Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of observing the Mosaic covenant, which was established between God and the Israelites, their ancestors.[15] Jewish religious doctrine encompasses a wide body of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Among Judaism's core texts is the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, a collection of ancient Hebrew scriptures. The Tanakh, known in English as the Hebrew Bible, is also referred to as the "Old Testament" in Christianity. In addition to the original written scripture, the supplemental Oral Torah is represented by later texts, such as the Midrash and the Talmud. The Hebrew-language word torah can mean "teaching", "law", or "instruction",[16] although "Torah" can also be used as a general term that refers to any Jewish text that expands or elaborates on the original Five Books of Moses. Representing the core of the Jewish spiritual and religious tradition, the Torah is a term and a set of teachings that are explicitly self-positioned as encompassing at least seventy, and potentially infinite, facets and interpretations.[17] Judaism's texts, traditions, and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity and Islam.[18][19]Hebraism, like Hellenism, played a seminal role in the formation of Western civilization through its impact as a core background element of Early Christianity.[20]
Within Judaism, there are a variety of religious movements, most of which emerged from Rabbinic Judaism,[21][22][23] which holds that God revealed his laws and commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai in the form of both the Written and Oral Torah.[24] Historically, all or part of this assertion was challenged by various groups such as the Sadducees and Hellenistic Judaism during the Second Temple period;[25][22][26] the Karaites during the early and later medieval period; and among segments of the modern non-Orthodox denominations.[27] Some modern branches of Judaism such as Humanistic Judaism may be considered secular or nontheistic.[28][29][30][31] Today, the largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism (Haredi and Modern Orthodox), Conservative Judaism, and Reform Judaism. Major sources of difference between these groups are their approaches to halakha (Jewish law), the authority of the rabbinic tradition, and the significance of the State of Israel.[32][33][34][1] Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah and halakha are divine in origin, eternal and unalterable, and that they should be strictly followed.[35][36][37][38] Conservative and Reform Judaism are more liberal, with Conservative Judaism generally promoting a more traditionalist interpretation of Judaism's requirements than Reform Judaism.[39][40][41][42] 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.[43][44][45][46][47] Historically, special courts enforced halakha; today, these courts still exist but the practice of Judaism is mostly voluntary.[48] Authority on theological and legal matters is not vested in any one person or organization, but in the sacred texts and the rabbis and scholars who interpret them.
Jews are an ethnoreligious group[49] including those born Jewish (or "ethnic Jews"), in addition to converts to Judaism. In 2021, the world Jewish population was estimated at 15.2 million, or roughly 0.195% of the total world population, although religious observance varies from strict to none.[50][51] In 2021, about 45.6% of all Jews resided in Israel and another 42.1% resided in the United States and Canada, with most of the remainder living in Europe, and other groups spread throughout Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Australia.[52]
The term Judaism derives from Iudaismus, a Latinized form of the Ancient Greek Ioudaismos (Ἰουδαϊσμός) (from the verb ἰουδαΐζειν, "to side with or imitate the [Judeans]").[53] Its ultimate source was the Hebrew יהודה, Yehudah, "Judah",[54][55] which is also the source of the Hebrew term for Judaism: יַהֲדוּת, Yahadut. The term Ἰουδαϊσμός first appears in the Hellenistic Greek book of 2 Maccabees in the 2nd century BCE (i.e. 2 Maccabees 2:21, 8:1 and 14:38) .[56] In the context of the age and period it meant "seeking or forming part of a cultural entity"[57] and it resembled its antonym hellenismos, a word that signified a people's submission to Hellenic (Greek) cultural norms. The conflict between iudaismos and hellenismos lay behind the Maccabean revolt and hence the invention of the term iudaismos.[57]
We are tempted, of course, to translate [Ioudaïsmós] as "Judaism," but this translation is too narrow, because in this first occurrence of the term, Ioudaïsmós has not yet been reduced to the designation of a religion. It means rather "the aggregate of all those characteristics that makes Judaeans Judaean (or Jews Jewish)." Among these characteristics, to be sure, are practices and beliefs that we would today call "religious," but these practices and beliefs are not the sole content of the term. Thus Ioudaïsmós should be translated not as "Judaism" but as Judaeanness.[58]
Daniel R. Scwhartz, however, argues that "Judaism", especially in the context of the Book of Maccabees, refers to the religion, as opposed to 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.[56]
According to the Oxford English Dictionary the earliest citation in English where the term was used to mean "the profession or practice of the Jewish religion; the religious system or polity of the Jews" is Robert Fabyan's The newe cronycles of Englande and of Fraunce (1516).[59] "Judaism" as a direct translation of the Latin Iudaismus first occurred in a 1611 English translation of the apocrypha (Deuterocanon in Catholic and Eastern Orthodoxy), 2 Macc. ii. 21: "Those that behaved themselves manfully to their honour for Iudaisme."[60]
At its core, the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) is an account of the Israelites' relationship with God from their earliest history until the building of the Second Temple (c. 535 BCE). Abraham is hailed as the first Hebrew and the father of the Jewish people. As a reward for his act of faith in one God, he was promised that Isaac, his second son, would inherit the Land of Israel (then called Canaan). Later, the descendants of Isaac's son Jacob were enslaved in Egypt, and God commanded Moses to lead the Exodus from Egypt. At Mount Sinai, they received the Torah—the five books of Moses. These books, together with Nevi'im and Ketuvim are known as Torah Shebikhtav as opposed to the Oral Torah, which refers to the Mishnah and the Talmud. Eventually, God led them to the land of Israel where the tabernacle was planted in the city of Shiloh for over 300 years to rally the nation against attacking enemies. As time went on, the spiritual level of the nation declined to the point that God allowed the Philistines to capture the tabernacle. The people of Israel then told Samuel the prophet that they needed to be governed by a permanent king, and Samuel appointed Saul to be their King. When the people pressured Saul into going against a command conveyed to him by Samuel, God told Samuel to appoint David in his stead.
Rabbinic tradition holds that the details and interpretation of the law, which are called the Oral Torah or oral law, were originally an unwritten tradition based upon what God told Moses on Mount Sinai. However, as the persecutions of the Jews increased and the details were in danger of being forgotten, these oral laws were recorded by RabbiJudah HaNasi (Judah the Prince) in the Mishnah, redacted circa 200 CE. The Talmud was a compilation of both the Mishnah and the Gemara, rabbinic commentaries redacted over the next three centuries. The Gemara originated in two major centers of Jewish scholarship, Palestine and Babylonia.[61] Correspondingly, two bodies of analysis developed, and two works of Talmud were created. The older compilation is called the Jerusalem Talmud. It was compiled sometime during the 4th century in Palestine.[61]
According to critical scholars, the Torah consists of inconsistent texts edited together in a way that calls attention to divergent accounts.[62][page needed][63][64] Several of these scholars, such as Professor Martin Rose and John Bright, suggest that during the First Temple period the people of Israel believed that each nation had its own god, but that their god was superior to other gods.[65][page needed][66][page needed] Some suggest that strict monotheism developed during the Babylonian Exile, perhaps in reaction to Zoroastrian dualism.[67] In this view, it was only by the Hellenic period that most Jews came to believe that their god was the only god and that the notion of a clearly bounded Jewish nation identical with the Jewish religion formed.[68]John Day argues that the origins of biblical Yahweh, El, Asherah, and Ba'al, may be rooted in earlier Canaanite religion, which was centered on a pantheon of gods much like the Greek pantheon.[69]
During the early years of the Second Temple, the highest religious authority was a council known as the Great Assembly, led by Ezra the Scribe. Among other accomplishments of the Great Assembly, the last books of the 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."[25][71]
During the Great Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE), the Romanssacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple. 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 the study of the Torah 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, and worship was rebuilt around the community (represented by a minimum of ten adult men) and the establishment of the authority of rabbis who acted as teachers and leaders of individual communities.[21][22]
Unlike other ancient Near Eastern gods, the Hebrew God is portrayed as unitary and solitary; consequently, the Hebrew God's principal relationships are not with other gods, but with the world, and more specifically, with the people he created.[72] Judaism thus begins with ethical monotheism: the belief that God is one and is concerned with the actions of mankind.[73] According to the Hebrew Bible, God promised Abraham to make of his offspring a great nation.[74] Many generations later, he commanded the nation of Israel to love and worship only one God; that is, the Jewish nation is to reciprocate God's concern for the world.[75] He also commanded the Jewish people to love one another; that is, Jews are to imitate God's love for people.[76]
Thus, although there is an esoteric tradition in Judaism in Kabbalah, Rabbinic scholar Max Kadushin has characterized normative Judaism as "normal mysticism", because it involves everyday personal experiences of God through ways or modes that are common to all Jews.[77] This is played out through the observance of the halakha, or Jewish law, and given verbal expression in the Birkat Ha-Mizvot, the short blessings that are spoken every time a positive commandment is to be fulfilled:
The ordinary, familiar, everyday things and occurrences we have, constitute occasions for the experience of God. Such things as one's daily sustenance, the very day itself, are felt as manifestations of God's loving-kindness, calling for the Berakhot. Kedushah, holiness, which is nothing else than the imitation of God, is concerned with daily conduct, with being gracious and merciful, with keeping oneself from defilement by idolatry, adultery, and the shedding of blood. The Birkat Ha-Mitzwot evokes the consciousness of holiness at a rabbinic rite, but the objects employed in the majority of these rites are non-holy and of general character, while the several holy objects are non-theurgic. And not only do ordinary things and occurrences bring with them the experience of God. Everything that happens to a man evokes that experience, evil as well as good, for a Berakah is said also at evil tidings. Hence, although the experience of God is like none other, the occasions for experiencing Him, for having a consciousness of Him, are manifold, even if we consider only those that call for Berakot.[78]
Whereas Jewish philosophers often debate whether God is immanent or transcendent, and whether people have free will or their lives are determined, halakha is a system through which any Jew acts to bring God into the world.
Ethical monotheism is central in all sacred or normative texts of Judaism. However, monotheism has not always been followed in practice. The Hebrew Bible (or Tanakh) records and repeatedly condemns the widespread worship of other gods in ancient Israel.[79] In the Greco-Roman era, many different interpretations of monotheism existed in Judaism, including the interpretations that gave rise to Christianity.[80]
Moreover, some have argued that Judaism is a non-creedal religion that does not require one to believe in God.[81][82] For some, observance of halakha is more important than belief in God per se.[83] The debate about whether one can speak of authentic or normative Judaism is not only a debate among religious Jews but also among historians.[84]
I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, is the Creator and Guide of everything that has been created; He alone has made, does make, and will make all things.
I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, is One, and that there is no unity in any manner like His, and that He alone is our God, who was, and is, and will be.
I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, has no body, and that He is free from all the properties of matter, and that there can be no (physical) comparison to Him whatsoever.
I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, is the first and the last.
I believe with perfect faith that to the Creator, Blessed be His Name, and to Him alone, it is right to pray, and that it is not right to pray to any being besides Him.
I believe with perfect faith that all the words of the prophets are true.
I believe with perfect faith that the prophecy of Moses our teacher, peace be upon him, was true, and that he was the chief of the prophets, both those who preceded him and those who followed him.
I believe with perfect faith that the entire Torah that is now in our possession is the same that was given to Moses our teacher, peace be upon him.
I believe with perfect faith that this Torah will not be exchanged and that there will never be any other Torah from the Creator, Blessed be His Name.
I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, knows all the deeds of human beings and all their thoughts, as it is written, "Who fashioned the hearts of them all, Who comprehends all their actions" (Psalms 33:15).
I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, Blessed be His Name, rewards those who keep His commandments and punishes those that transgress them.
I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah; and even though he may tarry, nonetheless, I wait every day for his coming.
I believe with perfect faith that there will be a revival of the dead at the time when it shall please the Creator, Blessed be His name, and His mention shall be exalted for ever and ever.
In the strict sense, in Judaism, unlike Christianity and Islam, there are no fixed universally binding articles of faith, due to their incorporation into the liturgy.[86][87] Scholars throughout Jewish history have proposed numerous formulations of Judaism's core tenets, all of which have met with criticism.[86][34][88] The most popular formulation is Maimonides' thirteen principles of faith, developed in the 12th century.[86][34] According to Maimonides, any Jew who rejects even one of these principles would be considered an apostate and a heretic.[89][90] Jewish scholars have held points of view diverging in various ways from Maimonides' principles.[91][92] Thus, within Reform Judaism only the first five principles are endorsed.[1]
In Maimonides' time, his list of tenets was criticized by Hasdai Crescas and Joseph Albo. Albo and the Raavad argued that Maimonides' principles contained too many items that, while true, were not fundamentals of the faith[86][34]
Along these lines, the ancient historian Josephus emphasized practices and observances rather than religious beliefs, associating apostasy with a failure to observe halakha and maintaining that the requirements for conversion to Judaism included circumcision and adherence to traditional customs. Maimonides' principles were largely ignored over the next few centuries.[93] Later, two poetic restatements of these principles ("Ani Ma'amin" and "Yigdal") became integrated into many Jewish liturgies,[86][1][94] leading to their eventual near-universal acceptance.[95][96]
The oldest non-Rabbinic instance of articles of faith were formulated, under Islamic influence, by the 12th century Karaite figure Judah ben Elijah Hadassi:
(1) God is the Creator of all created beings; (2) He is premundane and has no peer or associate; (3) the whole universe is created; (4) God called Moses and the other Prophets of the Biblical canon; (5) the Law of Moses alone is true; (6) to know the language of the Bible is a religious duty; (7) the Temple at Jerusalem is the palace of the world's Ruler; (8) belief in Resurrection contemporaneous with the advent of the Messiah; (9) final judgment; (10) retribution.
In modern times, Judaism lacks a centralized authority that would dictate an exact religious dogma. Because of this, many different variations on the basic beliefs are considered within the scope of Judaism.[91] Even so, all Jewish religious movements are, to a greater or lesser extent, based on the principles of the Hebrew Bible or various commentaries such as the Talmud and Midrash. Judaism also universally recognizes the Biblical Covenant between God and the Patriarch Abraham as well as the additional aspects of the Covenant revealed to Moses, who is considered Judaism's greatest prophet.[91][97][98] In the Mishnah, a core text of Rabbinic Judaism, acceptance of the Divine origins of this covenant is considered an essential aspect of Judaism and those who reject the Covenant forfeit their share in the World to Come.[99]
Establishing the core tenets of Judaism in the modern era is even more difficult, given the number and diversity of the contemporary Jewish denominations. Even if to restrict the problem to the most influential intellectual trends of the nineteenth and twentieth century, the matter remains complicated. Thus, for instance, Joseph Soloveitchik's (associated with the Modern Orthodox movement) answer to modernity is constituted upon the identification of Judaism with following the halakha whereas its ultimate goal is to bring the holiness down to the world. Mordecai Kaplan, the founder of the Reconstructionist Judaism, abandons the idea of religion for the sake of identifying Judaism with civilization and by means of the latter term and secular translation of the core ideas, he tries to embrace as many Jewish denominations as possible. In turn, Solomon Schechter's Conservative Judaism was identical with the tradition understood as the interpretation of Torah, in itself being the history of the constant updates and adjustment of the Law performed by means of the creative interpretation. Finally, David Philipson draws the outlines of the Reform movement in Judaism by opposing it to the strict and traditional rabbinical approach and thus comes to the conclusions similar to that of the Conservative movement.[1][100]
The basis of halakha and tradition is the Torah (also known as the Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses). According to rabbinic tradition, there are 613 commandments in the Torah. Some of these laws are directed only to men or to women, some only to the ancient priestly groups, the Kohanim and Leviyim (members of the tribe of Levi), some only to farmers within the Land of Israel. Many laws were only applicable when the Temple in Jerusalem existed, and only 369 of these commandments are still applicable today.[102][better source needed]
While there have been Jewish groups whose beliefs were based on the written text of the Torah alone (e.g., the Sadducees, and the Karaites), most Jews believe in the oral law. These oral traditions were transmitted by the Pharisee school of thought of ancient Judaism and were later recorded in written form 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 appeared only as a written text transmitted in parallel with 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.[103]
The Mishnah consists of 63 tractates codifying halakha, which are 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.[104]
Over the next four centuries, the Mishnah underwent discussion and debate in both of 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 by commentaries of various Torah scholars during 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 validate the viewpoint that the Written Law has always been transmitted with a parallel oral tradition, illustrating the assumption that the reader is already familiar with the details from other, i.e., oral, sources.[105]
Halakha, the rabbinic Jewish way of life, then, is 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 Sheelot U-Teshuvot). 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.
