Jews

D

The Exodus

After the Israelites spend two centuries enslaved in Egypt, God chooses Moses, an Israelite who has fled from Egypt, to lead the children of Israel out of slavery. Moses negotiates with the pharaoh for the freedom of the Israelites, but fails. God then visits ten excruciating plagues on the Egyptians, after which the Israelites are told they can leave. The Egyptians decide to go after them, however. As the Israelites come to the Red Sea, with the Egyptians in hot pursuit, God miraculously splits the sea so they can pass through. God then lowers the water on the Egyptians, wiping out their armed forces.

Although historians can verify none of this narrative, Jews honor the story of the miraculous departure from Egypt, called the Exodus, as the transforming event in Jewish history. Jewish ritual recalls the Exodus in numerous ways, especially in the Passover holiday, which commemorates the last meal the Israelites ate before they left Egypt. The Exodus became the central event in Jewish history because it solidified the relationship between the entire people and God. Through this event God manifests concern for their welfare in an extraordinary way. The Exodus represents the beginning of a collective journey that culminates with the settlement of the Jewish people in Canaan.

E

The Commandments to Moses

Soon after the Exodus from Egypt, the Israelites begin a 40-year journey to Canaan by traveling into the Sinai Desert. There, God reveals the Ten Commandments, the basic rules and principles that have guided Jewish life into contemporary times. Numerous rules and regulations follow these ten commandments, extending into every area of life. They cover civil and criminal matters, how to worship God, what to eat and refrain from eating, how and when to rest, how to maintain the welfare of the community, and a host of other matters. Historians believe these rules and regulations emerged over many centuries and represent different schools of thought. But at the time these rules became codified into law, perhaps around the 4th century bc, Jews saw these rules as authoritative divine teaching that originated from God’s revelation to Moses.

The laws were designed to set the Israelites and their descendants apart from other peoples. Many of them commanded the Jewish people not to follow in the ways of the Canaanite peoples, especially in sexual matters. At times the laws seem to have served as a constitution for Jewish society, as they had been intended. Observant Jews continue to follow many of these rules and regulations today, although with modifications that have occurred over the centuries.

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Among the commandments to Moses were instructions to set up a shrine, or Tabernacle, where a newly established Israelite priesthood could officiate at ritual sacrifices to God. This shrine was to serve as the primary location for communicating with God.

F

The Israelites in Canaan

By divine decree, the 12 tribes of Israel—one tribe for each of Jacob’s children—were to wander in the desert for 40 years, after which time a new generation would conquer the land of Canaan. Joshua succeeded Moses as leader. According to one biblical account, Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan, swiftly subdued the inhabitants, and set up the Israelite tribal confederation, with each tribe allotted a portion of land. As other biblical accounts make clear, however, and as historians agree, things did not go quite so smoothly. The Israelites had to contend with others for control of Canaan, which they came to call Eretz Israel (“the land of Israel”).

For about two centuries after arriving in Canaan, the Israelite tribal confederation functioned mostly as a military alliance. Tribes came to the aid of one another when threatened by outside forces, especially by the Philistines, a people who lived in the southern part of Canaan. Toward the end of these two centuries a prophet named Samuel emerged as the spiritual leader of the Israelites. The military threat from the Philistines continued, however, and the Israelite tribes clamored for a king who would unite the tribes and serve as military commander for the people as a whole.

G

The Kingdom of Israel

The first king, Saul, did not succeed in the eyes of the biblical authors. Saul’s successor, David, was a fantastically successful monarch, according to the biblical account, achieving military goals and expanding the territory of the kingdom. Although most historians challenge this version of David’s achievements, they agree that there was a king named David who reigned about 1000 bc over at least a small kingdom. In David’s time Jerusalem emerged as a central city for the Israelite community. The Bible depicts it as the capital of David’s kingdom.

As David’s 40-year reign neared its conclusion, a battle over succession began. David chose his son Solomon to succeed him, although Solomon was able to establish his throne only after a battle with his half-brother Absalom. The Bible presents Solomon as yet another very successful monarch, who was distinguished by his wisdom and understanding. During his rule, a temple (religious sanctuary) was established in Jerusalem. The Temple became the central shrine of the Israelite people, to the exclusion of other shrines.

H

The Divided Kingdom

David and Solomon belonged to the tribe of Judah, and their territory occupied the central part of the kingdom. Many of the other tribes, especially those in the northern parts of the kingdom, resented the preeminence of Judah’s tribe. After Solomon’s death, around 920 bc, the unified kingdom split into two. The northern kingdom, called Israel, and the southern kingdom, called Judah, became politically separate, although they continued to have much economic and social contact.

The two small kingdoms inevitably were caught up in the imperial designs of other monarchies, particularly the Assyrians to the north and east and the Egyptians to the south and west. To survive in this situation, the kings of Israel and Judah needed to find a way to play off each of their enemies against the other. The kings seem to have done that well, but only to a point.

The Assyrians eventually conquered the kingdom of Israel, around 720 bc. The conquerors followed their usual practice of deporting the elites (ruling classes) among the native populations and replacing them with deportees from elsewhere. Many of those deported from Israel went to Mesopotamia and seem to have merged with the local population. These deportees have lived on in Jewish (and Christian) imagination as the ten lost tribes of Israel. Many of those who replaced the Israelites seem to have mixed with the remaining Israelite population and adopted elements of Israelite identity, especially the idea of a covenant with God.

The kingdom of Judah was spared the Assyrian conquest and continued developing its own religious culture revolving around the Temple in Jerusalem. From the 8th century bc onward the kingdom cultivated the worship of a single God, at a time when polytheism was the common practice. Judah’s prophets insisted that the kingdom’s destiny depended not on military might but on the state of the kingdom’s relationship with God, especially the extent to which the community avoided polytheistic worship and properly looked after its poor and powerless.

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