David Starr-Glass - Judaism--Simple Guides

Published in Great Britain by
Simple Guides, an imprint of Bravo Ltd
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First published 1997 by Global Books Ltd.
This edition published 2009

Copyright 2008 Bravo Ltd.

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eISBN: 978-1-85733-638-2

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Cover image: Menorah. Illumination from The Duke of Sussexs
fourteenth-century Catalan Bible. British Library
Images on Jacob Rask,
and Benjamin Chesler
Drawings by Irene Sanderson

v3.1

The Torah begins with the second letter of the alphabet, and each tractate of the Talmud begins with page two, to suggest that the human mind cannot comprehend the perfect unity [the alef; the one] which preceded Gods revelation of His being.

RABBINICAL SAYING

There was a time when if we wanted to know something about another culture we went to a museum. We would look at objects masks, pots, baskets, weapons, ritual articles, clothes and tried to imagine who had made these things and why. And, of course, we remained essentially isolated and unconnected to the vibrancy which had created these artifacts. Today, we recognize that to appreciate a culture other than our own is to make a conscious voyage of discovery: it is to attempt to understand the patterns which shape the lives and actions of those who are not us; an attempt to remain open to newness and to take intellectual risks.

Many consider that in trying to appreciate another culture it is helpful if someone within the culture attempts to guide those on its outside. Rather than look at display cases of glass, the person exploring the new culture is encouraged to walk beyond the glass and make contact with the guide on the other side. In this Simple Guide to Judaism I have tried to present this opportunity to you. The pages that follow are not intended to provide an objective study of texts and artifacts, but rather a subjective exploration of the things which make me a Jew. I hope that through this shared exploration you will come to a shared appreciation of the Jewish world as I perceive it.

A scribe writing on the parchment scroll of a Sefer Torah

Hebrew words have been transliterated into vowels and consonants which have their standard English pronunciation. While Hebrew has acquired different regional pronunciations (particularly noticeable between the Ashkenazim and Sephardim), modern Hebrew has been used (which incidentally coincides with Sephardic pronunciation). Note that the letters ch are pronounced as in the Scottish loch. In modern Hebrew the last syllable is normally stressed.

I have used the English word God when referring to the Creator, despite that fact that this word has acquired many connotations in English which do not necessarily match the Hebrew. By the way, in Hebrew God is a masculine noun and I have therefore used He and His: this should be interpreted neither as an anthropomorphism nor as gender-biased language.

Many people have helped me assemble this short guide. The gratitude which I owe to my master and teacher Rabbi Boruch Epstein, of blessed memory, is impossible to quantify. His presence is as direct now as it was when I first met him a quarter of a century ago. I thank my friends and colleagues Rabbi Nosson Geisler and Rabbi Dr Menachem Gordon, who reviewed sections of this text. Their advice was invaluable, and any errors which remain, or any imperfections in implementing their suggestions, are mine alone.

I also thank my editor and publisher Paul Norbury for his editorial skill, enthusiasm and decisiveness in this project. Nina, my wife, and our children have provided encouragement and suggestions for which I am most grateful. Finally, I would like to thank you, the reader: without you I could not have written and without you I could not serve as a guide.

DAVID STARR-GLASS
Jerusalem

Who are Jews? What is Judaism? These questions are entwined, and in that intertwining there is a great deal of latitude for confusion. In a more perfect world a Jew should be one who believes and practises the tenets of Judaism: there should be an alignment between the who and the what. However, in a less than perfect world, there is an inevitable slippage between ethnic identity and religious conviction. This slippage can make it very difficult for the non-Jewish observer to understand the essential aspects of both being a Jew and practising Judaism.

Let us begin with a more general question. If Jews are part of humanity, and if Judaism is part of a mosaic of world religions, what (from a Jewish perspective) is the purpose of humanity at large of Creation?

The traditional Jewish understanding of the Creation is that God brought the universe into existence and created primordial Man (Adam) and Woman (Eve, or Chava). His creation was aware of Him and had the ability to relate to Him. However, they were also conscious of their own, not necessarily congruent, desires and agendas: they were created with free will. God desired a symmetry of love and responsibility but His children could not enter into this relationship and became alienated from Him. Later, the progeny of Adam and Eve humanity as a whole grew more distanced from their source of being. Increasingly, they saw a fragmented world with separated powers and forces. They lost a sensitivity for the oneness of their Creator and for their unity within Him.

The Star of David two triangles symbolizing the balance of the universe, found on medieval Kabbalistic amulets

Jewish tradition accepts that Abraham (Avraham), the son of an idol-maker, saw the transcending unity of God in spite of the idolatry that surrounded him in his native Charan, a city in northern Mesopotamia, in what is now southeast Turkey near the border with Syria. This happened about three-and-a-half thousand years ago. Abraham and his wife, Sarah, set out first to explore, then to proclaim, a religion of unity. Abraham practised many of the precepts of what was to become Judaism, and while God did enter into an enduring Covenant with him and his descendants there was, as yet, no distinct Jewish nation. For instance, the descendants of Abrahams son, Ishamael, were later to form the Semitic (but non-Jewish) tribes that would later proclaim a different approach to monotheism: Islam.