Friday: Kashrut
http://jewfaq.org/kashrut.htm
• Today: Shavu’ot
Monday: MIDTERM
WEDNESDAY / FRIDAY
Breslauer:
Chapter 2:
“Formative Judaism”
Guest Speaker
Next Wednesday,
• 2:00-3:00 in C610
• Francis Landy: U of Alberta
• “Rotten Grapes Produce the Best Poetry:
Isaiah 5.1-7, Rhetorical Entrapment and
Intertextual Implication”
The Exodus Journey
• Escape from Egypt: Passover.
• Sinai: Giving of the Law: Shavu’ot.
• Wilderness: Sukkot.
Passover to Shavuot
• Time from leaving Egypt to arriving at
Sinai where Moses and Israel were given
the Torah.
• Time between is counted.
50 days between
Passover and Shavu’ot
• “COUNTING OF THE OMER”
– Second day of Passover
• OMER = unit of measure for grain
Counting of the Omer
• 7 weeks and 1 day = 50 days
• Time of partial mourning.
• Weddings etc. not allowed.
Shavu’ot
• Historical: God gives Torah
• Agricultural: “First Fruits” offering made to
temple.
• June 5, 2003
• May 25, 2004.
Shavu’ot
• GIVING of Torah
• People always
receiving Torah,
• God gave it first on
Sinai.
Shavu’ot
• Work is not permitted
• Custom: Stay up all night and study
Torah.
Shavu’ot
• Customs:
• Have a dairy meal: Israelites were heading
towards “a land flowing with milk and
honey”
– Kashrut laws given at Sinai:
Shavu’ot
• Custom: Read the book of Ruth, which
takes place around the harvest time.
Tisha B’Av
• “Ninth of Av”. Usually in August
• Fast day (same basic rules as Yom
Kippur)
• Book of Lamentations read in Synagogue.
Tisha B’Av
• Commemorates disasters
• Fall of 2 temples.
• Expulsions (e.g. Spain 1492).
New Festivals
Between Pesach and Shavu’ot
• Yom HaShoah
– Holocaust Memorial Day
– Celebrations for new state of Israel.
Festival Calendar:
• Autumn: High Holy Days / Sukkot
• Winter:
dedication of temple
• Spring:Pesach / Shavu’ot
• Summer: Destruction of temple.
God
13 Principles of Judaism
Beliefs in God:
Prophets
Moses
Don’t memorize them all…
Judaism:
Ethnic or religious?
Who are the Jews?
• What is the history they tell themselves:
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Patriarchs
Exodus
Covenant
Land of Israel
Expulsion
Restoration
Diaspora.
Torah
• “Instruction” or “Law”
• ORAL and WRITTEN.
• RABBINIC Judaism
Kinds of Modern Judaism
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ORTHODOX
CONSERVATIVE
REFORM
RECONSTRUCTIONIST
ZIONIST
• 16 Million. Ca. 6 mill in USA.