Vorlesung: Einführung in die
Jüdische Geschichte und Literatur
Wintersemester 2010/11
„Amidah“ Gebet
,‫ אלהי אברהם‬,‫ברוך אתה ה' אלהנו ואלהי אבותנו‬
...‫ ואלהי יעקב‬,‫אלהי יצחק‬
‫ברוך אתה ה' מגן אברהם‬
„Gepriesen seist du, Ewiger, unser Gott und
Gott unserer Väter, Gott Abrahams, Gott
Isaaks und Gott Jakobs…“
„Gepriesen seist du, Ewiger, unser Gott,
Schutzschild Abrahams“
Moses, the greatest prophet
Deut. 34,10:
,‫ אֲ ֶׁשר י ְָדעֹו יְהוָה‬,‫ֹשה‬
ֶׁ ‫ כְ מ‬,‫ ָקם נ ִָביא עֹוד ְבי ְִש ָראֵ ל‬-‫וְל ֹא‬
‫פָ נִ ים‬-‫פָ נִ ים אֶׁ ל‬.
“Und es stand hinfort kein Prophet in Israel
auf wie Mose, den der HERR erkannt
hätte von Angesicht zu Angesicht.”
Mose trifft Akiva
• Es sagte R. Jehuda im Names Rabs:
• Als Mose in die Höhe stieg, traf er den Heiligen, gepriesen sei er,
an, wie er dasaß und den Buchstaben Kronen wand.
• Er fragte ihn: Was hält dich [mit solchen Vorsichtsmaßnahmen] auf?
[Gott] antwortete ihm: Es ist ein Mensch, der nach einigen
Generationen auftreten wird; Aqiba ben Josef ist sein Name. Aus
jedem einzelnen Häkchen [der Tora] wird er Haufen um Haufen von
Halakhot ableiten.
• Er bat ihn: Herr der Welt, zeige ihn mir! Dieser antwortete: Dreh
dich um! Da ging er und setzte sich hinter die achte Reihe [im
Lehrhaus des R. Aqiba]. Doch er verstand nicht, was sie redeten.
Da erlahmte seine Kraft.
• Als [Aqiba] zu einer bestimmten Sache kam, fragten ihn seine
Schüler: Rabbi, woher weißt du das?
• Er antwortete ihnen: es ist eine Mose am Sinai gegebene Halakha.
• Da beruhigte [Mose] sich wieder.
Pharisees (Heb.: ‫)פרושים‬
For the present I wish merely to explain that the
Pharisees had passed on to the people certain
regulations handed down by former generations
and not recorded in the Laws of Moses, for
which reason they are rejected by the
Sadducean group, who hold that only those
regulations should be considered valid which
were written down (in Scripture), and that those
which had been handed down by former
generations (lit., by the fathers) need not be
observed. [Jewish Antiquities 13.10.]
Saducees (Heb.: ‫)צדוקים‬
But then as to the two other orders at first mentioned, the Pharisees
are those who are esteemed most skillful in the exact explication
of their laws, and introduce the first sect. These ascribe all to fate
[or providence], and to God, and yet allow, that to act what is right,
or the contrary, is principally in the power of men, although fate does
co-operate in every action. They say that all souls are incorruptible,
but that the souls of good men only are removed into other bodies, but that the souls of bad men are subject to eternal punishment. But
the Sadducees are those that compose the second order, and take
away fate entirely, and suppose that God is not concerned in our
doing or not doing what is evil; and they say, that to act what is
good, or what is evil, is at men's own choice, and that the one or the
other belongs so to every one, that they may act as they please.
They also take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul,
and the punishments and rewards in Hades. b
Essenes (Heb. ?)
• The doctrine of the Essenes is this: That all things are best ascribed
to God. They teach the immortality of souls, and esteem that the
rewards of righteousness are to be earnestly striven for; and when
they send what they have dedicated to God into the temple, they do
not offer sacrifices (3) because they have more pure lustrations of
their own; on which account they are excluded from the common
court of the temple, but offer their sacrifices themselves; yet is their
course of life better than that of other men; and they entirely addict
themselves to husbandry. It also deserves our admiration, how
much they exceed all other men that addict themselves to virtue,
and this in righteousness; and indeed to such a degree, that as it
hath never appeared among any other men, neither Greeks nor
barbarians, no, not for a little time, so hath it endured a long while
among them. This is demonstrated by that institution of theirs, which
will not suffer any thing to hinder them from having all things in
common; so that a rich man enjoys no more of his own wealth than
he who hath nothing at all. There are about four thousand men that
live in this way, and neither marry wives, nor are desirous to keep
servants; as thinking the latter tempts men to be unjust, and the
former gives the handle to domestic quarrels; but as they live by
themselves, they minister one to another. . .
(Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 18.11-23)
Jerusalem and the Judean Desert
Qumran from the Air
Qumran at -1000 feet
Cave 4, Qumran
Jar from Qumran
A Dead Sea Scroll
One of Thousands
of itsy-bitsy fragments