Judaism is an ancient monotheistic religion, with
the Torah as its foundational text (part of the larger text known as the Tanakh
or Hebrew Bible), and supplemental oral tradition represented by later texts
such as the Midrash and the Talmud...
Judaism is one of the oldest monotheistic
religions and was founded over 3500 years ago in the Middle East. Jews believe
that God appointed the Jews to be his chosen people in order to set an example
of holiness and ethical behaviour to the world. expand all…
Judaism is
one of the oldest religions in the world that still exists today. Jewish
history, beliefs, and traditions were recorded in the Hebrew Bible beginning as
early as the 8th century BCE.
Although
it never achieved dominant numbers, the faith of the Hebrews—just one of many
ancient Middle Eastern tribes—continues to exert a profound influence in the
modern western world.
Jewish
beliefs center on the conviction that there is only one God. This was a
minority view in its time, but monotheism is now dominant in the western
world—thanks to the influence of Judaism on the powerful religions of
Christianity and Islam.
Today,
approximately 14 million people identify themselves as Jews. There are three
main branches of Judaism, each with different approaches to religious life:
Orthodox; Conservative; and Reform. Jewish life is rich in traditions, rituals
and holidays, which commemorate the past, celebrate the present, and express
hope for the future…
Jewish history (or the history of the Jewish people) is the history of the Jews, and their religion and culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions and cultures…
Jewish history (or the history of the Jewish people) is the history of the Jews, and their religion and culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions and cultures…
In the news…
Algemeiner - 13 hours ago
Indeed, the future of Judaism is in the state of Israel. Just
look at the data. In 1948, 5.2 million ...
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The land of
the early Jews - Abraham, the ancestor of the Jews, settled
in Canaan (later called Palestine) between about 1800 and 1500 B.C. At first,
the Jews were divided into tribes. About 1000 B.C, they united to form the Kingdom
of Israel, later called Judah or Judea. These maps show the changing boundaries
of the area where the Jews lived during Biblical times.
The Kingdom of Israel was formed about 1000 B.C and reached the height of its sower during the
900s B.C
The divided kingdom resuited from a split in the 900’s B.C between Israel in the north and
Judah in the south.
An independent nation also called Judah existed in Palestine about 100 B.C It was ruled by the
Hasmoneans.
David ruled the kingdom of Israel about 1000 to 960 B.C. Under
his rule, the kingdom grew in size and power. This wall painting shows the
prophet Samuel anointing David king.
Hasidism, a movement that follows ancient Jewish customs, began in Eastern Europe
in the 1700's and spread to other areas. At a Hasidic wedding, men and women
dance separately.
The Zionist movement grew out of the Jews' longing for a national homeland.
Theodore Herzl, a founder of Zionism, spoke to the Second Zionist Congress in
Basel, Switzerland, in 1898.
The Holocaust was a vicious campaign against the Jews by the Nazis, Jews
were forced to wear the Star of David, an ancient Jewish symbol, on badges or
armbands, above.
Israel's declaration of independence
in 1948 led to the first Arab-Israeli
war. Hours after Israeli leader David Ben-Gurion read the declaration, above,
Arab forces invaded Israel.
Jews
Jews are the descendants of an ancient people called the Hebrews. During
Biblical times, the Hebrews—who came to be called Israelites—lived in what is
now Israel. But their country fell to a series of conquerors, and the Jews
scattered throughout the world. By the A.D. 700's, they had established
communities as far west as Spain and as far east as China.
The Jews have had great influence on
history. They produced the Hebrew Bible, which, with its belief in one God and
its moral teachings, became a cornerstone of two world religions, Christianity
and Islam. But Jewish history has been full of tragedy. The Jews were a minority
group almost everywhere they settled, and they often suffered persecution.
During World War II (1939-1945), about 6 million Jews died in the Nazi campaign
of mass murder known as the Holocaust.
Jews have always considered Israel their
spiritual home. Beginning in the late 1800's, many Jews from eastern Europe
emigrated to Israel, then called Palestine. Many more Jews went to Palestine
following the Holocaust. The state of Israel was founded in 1948.
Because of the long and varied history of
the Jews, it is difficult to define a Jew. There is no such thing as a Jewish
race. Jewish identity is a mixture of religious, historical, and ethnic
factors. According to Jewish law, anyone born to a Jewish mother or converted
to Judaism is considered a Jew. The branch of Judaism that is known as Reform Judaism also accepts as Jews children born to a non-Jewish mother and a Jewish
father.
There are two broad groups of Jews. Most Ash-kenazim are descendants of members of Jewish communities of central and
Eastern Europe. The Sephardim are descendants of Jews from Spain, Portugal,
or other Mediterranean countries and the Middle East. Other groups of Jews
include those descended from Jewish communities of Ethiopia and India.
