Communication Between Cultures

books of Moses. Second, they are the chosen people of God, having an eternal covenant

with him. Third, they are a witness that God is and will be forevermore.^105

Learning

The Jewish essayist and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel quotes a Jewish saying:“Adam

chose knowledge instead of immortality.”There is even a Hebrew proverb:“Wisdom

is better than jewels.”These two maxims highlight the love of learning that has been

a hallmark of the Jewish religion and culture since its beginning. For thousands of years,

Jews have made the study of the Talmud (a holy book of over 5,000 pages) an impor-

tant element of Jewish life.^106 The Jewish prayer book even speaks of“the love of learn-

ing”as one of three principles of faith.^107 Even the Jewish synagogue is often referred to

as the“shul.”This word comes from Greek (and then Latin)schola. All of these exam-

ples simply underscore the importance of education to Jews. In fact,“As early as the

first century, Jews had a system of compulsory education.”^108

Because of this cultural and religious legacy regarding learning, Jews have stressed

education throughout their history. When the first Jews arrived in the United States,

they immediately realized that education was the path to a good life for them and

their children. Today, the Jewish population is one of the most well-educated groups

in the United States. One-third of all Jews have advanced graduate degrees, and 58

percent have earned at least a bachelor’sdegree.^109 Relative to Jews’interest in educa-

tion, Harrison notes that over the past 105 years, Jews have won 180 Nobel Prizes.^110

Social Justice

Jews often refer to the words of the prophet Amos (5:24) when discussing their sense of

social justice:“Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing

stream.”This means to them that God wants justice to“flow”over each of them and

everyone else in the world. Jews have always believed that they had a historic mandate

to fight for social justice. An individual’s responsibility and moral commitment to God

and other people is even detailed in Jewish religious writings. Markham and Lohr point

out,“The God of Israel taught through his prophets that worship of God without social

justice is worthless.”^111 You can detect this concern for justice in everything from

ancient Jewish writings that saw the prophets admonishing kings for indifference to

human rights to the active role Jews played during the civil rights movement of the

1960s to the large number of Jewish people involved in the American Civil Liberties

Union. So deep-seated is this basic precept that Smith believes that much of Western

civilization owes a debt to the early Jewish prophets for establishing the notion of jus-

tice as a major principle for the maintenance of“social order.”^112

Family and Community

As pointed out in Chapter 3, all societies value the family, but for Jews, the family is

the locus of worship and devotion. As Schmidt and his associates point out,“The

strong sense of familial ties transcends any one particular individual’s needs.”^113 This

concern for family has deep biblical roots. Often when Jews summon their God, they

speak of a Jewish family. In Jewish social life and tradition, the family constitutes per-

haps the most closely-knit unit in any society. All members of the family—husband

and wife, parents and children—are bound by mutual ties of responsibility.^114 In this

strong pull of Jewish families, there are actually two interrelated families—the larger

Cultural Expressions of Judaism 127

Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).