Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Greenery in the synagogue (the shul) during the Pentecost festivities (Shavuot).
The loss of the Temple of Jerusalem, as a consequence of the wars with Rome, which
ravaged the country, had been a traumatic experience for the Jewish people that
brought with it great theological problems, as without the Temple no sacrifice is pos-
sible, which is the only place were sacrifices are allowed. At the time, the sacrificial
offerings were the central part of the Jewish ritual practice and it therefore called for
a solution. How a solution evolved in the course of centuries is dealt with in this article,
which gives interesting points of comparison with Christianity.
This kind of permanent education is perhaps the most essential cultural trait of Judaism,
the main binding element in their dispersal and diversity throughout the ages, that makes
a Jew Jewish and makes him feel Jewish. Of the 613 precepts, none is considered as
important as Deuteronomy 6:7 requiring the continuous teaching of the Torah (the first
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five books of the Bible): “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk
of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and
when you rise up.” Its corollary is the commandment of Joshua 1:8, right at the beginning
of the book, that requires its continuous study (Joshua is the sixth book): “This Book of
the Law [the Torah] shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day
and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you
will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Not coinciden-
tally, the word torah also turns out to mean teaching or instruction. It follows from this
precept that the passing on and training is more important than studying, for the Torah
is more important than the rest. After all, the Book of Deuteronomy is part of the Torah,
but Joshua - the sixth - is outside it. But how can something be passed on without first
having studied it and how can we study without first having been taught? Since in this
matter one can never become sufficiently proficient, and this is true of the greatest sage,
teaching is also an exercise in study. This kind of study is also a sacrificial service,
because it requires great effort. The soul of the student bows down, as it were, in great
humility and sacrifice. Only in this way can more than knowledge be acquired: encyclo-
pedic knowledge is different from wisdom and it is the latter that we strive for.
Jesus’ answer to the proposition that Torah-training is the most important duty for a
believer – an issue that was hotly debated in His time – refers to verse 5 of the same
chapter of Deuteronomy: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with
all your soul, and with all your strength.” Without denying this, the Talmud states that
an ignoramus cannot be a pious person (Pirkei Avot 2:5), based on the concept that a
person acts from his inner beliefs, and
Bible study has a formative effect here.
And thus study, such as study of the Ten
Commandments, leads to practice (Kid-
dushin 40b). The “Guide for the Per-
plexed” of the great scholar Maimonides
(1135-1204) was attacked for its ana-
lytical approach because the rabbis had
good reason to suspect that it would lead
to a formalistic attitude towards life that
would turn away from the rightful prac-
tice, one that is worthy of humankind,
focused on God and according to the
heart’s intention.
This concept took on its definitive form after the Second Jewish War. The revolt against
the Romans, that lasted from 132 to 135 AD, was fought under the famous rebel leader
Bar Kochba. The Talmud names him consistently ‘Bar Kosiba’ (son of a fool). The war
was a terrible ordeal, ending with large-scale devastation over the whole country. More
than 600,000 Jews perished and many were sold as slaves. The Temple Mount was sown
with salt and all that remained was the Western Wall. An ambitious reconstruction pro-
gramme was started, dedicated to Roman grandeur. Jupiter Capitolinus got his temple in
Jerusalem on top of the Holy Sepulchre, which had been levelled off with rubble, and in
the middle stood an equestrian statue of Emperor Hadrian who hated both Jews and
Christians. Venus got her temple on top of a pile of rubble on Mount Calvary.
This was followed by the ruthless suppression of Jewish intellectual life. The Romans
erased the name of Judah from official use, choosing deliberately to call the country
Palestine, in an extremely humiliating reference to the Philistines, once Israel’s greatest
foe. But even as a tribe they had long ceased to exist. The Roman Emperor perfectly
understood the religious motive of the rebellion and he was well aware that the Jewish
religion conferred a sense of community and strength to its people. Circumcision, kee-
ping the Sabbath, or any other observance of Jewish laws was forbidden. Study of Jewish
lore was made punishable by torture and death. Even the possession of the Pentateuch
(the Greek name for the Thora) had become a capital offence. Rabbi Judah ben Bava
was one of many put to death, in his case for ordaining six pupils at Usha. His pupils
escaped and were later to become the leaders of a new academy. The pages of Jewish
history covering this dark period are full of the names of martyrs who were killed for
infringing Hadrian’s Edict. This lasted three full years until the Emperor’s death, but the
damage inflicted in this short period of time was exceptionally great.
Under Hadrianus’ successor a more liberal policy was pursued and scribes were at liberty
to resume their calling. In consequence, many of the exiles returned together with their
coreligionists from the diaspora, among them a group of disciples that had been taught
by Rabbi Akiba, who himself had been put to death for defying the Edict. The task of
the survivors was to recover and complete the work of their predecessors, in which they
found inspiration in the teachings of Ben Zakkai, the rabbi who had safeguarded the
continuity of the permanent instruction, even before Titus had succeeded in destroying
the Temple (in 70 AD). In this concentration of effort the centre of Jewish learning and
authority in Palestine shifted to Galilee, first to its capital Sepphoris and vicinity, and
ultimately to Tiberias, where the foundation was laid for the future Talmud. The Talmud
would become the instrument by which the Jewish people could maintain their identity
throughout the ages, despite being dispersed among the nations and despite the merciless
persecutions.
