Principles of the Jewish Faith

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Several religious members of Judaism have partly dependent, partly independent of one another central or fundamental principles ( Hebrew עִקָּרים, iqqarim) of the Jewish faith .

The best-known compilation is that of Moses Maimonides , to which there were various reactions and which had different precursors. Maimonides thus introduced an understanding of Emuna (faith) that is based on the recognition of statements instead of trust in God. Rejection of one of the principles accordingly means exclusion from the community of Israel. However, such a dogmatic meaning of established principles could never become generally accepted in Judaism.

The point of reference for such considerations on the principles of the Jewish faith is often the Tanakh . Studying it and observing its commandments and prohibitions had long been fundamental to Judaism.

Forerunner in texts of the Tanakh and the rabbis

Traces of an internal Jewish discussion about the most important contents of Judaism can already be found in the Tanach. The last verses of the Pentateuch ( Deut. 34,10-12  ELB ) can be read as a first, early creed: "Moses is recognized as a great prophet, which indirectly indicates the duty to accept the Torah and its contents." ( Koh 12,9-14  ELB ) many other works are excluded from the canon of Judaism, but at the same time an oral and written Torah are accepted.

Rabbinic Judaism

In the centuries after the writing and canonization of Scripture, there followed, above all, interpretations of the same, which turned against heretics and emphasized a "kingdom in heaven", monotheism , and providence. In addition, further principles of the rabbis were established, which are identified by the fact that ethical (e.g. prohibition of bloodshed and certain sexual relationships) and theological (e.g. idolatry) doctrines are negotiated on an equal footing. A “kind of little creed ” can be found in the Mishnah tract on the Sanhedrin : “Whoever says there is no resurrection of the dead and the Torah is not from heaven and the Epicureans have no part in the world to come” (mSan 10.1 ).

Philo of Alexandria

In his Hexaemeron commentary De opificio mundi, Philo of Alexandria records five basic tenets of the Jewish religion:

  1. God exists forever.
  2. God is one.
  3. The world is made.
  4. The world, too, is like its creator, who made it like him in its uniqueness […].
  5. God exercises his providence for the sake of the world.

Elsewhere there are other principles, including the existence of incorporeal ideas, the revelation of the law and its eternity, so that when viewed together, a total of eight results.

Just like their predecessors from previous centuries, these beliefs should not be viewed separately from the environment, but rather served to bundle existing Jewish beliefs and to make the Hellenistic environment understandable. Faith is understood by him as "the most perfect virtue".

middle Ages

The ancient Jewish discussion was influenced by the Hellenistic environment. With Christianity and Islam and their attempts to systematize and institutionalize theological discussion, further traditions and contexts emerge that lead to mutual influences and delimitations. Common challenges include elaborating evidence of God's existence (taking up ancient forms of argumentation), his character as the creator of everything (among other things, in the delimitation of philosophical conceptions of eternal matter ), statements on the status of God's nature and properties and, in particular, how to deal with it Speeches about God that would suggest an anthropomorphism , with which also systematic and methodological questions relating to the constitutive texts of one's own tradition are connected: To what extent are these of the wording or content - especially in religious practical matters - of permanent normative rank (especially as "Revelation" or "prophecy") and when is a rationalizing reading possible or necessary according to which criteria? A sub-area of ​​these progressive attempts at clarification consists in identifying core areas of the respective religious convictions, which u. a. flows into forms of “creeds”, as they are produced in Islam, depending on the theological school, with different accentuation and with the inclusion of central traditions such as primarily the Shahāda , while in Christianity v. a. since early scholasticism following primarily the apostolic creed etc. a. Subdivision and theological-methodological status of Christian "articles of faith" are discussed. In contrast, while u. a. some authors who are influenced in the context of Jewish scholasticism by authors and texts of Islamic scholasticism ( ʿIlm al-Kalām ), also central elements of Jewish faith; however, their character remains largely controversial, especially what correspondences with Christian and Islamic “dogmas”, “articles of faith” or “creeds” are concerned with.

Chananel ben Chushiel

Rabbi Chananel ben Chushiel ( acronym :ר"ח; dt. RaCh) lists four beliefs in his commentary on Schemot :

  1. Belief in God
  2. Belief in the prophets
  3. Belief in the hereafter, in reward and punishment
  4. Belief in the coming of the Savior

The commentary was directed against the Karaites in particular and is quoted by many later Bible commentators, for example by Bachja ben Ascher ( Hebrew בחיי בן אשר). Abraham Rapoport (1584–1651) collected all the quotations ascribed to Bachja ben Ascher by Chananel ben Chuschiel and put them in the Bikkurei ha-Ittim ( Hebrew בִּכּוּרֵי הָעִתִּים; German: first fruits of time), published, also Abraham Berliner in Migdal Chananel ( Hebrew מגדל חננאל; German: Tower of Chananel).

