Judaism - how Jews stayed together though all of their troubles.?

Question

our teacher gave us 6 topics we should know- synagogues and rabbis, the chosen people/covenent/, the torah/the law, their concept of suffering, and the holocaust/pogroms. through all of these topics we should know how Jews stayed together as a community and survived all these centuries as a whole.

Answer 1

Taking into account your topic headings you need to look at the following:

Under Jewish law it is better to pray in a minyan (ten men over the age of bar mitzvah). Also, the commandment od pru u'revu (be fruitful and multiply) mean that you need to be married and have children. This means that their is no concept of holy seperateness thus you do not become holy by seperating from the community- rather, you become holy by being part of the community.

Combined with this is is the fact that the synagogue is the center of the community, the place where people gather to pray together. Also, there is a strong focus on learning the law and the Rabbi is a teacher above all else. Thus people gather regularly together to study, further increasing communal cohesiveness.

Another factor is that the law requires jews to live near synmagogues. The forbidding of melachah (creative work- not all work as it is commonly believed) on shabat and the major festivals means that you have to live within walking distance to a synagogue since you cannot drive. In past centuries it meant living within close communities where you could walk to the synagogue with other Jews- preferably through Jewish areas as attacks on Jews outside of Jewish areas were common. The laws of kashrus also mean that Jews are going to eat with other Jews and rarely venture into social settings outside of the Jewish community as they would not be able to eat or drink at such occassions unless the food is kosher (which is not possible unless prepared by a Jew in a kosher kitchen or catered by a company that has rabbinical supervision).

Answer 2

I think it's partly because we think of ourselves as a worldwide united community. We mourn together as a community and we celebrate as a community. Another contributing factor was that for centuries Muslims and Christians kept the Jews in ghettos and separated from themselves which only enforced the separateness of the Jews. They always had to work together as a family in order to survive the centuries of persecution.

When Jews were liberated from the ghettos, they were much more likely to assimilate than ever before.

Or,.... you may prefer to believe that it is nothing more than a miracle that the Jews survive to this day!

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Answer 3

Learning, when the surrounding non-Jews were illiterate.

Strong family values.

Persecution by the Christians.

Answer 4

don't forget guilt, which to a Jew is original sin.