A law that operates under certain conditions will surely be operative in other situations where the same conditions are present in a more acute form
A law operating in one situation will also be operative in another situation if the text characterizes both situations in identical terms.
A law that clearly expresses the purpose it was meant to serve will also apply to other situations where the identical purpose may be served.
When a general rule is followed by illustrative particulars, only those particulars are to be embraced by it.
A law that begins with specifying particular cases, and then proceeds to an all-embracing generalization, is to be applied to particulars cases not specified but logically falling into the same generalization.
A law that begins with a generalization as to its intended applications, then continues with the specification of particular cases, and then concludes with a restatement of the generalization, can be applied only to the particular cases specified.
The rules about a generalization being followed or preceded by specifying particulars (rules 4 and 5) will not apply if it is apparent that the specification of the particular cases or the statement of the generalization is meant purely for achieving a greater clarity of language.
A particular case already covered in a generalization that is nevertheless treated separately suggests that the same particularized treatment be applied to all other cases which are covered in that generalization.
A penalty specified for a general category of wrongdoing is not to be automatically applied to a particular case that is withdrawn from the general rule to be specifically prohibited, but without any mention of the penalty.
A general prohibition followed by a specified penalty may be followed by a particular case, normally included in the generalization, with a modification in the penalty, either toward easing it or making it more severe.
A case logically falling into a general law but treated separately remains outside the provisions of the general law except in those instances where it is specifically included in them.
Obscurities in Biblical texts may be cleared up from the immediate context or from subsequently occurring passages
Contradictions in Biblical passages may be removed through the mediation of other passages.
Orthodox and many other Jews do not believe that the revealed Torah consists solely of its written contents, but of its interpretations as well. The study of Torah (in its widest sense, to include both poetry, narrative, and law, and both the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud) is in Judaism itself a sacred act of central importance. For the sages of the Mishnah and Talmud, and for their successors today, the study of Torah was therefore not merely a means to learn the contents of God's revelation, but an end in itself. According to the Talmud:
These are the things for which a person enjoys the dividends in this world while the principal remains for the person to enjoy in the world to come; they are: honoring parents, loving deeds of kindness, and making peace between one person and another. But the study of the Torah is equal to them all. (Talmud Shabbat 127a).
In Judaism, "the study of Torah can be a means of experiencing God".[107] Reflecting on the contribution of the Amoraim and Tanaim to contemporary Judaism, Professor Jacob Neusner observed:
The rabbi's logical and rational inquiry is not mere logic-chopping. It is a most serious and substantive effort to locate in trivialities the fundamental principles of the revealed will of God to guide and sanctify the most specific and concrete actions in the workaday world. ... Here is the mystery of Talmudic Judaism: the alien and remote conviction that the intellect is an instrument not of unbelief and desacralization but of sanctification.[108]
To study the Written Torah and the Oral Torah in light of each other is thus also to study how to study the word of God.
In the study of Torah, the sages formulated and followed various logical and hermeneutical principles. According to David Stern, all Rabbinic hermeneutics rest on two basic axioms:
first, the belief in the omni-significance of Scripture, in the meaningfulness of its every word, letter, even (according to one famous report) scribal flourish; second, the claim of the essential unity of Scripture as the expression of the single divine will.[109]
These two principles make possible a great variety of interpretations. According to the Talmud:
A single verse has several meanings, but no two verses hold the same meaning. It was taught in the school of R. Ishmael: 'Behold, My word is like fire—declares the Lord—and like a hammer that shatters rock' (Jer 23:29). Just as this hammer produces many sparks (when it strikes the rock), so a single verse has several meanings." (Talmud Sanhedrin 34a).
Observant Jews thus view the Torah as dynamic, because it contains within it a host of interpretations.[110]
According to Rabbinic tradition, all valid interpretations of the written Torah were revealed to Moses at Sinai in oral form, and handed down from teacher to pupil (The oral revelation is in effect coextensive with the Talmud itself). When different rabbis forwarded conflicting interpretations, they sometimes appealed to hermeneutic principles to legitimize their arguments; some rabbis claim that these principles were themselves revealed by God to Moses at Sinai.[111]
Thus, Hillel called attention to seven commonly used hermeneutical principles in the interpretation of laws (baraita at the beginning of Sifra); R. Ishmael, thirteen (baraita at the beginning of Sifra; this collection is largely an amplification of that of Hillel).[112]Eliezer b. Jose ha-Gelili listed 32, largely used for the exegesis of narrative elements of Torah. All the hermeneutic rules scattered through the Talmudim and Midrashim have been collected by Malbim in Ayyelet ha-Shachar, the introduction to his commentary on the Sifra. Nevertheless, R. Ishmael's 13 principles are perhaps the ones most widely known; they constitute an important, and one of Judaism's earliest, contributions to logic, hermeneutics, and jurisprudence.[113]Judah Hadassi incorporated Ishmael's principles into Karaite Judaism in the 12th century.[114] Today R. Ishmael's 13 principles are incorporated into the Jewish prayer book to be read by observant Jews on a daily basis.[115][116][117][118]
Jewish identity
Distinction between Jews as a people and Judaism
According to Daniel Boyarin, the underlying distinction between religion and ethnicity is foreign to Judaism itself, and is one form of the dualism between spirit and flesh that has its origin in Platonic philosophy and that permeated Hellenistic Judaism.[119] Consequently, in his view, Judaism does not fit easily into conventional Western categories, such as religion, ethnicity, or culture. Boyarin suggests that this in part reflects the fact that much of Judaism's more than 3,000-year history predates the rise of Western culture and occurred outside the West (that is, Europe, particularly medieval and modern Europe). During this time, Jews experienced slavery, anarchic and theocratic self-government, conquest, occupation, and exile. In the Jewish diaspora, they were in contact with, and influenced by, ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Persian, and Hellenic cultures, as well as modern movements such as the Enlightenment (see Haskalah) and the rise of nationalism, which would bear fruit in the form of a Jewish state in their ancient homeland, the Land of Israel. Thus, Boyarin has argued that "Jewishness disrupts the very categories of identity, because it is not national, not genealogical, not religious, but all of these, in dialectical tension."[120]
In contrast to this point of view, practices such as Humanistic Judaism reject the religious aspects of Judaism, while retaining certain cultural traditions.
According to Rabbinic Judaism, a Jew is anyone who was either born of a Jewish mother or who converted to Judaism in accordance with halakha. Reconstructionist Judaism and the larger denominations of worldwide Progressive Judaism (also known as Liberal or Reform Judaism) accept the child as Jewish if one of the parents is Jewish, if the parents raise the child with a Jewish identity, but not the smaller regional branches.[clarification needed] All mainstream forms of Judaism today are open to sincere converts, although conversion has traditionally been discouraged since the time of the Talmud. The conversion process is evaluated by an authority, and the convert is examined on his or her sincerity and knowledge.[121] Converts are called "ben Abraham" or "bat Abraham", (son or daughter of Abraham). Conversions have on occasion been overturned. In 2008, Israel's highest religious court invalidated the conversion of 40,000 Jews, mostly from Russian immigrant families, even though they had been approved by an Orthodox rabbi.[122]
Rabbinical Judaism maintains that a Jew, whether by birth or conversion, is a Jew forever. Thus a Jew who claims to be an atheist or converts to another religion is still considered by traditional Judaism to be Jewish. According to some sources, the Reform movement has maintained that a Jew who has converted to another religion is no longer a Jew,[123] and the Israeli Government has also taken that stance after Supreme Court cases and statutes.[124] However, the Reform movement has indicated that this is not so cut and dried, and different situations call for consideration and differing actions. For example, Jews who have converted under duress may be permitted to return to Judaism "without any action on their part but their desire to rejoin the Jewish community" and "A proselyte who has become an apostate remains, nevertheless, a Jew".[125]
Karaite Judaism believes that Jewish identity can only be transmitted by patrilineal descent. Although a minority of modern Karaites believe that Jewish identity requires that both parents be Jewish, and not only the father. They argue that only patrilineal descent can transmit Jewish identity on the grounds that all descent in the Torah went according to the male line.[27]
The question of what determines Jewish identity in the State of Israel was given new impetus when, in the 1950s, David Ben-Gurion requested opinions on mihu Yehudi ("Who is a Jew") from Jewish religious authorities and intellectuals worldwide in order to settle citizenship questions. This is still not settled, and occasionally resurfaces in Israeli politics.
Historical definitions of Jewish identity have traditionally been based on halakhic definitions of matrilineal descent, and halakhic conversions. Historical definitions of who is a Jew date back to the codification of the Oral Torah into the Babylonian Talmud, around 200 CE. Interpretations of sections of the Tanakh, such as Deuteronomy 7:1–5, by Jewish sages, are used as a warning against intermarriage between Jews and Canaanites because "[the non-Jewish husband] will cause your child to turn away from Me and they will worship the gods (i.e., idols) of others."[126] Leviticus 24 says that the son in a marriage between a Hebrew woman and an Egyptian man is "of the community of Israel."[127] This is complemented by Ezra 10, where Israelites returning from Babylon vow to put aside their gentile wives and their children.[128][129][130] A popular theory is that the rape of Jewish women in captivity brought about the law of Jewish identity being inherited through the maternal line, although scholars challenge this theory citing the Talmudic establishment of the law from the pre-exile period.[131][132] Since the anti-religious Haskalah movement of the late 18th and 19th centuries, halakhic interpretations of Jewish identity have been challenged.[133]
The total number of Jews worldwide is difficult to assess because the definition of "who is a Jew" is problematic; not all Jews identify themselves as Jewish, and some who identify as Jewish are not considered so by other Jews. According to the Jewish Year Book (1901), the global Jewish population in 1900 was around 11 million. The latest available data is from the World Jewish Population Survey of 2002 and the Jewish Year Calendar (2005). In 2002, according to the Jewish Population Survey, there were 13.3 million Jews around the world. The Jewish Year Calendar cites 14.6 million. It is 0.25% of world population.[1]
Jewish population growth is currently near zero percent, with 0.3% growth from 2000 to 2001. The overall growth rate of Jews in Israel is 1.7% annually, and is consistently growing through natural population growth and extensive immigration.[134] The diaspora countries, by contrast, have low Jewish birth rates, an increasingly elderly age composition, high rates of interreligious marriage and a negative balance of people leaving Judaism versus those joining.[135]
In 2022, the world Jewish population was estimated at 15.2 million, the majority live in one of only two countires: Israel and the United States.[136] About 46.6% of all Jews resided in Israel (6.9 million) and another 6 million Jews resided in the United States, with most of the remainder living in Europe, and other groups spread throughout Canada, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Australia.[137]
Rabbinic Judaism (or in some older sources, Rabbinism;[138] Hebrew: "Yahadut Rabanit" – יהדות רבנית) has been the mainstream form of Judaism since the 6th century CE, after the codification of the Talmud. It is characterised by the belief that the Written Torah (Written Law) cannot be correctly interpreted without reference to the Oral Torah and the voluminous literature specifying what behavior is sanctioned by the Law.[21][22][23]
The Jewish Enlightenment of the late 18th century resulted in the division of Western Jewry (primarily, the Ashkenazi, but also western part of Sephardim and Italian rite Jews, a.k.a. Italkim, and Greek Romaniote Jews—both last groups are considered distinct from Ashkenazim and Sephardim) into religious movements or denominations, especially in North America and Anglophone countries. The main denominations today outside Israel (where the situation is rather different)[139] are Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform. The notion "traditional Judaism" includes the Orthodox with Conservative[34] or solely the Orthodox Jews:[140][1]
Two Haredi Jewish couples at a bus stop in JerusalemHasids at front of Belz Great Synagogue, Jerusalem
Orthodox Judaism holds that both the Written and Oral Torah were divinely revealed to Moses and that the laws within it are binding and unchanging. Orthodox Jews generally consider commentaries on the Shulchan Aruch (a condensed codification of halakha that largely favored Sephardic traditions) to be the definitive codification of halakha. Orthodoxy places a high importance on Maimonides' 13 principles as a definition of Jewish faith.
Conservative Judaism (known as Masorti Judaism outside North America and Israel) is characterized by a commitment to traditional halakha and customs, including observance of Shabbat and kashrut, a deliberately non-fundamentalist teaching of Jewish principles of faith, a positive attitude toward modern culture, and an acceptance of both traditional rabbinic and modern scholarship when considering Jewish religious texts. Conservative Judaism teaches that halakha is not static, but has always developed in response to changing conditions. It holds that the Torah is a divine document written by prophets inspired by God and reflecting his will, but rejects the Orthodox position that it was dictated by God to Moses.[39][40][146][41][42][147][148][149] Conservative Judaism holds that the Oral Law is divine and normative, but holds that both the Written and Oral Law may be interpreted by the rabbis to reflect modern sensibilities and suit modern conditions.
Reform Judaism, called Liberal or Progressive Judaism in many countries, defines Judaism in relatively universalist terms, rejects most of the ritual and ceremonial laws of the Torah while observing moral laws, and emphasizes the ethical call of the Prophets. Reform Judaism has developed an egalitarian prayer service in the vernacular (along with Hebrew in many cases) and emphasizes personal connection to Jewish tradition.[43][44][150][45][46][47]
Reconstructionist Judaism, like Reform Judaism, does not hold that halakha, as such, requires observance, but unlike Reform, Reconstructionist thought emphasizes the role of the community in deciding what observances to follow. It sometimes recognized as the 4th major stream of Judaism.[151][152][153][154][1][155]
Jewish Renewal is a recent North American movement which focuses on spirituality and social justice but does not address issues of halakha. Men and women participate equally in prayer.[156][157]
Humanistic Judaism is a small non-theistic movement centered in North America and Israel that emphasizes Jewish culture and history as the sources of Jewish identity.[29][158]
Subbotniks (Sabbatarians) are a movement of Jews of Russian ethnic origin in the 18th–20th centuries, the majority of whom belonged to Rabbinic and Karaite Judaism.[159][160] Many settled in the Holy Land as part of the Zionist First Aliyah in order to escape oppression in the Russian Empire and later mostly intermarried with other Jews, their descendants included Alexander Zaïd, Major-General Alik Ron,[161] and the mother of Ariel Sharon.[162]
While traditions and customs vary between discrete communities, it can be said that Sephardi (Iberian, for example, most Jews from France and the Netherlands) and Mizrahi (Oriental) Jewish communities do not generally adhere to the "movement" framework popular in and among Ashkenazi Jewry.[163] Historically, Sephardi and Mizrahi communities have eschewed denominations in favour of a "big tent" approach.[164] This is particularly the case in contemporary Israel, which is home to the largest communities of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in the world. (However, individual Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews or some their communities may be members of or attend synagogues that do adhere to one Ashkenazi-inflected movement or another.)[143] Among the pioneers of Reform Judaism in the 1820s there was the Sephardic congregation Beth Elohim in Charleston, South Carolina.[165] A part of the European Sephardim were also linked with the Judaic modernization.[166]
Sephardi and Mizrahi observance of Judaism tends toward the traditional (Orthodox) and prayer rites are reflective of this, with the text of each rite being largely unchanged since their respective inception. Observant Sephardim may follow the teachings of a particular rabbi or school of thought; for example, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel.[143][167][168]
In Israel, as in the West, Judaism is also divided into major Orthodox, Conservative and Reform traditions.[169][170][171] At the same time, for statistical and practical purposes, a different division of society is used there on the basis of a person's attitude to religion.
Most Jewish Israelis classify themselves as "secular" (hiloni), "traditional" (masorti), "religious" (dati) or "ultra-religious" (haredi).[171][172] The term "secular" is more popular as a self-description among Israeli families of western (European) origin, whose Jewish identity may be a very powerful force in their lives, but who see it as largely independent of traditional religious belief and practice. This portion of the population largely ignores organized religious life, be it of the official Israeli rabbinate (Orthodox) or of the liberal movements common to diaspora Judaism (Reform, Conservative).
