Judaism For Dummies

Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Conventions Used in This Book 2 Pronouncing Jewish Words 2 About the translations 3 Foolish Assumptions 4 How This Book Is Organized 5 Part 1: What Jews Generally Believe 5 Part 2: From Womb to Tomb: The Life Cycle 5 Part 3: An Overview of Jewish History 5 Part 4: Celebrations and Holy Days 5 Part 5: The Part of Tens 5 Part 6: Appendixes 6 Icons Used in This Book 6 Where to Go from Here 7 Part 1: What Jews Generally Believe 9 Chapter 1: That’s Funny, You Don’t Look Jewish: Who’s a Jew and Why 11 The Jewish Tribe 12 What’s in a name? 12 Jews far and wide 13 Who decides if you’re Jewish? 13 After all, it’s a small world 14 Major Branches of the Tree 15 Orthodox Jews 16 Breakaway denominations 18 Guess Who Else Is Jewish 22 Chapter 2: It’s All One: Judaism and God 25 Pondering Jewish Beliefs about God 26 A religion of deed, not creed 26 Arguing with God 26 Where God is 27 Calling One God Many Names 27 What’s in a name? 28 The four-letter Name of God 28 The Singular Being hidden in the plural 28 God’s Own name 29 No end to the names of God 30 Looking behind the Name 30 God creates 31 God reveals 31 God redeems 33 Embarking on a Quest for Ultimate Reality 34 Chapter 3: A Never-Ending Torah: The Unfolding of a Tradition 35 Torah: The Light That Never Dims 35 The five books of Moses 36 The weekly readings 37 The TaNaKH: The Hebrew Bible 39 Nevi’im (“Prophets”) 39 Ketuvim (“Writings”) 39 The Haftarah 40 Interpreting the Bible 40 A Hidden Revolution: The Oral Torah 41 The law of the land: The Mishnah 41 The teachings explained: The Talmud 43 Telling stories: The midrash 45 The Expanding Torah 46 Chapter 4: A Path of Blessing: Judaism as a Daily Practice 47 Connecting With God and Community through Practice: The Mitzvot 48 613 habits of highly effective people 49 Women and mitzvot 50 The reasons for mitzvot 51 Connecting With God and Community through Blessings and Prayers 52 Private worship 53 The community worship service 54 Going to Synagogue 57 Four things you’ll find in every synagogue 57 Who’s who at shul 58 Following Jewish Dietary Laws: A Brief Guide to Kosher Food 60 The reasons behind kosher 62 OU means OK for most 63 Purifying the Spirit: Rites and Rituals 63 Dressing for God: Jewish Garments and Clothing Customs 64 The yarmulka 65 Fringes and shawls 66 You shall bind them as a sign: Laying tefillin 67 The Jewish Home 68 On every doorpost: The mezuzah 68 The candelabra extraordinaire: The menorah 69 So Go Now and Live 69 Chapter 5: Jewish Mysticism 71 Delving Into Jewish Mysticism 71 What mystics tend to believe 72 The Kabbalah 72 Taking a Magical Mystical Tour 74 Early mystical texts 74 Isaac Luria, Safed’s sage 76 Israel ben Eliezer, the good master 78 Going Above and Beyond: Jewish Meditation 79 Following Maps to Understanding: The Images and Symbols 81 The Tree of Life 81 The ten sefirot 84 The Four Worlds 87 The five levels of soul 88 Chapter 6: Ethical Challenges 91 Getting to the Heart of the Matter 92 The Golden Rule 92 Expressions of God 92 Tikkun olam 93 Charged to act 93 Meeting at the Intersection of Righteousness and Charity 94 Unraveling the Problem of the Other 96 Intra- and Interfaith Challenges 97 Embracing Our Sexuality 98 Mystical visions of sexual union 99 Birth control and abortion 99 Homosexuality 100 Prohibited relationships 100 Finding a Way to Peace 101 Breaking the cycle 101 Respecting Animals and the Environment 103 Bal Tashkhit: Do not destroy 104 Tza’ar ba’alei khayim: Treat living creatures with dignity 104 Striving for tikkun olam 105 Part 2: From Womb To Tomb: The Life Cycle 107 Chapter 7: In the Beginning: Birth and Bris 109 Making the Cut: Ritual Circumcision 110 Knowing who’s involved 110 Adhering to the rituals and ceremonies 111 Making the choice 112 Thanking God for Little Girls 114 Playing the Name Game 115 Buying Back the First Born 117 Chapter 8: Coming of Age: The Bar/Bat Mitzvah 119 Preparing for the Big Day 120 Celebrating the Bar/Bat Mitzvah 121 Reading from the Good Book 121 Speech! Speech! 122 A night to celebrate 123 Celebrating as a grown up 125 Confirming Your Beliefs 125 Chapter 9: Get Me to the Chuppah On Time: Weddings 127 Looking at the Origins of Jewish Marriage 127 Preparing for the Ceremony 128 Enjoying the Wedding 129 Raising the chuppah 130 Drinking the fruit of the vine 130 Exchanging the rings 131 Sharing the seven blessings 131 Breaking the glass 133 Putting it in writing 133 Enjoying sacred moments, before and after 134 Getting a Get: Divorce 135 Walking through a divorce 136 Encountering rare troubles 137 Chapter 10: Stepping Through the Valley: The Shadow of Death 139 Planning for Death 140 Writing an ethical will 140 Making final confessions 141 Reciting parting words 142 Arranging the Funeral 143 Returning to the earth 143 Preparing the body 144 Attending a funeral and burial 145 Observing the Mourning Period 147 The first week following a funeral 147 The first month and year 148 Saying Kaddish 149 Remembering the Dead 150 Part 3: An Overview of Jewish History 153 Chapter 11: Let My People Go: From Abraham to Exodus 155 The Genesis of a People 157 Beginnings of a Way 157 The next generation 158 Who gets blessed? 159 Wrestling with God 160 The Son Also Rises 161 Interpreting dreams 161 A dream comes true 163 The Enslavement and Exodus 163 A star is born 164 Are we there yet? 165 Entering the Promised Land 166 Chapter 12: The Kings of Israel: The First Temple 167 Finding the Right Guy to Be King 168 Continuing War and Peace 169 Enter David, stage left 169 Magic and mayhem 170 Living under the Lion of Judah 170 The Wisdom of Solomon 172 Building the Temple 172 Telling a Tale of Two Kingdoms 173 The Fall of the First Temple 174 Chapter 13: Bracketed by Exile: The Second Temple 177 Finding a Home away from Home 178 There’s no place like home 178 Building and rebuilding 178 It’s All Greek to Me 179 The ptol and short of it 179 The last emperor 180 A Parting of Ways 180 All Roads Lead to Rome 181 An Edifice Complex 182 Not one but many messiahs 182 Death and dismemberment 183 Sects and Violence 183 Chapter 14: The Exiles Continue: The First Millennium 185 Beware, the End Is Nigh! 186 Revolutions and messiahs 186 The raising of the Talmud 187 Running Out of Rome 188 Jews under Islam 189 Second class is better than no class 190 The rise of the Gaon 190 All that glitters is gold 191 Let My People Stay: Prosperity and Persecution 191 Turn the other cheek 192 Take the money and run 192 The Reign in Spain 194 No one expects the Spanish Inquisition 194 Christianity or bust 195 Chapter 15: The Greatest Horror, the Greatest Triumph 197 When Poland Was a Heartland 198 Four lands, one people 198 The Chmielnicki massacres 198 The Dawning of a New Age 199 The Enlightenment 199 The question of citizenship 200 Going Beyond the Pale 201 Responses to Enlightenment 201 Reform 202 To change or not to change 203 The Rise of Nationalism