for Passover use. On the evening preceding the 14th day of Nisan, the home is thoroughly searched for any trace of leaven (bediqat ḥametz). The following morning the remaining particles of leaven are destroyed by fire (biʿur ḥametz). From then until after Pesaḥ, no leaven is consumed. Many Jews sell their more valuable leaven products to non-Jews before Passover (mekhirat ḥametz), repurchasing the foodstuffs immediately after the holiday.

MatzosAn unleavened bread, matzo is made with only flour and water.

The unleavened bread (matzo) consists entirely of flour and water, and great care is taken to prevent any fermentation before baking. Hand-baked matzo is flat, rounded, and perforated. Since the 19th century, many Jews have preferred the square-shaped, machine-made matzo.

Seder plate

Passover eve is ushered in at the synagogue service on the evening before Passover, after which each family partakes of the seder (“order of service”), an elaborate festival meal in which every ritual is regulated by the rabbis. (In the Diaspora the seder is also celebrated on the second evening of Passover.) The table is bedecked with an assortment of foods symbolizing the passage from slavery (e.g., bitter herbs) into freedom (e.g., wine). The Haggada (“Storytelling”), a printed manual comprising appropriate passages culled from Scripture and Talmud and Midrash accompanied by medieval hymns, serves as a guide for the ensuing ceremonies and is recited as the evening proceeds. The seder opens with the cup of sanctification (Kiddush), the first of four cups of wine drunk by the celebrants. An invitation is extended to the needy to join the seder ceremonies, after which the youngest son asks four prescribed questions expressing his surprise at the many departures from usual mealtime procedure. (“How different this night is from all other nights!”) The father then explains that the Jews were once slaves in Egypt, were then liberated by God, and now commemorate the servitude and freedom by means of the seder ceremonies. Special blessings are recited over the unleavened bread and the bitter herbs (maror), after which the main courses are served. The meal closes with a serving of matzo recalling the paschal lamb, consumption of which concluded the meal in Temple times. The seder concludes with the joyous recital of hymns praising God’s glorious acts in history and anticipating a messianic redemption to come.

The Passover liturgy is considerably expanded and includes the daily recitation of Psalms 113–118 (Hallel, “Praise”), public readings from the Torah, and an additional service (musaf). On the first day of Pesaḥ, a prayer for dew in the Holy Land is recited; on the last day, the memorial service for the departed (yizkor) is added.

Originally an agricultural festival marking the wheat harvest, Shavuot commemorates the revelation of the Torah on Mount Sinai. Shavuot (“Weeks”) takes its name from the seven weeks of grain harvest separating Passover and Shavuot. The festival is also called Ḥag ha-Qazir (Harvest Festival) and Yom ha-Bikkurim (Day of First Fruits). Greek-speaking Jews called it pentēkostē, meaning “the fiftieth” day after the sheaf offering. In rabbinic literature, Shavuot is called atzeret (“cessation” or “conclusion”), perhaps because the cessation of work is one of its distinctive features, or possibly because it was viewed as concluding the Passover season. In liturgical texts it is described as the “season of the giving of our Torah.” The association of Shavuot with the revelation at Sinai, while not attested in Scripture, is alluded to in the Pseudepigrapha (a collection of noncanonical writings); in rabbinic literature it first appears in 2nd-century materials. The association, probably an ancient one, was derived in part from the book of Exodus, which dates the revelation at Sinai to the third month (counting from Nisan)—i.e., Sivan.

Scripture does not provide an absolute date for Shavuot. Instead, 50 days (or seven weeks) are reckoned from the day the sheaf offering (ʿOmer) of the harvest was brought to the Temple, the 50th day being Shavuot. According to the Talmudic rabbis, the sheaf offering was brought on the 16th of Nisan; hence Shavuot always fell on or about the 6th of Sivan. Some Jewish sectarians, such as the Sadducees, rejected the rabbinic tradition concerning the date of the sheaf ceremony, preferring a later date, and celebrated Shavuot accordingly.

In Temple times, aside from the daily offerings, festival offerings, and first-fruit gifts, a special cereal consisting of two breads prepared from the new wheat crop was offered at the Temple. Since the destruction of the Second Temple, Shavuot observances have been dominated by its commemorative aspect. Many Jews spend the entire Shavuot night studying Torah, a custom first mentioned in the Zohar (“Book of Splendour”), a Kabbalistic work edited and published in the 13th–14th centuries. Some prefer to recite the tiqqun lel Shavuʿot (“Shavuot night service”), an anthology of passages from Scripture and the Mishna (the authoritative compilation of the Oral Law). An expanded liturgy includes Hallel, public readings from the Torah, yizkor (in many congregations), and musaf. The Book of Ruth is read at the synagogue service, possibly because of its harvest-season setting.

Sukkah for Sukkot

Sukkah for SukkotPalm fronds adorning the entry to a sukkah (outdoor hut) for Sukkot, Herzliya, Israel, 2007.

Sukkoth (“Booths”), an ancient harvest festival that commemorates the booths the Israelites resided in after the Exodus, was the most prominent of the three Pilgrim Festivals in ancient Israel. Also called Ḥag ha-Asif (Festival of Ingathering), it has retained its joyous, festive character through the ages. It begins on Tishri 15 and is celebrated for seven days. The concluding eighth day (plus a ninth day in the Diaspora), Shemini Atzeret, is a separate holiday. In Temple times, each day of Sukkoth had its own prescribed number of sacrificial offerings. Other observances, recorded in the Mishna tractate Sukka, include the daily recitation of Hallel, daily circumambulation of the Temple altar, a daily water libation ceremony, and the nightly bet ha-shoʾeva or bet ha-sheʾuvah (“place of water drawing”) festivities starting on the evening preceding the second day. The last-mentioned observance features torch dancing, flute playing, and other forms of musical and choral entertainment.

Ideally, Jews are to reside in booths—walled structures covered with thatched roofs—for the duration of the festival; in practice, most observant Jews take their meals in the sukka (“booth”) but reside at home. A palm-tree branch (lulav) bound up together with myrtle (hadas) and willow (ʿarava) branches is held together with a citron (etrog) and waved. Medieval exegetes provided ample (if not always persuasive) justification for the Bible’s choice of these particular branches and fruit as symbols of rejoicing. The numerous regulations governing the sukka, lulav, and etrog constitute the major portion of the treatment of Sukkoth in the codes of Jewish law. The daily Sukkoth liturgy includes the recitation of Hallel (Psalms, 113–118), public readings from the Torah, the musaf service, and the circumambulation of the synagogue dais. On the last day of Sukkoth, called Hoshana Rabba (Great Hoshana) after the first words of a prayer (hoshana, “save us”) recited then, seven such circumambulations take place. Kabbalistic (mystical) teaching has virtually transformed Hoshana Rabba into a solemn day of judgment.

Hoshana Rabba is followed by Shemini Atzeret (Eighth Day of Solemn Assembly), which is celebrated on Tishri 22 (in the Diaspora also Tishri 23). None of the more distinctive Sukkoth observances apply to Shemini Atzeret; but Hallel, public reading from the Torah, yizkor (in many congregations), musaf, and a prayer for rain in the Holy Land are included in its liturgy. Simḥat Torah (Rejoicing of the Law) marks the annual completion of the cycle of public readings from the Torah. The festival originated shortly before the gaonic period (c. 600–1050 CE) in Babylon, where it was customary to conclude the public readings annually. In Palestine, where the public readings were concluded approximately every three years, Simḥat Torah was not celebrated annually until after the gaonic period. Israeli Jews celebrate Simḥat Torah and Shemini Atzeret on the same day; in the Diaspora, Simḥat Torah is celebrated on the second day of Shemini Atzeret. Its joyous celebrations bring the Sukkoth season to an appropriate close.

Ten Days of Penitence

The Ten Days of Penitence begin on Rosh Hashana and close with Yom Kippur. Already in Talmudic times they were viewed as forming an especially appropriate period of introspection and repentance. Penitential prayers (seliḥot) are recited prior to the daily morning service, and, in general, scrupulous observance of the Law is expected during the period.

According to Mishnaic teaching, the New Year festival ushers in the Days of Judgment for all of humankind. Despite its solemnity, the festive character of Rosh Hashana is in no way diminished. In Scripture it is called “a day when the horn is sounded” and in the liturgy “a day of remembrance.” In the land of Israel and in the Diaspora, Rosh Hashana is celebrated on the first two days of Tishri. Originally celebrated by all Jews on Tishri 1, calendrical uncertainty led to its being celebrated for an additional day in the Diaspora and, depending upon the circumstances, one or two days in Palestine. After the calendar was fixed in 359, it was regularly celebrated in Palestine on Tishri 1 until the 12th century, when Provençal scholars introduced the two-day observance.

Ram's horn shofar

The most distinctive Rosh Hashana observance is the sounding of the ram’s horn (shofar) at the synagogue service. Medieval commentators suggest that the blasts acclaim God as ruler of the universe, recall the divine revelation at Sinai, and call for spiritual reawakening and repentance. An expanded New Year liturgy stresses God’s sovereignty, his concern for humankind, and his readiness to forgive those who repent. On the first day of Rosh Hashana (except when it falls on the Sabbath) it is customary for Jews to recite penitential prayers at a river, symbolically casting their sins into it; this ceremony is called tashlikh (“thou wilt cast”). Other symbolic ceremonies, such as eating bread and apples dipped in honey, accompanied with prayers for a “sweet” and propitious year, are performed at the festive meals.

The most solemn of the Jewish festivals, Yom Kippur is a day when sins are confessed and expiated and human beings and God are believed to be reconciled. It is also the last of the Days of Judgment and the holiest day of the Jewish year. Celebrated on Tishri 10, it is marked by fasting, penitence, and prayer. Work, eating, drinking, washing, anointing one’s body, sexual intercourse, and wearing leather shoes are all forbidden.

In Temple times, Yom Kippur provided the only occasion for the entry of the high priest into the Holy of Holies (the innermost and most sacred area of the Temple); details of the expiatory rites performed by the high priest and others are recorded in the Mishna and recounted in the liturgy. Present-day observances begin with a festive meal shortly before Yom Kippur eve. The Kol Nidre prayer (recited before the evening service) is a legal formula that absolves Jews from fulfilling solemn vows, thus safeguarding them from accidentally violating a vow’s stipulations. The formula first appears in gaonic sources (derived from the Babylonian Talmudic academies, 6th–11th centuries) but may be older; the haunting melody that accompanies it is of medieval origin. Virtually the entire day is spent in prayer at the synagogue; the closing service (neʿila) concludes with the sounding of the ram’s horn.

Minor festivals: Hanukkah and Purim

Hanukkah and Purim are joyous festivals. Unlike the major festivals, work restrictions are not enforced during these holidays.

Hanukkah commemorates the Maccabean (Hasmonean) victories over the forces of the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes (reigned 175–164 BCE) and the rededication of the Temple on Kislev 25, 164 BCE. Led by Mattathias and his son Judas Maccabeus (died c. 161 BCE), the Maccabees were the first Jews who fought to defend their religious beliefs rather than their lives. Hanukkah is celebrated for eight days beginning on Kislev 25. The Hanukkah lamp, or candelabra (menorah), which recalls the Temple lampstand, is kindled each evening. One candle is lit on the first evening, and an additional candle is lit on each subsequent evening until eight candles are burning on the last evening. According to the Talmud (Shabbat 21b), the ritually pure oil available at the rededication of the Temple was sufficient for only one day’s light but miraculously lasted for eight days; hence the eight-day celebration. Evidence from the Apocrypha (writings excluded from the Jewish canon but included in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox canons) and from rabbinic literature shows an association between Hanukkah and Sukkoth, possibly accounting for the former’s eight-day duration. The celebration of Hanukkah includes festive meals, songs, games, and gifts to children. The liturgy includes Hallel, public readings from the Torah, and the ʿal ha-nissim (“for the miracles”) prayer. The Scroll of Antiochus, an early medieval account of Hanukkah, is read in some synagogues and homes.

Esther scroll

As recorded in the biblical Book of Esther, Purim commemorates the delivery of the Persian Jewish community from the plottings of Haman, prime minister to King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I, king of Persia, 486–465 BCE). Mordecai and his cousin Esther, the king’s Jewish wife, interceded on behalf of the Jewish community, rescinded the royal edict authorizing a massacre of the Jews, and instituted the Purim festival. The historicity of the biblical account is questioned by many modern scholars. It is now generally conceded that the Book of Esther was written in the Persian period (it contains Persian but not Greek words) and reflects Persian custom. Except for the Book of Esther, the earliest mention of the Purim festival is from the 2nd–1st centuries BCE. The name of the festival was derived from the Akkadian pûru, meaning “lot.”

In most Jewish communities, Purim is celebrated on Adar 14 (some also celebrate it on the 15th, others only on the 15th). On the evening preceding Purim, men, women, and children gather in the synagogue to hear the Book of Esther read from a scroll (megilla). The reading is repeated on Purim morning. A festive meal during the day is accompanied by much song, wine, and merriment. Masquerades, Purim plays, and other forms of parody are common. Friends exchange gifts of foodstuffs and also present gifts to the poor. Aside from the Esther readings, the liturgy includes public reading from the Torah and recital of the Purim version of the ʿal ha-nissim prayer.

The five fasts

Each of the fasts of the Jewish religious year recognizes an important event in the history of the Jewish people and Judaism. ʿAsara be-Ṭevet (Fast of Ṭevet 10) commemorates the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar II, king of Babylonia, in 588 BCE. Shivaʿ ʿAsar be-Tammuz (Fast of Tammuz 17) commemorates the first breach in the wall of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE. It initiates three weeks of semi-mourning that culminate with Tisha be-Av. Tisha be-Av (Fast of Av 9) commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples in 586 BCE and 70 CE. The most solemn of the five fasts, its self-denials are more rigorous than those prescribed for the others, and, like Yom Kippur, the fast begins at sunset. The book of Lamentations is read at the evening service, followed by poetic laments that are also recited on Tisha be-Av morning. Tzom Gedaliahu (Fast of Gedaliah) commemorates the slaying of Gedaliah, governor of Judah after the destruction of the First Temple. Taʿanit Esther (Fast of Esther), which commemorates Esther’s fast (compare Esther 4:16), is first mentioned in gaonic literature. The commemorative aspects of the fasts are closely associated with their penitential aspects, all of which find expression in the liturgy. Thus, Jews not only relive the tragic history of their people with each fast but are also afforded an opportunity to search within themselves and focus on their own (and their people’s) present and future. Penitential prayers (seliḥot) are recited on all fasts, and the Torah is read at the morning and afternoon services.

The lesser holidays

A major festival in the biblical period, Rosh Ḥodesh (First Day of the Month) gradually lost most of its festive character. Since Talmudic times, it has been customary to recite Hallel on Rosh Ḥodesh. In the medieval period, aside from the liturgical practices carried over from the Talmudic period, it was celebrated with a festive meal. Always more diligently observed in Palestine than in the Diaspora, attempts to revive its full festive character have been made in modern Israel.

First mentioned in the Mishna, where it marks the New Year for tithing purposes, Ṭu bi-Shevaṭ (15th of Shevaṭ: New Year for Trees) assumed a festive character in the gaonic period. In the medieval period it became customary to eat assorted fruits on the holiday. In modern times it has been associated with the planting of trees in Israel.

Lag ba-ʿOmer (33rd Day of the ʿOmer Counting) is a joyous interlude in the otherwise-somber period of the ʿOmer Counting (i.e., of the 49 days to Shavuot), which is traditionally observed as a time of semi-mourning. Usually celebrated as a school holiday with outings, it is first mentioned in medieval sources, which attribute its origin to the cessation of a plague that was decimating the students of Akiba, an influential rabbinic sage of the 2nd century, and to the anniversary of the death of another great rabbi, Simeon ben Yoḥai (died c. 170 CE).

The situation today

Modern attitudes toward the Sabbath and festivals vary considerably. Western secular Jews often are ignorant of, or choose to neglect, traditional observances. Attitudes of committed Jews in the Western world mostly reflect accepted Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform practice; for example, driving to synagogue services on the Sabbath is unthinkable in Orthodox circles, a matter of dispute among Conservative rabbis, and common practice for Reform Jews. Among Orthodox Jews, who best preserve the traditional observances, contemporary discussion centers mostly on technological advances and their effect on Halakhic practice. Whether or not hearing aids may be worn on the Sabbath and how crossing the international dateline affects the observance of Sabbaths and festivals typify the sort of problem addressed in Orthodox responsa (“replies” to questions on law and observance). Discussion in modern Conservative literature has raised the possibility of abolishing the obligatory character of the additional festival days in the Diaspora (except for the second day of Rosh Hashana), thus unifying Jewish practice throughout the world. Reform Jews, the most innovative of the three groups, observe neither the additional festival days (including the second day of Rosh Hashana) nor the fasts and have modified the liturgy and the observances of the holidays. More-radical Reform congregations have experimented freely with sound and light effects and other novel forms of synagogue service.

In Israel the Sabbath is the national day of rest, and Jewish holidays are vacation periods. Municipal ordinances govern public observance of the Sabbath and festivals; their enactment and enforcement vary with the political influence of the local Orthodox Jewish community. Attempts to interpret festivals along nationalistic lines are common; some kibbutzim (communal farms) stress the agricultural significance of the festivals. Independence Day is a national holiday; the preceding day, Remembrance Day, commemorates Israel’s war dead. Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance and Heroism Day)—marking the systematic destruction of European Jewry between 1933 and 1945 and recalling the short-lived ghetto uprisings—is observed officially on Nisan 27, but many religious Israelis prefer to observe it on Ṭebet 10 (a fast day), now called Yom HaKaddish Haklali (the day on which the mourner’s prayer is recited). Since the Six-Day War of June 1967, Iyyar 28—Liberation of Jerusalem Day—is celebrated unofficially by many Israelis (see Arab-Israeli wars). Appropriate services are conducted on all the aforementioned holidays by most segments of Israel’s religious community.

In Israel and the Diaspora, Jewish theologians often stress the timelessness and contemporaneity of holiday observances. Nevertheless, “revised” Passover Haggadot (plural of Haggada), in which contemporary issues are accorded a central position, appear regularly.

Art and iconography

The anti-iconic principle and its modifications

Although the Second Commandment (Exodus 20:4; Deuteronomy 5:8), “You shall not make yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth,” has been understood as absolutely prohibiting any and all artistic representation, this is not the only possible interpretation of these words. What is intended is a prohibition against the construction of idols, which were objects of worship in the cultural area in which the Israelites dwelt. Even in the Bible there are reports of artistic activity in the construction of the tent sanctuary and its ritual vessels (Exodus 25–31) and of the Temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 6–7). The literalness with which the commandment was interpreted depended on the larger situation of the community, so that when there was external pressure toward religious conformity, such as during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in Antioch (175–164 BCE), the anti-iconic attitude sharpened. During the Roman occupation of Israel, the presence of battle standards containing animal representations was looked upon as an affront, while extreme pietists would not even handle Roman coinage because of the images stamped on it. On the other hand, the walls of a 3rd-century-CE synagogue in Dura-Europus in Syria are covered from floor to ceiling with biblical scenes including human representations, and a number of synagogues in Palestine had elaborate mosaic floors decorated with the signs of the zodiac, representations of the seasons, and the like. Further, illuminated manuscripts from medieval Europe were frequently decorated with biblical figures, some quite clearly copied from Christian prototypes. There is also a fascinating image in a Haggada in which the human figures have bird heads. Synagogues from a later—though pre-emancipation—period (before the 18th century) were often decorated with animal representations. In the modern period the use of human representations has not been completely avoided, though nothing like the decorations of Dura-Europus has appeared.

