Rel100 Judaism

Front 1

monotheistic

Back 1

Judaism is ______________ . Judaism is the oldest of the three _______________ "Abrahamic faiths" all of which trace their origins back to a single patriarch: Abraham. ________________ is an idea that developed gradually over the course of the early history of Judaism.

Front 2

invisible

Back 2

In addition to being their only god, the god of the Jews is an ______________ god. In the Bible God declared himself to be beyond any human efforts to depict or imagine him. This resistance to the use of religious images made Judaism unusual among the cultures in which Judaism first arose. To this day, Judaism has preserved its prohibition against making images of God.

Front 3

covenant

Back 3

From the beginning, the Jews had a special relationship to their God who had chosen them to be his people. This relationship is referred to as a ______________: God made certain promises to the Hebrew people and they in turn promised fidelity to him alone. Eventually this developed into the conviction that this god was in fact the only God, of the universe and of all peoples. Judaism eventually committed itself to a strict monotheism. In the face of this turn to a universal God, how were Jews to preserve the other important facet of their tradition: that God had chosen them, as a people?

Front 4

peoplehood

Back 4

First bred in an environment in which different tribes worshiped their own gods and competed for land and resources, the idea of ______________ has followed Judaism into a world very different from that into which it was born. This has had important consequences for how Judaism has developed and related to other religions among which it has lived. Among other things, the idea of peoplehood has made Judaism function as both an ethnic group and a religion at various points in its history.

Front 5

the concept of history as sacred

Back 5

In addition to monotheism, Judaism pioneered another religious notion that eventually came to be of great importance for the other Western religions: ______________. Other religions had myths and legends, stories of creation and the interaction of important ancestors with the gods. Judaism made these interactions a continuing saga of God's relationship to his chosen people with new events continually being added.

Front 6

orthopraxis

Back 6

A specific conception of religious duty developed out of the concern for the people's ongoing relationship to God. Rather than thinking in terms of what each individual believed about God, Jews thought mostly in terms of how the community related to God. As a result, the most important facet of Judaism became not orthodoxy, or correct belief, but ______________ , or correct practice.

Front 7

orthopraxis

Back 7

A specific conception of religious duty developed out of the concern for the people's ongoing relationship to God. Rather than thinking in terms of what each individual believed about God, Jews thought mostly in terms of how the community related to God. As a result, the most important facet of Judaism became not orthodoxy, or correct belief, but ______________ , or correct practice.

Front 8

orthopraxis

Back 8

A specific conception of religious duty developed out of the concern for the people's ongoing relationship to God. Rather than thinking in terms of what each individual believed about God, Jews thought mostly in terms of how the community related to God. As a result, the most important facet of Judaism became not orthodoxy, or correct belief, but ______________ , or correct practice.

Front 9

theology

Back 9

To this day, Judaism is more concerned with how Jews and the Jewish community follow God's law than it is with precisely what Jews believe about God. This means that ______________ (literally, the study of God) is relatively unimportant in Judaism ared with the role that it plays in religions like Christianity. Being a good Jew is predominantly about following Jewish law, not about believing anything in particular about God.

Front 10

Thirteen Principles of Faith

Back 10

Though Maimonides' ______________ reads like a creed, an official statement of belief, Jews are in no way required to affirm each of these claims about God and the Jewish people. Still, the ______________ are a regular part of Jewish prayer and they are helpful in framing a discussion of the basic principles of Judaism.

Front 11

7

Back 11

______________ of the thirteen principles of faith directly address the nature of God, affirming commitments to monotheism and iconoclasm:

• God is Creator and Guide.

• God is One in a unique Way.

• God does not have a physical form.

• God is eternal.

• God and God alone is to be worshiped.

• God is all-knowing.

• God gives rewards and punishments.

Front 12

6

Back 12

______________ of the thirteen principles of faith articulate the belief that God enters into human history to interact with the Jewish people, and will do so in the future, giving history a beginning, a middle, and an end:

• God has revealed his will through the prophets.

• Moses is the greatest of the prophets.

• The Torah was revealed to Moses.

• The Torah is eternal and unchanging.

• The Messiah will come.

• The dead will be resurrected.

Front 13

minority religion

Back 13

Judaism has been a ______________ everywhere at it has existed for nearly the past two thousand years. Not only has it been a ______________ , it has been regarded with suspicion or hostility by most of the majority religion with which it has co-existed.

Front 14

anti-Semitism

Back 14

Part of the hostility historically directed toward the Jews (called ______________ ) has to do with factors internal to the religion. Once Judaism came to see itself as worshiping the only true God, it automatically devalued the religions of its neighbors. Since converting to Judaism was not a trivial matter, Judaism's neighboring groups could not easily adopt this one true God as their own.

Front 15

Christianity

Back 15

The majority of anti-Semitism has been provoked by external factors, most especially the emergence of ______________ as its own religion. Judaism long had a tradition of awaiting the Messiah, a figure promised to bring a new and better world into being. When the early followers of Jesus declared him to be the Messiah, this was destined to create a rift within Judaism.

Front 16

Messiah

Back 16

The fact that most Jews refused to acknowledge Jesus as the ______________ was a constant irritant to many Christians. As Christianity rapidly spread and became a majority religion in Europe, the church resented the fact that its power was not complete, that it had not managed to convince the Jews that the coming of Jesus was the most important event yet in God's interaction with humanity.

Front 17

Muslim

Back 17

Jews also settled in areas that came to be ruled by ______________(s). In general, Jews fared better under ______________ rule than Christian rule. Some of the same religious tensions played a role even among ______________(s), however. As an ethnic minority that refused to be absorbed into the Islamic empire, the Jews were generally refused citizenship and any public role in the ______________ societies in which they lived.

Front 18

ghettoes

Back 18

In Christian Europe, Jews were frequently denied the opportunity to own land. Since they could not farm, Jews tended to become concentrated in urban areas. There they were restricted to certain neighborhoods that came to be referred to as "______________ ." After a papal decree in 1215 CE, Jews in many parts of Europe were forced to wear a yellow star to distinguish them from Christians. Also, in most of Europe during the Middle Ages, Jews were restricted to certain occupations that were either unpopular or taboo for Christians.

Front 19

interest

Back 19

Banking was an occupation that came to be thought of as dominantly Jewish. At certain points in history, the church forbade Christians to take ______________ on loans. Christians could loan money, but without being able to charge ______________ , they had little motivation to do so. However, Christians, like everyone else in the world, had occasion to want to borrow money. Judaism did not prohibit taking ______________ on loans, so Jews were able to fill this market need and they became moneylenders. The same phenomenon emerged in the Muslim world.

Front 20

parsimonious, heartless, and money-grubbing

Back 20

Unfortunately, the concentration of Jews in banking only led to more anti-Semitism. Christians wanted to borrow money, but no one enjoys paying money back, especially with interest. So through no fault of their own, Jews gained a reputation for being ______________, ______________, and ______________ . To many Europeans, it looked as though the Jews, who were already under suspicion for religious reasons, were getting rich off the sufferings and setbacks of Christians.

