In fact, monotheism is a relatively recent concept, even amongst the People of the Book. The main source for investigating the history of God is, of course, the Bible itself. When exactly the Jewish holy text reached its final form is unknown. Many scholars believe this happened sometime between the Babylonian exile, which began after the fall of Jerusalem in BCE some years ago , and the subsequent periods of Persian and Hellenistic rule. But I think we can, and we must, use the biblical text not just as fictional texts but as texts that can tell us stories about the origins.
What's in God's name. The first clue that the ancient Israelites worshipped gods other than the deity known as Yhwh lies in their very name. Going by the name, the main god of the ancient Israelites was not Yhwh, but El, the chief deity in the Canaanite pantheon, who was worshipped throughout the Levant.
In fact, it seems that the ancient Israelites weren't even the first to worship Yhwh — they seem to have adopted Him from a mysterious, unknown tribe that lived somewhere in the deserts of the southern Levant and Arabia. The god of the southern deserts. The first mention of the Israelite tribe itself is a victory stele erected around BCE by the pharaoh Mernetpah sometimes called "the Israel stele". These Israelites are described as a people inhabiting Canaan. So how did this group of Canaanite El-worshippers come in contact with the cult of Yhwh?
The Bible is quite explicit about the geographical roots of the Yhwh deity, repeatedly linking his presence to the mountainous wilderness and the deserts of the southern Levant. All these regions and locations can be identified with the territory that ranges from the Sinai and Negev to northern Arabia. In antiquity, the sages and rabbis focused much attention on the nature of the Hebrew covenant with God, which required many things, including animal sacrifice, laws of ritual purity, diet, moral behavior and of course prayers.
Importantly, the ancient sages insisted that because the Jews were chosen for these duties, it do not mean that Jews were morally or spiritually better than non-Jews.
God, they insisted, made all people and it was possible for righteous gentiles to have a place in the world to come. The modern Jewish communities accept this idea as a given. One modern writer from the Chabad community has said that it is because Israel is chosen to be close to God, this must create a sense of humility in the presence of the Holy One. Orthodox Jewish writers in modern times have said that the choice of the Jews was done for a teaching purpose, because the priests and prophets were all teachers, whatever else their duties were.
And so in this sense theJews are messengers of God to teach both Israel and the other nations. Another Orthodox opinion is that God chose Abraham and his descendants but God is not obliged by this fact to explain His motives to anyone. Why God chooses one family and not another is His business, not ours. Do not put your trust in illusions and say, "The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, are these [buildings].
No, if you really mend your ways and your actions; if you execute justice between one man and another; if you do not oppress the strangers, the orphan, and the widow; if you do not shed the blood of the innocent Will you steal and murder and commit adultery and swear falsely and sacrifice to Baal and follow other gods Is the election eternal and irrevocable regardless of Israel's behavior?
Biblical authors seem to suggest ominously that Israel's sinful ways will lead to horrible consequences and even an annulment of the covenant with God and Divine rejection. Rabbinic theology was built on the Biblical foundations of chosen people and preserved and expanded on the ambivalent themes already propounded by the Bible, giving wide latitude to the richly fertile rabbinic imagination.
Max Kadushin maintained that since there is no noun form in rabbinic Hebrew for chosen people, it is merely an auxiliary of basic value-concepts such as Torah or Israel. Professor E. Urbach, however, demurred rejecting Kadushin's view that the only crystallized rabbinic value-concept is one formulated as a separate, identifiable noun.
Irrespective of this controversy, chosen people is a lively theme discussed and debated by the sages and enriched with all of the hues and polarities so typical of rabbinic theology.
For example, the sages sharply debated whether God compelled Israel to accept the Torah and become the elect of the Lord or whether Israel elected God. One famous legend describes God suspending Mt. Sinai over Israel, threatening them with instant destruction if they reject the Torah and even going so far as to admonish that the world will return to primordial tohu vabohu if Israel spurned God's proposal.
More popular is the charming idea that God went about peddling the Torah among the various nations of antiquity only to be spurned and rebuffed. In a word, He found no takers until Israel declared, "We will do whatever we are commanded! The nations of the world were asked to receive the Torah in order not to give them an excuse for saying, "Had we been asked we might have accepted it God revealed Himself to the children of Esau the wicked and said to them, "Will you receive the Torah?
He said, "You shall not steal. Why is Israel called God's people? Because of the Torah. Rabbi Jose ben Simon said: "Before you stood at Sinai and accepted My Torah you were called 'Israel' as all the other nations are called by specific names Israel Zangwill put it aptly: "It is not so much a matter of the chosen people as the choosing people.
Is chosenness forever and irrevocable? Or is it contingent upon Israel's behavior? If you conduct yourselves as children then you will always be His children. If not, you are no longer His children. But Rabbi Meir demurred, insisting, whether you behave as His children or not "You are children of the Lord. Elsewhere, Rabbi Meir stressed that "even though you are full of blemishes, you are God's children. Why did God single out Israel?
Were there no special reasons for Israel's election? Or does Israel possess unique traits that make it worthy of the honor? In the view of some, Israel was chosen by God out of unmerited, unrequited love. As Rabbi Akibah put it:. Beloved are Israel for they are called children of the All-present, as it is said, "You are children unto the Lord your God" Deuteronomy Beloved are Israel, for unto them was given the desirable instrument [i. But others viewed the election to be based either on Israel's special virtues and merits or else Israel's peculiar perversities and shortcomings.
The election has a purpose to it, even as the Bible had indicated. Just as He is compassionate and merciful, so shall you be. But the election entails suffering, observed the sages, even as Deutero-Isaiah had predicted in his remarkable prophecies on the Suffering Servant of the Lord:.
Three good gifts were bestowed on Israel and all three were given via suffering. The three are Torah, the Land of Israel and the life to come. Does the election of Israel imply rejection of other nations? Not all all: God is both the sovereign of Israel as well as all the other peoples on earth, but He has "attached His name to Israel in a special and unique way. Clearly as the new Christian church gained ascendancy, chosenness became a polemical issue and assumed an even greater role in Jewish thought and ideology.
As Professor Salo W. Baron wrote, Jews "had to deal with an internal enemy who, even after the separation, appropriated the entire realm of Jewish history as its own and increasingly denied it to the Jewish people itself. The new Israel had superseded the old; God had replaced the Old Testament with the New, the chosen people with the Church.
In George Foot Moore's words, "For this national election Paul and the church substituted an individual election to eternal life, without regard to race or station. A heretic said to Rabbi Hanina: "Now that your Temple is destroyed and you cannot cleanse yourselves from your uncleanness, you are defiled and God no longer dwells among you. Thus, the new challenge of Christianity elevated the concept of election of Israel to a higher rung than before.
Liturgy represent crystallized, normative Judaism. The prayers reflect the consensus of opinions of the sages and the emphatic trends of rabbinic Judaism. Consequently, Judaism met the challenge of the "New Israel" that sought to supplant the old as well as the tragedy of the Roman wars by emphasizing the motif of behirah , election, in numerous prayers.
For You chose us and sanctified us from all the nations, and your holy Sabbath You bestowed upon us willingly and lovingly. Praised be You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who chose us from all the nations, and elevated our language above all others and sanctified us with His commandments and gave us this Festival Likewise, the Amidah, the silent devotion, recited on the Sabbath, reemphasizes the notion:.
You did not give the Sabbath to other nations of the earth. But to Israel, Your people, You have given it in. Praised are You. Sources : Joseph Telushkin. Jewish Literacy. NY: William Morrow and Co. All Rights Reserved. Guttman, Philosophies, ff. Kohler, Jewish Theology ; W. Kaplan, Judaism as a Civilization , 2 , index. Download our mobile app for on-the-go access to the Jewish Virtual Library. Category » Judaism. Holy Scriptures. Table of Contents. Torah - The Written Law.
Reading the Torah. How to Study Torah. The Oral Law. The Talmud. Are Jews a Nation or Religion? Issues in Jewish Ethics.
Jewish Philosophy. Judaism and the Environment.
0コメント