Judaism () is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of observing the Mosaic covenant, which they believe was established between God and the Jewish people. but "Torah" can also be used as a general term for any Jewish text or teaching that expands or elaborates on the original Five Books of Moses. Representing the core of the Jewish spiritual and religious tradition, the Torah is both a term and a set of teachings that are explicitly self-positioned as encompassing at least seventy—and potentially infinite—facets and interpretations. Judaism's texts, traditions, and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity and Islam.
There are a variety of Jewish religious movements, most of which emerged from Rabbinic Judaism, which holds that God revealed his laws and commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai in both the Written Torah () and Oral Torah. the Karaites; and among segments of the modern non-Orthodox denominations. Today, the largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism (including Haredi and Modern Orthodox Jews), Conservative Judaism, and Reform Judaism. Major sources of difference between these groups are their approaches to Halakha (Jewish law), rabbinic authority, and Rabbinic literature, and the significance of the State of Israel. Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah and Halakha are explicitly divine in origin, eternal, and unalterable, and that they should be strictly followed. Conservative and Reform Judaism are more liberal, with Conservative Judaism generally promoting a more traditionalist interpretation of Judaism's requirements than Reform Judaism. A typical Reform position is that Halakha should be viewed as a set of general guidelines rather than as a set of restrictions and obligations whose observance is required of all Jews. Historically, rabbinical courts known as batei din (; beit din) enforced Halakha. Batei din are still existent, but the practice of Judaism is mostly voluntary.
Etymology
thumb|Maccabees by [[Wojciech Stattler (1842)]]
The term Judaism derives from , a Latinized form of the Ancient Greek Ioudaismos (, from the verb ). Its ultimate source is the biblical "Yehudah" (), the Hebrew name for Judah, son of Jacob, and the namesake of the tribe of Judah, the region of Judah, and the Kingdom of Judah. In the context of the age and period, it meant "seeking or forming part of a cultural entity".
Rabbi Shaye J. D. Cohen writes in his book The Beginnings of Jewishness:
Daniel R. Schwartz, however, argues that "Judaism", especially in the context of the books of the Maccabees, refers to the religion, not the culture and politics of the Judean state. He believes it reflected the ideological divide between the Pharisees and Sadducees and, implicitly, anti-Hasmonean and pro-Hasmonean factions in Judean society. "Judaism" as a direct translation of the Latin first appears in a Christian 1611 English translation of 2 Maccabees 2:21: "Those that behaved themselves manfully to their honour for Iudaisme." In the patriarchal age, God establishes a covenant with Abraham that includes the institution of circumcision () as a sign of that covenant, established when Abraham was 99 years old; the requirement to circumcise the males of his household is recorded in Genesis 17:10–14. God changes Abram's name to Abraham in Genesis 17:5 and Sarai's () name to Sarah (). Sarah is promised to bear a son in her old age, and that son, Isaac (), will be the child of the covenant and Abraham's heir, whose descendants will inherit the land often called Canaan.
The Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim
thumb|A painting of [[Moses decorates the Dura-Europos synagogue dating from 244 CE]]
In the book of Exodus, the second book of the Hebrew Bible, the descendants of Isaac's son Jacob were enslaved in Egypt during a period of harsh oppression. God, appearing to Moses in a divine vision through a burning bush on Mount Horeb, commands him to lead the Hebrews out of bondage. God inflicts ten plagues upon Egypt—such as the Nile turning to blood, swarms of locusts, and the death of the firstborn—to persuade Pharaoh to release the Hebrews. After the final plague, Pharaoh relents, and the Hebrews begin their escape, known as the Exodus. They travel across the desert and arrive at Mount Sinai, where God bestows the commandments, laws, and teachings that will define the moral and spiritual foundation of the Israelite community, as recounted in the subsequent chapters. These books, together with the Nevi'im and Ketuvim, are known as Written Torah, as opposed to the Oral Torah, which refers to the Mishnah, Talmud, and halakhic Midrashim. The Nevi'im consist of historical narratives and prophetic writings, focusing on the Israelites' settlements in Canaan. The Ketuvim, a diverse collection of books including the book of Psalms, book of Proverbs, and book of Esther, covers poetic and prose philosophical writings that deviate from the more literalist style of the other books.
The Talmud
Rabbinic tradition holds that the details and interpretation of the Oral Torah were originally unwritten traditions based on the Law given to Moses at Sinai. However, as the persecution of Jews increased in intensity and frequency and the details of the Oral Torah were in danger of being forgotten, Judah ha-Nasi compiled them into the Mishnah, which was redacted . The Talmud is a compilation of the Mishnah and Gemara, rabbinic commentaries redacted over the next three centuries. The Gemara originated in two major centers of Jewish scholarship: Palestine and Babylonia (Lower Mesopotamia). Correspondingly, two bodies of analysis developed, and two compilations of the Talmud were created. The older compilation is called the Jerusalem Talmud. It was compiled sometime during the 4th century in Palestine. many people were taken captive from the capital Samaria to Media and the Khabur River valley. The Kingdom of Judah continued as an independent state until it was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586–87 BCE.
Babylonian captivity, return, and Second Temple
The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the First Temple, forcing the Israelites into the Babylonian captivity in what is regarded as the first Jewish diaspora. Many of the Israelites returned to their homeland—an event known as the return to Zion—after the fall of Babylon was accomplished by the Persian Achaemenid Empire seventy years later. The Second Temple was constructed, and religious practices were resumed.
