Origins
Judaism is a religious tradition with origins dating back nearly four thousand years, rooted in the ancient near eastern region of Canaan(which is now Israel and Palestinian territories).Judaism traces its heritage to the covenant God made with Abraham and his lineage- that God would make a sacred people and give them a holy land. The primary figures of Israelite culture include the patriarchs Abraham, Issac, Jacob, and the prophet Moses, who received God's law at Mt.Sinai. Judaism is a tradition grounded in the religious, ethical, and social laws as they are articulated in the Torah. The four main movements within Judaism today are Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist, respectively ranging from traditional to liberal to religiously progressive their application of Torah.
Judaism is a religious tradition with origins dating back nearly four thousand years, rooted in the ancient near eastern region of Canaan(which is now Israel and Palestinian territories).Judaism traces its heritage to the covenant God made with Abraham and his lineage- that God would make a sacred people and give them a holy land. The primary figures of Israelite culture include the patriarchs Abraham, Issac, Jacob, and the prophet Moses, who received God's law at Mt.Sinai. Judaism is a tradition grounded in the religious, ethical, and social laws as they are articulated in the Torah. The four main movements within Judaism today are Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist, respectively ranging from traditional to liberal to religiously progressive their application of Torah.
The Ten Commandments
- Moses climbed to the top of Mount Sinai. When he returned to the Hebrews, he carried tablets bearing the Ten Commandments.
- These commandments were the moral laws that the Hebrew god, Yahweh had revealed to Moses.
- The first four commandments establish the Hebrews' relationship with Yahweh.
- The rest of the commandments emphasize self-restraint and underscore the importance of family and human life.
- Hebrews agreed to follow these commandments, they entered into a convenant, or solemn agreement, with Yahweh.
The founding of Israel
The kingdom split in two the northern and southern part
- The Hebrews who had come from Egypt joined those who had lived on the borders of northern Canaan.
- They remained loose confederation of tribes bound together in part by the need to maintain a strong central shrine for the Ark of the Convenant
- Judges task was top enforce God's laws and settle disputes among the tribes.
- The Hebrews first conquered the Canaanites.
- The Philistines , however proved far more difficult to overcome. Hebrews drove them closer to the seacoast, but they never succeeded in conquering the Philistines completely.
- The first king of this united kingdom called Israel was Saul.
- Saul succeeded by David, who formed a new dynasty.
- David conquered the village of Jerusalem, making it a capital and religious center
- Sought to build peaceful, cooperative relations with the other leading powers of the region
- Vastly increased Israel's wealth through favorable trade policies with Arabia
- The king used the riches gained from this trade to build a magnificent temple to God in Jerusalem.
- The temple became both the center of religious life in Israel and a symbol of the Israelite state.
The kingdom split in two the northern and southern part
- The northern part remained the kingdom of Israel, with its capital at Samaria.
- The southern part, located around the Dead Sea, became the kingdom of Judah. its capital Jerusalem.
- These two kingdoms lacked the strength to withstand invasions from the east.
Law and Ethics
- The first five books of the Old Testament are known as the Torah.
- They included the Hebrew code of laws
- It demanded an "eye for and eye".
- Mosaic law placed a higher value on human life. The law demanded kindness towards the poor and towards the slaves.
- The prophets were messengers sent to reveal the will of Yahweh.
- The prophets' messages often formed the basis for Jewish moral and ethical behavior.
Religion
- The early Hebrew worshiped Yahweh as their only god.
- They believed that Yahweh protected them from enemies and provided them with food and water.
- Those who sinned against Yahweh would suffer, and so would their children and succeeding generations.
- The Hebrews came to believe that people had a choice between good and evil.
- The Hebrews came to think Yahweh as a god who lived in the hearts of worshipers.
- Hebrews viewed Yahweh as a spiritual force, not as a glorified human being or part of nature.
- The Hebrew religion was monotheistic(based on belief in a single god).
- Emphasized ethics, or proper conduct( Ethical monotheism)
Beliefs
Human Nature and the Purpose of Existence
Afterlife and Salvation
Human Nature and the Purpose of Existence
- According to classical rabbinic Judaism, this notion of covenant first binds Jews to God because of the assumption that human beings represent the pinnacle of creation and are indebted to their creator.
- The rabbis attributed a dual nature to human beings and placed them between earthly and heavenly creatures in the hierarchy of being.
- They are unlike heavenly creatures whose bodies and souls are divine, and they are also unlike earthly creatures whose bodies and should come from earth.
- Human beings are the only creatures whose souls are from heaven and whose bodies are from earth.
- If Jews obey God's commandments , then they act as heavenly creatures, and if not they act like the creatures below them.
Afterlife and Salvation
- The first reference to resurrection is collective in Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones, when all Israelite in exile will be resurrected.
- High Priests, denied any particular existence of individuals after death because it wasn't written in the Torah.
- Rabbis affirmed both bodily resurrection and immortality of the soul, most likely based on the influence of Hellenistic ideas about body and soul and the Pharisaic belief in the Oral Torah.
Practices
The Mitzvot
The 613 Commandments
The Synagogue
Keeping Kosher: Jewish Dietary Laws
The Mitzvot
- The Hebrew word mitzvot means "commandments" (mitzvah is its singular form). The word is sometimes used more broadly to refer to rabbinc (Talmudic) law or general good deeds (" it would be a mitzvah to visit your mother"), in its strictest sense it refers to the divine commandments given by God in the Torah.
The 613 Commandments
- The Jewish philospher Rabbi Maimonides made a list of the 613 commandments he found in the Jewish Bible, and they have since become a standard list of what God requires of Jews.
- To know there is a God Ex.20:2
- Not to entertain thoughts of other gods besides Him Ex.20:3
- To know that He is one Deut.6:5
- To love Him Deut.10:20
- To fear Him Deut.10:20
The Synagogue
- The Jewish house of worship is a synagogue.
- The synagogue predates the destruction of the Second Temple, but it became central to religious life after the Temple was lost.
- The synagogue replaces ritual sacrifice with Torah readings, prayer and teaching.
Keeping Kosher: Jewish Dietary Laws
- One of the most well-known Jewish religious practices is that of eating Kosher foods.
- The laws of Kashrut( Jewish dietary laws) may be puzzling or meaningless to the outsider, but they have held great meaning for the Jewish people throughout their history
- Not only are they an opportunity for obedience to God, they are strongly contribute to Jewish unity and identity.
Holidays/Celebrations/Significant Days
- The most important Jewish holy days are the Sabbath, the three pilgrimage festivals(Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot) and the two High Holy days(Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur).
- The Jewish calendar is lunar, based on the cycles of the moon.
- The year number on a Jewish calendar is based on a traditional date creation
- Each Jewish month begins with the new moon, which is called the Rosh Khodesh( Head of the Month)
- The Rosh Khodesh was a major holiday in the First Temple period, celebrating with special and feasts
- However it was downgraded to a minor holiday after the Babylonian exile.
Works Cited http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/Jewish-Holidays-A-Primer?offset=1&max=1
http://www.religionfacts.com/judaism/index.htm
http://thebasicsofjudaism.weebly.com/important-figures.html
http://www.religionfacts.com/judaism/index.htm
http://thebasicsofjudaism.weebly.com/important-figures.html