Developments in Jewish Thought | OCR A-Level Religious Studies (H573)

Developments in Jewish Thought

250 questions
15 subtopics
Components 03 to 07: Developments in Religious Thought, one religion of five
Components 03–07

Component 05, one of the five Developments in Religious Thought options.

The written and oral law, covenant, Maimonides, suffering and messianic hope, halakhah in daily life, conversion, and the modern questions of emancipation, Zionism, feminism and the Holocaust.

Sample questions from Developments in Jewish Thought

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

Debate over the Principles and Jewish belief

How do Orthodox and Reform Judaism differ on the authority of the Principles?

Show the answer
Orthodox Judaism treats them as a summary of binding belief, while Reform Judaism regards them as one medieval formulation rather than a test of Jewish identity.
Debate over the Principles and Jewish belief

What is the argument that Judaism is defined by practice rather than belief?

Show the answer
That halakhah governs what a Jew does and Jewish identity rests on descent and observance, so a creed sits awkwardly with how the tradition actually works.

The 15 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Jewish oral and written law	Recall questions on the Tanakh, the written and oral Torah, the Mishnah and Gemara, the rabbinic generations, the chain of transmission in Pirkei Avot, the Babylonian Talmud, halakhah, the Shulkhan Arukh and responsa, and how Orthodox and Progressive Jews regard the oral and written law.	21
Covenant in the Torah	Recall questions on brit, the Abrahamic covenant, its ceremony, promises of land and chosenness and its sign, suzerainty and parity treaties, the Mosaic covenant at Sinai, its law and sign, what contemporary scholars say about both narratives, and whether chosenness is a privilege or a burden.	21
Maimonides and the Thirteen Principles	Recall questions on Maimonides' life and works, the origin of the Thirteen Principles, each group of principles on G-d, revelation and reward, prophecy and Moses, the messiah and resurrection, negative theology, the Principles in worship, and reason and revelation.	23
Debate over the Principles and Jewish belief	Recall questions on incorporeality and the eighth principle, the response of Maimonides' contemporaries, Hasdai Crescas and Joseph Albo on the number of principles, Orthodox and Reform views of their authority, the Principles in worship, and whether Judaism is defined by practice rather than belief.	11
Suffering and messianic hope	Recall questions on the book of Job, from the Adversary and Job's friends to the speech from the whirlwind and the ending, suffering as punishment, the suffering of the righteous, the meaning of messiah, the messianic age, messiah son of David and son of Joseph, and Maimonides on the messiah.	21
Kashrut and the dietary laws	Recall questions on the classification of the commandments, the scriptural origins of the dietary laws and the reasons for keeping them, meat and milk, parve, the kosher kitchen, shehitah and the shohet, trefah and nevelah, preparing meat, and why shehitah is controversial.	12
Business ethics and sexual ethics in halakhah	Recall questions on verbal and monetary deception, weights and measures, lending at interest and heter iska, the poor borrower, business law today, sex as a mitzvah and pleasure within marriage, niddah and the mikveh, prohibited relations, same-sex relationships, and whether halakhah is still relevant.	16
Conversion to Judaism	Recall questions on conversion in the Shulkhan Arukh, circumcision, the questions put to a convert, the mikveh, how men and women convert, descent and patrilineal descent, Orthodox and Progressive conversion, Judaism as non-missionising, and the community's role.	15
The Haskalah and Jewish emancipation	Recall questions on Moses Mendelssohn, revealed legislation, the Lavater affair and the Biur, the Maskilim and secular Jewish culture, emancipation and civil liberties, the rise of Reform and Progressive Judaism, the challenge of science, and whether the period brought pluralism or fragmentation.	16
Zionism	Recall questions on Herzl, his pamphlet on the Jewish state, the first Zionist Congress, his diplomacy and the Uganda proposal, Ahad Ha'am and cultural Zionism, the streams of modern Zionism, Orthodox and Progressive responses, non-Jewish support and opposition, and Zionism and anti-Semitism.	18
The land of Israel and the modern state	Recall questions on the land in Jewish thought, the Babylonian exile, shemittah, the Jubilee and stewardship, the kibbutz, the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, the Six Day and Yom Kippur Wars, Jewish responses to the state, and the promised land against the modern state.	19
Jewish feminism: Plaskow and Adler	Recall questions on the rise of Jewish feminism, Orthodox and Progressive responses, Plaskow on Jewish memory, Sinai and language about G-d, Adler's critique of traditional marriage, the agunah, the Brit Ahuvim, and tensions within Judaism and with secular feminism.	17
Responses to the Holocaust	Recall questions on Rubenstein and the death of G-d, Fackenheim and the 614th commandment, Maybaum's churban, Berkovits and Hester Panim, Job in post-Holocaust thought, Orthodox responses, whether any theological response can succeed, and anti-Semitism since the Holocaust.	17
The Holocaust and the problem of evil	Recall questions on the theological question the Holocaust puts to Judaism, the rejection of catastrophe as punishment, doubt about G-d, Maybaum's providential plan, Berkovits on hiddenness and free will, the challenge to classical theism, and Progressive responses.	9
Chagall: art as resistance	Recall questions on Chagall's life, the Nazi campaign against degenerate art, the Pale of Settlement and Hasidism, The Fiddler, The Praying Jew, tallit and tefillin, Solitude and White Crucifixion, the Jewish identity of Jesus, pogroms, and art as resistance.	14

Developments in Jewish Thought is 250 of the 1,584 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £8

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.