During the early years of the Second Temple, the highest religious authority was the Great Assembly, led by Ezra. Among other accomplishments of the Great Assembly, the last books of the Hebrew Bible were written at this time and the canon sealed. Hellenistic Judaism spread to Ptolemaic Egypt from the 3rd century BCE, and its creation sparked widespread controversy in Jewish communities, starting "conflicts within Jewish communities about accommodating the cultures of occupying powers."
During the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), the Romans sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple.
Post-Temple Judaism
Later, Roman emperor Hadrian built a pagan idol on the Temple Mount and prohibited circumcision. These acts of ethnocide provoked the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136 CE), after which the Romans banned Torah study and the celebration of Jewish holidays and forcibly removed virtually all Jews from Judea. In 200 CE, however, Jews were granted Roman citizenship and Judaism was recognized as a religio licita ("legitimate religion") until the rise of Gnosticism and early Christianity in the fourth century.
Following the destruction of Jerusalem and the expulsion of the Jews, Jewish worship stopped being centrally organized around the Temple; prayer took the place of sacrifice; worship was conducted within the Jewish communities of the diaspora; and the authority of rabbis who acted as teachers and leaders of individual communities was established.
thumb|The [[Western Wall in Jerusalem is a remnant of the wall encircling the Second Temple. The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism.]]
Judaism in pre-Islamic Arabia
Judaism in pre-Islamic Arabia goes back to the pre-Christian period, and was concentrated in the northwest and south. In the fourth century, the ruling class of the Himyarite Kingdom of pre-Islamic South Arabia converted to Judaism. This situation lasted until the early sixth century, when the Aksumite invasion of Himyar, instigated by the massacre of Najran, led to a transition to Christian domination.
Defining characteristics and principles of faith
thumb|[[Kennicott Bible, a 1476 Spanish Tanakh]]
Unlike other ancient Near Eastern gods, the Jewish God is portrayed as unitary and solitary; consequently, the Jewish God's principal relationships are not with other gods, but with the world, and more specifically, with the people he created. Judaism thus begins with ethical monotheism: the belief that God is one () and concerned with the actions of humankind. For some, observance of Halakha is more important than belief in God per se.
- There is a God
- There is one God
- God has no physical body
- God is eternal
- Only God may be worshipped
- Prophecy: God communicates with humans
- Moses was the greatest of the prophets
- Torah comes from God
- The Torah is the authentic word of God and may not be changed
- God is aware of all our deeds
- God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked
- The Messiah will come
- The dead will be resurrected
Judaism does not possess fixed, universally binding articles of faith, in the same sense as those instituted by Christianity and Islam, though some are incorporated into the liturgy to a certain extent. Scholars throughout Jewish history have proposed numerous formulations of Judaism's core tenets, all of which have met with criticism.
Religious texts
thumb|[[Aleppo Codex, a Tanakh produced in Tiberias in the 10th century]]
The following is a basic, structured list of the central works of Jewish practice and thought:
- Tanakh
While there have been Jewish groups whose beliefs and practices were based on the written text of the Torah alone (e.g., the Sadducees, and the Karaites), most Jews follow the oral law. These oral traditions were transmitted by the Pharisee school of thought in ancient Judaism and later recorded in writing and expanded upon by the rabbis.
According to Rabbinical Jewish tradition, God gave both the Written Law (the Torah) and the Oral Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai. The Oral law is the oral tradition as relayed by God to Moses and from him, transmitted and taught to the sages (rabbinic leaders) of each subsequent generation.
For centuries, the Torah existed only as a written text transmitted alongside the oral tradition. Fearing that the oral teachings might be forgotten, Rabbi Judah haNasi undertook the mission of consolidating the various opinions into one body of law which became known as the Mishnah.
The Mishnah consists of 63 tractates that codify halakha, the basis of the Talmud. According to Abraham ben David, the Mishnah was compiled by Rabbi Judah haNasi after the destruction of Jerusalem, in anno mundi 3949, which corresponds to 189 CE.
Over the next four centuries, the Mishnah was discussed and debated in both the world's major Jewish communities (in Israel and Babylonia). The commentaries from each of these communities were eventually compiled into the two Talmuds, the Jerusalem Talmud (Talmud Yerushalmi) and the Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli). These have been further expounded upon by the commentaries of various Torah scholars throughout the ages.
In the text of the Torah, many words are left undefined, and many procedures are mentioned without explanation or instructions. Such phenomena are sometimes offered to support the view that the Written Law has always been transmitted alongside a parallel oral tradition, thereby suggesting that the reader is already familiar with the details from other, i.e., oral, sources.
Halakha, the rabbinic Jewish way of life, is then based on a combined reading of the Torah and the oral tradition—the Mishnah, the halakhic Midrash, the Talmud, and its commentaries. The halakha has developed slowly, through a precedent-based system. The literature of questions to rabbis, and their considered answers, is referred to as responsa (Hebrew ). Over time, as practices develop, codes of halakha are written that are based on the responsa; the most important code, the Shulchan Aruch, largely determines Orthodox religious practice today.
Jewish philosophy
thumb|Statue of [[Maimonides in Córdoba, Spain]]
Jewish philosophy refers to the conjunction between serious study of philosophy and Jewish theology. Major Jewish philosophers include Philo of Alexandria, Solomon ibn Gabirol, Saadia Gaon, Judah Halevi, Maimonides, and Gersonides. Major changes occurred in response to the Enlightenment (late 18th to early 19th century), leading to the emergence of post-Enlightenment Jewish philosophers. Modern Jewish philosophy encompasses both Orthodox and non-Orthodox perspectives. Notable among Orthodox Jewish philosophers are Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler, Joseph B. Soloveitchik, and Yitzchok Hutner. Well-known non-Orthodox Jewish philosophers include Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Mordecai Kaplan, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Will Herberg, and Emmanuel Lévinas.