Summative Practice Questions Part 2

Judaism Question 1

1A.  This is the Jewish prayer of the Shema that Jews recite and chant at pretty much every single Shabbat and holiday service. The meaning of the passage is that it is the commandment of God to the his people to only honor him and only him. He is preaching to all of the Jewish people in the land of Israel and beyond that you shall love him with all of your heart, soul, and body. In the very last phrase of the prayer, he tells his people to take these words to heart and remember them. It is considered to be an obligation of every Jew to love only one God with everything you have.

1B. Jews should live under one God and honor him with all your heart, all your soul, and all your might. Every Jew must take this commandment to heart and honor it every day. The lord our God is our only God and God is one. 

Summative Practice Questions Part 1

To what extent is Shabbat more important than any other festival?

Of all the Jewish holidays, Shabbat (the Sabbath day) is widely considered to be the most important holiday on the Jewish calendar. The only thing different about this day from any other holiday is that it happens once a week on the seventh day. Shabbat is explicitly commanded by God in the Ten Commandments to observe and recognize this day as the most important. Shabbat begins at sunset every Friday night and ends on Saturday night as this was the day that God rested when creating the Earth; so as Jewish people, we must reflect and rest on this day as well and praise God for all of his creations. 

 

Shabbat is mainly marked by three qualities; rest, joy, and holiness. On this day, Jewish families spend time with each other, their friends as well as pray, read, and rejuvenate on the past week. Jews also light candles to symbolically and welcome God into our hearts, According to Genesis 2:3, Jews are told that God rested on the seventh day and rested from his creative activity as the memorial of the work of his Hands. God called the seventh day of rest "holy" which means set apart as sacred, exalted, and honored. 

There are many traditions to Shabbat like the shabbat dinner, giving tzedakah, and the Friday night Kiddush. The Shabbat meal is a time where the entire family comes together on Friday night and have a very nice dinner. The dinner is also a time to share highlights from the week, words of the Torah, and sing Shabbat table songs. Tzedakah is money for charity in the Jewish culture. It is customary to put money in the Tzedakah box before lighting the candles. It is a tradition for everyone to give any amount of money they have on Shabbat every week for the betterment of the world. Before Jews sit down for the meal, it is customary to sanctify this time by reciting the Kiddush, a special ceremony performed at the beginning of the Sabbath. In Jewish tradition, the Kiddush is recited by the father of the family while holding a glass of wine in one hand. First the Torah is read and then a Hebrew blessing is recited that sanctifies the occasion and thanks God for the gift of the Sabbath day, 

 In all, Shabbat is more important than any other festival to a fairly large extent. It is a holiday unlike any other, It is a time to reflect on God and realize how blessed you are. Shabbat is also the holiday on the Jewish calendar where entire families take a break from their daily lives and praise God. 

Judaism Doctrines and Beliefs

Basic Doctrines and Beliefs

• Judaism insists that the community has been confronted by the divine not as an abstraction but as a person with whom the community and its member have entered into a strong relationship with each other.
• As the Torah indicates, it is a program of human action rooted in personal confrontation. The response of these particular people to its encounter with God is significant for all of mankind. 
• The community is called upon to express its loyalty to God and the covenant by exhibiting solidarity within its corporate life on every level, including every aspect of human behavior, from the most public to the most private.
• Jewish worship is a communal celebration where everyone comes together in the meetings of God in history and in nature. This people, together with all humanity, is called upon to institute political, economic, and social forms that will affirm divine sovereignty.
• Within the community, each Jew is called upon to realize the covenant in his or her personal intention and behavior. 