Front 21

the blood libel

Back 21

Christian anti-Semitism manifested itself in a variety of ways. One of the most extreme was ______________ . This stemmed from the run bizarre conviction on the part of some Europeans that Jews required the blood of Christian babies to make their Passover matzah. Obviously there was never even a sliver of truth behind these accusations. Nevertheless, they resulted in severe persecution of many Jewish communities in Europe.

Front 22

The Holocaust

Back 22

The ultimate expression of Christian anti-Semitism came in the middle of the twentieth century in Europe, long after people had come to believe that such persecutions could no longer be possible in "civilized" nations. Under the National Socialist government in Germany during World War II, six million Jews were murdered in death camps for no other crime than being Jewish.

What event was this?

Front 23

Warsaw

Back 23

In general, European Jews lacked the means to revolt against the Holocaust. They were told they were going to concentration camps, not death camps. They thought they might protect themselves from further harm by going willingly. However, there was one famous incident in which a group of Jews blockaded themselves into their restricted neighborhood in ______________ and fought off German soldiers for many weeks. Within the walls of the ghetto in ______________ , Poland, the Jews continued to pray and celebrate the holidays of the Jewish tradition. Eventually, the rebellion of the ______________ Jews was overcome by the military might of the National Socialists. The Jews of ______________ died by violence, as did so many other European Jews.

Front 24

last

Back 24

The Holocaust was not the first systematic persecution of Jews. There has been a long, painful history of such persecutions. Many ardently hope that if the memory of the Holocaust is kept alive, it will stand in history as the ______________ persecution of the Jews.

Front 25

orthopraxis

Back 25

A specific conception of religious duty developed out of the concern for the people's ongoing relationship to God. Rather than thinking in terms of what each individual believed about God, Jews thought mostly in terms of how the community related to God. As a result, the most important facet of Judaism became not orthodoxy, or correct belief, but ______________ , or correct practice.

Front 26

Tanakh

Back 26

The entirety of scriptures sacred to Jewish people are called the ______________. "______________" is an acronym for the three major portions of the Hebrew scriptures: the Torah (Teachings), the Nevi'im (Prophets), and the Ketuvim (Writings). These scriptures were transmitted orally for many generations until they began to be set down in writing around 900 BCE. They took their final form by 200 BCE.

Front 27

"the Hebrew scriptures" or "the Hebrew Bible."

Back 27

The Tanakh is nearly the same set of writings that Christians call the Old Testament. But since the term Old Testament implies that the "old" was superseded by the "new," this is not how Jews refer to their own scriptures and it is not considered a respectful way for outsiders to refer to them. Instead they are called ___________________________.

Front 28

Torah

Back 28

The ______________ , sometimes called the Pentateuch because it consists of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), is the most important part of the Hebrew Bible. Traditionally, it is said that God gave the ______________ to the prophet Moses. Scholars believe the ______________ is composed of various writings that later editors mingled together.

Front 29

Prophets

Back 29

The second major section of the Hebrew Bible is called the ______________ (Nevi'im). It tells stories of those individuals who surfaced during Jewish history to bring a message to the Jewish people from God. The message of each of the prophets was generally the same: the Jewish people should keep their covenant with God, and they should not worship other gods, but should concentrate on keeping the one God's commandments.

Front 30

Ketuvim

Back 30

The third major section of the Hebrew Bible is more of a miscellany, including psalms and songs of praise to God, proverbs, and short stories that contain important moral lessons for the Jewish people.

Front 31

canon

Back 31

The various books that form the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, were finally selected to form a ______________ (an officially approved set of books for Judaism) around 90 CE. Once the canon was established, nothing more could be added. Yet new books were constantly being written to further discuss and elucidate the content and meaning of the Jewish people's covenant with God. Gradually these came together to form another set of Jewish writings called the Talmud.

Front 32

Talmud

Back 32

The significance of the later writings that form the ______________ was established within Judaism with the argument that they represented an "oral Torah" that had been handed down by the rabbis or teachers of the Jewish tradition. So even though the ______________ was not written down until much later than the Hebrew Bible, it is said to accurately complement and extend the written Torah.

Front 33

Midrash

Back 33

The Talmud was generated by a process that Jews call ______________ . ______________ can be described as "writing the Torah forward." As new dilemmas arose for the Jewish people, Jews sought answers in the Torah, the source of Jewish law and the record of God's covenant with the Jewish people. Through ______________ , the Jews articulated what the Torah "meant to say" or "would have said" in reference to these new situations.

Front 34

Mishnah

Back 34

The Jewish commentary on the Torah began as soon as the Torah itself was completed in 200 BCE. By 200 CE, it formed a book known as the ______________ . The _______________ was defended as "a fence around the Torah." By creating additional laws, the ______________ protected the law found in the Torah, the unchangeable core of the tradition.

Front 35

Gemara

Back 35

Once the Mishnah was completed, it in turn became another source for commentary and discussion. The commentary on the Mishnah, which is itself a commentary on the Torah, is called the ______________ . The ______________ is composed of two overlapping versions of the Talmud. The first, the Palestinian Talmud, was completed around 400 CE; the second, the Babylonian Talmud, was completed around 600 CE and is usually regarded as more authoritative.

Front 36

Study

Back 36

Judaism is a religion of learning and ___________, of texts and debates. The ability to __________ texts carefully, to think logically, and to argue persuasively are all qualities that became extremely important within Judaism. Like so much else, these characteristics underscore the importance of orthopraxis for Jewish life.

Front 37

herders

Back 37

There was nothing about the early Hebrews that would have caused one to expect them to launch a world religion, one that would later stand as ancestor to the two largest religions in the world today (Christianity and Islam). The Hebrews were a small group of ______________. What we know of their earliest history is entirely what they chose to tell us in the Hebrew scriptures, since they are not present in other accounts of ancient Near Eastern history.

Front 38

Genesis

Back 38

The beginning of the Hebrew Bible, the book of ______________ relates the story of how God created the world. There are two accounts of creation in ______________: the first is a broad mythic story of the separation of darkness and light, waters and earth, and eventually, the creation of human beings in the image of God.

Front 39

knowledge of good and evil

Back 39

The second creation account, which is told in Genesis, relates the story of the first people, Adam and Eve. God creates for them a paradise, the Garden of Eden, giving them freedom to enjoy it so long as they do not eat the fruit of a particular tree, the tree of the ______________. Adam and Eve disobey God, eating the fruit from the tree. As a result, they are cast out of the garden.

Front 40

Garden of Eden

Back 40

Once cast out of the ______________ by God, people were condemned to suffer pain and hardships. The early chapters of Genesis record a number of poor choices made by early humans, all of which were answered with divine punishment. The most famous of these punishments was a great flood in which God sought to destroy the entire world except for one man, Noah, and his family.

