According to tradition has Judaism evolved?

Answer 1

in orthadox Judaism, very little has changed from after the destruction of the second temple. they have a very low assimalation rate (7 out of 100)

Conservative have changed suff to suit there own (non-Jewish related) needs, and have only managed to maintain 60-70% of the Jewish way of life. the assimalation rate in conservitave is 50 out of every 100

reform have only maintained a small ammount of there Jewish heritage. the assimalation rate is between 70 to 80 out of every 100.

for many more Jewish Questions and answers see: http://www.chabad.org/474309

Answer 2

A:The scholarly consensus on early Hebrew belief is reflected in Lang, cited by Keel and Uehlinger (Gods, Goddesses and Images of God in Ancient Israel), "In the four and a half centuries during which there were one or two Israelite monarchies (ca. 1020-586 B.C.), there was a dominant, polytheistic religion that was indistinguishable from that of neighboring peoples. Insofar as there were differences between the Ammonite, Moabite, Edomite, Tyrian, etc. versions of religion, these beliefs stayed within the framework of Near Eastern polytheism, and each should be interpreted as a local variant of the same basic pattern. The Israelites . . . venerated their own protector god who was there to provide for health and family. But they venerated Yahweh [God] as well, the regional and national god, whose special domain dealt with war and peace issues. Finally, they worshiped gods who performed specific functions, those that were responsible for various special needs: weather, rain, women's fertility, etc." This is not the view that has come down to us in the Old Testament, but we are enjoined not to confuse the minority opinion expressed in the religious literature preserved in the Old Testament with the historic religion of Israel in the pre-Exilic period.

Andrew D. H. Mayes (The World of Ancient Israel: Sociological, Anthropological and Political Perspectives, Sociology and the Old Testament) says it is becoming clear that the presentation of Yahweh as the only God of Israel in the pre-monarchic period is a late construction which runs up against great historical difficulties. He says that the worship of Yahweh alone was the programme of an active pressure group within Israel which came into dominance particularly in times of crisis, and the breakthrough to monotheism was achieved only in the setting of that final catastrophe when the prophetic demand for Yahweh's exclusive worship, with its threat of punishment for disobedience, was vindicated.

The Bible tells us that King Josiah, in the late monarchy of Judah, introduced religious reforms, making monotheistic worship of the God the national religion of Judah. As noted by Mayes, above, those reforms were either written back into the Bible at a later date, or were only partly successful prior to the Babylonian Exile.

During the Babylonian Exile and the subsequent Persian Period, Judaism adopted new concepts previously known only from the Zoroastrian religion of the Persian liberators, including heaven as a place of reward in the afterlife, angels and Satan. The Jerusalem Temple was the special place for worshipping God, who was thought to have lived in the inner space of the Temple. The Babylonian Exile strained this tradition, as the Jews could no longer worship God in their Temple. Fortunately for them, the Exile was rather brief and they were soon permitted to rebuild their Temple.

At some stage, probably during the conquests of King Josiah, the Samaritans had also adopted Judaic monotheism, with their own temple and their own version of the scriptures. The second-century Maccabeans, who conquered the Samaritans, sought to unify Judaism by insisting that God must only be worshipped in the Jerusalem Temple. It is known that the Israelites (from the northern kingdom) who had migrated to Elephantine in Egypt continued to practise polytheism until long after the period of the Babylonian Exile.

Judaism, like all other Near Eastern religions, believed that worship required the presentation of sacrificies in the Temple. The First Roman-Jewish War put an ned to sacrifices in 70 CE, when the victorious Romans destroyed the Temple and prevented the Jews from performing sacrifices. Without a Temple, Jews needed a places to worship, if Judaism was to survive. Synagogues had appeared, at least among the Jews living outside Palestine, and offerred just such an alternative. Synagogue are now the Jewish places of worship throughout the world.

At the time of the First Roman-Jewish War, the principal Jewish sects were the Pharisees and Sadducees, as well as the Essenes and others. Christianity was at this stage still thought of as a Jewish sect of sorts. With the destruction of the Temple, there was no longer a place for the Sadducees, who disappeared from history. The Pharisee sect evolved into modern rabbinical Judaism.

Judaism has never relied entirely on the Bible (Tanach) for its authority. Midrashim and other traditions were built up during the early centuries of the Common Era.

Answer 3

Judaism centers around Torah-observance. This has never changed. The Torah contains many hundreds of commands, hundreds of which are applicable today too. When offering sacrifices was possible, they were offered; and when the Temple was destroyed, those particular commands of the Torah were suspended. It's like a man who lost his arms: he doesn't put tefillin on, but his Judaism hasn't changed.