Judah Hadassi

Judah Hadassi developed ten beliefs for Karaean Judaism in the 12th century . They treat:

  1. the existence of the Creator
  2. the infinity and unity of the Creator
  3. the creation of the world
  4. the priesthood of Moses and the other prophets
  5. the truth of the Torah
  6. the obligation to learn Hebrew
  7. the temple as the place of God's glory and presence
  8. the resurrection of the dead
  9. the obligation to be accountable
  10. Reward and punishment

Hadassi is considered to be the first Jewish author to compile a systematic and detailed list of religious dogmas . In terms of content, they repeat statements by Karaite scholars of the 8th to 12th centuries.

Abraham ibn Daud

Rabbi Abraham ibn Daud (acronym:הראב"ד; German: RABaD) (1110–1180) is considered a pioneer of the Jewish legal and religious philosophy and a forerunner of Maimonides. His philosophical treatise Emunah ha-Rama le-Rabad ( Hebrew ספר האמונה הרמה לראב"ד; dt .: The Sublime Faith) is the first systematic attempt to integrate Aristotelian thinking into Jewish legal and religious philosophy. However, the book by Maimonides More Nevuchim , published later towards the end of the 12th century, resembled ("Teacher of the Shamed or Indecisive, Confused"מורה נבוכים) very much to the book of Ibn Daud, which is why Emunah ha-Rama le-Rabad was soon forgotten.

  1. Belief in the root of belief
  2. Belief in uniqueness
  3. Belief in the Creator
  4. Belief in creation as acts of the creator
  5. Belief in the prophets and prophecy
  6. Belief in death and afterlife

Maimonides

Rabbi Mosche ben Maimon (acronym: Hebrew רמב"ם; German: RaMBaM, graced Moses Maimonides ) developed a rational theology and a rational reconstruction of the contents of the Jewish law on the basis of Aristotelian methodology. He presented thirteen basic teachings ( Hebrew עִיקָּרֵי הַאֱמוּנָה הַיְהוּדִית) which he cites in his Mishnah commentary (Tractate Sanhedrin, chapter 10). This compilation, which could be viewed as a “dogmatization” of the Jewish religion, was controversial. Among others, Isaak Abrabanel , Abraham ben David von Posquières , Chasdaj Crescas and Josef Albo expressed themselves critically . Only in parts of Judaism was the Maimonid elementarization based on 13 principles. In the Jigdal , too , the Maimonid principles are given in poetic form. In the form of a creed ("I believe ...") they are first documented in a Venetian Haggada from 1566.

  1. The living God is exalted and praised, he exists - his existence is not limited by time.
  2. He is once and unique - and there is no being that is so unique and unique as he is - his uniqueness is unfathomable and infinite.
  3. He has neither a body nor is he physical - his holiness is incomparable.
  4. He is the predecessor of every being that was created - he is the first to be created and nothing precedes him.
  5. Look! He is the builder of the universe - every being demonstrates His greatness and his sovereignty.
  6. He bestowed his influence on prophecy - his esteemed, glorious people.
  7. No one in Israel will be like Moses again - a prophet who saw His vision clearly.
  8. God gave his people the doctrine (Torah) of truth - through his prophet, whom he trusted most of his house.
  9. God will neither change nor correct his law - not even because of another God and never.
  10. He checks and knows our most hidden secrets - He perceives the result of something from the beginning.
  11. He rewards the good person according to his deeds - He rewards the wicked according to his wickedness.
  12. At the end of the days, He will send our Savior - to redeem those who yearn for it.
  13. God will bring the dead back to life in His abundant goodness - blessed is His promised name forever.

The innovation compared to its predecessors is that the list presented by Maimonides is no longer just a listing of the ideas that are important for Judaism, but that he raised these points to the rank of dogmas . They should thus become the criterion for orthodoxy and membership of Judaism. Furthermore, he emphasized the duty of reasonable dogmas: A truth that was founded by the authority of revelation could only be accepted if it was also accepted by the mind.

Chasdaj Crescas

Rabbi Chasdaj Crescas (acronym: Hebrew הרח"ק; German: RaChaQ) (1340–1410 / 11) was a Jewish, religious and legal philosophical polemicist. He criticized the radical Aristotelian philosophy of Maimonides and some of his philosophical students. He declared that the Aristotelian opinions of Maimonides stood in opposition to the empirical and rational understanding of the world and also contradicted the Jewish tradition. So he wrote in Or hashem ( Hebrew אור ה '; dt .: the light of God) that God has the complete prior knowledge, with which God is not really free in his actions.

