T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

transcends the mlindano and extends itself into an area of themetaphysical that is pictured well by Hasidlc theologians likeMarc Chagall and Martin Buber.It is especially ironical that Judaism, which is reportedto be the flrst major religion in history to foster the conceptof a single, all-powerful God, traces its origin to thepatriarch Abraham, whose own father was a maker of idols in theclty of Ur, In ancient Sumer. Abraham must have worshipped thenoon goddess, the primary deity In Ur, untll he conceived theldea of 'Monotheism' the oneness uf an invlslble eternalCreator of the Universe and bequeathed lt as a legacy to hisdescendants, the Jews. So baslc and overriding a tenet ismonotheism to Judaism that the most important prayer In thereligion, and the one that every Jew 1s requrred to recite, ifpossible, at the moment of his death is the 'Shenna', whlchStates: 'Hear 0 Israel the Lord or God, the Lord 1s One,Blessed be Hls name whose glorlcus Klngdom is for ever andever'.The daily life of a Jew is regulated by 613 precepts inthe 'Torah' (the first five books of the Bible, beginning withGenesls) and the prayer shawl called the 'talsith' that hewears is woven with 613 threads, to remlnd him of hls religiousobligations. The 'Talmud' is anoth,al- important religious bookof the Jews, containing the fundamental code of Jewish civil