Some Habits of Thought Reflected in and Communicated by the Hebrew Bible That Played Important Roles in Various Forms of Historical Judaisms

Abstract

This essay explores four underlying habits of thought that were communicated across many of these books of the Hebrew Bible and the collection itself, or an earlier close forerunner of it, and which eventually played important roles in the later development of multiple historical manifestations of Judaism. Following an introduction, the essay focuses first on the habit of imagining and remembering a foundational past and its implications. Then, it explores the habit of remembering calamity and its relation to “chosen trauma,” didactic approaches and the related habit of thinking of Mosaic / Torah teacher. The third habit of mind that it investigates is that of thinking in terms of and about divine teachings / Torah and some of its multiple implications, including the related habit of thinking of Mosaic/ Torah teachers. The essay then discusses the habit of being hopeful. As a whole, the essay conveys some of the ways how readings or awareness of the Hebrew Bible have contributed to the shaping of key socially shared habits of thought and mind among diverse historical communities that existed across multiple times and geographical (and social) spaces.