Ceremonial objects and symbols

Given this general anti-iconic attitude, much of Jewish artistic endeavor has been directed toward the creation of ceremonial objects: Kiddush goblets, candlesticks and candelabra, spice boxes for the havdala ceremony at the end of the Sabbath, ornamented containers for the mezuzah (a parchment on which is written the passages from Deuteronomy 6:4–9 and 11:13–21, fastened to the doorpost on the right side as one enters), the silver crowns placed on the Torah scrolls, together with the mantles and breastplates for the same, and many other objects designed to embellish the performance of the large number of ritual acts of the individual and the community. All these vary in artistic quality, from the work of simple artisans to exquisitely produced works of master craftsmen.

Architecture

The building of synagogues too is an expression of artistic interest and concern, as well as of religious and social function. Nothing is known of these edifices, if indeed there were any, until the Greco-Roman period. Then the Roman basilica often provided the appropriate model, because the basilican design incorporated what the synagogue required, including a spacious hall and galleries (for women). Whenever possible, synagogues were built on hilltops. At the front of the synagogue was a walled entrance court with a fountain for ablutions. Before it was destroyed, the Temple may have been oriented with its doors facing eastward, but after it was rebuilt they faced Jerusalem; still later, when the holy ark containing the Torah scrolls was placed in a fixed position, the orientation was reversed so that the central gate would not be blocked. Ultimately, however, the ark was placed in or against the east wall, without reference to the actual direction of Jerusalem. As the Diaspora grew larger, the new communities adapted the architectural forms of the surrounding culture. Many of the surviving buildings of the Muslim period in Spain have horseshoe arches and are decorated with the exquisite stucco arabesques that mark the era. The medieval period in Christian Europe saw a revival of a very strict anti-iconic attitude and a gradual rejection of the church edifice in favor of secular buildings as a model for the synagogue.

The increasingly limited role of the Jew in western European society and the enlargement of restrictions by church and state made it necessary to modify the structure of the synagogue. The doors no longer were in the wall facing the ark, the courtyard grew smaller, galleries were discontinued and side rooms served as the women’s section, and a double- rather than a triple-aisled construction was largely favored. Similar developments took place in eastern Europe with the building of fortress-synagogues and the remarkable wooden synagogues of Poland. In the late 18th and the early 19th century, Baroque style had its day, followed by styles imitating Greek temples; Romanesque, Gothic, and Byzantine churches; and Moorish mosques. The various schools of functionalism and their commercial descendants have also influenced synagogue design. The best of these have brought together fine architectural design and beautifully conceived and executed decoration. The interior arrangement, even in some traditional synagogues, has been influenced by the Protestant sermon-centered form of worship, so that some of the unique forms that marked older structures are absent. The holy ark is, however, still a center of attention and has often been treated in interesting and striking ways.

Paintings and illustrations

The use of paintings in the decoration of synagogues goes back to at least the 3rd century CE and is found in the late pre-emancipation and modern synagogues as well. Manuscripts too were illuminated with miniatures, and during the Renaissance the Scrolls of Esther and the beautifully decorated ketubbot (marriage contracts) appeared. Nonetheless, the appearance of Jewish artists in painting and sculpture is a modern phenomenon. Beginning in the 19th century, interest grew apace, and more and more Jews were to be found in these fields, often in the avant-garde. Some, such as Marc Chagall (1887–1985) and Jacques Lipchitz (1891–1973), created specifically religious art.

Music

During the synagogue service, the ḥazzan, or cantor, reads the service and declaims the scriptural lessons to certain set musical modes that vary with the season and occasion. Many of these call for melodic responses on the part of the congregation. The origins of these chants are ancient, often obscure, and equally complicated. Whatever the basic materials may have been, they were enlarged, varied, and reworked through the centuries in the various environments in which the Jews lived. In modern times, musicologists began to examine the history of synagogal music, analyzing its basic structures and its relationship to the music of Christian liturgical traditions. In the 19th century in western Europe, much of the traditional synagogal music was either discarded or reworked under the influence of Western forms and styles. The introduction of the pipe organ in some more-liberal synagogues provoked a fierce controversy because of the prohibition against instrumental music in services, the general opposition to music in the liturgy as a memorial to the destruction of the Temple, and the organ’s association with Christian liturgical music.

Literature

Literature has been the home of Jewish artistic activity throughout the ages. The Hebrew Bible is a work of monumental artistry, exhibiting grandeur of form and language in historical narrative, poetry, rhetoric, law, and aphorism. The extra-scriptural writings of the period disclose literary genius of a high order in translation, though in many cases the original works have vanished. Although the documents of the rabbinic tradition are not often regarded as having great literary worth, much of the material, particularly the Haggadic portions of the Midrashim, reveals a noteworthy sensitivity to language. In the medieval period, much attention was given to the production of piyyuṭim, liturgical poetry with which to embellish the siddur (prayer book), itself a collection containing much imaginative as well as pedestrian writing. In the Islamic world, under the influence of Arabic poetry, Hebrew poetry rose to great heights in both liturgical and secular forms. Important works of history written in the medieval Rhineland chronicled and commented on Jewish suffering during the Crusades. The beginnings of the Jewish form of Middle High German also appeared in this period; through the centuries it developed into an autonomous Jewish language, Yiddish, which became a literary vehicle of very high order in the 19th century. The re-creation of Hebrew as a literary language also began in the 19th century; it became the basis of the spoken vernacular of the State of Israel and of a flourishing literature. After the emancipation at the end of the 18th century, Jews in western Europe and later in the United States turned to literature in the vernaculars of their countries and produced writers of note who dealt with both Jewish and general themes.

Lou Hackett Silberman

Jewish philosophy

The term Jewish philosophy refers to various kinds of reflection engaged in by persons identified as Jews. At times, as in the Middle Ages, this meant any methodical and disciplined thought pursued by Jews, whether on general philosophical subjects or on specifically Judaic themes. In other eras, as in modern times, concentration on the latter has been considered a decisive criterion, so that philosophers who are Jewish but unconcerned with Judaism or the Jewish heritage and destiny in their thought are not ordinarily classified as Jewish philosophers.

Pre-Hellenistic and Hellenistic thought

Bible and Apocrypha

Philosophy arose in Judaism under Greek influence; however, a kind of philosophical approach may be discerned in early Jewish religious works apparently subject to little or no Greek influence. The books of Job and Ecclesiastes (Hebrew: Qohelet) were favorite works of medieval philosophers, who took them as philosophical discussions not dependent on historical revelation. The book of Proverbs introduces, in an apparently theological context, the concept of Wisdom (Ḥokhma), which was to have a primordial significance for Jewish thought, and presents it as the first and favorite of God’s creations. It is also praised, in the book of the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), as instilled by God into all his works and granted in abundance to those he loves. It is sometimes equated with fearing God and keeping the Law. In other passages, however, piety seems to be regarded as superior to Wisdom. The Wisdom of Solomon, probably originally written in Greek, praises Wisdom, which is held to be an image of God’s goodness and a reflection of the eternal light. God is said to have given the author knowledge of the composition of the world, the powers, the elements, the nature of animals, the divisions of time, and the positions of the stars. In its vocabulary and perhaps in some of its doctrines, the work shows the influence of Greek philosophy. It also has had considerable influence on Christian theology.

The first systematic attempt to apply Greek philosophical concepts to Jewish doctrines was made by Philo Judaeus (Philo of Alexandria) in the 1st century CE. Philo was influenced by Platonic and Stoic writings and probably also by certain postbiblical Jewish beliefs and speculations. He apparently had some knowledge of the Oral Law, which was developing in his time, and he also knew of the Essenes, whom he praised highly.

Philo provided Jewish religious doctrines with intellectual and cultural respectability by stating them in Greek philosophical terms. He also showed that much of Greek philosophy was consonant with Judaism as he conceived it and with the allegorical sense of biblical texts as he read them. The fact that he stressed the primacy of Jewish religious tradition over Greek philosophy may have been more than mere lip service. It may be argued that—in central points of his thought, such as his conception of Logos (the Divine Reason or Word)—Philo used philosophical notions as expressions of religious beliefs. For him, Logos is primarily an intermediary between a transcendent, unknowable God and the world. On basic philosophical and theological problems, such as the creation of the world or the existence of free will (see also determinism), Philo’s writings provide vague or contradictory answers. He placed mystic ecstasy, of which he may have had personal experience, above philosophical and theological speculations.

Philo’s approach, his method of interpretation, his way of thinking, as well as some of his ideas—especially that of Logos—exerted considerable influence on early Christian thought but not, to any comparable extent, on Jewish thought in the same period. In the Middle Ages, knowledge of Philo among Jews was either very slight or nonexistent. Not until modern times was his importance in the history of Jewish religious thought recognized.

Other ancient sources

Some traces of ancient philosophy, mainly Stoic, may be found in the Mishna and in the subsequent Talmudic literature compiled in Palestine and Babylonia. Jewish theological and cosmological speculations occur in the Midrashim (plural of Midrash), which propound allegories, legends, and myths under the guise of interpreting biblical verses, and in the Sefer yetzira (“Book of Creation”), a combination of cosmogony and grammar that was once attributed to Abraham. There is no clear evidence of the period in which the Sefer yetzira was written; both the 3rd century and the 6th or 7th century have been suggested. The book became a key work in later Jewish mysticism.

Medieval philosophy

In the 9th and 10th centuries, after a long hiatus, systematic philosophy and ideology reappeared among the Jews, a phenomenon indicative of their contacts with Islamic civilization. The evolution of Islam in the 9th and 10th centuries showed that Greek scientific and philosophical lore could be separated, at least to some extent, from its pagan associations and could be adapted to another language and another culture. It also showed that a monotheistic, prophetic religion that in all relevant essentials, including adherence to a basic religious law, was closely akin to Judaism could be the basis of a culture in which science, philosophy, and theology were an indispensable part. The question of whether philosophy is compatible with religious law (the answer sometimes being negative) constituted the main theme of the foremost medieval Jewish thinkers. From approximately the 9th to the 13th century, Jewish thought participated in the evolution of Islamic philosophy and theology and manifested only in a limited sense a specifically Jewish character. Jewish philosophers showed no particular preference for philosophical texts written by Jewish authors over those composed by Muslims, and in many cases the significant works of Jewish thinkers constituted a reply or a reaction to the ideas of Islamic philosophical and scientific writings.

Jewish kalām

Although several Jewish intellectuals in 9th- and 10th-century Babylonia were steeped in Greek philosophy, the most productive and influential Jewish thinkers of this period represented a very different tendency, that of the Muʿtazilite kalām. Kalām (literally “speech”) is an Arabic term used in both Islamic and Jewish vocabulary to designate several theological schools that were ostensibly opposed to Greek, and particularly Aristotelian, philosophy. Islamic and Jewish Aristotelians regarded kalām theologians (called the mutakallimūn) with a certain contempt, holding them to be mere apologists and indifferent to the philosophical question of truth. Herein they did not do justice to their adversaries, for many representatives of kalām displayed a genuine speculative impulse. The school’s theology, forged in disputes with Zoroastrians, Manichaeans, and Christians, claimed to be based on reason.

Saʿadia ben Joseph

The belief in reason, as well as some of the tenets of Muʿtazilite theology, were taken over by Saʿadia ben Joseph (882–942), who was also influenced (either directly or through the intermediary of an Arabic philosopher) by John Philoponus (6th century), a Christian philosopher who argued against certain Aristotelian and Neoplatonic positions. Saʿadia’s main theological work, Kitāb al-amānāt wa al-iʿtiqādāt (Beliefs and Opinions), is modeled on similar Muʿtazilite treatises and on the Muʿtazilite classification of theological subject matter known as the Five Principles.

Like many Muʿtazilite authors, Saʿadia set forth in his introduction a list and theory of the various sources of knowledge. He distinguished four sources: (1) the five senses, (2) the intellect, or reason, (3) necessary inferences, and (4) reliable information given by trustworthy persons. In Saʿadia’s sense of the word, intellect, or reason (al-ʿaql), is an immediate, a priori cognition, independent of sense experience. In Beliefs and Opinions the intellect is characterized as having immediate ethical cognitions—that is, as discerning what is good and what is evil—in opposition to the medieval Aristotelians, who did not regard even the most general ethical rules as knowable a priori. The third source of knowledge comprises inferences of the type “if there is smoke, there is fire,” which are based on data furnished by the first two sources of knowledge. The fourth source of knowledge is meant to validate the teachings of Scripture and of the religious tradition, which must be regarded as true because of the trustworthiness of the men who propounded them. One of the work’s main purposes was to show that the knowledge deriving from the fourth source concords with that discovered by means of the other three—i.e., that religion and human reason agree.

Saʿadia opposed Aristotle’s view that the natural order was eternal. He held, with other partisans of the Muʿtazilite kalām, that the demonstration of the temporal creation of the world must precede and pave the way for the proof of the existence of God the Creator. Given the demonstrated truth that the world has a beginning in time, it can be proved that it could have been produced only through the action of a creator. It can further be proved that there must have been only one creator.

The theology of Saʿadia, like that of the Muʿtazilites, hinges on two principles: the unity of God and the principle of justice. The latter takes issue with the view (widespread in Islam and present also in Judaism) that the definition of what is just and what is good depends solely on God’s will, to which none of the moral criteria found among human beings are applicable. According to this view, a revelation from God can convert an action generally recognized as evil into a good action. Against this way of thinking, Saʿadia and the Muʿtazilites believed that being good and just or being evil and unjust are intrinsic characteristics of human actions and cannot be changed by divine decree. The notions of justice and of good, as conceived by humans, are binding even on God himself. Indeed, the ethical cognitions of humans are the same as those of the Deity.

Saʿadia also addressed the issue of the function of religious law. Of central importance in traditional Judaism and Islam, the law was thought to have been established to compel humans to perform good actions and avoid bad ones. Because Saʿadia believed that humans have a priori knowledge of good and evil and that this knowledge coincides with the principles underlying the most important portions of the revealed law, he was forced to ask whether this law is not superfluous. He could, however, point out that, whereas the human intellect recognizes that certain actions—for instance, murder or theft—are evil, it cannot by itself discover the best definition of what constitutes a particular transgression; nor can it, on its own, determine an appropriate punishment. On both points, Saʿadia asserted, the commandments of religious law give the best possible answers.

Saʿadia called the commandments that accord with the behests of the human intellect the intellectual, or rational, commandments. According to him, they include the duty of manifesting gratitude to the Creator for the benefits he has bestowed upon humans. Saʿadia recognized that a considerable number of commandments—for instance, those dealing with the prohibition of work on the Sabbath—do not belong to this category. He held, however, that the obligation to obey them can be derived from the rational commandment that humans must be grateful to God, for such gratitude entails obedience to his orders.

The Karaites

Saʿadia’s adoption of the rational Muʿtazilite theology was a part of his overall effort to consolidate rabbinical Judaism (based on the Mishna and Talmud), which was being attacked by the Karaites. This Jewish sect, founded by Anan ben David in the 8th century, rejected the authority of the Oral Law and the commentaries on it—that is, of the Mishna and the Talmud. In the 10th century and afterward, the Karaites accepted as their guides the Hebrew Bible and human reason, in the Muʿtazilite sense of the word. Their repudiation of postbiblical Jewish religious tradition facilitated a rational approach to theological doctrine. This approach led Karaite authors to criticize the adherents of rabbinical Judaism for holding anthropomorphic beliefs based in part on texts of the Talmudic period. Karaite authors propounded, in conceptual terms, a theology of Jewish history in exile (galut). Life in exile is a diminished existence; nevertheless, the good or bad actions of the Jewish people (rather than their material strength or weakness) affect the course of history. Redemption may come when all Jews are converted to Karaism.

The Karaites adopted Muʿtazilite kalām wholesale, including its atomism. The Muʿtazilite atomists held that everything that exists consists of minute, discrete parts. This applies not only to bodies but also to space, time, motion, and the “accidents”—that is, qualities, such as colour—which the Islamic and Jewish atomists regarded as being joined to the corporeal atoms but not determined by them, as had been believed by the Greek atomists. An instant of time or a unit of motion does not continue the preceding instant or unit. All apparent processes are discontinuous, and there are causal connections between their successive units of change. The fact that cotton put into fire generally burns does not mean that fire is a cause of burning; rather, it may be explained as a “habit” that has no character of necessity. God’s free will is the only agent of everything that occurs, with the exception of one category—human actions. These are causes that produce effects; for instance, one who throws a stone at someone else, who is then killed, directly brings about the latter’s death. This inconsistency on the part of the theologians was required by the principle of justice, for it would be unjust to punish someone for a murder that was a result not of this person’s action but of God’s. This grudging admission that causality exists in certain strictly defined and circumscribed cases was occasioned by moral, not physical, considerations.

Jewish Neoplatonism

Isaac Israeli

Outside Babylonia, philosophical studies were pursued by Jews in the 9th and 10th centuries in Egypt and in the Maghrib (northwest Africa), most notably by Isaac ben Solomon Israeli (832/855–932/955), an Egyptian-born North African who has been called “the first Jewish Neoplatonist.” In his philosophical works, such as the Kitab al-ustuqusat (“Book of Elements”) and the Kitab al-hudud (“Book of Definitions”), Israeli drew largely upon a 9th-century Muslim popularizer of Greek philosophy, Abū ğūsuf Yaʿqūb al-Kindī, and also, in all probability, upon a lost pseudo-Aristotelian text. The peculiar form of Neoplatonic doctrine that seems to have been set forth in this text had, directly and indirectly, a considerable influence on medieval Jewish philosophy.

According to Israeli, God creates through his will and power. The two things that were created first were form, identified with wisdom, and matter, which is designated as the genus of genera (the classes of things) and which is the substratum of everything, not only of bodies but also of incorporeal substances. This conception of matter apparently was derived from the Greek Neoplatonists Plotinus (205–270) and Proclus (c. 410–485), particularly from the latter. In Proclus’s opinion, generality was one of the main criteria for determining the ontological priority of an entity (its place in the hierarchy of being). Matter, because of its indeterminacy, obviously has a high degree of generality; consequently, it figures among the entities having ontological priority. According to the Neoplatonic view, which Israeli seems to have adopted, the conjunction of matter and form gives rise to the intellect. A light sent forth from the intellect produces the rational soul, which in turn gives rise to the vegetative soul.

Israeli was perhaps the first Jewish philosopher to attribute prophecy to the influence of the intellect on the faculty of imagination. According to Israeli, this faculty receives from the intellect spiritual forms that are intermediate between corporeality and spirituality. This explanation implies that these forms, “with which the prophets armed themselves,” are inferior to purely intellectual cognitions.

In its essentials, the schema of creation and emanation propounded by Isaac Israeli and his Neoplatonic source (or sources) was taken over by Solomon ibn Gabirol, a celebrated 11th-century Hebrew liturgical poet who was also the earliest Jewish philosopher of Spain. His chief philosophical work, written in Arabic but preserved in full only in a 12th-century Latin translation titled Fons vitae (“Fountain of Life”), makes no reference to Judaism or to specifically Jewish doctrines and is a dialogue between a disciple and a master who teaches him true philosophical knowledge. Despite its prolixity and many contradictions, it is an impressive work. Few medieval texts so effectively communicate the Neoplatonic conception of the existence of a number of planes of being that differ according to their ontological priority, the derivative and inferior ones constituting a reflection in a grosser mode of existence of those that are prior and superior.

One of Ibn Gabirol’s central concerns was the divine will, which appears to be both part of and separate from the divine essence. Infinite according to its essence, the will is finite in its action. It is described as pervading everything that exists and as being the intermediary between the divine essence and matter and form. Will was one of the traditional terms used by medieval theologians to identify the entity intermediate between the transcendent Deity and the world or the aspect of the Deity involved in creation. According to a statement in Fons vitae, matter derives from the divine essence, whereas form derives from the divine will. This suggests that the difference between matter and form has some counterpart in the Godhead and also that universal matter is superior to universal form. Some of Ibn Gabirol’s statements seem to support the superiority of universal matter; other passages, however, appear to imply the superiority of universal form.

