Two Questions About Judaism

[rfournier103]

I have two questions about Judaism that could be split into two threads; but I’m thinking that if someone is knowledgeable enough to answer one of these questions, they should be knowledgeable enough to answer them both.

1. I am currently working my way through the Book of Leviticus. I would like to know how and why what I am reading in Leviticus is not what we see today with modern Judaism? What happened and when did it happen?
2. What is the Jewish opinion of the Deuterocanonical books of the Bible? Have most Jews even heard of them? I know those books are not part of their canon, but is there even a mention of them in their religious education, or has the Jewish Faith moved on and left them in the dust?

Of course, anyone may answer. Jews especially welcome to respond.

THANK YOU!!!

 

[dshix]

This is an interesting question. I’m sticking around to see the answers.

 

[John_Lazarus]

I have two questions about Judaism that could be split into two threads; but I’m thinking that if someone is knowledgeable enough to answer one of these questions, they should be knowledgeable enough to answer them both.

1. I am currently working my way through the Book of Leviticus. I would like to know how and why what I am reading in Leviticus is not what we see today with modern Judaism? What happened and when did it happen?
2. What is the Jewish opinion of the Deuterocanonical books of the Bible? Have most Jews even heard of them? I know those books are not part of their canon, but is there even a mention of them in their religious education, or has the Jewish Faith moved on and left them in the dust?

Of course, anyone may answer. Jews especially welcome to respond.

THANK YOU!!!

As I understand it, for a book to be in the Jewish canon, it had to be written in Hebrew, written in Israel, and written before the time of the prophet Ezra. All of the Deuterocanonicals failed to meet at least one of those criteria at the time.

 

[QuiVenit]

1. I am currently working my way through the Book of Leviticus. I would like to know how and why what I am reading in Leviticus is not what we see today with modern Judaism? What happened and when did it happen?

A.D. 70 happened: the Temple was destroyed by the Romans.

Modern, so-called Rabbinical Judaism is the result of the sect of the Pharisees attempting to sort out what the covenant with God should entail now that Temple worship has been made impossible. It is my opinion, and it is the opinion of others, that Biblical Judaism is the mother of both Christianity and Rabbinical Judaism; and that this understanding is most helpful in analyzing how practicing, religious Jews currently see the landscape of their religion.

1. What is the Jewish opinion of the Deuterocanonical books of the Bible? Have most Jews even heard of them? I know those books are not part of their canon, but is there even a mention of them in their religious education, or has the Jewish Faith moved on and left them in the dust?

You have to understand that this question, as well as the one above, must be answered in light of the fact that “Jewish opinion” varies greatly based on what kind of Jew one happens to be. A Reform Jew and an Orthodox Jew and a Conservative Jew obviously will drastically differ in their formation and their opinion of things. There are also atheistic Jews and even, thank God, Jews who are Catholic.

I have heard Orthodox Jewish Rabbis giving talks on the Deuterocanon. As memory serves, the Talmud discusses it to some extent, perhaps insofar as attempting to communicate why the Rabbis do not consider it to be canon proper. But in my limited study of Orthodox Judaism, I’ve not encountered much mention of the Deuterocanon.

 

[cmbergin]

As I understand it, for a book to be in the Jewish canon, it had to be written in Hebrew, written in Israel, and written before the time of the prophet Ezra. All of the Deuterocanonicals failed to meet at least one of those criteria at the time.

To add to this answer, the time in question was after the destruction of the temple. From an article on EWTN (ewtn.com/v/experts/showmessage.asp?number=438095)

With the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in the year 70 A.D. and because the Christians were seen as a threat, the Jewish leaders saw a need to get their house in order. One thing that they did was to decide officially the list of books that were to compose their Scriptures. They did this at the Council of Jamnia (about 100 A.D.), at which they rejected the seven Deuterocanonical books because they believed that they were not written in Hebrew. (In 1947, however, fragments in Hebrew of Tobit and Sirach were discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls. In addition, most Scripture scholars believe that 1 Maccabees, Judith, Baruch and parts of Wisdom were also originally written in Hebrew.) The early Church did not require all Scripture to be written in Hebrew, and the New Testament books were written in Greek.

I recall reading a magazine article that gave a pretty full treatment of this, including who the major figures were in deciding what their canon would be. The criteria stemmed from earlier decisions made by the Pharisees on how Judaism could adapt and move forward without the temple. Very interesting article, but of course, I can’t find it today now that someone might be interesting in reading it.

 

[commenter]

I have two questions about Judaism that could be split into two threads; but I’m thinking that if someone is knowledgeable enough to answer one of these questions, they should be knowledgeable enough to answer them both.