Judaism Sacred Texts

Tanakh 

• The Hebrew bible, the quintessential sacred text of Judaism. The first five books of this comprise the Torah (or Pentateuch), the core sacred writings of the ancient Jews, traditionally written by Moses under divine inspiration. 
• To Jews, there is no "Old Testament." The books that Christians call the New Testament are not part of Jewish scripture. The so-called Old Testament is known to us as Written Torah or the Tanakh. Includes the five books of Moses; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. 
• Much like the Christian bible, there are many prophets introduced and told about in this text but are different. Some of these prophets include; Joshua, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Joel, Judges, and Jonah.
• Also includes writings such as the Proverbs, Chronicles, Job, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Esther, and Daniel. 
• In addition to the written scriptures we have an "Oral Torah," a tradition explaining what the above scriptures mean and how to interpret them and apply the Laws. The oral Torah is called the Talmud. Orthodox Jews believe God taught the Oral Torah to Moses, and he taught it to others, down to the present day. This tradition was maintained only in oral form until about the 2d century C.E., when the oral law was compiled and written down in a document called the Mishnah.
• Every Friday night and Saturday morning during celebration of Shabbat, a new portion of the Torah is read. At the beginning of the year, Genesis is read and all five books are read until the end of the year when the last scripture of Deuteronomy is read. The Torah is the most sacred text of the religion and is the leading authority of all Jewish people. 
• According to Jewish belief, the Torah was written by God.

Talmud

• The body of civil and ceremonial Jewish law comprising of two separate scriptures, the Mishnah and the Gemara. 
• There are two versions of the Talmud; the Babylonian and the earlier Palestinian or Jerusalem Talmud. 
• The Talmud was developed in two separate works: Talmud Yerushalmi (the Talmud of the Land of Israel) and Talmud Bavli (the Talmud of Babylonia.)
• The Talmud Yerushalmi was completed c.350CE when the Jewish community in the Land of Israel began to suffer genocidal persecution from the newly empowered Byzantine Christians. The demise of a vibrant Jewish community in the Land of Israel forced many of the Torah scholars living there to flee to Babylonia where Christian dominance did not hold sway.
• The Babylonian Talmud is the main source of definitive Oral law brought from Mount Sinai. 
• The Talmud is considered to be the main guide to Jewish life and the Jewish people in all of the lands typically live a Talmudic way of life differing from the ways of their ancestors.
• It is the guiding book for their lives, not just in ritual and law, but in terms of personal behavior, societal goals and vision of the Jewish future.

Excerpts

"...I command you today to love YHVH your God and to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments, His decrees, His civil laws so that you may live and you many increase and YHVH your God will bless you in the land into which you are coming to take as possession." (Deuteronomy 30:16). 

The text states that every one reading this excerpt or Jewish person to love "Adonai" our God. God will guide you through his ways, decrees, and laws so that you live a happy life and increase your love for God. One of the goals and main beliefs is to honor and love only one God and see him as the ruler and sovereign of the universe. If you honor God then he will bless you in return and take you under his wing. 

"But if you do not listen to Me and do not keep my commandments … I will then do the same to you … I will bring upon you feeling of anxiety with depression and excitement, destroying your outlook and making life miserable." ( Leviticus, 26:16) "I will scatter you among the nations and keep the sword drawn against you" (26:33) "You will then be destroyed among the nations. The land of your enemies will consume you." (26:38)

This is all about understanding the source of good and evil and that God is the creator of both but people tend to choose evil over good. In the Torah, the main message being sent is that each punishment has a reason, explicitly warned and predicted.

"If a false witness makes a statement against a man, saying that he has done wrong, Then the two men, between whom the argument has taken place, are to come before the Lord, before the priests and judges who are then in power; And the judges will have the question looked into with care: and if the witness is seen to be false and to have made a false statement against his brother, Then do to him as he intended to do to his brother: and so put away the evil from among you." (Deuteronomy 19:16-19)

This is a common responsibility or belief that is brought up many times in the Torah. If there any problem in someone's life or an issue that needs to be resolved, they must come to the Lord before seeking a solution from other people in power because God always has the authority and right answer over everyone. God is the ruler.

Judaism Rituals

Bar Mitzvah

• The initiation ceremony of a Jewish boy who has reached 13 years old and is highly regarded as ready to observe religious precepts and now eligible to take part in public worship. 
• The process of becoming a Bar Mitzvah is a very long one where the young man must master all sorts of specific prayers to recite at his ceremony and lead the service. Prayers such as; V'Havta, Yotzer, S'hma, G'vurot, and so on. 
• Each young man is also assigned a specific passage in one of the Five Books of Moses in the Torah based on the month their Bar Mitzvah takes place. 
• They need to memorize the words and different chants of their passage in the Torah for their Bar Mitzvah day. They study the passage with vowels under the letters, but no vowels will be under the letters in the Torah. 
• As the young man becomes a Bar Mitzvah, they are held accountable for all of their actions and become a man. In celebration, the parents of the Bar Mitzvah throw them a big celebration while inviting all of their family and close friends to the occasion.

