Someone made a statement in the GD with respect to the pharisees of the New Testament. It was posited that they should not have been carrying money since it bore the engraved image of Caeser.
Is this so? Why or Why not?
If yes, how do religious Jews today deal with George Washington and the second commandment?
I am also interested in getting a translation of the Jewish Bible in english. Do they exist? Can you suggest a version?
What about getting an english copy of rabbinical teachings on the Jewish Bible.
Is my recollection correct, that the Talmud is combination of Jewish Bible and rabbinical teachings?
As far as what the Talmud is: a combination of “Oral Torah”, traditions of how to interpret the scriptures and the laws therein (the “Oral Torah” was written down in a document called the Mishnah around 2nd century C.E.), and additional commentaries known as the Gemara. http://www.jewfaq.org/torah.htm#Talmud
First off, the “Jewish bible” is the section of the Christian bible called the Old Testament (roughly speaking, and ignoring a few books different here and there.) So, it’s not like it’s some obscure bit of literature. If you are looking for a Jewish translation, there are plenty of translations, some better than others. I prefer the JPS (Jewish Publication Society) but there are plenny around. Note that some translators try to make their own points with translations.
Second, on the question of graven images, most modern Orthodox recognize art and drawing and coins and such are not graven images per se. The commandment, after all, is focused on not making images of God, and not worshipping them. What Jewish Orthodox think of (say) Eastern Orthodox icons makes for amusing discussion.
However, there are some (very small minority) ultra-traditional Jewish groups who interpret any carving or drawing or painting (other than abstract) as a graven image, to be shunned. But, as noted, this is a very tiny minority.
Regarding the original question about coins of the Roman empire bearing the emperor’s likeness, as being a “graven image” and the carrying of them, therefore, breaking the 2nd commandment: Doesn’t anybody read history books anymore? The Roman Senate would declare the Emperor as a “god” and suitable images would be set up for various foreign populations to offer sacrifices to. George Washington was never declared a god.
As someone already responded, Caesar was considered on the level of a diety in ancient Roman times. George Washington is not. And, as CK said, there is a very small minority of Jews who do not allow any human likeness in their possession; I’m not sure what they do, financially, but your all-checks guess is as good as any. Or perhaps they make an arrangement with a non-Jew to handle their financial transactions in exchange for services of various sorts.
My personal favorite is the Stone edition published by [URL target=http://www.artscroll.com]Artscroll. You can order the one volume containing the [URL target=http://www.artscroll.com/cgi-bin/searchtitle?title=stone%20edition+tanach]entire Tanakh (“Old Testament”)
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, or the one with a more detailed translation.explanation of only the [URL target=http://www.artscroll.com/cgi-bin/searchtitle?title=stone%20edition+chumash]Chumash (Five books of Moses).
There’s a heck of a lot of those Rabbinical teachings. Best thing to do is answer your question…
What’s commonly known as the Bible is referred to by Orthodox Jews as the Written Bible (or Torah)…that would be the Tanakh (see above). The Talmud is one part of what we call the Oral Bible (Torah), a set of traditions handed down orally from the days of Moses (related to interpretation of the written Torah) until it was formally written to prevent it from becoming lost when Roman persecution made teaching Torah increasingly difficult.
[ovewrsimplify]The Oral Torah can be broken down into two main categories: legal issues and stories. While there is some overlap, the stories are mainly collected in the Midrash, and the legal parts are the Talmud.[/oversimplify]
The Talmud’s being committed to paper began in approximately 150 CE, when Rabbi Judah the Prince (often called merely “The Rabbi” or “Our holy Rabbi”) wrote down the Mishnah, an arranged grouping of legal statements. Over the next two centuries, the Midrash was committed to writing, as was the Tosefta, which were additional legal statements which were omitted from the Mishnah. The Talmud includes both the Mishnah and commentaries on it (which also draw from the Tosefta) as recorded by Rabbis until the 4th century in Palestine and until the 6th century in Babylon. The most commonly-used Talmud is the Babylonian one, and Artscroll is a little more than halfway through publishing the most comprehensive English-translated Talmud ever. There exists a translation by the Soncino company which is used by most English-speaking Orthodox Jews. As far as I know, no comprehensive English translation of the Palestinian (or Jerusalem) Talmud.
As far as the Midrash goes, I believe Soncino has a translated Midrash as well, but it might be out of print. The best English Midrashic books are compilations (not exact translations). Two excellent sets are The Midrash Says, which has volumes on the Five Books of Moses, and The Torah Anthology, which has already published volumes on most of the Tanakh. Artscroll has some Tanakh volumes as well.
If you do not live near a sizable Jewish community (is Bryan near Houston? Houston should have a Judaica store), you can order books directly from Artscroll or from Eichler’s Judaica. Their web site (they do have one) doesn’t seem to be too great, but they have a toll-free number, 1-888-EICHLER.
“Sherlock Holmes once said that once you have eliminated the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be
the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.
The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it that the merely improbable lacks.”
– Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective
I forgot about the Caeser-as-God issue. I guess it would somewhat depend on who was caeser at the time and which caeser’s picture was on the coin.
Augustus wasn’t deified (empire-wide, anyway) until after his death. I believe the same was true of Tiberius who would have been Caeser at the time of Christ. (I believe this is what made Caligula’s self-proclamation of godhood so uniquely shocking.)
Again, cmkeller, thank you for your answer. I guess I forgot about the godhood thing and focussed on any image becuase I remember reading My name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok. Its been awhile, but I believe the boy was Hasidic and was immensely talented in painting. This posed a problem in his setting.