Form and matter, whether universal or particular, exist only in conjunction. All things, with the sole exception of God, are constituted through the union of the two, the intellect no less than corporeal substance. In fact, the intellect is the first being in which universal matter and form are conjoined. The intellect contains and encompasses all things. It is through the grasp of the various planes of being, through ascending in knowledge to the world of the intellect and apprehending what is above it—the divine will and the world of the Deity—that humans may “escape death” and reach “the source of life.”

Judah ha-Levi

Judah ben Samuel ha-Levi (c. 1075–1141), another celebrated Hebrew poet from Spain, was the first medieval Jewish thinker to base his thought consciously and consistently on arguments drawn from Jewish history. His views are set forth in an Arabic dialogue, al-Hazari (Hebrew Sefer ha-Kuzari), the full title of which is translated as “The Book of Proof and Argument in Defense of the Despised Faith.” This work is usually called Kuzari—i.e., “the Khazar.”

Basing his narrative on the historical conversion to Judaism of the Khazars (c. 740), a Turkic-speaking people in central Eurasia, ha-Levi relates that their king, a pious man who did not belong to any of the great monotheistic religions, dreamed of an angel who said to him, “Your intentions are pleasing to the Creator, but your works are not.” To find the correct way to please God, the king sought guidance from a philosopher, from a Christian, from a Muslim, and finally—after hesitating to invite a representative of a people degraded by historical misfortune—from a Jewish scholar, who then converted him to Judaism. The angel’s words in the king’s dream may be regarded as a kind of revelation. Ha-Levi used this element of the story to suggest that it is not the spontaneous activity of reason that impels human beings to undertake the quest for the true religion but the gift of prophecy—or at least a touch of the prophetic faculty (or a knowledge of the revelations of the past).

The argument of the philosopher whose advice is sought by the king confirms this point. This disquisition is a brilliant piece of writing that lays bare the essential differences between the Aristotelian God, who is wholly indifferent to human individuals, and the God of the Jewish religion. The God of the philosophers, who is pure intellect, is not concerned with the works of human beings; moreover, the cultural activities to which the angel clearly refers—activities that involve both mind and body—cannot, from a philosophical point of view, either help or hinder humans in the pursuit of the philosophers’ supreme goal, the attainment of union with the active intellect, a “light” of the divine nature. This union was supposed to confer knowledge of all intelligible things on the individual; the supreme goal, therefore, was purely intellectual in nature.

In opposition to the philosopher’s faith, the religion of the Jewish scholar in the Kuzari is based on the fact that God may have a close, direct relationship with humans, who are not conceived primarily as beings endowed with intellect. The postulate that God can have intercourse with a creature made of the disgusting materials that compose the human body is scandalous to the king and prevents his acceptance of the doctrine concerning prophecy, expounded by the Muslim sage (just as the extraordinary nature of the Christological dogmas deters him from adopting Christianity).

The Jewish scholar argues that it is contemplation not of the cosmos but of Jewish history that procures knowledge of God. Ha-Levi was aware of the odium attached to the doctrine of the superiority of one particular nation; he held, however, that this teaching alone explains God’s dealings with humanity, which, like many other things, reason is unable to grasp. The controversies of the philosophers serve as proof of the failure of human intelligence to find valid solutions to the most important problems.

Ha-Levi’s dialogue was also directed against the Karaites. He shows the necessity and celebrates the efficacy of a blind, unquestioning adhesion to tradition, which the Karaites rejected. Yet he expounds a theology of Jewish exile that seems to have been influenced by Karaite doctrine. According to ha-Levi, even in exile the course of Jewish history is not determined like that of other nations by natural causes, such as material strength or weakness; the decisive factor is whether the Jews are religiously observant or disobedient. The advent of Christianity and Islam, in his view, prepares other nations for conversion to Judaism, an event that will occur in the eschatological period at the end of history.

Other Jewish thinkers, c. 1050–c. 1150

Many other Jewish thinkers appeared in Spain during the period from the second half of the 11th century to the first half of the 12th. Bahya ben Joseph ibn Pakuda wrote one of the most popular books of Jewish spiritual literature, Kitāb al-hidāyah ilā farā’iḍ alqulūb (“Guidance to the Duties of the Heart”), which combines a theology influenced by Saʿadia with a moderate mysticism inspired by the teachings of the Sufis. The commandments of the heart—that is, those relating to thoughts and sentiments—are contrasted with the commandments of the limbs—that is, the Mosaic commandments enjoining or prohibiting certain actions. Bahya maintained that both sets of commandments should be observed (thus rejecting the antinomian position) but made clear that he was chiefly interested in the commandments of the heart.

Abraham bar Hiyya Savasorda, a mathematician, astrologer, and philosopher, outlined in Megillat ha-megalle (“Scroll of the Revealer”) a view of Jewish history that is reminiscent of ha-Levi but does not emphasize its uniqueness to the same degree; it is also set forth in much less impressive fashion. Living in Barcelona under Christian rule, Bar Hiyya wrote scientific and philosophical treatises not in Arabic but in Hebrew. Hebrew was also used by Abraham ibn Ezra (died 1167), a native of Spain who travelled extensively in Christian Europe. His commentaries on the Bible contributed to the diffusion among the Jews of Greek philosophical thought, to which Ibn Ezra made many disjointed references. His astrological doctrine had a great influence on some philosophers.

The last outstanding Jewish philosopher of the Islamic East, Abū al-Barakāt al-Baghdādī (who died as a very old man sometime after 1164), also belongs to this period. An inhabitant of Iraq, he was converted to Islam in his old age (for reasons of expediency, according to his biographers). His philosophy appears to have had a strong impact on Islamic thought, though its influence on Jewish philosophy and theology is very hard to pin down and may be practically nonexistent. His chief philosophical work, Kitāb al-muʿtabar (“The Book of That Which Has Been Established by Personal Reflection”), contains very few references to Jewish texts or topics. Abū al-Barakāt rejected Aristotelian physics completely. According to him, time is the measure of being and not, as Aristotle taught, the measure of motion; he also replaced Aristotle’s two-dimensional concept of place with the three-dimensional notion of space, the existence of which is independent of the existence of bodies.

Jewish Aristotelianism

Jewish thinkers in Muslim Spain and the Maghrib adopted Aristotelianism (as well as systems that stemmed from but also profoundly modified pure Aristotelian doctrine) considerably later than did their counterparts in the Islamic East.

Abraham ibn Daud

Abraham ibn Daud (12th century), who is regarded as the first Jewish Aristotelian of Spain, was primarily a disciple of Avicenna, the great 11th-century Islamic philosopher. He may have translated or helped to translate some of Avicenna’s works into Latin, according to one plausible hypothesis, for he lived under Christian rule in Toledo, a town that in the 12th century was a center for translators. His historical treatises, written in Hebrew, manifest his desire to familiarize his fellow Jews with the historical tradition of the Latin world, which at that time was alien to most of them. But his philosophical work, Sefer ha-emuna ha-rama (“Book of Sublime Faith”), written in 1161 in Arabic, shows few if any signs of Christian influence.

The doctrine of emanation set forth in this work describes in the manner of Avicenna the procession of the 10 incorporeal intellects, the first of which derives from God. This intellect produces the second intellect, and so on. Ibn Daud questioned in a fairly explicit manner Avicenna’s views on the way the second intellect is produced; his discipleship did not mean total adherence. Ibn Daud’s psychology was also, and more distinctively, derived from Avicenna. The argumentation leading to a proof that the rational faculty is not corporeal attempts to derive the nature of the soul from the fact of immediate self-awareness. Like Avicenna, Ibn Daud founded psychology on a theory of consciousness.

Ibn Daud often referred to the accord that, in his view, existed between philosophy and religious tradition. As he remarked, the Sefer ha-emuna ha-rama was not for readers who, in their simplicity, are satisfied with what they know of religious tradition or for those who have a thorough knowledge of philosophy. It was intended for readers of one type only: those who, being acquainted with the religious tradition on the one hand and having some rudiments of philosophy on the other, are “perplexed.” It was for the same audience that Maimonides wrote his The Guide for the Perplexed.

Maimonides

MaimonidesJewish philosopher, jurist, and physician Moses Maimonides.

Moses Maimonides (Moses ben Maimon; 1135–1204), a native of Spain, is incontestably the greatest name in Jewish medieval philosophy, but his reputation is not derived from any outstanding originality in philosophical thought. Rather, the distinction of Maimonides, who is also the most eminent codifier of Jewish religious law, is to be found in the vast scope of his attempt, in the Dalālat al-hā’irin (The Guide for the Perplexed), to safeguard both religious law and philosophy (the public communication of which would be destructive of the law) without suppressing the issues between them and without trying to impose, on a theoretical plane, a final, universally binding solution to the conflict.

As Maimonides states in his introduction to the Guide, he regarded his self-imposed task as perilous, and he therefore had recourse to a whole system of precautions designed to conceal his true meaning from people who, lacking the necessary qualifications, might misread the book and abandon observance of the law. Maimonides himself notes that these precautions include deliberately contradictory statements meant to mislead the undiscerning reader. The apparent or real contradictions encountered in the Guide are perhaps most flagrant in Maimonides’ doctrine concerning God. There seems to be no plausible hypothesis capable of explaining away the inconsistencies between the following three views:

1. God has an eternal will that is not bound by natural laws. Through an act of his will, he created the world in time and imposed on it the order of nature. This creation is the greatest of miracles; only if it is admitted can other miracles, which interfere with the causally determined concatenations of events, be regarded as possible. The philosophers’ God, who is not free to cut the wings of a fly, is to be rejected. This conception is in keeping with the traditional religious view of God and is avowedly adopted by Maimonides because failure to do so would undermine religion.

2. Humans are incapable of having any positive knowledge concerning God. No positive attributes—e.g., wisdom or life—can be ascribed to God. Contrary to the attributes predicated of created beings, the divine attributes are strictly negative; they state what God is not. For instance, he is not not-wise, and such a statement is not a positive assertion. Hence, only a negative theology is possible—saying what God is not. The way God acts can, however, be known. This knowledge is to be found in natural science.

3. God is an intellect. The formula used by medieval philosophers—which maintains that in God the knowing subject, the object known, and the act of intellectual knowledge are identical—derives from Aristotle’s thesis that God knows only himself. In adopting the formula, however, Maimonides interpreted it in the light of human psychology and epistemology, pointing out that, according to Aristotle, the act of human (as well as divine) cognition brings about an identity of the cognizing subject and the cognized object. The parallel drawn by Maimonides between the human and the divine intellect quite evidently implies a certain similarity between the two; in other words, it is incompatible with the negative theology of other passages of the Guide. Nor can it be reconciled with his theological doctrine that the structure of the world—created in time—came into being through the action of God’s will.

There would be no enigma in the Guide if Maimonides had believed that truth can be discovered in a suprarational way, through revelations vouchsafed to the Prophets. This, however, is not the case. Maimonides held that the Prophets (with the exception of Moses) combine great intellectual ability, which qualifies them to be philosophers, with a powerful imagination. The intellectual faculty of the philosophers and the prophets receives an overflow from the active intellect. In the case of the Prophets, this overflow not only brings about intellectual activity but also passes over into the imaginative faculty, giving rise to visions and dreams. The fact that prophets have a strong imagination gives them no superiority in knowledge over philosophers, who do not have it. Moses, who belonged to a higher category than did the other Prophets, did not have recourse to imagination.

The laws and religion as instituted by Moses are intended not only to ensure the bodily welfare and safety of the members of the community but also to facilitate the attainment of intellectual truths by individuals gifted enough to uncover the various hints embodied in religious laws and practices. This does not mean that all the beliefs inculcated by Judaism are true. Some indeed express philosophical truths—though in an inaccurate way, in a language suited to the intellectual capacity of the common people, who in general cannot grasp the import of the dogmas they are required to profess. Other beliefs, however, are false but necessary for the preservation of public order and justice—e.g., the belief that God is angry with wrongdoers.

There are two noteworthy aspects of Maimonides’ position on the Law—i.e., the religious commandments. First, he maintained that it is unique in its excellence and valid for all time. This profession of faith, at least with regard to its assumptions about the future, lacked philosophical justification; however, it could be regarded as necessary for the survival of Judaism. Second, he asserted that certain precepts of the Mosaic Law were related to specific historical situations and to the need to avoid too sharp a break with popular customs and practices—for instance, the commandments concerning sacrifice.

For at least four or five centuries, The Guide for the Perplexed exercised a very strong influence in the European centers of Jewish thought; in the 13th century, when the Guide was twice translated into Hebrew, these centers were Spain, the south of France, and Italy. Rather paradoxically, in view of the unsystematic character of Maimonides’ exposition, it was used as a standard textbook of philosophy and condemned as such when the teaching of philosophy came under attack. The Guide could be used in this way because from the 13th century onward the history of Jewish philosophy in European countries acquired a continuity it had never had before. This development seems to have resulted from the substitution of Hebrew for Arabic as the language of philosophical exposition. Because of the existence of a common and relatively homogeneous philosophical background—Hebrew texts were much less numerous and less diverse than Arabic philosophical works—and the fact that Jewish philosophers reading and writing in Hebrew read the works of their contemporaries and immediate predecessors, something like a dialogue can be discerned. In striking contrast to the immediately preceding period, European Jewish philosophers in the 13th century and later frequently devoted a very considerable part of their treatises to discussions of the opinions of other Jewish philosophers. That many of the Jewish philosophers in question wrote commentaries on the Guide undoubtedly furthered this tendency.

The influence of Maimonides’ great Islamic contemporary Averroës, many of whose commentaries and treatises were translated into Hebrew, was second only to that of Maimonides on Jewish intellectual development. Indeed, it may be argued that for philosophers (as distinct from the general reading public) it often came first. In certain cases, commentators on the Guide quote Averroës’ opinions in order to clarify those of Maimonides, despite the frequent divergences between the two.

The apparently significant influence of Christian Scholastic thought on Jewish philosophy was often not openly acknowledged by Jewish thinkers in the period beginning with the 13th century. Samuel ibn Tibbon (c. 1150–c. 1230), one of the translators of the Guide into Hebrew and a philosopher in his own right, remarked that the philosophical sciences were more widely known among Christians than among Muslims. Somewhat later, at the end of the 13th century and after, Jewish scholars in Italy translated into Hebrew various texts of St. Thomas Aquinas and other Christian representatives of Scholasticism; not infrequently, some of them acknowledged the debt they owed their Christian masters. In Spain and in the south of France, a different convention seems to have prevailed up to the second half of the 15th century. Whereas Jewish philosophers of these countries felt no reluctance about referring to Greek, Arabic, and other Jewish philosophers, they refrained from citing Christian thinkers whose views had, in all probability, influenced them. In the case of certain Jewish thinkers, this absence of reference to the Christian Scholastics served to disguise the fact that in many essentials they were representative of the philosophical trends, such as Latin Averroism, that were current among the Christian Scholastics of their time.

There is a striking resemblance between certain views of the Latin Averroists and the parallel opinions of Isaac Albalag, a Jewish philosopher who lived in the second half of the 13th century, probably in Catalonia, Spain, and who wrote a commentary in Hebrew on the Tahāfut al-falāsifah (“The Inconsistencies of the Philosophers”), an exposition of Avicenna’s doctrine written by the Muslim philosopher al-Ghazālī (1058–1111). Albalag’s assertion that both the teachings of the Bible and the truths demonstrated by reason must be believed even if they are contradictory raises the possibility that some historical connections exist between this view and the Latin Averroist doctrine that there are two sets of truths—the religious and the philosophical—which are not necessarily in accord. On most other points Albalag was a follower of the system of Averroës himself. This position is exemplified by Albalag’s rejection of the view that the world was created in time. Although he professed to believe in what he called “absolute creation in time,” this expression merely signifies that at any given moment the continued existence of the world depends on God’s existence, an opinion that is essentially in harmony with Averroës.

Joseph Caspi (1297–1340), a prolific philosopher and exegetical commentator, maintained a somewhat unsystematic philosophical position that seems to have been influenced by Averroës. He expressed the opinion that knowledge of the future, including that possessed by God himself, is probabilistic in nature. The prescience of the Prophets is the same. Caspi’s interest in this problem may well have had some connection with the debate about future contingencies in which Christian Scholastics were engaged at that time.

Moses of Narbonne, or Moses Narboni, like many other Jewish scholars of the 14th century, wrote mainly commentaries, including those on biblical books, on treatises of Averroës, and on Maimonides’ Guide. In his commentary on the Guide, Narboni often interprets the earlier philosopher’s opinions by recourse to Averroës’ views. Narboni also expounded and gave radical interpretations to certain conceptions that he understood as implied in the Guide. According to Narboni, God participates in all things, because he is the measure of all substances. God’s existence appears to be bound up with that of the world, to which he has a relation analogous to that between a soul and its body (a comparison already made in the Guide).

Gersonides

Gersonides, also known as Levi ben Gershom (1288–1344), wrote the systematic philosophical work Sefer milḥamot Adonai (“The Book of the Wars of the Lord”), as well as many philosophical commentaries. Gersonides cited Greek, Arabic, and Jewish thinkers, and in many ways his system appears to have stemmed from the doctrines of Maimonides or Averroës, regardless of whether he agreed with them. For example, he explicitly rejected Maimonides’ doctrine of negative theology. Although he never explicitly mentioned Christian Scholastic philosophers, a comparison of his opinions and of the particular problems that engaged his attention with the Scholastic writings of his period suggests that he was influenced by the Latins on certain points.

Gersonides disagreed both with the Aristotelian philosophers who maintained the eternity of the world and with the religious partisans who believed in the creation of the world in time out of nothing. He argued instead that God created the world in time out of a preexistent body that lacked all form. As Gersonides conceived it, this body seems to be similar to primal matter.

The problem of human freedom of action and a particular version of the problem of God’s knowledge of future contingencies form an important part of Gersonides’ doctrine. Unlike the great Jewish and Muslim Aristotelians, Gersonides believed in astrology and held that all happenings in the world except human actions are governed by a strict determinism. God’s knowledge does not extend to individual human acts but embraces the general order of things; it grasps the laws of universal determinism but is incapable of apprehending events resulting from human freedom. Thus, the object of God’s knowledge is a totally determined world order, which differs from the real world insofar as the latter is in some measure formed according to human freedom.

Gersonides does not appear to have assigned to the prophets any political function; according to him, their role consists of predicting future events. The providence exercised by the heavenly bodies ensures the existence in a given political society of people with an aptitude for the handicrafts and professions necessary for the survival of the community. He remarked that in this way the various human activities are distributed in a manner superior to that outlined in the Republic of Plato. Thus, he explicitly rejected Plato’s political philosophy, which, because it was suitable to a society ruled through laws promulgated by a prophet (Muhammad), had been an important element of Jewish philosophy in the Arabic period.

Ḥasdai Crescas

The Spanish Jewish thinker Ḥasdai ben Abraham Crescas (1340–1410), like Gersonides, had thorough knowledge of Jewish philosophy and partial knowledge of Islamic philosophy; in both areas he seems to have been influenced by Christian Scholastic thought. Moreover, in certain important respects Crescas was influenced by Gersonides himself. One of Crescas’s main works, Or Adonai (“The Light of the Lord”), was quite contrary to Gersonides in its attempt to expose the weaknesses of Aristotelian philosophy. This attitude may be placed in the wider context of the return to religion itself, as opposed to the Aristotelian rationalization of religion, and the vogue of Kabbala (esoteric Jewish mysticism), both of which were characteristic features of Spanish Jewry in Crescas’s time. This change in attitude may have been a reaction to the increasing precariousness of the position of the Jewish community in Spain.

