For people in the Middle Ages, the Earth was the center of the universe, religion occupied the central place, and society was organized in feudal monarchies. But when Columbus’s voyages demonstrated that the Earth and the planets revolved around the Sun, when reason replaced religious faith, and when feudal monarchies were replaced by nation-states, the paradigm of the Middle Ages ended and the paradigm of Modernity emerged.

Thomas S. Kuhn (1922-1996), a renowned philosopher of science, defined «paradigm» as the set of convictions, values, experiences, beliefs, ways of thinking, and customs shared by the members of a given society and which explain their behavior and their way of understanding life and the world. He says that the shift from one paradigm to another occurs through some «revolutionary» event, which can be an event, a new idea, or both.

Hans Kung, in his book «Judaism: Past, Present, Future,» uses Kuhn’s model and divides the history and development of Judaism into six paradigms. He explains that the shift from one paradigm to the next occurred through an important historical event and a change in the way of understanding and practicing Judaism as a way of life.

The first is the paradigm of the «tribes.» It begins with the patriarchs and the twelve tribes and is consolidated with Moses, with the Torah received at Sinai, and the conquest of the Land of Israel. During this period, leaders such as Samson’s emerge. The paradigm shifts when the threat of the Philistines forces the Hebrew people to cease being autonomous tribes and organize themselves into a monarchical system.

The second is that of monarchy, when the Hebrews unified and accepted the leadership of a king (Saul, David, and Solomon). This paradigm ended when, separating into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, Assyria disappeared from the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah was exiled to Babylon.

The third paradigm, that of theocracy, arose with the return of the exiles from Judah to the Land of Israel, led by Ezra and Nehemiah. This was when the priests, the descendants of Aaron, gave the Tanakh, the Bible, a central role in the identity of the Jewish people. It ended when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple.

The fourth paradigm is that of rabbinic Judaism, when the rabbis assumed leadership of the Jewish people in exile. The medieval ghetto with the synagogue became the center of Jewish life, and the Talmud became its code of conduct. The paradigm ends when the Jew leaves the medieval ghetto, thanks to the ideas of the Enlightenment and Emancipation carried by Napoleon’s army.

The fifth paradigm is that of assimilation into modernity. It emerged in Europe with thinkers such as Moses Mendelssohn and Herzl. It culminated in the Holocaust and the creation of the State of Israel.

The sixth is that of postmodernism, and today it has taken three different paths: that of the religious Jew, the secular Zionist Jew, and the traditional cultural Jew, which reflect the three axes that have always governed Judaism: God, the land of Israel, and the Jewish people. What is your paradigm?

By Marcos Gojman.

Bibliography: Hans Kung «Judaism, Past, Present, Future.