Front 41

only God

Back 41

Jewish history proper is usually said to begin with God's covenant with the first of Judaism's great patriarchs, Abraham. Abraham, who is thought to have lived around 2000 BCE, moved from his home in Ur (in present day Iraq) to the land of Canaan (present day Israel and adjoining Arab states) at God's request. God promised Abraham land, descendants "more numerous than the stars in the sky," and divine protection. In return, Abraham promised that this God would be their ______________.

Front 42

Isaac

Back 42

According to the book of Genesis, Abraham did as he was told and moved to Canaan. He and his wife Sarah were unable to bear children, so, as was common practice at the time, Abraham had a child with Sarah's servant, Hagar. After this child, Ishmael, was born, God told Sarah that even though she was in her nineties, she too would soon bear a son and would name him ______________.

Front 43

faith

Back 43

God tested Abraham's ______________ by demanding that he sacrifice his beloved son Isaac, killing him with a knife on a makeshift altar in the area that was to become Jerusalem. Abraham was ready to comply (over Sarah's protests), but at the last minute, God, convinced of Abraham's loyalty, relented and allowed a ram to be sacrificed in place of Isaac.

Front 44

Rebecca

Back 44

Isaac married one of the matriarchs of Jewish tradition, ______________, and had two sons: Esau and Jacob. At Rebecca's insistence and through her cunning, Jacob stole from Esau the blessing of the first-born that by right should have belonged to Esau. After this deception, Jacob had to leave home. While on his journey to live with his mother's brother, Laban, Jacob dreamt of a ladder connecting heaven and earth.

Front 45

Leah

Back 45

When Jacob arrived in the land of his Uncle Laban, he immediately fell in love with his cousin Rachel. He arranged to marry her in exchange for seven years of work for his Uncle Laban, but when the seven years were up, Laban tricked Jacob into marrying ______________, Rachel's sister, instead. When Jacob insisted upon marrying Rachel, Laban insisted on another seven years of labor.

Front 46

land of Canaan

Back 46

Between his wives, Rachel and Leah, and two concubines, Jacob had twelve sons (the daughters, in general, were not considered worth mentioning in this patriarchal culture, though there was at least one, Dinah). Each of these sons would become the ancestor of one of the so-called twelve tribes of Israel that laid claim to parcels of land throughout the ______________.

Front 47

Joseph

Back 47

______________, Rachel's child, was Jacob's favorite son. Jacob's other sons disliked their brother Joseph because they sensed their father's favoritism toward him. Additionally provoked by Joseph's revelatory dreams in which he always surpassed his brothers in importance, the brothers sold ______________ into slavery, and he was taken to Egypt. By dint of his hard work and intelligence, Joseph rose in importance in Egypt. During a famine, he brought all his family to live there.

Front 48

the first Jews

Back 48

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are still seen as ______________, the patriarchs of the tradition, just as Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah are its matriarchs. Increasingly, however, scholars have questioned whether these people ever existed, or if they are mythic figures used to explain the origin of the Hebrew people and how they came to live in slavery in Egypt.

Front 49

basket

Back 49

The sacred narrative of the history of the Hebrew people continues in the person of Moses. As the Hebrew Bible tells it, the Egyptian Pharaoh, concerned that the Hebrew slaves were becoming too numerous, ordered that all newborn boys should be killed. Moses's mother saved him by placing him in a ______________ and putting him in the shallows of the Nile River.

Front 50

the Pharaoh's wrath

Back 50

Moses was found in the Nile River by the Pharaoh's daughter, who returned him to his mother to nurse, promising to pay wages to Moses's mother and later adopt him into the royal family. As a young man, Moses was upset by the treatment the Hebrews received. When he killed an Egyptian overseer, he had to run away to the land of Midian, to the south, to avoid ______________.

Front 51

a burning bush

Back 51

While Moses was living in the land of Midian, God appeared to him in the form of ______________. God told Moses he must go to the Pharaoh and demand the release of the Hebrew slaves. He said Moses could rely on his demonstrations of power to ensure the Pharaoh's cooperation. After God sent ten plagues in succession upon the Egyptian people, the Pharaoh released the Hebrew slaves and they returned to Canaan.

Front 52

The Exodus

Back 52

After the Hebrew slaves left Egypt, the Pharaoh had a change of heart and sent his army to pursue them. The Hebrew slaves managed to escape with the help of another miracle from God: Standing on the shore of a lake, Moses raised his staff and the waters parted so that the Hebrews could walk through on dry land. After the Hebrews had passed through safely, the waters closed again, drowning the Egyptian soldiers.

Front 53

1300 BCE

Back 53

Counting back from later, more historically verified events, scholars have traditionally given a date of about ______________ to the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt. Jewish scripture says the journey back to Canaan took forty years. Moses died before the journey was complete. Before he died, while the Hebrews were encamped near Mount Sinai, it is said that God gave the Torah to Moses.

Front 54

False gods

Back 54

After Moses's death, the Hebrews were led by a succession of military generals beginning with Joshua. The Hebrews, who believed God guaranteed their military victory, attacked the peoples who lived in the land of Canaan. As recorded in the Hebrew scriptures, these attacks were incredibly violent, and aimed at the complete destruction of peoples who were deemed to be worshiping "______________."

Front 55

King David

Back 55

The first king of Israel, Saul, had a brief reign. He was followed by ______________ , the most famous of the kings of Israel. David is said to have reigned for forty years (from 1013 to 973 BCE). Many of the psalms found in the Hebrew Bible are credited to ______________ . ______________ established Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel and made plans for the construction of a temple there where the sacrifices God required of them could be carried out.

Front 56

Solomon

Back 56

It was David's son, ______________, who oversaw the construction of the temple in Jerusalem after King David's death. Solomon, unlike all the kings, prophets, judges, patriarchs, and matriarchs of Jewish tradition that came before, is the first Jewish leader whose existence is mentioned in non-Jewish sources. Israel continued to be a military kingdom, though a comparatively small one, and it judged the status of its relationship with God based on its military victories and defeats.

Front 57

Babylonian Exile

Back 57

The Babylonians conquered the Southern Kingdom of Judah in 586 BCE (a bit later than the Northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians). In the course of this military victory, the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jewish elite was taken to live in Babylon. This period is known as the ______________. For the first time in many centuries, the Jewish people had to find ways to be Jewish that did not include the centrally important temple sacrifices.

Front 58

Persians

Back 58

The ______________ relented in 538 BCE and let the Jews return to Israel (though some Jews stayed on in Babylon, establishing a Jewish presence outside the land of Israel). Within a generation, the Jews rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem, and returned to their earlier religious practices. However, the Jews never really recaptured their earlier military might, and Israel was governed in turn by the ______________, Egyptians, Syrians, and the Roman Empire.