Yet ‘lernen’ – the key element to the Jewish experience – became in its essential practice
and suffering nature the higher form of praying and longing for God, providing true
comfort and meaning in their terrible exile from land and Temple.
The loss of the Temple had been a traumatic experience for the Jewish people and rituals
were adopted to reinforce the symbolic link between the Temple and the synagogue.
Without the Temple no sacrifice is possible. That is because of the binding of Isaac.
Abraham built many altars but the only one on which he sacrificed was at Mount Moriah,
where he substituted a ram for Isaac. This is traditionally situated at the Temple site in
Jerusalem. But even today the sacrifice is impossible because the mosques of Al-Aqsa
and the Cubbat al-Sachra (the Dome of the Rock) prevent the Temple from being rebuilt.
So the scattered Jewish people looked for a solution and thus the temple service of animal
sacrifice became a house of study, which is very different from the original intention.
And yet it was not a totally new solution.
There is no longer any mourning for the loss of sacrifice. Only the orthodox prayer book
repeatedly reiterates the hope that the Temple will be rebuilt and sacrifices offered there
again. Pious Jews have the custom of shattering a glass during the wedding ceremony
(chuppa). By this symbolic act they are remembering, even in the joyous moment of a
wedding treaty, the destruction of the Temple while at the same time cherishing the hope
that one day, once it has been rebuilt, their joy will be complete again. This hope finds
expression in a school in Jerusalem, the Ateret Kohanim Yeshiva, that prepares its stu-
dents to resume the sacrifice whenever, if ever, the Temple is rebuilt. The conservative
prayer book has changed all future references to sacrifices to the past tense: it speaks
proudly of the sacrifices that once were brought before God at the Temple, but expresses
no desire to have them reinstated. In general it can be said that the link between ‘lerning’
and tabernacle service has been severed. Of course, we are familiar with texts such as in
2) The quote is from the Talmud Thaanit, fol. 24, and is referred to by Paul Drach, a
rabbi who converted to Catholicism while on the nomination to become the Chief Rabbi
of Paris. See: “De l’harmonie entre l’église et la synagogue”, Paris # 1844: Vol. 1 note 25
of p. 17 found on p. 116. The German translation is found in “Der Babylonsiche Talmud”,
ausgewählt, überstzt und erklärt von Reinhold Mayer - Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag,
München # 1981 (pp. 193-94).
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Psalm 51 and Hosea 6, where God says that He desires no sacrifice, messianic texts that
find their fulfilment in the Son. God promised to give a lamb in place of animals. His
Son is called the Lamb of God. Inscribed in the perpetual present time this is the
replacement once and for all, and not a throwback to the old practice of regular human
sacrifice, as sometimes pretended.
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Postscript: The Orthodox Jews and the Hasidim typically use the word ‘shul’ instead of
synagogue, which is derived from a German word meaning ‘school’, to indicate its role
as a place of study. But it is more. It is the centre of the Jewish religious community: a
house of prayer (beit tefilla), study and education, social and charitable work, as well as
a social centre. The term ‘shul’ is unfamiliar to many modern Jews, but everyone under-
stands the term synagogue, which is the Greek for “beit k’nesset”, meaning place of
gathering. The synagogue is the Jewish equivalent for church, more or less. It is usually
also a “beit midrash” or house of study, and as a rule, just like the shul, has an important
library accessible to all members of the community.
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Question: A Jewish friend who was explaining how Judaism differs from Christianity,
told me: “Why buy retail when you can buy wholesale at the factory?”
She was basically saying that she had no need for a ‘middleman’, that Jewish people go
directly to God and do not need Jesus.
Answer: Your Jewish friend holds to a modern form of Judaism, which can ignore
certain Scriptures that might be troubling – particularly those concerning sin. Modern
Jews are told almost nothing about sin, or how the Jewish Scriptures teach that sin must
be expiated. Consequently, many view sin as no more than a bad deed that can be can-
celled by doing a good deed. Scriptural statements concerning the Temple, the sacrificial
system and the elements of atonement are explained away as being ‘obsolete’.
If you hope to enlighten your Jewish friend on these matters, a good beginning point
might be a discussion of the Day of Atonement. Ask if your friend knows how the Day
of Atonement was celebrated in ancient times. Why was it that any Jew could not just
walk into the Holy of Holies and announce: “Hey God, there are a few things that I
would like to talk over with you …”
serve, the rabbis have pressed on to the question of “What can we do instead?” And of
course they came up with their own solution to the problem. They say: “Because the
Temple was destroyed we have to make atonement in a different way. Today we practice
T’shuvah (repentance), T’fillah (prayer) and Tzedakah (good deeds and works of
charity).” Of course, the Bible teaches that God desires us to do all those things and one
can’t imagine a relationship with Him that would omit any of those three. But as im-
portant as repentance, prayer and good deeds are, none of them is given as a means of
atonement.
Answering the question of “What can we do instead?” was a way of keeping the Jewish
people in alignment with one another, relating as a community. But it could not solve
the problem of bringing individuals, much less all the Jewish people, into alignment with
God.
Being out of alignment with the Almighty and failing to meet the purpose for which we
were created is not a Jewish problem. It is the human predicament. Sin is the great
separator. It is woven into the fabric of our souls. The only Savior from this pandemic
soul sickness is Y’shua, the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the world.