A World at War with Itself
The podcast will be for a year, where Julie Finch-Scally, writer and broadcaster can interview people about life and the current situation of the world. She will discuss how so many things have changed over the past 80 years since her birth, and what the world needs to change to improve and save the planet from ourselves.
A World at War with Itself
Judaism
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What do we know about the Jewish religion? Julie thought she knew a lot, but there were other things she wasn't aware of. Find out more about what the Jews believe and follow.
This is Julie Finch Scary, welcoming you to another episode of A World at War With Itself. Lovely to have your company. Today we are starting to look at life and things that are part of it. One of the subjects would be religion, but there are several beliefs on this planet, so I am going to investigate the five main ones. Today I will be concentrating on Judaism. I have in the studio with me Athel Morris, who is a Jewish community leader. Thank you for joining me, Athel.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for having me, Julie.
SPEAKER_01How long has Jim Judaism been in existent? And whereabouts did it begin? Was it the Middle East?
SPEAKER_00That's a complex question. Judaism as a concept started certainly in the Middle East. If you go back as far as Abraham, who was not a Jew, he was the first monolatrist. He had the idea that there was only one god to worship as opposed to lots of them, or so legend has it, of course. And then we get through biblical stories go that Isaac and Jacob were all introduced to God, if you like, or the the Judeo Christian god, until we get to a point where Jacob allegedly wrestled with an angel, or indeed with God, as some legends will have it, when he dreamt of the staircase ascending to heaven, and God gave him the new name of Israel, which became the name of the Israelites, if you like. But even then they weren't really Jewish. Jewish thought probably wasn't structured until after the escape from Egypt when Moses received the Ten Commandments at Sinai, and even then it was still not recognizable as anything we'd have today. By the time we get to David, which you'll realize I've skipped many, many years, we get a temple, but this is after we've carried the ark through the desert for forty years and so on, with the concept of a desert god becoming a tribal communal god, and the essence of Judaism probably developed from there. All the way Judaism was evolving and developing, and but even then Judaism was not recognizable until a chap named Ezra, one of the uh Bible prophets, rewrote Judaism for exile, if you like, so that they did away with temple sacrifice, which was a major part of religion, and put in prayer. And the Jews all went around to all the different countries of the world with a mix of Ezra's Judaism, a mix of biblical Judaism and a mix of leftover remnants of the temple.
SPEAKER_01They at some stage start taking the social mores of the country that they went into.
SPEAKER_00Every time. All the time. The modern Jewish uh ethos added to the historic one and the historic one kept the modern one on track.
SPEAKER_01The main ideals w what do they encourage by the religion?
SPEAKER_00Well, the main ideals are communality. The again there are differences between orthodox uh traditional thought and progressive modern day thought. The orthodox tends more to establishing a relationship with a deity and in so doing improving the world, using the Hebrew word tikkun olam, which means repair of the world. But the modern Jewish thought looks more at the idea of just repairing the world and getting communality of the world. So both the uh Orthodox and the progressive aspects of the religion are looking at making the world a better place. One lot does it through greater devotion to God, another lot does it through a greater devotion to service of mankind.
SPEAKER_01So the Torah is the book where the history and the beliefs are written.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's part of it. The Torah is the first five books of the Old Testament, as the Christians will have it Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Or if you want it in Hebrew, Bareshit, uh Shemot, Vaikra, Bar Midba, and Devarim. These are the first five books, and these are the things you see when you see a Torah scroll, you know, the Jewish scroll that they read every week in synagogue. That scroll contains the first five books, but after that, the Old Testament, again, until the end of Malachi, forms a part of the Jewish canon. It's divided into two parts, the prophets and the writings. Now I'm not quite sure of the logical distinction between those two, but they are all a part of the Jewish canon of holy books.
SPEAKER_01But that means obviously that there was a language it was written in. What was it written in?
SPEAKER_00Well, three guesses. Hebrew.
SPEAKER_01Hebrew. Yeah, that back in the day, yes. So why are the followers of this not called Hebrews? Why why are they called Jews?
SPEAKER_00Well of course into th sometimes they are called Hebrews by non-Jews. But you'll find that Jews are it's a name from a relevant part of the Middle East from Judea. So the Jews are the traditional ancient inhabitants of Judea. That makes sense too. Don't let that be uh be a talking point when you talk about other religions. But the other name for them is Israelites, because they are the descendants of Israel, which was Jacob's new name, and Israel is Hebrew for r I think wrestled with God or something like that. El is God wrestle. Israel is wrestled with or overcame God.