       

Rosh Hashanah 

• Literally means "head of the year" in Hebrew. Rosh Hashanah is the celebration of the new year on the Jewish calendar. 
• It occurs on the first and second days of the seventh month of the Jewish year. The Jewish New Year is a time to begin introspection, looking back at the mistakes of the past year and planning the changes to make in the new year. 
• The name "Rosh Hashanah" is not used in the Bible to discuss this holiday. The Bible refers to the holiday as Yom Ha-Zikkaron (the day of remembrance) or Yom Teruah (the day of the sounding of the shofar). The holiday is instituted in Leviticus 23:24-25. 
• The shofar is a ram's horn which is blown somewhat like a trumpet. One of the most important observances of this holiday is hearing the sounding of the shofar in the synagogue, which wakes up our souls. 
• Another popular practice of the holiday is Tashlikh ("casting off"). Jews walk to flowing water, such as a creek or river, on the afternoon of the first day and empty their pockets into the river, symbolically casting off their sins. Small pieces of bread are commonly put in the pocket to cast off.
• Another popular tradition is dipping and eating apples and honey in wishes for a "sweet new year." 

    

Presentation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14VS7Tje78UC-mGbhxV7avwJ16fKKNuWEHmUrJzledwM/edit#slide=id.gad5f4e86a_0_10

Judaism Key Concepts

Covenant- An agreement between two contracting parties, originally sealed with blood; a bond, or a law; a permanent religious dispensation.

Torah- Name applied to the five books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

Mitzvah- a precept or commandment

Halakhah- the path that one walks. Jewish law. The complete body of rules and practices that Jews are bound to follow, including biblical commandments, commandments instituted by the rabbis, and binding customs.

Mashiach- A man who will be chosen by G-d to put an end to all evil in the world, rebuild the Temple, bring the exiles back to Israel and usher in the world to come. It is better to use the Hebrew term "mashiach" when speaking of the Jewish messiah, because the Jewish concept is very different from the Christian one.

Israel The Hebrew people, past, present, and future, regarded as the chosen people of God by virtue of the covenant of Jacob.

Kedushah- traditionally the third section of all Amidah recitations. In the silent Amidah it is a short prayer, but in the repetition, which requires a minyan, it is considerably lengthier.

Teshuvah- one of the great gifts God gives each of us – the ability to turn back to Him and seek healing for our brokenness. Psalm 51 is sometimes called "Perek Teshuvah" – the great Chapter of Repentance of the Scriptures.

Shekhinah- the presence of God on earth or a symbol or manifestation of His presence.

Tikkun Olam- literally means "world repair." It is commonly used to refer to the pursuit of social action and social justice. However, few realize that the phrase and the concept behind it originate in kabbalah, in the teachings of the 16th century mystic Isaac Luria.

"Can God Lie?" Article Reflection

I thought this was a very captivating and interesting article written here. The thought never really came to me of whether God could be lying to us or not. Based on the ethics of mostly every religion, it's required and ethical to listen to our God and what he teaches us. When God speaks, people need to listen, but what if what he is saying isn't the truth? The article took on multiple perspectives of different philosophers and theologians from the past.

A 14th century Oxford theologian named John Wyclif feared that if God did happen to lie to us, he could give us false visions of the world and reduce reality to just its appearance and reduce our knowledge of the world. No one besides Martin Luther ever had the idea or assertion that God could lie. A man named Augustine argues that God can neither deceive or be deceived. If God is the almighty being that he is, then there should not be any thought of him lying to us or what he is preaching about the world isn't truthful. The same argument is made by French philosopher Rene Descartes. If God was the all-powerful force of the world, then it would be impossible that he could be a deceiver.