The term "traditional" (masorti) is most common as a self-description among Israeli families of "eastern" origin (i.e., the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa). This term, as commonly used, has nothing to do with Conservative Judaism, which also names itself "Masorti" outside North America. Only a few authors, like Elliot Nelson Dorff, consider the American Conservative (masorti) movement and Israeli masorti sector to be one and the same.[173] There is a great deal of ambiguity in the ways "secular" and "traditional" are used in Israel: they often overlap, and they cover an extremely wide range in terms of worldview and practical religious observance. The term "Orthodox" is not popular in Israeli discourse, although the percentage of Jews who come under that category is far greater than in the Jewish diaspora. What would be called "Orthodox" in the diaspora includes what is commonly called dati (religious, including religious zionist) or haredi (ultra-Orthodox) in Israel.[171][172] The former term includes what is called "religious Zionism" or the "National Orthodox" community, as well as what has become known over the past decade or so as haredi-leumi (nationalistharedi), or "Hardal", which combines a largely haredi lifestyle with nationalist ideology. (Some people, in Yiddish, also refer to observant Orthodox Jews as frum, as opposed to frei (more liberal Jews)).[174]
Karaites and Samaritans
Karaite Judaism defines itself as the remnants of the non-Rabbinic Jewish sects of the Second Temple period, such as the Sadducees. The Karaites ("Scripturalists") accept only the Hebrew Bible and what they view as the Peshat ("simple" meaning); they do not accept non-biblical writings as authoritative. Some European Karaites do not see themselves as part of the Jewish community at all, although most do.[27]
The Samaritans, a very small community located entirely around Mount Gerizim in the Nablus/Shechem region of the West Bank and in Holon, near Tel Aviv in Israel, regard themselves as the descendants of the Israelites of the Iron Age kingdom of Israel. Their religious practices are based on the literal text of the written Torah (Five Books of Moses), which they view as the only authoritative scripture (with a special regard also for the Samaritan Book of Joshua).
Haymanot (meaning "religion" in Ge'ez and Amharic) refers the Judaism practiced by Ethiopian Jews. This version of Judaism differs substantially from Rabbinic, Karaite, and Samaritan Judaisms, Ethiopian Jews having diverged from their coreligionists earlier. Sacred scriptures (the Orit) are written in Ge'ez, not Hebrew, and dietary laws are based strictly on the text of the Orit, without explication from ancillary commentaries. Holidays also differ, with some Rabbinic holidays not observed in Ethiopian Jewish communities, and some additional holidays, like Sigd.
Noahidism is a Jewishreligious movement based on the Seven Laws of Noah and their traditional interpretations within Rabbinic Judaism. According to the halakha, non-Jews (gentiles) are not obligated to convert to Judaism, but they are required to observe the Seven Laws of Noah to be assured of a place in the World to Come (Olam Ha-Ba), the final reward of the righteous. The divinely ordained penalty for violating any of the Laws of Noah is discussed in the Talmud, but in practical terms it is subject to the working legal system which is established by the society at large. Those who subscribe to the observance of the Noahic Covenant are referred to as B'nei Noach (Hebrew: בני נח, 'Children of Noah') or Noahides (/ˈnoʊ.ə.haɪdɪs/). Supporting organizations have been established around the world over the past decades by both Noahides and Orthodox Jews.[175]
Historically, the Hebrew term B'nei Noach has applied to all non-Jews as descendants of Noah. However, nowadays it's primarily used to refer specifically to those non-Jews who observe the Seven Laws of Noah.
Jewish ethics may be guided by halakhic traditions, by other moral principles, or by central Jewish virtues. Jewish ethical practice is typically understood to be marked by values such as justice, truth, peace, loving-kindness (chesed), compassion, humility, and self-respect. Specific Jewish ethical practices include practices of charity (tzedakah) and refraining from negative speech (lashon hara). Proper ethical practices regarding sexuality and many other issues are subjects of dispute among Jews.
A Yemenite Jew at morning prayers, wearing a kippah skullcap, prayer shawl and tefillin
Traditionally, Jews recite prayers three times daily, Shacharit, Mincha, and Ma'ariv with a fourth prayer, Mussaf added on Shabbat and holidays. At the heart of each service is the Amidah or Shemoneh Esrei. Another key prayer in many services is the declaration of faith, the Shema Yisrael (or Shema). The Shema is the recitation of a verse from the Torah (Deuteronomy 6:4): Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad—"Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God! The Lord is One!"
An Israeli female soldier prays at the Western Wall
Most of the prayers in a traditional Jewish service can be recited in solitary prayer, although communal prayer is preferred. Communal prayer requires a quorum of ten adult Jews, called a minyan. In nearly all Orthodox and a few Conservative circles, only male Jews are counted toward a minyan; most Conservative Jews and members of other Jewish denominations count female Jews as well.
The approach to prayer varies among the Jewish denominations. Differences can include the texts of prayers, the frequency of prayer, the number of prayers recited at various religious events, the use of musical instruments and choral music, and whether prayers are recited in the traditional liturgical languages or the vernacular. In general, Orthodox and Conservative congregations adhere most closely to tradition, and Reform and Reconstructionist synagogues are more likely to incorporate translations and contemporary writings in their services. Also, in most Conservative synagogues, and all Reform and Reconstructionist congregations, women participate in prayer services on an equal basis with men, including roles traditionally filled only by men, such as reading from the Torah. In addition, many Reform temples use musical accompaniment such as organs and mixed choirs.
Religious clothing
Jewish boys wearing tzitzit and kippot play soccer in JerusalemMen wearing tallitot pray at the Western Wall
A kippah (Hebrew: כִּפָּה, plural kippot; Yiddish: יאַרמלקע, yarmulke) is a slightly rounded brimless skullcap worn by many Jews while praying, eating, reciting blessings, or studying Jewish religious texts, and at all times by some Jewish men. In Orthodox communities, only men wear kippot; in non-Orthodox communities, some women also wear kippot. Kippot range in size from a small round beanie that covers only the back of the head to a large, snug cap that covers the whole crown.
Tzitzit (Hebrew: צִיציִת) (Ashkenazi pronunciation: tzitzis) are special knotted "fringes" or "tassels" found on the four corners of the tallit (Hebrew: טַלִּית) (Ashkenazi pronunciation: tallis), or prayer shawl. The tallit is worn by Jewish men and some Jewish women during the prayer service. Customs vary regarding when a Jew begins wearing a tallit. In the Sephardi community, boys wear a tallit from bar mitzvah age. In some Ashkenazi communities, it is customary to wear one only after marriage. A tallit katan (small tallit) is a fringed garment worn under the clothing throughout the day. In some Orthodox circles, the fringes are allowed to hang freely outside the clothing.
Tefillin (Hebrew: תְפִלִּין), known in English as phylacteries (from the Greek word φυλακτήριον, meaning safeguard or amulet), are two square leather boxes containing biblical verses, attached to the forehead and wound around the left arm by leather straps. They are worn during weekday morning prayer by observant Jewish men and some Jewish women.[176]
A kittel (Yiddish: קיטל), a white knee-length overgarment, is worn by prayer leaders and some observant traditional Jews on the High Holidays. It is traditional for the head of the household to wear a kittel at the Passover seder in some communities, and some grooms wear one under the wedding canopy. Jewish males are buried in a tallit and sometimes also a kittel which are part of the tachrichim (burial garments).
Jewish holidays are special days in the Jewish calendar, which celebrate moments in Jewish history, as well as central themes in the relationship between God and the world, such as creation, revelation, and redemption.
Two braided Shabbat challot placed under an embroidered challah cover at the start of the Shabbat meal
Shabbat, the weekly day of rest lasting from shortly before sundown on Friday night to nightfall on Saturday night, commemorates God's day of rest after six days of creation. It plays a pivotal role in Jewish practice and is governed by a large corpus of religious law. At sundown on Friday, the woman of the house welcomes the Shabbat by lighting two or more candles and reciting a blessing. The evening meal begins with the Kiddush, a blessing recited aloud over a cup of wine, and the Mohtzi, a blessing recited over the bread. It is customary to have challah, two braided loaves of bread, on the table. During Shabbat, Jews are forbidden to engage in any activity that falls under 39 categories of melakhah, translated literally as "work". In fact, the activities banned on the Sabbath are not "work" in the usual sense: They include such actions as lighting a fire, writing, using money and carrying in the public domain. The prohibition of lighting a fire has been extended in the modern era to driving a car, which involves burning fuel and using electricity.[177]
Jewish holy days (chaggim), celebrate landmark events in Jewish history, such as the Exodus from Egypt and the giving of the Torah, and sometimes mark the change of seasons and transitions in the agricultural cycle. The three major festivals, Sukkot, Passover and Shavuot, are called "regalim" (derived from the Hebrew word "regel", or foot). On the three regalim, it was customary for the Israelites to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices in the Temple:
A haggadah used by the Jewish community of Cairo in ArabicPassover (Pesach) is a week-long holiday beginning on the evening of the 14th day of Nisan (the first month in the Hebrew calendar), that commemorates the Exodus from Egypt. Outside Israel, Passover is celebrated for eight days. In ancient times, it coincided with the barley harvest. It is the only holiday that centers on home-service, the Seder. Leavened products (chametz) are removed from the house prior to the holiday and are not consumed throughout the week. Homes are thoroughly cleaned to ensure no bread or bread by-products remain, and a symbolic burning of the last vestiges of chametz is conducted on the morning of the Seder. Matzo is eaten instead of bread.
Shavuot ("Pentecost" or "Feast of Weeks") celebrates the revelation of the Torah to the Israelites on Mount Sinai. Also known as the Festival of Bikurim, or first fruits, it coincided in biblical times with the wheat harvest. Shavuot customs include all-night study marathons known as Tikkun Leil Shavuot, eating dairy foods (cheesecake and blintzes are special favorites), reading the Book of Ruth, decorating homes and synagogues with greenery, and wearing white clothing, symbolizing purity.
A sukkahSukkot ("Tabernacles" or "The Festival of Booths") commemorates the Israelites' forty years of wandering through the desert on their way to the Promised Land. It is celebrated through the construction of temporary booths called sukkot (sing. sukkah) that represent the temporary shelters of the Israelites during their wandering. It coincides with the fruit harvest and marks the end of the agricultural cycle. Jews around the world eat in sukkot for seven days and nights. Sukkot concludes with Shemini Atzeret, where Jews begin to pray for rain and Simchat Torah, "Rejoicing of the Torah", a holiday which marks reaching the end of the Torah reading cycle and beginning all over again. The occasion is celebrated with singing and dancing with the Torah scrolls. Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are technically considered to be a separate holiday and not a part of Sukkot.
Jews in Mumbai break the Yom Kippur fast with roti and samosas
The High Holidays (Yamim Noraim or "Days of Awe") revolve around judgment and forgiveness:
Rosh Hashanah, (also Yom Ha-Zikkaron or "Day of Remembrance", and Yom Teruah, or "Day of the Sounding of the Shofar"). Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year (literally, "head of the year"), although it falls on the first day of the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar, Tishri. Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the 10-day period of atonement leading up to Yom Kippur, during which Jews are commanded to search their souls and make amends for sins committed, intentionally or not, throughout the year. Holiday customs include blowing the shofar, or ram's horn, in the synagogue, eating apples and honey, and saying blessings over a variety of symbolic foods, such as pomegranates.
Yom Kippur, ("Day of Atonement") is the holiest day of the Jewish year. It is a day of communal fasting and praying for forgiveness for one's sins. Observant Jews spend the entire day in the synagogue, sometimes with a short break in the afternoon, reciting prayers from a special holiday prayerbook called a "Machzor". Many non-religious Jews make a point of attending synagogue services and fasting on Yom Kippur. On the eve of Yom Kippur, before candles are lit, a prefast meal, the "seuda mafseket", is eaten. Synagogue services on the eve of Yom Kippur begin with the Kol Nidre prayer. It is customary to wear white on Yom Kippur, especially for Kol Nidre, and leather shoes are not worn. The following day, prayers are held from morning to evening. The final prayer service, called "Ne'ilah", ends with a long blast of the shofar.
Purim street scene in JerusalemJewish personnel of the US Navy light candles on Hanukkah
Purim (Hebrew: פוריםⓘPûrîm "lots") is a joyous Jewish holiday that commemorates the deliverance of the Persian Jews from the plot of the evil Haman, who sought to exterminate them, as recorded in the biblical Book of Esther. It is characterized by public recitation of the Book of Esther, mutual gifts of food and drink, charity to the poor, and a celebratory meal (Esther 9:22). Other customs include drinking wine, eating special pastries called hamantashen, dressing up in masks and costumes, and organizing carnivals and parties.
Purim has celebrated annually on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Adar, which occurs in February or March of the Gregorian calendar.
Hanukkah (Hebrew: חֲנֻכָּה, "dedication") also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday that starts on the 25th day of Kislev (Hebrew calendar). The festival is observed in Jewish homes by the kindling of lights on each of the festival's eight nights, one on the first night, two on the second night and so on.
The holiday was called Hanukkah (meaning "dedication") because it marks the re-dedication of the Temple after its desecration by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Spiritually, Hanukkah commemorates the "Miracle of the Oil". According to the Talmud, at the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem following the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire, there was only enough consecrated oil to fuel the eternal flame in the Temple for one day. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days—which was the length of time it took to press, prepare and consecrate new oil.
Hanukkah is not mentioned in the Bible and was never considered a major holiday in Judaism, but it has become much more visible and widely celebrated in modern times, mainly because it falls around the same time as Christmas and has national Jewish overtones that have been emphasized since the establishment of the State of Israel.
There are three more minor Jewish fast days that commemorate various stages of the destruction of the Temples. They are the 17th Tamuz, the 10th of Tevet and Tzom Gedaliah (the 3rd of Tishrei).
The modern holidays of Yom Ha-shoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), Yom Hazikaron (Israeli Memorial Day) and Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) commemorate the horrors of the Holocaust, the fallen soldiers of Israel and victims of terrorism, and Israeli independence, respectively.
There are some who prefer to commemorate those who were killed in the Holocaust on the 10th of Tevet.
The core of festival and Shabbat prayer services is the public reading of the Torah, along with connected readings from the other books of the Tanakh, called Haftarah. Over the course of a year, the whole Torah is read, with the cycle starting over in the autumn, on Simchat Torah.
Synagogues are Jewish houses of prayer and study. They usually contain separate rooms for prayer (the main sanctuary), smaller rooms for study, and often an area for community or educational use. There is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes and interior designs of synagogues vary greatly. The Reform movement mostly refer to their synagogues as temples. Some traditional features of a synagogue are:
The ark (called aron ha-kodesh by Ashkenazim and hekhal by Sephardim) where the Torah scrolls are kept (the ark is often closed with an ornate curtain (parochet) outside or inside the ark doors);
The elevated reader's platform (called bimah by Ashkenazim and tebah by Sephardim), where the Torah is read (and services are conducted in Sephardi synagogues);
The pulpit, or amud, a lectern facing the Ark where the hazzan or prayer leader stands while praying.
In addition to synagogues, other buildings of significance in Judaism include yeshivas, or institutions of Jewish learning, and mikvahs, which are ritual baths.