• To answer the question:

While the Torah, its commands and the principles and beliefs of Judaism remain unchanged, Judaism has evolved as circumstances have necessitated.

1) After the end of prophecy (some 2350 years ago), the Hebrew Bible was sealed by a special Sanhedrin (Rabbinical court). It was the same Sanhedrin which placed our prayers in their permanent form (Talmud, Berakhot 33a).

2) Purim and Hanukkah were instituted after the relevant events.

3) Certain fasts were instituted in connection with the Destruction of the Temple.

4) After the Destruction, the laws of sacrifices were suspended.

5) When circumstances made it impossible, the New Moon was no longer proclaimed by testimony; rather, the fixed calendar was instituted (around 360 CE).

6) The Talmud was put in writing (around 500 CE) when it became too hard to be learned by heart.

7) There are seven formal Rabbinical commands. These are:

Saying the blessings over food (and on various occasions)

Washing one's hands before eating bread

Lighting the Hanukkah-menorah

The Eruv

Saying the Hallel prayer on certain occasions

Lighting the Sabbath candles

Reading the Megillat Esther on Purim.

In addition, there are many Rabbinical decrees, mostly from the Men of the Great Assembly (4th century BCE), as well as later enactments.

The purpose of every one of these is to provide a "fence around the Torah," meaning to shore up something that can benefit from strengthening. An example: not handling electric appliances on the Sabbath, even if they are not connected to any electric socket.

Answer 4

While the Torah, its commands and the principles and beliefs of Judaism remain unchanged, Judaism has evolved as circumstances have necessitated.
For one example, after the end of prophecy the canon of the Tanakh was sealed by a special Sanhedrin (Rabbinical court). It was the same Sanhedrin which placed our prayers in their permanent form.

See also the Related Links.

Link: Was Judaism altered after the destruction of the Temple?

Link: Jewish history timeline

Answer 5

The primary dictionary-definition of Judaism is a religion, not just a culture. Judaism has prayers, and religious laws, books and observances. It is among less-religious or non-religious Jews that their religion might be viewed as a mere culture. This arose as a form of partial assimilation among those who did not want to cut themselves completely from their past. They either created or continued the cultural parts of their earlier generations.

Religious Judaism, while keeping the Torah-observances, does have some cultural aspects as well. See a few examples on this linked page. Some are common to many Jews, while some are among the religious only.

Answer 6

There was the wandering in the wilderness, with a portable sanctuary, as described in Exodus through Deuteronomy and the early writings and prophets. Then, with the establishment of Jerusalem, and Solomon's Temple, the sacrificial cult found a permanent home and Temple centered Judaism developed its rich ritual structure, as exemplified in the Book of Psalms. Then, with the Babylonian Captivity, Jews had to figure out how to continue being Jewish without the Temple and sacrificial system. Institutions like the synagogue and rabbinate seem to have emerged from this. Then, there was the Second Temple, the re-establishment of the sacrificial cult, and the development of yet more ritual, to the point that in the Roman era, Jerusalem began to attract serious tourism in addition to being a center of Jewish pilgrimage. When the Romans destroyed the Temple in the year 70, as the result of the first of two disastrous Jewish revolts, Judaism had to find how to survive without the sacrificial system. Christians and Pharisees were the two groups who found enduring foundations for this. Under the Pharisees and the rabbis, their heirs, rabbinic Judaism began to develop. By the middle of the first millennium, the rabbis had produced the Talmud, one edition in Palestine, one in Babylon. The Talmud came to be the heart of rabbinic training, and this allowed rabbinic training to be cut loose from a place, so places like Spain and the Rhineland began to support their own schools of rabbinic studies. The persecution of Jews in Christian lands throughout the entire second millennium led to an accumulation of memorial prayers and stories of martyrdom. A pietist revival in 16th century Palestine, building on a mystical tradition transmitted from Spain led to a flowering of the mystical traditions surrounding the Kabbala, leading to the creation of Hassidic Judaism. With the enlightenment of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, western European Jews launched the Reform movement. This took off in America just before a flood of European Jews crossed the Atlantic, bringing Hassidic Judaism to the US. With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and the pressure of antisemitism in Russia and Germany, Jews began fleeing to Palestine where they bought land. After World War II, Reform Judaism began reclaiming traditions it had abandoned, mining Hassidic traditions while retaining its core liberal theology. Orthodoxy, meanwhile, drifted rightward in its theology, reacting to the perceived excesses of the Reform movement.