RELI 211 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Rabbinic Judaism, Second Temple Judaism, Oral Torah

• School: George Mason University
• Department: Religious Studies
• Course: RELI 211
• Professor: Randi L.Rashkover

Document Summary

A hebrew bible is divided into three different parts: According to judaism, after the liberation of the jews from israel, god performs an event of divine revelation. Revelation: god discloses, unveils, or communicates something. In most instances, what god wants to communicate is his will. In each revelation, god reveals himself through words and speech. At sinai, moses writes these words down. Judaism holds that at sinai god also revealed oral torah, which is just not, if not more important, than written torah. At sinai god speaks the narrative and rules in the five books. God also speaks rules to interpretation of these texts. These rules consist of a body of commentary on both the legal and narrative sections of the hebrew bible. According to jewish tradition, these rules are passed down orally for hundreds of years, until the destruction of the second temple in 70 ce. Afterwards, a group of jews known as rabbis began to write the oral.