There are about 13 million Jews in the
world. The largest Jewish population—about 6 million—lives in the United
States. About 3 3/4 million Jews live in Israel. Other countries with large
numbers of Jews include Argentina, Canada, France, Russia, and the United
Kingdom (UK).
This article traces the history of the
Jewish people throughout the world. For additional information about the
history of Jews in Israel, see articles
on Israel and Palestine. For more information about the Jewish
religion, see Judaism.
Early history of the Jewish people
Beginnings. The Jews trace their ancestry to a shepherd named Abraham, who lived
sometime between 1800 and 1500 B.C in southern Mesopotamia (now southeastern
Iraq). According to the Bible, God told Abraham to leave Mesopotamia and settle
in Canaan, the area that later became Israel. There, Abraham founded the people
known as the Hebrews. Abraham, his son Isaac, and his grandson Jacob—also named
Israel—are the patriarchs (fathers) of the Jewish people. The tom matriarchs (mothers) are Sarah (Abraham's wife), Rebecca (Isaac's wife), and Leah
and Rachel (Jacob's wives).
Jacob had a daughter, Dinah, and 12 sons.
In order of their birth, they were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali,
Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. During the early centuries
of their history, the Hebrews were organized into groups that traced their
descent to Jacob's sons. They called themselves the Twelve Tribes of Israel, or Israelites. The Bible describes how Jacob's son Joseph was sold into
slavery in Egypt. Joseph's wisdom and honesty enabled him to become prime
minister to the Egyptian pharaoh. Joseph invited the Israelites to Egypt after
a famine struck Canaan. The Israelites lived peacefully in Egypt for many years
until a new pharaoh enslaved them.
The Exodus. The Bible tells how a leader named Moses led the Israelites out of
Egypt. According to the Bible, God helped the Israelites escape from slavery.
The Jewish festival of Passover celebrates
their deliverance, called the Exodus. Most scholars believe that the Exodus
took place in the 1200's B.C
According to tradition, God dictated His
laws to Moses in a collection of teachings called the Torah after the
Israelites left Egypt. Most scholars believe the Torah was written down much
later. The Bible says that after receiving the Torah, the Israelites wandered
in the wilderness for 40 years. Moses died before his people entered Canaan,
but his successor, Joshua, led them into their old homeland. For about 200
years, the Israelites struggled to reestablish themselves in Canaan. They
fought the Canaanites, the Philistines, and other peoples. This time is known
as the period of the Judges. The judges served as judicial and military leaders
who united the Israelites in times of crisis. Deborah, Gideon, Samson, and
Samuel were some famous Judges.
The kingdom of Israel. About 1029 B.C, the threat of warfare with the Philistines led the
Israelites to choose a king, Saul, as their leader. Saul's successor, David,
unified the people and founded the kingdom of Israel. Under David and his
successor Solomon, the kingdom grew in size and power. David captured the city
of Jerusalem from a people called the Jebusites and made it his capital.
Solomon built a magnificent place of worship in Jerusalem. The Temple, known
today as the First Temple, served as the centre of religious life.
The divided kingdom. After Solomon died in about 928 B.C, the 10 northern tribes split away
from the tribes of Benjamin and Judah in the south. The northern kingdom
continued to be called Israel and had its capital in Samaria. The southern
tribes kept Jerusalem as their capital and called their kingdom Judah. The word
Jew comes from Judah. The kings of Judah came from
the house of David. In the kingdom of Israel, there were struggles for power
between various families.
During this period, religious teachers
called prophets developed many of the principles of Judaism. The Bible contains the
teachings of the major prophets, Isaiah, jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and 12 minor
prophets.
Foreign domination. In 722 or 721 B.C, the empire of Assyria conquered the northern kingdom.
The people of Israel were exiled and scattered. They disappeared as a nation
and became known as the ten lost tribes.
In 587 or 586 B.C, the Babylonians
conquered Judah, destroyed the Temple, and took many Jews to Babylonia as
prisoners. This period is called the Babylonian Exile. Unlike the ten lost tribes, the people of Judah did not lose their
identity. Inspired by the prophet Ezekiel, they continued to practise their
religion. The first synagogues (Jewish
houses of worship) were probably developed by the Jews in Babylonia.
In 539 B.C, King Cyrus of Persia conquered
Babylonia. The next year, Cyrus allowed the Jewish exiles to return to Judah.
Many Jews returned and rebuilt the Temple, which became known as the Second
Temple. However, some Jews remained in Babylonia. This was the first time since
the Exodus that Jews had chosen to live outside Israel. Later, the communities
of Jews scattered outside Israel became known as the Diaspora.
The Hellenistic period. Alexander the Great of Macedonia conquered the Persians in 331 B.C.,
and Judah came under his control. Alexander and his successors, the Ptolemies
in Egypt and the Seleucids in Syria, brought Hellenistic (Greek) culture to the Jews. The Jews were allowed to follow their own
religion. But in 168 or 167 B.C, King Antiochus IV of Syria tried to stop the
practice of Judaism. The Jews, led by the warrior Judah Maccabee, revolted and
overthrew the Syrians. The holiday of Hanukkah celebrates their victory. Judah
Maccabee's family, the Hasmoneans, established an independent state that
lasted about 80 years.
