ANCIENT ISRAEL’S

ETHICS AND VALUES

AND THEIR . . .

IMPACT

ON WESTERN

CIVILIZATION

Produced by LearnIsrael.orgwww.learnisrael.org© 2007

Key Values For an Ideal World      

• Respect for Human Life

• Justice and Equality

• Family

• Social Responsibility

• Education

• Peace and Harmony

Where Did the Values and Morals of

the Modern World Come From?

One of the basic tenets of ancient Israel is that human life is sacred. This is considered a SHARED Judeo-Christian value because this tenet was later picked up

by Christianity due to its Jewish heritage.

Life is Sacred- Thou Shall Not Murder

The sanctity of life was an idea that was considered RADICAL in the ancient world. Ancient civilizations killed

people as a form of religious worship and sport.

INFANTICIDE, the killing of infants who were deformed, disabled or didn’t meet a certain

standard of beauty was considered NORMAL in the Greek and Roman cultures while the ancient

Israelite Law of NOT killing one’s child was considered perverse or strange.

The Roman Ideal of Entertainment

The Coliseum was considered one of Rome’s greatest engineering feats. The arena, completed in 80 C.E. sat 50,000 people, had a roof that could be removed and a floor that could be raised or lowered.

What was the Coliseum used for? To entertain the Roman crowds.

Spectators were fed meat and wine, sat on pillows and watched as1,000 wild beasts fought each other in the morning, followed by condemned prisoners being fed to the beasts and gladiators fighting each other to death.

Even though Rome was advanced technologically, it was a barbaric culture by today’s standards.

Women, children, blind people and dwarfs were used as gladiators to entertain the crowds.

What- No Human Sacrifice?

The Bible tells the story of Abraham’s test when God asks him to sacrifice his son, Isaac, who he loves, on Mount Moriah. At the last minute an angel sent by God stops Abraham from sacrificing his son.

Unlike the views of pagan societies, the God of the ancient Israelites abhorred and condemned human sacrifice. What is mind-boggling is that

this moral code was envisioned almost 3,800 years ago.

Ancient Israel traces its ancestry back to Abraham, a nomadic chieftain who

traveled to Canaan from Ur.

Ethical Monotheism-

The Great Jewish Discovery: God is One

How Did it Happen?

Pagan societies at the height of the Bronze age practiced polytheism- they worshipped many gods. The gods were

represented by statutes called idols.

Pagans Worshipped Many Gods

Pagans could pray to their gods and ask for favors.

But the gods demanded much in return- some required a blood sacrifice such as the sacrifice of the first-born son.

As a young boy, Abraham worked in his father’s idol store and realized that the idols his father

made had no powers.

Abraham looks up into the sky and realizes that it wasn’t created on its own. He comes to the ORIGINAL CONCLUSION that there is only ONE GOD,

INVISIBLE and NOT PHYSICAL, who created the heavens and the earth.

THIS CONCEPT IS KNOWN AS ETHICAL MONOTHEISM.

In a story from the Midrash, Abraham takes an axe and chops to pieces all the idols in his father’s store- except for the largest

idol, in whose hands he places an axe.

When confronted, he tells his father that the largest idol did the deed. His father replies, “Idols can’t do anything.” Abraham tells his father to think about what he just said.

Enter Abraham: the Rebellious Son

HOW DID ETHICAL MONOTHEISM CHANGE THE

WORLD?

The ancient Israelites believed that all humanity should follow one universal moral standard because all of

humanity was created in the image of God.

L’Chaim-to Life!

Can You Think Of Any Modern Innovations That Save Lives?

This saying is from the Talmud. What do you think

it means?

Ancient Israel’s Rule of Law

The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments and the Torah form the cornerstone of our laws and provide the

moral basis for all Western Civilization.

The Ten Commandments> You shall have no

other gods before me

> You shall not make for yourself an idol

> You shall not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain

> Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy

> Honor your father and your mother

> You shall not murder

> You shall not commit adultery

> You shall not steal

> You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor

> You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor

Which of these commandments are part of the law in the United

States today?

Have to be a Parent.

Have to speak 70 languages.

Open to all qualified candidates regardless of status as long as distinguished in Torah, wisdom, humility and of honest reputation.

Requirements to be a Judge

Family and a Woman’s Place

   Two primary sources from Ancient Greek and Hebrew times; notice the contrasting perspectives on marriage                                              " Marriage brings a man only two happy days: the day he takes his bride to bed and the day he lays her in her grave." Greek poet Palladus

“. .Yet a wife is a necessary evil because without her a man cannot have a son to inherit his property.”

Hesiod, a Greek

"And so our rabbis decreed that a man should honor his wife more than himself and love her as much as he loves himself."

MAIMONIDES. MISHNA TORAH,"Laws of Marriage." 15:19

 

Ancient Take on Women

The ketubah dates back to over 2000 years ago and is one of the earliest marriage

contracts to spell out the husband’s obligations to his wife during the marriage and

in the event of divorce.

Education

Ancient Take on Education

In Rome and Greek societies there was no such thing as a free public educational system- only the wealthy

could afford to send their children to elementary schools.

“. . It should be obvious in Greece and to an even greater extent in the Roman Empire the illiteracy of the masses

contributed to the stability of political order. . .” William V. Harris, “Ancient Literacy”

“Appoint teachers for children in every country, province and city.”

Maimonides, Misna Torah, “Laws of Learning Torah”,

2:1 in Quote 22

By the 1st Century B.C.E., all Jewish male children regardless of social status were educated to read the Hebrew Scriptures. The Hebrew Scriptures are also

known as the Old Testament or the . . .

TORAH

ProphetsWriti

ngs

T A N A K H

The Tanakh or Hebrew Scriptures touched on all

aspects of daily life:

• Relationships • Diet

• Environment• Charity• Health

• Finances• Legal Issues

Social Responsibility

Social consciousness is a mitzvah, a legal obligation in the Torah.

“Love your neighbor as yourself."   LEVITICUS 19:18

In 1958, only 10 years after its independence, Israel created MASHAV, Israel’s Center for International

Cooperation, to offer emerging nations its expertise in:

Agriculture/Desert AgricultureWater ManagementRefugee Absorption

Early Childhood EducationEmergency and Disaster Medicine

Employment Programs

MASHAV conducts 300 courses annually for emerging nations and has trained almost 200,000 participants in

over 140 countries from Albania to Zimbabwe.

Israel is at the Forefront of Humanitarian Programs to Share its Innovations

   

                                                                                  

Click above for Video

Courtesy of Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs

“And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.   Nation shall not lift up

sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore."      ISAIAH 2:4

Outside of the United Nations

General Assembly

Headquarters in Manhattan,

Vision of World Peace

engraved on the "Isaiah

Wall," is the motto of the

UN:

The shapers of British democracy and the "Founding Fathers" of America constantly turned to the Bible as a source of inspiration and values. Look at the following statement

from the "Declaration of Independence" of the United States.

One God: Basis for Democratic Governments

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain

unalienable rights, that amongst these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

These values have been spread through the growth of liberal

democracy during the last 200 years.

This presentation was inspired by Rabbi Ken Spiro’s excellent book,

WorldPerfect-The Jewish Impact on Civilization.

We wish to give special thanks to Rabbi Spiro for permission to use

graphics and information.

Special thanks toWendy Lewis

for designing and writing this presentation

Ancient Israel’s Ethics & Values and their Impact on Western Civilization

Produced by Learn Israel, A division of Standwithus

P.O. Box 341069

Los Angeles, CA. 90034-1069

E-Mail: info@learnisrael.org

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