Judaism: Matters of Life and Death

What Judaism: Matters of Life and Death covers

Judaism: Matters of Life and Death is examined in Paper 1, Area of Study 1: Religion and Ethics, if Judaism is the religion studied for that area. It covers Judaism, science and the origins of the universe, the value of life in the Tenakh, Jewish responses to evolution, Jewish attitudes to abortion, Jewish arguments for life after death, Jewish responses to arguments against life after death, Jewish attitudes to euthanasia and Judaism and the environment.

The 8 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Judaism, science and the origins of the universeGenesis 1 and the Big Bang, Orthodox readings of the six days, Nachmanides on the beginning of creation, Jonathan Sacks on science and religion, Genesis 2:15 on humanity's role, and the shmita year.Open →
• The value of life in the TenakhB'tselem Elohim in Genesis 1:27, Genesis 2:7 and life as a gift, the freedom and fragility shown in Genesis 3, infinite value, suicide, and the sanctity of life in medicine and violence.Open →
• Jewish responses to evolutionNatural selection and Genesis 1:26–31, Haredi rejection, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook's response, the claim that evolution disproves God, survival of the fittest and ranking human groups, and Reform views.Open →
• Jewish attitudes to abortionWhen a fetus becomes a full person, Mishnah Ohalot 7:6 on a dangerous birth, Exodus 21:22, Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5, when Orthodox Jews permit it, abortion for convenience, and the right to choose.Open →
• Jewish arguments for life after deathMaimonides' Thirteen Principles, arguments from God's justice, logic, comfort and reunion with loved ones, Kabbalistic remembered lives, the Torah on mediums and Saul at Endor, and Orthodox and Reform views.Open →
• Jewish responses to arguments against life after deathThe comfort argument, the evidence argument, fraudulent mediums and the social-control critique, a Jewish reply to each, and Isaiah 25:6–9 and its promise about death.Open →
• Jewish attitudes to euthanasiaActive and passive euthanasia and assisted suicide, the goses, removing what prolongs dying, Judges 9:51–57, Reform and Orthodox differences, pain relief for the dying, hospice care, and Humanist arguments.Open →
• Judaism and the environmentPsalm 24:1–3, stewardship and bal tashchit, the 1986 Jewish Declaration on Nature at Assisi, a midrash about Adam, global warming, tza'ar ba'alei chayim, eating animals, and animal experimentation.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Judaism: Matters of Life and Death further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Bal tashchit vs Tza'ar ba'alei chayim

  Bal tashchit: the law against needless destruction and waste. Tza'ar ba'alei chayim: the duty to prevent unnecessary suffering to animals.

• Gilgul vs Resurrection

  Gilgul: the rebirth of a soul in a new body. Resurrection: God raising the dead to life at the end of days.

• Goses vs Euthanasia

  Goses: a person in the final hours or days before death. Euthanasia: deliberately ending a life to relieve suffering.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What does Genesis 1 teach about how the universe began?

   Model answer

   Genesis 1 describes the Almighty creating the universe by his word over six days. Creation is ordered, and God sees that it is good.

2. 2

   How do many Jews respond to the scientific claim that the universe began with the Big Bang about 13.8 billion years ago?

   Model answer

   Many Jews accept the Big Bang as the way the Almighty brought the universe into being. A universe with a beginning fits the Jewish belief in a Creator.

3. 3

   How do some Orthodox Jews read the six days of creation in the light of science?

   Model answer

   Some Orthodox Jews read each “day” as a long period of time rather than twenty-four hours. Some see a rough similarity between Genesis 1's order and the scientific account.

4. 4

   Why do some strictly Orthodox Jews reject the scientific age of the universe?

   Model answer

   Some Haredi Jews read Genesis literally, so the world is under 6,000 years old by the Jewish calendar. God may have created a world that only appears ancient.

5. 5

   How did Nachmanides describe the beginning of creation?

   Model answer

   The medieval rabbi Nachmanides wrote that God first created a tiny, formless substance from nothing. All matter then developed from that substance, which some Jews compare to the Big Bang.

6. 6

   How did Rabbi Jonathan Sacks explain the relationship between science and religion?

   Model answer

   Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said science takes things apart to see how they work. Religion puts things together to see what they mean.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Judaism: Matters of Life and Death revision questions

What does Judaism: Matters of Life and Death cover in Edexcel GCSE Religious Studies B?

8 subtopics: judaism, science and the origins of the universe, the value of life in the tenakh, jewish responses to evolution, jewish attitudes to abortion, jewish arguments for life after death, jewish responses to arguments against life after death, jewish attitudes to euthanasia and judaism and the environment. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Judaism: Matters of Life and Death organised?

By the Edexcel 1RB0 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.