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The Judaism PortalJudaism (Hebrew:יַהֲדוּת,romanized: Yahăḏūṯ) is anAbrahamic,monotheistic,ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of theJewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of observing theMosaic covenant, which they believe was established betweenGod and the Jewish people. The religion is considered one of the earliest monotheistic religions. Jewish religious doctrine encompasses a wide body of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Among Judaism's core texts is theTorah—the first five books of theHebrew Bible—and a collection of ancient Hebrew scriptures. The Tanakh, known in English as the Hebrew Bible, has the same books asProtestant Christianity'sOld Testament, with some differences in order and content. In addition to the original written scripture, the supplementalOral Torah is represented by later texts, such as theMidrash and theTalmud. The Hebrew-language wordtorah can mean "teaching", "law", or "instruction", although "Torah" can also be used as a general term that refers to any Jewish text or teaching that expands or elaborates on the originalFive Books of Moses. Representing the core of the Jewish spiritual and religious tradition, the Torah is a term and a set of teachings that are explicitly self-positioned as encompassing at least seventy, and potentially infinite, facets and interpretations. Judaism's texts, traditions, and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions, includingChristianity andIslam.Hebraism, likeHellenism, played a seminal role in the formation of Western civilization through its impact as a core background element ofearly Christianity. (Full article...) Selected Article Chavrusa is a traditionalrabbinic approach toTalmudic study in which a pair of students analyze, discuss, and debate a shared text. It is a primary learning method inyeshivas andkollels, where students often engage regular study partners of similar knowledge and ability, and is also practiced by men and boys outside the yeshiva setting, in work, home and vacation settings. The traditional phrase is to learnb'chavrusa (i.e., in partnership); the word has come bymetonymy to refer to the study partner as an individual, though it would more logically describe the pair. Unlike a teacher-student relationship, in which the student memorizes and repeats the material back in tests,chavrusa-style learning puts each student in the position of analyzing the text, organizing his thoughts into logical arguments, explaining his reasoning to his partner, hearing out his partner's reasoning, and questioning and sharpening each other's ideas, often arriving at entirely new insights into the meaning of the text. Whilechavrusa-style learning is traditionally practiced by men and boys, it has become popular in women's yeshivas that study Talmudic texts. In recent times, it has een extended to telephone andinternet hookups in which partners study Talmud as well as other traditional Jewish texts. (Read more...) Did You Know?Did you know...
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Related PortalsHistory Article ]]TheFirst Roumanian-American congregation is anOrthodox Jewish congregation that for more than 100 years occupied a historic building(pictured) at 89–93Rivington Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. Those who organized the congregation in 1885 were part of a wave ofRomanian-Jewish immigrants who settled mostly in this precinct. The building had previously been a church, then asynagogue, and then a church again. It was transformed into a synagogue for a second time and extensively remodeled when the First Roumanian-American congregation purchased it in 1902. The synagogue's high ceiling, good acoustics, and seating for up to 1,800 people made it famous as the "Cantor's Carnegie Hall". The congregation's membership was in the thousands in the 1940s, but by the early 2000s had declined to around 40 as Jews moved out of the Lower East Side. Though its building was listed on theNational Register of Historic Places in 1998, the congregation was reluctant to accept outside assistance in maintaining it. In January 2006, the roof collapsed and the building was demolished two months later. (Read more...) Picture of the WeekIn the News
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Weekly Torah PortionLech-Lecha (לך לך) Genesis 12:1–17:27 "The Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your native land and from your father's house to the land that I will show you.’" (Genesis 12:1.)  God appeared to Abram to tell him that God would assignthe land to his heirs, and Abram built analtar to God. Abram then moved to the hill country east ofBethel and built an altar to God there and invoked God by name. Then Abram journeyed toward the Negeb. Famine struck the land, so Abram went down toEgypt, asking Saraito say that she was his sister so that the Egyptians would not kill him. When they entered Egypt,Pharaoh's courtiers praised her beauty to Pharaoh, and she was taken into Pharaoh's palace. Because of her, Abram acquired sheep, oxen, donkeys, slaves, and camels, but God afflicted Pharaoh and his household with mighty plagues. Pharaoh questioned Abram why he had not told Pharaoh that Sarai was Abram's wife, but had said that she was his sister, so that Pharaoh took her as his wife. Pharaoh returned Sarai to Abram and had his men take them away with all they possessions. Abram, Sarai, and Lot returned to the altar near Bethel. Abram and Lot now had so many sheep and cattle that the land could not support them both, and their herdsmen quarreled. Abram proposed to Lot that they separate, inviting Lot to choose which land he would take. Lot saw how well watered the plain of theJordan was, so he chose it for himself, and journeyed eastward, settling nearSodom, a city of very wicked sinners, while Abram remained in Canaan. God promised to give all the land that Abram could see to him and his offspring forever, and to make his offspring as numerous as the dust of the earth. Abram moved to the terebinths ofMamre inHebron, and built an altar there to God. TheMesopotamian KingsAmraphel ofShinar,Arioch of Ellasar,Chedorlaomer ofElam, and Tidal of Goiim made war on the Canaanite kings of Sodom, Gomorrah,Admah,Zeboiim, and Zoar, who joined forces at theValley of Siddim, now theDead Sea. The Canaanite kings had served Chedorlaomer for twelve years, but rebelled in the thirteenth year. In the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the Mesopotamian kings with him went on a military campaign and defeated several peoples in and around Canaan: theRephaim, theZuzim, theEmim, theHorites, theAmalekites, and theAmorites. Then the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar engaged the four Mesopotamian kings in battle in the Valley of Siddim. The Mesopotamians routed the Canaanites, and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled intobitumen pits in the valley, while the rest escaped to the hill country. The Mesopotamians seized all the wealth of Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as Lot and his possessions, and departed.  A fugitive brought the news to Abram, who mustered his 318 retainers, and pursued the invaders north toDan. Abram and his servants defeated them at night, chased them north ofDamascus, and brought back all the people and possessions, including Lot and his possessions. When Abram returned, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh, the Valley of the King. KingMelchizedek ofSalem (Jerusalem), a priest ofGod Most High, brought out bread and wine and blessed Abram and God Most High, and Abram gave him atenth of everything. The king of Sodom offered Abram to keep all the possessions if he would merely return the people, but Abram swore to God Most High not to take so much as a thread or a sandal strap from Sodom, but would take only shares for the men who went with him. Some time later, the word of God appeared to Abram, saying not to fear, for his reward would be very great, but Abram questioned what God could give him, as he was destined to die childless, and his stewardEliezer of Damascus would be his heir. The word of God replied that Eliezer would not be his heir, Abram's own son would. God took Abram outside and bade him to count the stars, for so numerous would his offspring be, and because Abram put his trust in God, God reckoned it to his merit. God directed Abram to bring a heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a bird, to cut them in two, and to place each half opposite the other. Abram drove away birds of prey that came down upon the carcasses, and as the sun was about to set, he fell into a deep sleep. God told Abram that his offspring would be strangers in a land not theirs, and be enslaved 400 years, but God would execute judgment on the nation they were to serve, and in the end they would go free with great wealth and return in the fourth generation, after the iniquity of the Amorites was complete. And there appeared a smoking oven, and a flaming torch, which passed between the pieces. And God made acovenant with Abram to assign to his offspring the land from the river of Egypt to theEuphrates: the land of theKenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, theHittites, thePerizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and theJebusites. Having borne no children after 10 years in Canaan, Sarai bade Abram to consort with her EgyptianmaidservantHagar, so that Sarai might have a son through her, and Abram did as Sarai requested. When Hagar saw that she had conceived, Sarai was lowered in her esteem, and Sarai complained to Abram. Abram told Sarai that her maid was in her hands, and Sarai treated her harshly, so Hagar ran away. Anangel of God found Hagar by a spring of water in the wilderness, and asked her where she came from and where she was going, and she replied that she was running away from her mistress. The angel told her to go back to her mistress and submit to her harsh treatment, for God would make Hagar's offspring too numerous to count; she would bear a son whom she should nameIshmael, for God had paid heed to her suffering. Ishmael would be a wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone's hand against him, but he would dwell alongside his kinsmen. Hagar called God "El-roi," meaning that she had gone on seeing after God saw her, and the well was called Beer-lahai-roi. And when Abram was 86 years old, Hagar bore him a son, and Abram gave him the name Ishmael. When Abram was 99 years old, God appeared to Abram asEl Shaddai and asked him to walk in God's ways and be blameless, for God would establish a covenant with him and make him exceedingly numerous. Abram threw himself on his face, and God changed his name from Abram to Abraham, promising to make him the father of a multitude of nations and kings. God promised to maintain the covenant with Abraham and his offspring as an everlasting covenant throughout the ages, and assigned all the land of Canaan to him and his offspring as an everlasting holding. God further told Abraham that he and his offspring throughout the ages were to keep God's covenant and every male (including every slave) was to becircumcised in the flesh of his foreskin at the age of eight days as a sign of the covenant with God. If any male failed to circumcise the flesh of his foreskin, that person was to be cut off from his kin for having broken God's covenant. And God renamed Sarai as Sarah, and told Abraham that God would bless her and give Abraham a son by her so that she would give rise to nations and rulers. Abraham threw himself on his face and laughed at the thought that a child could be born to a man of a hundred and a woman of ninety, and Abraham asked God to bless Ishmael. But God told him that Sarah would bear Abraham a son, and Abraham was to name himIsaac, and God would maintain the everlasting covenant with him and his offspring. In response to Abraham's prayer, God blessed Ishmael as well and promised to make him exceedingly numerous, the father of twelve chieftains and a great nation. But God would maintain the covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah would bear at the same season the next year. And when God finished speaking, God disappeared. That very day, Abraham circumcised himself at the age of 99, Ishmael at the age of 13, and every male in his household, as God had directed. 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