The criticism of the extreme rationalism of some medieval Aristotelians coincided historically with a certain disintegration of and disaffection toward classical Aristotelian Scholasticism. This trend was associated with the so-called voluntarism of John Duns Scotus (c. 1266–1308), the nominalism of William of Ockham (c. 1285–1347/49) and other 13th–14th-century Christian Scholastics, and the development of anti-Aristotelian physics at the University of Paris and elsewhere beginning in the 14th century. Significantly, there is a pronounced resemblance between Crescas’s views and two of these trends, Scotism (the teachings of Duns Scotus and his followers) and the “new” physics.

Crescas accepted Gersonides’ view that divine attributes cannot be negative, but unlike his predecessor his explanation of the difference between the attributes of God and those of created beings centered on the contrast between an infinite being and finite beings. It is through infinitude that God’s essential attributes—wisdom, for instance—differ from the corresponding and otherwise similar attributes found in created beings. In Crescas’s doctrine, as in that of Spinoza, God’s attributes are infinite in number. The central place assigned to the doctrine of God’s infinity in Crescas’s system suggests the influence of Duns Scotus’s theology, which is similarly founded upon the concept of divine infinity.

The problem of the infinite was approached from an altogether different perspective in Crescas’s critique of Maimonides’ 25 propositions, which Maimonides had set forth in the Guide as the basis of his proof of the existence of God. Crescas’s purpose in criticizing and rejecting several of these propositions was to show that the traditional Aristotelian proofs (founded in the first place on physical doctrines) were not valid. In his critique, Crescas attempted to disprove the Aristotelian thesis that the existence of an actual infinite is impossible. He held that space is not a limit but a three-dimensional extension, that it is infinite, and that, contrary to Aristotle, the existence of a vacuum and of more worlds than one is possible. He also argued that the thesis of the Aristotelian philosophers that there exists an infinite number of causes and effects, which have order and gradation, was impossible. This thesis refers not to a temporal succession of causes and effects that have a similar ontological status but to a vertical series, descending from God to the lowest rung in creation. His attacks were likewise directed against the Aristotelians’ conceptions of time and matter.

Crescas’s fundamental opposition to Aristotelianism is perhaps most evident in his rejection of the conception of intellectual activity as the supreme state of being for humans and for God. Crescas’s God is not first and foremost an intellect, and humanity’s supreme goal is not to think but to love God with a love corresponding, as far as possible, to his infinite greatness and to rejoice in the observance of his commandments. God too loves human beings, and his love, in spite of the lowliness of its object, is proportionate to his infinity.

Crescas attacked the Aristotelian teaching of the separation of the intellect from the soul and attempted, perhaps in part under the influence of Judah ha-Levi, to refute the Aristotelian doctrine that the actualized intellect, as distinct from the soul, survives the death of the body. According to Crescas, the soul is a substance in its own right; it can be separated from the body and subsists after the body’s death.

Joseph Albo

Whereas Crescas regarded the Aristotelian philosophers as adversaries, Joseph Albo (c. 1380–c. 1444), who considered Crescas his teacher, expressed a much more ambivalent attitude toward them. Albo did not eschew self-contradiction, apparently considering it a legitimate precaution on the part of a philosophical or theological author; indeed, he indulged in it in a much more obvious way than did Maimonides. But, whereas the latter’s fundamental philosophical position is fairly clear, it is much less apparent who Albo’s true masters were—Crescas and the Jewish religious tradition, or Maimonides and Averroës. Because of this perhaps deliberate failure to explain to the reader where he really stood, Albo has often been dismissed as an eclectic. Indeed, along with the authors just mentioned, Albo was strongly influenced by Saʿadia and seems to have had considerable knowledge of Christian theology, even adopting for his own purposes certain Scholastic doctrines. He differs from Crescas and to some extent resembles Maimonides in having a marked interest in political theory.

The theme of Albo’s magnum opus, Sefer ha-ʿiqqarim (“Book of Principles”), is the investigation of the theory of Jewish religious dogmas. Maimonides, in a nonphilosophical work, set the number of dogmas at 13, whereas Albo, following a doctrine that seems to go back to Averroës, limited the number to three: the existence of God, divine providence in reward and punishment, and the Torah as divine revelation. One section, usually including the philosophical and the traditional religious interpretations side by side, is devoted to each of these dogmas. Albo’s principal and relatively novel contribution to the evolution of Jewish doctrine is the classification, in his introduction, of natural, conventional, and divine law.

Natural law (the universal moral law inherent in human nature) is necessary because human beings, who are political by nature, must belong to a community, which may be restricted in size to one town or may extend over the whole earth. Natural law preserves society by promoting right and repressing injustice; thus, it restrains humans from stealing, robbing, and murdering. The positive laws instituted by the wise take into account the particular nature of the people for whose benefit they are instituted, as well as other circumstances. This means that they differ from the natural law in not being universally applicable. Neither natural law nor the more elaborate conventional laws, however, lead humans toward true spiritual happiness; this is the function of divine laws instituted by a prophet, which teach humans true theoretical opinions. Whereas Maimonides maintained that Judaism was the only divine law promulgated by a true prophet, Albo considered that the commandments given to Noah for all humankind—the Noahide Laws that Noah received after the Flood—also constitute divine law, which ensures, though to a lesser degree than does Judaism, the happiness of its adherents. This position justifies a certain universalism; in accordance with a Talmudic saying, Albo believed that the pious among the non-Jews—that is, those who observe Noah’s laws—have a share in the world to come. But he rejected the pretensions of Christianity and Islam to encompass divine laws comparable—or even superior—to Judaism.

Modern philosophy

The Iberian-Dutch philosophers

The expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal in 1492 and 1497, respectively, produced a new center of Jewish thought: Holland, where many exiled Jews found a new and safer domicile; the tolerance of the regime seemed to provide guarantees against external persecution. This did not prevent, and indeed may have furthered, the establishment of an oppressive internal orthodoxy that was prepared to chastise rebellious members of the community. This was evident in the cases of Uriel Acosta (Gabriel da Costa) and Benedict de Spinoza, two 17th-century philosophers who rebelled against Jewish orthodoxy and were excommunicated for their views (Acosta twice).

Uriel Acosta

Belonging to a family of Marranos in Portugal, Acosta arrived in Amsterdam after having been brought up in the Catholic faith. His philosophical position was to a great extent determined by his antagonism to the dogmatism of the traditional Judaism that he encountered in Amsterdam. His growing estrangement from generally accepted Jewish doctrine is attested by his Portuguese treatise Sobre a mortalidade da alma (“On the Mortality of the Soul”). He held that the belief in the immortality of the soul has many evil effects and that it impels people to choose an ascetic way of life and even to seek death. According to him, nothing has tormented human beings more than the belief in an inner, spiritual good and evil. At this stage, Acosta affirmed the authority of the Bible, from which, according to him, the mortality of the soul can be proved.

In his autobiography, Exemplar Humanae Vitae (“Example of a Human Life”), Acosta took a more radical position. He proclaimed the supreme excellence of the natural moral law; when arguing before Jews, he seemed to identify this law with the Noahide Laws (the commandments given to Noah), thus suggesting a correspondence with the view of Albo. Accordingly, Acosta denied the validity of the argument that natural law is inferior to Judaism and Christianity, because he believed that both these religions teach the love of one’s enemies, a precept that is not a part of natural law and is a manifest impossibility.

Benedict de Spinoza

Philosopher Benedict de Spinoza

Born in Amsterdam but of Portuguese Marrano descent, Spinoza is unique in the history of modern Jewish thought. Although his work does not deal with specifically Judaic themes, he is traditionally included in this history for several reasons. First, it was through the study of Jewish philosophical texts that Spinoza was first initiated into philosophy. Second, Spinoza’s system is in part a radicalization of, or perhaps a logical corollary to, medieval Jewish doctrines, and the impact of Maimonides and of Crescas is evident. Third, a considerable portion of Spinoza’s Tractatus Theologico-Politicus deals with problems related to Judaism. He drew from Jewish religion and history, even using the Israelite commonwealth in the Tractatus as the template for his ideal state, though he was not centrally concerned with matters of Jewish theology and ritual.

The first chapters of the Tractatus show that the doctrine of prophecy is of central importance to Spinoza’s explanation of Judaism and that, in dealing with this subject, he used Maimonides’ categories, though he applied them to different people or groups of people. Maimonides held that the prophets combined intellectual perfection, which made them philosophers, with perfection of the imaginative faculty. He also referred to a category of persons, including lawyers and statesmen, endowed with a strong imagination but possessing no extraordinary intellectual gifts. Spinoza applied this category to the prophets, whom he described as possessing vivid imaginations but as not necessarily having outstanding intellectual capacities. He denied that the biblical Prophets were philosophers and used a philosophical and historical approach to the Scriptures to show that the contrary assertion is not borne out by the texts.

Spinoza also denied Maimonides’ assertion that the prophecy of Moses was essentially different from that of the other Prophets and that this was because Moses, in prophesying, had no recourse to the imaginative faculty. According to Spinoza, Moses’ prophecy was unique because he heard the voice of God in a prophetic vision—that is, in a state in which his imagination was active. In this assertion, Spinoza employed one of Maimonides’ categories of prophecy. Maimonides thought it improbable, however, that the voice of God was ever heard in prophetic vision, and he held that this category is purely hypothetical. In his classification of Moses, Spinoza was not concerned with what really happened in history; rather, he was attempting to fashion the biblical evidence according to Maimonides’ theoretical framework so that it would further his own theological and political purpose: to show that there could be a religion superior to Judaism.

This purpose made it imperative to propound in the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus a theory concerning Jesus, whom Spinoza designates as Christus. The category and the status assigned to Jesus are similar to those that Maimonides attributed to Moses. Jesus is referred to in the Tractatus as a religious teacher who makes recourse not to the imaginative faculty but to the intellect. His authority may be used to institute and strengthen the religion Spinoza called religio catholica (“universal religion”), which has little or nothing in common with any of the major manifestations of historic Christianity.

The difference between Judaism and Spinoza’s religio catholica corresponds to the difference between Moses and Jesus. After leaving Egypt, the Jews found themselves, in Spinoza’s view, in the position of people who had no allegiance to any positive law. They had, as it were, reverted to a state of nature and were faced with the need to enter into a social pact. They were also an ignorant people and very prone to superstition. Moses, a man of outstanding ability, made use of the situation and the characteristics of the people in order to make them accept a social pact and a state founded upon it that, contrary to Spinoza’s scheme for his ideal communities, were not based first and foremost upon utilitarian—that is, reasonable—consideration of the advantages of life in society over the state of nature.

According to Spinoza, the social pact concluded by the children of Israel in the desert was based upon a superstitious view of God as “King” and “Judge,” to whom the children of Israel owed their political and military successes. The children of Israel transferred political sovereignty to God rather than to the representatives of the popular will. In due course, political sovereignty was vested in Moses, God’s representative, and in his successors. In spite of Spinoza’s insistence on the superstitious foundations of the ancient Israelite state, however, his account of its regime was not wholly unsympathetic, especially regarding its ability to curb human tyranny by its doctrine of divine sovereignty. Spinoza believed that the state contained the seeds of its own destruction and that, with its extinction, the social pact devised by Moses had lapsed and all the political and religious obligations incumbent upon the Jews had become null and void.

It could be argued that, because the state conceived by Spinoza is based not on superstitious faith but on a social contract originating in rational, utilitarian considerations, it does not need to have its authority safeguarded and stabilized by means of religion. Nevertheless, Spinoza apparently believed that religion is necessary. To fulfill this need and to obviate the danger of harmful religions, he devised the religio catholica, the universal religion, which is characterized by two distinctive traits. First, its main purpose, a practical one (which is furthered by recourse to the authority of Jesus), is to impel people to act in accordance with justice and charity. Such conduct is tantamount to obedience to the laws of the state and to the orders of the magistrates, in whom sovereignty is vested. Disobedience, however, even if it springs from compassionate motives, weakens the social pact, which safeguards the welfare of all the members of the community; in consequence, its evil effects outweigh whatever good it may produce. Second, although religion, according to Spinoza, is not concerned with theoretical truth, in order to be effective the religio catholica requires dogmas, which he set forth in the Tractatus. These dogmas are formulated in terms that can be interpreted in accordance both with the philosophical conception of God that Spinoza regarded as true and with widespread superstitious ideas. It follows that if they are accepted as constituting the only creed that everybody is obliged to profess, people cannot be persecuted on account of their beliefs. Spinoza held that such persecution may lead to civil war and may thus destroy the state. Philosophers are free to engage in the pursuit of truth and to attain, if they can, the supreme goal of humanity—freedom grounded in knowledge. There can be little doubt that the furtherance of the cause of tolerance for philosophical opinions was one of Spinoza’s main objects in writing the Tractatus.

As compared with the Tractatus Theologico-Philosophicus, the Ethics, Spinoza’s major philosophical work, bears a much more ambiguous relation to Jewish medieval philosophy. In a way, Spinoza’s metaphysical system, contained in the Ethics, can be regarded as drawing aspects of medieval Aristotelianism to their logical conclusions, a step that most Jewish (and Christian and Muslim) thinkers were unwilling to take, owing to their theological conservatism.

German philosophers

Moses Mendelssohn

The era opened by Moses Mendelssohn (1729–86)—i.e., c. 1750 to c. 1830—is sometimes called the German period of Jewish philosophy because of the large number of works on Jewish philosophy that were written in German. The German period is also marked by the emancipation of the Jews—that is, by the abrogation of discriminatory laws directed against them—and by their partial or complete assimilation. In this time in particular, the term Jewish philosophy applied especially to works that were primarily concerned with defining Judaism and offering a justification of its existence. The second of these tasks was often conceived of as involving a confrontation with Christianity rather than with philosophy. This change from what would have been the practice in the Middle Ages seems to have resulted from the demarcation of the sphere of religion in such a way that, at least in the opinion of the philosophers, possible points of collision with philosophy no longer existed. This development was stimulated by the doctrine of Spinoza, from whom Mendelssohn and others took certain fundamental ideas concerning Judaism.

Like Spinoza, Mendelssohn held that it is not the task of Judaism to teach rational truths, though such truths may be referred to in the Bible. Contrary to what he called Athanasian Christianity—that is, the doctrine set forth in the Athanasian Creed—Judaism has no binding dogmas; it is centered on inculcating belief in certain historical events and on the observance of religious law, which includes the ceremonial commandments. Such observance is supposed to lead to happiness in this world and in the afterlife. Mendelssohn did not reject this view out of hand, as Spinoza would have done. Indeed, he seems to have been prepared to accept it, God’s mysteries being inscrutable, and the radicalism and what may be called the consistency of Spinoza being the complete antithesis of Mendelssohn’s apologetics. Non-Jews were supposed by Mendelssohn to owe allegiance to the natural moral law.

Solomon Formstecher

Whereas Mendelssohn continued the medieval tradition (at least to some extent) or adapted Spinoza’s doctrine for his own purposes, the Jewish philosophers of the first half of the 19th century generally followed the teachings of the non-Jewish philosophers of their own time. In Die Religion des Geistes (“The Religion of the Spirit”), Solomon Formstecher (1808–89) may have been influenced by F.W.J. von Schelling (1775–1854) in his conception of nature and spirit as manifestations of the divine. In Formstecher’s view, there are two types of religions that correspond to these manifestations: the religion of nature, in which God is conceived as the principle of nature or as the world soul, and the religion of the spirit, in which God is understood as an ethical being. According to the religion of the spirit, God has produced the world as his manifestation in full freedom and not, as the religion of nature tends to profess, because the world was necessary for his existence.

The religion of the spirit, which corresponds to absolute religious truth, was first manifested in the Jewish people. The religious history of the world may be understood as a process of universalization of the Jewish religion, according to Formstecher. Thus, Christianity propagated Jewish conceptions among the nations; however, it combined them with pagan ideas. The pagan element is gradually being eliminated—Protestantism, in this respect, marks considerable progress. When at long last the Jewish element in Christianity is victorious, the Jews will be right to give up their isolation. The progress that will bring about this final religious union is already under way.

Samuel Hirsch

The main philosophical work of Samuel Hirsch (1815–89), titled Die Religionsphilosophie der Juden (“The Philosophy of Religion of the Jews”), was decisively influenced by G.W.F. Hegel (1770–1831). Hegel’s impact is most evident in Hirsch’s method and in the task that he assigned to the philosophy of religion—the transformation of religious consciousness into conceptual truth. Contrary to Hegel, however, he did not consider religious truth to be inadequate compared with philosophical truth.

In Hirsch’s view, God revealed himself in the first stages of Jewish history by means of miracles and prophecy. At present, he manifests himself in the miracle of the existence of the Jewish people. Hirsch further maintained that Christianity and Judaism were identical at the time of Jesus and that a decisive break between them was caused by Paul the Apostle. When the Pauline elements are eliminated from Christianity, it will be essentially in agreement with Judaism, though Judaism will preserve its separate existence.

Nachman Krochmal

Nachman Krochmal (1785–1840), a native of Galicia (at that time part of Austria), wrote the highly influential Hebrew treatise More nevukhe ha-zman (“Guide for the Perplexed for Our Time”), on the philosophy of history and on Jewish history. Krochmal’s philosophical thought was based on the notion of spirit. He was mainly concerned with the “national spirit” that is proper to each people and that accounts for the characteristics differentiating one people from another in every domain of human activity. The national spirits of all peoples except the Jewish are, according to Krochmal, essentially particular. Hence, when the nation becomes extinct, the national spirit either disappears or, if it is powerful, is assimilated by some other nation. The perpetuity of the Jewish people, according to Krochmal, is the result of their special relation to the Universal Spirit, who is the God of Israel.

Solomon Steinheim

Solomon Ludwig Steinheim (1789–1866), the author of Die Offenbarung nach dem Lehrbegriff der Synagoge (“The Revelation According to the Doctrine of the Synagogue”), was apparently influenced by the antirationalism of the German philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743–1819). His criticism of science is based on Jacobi’s work, though he did not agree with Jacobi in opposing discursive reason to the intuitive knowledge of God; Steinheim contrasted human reason with divine revelation. The main point of opposition between revelation, vouchsafed to the prophets of Israel, and reason is that the God posited by reason is subject to necessity—he can act only in accordance with laws. Moreover, reason affirms that nothing can come from nothing. Accordingly, God is free to create not a good world but only the best possible world. Revealed religion, on the other hand, affirms the freedom of God and the creation of the world out of nothing.

Hermann Cohen

There seems to be little connection between the Jewish philosophers of the first half or two-thirds of the 19th century and Hermann Cohen (1842–1918), the head of the Neo-Kantian school centered at the University of Marburg. Cohen may be regarded as a rather unusual case among the Jewish philosophers of his and the preceding generations because of the dual nature of his philosophical thought—the general and the Jewish—and the uneasy equilibrium between them. Judaism was by no means the only important theme of his philosophical system; indeed, it was not even his point of departure. For most of his life, Cohen was wholly committed to his brand of Kantianism, and he displayed considerable originality in its elaboration. It has been maintained with some justification that his doctrine manifests a certain (unintentional) kinship with Hegel’s, though Cohen’s idea of God is based on an analysis and development of certain conceptions of Immanuel Kant. In Cohen’s view, reason requires that nature be conceived of as conforming to a single rational plan and that there be harmony between the domains of natural and moral teleology (ultimate purposes or ends). These two requirements in turn require the adoption of the idea of God—the word idea being used in the Kantian sense, which means that no assertion is made about the metaphysical reality of God.