Front 59

Roman Empire

Back 59

When Israel was taken over by the ______________ in 63 BCE, the Jews there began to struggle internally over how to define themselves. There was a conservative faction, known as the Sadducees, who defined Judaism almost solely in relation to the life of the temple in Jerusalem, and a more liberal faction, known as the Pharisees, who conceived of Judaism more in terms of the traditions of scripture and law handed down by Moses.

Front 60

the diaspora

Back 60

After another, even more disastrous rebellion in 132 CE (the Bar Kokhba rebellion), the Romans decreed that Jews could no longer live in Jerusalem. The Jews then dispersed throughout the Roman Empire to the north, south, and west, as well as into neighboring empires in the east. Following this migration, which is known as ______________, Jews have lived as a minority group in cultures and empires throughout Europe, Asia, and northern Africa.

Front 61

temple sacrifices

Back 61

The destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, and the diaspora of Jews to lands outside Israel had a decisive impact on Judaism. With the destruction of the Second Temple, Jews had to devise ways to practice their religion that were not centered on ______________ ,, and a means of understanding themselves as a people and a religion that was not linked to a particular geographical space.

Front 62

synagogues

Back 62

The change in Judaism from a focus on temple sacrifices and a geographic place had been presaged during the Babylonian Exile, when Jews met not at the First Temple in Jerusalem, which had been destroyed, but at ______________ (“meeting places") where they prayed and studied scriptures. Jewish teachers, or rabbis, led the Jewish people in this direction after the diaspora in 132 CE, centering Jewish life around community and scripture, synagogue and prayer.

Front 63

the Roman Empire

Back 63

After the diaspora, Jews moved quickly to communities around the Mediterranean Sea, and throughout ______________. Jewish communities had to learn to relate not only to the pagan religions and governments that had long surrounded and even ruled them, but also to the emerging Christian movement. As the political map was redrawn over the next millennium, Judaism was functionally split into two major geographical groupings known as the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim.

Front 64

Sephardic Jews

Back 64

The ______________ were those who lived in the Middle East, northern Africa, and Spain. ______________ spoke Ladino, a combination of Spanish and Hebrew. Especially under Muslim rule, which was generally kinder to the Jewish religion than was Christian rule, ______________ developed strong traditions of scholarship and philosophy. When the Jews (along with the Muslims) were evicted from Spain in 1492, most of the Sephardic Jews moved to Turkey and further eastward, where they rejoined Jews who had lived in these lands from the time of the diaspora.

Front 65

mother

Back 65

During the diaspora, Jewishness was determined matrilineally. That is, children were deemed Jewish if their ______________ was Jewish, whether their father was Jewish or not. Children of a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother were non-Jewish, unless they converted.

Front 66

father

Back 66

Interestingly, the mitochondrial DNA (that which passes solely from mother to child) of Jews is more similar to that of other Jews from opposite ends of the earth than it is to that of the non-Jews they have lived among for hundreds and hundreds of years. This seems to confirm that although there was intermarriage, Jews adhered fairly strictly to the rule of Judaism being passed through the mother rather than the ______________.

Front 67

Ashkenazim

Back 67

In addition to the Sephardim, the other major grouping of Jews in the diaspora was the ______________, those Jews living in what became Christian Europe, mostly central and Eastern Europe. Ashkenazic Jews spoke Yiddish, a combination of German and Hebrew. Because Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews continued to read the same scriptures and speak the same prayers, there was a surprising similarity between the two groups. Local differences in language, customs, and musical and artistic styles developed, however.

Front 68

isolated in ghettoes

Back 68

Jewish life did not change dramatically over the centuries of the diaspora because Jews in Europe were frequently ______________. The rule established in the diaspora of meeting in synagogues and focusing on scripture and prayer continued unbroken. There were, however, some innovations in Jewish life during the Middle Ages in Europe.

Front 69

Kabbalah

Back 69

One innovation within Judaism during the Middle Ages was a mystical school of Judaism known as ______________. Mystical strands of Judaism existed even before the diaspora, but Kabbalah became much more prominent in the Middle Ages after the Zohar, or Book of Splendor, became well known. The Zohar was said to have been written in the first century CE, but now it is thought Moses de Leon, a Spanish Jew, probably wrote it in the thirteenth century.

Front 70

sefirot

Back 70

The world is seen by the Kabbalists as permeated by God, and by God's attributes, known in Hebrew as the ______________. According to the Kabbalah, there are ten of these sefirot, including qualities like Wisdom, Love, Beauty, and Understanding, which bridge the human and divine worlds. For each of these attributes of God there are many correspondences (specific colors, Hebrew prophets, body parts, and so forth) that are thought to be significantly linked.

Front 71

evil

Back 71

Like all religious systems, Judaism has had to explain the existence of ______________ in the world. Beginning in the period of the Babylonian Exile, Jews sometimes spoke of Satan, an evil force with at least semi-divine power. The Kabbalah sees evil differently, as an imbalance between the qualities of Judgment (restraint, or limitation) and Love (freedom), or as a corruption of divine forces that can be repaired.

Front 72

charismatic Jewish leader

Back 72

Jews continued to be persecuted throughout the Middle Ages, and were periodically exiled from one country or another. Just as the hardships suffered under Roman rule triggered hopes of a coming Messiah, these later hardships renewed that hope. In the seventeenth century, many Jews felt sure that the Messiah had arrived in the person of Shabbatai Tzvi, a ______________.

Front 73

convert

Back 73

Shabbatai Tzvi eventually traveled to Istanbul with the intent of demanding that the Sultan turn over his throne to him, thus transferring the entire Ottoman Empire to Shabbatai Tzvi, the Jewish messiah. However, when Shabbatai Tzvi arrived in Istanbul, he was imprisoned and given the option of either converting to Islam or being put to death. Shabbatai Tzvi chose to ______________, shattering the hopes of thousands upon thousands of Jews.

Front 74

Hasidism

Back 74

Another movement that emerged out of the atmosphere of repeated persecutions and dashed hopes in Europe was ______________. Begun in the early eighteenth century by Israel ben Eliezer, who became known as the Baal Shem Tov ("good master of the Holy Name"), the Hasidic movement was a response to the posture of scholarship and legalism that dominated Ashkenazic Jewish life at that time. Hasidism encouraged Jews not to await the messiah, but to be with God in the present.

Front 75

universal

Back 75

Hasidism appealed to a great manyEuropean Jews in Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Especially in western Europe where there seemed to be a growing tolerance for Jews among the Christian majority, another path was that of assimilation. Many Jews believed they should abandon their ghettoes and join the modern world by making Judaism a "______________" religion rather than an ethnic one.

Front 76

Reform movement

Back 76

In Germany, the desire of many Jews for Jewish modernization triggered the ______________, which advocated the use of the German language (rather than Hebrew) during worship and a more relaxed attitude toward Jewish law. The path of Reform failed miserably in Germany, where the anti-Semitism that had persisted for many centuries of Christian history exploded in the particularly horrific form of the Holocaust. Reform fared better in America, to where European Jews increasingly migrated.

Front 77

America

Back 77

More Jews reside in ______________ than anywhere in the world, even Israel.

