TTC Audio - Shai Cherry - Introduction to Judaism
English | MP3 4168 kbps 44 KHz Stereo | 24 MP3s | 343 MB
Genre: AudioBook
Introduction to Judaism
The Teaching Company
Taught By Professor Shai Cherry
Ph.D., Brandeis University,
University of California, Los Angeles
Course No. 6423
24 Lectures (30 minutes / lecture)
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 1st century, which forced a radically new approach to worship.

The political emancipation of the Jews in 18th-century Europe transformed a 1,000-year-old style of Jewish life. "You can?t find an expression of Judaism today that is just like [the way] 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 more than 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.

Course Lecture Titles
24 Lectures (30 minutes / lecture)

1. Torah, Old Testament, and Hebrew Bible
2. From Israelite to Jew
3. Repentance
4. Study
5. Prayer
6. Deeds of Loving Kindness
7. Messianism
8. The Coming World
9. 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?
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