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Beginning with the question ‘Who is a Jew?’, this book proceeds tooffer a lucid account of Judaism and the Jewish people. Written forJews and non-Jews alike, be they students or teachers or generalinterested readers, the book brings out the extraordinary richnessand variety of Judaism: its historical depth, and the vigour and attimes amazing endurance of its traditions – in the home, in the syn-agogue, in its literature, in individual and community life.

Nicholas de Lange writes as a Jewish scholar, a knowledgeableinsider, explaining the history and details of inherited rituals andcustoms; of organised religion (be it Orthodox, Conservative,Reform or Liberal); of concepts such as Zionism, Diaspora,Messianism. Half of the world’s Jews live in North America and therest are widely scattered, and the book is sensitive to the globalcontext of Judaism, both historically and in our postmodern age.The philosophy and theology of Judaism are examined, particu-larly in the wake of the Holocaust, and there are speculations onthe future. Dr de Lange does not shirk the difficulties posed by ques-tions of Jewish identity and by some of the irreconcilabledifferences which exist within Judaism as well as between Judaismand other cultures.

An Introduction to Judaism contains illustrative tables and maps, afull glossary, chronology, bibliography and index, and can be usedfor reference, to check details and dates, as well as read consecu-tively or dipped into at leisure. This is a stimulating and compre-hensive introduction to a major world culture.

Nicholas de Lange is Reader in Hebrew and Jewish Studies inthe University of Cambridge. A distinguished scholar and transla-tor and a rabbi, he is author of the popular Atlas of the Jewish Worldand Judaism. His many translations include novels by Israeli writerssuch as Amos Oz and A. B. Yehoshua. With Cambridge, Dr deLange has published Origen and the Jews and the English translationof Oz’s Under this Blazing Light.

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AN INTRODUCTION TOJUDAISM

NICHOLAS DE LANGEUniversity of Cambridge






The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom

The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge , UK http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk

West th Street, New York, -, USA http://www.cup.org Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne , Australia

© Nicholas de Lange

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions ofrelevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place

without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

Typeset in Monotype Baskerville /1⁄2 []

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data

De Lange, N. R. M. (Nicholas Robert Michael), 1944–An introduction to Judaism / Nicholas de Lange.

p. cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.

‒‒‒ (hb). Judaism. . Title..

‒dc ‒

hardback paperback






For Alexander






Contents

List of tables page xList of illustrations xiPreface xiiChronology xivMap of the Jewish world in xviMap of the Jewish world in the s xix

The Jews in the world Who are the Jews? Facts and figures Natives or immigrants? The Jews throughout the world

North America Israel Former Soviet Bloc countries The European Union Latin America

The Jewish people and its past The Jewish nation Enemies of the nation

Universalism Assimilation Individualism Dispersion Fragmentation Genocide

Jewish books The Bible The prayer book

vii






The Talmud The Shulhan Arukh The Zohar The Guide of the Perplexed

The Jewish religion Traditional Judaism The modernist reform Radical alternatives

The family The family as a unit The Jewish home: space The Jewish home: time Rites of passage

The community The Jewish community and how it works The synagogue The worship of the synagogue Religious services The cycle of the year Moments of life Other communal institutions

God and the Jewish people The Jews and God Sources of Jewish theology

The Bible Midrash and Haggadah The philosophers Mystical approaches The liturgy as a source of theology

God in the twentieth century Hermann Cohen and his legacy American Jewish theology God and the Shoah New issues

Objectives Holiness Obedience

viii Contents






Righteousness Faith Fear Love Bringing the Messiah Repairing the world Making peace After life

Judaism and the future External pressures Demographic trends Political aspects Social aspects Religious pluralism Theological developments

Glossary Further reading Index

Contents ix






Illustrations

Torah scroll and pointer page The Rabbinic Bible (Mikraot Gedolot) A page of the Babylonian Talmud The Jewish calendar The ten Sefirot Tefillin (phylacteries)

x






Tables

Chronology page xiv. Countries with the largest Jewish populations, . Metropolitan areas with largest Jewish populations, . American States with the largest Jewish populations, . Books of the Bible

xi






Preface

This book is intended for students of religion and others who seek anintroduction to Judaism. It is, as its title says, an introduction, andnothing more. Some suggestions for further reading are given at the end.I hope I have covered the main points, without becoming too embroiledin details. I make no apology, however, for including a certain numberof quotations, from the prayer book and other sources, because Judaismis a text-based religion, and to describe beliefs or rituals without givingtexts would be to offer a very faint glimpse.

The focus throughout is on contemporary Judaism. Insofar as I delveinto history, I do so through the eyes of the present. There are manybooks which tell the story of the Jewish people, but what matters for thisintroduction is the way that the past is perceived today and the ways thatit affects contemporary Judaism.

