Introduction
Wisdom can be defined as the ability of utilizing experience and knowledge with common sense and insight. Judaism is a religion based on the relationship between God and man and to the Jewish wisdom means having insightful knowledge of the relationship between oneself and God. According to their traditions, the Jews believe that the religion started with a covenant between God and Abraham, who is considered as the father of Judaism. Judaism is governed by a number of principles which help the Jews to live a holy life that they are expected to live. In Judaism, God is seen as the overall and everything must start and end with God, he is omnipresent and transcendent. The lives of the Jews must begin with an obedience and understanding of God. This obedience is then transferred to the society. The relationship between God and human beings must be mutual, in the sense that human beings must reciprocate. These relationships are based on mutual connectedness, which is why in Judaism wisdom comes from having a mutual relationship between oneself and God. (Simcha, 1997).
Main body
The Jewish lives are based on making God happy, that is by surrendering everything to God, as this is seen as trying to make God happy thereby bringing joy to God. For example, it is considered as worthless if someone’s love depended on others but rather it should depend on God. In Judaism if someone’s love is given by God then everything else is good even the relationships with others, therefore, the Jewish aim at having smooth relationships between oneself and God.
Understanding the relation between oneself and God is seen as the beginning of wisdom. There are Jewish who even believe that reconciliation, peacemaking and healing can be achieved by prayers. This is as a result of a deep understanding of the laws and ways of God. This relationship enables one to know that prayers can be said in the midst of a quarrel and it can resolve conflicts. This enables the Jewish to know how to relate to one another. (Elkins, 2007).
In Judaism one should not do anything without God. This is from their beliefs and traditions that God is their guider and protector. This knowledge is derived from their traditions that God guided and protected their ancestors from harm and guided their steps in the way that he wanted. But one should lead a righteous life in line with God’s commands and a good relationship with him in order for one to prosper in life. This is in terms of his/her relationships with oneself, others and the society at large. (Elkins, 2007).
Confucius was a Chinese social philosopher and thinker whose philosophy has greatly influenced Japanese, Korean and Chinese life and thought, throughout history. His philosophy emphasized on the relationships between oneself and others. He advocated for sincerity, justice, personal and governmental morality and correct social relationships.
In terms of sincerity, he advocated for the honesty among the leaders and the social classes that existed in the society. He noticed that leaders will defend their fellow leaders regardless of the truth. (Simcha, 1997)He therefore advocates for co-existence among all the people.
In terms of justice, he advocated for justice to be justly imposed in order to have peaceful co-existence. The society should also have a proper allocation of things between different people, be it wealth, reward, power or respect. If things are properly distributed then conflicts in the society will not be there. This is why Confucius advocated for proper relationship between oneself and others as the basis for peaceful co-existence.
As noted by Simcha (1997) Confucius advocated for correct social relationships, that is, the relationships that are formed between oneself and fellow human beings. The social relationships can include the relationship between an individual who belong to a certain group, relations between groups of people and relations between a group and an individual. These social relations form the basis for social groups, systems, movements, structure and organization. Social relations are dictated by the social norms that are found in the society. Each person in the society has a social position and if people respect these social positions then peaceful co-existence will be achieved. Wisdom dictates that social positions should be respected in order to have peaceful co-existence in the community. Social harmony is one of the greatest goals in Confucianism, this is because it is only when an individual knows his /her position in the society and practices his/her part well that social harmony is achieved. In relation to social relations, certain virtues are to be used in order to live in harmony. Some of these virtues include: Filial piety to mean “of a child” to show to the parents. Each participant has a role to play in the society and relationships are sacred for instance if a child committed a crime against a parent he/she was severely punished as compared to other criminals. Loyalty is another virtue that he advocated, and it was also seen as an extension of someone’s love towards family, friends or spouse. Confucius also advocated for humaneness, that is, what one did not wish for himself/herself, he/she should not wish that for others. This was especially so in relation to the rulers and the ruled. A ruler who is inhumane risks not going to heaven, therefore he advocated for leaders to be humane to their subjects.
The term junzi translated in English to mean a “nobleman” is important in Confucianism. Every person should aim at being the perfect man; people are supposed to be morally upright, show loyalty and piety where necessary and humanity. If one has the knowledge about how society works, then one will be in a position to have a clear understanding of what to avoid and how to relate well with others. According to Confucianism, if people adopt the gentleman nature and treat each other with the respect that one deserves, then the social relationships in the society will be fine. People should aim at improving the relationship between self and others.
Conclusion
Both Judaism and Confucianism are important concepts in any society. This is because they aim at improving ones relationship with the other people in the society whether the authority is from God or just the expectations of the society. If they are employed in everyday life they would help to improve mans relationship in the society. (Joseph, 1994) This will be out of obedience for God (Judaism) and just the need to treat other human beings as we would like to be treated (Confucianism).
Work Cited
Joseph, Telushkin. Jewish Wisdom, New York: William Morrow, 1994.
Rabbi, Dov Peretz Elkins. The Wisdom of Judaism, Woodstock, VT: Jewish lights publishing, 2007.
Simcha, Raz. Hasidic Wisdom: Sayings From The Jewish Sages, Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson Publishers, 1997.
Yutang, Lin. The Wisdom of Confucius. New York: Modern Library, 1994.