1. I am currently working my way through the Book of Leviticus. I would like to know how and why what I am reading in Leviticus is not what we see today with modern Judaism? What happened and when did it happen?
2. What is the Jewish opinion of the Deuterocanonical books of the Bible? Have most Jews even heard of them? I know those books are not part of their canon, but is there even a mention of them in their religious education, or has the Jewish Faith moved on and left them in the dust?

Of course, anyone may answer. Jews especially welcome to respond.

THANK YOU!!!

As has been said, there is wide variation among Jews in terms of how much of Leviticus and other books can be lived out in the 21 century. Christians tend to consider all the OT books as having equal authority, and draw a sharper line between what is in, and what is out.
The Jews don’t have a book they call the OT of course.
Traditionally Jews made distinctions between different types of books, with the Torah having more weight than historical, etc. Their canon was not exactly formalized until quite a late date, with differences between Jews in Israel and in the diaspora. Certain writings were not part of Scripture, at least for some, but were considered important, such as 1 and 2 Macabees.

The problem of adaptation came up when Jews began to live among gentiles, in modern urban settings not imagined when the books were written.

 

[StGerardMajella]

I am currently working my way through the Book of Leviticus. I would like to know how and why what I am reading in Leviticus is not what we see today with modern Judaism? What happened and when did it happen?

As has been mentioned elsewhere, the Temple was destroyed by the Romans ~70 AD. Once the Temple was destroyed, the levitical system of sacrificial offerings in Jerusalem no longer continued. Today, the Temple Institute in Israel is preparing for the rebuilding of the Third Temple in Jerusalem, and has prepared many of the items to be used in the priestly service.

You will still see parts of the Book of Leviticus still alive in modern day Judaism. The Jewish people still light the menorah, and still celebrate the feasts, albeit through prayer and not Temple sacrifices.

Christ could see the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem fast approaching, and His Church now carries many elements of the sacrificial system intact. We don’t sacrifice animals, but we do offer bread and wine as sacrifices in our holy Masses.

When the Third Temple arrives, some believe the animal sacrifices will resume. Jewish priests are training to do so even today. Others believe the animal sacrifices will stop, and only bread would be offered as a sacrifice. I guess we will know soon enough, possibly in our lifetimes.

The Christian church continues many of the priestly activities that hearken back to the Temple in Jerusalem. In our Catholic churches, we have holy water fonts at the front of the entrances of our churches, reminiscent of the laver that the priests used to ritually wash their hands and feet. We have an altar where the sacrifice of bread and wine take place in our churches, as there was an altar of sacrifice just outside the Temple building. We burn incense, priests sprinkle holy water, and more. All of these Catholic rituals have their roots in Judaism, as do most of our prayers at Mass.

In the Temple, when an offering was made, the priest lifted the sacrifice over his head and moved the sacrifice in each direction - up, down, side, to side, etc. This is highly symbolic of the sign of the cross so familiar in our churches today.

In short, there are many vestiges today that hearken back to the levitical system.

 

[jimkhong]

1. I am currently working my way through the Book of Leviticus. I would like to know how and why what I am reading in Leviticus is not what we see today with modern Judaism? What happened and when did it happen?

Not sure what you mean by this question. Could you be a bit more specific? Do you mean that you do not see the Levitical injunctions (e.g. Sabbath) in modern Jewish life? They are there still extremely strong among the ultra-Orthodox Jews. They implement their own governance in their communities and keep themselves from the secular world - which is why you don’t encounter many of them around. Once in a while one of them escapes the strictures of the community and that gives us some insights into the community.

For instance, the Sabbath laws are all updated to modern life. The injunction against lighting and putting fires (part of the Levitical law against working on Sabbath) is interpreted to include the power station. So, you cannot use any electricity as that would involve lighting and putting out the fire at the power station. Some other interpretation is that flicking a switch closes a electrical circuit and so altering the layout of your house, contravening the injunction against building on a Sabbath. That is why lifts in Israel stop on every floor on Saturday so that the Orthodox need not touch anything electrical.

I used to think the Pharisees were people who only lived between the covers of my Bible, Until one fine Saturday in Stamford Hill, a Jewish neighbourhood in North London, a young Jewish boy (replete with the Orthodox pigtails) asked me to ring the doorbell for him because he can’t touch anything electrical. It just hits home just then that the Levitical laws were still in force for some of these people and the Pharisees are alive and well.

1. What is the Jewish opinion of the Deuterocanonical books of the Bible? Have most Jews even heard of them? I know those books are not part of their canon, but is there even a mention of them in their religious education, or has the Jewish Faith moved on and left them in the dust?