Judaism today is very fragmented, as I have tried to explain in thebook, and I have been careful to try to do justice to the different strands,roughly in proportion to their numerical importance. If I have been lessthan fair to secular Judaism that is because it does not yet seem to be asarticulate about itself as the other trends.

The main centres of Judaism today are in the United States andIsrael, and I have tried to reflect that importance in the book. However,I have also referred to Judaism in Europe, not only before the SecondWorld War but today as well. Although the heyday of European Judaismlies in the past, it cannot be written off.

I have designed the book so that the chapters can be read in any order,and have deliberately included some repetition and cross-reference tothat end. However, I believe there is a certain logic in the order in whichthe subject is presented, and recommend readers to follow the goodadvice to ‘begin at the beginning’.

I acknowledge that my attempts to avoid sexist language may seemhalf-hearted. I have aimed at a compromise between accuracy and

xii






elegance, and I know I have not always succeeded. It is hard to avoidsexism completely when writing about Judaism, because it pervades thesources. I do hope, though, that when I refer to God as ‘he’ I do not givethe impression that he has a sex or gender, and I sincerely hope I do notuse the word ‘Jew’ to mean ‘male Jew’.

Since this is an introduction, I have allowed myself to use a simplifiedsystem of transliteration of Hebrew, which aims to give an approxima-tion of the pronunciation, rather than to permit words to be retran-scribed directly into the Hebrew alphabet. There are pitfalls: inparticular, the letter h is used for two Hebrew letters, one of which is aharder sound than English h. Those readers who know some Hebrewshould have no difficulty in identifying the transliterated words, but foradded clarity I have inserted a more exact transcription of each word inthe Glossary.

I have incurred many debts while writing this book. I must thank theWeizmann Institute, Rehovot, for offering me shelter while I wasresearching the Israeli aspects, and the Oxford Centre for Hebrew andJewish Studies, Yarnton, for similar hospitality during the writing. Iderived terrestrial and intellectual nourishment from friends in bothplaces. I am grateful to my students in Cambridge and during a briefstay at the Free University of Berlin for letting me test out my ideas onthem, and for trusting me with some of their own. Several friends haveoffered advice and suggestions, for which I am duly grateful. Finally, mywarm thanks to my mother and to my children for not letting me straytoo far from reality, and for putting me right on lots of details.

Preface xiii






Chronology

c. BCE Suggested date for Exodus of Israelites from Egyptc. BCE Kingdom of David and Solomonc. BCE First Temple BCE Sargon of Assyria conquers kingdom of Israel BCE First Temple destroyed by Babylonians.

Babylonian exile. Beginning of eastern Diasporac. BCE Second Temple– BCE Conquests of Alexander the Great BCE Revolt of the Maccabees (Hasmoneans) against

Seleucid rule BCE Hasmoneans capture Jerusalem. Hasmonean

dynasty– BCE Herod the Great king of Judaea– CE Great revolt; sack of Jerusalem by Romans ( CE)– Flavius Josephus, Jewish War

– Diaspora revolt– Bar Kokhba revoltc. Mishnah compiled Emperor Constantine establishes tolerance of

Christianity: beginning of Christian dominancec. Jerusalem Talmud compiled Beginning of the Geonic period; Babylonian

Talmud compiledeighth century Rise of Karaism– Rashi Crusaders massacre Jews in Rhineland– Maimonidesc. Zohar compiled First printed Hebrew Bible Unbaptised Jews expelled from Spain

xiv






– Isaac Luria Shulhan Arukh published– Shabbetai Tsvi Jews arrive in New Amsterdam– Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism– Elijah of Vilna (the ‘Vilna Gaon’)– Moses Mendelssohn First public synagogue in New York Russian Pale of Settlement, Jews of France

emancipated First Reformed congregation in Hamburg Union of American Hebrew Congregationsfrom Pogroms in Russia; rise of antisemitism; migrations– First aliyah (Zionist immigration to Israel) Codification of Reform Judaism (Pittsburgh

Platform) Jewish Theological Seminary of America– ‘Dreyfus Affair’ in France First Zionist Congress; founding of the Bund

(Jewish Workers’ Union) Emancipation in Russia following the Revolution;

Balfour Declaration– Palestine under British Mandate Founding of Hebrew University of Jerusalem– Nazi persecution; the Holocaust Birobidzhan proclaimed ‘Jewish Autonomous

Oblast’ World Jewish Congress State of Israel founded Six Day War Yom Kippur War

Chronology xv






xvi

Map of the Jewish world in (a)






xvii

Map of the Jewish world in (b)






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Map of the Jewish world in (c)






Map

of

the

Jew

ish

wor

ld in

the

s (a

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xx

Map of the Jewish world in the s (b)






xxi

Map of the Jewish world in the s (c)






xxii

Map of the Jewish world in the s (d)






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