The Basic Beliefs of Judaism by Lawrence J. Epstein

Author:Lawrence J. Epstein [Epstein, Lawrence J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jason Aronson, Inc.
Published: 2013-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Covenant

The narrative of God’s covenant with the Jewish people began with God’s choosing Jews to serve as messengers of the holy teachings. The next step was the revelation of those teachings, either as traditionally understood through the Torah or through the prophets and later individual revelation or through not revelation but human inspiration. In the latter case, the Torah and other crucial Jewish texts were not revealed in any way and are therefore human creations, though perhaps separated from normal human creativity by the subject matter and the perception that the material emanated from an emotion, inspiration, that propelled an unsurpassed human creation. The Torah is the living embodiment between God and the Jewish people. That doesn’t mean it is the literal word of God, but the way the Jewish people at the time understood and expressed both God’s will and their own personal and communal missions.

Whether by revelation or inspiration, the Jewish people believed they had some kind of divine encounter and voluntarily had entered into a relationship with God.

In Exodus 19:3–6, God speaks to Moses telling him to offer a covenant to the Israelites. The Israelites, according to the terms of this agreement, will follow the laws of the Torah. That is, Halakhah, Jewish law, includes the full legal obligations incumbent upon Jews as given by God, at least as Jewish scholars understand and interpret them. In return the Israelites would be considered a treasured people. The Israelites accepted, and the revelation occurred three days later. God appeared before all the people and spoke the Ten Commandments to them. What is particularly interesting about the commandments is that only the first four seem aimed particularly at the Israelites. The final six are universal, indicating that the message was not meant just for one small people. After the revelation to all the people, Moses ascended into the darkness to receive more of God’s law before returning and telling the people. The covenant was then ratified and Moses ordered that twelve pillars and an altar be erected.

The covenant at Sinai was not the first biblical covenant. It was an expansion, and a renewal, of the covenant God had made with Abraham. But the very transformation of the covenant and revelation from one person to an entire people was unique in human history. From an American perspective, one steeped in individualism and self-reliance, it is easy to miss the full implications of the revelation being given to the whole people. Such a revelation moves the moral and legal responsibility from individuals to the people to obey the rules God revealed. Additionally, it is crucial not to reduce the revelation to a series of rules about, for example, keeping the Sabbath or following dietary restrictions. The revelation was not simply about the practices required for worship. The revelation included a substantial number of moral regulations making good behavior obligatory. These moral rules extended far beyond the usual borders of religious regulation. They included rules for individuals as members of a social order.

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