The Jewish dietary laws are known as kashrut. Food prepared in accordance with them is termed kosher, and food that is not kosher is also known as treifah or treif. People who observe these laws are colloquially said to be "keeping kosher".[178][179]
Many of the laws apply to animal-based foods. For example, in order to be considered kosher, mammals must have split hooves and chew their cud. The pig is arguably the most well-known example of a non-kosher animal.[180] Although it has split hooves, it does not chew its cud. For seafood to be kosher, the animal must have fins and scales. Certain types of seafood, such as shellfish, crustaceans, and eels, are therefore considered non-kosher. Concerning birds, a list of non-kosher species is given in the Torah. The exact translations of many of the species have not survived, and some non-kosher birds' identities are no longer certain. However, traditions exist about the kashrut status of a few birds. For example, both chickens and turkeys are permitted in most communities. Other types of animals, such as amphibians, reptiles, and most insects, are prohibited altogether.[178]
In addition to the requirement that the species be considered kosher, meat and poultry (but not fish) must come from a healthy animal slaughtered in a process known as shechitah. Without the proper slaughtering practices even an otherwise kosher animal will be rendered treif. The slaughtering process is intended to be quick and relatively painless to the animal. Forbidden parts of animals include the blood, some fats, and the area in and around the sciatic nerve.[178]
Halakha also forbids the consumption of meat and dairy products together. The waiting period between eating meat and eating dairy varies by the order in which they are consumed and by community and can extend for up to six hours. Based on the Biblical injunction against cooking a kid in its mother's milk, this rule is mostly derived from the Oral Torah, the Talmud and Rabbinic law. Chicken and other kosher birds are considered the same as meat under the laws of kashrut, but the prohibition is rabbinic, not biblical.[181]
The use of dishes, serving utensils, and ovens may make food treif that would otherwise be kosher. Utensils that have been used to prepare non-kosher food, or dishes that have held meat and are now used for dairy products, render the food treif under certain conditions.[178]
Furthermore, all Orthodox and some Conservative authorities forbid the consumption of processed grape products made by non-Jews, due to ancient pagan practices of using wine in rituals. Some Conservative authorities permit wine and grape juice made without rabbinic supervision.[182]
The Torah does not give specific reasons for most of the laws of kashrut. However, a number of explanations have been offered, including maintaining ritual purity, teaching impulse control, encouraging obedience to God, improving health, reducing cruelty to animals and preserving the distinctness of the Jewish community.[178] The various categories of dietary laws may have developed for different reasons, and some may exist for multiple reasons. For example, people are forbidden from consuming the blood of birds and mammals because, according to the Torah, this is where animal souls are contained. In contrast, the Torah forbids Israelites from eating non-kosher species because "they are unclean".[183] The Kabbalah describes sparks of holiness that are released by the act of eating kosher foods but are too tightly bound in non-kosher foods to be released by eating.[178]
Survival concerns supersede all the laws of kashrut, as they do for most halakhot.[184][185]
The Tanakh describes circumstances in which a person who is tahor or ritually pure may become tamei or ritually impure. Some of these circumstances are contact with human corpses or graves, seminal flux, vaginal flux, menstruation, and contact with people who have become impure from any of these.[186][187] In Rabbinic Judaism, Kohanim, members of the hereditary caste that served as priests in the time of the Temple, are mostly restricted from entering grave sites and touching dead bodies.[188] During the Temple period, such priests (Kohanim) were required to eat their bread offering (Terumah) in a state of ritual purity, which laws eventually led to more rigid laws being enacted, such as hand-washing which became a requisite of all Jews before consuming ordinary bread.[189][190][191]
An important subcategory of the ritual purity laws relates to the segregation of menstruating women. These laws are also known as niddah, literally "separation", or family purity. Vital aspects of halakha for traditionally observant Jews, they are not usually followed by Jews in liberal denominations.[192]
Especially in Orthodox Judaism, the Biblical laws are augmented by Rabbinical injunctions. For example, the Torah mandates that a woman in her normal menstrual period must abstain from sexual intercourse for seven days. A woman whose menstruation is prolonged must continue to abstain for seven more days after bleeding has stopped.[186] The Rabbis conflated ordinary niddah with this extended menstrual period, known in the Torah as zavah, and mandated that a woman may not have sexual intercourse with her husband from the time she begins her menstrual flow until seven days after it ends. In addition, Rabbinical law forbids the husband from touching or sharing a bed with his wife during this period. Afterwards, purification can occur in a ritual bath called a mikveh[192]
Traditional Ethiopian Jews keep menstruating women in separate huts and, similar to Karaite practice, do not allow menstruating women into their temples because of a temple's special sanctity. Emigration to Israel and the influence of other Jewish denominations have led to Ethiopian Jews adopting more normative Jewish practices.[193][194]
Two boys wearing tallit at a bar mitzvah. The torah is visible in the foreground.
Life-cycle events
Life-cycle events, or rites of passage, occur throughout a Jew's life that serves to strengthen Jewish identity and bind him/her to the entire community:
Brit milah – Welcoming male babies into the covenant through the rite of circumcision on their eighth day of life. The baby boy is also given his Hebrew name in the ceremony. A naming ceremony intended as a parallel ritual for girls, named zeved habat or brit bat, enjoys limited popularity.
Bar mitzvah and Bat mitzvah – This passage from childhood to adulthood takes place when a female Jew is twelve and a male Jew is thirteen years old among Orthodox and some Conservative congregations. In the Reform movement, both girls and boys have their bat/bar mitzvah at age thirteen. This is often commemorated by having the new adults, male only in the Orthodox tradition, lead the congregation in prayer and publicly read a "portion" of the Torah.
Marriage – Marriage is an extremely important lifecycle event and an ideal human state.[195] A wedding takes place under a chuppah, or wedding canopy, which symbolizes a happy house. At the end of the ceremony, the groom breaks a glass with his foot, symbolizing the continuous mourning for the destruction of the Temple, and the scattering of the Jewish people. An intermarriage is prohibited, except as within Reform Judaism:[196]
Divorce – Divorce is allowed in accordance with Halakha. The divorce ceremony involves the husband giving the short get document written in Aramaic into the hand of the wife in rabbinical court, that is all. But, since the 11th century among the Ashkenazim and many Sephardim a divorce became prohibited against will of a wife, than a man had way for polygamy.[197] The get contains declaration: "You are hereby permitted to all men."
The Bereavement (Yahrtzeit) Hasidic tish, Bnei Brak, Israel
Death and Mourning (Avelut) – The Torah requires burial as soon as possible, even for executed criminals.[198] Judaism has a multi-staged mourning practice. The first stage is called the shiva (literally "seven", observed for one week) during which it is traditional to sit at home and be comforted by friends and family, 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 eleven months.[199] A cremation within Orthodox Judaism permited only by some leading rabbis in West Europe.[200]
The role of the priesthood in Judaism has significantly diminished since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE when priests attended to the Temple and sacrifices. The priesthood is an inherited position, and although priests no longer have any but ceremonial duties, they are still honored in many Jewish communities. Many Orthodox Jewish communities believe that they will be needed again for a future Third Temple and need to remain in readiness for future duty:
Kohen (priest) – patrilineal descendant of Aaron, brother of Moses. In the Temple, the kohanim were charged with performing the sacrifices. Today, a Kohen is the first one called up at the reading of the Torah, performs the Priestly Blessing, as well as complying with other unique laws and ceremonies, including the ceremony of redemption of the first-born.
Levi (Levite) – Patrilineal descendant of Levi the son of Jacob. In the Temple in Jerusalem, the levites sang Psalms, performed construction, maintenance, janitorial, and guard duties, assisted the priests, and sometimes interpreted the law and Temple ritual to the public. Today, a Levite is called up second to the reading of the Torah.
From the time of the Mishnah and Talmud to the present, Judaism has required specialists or authorities for the practice of very few rituals or ceremonies. A Jew can fulfill most requirements for prayer by himself. Some activities—reading the Torah and haftarah (a supplementary portion from the Prophets or Writings), the prayer for mourners, the blessings for bridegroom and bride, the complete grace after meals—require a minyan, the presence of ten Jews.
The most common professional clergy in a synagogue are:
Rabbi of a congregation – Jewish scholar who is charged with answering the legal questions of a congregation. This role requires ordination by the congregation's preferred authority (i.e., from a respected Orthodox rabbi or, if the congregation is Conservative or Reform, from academic seminaries). A congregation does not necessarily require a rabbi. Some congregations have a rabbi but also allow members of the congregation to act as shatz or baal kriyah (see below).
Hassidic Rebbe – rabbi who is the head of a Hasidic dynasty.
Hazzan (note: the "h" denotes voiceless pharyngeal fricative) (cantor) – a trained vocalist who acts as shatz. Chosen for a good voice, knowledge of traditional tunes, understanding of the meaning of the prayers and sincerity in reciting them. A congregation does not need to have a dedicated hazzan.
Jewish prayer services do involve two specified roles, which are sometimes, but not always, filled by a rabbi or hazzan in many congregations. In other congregations these roles are filled on an ad-hoc basis by members of the congregation who lead portions of services on a rotating basis:
Shaliach tzibur or Shatz (leader—literally "agent" or "representative"—of the congregation) leads those assembled in prayer and sometimes prays on behalf of the community. When a shatz recites a prayer on behalf of the congregation, he is not acting as an intermediary but rather as a facilitator. The entire congregation participates in the recital of such prayers by saying amen at their conclusion; it is with this act that the shatz's prayer becomes the prayer of the congregation. Any adult capable of reciting the prayers clearly may act as shatz. In Orthodox congregations and some Conservative congregations, only men can be prayer leaders, but all Progressive communities now allow women to serve in this function.
The Baal kriyah or baal koreh (master of the reading) reads the weekly Torah portion. The requirements for being the baal kriyah are the same as those for the shatz. These roles are not mutually exclusive. The same person is often qualified to fill more than one role and often does. Often there are several people capable of filling these roles and different services (or parts of services) will be led by each.
Many congregations, especially larger ones, also rely on a:
Gabbai (sexton) – Calls people up to the Torah, appoints the shatz for each prayer session if there is no standard shatz, and makes certain that the synagogue is kept clean and supplied.
The three preceding positions are usually voluntary and considered an honor. Since the Enlightenment large synagogues have often adopted the practice of hiring rabbis and hazzans to act as shatz and baal kriyah, and this is still typically the case in many Conservative and Reform congregations. However, in most Orthodox synagogues these positions are filled by laypeople on a rotating or ad-hoc basis. Although most congregations hire one or more Rabbis, the use of a professional hazzan is generally declining in American congregations, and the use of professionals for other offices is rarer still.
Dayan (judge) – An ordained rabbi with special legal training who belongs to a beth din (rabbinical court). In Israel, religious courts handle marriage and divorce cases, conversion and financial disputes in the Jewish community.
Mohel (circumciser) – An expert in the laws of circumcision who has received training from a previously qualified mohel and performs the brit milah (circumcision).
Shochet (ritual slaughterer) – In order for meat to be kosher, it must be slaughtered by a shochet who is an expert in the laws of kashrut and has been trained by another shochet.
Sofer (scribe) – Torah scrolls, tefillin (phylacteries), mezuzot (scrolls put on doorposts), and gittin (bills of divorce) must be written by a sofer who is an expert in Hebrew calligraphy and has undergone rigorous training in the laws of writing sacred texts.
Mashgiach/Mashgicha of a yeshiva – Depending on which yeshiva, might either be the person responsible for ensuring attendance and proper conduct, or even supervise the emotional and spiritual welfare of the students and give lectures on mussar (Jewish ethics).
Mashgiach/Mashgicha – Supervises manufacturers of kosher food, importers, caterers and restaurants to ensure that the food is kosher. Must be an expert in the laws of kashrut and trained by a rabbi, if not a rabbi himself or herself.
Historical Jewish groupings (to 1700)
Around the 1st century CE, there were several small Jewish sects: the Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, Essenes, and Christians. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, these sects vanished.[22][201] Christianity survived, but by breaking with Judaism and becoming a separate religion; the Pharisees survived but in the form of Rabbinic Judaism (today, known simply as "Judaism").[22] The Sadducees rejected the divine inspiration of the Prophets and the Writings, relying only on the Torah as divinely inspired. Consequently, a number of other core tenets of the Pharisees' belief system (which became the basis for modern Judaism), were also dismissed by the Sadducees. (The Samaritans practiced a similar religion, which is traditionally considered separate from Judaism.)
Like the Sadducees who relied only on the Torah, some Jews in the 8th and 9th centuries rejected the authority and divine inspiration of the oral law as recorded in the Mishnah (and developed by later rabbis in the two Talmuds), relying instead only upon the Tanakh. These included the Isunians, the Yudganites, the Malikites,[clarification needed] and others. They soon developed oral traditions of their own, which differed from the rabbinic traditions, and eventually formed the Karaite sect. Karaites exist in small numbers today, mostly living in Israel. Rabbinical and Karaite Jews each hold that the others are Jews, but that the other faith is erroneous.
Over a long time, Jews formed distinct ethnic groups in several different geographic areas—amongst others, the Ashkenazi Jews (of central and Eastern Europe), the Sephardi Jews (of Spain, Portugal, and North Africa), the Beta Israel of Ethiopia, the Yemenite Jews from the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula and the Malabari and Cochin Jews from Kerala . Many of these groups have developed differences in their prayers, traditions and accepted canons; however, these distinctions are mainly the result of their being formed at some cultural distance from normative (rabbinic) Judaism, rather than based on any doctrinal dispute.
This was different in quality from the repressions of Jews which had occurred in ancient times. Ancient repressions were politically motivated and Jews were treated the same as members of other ethnic groups. With the rise of the Churches, the main motive for attacks on Jews changed from politics to religion and the religious motive for such attacks was specifically derived from Christian views about Jews and Judaism.[202] During the Middle Ages, Jewish people who lived under Muslim rule generally experienced tolerance and integration,[203] but there were occasional outbreaks of violence like Almohad's persecutions.[204]
Hasidic Judaism was founded by Yisroel ben Eliezer (1700–1760), also known as the Ba'al Shem Tov (or Besht). It originated in a time of persecution of the Jewish people when European Jews had turned inward to Talmud study; many felt that most expressions of Jewish life had become too "academic", and that they no longer had any emphasis on spirituality or joy. Its adherents favored small and informal gatherings called Shtiebel, which, in contrast to a traditional synagogue, could be used both as a place of worship and for celebrations involving dancing, eating, and socializing.[205] Ba'al Shem Tov's disciples attracted many followers; they themselves established numerous Hasidic sects across Europe. Unlike other religions, which typically expanded through word of mouth or by use of print, Hasidism spread largely owing to Tzadiks, who used their influence to encourage others to follow the movement. Hasidism appealed to many Europeans because it was easy to learn, did not require full immediate commitment, and presented a compelling spectacle.[206] Hasidic Judaism eventually became the way of life for many Jews in Eastern Europe. Waves of Jewish immigration in the 1880s carried it to the United States. The movement itself claims to be nothing new, but a refreshment of original Judaism. As some have put it: "they merely re-emphasized that which the generations had lost". Nevertheless, early on there was a serious schism between Hasidic and non-Hasidic Jews. European Jews who rejected the Hasidic movement were dubbed by the Hasidim as Misnagdim, (lit. "opponents"). Some of the reasons for the rejection of Hasidic Judaism were the exuberance of Hasidic worship, its deviation from tradition in ascribing infallibility and miracles to their leaders, and the concern that it might become a messianic sect. Over time differences between the Hasidim and their opponents have slowly diminished and both groups are now considered part of Haredi Judaism.
In the late 18th century CE, Europe was swept by a group of intellectual, social and political movements known as the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment led to reductions in the European laws that prohibited Jews to interact with the wider secular world, thus allowing Jews access to secular education and experience. A parallel Jewish movement, Haskalah or the "Jewish Enlightenment", began, especially in Central Europe and Western Europe, in response to both the Enlightenment and these new freedoms. It placed an emphasis on integration with secular society and a pursuit of non-religious knowledge through reason. With the promise of political emancipation, many Jews saw no reason to continue to observe halakha and increasing numbers of Jews assimilated into Christian Europe. Modern religious movements of Judaism all formed in reaction to this trend.
In Central Europe, followed by Great Britain and the United States, Reform (or Liberal) Judaism developed, relaxing legal obligations (especially those that limited Jewish relations with non-Jews), emulating Protestant decorum in prayer, and emphasizing the ethical values of Judaism's Prophetic tradition. Modern Orthodox Judaism developed in reaction to Reform Judaism, by leaders who argued that Jews could participate in public life as citizens equal to Christians while maintaining the observance of halakha. Meanwhile, in the United States, wealthy Reform Jews helped European scholars, who were Orthodox in practice but critical (and skeptical) in their study of the Bible and Talmud, to establish a seminary to train rabbis for immigrants from Eastern Europe. These left-wing Orthodox rabbis were joined by right-wing Reform rabbis who felt that halakha should not be entirely abandoned, to form the Conservative movement. Orthodox Jews who opposed the Haskalah formed Haredi Orthodox Judaism. After massive movements of Jews following The Holocaust and the creation of the state of Israel, these movements have competed for followers from among traditional Jews in or from other countries.
