Sign up to access the complete lesson and track your progress!
Unlock This CourseIn Family Life: Types of Family, Roles and Responsibilities you met the main types of family, the duties of different generations and the rights of children. In Marriage in Judaism: A Mitzvah and a Covenant you saw that Jews treat marriage as holy. This lesson asks what Judaism teaches about family life once a family has been formed, and how the Jewish community supports it.
For Jews the home is as important as the synagogue. Many of the most important Jewish practices happen around the family table or in the living room: the Friday night meal, the festival meals and the passing on of Jewish learning. As you saw in Marriage in Judaism: A Mitzvah and a Covenant, the home is a holy place in its own right. A family that lives by Jewish teaching is seen as the place where Judaism is kept alive from one generation to the next.
Key terms:
The Fifth Commandment, in Exodus 20:12, says 'Honour your father and your mother'. Leviticus 19:3 also tells people to revere their mother and father. Kibbud av va'em means more than obeying: it means respecting parents, speaking to them kindly and looking after them when they need help.
In Deuteronomy 6:7 the Torah tells parents to teach its words to their children. For Jews, parents are the first teachers of the faith. Proverbs 22:6 gives a similar idea: guide a child in the right way and they will keep to it when older.
Shabbat, the weekly day of rest, and the festivals are family times. Families share meals, sing, pray and talk together, and many families set work aside. This gives children and parents regular time together, and it is how many children learn what being Jewish means.
Leviticus 19:32 says to rise in respect before an older person. Psalm 71:9 is the prayer of an old person who asks not to be cast aside. Many Jews teach that adult children should look after elderly parents, with love and dignity, and that older people bring wisdom to a family.
These teachings also show the idea of shalom bayit. A home is meant to be a place of peace, where each person, young or old, is valued. A family that has these values is seen as doing its part in the covenant between God and the Jewish people.
Many Jewish families today are not the traditional two-parent family. Some are single-parent families, some are reconstituted families after divorce and remarriage, and many have grandparents living nearby or at home. Jews do not all agree on how to respond.
Orthodox Jews hold that the ideal is a married mother and father bringing up children in a Jewish home. They see the law as rooted in the Torah and changed only within limits by rabbis. Many see traditional parenting roles as different but equally valued: the father's duty to teach his children and the mother's central role in running the home. At the same time, Orthodox communities care for single parents and children from every kind of family, and they do not turn them away.
Progressive (Reform and Liberal) Jews see the law as able to change as understanding changes. They teach that men and women should share parenting and religious life equally. They are more accepting of different family forms, including single-parent families and, as you saw in Love, Sex and Relationships in Judaism, families headed by same-sex couples.
Jews of all kinds agree that children need love, stability and a Jewish education, and that the whole community has a part to play when a family is struggling.
Jewish life is community life, so families are never meant to cope alone. Support comes in several ways.
The aim of all this is the same: to sustain family life, support the upbringing of children and keep families together.
(Paper 1, AO1) (a) Identify three ways in which a Jewish community can support family life. [3 marks]
(b) Choose one religion. Outline two teachings about family life in this religion. [4 marks]
(a) 1. Classes and youth groups run by the synagogue (1). 2. Welfare organisations that care for older people (1). 3. Advice from the rabbi (1).
(b) In Judaism, children must honour their father and mother (1), as the Fifth Commandment says, which means respecting them and caring for them when they are old (1). Parents must teach their children the faith (1), based on Deuteronomy 6:7, so that Jewish beliefs pass to the next generation (1).
(Paper 1, AO1 and AO2) (c) Choose one religion. Explain why there are different attitudes to changing family roles in this religion. [6 marks]
In Judaism, Orthodox Jews hold that the Torah and tradition give men and women different roles in the home, so they see the traditional family as the ideal (1). This is because they see the law as rooted in the Torah and changed only within limits (1). Progressive Jews believe that men and women are equal in the image of God, so they teach that parents should share roles (1). They also see the law as able to change with modern understanding, so they accept single-parent and other families (1). Because Jews disagree about how far the law can change, they disagree about family roles (1), although both groups say that children should be loved and given a Jewish upbringing (1).
(Paper 1, AO1 and AO2) (d) 'The family is the most important way of passing on the Jewish faith.' Evaluate this statement, showing you have considered different points of view. In your answer you should refer to at least one religion. [12 marks]
For: Deuteronomy 6:7 tells parents to teach their children; Shabbat and festival meals happen at home; the home is a holy place in its own right.
Against: the synagogue, classes and youth movements also teach children; some Jewish children grow up in families that are not religious but still learn through the community; non-religious people may say values come from many sources, such as friends and the wider community.
Possible conclusion: the family is the most important way, because Deuteronomy 6:7 gives the duty to parents and a child's daily Jewish life happens at home; the synagogue and youth groups support this but cannot replace it. Whichever side you choose, say why it outweighs the other. A Progressive Jew might add that the community matters just as much for families who are not able to teach alone.
In part (c), name both Orthodox and Progressive views and say why they differ. Giving one view only keeps you in Level 1.