Cohen’s later works increasingly emphasized generally religious and specifically Judaic elements. Some scholars, most notably his student Franz Rosenzweig, interpreted this as a major turn in Cohen’s thought. In the late 20th century, however, most scholars held that the more-pronounced Judaism in Cohen’s later works was the culmination of his overall philosophical system, not a radical departure from it.

Franz Rosenzweig

Franz Rosenzweig (1886–1929) published his main philosophical work, Der Stern der Erlösung (The Star of Redemption), in 1921. It begins by rejecting the traditional philosophical denial of the fear of death, maintaining instead that this fear is the beginning of the cognition of the All. Humans should fear death, despite the indifference of philosophy and its predilection for accepting death. Traditional philosophy is interested exclusively in the universal, and it is monistic—its aim is to discover one principle from which everything can be derived. This tendency of philosophy, however, denatures human experience, which knows not one but three separate domains (which Kant had referred to in a different context), namely, God, the world, and humanity.

According to Rosenzweig, God (like the world and like humankind) is known through experience (the experience of revelation). In Greek religion, the most perfect manifestation of paganism, every one of these domains subsists by itself: the gods, the cosmos, and the human as the tragic, solitary, silent hero. Biblical religion is concerned with the relation between the three: the relation between God and the world, which is creation; the relation between God and human beings, which is revelation; and the relation between humans and the world, which leads to salvation. Under the influence of Schelling, whose term and concept he adopted, Rosenzweig pursued a “narrative philosophy” that renounces the ambition to find one principle for everything that exists and that follows biblical religion in focusing on the connections between the three domains and between the words and acts that bring about and develop these connections.

Biblical faith brought forth two valid religions—Christianity and Judaism. The first is described by Rosenzweig as the eternal way; the Christian peoples seek in the vicissitudes of time and history the way to salvation. In contrast to them, the existence of the stateless Jewish people is not concerned with time and history; it is—notwithstanding the hope for final salvation—already an eternal life, renewed again and again according to the rhythm of the Jewish liturgical year.

Martin Buber

Martin Buber German-Jewish religious philosopher, biblical translator and interpreter Martin Buber.

Among the leading thinkers of the 20th century was Martin Buber (1878–1965), whose impact was felt by both Jews and non-Jews. In his early period, Buber was led, partly through empathy with Jewish and non-Jewish mysticism, to stress unitive experience and knowledge, in which the difference between one person and another and between the individual and God tend to disappear. But in his final period he taught—following, as he claimed, a suggestion of Ludwig Feuerbach (1804–72)—that a human being can realize himself only in a relation with another, who may be another person or God. This conception of the “I and Thou” relationship led to the formulation of Buber’s view of the dialogical life—the mutual, responsive relation between one person and another—and accounts for the importance that he attached to the category of “encounter.”

Shlomo Pines

Emmanuel Lévinas

During the late 20th century the thought of the French Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas (1905–95) exercised worldwide influence. In his main work, Totality and Infinity (1961), Lévinas emphasized ethics, as opposed to epistemology, as the primary means for achieving one’s relation to the “Other.” This relationship is based on the existential and material need of the other person rather than on one’s abstract knowledge of him. In this philosophical program, Lévinas drew upon rabbinic tradition as well as the philosophical anthropology of Cohen, Rosenzweig, and Buber.

Jewish mysticism

This section deals with the special nature and characteristics of Jewish mysticism, the main lines of its development, and its role in present-day religion and culture.

Nature and characteristics

The term mysticism applies to the attempt to establish direct contact, independently of sense perception and intellectual apprehension, with the divine—a reality beyond rational understanding and believed to be the ultimate ground of being. Since mysticism springs from an aspiration to join and grasp that which falls outside ordinary experience, it is not easily defined. There is no clear boundary line between mysticism and metaphysics, cosmology, theosophy (a system of thought claiming special insights or revelation into the divine nature), occultism, theurgy (the art of compelling or persuading divine powers), or even magic.

The Judaic context

As the search for direct contact with the divine, however, mysticism seems to be in conflict with classical Judaism. Normative Judaism consists of a faith in a sole God who created the universe and who chose to reveal himself to a select group by means of a rule of life he imposed on it—Torah. According to traditional Judaic beliefs, the earthly destiny of the chosen nation, as well as the eternal salvation of the individual, depends on the observance of this rule of life, through which any relationship to God must take place. The fact is, however, that in the religious history of Judaism the quest for God goes beyond the relationship mediated by Torah without ever dispensing with it (since that would take the seeker outside Judaism), without pretending to reach the depths of the mystery of the divine, and without ending in an ontological identification with God (i.e., in the belief that God and human beings are the same in nature and being).

It must also be noted that the quest for God implies the search for solutions to problems that go beyond those of religion in the narrow sense and that arise even when there is no interest in the relationship between humankind and supernatural powers. Humans ponder the problems of their origins, their destiny, their happiness, their suffering; the presence or absence of religious institutions or dogmas is of little importance when it comes to these questions. They were all formulated within nonmystical Judaism and served as the basis and framework for the setting and solution of problems in the various forms of Jewish mysticism. This mysticism brought about profound transformations in the concepts of the world, God, and “last things” (resurrection, last judgment, messianic kingdom, etc.) set forth in biblical and rabbinical Judaism. Nevertheless, Jewish mysticism’s own set of problems—about the origins of the universe, humankind, evil, and sin; about the meaning of history; and about the afterlife and the end of time—is rooted in the very ground of Judaism and cannot be conceived outside an exegesis of revealed Scripture and rabbinical tradition.

Three types of Jewish mysticism

There are three types of mysticism in the history of Judaism: the ecstatic, the contemplative, and the esoteric. Although they are distinct, they frequently overlap in practice.

The first type is characterized by the quest for God—or, more precisely, for access to a supernatural realm, which is itself infinitely remote from the inaccessible Deity—by means of ecstatic experiences. The second type is rooted in metaphysical meditation, which always bears the imprint of the cultural surroundings of the respective thinkers, who are exposed to influences from outside Judaism. Philo Judaeus of Alexandria and a few of the Jewish thinkers of the Middle Ages, who drew their inspiration from Greco-Arabic Neoplatonism and sometimes also from Muslim mysticism, are examples of those who felt external influences.

The third type of mysticism claims an esoteric knowledge (hereafter called esoterism) that explores the divine life itself and its relationship to the extra-divine level of being (i.e., the natural, finite realm), a relationship that is subject to the “law of correspondences.” From this perspective, the extra-divine is a symbol of the divine; it is a reality that reveals a reality superior to itself. This form of mysticism, akin to gnosis (the secret knowledge claimed by gnosticism, a Hellenistic religious and philosophical movement) but purged—or almost purged—of the dualism that characterizes the latter, is what is commonly known as Kabbala (Hebrew: “Tradition”). By extension, this term is also used to designate technical methods, used for highly diverse ends, ranging from the conditioning of the aspirant to ecstatic experiences to magical manipulations of a superstitious character.

Main lines of development

From the beginning of Jewish mysticism in the 1st century CE to the middle of the 12th century, only the ecstatic and contemplative types existed. It was not until the second half of the 12th century that esoterism became clearly discernible; from then on, Jewish mysticism developed in various forms up to very recent times.

Early stages to the 6th century CE

The centuries following the return from the Babylonian Exile were marked by increasingly widespread and intense reflection on various themes: the intermediary beings between humans and God; the divine appearances, whose special place of occurrence had formerly been the most sacred part of the Jerusalem Temple; the creation of human beings; and the creation and organization of the universe. None of these themes was absent from the Bible, which was held to be divinely revealed, but each had become the object of constant theological readjustment that also involved the adoption of concepts from outside and reactions against them. The speculative taste of Jewish thinkers between the 2nd century BCE and the 1st century CE took them in many different directions: angelology (doctrine about angels) and demonology (doctrine about devils); mythical geography and uranography (description of the heavens); contemplation of the divine manifestations, whose background was the Jerusalem Temple worship and the visions of the moving “throne” (merkava, “chariot”) in the prophecy of Ezekiel; reflection on the double origin of human beings, who are formed of the earth but are also the “image of God”; and speculation on the end of time (eschatology), on resurrection (a concept that appeared only toward the end of the biblical period), and on rewards and punishments in the afterlife.

This ferment was crystallized in writings such as the First Book of Enoch. Almost none of it was retained in Pharisaic (rabbinical) Judaism, which became the normative Jewish tradition after the Roman conquest of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple. The Talmud and the Midrash (rabbinical legal and interpretative literature) touched these themes only with great reserve, often unwillingly, and more often in a spirit of negative polemic.

As early as the 1st century CE and probably even before the destruction of the Second Temple, there were sages or teachers recognized by the religious community for whom meditation on the Scriptures—especially the creation narrative, the public revelation of the Torah on Mount Sinai, the Merkava vision of Ezekiel, and the Song of Solomon—and reflection on the end of time, resurrection, and the afterlife were not only a matter of the exegesis of texts recognized to be of divine origin but also a matter of inner experience. However, speculation on the invisible world and the search for the means to penetrate it were probably carried on in other circles. It is undeniable that there was a certain continuity between the apocalyptic visions (i.e., of the cataclysmic advent of God’s kingdom) and documents of certain sects (Dead Sea Scrolls) and the writings, preserved in Hebrew, of the “explorers of the supernatural world” (yorde merkava). The latter comprise ecstatic hymns, descriptions of the “dwellings” (hekhalot) located between the visible world and the ever-inaccessible Divinity, whose transcendence is paradoxically expressed by anthropomorphic descriptions consisting of inordinate hyperboles (Shiʿur qoma, “Divine Dimensions”). A few documents have been preserved that attest to the initiation of carefully chosen persons who were made to undergo tests and ordeals in accordance with psychosomatic criteria borrowed from physiognomy (the art of determining character from physical, especially facial, traits). Some theurgic efficacy was attributed to these practices, and there was some contamination from Egyptian, Hellenistic, or Mesopotamian magic. (A curious document in this respect, rich in pagan material, is the Sefer ha-razim, the “Treatise on Mysteries,” which was discovered in 1963.)

The similarities between concepts reflected in unquestionably Jewish texts and those expressed in documents of contemporary non-Jewish esoterism are so numerous that it becomes difficult, sometimes impossible, to distinguish the giver from the receiver. Two facts are certain, however. On the one hand, gnosticism never ceases to exploit biblical themes that have passed through Judaism (such as the tale of creation and the speculation on angels and demons), whatever their original source may have been; on the other hand, though Jewish esoterism may borrow this or that motif from ancient gnosis or syncretism and may even raise a supernatural entity such as the angel Metatron—also known as “little Adonai” (i.e., little Lord or God)—to a very high rank in the hierarchy of being, it still remains inflexibly monotheistic and rejects the gnostic concept of a bad or simply inferior demiurge who is responsible for the creation and governing of the visible world. Finally, during the centuries that separate the Talmudic period (2nd–5th centuries CE) from the full resurgence of Jewish esoterism in the middle of the 12th century, the texts that were preserved progressively lose their density and affective authenticity and become reduced to the level of literary exercises that are more grandiloquent than substantial.

Sefer yetzira

In the ancient esoteric literature of Judaism, a special place must be given to the Sefer yetzira (“Book of Creation”), which deals with cosmogony and cosmology. Creation, it affirms with a clearly anti-gnostic insistence, is the work of the God of Israel and took place on the ideal, immaterial level and on the concrete level. This was done according to a complex process that brings in the 10 numbers (sefirot, singular sefira) of decimal notation and the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The 10 numbers are not understood merely as arithmetical symbols: they are cosmological factors—the first of which, signified by the multiply ambiguous term ruaḥ, is the spirit of God, while the nine others seem to be the archetypes of the three elements (air, water, fire) and the spatial dimensions (up, down, and the four cardinal points). After having been manipulated either in their graphic representation or in combination, the letters of the alphabet, which are considered transcriptions of the sounds of the language, are in turn instruments of creation. The basic idea of all this speculation is that speech (that is, language composed of words, which are in turn composed of letters or sounds) is not only a means of communication but an operational agent destined to produce being; it has an ontological value. This value, however, does not extend to every language; it belongs to the Hebrew language alone.

The Sefer yetzira does not proceed entirely from biblical data and rabbinical reflection upon them; Greek influences are discernible, even in the vocabulary. What is important, however, is its influence on later Jewish thought, down to the present time: philosophers and esoterists have vied with one another over its meaning, pulling it in their own direction and adjusting it to their respective ideologies. Even more important is the fact that Kabbala borrowed a great deal of its terminology from the Sefer yetzira (e.g., sefira), making semantic adaptations as required.

The speculation traced above developed during the first six centuries of the Common Era, both in Palestine and in Babylonia. Babylonian Judaism had its own social and ideological characteristics, which put it in opposition to Palestinian Judaism with regard to esoterism and other manifestations of the life of the spirit. The joint doctrinal influence of the two centers spread from the mid-8th to the 11th century among the Jews of North Africa and Europe; mystical doctrines also filtered in, but very little is known about the circumstances and means of their penetration.

The Arabic-Islamic influence (7th–13th century)

Arabic Islamic culture was another important influence on Jewish mystical development. A considerable part of Jewry, which had fallen under Muslim domination in the 7th and 8th centuries, participated in the new Arabic-Islamic civilization; the Jews of Asia, Africa, and Spain soon adopted Arabic, the language of culture and communication. Arabic-language culture introduced elements of Greek philosophy and Islamic mysticism into Judaism and contributed to the deepening of certain theological concepts that were of Jewish origin but had become the common property of the three religions of the Book (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam): affirming the divine unity, purging anthropomorphism from the idea of God, and following a spiritual path to the divine that leads through an ascetic discipline (both physical and intellectual) to a detachment from this world and a freeing of the soul from all that distracts it from God. Greek philosophy and Islamic mysticism moreover raised serious questions that threatened traditional beliefs about the creation of the world, the providential action of God, miracles, and eschatology. Even in the Christian West, where cultural contacts between the majority society and the Jewish minority were far from reaching the breadth and intensity of Judeo-Arab relations, Jewish intellectuals were unable to remain impervious to the incursions of the surrounding civilization. (Jewish biblical scholars were at times sought out by Christian theologians for help in understanding the Hebrew Scriptures.) Moreover, at the beginning of the 12th century if not earlier, European Judaism received part of the intellectual Arabic and Judeo-Arab heritage through translations or adaptations into Hebrew, its only cultural language.

The making of Kabbala (c. 1150–1250)

Under these circumstances, starting around 1150, manifestations of markedly theosophic ideologies appeared in southern France (in the regions of Provence and Languedoc). The two types that can be distinguished at the outset are very different in appearance, form, and content.

Sefer ha-bahir

The first type is represented in fragmentary, poorly written, and badly assembled texts that began to circulate in Provence and Languedoc during the third quarter of the 12th century. Their inspiration, however, leaves no doubt as to the community of their origin. They were in the form of a Midrash—that is, an interpretation of Scripture with the help of a particular interpretative method, full of sayings attributed to ancient rabbinical authorities. This body of texts, probably imported from the Middle East (Syria, Palestine, Iraq), is known as the “Midrash of Rabbi Nehunya ben Haqana” (from the name of a 1st-century rabbi) or Sefer ha-bahir (“Book of Brightness,” from a characteristic word of the first verse of Scripture to be elucidated in the work). The authorities cited are all inauthentic (as was often the case in late works). The content of this Midrash may be characterized as a form of gnosticism that successfully tries to escape any ontological dualism.

The object of the Sefer ha-bahir is to present the origin of things and the course of history centered on the chosen people, with vicissitudes caused in turn by obedience to God and by sin, as conditioned by the manifestation of divine powers. These “powers” are not “attributes” derived and defined by philosophical abstraction, though that is one of the terms used to designate them: they are hypostases (essences or substances). They are inseparable from God, but each one is clothed in its own personality, each operates in its own manner, leaning toward severity or mercy, in dynamic correspondence with the behavior of human beings, especially of Jews, in the visible world. They are ranked in a hierarchy, which is not as fixed as it would become starting with the second generation of Kabbalists in Languedoc and Catalonia. The rich nomenclature used to designate the “powers” exploits the resources of both the Bible and the rabbinical tradition, of the Sefer yetzira, of some ritual observances, and also of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the signs that can be added to them to indicate the vowels.

Thus, according to the Sefer ha-bahir, the universe is the manifestation of hierarchically organized divine powers, and the power that is at the bottom of the hierarchy has special charge of the visible world. This entity is highly complex. Undoubtedly there are survivals of gnostic speculation on Sophia (“Wisdom”), who is involved, sometimes to her misfortune, in the material world. This power is also the divine “Presence” (Shekhina) of rabbinical theology, though it is profoundly transformed: it has become a hypostasis. By a bold innovation, it is characterized as a feminine being and thus finds itself, while remaining an aspect of the Divinity, in the position of a daughter or a wife, who owns nothing herself and receives all from the father or the husband. It is also identified with the “Community of Israel,” another radical innovation that was facilitated by ancient speculation based on the allegorical interpretation of the Song of Solomon, which represents the relationship of God to the chosen nation in terms of the marriage bond. Thus, a theosophical equality is established between the whole of the people chosen by God, constituted into a kind of mystical body, and an aspect of the Divinity—whence the solidarity and linked destiny of the two. A comparable relationship between the “Presence” and Israel was not totally foreign to ancient rabbinical theology. In this light, the obedience or disobedience of Israel to its particular vocation is a determining factor of cosmic harmony or disruption and extends to the inner life of the Divinity. This is the essential and definitive contribution of the Sefer ha-bahir to Jewish theosophy. The same document evinces the resurgence of a notion that older theologians had attempted to combat—that of metensōmatōsis, the reincarnation into several successive bodies of a soul that has not attained the required perfection in a previous existence.

School of Isaac the Blind

Another theosophic tendency in Languedoc developed concurrently with—but independently of—the Sefer ha-bahir. The two movements would take only about 30 years to converge, constituting what may conveniently (though not quite precisely) be called classical Kabbala. The second school flourished in Languedoc during the last quarter of the 12th century and crossed the Pyrenees into Spain in the first years of the 13th century.

The most eminent spokesman of this school was Isaac ben Abraham, known as Isaac the Blind, whose extant works include a very obscure commentary on the Sefer yetzira. In the view of the eminent Kabbala scholar Gershom G. Scholem (1897–1982), Isaac’s general vision of the universe proceeds from the link he discovers between the hierarchical orders of the created world and the roots of all beings implanted in the world of the sefirot. A Neoplatonic influence is evident in the reflections of Isaac—e.g., the procession of things from the one and the corresponding return to the heart of the primordial undifferentiatedness, which is the fullness of being and at the same time every conceivable being. This return is not merely eschatological and cosmic but is realized in the life of prayer of the contemplative mystic—though it is not, indeed, a transforming union by which the human personality blends completely into the Deity or becomes one with it.

The synthesis of the themes of the Bahir and the cosmology of the Sefer yetzira, accomplished by Isaac or by others in the doctrinal environment inspired by his teachings, was and remains the foundation of Kabbala, whatever adjustments, changes of orientation, or radical modifications the composite may subsequently have undergone.

The 10 sefirot

It is also in this environment that the nomenclature of the 10 sefirot became more or less fixed, though variant terminologies and even divergent conceptions of the nature of these entities may exist elsewhere—e.g., as internal powers of the divine organism (gnostic), as hierarchically ordered intermediaries between the infinite and the finite (Neoplatonic), or simply as instruments of the divine activity, neither partaking of the divine substance nor being outside it. The classical list of the sefirot is

keter ʿelyon, the supreme crown (its identity or nonidentity with the Infinite, Ein Sof, the unknowable Deity, remains problematic)

ḥokhma, wisdom, the location of primordial ideas in God

bina, intelligence, the organizing principle of the universe

ḥesed, love, the attribute of goodness

gevura, might, the attribute of severity

tif’eret, beauty, the mediating principle between the preceding two

netzaḥ, eternity

hod, majesty

yesod, foundation of all the powers active in God

malkhut, kingship, identified with the Shekhina (“Presence”)

School of Gerona (Catalonia)

The gnosticizing theosophy of the Sefer ha-bahir and the contemplative mysticism of the masters of Languedoc became one in the hands of the Kabbalists in Catalonia, where the Jewish community of Gerona was a veritable seat of esoterism during the first half of the 13th century. To the school of Gerona belong, among others, masters such as Ezra ben Solomon, Azriel of Gerona, Jacob ben Sheshet, and Moses ben Naḥman (or Naḥmanides), the famous Talmudist, biblical commentator, and theologian. Their influence on the subsequent course of Jewish mysticism is of fundamental importance, though none of them left a complete synthesis of his theosophy. They expressed themselves, with more or less reserve, by means of commentaries, sermons, polemic or apologetic treatises, and brief summaries (at most) for the noninitiated. It is not impossible, however, to discover through these texts their vision of the world and to compare it with the views of the Jewish thinkers who attempted to harmonize the biblical-rabbinical tradition with Greco-Arab philosophy, whether of Neoplatonic or Aristotelian inspiration.

At the base of the Kabbalistic view of the world there is an option of faith: it is by a voluntary decision that the unknowable Deity—who is “nothing” or “nothingness” (nonfinite) because he is a fullness of being totally inaccessible to any human cognition—sets into motion the process that leads to the visible world. This concept radically separates Kabbala from the determinism from which the philosophy of the period could not, without contradiction, free the principle of being. In addition, it offers a solution consistent with faith to the problem of creation ex nihilo (out of nothing). The paradoxical reinterpretation of the concept of the “nothing” eliminates the original matter coeternal with God and solves the opposition between divine transcendence (remoteness from the world) and immanence (presence in the world); issuing from the unfathomable depth of the Deity and called to return to it, the world, visible as well as invisible, is radically separated from God, who is at the same time constantly present. The correspondence between the sefirot and all the degrees of being gives meaning to the structure of the world and to the history of humanity centered on the revelation given to the chosen people, a revelation that is a rule of life for this people and the criterion of merit and sin, or good and evil. Thus, from the top to the bottom of the ladder, there are corresponding realities that control one another. Contrary to the opinion of the philosophers, evil is also a reality since it is the rupture of the universal harmony. It is also the consequence of this rupture, in the form of punishment. From this perspective, scrupulous observance of the Torah, both in the written text and the oral tradition, is the essential factor for the maintenance of the universe. The “rational” motivation of the commandments, which raises insurmountable difficulties for the theologians of philosophical orientation, is in the eyes of the Kabbalists a false problem; the real problem is the fundamental nature of the Torah. Kabbala brings more than one solution to it, whereas philosophy has trouble providing a single coherent and comprehensive solution.

It follows from this general concept that the Jewish faith, with its implications—the conviction of holding the undiluted truth, the faithful preservation of ritual practices, and the eschatological expectation—is safeguarded from all the doubts that either philosophical speculation or the rival religious doctrines of Christianity and Islam could evoke in the minds of Jewish believers. Kabbala, already at the stage it had reached at Gerona, may be said to be a significant factor in the survival of Judaism, which was exposed everywhere in medieval society to a wide range of perils.

Besides the Gerona school and the doctrinal descendants of Isaac the Blind in Languedoc, there was another school of Jewish esoterism in southern Europe during the first half of the 13th century. Members of this school preferred to remain anonymous and therefore published their writings, such as the Sefer ha-ʿiyyun (“Book of Speculation”), either without an author’s name or with an attribution to a fictitious authority. Their speculation was directed to the highest levels of the divine world, where it discerned aspects beyond the 10 sefirot and attempted to give an idea of them by resorting to the symbolism of light, as well as to the primordial causes and the archetypes contained in the Deity or directly issuing from it. The sometimes-striking similarity between these speculations and those of the Christian theologian John Scotus Erigena (810–c. 877), whose work was revived in the 12th and 13th centuries, suggests not only a kinship of themes between this Kabbalistic current and Latin-language Christian Neoplatonism but also a concrete influence of the latter upon the former. The same may be true of Isaac the Blind and the school of Gerona, but certain knowledge is lacking.

Sefer ha-temuna

The anonymous writer of the Sefer ha-temuna (“Book of the Image”) provided literary expression for another manifestation of Jewish mysticism in this period. This very obscure document claims to explain the figures of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The speculation of this treatise bears on two themes that were not foreign to the school of Gerona, but it develops them in a personal manner that decisively influenced the future of Jewish theosophy. On the one hand, it deals with a theory of the different cycles through which the world must travel from the time of its emergence to its reabsorption into the primordial unity. On the other hand, it addresses various readings that correspond to these cycles in the divine manifestation that is constituted by the Scriptures. In other words, the interpretation and consequently the message of the Torah vary according to the cycles of existence; the passage to a cycle other than that under whose governance humanity is presently living could thus entail the modification, even the abrogation, of the rule of life to which the chosen people are presently subject, an explosive notion that threatened to overthrow the Jewish tradition.

Medieval German (Ashkenazic) Hasidism

The period during which Kabbala was established in the south of France and in Spain is no less important for the shaping of Jewish mysticism in the other branch of European Judaism, which was situated in northern France (and England) and in the Rhine and Danube regions of Germany. Unlike medieval Kabbala, which experienced a broad and varied development starting in the second half of the 13th century, the movement designated as German, or Ashkenazic (from a biblical place-name conventionally used to designate Germany), Hasidism hardly survived as a living and independent current beyond the second quarter of the 13th century (it has no connection with modern Hasidism). Franco-German Judaism experienced a certain continuity of mystical tradition, based on the Sefer yetzira and the hekhalot (see above Sefer yetzira); certain elements of theurgy and magic of Babylonian origin may also have reached it through Italy; and apparently the gnosticizing current that was crystallized in the Sefer ha-bahir did not pass without leaving traces in Germany. The intellectual atmosphere of Franco-German Judaism, however, differed greatly from that reigning in Spain or even Provence and Languedoc. It was characterized by an almost exclusively Talmudic culture, less intellectual contact with the non-Jewish environment than in the countries of Muslim civilization, and a very limited knowledge of Jewish theology in Arabic from the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain. This situation did not change until the last third of the 12th century; until then, the “philosophical” equipment of the Franco-German Jewish scholar consisted essentially of a Hebrew paraphrase, dating perhaps from the 11th century, of the treatise Beliefs and Opinions by Saʿadia ben Joseph (the great 9th–10th-century Babylonian Jewish scholar and philosopher) and the commentary on the Sefer yetzira written in Hebrew in 946 by the Italian physician Shabbetai Donnolo (born 913). Even when the cultural influence of Spanish Judaism came to be felt more strongly in France, England, and Germany, speculative Kabbala hardly penetrated there. Franco-German Jewish thinkers who inclined toward theological speculation had their own problems—notably the persecutions that began during the First Crusade—which resulted in a mysticism strongly imbued with asceticism.

The main speculative problem for medieval Hasidic thinkers was that of the relationship between God and his manifestations in creation, including his revelation and communication with inspired men and women. Reflection on this problem led to the elaboration of various supernatural hierarchies between the inaccessible God and the created universe or the recipient of divine communication. Data on angels taken from the Bible and rabbinical and mystical traditions, as well as speculation on the Shekhina, were used as material for these hierarchies and also gave a peculiar coloration to liturgical practice. The latter was marked, moreover, by a concern for spiritual concentration by means of fixing attention on the words and even the letters of the synagogue prayers. These speculations, however, had no great repercussions on the subsequent course of Jewish esoterism; the only exception is the mysticism of prayer and demonology, which was sometimes influenced by the beliefs of the Christian environment and was fully developed in Hasidic circles. On the other hand, the ascetic morality of the movement, which was expressed in the literary works of Eleazar ben Judah of Worms (c. 1160–1238) and in the two recensions of the “Book of the Pious” (Sefer ḥasidim), was to mark Jewish spirituality, esoteric or not, from then on.

The making of the Zohar (c. 1260–1492)

Once the marginal episode of German Hasidism was finished, almost all creative activity in Jewish mysticism occurred in Spain, up to the expulsion of the Jews in 1492.

After the flowering of the schools described above came to an end about the year 1260, two other currents appeared. The first assumed a gnostic bent through its emphasis on the problem of evil. The texts that illustrate this tendency do not place evil in a state of dependence on the “attribute of judgment” within the structure of the sefirot set up by the previous Kabbalists but locate it outside the Divinity, constructing a parallel system of “left-hand sefirot” and a corresponding exuberant demonology. The second movement, whose main representative was the visionary and adventurer Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia (born 1240), justified itself by appeal to inner “prophetic” experiences encouraged by training methods akin to those of Yoga, Byzantine Hesychasm (mystical, quietist monasticism), and Sufism. Moreover, an important place was given to speculations on the letters and vocalic signs of the Hebrew script. Unlike the protagonists of other mystical schools of Spain, Abulafia actively promoted his ideas, worrying Jewish leaders and prompting even non-Jewish authorities to pursue him. His numerous writings later stimulated a few minds among the Kabbalists.

The work of Moses de León (1250–1305) marked one of the most important turning points in the development of Jewish mysticism. He was the author of several esoteric works, which he signed with his own name. In order to better spread his ideas and to more effectively combat philosophy, which he considered a mortal danger to the Jewish faith, he composed pseudepigrapha (writings ascribed to other authors, usually in past ages) in the form of Midrashim on the Pentateuch, the Song of Solomon, the Book of Ruth, and Lamentations; only the names of the Talmudic authorities were even partially authentic, a procedure already used by the Sefer ha-bahir. In its most finished version (for there were several of them), the plot of the tales centered around Rabbi Simeon ben Yoḥai, a sage of the 2nd century, about whom the Talmud already related some curious anecdotes, most of them semilegendary. Moses de León thus produced over a period of about 30 years the Midrash ha-neʿelam (“The Mystical Midrash”), an allegorical work written mainly in Hebrew, and then the Sefer ha-zohar (“Book of Splendour”)—or, more briefly, the Zohar—a larger work written in artificial Aramaic, whose content is theosophic. The Zohar culminates in a long speech in which Simeon ben Yoḥai, on the day of his death, supposedly exposes the quintessence of his mystical doctrine. The book inspired nearly contemporary imitations that were incorporated into it or appended to it but were sometimes of a markedly different theological orientation: the Raʿya mehemana (“Faithful Shepherd”—i.e., Moses the prophet), the particular subject of which is the interpretation and theosophic justification of the precepts of the Torah; and the Tiqqune zohar, consisting of elaborations in the same vein bearing upon the first word of the book of Genesis (bereshit, “in the beginning”).

The works of Moses de León were not immediately accepted as authentic by all the esoterists and still less by scholars outside the theosophic movement. It took half a century or more for the Zohar and imitations of it to be recognized as authoritative ancient works, and even then it was not without some reluctance. Although critics were never fully silenced and the authenticity of the Zohar was already questioned in the 15th century, the myth created by Moses de León and his imitators became a spiritual reality for the majority of believing Jews, and it still retains this character among many “traditional” Jews. The Zohar, believed to be based on supernatural revelations and reinterpreted in diverse ways, served as a support and reference for all Jewish theosophies in later centuries.

In matters of doctrine, the Zohar and its appendices develop, amplify, and exaggerate speculation and tendencies that already existed rather than offer any radical innovation. The main lines of the Zohar—the springing forth of being from the depth of the divine “nothing,” the solidarity between the visible world and the world of the sefirot (complicated by the introduction of four ontological levels, at each of which the schema of the 10 sefirot is reproduced), the indispensable contribution to universal harmony by the people (i.e., the Jews) who observe the biblical and rabbinical precepts in their slightest details—were ideas that had been accepted for a long time in Jewish theosophy. But all of these themes were largely organized and enhanced by the use—or rather the unscrupulous appropriation—of materials taken from rabbinical tradition and ancient esoterism as well as from more recent currents of theological and philosophical thought (the speculations of the Sefer ha-temuna on the cosmic cycles and the “Prophetic Kabbala” of Abulafia were tacitly set aside).

Despite the lack of esteem that the writers of the Zoharic corpus felt—and sought to make others feel—toward works created by Gentiles, the method of symbolic representation used in the Zoharic writings was supported by a system of interpretation based on the originally Christian concept of the fourfold meaning of Scripture: literal, moral, allegorical (philosophical), and mystical. The symbolism that was thus established boldly made use of an exuberant anthropomorphic and even erotic imagery whose function was to convey the manifestation of the levels of the sefirot to each other and to the extra-divine world. The myth of the primordial man (Adam Qadmon), a virtually divine being, reappeared here under a new form, and it remained in the subsequent development of Kabbala.

The Zohar thus claims to provide a complete explanation of the world, humankind, history, and the situation of the Jews; on a higher level, it purports to justify the biblical revelation and rabbinical tradition down to the slightest detail, including the messianic expectation, and thereby to neutralize philosophy. But, while portraying itself as the defender of the traditional religion regulated by the Talmud and its commentaries, the Zohar places itself above tradition by boisterously proclaiming the incomparable value of the theosophic teaching of Rabbi Simeon ben Yoḥai and the superiority of the esoteric doctrine over Talmudic studies. There was in this attitude—which was more accentuated in the Raʿya mehemana than in the Zohar proper—a revolutionary potential and a threat to the primacy of Torah practice and study. The future would show that this danger was not completely unreal.

The Lurianic Kabbala

After the establishment of the Zoharic corpus, no major changes took place in Jewish esoterism until the middle of the 16th century, when a religious center of extreme importance for Judaism, mainly inspired by teachers coming from families expelled from Spain, was established in Safed (in Upper Galilee, Palestine; present-day Ẕefat, Israel). Kabbalistic literary output had been abundant in Spain until the expulsion in 1492 and in Italy and the Middle East during the following two generations, but it was primarily a matter of systematizing or even popularizing the Zohar or of extending the speculation already developed in the 13th century. There were also some attempts at reconciling philosophy and Kabbala.

The expulsion from Spain and the forced conversions to Christianity in both Spain and Portugal were profound tragedies. These events accentuated the existing pessimism caused by the dispersal of the Jews among the nations and intensified messianic expectation. This expectation most likely contributed to the beginnings of the printed transmission of Kabbala; the first two printed editions of the Zohar date from 1558. All these factors, joined with certain internal developments of speculative Kabbala in the 15th century, prepared the ground for the new theosophy inaugurated by the teaching of Isaac ben Solomon Luria (1534–72), who was born in Jerusalem, educated in Egypt, and died in Safed. Although his teaching is traditionally associated with Safed, he spent only the last three years of his life there. Luria wrote very little; his doctrine was transmitted, amplified, and probably somewhat distorted through the works of his disciples, especially Ḥayyim Vital (1543–1620), who wrote ʿEtz ḥayyim (“Tree of Life”), the standard presentation of Lurianic Kabbala.

The theosophy of Luria, whose novelty was proclaimed by its creator, was perfectly realized by the esoterists who held to the Zoharistic Kabbala, which was organized and codified precisely in Safed during the lifetime of Luria by Moses ben Jacob Cordovero (1522–70). Although its details are extremely complex, it is basically an attempt to reconcile divine transcendence with immanence and to solve the problem of evil, which the believer in the divine unity can recognize neither as a power existing independently of God nor as an integral part of him.

The vision of Luria is expressed in a vast mythical construct, which is typologically akin to certain gnostic and Manichaean (3rd-century dualistic) systems but which strives at all costs to avoid dualism. The essential elements of this myth include the withdrawal (tzimtzum) of the divine light, which originally filled all things, in order to make room for the extra-divine; the sinking, as a result of a catastrophic event that occurred during this process, of luminous particles into matter (qelippot, “shells,” a term already used in Kabbala to designate the evil powers); and the consequent need to save these particles and return them to their origin, by means of “repair” or “restoration” (tiqqun). This must be the work of the Jews who not only live in complete conformity to the religious duties imposed on them by tradition but who dedicate themselves, in the framework of a strict asceticism, to a contemplative life founded on mystical prayer and directed meditation (kawwana) on the liturgy, which is supposed to further the harmony (yiḥud, “unification”) of the innumerable attributes within the divine life. The successive reincarnations of the soul, a constant theme of Kabbala that Lurianism developed, are also invested with an important function in the work of “repair.” In short, Lurianism proclaims the absolute requirement of an intense mystical life with an unceasing struggle against the powers of evil. Thus, it presents a myth that symbolizes the world’s origin, fall, and redemption. It also gives meaning to the existence and hopes of the Jews, not merely exhorting them to a patient surrender to God but moving them to a redeeming activism, which is the measure of their sanctity. Such requirements make the ideal of Lurianism possible only for a small elite; ultimately, it is realizable only through the exceptional personage of the “just”—the ideal holy Jew.

Shabbetaianism

For 60 years after the death of Luria, his version of the Kabbala, together with accretions from the other mysticisms of Safed, spread through the Jewish Diaspora and deeply permeated its spiritual life, liturgy, and devotional practices. It emphasized the need for “repair” of a world in which Jewish uneasiness continued to grow; despite certain favorable factors—the relative tolerance of the Ottoman Empire and the peaceful establishment of an important Marrano (Iberian Jewish, or Sephardic) community in Amsterdam—there was no overall solution to the problem of the conversos who had remained in the Iberian Peninsula. The Ashkenazim also experienced a serious crisis: its most prosperous and dynamic section, the Jewish population of Poland, was sorely tried, almost totally ruined, and in large part forced to move back toward the west because of the massacres and the destruction that took place during the Cossack uprising of 1648.

False messiah: Shabbetai Tzevi

False messiah: Shabbetai TzeviShabbetai Tzevi blessing a Jewish congregation at Smyrna, Ottoman Empire (now İzmir, Turkey), c. 1665.

These ideological and historical data may provide the necessary context for understanding the astonishing though short-lived success of Rabbi Shabbetai Tzevi of Smyrna (1626–76), who proclaimed himself messiah in 1665. Although the “messiah” was forcibly converted to Islam in 1666 and ended his life in exile 10 years later, he continued to have faithful followers. A sect was thus born and survived, largely thanks to the activity of Nathan of Gaza (c. 1644–90), an unwearying propagandist who justified the actions of Shabbetai Tzevi, including his final apostasy, with theories based on the Lurian doctrine of “repair.” Tzevi’s actions, according to Nathan, should be understood as the descent of the just into the abyss of the “shells” in order to liberate the captive particles of divine light.

The Shabbetaian crisis lasted nearly a century, and some of its aftereffects lasted even longer. It led to the formation of sects whose members were externally converted to Islam—e.g., the Dönme (Turkish: “Apostates”) of Salonika, whose descendants still live in Turkey—or to Roman Catholicism—e.g., the Polish supporters of Jacob Frank (1726–91), the self-proclaimed messiah and Catholic convert (in Bohemia-Moravia, however, the Frankists outwardly remained Jews). This crisis did not discredit Kabbala, but it did lead Jewish spiritual authorities to monitor and severely curtail its spread and to use censorship and other acts of repression against anyone—even a person of tested piety and recognized knowledge—who was suspected of Shabbetaian sympathies or messianic pretensions.

Modern Hasidism

Although the messianic movement centered around Shabbetai Tzevi produced only disillusionment and could have led to the destruction of Judaism, it answered both the theosophic aspirations of a small number of visionary scholars and the affective need of the Jewish masses that was left unsatisfied by the dry intellectualism of the Talmudists and the economic and social oppression of the ruling classes (both Jewish and non-Jewish). This was the case especially in Poland, which before the partition of the Polish kingdom (1772–95) included Lithuanian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian territories. It was there that the Hasidic movement originated around the middle of the 18th century (it was in no way connected with medieval German Hasidism). While maintaining the Lurian Kabbala as a theoretical basis of speculation, the movement also made adjustments and transformations that continue to the present day.