Spectrum of observance
Judaism is practiced around the world. This is an 1889 siddur published in Hebrew and Marathi for use by the Bene Israel community
Jewish religious practice varies widely through all levels of observance. According to the 2001 edition of the National Jewish Population Survey, in the United States' Jewish community—the world's second largest—4.3 million Jews out of 5.1 million had some sort of connection to the religion.[207] Of that population of connected Jews, 80% participated in some sort of Jewish religious observance, but only 48% belonged to a congregation, and fewer than 16% attend regularly.[208]
Christianity was originally a sect of Second Temple Judaism, but the two religions diverged in the first century. The differences between Christianity and Judaism originally centered on whether Jesus was the Jewish Messiah but eventually became irreconcilable. Major differences between the two faiths include the nature of the Messiah, of atonement and sin, the status of God's commandments to Israel, and perhaps most significantly of the nature of God himself. Due to these differences, Judaism traditionally regards Christianity as Shituf or worship of the God of Israel which is not monotheistic. Christianity has traditionally regarded Judaism as obsolete with the invention of Christianity and Jews as a people replaced by the Church, though a Christian belief in dual-covenant theology emerged as a phenomenon following Christian reflection on how their theology influenced the Nazi Holocaust.[209]
We decree that no Christian shall use violence to force them to be baptized, so long as they are unwilling and refuse.…Without the judgment of the political authority of the land, no Christian shall presume to wound them or kill them or rob them of their money or change the good customs that they have thus far enjoyed in the place where they live."[210]
Until their emancipation in the late 18th and the 19th century, Jews in Christian lands were subject to humiliating legal restrictions and limitations. They included provisions requiring Jews to wear specific and identifying clothing such as the Jewish hat and the yellow badge, restricting Jews to certain cities and towns or in certain parts of towns (ghettos), and forbidding Jews to enter certain trades (for example selling new clothes in medieval Sweden). Disabilities also included special taxes levied on Jews, exclusion from public life, restraints on the performance of religious ceremonies, and linguistic censorship. Some countries went even further and completely expelled Jews, for example, England in 1290 (Jews were readmitted in 1655) and Spain in 1492 (readmitted in 1868). The first Jewish settlers in North America arrived in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam in 1654; they were forbidden to hold public office, open a retail shop, or establish a synagogue. When the colony was seized by the British in 1664 Jewish rights remained unchanged, but by 1671 Asser Levy was the first Jew to serve on a jury in North America.[211] In 1791, Revolutionary France was the first country to abolish disabilities altogether, followed by Prussia in 1848. Emancipation of the Jews in the United Kingdom was achieved in 1858 after an almost 30-year struggle championed by Isaac Lyon Goldsmid[212] with the ability of Jews to sit in parliament with the passing of the Jews Relief Act 1858. The newly created German Empire in 1871 abolished Jewish disabilities in Germany, which were reinstated in the Nuremberg Laws in 1935.
Jewish life in Christian lands was marked by frequent blood libels, expulsions, forced conversions and massacres. Religious prejudice was an underlying source against Jews in Europe. Christian rhetoric and antipathy towards Jews developed in the early years of Christianity and was reinforced by ever increasing anti-Jewish measures over the ensuing centuries. The action taken by Christians against Jews included acts of violence, and murder culminating in the Holocaust.[213]: 21 [214]: 169 [215] These attitudes were reinforced by Christian preaching, in art and popular teaching for two millennia which expressed contempt for Jews,[216] as well as statutes which were designed to humiliate and stigmatise Jews. The Nazi Party was known for its persecution of Christian Churches; many of them, such as the Protestant Confessing Church and the Catholic Church,[217] as well as Quakers and Jehovah's Witnesses, aided and rescued Jews who were being targeted by the antireligious régime.[218]
The attitude of Christians and Christian Churches toward the Jewish people and Judaism have changed in a mostly positive direction since World War II. Pope John Paul II and the Catholic Church have "upheld the Church's acceptance of the continuing and permanent election of the Jewish people" as well as a reaffirmation of the covenant between God and the Jews.[219] In December 2015, the Vatican released a 10,000-word document that, among other things, stated that Catholics should work with Jews to fight antisemitism.[220]
Both Judaism and Islam track their origins from the patriarch Abraham, and they are therefore considered Abrahamic religions. In both Jewish and Muslim tradition, the Jewish and Arab peoples are descended from the two sons of Abraham—Isaac and Ishmael, respectively. While both religions are monotheistic and share many commonalities, they differ based on the fact that Jews do not consider Jesus or Muhammad to be prophets. The religions' adherents have interacted with each other since the 7th century when Islam originated and spread in the Arabian peninsula. Indeed, the years 712 to 1066 CE under the Ummayad and the Abbasid rulers have been called the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain. Non-Muslim monotheists living in these countries, including Jews, were known as dhimmis. Dhimmis were allowed to practice their own religions and administer their own internal affairs, but they were subject to certain restrictions that were not imposed on Muslims.[221] For example, they had to pay the jizya, a per capita tax imposed on free adult non-Muslim males,[221] and they were also forbidden to bear arms or testify in court cases involving Muslims.[222] Many of the laws regarding dhimmis were highly symbolic. For example, dhimmis in some countries were required to wear distinctive clothing, a practice not found in either the Qur'an or the hadiths but invented in early medievalBaghdad and inconsistently enforced.[223] Jews in Muslim countries were not entirely free from persecution—for example, many were killed, exiled or forcibly converted in the 12th century, in Persia, and by the rulers of the Almohad dynasty in North Africa and Al-Andalus,[224] as well as by the Zaydi imams of Yemen in the 17th century (see: Mawza Exile). At times, Jews were also restricted in their choice of residence—in Morocco, for example, Jews were confined to walled quarters (mellahs) beginning in the 15th century and increasingly since the early 19th century.[225]
In the mid-20th century, Jews were expelled from nearly all of the Arab countries.[226][227] Most have chosen to live in Israel. Today, antisemitic themes including Holocaust denial have become commonplace in the propaganda of Islamic movements such as Hizbullah and Hamas, in the pronouncements of various agencies of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and even in the newspapers and other publications of Refah Partisi.[228]
Syncretic movements incorporating Judaism
There are some movements in other religions that include elements of Judaism. Among Christianity these are a number of denominations of ancient and contemporary Judaizers. The most well-known of these is Messianic Judaism, a religious movement, which arose in the 1960s,[229][230][231][232] In this, elements of the messianic traditions in Judaism,[233][234] are incorporated in, and melded with the tenets of Christianity.[232][235][236][237][238] The movement generally states that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, that he is one of the Three Divine Persons,[239][240] and that salvation is only achieved through acceptance of Jesus as one's savior.[241] Some members of Messianic Judaism argue that it is a sect of Judaism.[242] Jewish organizations of every denomination reject this, stating that Messianic Judaism is a Christian sect, because it teaches creeds which are identical to those of Pauline Christianity, and because the conditions for Messiah to have come accordingly within traditional Jewish thought have not yet been met.[243][244] Another religious movement is the Black Hebrew Israelite group, which not to be confused with less syncretic Black Judaism (a constellation of movements which, depending on their adherence to normative Jewish tradition, receive varying degrees of recognition by the broader Jewish community).
On the other hand, proponents of classical Orthodox Judaism such as Neturei Karta and similar groups strongly oppose the growing accommodation to political Zionism by Haredi Jewish groups such as Agudat Yisrael; a previously anti-Zionist proponent of Orthodox Haredi Judaism whom the Neturei Karta see as betrayal by the Agudat Yisrael against the Orthodoxy, in the belief that Judaism should not be conflated with the politics of Zionism.[251][252][253]
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^Lietaert Peerbolte, Bert Jan (2013). "How Antichrist Defeated Death: The Development of Christian Apocalyptic Eschatology in the Early Church". In Krans, Jan; Lietaert Peerbolte, L. J.; Smit, Peter-Ben; Zwiep, Arie W. (eds.). Paul, John, and Apocalyptic Eschatology: Studies in Honour of Martinus C. de Boer. Novum Testamentum: Supplements. Vol. 149. Leiden: Brill Publishers. pp. 238–255. doi:10.1163/9789004250369_016. ISBN978-90-04-25026-0. ISSN 0167-9732. S2CID 191738355. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
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^Heribert Busse (1998). Islam, Judaism, and Christianity: Theological and Historical Affiliations. Markus Wiener Publishers. pp. 63–112. ISBN978-1-55876-144-5.
^Cambridge University Historical Series, An Essay on Western Civilization in Its Economic Aspects, p.40: Hebraism, like Hellenism, has been an all-important factor in the development of Western Civilization; Judaism, as the precursor of Christianity, has indirectly had had much to do with shaping the ideals and morality of western nations since the christian era.
^Mendes-Flohr, Paul (2003) [2000]. "Secular Forms of Jewishness". In Neusner, Jacob; Avery-Peck, Alan J. (eds.). The Blackwell Companion to Judaism (Reprint ed.). Malden, Mass: Blackwell Publ. pp. 461–476. ISBN1-57718-058-5. from the original on 10 July 2023. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
^Ackerman, Ari (May 2010). "Eliezer Schweid on the Religious Dimension of a Secular Jewish Renewal". Modern Judaism. 30 (2): 209–228. doi:10.1093/mj/kjq005. ISSN 0276-1114. JSTOR 40604707. S2CID 143106665.
^Troen, Ilan (April 2016). Secular Judaism in Israel 31 July 2023 at the Wayback Machine, Society, Vol. 53, Issue 2.
^"Bet Din". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. from the original on 27 April 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
^See, for example, Deborah Dash Moore, American Jewish Identity Politics, University of Michigan Press, 2008, p. 303; Ewa Morawska, Insecure Prosperity: Small-Town Jews in Industrial America, 1890–1940, Princeton University Press, 1999. p. 217; Peter Y. Medding, Values, interests and identity: Jews and politics in a changing world, Volume 11 of Studies in contemporary Jewry, Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 64; Ezra Mendelsohn, People of the city: Jews and the urban challenge, Volume 15 of Studies in contemporary Jewry, Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 55; Louis Sandy Maisel, Ira N. Forman, Donald Altschiller, Charles Walker Bassett, Jews in American politics: essays, Rowman & Littlefield, 2004, p. 158; Seymour Martin Lipset, American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword, W.W. Norton & Company, 1997, p. 169.
^Ernest Krausz; Gitta Tulea (1997). Jewish Survival: The Identity Problem at the Close of the Twentieth Century; [... International Workshop at Bar-Ilan University on the 18th and 19th of March, 1997]. Transaction Publishers. pp. 90–. ISBN978-1-4128-2689-1. "A person born Jewish who refutes Judaism may continue to assert a Jewish identity, and if he or she does not convert to another religion, even religious Jews will recognize the person as a Jew"
^"Jewish Population by Country 2023". worldpopulationreview.com. from the original on 10 February 2023. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
^Mason, Steve (August 2009). "Methods and Categories: Judaism and Gospel". bibleinterp.arizona.edu. from the original on 29 July 2020. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
^ abSchwartz, Daniel R. (2021). . TheTorah.com. Archived from the original on 16 March 2024.
^ abSkarsaune, Oskar (2002). In the Shadow of the Temple: Jewish Influences on Early Christianity. InterVarsity Press. pp. 39ff. ISBN978-0-8308-2670-4. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
^Shaye J.D. Cohen 1999 The Beginnings of Jewishness: Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties University of California Press. 105–106
^"He anon renouncyd his Iudaisme or Moysen Lawe, And was cristenyd, and lyued after as a Cristen Man." (Robert Fabian, New Chronicles of England and France, reprint London 1811, p. 334.)
^Sarna, Nahum M. (1966). Understanding Genesis. Schocken Books. pp. 9–10, 14. ISBN978-0-8052-0253-3. from the original on 10 February 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
^Neusner, Jacob (2003). "Defining Judaism". In Neusner, Jacob; Avery-Peck, Alan (eds.). The Blackwell companion to Judaism. Blackwell. p. 3. ISBN978-1-57718-059-3. from the original on 10 February 2023. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
^Gen. 17:3–8 Genesis 17: 3–8: Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God;" Gen. 22:17–18 Genesis 22: 17–18: I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."
^Exodus 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before me; Deut. 6:5 Deuteronomy 6:5 "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."
^Lev. 19:18 Leviticus 19:18: "'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord"
^Kadushin, Max, 1972 The Rabbinic Mind. New York: Bloch Publishing Company. p. 194
^Kadushin, Max, 1972 The Rabbinic Mind. New York: Bloch Publishing Company. p. 203
^The Books of Melachim (Kings) and Book of Yeshaiahu (Isaiah) in the Tanakh contain a few of the many Biblical accounts of Israelite kings and segments of ancient Israel's population worshiping other gods. For example: King Solomon's "wives turned away his heart after other gods…[and he] did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD" (elaborated in 1 Melachim 11:4–10); King Ahab "went and served Baal, and worshiped him…And Ahab made the Asherah [a pagan place of worship]; and Ahab did yet more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, than all the kings of Israel that were before him" (1 Melachim 16:31–33); the prophet Isaiah condemns the people who "prepare a table for [the idol] Fortune, and that offer mingled wine in full measure unto [the idol] Destiny" (Yeshaiahu 65:11–12). Translation: JPS (Jewish Publication Society) edition of the Tanakh, from 1917, available at Mechon Mamre 12 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
^Newman, Carey C.; Davila, James R.; Lewis, Gladys S., eds. (1999). The Jewish roots of Christological monotheism: papers from the St. Andrews conference on the historical origins of the worship of Jesus. Brill. ISBN978-90-04-11361-9. from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
^Maimes, Steven (January 2013). "Is There a Jewish Theology or Not?". Retrieved 19 November 2018 – via ResearchGate.
^Septimus, Daniel. "Must a Jew Believe in God?". My Jewish Learning. 70 / Faces Media. from the original on 25 April 2019. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
^Steinberg, Milton 1947 Basic Judaism New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. p. 36
^Queen II, Edward L.; Prothero, Stephen R.; Shattuck Jr., Gardiner H. (1996). The Encyclopedia of American Religious History. Vol. 2. New York: Proseworks. p. 485. ISBN0-8160-3545-8.
^Rabbi S. of Montpelier, Yad Rama, Y. Alfacher, Rosh Amanah.
^"Maimonides' 13 Foundations of Judaism". Mesora. from the original on 23 April 2016. Retrieved 13 April 2009. However if he rejects one of these fundamentals he leaves the nation and is a denier of the fundamentals and is called a heretic, a denier, etc.
^Rabbi Mordechai Blumenfeld (9 May 2009). "Maimonides, 13 Principles of Faith". Aish HaTorah. from the original on 27 September 2019. Retrieved 13 August 2009. According to the Rambam, their acceptance defines the minimum requirement necessary for one to relate to the Almighty and His Torah as a member of the People of Israel
^ abcDaniel Septimus. "The Thirteen Principles of Faith". MyJewishLearning.com. from the original on 3 April 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2009.
^Ronald L. Eisenberg (2004). The JPS guide to Jewish traditions. Jewish Publication Society. p. 509. ISBN978-0-8276-0760-6. The concept of "dogma" is…not a basic idea in Judaism.
^Dogma in Medieval Jewish Thought, Menachem Kellner.
^"The Thirteen Principles of the Jewish Faith". Hebrew4Christians. from the original on 25 May 2017. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
^"What Do Jews Believe?". Mechon Mamre. from the original on 6 April 2009. Retrieved 13 April 2009. The closest that anyone has ever come to creating a widely accepted list of Jewish beliefs is Maimonides' thirteen principles of faith.
^The JPS guide to Jewish traditions, p. 510, "The one that eventually secured almost universal acceptance was the Thirteen Principles of faith"
^. Religioustolerance.org. Archived from the original on 5 November 2020. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
^Rietti, Rabbi Jonathan. . Archived from the original on 18 September 2004. The word "emunah" has been translated incorrectly by the King James Bible as merely "belief" or "faith", when in actuality, it means conviction, which is a much more emphatic knowledge of God based on experience.
^M. San 10:1. Translation available here [1] 14 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
^Kosior, Wojciech (2015). "Some Remarks on the Self-Images of the Modern Judaism. Textual Analysis". In Piotr Mróz (ed.). Filozofia kultury. Kraków: Uniwersytet Jagielloński. pp. 91–106. from the original on 17 August 2021.
^. Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations in America. 12 April 2006. Archived from the original on 19 February 2001.
^Danzinger, Eliezer. "How Many of the Torah's Commandments Still Apply?". Chabad.org. from the original on 15 June 2017. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
^Codex Judaica Kantor 2006, p. 146" (as cited on Judah haNasi)
^Abraham ben David, Seder Ha-Kabbalah Leharavad, Jerusalem 1971, p.16 (Hebrew) (as cited on Judah haNasi)
^Student, Gil. "Proofs for the Oral Law". The AishDas Society. from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
^The Prayer book: Weekday, Sabbath, and Festival translated and arranged by Ben Zion Bokser. New York: Hebrew Publishing Company. pp. 9–10
^Kadushin, Max 1972 The Rabbinic Mind New York: Bloch Publishing. p. 213
^Neusner, Jacob 2003 Invitation to the Talmud Stipf and Son, Oregon xvii–xxii
^Stern, David "Midrash and Indeterminacy" in Critical Inquiry, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Autumn, 1988), p. 151.
