Rabbinic_judaism

Rabbinic Judaism or Rabbinism (or in Hebrew "Yahadut Rabanit" - יהדות רבנית) evolved as the religion system of the Jewish people after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE by the Roman Empire. Previously, Judaism had centered tightly on religious practice and sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem, as prescribed in minute detail by the God of Israel in the Tanakh (the texts known as the "Old Testament" in Christianity). Deprived of the temple as a center of worship and religious activity, unable to fulfill the temple-related practices mandated in the Tanakh, and now scattered around the world, Jews faced a need to redesign their religious activities without the temple.

Rabbinic Judaism developed as a successor system through the second to sixth centuries CE. Since the temple\'s destruction, Judaism has always included numerous conflicting schools of thoughts, sects, and philosophies. Mainstream Rabbinic Judaism contrasts with Karaite Judaism, who disputed the validity of the oral law, and over procedures used to interpret Jewish scripture, the Torah; and Early Christianity, which developed into a separate religion. Karaite Jews are nowadays a very small group.

Rabbinic Judaism is based on the tradition that at Mt. Sinai Moses received directly from God both the Torah or Pentateuch and additional understanding and revelation that was transmitted by Moses to the people in oral form. For example, in Exodus 18 and Numbers 11 of the Bible, it is recorded that Moses appointed elders to govern with him and to judge disputes, imparting to them details and guidance of how to interpret the revelations from God while carrying out their duties.

The written part consists in the Torah, or the five books of Moses, known to Christians as the Pentateuch. The oral revelation was transmitted by word of mouth from the generation present at Sinai to their descendants up to the time of the second Temple in Jerusalem. The oral law was subsequently codified in the Mishna and Gemarah, and is interpreted by subsequent rabbinic decisions and writings.

Rabbinic Jewish literature is predicated on the belief that the written law cannot be properly understood without recourse to the Oral Law (the Mishnah and the Talmud), much as the Mormon Church holds that the New Testament cannot be properly understood without the Book of Mormon.

Much Rabbinic Jewish literature concerns specifying what behavior is sanctioned by the law; this body of interpretations is called halakha (the way). Until the Jewish enlightenment halakha had the universal status of required religious practice, which remains the prevailing position among Orthodox and Conservative Jews. Reform Jews do not generally treat halakha as binding.

Although there are now profound differences between the streams of Rabbinic Judaism with respect to the binding force of halakha and the willingness to challenge preceding interpretations, all identify themselves as coming from the tradition of the oral law and the Rabbinic method of analysis. It is this which distinguishes them as Rabbinic Jews, in comparison to the Karaite movement.

See also

• Rabbi
• Council of Jamnia
• Judah haNasi

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