SPEAKER_01So give them the language lessons well here with the.
SPEAKER_00Sofer is a scribe who writes these things. And tradition has it, and I think it's a fairly accurate tradition, that these things haven't changed in um thousand years, four thousand years. These people copy word for word, and it's probably the most accurate copy of anything on the planet. And we hope that they don't make mistakes as they're Well, there are quite strong rules about what happens if they do, and it basically involves tearing up that page and starting again, which can really be a nuisance if you get to the bottom of the page.
SPEAKER_01And is it still written that way?
SPEAKER_00Yes. Yes, yes, it is. Oh, it's written on villum, it's written by a scribe using a particular sort of quill, using a particular sort of ink, using a particular sort of text uh script. Although, to be fair, there is more than one approved script, if you like, but they're all Hebrew, and they if you read one, you read them all. They're all the same.
SPEAKER_01All the same.
SPEAKER_00And they're different from modern Hebrew in as much as they don't use vowels. They're just uh it's like writing the whole thing in block capitals in if you're writing in English without A E I O and U.
SPEAKER_01That'd be hard to pronounce.
SPEAKER_00It's hard to read, too. Especially as some words ha can be pronounced any number of different ways with different vowels, and you've got to know from the context which word you're saying.
SPEAKER_01Well then you could get a wrong word, couldn't you?
SPEAKER_00Well, you could, except that they have sc scholars learned in this sort of stuff who actually keep an eye on you while it's being read. If you're standing at a synagogue reading or having it read, because very few people can actually read it these days, there's generally one person on either side with a another text looking at it, and if somebody makes a mistake he says, Ah, no, no. And then you go back and correct it. Right.
SPEAKER_01So where does the name synagogue come from?
SPEAKER_00It's a Greek word, uh meaning meeting house. We use the word because we're you know, we speak English. But it's one of those words that's become English, but we call it a s a shul or a temple or a any any word meaning a a place where you gather and and meet.
SPEAKER_01When it comes to the days of worship, which day of the week is the most important one?
SPEAKER_00Well, Jewish dates start on the night before of each week. So Friday night is the beginning of the Sabbath, or Shabbat in Hebrew. You start Friday night and it goes until the first stars t turn up on Saturday night. So Saturday is the most important day of the week, commencing Friday night.
SPEAKER_01So when do they go to the synagogue?
SPEAKER_00By and large, we usually do that on Friday night here because that's convenient to our workday way of life. And for the less observant Jew, it fits in with the sporting fixtures on Saturday and taking the kids to the to the soccer. But the more observant and uh traditional Jews will usually go on Friday night, but also on Saturday morning.
SPEAKER_01Because you see films and things where they show you a Jewish family and the Jewish family all sit down around a big family table on a Friday night and it's a big condition uh tradition.
SPEAKER_00That usually happens after you've been to twenty minute service at the synagogue if you're talking uh Tevya and and the traditional stories. But the real service, the principal one, and the one, by the way, at which they usually do ba mitzvahs and such like, happens on the Saturday morning. That's when they read the Torah and conduct the full Torah service. It goes about three hours, two and a half.
SPEAKER_01Now I know what a bar mitzvah is, but some people might not. What's the other thing?
SPEAKER_00Ba mitzvah is the r ritual turning of religious responsibility, adult responsibility for a child when they reach the age of thirteen for a boy or twelve for a woman. It doesn't bestow any particular voting rights or other rights on a child, but they are eligible to be counted in the uh number of observant Jews who can be counted as uh the right number of people to hold what's called a minion, which means the minimum number of Jews present to conduct a religious service.
SPEAKER_01When it comes to the worship, men seem to be separated from the women. Is there a reason behind that?
SPEAKER_00Again, you're talking the the High Church versus the Low Church, if you like. The the Orthodox separate the women behind a screen or a bar or can be an entire curtain depending on the degree of observance and orthodoxy. The progressives, the the modern reform Jews, don't do that. They sit together in the same area. Is there a reason? I think it's historical patriarchy. I'm not aware of any biblical or injunctive reason for it, but it's a social morrow to stop you concentrating on the ladies' legs and look at the prayer book, but I think that's an ex post facto rationalization rather than an actual injunction.