However, there are a couple of cases where some philosophers say that God could possibly be a deceiver. A 14th century Dominican theologian named Robert Holkot claims that there could be a number of places within the Bible where God deceived demons, sinners, and even the faithful ones. He argued that God deceived Abraham when he ordered to kill his son Isaac only to revoke that order at the very last moment as Abraham held the knife over his trembling and tied up son. A couple of centuries later, John Calvin also reached this same idea. The argument could go many ways, but in all, it would be impossible for God to be a deceiver because he is the almighty ruler of the universe and it he lied to everyone, then he would not earn that distinct title.

Huston Smith Part 4

What is Sufism and how did it come about?

• After Muhammad's passing, those still in the Islamic community were known as Sufis.
• Every message presented in the Quran is significant.
• Sufis wanted to see God directly.
• Not very well understood by many.
• One principle method of Sufism is symbolism.

How has the importance of following Muhammad's teachings changed in Islam?

• The practice of Islam tends to be replaced by constantly changing ideals in society that are influenced by the world.
• Only one God.
• Muslims have been influenced by the words of Muhammad. His words determine their own actions. 

Huston Smith Part 3

How do Muslims live according to their religion?

• Attempt to follow the right path with no disruptions along the way.
• The religion of Islam has a very specific and defined set of ways to lead a righteous life and Muslims view this as an advantage.
• Fasting in the month of Ramadan.

How does Islam guide its followers in decision making?

• The feeling of family and brotherly love among followers of Islam as a way of compassion.
• The Koran guides the actions of its followers.
• The world requires nourishment to create the sentiment of responsibility for others.

Huston Smith Part 2

What are the basic theological concepts of Islam?

• God: Begins with the concept of Tawhid, which means 'oneness'. Tawhid begins with the idea that there is one God (monotheism), and teaches that oneness is central to the nature of Allah. So according to Muslims, Allah: has no partners.
• Creation: Creation is perfection, as the world is created by Allah.
• Humanity: We forget about origin or where we originally came from and end up taking it for granted. 
• Judgement Day: On this day, Muslims focus on their individuality and freedom as people. 
• Souls face reckoning for all of their past actions, good and bad; as well as their commitment and loyalty to Allah.

Huston Smith Part 1

What is the significance of Islam in History?

• As far as size and cultural diversity go, the Islamic empire was dominant over the Roman empire. 
• The subjects of Islam adapted to their culture well because of their previous faith.
• Religious zeal was a significant contribution to the spread of the Arabic empire.
• The expansion of the Arab empire was mainly driven by the religion of Islam.

How did Muhammad become a prophet and spread God's word?

• He was the last of the Prophets.
• He was more superior than everyone else.
• The opposition he faced in the Mecca was harsh.
• Despite this opposition, his teachings began to spread. 
• He was told to proclaim several times in his retreat.

What happened during the height of Islam's expansion under Muhammad and why is it significant?

• He left the Mecca and was welcomed and became the magistrate.
• The whole area was greatly unified as far as culture and geographics go thanks to Muhammad. 
• His skill as a leader helped helped spread the teachings of Islam and bring all of the Arabian tribes together.
• Forgave his enemies and focused on his teachings in his return to conquer Mecca.

What is the "Standing Miracle"?

• The Koran is widely considered to be a miracle because it was written by Muhammad and he was illiterate. 
• Most memorized book in the world.
• Recited countless times.
• The words are considered to come from God and each sentence is recognized and interpreted as as a revelation.

Learning Objective 1.5

Sufism

The substance of Sufism is the Truth and the meaning of Sufism is the selfless experiencing and actualization of the Truth. The practice of Sufism is the intention to go towards the Truth, by means of love and devotion. This is called the "tarigat", the spiritual path or way towards God. The sufi is one who is a lover of Truth, who by means of love and devotion moves towards the Truth, towards the perfection which all are truly seeking. As necessitated by love's jealousy, the sufi is taken away from all except the Truth. Sufism is a school for the actualization of divine ethics. It involves an enlightened inner being, not intellectual proof; revelation and witnessing, not logic. 

