In The Name Of Allah the Almighty
(Judaism faith all originated with a divine covenant between the God of the ancient Israelites and Abraham around 2000 BCE. The next leader of the Israelites, Moses, led his people out of captivity in Egypt and received the Law from God. Joshua later led them into the promised land where Samuel established the Israelite kingdom with Saul as its first king. King David established Jerusalem and King Solomon built the first temple there. In 70 CE the temple was destroyed and the Jews were scattered throughout the world until 1948 when the state of Israel was formed.
Jews believe in one creator who alone is to be worshipped as absolute ruler of the universe. He monitors peoples activities and rewards good deeds and punishes evil. According to Holy Quran Jews believe that Aziz is son of God. The Torah was revealed to Moses by God and can not be changed though God does communicate with the Jewish people through prophets. Jews believe in the inherent goodness of the world and its inhabitants as creations of God and do not require a saviour to save them from original sin. They believe they are God’s chosen people and that the Messiah will arrive in the future, gather them into Israel, there will be a general resurrection of the dead, and the Jerusalem Temple destroyed in 70 CE will be rebuilt.)
Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people. It is one of the first recorded monotheistic faiths, and it is one of the oldest religious traditions still practiced today. The values and history of the Jewish people are a major part of the foundation of other Abrahamic religions such as Christianity, Islam, as well as Samaritanism and the Bahá’í Faith. Now a days adherents of Judaism numbered around 14 million followers, making it the world’s eleventh-largest organized religion. Judaism has seldom, if ever, been monolithic in practice (although it has always been monotheistic in theology), and differs from many religions in that its central authority is not vested in any person or group but rather in its writings and traditions. Despite this, Judaism in all its variations has remained tightly bound to a number of religious principles, the most important of which is the belief that there is a single, omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent, transcendent God, who created the universe and continues to be involved in its governance. According to traditional Jewish belief, the God who created the world established a covenant with the Jewish people, and revealed his laws and commandments to them in the form of the Torah. According to Holy Quran jews say that Uzair is a son of God.
Jewish education has a long history dating back to biblical and Talmudic times. Throughout the ages, the Jewish community has devoted much energy to the establishment and maintenance of a rich educational network. There is little doubt of the link between a strong commitment to education and perpetuation of Jewish literacy, lifestyle, and people hood. However, schools were not the only contexts in which Jewish education took place. With a host of other settings exemplifying Jewishness, formal schooling was always accompanied by a powerful parallel (or “informal”) system. It included the neighbourhood, the home, communal agencies, and the synagogue; celebrations and holidays, group experiences, mentors, and the daily and yearly calendar. There was synergy and consistency between a diverse collection of agencies, all of which educated from a shared perspective.
The aim of Education in ancient Israel was the training of the individual in the service of God. Jewish education never lost its sense of direction. Its intention was not education in academic and technical knowledge, but education in holiness. Though the people of Israel often forgot the ideals, there were always priests, prophets, scribes, sages, rabbis and teachers to remind them. God and not man was the centre; righteousness, not self-interest was the aim. In the ancient world there was no such thing as a “secular culture.” The Hebrews believed that all truth came from God the Creator, Judge and Redeemer who revealed to man the knowledge necessary for his own welfare. Man’s welfare was thought to be dependent on a satisfactory relationship to God. The Hebrews approach to education arose from their understanding of revelation. If man was to have knowledge, he was to have it only because God had revealed Himself to man. Consequently, God was the primary educating figure in Israel. He is called “the Teacher”, and as such the prophet considers that people should consult Him for knowledge rather than idols or the dead. As the Teacher, He calls on His people to listen to Him, “Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth!” In Judaism, there was no more prominent teaching figure than Moses. In fact, Moses was the ideal of each class of Israelite leader or teacher..
The institution known as the “be rav” or “bet rabban” (house of the teacher), or as the “be safra” or “bet sefer” (house of the book), is said to have been originated by Ezra’ (459 BCE) and his Great Assembly, who provided a public school in Jerusalem to secure the education of fatherless boys of the age of sixteen years and upward. However, the school system did not develop until Joshua ben Gamla (64 CE) the high priest caused public schools to be opened in every town and hamlet for all children above six or seven years of age. The expense was borne by the community, and strict discipline was observed. Raba fixed the number of pupils at twenty-five for one teacher; if the number was between twenty-five and forty an assistant teacher (“resh dukana”) was necessary; and for over forty, two teachers were required. Only married men were engaged as teachers. The standard education texts were the Mishna and later the Talmud and Gemora. girls were not provided with formal education. However significant, emphasis was placed on developing good memory skills in addition to comprehension by practice of oral repetition. In Ancient Israel, the child would be taught from the six broad subject areas into which the Mishna is divided, including:
- Zeraim (“Seeds”), dealing with agricultural laws and prayers
- Moed (“Festival”), pertaining to the laws of the Shabbat and the Festivals
- Nashim (“Women”), concerning marriage and divorce
- Nezikin (“Damages”), dealing with civil and criminal law
- Kodashim (“Holy things”), regarding sacrificial rites, the Temple, and the dietary laws
- Tohorot (“Purities”), pertaining to the laws of purity and impurity, including the impurity of the dead, the laws of ritual purity for the priests (Kohanim), the laws of “family purity” (the menstrual laws).
