Introduction to Judaism
Professor Noam Pianko
npianko@u.washington.edu
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Class Overview
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Course Introduction
Major Course Themes
Syllabus/Expectations
Start Historical Overview
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Don’t Write this Down!
• It will be available on the course website for download
• Listen and engage in class!
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Introduction
• Who am I?
• Who are you?
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What Do You Think?
• How should we analyze a religion?
• What topics would you want to know
about?
• How is studying Judaism
similar/different from studying other
religions?
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Six Areas of Investigation
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2.
3.
4.
5.
Role of Scripture and Interpretation
Theology and Symbolic Vocabulary
Communal Forms and Religious Authority
Ritual and Worship
Ethical Values and the Formation of the
Person
6. Ideologies of Political Life
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1. Scripture and Interpretation
• What are Judaism’s central texts?
• How/when do certain texts become “scripture” or
canonized ?
• How does the process of interpretation work in
Judaism?
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2. Theology and Symbolic
Vocabulary
• What are the core beliefs/symbols that orient
the Jewish tradition?
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God
Torah
Israel
Messiah/Redemption
• How have these concepts changed over time
in dialogue with surrounding cultures?
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Symbolic Vocabulary and
Surrounding Cultures
Canaanite
Pantheon
Christian and
Islamic
Mysticism
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Greco-Roman
View of the
Cosmos
Modern
Philosophy
and Ethics
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3. Communal Forms and
Religious Authority
• What is the Jewish ideal for community
structure?
• How are boundaries determined? Who is
inside/outside of the community?
• Who establishes norms in the community?
• Who has authority to enforce norms?
• How is authority challenged?
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Who Has Authority?
A Nation
Led By
Prophets
A Liturgical
Community Led
By Priests
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Rabbi and
Congregation
The Rebbe
and His
Disciples
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4. Worship and Ritual
• What rituals (actions with symbolic
meaning) and forms of worship does
Judaism proscribe?
• How is time punctuated on the Jewish
calendar?
• What are Jewish conceptions of worship
and how have they changed?
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Jewish Worship: From
Sacrifice to Yoga
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5. Ethical Values and the
Formation of the Person
• What does it mean to be a good Jew? A
good person?
• Where do ethics come from?
• How do celebrations of milestones
(lifecycle events) contribute to the
formation of the individual?
• How have Jewish ethics/values
changed over time?
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6. Ideologies of Political Life
• How has Judaism interacted with its
many majority host cultures?
• What effect has life in the diaspora had
on Judaism?
• What is the relationship between the
modern State of Israel and Judaism?
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A Taste of Contemporary
Jewish Diversity
• How do the six themes play out in this
video?
• What is interesting about the film?
• What questions about Judaism does the
film raise?
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Syllabus Notes
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Writing and Analysis Emphasis
Books in Class and Section
Late Policy
Introducing Jennifer Callaghan
Key terms exam
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Why Start Intro to Judaism
with Jewish History?
• Pragmatic Considerations
• Past-Present-Future Blurred in Jewish
Tradition
– History and memory
– Fact and myth
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Central Themes in Jewish
History
1. Fluid Boundaries Between Jew and
non-Jew
2. Diaspora and “Imagined Community”
3. Persecution
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Example
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But First, Some Terminology
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Hebrews
Israelites-Children of Jacob/Israel
Judeans-Southern Kingdom
Jews-Book of Esther
Judaism
Hebrew Bible/TaNaCh
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Jewish History in Six Acts
1. Israelite Origins and the Babylonia Exile
(1900 BCE-587 BCE)
2. Return to Judea and the Second Temple
(515 BCE-70 CE)
3. Diaspora and Rabbinic Judaism in Babylon
and Jerusalem(70 CE-632 CE)
4. Jews in the Islamic World (632 CE-1500
CE)
5. Jews in Medieval Europe (900-1500)
6. Jews in the Modern World (1500-present)
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Ancient Israelite History
• What do we know?
• What sources are available?
• What do you need to know?
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The Historicity of the Bible
• Nomadic group called “Habiru”
• Migration from Mesopotamia into Canaan
• Temple and New Capital built in Egypt in 13th
century BCE
• No Evidence of Exodus from Egypt
• Pharaoh's Inscription (1220BCE)
– “Israel is Laid to Waste, his seed is no more.”
• Records of conquest
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Bible Emerges from Ancient
Near Eastern Setting
• Bible reflects interactions with
surrounding cultures
• Bible culls from local traditions,
narratives, rituals
• Imagines community of Israelites as
distinct and separate
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Similar Divine Myths
“When you [Baal] killed
Litan, the fleeing
serpent, finished off
the twisting serpent,
the mighty one with
seven heads, the
heavens withered and
drooped”
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“On that day, Yahweh will
punish with his fierce,
great, and mighty sword
Leviathan, the fleeing
serpent, Leviathan, the
twisting serpent, he will
slay the dragon of the sea.”
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