"What Is Sufism? | The Nimatullahi Sufi Order." What Is Sufism? | The Nimatullahi Sufi Order. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2015. <http://www.nimatullahi.org/what-is-sufism/>.

Learning Objective 1.4

NPR 5 Part Series Outline

Part 1: Origins

• The Shiites are concentrated in Iran, southern Iraq and southern Lebanon. But there are significant Shiite communities in Saudi Arabia and Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India as well. 
• Shiites take up 10 to 15 percent of the Muslim population. Although Sunn--Shiite origins are portrayed as violent, they had peaceful times together.
• The original split between Sunnis and Shiites occurred soon after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, in the year 632. Most of the Prophet Muhammad's followers wanted the community of Muslims to determine who would succeed him. A smaller group thought that someone from his family should take up his mantle.
• And thus they were the partisans of Ali, his cousin and son-in-law. Sunnis believed that leadership should fall to the person who was deemed by the elite of the community to be best able to lead the community. And it was fundamentally that political division that began the Sunni-Shia split.
• The violence and war split the small community of Muslims into two branches that would never reunite. The Shiites called their leaders imam, Ali being the first, Hussein the third. The significance of the imams is one of the fundamental differences that separate the two branches of Islam. 
• Over the next centuries, Islam clashed with the European Crusaders, with the Mongol conquerors from Central Asia, and was spread farther by the Ottoman Turks. In the 20th century, that meant a complex political dynamic involving Sunni and Shiites, Arabs and Persians, colonizers and colonized, oil, and the involvement of the superpowers.

Part 2: Mideast Turmoil/Rise of Shiites

• The Shiites of Arabia were under the authority of Sunni tribal leaders. In Persia, the monarchy and the Shiite clergy coexisted so long as neither ventured into the other's realm.
• In Persia, Reza Pahlavi, a military officer, seized power in a coup in 1925 and declared himself shah. Pahlavi changed the name of the state to Iran and set about creating a secular government, much to the dismay of some of the Shiite clergy.
• The young shah's reign was also marked with instability. In 1953, political turmoil broke out in Tehran, forcing the shah to flee the country, only to be returned to power in a CIA- and British-engineered coup that ousted the nationalist prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh.
• After that, the shah clamped down, creating a merciless secret police that sought to destroy all efforts to challenge his rule. In 1978, a popular movement exploded in the streets of Iran's cities, aimed at overthrowing the shah.
• The revolution in Iran was a tempest of conflicting ideologies, mixing communism, anti-imperialism and secular pluralism with Khomeini's ideas about an Islamic state. In the midst of the chaos, Khomeini oversaw the writing of a constitution that gave most of the state's power to the supreme religious leader.
• These events in Iran would have a powerful effect on the wider Islamic world.

Part 3: Sunni Reaction

• The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, Sunni Muslim fundamentalists seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca, and the Ayatollah Khomeini led a Shiite revolution that swept the Shah of Iran from power and put in place the modern world's first Islamic republic.
• So, to win over the wider Arab public, some Sunni leaders, especially in Saudi Arabia, sought to sharpen the differences between Sunnis and Shiites. The result was the emergence of new and far more dangerous Sunni fundamentalist groups. 
• The most violent reaction to Iran's Shiite revolution came from Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Iraq invaded Iran in 1980 to seize its oil fields and destroy Khomeini's revolution. But Saddam did not cast the conflict in sectarian terms.
• The war killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides. It was fought initially in Iran's oil-rich region, then on the other side of the border in southern Iraq, where Iraq's Shiite population was concentrated.
• In 1982, Israel launched an all-out invasion of Lebanon, ostensibly to stop guerrilla attacks from the Palestine Liberation Organization. But the conflict would have unexpected and profound repercussions for the Sunni-Shiite divide and for the security of the United States.

