Obligation to fulfill the law, intention, and ritual are intertwined with the covenantal relationship between God and the people of Israel when we speak of the positive and negative commandments or mitzvah in Judaism. As this course examines Judaism and its’ Interreligious dimension, in this paper I shall seek to relate these concepts in Judaism with Islam, pulling from the work of Michael A. Fishbane, Haviva Ner-David, Daniel M. Horwitz, and Irving Greenberg. Judaism, similar to Islam, is based on positive and negative commandments or what is permissible and what is prohibited where intention is central to the concepts of obligation and ritual and where ritual is guided by ‘the way or path’ or the Halakha with the end goal of redemption and the messianic age on earth, which is similar to the Shari’ah serving as the ‘source’ for the life of Muslims, however, the ultimate goal of the Muslim is heaven.
Fishbane says that, “In traditional Judaism, all aspects of life are ritualized through halakhic regulations.” (Fishbane 1987, 83) Fishbane elaborates, “Accordingly, all aspects of life take on the legal character of mutar and asur, or ‘permitted’ and ‘forbidden.’ A similar concept exists in Islam with ‘what is permissible’ and ‘what is prohibited.’ Jews are obligated to fulfill the law and hence the mitzvah as they are in a covenantal relationship with God. “…the performance of all one’s behaviors within the moral framework established by the halakhic regulations was also a form of acknowledgement of divine lordship…for the traditional Jew the halakha is experienced as a divine gift that guides one through the maze of possible actions. Indeed, via the halakha a Jew commonly feels the ‘rightness’ and ‘order’ of earthly actions, their ‘world-building’ and ‘covenant-confirming’ character.” (Fishbane 1987, 88) The covenant in Judaism refers to, “the eternal bond between God and the people of Israel grounded in the nation’s obedience to the divine commandments.” (Fishbane 1987, 143). “Halakha includes law, custom, institution; it is a strategy for getting through history…Add together a set of memories and values with commandments and goals, and you have the halakha…(Greenberg 1993, 20) Jews fulfill the law and thus the covenant through performing various rituals such as ablution and prayer, fasting, Sabbath, holidays, and rites of passage surrounding birth, adulthood, marriage, and death and by adhering to the positive and negative commandments. “According to rabbinic tradition, there are 613 religious commandments referred to in the Torah…Of these, 248 are positive commandments and 365 are negative. The numbers respectively symbolize the fact that divine service must be expressed through all one’s bodily parts during all the days of the year.” (Fishbane 1987, 142) According to Greenberg, fulfilling obligation to the law and adhering to commandments along with performing the proscribed rituals will lead to the universal goal of redemption and usher in the Messianic era. (Greenberg 1993, 18)The Messiah is supposed to appear by 2240 in the Gregorian calendar or 6000 in the Jewish calendar. (Wikipedia 2023) In Judaism, the arrival of the Messiah will catapult the world into an era of peace and commitment to and understanding of God and His plan.
The concept of intention is called Kavanah in Hebrew and can also mean sincere ‘feeling’ or ‘direction of the heart.’ (Wikipedia 2023) In Islam, the concept is called Niyyah. Kavanah is necessary for rituals and prayer in Judaism, similar to Islam. (Wikipedia 2023) Not only must one perform the ritual and/or commandment, one must have the intention to do so in order to fulfill the covenantal relationship described herein and possibly for the action to be even considered valid as is the case in Islam. In normal mysticism, “‘an awareness of God seeps into all the activities of human life until this unseen Presence is taken as the true foundation of being.’ Jewishlife offers continual ritual opportunities that can stimulate such awareness when they are carried out with proper intention.” (Horowitz 2016, 6) These rituals offered with the proper intention through obligation may offer the Jew communion with and insight into God, a goal of the mystic and non-mystic Jew alike. “Prayer with proper kavanah, ‘intention,’ is intended to evoke God’s presence; combined with Torah study…it also presents to us a message from God.” (Horowitz 2016, 328).
Haviva Ner-David brings up the important issue of why men and women have different obligations under Judaism and therefore perform different rituals. For example, pregnant women are not obligated to fast on Yom Kippur. (Ladon 2023) Ner-David pushes the boundaries in fulfilling commandments such as in particular tefillin and tzitzit, that were previously proscribed for males only. I feel that she is naïve in that she feels that she won’t face discouragement in challenging these two mitzvah. (Ner-David 2000, 10) In Judaism, women are exempt from most positive timebound commandments. (Ner-David 2000, 11) Similar rules apply to women in Islam for various reasons, such as menstruation, child-rearing responsibilities, the different physical strengths and capabilities of men and women, and the reality of different genders.
Jews live a life directed by the Halakha, where in which rituals are performed out of obligation with proper intention in order to fulfill the commandments, positive or negative, and hence the covenantal relationship formed between the people of Israel and God with the goal of redemption and the messianic age. The obligation is different between men and women for many reasons, which are stated in the Torah and expounded upon by the Oral Torah, however, there exist women who challenge the notion of being exempt from positive time-bound commandments. I believe the desire for closeness to and insight into God is the same for the mystic and non-mystic Jew alike, however, some believe this is unique to Mystic Jews. Judaism has many parallels with Islam in terms of Halakha and Shari’ah, obligation, ritual, and positive and negative commandments and ‘what is permissible’ and ‘what is prohibited.’
Bibliography
1. Michael A. Fishbane, Judaism (San Francisco: Harper, 1987),83-113.
2. Irving Greenberg, The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays (Austin, TX: Touchstone, 1993) 13-33.
3. Daniel M. Horwitz, A Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism Reader (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, Jewish Publication Society, 2016), 3-9; 326-332.
4. Joshua Ladon, “Week 3 Instructor Presentation: Judaism as a Ritual System (video lecture) September 25, 2023, Graduate Theological Union, HR-8170-1.FA23: Instructor Presentation: Judaism as a Ritual System (gtu.edu).
5. Haviva Ner-David, A Feminist Journey Toward Traditional Rabbinic Ordination (Teaneck, NJ: Ben Yehuda Press, 2000), 1-12.
6. Wikipedia; Wikipedia’s “Kavanah” entry, accessed September 25, 2023, Kavanah – Wikipedia.
7. Wikipedia; Wikipedia’s “Messiah in Judaism” entry, accessed September 25, 2023, Messiah in Judaism – Wikipedia.