Under Hasmonean rule, different religious
groups developed within Judaism. The groups disagreed over such matters as the
oral law— the traditional interpretation of the Torah. The Pharisees believed
God had revealed the oral law along with the Torah. Pharisees taught in
synagogues and were supported by the common people. The Sadducees accepted
only the Torah and found support among the rich and the temple priests. A third
group, the Essenes, stressed personal holiness, through strict rules that
included the sharing of property in communities apart from society.
Roman rule. In 63 B.C, the Romans conquered Judah, which they called Judea. Roman
rule was generally harsh. The most famous ruler of Judea during this time,
Herod the Great, is known for both his ruthlessness and his building
activities.
Jesus was a Jew who was born in Judea. The
Romans executed Jesus because they thought he was a threat to their rule, Jesus'
followers, who came to be called Christians, believed that God sent Jesus to
the world as the Messiah (Saviour). Most Jews kept their traditional beliefs and did not accept
Jesus as the Messiah.
The Jews revolted in A.D. 66 and drove out
the Romans for a time. But in 70, the Roman general Titus conquered
Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple, and took
many Jewish captives to Rome. The Western, or Wailing, Wall in Jerusalem is all that remains of the Temple.
Some Jews, called Zealots, refused to
surrender even after Jerusalem fell. Many Zealots retreated to a mountain
fortress called Masada, where 960 men, women, and children held out for three
years. As the Romans were about to conquer the fortress, the defenders committed
suicide rather than surrender.
The Jews, led by a warrior named bar
Kokhba and the scholar Rabbi Akiva, rebelled again in 132 and seized Jerusalem.
Three years later, the Romans crushed this final rebellion.
The Talmudic period and the Middle Ages
The Talmudic period. After the
defeat of bar Kokhba and Rabbi Akiva, the Romans prohibited Jews from living in
Jerusalem. New centres of Jewish learning arose in Galilee, an area in northern
Palestine; and in Babylonia. The Sanhedrin, the Jews' religious lawmaking body,
met in Galilee. In about 200, the head of
the Sanhedrin, Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi, wrote down the oral law in a book
called the Mishnah. From about 200 to 500, other scholars collected interpretations
of the Mishnah into a work called the Gemara. The Mishnah and the Gemara
together form the Talmud. Two versions of the Talmud were created, one in
Galilee (the Palestinian or Jerusalem Talmud) and the other in
Babylonia (the Babylonian Talmud). See Talmud.
For many centuries, Jews throughout the
world turned to the Babylonian Jewish community for religious and scholarly
leadership. Jews sent questions of law and interpretation to scholars at
Babylonian academies called yeshivot. The greatest such scholar,
Saadia Gaon, lived in the late 800s and early 90ffs.
The Jews under Islam. In the mid-600's, Arabian Muslims founded an empire that soon included
southwestern Asia, northern Africa, and Spain. The Muslims permitted Jews and
Christians to practise their own religions. But both jews and Christians had
to pay a special tax and were not equal to Muslims under the law.
Large Jewish communities existed in such
Muslim lands as Babylonia, Egypt, Morocco, and Yemen. But the greatest centre
of Jewish culture arose in Muslim Spain. The period from the 900's to the
110ffs in Spain is
Detail (about A.D. 239) from the west wall
of the Second Synagogue, Dura Europas, Syria; National Museum of Damascus
David ruled the kingdom of Israel about 1000 to 960 B.C Under his rule, the
kingdom grew in size and power. This wall painting shows the prophet Samuel
anointing David king.
known as the Golden Age of Jewish history.
Jews worked in crafts, in medicine and science, and in business and commerce.
Some rose to high positions in government. Outstanding writers of the time
included the doctor and philosopher Moses Maimonides, the poet and philosopher
Solomon ibn Gabirol, and the poet Judah Halevi.
Jews in Christian Europe. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Christian Church became the most
powerful force in Europe. In the early Middle Ages, the Jews lived fairly
peacefully with their Christian neighbours. Many Jews became merchants. Others
practised trades or owned land. Many Christians respected the Jews for their
contributions to society. But some Christians blamed the Jews for the death of
Jesus and mistrusted them because they would not accept Christianity. Such
hatred of Jews later became known as anti-Semitism.
The situation of the Jews became worse
beginning in 1096, when a series of military expeditions called the Crusades began.
These campaigns to free the Holy Land from the Muslims stirred a wave of
intense feeling against non-Christians. The Crusaders killed many Jews and
sometimes massacred entire Jewish communities. The Crusades marked the
beginning of a long period of Jewish martyrdom (death
for a belief).