Part 4: Iraq War Deepens the Divide

• When the United States invaded Iraq four years ago, on March 20, 2003, it didn't set out to deepen the Sunni-Shia divide in the Islamic world. But that may be one of the most important outcomes of the war. Until the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the Shia never governed a modern Arab state. They were in control in Persian Iran, but the Sunnis led most Arab states in the Middle East
• The Sunni insurgency first targeted American troops, but soon, with the involvement of al-Qaida in Iraq, it attacked the Shia as well. The targets: Shiite holy sites; Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad and elsewhere, and ordinary Shiite civilians, thousands of whom have been abducted and murdered.
• And then a year ago came the bombing of the Askariya Shrine, a mosque directly connected to the story of the Twelfth Shiite Imam, the messianic Hidden Imam. In 2006, the Shia fought back through militia attacks and murder. Shiite-Sunni violence now predominates in Iraq.
• Iraq's senior cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, although born and raised in Iran, advocated a political future for Iraq that is far different from the Iranian model. Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran created the model of the Islamic republic with all power resting in the hands of the clerics. Although this has been the government of Iran for more than a quarter century, there are doubters — in Iran, Iraq and throughout the Shiite world. 
• Twice in 2004, street fighting broke out in Najaf, with the Shiite militia known as the Mahdi Army attacking American troops. Sistani mediated an end to that fighting, but since then this militia has spawned neighborhood defense forces as well as anti-Sunni death squads.
• It also catapulted its leader, the young firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, into a prominent role in the Iraqi government. The escalating sectarian violence in Iraq has become a great concern for the Saudi monarchy, fearful that it may spread to the kingdom's own Shiite minority, which lives near some of the most valuable oil fields in eastern Saudi Arabia.

Part 5: Shia/Sunni Conflict Forces U.S. Shift in Iraq

• When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, President Bush declared that the aim was to overthrow Saddam Hussein and bring democracy to Iraq. The president also made clear that he had wider ambitions in the Middle East — to spread democracy and fight the war on terrorism.
• Over the years as U.S. policy ran into reality in Iraq — as the sectarian conflict between Shia and Sunni deepened — U.S. aims have changed. Now bringing stability to Iraq is the goal, while preventing Shiite Iran's emergence as a regional power.
• Undoubtedly there have been some benefits that the U.S. invasion set in motion, most importantly a political process that has fostered majority rule in Iraq. There seemed to be little awareness in Washington of the potential for such sectarian conflict.
• That may be especially true now that the Bush administration is focusing its attention on Iran. But the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq removed Iran's two most dangerous neighbors and enemies. U.S. policy has worked against the containment of Iran.
• U.S. policy is further complicated by the close relationship between the Bush administration and Israel, and lack of progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Despite the pre-invasion claims of some in the Bush administration, the overthrow of Saddam Hussein has proved of no benefit to that issue.

Learning Objective 1.3

Rules on dress reflect communal identity to a large extent because whatever the rules are for how a person will dress, the members of that particular will follow it. If the majority of that group wears a specific set of clothing frequently, then that is how any outsiders of that group will view them or identify them as. Anyone can identify a Muslim by seeing them wearing a Hijab because that is what they wear. Also people can identify a Jew by seeing them wear a yamika. So yes, community dress reflects a group's identity to a large extent.

Learning Objective 1.2

NPR Article

• The focus of the article is that a few Muslim women discuss changes that need to be made within the Muslim community and stop the constant wearing of the Hijab.
• The women in the article are against wearing in Hijabs in public places. "When you wear hijab and you walk into a room, everyone notices you; everyone stares at you; everyone makes assumptions about you," says one Muslim women and feels like it's too much responsibility to represent a whole community and it's not mean't for everyone. "I was going through a lot of difficult things. Perhaps I thought taking it off would just be one less thing to worry about," she says. "I never took it off saying, like, it was the right decision. I just took it off because I wanted to do it. I wanted to see if my life would be different — if I would feel any better about the problems that I was going through."

Huffington Post

• The focus of the article is how women are slowly starting to move away from the Hijab since it's technically not a part of the Five Pillars of Islam./
• "Within Islam, perspectives on veiling vary. Middle East scholar Marnia Lazreg argues that hijab is not one of the pillars of Islam and that the resurgence of veiling has been systematically driven forward as a matter more of politics than piety." So basically these women claim that Hijabs are just a cultural thing and not actually a requirement by religious law.