Culture – SS Lesson for 10/8/01

Culture – SS Lesson for 10/8/01

(for the youngest class)

Background

The whole bible is about culture clashes.  Of special interest to us is the situation in the NT.  Here we find four major cultures discussed, and several others mentioned.  During Jesus’ life time we find the Jews, of which Jesus was a member, The Greeks, who were declining in power, but who provided the primary language of the day, and the Romans, who were the political and military rulers of what we now call the Middle East.  Jesus comes on to the scene criticizing his own culture – the Jewish culture.

This was purely an internal ‘conflict’, but the friction between the Jews and their Roman rulers had the Jews in a very defensive state.  I get the impression that they considered the Romans, their ‘enemy’.  Their literature from this period suggests that the Romans were somehow interfering with their ‘freedom of religion’.  See Maccabees. 

Many of the OT stories are about the conflicts between the Jews (and Hebrews) and various other cultures.  From Israel in Egypt in Exodus, to Israel in Persia in Ester.

Not that there aren’t records of non-Jews being assimilated into the Jewish culture.  This was OK as long as the outsider agreed that ‘thy God shall be my god’ – that there was no threat to the Hebrew ‘Cult’.

Jesus was executed because he was perceived as a threat to the Jewish ‘Cult’.  He was executed by the Romans at the request of the Jews.

At first Paul was zealous for the Jewish ‘Cult’.  After his ‘conversion experience’ he was equally zealous for the Christian movement.  He became an ‘Apostle to the Gentiles’, while Peter stayed behind to work within the Jewish culture.[1]

Paul describes his relations with the Greek culture in Acts, and to some extent in his letters.  This relationship had a lot to do with the form Christianity assumed.  It was the relationship with the Roman culture that gave the Church its initial form.  Later, as the Roman Empire collapsed, we find the other cultures that the Church encountered  shaping it in various and subtle ways.

The Reformation was built on many culture conflicts, mainly that between the German culture and the Church.

The Lesson

Today we are going to learn about the Jews, and we are going to learn why Christians need to know about the Jews.

The Jews are a Culture – just like the Spanish are a culture, the Italians are a culture, etc.

What is a Culture?  A Culture is a group of people – usually with a common language – with a common history.  Quite often, members of a culture have family names that are recognizable.[2]  Quite often also, members of a culture have a common religion.

You will realize how important Culture is to us here in America when you see that one Culture, The Militant Muslims, is seeking to destroy another Culture, ours.  This is the nature of Cultures.  During WW II the German Culture exterminated millions of Jews, and as many Gypsies as they could find – primarily because they were of a different culture.  Since then, millions (or so it seemed) of Muslims have been killed in Kosovo, simply because they were of a different Culture.  In Africa, we saw so-called civil wars, that were really conflicts of Cultures, again with millions of people killed.

Christians believe that killing and hurting people is evil.  We believe that Cultures can live together in Peace and Harmony.  We hope that America is a good example for the world.  We have people of every culture living here in peaceful co-existence.  We have some friction, but it is the healthy give and take of learning to live together.  We do not kill each other over our differences.

One of the ways we learn to live together in peace is to study each other’s culture.  What we know is a lot less threatening than what we suspect.

Today, we are going to learn a little about the Jewish Culture – and about their religion.

The Ancestors of the Jews, the Hebrews, wrote the Hebrew Scriptures – that portion of the Bible that Christians call the Old Testament.  The Hebrew Scriptures were written in Hebrew.  (Show the Hebrew Bible and a page from it in large font.)

The Jews do not celebrate Christmas, but they do have a winter festival called Chanukah.  During this Festival, they play various games, one of which uses this top – called a Dreidel.  Here are some pictures of Dreidels off the Net.  Each child spins the dreidel and is rewarded or penalized according to the Hebrew letter that comes up.

This dreidle does not have any Hebrew letters on it, yet.  That is the project for today.  Practice writing these four Hebrew letters, until you can write them to your satisfaction.  Then write them on these labels, and we will stick them on the sides of the dreidel.

The four letters are (in Sefer Trop font):

B  -  for nes – a miracle

D  -  for Gadol – a great one

V  -  for hy yah – happened

a  -  for shin – there

David Fix

q  w  e  t  y   i   p  

a  d  f  h  j  k  l  

z   c  v  b  n  b  n  

E   O  G  H  :   C  B  N  M  

Drogulin

e  r  t  y  u io  p a  s  d  f  g  h  j  k  l  ;  z  x  c  v  b  n  m  ,  ,  . 

Sefer

E  r  t  y  I  o  p  a  s  d  f  g  h  j  k  l  ;  ‘  z  x  c  v  b  n  m  m  ,  . 

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