The Way of Torah An Introduction to Judaism

by Neusner, Jacob

• ISBN13: 9780534516031
• ISBN10: 0534516033
• Edition: 7th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-17
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing

Summary

This classic text from one of the leading Judaic scholars today, THE WAY OF THE TORAH introduces students to Judaism via a three-pronged examination of its history, its scriptures, and its practices. Neusner first defines Judaism across time, showing its changes and development. He then introduces students to the classic texts of Judaism, the Hebrew Bible, and beyond. Finally, the Torah and Judaism are presented in their living contexts. It is the only interpretive work that addresses Judaism within the context of religious studies in general as opposed to the many other texts that use an historical or scriptural approach exclusively.

Table of Contents

Preface	xiii
Introduction	xix
Table of Dates	xxiii
Acknowledgments	xxix
I Defining Judaism: The Religion and its History	1	(36)
Judaism and the ``Old Testament''	3	(11)
Religion as Story	3	(1)
Judaism and the ``Old Testament''	4	(3)
Adam, Eve, and Eden; Israel and the Land: Scripture's Master Narrative of the Human Condition	7	(3)
From Narrative to Social Norms: How Judaism Links the Commandments to Scripture's Story of Humanity	10	(2)
``This is the Torah that Moses set before the Children of Israel on the Instruction of the Lord---at the hand of Moses''	12	(2)
The History of Judaism	14	(14)
Religion as a Cultural System: Ethos, Ethics, Ethnos	14	(1)
Judaism: The Social Entity, Way of Life, Worldview	15	(1)
The Four Periods in the History of Judaism	16	(8)
Summary: The Five Facts That Define the History of Judaism	24	(4)
Defining Judaism in the Context of Christianity	28	(9)
``To See Ourselves as Others See Us''	28	(1)
The Judaeo--Christian Conflict over Scripture	29	(1)
The Oral Torah and the Challenge of Christianity	29	(1)
A Family Quarrel, An Israelite Civil War	30	(1)
The Pharisees	31	(1)
Priest, Sage, Prophet: Ancient Israel's Heritage in Christian and Judaic Reconstruction	32	(2)
The Parting of the Ways	34	(3)
II Classical Judaism: The Oral Part of the Torah	37	(40)
What Does Judaism Mean by ``Torah''?	39	(9)
``It is a matter of Torah, which I need to learn.''	39	(2)
Torah in the Chain of Tradition from Sinai	41	(1)
What God Reveals, What God Conceals	42	(1)
Meanings of the Word Torah	43	(1)
Seven Meanings of Torah	44	(1)
The Torah's Transformative Power: The Matter of Status	45	(1)
Finding God in the Torah	46	(2)
The Mishnah	48	(11)
The Enigma of the Mishnah	48	(1)
Defining the Mishnah: The First Holy Book, After the Hebrew Scriptures, in Rabbinic Judaism	49	(2)
Describing the Mishnah: Its Contents and Context	51	(3)
The Mishnah's Judaism	54	(2)
Restoration to Paradise: A Steady-State World of Permanence and Order	56	(3)
The Mishnah and the Talmuds	59	(6)
The Talmuds as Commentaries to the Mishnah	59	(2)
The Talmud and the Mishnah as Part of the Oral Torah	61	(2)
Torah in Two Media, Written and Oral	63	(2)
The Midrash	65	(12)
What Is Midrash?	65	(3)
One Example of Midrash: How the Sages of Judaism Read the Book of Genesis as a Parable for Their Own Time	68	(9)
III Classical Judaism: Three Important Doctrines: Ethics, Ethos, and Ethnos	77	(34)
Way of Life: Women	79	(10)
From Document to Doctrine	79	(1)
Women as the Indicator of the Way of Life or Ethos of a Religious System	80	(2)
Proper Conduct with Women	82	(1)
Feminine Israel, Masculine Israel, Androgynous Israel	83	(6)
Worldview: The Messiah Theme	89	(10)
The Advent of the Messiah to the Rabbinic System	89	(1)
The Messiah Theme in the System of the Mishnah	89	(1)
How Israel Could Hasten the Coming of the Messiah	90	(1)
The False Messiah: Bar Kokhba	91	(2)
Messiah in Context: The Christian Challenge	93	(1)
Identifying the Messiah, Hastening His Advent	94	(5)
The Doctrine of ``Israel''	99	(12)
A Religious Structure and Its Comprehensive Metaphor	99	(1)