^Neusner, Jacob 2003 Invitation to the Talmud Stipf and Son, Oregon xvii-vix; Steinsaltz, Adin 1976 The Essential Talmud New York: Basic Books. 3–9; Strack, Hermann 1980 Introduction to the Midrash and Talmud New York: Atheneum. 95; Stern, David "Midrash and Indeterminacy" in Critical Inquiry, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Autumn, 1988), pp. 132–161
^Stern, David "Midrash and Indeterminacy" in Critical Inquiry, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Autumn, 1988), p. 147.
^Cohen, Abraham 1949 Everyman's Talmud New York: E.P. Dutton & Co. xxiv; Strack, Hermann 1980 Introduction to the Midrash and Talmud New York: Atheneum. 95
^Cohen, Abraham 1949 Everyman's Talmud New York: E.P. Dutton & Co. xxiv; Steinsaltz, Adin 1976 The Essential Talmud New Yorki: Basic Books. 222; Strack, Hermann 1980 Introduction to the Midrash and Talmud New York: Atheneum. 95
^Strack, Hermann 1980 Introduction to the Midrash and Talmud New York: Atheneum. p. 95
^סדור רינת ישראל לבני חוײל Jerusalem: 1974, pp. 38–39
^Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, 2006 The Koren Sacks Siddur: Hebrew/English Prayer Book: The Authorized Daily Prayer Book of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth London: Harper Collins Publishers pp. 54–55
^Nosson Scherman 2003 The Complete Artscroll Siddur Third Edition Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah Publications pp. 49–53
^Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, Nissen Mangel, 2003 Siddur Tehillat Hashem Kehot Publication Society. pp. 24–25
^Boyarin, Daniel (1994). "Introduction". A radical Jew: Paul and the politics of identity. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 13–38. ISBN978-0-520-08592-3. LCCN 93036269. from the original on 10 February 2023. Retrieved 15 June 2006. Paul was motivated by a Hellenistic desire for the One, which among other things produced an ideal of a universal human essence, beyond difference and hierarchy. This universal humanity, however, was predicated (and still is) on the dualism of the flesh and the spirit, such that while the body is particular, marked through practice as Jew or Greek, and through anatomy as male or female, the spirit is universal. Paul did not, however, reject the body—as did, for instance, the gnostics—but rather promoted a system whereby the body had its place, albeit subordinated to the spirit. Paul's anthropological dualism was matched by a hermeneutical dualism as well. Just as the human being is divided into a fleshy and a spiritual component, so also is language itself. It is composed of outer, material signs and inner, spiritual significations. When this is applied to the religious system that Paul inherited, the physical, fleshy signs of the Torah, of historical Judaism, are re-interpreted as symbols of that which Paul takes to be universal requirements and possibilities for humanity.
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^Robert Gordis. . A Modern Approach to a Living Halachah. Masorti World. Archived from the original on 13 July 2007. The Torah is an emanation of God…This conception does not mean, for us, that the process of revelation consisted of dictation by God.
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^ abKedem, Peri (2017) [1995]. "Demensions of Jewish Religiosity". In Deshen, Shlomo; Liebman, Charles S.; Shokeid, Moshe (eds.). Israeli Judaism: The Sociology of Religion in Israel. Studies of Israeli Society, 7 (Reprint ed.). London; New York: Routledge. pp. 33–62. ISBN978-1-56000-178-2. from the original on 7 July 2023. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
^Chaya Shuchat (25 June 2015). "The Kosher Pig?". from the original on 23 March 2010. Retrieved 1 November 2009. It is also the most quintessentially "treif" of animals, with its name being nearly synonymous with non-kosher…Although far from alone in the litany of non-kosher animals, the pig seems to stand in a class of its own.
^Jewish life in WWII England 2 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine: "there was a…special dispensation…that allowed Jews serving in the armed services to eat "non-kosher" when no Jewish food was available; that deviation from halacha was allowed 'in order to save a human life including your own.'"
^Y. Lichtenshtein M.A. "Weekly Pamphlet #805". Bar-Ilan University, Faculty of Jewish Studies, Rabbinical office. from the original on 14 May 2011. Retrieved 3 November 2009. …certain prohibitions become allowed without a doubt because of lifethreatening circumstances, like for example eating non-kosher food
^Sara E. Karesh; Mitchell M. Hurvitz (2005). Encyclopedia of Judaism. Infobase Publishing. pp. 444–. ISBN978-0-8160-6982-8. from the original on 10 February 2023. Retrieved 5 April 2018. The Sadducees disappeared when the second Temple was destroyed in the year 70 C.E and Pharisaic Judaism became the preeminent Jewish sect.
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^Richard Harries. After the evil: Christianity and Judaism in the shadow of the Holocaust. Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN978-0-19-926313-4
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^Lucy Dawidowicz The War Against the Jews, 1933–1945. First published 1975; this Bantam edition 1986, p. 23. ISBN0-553-34532-X
^Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. 5 May 2009. The Origins of Christian Anti-Semitism: Interview with Pieter van der Horst 26 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine
^Gill, Anton (1994). An Honourable Defeat; A History of the German Resistance to Hitler. Heinemann Mandarin. 1995 paperback ISBN978-0-434-29276-9; p. 57
^Gottfried, Ted (2001). Heroes of the Holocaust. Twenty-First Century Books. pp. 24–25. ISBN978-0-7613-1717-3. Retrieved 14 January 2017. Some groups that are known to have helped Jews were religious in nature. One of these was the Confessing Church, a Protestant denomination formed in May 1934, the year after Hitler became chancellor of Germany. One of its goals was to repeal the Nazi law "which required that the civil service would be purged of all those who were either Jewish or of partly Jewish descent." Another was to help those "who suffered through repressive laws, or violence." About 7,000 of the 17,000 Protestant clergy in Germany joined the Confessing Church. Much of their work has gone unrecognized, but two who will never forget them are Max Krakauer and his wife. Sheltered in sixty-six houses and helped by more than eighty individuals who belonged to the Confessing Church, they owe them their lives. German Catholic churches went out of their way to protect Catholics of Jewish ancestry. More inclusive was the principled stand taken by Catholic Bishop Clemens Count von Galen of Munster. He publicly denounced the Nazi slaughter of Jews and actually succeeded in having the problem halted for a short time.…Members of the Society of Friends—German Quakers working with organizations of Friends from other countries—were particularly successful in rescuing Jews.…Jehovah's Witnesses, themselves targeted for concentration camps, also provided help to Jews.
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^Feher, Shoshanah. Passing over Easter: Constructing the Boundaries of Messianic Judaism, Rowman Altamira, 1998, ISBN978-0-7619-8953-0, p. 140. "This interest in developing a Jewish ethnic identity may not be surprising when we consider the 1960s, when Messianic Judaism arose."
^Ariel, Yaakov (2006). "Judaism and Christianity Unite! The Unique Culture of Messianic Judaism". In Gallagher, Eugene V.; Ashcraft, W. Michael (eds.). Jewish and Christian Traditions. Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America. Vol. 2. Westport, CN: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 191. ISBN978-0-275-98714-5. LCCN 2006022954. OCLC 315689134. In the late 1960s and 1970s, both Jews and Christians in the United States were surprised to see the rise of a vigorous movement of Jewish Christians or Christian Jews.
^Ariel, Yaakov (2006). "Judaism and Christianity Unite! The Unique Culture of Messianic Judaism". In Gallagher, Eugene V.; Ashcraft, W. Michael (eds.). Jewish and Christian Traditions. Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America. Vol. 2. Westport, CN: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 194. ISBN978-0-275-98714-5. LCCN 2006022954. OCLC 315689134. The Rise of Messianic Judaism. In the first phase of the movement, during the early and mid-1970s, Jewish converts to Christianity established several congregations at their own initiative. Unlike the previous communities of Jewish Christians, Messianic Jewish congregations were largely independent of control from missionary societies or Christian denominations, even though they still wanted the acceptance of the larger evangelical community.
^ abMelton, J. Gordon, ed. (2005). "Messianic Judaism". Encyclopedia of Protestantism. Encyclopedia of World Religions. New York: Facts On File. p. 373. ISBN0-8160-5456-8. Messianic Judaism is a Protestant movement that emerged in the last half of the 20th century among believers who were ethnically Jewish but had adopted an Evangelical Christian faith.…By the 1960s, a new effort to create a culturally Jewish Protestant Christianity emerged among individuals who began to call themselves Messianic Jews.
^Vittorio Lanternari [it] 'Messianism: Its Historical Origin and Morphology,' 21 April 2021 at the Wayback MachineHistory of Religions Vol. 2, No. 1 (Summer, 1962), pp. 52–72:'the same messianic complex which originated in Judaism and was confirmed in Christianity.' p. 53
^Michael L. Morgan, Steven Weitzman, (eds.,) Rethinking the Messianic Idea in Judaism, 10 February 2023 at the Wayback MachineIndiana University Press 2014 ISBN978-0-253-01477-1 p. 1. Gershom Scholem considered 'the messianic dimensions of the Kabbalah and of rabbinic Judaism as a central feature of a Jewish philosophy of history.'
^Ariel, Yaakov (2006). "Judaism and Christianity Unite! The Unique Culture of Messianic Judaism". In Gallagher, Eugene V.; Ashcraft, W. Michael (eds.). Jewish and Christian Traditions. Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America. Vol. 2. Westport, CN: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 191. ISBN978-0-275-98714-5. LCCN 2006022954. OCLC 315689134. While Christianity started in the first century of the Common Era as a Jewish group, it quickly separated from Judaism and claimed to replace it; ever since the relationship between the two traditions has often been strained. But in the twentieth century groups of young Jews claimed that they had overcome the historical differences between the two religions and amalgamated Jewish identity and customs with the Christian faith.
^Ariel, Yaakov (2006). "Judaism and Christianity Unite! The Unique Culture of Messianic Judaism". In Gallagher, Eugene V.; Ashcraft, W. Michael (eds.). Jewish and Christian Traditions. Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America. Vol. 2. Westport, CN: Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 194–195. ISBN978-0-275-98714-5. LCCN 2006022954. OCLC 315689134. When the term resurfaced in Israel in the 1940s and 1950s, it designated all Jews who accepted Christianity in its Protestant evangelical form. Missionaries such as the Southern Baptist Robert Lindsey noted that for Israeli Jews, the term nozrim, "Christians" in Hebrew, meant, almost automatically, an alien, hostile religion. Because such a term made it nearly impossible to convince Jews that Christianity was their religion, missionaries sought a more neutral term, one that did not arouse negative feelings. They chose Meshichyim, Messianic, to overcome the suspicion and antagonism of the term nozrim. Meshichyim as a term also had the advantage of emphasizing messianism as a major component of the Christian evangelical belief that the missions and communities of Jewish converts to Christianity propagated. It conveyed the sense of a new, innovative religion rather that [sic] an old, unfavorable one. The term was used in reference to those Jews who accepted Jesus as their personal savior, and did not apply to Jews accepting Roman Catholicism who in Israel have called themselves Hebrew Christians. The term Messianic Judaism was adopted in the United States in the early 1970s by those converts to evangelical Christianity who advocated a more assertive attitude on the part of converts towards their Jewish roots and heritage.
^Ariel, Yaakov S. (2000). "Chapter 20: The Rise of Messianic Judaism". Evangelizing the chosen people: missions to the Jews in America, 1880–2000. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 223. ISBN978-0-8078-4880-7. OCLC 43708450. Retrieved 10 August 2010. Messianic Judaism, although it advocated the idea of an independent movement of Jewish converts, remained the offspring of the missionary movement, and the ties would never be broken. The rise of Messianic Judaism was, in many ways, a logical outcome of the ideology and rhetoric of the movement to evangelize the Jews as well as its early sponsorship of various forms of Hebrew Christian expressions. The missions have promoted the message that Jews who had embraced Christianity were not betraying their heritage or even their faith but were actually fulfilling their true Jewish selves by becoming Christians. The missions also promoted the dispensationalist idea that the Church equals the body of the true Christian believers and that Christians were defined by their acceptance of Jesus as their personal Savior and not by their affiliations with specific denominations and particular liturgies or modes of prayer. Missions had been using Jewish symbols in their buildings and literature and called their centers by Hebrew names such as Emanuel or Beth Sar Shalom. Similarly, the missions' publications featured Jewish religious symbols and practices such as the lighting of a menorah. Although missionaries to the Jews were alarmed when they first confronted the more assertive and independent movement of Messianic Judaism, it was they who were responsible for its conception and indirectly for its birth. The ideology, rhetoric, and symbols they had promoted for generations provided the background for the rise of a new movement that missionaries at first rejected as going too far but later accepted and even embraced.
^. Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations. June 1998. Archived from the original on 20 October 2015. Retrieved 3 May 2015. 1. We believe the Bible is the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of G-d. 2. We believe that there is one G-d, eternally existent in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 3. We believe in the deity of the L-RD Yeshua, the Messiah, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in His personal return in power and glory.
^Israel b. Betzalel (2009). . JerusalemCouncil.org. Archived from the original on 27 April 2009. Retrieved 3 July 2009. This then is who Yeshua is: He is not just a man, and as a man, he is not from Adam, but from God. He is the Word of HaShem, the Memra, the Davar, the Righteous One, he didn't become righteous, he is righteous. He is called God's Son, he is the agent of HaShem called HaShem, and he is "HaShem" who we interact with and not die.
^. JerusalemCouncil.org. 10 February 2009. Archived from the original on 6 August 2010. Retrieved 18 August 2010. To convert to the Jewish sect of HaDerech, accepting Yeshua as your King is the first act after one's heart turns toward HaShem and His Torah—as one can not obey a commandment of God if they first do not love God, and we love God by following his Messiah. Without first accepting Yeshua as the King and thus obeying Him, then getting circumcised for the purpose of Jewish conversion only gains you access to the Jewish community. It means nothing when it comes to inheriting a place in the World to Come....Getting circumcised apart from desiring to be obedient to HaShem, and apart from accepting Yeshua as your King, is nothing but a surgical procedure, or worse, could lead to you believe that Jewish identity grants you a portion in the World to Come—at which point, what good is Messiah Yeshua, the Word of HaShem to you? He would have died for nothing!...As a convert from the nations, part of your obligation in keeping the Covenant, if you are a male, is to get circumcised in fulfillment of the commandment regarding circumcision. Circumcision is not an absolute requirement of being a Covenant member (that is, being made righteous before HaShem, and thus obtaining eternal life), but it is a requirement of obedience to God's commandments, because circumcision is commanded for those who are of the seed of Abraham, whether born into the family, adopted, or converted....If after reading all of this you understand what circumcision is, and that is an act of obedience, rather than an act of gaining favor before HaShem for the purpose of receiving eternal life, then if you are male believer in Yeshua the Messiah for the redemption from death, the consequence of your sin of rebellion against Him, then pursue circumcision, and thus conversion into Judaism, as an act of obedience to the Messiah.
^"Jewish Conversion – Giyur". JerusalemCouncil.org. 2009. Retrieved 5 February 2009. We recognize the desire of people from the nations to convert to Judaism, through HaDerech (The Way)(Messianic Judaism), a sect of Judaism.
^Moss, Aron. "Can a Jew believe in Jesus?". from the original on 10 October 2023. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
Simmons, Shraga (9 May 2009). "Why Jews Don't Believe in Jesus". Aish HaTorah. from the original on 27 September 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2010. Jews do not accept Jesus as the messiah because: #Jesus did not fulfill the messianic prophecies. #Jesus did not embody the personal qualifications of the Messiah. #Biblical verses "referring" to Jesus are mistranslations. #Jewish belief is based on national revelation.
Waxman, Jonathan (2006). . United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. Archived from the original on 28 June 2006. Retrieved 14 February 2007. Hebrew Christian, Jewish Christian, Jew for Jesus, Messianic Jew, Fulfilled Jew. The name may have changed over the course of time, but all of the names reflect the same phenomenon: one who asserts that s/he is straddling the theological fence between Christianity and Judaism, but in truth is firmly on the Christian side.…we must affirm as did the Israeli Supreme Court in the well-known Brother Daniel case that to adopt Christianity is to have crossed the line out of the Jewish community.
. Hebrew Union College. 9 August 1999. Archived from the original on 28 September 2006. Retrieved 14 February 2007. Missionary Impossible, an imaginative video and curriculum guide for teachers, educators, and rabbis to teach Jewish youth how to recognize and respond to "Jews-for-Jesus," "Messianic Jews," and other Christian proselytizers, has been produced by six rabbinic students at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion's Cincinnati School. The students created the video as a tool for teaching why Jewish college and high school youth and Jews in intermarried couples are primary targets of Christian missionaries.
