2-3 Judaism

The Roots of Judaism (SQ 22)

Essential Questions

1. How does this society compare and contrast to other ancient civilizations?

2. What were the historical circumstances and geographic context for the founding of Judaism?

3. Identify who the Ancient Israelites were and where they lived.

Pearson Online Text Reading: Topic 2, Lesson 3 (linked here - When you get to this link, go to the bottom of the page and look on the right side. It will read 1 of 680, type in 24 in place of the 1 and it will take you to the Topic 2, Lesson 3: The Hebrews and the Origins of Judaism) or copy this url:

https://etext2.pearson.com/#/book/ZYDNSXYHOV/page/1/toc Go to right side of the page and open the Table of Contents. Go to Topic 2, Lesson 3: The Hebrews and the Origins of Judaism.

Vocabulary

• Judaism

• Torah

• Prophet

The Israelites were a group of people who lived in Middle East. They established a kingdom starting around 1030 BCE-1020 BCE that lasted until it was conquered by the Assyrian empire in 722 BCE. The Israelites were the first people to practice a religion that became known as Judaism.

Describe the relative location of Ancient Israel. Use three other locations to describe where Ancient Israel was.

Why might the Ancient Israelites have settled in the location identified on the map?

The ancient Israelites adapted to their environment as all successful civilizations must do to survive. Where there was only grass and rocks, shepherds tended their flocks of sheep and goats.

Where there was a body of water filled with fish, they worked as fishermen. While the men worked as shepherds or fishermen, the women did most of the household work including grinding grain, making garments and making cheese and butter. The women gathered water from wells.

Monotheism

At the time of Abraham, people in Mesopotamia worshiped thousands of gods. People in Egypt worshiped many nature gods. The Egyptians also worshiped the sun and spirits and even their own kings. This belief in many gods and goddesses is called polytheism.

The ancient Israelites introduced a new idea. The Israelites or Hebrews came to believe that there was only one true God. The Israelites believed that their God was all-powerful, all-knowing and was present everywhere. The Israelites saw themselves as the chosen people of their God. This belief in one God is called monotheism.

Central to the religion of the ancient Israelites was the belief that they had entered into a special relationship with their God, Yahweh. This relationship was called a covenant. According to this covenant, the Israelites were to follow all the rules and regulations in the Torah (or first five books of the Bible). In return, their God promised to protect them, increase their population, and give them the land of Canaan as their homeland forever.

The Torah

The story of how the Israelites developed as a people is found in the first five books of the Bible or Torah. The Torah contains the basic laws of the Jewish religion and traces the history of the Israelites through the 1200s B.C.

The Exodus

According to the Bible, many Hebrews had gone down into Egypt because there was a famine in Canaan and they had no food. Instead of returning home to Canaan, they stayed in Egypt for a long time. The number of Hebrews living in Egypt grew very large.

This upset the Pharaoh who became afraid that the Hebrews would become powerful enough to upset his rule. To prevent this, he made the Hebrews (also called Israelites) into slaves.

Treatment of laborers in Egypt was cruel during the time of the Israelites' bondage. After more than 400 years of slavery, in the early 1200's B.C., Moses was born.

Although an Israelite, Moses was raised in the Pharaoh’s household. This Pharaoh was probably Ramses II. According to the Torah, God asked Moses to ask the Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave Egypt. Pharaoh refused.

God gave Moses miraculous powers, including the ability to cause outbreaks of disease and destruction called plagues. Each time a plague happened, Pharaoh promised to let the Israelites go, but each time he changed his mind.

Finally, according to the Torah, a plague came in which the first-born child of all the Egyptians died - even Pharaoh’s son. After this terrible plague, Pharaoh finally let the Israelites leave Egypt.

The Roots of Judaism: SQ 23. How do we know what we know about Ancient Israel? How is our knowledge limited?

Describe what we know about Ancient Israel.

Explain how our knowledge is limited.

The Exile of the Jews: