Why Jews Have Donned the Title "The People of the Book"

Judaism is a very interesting and, at the same time, complex religion to learn. Jews rely on their past to make decisions as much as they rely on God (Yahweh) to help. This paper will primarily touch upon how and why the Jews have often been referred to as "The People of the Book" and what effects this has had on their religion's history.

The statement, "The People of the Book," can have several different meanings in reference to Judaism and reasons why the Jewish community has been referred to as this.

One reason may be because this is commonly referring "to the Jewish people as a whole as adherents of the Torah" and it is the Jews belief that the people that God called on originally in the Bible were all Jewish. They were the people who started out where all the messages from God came from. The following examples are found in Huston Smith's book The World's Religions,

" ...the epic [of Abraham] is introducted by a remarkable proglogue, Genesis 1-11, which describes the steady deterioration of the world from its original, pristine goodness. Disobedience (eating from the forbidden fruit) is followed by murder (Cain and Abel), promiscuity (the sons of God and the daughters of men)...God calls Abraham. He is to go forth into a new land to establish a new people...because (pg.284)

That alone shows that they were not wanting to just make it through these rough times because they believed God was putting them through it for a reason, but to also get a meaning out of it- out of the situation that was presented to them. "God must have chosen [us] to deal with this for a reason," is the kind of thing that may have been thought in the hard times.

Being referred to as the "People of the Book" may have affected them in history. It could have affected them personally, as a group, giving them more confidence to face and get through different endeavors/ situations. Knowing that God has chosen them to take on such adventures had to have helped to give them the confidence and drive they needed to make it through the hard times. It may have also been a bad thing that the Jewish people were referred to as the "People of the Book" because there may have been other religions that were jealous of this statement and the intent behind it. They [the other religions] may have taken it as they were saying they were more important currently and in history.

Although being considered "The People of the Book" may have changed and shaped history for the Jews, trying to decide if it's an accurate description of them is another subject to be reviewed. Yes, there are many different things that could lead us to believe that they are the "The Chosen People" and the actual "People of the Book" but I think that it may have, to an extent, been taken too far. To me, we are all the chosen people of God; we've all been born onto the Earth for some kind of purpose. Even if we do not know what that is right now, eventually we will fulfill our calling.

When looking at the verses and texts of the Torah, Midrash, Talmud and Mishnah, you can find many answers to questions that you may have concerning certain events at certain times. These may also help you to answer life style choices and why things happen the way they do.

A good example of these is from Talmud of Babylonia Tractate Berakhot 62A [found in The Way of the Torah pg. 39]. I'm not going to quote the whole section, but I do advise you, if you enjoy this to check out the rest of the section to get even more of an effect.

Talmud of Babylonia Tractate Berakhot 62A:

'Said Rabbi Aquiba, 'I once went after Rabbi Joshua to the privy and I learned the three things from him:

I learned that people defecate not on an east-west axis but on a north-south axis.

I learned that one urinates not standing but sitting.

And I learned that one wipes not with the right hand but with the left."

Said Ben Azzi to him, 'Do you behave so insolently towards your master?

He said to him, "It is the matter of the Torah, which I need to learn."

Rabbi Kahana then went on to continue telling people what he learned. This section by itself is showing and what the Torah really means to the Jews. Like it is stated on page 40: "...Torah does not refer to a particular book or set of books, let alone to a physical object, the scroll. It refers to the right way of doing things..." The Jews are/were not just looking to have things told to them, but to be able to figure them out for themselves- a trait that is not seen by many.

"Israel learns Torah not only in a book or in a statement of a sage but by observing how the models of Torah conduct themselves." This quote given by Neusner is one of the best quotes, in my opinion, of trying to explain how the Jews think about the Torah. It's hard to everyone to be able to feel this way or grasp the way they feel about this concept, however, it's through studies and situations like this that help to allow other religions and other people to be able to try to understand. You can't make someone believe something, but you can inform them about what you do know and let them make the choice themselves. Even if they can't feel the same connection to something [the Torah], just knowing that someone does feel it, makes an individual that much closer to it and make it that much more real.

Sources:
Neusner, Jacob. (2004). The Way of the Torah: An Introduction to Judaism. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.

Smith, Huston. (1991). The World's Religions. New York: HarperCollins.