``Israel'' in the Mishnah's Judaism Without Christianity	99	(2)
``Israel'' in the Two Talmud's Judaism Despite Christianity	101	(1)
The Metaphor of the Family, ``Israel's Children''	102	(4)
Israel as God's People: The Gentiles' Rejection of God	106	(5)
IV Classical Judaism: The Torah's Theology	111	(22)
Hear, O Israel: The Unity of God	113	(7)
Discerning the Theology of Judaism Through the Prayers People Say	113	(1)
The Blessings Before the Declaration of the Faith in the Unity of God: Creation	114	(1)
The Blessings Before the Declaration of the Faith in the Unity of God: Revelation	115	(1)
``Hear O Israel, the Lord Our God, the Lord Is One''	116	(1)
The Blessing After the Declaration of the Faith in the Unity of God: Redemption	117	(1)
Story, Theology, and Liturgy	118	(2)
Coming Together: The Sanctity of the Family	120	(4)
The Master Narrative and the Individual's Personal Story	120	(1)
Discerning the Narrative of Judaism Through the Marriage Liturgy under the Huppah or Wedding Canopy	120	(2)
Bride and Groom, Israel and the Land	122	(1)
The Acted-Out Theology of History	123	(1)
Going Forth:	124	(5)
The Power of the Story to Transform	124	(1)
The Story of Passover, Key Chapter in Judaism's Master Narrative	124	(2)
The Thrice-Daily Exodus: Israel into the Everyday World	126	(2)
Israel in the World: ``We, therefore, hope in You, O Lord our God, that idolatry shall be removed from the earth, and false gods shall be utterly destroyed''	128	(1)
The Holy Land and Jerusalem in the Age to Come	129	(4)
From Hunger to Satiety and the Theology of Restoration	129	(1)
The Land of Israel, Jerusalem---and Day-to-Day Nourishment	129	(4)
V Classical Judaism The Torah's Way of Life	133	(30)
Life Under the Law of the Torah	135	(7)
The Six Hundred Thirteen Commandments and Their Single Purpose	135	(1)
The Righteous Shall Live by His Faith	135	(1)
``What is hateful to you, to your fellow don't do.' That's the entirety of the Torah; everything else is elaboration. So go, study!''	136	(1)
``Study is Greater, for Study Brings about Action''	137	(1)
The Cycle of the Judaic Way of Life: The Rhythm of the Year	138	(1)
The Cycle of the Judaic Way of Life: The Rhythm of the Week	139	(1)
The Cycle of the Judaic Way of Life: The Rhythm of the Private Life	139	(1)
The Halakhah	140	(2)
Hear Our Prayer, Grant Us Peace	142	(6)
Prayer and God's Presence	142	(1)
The Eighteen Benedictions	142	(4)
The Master Narrative Frames the Encounter with God	146	(2)
Sabbaths for Rest, Festivals for Rejoicing	148	(8)
The Story of Creation and of Redemption Realized in the Seventh Day, When the Torah Is Declaimed for Israel	148	(1)
Rejoicing in the Sabbath	149	(2)
The Pilgrim Festivals: Tabernacles/Huts (Sukkot)	151	(1)
The Pilgrim Festivals: Passover (Pessah)	152	(1)
The Pilgrim Festivals: Pentecost/Weeks (Shabuot)	153	(1)
The Days of Awe: New Year (Rosh Hashanah) and the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur)	153	(3)
Rites of Passage:	156	(7)
Birth: The Covenant Renewed, The Story Reenacted	156	(3)
Puberty: Bar or Bat Mitzvah	159	(1)
Burial Rites	160	(3)
VI Four Types of Judaic Piety	163	(32)
The Philosopher	165	(11)
Types of Religious Expression	165	(1)
The Philosophical Formulation of the Dual Torah	165	(4)
Moses Maimonides	169	(3)
Judah Halevi	172	(3)
Philosophical Judaism	175	(1)
The Mystic	176	(8)
Mystical Knowledge and Experience in Rabbinic Judaism	176	(1)
The Zohar and Moses de Leon	176	(2)
The Book of the Pious	178	(2)
Abraham Joshua Heschel's Account of Mysticism in Judaism	180	(2)
Gershom Scholem's Account of Mysticism in Judaism	182	(2)
An Ordinary Jew	184	(5)
Hostile Stereotypes of Ordinary Jews and of Judaism	184	(1)
Life Under the Law of the Torah: Covenantal Nomism	184	(1)
Eleazar of Mainz	185	(4)
Two Extraordinary Women	189	(6)
The Feminine Half of Holy Israel	189	(1)
Gluckel of Hameln	190	(2)
Henrietta Szold	192	(3)
VII Classical Judaism in Modern Times: Reform, Orthodox, Conservative Judaisms and Zionism	195	(46)
Modern Times	197	(8)
