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PART I
JUDAISM THROUGH STORY
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1
DEFINING JUDAISM THROUGH STORIES
To define Judaism out of its own liturgy and law, in this and the next four chapters we examine stories Judaists (practitioners of Judaism) tell themselves when they celebrate great occasions. These are the stories that convey the theological convictions of Judaism. Each occasion contains within itself a story that defines a principal part of Judaism for nearly all Judaists. That narrative explains their way of life. It speaks through symbols to convey their worldview. It tells them their group’s history and defines their destiny. It links present to past to future. Above all, a rite basic to all communities of Judaism, past and present, defines the group, the community of Judaism, spelling out who is the “Israel” of which a given version of Judaism speaks.
Religions are best defined through the stories that they tell to account for concrete facts of the here and now. For through narratives that touch the heart rather than through abstract formulations of theological propositions religions make their impact on the faithful.
To practice Judaism, therefore, means to act out in behavior and belief the key stories that are told in the Torah, the Hebrew word for Instruction, referring specifically to the instruction set forth by God to Israel at Mount Sinai. Judaism stakes its claim to knowledge of God upon that Instruction.
Take, for instance, the story that carries the theological message, God made the world. The narrative in Genesis 1–3 of what God did and does in creating the world rather than the proposition that God is creator of the world best conveys Judaism’s medium for stating its convictions about God as creator of all things. So, too, when it comes to defining the community of Judaism, we identify the story universally told to answer that question: Among all the nations and peoples of the world, who is an Israelite and what is Israel? We shall meet the story in Chapter 2. In the tales that answer that question, “Israel” forms an extended family, in line with the stories of Genesis about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or by “Israel” are meant those who, assembled at Mount Sinai, accepted the Torah revealed by God to Moses, in line with the stories of Exodus. And the nations, or gentiles, are defined as well through the same stories.
That preference for the concrete narrative evidence leads to the question, how shall we know which narratives to examine as critical to Judaism? Scripture presents many candidates. But Judaism selects only a few of them. These it repeats in endless variations. The criterion is simple. Judaism defines its worldview in the stories it chooses for the celebration of great occasions in the sacred calendar, Sabbaths and festivals for example. The creation of the world, the Exodus from Egypt, the giving of the Torah—these are primary stories repeated on the great occasions of the sacred calendar.
So too events in the life cycle, birth and marriage, for instance, find their place within narratives of Israel’s history, the tale of the prophet Elijah figuring at the rite of circumcision eight days after birth, the creation of Adam and Eve and the promise to restore the Temple in Jerusalem playing a critical role in the marriage rite, as we shall see in a later chapter.
Then what will signal the greatness of the occasion? Events of weight in the life of the community mark occasions to be situated within the biblical record. We turn to the narratives of Passover (Chapter 3), which celebrates the Exodus from Egypt; the Days of Awe (New Year and Day of Atonement), which emphasize the binding of Isaac at Genesis 22 (Chapter 4); and the rites of marriage and circumcision (Chapter 5), thus the stories that account for the life of the community as a whole. These basic stories place into context the rites of passage of the individual Israelite.
SCRIPTURE AND THE NARRATIVE REPERTOIRE OF JUDAISM
Since Judaism selects chapters of Scripture’s narratives and amplifies them in the setting of its way of life, we begin with Scripture. By “Scripture,” which Christianity knows as “the Old Testament,” in Judaism is meant, the privileged collection of books that all together Judaism calls “the Torah,” or Teaching. “The Torah” bears a variety of reference points, beginning with the Pentateuch, the Five Books of Moses, which are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. But “the Torah” may also encompass the whole of the Israelite Scriptures. And in due course, the teachings of the great rabbinic sages would be classified as teachings of the Torah.
For Judaism, the Torah or Teaching sets forth the master narrative of the human condition. It is God’s story of who “we” (humanity, Israel) are. The Torah begins with creation and the advent of Adam and Eve and traces the history of humanity to the formation of Israel, the people who accepted the Torah and God’s rule in it. Judaism holds that in the Torah God’s perspective upon the story of humanity prevails. Judaism turns Scripture’s stories into rules. It transforms them into examples that form a pattern. How a Judaic narrative bears the theological message of Judaism is illustrated in the story of Abraham and the idols in Box 1.1.