and Racism 203 The return of anti-Jewish policies 204 The pogroms 204 Getting Worse and Getting Out 205 Passage to Palestine 205 Close, but not quite there 206 Hitler’s rise to power 206 The Holocaust 207 Too little, too late 207 The war against the Jews 208 The death camps 209 The fall of the Third Reich 210 Founding a New Jewish State 211 Chapter 16: Jewish Buddhists and Other Challenges of the New Age 215 In the Shadow of the Holocaust 215 The Mixed Blessing of America 216 You will be assimilated 216 The choosing people 217 Jews as Spiritual Teachers of Other Traditions 218 I didn’t know Jews did that! 218 Finding parallels 219 The New Jewish Spirituality 219 Jew versus Jew versus Jew 220 Who is a Jew 221 Can’t we just work it out? 222 Considering the Future of Judaism 223 Chapter 17: The Problem of Anti-Semitism 225 Recounting the Incomprehensible 226 Fearing an Unknown Quantity: The Origins of Hate 227 Exploding Dangerous and False Beliefs 228 Belief #1: The Jews killed Jesus 228 Belief #2: There’s an international Jewish conspiracy 230 Belief #3: Jews practice ritual murder 230 Anti-Semitism in literature and art 231 From Religion to Race: Anti-Semitism in Modern Times 232 Israel and anti-Semitism 233 The color of anti-Semitism 233 Twenty-first century anti-Semitism 234 Toward Healing 235 Part 4: Celebrations and Holy Days 237 Chapter 18: A Taste of Paradise: Shabbat 239 Understanding Shabbat 240 Shabbat: Restriction or Relief? 240 Knowing what work to avoid 241 Discovering what’s enough 241 Redefining the rules 242 Doing what you can on Shabbat 243 Welcoming the Sabbath 243 Lighting the candles 244 Saying the blessings over family, wine, and bread 245 Eating the meal 248 Attending Shabbat evening services 251 Morning has broken 251 Bidding Farewell to Shabbat 252 Wine and candles 252 Sugar, spice, and everything nice 253 The Universal Aspects of Shabbat 255 Chapter 19: In with the New: Rosh Hashanah 257 A Day for Making Judgments 258 The Book of Life: Take two 259 Teshuvah: Getting back on track 260 The 40-Day Plan 260 The days of Elul 261 Preparations: S’lichot 261 Celebrating Rosh Hashanah 262 The Makhzor: The High Holy Day prayer book 264 Blowing your horn 265 Tashlikh 266 The Ten Days of Awe 267 Cleaning your spiritual house 267 Kapparot 268 Real Beginnings Mean Real Changes 269 Chapter 20: Getting Serious: Yom Kippur 271 Yom Kippur Means Always Having to Say You’re Sorry 272 Seeking forgiveness from God 272 Repenting 272 Celebrating Yom Kippur 274 Fasting, but not quickly 274 Taking a long day’s journey 275 Preparing for Yom Kippur 276 Considering the Kol Nidre: The evening service 277 Reading and kneeling 279 Honoring the Light of Yom Kippur 281 Chapter 21: The Great Outdoors: Sukkot 283 A Jewish Thanksgiving 283 Giving thanks 284 Getting outdoorsy: Building a sukkah 284 How to Sukkot 285 A sukkah born every minute 285 Waving the lulav and etrog 287 Sh’mini Atzeret 290 Simkhat Torah 290 Chapter 22: Seeking Light in Dark Times: Chanukkah 293 Shining a Light on the Darkest Night 293 The Good Fight: What Chanukkah Celebrates 294 The two books of the Maccabees 294 Judah puts the hammer down 295 The story of the oil miracle 295 The Maccabees get their due 296 Embracing Chanukkah Customs 296 Lighting the candles 298 Blessings for the moment 299 Remembering the oil: Yummy fried foods 299 Spinning the dreidel 301 To gift, or not to gift 302 Receiving the Real Gift of Chanukkah: Personal Renewal 302 Chapter 23: Celebrating