  1. Belief in God.
  2. Belief in its supervision.
  3. Belief in its abilities.
  4. Belief in its prophecies.
  5. Belief in its choice (people of God).
  6. Belief in its achievements.

Josef Albo

Rabbi Josef Albo (acronym: Hebrew הר"י אלבו) was born in Monreal in 1380 and died in 1444. He was a Jewish religious philosopher and student of Chasdaj Crescas . He is known for his work Sefer ha-Ikkarim (Thesis of Principles). Albo's contribution to the history of Jewish philosophy was his thesis of principles. In it he determines how a person must submit to divine law . His list therefore contains only three core beliefs. These are based on legal theory, the theory of divine properties, the theory of human perfection, and the theory of providence and reward. His philosophy was influenced by Maimonides, Hasdai Crescas (Albos teacher) and his contemporary Shimon ben Zemach Duran .

  1. Existence of god.
  2. Divine origin of the Torah.
  3. Reward and punishment.

In the inner-Jewish discourse, one theses are to be understood as a reaction to those of Maimonides: By reducing the principles, orthodoxy should be strengthened and Christianity should be confronted on controversial points. The purpose of this list was to set out the minimum requirements that individuals should adhere to if they wanted to be part of the sacred law.

At the same time, his philosophical considerations served to distinguish himself from the Christian environment in Spain in the 15th century. In particular, the persecution of the Jewish population by the Catholic Church led to a strong demarcation of Albos from Christianity and in particular from Thomas Aquinas, who lived only a century earlier .

Modern times

Moses Mendelssohn

Moses Mendelssohn , arguably the most influential Jewish thinker of modern times, formulated three principles that should make up the Jewish faith:

  1. God, the Creator and Ruler of all things, is unique
  2. God is omniscient, rewards good deeds and punishes bad ones.
  3. God revealed his laws in the scriptures of Moses

He continued to reject the Christian dogmas of the Trinity and original sin , citing these as causes of interreligious problems. In general, the Jewish principles of belief are reasonable to understand. With these considerations, he tied in with contemporary religious-philosophical considerations that operate under the designation natural religion .

In contrast to the otherwise mostly Christian thinkers, however, he did not see the principles of this religion, but those of Judaism, especially the laws of the Tanakh, as the only ones that were revealed by God.

Reactions to Mendelssohn

This division of the Jewish religion into revealed and natural parts was controversial among subsequent Jewish scholars. For their part they tried on the one hand to present a doctrine of Judaism corresponding to the discussed religious-philosophical ideas, but on the other hand not to separate inwardness and laws in the way Mendelssohn did.

Manuel Joel called the dogmas of Judaism their actual condition of cult and rite.

The discussion led to numerous publications by Jewish theologians in the middle of the 19th century, who in turn attempted to define the dogmas and modern appropriate understanding of Judaism. These include Samuel Hirsch's Systematic Catechism of the Israelite Religion from 1856, Salomon Formstecher's Mosaic Religious Doctrine from 1860 and Joseph Aub's basis for scientific teaching in the Mosaic religion from 1865.

20th century

In the 20th century, Maimonides' influence continued to shape Jewish theology. Louis Jacobs and Schalom Ben Chorin wrote interpretations and updates of his doctrines.

At the same time, literature also emerged which, rather than believing in certain contents, understands faith as a "trusting relationship with God". These include Martin Buber , Franz Rosenzweig and Abraham Joshua Heschel . With the Shoah , previous considerations of this relationship were called into question, Buber spoke of a "divine eclipse".