The Deuterocanonical books came from the Jews. It is a fallacy to think that Catholics added books to the Bible or that the Protestants deleted books from the Bible. The Old Testament is the Jewish Bible. So, when the churches wanted to have the Bible, they only needed to determine the list of the New Testament. They just went to the synagogue down the road to get the list for the Old Testament. Unfortunately the Jews have different lists at different times and different places. Which is why Catholics and Protestants have different list of Old Testament books. Ditto for Orthodox. So, all lists of OT books used by the respective churches are authentically Jewish, just different times and places.

 

[meltzerboy]

As has been mentioned elsewhere, the Temple was destroyed by the Romans ~70 AD. Once the Temple was destroyed, the levitical system of sacrificial offerings in Jerusalem no longer continued. Today, the Temple Institute in Israel is preparing for the rebuilding of the Third Temple in Jerusalem, and has prepared many of the items to be used in the priestly service.

You will still see parts of the Book of Leviticus still alive in modern day Judaism. The Jewish people still light the menorah, and still celebrate the feasts, albeit through prayer and not Temple sacrifices.

Christ could see the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem fast approaching, and His Church now carries many elements of the sacrificial system intact. We don’t sacrifice animals, but we do offer bread and wine as sacrifices in our holy Masses.

When the Third Temple arrives, some believe the animal sacrifices will resume. Jewish priests are training to do so even today. Others believe the animal sacrifices will stop, and only bread would be offered as a sacrifice. I guess we will know soon enough, possibly in our lifetimes.

The Christian church continues many of the priestly activities that hearken back to the Temple in Jerusalem. In our Catholic churches, we have holy water fonts at the front of the entrances of our churches, reminiscent of the laver that the priests used to ritually wash their hands and feet. We have an altar where the sacrifice of bread and wine take place in our churches, as there was an altar of sacrifice just outside the Temple building. We burn incense, priests sprinkle holy water, and more. All of these Catholic rituals have their roots in Judaism, as do most of our prayers at Mass.

In the Temple, when an offering was made, the priest lifted the sacrifice over his head and moved the sacrifice in each direction - up, down, side, to side, etc. This is highly symbolic of the sign of the cross so familiar in our churches today.

In short, there are many vestiges today that hearken back to the levitical system.

I would add that the ritualistic worship for Jews still exists in the form of the Friday night prayer service at home. The kitchen table is the altar, and there are the Sabbath candles and the cup of wine and the bread (challah), covered so as not to “embarrass” it by the brilliance of the lights. This even includes the animal sacrifice in the form of chicken or fish, which was once traditional. The woman of the house lights the candles: in a sense, it is she who is the high priest(ess) but really the whole family are, for Jews as a whole are regarded as a priestly people.

 

[Michael85]

Regarding the first question, here is an article by an Orthodox Jewish man regarding sacrifices and why they are not offered today.

 

[StGerardMajella]

I would add that the ritualistic worship for Jews still exists in the form of the Friday night prayer service at home. The kitchen table is the altar, and there are the Sabbath candles and the cup of wine and the bread (challah), covered so as not to “embarrass” it by the brilliance of the lights. This even includes the animal sacrifice in the form of chicken or fish, which was once traditional. The woman of the house lights the candles: in a sense, it is she who is the high priest(ess) but really the whole family are, for Jews as a whole are regarded as a priestly people.

Agreed. My point being that these rituals as outlined in Leviticus still do continue to this day. They will be even more fully formed after the Third Temple is built.

Rituals in Judaism today are many, and can be linked back to directives in the Torah. Even ritual washing of hands in the morning and before meals has ancient roots, as do the kosher laws (“kashrut”). The main difficulty now is that the Temple is no longer standing, which means rituals in the Temple itself can no longer be performed. This will soon change. I don’t know how the rebuilding of the Temple will be accomplished, but it will happen.

The Church has, unfortunately in my opinion, been “de-Judaized” to provide more universal appeal across cultures worldwide. This was perhaps a necessity at one time, and perhaps even today, but came at a cost. The benefit was rapid growth and worldwide expansion of the Church. The downside is that many of the ancient traditions of Judaism were lost in the process until a full division was fully formed separating Christianity as a distinct religion from Judaism. Much was lost, but much was gained. Rabbi Emden talks about this - about how Christianity and Islam both helped to spread monotheistic ideas worldwide.

You have to carefully study and discern to see the links between today’s Church and Judaism, but they are there if you look closely. Over time, there have been non-Judaic liturgical practices and non-scriptural changes that have occurred in the Church over time as well, most of which are benign, but some of which stand contrary to the Torah. This, too, was inevitable, but will eventually be corrected. Not to get too far off track on this thread, but the Gentiles (now as members of the Church) were never intended to follow the entire Torah like the Jewish people.

 

[rfournier103]

Regarding the first question, here is an article by an Orthodox Jewish man regarding sacrifices and why they are not offered today.

Great link. Thank you. Very informative and quite interesting!