The Jews were seen by Christians more and
more as outsiders. Some Christians accused Jews of bringing on the troubles of
society. In the mid-130ffs a terrible plague, the Black Death, swept Europe,
killing about a quarter of the population. Many Christians unfairly blamed the
Jews for the Black Death, and mobs killed thousands of Jews. Christians
commonly accused Jews of murdering Christian children as part of their
religious rituals. This accusation, which became known as the blood libel, was used as an excuse to attack Jews.
Political and religious leaders required
Jews in certain areas to wear badges or special clothes that identified them
as Jews. In many cities, Jews were forced to live in separate communities that
became known as ghettos. Jews also lost the right to own land and to practise certain trades.
To earn a living, many Jews became pedlars or moneylenders.
Beginning in the late 1200's, the Jews
were expelled from England, France, and parts of central Europe. Many settled
in eastern Europe, especially Poland.
To avoid persecution, some Jews in Spain
and Portugal, which had become Christian countries, pretended to convert to
Christianity but continued to practise Judaism secretly. These Jews were known
as Marranos. Ferdinand and Isabella, the king and queen of Spain, established a
special court called the Inquisition to punish
people suspected of not following Christian teachings. The Inquisition used
torture to force confessions from its victims, many of whom were Marranos. In
1492, Jews who had not converted to Christianity were expelled from Spain. Soon
after, Jews were forced to leave Portugal. Many Jews fled to what are now Italy
and Turkey. Some went to Palestine, where they studied the Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition (see Kabbalah).
In the 1500s, a movement called the Reformation led to the development of Protestantism in Europe. It seemed that the
situation of the Jews might improve. But when the Jews failed to convert to the
new branch of Christianity, persecution continued.
Eastern European religious movements. Jewish life in Poland flourished in the 1500s. But in 1648 and 1649, the
massacre of thousands of Jews in Ukraine- then a part of Poland—began a time of
crisis for Polish jews. Many hoped for someone to save them.
In 1665, a Jew named Shabbetai Zevi
claimed to be the Messiah. Flundreds of thousands of Jews in Europe and the
Middle East believed in Shabbetai. But Shabbetai converted to Islam,
disappointing his followers.
Throughout Jewish history, learning and
study had formed the foundation of Jewish life and culture. In the mid-1700's,
a movement called Hasidism developed among Jews of
eastern Europe. Hasidism, founded by a Polish teacher known as Baal Shem Tov,
stressed joyful worship over the study of the Talmud. Most followers of
Hasidism, called Hasidim, were ordinary people. Opponents of Hasidism, called Mitnaggedim, considered Hasidism's noisy praying and dancing undignified. They also
looked down on the Hasidim as uneducated. Today, some Jews in Europe, Israel,
and the United States still practise Hasidism. See Hasidism.
The modern world
Emergence into freedom. At about the time that Hasidism developed in eastern Europe, a movement
called the Haskalah (Enlightenment) arose in western Europe. The Haskalah, founded by
German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, called on Jews to modernize their
religious thinking. The movement stressed the importance of nonreligious, as
well as Jewish, education. See Haskalah.
As the Haskalah modernized Jewish
religious thinking, other forces were working to free the Jews from
discrimination. In France, the ideas of liberty and equality that took hold
during the French Revolution (1789- 1799) led many Christians to demand equal
rights for all. French Jews were emancipated (given
equal rights) in 1791. The French general and emperor Napoleon Bonaparte
brought the idea of emancipation to countries outside France. By the end of
the 1800s, most western and central European Jews had been emancipated.
During the early and mid-ISOO's, two new
branches of Judaism developed. They were called Reform and Conservative. See Judaism (The branches of Judaism
The growth of anti-Semitism. During the late 1800s, anti-Semitism became a powerful force in European
politics, especially in Germany, Austria-Hungary and France. Many anti-Semitic
writers tried to prove that Jews were inferior to Germans and other peoples of
northern Europe, whom the writers called Aryans.
Jews also suffered from anti-Semitism in
eastern Europe. Unlike the Jews of western Europe, those of the east had never
been emancipated. In Russia, Jews were crowded in an area along the western
border called the Pale of Settlement. Beginning
in 1881, many Jews were killed in a series of massacres called pogroms. The pogroms
caused hundreds of thousands of Jews to flee to the United States. Some fled to
Palestine.
The Zionist movement. Many Jews saw an independent Jewish state in Palestine as the best
escape from anti-Semitism. They established a movement called Zionism to
establish such a state. In the late 1800s, Palestine was a poor, thinly
populated region ruled by the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Most of its people were
Muslim Arabs, though a small number of Jews also lived there. The Zionists
bought land in Palestine and established farming communities. The first
all-Jewish city, Tel Aviv, was founded in 1909.
In 1894, the trial of Alfred Dreyfus, a
French army officer and Jew who had been falsely accused of treason, helped
convince Theodor Herzl, an Austrian Jewish journalist, that Jews could never be
secure until they had a nation of their own. In 1897, at the First Zionist Congress,
Herzl organized the Zionist movement on a worldwide scale. See Zionism.
During World War I (1914-1918), many Jews
in Palestine fought with the British against the Ottomans. In 1917, the United
Kingdom issued the Balfour Declaration, supporting the idea of a Jewish
national home in Palestine. In addition, the United Kingdom promised Arab
leaders support for an Arab state. The Arabs believed this state would include
Palestine.
In 1918, the British captured Palestine
from the Ottomans. The League of Nations—a forerunner of the United Nations—gave
the UK temporary control of Palestine in 1920. In the 1920s and 1930s, Jewish
immigration to Palestine increased, despite Arab opposition. See Palestine (World War I and the
Balfour Declaration).
Beginnings of Nazi persecution. Germany's defeat in World War I and a worldwide depression in the 1930s
left the German economy in ruins and made many Germans angry and resentful.
Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, came to power in 1933. He blamed the
Jews for Germany's troubles and began a vicious campaign against them. In 1935,
the Nazis deprived German Jews of citizenship. They seized Jewish businesses
and destroyed synagogues. Many Jews fled Germany. Others were trapped because
no country would admit them. Most nations had restrictive immigration policies,
and the depression led workers to fear that Jewish refugees would take their
jobs. Beginning in 1937, the United Kingdom bowed to Arab pressure and limited
immigration to Palestine.
The Holocaust. World War II began
in 1939. The Nazis soon conquered large parts of Europe, bringing most European
Jews under their domination. The Nazis then began their campaign to exterminate
all Jews. Firing squads shot more than 1 million Jews. About 4 million more
were killed in concentration camps (see Concentration camp). Many others died
from disease and starvation. By 1945, about 6 million Jews had been
murdered—two of every three European Jews.
Several Jewish revolts against the Nazis
took place in ghettos, slave labour camps, and death camps. The most famous
revolt occurred in 1943, in the Warsaw ghetto. Although the Jews were
surrounded and poorly armed, some held out for about four weeks. Many Jews who
managed to escape the ghettos joined bands of fighters called partisans who
performed acts of sabotage.
In most occupied countries, the local
people were indifferent to the Holocaust. Some helped the Nazis. But some
non-Jewish individuals risked their lives to save Jews. Swedish diplomat Raoul
Wallenberg saved about 100,000 Hungarian Jews. The Danish underground saved 7,000 Jews, most of the Jews of Denmark.
The rebirth of Israel. The Holocaust left the Jewish people wounded in spirit and greatly
reduced in numbers. But out of the tragedy came a new determination to
establish a Jewish state in Palestine. The Arabs there continued to oppose this
plan, and violence often broke out between Arabs and Jews. In 1947, the United
Nations recommended that Palestine be divided into Arab and Jewish states. The
Jewish state, which called itself Israel, declared its independence on May
14,1948. The next day, neighbouring Arab countries invaded Israel. Israel
defeated the invaders, and hundreds of thousands of Jews flocked to the Jewish
state.
The Arabs continued to oppose Israel, and
full-scale wars broke out in 1956, 1967, and 1973. However, despite its
constant struggle with its neighbours, Israel kept a democratic form of
government and became one of the most prosperous countries in the Middle East.
The Jews today. Today, Jewish life continues to thrive, both in Israel and in the Diaspora.
But the Jews of each face many challenges.
The fews of Israel still face the threat of conflict with neighbouring Arab states. In
addition, they must confront the social, military, and moral issues stemming
from conflict with Palestinian Arabs living in lands occupied by Israel. See
Israel (Recent developments).
In the Diaspora. For many years, the main centres of Jewish life in the Diaspora were
the United States and the Soviet Union. In the United States, a growing number
of Jews do not practise Judaism, and many know little about Jewish traditions
or history. Some Jews fear that this process, called assimilation, will cause Jews to lose their identity. But many other American Jews
are experiencing a renewed interest in their heritage.
In the Soviet Union, Jews suffered
widespread discrimination. The government discouraged religious practice, and
it restricted emigration to other countries. In the 1970's and 1980s, Soviet
Jews attracted worldwide attention with demonstrations demanding the right to
emigrate and to observe Jewish customs. In 1987, the government began to permit
an increasing number of Jews to emigrate to Israel. After the Soviet Union was
dissolved in 1991, Jews continued to move to Israel from the former Soviet
republics. See Israel, Judaism, and Palestine.
See also:
History
Babi Yar
B’nai B'rith
Clothing (Ancient times)
Concentration camp
Essenes
Genocide
Ghetto (Early ghettos)
Hasidism
Haskalah
Holocaust
Jerusalem
Judea
Masada
Pharisees
Sanhedrin
Segregation
United Nations (The Arab-Israeli wars)
Wallenberg, Raoul
Warsaw (History)
World Jewish Congress Zionism
Other related articles
Anti-Semitism
Calendar (The Hebrew calendar)
Dead Sea Scrolls
Ethnic group
Gaucher's disease
Hebrew language and literature
Minority group
Semites
Star of David
Tay-Sachs disease
Yiddish language and literature
Jewish religious life includes worship, special ceremonies, and joyous festivals. Jews gather
in their synagogue to worship on the Sabbath. A ceremony called a bar
mitzvah marks a Jewish boy's acceptance into the adult Jewish community. A Jewish family celebrates the harvest
festival of Sukkot by eating in a sukkah,
a hut built specially for the festival.
The Star of David is the symbol of Judaism and of Israel. It consists of two triangles
that interlace and form a six-pointed star. In Hebrew, the symbol is called the
Magen David, which means the Shield of David. The star appears on
the flag of Israel.
Judaism is the religion of the world's approximately 13 million Jews. It is the
oldest major religion and the first religion to teach the belief in one God.
Unlike the other major religions, Judaism
is the religion of only one people—the Jews. Both Christianity and Islam
developed from Judaism. These religions accept the Jewish belief in one God and
the moral teachings of the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew Bible is what Christians
call the Old Testament. The basic laws and teachings of Judaism come from the Torah, the first
five books of the Hebrew Bible.
This article discusses the principal
teachings and sacred writings of Judaism. It also tells about the chief
branches of Judaism and the structure of organized Judaism. Finally, it
describes Jewish worship, holidays, and customs. See history of Jewish.
The teachings of Judaism
The most important teaching of Judaism is
that there is one God, who wants people to do what is just and merciful. Judaism
teaches that a person serves God by studying the scriptures and practising what
they teach. These teachings include both ritual practices and ethical laws.
Judaism teaches that all people are created in the image of God and deserve to
be treated with dignity and respect. Thus, moral and ethical teachings are as
important in Judaism as teachings about God.
The covenant with God is a special agreement that Jews believe God made with Abraham, the
ancestor of the Jewish people. According to the Bible, God promised to bless
Abraham and his descendants if they worshipped and remained faithful to God.
God renewed this covenant with Abraham's son Isaac and Isaac's son Jacob. Jacob
was also called Israel, and so his descendants became known as the children of
Israel or the Israelites. God later gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments
and other laws through their leader, Moses: These laws explained how the
Israelites should live their lives and build their community.
The Jews are sometimes called the Chosen People, meaning that they have special duties and responsibilities commanded by
God. For example, the Jews must establish a just society and serve only God.
Thus, the covenant assures the Jews of God's love and protection, but it also
makes them accountable for their sins and shortcomings.
Unlike Christianity and many other
religions throughout the world, Judaism does not actively try to convince
others to adopt its beliefs and practices. However, under certain
circumstances, it does accept people who choose to convert to Judaism.
The Messiah. Traditionally, Jews believed that God would send a Messiah to save them.
The word Messiah comes from the Hebrew word mashiah, which means the anointed one. The Book of Isaiah describes the Messiah as a just ruler who will unite
the Jewish people and lead them in Cod's way. The Messiah will correct wrongs
and defeat the enemies of the people.
Many Jews still expect a Messiah to come.
But others speak instead of a Messianic age. They
believe a period of justice and peace will come through the cooperation of all
people and the help of God.
The sacred writings of Judaism
Judaism has two major collections of
sacred writings, the Bible and the Talmud. These works provide the basis for
Judaism's beliefs and practices.
The Bible. The first five books of the Hebrew Bible make up the Torah, the most
important of all Jewish scriptures. The Torah contains the basic laws of
Judaism and describes the history of the Jews until the death of Moses in the
1200's B.C. According to Jewish tradition, Moses received and wrote down the
word of God in the Torah, which is also called the Five Books of Moses. Today, however, many scholars believe that different parts of the Torah
were passed down in several collections, which were later edited into the five
books we have today. In addition to the Torah, the Hebrew Bible contains books
of history and moral teachings called the Prophets and 11
other books called the Writings. See Bible (The Old Testament).
The Talmud is a collection of legal, ritual, and ethical writings, as well as
Jewish history and folklore. It serves primarily as a guide to the civil and
religious laws of Judaism. Orthodox Jews believe the laws in the Talmud were
an "oral Torah," which God gave Moses as an explanation of the
written Torah. About A.D. 200, scholars wrote down these oral laws in a work
called the Mishnah. Later scholars interpreted the Mishnah. Their comments were recorded
in the Gemara, which was written between 200 and 500. The Mishnah and Gemara together
make up the Talmud. See Talmud.
The branches of Judaism
Judaism has three main branches: (1)
Orthodox Judaism, (2) Reform Judaism, and (3) Conservative Judaism. Each
branch represents a wide range of beliefs and
practices.
Orthodox Judaism continues traditional Jewish beliefs and ways of life. Orthodox Jews
believe that God revealed the laws of the Torah and the Talmud directly to
Moses on Mount Sinai. They strictly observe all traditional Jewish laws,
including the dietary rules and the laws for keeping the Sabbath. Orthodox Jews
pray three times daily in the morning, in late afternoon, and after sunset. The
men wear hats or skullcaps (yarmulkas or kipot) at all
times as a sign of respect to God.
A kind of Orthodox Judaism known as Modem Orthodoxy attempts to combine the traditional way of life with participation
in the general culture. Hasidic Orthodox Jews, in contrast, wear traditional
Eastern Europe Jewish clothing and stress the joy of worshipping God and performing
His commandments.
Reform Judaism began during the early 1800s. At that time, some Jews started to
question the traditional teachings of how the sacred writings of Judaism came
into being. For example, they considered the oral law a human creation rather
than the revelation of God, and so its authority was weakened for them. These
people, who founded Reform Judaism, claimed that Judaism is defined principally
by the Bible.
Today, Reform Jews believe that moral and
ethical teachings form the most important part of Judaism.
Many feel that Judaism s ritual practices
have no significance for them. They have discarded many traditional customs
and ceremonies. However, Reform Jews are increasingly returning to traditional
practices.
Conservative Judaism developed during the mid- 1800s. Conservative Jews consider the Talmud
as much an authority as the Bible. However, they believe that Jewish practice
may be changed to fit the times. They believe that in this way, Judaism can
remain relevant for each generation. The Conservative movement requires
observance of most traditional Jewish laws and customs. The Reconstructionist
movement, a smaller group that developed from the Conservative movement,
stresses the cultural and community aspects of Judaism.
The structure of Judaism
Judaism has no one person as its head and
no international body with authority over religious practices. Each local
congregation chooses its own rabbi and manages its own affairs.
The synagogue is the Jewish house of worship and the centre of Jewish education and
community activities. A synagogue has a sanctuary where religious services are
held. It may also include a school where children study Judaism, the Hebrew
language, and Jewish history. Most synagogues have a social hall as well.
Reform and Conservative synagogues are often called temples.
Most synagogues are constructed so that
the worshippers face toward the holy city of Jerusalem during the service. At
the front of the sanctuary stands the ark, a chest
in which the scrolls of the Torah are kept. In front of the ark hangs the eternal light, an oil lamp whose constant flame symbolizes God's eternal presence.
The rabbi serves as spiritual leader, teacher, and interpreter of Jewish law.
Traditionally, rabbis were chiefly teachers of the law. Today, rabbis also
deliver sermons during worship services in the synagogue, give advice to people
with problems, and perform other functions.
A person who wants to become a rabbi must
spend years studying Hebrew sacred writings and Jewish history, philosophy,
and law. Most rabbinical students also study a wide range of nonreligious
subjects.
The cantor chants the prayers during worship in the synagogue. The cantor is often
a professional who has a trained voice and special knowledge of Hebrew and the
traditions of chanting. The cantor may also direct a choir and conduct
religious education.
Worship in Judaism takes place in the home and thesynagogue, important parts of
home worship include daily prayers, the lighting of the Sabbath candles, and
the blessing of the wine and bread at the Sabbath meal, Jews also observe many
holiday rituals at home.
Worship practices in the synagogue differ
among the branches of Judaism and even within these groups. Orthodox and
Conservative synagogues conduct services daily, but most Reform synagogues have
services only on the Sabbath and holidays. In all Orthodox and some
Conservative synagogues, at least 10 men must be present for a service to take
place. This minimum number of participants is called a minyan. Any male
who is at least 13 years old may lead the service. In most Conservative and
Reform congregations, women may lead the service and be part of the minyan.
Synagogue worship consists mainly of
readings from the Torah and the chanting of prayers from a prayer book called
the siddur. A different portion of the Torah is read each week, so the entire Torah
is completed in a year. In Orthodox synagogues, men and women sit separately
and chant almost all the prayers in Hebrew. In Conservative and Reform
congregations, men and women sit together, and much of the service is in the
language of the country. Most Sabbath and holiday services include a sermon.
Holy days and festivals
The Sabbath in Judaism is the seventh day of the week, Saturday, which is a holy day
of rest. The Sabbath begins at sundown on Friday and ends at nightfall Saturday,
at the time when it is calculated that three stars can be seen in the evening
sky. On the Sabbath, Jews attend worship services in the synagogue and have special
meals at home. Orthodox Jews do not work, travel, or carry money on the
Sabbath.
The High Holidays, called Rosh Ha-Shanah and Yom Kippur, are the most sacred days of the Jewish year. Like all Jewish holidays,
they occur on different dates each year because they are based on the Hebrew
calendar. The High Holidays come during Tishri, the first
month of the Hebrew calendar, which usually falls in September or October. See
Calendar (The Hebrew calendar).
Rosh Ha-Shanah, the Jewish New Year,
begins on the first day of Tishri and lasts two days. It celebrates the
creation of the world and God's rule over it. According to Jewish tradition,
people are judged on Rosh Ha- Shanah for their deeds of the past year. The
chief symbol is the shofar, a ram's horn that is sounded
during the holiday worship. See Rosh Ha-Shanah.
Rosh Ha-Shanah begins the Ten Days of
Penitence, which end on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. On Yom Kippur, Jews
fast and express their regret for bad deeds during the past year and their hope
to perform good deeds in the coming year. The day is observed mainly through
synagogue worship. See Yom Kippur.
The pilgrimage festivals. In ancient times, Jews were expected to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem
during three major festivals— Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot. Each
festival is associated with the Jews' escape from Egypt and their journey to
Canaan (now Israel).
Passover, or Pesah, comes in March or
April and celebrates the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. Jews observe Passover
at home at a ceremonial feast called the Seder (see
Religion [picture: Jews celebrate the Passover]).
During the week of Passover, Jews eat unleavened
bread called matzah. Shavuot, or Pentecost, comes 50 days after the beginning of Passover
and commemorates the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people on Mount Sinai. Many
Reform congregations celebrate Shavuot by holding confirmation ceremonies as
well. Sukkot is a harvest festival that begins five days after Yom Kippur. Jews
build small huts for Sukkot as a reminder of the huts the Israelites lived in
during their wandering in the wilderness. On the last day of this festival,
called Simhat Torah, Jews celebrate the completion of the yearly reading of the Torah.
Other holidays commemorate major events in the history of the Jewish people. Hanukkah, or the
Feast of Lights, is a celebration of God's deliverance of the Jews in 165 B.C.
That year, the Jews won their first struggle for religious freedom by defeating
the Syrians, who wanted them to give up Judaism. Hanukkah usually comes in December
and is celebrated by the lighting of candles in a special Hanukkah branched
candlestick called a menorah. Purim is a
festive holiday in February or March that commemorates the rescue of the Jews
of Persia (now Iran) from a plot to kill them. On Purim, Jews read the Book of
Esther, which tells the story of this rescue. Judaism also has several fast
days. The most important of these, Tishah be-av (the Ninth of
Av), commemorates the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonians
in 586 B.C. and the Romans in A.D. 70.
Customs and ceremonies
Dietary laws. The Bible, chiefly in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, commands
that Jews follow certain dietary rules. Jews who observe these rules do not
eat pork or shellfish, such as shrimp or oysters. They also store meat and milk
products separately and do not serve them at the same meal. The dietary laws
allow only meat that comes from a healthy animal killed by ritual slaughter
called shehitah. This method of slaughter is designed to kill animals quickly and with
as little pain as possible. The ritual must be performed by a specially trained
slaughterer, who says a special blessing before killing the animal.
Food prepared in accordance with Jewish
dietary laws is called kosher, which means ritually correct [see Kosher). Orthodox Jews consider these laws divine commandments and
observe them strictly. Many other Jews observe the rules as a sign of their
faith.
Special occasions. When a Jewish boy is 8 days old, he is circumcised as a symbol of the
covenant God made with Abraham (see Circumcision). At the age of 13, a boy
becomes a full member of the Jewish community. This event is celebrated in the
synagogue with a ceremony called a bar mitzvah. Some
Reform and Conservative synagogues have a similar ceremony for girls called a bat mitzvah or bas mitzvah. The young person reads from the Torah during the ceremony, which is followed
by a social celebration.
A traditional Jewish marriage ceremony
takes place under a huppa, a canopy that symbolizes the
union of the bride and groom. If a marriage breaks up, the husband must give
the wife a writ of divorce called a get.
Jews observe special rituals in connection
with death. Burial takes place as soon as possible, in most cases within a day
after a death. After the funeral, the family enters a seven-day period of deep
mourning called Shiva. The mourners recite the Kaddish, a prayer that praises Cod but
does not mention death. On each anniversary of the death, the relatives
observe a memorial called ayahrzeit, reciting
the Kaddish and lighting a candle in memory of the dead person. Biographies
- For Biblical figures, see the list of related articles at the
end of the Bible article.
See also:
Akiva Baer ben Joseph
Ba al Shem
Buber
Gamaliel
Halevi
Theodor Herzl
Hitler 1
Flavius Josephus
Judah Maccabee
Maimonides, Moses
Mendelssohn, Moses
Zunz, Leopold
|
Other related articles
Bar mitzvah
Bat mitzvah
Bible (The Testament)
Cities of refuge
Ethics (Judaism)
Hanukkah
Hasidism
Haskalah
High-priest
Holocaus
Jehovah
Jews
Kabbalah
Kosher
Messiah
Passover
Pharisees
Purim
Rabbi
Religion
Rosh Ha-Shanah
Sabbath
Sadducess
Shavuot
Simhat Torah
Star of David
Sukkot
Synagogue
Tabernacle
Talmud
Ten Commandments
Tishah be-av
Western Wall
Yom Kappur
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