Essential Judaism: A Complete Guide to Beliefs, Customs & Rituals - Hardcover

Robinson, George

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671034804 ISBN 13: 9780671034801

Publisher: Atria, 2000

Synopsis

A practical guide to Jewish practice and ritual written by an award-winning Jewish journalist offers advice on beliefs, customs, synagogue services, prayer, holidays, weddings, circumcisions, dietary laws, Midrash, and much more.

About this title

About the Author

George Robinson is recipient of a Simon Rockower Award for excellence in Jewish journalism from the American Jewish Press Association. His writing appears frequently in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Newsday, as well as Jewish Week and the Detroit Jewish News. Mr. Robinson is a trustee and former president of Beth Am, the People's Temple, a Reform synagogue in New York City. He lives in Washington Heights with his wife, a journalist.

Reviews

Ten years ago, Robinson entered a Reform synagogue for the first time since adolescence. He became an active congregant, but he discovered in his reincorporation of certain rituals and practices that he "was often baffled" by what occurred in the synagogue. This expansive tome attempts to provide the essentials of Judaism for novices, outsiders and those who, like Robinson, rediscovered their heritage as adults. It's an excellent introductory resource, vast but accessibly organized. Robinson first covers the most ritually significant Jewish prayers and walks the reader through a typical Shabbat service. He presents the basic facts about holidays and the Jewish calendar, then explores Jewish life-cycle rituals from bris to burial and includes a catch-all chapter on other practices such as Kashrut. By beginning with Jewish practice, rather than history or law, Robinson centers the core of Judaism in everyday life. The book's second half is a whirlwind tour of Torah and Talmud, Kabbalah and Jewish philosophers, with a key explanatory chapter on historical developments such as Hasidism and Zionism. Notably absent is the history of the Holocaust and the founding of Israel; Robinson notes that the Judaica sections of most bookstores already overflow with such historical information, and he explores instead the scope of Jews' reactions to those events. This is a valuable, sensitive one-volume guide to Jewish practice. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Frustrated by his inability to find a one-volume reference giving reliable information on Jewish laws, prayers, holidays, rituals, life-cycle events, scripture, rabbinic commentary, mysticism, philosophy (buoyantly introduced here with the heading Rabbis Versus Philosophers), and recent history, veteran Kirkus reviewer Robinson has produced his own omnium-gatherum (or whatever the equivalent Hebrew term is) of all things Jewish. The tone throughout is forthright, with just enough humor to keep you browsing after youve found the answer you were looking for. Its in the nature of the enterprise that a great deal of the material in this formidably comprehensive work is available elsewhere, but even readers who think their library of Judaica is complete may be surprised and enlightened by the sidebars on gay and lesbian synagogues, the question of proselytizing, and opponents of the religious laws of halakhah, from the Sadducees to the contemporary Reconstructionist movementnot to mention the appendix (one of five) on kashruth, which ends by reminding travelers who plan to reheat kosher TV dinners in nonkosher ovens to cover them completely first with two layers of aluminum foil. An authorial feat thats a readers feast. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Written by an informed layperson for a popular audience, this book can be understood and appreciated by Jew and non-Jew alike. Robinson, a former syndicated columnist, writes as a committed Reform Jew attempting to fairly present the viewpoints of the various modern Jewish movements (Conservative, Reconstructionist, Orthodox). The book is divided into nine chapters that focus on such issues as prayer and ritual, festivals, the life cycle, the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, and Jewish mysticism. The appendix contains some key documents, a time line of major events, and a discussion of what is kosher. There is also a helpful glossary of Jewish terms. The book is extremely readable with a clean layout and highlighted sidebars. The best introduction to Judaism remains Milton Steinberg's concise Basic Judaism (1947), but this book is a welcome addition to the subject. Highly recommended for most libraries.
-Paul M. Kaplan, Lake Villa Dist. Lib., IL
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Robinson covers every aspect of Judaism in this comprehensive and informative guide. He begins with a chapter on prayer and ritual: blessings; daily, Sabbath, and festival services; and the role of rabbis. He follows with a chapter on the Jewish holidays--how and when to celebrate them. A chapter on the Jewish life cycle explores everything from a baby-naming ceremony to engagement and marriage, divorce, illness, aging, death, and mourning. Robinson also provides detailed information on the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, Midrash, and Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism). He discusses 11 philosophers in depth--Philo, Maimonides, Spinoza, Mendelssohn, Buber, and Heschel, among them. Zionism, anti-Semitism, feminism in Jewish theology, enlightenment and emancipation, and assimilation are also discussed. Almost 3,000 years of Jewish history, thought, and culture are brought to life in this extraordinary work. George Cohen

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1: Service of the Heart: Prayer and Ritual

The Jewish Idea of Prayer

In the beginning, the Jews were a tribe, a band of nomads, probably shepherds. Had they remained merely shepherds, they would have eventually died out, one of many tiny "nations" to be found in the ancient Near East, forgotten by all but the archaeologists.

But the Jews became something more. They were the bearers of a radical new concept, ethical monotheism, and that concept became the basis for a new kind of religion, Judaism. The latter was a religion marked by a new relationship between people and Deity.

Some would say that it was the idea of ethical monotheism that allowed the Jewish people to survive long after more powerful empires had vanished. Perhaps.

Contemporary scholars suggest that -- at least at the start -- the Hebrews believed in their own god, acknowledging the existence of other people's gods, but they also believed that their god could beat up everyone else's gods. Scripture tends to confirm that view; in Exodus 12:12, Adonai tells Moses, "[A]gainst all the gods of Egypt I will exercise judgments."

Eventually that notion evolved into something quite different, indeed, different from any previous idea of a Supreme Being.

