History of Judaism Lectures

Between Cross and Crescent:
Jewish Civilization from Mohammed to Spinoza

This course presents an overview of Jewish culture and society from its rabbinic foundations in late

antiquity until the dawn of modernity in the 18th century. It focuses especially on the creative encounter

between a rabbinic civilization shaped centuries earlier in the ancient Near East with the new social,

economic, political, and intellectual environments of medieval Islam and Christendom. While casting its

primary glance on the evolution of Jewish life over many centuries, it also affords a unique perspective

from which to examine the three major Western religions as they interact with each other over time,

especially their ability or inability to tolerate and even appreciate the “other”as viewed from the

vantage point of the Jewish minority.
After a brief overview of rabbinic civilization prior to the rise of Islam, the course focuses first on the

Jewish community of Baghdad in the 9th and 10th centuries, a period in which a multitude of sources,

including a special collection known as the Cairo genizah, provides a rich profile of the politics, social, and

intellectual life of the Jewish community both within the environs of the city and beyond. The Jewish

leadership is introduced, as well as its communal institutions, its forces of dissent, and its ultimate

decline. The towering figure of Saadia Gaon of the 10th century is the focus of this intricate social and

cultural world. The course moves from Baghdad to Cordova in Spain, examining the political and cultural

developments of what some historians have called the “Golden Age” of Spanish Jewry, based on the

explosion of new poetic writing in Hebrew as well as philosophical and legal works, especially those of Moses

Maimonides and Judah ha-Levi.
From the Muslim orbit, the course then considers the long relations between Judaism and Christianity,

from the Christian 1st century until the Middle Ages. After setting out the larger context of Jewish

settlement in northern Europe, and the economic and social conditions under which Jews carved out their

existence, the rise of Christian hostility is delineated, leading to the Crusades and the new aggressiveness

toward Jews and Judaism. A close look at the new Christian offensive against the Jewish (and other

minorities) in the 13th century, leading to their decline and eventual expulsion, provides the backdrop to

understand the causes of medieval anti-Semitism.
While the course gives due attention to the political, social, and economic forces shaping Jewish culture in

this long period, it focuses especially on the intellectual and cultural history of Jews in the Muslim and

Christian environments and the modes of cultural interchange between Jews and their host cultures. I am

especially interested in the emergence of two, distinct intellectual developments uniquely situated in the

medieval world: the rise of medieval Jewish philosophy, on the one hand, and the appearance of Jewish

mysticism and pietism as primary expressions of Jewish religiosity on the other. In incorporating both the

history of Jewish thought and spirituality into this survey, I am obliged to be highly selective in the

figures and movements I have chosen to highlight. But I do think that these choices convey accurately some

of the salient features of Jewish civilization in its reconfiguration during the medieval period. The

varieties of intellectual and cultural expression in Muslim and Christian lands, along with the social and

political conditions under which Jews lived, allow one to see distinctly both the continuities and

discontinuities of Jewish existence across the boundaries of these larger civilizations.
The last part of the course examines the decline of Jewish life in Christian Spain, leading to the expulsion

of the entire Jewish population in 1492. It considers the new demographic, social, and cultural changes

engendered by the Renaissance, Reformation, and Counter-Reformation, the printing press, the discovery

of the New World, and the changing economic and political context of early modern Europe. It follows the

explosion of new mystical and messianic movements in the 16th and 17th centuries, the impact of the

Inquisition and the emergence of the new converso community based on unique economic, ethnic, and

religious affiliations, as well as the remarkable growth and stabilization of new Jewish communities in

Eastern Europe. The course closes with the emergence of the unique Jewish community of Amsterdam in

the age of Spinoza.
Spanning over 10 centuries, this survey provides a broad introduction to some of the leading Jewish

communities, their political and economic structures, their social relations with Jews and non-Jews, and

their cultural and intellectual achievements in the pre-modern world. By embedding Jewish history

within the larger social and cultural spheres of the Islamic and Christian worlds, the course ultimately

raises the perplexing question of whether each of the three religious civilizations can learn to tolerate each

other in our own chaotic and dangerous world, allowing each to live creative and dignified lives in the light

of the mixed record of their past encounters and interactions.

Introduction to Judaism
(24 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture)
Course No. 6423

Taught by Shai Cherry
Vanderbilt University
Ph.D., Brandeis University

Course Lecture Titles

01. Torah, Old Testament, and Hebrew Bible
02. From Israelite to Jew
03. Repentance
04. Study
05. Prayer
06. Deeds of Loving Kindness
07. Messianism
08. The Coming World
09. Sabbath
10. Law and Spirit
11. Fall Holidays
12. Spring Holidays
13. Minor Holidays—Then and Now
14. Medieval Jewish Philosophy—Maimonides
15. Medieval Jewish Mysticism—Kabbalah
16. Evil and Suffering—Biblical and Rabbinic
17. Evil and Suffering—Medieval and Modern
18. Emancipation, Enlightenment, and Reform
19. Orthodox Judaisms
20. Israel and Zionism
21. American Judaisms
22. Women and Jewish Law
23. Judaism and the Other
24. The Chosen People?

TTC Introduction to Judaism

What could be simpler than a single people worshipping a single God for 3,000 years? But Judaism is far

from simple, and as a religion, culture, and civilization, it has evolved in surprising ways during its long

and remarkable history. Consider the following:

* Although Judaism is defined by its worship of one God, it was not always a pure monotheism. In I Kings

8, King Solomon addresses the Lord by saying, "there is no God like You," suggesting that the Israelites

recognized the existence of other gods.
* The practice of Judaism was focused on animal sacrifice until the destruction of the Second Temple by

the Romans in the first century, which forced a radically new approach to worship.
* The political emancipation of the Jews in 18th-century Europe transformed a thousand-year-old style of

Jewish life. "You can’t find an expression of Judaism today that is just like Jews lived 300 years ago," says

Professor Shai Cherry.

Yet for all it has changed, Judaism has maintained unbroken ties to a foundation text, an ethnicity, a set

of rituals and holidays, and a land.

A Journey of Religious Discovery

In these 24 lectures, Professor Cherry explores the rich religious heritage of Judaism from biblical times to

today.

He introduces you to the written Torah, and you learn about the oral Torah, called the Mishnah (which was

also later written down), and its commentary, the Gemara. And you discover how the Mishnah and Gemara

comprise the Talmud, and how they differ from another form of commentary called Midrash.

He teaches you about the three pillars of the world defined over 2,000 years ago by Shimon the Righteous:

Torah, worship, and deeds of loving kindness.

He takes you through the calendar of Jewish holidays, from the most important, the Sabbath, to the key

holidays of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover, and Pentecost (Shavuot); and to historically minor

celebrations such as Channukah, which is now a more visible holiday.

You also learn about the origins and attributes of the different Jewish movements that formed in the wake

of Emancipation in the late 1700s and the resulting full emergence of Judaism into Western society. These

include the Reform, Conservative, Modern Orthodox, and Reconstructionist movements.

"Although Jewish history is not one long tale of travails," says Professor Cherry, "there have been several

catastrophes that powerfully shaped the Jewish consciousness." He includes discussions of the impact on

Jewish thought of the Babylonian exile and the destruction of the Second Temple in antiquity, and the

Holocaust in the 20th century.

"We will see that for every topic that we cover we have a multiplicity of responses and a multiplicity of

answers," says Professor Cherry, noting that this course could just as easily be called "An Introduction to

Judaisms."

What’s in a Name?

Judaism’s sacred text is the Bible, also called the TaNaKH, the Torah, the Hebrew Bible, and, by Christians,

the Old Testament. As Professor Cherry points out, these terms have different implications:

* TaNaKH: This is the Hebrew acronym for the three sections of the Bible—the Torah (the first five books,

known as the Pentateuch), Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings).
* Torah: The word torah means "a teaching," and it can refer to the Pentateuch, the entire TaNaKH, or

even the whole corpus of Jewish thought.
* Hebrew Bible: This is a religiously neutral term used by scholars for the TaNaKH. Professor Cherry

notes that his expertise is in the TaNaKH, not the Hebrew Bible, since he approaches the text from the

Jewish interpretive tradition.
* Old Testament: Christians refer to the TaNaKH as the Old Testament, since in their eyes it has been

superseded by the New Testament. For Catholics, the Old Testament has a number of books that are not

included in the TaNaKH.

Interpreting the Scriptures

Jews and Christians not only have different names for the Bible, they understand it very differently. For

example, Christianity takes an episode that is relatively minor in Jewish tradition—the temptation of

Adam and Eve—and extracts from it the doctrine of original sin.

Similarly, early rabbis took the repeated phrase, "And there was evening and there was morning," in the

enumeration of the six days of creation and concluded that the day begins in the evening, which is why

Jews start the celebration of their holidays at sundown.

As a case study in interpretation, Professor Cherry delves deeply into the prohibition against seething a

kid in its mother’s milk, mentioned in Exodus and Deuteronomy, which led to the kosher practice of strict

separation of meat and milk products. Recently, a scholar pointed out that the original Hebrew could be

interpreted to mean fat instead of milk.

A prohibition against seething a kid in its mother’s fat makes more sense, because it is another way of

saying that the mother and offspring should not be slaughtered on the same day, in accord with the

biblical injunction against killing two generations of the same species on the same day.

But the rabbis had very good reasons to read the passage as they did, says Professor Cherry, who shows the

theological logic that has resulted in the dietary separation of meat and milk, a practice observed by

traditional Jews today.

Unlocking Mysteries of Jewish Thought and Ritual

"Let’s unpack this," Professor Cherry says often during these lectures, as he takes a concept, a biblical

passage, or an episode from history and explores its meaning in Jewish thought and ritual.

In doing so, he is following the footsteps of the acknowledged master of this form of analysis, the medieval

Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides, who figures prominently throughout the course and is treated in

depth in Lecture 14.

There, Professor Cherry focuses on Maimonides’s Guide of the Perplexed and its discussion of creation,

prayer, and the reasons for the commandments. Maimonides is filled with insights into how Judaism

evolved as it did, noting, for example, that the practice of ritual animal sacrifice in early Judaism was

God’s way of taking a pagan rite that the Israelites had learned from the Egyptians and redirecting it.

In a subsequent lecture, Professor Cherry shows how Maimonides’s success at putting Judaism on a logical

footing set the stage for a reaction that produced the Jewish mystical system called the Kabbalah.

Professor Cherry unlocks other mysteries, such as why the first day of the seventh month (Tishrei) is the

Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah). It seems likely, he says, that "this was the time of the Babylonian New

Year. So when the Jews were exiled to Babylonia, they saw that the Babylonians celebrated their New Year

on that day, and said, ‘We’ve got some sacred occasion where we blow the trumpets, so let’s make that our

New Year, too.’"

He also explores different concepts of the Messiah, profiling two controversial candidates. The first is

Shabbatai Tzvi, who was proclaimed Messiah by followers in 1665, and whose travels across Eastern Europe

eventually landed him in Turkey, where he converted to Islam to avoid execution by the authorities.

The other candidate is Rebbe Menachem Mendel Scheersohn, a charismatic leader of the Lubavitch

Chassidim in Brooklyn, who died in 1994. Rebbe Scheersohn’s widely touted messianic credentials created

intense debate and division in the Ultra-Orthodox community.

From the Decalogue to Fiddler on the Roof

From the first lecture on the Torah to the last on the Jews as the Chosen People, this course is packed with

fascinating information, including:

* Jews say "Decalogue," not "The Ten Commandments," because there are actually more than ten

commandments in the Decalogue. For instance, "On six days you shall work and the seventh day shall be a

Sabbath to you." Usually that counts as one: that you should have a Sabbath on the seventh day. But there

is also, "On six days you shall work."
* The prophets in the biblical period served the same function as today’s free press. They tell the king

what he doesn’t want to hear.
* When people die in the TaNaKH, everyone goes to the same place, Sheol—a shadowy underworld that is

neither heaven nor hell.
* After crushing the Bar Kochvah revolt of the Jews in the second century, the Romans changed the name

of the land of Israel and Judaea to echo the Israelites’ ancient enemies, the Philistines. This is how the

region came to be called Palestine.
* Today, the designation "Temple" on a Jewish house of worship is usually a sign that it is a Reform

congregation, since Reform Jews no longer look toward the dream of rebuilding the Jerusalem Temple.
* Orthodox Judaism is just as much a product of modernity as is Reform, since several varieties of

Orthodoxy emerged in the 19th century as a response to Emancipation, the Enlightenment, and the

founding of the Reform movement.

In addition, Professor Cherry devotes several lectures to complex issues such as the problem of evil and

suffering, the Zionist movement, the role and status of women in the Jewish world, and how Judaism

understands Christianity.

Throughout, Professor Cherry is articulate, engaging, and passionate, with a gift for making a point by

means of a memorable cultural reference. He calls attention to an echo of Jewish mystic Rav Kook in a Joni

Mitchell song; to the Kabbalistic nature of "The Force" and "The Dark Side" in George Lucas’s Star Wars; and

to the Sabbath lesson given by Gene Wilder as an Old-West rabbi in The Frisco Kid, when he dutifully

dismounts his horse at sundown, risking capture by bandits.

Professor Cherry notes that when he teaches introductory Judaism at Vanderbilt University, he asks his

students to see two films: Fiddler on the Roof, for its picture of the breakdown of tradition as Jews confront

modernity; and Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors, for its treatment of secular Jews grappling with

contemporary issues of faith and ethics. Both films repay viewing in light of the lessons you’ll learn in this

course.

In his final lecture, Professor Cherry sums up: "The Judaisms we’ve examined in this course reflect the

ongoing struggles of the Jewish people from their ancient life as a sovereign nation, to the travails of exile,

to the opportunities of acculturation in modernity, and finally to the re-establishment of the state of

Israel. Hearing God’s words anew—receiving Torah every day—has meant reinterpreting the tradition,

creatively re-reading the words of the past, whether they relate to core ideas like the notion of evil and the

notion of the Chosen People, or mitzvot such as the prohibition of idolatry, or the laws of marriage and

divorce. Even the basis for re-interpreting the tradition, the claim that God’s words do not cease, is itself a

re-reading of Torah."