Christianity and Judaism Together Meet Competition in Secularism	197	(1)
The New ``Urgent Question'' Facing Jews	198	(1)
The Principal Judaisms of Modernity: The Reform, Orthodox, and Conservative Judaic Religious Systems	199	(1)
Political Change and Religious Transformation: ``Emancipation''	200	(3)
What Is Zionism and How Does It Participate in the History of Judaism in Modern Times?	203	(2)
Reform Judaism	205	(7)
System Construction---Starting with Who and What Is ``Israel''	205	(1)
What Is Reform Judaism?	206	(1)
Legitimating Change by Calling It ``Reform''	207	(1)
Reform's Historicist Theology: Reform as the Natural Next Step in the History of Judaism	208	(1)
Reform Movements in Judaism: The Appeal to Historical Precedent	209	(3)
Orthodox Judaism	212	(8)
Orthodoxy and the ``Tradition''	212	(1)
Defining Integrationist Orthodox Judaism in Its Western Political Context	212	(4)
Samson Raphael Hirsch	216	(2)
Continuity or New Creation?	218	(2)
Conservative Judaism	220	(8)
Between Reform and Orthodoxy	220	(1)
``Eat Kosher and Think Traif''	220	(2)
Responding to Reform Judaism	222	(1)
History and Religion: The Power of Historicism	223	(2)
The Birth of a Judaism	225	(2)
The Middle of the Road Is Never Crowded	227	(1)
Zionism	228	(13)
Exile and Return in a Secular System: Zionism	228	(1)
The Urgent Question Addressed by Zionism: Racist Political Anti-Semitism	228	(2)
A Jewish System of the Social Order: Theory of Israel	230	(1)
Zionist Theories of Zion and Judaic Theories of Zion	231	(1)
The Ideology of ``Jewish History'' as the Continuous, Unitary Story of ``A People, One People''	232	(2)
The Renaissance of the Scriptural Narrative	234	(1)
Judaism and Zionism: Competition and Conciliation	235	(2)
History Proves . . . : Zionism and the Holocaust	237	(4)
VIII The Practice of Judaism in Contemporary North America	241	(52)
Beyond ``Emancipation'': Agudath Israel and Habad Hasidism in Contemporary North America	243	(12)
Judaic Systems Untouched by Emancipation	243	(1)
Agudath Israel	244	(1)
Hasidism in the United States	245	(1)
Hasidism: The European Origins	246	(3)
Habad or Lubavitch Hasidism	249	(1)
Habad and ``Halakhic Christianity''	250	(3)
In Context: Exemplars of Tradition or Only a Noteworthy Minority?	253	(2)
The American Judaism of Holocaust and Redemption	255	(11)
What Is ``the American Judaism of Holocaust and Redemption''?	255	(2)
To Whom Does the American Judaism of Holocaust and Redemption Present Self-Evident Truths?	257	(2)
The Worldview of ``Holocaust and Redemption'' Judaism	259	(2)
The Self-Evidence of Holocaust and Redemption Judaism as a Judaism: From Mass Murder to ``Holocaust,'' from Military Victory to ``Redemption''	261	(2)
The Ethnicization of Judaism	263	(3)
How Jews Practice Judaism in North America	266	(12)
What the Books Say, What the People Do	266	(1)
What the Jewish People in North America Do: A Social Science Portrait of the Actual Practice of Judaism	267	(1)
``Israel'': What Do the Jews Think They Are---Religion, Culture, Ethnic Group, Other?	268	(1)
Worldview	269	(2)
Way of Life	271	(2)
The American Judaism of Holocaust and Redemption	273	(1)
The Vital Center: Ethnically Jewish and Religiously Judaic	274	(1)
Why This, Not That? The American Protestant Model: Religion in Private, Politics in Public	275	(3)
Reversionary Judaisms: Forward to ``Tradition''?	278	(9)
From Secularity to Religiosity in Contemporary Judaic Life	278	(1)
Jews Converting to Judaism	278	(1)
Who Converts? The Worldview, The Way of Life	279	(2)
Reversionary Judaism as a Judaic Religious System in Its Own Right	281	(2)
Orthodox Judaisms Respond to the Reversionary Movement	283	(1)
Judaic Response to the Holocaust Through the Power of the Judaic Narrative	284	(3)
Facing the Twenty-First Century: Ethnic and Religious in Contemporary Judaism	287	(6)
Ethnic and Religious	287	(1)
Why Distinguish Secular Jewishness from Religious Judaism?	288	(1)
Judaism's Narrative: The Story of God	289	(4)
Glossary	293	(8)
Index	301