Renewal: Tu B’Shvat 305 Tithing Fruits of Land and Spirit 305 A Seder of Fruit and Wine 306 Try This at Home 307 Enlightened Gardeners 308 An Ever-Living Tree 308 Chapter 24: A Jewish Carnival: Purim 309 Purim: Based on a True Story (Sort Of) 309 It all starts with a banished queen 310 Enter Esther, stage left 310 Enter Haman, stage right 310 Haman’s big mistake 311 The final battle 312 Why Purim Survived 312 The persistence of persecution 313 Within you and without you 313 Bang a Gong: Celebrating Purim 313 Reading the Book of Esther — the whole megillah 315 Partying and playing dress up 315 Giving the gift of sweets 316 Remembering the poor 318 Other traditions: The Fast of Esther 318 Bringing Darkness to Light 318 Chapter 25: From Groan to Glee: Passover 319 Looking at the Reasons behind Passover 320 Edible Do’s and Don’ts 321 Kosher for Passover 321 The symbolism of Passover restrictions 322 First Things First: Preparing for Passover 323 Cleaning out the khametz 323 Giving to charity at Passover time 325 The Seder: As Easy as 1, 2, 3 325 The haggadah: Seder’s little instruction booklet 326 Look who’s coming to dinner 326 The prepared table 327 Steps of the seder 333 New traditions: Miriam’s Cup 338 A Time to Think about Freedom 339 It’s all about choice 340 Dayenu: So much gratitude 340 It’s Not Over till It’s Omer 341 Agricultural roots 341 The magical, mystical seven 342 Yom Ha-Shoah 343 Israeli Independence Day 343 Lag B’Omer 343 The Universal Themes in Passover 344 Chapter 26: Spring Is Busting Out All Over: Shavuot 345 The Ideas Behind Shavuot 346 Receiving the Torah 346 Meeting at Sinai 346 Tune in today! 347 Go tell it on the mountain 347 Telling stories 348 Searching for New Rituals 349 Pulling the mystical all-nighter 350 Deck the halls 351 Got milk? 351 Reading Ruth 354 Nontraditional traditions 355 Rewakening 356 Chapter 27: A Day of Mourning: Tisha B’Av 357 Fasting, Reading, and Reflecting 358 Today’s Tisha B’Av 359 Tu B’Av: Releasing into Joy 360 Part 5: The Part of Tens 361 Chapter 28: Ten People Who Helped Shape Judaism 363 Hillel 364 Rashi 364 Maimonides 365 Joseph Caro 365 Isaac Luria 366 Ba’al Shem Tov 367 Henrietta Szold 367 Abraham Isaac Kook 368 Martin Buber 369 Abraham Joshua Heschel 369 Chapter 29: Answers to Ten Common Questions about Judaism 371 Why Don’t Jews Believe in Jesus? 371 What Does It Mean to Be the “Chosen” People? 372 Why Is Israel So Important to the Jews? 372 Why Are So Many Doctors, Lawyers, and Entertainers Jewish? 373 What Is the Role of Women in Judaism? 374 What Is “Jewish Humor”? 375 Self-examination: Try it at home! 375 Dress British, think Yiddish 378 What Role Does Music Play in Jewish Culture? 378 Who’s In Charge of Judaism? 379 Can You Convert to Judaism? 380 What’s the Relationship Between Judaism and Islam? 381 Part 6: Appendixes 383 Appendix A: Oy Vey! and Other Words You Should Know 385 A Primer of Basic Words 385 Yiddish, Yinglish, Oy! 389 Appendix B: A Sampler of Jewish Prayers and Blessings 397 The Central Focus: Sh’ma and V’ahavta 398 First Thing in the Morning 398 Last Thing at Night 399 Various, Sundry, and Otherwise Useful Blessings 399 Blessings for food 400 Blessings making moments special 402 Blessings for ritual acts 403 Blessings as reminders and as teachers 404 Appendix C: Go Now and Learn 405 Books for The People of the Book 405 On the Newsstand 407 Some Jewish Organizations 407 Education and social action 408 Charities 408 Judaism on the Web 409 Index 411