A Closing Word
Contemporary Judaism expresses all of the past and present we have examined within the existence of the Jew as he is encountered in the world. There is an overarching pattern of religious observances (S.R.
Hirsch once stated that ‘the Jewish calendar is the Jew’s catechism’). All the festivals express religious teachings within historical events. Rosh Hashana (the New Year) is the continuing moment of Creation; Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) is repentance and return within all of life; Sukkot (Tabernacles) is the harvest celebration acknowledging human dependence upon nature, but adds ethical values to pagan knowledge of the world; Chanukah (the dedication Feast of Lights) changes midwinter solstice observances into the vision of religion as light and life; Purim (the Feast of Lots) looks at past and future anti-Semitism; Pesach (Passover) sees the home table as altar and rediscovers the Covenant and the Exodus from slavery to freedom in all times; and Shavuot (Weeks) is the Pentecost celebration of the giving of the Law at Sinai which unites all Jews.Customs and observances, in all their different interpretations, still unite the Jewish community. Dietary laws and the Sabbath can vary as religious statements, but always affirm tradition. In the end, they are a fence for one Judaism, moving from biblical to rabbinic and medieval formulations, possessing a many-faceted present, but it is still a proclamation of ethical monotheism where the One God is affirmed by righteous actions which will ultimately establish God’s kingdom in the world.
Notes
1. Leo Baeck, Epochen der juedischen Geschichte (ed. Hans Bach) (Kohlhammer Verlag, Mainz, 1947), p. 127.
2. Gerson Cohen, quoted in Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory (Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, 1982), p. 39.
3. Yerushalmi, Zakhor, p.
40.4. Cf. Cecil Roth, ‘The European Age’ in Leo W. Schwarz (ed.), Great Ages and Ideas of the Jewish People (Random House, New York, 1956), pp. 272ff.
5. Moses Maimonides, ‘Commentary on the Mishna’ quoted in Bernard Bamberger, The Story of Judaism (Union of American Hebrew Congregations, New York, 1957), p. 177.
6. Moses Nachmanides, ‘Commentary on the Pentateuch’ (on Deut. 22:6), quoted by Louis Jacobs, A Jewish Theology (Darton, Longman & Todd, London, 1973), p. 183.
7. Leo Baeck, This People Israel (transl. A.H. Friedlander) (W.H. Allen, London, 1965), pp. 266ff.
8. Ibid., p. 271.
9. Cf. Gershom Scholem, particularly his Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, 3rd edn (Thames & Hudson, London, 1955).
10.Cf. Bamberger, The Story of Judaism, pp. 243ff.
11. Abraham Farrisol quoted in H. Kremer (ed.) Die Juden und Martin Luther (Neukirchen, 1985), p. 175. See also A.H. Friedlander, ‘Martin Luther und wir Juden’ in Kremer, Die Juden und Martin Luther, pp. 288ff.
12. Moses Mendelssohn, Jerusalem (English translation by H. Samuels) (London, 1838), II, p. 98, cited by I. Epstein,Judaism (Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1959), p. 287.
13. A.H. Friedlander, The Pittsburgh Platform (Union of American Hebrew Congregations, New York, 1956), pp. 2ff.
14.Baeck, This People Israel, p. 376.
Further Reading
Bamberger, B. The Story of Judaism (Union of American Hebrew Congregations, New York, 1957), pp. 451-3
Epstein, I. Judaism (Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1959), pp. 325-32
Jacobs, L. A Jewish Theology (Darton, Longman & Todd, London, 1973), pp. 323-31
In the area of Holocaust literature and theology, an overview can be found in Friedlander, A.H. (ed.) Out of the Whirlwind: The Literature of the Holocaust (Schocken Books, New York, 1976)
Two new one-volume histories of Judaism are highly recommended:
Johnson, Paul A History of the Jews (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1987) Goldberg, David and John Rayner The Jewish People: Its History and Religion (Penguin and Viking Press, London and New York, 1987)