RMPS - Int2/Higher - World Religions - Judaism - Education Scotland

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26 THE CAUSE OF THE HUMAN CONDITION Source And it will come to pass that if you will hearken diligently unto My commandments which I command you this day ……. Then I will provide rain for your land in its proper time, the early rain and the late rain, that you may gather in your corn, and your wine and your oil. And I will provide grass in your fields for your cattle and you will eat and be satisfied. Beware lest your heart be lured away and you turn aside, and serve other gods and worship them. For then the anger of the Lord will blaze against you. He will restrain the heaven, so that there will be no rain, and the ground will not yield its produce; and you will soon perish from the good land which the Lord is giving you. Deuteronomy 11: 13–18 The whole of the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, is the story of the interplay between God and the people of Israel and their successes and moral failures along the way. The moral failure of the people as a whole or of individuals by themselves is shown to lead to retribution. Reference Deuteronomy 28 Activity 13 Read the story of King Saul in I Samuel, 15: 14 ff 2 . What did Saul do wrong and how was he punished? Read the story in 2 Samuel, 12: 1 ff. How was King David punished? Think of other examples from everyday life, from the newspapers or television where bad behaviour has resulted in suffering. 2 ff means ‘and the following verses until the end of the chapter’ RMPS: WORLD RELIGIONS – JUDAISM (INT 2, H) © Learning and Teaching Scotland
Suffering is at times inexplicable THE CAUSE OF THE HUMAN CONDITION There are many occasions when we see apparently innocent people suffering as a result of natural disasters such as floods or earthquakes or drought and famine and we wonder how this can be if God is just and merciful. These are the actions of nature over which no one has any real control, and they may affect large numbers of people. Sometimes large numbers of innocent people suffer as a result of human action such as aeroplane accidents or shipping disasters or fires and, of course, because of war. Sometimes it is individuals who suffer for no apparent reason. Judaism tries to answer this question in a number of ways. The Book of Job in the Hebrew Bible tells the story of a very good man who is tested by the loss of his livelihood, his family and his health. He looks for a reason and can find none, but he refuses to lose his faith in God and eventually family and fortune are restored to him. Here the reason which is put to us is that God was testing this outstanding man; that He had faith in Job and that this faith was truly vindicated despite all the pressures put upon him. Judaism also has a belief in the world to come, that this world is but the vestibule to another better place where the righteous finally get their true reward, a reward denied to the wicked. It is then suggested that the wicked may seem to prosper because they are getting their reward in this world for the good deeds they may have done (Judaism does not believe that anyone is wholly evil), so that nothing is owed to them in the world to come. Conversely, suffering is the punishment of the good for sins which even good people have committed in this world, so as to allow their reward in the world to come to be untarnished. Judaism also recognises that these explanations are not entirely satisfactory. Accepting that God is both just and merciful, it seeks to explain the problem of suffering by postulating that we are indeed incapable of understanding all the actions of an all-knowing and allpowerful God. We neither have the information, the knowledge nor the intellect to fathom the reasons for all of God’s actions. This requires of us an act of faith and of trust in God, which is the decision that Job came to in the end. We must accept that the problem of suffering is one for which we have no complete answer. RMPS: WORLD RELIGIONS – JUDAISM (INT 2, H) 27 © Learning and Teaching Scotland
Page 1 and 2: Religious, Moral and Philosophical
Page 3 and 4: CONTENTS Introduction 1 Section 1:
Page 5 and 6: INTRODUCTION Using these support ma
Page 7 and 8: SECTION 1 JUDAISM - AN OVERVIEW The
Page 9 and 10: JUDAISM - AN OVERVIEW that commemor
Page 11 and 12: SECTION 2 What does it mean to be h
Page 13 and 14: The concept and image of God THE HU
Page 15 and 16: THE HUMAN CONDITION He had already
Page 17 and 18: Creation THE HUMAN CONDITION Jews b
Page 19 and 20: Shabbat THE HUMAN CONDITION God res
Page 21 and 22: THE HUMAN CONDITION of the Torah, c
Page 23 and 24: Suggestions for further reading and
Page 25 and 26: THE HUMAN CONDITION Yet, even in ju
Page 27 and 28: SECTION 3 Yetzer Harah and Yetzer T
Page 29: THE CAUSE OF THE HUMAN CONDITION Su
Page 33 and 34: SECTION 4 THE GOALS The meaning of
Page 35 and 36: THE GOALS The Shema is the most imp
Page 37 and 38: THE GOALS The meaning of obedience
Page 39 and 40: THE GOALS Activity 17 1. Give the r
Page 43 and 44: Activity 18 1. Read the Ten Command
Page 47 and 48: THE GOALS rest is commentary. Go an
Page 49 and 50: The importance of repentance Repent
Page 51 and 52: Rosh Hashanah THE GOALS Rosh Hashan
Page 53 and 54: Source THE GOALS For the sin that w
Page 55 and 56: 3. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are
Page 57 and 58: SECTION 5 The concept of the Messia
Page 59 and 60: Olam ha-Bah THE FINAL AIM OF EXISTE
Page 61 and 62: THE FINAL AIM OF EXISTENCE Genesis
Page 63 and 64: SECTION 6 The Torah THE MEANS Torah
Page 65 and 66: THE MEANS The prophetic writings al
Page 67 and 68: The Ten Commandments THE MEANS The
Page 69 and 70: Activity 26 THE MEANS (a) Categoris
Page 71 and 72: THE MEANS fifth century these were
Page 73 and 74: A page from the Talmud (see Activit
Page 75 and 76: THE MEANS Theoretically, the term h
Page 77 and 78: SECTION 7 Moral and social responsi
Page 79 and 80: THE PRACTICES THAT HELP ACHIEVE THE
Page 81 and 82:
THE PRACTICES THAT HELP ACHIEVE THE
Page 83 and 84:
Rites of passage and education Brit
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
APPENDIX Glossary APPENDIX Amidah:
Page 91 and 92:
APPENDIX Tanakh: the term for the H
Page 93 and 94:
Useful addresses J E Levingstone (f
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RMPS - Int2/Higher - World Religions - Judaism - Education Scotland

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