Modern Hasidism may be regarded as a mass movement having a minimum of organization and relying on itinerant teachers and preachers. According to legend, it was founded by Israel ben Eliezer (c. 1700–60), known as Baʿal Shem Ṭov (“Master of the Good Name”; that is, a possessor—he was not the only one of his kind—of the secret of the ineffable name of God, which bestows an infallible power to heal and perform other miracles). Although relatively untrained according to the norms of the rabbinical Judaism of his time, he was a spiritual person of exceptional quality and was able to win to his ideas not only the common people but also many representatives of the intellectual elite. The mist of legend that surrounds him makes it impossible to reconstruct his entire doctrine, which he probably never systematized. Inspired by the methods of the itinerant preachers whose activity was becoming more intense among eastern European Jews in the 18th century, his teaching took the form of homiletic interpretations of sacred texts based on fables and parables borrowed from daily life and from folklore. Although this method remained constant in Hasidism, it is a mistake to conclude, as did Martin Buber, that the tale and the anecdote are the most authentic expression of the doctrine and spirituality of Hasidism. Indeed, the thought of the Hasidic “rabbis” is best expressed in doctrinal works, most of which took the form of sermons on the weekly sections of the Pentateuch and other liturgical lessons. It is a very diversified thought, for there are as many bodies of doctrine in Hasidism as there were creative spirits during the first three generations of the movement. It is possible nevertheless to point to a few traits that are fundamental and common to Hasidism as a whole.

In theory, Hasidism remains rooted in the Lurianic Kabbala, and nothing essential separates it at this point from the traditional Judaism of eastern Europe. It is unique, however, because it made devequt, “being-with-God,” an object of aspiration and even a constant duty for all Jews and in all circumstances of life, even those seemingly most profane. In other words, it demands a total spiritualization of Jewish existence. This requirement entails a reevaluation, less new in its principle than in its concrete application, of the speculative concepts of Kabbala. Emphasis is placed on the inner life of the believer, and it is on this level that the supercosmic drama (whose stage is in the universe of the sefirot, according to bookish theosophy) is played out. According to several teachers, the same emphasis on inwardness holds for messianic redemption. Hasidism also transforms into social reality a requirement that was part of the Lurian doctrine of “repair,” though it was unfortunately distorted by Shabbetaianism: it puts the inspired leader—an indispensable guide and unquestioned authority endowed with supernatural powers, the “just” (tzaddiq), the “miracle-working rabbi” (Wunder-rebbe)—at the center of the group’s organization and religious life. Hasidism thus produced, wherever it triumphed, an undeniable spiritual renewal. On the other hand, it was plagued by the cult of personality, by competition between “dynasties” of “rabbis,” and by the social and economic consequences of its obstinate insistence on isolating the Hasidic community from the surrounding society.

From its very beginnings, Hasidism encountered strong resistance from official Judaism, which had been sensitized to the anarchism of the Shabbetaians and which at the same time was solicitous toward the prerogatives of the community leaders and rabbis. The behavior of the followers of Hasidism, though irreproachable in its rigorous observance of ritual rules, displayed several traits that were distasteful to its adversaries (besides the unconditional submission to the tzaddiq, who often doubled as the rabbi of the official congregation): desertion of the general communal synagogues, meetings in small conventicles, modifications of the liturgy, excessively formal dress during prayer, and preference given to mystical meditation rather than to the dialectical study of the Talmud, which required serious intellectual concentration. Nevertheless, the conflict between the Hasidim and the “Opponents” (Mitnaggedim) did not finally degenerate into schism; after three generations, a tacit compromise was established between the two tendencies—Hasidic and Mitnaggedic—though awareness of their differences was never erased. The compromise was somewhat to the advantage of Hasidism, but not without a few concessions on its part, notably on the question of education.

The strong organization of the Hasidic groups allowed them to survive the dislocation of eastern European Judaism as a result of the events of World War II, but its vital centers are today in the United States rather than in Palestine, partly for economic reasons and partly because of the more or less reserved, and sometimes hostile, attitude of the Hasidic “rabbis” toward political Zionism and the State of Israel. The best-known of the U.S.-based groups is the very active Lubavitchers (named after Lyubavichi, Russia, seat of a famous school of Hasidism), whose headquarters are in the Crown Heights district of Brooklyn, New York.

Modern Jewish mysticism

The role played by Kabbala and Hasidism in the thought and spirituality of contemporary Judaism is far from insignificant, though its importance is not as great as in former times. Although there is hardly any living Kabbalistic and Hasidic literature, the personal thought of religious writers such as Abraham Isaac Kook (c. 1865–1935)—spiritual leader, mystic, and chief rabbi of Palestine—remains influential. Furthermore, religious thought in Westernized Jewish circles between the two World Wars received a powerful stimulus from the philosopher Martin Buber, whose work is in part devoted to the propagation of Hasidic ideology as he understood it. “Neo-Orthodoxy,” the theological system founded in Germany by Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808–88), was indifferent to mysticism at the outset, but it too came to be influenced by it, especially after the rediscovery of living Judaism in Poland during World War I by Western Jewish thinkers. Also significant is the work of Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–72), a Polish Jewish theologian of distinguished Hasidic background and dual culture—traditional and Western.

Jewish mysticism has exerted influence outside the Jewish community. Kabbala, distorted and deflected from its own intentions, has helped to nourish and stimulate certain currents of thought in Christian society since the Renaissance. “Christian Kabbala,” born in the 15th century under the impetus of Jewish converts from Spain and Italy, claimed to find in the Kabbalistic documents—touched up or even forged if necessary—arguments for the truths of the Christian faith. A certain number of Christian humanist scholars became interested in Jewish mysticism, and several of them acquired a fairly extensive knowledge of it on the basis of authentic texts. Among them were Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–94) and Gilles of Viterbo (Egidio da Viterbo; c. 1465–1532) in Italy; Johannes Reuchlin (1455–1522) in Germany, who wrote one of the principal expositions of Kabbala in a language accessible to the learned non-Jewish public (De arte Cabbalistica, 1517); and the visionary Guillaume Postel (1510–81) in France. The occult philosophy of the 16th century, the “natural philosophy” of the 17th and 18th centuries, and the occult and theosophic theories that are cultivated even today and that have coloured the ideology of Freemasonry—all of these continue to borrow from Kabbala, though they rarely grasp its spirit and meaning. The same is true of most of the books on Kabbala put out by publishers of occult and theosophic literature today.

The scholarly study of Jewish mysticism is a very recent phenomenon. The state of mind and the tendencies of the founders of the “science of Judaism” (the scholarly study of Jewish religion, literature, and history) in Germany during the first half of the 19th century were too permeated with rationalism to be favorable to scholarly investigation of a movement judged to be obscurantist and retrograde. Although there were some valuable early studies, research on a large scale and application of the proved methods of philology and history of religions began only with the work of Gershom G. Scholem (1897–1982) and his disciples. This research addressed all the many areas of Jewish mysticism, but in every area the gaps in knowledge remain serious. Critical editions of mystical texts are few in number; unpublished documents are cataloged incompletely; and only a few monographs on writers and particular themes exist, though these are indispensable preliminaries to a detailed and thorough synthesis. It is to be hoped that the synthesis outlined by Scholem in his Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941), though exceptionally valuable in its time, will be taken up again and completed.

Georges Vajda

Jewish myth and legend

Jewish myth and legend comprises a vast body of stories transmitted over the past 3,000 years in Hebrew and in the vernacular dialects spoken by Jews, such as Yiddish (Judeo-German) and Ladino (Judeo-Spanish). These stories have played an important role in the history of Jewish religion and culture.Virtually all the standard types of folktales are represented. Conspicuously absent, however, are pure fairy tales, because fairies, elves, and the like are foreign to the Jewish imagination, which prefers to populate the otherworld with angels and demons subservient to God.

Significance and characteristics

Apart from their intrinsic appeal, Jewish myths and legends claim attention for three special reasons: (1) Those incorporated in the Hebrew Bible are now part and parcel of the cultural heritage of the Western world and have exerted a profound influence on its literature and art. (2) During the Middle Ages, Jews were among the principal transmitters of Middle Eastern and North African tales to the West, so that many familiar Eastern stories can be traced to Jewish compilations. (3) Since these stories have been accumulated through centuries of constant migration, they provide an unrivalled body of “clinical” material for studying the processes by which popular tales in fact travel and are transformed.

Not all of the stories are of Jewish origin; many have parallels elsewhere and are derived from tales the Jews picked up from their non-Jewish neighbors in the lands of their dispersion. Even what is borrowed, however, is usually impressed with a distinctive Jewish stamp. The tales were often adapted to point up some precept of the Jewish religion, to illustrate some facet of Jewish life, or to exemplify some trait of Jewish character and temperament. The dominant feature of the stories is their religious and moral tone; most of them are told specifically as part of the homiletic exposition of Scripture. Such stories are taught to Jews from early childhood as a regular part of their religious education. To the tradition-minded Jew, therefore, they are more than mere literary fancies. Biblical characters and events are presented more in the lineaments of later legend than in their original biblical form, and popular notions about heaven and hell, reward and punishment, the coming of the messiah, and the resurrection of the dead derive mainly from these sources rather than from Scripture itself.

A distinction must be made between myth and legend. In common parlance, a myth is a story about gods or otherworldly beings. In this sense, therefore, there can be no original Jewish myths, because Judaism is a rigorously monotheistic religion. Nevertheless, from the earliest times, Jews have not disdained to borrow the myths of their pagan neighbors and adapt them to their own religious outlook. If, however, the term is interpreted in a larger sense to mean the portrayal of perennial concerns in the context of particular historical events, myth is indeed one of the essential vehicles by which Judaism conveys its message. It is only when historical happenings are translated into this wider dimension that they cease to be mere antiquarian data and acquire continuing relevance. In Judaism, for example, the Exodus from Egypt is projected mythically from something that happened at a particular time into something that is continually happening, and it comes to exemplify the situation and experience of all humans everywhere—their emergence from the bondage of obscurantism, their individual revelations at their individual Sinais, their trek through a figurative wilderness, even their death in it so that their children or children’s children may eventually reach the figurative “Promised Land.” By the same token, the historical destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem is transformed by myth into a paradigm of the continuing mutual estrangement of God and humans, their exile from one another. Legend, on the other hand, implies no more than a fanciful embroidering of purportedly historical fact. Unlike myth, it does not transcend the historical and the local.

Sources and development

Myth and legend in the Bible

The vast repertoire of Jewish myths and legends begins with the Hebrew Bible. Their overall purpose in Scripture is to illustrate the ways of God with humans, as exemplified both in historical events and in personal experience. The stories themselves are often derived from current popular lore and possess abundant parallels in other cultures, both ancient and modern. In each case, however, they are given a peculiar and distinctive twist.

Myths

Biblical myths are found mainly in the first 11 chapters of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. They are concerned with the creation of the world and the first man and woman, the origin of the current human condition, the primeval Deluge, the distribution of peoples, and the variation of languages.

The basic stories are derived from the popular lore of the ancient Middle East; parallels can be found in the extant literature of the peoples of the area. The Mesopotamians, for instance, also knew of an earthly paradise such as Eden, and the figure of the cherubim—properly griffins rather than angels—was known to the Canaanites. In the Bible, however, this mythical garden of the gods becomes the scene of man’s fall and the background of a story designed to account for the natural limitations of human life. Similarly, the Babylonians told of the formation of humankind from clay. But, whereas in the pagan tale the first man’s function is to serve as an earthly menial of the gods, in the scriptural version his role is to rule over all other creatures. The story of the Deluge, including the elements of the ark and the dispatch of the raven and dove, appears already in the Babylonian myths of Gilgamesh and Atrahasis. There, however, the hero is eventually made immortal, whereas in the Bible this detail is omitted because, to the Israelite mind, no child of woman could achieve that status. Lastly, while the story of the Tower of Babel was told originally to account for the stepped temples (ziggurats) of Babylonia, to the Hebrew writer its purpose is simply to inculcate the moral lesson that humans should not aspire beyond their assigned station.

Scattered through the Prophets and Holy Writings (the two latter portions of the Hebrew Bible) are allusions to other ancient myths—e.g., to that of a primordial combat between YHWH and a monster variously named Leviathan (Wriggly), Rahab (Braggart), or simply Sir Sea or Dragon. The Babylonians told likewise of a fight between their god Marduk and the monster Tiamat; the Hittites told of a battle between the weather god and the dragon Illuyankas; while a Canaanite poem from Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit) in northern Syria relates the discomfiture of Sir Sea by the deity Baal and the rout of an opponent named Leviathan. Originally, this myth probably referred to the annual subjugation of the floods.

Ancient myths are utilized also in the form of passing allusions or poetic “conceits,” much as modern Westerners may speak of Cupid or the Muses. In the prophetic books, for example, there are references to a celestial upstart hurled to earth on account of his brashness and to the imprisonment of certain rebellious constellations.

The prophets used myths paradigmatically to illustrate the hand of God in contemporary events or to reinforce their prophecies. Thus, to Isaiah the primeval dragon was the symbol of the continuing force of chaos and evil that will again have to be vanquished before the kingdom of God can be established on earth. Similarly, for Ezekiel the celestial upstart serves as the prototype of the prince of Tyre, destined for an imminent fall; and Habakkuk sees in the impending rout of certain invaders a repetition on the stage of history of YHWH’s mythical sortie against the monster of the sea.

Legends and other tales

Legends in the Hebrew Scriptures often embellish the accounts of national heroes with standard motifs drawn from popular lore. Thus, the Genesis story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife recurs substantially (but with other characters) in an Egyptian papyrus of the 13th century BCE. The account of the infant Moses being placed in the bulrushes (in Exodus) has an earlier counterpart in a Babylonian tale about Sargon, king of Akkad (c. 2334–c. 2279 BCE), and is paralleled later in legends associated with the Persian Cyrus and with Tu-Küeh, the fabled founder of the Turkish nation. Jephthah’s rash vow (in Judges), whereby he is committed to sacrifice his daughter, recalls the Classical legend of Idomeneus of Crete, who was similarly compelled to slay his own son. The motif of the letter whereby David engineers the death in battle of Bathsheba’s husband recurs in Homer’s story of Bellerophon. The celebrated judgment of Solomon concerning the child claimed by two contending women is told, albeit with variations of detail, about Buddha, Confucius, and other sages; the story of how Jonah was swallowed by a “great fish” but was subsequently disgorged intact finds a parallel in the Indian tale of the hero Shaktideva, who endured the same experience during his quest for the Golden City. On the other hand, it should be observed that many of the parallels commonly cited from the folklore of indigenous peoples may be mere repetitions of biblical material picked up from Christian missionaries.

Samson killing Philistines

Samson killing PhilistinesStanding dish depicting Samson crushing the Philistines with the jawbone of an ass, enamel on copper by Pierre Courteys, c. 1580; in the Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Folktales in the Hebrew Bible sometimes serve to account for the names of places in Palestine or for the origins of traditional customs and institutions. Thus, the familiar story of the man who must struggle with the personified current of a river before he can cross it is localized (in Genesis) at the ford of Jabbok simply because that name suggests the Hebrew word abḳ (“struggle”), and Samson’s felling of 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass is placed at Ramath-leḥi because leḥi is Hebrew for “jawbone.” Similarly, a taboo against eating the thigh muscle of an animal is validated in Genesis by the legend that Jacob was struck in the hip when he fought with an otherworldly being at Penuel (“Face of God”). The custom of annually bewailing the vanished spirit of fertility is rationalized in Judges as a lamentation for the hapless daughter of Jephthah.

Angel, donkey, and Balaam

The Hebrew Bible also contains a few examples of fables (didactic tales in which animals or plants play human roles). Thus, the serpent in Eden talks to Eve, and Balaam’s ass not only speaks but also seeks to avoid an angel, unseen by Balaam, that is blocking the road, while trees compete for kingship in the celebrated parable of Jotham in Judges. Finally, in the Book of Job (38:31) there are allusions to star myths concerning the binding of Orion (called “the Fool”) and the “chaining” of the Pleiades.

Contemporary interpretations

The tendency to interpret biblical tales and legends as authentic historical records or as allegories or as the relics of solar, lunar, and astral myths is now a thing of the past. The modern folklorist is interested in the legends because they push back to remote antiquity several tales and motifs long known from later literature. For the theologian, however, they pose the deeper problem of distinguishing clearly between the permanent message of Scripture and the form in which it is conveyed. The process of “demythologization” is one of the central concerns of modern religious thought. It recognizes that the natural language of religious truth is myth; thus, the continuing relevance of ancient scriptures depends not on the total rejection of that vehicle but rather on the expansion and remodeling of it—i.e., on “remythologization” rather than demythologization. In the final analysis, the traditional portrayal of God himself is simply a mythical representation of ultimate reality, but that reality transcends the particular images in which it happens to be expressed. At the same time, it is important to note that, whereas in the modern world scriptural myths are generally understood as metaphors, in the ancient world they were accepted as literal statements of fact. Gods, for example, were not merely “personifications” of natural phenomena but rather the effective potencies of the phenomena themselves conceived from the start as personal beings.

Myth and legend in the Persian period

In 539 BCE the Jews came under Persian domination and consequently absorbed a good deal of Iranian folklore about spirits and demons, the eventual dissolution of the world in a fiery ordeal, and its subsequent renewal. This introduced new elements into Jewish popular mythology: hierarchies of angels; archangels such as Michael, Gabriel, and Uriel (modeled loosely upon the six Iranian spiritual entities, the amesha spentas); and the demonic figures of Satan, Belial, and Asmodeus (corresponding to the Iranian Angra Mainyu [Ahriman], Druj, and Aēshma Daeva). There was also a preoccupation with apocalyptic visions of heaven and hell and of the Last Days. Unfortunately, no Jewish texts of this genre from the Persian period are extant, so these new elements can be recognized only inferentially from their survival in later times—notably in products of the ensuing Hellenistic Age, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The principal monument of Jewish story in the Persian period is the biblical Book of Esther, which is basically a Judaized version of a Persian novella about the shrewdness of harem queens. The story was adapted to account for Purim, a popular festival, which itself is probably a transformation of the Persian New Year. Leading elements of the tale—such as the parade of Mordecai, dressed in royal robes, through the streets, the fight between the Jews and their adversaries, and the hanging of Haman and his sons—seem to reflect customs associated with Purim, such as the ceremonial ride of a common citizen through the capital, the mock combat between two teams representing the Old Year and the New Year, and the execution of the Old Year in effigy.

Myth and legend in the Hellenistic period

Historiated Bibles and legendary histories

Judaism entered a new phase in 330 BCE, when Alexander the Great completed his conquest of the Middle East. The dominant features of the Hellenistic Age, which began with Alexander’s death in 323, were an increasing cosmopolitanism and a fusion of ancient Middle Eastern and Greek cultures. These found expression in Jewish myth and legend in the composition (in Greek) of stories designed to link the Bible with general history, to correlate biblical and Greek legends, and to claim for the Hebrew patriarchs a major role in the development of the arts and sciences. It was asserted, for instance, that Abraham had taught astrology to the king of Egypt, that his sons and those of Keturah had aided Heracles against the giant Antaeus, and that Moses, blithely identified both with the semi-mythical Greek poet Musaeus and with the Egyptian Thoth, had been the teacher of Orpheus (the putative founder of one of the current mystery cults) and the inventor of navigation, architecture, and the hieroglyphic script. Leading writers in this vein were Artapanus, Eupolemus, and Cleodemus (all c. 100 BCE), but their works are known to us only from stray quotations by the early Church Fathers Eusebius and St. Clement of Alexandria.

