JWST234 Fall 2011 Final Exam Exam Chapter 5 Rabbinic Revelations Chapter 6 Under the Crescent Chapter 7 Under the Cross Chapter 8 A Jewish Renaissance Part A Id s Choose 5 out of 7 o Who o What o Where o When o Why o Significance Document to Analyze o Review the documents on ELMS Pick One Essay of 2 Part B Essay Three Double Spaced Pages o Cumulative Question Thesis Examples Kabbalah cultural intermediary due to the political tensions between Christians and Muslims The Destruction of the Second Temple decentralization of Judaism synagogues Crusades conversos practice Judaism in secret Judaizing Conclusion Significance to Jewish History as a Whole Chapter 5 Rabbinic Revelations Theme 05 12 2012 12 51 00 In the centuries that followed the destruction of the Second Temple a community of scholars know by the title of rabbi became central to Jewish culture so central that Judaism as it exists today is to a large extent Judaism as reshaped by these scholars Transforming how Jews perceived the Torah how they worshipped God and how their births were celebrated and their deaths mourned Centralized to Decentralized practice of worship o Temple in Jerusalem Synagogues Rabbinic movement and its transformative impact on Jewish culture in late antiquity Little influence they had in their own day the rabbis of late antiquity through the legacy of their literature that records their words and deeds initiated a nearly universal transformation of Jewish culture radically redefining the contents of Jewish tradition Terms to Know 1 Mishnah The codification of rabbinic teaching and law completed around 200 CE It is a presentation of what various sages said presenting their positions on legal issues gathered the oral tradition transmitted by the rabbis until then o Not a work of biblical interpretation o The core of the rabbinic cannon major rabbinic work Judah ha Nasi The Patriarch importance to rabbinic movement because he compiled the oral traditions of the rabbis into a written text Mishnah o Judah feared that the legal trade of his predecessors would be lost and his goal in creating the Mishnah was basically preservative to conserve and consolidate this tradition not to create something new The Mishnah represents an important step in the consolidation of rabbinic Judaism it s formation has come to mark a major division in rabbinic history o Those sages who live up until the time of the Mishnah are known as Tannaim those who memorized and repeated legal o Those sages who lived after this period 220 500 CE are known as the Amoraim speaker repeated the words of a tradition sage aloud The effort to establish the Mishnah as the authoritative codification was successful and much of Amoraic activity focused on the study of the Mishnah 2 Babylonian Palestinian Talmud Palestinian Talmud was compiled earlier and is shorter and often more laconic than the massive Babylonian Talmud o By the sixth century the Jewish community of Palestine was greatly overshadowed by the Christians living there center of Jewish life shifted to Babylonia reshaped worldwide Jewish culture Babylonia was where Jewish history had begun Babylonian sages preserved Jewish tradition in its purest form Palestinian sages corrupted Jewish law Babylonian Talmud Finalized and edited between 550 and 650 CE by the Stammaim in Babylonia successors to the Amoraim this massive work of carefully structured legal debate biblical interpretation and storytelling that takes the Mishnah as its starting point runs more than 2 5 million words in 63 volumes o Intermixes Palestinian and Babylonian traditions in a way that makes it appear as if they form one seamless whole o The Talmud addresses how to study and understand the Bible and the Mishnah how to serve God and follow His commands became authoritative for most Jewish communities shaping their understanding of what it meant to be Jewish Geonic Period The Talmud became part of the Jewish canon transcending its origins as an academic commentary and becoming the legal code that Jews looked to as the framework for how to live their lives Talmud s take on rabbinic culture that exerted the most influence on later Jewish culture determining how Jews understood rabbinic teachings Chapter 6 Under the Crescent Islamic Middle Ages Theme Two major historical developments the collapse of the Roman Empire and the rise of Islam were especially important for the transition of Jewish history beyond late antiquity and into the Middle Ages Fall of the Western Roman Empire Rise of Islam o Leader Muhammad born in 570 CE o Major social and cultural changes happening within the Jewish world o With the rise of Islam an event that unified much of the Near East North Africa and southern Europe The Geonim were able to extend their influence beyond their academies in Babylonia and Palestine into much of the rest of the Jewish world Jewish culture as it developed under the influence of Islam began to have effects beyond the border of Islamic rule The resettlement of Jewish refugees in other parts of Europe the translation of Arabic works into Hebrew and the Christian conquest of Spain and its Jewish inhabitants all facilitated the transfer of Judeo Arabic ideas and literature into the Christian European realm where they had a major impact on Jewish and non Jewish intellectual religious and cultural life Terms to Know 1 Maimonides Rambam 1135 1204 CE Rabbi Moses ben Maimon the greatest Jewish philosopher of the Middle Ages Born in Cordoba he fled to Egypt to escape persecution under the zealous Almohads In Cairo he served as a Jewish communal leader and physician to the Islamic ruler while also writing extensively on medicine Jewish law and philosophy Emerged during the Golden Age of Spain generated by an internal struggle within Muslim politics Central work focused on the challenge of how to relate philosophy His most important works are the Mishneh Torah and The Guide to religion for the Perplexed o Mishneh Torah a fourteen volume code of Jewish law o Guide for the Perplexed the most important medieval Jewish philosophical text Acknowledges the limits of human reason for understanding God Although God is unknowable divine law offers something of a bridge a way for humans to improve themselves physically and spiritually Sought to develop a philosophical understanding of Scripture that would validate and illuminate it by means of logical proofs and argumentation o Model for how to bridge revelation and reason as a foil for