Traditionally, Jewish studies was part of the natural practice of Judaism by Jews. The study of Torah, Tanakh, and Talmud was all part of every-day religious life for the Jewish people. Some apocryphal books were in Greek., but Hebrew continued as the language for scholarly study. Popular readings were written down in Aram., Despite this schooling system, many children did not learn to read and write. It has been estimated that at least 90 percent of the Jewish population of Roman Palestine in the first centuries CE could merely write their own name or not write and read at all, or that the literacy rate was about 3 percent. Exact literacy rates among ancient Jews in Roman Palestine cannot be determined.
The prominent Rabbis of the time did not seek out their own disciples. A student would search out a well known master who might accept him if he had been already on the road to being a perfect observer. There exists a close relationship between teachers and pupils. A celebrated rabbi gathers pupils around him, who are introduced by him to the understanding of the Torah, who accompany him and are obliged to render him services. Under the leadership of the rabbi, students discussed the interpretation of the Torah and its application. These discussions became the basis of normative Judaism. The story of Moses questioning the scholars in the temple is not incredible, he had an alert and curious mind, and in the Near East a boy of twelve already touches maturity. Elementary education concluded about the age of fifteen, and promising students could then go on to secondary school. By those times there was a strong attempt to make elementary education universal for all Jews wherever they were. After the youth had learned the trade, he was received instruction in the local synagogue.
Both boys and girls, in their earlier years were under the training of their mother, the daughters no doubt until their marriage. At the age of 5 years the boys were usually trained by their fathers, or if well to do by tutors. At age 6, the Jewish boys went to school. The class would be held in the synagogue, or outside, if the weather was good. The children would either stand or sit on the floor. Reading and writing was taught first. The teaching was almost entirely scriptural, no math to speak of no geography, no history save that of Israel, no science. For the first four or five years, they were taught the Torah, the five books of Moses. The Old Testament is convinced that beating is good for the boys. The teacher was to strictly fulfil all promises made to the child, to avoid bringing up disagreeable or indelicate thoughts, be patient, punish without excessive severity – with a strap, but never with a rod. The scriptures of the Old Testament formed the very staple of a boy’s training in every genuine Jewish family, learn them at five and continued to study until manhood, only adding to them the teaching of the scribes.
The age of twelve was a critical age for a Jewish boy, the age when a boy in whatever rank was obliged, by the injunction of the Rabbis and the custom of his nation, to learn a trade for his own support. At twelve, he was so far emancipated from parental authority that his parents could no longer sell him as a slave. He became a ben hat-torah (son of the law). Up to this age he was called katon (a little); henceforth he was gadol( grown up). And was treated more than a man. He could now wear the tephillin (phylacteries, some holy verses of torah) on his arm or in neck and was presented by his father in the synagogue (Worshiping house of Jews) on a Sabbath( Saturday), which was called from this circumstance the Sabbath tephillin. At five he was to study the scriptures, at 10 the Mishna( a holy book of Jews), at 13 the Talmud, at 18 he was to marry, at 20 to acquire riches, at thirty strength, at 40 prudence, and so on to the end.
Curriculum was not only in reading and writing, but also in the law, its commandments and doctrines, and the deeds and revelations of Jehovah to his people. Gamaliel(died 52 AD) is said to have been the first who instituted schools for boys in cities. He tried to make elementary education universal and compulsory by endeavouring to make provision for teachers in all provinces and allowing children to enter the school at the age of six or seven. In later times the prophecies and comments on them, as well as on the earlier scriptures, together with other subjects, were studied. Parents were required to teach their children some trade. Under the wing of the synagogue, elementary and secondary schools grew up. The elementary school normally operated in or near the synagogue building, and the rule of the synagogue was normally the teacher’s. The secondary school or the academy normally operated apart from the synagogue in the Temple precincts or in the teacher’s own house. Through the influence of these three institutions, the synagogue, the elementary school and the academy, all Jews became students of the law and these institutions more than anything else made the Jews the people of the Book.
In contemporary Jewish life there is a diversity of views regarding the core experiences and values of Jewish tradition or culture. Religious approaches are likely to emphasize prayer, study, holidays, and rituals. Ethnic approaches are likely to emphasize Hebrew, holidays, music, and customs. National approaches are likely to emphasize the Land of Israel, travel to Israel, Hebrew, and Jewish history. Because of this diversity, it is difficult to arrive at one agreed-upon core curriculum for teaching experiences and values. However, there are some Jewish experiences that seem to be shared by the majority of informal Jewish educational systems:
- Jewish holiday and calendar experiences;
- Jewish lifecycle experiences;
- studying Jewish texts;
- Jewish cultural and people hood experiences; and
- acting upon Jewish values.
A central dimension of informal Jewish education’s curriculum is its flexibility and dynamism. The methods of teaching “core contents” and the sequence in which they are taught are open to change and adjustment. These core experiences and values may be “taught” in a variety of ways, depending upon time, place, and the individual pace of each learner.
For the minority of Jews who are religious, there are opportunities at Orthodox Judaism yeshivas or at institutions such as at Conservative Judaism’s Jewish Theological Seminary and the Reform Judaism Hebrew Union College. For the majority of Jewish students attending regular academic colleges and universities there is a growing choice of Jewish studies courses and even degrees available at many institutions.