Front 78

Germany

Back 78

The first Jews to arrive in America came in 1654 and settled in New Amsterdam (what is today New York). They were few in number and did not succeed in establishing thriving Jewish communities in the American colonies. The first really substantial wave of Jewish immigration to America came between 1820 and 1880, when roughly 250,000 Jews came to the United States, mostly from ______________.

Front 79

central and eastern Europe

Back 79

The first German Jewish immigrants were the Uniter mostly middle-class, fairly assimilated Jews who practiced Reform Judaism and brought it with them to America. They were followed by a much larger wave of Jewish immigrants from 1880 to 1923 (the year that the United States passed stricter immigration laws). During these years, approximately three million Jews immigrated to the United States from ______________.

Front 80

Reform Jews

Back 80

In the United States, ______________ continued their project of liberalizing as the Judaism, often in the belief that this was only way that Judaism could survive into the modern era. ______________ rarely value tradition for its own sake, and insist on the importance of change and adaptation for any living religion. Initially ______________ looked like an imitation of Christianity.

Front 81

Orthodox Jews

Back 81

In contrast to Reform Jews, ______________ stick as closely as possible to Jewish tradition, and particularly to the Jewish law as laid down in the Torah and Talmud. Because they sometimes dress distinctively and observe religious practices that appear strange to outsiders, ______________ stand out more than do Reform Jews to non-Jewish Americans. Before coming to America, ______________ would not have been called "orthodox".

Front 82

Conservative

Back 82

______________ Judaism developed as an option for all those Jews who wished to find a middle way between Orthodox and Reform Judaism. For decades, ______________ Judaism was the most popular branch of American Judaism, though now that honor goes to Reform Judaism. ______________ Jews pray in Hebrew and officially proclaim adherence to Jewish law, but they are also willing to change tradition when they feel that this will help keep Jewish practice alive. So, for example, ______________ Jews (unlike Orthodox Jews) are permitted to drive their cars on the Sabbath, the day of worship, so they will be better able to attend synagogue services. ______________ Jews have also come to ordain women as rabbis and to allow men and women to sit together in gender-mixed congregations (another practice that Orthodox Jews do not follow).

Front 83

Reconstructionist

Back 83

______________ Judaism is a smaller, more recent type of Judaism, and the only one to have been created in the United States. Mordechai Kaplan (1881-1983) founded ______________ Judaism. He believed that for Judaism to survive, it needed to abandon its claim that the Jews are the people chosen by God and instead identify itself as a people who choose God, with God described in the broadest possible terms.

Front 84

Intermarriage

Back 84

It has become increasingly common for American Jews to meet and marry non-Jews. The ghetto pattern that kept the Jewish people relatively separate from Christians in Europe was broken down in America. ______________, as it is called, has become an important issue for American Jews. The different branches of Judaism have responded to the phenomenon in distinctive ways that plainly illustrate their overall approach to Jewish identity.

Front 85

a non-Jewish partner

Back 85

Orthodox Jews, who typically see Judaism as both an ethnicity and a religion, would prefer to see Jews marry only other Jews. However, because they adhere to traditional Jewish law, they accept the possibility of conversion and will welcome ______________ who converts to Judaism into their community. When the non-Jewish partner does not convert it can be extremely divisive for Orthodox Jews and their families. Some parents regard their children who intermarry as having died and practice the Jewish rituals associated with death in respect to their intermarried children.

Front 86

Jews marrying other Jews

Back 86

Conservative Jews, like Orthodox Jews, have a strong preference for ______________, but in cases where the children of intermarriage are raised as Jews, they tend to be accepting of non-Jewish partners who do not convert. Intermarriage threatens a community whose survival was so recently challenged by the Holocaust, but if intermarried Jews are raising Jewish children, this poses less of a threat.

Front 87

their mothers are Jewish

Back 87

Reform Jews go farthest in accepting non-Jews into their midst, welcoming any children whose parents wish them to be Jews into their congregations whether or not ______________. Because demands for Jewish observance are mildest in Reform Judaism, this is often a place where intermarried couples can feel accepted whether or not the non-Jewish partner converts or even continues to practice another religion.

Front 88

a culture and an ethnicity

Back 88

Although Reconstructionist Jews are the most liberal of American Jews in many respects, they are less well disposed towards either intermarriage or conversion than are Reform Jews (and even some Conservative Jews) because they see Judaism as ______________ , and it is difficult to "convert" one's ethnicity. Through the issue of intermarriage, American Jews are actively exploring the contours of what it means to be Jewish in the twenty-first century.

Front 89

the Zionist Movement

Back 89

The modern state of Israel, which in the imagination of outsiders immediately raises images of violent terrorism and ethnic and religious conflict, has a fascinating history full of historical accidents and odd political bedfellows. Israel, as a contemporary Jewish state, was initially envisioned as a solution for the plight of Jews in Europe, and was advocated by a group of thinkers and activists who called themselves ______________.

Front 90

no such option

Back 90

The intellectual leader of the Zionist Movement was an Austrian Jew named Theodor Herzl. He reasoned that Jews would always be the target of hostility and oppression because, unlike practitioners of other religions, they had no land they could call their own. Christians, for example, could settle in non-Christian lands, but there were still nations to which they could return that were dominantly Christian. Jews had ______________.

Front 91

minority

Back 91

In the eyes of Herzl and other early Zionist leaders, Jews needed their own state so they could be free of the burden of always living as a ______________ within cultures that often despised them. What Herzl sought was not the religious ideal of a return to the land of Israel from which the Jews had been evicted in 132 CE, but a pragmatic solution to anti-Semitism.

Front 92

British

Back 92

Herzl and his compatriots considered a variety of possible homelands for the Jews in lands as far flung as Siberia, Australia, Peru, and Uganda. Two factors led the Zionist Movement to settle on the ancient land of Israel. First, some Zionists (though not Herzl) had a religious preference for Israel. Second, the ancient land of Israel came under ______________ control which was sympathetic to the Zionist project.

Front 93

mandates

Back 93

In the course of World War I, the old Islamic Ottoman Empire collapsed. After the war, the victors carved up the territories in the Middle East and agreed to govern them as "______________." This meant they would control the territories until the populations there were deemed adequately prepared for self-government. Lebanon and Syria went to France; Jordan and Palestine, which comprised the ancient land of Israel, went to Britain.

Front 94

Britain

Back 94

When Zionist Jews wished to immigrate to Palestine, they sought permission from the British, who were favorable to their cause. Zionists were willing to inject money, labor, and other resources into the land of Palestine, which benefited the British. Zionism also gave Jews someplace other than ______________ to which to immigrate when they faced discrimination in the lands where they had lived for centuries.

Front 95

Immigration

Back 95

Jewish ______________ to Palestine increased markedly in the years leading up to and during World War II, since this was one the few places to which European Jews could escape. one of The British, tiring of their responsibility over what was becoming a messy situation in Palestine between the new Jewish immigrants and other peoples living in the area, abruptly ended their mandate and pulled out of Palestine in 1947.

Front 96

Arabs

Back 96

Conflict between Israelis and ______________ (not only ______________ from Palestine, but from surrounding lands that did not welcome the prospect of absorbing Palestinian refugees) was never really resolved and continues to the present day. It persists in spite of military campaigns and earnest efforts at peaceful coexistence, both of which have aimed, unsuccessfully, at settling the conflict between Israelis and ______________ once and for all.

Front 97

hostile neighbors

Back 97

Israelis are not remotely close to agreeing with one another on what should be done regarding the continuing conflict with Palestinian and other Arabs. Some Israelis are happy to give large territories to the Palestinians in exchange for peace. Others either believe that this land is indisputably theirs, having been given to them by God, or that Israel must have expanded borders to be safe from its ______________.

Front 98

religious views

Back 98

Israelis have a wide range of ______________. Some Israelis see their role in returning to Jerusalem as one of messianic redemption and an opportunity to worship God and follow God's laws in the strictest way possible. However, the majority of Jews in Israel are not this orthodox in their religious practice, and many are completely secular, in keeping with Herzl's vision for a Zionist homeland.

Front 99

citizen

Back 99

According to the law of return established in 1948, any Jew can become a ______________ of Israel. Answering this call, roughly half of Israel's population comes from Sephardic areas in Africa and the Middle East, while half comes from Ashkenazic areas in Europe.

Front 100

opinions

Back 100

In addition to the first wave of immigrants to Israel, there have been whole Jewish groups that have come en masse to Israel (a country no larger than the state of New Jersey) in recent years. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many Russian Jews immigrated to Israel. In 1984, most of the Jews of Ethiopia were airlifted to Israel to escape famine and political hardships at home. Israel is filled with Jews speaking different languages, observing different customs, and, of course, having different ______________.

Front 101

the Dome of the Rock

Back 101

Although Jews once again live in the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem, no one, apart from a few hardline religious Zionists, has suggested that Israeli Jews should build the Third Temple. The Temple Mount, once home to the First and Second Temples of Israel, is now the site of ______________, an important Muslim mosque dating back to the seventh century CE. When Israel claimed possession of Jerusalem after the Six Day War in 1967, it ceded religious control of ______________ back to the Muslim authorities.

Front 102

Western Wall

Back 102

All that remains of the Second Temple is the wall that formed its western side. Today Jews from all over the world come to the ______________ to pray and worship and leave messages describing their hopes, dreams, and prayers tucked between its stones.

Front 103

Second Temple

Back 103

Especially since the destruction of the ______________, prayer has been an integral part of the practice of Judaism. There are blessings that can be recited for almost every act one might undertake, from waking up to going to bed at night. Traditionally, Jewish prayer is well scripted: prayers that have been committed to writing for many centuries are now recited, chanted, or sung at specific times.

Front 104

minyan

Back 104

According to Jewish law, there is a special obligation on the part of Jewish men to pray TA three times a day, a practice that today is observed mainly by Orthodox Jews and Jews who are in mourning. Public prayer traditionally requires the presence of at least ten Jewish men who together form what is called a minyan. Most non-Orthodox Jews today count Jewish women as well when making up a ______________.

Front 105

kippah

Back 105

Conservative and Orthodox men (and sometimes Conservative women) wear TA special clothing to pray: a tallit, or prayer shawl; a ______________, or skullcap; and two leather bands called tefillin. This clothing is described in the Hebrew scriptures and has been worn by Jews for many centuries.

Front 106

Tefillin

Back 106

______________ are worn in response to the biblical commandment to bind the teachings of God "as a sign upon your hand and frontlets between your eyes." Each one consists of a leather band attached to a small leather box that holds a piece of paper on which is written those passages from the Torah that relate to the wearing of tefillin. One leather box is worn over the forehead and tied around the head with leather bands; the other is placed on the upper arm, the leather bands wrapped around the forearm and hand numerous times.

Front 107

sh'ma

Back 107

The ______________ is part of most Jewish prayer, and is taken to be the central statement of faith for Jews.

Front 108

mezuzah

Back 108

The sh'ma is written on paper and encased within small metal, plastic, or glass boxes that are posted on the doorways of Jewish homes and synagogues in response to the biblical injunction to keep God's teachings "as a sign on your doorposts.” Observant Jews will touch the ______________ and then kiss their hand as they pass through the doorway. Less observant Jews often post mezuzot on their doorframes as well, simply as a sign of Jewish identity.

Front 109

Shabbat

Back 109

The centerpiece of Jewish practice is ______________, a weekly holiday that lasts from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday, commemorating the seventh day of creation when God rested. Shabbat is a day of rest and worship during which no work should be performed. Orthodox Jews interpret this quite strictly, refraining from cooking, cleaning, writing, and even turning lights on or off. Less observant Jews may or may not attend synagogue on Friday evening or Saturday morning.

Front 110

Havdalah

Back 110

In addition to attendance at synagogue, the Shabbat is celebrated in the home by the lighting of candles, and the blessing of wine and special braided bread called challah before dinner. This act ushers in the Sabbath. The Sabbath is ended Saturday at sundown with a brief service called the ______________.

Front 111

a synagogue

Back 111

Shabbat services vary tremendously depending on the branch of Judaism to A which ______________ belongs and to the idiosyncrasies of individual congregations. All Shabbat services, however, consist of a regular set of prayers, a sermon of some sort given by the rabbi, and, most importantly, the reading of the Torah.

Front 112

scrolls

Back 112

In customs dating back thousands of years, the Torah, handwritten on ______________ of paper, is treated with great ceremony at most synagogues. It is kept in an elaborate embroidered cloth covered by a tas, or shield. In Sephardic congregations, each scroll is also kept in a separate wooden case, called a tik. The scrolls are kept at the front of the synagogue behind a screen.

Front 113

kashrut

Back 113

In addition to following laws pertaining to daily and weekly prayer, observant Jews follow a set of dietary rules known as ______________, or kosher. A kosher diet primarily restricts animal products. Only certain animals may be eaten, and only if they have been slaughtered using prescribed techniques.

Front 114

conscious choice

Back 114

There is a tremendous range of variability in Jewish practice among Jews all over the world. In the ghettoes of Central and Eastern Europe, resting on Shabbat and keeping a kosher diet were a way of life, often carried out without much thought. Today, in the United States and Israel (the main centers of Jewish population), Jewish practice is usually a more ______________.

Front 115

solar

Back 115

In American culture, Judaism is often most visible in terms of its holidays, which are many and distinctive. The Jewish calendar is a lunar one, adjusted to remain synchronized with a solar year by adding an extra lunar month seven times in each nineteen-year cycle. As a result, the holidays fall at roughly the same time each year, but the exact date on the ______________ calendar (the Gregorian calendar) changes slightly. The major holidays are celebrated for two days, a custom that developed during the diaspora.