WHICH BOOKS OF SCRIPTURE TELL THE STORY? THE TORAH AND THE FORMER PROPHETS
Judaism may, therefore, be defined as “the religion of the Torah revealed by God to Moses at Mount Sinai.” And that formulation carries us to the question, of what precisely does this revealed Torah consist? The Hebrew Scriptures are divided into three components: The Torah proper, which to begin with refers to the five books of Moses, then the prophets, and finally the writings. The Hebrew is Torah, Nebi’im (prophets), Ketubim (writings), and it yields T/N/K, or TaNaK. Box 1.2 contains the contents of Scripture.
Let us rapidly consider the specific scriptural books that, read as a continuous, unfolding account, tell the story that Judaism acts out.
Here is an example of how Judaism defines its theology through storytelling. The point is the representation of Abraham as the first monotheist. How his reason and critical mind led him to monotheism takes the form of the narrative at hand.
A. “Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans” (Gen. 11:28).
B. Said R.Hiyya [in explanation of how Haran died in his father’s presence], “Terah was an idol-manufacturer. Once he went off on a trip and put Abraham in charge of the store. Someone would come in and want to buy an idol. He would say to him, ‘How old are you?’
C. “He said, ‘Fifty years old.’
D. “He said, ‘Woe to that man, who is fifty years old and is going to bow down to something a day old.’ So the man would be ashamed and go his way.
E. “One time a woman came in with a bowl of flour, and said to him, ‘Take this and offer it before them.’
F. “He went and took a stick, broke the idols, and put the stick in the hand of the biggest idol.
G. “When his father came back, he said to you, ‘Why in the world have you been doing these things?’
H. “He said to him, ‘How can I hide it from you? One time a woman came in with a bowl of flour, and said to me, “Take this and offer it before them.” Then this idol said, “I’ll eat first,” and that idol said, “I’ll eat first.” One of them, the largest, got up and grabbed the stick and broke the others.’
I. “[Terah] said to him, ‘Why are you making fun of me! Do those idols know anything [that such a thing could possibly happen]? [Obviously not!]’
J. “He said to him, And should your ears not hear what your mouth is saying?’ He took him and handed him over to Nimrod.
K. “He said to him, ‘Bow down to the fire.’
L. “He said to him, ‘We really should bow down to water, which puts out fire.’
M. “He said to him, ‘Bow down to water.’
N. “He said to him, ‘We really should bow down to the clouds, which bear the water.’
O. “He said to him, ‘Then let’s bow down to the clouds.’
P. “He said to him, ‘We really should bow down to the wind, which disperses the clouds.’
Q. “He said to him, ‘Then let’s bow down to the wind.’
R. “He said to him, ‘We really should bow down to human beings, who can stand up to the wind.’
S. “He said to him, ‘You’re just playing word-games with me. Let’s bow down to the fire. So now, look, I am going to throw you into the fire, and let your God whom you worship come and save you from the fire.’
T. “Now Haran was standing there undecided. He said, ‘What’s the choice? If Abram wins, I’ll say I’m on Abram’s side, and if Nimrod wins, I’ll say I’m on Nimrod’s side. [So how can I lose?]’
U. “When Abram went down into the burning furnace and was saved, Nimrod said to him, ‘On whose side are you?’
V. “He said to him, ‘Abram’s.’
W. “They took him and threw him into the fire, and his guts burned up and came out, and he died in the presence of his father.
X. “That is in line with the verse of Scripture: ‘And Haran died in the presence of his father, Terah’ (Gen. 11:28).”
THE TORAH PROPER: GENESIS, EXODUS, LEVITICUS, NUMBERS, DEUTERONOMY
The first book of the Torah/five books of Moses is Genesis, the story of creation and the formation of the holy family, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah and Rachel, yielding the children of
