Portal:Judaism
The Judaism Portal 14 Elul 5786Judaism (Hebrew: יַהֲדוּת, romanized: Yahăḏūṯ) is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of observing the Mosaic covenant, which they believe was established between God and the Jewish people. The religion is considered one of the earliest monotheistic religions. Judaism as a religion and culture is founded upon a diverse body of texts, traditions, theologies, and worldviews. Among Judaism's core texts are the Torah (Biblical Hebrew: תּוֹרָה, lit. 'Teaching'), the Nevi'im (נְבִיאִים, 'Prophets'), and the Ketuvim (כְּתוּבִים, 'Writings'), which together compose the Hebrew Bible. In Modern Hebrew, the Hebrew Bible is often referred to as the Tanakh (תַּנַ׳׳ךּ, Tanaḵ)—an acronym of its constituent divisions—or the Miqra (מִקְרָא, Miqrāʾ, '[that which is] called out'). With some differences in order and content, what Christianity calls the Old Testament has the same books as the Hebrew Bible. (Full article...) Selected Article The Acra was a fortified compound in Jerusalem of the 2nd century BCE. Built by Antiochus Epiphanes, ruler of the Seleucid Empire, following his sack of the city in 168 BCE, the fortress played a significant role in the events surrounding the Maccabean Revolt and the formation of the Hasmonean Kingdom. It was destroyed by Simon Maccabeus during this struggle. The exact location of the Acra, critical to understanding Hellenistic Jerusalem, remains a matter of ongoing discussion. Historians and archaeologists have proposed various sites around Jerusalem, relying mainly on conclusions drawn from literary evidence. This approach began to change in the light of excavations which commenced in the late 1960s. New discoveries have prompted reassessments of the ancient literary sources, Jerusalem's geography and previously discovered artifacts. Yoram Tsafrir has interpreted a masonry joint in the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount platform as a clue to the Acra's possible position. During Benjamin Mazar's 1968 and 1978 excavations adjacent to the south wall of the Mount, features were uncovered which may have been connected with the Acra, including barrack-like rooms and a huge cistern. (Read more...) Did You Know?Did you know...
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Related PortalsHistory Article Congregation Baith Israel Anshei Emes is an egalitarian Conservative synagogue located at 236 Kane Street in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, New York City. It is currently the oldest continuously operating synagogue in Brooklyn. Founded as Baith Israel in 1856, the congregation constructed the first synagogue on Long Island, and hired Rabbi Aaron Wise for his first rabbinical position in the United States. Early tensions between traditionalists and reformers led to the latter forming Congregation Beth Elohim, a Reform synagogue, in 1861. The synagogue nearly failed in the early 1900s, but the 1905 hiring of Israel Goldfarb as rabbi, the purchase of its current buildings, and the 1908 merger with Talmud Torah Anshei Emes, re-invigorated the congregation. The famous composer Aaron Copland celebrated his bar mitzvah there in 1913, and long-time Goldman Sachs head Sidney Weinberg was married there in 1920. Membership peaked in the 1920s, but with the onset of the Great Depression declined steadily, and by the 1970s the congregation could no longer afford to heat the sanctuary. Membership has recovered since that low point; the congregation renovated its school/community center in 2004, and in 2008 embarked on a million-dollar capital campaign to renovate the sanctuary. (Read more...) Picture of the WeekIn the NewsFeatured Quote
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Weekly Torah PortionKi Tavo (כי תבוא)
Deuteronomy 26:1–29:8
"A wandering Aramean was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there, few in number; and he became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous." (Deuteronomy 26:5.)