The Jews also adapted the current Greek literary fashion of retelling Homeric and other ancient legends in “modernized,” novelistic versions, well seasoned with romantic elaborations of their own traditions. A paraphrase of Genesis found among the Dead Sea Scrolls ornaments the biblical narrative with several familiar folklore motifs. Thus, when Noah is born, the house is filled with light, just as it is said elsewhere to have been at the birth of the Roman king Servius Tullius, of Buddha, and (later) of several Christian saints. When Abraham’s life is threatened, he dreams of a cedar about to be felled, an omen that is said to have presaged the deaths of the Roman emperors Domitian and Severus Alexander. (Although the parallels are of later date, they illustrate the persistence of age-old traditions.) The same trend toward fanciful elaboration of scriptural tales is manifested also in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (“testaments” meaning last wills), in which the virtues and weaknesses of the sons of Jacob are illustrated by moralistic legends. There is also a lengthy paraphrase of early biblical narratives, mistakenly attributed to Philo Judaeus, the famous Alexandrian Jewish philosopher of the 1st century CE.

Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha

The principal monuments of Jewish literature during the Hellenistic period are the works known collectively as the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. The former are certain later writings excluded by Jews from the canon of the Hebrew Bible but found in the Greek Septuagint version. The latter are other late writings not included in any authorized version of the Scriptures and spuriously attributed to biblical personalities.

The Apocrypha include several Judaized versions of tales well represented in other cultures. The book of Tobit, for instance, turns largely on the widespread motifs of the “grateful dead” and the demon in the bridal chamber. The former relates how a traveller who gives burial to a dishonoured corpse is subsequently aided by a chance companion who turns out to be the spirit of the deceased. The latter tells how a succession of bridegrooms die on the nuptial night through the presence of a demon beside the bridal bed. Similarly, in Bel and the Dragon (2nd century BCE) there is the equally familiar motif of fraud that is detected by the imprint of the culprit’s foot on strewn ashes; the story reappears later in the French and Celtic romance of Tristan and Iseult. In the story of Susanna and the Elders (also 2nd century BCE), a charge of unchastity levelled against a beautiful woman is refuted when a clever youngster (“Daniel come to judgment”) points out discrepancies in the testimony of her accusers. This well-worn story has a close parallel in a Samaritan tale about the daughter of a high priest in the 1st century CE; the motif of the clever youngster who surpasses seasoned judges recurs later in the Infancy Gospels and in the tale of ʿAlī Khamājah in The Thousand and One Nights.

The Pseudepigrapha also contain a number of folktales that have parallels in other traditions. The Martyrdom of Isaiah (1st century CE?) tells how the prophet, fleeing from King Manasseh, hid in a tree that opened miraculously, though he eventually perished when it was sawn asunder. Similar tales are related in the Talmud and in the later Persian epic Shāh-nāmeh (c. 1000 CE).

Myth and legend in the Talmud and Midrash

Midrash and Haggada

Toward the end of the 1st century CE, the canon of the Hebrew Bible was formed when certain Hebrew writings were recognized as the authoritative corpus of divine revelation. The study of the Bible became an essential element of the Jewish religion, which meant that the sacred text had to be subjected to a form of interpretation that would bring out its universal significance and permanent relevance. The process, known as Midrash (“interpretation” or “investigation”), involved the spicing of homiletic discourses with elaborative legends—a pedagogic device called Haggada (“Storytelling”). Originally transmitted orally, the legends were eventually committed to writing as part of the Talmud (the authoritative compendium of Oral Law and commentary on it), as well as in later compilations geared to particular books or sections of the Hebrew Bible, to scriptural lessons read in the services of the synagogue, or to specific biblical characters or moral themes.

The range of Haggada is virtually inexhaustible; a few representative examples must suffice. With regard to biblical characters, both Moses and David were born circumcised; Cain had a twin sister; Abraham will sit at the gate of hell to reproach the damned on Judgment Day; Aaron once locked the angel of death in the tabernacle; Solomon understood the language of animals; King Hiram, who supplied materials for the Temple, entered paradise alive; and the flesh of Leviathan will feed the righteous in the world to come.

In such fanciful elaborations of Scriptures, Haggada does not disdain to draw on Classical tales from ancient Greece and Rome. The men of Sodom, it is said, subjected itinerant strangers to the ordeal of Procrustes’ bed; the earth opened to rescue newborn Hebrew males from the pharaoh, as it did for Amphiaraus, the prophet of Argos, when he fled from Periclymenus after the attack on Thebes; Moses spoke at birth, as did Apollo; Solomon’s ring, cast into the river, was retrieved from a fish that had swallowed it, as was that of Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos, in the story told by Herodotus; the Queen of Sheba had the feet of an ass, like the child-stealing witch (Onoskelis) of Greek folklore; and no rain ever fell on the altar at Jerusalem, just as none was said to have fallen on Mt. Olympus.

There are other familiar motifs. Moses qualifies as a husband for Zipporah by alone being able to pluck a rod from Jethro’s garden; David’s harp is played at night by the wind, like that of Aeolus; and Isaiah, like Achilles and Siegfried, has only one vulnerable spot in his body—in his case, his mouth.

Legends are developed also from fanciful interpretations of scriptural verses. Thus, Adam is said to have fallen only a few hours after his creation, because the Hebrew text of Psalms 49:12 can be literally rendered “Adam does not last the night in glory.” Lamech slays the wandering Cain—a fanciful interpretation of his boast in Genesis 4:23–24. Melchizedek is immortal, in view of Psalms 110:4: “You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” And the first man is a hermaphrodite (this notion has analogues elsewhere), because Genesis 1:27 says of God’s creation, “Male and female he created them.”

Fables and animal stories

Midrash also uses fables paralleled in non-Jewish sources. Aesop’s fable of The Lion and the Crane is quoted by a rabbi of the 1st century CE, and the tales of The Fox in the Vineyard and of The Camel Who Got Slit Ears for Wanting Horns likewise make their appearance. Material is also drawn from medieval bestiaries (manuals on animals, real or imaginary, with symbolic or moralistic interpretations). Bears, according to the bestiaries, lack mother’s milk; hares and hyenas can change sex; only one pair of unicorns exists at a time; and there is a gigantic bird (ziz) that reaches from earth to sky.

Contribution of Haggada to Christian and Islamic legends

Several of the stories related in Haggadic literature were later adapted by Christian writers. The legend that Adam was created out of virgin soil was taken to prefigure the virgin birth of the second Adam (i.e., Jesus); while the story that the soil in question was taken from the site of the future Temple was transformed into the claim that Adam had been molded out of the dust of Calvary. Similarly, the legend that, at the dedication of the Temple, the doors swung open automatically to admit the Ark of the Covenant was transferred to the consecration of a church by St. Basil (329–379); and the Talmudic tale that the bronze Nicanor gates of the Temple had floated to Jerusalem when cast overboard during their shipment from Alexandria was applied to the doors of a sacred edifice erected in honour of St. Giles (fl. 7th century).

Nor was it only the Christians who absorbed Haggadic legends. The Qurʾān, the sacred book of Islam, likewise incorporates a good deal of such material in its treatment of biblical characters such as Joseph, Moses, David, and Solomon.

Myth and legend in the medieval period

Jewish contributions to diffusion of folktales

The Middle Ages was a singularly productive period in the history of Jewish myth and legend. Medieval Jews played a prominent role in the transmission of Middle Eastern and Asian tales to the West and enhanced their own repertoire with a goodly amount of secular material. Especially in Spain and Italy, Arabic versions of standard collections of folktales were translated into Hebrew and then into Latin, thus enabling the stories to spread to the Christian world. The Indian collection of animal tales known as The Fables of Bidpai (Sanskrit: Panca-tantra), for example, was rendered into Hebrew from the 8th-century Arabic version of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muqaffaʿ; and, in the 12th century, John of Capua’s Directorium humanae vitae (“Guide for Human Life”), one of the most celebrated repositories of moralistic tales (exempla) used by Christian preachers, was developed from this Hebrew translation. So too the famous Senbād-nāmeh (“Fables of Sinbad”)—one of the sources, incidentally, of Boccaccio’s Decameron—was rendered from Arabic into Hebrew and then into Latin. The renowned romance of Barlaam and Josaphat—a Christian adaptation of tales about the Buddha—found its Jewish counterpart in a compilation titled The Prince and the Dervish, adapted from an Arabic text by Abraham ben Samuel ibn Ḥisdai, a leader of Spanish Jewry in the 13th century.

Hebrew versions of medieval romances

Hebrew translations were also made from Latin and other European languages. There are several Hebrew adaptations of the Alexander Romance, based mainly (though not exclusively) on a Latin rendering of the Greek original by Callisthenes (c. 360–327 BCE). The central theme is the exploits of Alexander the Great, and the narrative includes fanciful accounts of his adventures in foreign lands and of the outlandish peoples he encounters. There is a Hebrew reworking of the Arthurian legend, in the form of a secular sermon in which Arthurian and biblical scenes are blithely mixed together. Finally, there is a Hebrew Ysopet (the common title for a medieval version of Aesop) that shares several of its fables with the famous collection made by Marie de France in the late 12th century.

Jewish contributions to Christian and Islamic tales

Apart from these Hebrew translations of Arabic and European works, a good deal of earlier Haggadic material is embodied in the Disciplina clericalis of Peter Alfonsi (died after 1122), a baptized Jew of Aragon originally known as Moses Sephardi. This book is the oldest European collection of novellas; it served as a primary source for the celebrated Gesta Romanorum (“Deeds of the Romans”) of the same period—itself a major source for European storytellers, poets, and dramatists for many centuries.

Haggadic material was also absorbed by Arabic writers during this period. Not only does the Qurʾān incorporate such material, but the Egyptian recension of The Thousand and One Nights seems to have drawn extensively on Jewish sources. Its tales of The Sultan and His Three Sons, The Angel of Death, Alexander and the Pious Man, and the legend of Baliqiyah most likely come from a Jewish source.

Major medieval Hebrew collections

From the 11th to the 13th century, comprehensive collections of tales and fables were compiled in Europe, both for entertainment and edification; standard examples are the Spanish El novellino and the aforementioned Disciplina clericalis and Gesta Romanorum. Jews, especially in Morocco and in Islamic Spain, produced similar collections. Two of the most important were The Book of Comfort by Nissim ben Jacob ben Nissim of Al-Qayrawān (11th century) and The Book of Delight by Joseph ben Meir ibn Zabara of Spain (end of the 12th century). The former, composed in Judeo-Arabic, is a collection of some 60 moralizing tales designed to comfort the author’s father-in-law on the loss of a son. Belonging to a well-known genre of Arabic literature and derived mainly from Arabic sources, it is permeated by a preoccupation with divine justice, which was typical of the Muʿtazilite school of Islamic theology. It was later translated into Hebrew. The Book of Delight consists of 15 tales, largely about the wiles of women, exchanged between two travelling companions—a form of cadre, or “enclosing tale,” later adopted on a more extensive scale in the 14th century in the Canterbury Tales by Chaucer (c. 1342–1400). Typical is the tale of The Silversmith and His Wife, which relates how a craftsman, persuaded by his greedy wife to make a statue of a princess, gets his hands cut off by the king for violating the Islamic law against making images, while his wife reaps rich rewards from the flattered princess. Although most of the stories are taken from Arabic sources, some have parallels in rabbinic literature—including the famous tale of the matron of Ephesus, who, while keeping vigil over her husband’s tomb, makes love with a guard posted nearby to watch over the corpses of certain crucified robbers. When, during one of their trysts, one of the corpses is stolen and her lover therefore faces punishment, the shrewd woman exhumes the body of her husband and substitutes it. This tale is found already in the Satyricon of Petronius (died 66 CE) and was later used by Voltaire (1694–1778) in his Zadig and by the 20th-century English playwright Christopher Fry in his A Phoenix Too Frequent.

Of the same genre but deriving mainly from west European rather than Arabic sources are the Mishle shuʿalim (“Fox Fables”) of Berechiah ha-Nakdan (“the Punctuator”), who may have lived in England near the end of the 12th century. About half of these tales recur in Marie de France’s Ysopet, and only one of them is of specifically Jewish origin. Berechiah’s work was translated into Latin and thereafter became a favorite of European storytellers.

Among anonymous compendiums of this type is The Alphabet of Ben Sira, extant in two recensions, probably of the 11th century. This is basically a collection of proverbs attributed to the famous sage of the apocryphal book Ecclesiasticus (Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach). In one of the recensions the proverbs are illustrated by appropriate tales. The author is represented as an infant prodigy who performs much the same feats of sapience as are attributed to Jesus in some of the Infancy Gospels.

Medieval legendary histories and Haggadic compendiums

Two other developments mark the history of Jewish myth and legend during the Middle Ages. The first was a revival of the Hellenistic predilection for large-scale compendiums in which the history of the Jews was “integrated,” in legendary fashion, with that of the world in general and especially with Classical traditions. Two major works of this kind, both composed (apparently) in Italy during the 9th century, are Josippon, by a certain Ben Gorion, which presents a fanciful record from the Creation onward and contains numerous references to foreign nations; and the Book of Jashar, a colourful account from Adam to Joshua, named for the ancient book of heroic songs and sagas mentioned in the Bible (Joshua 10:13; 2 Samuel 1:18). There is also the voluminous Chronicles of Jerahmeel, written in the Rhineland in the 14th century, which draws largely on Pseudo-Philo’s earlier compilation and includes Hebrew and Aramaic versions of certain books of the Apocrypha.

The other development was the gathering of Haggadic legends and tales into comprehensive, systematic compendiums. Works of this kind are Yalquṭ Shimʿoni (“The Collection of Simeon”), attributed to Rabbi Simeon of Frankfurt am Main; Midrash ha-gadol (“The Great Midrash”), composed after the death in 1204 of Moses Maimonides, whom it quotes; and the Midrash of David ha-Nagid, named after the grandson of Maimonides. About 100 years later a similar work on the Prophets and holy writings, Yalquṭ ha-Makiri (“The Collection of Makhir”), was compiled by Makhir ben Abba Mari in Spain. It has been suggested that the production of such works was spurred by the necessity of providing “ammunition” for the public disputations with Christian ecclesiastics that the church forced upon Jewish scholars during this period.

Myth and legend in the modern period

Kabbalistic tales

In the 16th century, Jewish myth and legend took several new directions. The disappointment of messianic expectations through the dismal eclipse of the pretender Shabbetai Tzevi increased interest in occult speculation and in the mystical lore of the Kabbala. Important schools of Kabbala arose in Italy and at Safed, in Palestine, and tales of the miraculous Faust-like powers of masters such as Isaac Luria (1534–72) and Ḥayyim ben Joseph Vital (also known as Ḥayyim Vital Calabrese) circulated freely after their deaths.

Another reaction to the dashing of messianic hopes is represented by the beautiful story of the Kabbalist Joseph della Reyna and his five disciples, who travel through the world to oust Satan and prepare the way for the Deliverer. Warned by the spirits of such worthies as Rabbi Simeon ben Yoḥai and the prophet Elijah, they nevertheless procure their blessing and are sent on to the angel Metatron. The latter furnishes them with protective spells and spices and advises Joseph to inscribe the ineffable name of God on a metal plate. When, however, they reach the end of their journey, Satan and his wife, Lilith, attack them in the form of huge dogs. When the dogs are subdued, they beg for food, and Joseph gives them spices to revive them. At once they summon a host of devils, which causes two of the disciples to die of terror and two to go mad, leaving only Joseph and a disciple. The messiah weeps in heaven, and Elijah hides the great horn of salvation. A voice rings out telling Joseph that it is vain to attempt to hasten the footsteps of the Redeemer.

The repertoire of Jewish tales and legends was seasoned by other elements. During the 16th century—the age of the great European navigators—stories began to circulate about the discovery of the Ten Lost Tribes in remote parts of the world.

Judeo-German (Yiddish) tales

In the 16th century, Judeo-German (Yiddish) came to replace Hebrew as the language of Jewish tales and legends in Europe, primarily because of the desire to render them accessible to women unschooled in the sacred tongue. The synagogal lessons from Scripture were embellished in Yiddish in the so-called Taitsh Humesh (“Yiddish Pentateuch”), in the more fancifully titled Tzeʾena u-reʾena (“Go Forth and See”; compare Song of Solomon 3:11), and in adaptations of the story of Esther designed for dramatic presentation on the feast of Purim. The Hebrew Chronicles of Josippon also assumed Yiddish dress. More-secular productions include a verse rendition of the Arthurian legend, titled Artus Hof (“The Court of King Arthur”) and based largely on Gravenberg’s medieval Wigalois, and the Bove Buch by Elijah Levita (1469–1549), which retold the romance of Sir Bevis of Southampton.

These “frivolous” productions were offset by collections of moral and ethical tales. The main examples of these are the Brantspiegel (1572; “Brant Mirro”), attributed to Moses Henoch, and the Maʿaseh Buch (1672; “Story Book”), a compendium of 254 tales compiled by Jacob ben Abraham of Meseritz and first published at Basel. The latter, drawn mainly from the Talmud, was supplemented by later legends about medieval rabbis. Jewish legends also circulated in the form of chapbooks, a large selection of which is preserved in the library of the Yiddish Scientific Institute in New York City.

Judeo-Persian and Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) tales

A similar development, though on a lesser scale, took place among Jews who spoke other vernacular dialects. Major monuments of Judeo-Persian literature are poetic embellishments of biblical narratives composed by Shāhīn of Shīrāz in the 14th century and by Joseph ben Isaac Yahudi (i.e., “the Jew”) some 300 years later. These, however, are exercises in virtuosity rather than in creative storytelling. Versified elaborations of the story of Joseph appear in Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) in Coplas de Yoçef (“Song of Joseph”), composed in 1732 by Abraham de Toledo and embodying a certain amount of traditional Haggadic material. From a revival of literary activity in the 18th century comes a comprehensive “legendary Bible” called Me-ʿam LoʿḥḲ ą, “From a People of Strange Tongue” (compare Psalms 114:1), begun by Jacob Culi (died 1732) and continued by later writers, as well as several renderings of standard Hebrew collections and a number of Purim plays. Judeo-Spanish folktales were still current in Macedonia and Yugoslavia until the Nazi occupation of the early 1940s, but these stories drew more from Balkan than from Jewish sources.

Hasidic tales

The rise of the Hasidic sect in eastern Europe at the end of the 18th century engendered a host of legends (circulated mainly through chapbooks) concerning the lives, wise sayings, and miracles of tzaddiqim, or masters, such as Israel ben Eliezer, “the Besht” (1700–60), and Dov Baer of Meseritz (died 1772). These tales, however, are anecdotes rather than formally structured stories and often borrow from non-Jewish sources.

Droll stories

To the popular creativity of the ghetto belong also the droll tales of the Wise Men of Chełm (in Poland)—Jewish counterparts of the German noodles (“stupid people”; hence “noodle stories”) of Schildburg and of the more familiar Wise Men of Gotham (in England). These too were circulated mainly in Yiddish popular prints. A typical story is that of the two “sages” who went for a walk, one with an umbrella and the other without one. Suddenly it began to rain. “Open your umbrella,” said the one without one. “It won’t help,” answered the other, “it’s full of holes.” “Then why did you bring it?” rejoined his friend. “I didn’t think it would rain,” was the reply.

Modern Israeli folktales

The gathering of Jews from many lands into the State of Israel has made that country a treasure trove for the student of Jewish folktales. Assiduous work was undertaken by Dov Noy of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, aided by enthusiastic amateurs throughout the country. Mainly, however, the stories are retellings of traditional material.

Theodor H. Gaster

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