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Tamar M. Rudavsky: The impact of Scholasticism upon Jewish philosophy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries . In: Daniel H. Frank, Oliver Leaman (Eds.): The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Jewish Philosophy . Cambridge University Press , 2003, ISBN 0-521-65207-3 , pp. 364 .
  2. ↑ Ferdinand Dexinger, The Faith of the Jews , Kevelaer 2003, p. 74.
  3. ↑ a b c d Asher Finkel , Article Confession of Faith (se) III, Judaism. In: Theological Real Encyclopedia. Volume 13, Berlin 1984, pp. 388-392.
  4. ^ A b Günter Stemberger : Faith VI. Judaism, antiquity. in: Religion Past and Present. 4th edition, Volume 3, Tübingen 2000, Sp. 977-979.
  5. ↑ De opificio mundi c. 61, nn. 170–172, ed. Leopold Cohn , Breslau 1889, Vol. 4/4, p. 66f. [1] ; ed. and engl. Translated from FH Colson, GH Whitaker, Loeb Classical Library , London a. a. 1929, Vol. 1, pp. 134-137; engl. Translator Charles Duke Yonge : e-text ; see. Alan J. Avery-Peck: Article Creeds. In: Jacob Neusner , Alan Jeffery Avery-Peck, William Scott Green (Eds.): The Encyclopaedia of Judaism. Vol. 1: A-I. Brill, Leiden 2000, pp. 546-561, here 549f; Articles Articles of faith. In: Jewish Encyclopedia . ; Harry A. Wolfson : Philo, Foundations of Religious Philosophy. 1947, vol. 1, p. 164.
  6. ↑ De vita Mosis II, 3, 12-14 (cf. De decalogo 4, 15; Quod omnis probus liber sit 12, 80); De specialibus legibus I, 60, 327-363.
  7. ↑ Harry A. Wolfson : Philo, Foundations of Religious Philosophy. 1947, Vol. 1, pp. 164ff; Alan J. Avery-Peck: Creed's Article . In: Jacob Neusner , Alan Jeffery Avery-Peck, William Scott Green (Eds.): The Encyclopaedia of Judaism. Vol. 1: A-I. Brill, Leiden 2000, pp. 546-561, here p. 549.
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g Alexander Altmann : Articles of faith. In: Encyclopaedia Judaica . 2nd edition, Vol. 2, 2007, pp. 529-532.
  9. ↑ Cf. Rudolf Macuch: On the prehistory of the confessional formula lā ilāha illā llāhu . In: Journal of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft (ZDMG), Volume 128 (1978), pp. 20-38.
  10. ↑ Cf. still AJ Wensinck: The Muslim Creed: Its Genesis and Historical Development , New York 1932, 2nd ed. 1965.
  11. ↑ See JM Parent: La notion de dogme au 13e siècle . In: Étude d'histoire littéraire et doctrinale du XIIIe siècle (Paris, ed. Institut d'études médiévales d'Ottawa) 1 (1932), 141-163.
  12. ↑ from רבינו חננאל בפירושו לשמות י"ד ל"א הוא מונה ד 'עקרים on daat.ac.il
  13. ↑ from Bikkurei Ha-Ittim on jewishvirtuallibrary.org
  14. ↑ from Chananel ben Chuschiel on jewishencyclopedia.com.
  15. ^ A b Daniel J. Lasker: From Judah Hadassi to Elijah Bashyatshi. Studies in late medieval Karaite philosophy . Brill, Leiden 2008, ISBN 978-90-04-16793-3 , pp. 41-59 .
  16. ↑ from עקרים on daat.ac.il
  17. ↑ from Abraham Ibn Daud In: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy on plato.stanford.edu
  18. ↑ Abraham ibn Daud In: Jewish Encyclopedia .
  19. ↑ from: ספר האמונה הרמה לראב"ד מאמר ב הקדמה on responsa.co.il
  20. ^ Günter Stemberger: Faith VI. Judaism, Middle Ages and Modern Times. In: Religion Past and Present. 4th edition, Volume 3, Tübingen 2000, Sp. 979-981.
  21. ↑ Louis Jacobs: Chapter 5: Omnipotence and Omniscience. In: A Jewish Theology. Behrman House, 1973, pp. 76-77.
  22. ↑ from Chasdai Crescas In: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. on plato.stanford.edu
  23. ↑ Eliezer Schweid: הפילוסופיה הדתית של ר׳ חסדאי קרשקש (ha-Filosofyah ha-datit shel Rabi Ḥasdai Ḳresḳas). Maḳor, Jerusalem 1970, OCLC 19152408 , p. 19.
  24. ↑ from קרשקש חסדאי on daat.ac.il
  25. ↑ from אור ה ': רבי חסדאי קרשקש on daat.ac.il
  26. ↑ from עקרים on daat.ac.il
  27. ↑ from שלושה עקרים של מהר"י אלבו on daat.ac.il
  28. ↑ from רבי יוסף אלבו : ספר העיקרים on daat.ac.il
  29. ↑ from Joseph Albo In: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy on plato.stanford.edu
  30. ↑ a b Dror Ehrlich:  Joseph Albo. In: Edward N. Zalta (Ed.): Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
  31. ↑ Günter Stemberger, Glaube VI Judentum, Mittelalter und Neuzeit , in: Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Volume 3, Sp. 979–981, here: 978.
  32. ↑ Günter Stemberger, Glaube VI Judentum, Mittelalter und Neuzeit , in: Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Volume 3, Sp. 979–981, here: 978.
  33. ↑ Günter Stemberger, Glaube VI Judentum, Mittelalter und Neuzeit , in: Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Volume 3, Sp. 979–981, here: 978.