Week 10: 3/27-3/29

Torah

The Torah contains narratives, statements of law, and statements of ethics. Collectively these laws,
usually called biblical law or commandments, are sometimes referred to as the Law of Moses (Torat
Moshe ‫ֹשה‬ ֶׁ ‫)ּתֹורת־מ‬,
ַ Mosaic Law, or Sinaitic Law.

Hebrew Bible/Tanakh

Hebrew Bible/Tanakh also called the Mikra or Hebrew Bible, is the canonical collection of Jewish texts,
which is also a textual source for the Christian Old Testament. These texts are composed mainly in
Biblical Hebrew, with some passages in Biblical Aramaic (in the books of Daniel, Ezra and a few others).
The traditional Hebrew text is known as the Masoretic Text. The Tanakh consists of twenty-four books.

Mitzvoth

It is used in rabbinical Judaism to refer to the 613 commandments given in the Torah at biblical Mount
Sinai and the seven rabbinic commandments instituted later for a total of 620. The 613 commandments
are divided into two categories: 365 negative commandments and 248 positive commandments.
According to the Talmud, all moral laws are, or are derived from, divine commandments. The collection
is part of the larger Jewish law or halakha.

Israelites

The Israelites were a confederation of Iron Age Semitic-speaking tribes of the ancient Near East, who
inhabited a part of Canaan during the tribal and monarchic periods

covenant

In religion, a covenant is a formal alliance or agreement made by God with a religious community or
with humanity in general. It is central to the Abrahamic religions and derived from the biblical
covenants, notably the Abrahamic covenant.

Abraham

Abraham, originally Abram, is the common patriarch of the three Abrahamic religions. In Judaism, he is
the founding father of the Covenant, the special relationship between the Jewish people and God

Diaspora (ex) Babylonian Exile)

The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile is the period in Jewish history during which a number of
people from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were captives in Babylonia. After the Battle of Carchemish in
605 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, besieged Jerusalem, resulting in tribute being paid by
King Jehoiakim

First/Second Temples

Hellenization
Maccabean Revolt

Moses/Exodus

synagogue

Talmud

Who was Abraham and how does his story form a foundation for Judaism? What was his covenant with
God, and how was it adopted and adapted by the early Jewish tradition?

What books make up the Jewish scriptures, and how do they tell the Jewish story?

What role did the Temple play in early Judaism? When was the First Temple built, and when was it
destroyed? What changed about Jewish practice when the Second Temple was destroyed/what stayed
the same? (In other words, how can we distinguish rabbinic Judaism from the temple-based practices of
the earlier tradition?)