Read more about the article Chapter 2: The Jewish People’s story, the early period

Chapter 2: The Jewish People’s story, the early period

In order to understand the Jewish community of today – we need to examine all sorts of phenomena that explain why the Jewish community today, in different places in the world, looks the way that it does. We need to understand too, why the idea of Jewish community has been so central to Jews for thousands of years. 

For this and the next two chapters, we will be following the strange path of the Jewish community as it wends its way through time, changing and developing as it encounters new situations and finds itself forced to adapt to strange and often difficult circumstances. We will see how the framework and the content of the lives of our ancestors changed and indeed revolutionized themselves in the three periods in question. Let us now open our story and plunge into the first period: how does the whole story begin?

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Read more about the article The Creation of the Monarchy – 13

The Creation of the Monarchy – 13

The Exodus from Egypt and the forty years of wandering are traditionally seen as the formative period in the building of the Israelite nation — the transition from “family” history to “national” history.  However, the biblical text makes it clear that many years passed after the entry into Palestine before the Israelite people were anything like a united nation.  In terms of the creation of a national entity and a national identity, a major turning point came with the establishment of the monarchy; a further consolidation occurred with the enthronement of the Davidic dynasty.  This lesson will investigate the transition from tribal confederation to established dynastic monarchy.

In looking at different biblical depictions of our connections to Israel, we find the promises and sojourns of the Patriarchs, the promises and instructions in the desert, the conquest and struggles of Joshua and Judges – and now, the creation of a proper kingdom of the Jews in their land, with a capital and a central government and all its institutions – including a centralized religious cult.  It is the collective memory of this period of glory that has informed our messianic vision ever since it ended. (more…)

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Read more about the article Megilat Esther, Exile, and Zionism – 28

Megilat Esther, Exile, and Zionism – 28

Purim is generally viewed as a particularly happy holiday, characterized by a number of customs designed to make us laugh, to make us “push the envelope” of what is permitted and what is acceptable, in the direction of wild celebration. The story behind the holiday, contained in Megilat Esther, is an entertaining drama, with suspense, irony, sexual innuendo, cartoon violence, and a happy ending. So we read the scroll, but parts we drown out with noise; and we sing, and clown, and masquerade, and party – and move on to the more serious joy of Pesach. This picture is true in the Diaspora as well as in Israel, and part of this unit will look at Purim observance in Israel.

However, it is possible to see in the Esther narrative a darker view of the events, which all the merriment, perhaps, comes to cover up. Perhaps the Purim story can be seen as a dark satire on the Diaspora, as a “Zionist” tract, emphasizing the vulnerability of the Jews when they are not in their own land. Thus, it can give us some insight into the meaning of Exile and the necessity of national sovereignty.

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