Jonathan Ho KimThe Torah in a Three-Piece PieESSAY 2 / World Religions / RLST 110 / Spring 2014 / Section ADR

With a short history of approximately 3,000 years, Judaism is the third youngest religion to have been formed in this world. Judaism shows several characteristics that connects to Ninian Smarts six dimensions of religions, showing explicit interconnections among the mythological, ethical, and ritual dimensions. The Torah is an important text from Judaism that reveal the different interconnections of the dimensions through the book itself and its usage and through the stories from the Book of Exodus.The Torah is the sacred text of Judaism that consists of three different translations and meanings: the Law, the first five books of the Jewish Bible, and the scroll in which the five books are written (Judaism.1.RAL.pptx, slide 10). The five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, are mythological stories and narratives of the sacred; the five books offer a quasi-historical portrait of the creation of the world and the beginnings of the Jewish people, (Brodd, pg. 369). The mythological stories include several symbolic expressions and supernatural events and occurrences that are evidently difficult to be explained in scientific terms. The Torah does not only explain the mythological stories, but the Torah itself is used for ritual purposes. Once a year, on the sixth and seventh month of the Jewish Holiday of Shavuot, people would study portions of the Torah and the read the Ten Commandments in a synagogue. The definition of The Law of the Torah came to be when the Rabbis decided upon combining the Written Torah and the Oral Torah to create a law for the Jews. The creation of such law is referred as the halacha, in which became the basic ethical practice that the Jews must practice on a daily basis (Brodd, pg. 350). Apart from the dimensional interconnections of the Torah itself, the stories within show interconnections of the three dimensions. The Book of Exodus offers a mythological story of Exodus, or the escape from Egypt. To briefly summarize the first part of the mythological story, Moses, the first prophet, heard the word of God through the burning bushes and God wanted Moses to bring the Israelites out of Egypt to the mountain of Sinai because God has observed the misery of the people who are in Egypt (Exodus 3:7). However, the unethical decision that the Pharaoh of Egypt has chosen led to the death of all first-born child in Egypt because of a plague that God has sent down. The Israelites houses were protected by God because the plague has passed-over. Jews today celebrate the ritual of Passover on a yearly basis because of the mythological event that has occurred on this date back in Egypt. As stated in the Book of Exodus, this day shall be a day of remembrance for you (Exodus 12:14).The crucial moment of Judaism may occur on the mythological story of Moses and the people Israel having the supernatural connection with God on the mountain peak in Sinai Peninsula. The Covenant was established between God and the Israelites: Israel pledges exclusive loyalty to God, and God pledges to protect the people of Israel (Judaism.1.RAL.pptx, slide 16). The two tablets of covenant, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God has been given to Moses and the people of Israel, later written down on the scroll of the Torah (Exodus 31:18). The tablet points out ethical and ritual actions that the people of Israel must take in order to maintain the Covenant. The tablet describes the important Ten Commandments of the Torah and other necessary ethical laws, such as consequences when a person strikes another person, or the ethical way of treating a Hebrew slave. In addition to the tablet, God has spoken on the mountain peak that yearly ritual ceremonies should be carried out. You shall observe the festival of weeks, the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the festival of ingathering at the turn of the year (Exodus 34:22). Furthermore, he describes the Sabbath Day, in which people should work for six days and rest on the seventh day, similar to what God has done in Genesis while creating the world. These are traditional ritual examples that are still carried out in modern times as stated in the Torah. The Torah is an important sacred mythological text to Judaism, pointing out the guidelines of the ethical behaviors and ritual ceremonies that Jewish people should carry out. Without the text, Judaism would have not been the same Judaism today. The Torah is crucial to an understanding of Jewish faith (Brodd, pg. 369).

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