Front 116

Rosh Hashanah

Back 116

The most important holidays of the Jewish year are called the high holy days. They begin with ______________, a New Year's festival that usually falls in September. The hallmark of Rosh Hashanah is the blowing of the shofar, or ram's horn. According to Jewish tradition, Jews must attend synagogue so that their names will be put down in the book of life for the next year.

Front 117

Yom Kippur

Back 117

Rosh Hashanah is a happy day, celebrated with sweet foods like apples and honey. ______________, the Day of Atonement, the most solemn day of the Jewish year, falls ten days after Rosh Hashanah. On Yom Kippur adult Jews are expected to fast from sundown to sundown, and to attend synagogue services where they collectively apologize to God for all the wrongs they have committed in the course of the year.

Front 118

Shavuot

Back 118

The major Jewish holidays combine agricultural festivals with the marking of important events in Jewish history. Passover, or Pesach, celebrates the coming of spring, as well as the exodus of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. ______________ celebrates the spring harvest and God's giving the Torah to Moses at Mount Sinai. Sukkot is a fall harvest festival that also commemorates the years when the Jews wandered in the desert.

Front 119

haggadah

Back 119

Passover is a home-based religious observance that consists of a meal during which the story of the Jewish exodus from Egypt is told. This meal is called a seder. During the sometimes lengthy preliminaries to the meal, several symbolic foods are sampled, and participants read from a ______________, a book that describes the ritual actions and recounts the experiences of the Jews in Egypt.

Front 120

haggadot

Back 120

Many different ______________ are available. Families or other groups that hold Passover seders select the one they feel best suits their approach, or even write their own. There are traditional haggadot produced by the different branches of Judaism. There are also many alternative ______________, some written for children, others that stress liberation themes. Seders are traditionally a time for discussion, debate, and teaching.

Front 121

Egypt

Back 121

Remembering that the Hebrews had to leave ______________ in haste and could not wait for their bread to rise, observant Jews eat only unleavened bread, called matzah, during Passover. Since the prohibition against leavening is interpreted strictly, all grain foods apart from matzah are prohibited, and sometimes rice and legumes are as well. To compensate, there are a number of special foods that are served at Passover, including chicken soup made with matzah dumplings and beef brisket.

Front 122

Shavuot

Back 122

______________ begins forty-nine days after Passover. For Ashkenazic Jews, tradition demands an elaborate feast of dairy foods and decorating the home with greenery and flowers. Since this is also a celebration of the giving of the Torah to Moses at Mount Sinai, it is traditional to study the Torah on Shavuot, sometimes even staying up all night to do so.

Front 123

Sukkot

Back 123

______________ arrives shortly after Yom Kippur, and is traditionally celebrated with the construction of a sukkah, an outdoor structure. Sukkot recalls the forty years the Jews spent living out of tents while wandering in the desert between the exodus from Egypt and their settlement in Canaan. For eight days, observant Jewish families invite each other to eat in their backyard sukkah and enjoy fall harvest foods.

Front 124

Simchat Torah

Back 124

Immediately after Sukkot comes the one-day holiday of ______________, a celebration that corresponds to the completion of its annual reading in the synagogue and the immediate beginning of the next annual cycle of reading. Simchat Torah is an especially joyous holiday. The Torah, which is carried in procession through the congregation as in ordinary Shabbat services, is welcomed with laughter and dancing

Front 125

children

Back 125

There are several minor holidays that mark additional events in Jewish history. One of the most famous in the United States is Hanukkah, a relatively minor holiday in the Jewish year that has become important as a way of giving Jewish ______________ a holiday to celebrate that is full of gifts and lights, as is Christmas, which also falls in December.

Front 126

Purim

Back 126

Late in winter comes the holiday of ______________, which honors Queen Esther and her cousin Mordechai, who successfully fended off a persecution of the Jews in Mesopotamia. The Book of Esther, which recounts the story of Purim, is read aloud in the synagogue. Whenever the name of the villain of the tale, Haman, is spoken, the congregation reacts with boos and hisses and the grinding sound of noisemakers called graggers. ______________ is also a time for carnivals. Children dress up as the heroes and villains of the tale or in whatever costumes they wish. There are often mask making, and dancing.

Front 127

Tisha B'av

Back 127

______________ marks the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, as well as the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 (though it is especially focused on the destruction of the Second Temple). Like Yom Kippur, but less widely observed, it is a day of fasting.

Front 128

Yom Hashoah

Back 128

The Jewish holiday calendar has expanded and shrunk throughout Jewish history as numerous feast and fast days have been added to commemorate local events or subtracted to simplify the calendar. The most recent holiday added to the Jewish calendar is ______________, a day for remembering the Holocaust and mourning its victims. In the United States, ______________ is sometimes marked by interreligious or community services.

Front 129

eighth

Back 129

In addition to the weekly holiday of Shabbat and the many holidays celebrated each year, Jews mark other occasions with ritual, ones that are collectively known as rites of passage. These are events that usher an individual from one phase of life into another. The first of these rites of passage is known as brit milah, and is celebrated on the ______________ day of a baby boy's life.

Front 130

blessing

Back 130

In addition to his circumcision, a baby boy is given his Hebrew name at his bris. Traditionally, baby girls received their Hebrew names in a regular synagogue service to which they were usually not invited) when their father made a special ______________ for his daughter.

Front 131

thirteen

Back 131

The many obligations placed upon Jews according to Jewish law are reserved for adults, but traditionally Jewish children become adults at a comparatively young age: ______________. The bar mitzvah service officially recognizes a boy's religious coming-of-age. After his bar mitzvah, a Jewish boy, if he is observant, is expected to wear tallit and tefillin and to pray three times a day.

Front 132

bat mitzvah

Back 132

Until recently, there was no coming-of-age service for Jewish girls comparable to the bar mitzvah. In the last generation, this has changed even in Orthodox circles, where girls have a lesser, but still significant service called a bat mitzvah. For Conservative and Reform Jews, a ______________ service for a girl is virtually identical to a bar mitzvah service for a boy. The girl reads the Torah and celebrates with family and friends.

Front 133

Jewish weddings

Back 133

In many ways, ______________ are like Christian weddings, consisting of similar vows, the exchange of rings, and so forth, but ______________ contain a number of unique features. To begin with, the couple is usually married under a chuppah, or canopy, which symbolizes the covering protection of the now-defunct Temple in Jerusalem. Often the canopy consists of a tallit, or prayer shawl, held over the couple.

Front 134

mourning

Back 134

The last rite of passage in an individual's life is their death. Judaism offers rich resources for helping families deal with the deaths of loved ones. When a close relative dies, Jews spend seven days “sitting shivah." During this time, ______________ Jews are not allowed to leave their home, so friends and members of their congregation come to their house to feed them and pray with them.

