An Introduction to Judaism

1
An Introduction to Judaism

• by
• Rabbi Yeshaya Balog

2
Judaism Life of Obligation

• 1) Learning
• 2) Life
• 3) Food
• 4) Dress
• 5) Business
• 6) Family and sexuality
• 7) Spirituality
• 8) Calendar

3
1) The Obligation of Torah Study

• The Jews study the life of the nation, in order
  to live it.
• The Jews live the life of the nation, in order to
  learn it.
• Life and learning are one.
• Judaism is a community of learning.

4
What Do We Learn?

• Mitzvot 248 Positive Commandments, 365
  Prohibitions
• 2 parts of the Torah
• Written Pentateuch
• Oral (written down 200-700 CE) Mishna, Talmud
• Trinty Nation, Land and Teachings

5
2) The Most Important Principle Life

• The Torah is the teaching of life

• Never again will the Jewish nation be victim

6
Kosher animals
Kosher fish fins and scales
Slaughter
3) Food
No mixing milk and meat
No eating of blood
7
4) Dress

• Kippa
• Tzitzit

• If married hair covering
• Modest

8
5) Business

• Always with honesty
• Helping poor people (Tzedaka)
• Give money for just causes

9
6) Marriage and Sexuality

• No physical contact before marriage
• In marriage no marital relations during
  menstruation
• Marrital intimacy for children and love
• Divorce is allowed

10
7) Spirituality
Blessings always

• Prayer anywhere, in
• minjan 10 Jewish adult men

11
8) Calendar

• Shabbat every week one day of festival
• Friday evening Creation of the universe

12
Friday Evening Creation

• Thus the heaven and earth were finished, and
  all array. By the seventh day God completed His
  work which he had done, and He abstained on the
  seventh day from all His work which He had done.
  God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it
  because on it He abstained from all His work
  which God created to make. (Genesis 2, 1-3)

13
Shabbat - Revelation

• Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it. Six
  days shall you work and accomplish all your work
  but the seventh day is Sabbath to HASHEM your
  God you shall not do any work you, your son,
  your daughter, your slave. Your maidservant, your
  animal and your convert within your gates - for
  in six days HASHEM made the heavens and the
  earth, the sea and all that is in them, and He
  rested on the seventh day. Therefore, HASHEM
  blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.
  (Exodus 20, 8-11).

14
Shabbat Afternoon Salvation

• May the compassionate One let us inherit that
  day that shall be all Sabbath and rest for life
  everlasting (from Grace After Meals)

15
Festivals

• Agricultural
• Historical
• Spiritual

16
The Three Agricultural Festivals
Pessach (Passover) Creation
Sukkot (Tabernacles) Salvation
Shavuot (Pentecost) Revelation
17
Four Historic Festivals
Purim (4. c. BCE)
Chanukka (2. c. BCE)
Independence Day (1948)
9. Beav (70 CE)
18
The Spiritual FestivalsRosh Hashana New Year

• Day of History
• Kingdom of God
• The veil between Creation and Nature is torn off

19
Yom Kippur Day of Atonement

• Man stood alone ..., with nothing to lean on,
  without nation or mankind ..., on the day of
  atonement in the gaping silence and had to find
  his way to God, to his God ... (Isaac Breuer The
  New Kuzari)