This much seems clear: the idea of a single, omnipotent, omniscient God is a Jewish invention, one that has changed the course of Western (and, therefore, world) history. Let's begin with that concept and the ways in which it marks the Jewish religion. The Jewish idea of the relationship between God and humanity is perhaps nowhere clearer than in Jewish prayer, so it is there that we turn.

In other early belief systems, the ones that we casually denote as "pagan," divine creatures predate the creation of the world and humanity; but these belief systems have creation myths that usually involve the creation of the gods themselves. The opening words of the Hebrew Bible -- Bereshit bara elohim.../In the beginning God created... -- offer a very different vision. God is a given, a Being who creates out of tohu v'bohu/the unformed and the void, chaos and nothingness, a Being who preexists Creation, who was, is, and always will be.

The traditional Jewish liturgy underlines that belief explicitly. Adon Olam, the poetic hymn that is part of the morning service and which observant Jews recite every night before sleep, opens with the words, Adon olam asher malakh beterem kol yitzer nivrah/Eternal Ruler who reigned before any creature had been created. A few lines later, God is described as ruling "after all is ended," an eternal verity.

At the heart of Jewish prayer is the idea that God listens to prayer, that prayer is part of a dialogue between man and Creator. This idea has its roots in the Hebrew Bible itself, implicit in the statement that man was created b'tzelem Elohim/in the image of God. Throughout the Bible, God engages in dialogue with the Forefathers and Foremothers, with the Prophets. The Forefathers and Foremothers of the Hebrew people beseech, praise, offer thanks to the Eternal. They even argue with God; Abraham negotiates over the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, finally convincing God to spare the two cities if a mere ten righteous men can be found (Genesis 18).

The incredible variety of prayers in the Jewish liturgy suggests the multiplicitous nature of the relationship between God and humanity. In the course of a single service we may encounter God the Creator, the Redeemer, the Father, the Judge, Rock of Israel, Shield of Abraham, and many others. Each of these personifications of God implies a different relationship between the Deity and the person praying.

The Names of God

In his revision of Frazer's The Golden Bough, Theodor Gaster notes, "In primitive thought, the name of a person is not merely an appelation, but denotes what he is to the world outside of himself ? that is, his "outer" as distinguished from his inner being. Thus, the ?name of God' in the Bible is His outward manifestation in the world...." Not surprisingly, given the plethora of divine attributes, God has many Names in the Hebrew Bible and in Jewish liturgy, and those Names are multiplied by the inexactitude of the translator's art.

The Holy One tells Moses, "I revealed Myself to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as El Shaddai, but My Name Adonai I did not make known to them (Exodus 6:3)." In the Bible and the Talmud, God has many more Names: El/The Strong One, El Shaddai/God Almighty, El Olom/God Everlasting, El Khai/The Living God, El Elyon/God Most High, Elohim/God, Adon/Lord, Adonai/Lord, Adonay Tzivaot/Lord of Hosts, Abir/The Strong, Kedosh Yisroel/Holy One of Israel, Melekh/The Ruler, Tzur Yisroel/Rock of Israel.

For non-Jews, the most familiar Name derived from the Hebrew Bible is probably Jehovah, a mistransliteration of the four-letter Name, Yud-Hay-Vav-Hay, the Tetragrammaton or, in Hebrew, the Shem Hameforash. This Name is actually never vocalized in Hebrew ? it is too sacred, too powerful. Reading the four-letter Name aloud, a Jew will say "Adonai." (As we will see in Chapter 7, the Jewish mystics believed that the Tetragrammaton had unusual significance attached to it.) The Tetragrammaton is frequently shortened to Yah (Yud-Hey), Yahu or Yeho (Yod-Heh-Vav), especially when used in combination within names or phrases, as in Yehoshua (Joshua, meaning "the Lord is my Salvation"), Eliyahu (Elijah, meaning "my God is the Lord"), and Halleluyah ("praise the Lord"). A traditionally observant Jew will not vocalize God's other Names outside the context of prayer. Thus, in an Orthodox prayer book or songbook, one will find Elokeinu for Eloheinu/Our God, Adoshem for Adonai or, most commonly, Hashem/The Name.

Progressive Jews have brought their own set of concerns and strictures to the naming of the Supreme Being. God has no gender in conventional human terms, but gendered God-talk has historically implied a valorization of God's masculine attributes. Reform, Reconstructionist, and some Conservative siddurim will avoid using gendered names for God, discarding Lord or King in favor of Adonai or Ruler.

Many traditionally observant Jews will not write the vernacular equivalent of the sacred names, preferring G-d or L-rd (although other no less traditional Jews deride this practice because these words are English and therefore not true names of God). This practiC.E., however, has different roots from the ban on uttering the Shem Hameforash, the proscribed sacred Name. Contrary to popular belief, this practice does not come from the commandment not to take God's Name in vain. In Jewish thought, that commandment refers solely to oath-taking, and is a prohibition against swearing by God's Name falsely or frivolously (the word normally translated as "in vain" literally means "for falsehood"). Incidentally, this is why observant Jews serving on juries or testifying in court will affirm rather than swear.

Judaism does not prohibit writing the Name of God per se. But it does prohibit erasing or defacing a Name of God. Consequently, observant Jews avoid writing any Name of God casually because of the risk that the written Name might later be defaced, obliterated, or destroyed accidentally or by one who does not know better. The commandment not to erase or deface the name of God is derived from Deuteronomy 12:3-4. In verse 3, the people are commanded that when they take over the promised land, they should destroy all things related to the idolatrous religions of that region, and should utterly destroy the names of the local deities. Immediately afterwards in verse 4, we are commanded not to do the same to our God. From this, the rabbis inferred that we are commanded not to destroy any holy thing, and not to erase or

Edition details

• Publisher: Atria
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0671034804
• ISBN 13: 9780671034801
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 672