Front 135

kaddish

Back 135

For a year after the death of a close relative, Jews make a special effort to attend services and pray regularly. They "say ______________," a special prayer for the deceased. The ______________ prayer does not discuss death; it is a hymn of praise that is recited at other times during Jewish services as well. It is said to remind those who have suffered a loss that God is still great.

Front 136

yahrzeit

Back 136

The Jewish period of mourning officially ends after a year. At this time, the gravestone, which was absent from the grave for the first year, is unveiled. Even after this official mourning period, deceased loved ones are remembered annually on the date of their death. For this anniversary, or ______________, the deceased person's name is read aloud during synagogue services and his or her family lights a candle that burns throughout the day.

Front 137

male

Back 137

For thousands of years, Judaism has been a ______________-dominated religion. God made the covenant with the Jewish people through a man, Abraham, and repeatedly sent ______________ prophets, from Moses onwards, to try to bring the Jewish people toward obedience to God's laws. Religious services were mainly designed for men, and laws pertaining to the birth of sons and daughters made it clear that sons were preferred.

Front 138

matriarchs

Back 138

It is clear from the earliest of the Hebrew scriptures that women played an important role in the development of Judaism. The ______________ (Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah) acted on their own initiative to propel Jewish history forward. Lacking the official status given to their husbands, they nevertheless found ways to direct the events of their lives and their communities.

Front 139

persecution

Back 139

In addition to the matriarchs, the Hebrew scriptures include women like Queen Esther, who saved the Jews from ______________; Deborah, who was one of the few female prophets in the Jewish tradition; and Judith, who has been held up as a role model for proper Jewish observance for millennia, even though she appears to have been childless at a time when bearing children was a woman's principal source of value as a human being.

Front 140

limited

Back 140

In spite of many fine precedents, the role of women in Judaism is rather definitively laid down in Jewish law and is quite ______________. There are 613 laws in the Talmud, which Orthodox Jews regard as commanded by God. Of these 613 laws, 248 are "positive" laws (that is, obligations, things you have to do), while 365 are “negative" laws (that is, prohibitions, things you are forbidden to do).

Front 141

do not apply

Back 141

Of the 613 laws in the Talmud, all of the 365 negative laws, the prohibitions, apply to women. Whatever Jewish men are not allowed to do, Jewish women are not allowed to do either. However, of the 248 positive laws, the obligations, any that have to be carried out at a specific time ______________ to women. This means, for example, that women are not required to pray or attend synagogue.

Front 142

religious obligations

Back 142

There are only three time-dependent Jewish ______________ that are for women only: lighting the Sabbath candles; setting aside a portion of dough for the Sabbath bread for the priestly class (an ancient practice that survives only symbolically); and observing the laws of niddah, or sexual purity. Jewish law restricts sexual intercourse to only certain times of the month, and it is the woman's obligation to ensure that these laws are followed.

Front 143

ritually impure

Back 143

According to the laws of niddah, women are ______________ when they are menstruating and for seven days afterward. They, or anyone they touch, are not allowed to come before God in this condition. Orthodox Jewish women do not touch their husbands in any way during the time they are ritually impure. Out of concern that a woman might be ritually impure, Orthodox Jewish men do not touch any women other than their wives at any time. For example, they will not shake a woman's hand.

Front 144

divorce

Back 144

Traditional Jewish law regarding marriage favors men's interests. Women have rights within marriage, and it is often said that the rights given to Jewish women within marriage represented a great advance over the rights of wives in other ancient societies. For example, women have a right to sexual satisfaction and to children; if their husbands cannot provide these, ______________ is an option.

Front 145

financially compensated

Back 145

Women have also traditionally been given a ketubah, or marriage contract, that stipulates that they will be ______________ in the case of divorce. All these rights are limited, however, by the fact that Jewish law does not permit women to initiate divorce. Rabbis may pressure a man to divorce his wife if they feel she has legitimate cause, but ultimately, Jewish law stipulates that women cannot seek divorce.

Front 146

rabbinate

Back 146

Jewish law reserves religious leadership roles for men, but as most contemporary Jews do not feel wholly bound by Jewish law, all but Orthodox Jews have now admitted women into the ______________. Especially in Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism, many rabbis are female, as are many cantors (those who chant the prayers on behalf of the congregation or lead the congregation in prayer).

Front 147

Jewish heritage

Back 147

Many leaders of the feminist movement beginning in the 1970s in the United States were Jewish (for example, Gloria Steinem, Phyllis Chesler, and Bella Abzug). They often credited their ______________ with giving them the passion for social justice. Jewish feminists have been quite vocal within Judaism, searching for new ways to interpret Torah and to rethink Jewish law, history, and prayer in order to open spiritual and leadership opportunities for women. Orthodox Jewish feminists have also worked to expand women's roles within the boundaries set by Jewish law.

Front 148

sexual satisfaction, children, financial support

Back 148

Jewish husbands are supposed to provide their wives with ___________

Front 149

scripted through many centuries of tradition.

Back 149

Jewish prayer is _______________

Front 150

613

Back 150

How many laws are there in the Talmud?

Front 151

the Zionist movement

Back 151

Who pioneered the idea of a Jewish homeland that eventually resulted in the creation of the state of Israel?

Front 152

that the dead will eventually be resurrected.

Back 152

Regarding what happens after death, Jews have traditionally believed ______________

Front 153

the husband

Back 153

According to Jewish law, who can initiate a divorce?

Front 154

Hagar

Back 154

Who was Ishmael's mother?

Front 155

their escape from slavery in Egypt

Back 155

What period in their history do Jews particularly remember during Passover?

Front 156

animal sacrifices.

Back 156

In early Judaism, God asked God's people for ___________ no sacrifices.

Front 157

haggadah

Back 157

What is the name of the book that Jews read from during the Passover meal?

Front 158

almost always

Back 158

How long have Jews been monotheistic?

Front 159

unleavened bread.

Back 159

Matzah is ___________

Front 160

all of these

Back 160

According to Jewish law, which of these time-dependent religious obligations apply to women alone?

Front 161

King David

Back 161

Who planned the first temple in Jerusalem?

Front 162

He drowned the Egyptian soldiers in the sea.

Back 162

How did God save the Hebrew slaves from the Egyptian army?

Front 163

include the belief that God has given the Jews rules to live by.

Back 163

Jewish beliefs about God ________________

Front 164

murdering Christian babies to make their matzah.

Back 164

The "blood libel" accuses Jews of ___________

Front 165

the Second Temple.

Back 165

The Western Wall in Jerusalem is part of _____________

Front 166

thirteen

Back 166

At what age are Jewish boys considered adults for religious purposes?

Front 167

similar.

Back 167

The Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Old Testament are _______________

Front 168

Ladino

Back 168

What language did Sephardic Jews speak?

Front 169

Saul

Back 169

Who was the first King of Israel?

Front 170

It is an imbalance or corruption of divine forces.

Back 170

How do Kabbalists explain the existence of evil?

Front 171

twenty years

Back 171

After their return from exile in Babylon, approximately how long did it take the Jews to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem?