Skip to content

Judaism

From the Quicksilver Metaweb.

placeholder for Judaism

Stephensonia

Young Isaac Newton practices synonyms for Jew when he buys a prism with friend Daniel Waterhouse at a county fair just before the start of the Plague Years.

Community entry: Judaism

Some bits strongly edited from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Judaism is the ethical monotheistic religion and culture of the Jewish people. The tenets and history of Judaism are claimed as the historical foundation of many other religions including Christianity and Islam. Judaism does not characterize itself as just a religion. Rather, Jews have traditionally thought of Judaism as also a multi-ethnic culture with a history, language (Hebrew), ancestral homeland, liturgy, philosophy, set of ethics, religious practices, and the like. Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan described Judaism as an evolving religious civilization.

The subject of the Tenach is the history of the Israelites (who called themselves Hebrews until the gift of the Torah) and their relationship with God.

Who is a Jew?

Jewish law considers someone born of a Jewish mother, or converted in accord with Jewish Law, Jewish. (Recently, American Reform and Reconstructionist Jews have included those born of Jewish fathers and gentile mothers if the children are raised as Jews.)

A Jew who ceases practicing Judaism and becomes a non-practicing Jew is still regarded as a Jew. A Jew who does not accept Jewish principles of faith and becomes an agnostic or an atheist is also still considered to be a Jew in good-standing in the Jewish community, albeit one who is in error. However, when a Jew converts to another religion, such as Christianity, that person loses standing as a member of the Jewish community and becomes known as an apostate. Often, his family and friends will mourn over him, for since he has left the religion, it is if he has died. However, while the person is outside the Jewish community and has views that are considered non-Jewish, that person is still Jewish by ethnicity and is regarded as such by Jewish law. As Jews don't view Buddhism as a religion that worships a different God -- one can be both Buddhist and a Jew. Albert Einstein wisely said he'd accept as Jewish anyone who identify themselves as one.

Holy Books

Shefa_Tal.png
These hands are divided into twenty-eight sections, each containing
a Hebrew letter. Twenty-eight, in Hebrew numbers, spells the word
Koach = strength. At the bottom of the hand, the two letters on each
hand combine to form the name of God. The Tanach and the Talmud are the main holy books in Judaism. The Tanach contains the Written Torah, the writings of the major prophets, and the writings of the minor prophets. The Talmud contains Judaism's oral law.

Principles of Faith

Judaism has always affirmed a number of other Jewish Principles of Faith, but unlike Roman Catholicism, has never developed a binding catechism. A number of formulations of Jewish beliefs have appeared, most of which have much in common with each other, yet they differ in certain details. A comparison of several such formulations demonstrates a wide array of tolerance for varying theological perspectives. Below is a summary of Jewish beliefs. A more detailed discussion of these beliefs, along with a discussion of how they developed, is found in the article on Jewish principles of faith.

  • Monotheism - Judaism is based on strict unitarian monotheism, the belief in one God. God is conceived of as eternal, the creator of the universe, and the source of morality.

  • God is one - The idea of God as a duality or trinity is heretical for Jews to hold; it is considered akin to polytheism. Interestingly, while Jews hold that such conceptions of God are incorrect, they generally are of the opinion that gentiles that hold such beliefs are not held culpable.

  • God is all powerful (omnipotent), as well as all knowing (omniscient). The different names of God are ways to express different aspects of God's presence in the world. See the entry on the Names of God in Judaism.

  • God is non-physical, non-corporeal, and eternal. All statements in the Tenach and in rabbinic literature which use anthropomorphism are held to be linguistic conceits or metaphors, as it would otherwise be impossible to talk about God.

  • To God alone may one offer prayer. Any belief that an intermediary between man and God could be used, whether necessary or even optional, has traditionally been considered heretical.

  • The Tenach (the Torah and Haftorahs), and much of the beliefs described in the Mishnah and Talmud, are held to be the product of divine Revelation. How Revelation works, and what precisely one means when one says that a book is "divine", has always been a matter of some dispute. Different understandings of this subject exist among Jews.

  • The words of the prophets are true.

  • Moses was the chief of all prophets.

  • The Torah (five books of Moses) is the primary text of Judaism. Many accept that the core of the Oral and Written Torah may have come from Moses, but the written Torah that we have today has been edited together from several documents.

  • God will reward those who observe His commandments, and punish those who violate them.

  • God chose the Jewish people to be in a unique covenant with God; the description of this covenant is the Torah itself. Contrary to popular belief, Jewish people do not simply say that "God chose the Jews." Jews believe that they were chosen for a specific mission; to be a light unto the nations, and to have a covenant with God as described in the Torah. This idea is discussed further in the entry on the chosen people. Reconstructionist Judaism rejects the concept chosenness as morally defunct. Modern Jewish thought is that we Jews are the "Chosen People" as we chose to follow God.

  • Repair of this world (Tikkun Olam) are the deeds (mitzvot) needed to bring about the messianic age. There will be a moshiach (teacher), and an era of "peace on earth."

  • The soul is pure at birth. People are born with a yetzer ha'tov, a tendency to do good, and with a yetzer ha'ra, a tendency to do bad. Thus, human beings have free will and can choose the path in life that they will take.

  • People can atone for sins. The liturgy of the Days of Awe (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) states that prayer, repentance and tzedakah (charity) atone for sin.

Jewish philosophy

Jewish philosophy refers to the conjunction between serious study of philosophy and Jewish theology. Early Jewish philosophy was influenced by the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle and Islamic philosophy. Major Jewish philosophers include Solomon ibn Gabirol, Saadia Gaon, Maimonides and Gersonides. Major changes occurred in response to the enlightenment (late 1700s to early 1800s) leading to the post-Enlightenment Jewish philosophers, and then the modern Jewish philosophers.

The Torah and Jewish law

The basis of Jewish law and tradition is the Torah (the five books of Moses). According to rabbinic traditional there are 613 mitzvot in the Torah. Some of these laws are directed only to men or to women, some only to Kohanim and Leviyim (members of the priestly tribe), some only to those who practice framing within the land of Israel, and many laws were only applicable when the Temple in Jerusalem existed. Less than 300 of these commandments are still applicable today.

While there have been Jewish groups which were based on the written text of the Torah alone (the Sadducees, the Karaites), most Jews believed in what they call the oral law. These oral traditions originated in the Pharisee sect of ancient Judaism, and were latter recorded in written form and expanded upon by the Rabbis. Rabbinic Judaism has always held that the books of the Tanach (called the written law) have always been transmitted in parallel with an oral tradition. They point to the text of the Torah, where many words are left undefined, and many procedures mentioned without explanation or instructions; this, they argue, means that the reader is assumed to be familiar with the details from other, oral, sources. This parallel set of material was originally trasmitted orally, and came to be known as "the oral law". Some of the methods by which it is derived can be found in halakhic Midrash. However, by the time of Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi (200 CE) much of this material was edited together into the Mishnah. Over the next four centuries this law underwent discussion and debate in both of the world's major Jewish communities (in Israel and Babylon), and the commentaries on the Mishnah from each of these communities eventually came to be edited together into compilations known as the two Talmuds. These have been expounded by commentaries of various Torah scholars during the ages.

Halakha, the Rabbinic Jewish way of life, then, is not based on a literal reading of the Torah or Tanakh, but on the combined oral and written tradition, which includes the Tanach, the Mishnah, the halakhic Midrash, the Talmud and its commentaries. These have been summarized into codes of Jewish law by various Torah scholars, such as Rabbis Alfasi, Maimonides, Ya'akov ben Asher, Karo etc.

Halakha is developed slowly, through a precedent based system. The literature of questions to rabbis, and their considered answers, is referred to as responsa (in Hebrew, '"Sheelot U-Teshuvot".) Over time, as practices develop, codes of Jewish law are written that are based on the responses.

Holidays

Jewish life is bound up with religious tradition, and is celebrated in an annual cycle of Jewish holidays.

Life cycle events

Life-cycle events occur throughout a Jew's life that bind him/her to the entire community.

  • Bris - Welcoming male babies into the covenant through the rite of circumcision.
  • Bar mitzvah and Bat mitzvah - Celebrating a child's reaching the age of majority, becoming responsible from now on for themselves as an adult for living a Jewish life and following halakha.
  • Marriage
  • Mourning - Judaism has a multi-staged mourning practice. The first stage is called the Shiv'ah (observed for one week), the second is the shloshim (observed for one month) and for those who have lost one of their parents, there is a third stage, avelut yud bet chodesh, which is observed for one year.

Wikipedia: Names of God in Judaism

In Judaism, the name of God is more than a distinguishing title. It represents the Jewish conception of the divine nature, and of the relation of God to the Jewish people. The various Jewish names of God represent God as he is known, and represents divine attributes. Awe at the sacredness of the names of God and as manner to show respect and reverence for them, made the scribes of sacred texts pause before copying them. The numerous names of God have been a source of debate amongst biblical scholars. Some have advanced it as proof that the Torah has many authors, while others affirm that the different aspects of God have different names, depending on the role God is playing, the context in which he is referred to and the specific attributes highlighted. ... [complete in link above]

TBA