Jewish Art

Judaism is the religion and culture of the Jewish people and it is also one of the oldest religious traditions still practiced today. Judaism is the first recorded and one of the three main monotheistic religions that arose in the Near East and dominated the spiritual life of the Western world (Judaism, Christianity and Islam).

Jews believe that God made a covenant with their ancestors, the Hebrew, and that they are God's chosen people. They await the coming of a savior - the Messiah, "the anointed one." Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth was that Messiah. Muslims believe Muhammad to be God's (Allah's) last and greatest prophet.

The tenets and history of Judaism constitute the historical foundation of many other religions, including Christianity and Islam. From a cultural point of view, Jewish contributions to mankind are enormous. Besides the concept of monotheism, Jews contributed clear-cut standards of law - Ten Commandments. Although these values are collectively understood as the Judeo-Christian ethic, the scope of their influence extends far beyond Christians and Jews. Recognized objects of Judaic art date back to the dawn of history, even before the "common era." Only a few survived the attrition of time. Among them were beautifully illustrated manuscripts, mosaics of Beth Alpha (Israel) and segments of Duro-Europos (Syria), the ruins of an ancient synagogue.

The Jewish people trace their origin to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. His twelve sons founded the twelve tribes of Israel. They migrated to Egypt, where they lived for several hundred years until harshly oppressed by one of the pharaohs. In the 13th century BCE the prophet Moses led them out of slavery in Egypt and back to the promised land of Canaan between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River (later called Palestine). The Hebrew Scriptures relate how, on their journey, God reaffirmed his special relationship with the Israelites and gave Moses the Ten Commandments, the Tablets of the Law, on Mount Sinai.

The Tablets of the Law were housed in the profoundly sacred Ark of the Covenant, a gold-covered wooden box whose construction was prescribed in the Hebrew Scriptures. The Israelites carried the ark with them on their desert wanderings until they finally conquered Canaan and built a permanent temple in Jerusalem in the 10th century BCE under King Solomon. The menorah and ark were placed in the Temple. The Babylonians destroyed the First Temple in 586 BCE. About seventy years later, a Second Temple of Jerusalem, smaller, was built and later enlarged by Herod the Great, king of the region. It was destructed and plundered by the Romans in 70CE what was so vividly described by the Jewish chronicler Josephus.

The Jews had the Temple in Jerusalem with organized priesthood, but they also gathered in buildings, later known as synagogues. Contrary to many other religions, specialized architecture was less central in Judaism. Synagogue, with a role as place of study, could be any large room. Early Jewish spiritual life emphasized religious learning and an individual's direct relationship with God. Following the destruction of Jerusalem, there no longer was an organized priesthood and the role of synagogue expanded. They began to serve as places for prayer for the dispersed community.

Judaism's rich ceremonial affirmation of Jewish history and belief inspired the creation of scrolls, books and ritual objects. Because Jews were weak on abstractions, Biblical verbiage was set in concrete terms, with numerous personifications. Bezalel personified art. The name means "standing in the shadow of God." According to Hebrew Scriptures - Exodus, God gave him the intelligence, wisdom and skill "to create marvelous articles." Bezalel became an architect, sculptor and designer of holy garments. He was the first Jewish artist on record, known for making the Tabernacle that contained the Ark of the Covenant, constructed by prescription in the Scriptures. The menorah, typical ritual object kept with the Ark, has a form probably derived from the ancient near Eastern Tree of Life, symbolizing both the end of exile and the paradise to come. Torah scrolls, containing the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), were read publicly and kept in curtained shrines.

Jews were forbidden to make images that might be worshiped as idols, but this prohibition against representational art was applied primarily to sculpture in the round in early Judaism. Jewish art during the Roman Empire combined both Near Eastern and classical Greek and Roman elements to depict Jewish subject matter, both symbolic and narrative. Since Christianity arose out of Judaism, its art incorporated many symbols and narrative representations drawn from the Hebrew Scriptures and other Jewish sources. Almost no examples of specifically Christian art exist before the early third century, and even then it continued to draw its styles and imagery from Jewish and classical traditions. This process is known as syncretism. Orant figures - worshipers with arms outstretched - for example, can be pagan, Jewish, or Christian, depending on the contest in which they occur. Perhaps the most important of these syncretic images is the Good Shepherd. In pagan art, he was Hermes the shepherd or Orpheus among the animals, but Jews and Christians saw him as the Good Shepherd of the Twenty-third Psalm: "The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack".