1. Cernea stresses again and again that Judaism's laws and practices are designed to create a sense of order, of things in their right place, and of the the Jewish people as fulfilling God's plan (his orderly design) for humanity. (See page xix, next to last paragraph; page 7-top of page 8; pages 22-26.) God is the Creator of Order in Judaism. Give some examples of how the practices of the Jewish people are based on a sense for order, right distinctions, putting and keeping things in their right place. (You may refer to Fredman's examples on page 22, or to others that from your reading in Neusner--could the sabbath be seen in the light of "order"? Hint: the way Judaism describes order is with the term "holy," kadosh in Hebrew.)
2. In the first question, you thought about how Judaism tries to make the life of the Jewish people as orderly (holy) as possible, by defining a right way to perform almost all (maybe literally all) actions, however mundane. But in pages 34 to 46 Cernea talks about how Judaism is fully aware that the Jewish people live "out of order" to the extent that they are in exile (galut in Hebrew), in a transitional state between utter despair and abandonment on the one hand and complete joy and reconciliation with God on the other hand. What remedies to this uncomfortable sense of transition, of in-betweeness, does Judaism offer? Refer at least to the symbolism of fire and light in Judaism, to the time of the ritual of Passover itself (near the vernal equinox), and to the Jewish hope for the Messiah and messianic movements, in your answer.
3. Based on all your reading so far, why do you think that a Messiah figure who leaves the condition of the Jewish people as a whole unchanged, but who promises personal salvation for individual Jews, would not be accepted by the broad majority of the Jewish people?
Note: Questions 2 and 3 assume that you have done a little more reading about the Messiah in Judaism than you really have done. The questions were written when this reading was placed al little later in the course, not at the beginning. You may choose to ignore the issue of the Messiah and messianic movements for you answer. You should probably not try to do question 3 at all at this point, although we will talk it about it later.