 "A wandering Aramean was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there, few in number; and he became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians dealt ill with us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage. And we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice, and saw our affliction, and our toil, and our oppression. And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders. And He has brought us into this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the land, that You, O Lord, have given me." They were to leave the basket before the altar, bow low to God, and then feast on and enjoy, together with the Levite and the stranger, the bounty that God had given them. When they had given the tenth part of their yield to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, in the third year, the year of the tithe, they were to declare before God: "'I have put away the hallowed things out of my house, and also have given them to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, according to Your commandment that You have commanded me; I have not transgressed any of Your commandments, neither have I forgotten them. I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I put away thereof, being unclean, nor given thereof for the dead; I have hearkened to the voice of the Lord my God, I have done according to all that You have commanded me. Look from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel, and the land that You have given us, as You swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey."  Moses exhorted the Israelites to observe these laws faithfully with all their heart and soul, noting that they had affirmed that the Lord was their God, that they would walk in God's ways, that they would observe Gods laws, and that they would obey God. And God affirmed that the Israelites were God's treasured people, and that God would set them high above all the nations in fame and renown and glory, and that they would be a holy people to God. Moses and the elders charged the people that as soon as they had crossed the Jordan River, they were to set up large stones on Mount Ebal, coat them with plaster, and inscribe on them all the words of the Torah most distinctly. There they were also to build an altar to God made of unhewn stones on which no iron tool had struck, and they were to offer on it burnt offerings to God and offerings of well-being and rejoice. Moses and the priests told all Israel to hear: They had become the people of God, and should heed God and observe God's commandments. Moses charged the people that after they had crossed the Jordan, the tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin were to stand on Mount Gerizim when the blessings were spoken, and the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphthali were to stand on Mount Ebal when the curses were spoken. The Levites were then loudly to curse anyone who: made a sculptured image, insulted father or mother, moved a fellow countryman's landmark, misdirected a blind person, subverted the rights of the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, lay with his father's wife, lay with any beast, lay with his sister, lay with his mother-in-law, struck down his fellow countryman in secret, accepted a bribe in the case of the murder of an innocent person, or otherwise would not observe the commandments; and for each curse all the people were to say, "Amen."  panorama showing Mount Gerizim on the left, Mount Ebal on the right, and modern Nablus (ancient Shechem) between
(photographed by and copyright Uwe A; for licensing information, double-click on the picture) On the other hand, if they obeyed God and observed faithfully all the commandments, then God would set them high above all the nations of the earth, bless them in the city and the country, bless the issue of their wombs, the produce of their soil, and the fertility of their herds and flocks, bless their basket and their kneading bowl, bless them in their comings and goings, rout their enemies, bless them upon their barns and all their undertakings, bless them in the land, establish them as God's holy people, give them abounding prosperity, provide rain in season, and make them the head and not the tail. But if they did not obey God and observe faithfully the commandments, then God would curse them in the city and the country, curse their basket and kneading bowl, curse the issue of their womb, the produce of their soil, and the fertility of their herds and flocks, curse them in their comings and goings, loose on them calamity, panic, and frustration in all their enterprises, make pestilence cling to them, strike them with tuberculosis, fever, inflammation, scorching heat, drought, blight, and mildew, turn the skies to coppe] and the earth to iron, make the rain into dust, rout them before their enemies, strike them with the Egyptian inflammation, hemorrhoids, boil-scars, itch, madness, blindness, and dismay. If they paid the bride price for a wife, another man would enjoy her; if they built a house, they would not live in it; if they planted a vineyard, they would not harvest it._La_distruzione_del_tempio_di_Gerusalemme_-Francesco_Hayez_-_gallerie_Accademia_Venice.jpg) _-_Thirst_(1886).jpg) Moses reminded the Israelites that they had seen all that God did to Pharaoh and Egypt, yet they did not yet understand. Moses led them through the wilderness 40 years, their clothes and sandals did not wear out, and they survived without bread to eat and wine to drink so that they might know that the Lord was their God. They defeated King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan, took their land, and gave it to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. Therefore, Moses urged them to observe faithfully all the commandments, that they might succeed in all that they undertook. Hebrew and English Text TopicsAssociated WikimediaThe following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
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