On Tuesday we had our first day of Jewish History class, and despite some lingering jet lag I thought it went great. Check out what a delightful group of students I have this semester!
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| My Spring 2015 Jewish History class, called Kitat Ez |
The main question we asked today is a seemingly obvious one; "What is Jewish History?" The "history" part, which we'll examine a bit more in depth tomorrow can be thought of as "the events that happened in the past". While hardly an in depth explanation, it's at least a meaningful approximation. The other part of the phrase, "Jewish," is significantly more complicated. To try and get a better understanding, or at least a usable definition we did some word association, in which the students shouted out anything that came to mind when they hear the word "Jewish". Here's what they came up with (click on the image to enlarge):
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| The things that come to mind when students hear the word "Jewish" |
As you can see their responses really reflect the broadness of Judaism (my own personal favorite is "guilt"). After this brainstorming the students tried to organize this mess by putting these thoughts into categories. As you can imagine, they came up with many interesting ways to categorize the terms. At the end of class I explained that one common way to think of traditional Jewish identity is through a triangle of three ideas: Am Yisrael (literally the people of Israel, meaning the culture and customs such as Jewish foods, languages, humor, etc.), Torat Yisrael (literally the five books of Moses, but here more generally including all of the religious aspects such as prayer and study) and Eretz Yisrael (the land of Israel).
Clearly virtually no aspect of Judaism fits neatly into one category. Pesach (Passover), for example, definitely has religious meaning, and we're celebrating an event (the exodus from Egypt) that's mentioned in the Tanakh (Jewish Bible), but many non-religious Jews still sit down for Seder. And while my mother's matzoh ball soup is certainly delicious enough that it may well qualify as a religious experience, I think it probably makes more sense to think of it as cultural (or Am Yisrael) rather than religious (Toraht Yisrael). Similarly, the blessings we say over the candles, wine and bread are religious, but the reason we bless those specific items is because olives (from which olive oil lamps were made), grapes (wine) and wheat (bread) were the main agricultural products of ancient Israel, so the blessings are related to Eretz Yisrael as well. And how about the family that says the blessings for traditional or familial reasons? Should this act then be viewed culturally, rather than religiously? This view of Jewish identity raises many questions. Do you think in modern day America Judaism has cultural aspects? Are they more or less important than the religious aspects? Do you think Jews living in Israel would feel differently?
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ReplyDeleteThe discussion about what "jewish" means was such an interesting way to start our journey, for it is so important to identify the components that make up this broad term as we begin to study, travel, and live here. I am so excited to discover personal meaning of Am Yisrael, Torat Yisrael, and Eretz Yisrael. In response to your question raised about cultural aspects of judaism, I think that culture is a big part of modern day judaism and in my opinion, more important than the religious aspect because every jew can connect to our cultural, whereas levels of religiousness (if that is a word?) can vary. Culture therefore is a more universal aspect of judaism that unites jews.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I believe that modern day American Judaism has many cultural aspects. The culture of Judaism is cultivated from the people and the traditions. Even if modern Judaism in America is not as traditional as it is in Israel, the two countries still share many of the same traditions. Obviously, Judaism is more conservative and traditional in Israel. This is because the people are living the culture, and creating it day by day. Although those Jews living in Israel may beg to differ, I don't think that either religious or cultural aspects are more important than one another. A combination of the two is what makes up the beautiful religion that we call Judaism today.
ReplyDeleteI definitely believe in modern America there are cultural components to Judaism. Personally, the culture is more important to me than the religious portion. The communities I have been involved with including Camp Newman, NFTY SoCal, and now EIE Spring '15 have shaped my Jewish identity, and are even more vital to me than the religious parts.
ReplyDeleteI believe that modern day American Judaism, especially the reform chapter, is largely influenced by the cultural aspect of Judaism. As reformed Jews, we are given the ability to pick and choose which parts of Judaism we want to focus on. I think that reformed Jews especially take pride in the ability to celebrate the culture and embrace the traditions of our ancestors, but that can sometimes lead to us not placing a high importance on the religious aspect of Judaism, or what the Ultra-Orthodox would consider religious.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely agree with Marisa and Lauren in that there are cultural aspects in Modern American Judaism. For me my connection to Judaism is based on my connection with all the people I have met through being Jewish. As I said in my blog for me the most important part is the Kahilah Kadosha, the holy community that I have gotten from Judaism. Specifically Camp Newman. So I would say that the cultural aspect is more important to me than the religious one. In Israel I would think that the more religious Jews would disagree with me and say that the most important thing is connecting to God. But I would think that the secular Jews in Israel could see where I'm coming from.
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