SPEAKER_01I agree. During my time as a cleaner, I used to help a la Jewish lady, but she one day she had to have her kitchen sorted out so that the dairy and the meat were separated. Now can you explain that?
SPEAKER_00Yes, I can. If you diligently go back and study the book of Exodus, you'll find one little phrase that Moses said to his people, apparently because God told him, thou shalt not seethe the kid in its mother's milk. Now, many people have argued for many, many years over what that means, seethe meaning to boil, but it basically means you're not allowed to boil meat in the milk of another animal. Now the Orthodox Jews have interpreted that to mean you've got to keep milk and meat wholly separate. You mustn't mix the two. And again, the very observant Jews separate the kitchen out so that you have the milk on that side, the meat on that side, you have cupboards for the milk the dishes which are only and cuttery which are only used for uh non-meat-based things, and you have similar ones for the uh meat-based things.
SPEAKER_01I know I got a big dish out of it because this lady said, Well, no, I can't use this anymore, so would you like to warm yes, please?
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah. That's over it's overly generous because in fact you can render something clean by what's called toivelling it, which means uh I think boiling it in very hot water or boiling water or some such. But perhaps that doesn't work with a bone china. But uh the it it gets even more complex than that because during Passover Pesach there is yet another injunction where you can't use any of the cutlery or crockery or di cookware that you use during the rest of the year, albeit milk and meat separated, so you have to have a second lot of stuff milk and meat for p the Passover area. So the very Orthodox will require four sets of crockery and cutlery.
SPEAKER_01Goodness gracious me, I hope you've got big cupboards.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well I not everybody does that, but it it is more commonly observed than you might think.
SPEAKER_01Really? It's amazing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01The word rabbi in our language has come to mean a learned person. What does it mean in Judaism?
SPEAKER_00Well, the technical word is teacher. Uh rabbi just means teacher. And of course, you've got to be learned to actually teach effectively, don't you? I'm not a rabbi, I happen to know stuff, but that doesn't make me a rabbi. These days rabbis go to rabbi school and graduate as as rabbis. They are ordained with a process called smircha, which basically is a laying on of hands by the chief rabbi of that institution. But real rabbis are learned people and they know a lot of stuff. They're coloured by their own views on what they know, but you can't detract from the fact that they know a lot of stuff and what they say might be worth listening to.
SPEAKER_01Over the years all religions seem to have developed splinter groups which take parts of their belief as being more important than other sections. Has this happened with Judaism?
SPEAKER_00Yes. Absolutely. The only difference between us and everybody else is we started doing it earlier.
SPEAKER_01Oh really?
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, if you go back to the Bible, you'll find Korach had a rebellion as to how he should conduct his worship of God against Moses. He came to a sticky end if you read your Exodus. But leaving that aside, there have always been splinter groups after the uh the Bible developed, you'll find there were lots of people who interpreted things differently, uh just like Islam, just like Christianity, lots of different understandings or interpretations, if you like. And today progressive Jews trace their beginnings back to about 1880 when the German Orthodoxy said, now well we need to simplify this a bit, it's it's not working for us, and I'm a a descendant of that culture. The Orthodox, on the other hand, nothing like the orthodoxy of temple worship in the old days.
SPEAKER_01Now there are Jews in every country all around the world. Is the religion growing in numbers?
SPEAKER_00Slowly. There are still fewer Jews than there were before the Holocaust in 1930 39-45.
SPEAKER_01Is that the lack of m people not having as many children?
SPEAKER_00We aren't a proselytizing faith, so you you can join. We're not averse to you joining, but we don't sort of go out there, stand on street corners and say, Here here's a Bible, sign up, like some religions do.
SPEAKER_01So generally you're born into the religion.
SPEAKER_00You are born into it. Some people convert if they marry a Jew or something like that, but again, it's optional. Do we have a high birth rate? We do not. And that's part of the problem. We don't necessarily we don't have restrictions on birth control. We don't have injunctions to have many, many, many children like other religions. So no. And we practice birth control and we just grow it's all it's not quite ZPG, but it's it's getting close. We're we're not a a fast growing group. There's sixteen million of us, and we're we're just puddling along.
SPEAKER_01I I think my listeners will now know a lot more understanding of Judaism. I know I've learnt a lot. And thank you, Athel, for coming in today and enlightening us on this subject. This has been the world at war with itself. Do join me next week for another episode full of information about things that are part of our lives. Until then, this is Julie Finch Scaly saying goodbye.