. Aleph.org. 2007. Archived from the original on 23 October 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2007. What is ALEPH's position on so called messianic Judaism? ALEPH has a policy of respect for other spiritual traditions, but objects to deceptive practices and will not collaborate with denominations which actively target Jews for recruitment. Our position on so-called "Messianic Judaism" is that it is Christianity and its proponents would be more honest to call it that.
^Raphael, Melissa (April 1998). "Goddess Religion, Postmodern Jewish Feminism, and the Complexity of Alternative Religious Identities". Nova Religio. 1 (2): 198–215. doi:10.1525/nr.1998.1.2.198. from the original on 17 July 2023. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
^Cohn-Sherbok, Dan (2010). "Jewish Buddhists". Judaism Today. London; New York: Continuum. pp. 98–100. ISBN978-0-8264-3829-4. from the original on 28 June 2023. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
^Myers, Jody Elizabeth (2007). Kabbalah and the spiritual quest: the Kabbalah Centre in America. Westport, Conn: Praeger. ISBN978-0-275-98940-8.
^Dawkins, Richard (11 May 2024). The God delusion. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 37, 245. ISBN978-0618680009.
^Seeman, Isadore. "Reconstructionist Judaism". Washington Post. from the original on 24 April 2024. Retrieved 23 April 2024. In the 1930s Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan recognized that many Jews were losing interest in religious observance, except perhaps for the high holidays. As a cogent philosopher and the leader of a congregation in New York, Rabbi Kaplan began to evolve a fresh approach to Jewish belief and practice... The essence of Reconstructionism is that Judaism is not just a religion but an evolving religious civilization. Reconstructionists believe in the importance of music, art, dance, the Hebrew language, a dedication to the State of Israel and a sense of Jewish peoplehood...
^"Neturei Karta". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 8 April 2024. Neturei Karta (Aramaic: "Guardians of the City") is a group of Orthodox Jews which rejects Zionism and the establishment of the State of Israel. They believe that the true Israel can only be reestablished with the coming of the Messiah.
^Harb, Ali. "'Anti-Zionism is antisemitism,' US House asserts in 'dangerous' resolution". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 8 April 2024. In the US, Palestinian rights supporters have long rejected conflations of Zionism with Judaism, noting that many Jewish Americans identify as anti-Zionist. "Opposing the policies of the government of Israel and Netanyahu's extremism is not antisemitic. Speaking up for human rights and a ceasefire to save lives should never be condemned," Palestinian American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib said in a social media post on Tuesday, explaining her vote against the resolution.
^Santos, Fernanda (15 January 2007). "New York Rabbi Finds Friends in Iran and Enemies at Home". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 8 April 2024. ... Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, spokesman and assistant director of a small anti-Zionist group with a foothold in this town in Rockland County, home to one of the nation's largest communities of Hasidic Jews... "we had to let the world know, especially the Arab world and the Muslim world, that we are not their enemies," he said in an interview, a Palestinian flag with the phrase "A Jew Not a Zionist," written in Hebrew, English and Arabic pinned to the lapel of his coat...
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judaism, judeo, redirects, here, album, judeo, album, hebrew, דו, yahăḏūṯ, abrahamic, monotheistic, ethnic, religion, comprises, collective, spiritual, cultural, legal, traditions, jewish, people, contemporary, having, originated, organized, religion, middle, . Judeo redirects here For the album see Judeo album Judaism Hebrew י ה דו ת Yahăḏuṯ is an Abrahamic monotheistic and ethnic religion comprises the collective spiritual cultural and legal traditions of the Jewish people 8 9 10 Contemporary Judaism having originated as an organized religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age 11 and evolved from Yahwism the cultic polytheistic religious movement of ancient Israel and Judah around the 6th 5th century BCE 12 and is thus considered to be one of the oldest monotheistic religions 13 14 improper synthesis Along with Samaritanism to which it is closely related Judaism is one of the two oldest Abrahamic religions Judaismי ה דו ת YahăḏuṯCollection of Judaica clockwise from top Candlesticks for Shabbat a cup for ritual handwashing a Chumash and a Tanakh a Torah pointer a shofar and an etrog box TypeEthnic religionClassificationAbrahamicScriptureTanakh Talmud MidrashTheologyMonotheisticLanguageHebrew and AramaicTerritoryLand of IsraelFounderAbraham and Moses 1 2 Originc 6th century BCE JudahSeparated fromYahwismSeparationsSamaritanismMandaeismChristianity a Number of followersc 15 2 million referred to as Jews Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of observing the Mosaic covenant which was established between God and the Israelites their ancestors 15 Jewish religious doctrine encompasses a wide body of texts practices theological positions and forms of organization Among Judaism s core texts is the Torah the first five books of the Hebrew Bible a collection of ancient Hebrew scriptures The Tanakh known in English as the Hebrew Bible is also referred to as the Old Testament in Christianity In addition to the original written scripture the supplemental Oral Torah is represented by later texts such as the Midrash and the Talmud The Hebrew language word torah can mean teaching law or instruction 16 although Torah can also be used as a general term that refers to any Jewish text that expands or elaborates on the original Five Books of Moses Representing the core of the Jewish spiritual and religious tradition the Torah is a term and a set of teachings that are explicitly self positioned as encompassing at least seventy and potentially infinite facets and interpretations 17 Judaism s texts traditions and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions including Christianity and Islam 18 19 Hebraism like Hellenism played a seminal role in the formation of Western civilization through its impact as a core background element of Early Christianity 20 Within Judaism there are a variety of religious movements most of which emerged from Rabbinic Judaism 21 22 23 which holds that God revealed his laws and commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai in the form of both the Written and Oral Torah 24 Historically all or part of this assertion was challenged by various groups such as the Sadducees and Hellenistic Judaism during the Second Temple period 25 22 26 the Karaites during the early and later medieval period and among segments of the modern non Orthodox denominations 27 Some modern branches of Judaism such as Humanistic Judaism may be considered secular or nontheistic 28 29 30 31 Today the largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism Haredi and Modern Orthodox Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism Major sources of difference between these groups are their approaches to halakha Jewish law the authority of the rabbinic tradition and the significance of the State of Israel 32 33 34 1 Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah and halakha are divine in origin eternal and unalterable and that they should be strictly followed 35 36 37 38 Conservative and Reform Judaism are more liberal with Conservative Judaism generally promoting a more traditionalist interpretation of Judaism s requirements than Reform Judaism 39 40 41 42 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 43 44 45 46 47 Historically special courts enforced halakha today these courts still exist but the practice of Judaism is mostly voluntary 48 Authority on theological and legal matters is not vested in any one person or organization but in the sacred texts and the rabbis and scholars who interpret them Jews are an ethnoreligious group 49 including those born Jewish or ethnic Jews in addition to converts to Judaism In 2021 the world Jewish population was estimated at 15 2 million or roughly 0 195 of the total world population although religious observance varies from strict to none 50 51 In 2021 about 45 6 of all Jews resided in Israel and another 42 1 resided in the United States and Canada with most of the remainder living in Europe and other groups spread throughout Latin America Asia Africa and Australia 52 Contents 1 Etymology 2 History 2 1 Origins 2 2 Antiquity 3 Defining characteristics and principles of faith 3 1 Core tenets 4 Religious texts 4 1 Legal literature 4 2 Jewish philosophy 4 3 Rabbinic hermeneutics 5 Jewish identity 5 1 Distinction between Jews as a people and Judaism 5 2 Who is a Jew 5 3 Jewish demographics 6 Jewish religious movements 6 1 Rabbinic Judaism 6 1 1 Sephardi and Mizrahi Judaism 6 1 2 Jewish movements in Israel 6 2 Karaites and Samaritans 6 3 Haymanot Ethiopian Judaism 6 4 Noahide B nei Noah movement 7 Jewish observances 7 1 Jewish ethics 7 2 Prayers 7 3 Religious clothing 7 4 Jewish holidays 7 4 1 Shabbat 7 4 2 Three pilgrimage festivals 7 4 3 High Holy Days 7 4 4 Purim 7 4 5 Hanukkah 7 4 6 Fast days 7 4 7 Israeli holidays 7 5 Torah readings 7 6 Synagogues and religious buildings 7 7 Dietary laws kashrut 7 8 Laws of ritual purity 7 8 1 Family purity 7 9 Life cycle events 8 Community leadership 8 1 Classical priesthood 8 2 Prayer leaders 8 3 Specialized religious roles 8 4 Historical Jewish groupings to 1700 8 5 Persecutions 8 6 Hasidism 8 7 The Enlightenment and new religious movements 8 8 Spectrum of observance 9 Judaism and other religions 9 1 Christianity and Judaism 9 2 Islam and Judaism 9 3 Syncretic movements incorporating Judaism 10 Criticism 11 See also 12 Footnotes 13 Bibliography 13 1 Selected cited works 13 2 Further reading 14 Notes 15 External linksEtymologySee also Ioudaios nbsp Maccabees by Wojciech Stattler 1842 The term Judaism derives from Iudaismus a Latinized form of the Ancient Greek Ioudaismos Ἰoydaismos from the verb ἰoydaizein to side with or imitate the Judeans 53 Its ultimate source was the Hebrew יהודה Yehudah Judah 54 55 which is also the source of the Hebrew term for Judaism י ה דו ת Yahadut The term Ἰoydaismos first appears in the Hellenistic Greek book of 2 Maccabees in the 2nd century BCE i e 2 Maccabees 2 21 8 1 and 14 38 56 In the context of the age and period it meant seeking or forming part of a cultural entity 57 and it resembled its antonym hellenismos a word that signified a people s submission to Hellenic Greek cultural norms The conflict between iudaismos and hellenismos lay behind the Maccabean revolt and hence the invention of the term iudaismos 57 Shaye J D Cohen writes in his book The Beginnings of Jewishness We are tempted of course to translate Ioudaismos as Judaism but this translation is too narrow because in this first occurrence of the term Ioudaismos has not yet been reduced to the designation of a religion It means rather the aggregate of all those characteristics that makes Judaeans Judaean or Jews Jewish Among these characteristics to be sure are practices and beliefs that we would today call religious but these practices and beliefs are not the sole content of the term Thus Ioudaismos should be translated not as Judaism but as Judaeanness 58 Daniel R Scwhartz however argues that Judaism especially in the context of the Book of Maccabees refers to the religion as opposed to 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 56 According to the Oxford English Dictionary the earliest citation in English where the term was used to mean the profession or practice of the Jewish religion the religious system or polity of the Jews is Robert Fabyan s The newe cronycles of Englande and of Fraunce 1516 59 Judaism as a direct translation of the Latin Iudaismus first occurred in a 1611 English translation of the apocrypha Deuterocanon in Catholic and Eastern Orthodoxy 2 Macc ii 21 Those that behaved themselves manfully to their honour for Iudaisme 60 HistoryMain article Jewish history For a chronological guide see Timeline of Jewish history Ancient Judaism redirects here For the book see Ancient Judaism book Origins This article may be written from a believer s point of view rather than a neutral point of view Please clean it up to conform to a higher standard of quality and to make it neutral in tone June 2022 Learn how and when to remove this message Main article Origins of Judaism Further information Yahwism Ancient Canaanite religion and Ancient Semitic religion nbsp A painting of Moses decorates the Dura Europos synagogue dating from 244 CE At its core the Hebrew Bible Tanakh is an account of the Israelites relationship with God from their earliest history until the building of the Second Temple c 535 BCE Abraham is hailed as the first Hebrew and the father of the Jewish people As a reward for his act of faith in one God he was promised that Isaac his second son would inherit the Land of Israel then called Canaan Later the descendants of Isaac s son Jacob were enslaved in Egypt and God commanded Moses to lead the Exodus from Egypt At Mount Sinai they received the Torah the five books of Moses These books together with Nevi im and Ketuvim are known as Torah Shebikhtav as opposed to the Oral Torah which refers to the Mishnah and the Talmud Eventually God led them to the land of Israel where the tabernacle was planted in the city of Shiloh for over 300 years to rally the nation against attacking enemies As time went on the spiritual level of the nation declined to the point that God allowed the Philistines to capture the tabernacle The people of Israel then told Samuel the prophet that they needed to be governed by a permanent king and Samuel appointed Saul to be their King When the people pressured Saul into going against a command conveyed to him by Samuel God told Samuel to appoint David in his stead nbsp The Western Wall in Jerusalem is a remnant of the wall encircling the Second Temple The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism Rabbinic tradition holds that the details and interpretation of the law which are called the Oral Torah or oral law were originally an unwritten tradition based upon what God told Moses on Mount Sinai However as the persecutions of the Jews increased and the details were in danger of being forgotten these oral laws were recorded by Rabbi Judah HaNasi Judah the Prince in the Mishnah redacted circa 200 CE The Talmud was a compilation of both the Mishnah and the Gemara rabbinic commentaries redacted over the next three centuries The Gemara originated in two major centers of Jewish scholarship Palestine and Babylonia 61 Correspondingly two bodies of analysis developed and two works of Talmud were created The older compilation is called the Jerusalem Talmud It was compiled sometime during the 4th century in Palestine 61 According to critical scholars the Torah consists of inconsistent texts edited together in a way that calls attention to divergent accounts 62 page needed 63 64 Several of these scholars such as Professor Martin Rose and John Bright suggest that during the First Temple period the people of Israel believed that each nation had its own god but that their god was superior to other gods 65 page needed 66 page needed Some suggest that strict monotheism developed during the Babylonian Exile perhaps in reaction to Zoroastrian dualism 67 In this view it was only by the Hellenic period that most Jews came to believe that their god was the only god and that the notion of a clearly bounded Jewish nation identical with the Jewish religion formed 68 John Day argues that the origins of biblical Yahweh El Asherah and Ba al may be rooted in earlier Canaanite religion which was centered on a pantheon of gods much like the Greek pantheon 69 Antiquity Main articles Ancient Israel and Judah Babylonian captivity Second Temple Judaism Hasmonean Kingdom Iudaea Province First Jewish Roman War and Bar Kokhba revolt nbsp Kingdoms of Israel and Judah map 900 BC According to the Hebrew Bible a United Monarchy was established under Saul and continued under King David and Solomon with its capital in Jerusalem After Solomon s reign the nation split into two kingdoms the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judah in the south The Kingdom of Israel was destroyed around 720 BCE when it was conquered by the Neo Assyrian Empire 70 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 BCE The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the First Temple which was at the center of ancient Jewish worship The Judeans were exiled to Babylon in what is regarded as the first Jewish diaspora Later many of them returned to their homeland after the subsequent conquest of Babylon by the Persian Achaemenid Empire seventy years later an event known as the Return to Zion A Second Temple was constructed and old religious practices were resumed During the early years of the Second Temple the highest religious authority was a council known as the Great Assembly led by Ezra the Scribe Among other accomplishments of the Great Assembly the last books of the 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 25 71 During the Great Jewish Revolt 66 73 CE the Romans sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple 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 the study of the Torah 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 and worship was rebuilt around the community represented by a minimum of ten adult men and the establishment of the authority of rabbis who acted as teachers and leaders of individual communities 21 22 nbsp Sephardi style torah nbsp Ashkenazi style torahDefining characteristics and principles of faithFurther information God in Judaism nbsp Kennicott Bible a 1476 Spanish Tanakh Unlike other ancient Near Eastern gods the Hebrew God is portrayed as unitary and solitary consequently the Hebrew God s principal relationships are not with other gods but with the world and more specifically with the people he created 72 Judaism thus begins with ethical monotheism the belief that God is one and is concerned with the actions of mankind 73 According to the Hebrew Bible God promised Abraham to make of his offspring a great nation 74 Many generations later he commanded the nation of Israel to love and worship only one God that is the Jewish nation is to reciprocate God s concern for the world 75 He also commanded the Jewish people to love one another that is Jews are to imitate God s love for people 76 Thus although there is an esoteric tradition in Judaism in Kabbalah Rabbinic scholar Max Kadushin has characterized normative Judaism as normal mysticism because it involves everyday personal experiences of God through ways or modes that are common to all Jews 77 This is played out through the observance of the halakha or Jewish law and given verbal expression in the Birkat Ha Mizvot the short blessings that are spoken every time a positive commandment is to be fulfilled The ordinary familiar everyday things and occurrences we have constitute occasions for the experience of God Such things as one s daily sustenance the very day itself are felt as manifestations of God s loving kindness calling for the Berakhot Kedushah holiness which is nothing else than the imitation of God is concerned with daily conduct with being gracious and merciful with keeping oneself from defilement by idolatry adultery and the shedding of blood The Birkat Ha Mitzwot evokes the consciousness of holiness at a rabbinic rite but the objects employed in the majority of these rites are non holy and of general character while the several holy objects are non theurgic And not only do ordinary things and occurrences bring with them the experience of God Everything that happens to a man evokes that experience evil as well as good for a Berakah is said also at evil tidings Hence although the experience of God is like none other the occasions for experiencing Him for having a consciousness of Him are manifold even if we consider only those that call for Berakot 78 Whereas Jewish philosophers often debate whether God is immanent or transcendent and whether people have free will or their lives are determined halakha is a system through which any Jew acts to bring God into the world Ethical monotheism is central in all sacred or normative texts of Judaism However monotheism has not always been followed in practice The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh records and repeatedly condemns the widespread worship of other gods in ancient Israel 79 In the Greco Roman era many different interpretations of monotheism existed in Judaism including the interpretations that gave rise to Christianity 80 Moreover some have argued that Judaism is a non creedal religion that does not require one to believe in God 81 82 For some observance of halakha is more important than belief in God per se 83 The debate about whether one can speak of authentic or normative Judaism is not only a debate among religious Jews but also among historians 84 In continental Europe Judaism is heavily associated with and most often thought of as Orthodox Judaism 85 Core tenets Main article Jewish principles of faith 13 Principles of Faith I believe with perfect faith that the Creator Blessed be His Name is the Creator and Guide of everything that has been created He alone has made does make and will make all things I believe with perfect faith that the Creator Blessed be His Name is One and that there is no unity in any manner like His and that He alone is our God who was and is and will be I believe with perfect faith that the Creator Blessed be His Name has no body and that He is free from all the properties of matter and that there can be no physical comparison to Him whatsoever I believe with perfect faith that the Creator Blessed be His Name is the first and the last I believe with perfect faith that to the Creator Blessed be His Name and to Him alone it is right to pray and that it is not right to pray to any being besides Him I believe with perfect faith that all the words of the prophets are true I believe with perfect faith that the prophecy of Moses our teacher peace be upon him was true and that he was the chief of the prophets both those who preceded him and those who followed him I believe with perfect faith that the entire Torah that is now in our possession is the same that was given to Moses our teacher peace be upon him I believe with perfect faith that this Torah will not be exchanged and that there will never be any other Torah from the Creator Blessed be His Name I believe with perfect faith that the Creator Blessed be His Name knows all the deeds of human beings and all their thoughts as it is written Who fashioned the hearts of them all Who comprehends all their actions Psalms 33 15 I believe with perfect faith that the Creator Blessed be His Name rewards those who keep His commandments and punishes those that transgress them I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah and even though he may tarry nonetheless I wait every day for his coming I believe with perfect faith that there will be a revival of the dead at the time when it shall please the Creator Blessed be His name and His mention shall be exalted for ever and ever Maimonides 86 In the strict sense in Judaism unlike Christianity and Islam there are no fixed universally binding articles of faith due to their incorporation into the liturgy 86 87 Scholars throughout Jewish history have proposed numerous formulations of Judaism s core tenets all of which have met with criticism 86 34 88 The most popular formulation is Maimonides thirteen principles of faith developed in the 12th century 86 34 According to Maimonides any Jew who rejects even one of these principles would be considered an apostate and a heretic 89 90 Jewish scholars have held points of view diverging in various ways from Maimonides principles 91 92 Thus within Reform Judaism only the first five principles are endorsed 1 In Maimonides time his list of tenets was criticized by Hasdai Crescas and Joseph Albo Albo and the Raavad argued that Maimonides principles contained too many items that while true were not fundamentals of the faith 86 34 Along these lines the ancient historian Josephus emphasized practices and observances rather than religious beliefs associating apostasy with a failure to observe halakha and maintaining that the requirements for conversion to Judaism included circumcision and adherence to traditional customs Maimonides principles were largely ignored over the next few centuries 93 Later two poetic restatements of these principles Ani Ma amin and Yigdal became integrated into many Jewish liturgies 86 1 94 leading to their eventual near universal acceptance 95 96 The oldest non Rabbinic instance of articles of faith were formulated under Islamic influence by the 12th century Karaite figure Judah ben Elijah Hadassi 1 God is the Creator of all created beings 2 He is premundane and has no peer or associate 3 the whole universe is created 4 God called Moses and the other Prophets of the Biblical canon 5 the Law of Moses alone is true 6 to know the language of the Bible is a religious duty 7 the Temple at Jerusalem is the palace of the world s Ruler 8 belief in Resurrection contemporaneous with the advent of the Messiah 9 final judgment 10 retribution Judah ben Elijah Hadassi Eshkol ha Kofer 86 87 In modern times Judaism lacks a centralized authority that would dictate an exact religious dogma Because of this many different variations on the basic beliefs are considered within the scope of Judaism 91 Even so all Jewish religious movements are to a greater or lesser extent based on the principles of the Hebrew Bible or various commentaries such as the Talmud and Midrash Judaism also universally recognizes the Biblical Covenant between God and the Patriarch Abraham as well as the additional aspects of the Covenant revealed to Moses who is considered Judaism s greatest prophet 91 97 98 In the Mishnah a core text of Rabbinic Judaism acceptance of the Divine origins of this covenant is considered an essential aspect of Judaism and those who reject the Covenant forfeit their share in the World to Come 99 Establishing the core tenets of Judaism in the modern era is even more difficult given the number and diversity of the contemporary Jewish denominations Even if to restrict the problem to the most influential intellectual trends of the nineteenth and twentieth century the matter remains complicated Thus for instance Joseph Soloveitchik s associated with the Modern Orthodox movement answer to modernity is constituted upon the identification of Judaism with following the halakha whereas its ultimate goal is to bring the holiness down to the world Mordecai Kaplan the founder of the Reconstructionist Judaism abandons the idea of religion for the sake of identifying Judaism with civilization and by means of the latter term and secular translation of the core ideas he tries to embrace as many Jewish denominations as possible In turn Solomon Schechter s Conservative Judaism was identical with the tradition understood as the interpretation of Torah in itself being the history of the constant updates and adjustment of the Law performed by means of the creative interpretation Finally David Philipson draws the outlines of the Reform movement in Judaism by opposing it to the strict and traditional rabbinical approach and thus comes to the conclusions similar to that of the Conservative movement 1 100 Religious texts nbsp 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 101 unreliable source Hebrew Bible and Rabbinic literature Mesorah Targum Jewish Biblical exegesis also see Midrash below Works of the Talmudic Era classic rabbinic literature Mishnah and commentaries Tosefta and the minor tractates Talmud The Babylonian Talmud and commentaries Jerusalem Talmud and commentaries Midrashic literature Halakhic Midrash Aggadic Midrash Halakhic literature Major codes of Jewish law and custom Mishneh Torah and commentaries Tur and commentaries Shulchan Aruch and commentaries Responsa literature Thought and ethics Jewish philosophy Musar literature and other works of Jewish ethics Kabbalah Hasidic works Siddur and Jewish liturgy Piyyut Classical Jewish poetry nbsp A man holds up a Sephardi style torah at the Western Wall Jerusalem Legal literature Main article Halakha The basis of halakha and tradition is the Torah also known as the Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses According to rabbinic tradition there are 613 commandments in the Torah Some of these laws are directed only to men or to women some only to the ancient priestly groups the Kohanim and Leviyim members of the tribe of Levi some only to farmers within the Land of Israel Many laws were only applicable when the Temple in Jerusalem existed and only 369 of these commandments are still applicable today 102 better source needed While there have been Jewish groups whose beliefs were based on the written text of the Torah alone e g the Sadducees and the Karaites most Jews believe in the oral law These oral traditions were transmitted by the Pharisee school of thought of ancient Judaism and were later recorded in written form 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 appeared only as a written text transmitted in parallel with 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 103 The Mishnah consists of 63 tractates codifying halakha which are 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 104 Over the next four centuries the Mishnah underwent discussion and debate in both of 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 by commentaries of various Torah scholars during 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 validate the viewpoint that the Written Law has always been transmitted with a parallel oral tradition illustrating the assumption that the reader is already familiar with the details from other i e oral sources 105 Halakha the rabbinic Jewish way of life then is 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 Sheelot U Teshuvot 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 Main article Jewish philosophy nbsp Statue of Maimonides in Cordoba 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 post Enlightenment Jewish philosophers Modern Jewish philosophy consists of both Orthodox and non Orthodox oriented philosophy 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 Levinas Rabbinic hermeneutics 13 Principles of Hermeneutics A law that operates under certain conditions will surely be operative in other situations where the same conditions are present in a more acute form A law operating in one situation will also be operative in another situation if the text characterizes both situations in identical terms A law that clearly expresses the purpose it was meant to serve will also apply to other situations where the identical purpose may be served When a general rule is followed by illustrative particulars only those particulars are to be embraced by it A law that begins with specifying particular cases and then proceeds to an all embracing generalization is to be applied to particulars cases not specified but logically falling into the same generalization A law that begins with a generalization as to its intended applications then continues with the specification of particular cases and then concludes with a restatement of the generalization can be applied only to the particular cases specified The rules about a generalization being followed or preceded by specifying particulars rules 4 and 5 will not apply if it is apparent that the specification of the particular cases or the statement of the generalization is meant purely for achieving a greater clarity of language A particular case already covered in a generalization that is nevertheless treated separately suggests that the same particularized treatment be applied to all other cases which are covered in that generalization A penalty specified for a general category of wrongdoing is not to be automatically applied to a particular case that is withdrawn from the general rule to be specifically prohibited but without any mention of the penalty A general prohibition followed by a specified penalty may be followed by a particular case normally included in the generalization with a modification in the penalty either toward easing it or making it more severe A case logically falling into a general law but treated separately remains outside the provisions of the general law except in those instances where it is specifically included in them Obscurities in Biblical texts may be cleared up from the immediate context or from subsequently occurring passages Contradictions in Biblical passages may be removed through the mediation of other passages R Ishmael 106 Orthodox and many other Jews do not believe that the revealed Torah consists solely of its written contents but of its interpretations as well The study of Torah in its widest sense to include both poetry narrative and law and both the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud is in Judaism itself a sacred act of central importance For the sages of the Mishnah and Talmud and for their successors today the study of Torah was therefore not merely a means to learn the contents of God s revelation but an end in itself According to the Talmud These are the things for which a person enjoys the dividends in this world while the principal remains for the person to enjoy in the world to come they are honoring parents loving deeds of kindness and making peace between one person and another But the study of the Torah is equal to them all Talmud Shabbat 127a In Judaism the study of Torah can be a means of experiencing God 107 Reflecting on the contribution of the Amoraim and Tanaim to contemporary Judaism Professor Jacob Neusner observed The rabbi s logical and rational inquiry is not mere logic chopping It is a most serious and substantive effort to locate in trivialities the fundamental principles of the revealed will of God to guide and sanctify the most specific and concrete actions in the workaday world Here is the mystery of Talmudic Judaism the alien and remote conviction that the intellect is an instrument not of unbelief and desacralization but of sanctification 108 To study the Written Torah and the Oral Torah in light of each other is thus also to study how to study the word of God In the study of Torah the sages formulated and followed various logical and hermeneutical principles According to David Stern all Rabbinic hermeneutics rest on two basic axioms first the belief in the omni significance of Scripture in the meaningfulness of its every word letter even according to one famous report scribal flourish second the claim of the essential unity of Scripture as the expression of the single divine will 109 These two principles make possible a great variety of interpretations According to the Talmud A single verse has several meanings but no two verses hold the same meaning It was taught in the school of R Ishmael Behold My word is like fire declares the Lord and like a hammer that shatters rock Jer 23 29 Just as this hammer produces many sparks when it strikes the rock so a single verse has several meanings Talmud Sanhedrin 34a Observant Jews thus view the Torah as dynamic because it contains within it a host of interpretations 110 According to Rabbinic tradition all valid interpretations of the written Torah were revealed to Moses at Sinai in oral form and handed down from teacher to pupil The oral revelation is in effect coextensive with the Talmud itself When different rabbis forwarded conflicting interpretations they sometimes appealed to hermeneutic principles to legitimize their arguments some rabbis claim that these principles were themselves revealed by God to Moses at Sinai 111 Thus Hillel called attention to seven commonly used hermeneutical principles in the interpretation of laws baraita at the beginning of Sifra R Ishmael thirteen baraita at the beginning of Sifra this collection is largely an amplification of that of Hillel 112 Eliezer b Jose ha Gelili listed 32 largely used for the exegesis of narrative elements of Torah All the hermeneutic rules scattered through the Talmudim and Midrashim have been collected by Malbim in Ayyelet ha Shachar the introduction to his commentary on the Sifra Nevertheless R Ishmael s 13 principles are perhaps the ones most widely known they constitute an important and one of Judaism s earliest contributions to logic hermeneutics and jurisprudence 113 Judah Hadassi incorporated Ishmael s principles into Karaite Judaism in the 12th century 114 Today R Ishmael s 13 principles are incorporated into the Jewish prayer book to be read by observant Jews on a daily basis 115 116 117 118 Jewish identityDistinction between Jews as a people and Judaism According to Daniel Boyarin the underlying distinction between religion and ethnicity is foreign to Judaism itself and is one form of the dualism between spirit and flesh that has its origin in Platonic philosophy and that permeated Hellenistic Judaism 119 Consequently in his view Judaism does not fit easily into conventional Western categories such as religion ethnicity or culture Boyarin suggests that this in part reflects the fact that much of Judaism s more than 3 000 year history predates the rise of Western culture and occurred outside the West that is Europe particularly medieval and modern Europe During this time Jews experienced slavery anarchic and theocratic self government conquest occupation and exile In the Jewish diaspora they were in contact with and influenced by ancient Egyptian Babylonian Persian and Hellenic cultures as well as modern movements such as the Enlightenment see Haskalah and the rise of nationalism which would bear fruit in the form of a Jewish state in their ancient homeland the Land of Israel Thus Boyarin has argued that Jewishness disrupts the very categories of identity because it is not national not genealogical not religious but all of these in dialectical tension 120 In contrast to this point of view practices such as Humanistic Judaism reject the religious aspects of Judaism while retaining certain cultural traditions Who is a Jew Main article Who is a Jew According to Rabbinic Judaism a Jew is anyone who was either born of a Jewish mother or who converted to Judaism in accordance with halakha Reconstructionist Judaism and the larger denominations of worldwide Progressive Judaism also known as Liberal or Reform Judaism accept the child as Jewish if one of the parents is Jewish if the parents raise the child with a Jewish identity but not the smaller regional branches clarification needed All mainstream forms of Judaism today are open to sincere converts although conversion has traditionally been discouraged since the time of the Talmud The conversion process is evaluated by an authority and the convert is examined on his or her sincerity and knowledge 121 Converts are called ben Abraham or bat Abraham son or daughter of Abraham Conversions have on occasion been overturned In 2008 Israel s highest religious court invalidated the conversion of 40 000 Jews mostly from Russian immigrant families even though they had been approved by an Orthodox rabbi 122 Rabbinical Judaism maintains that a Jew whether by birth or conversion is a Jew forever Thus a Jew who claims to be an atheist or converts to another religion is still considered by traditional Judaism to be Jewish According to some sources the Reform movement has maintained that a Jew who has converted to another religion is no longer a Jew 123 and the Israeli Government has also taken that stance after Supreme Court cases and statutes 124 However the Reform movement has indicated that this is not so cut and dried and different situations call for consideration and differing actions For example Jews who have converted under duress may be permitted to return to Judaism without any action on their part but their desire to rejoin the Jewish community and A proselyte who has become an apostate remains nevertheless a Jew 125 Karaite Judaism believes that Jewish identity can only be transmitted by patrilineal descent Although a minority of modern Karaites believe that Jewish identity requires that both parents be Jewish and not only the father They argue that only patrilineal descent can transmit Jewish identity on the grounds that all descent in the Torah went according to the male line 27 The question of what determines Jewish identity in the State of Israel was given new impetus when in the 1950s David Ben Gurion requested opinions on mihu Yehudi Who is a Jew from Jewish religious authorities and intellectuals worldwide in order to settle citizenship questions This is still not settled and occasionally resurfaces in Israeli politics Historical definitions of Jewish identity have traditionally been based on halakhic definitions of matrilineal descent and halakhic conversions Historical definitions of who is a Jew date back to the codification of the Oral Torah into the Babylonian Talmud around 200 CE Interpretations of sections of the Tanakh such as Deuteronomy 7 1 5 by Jewish sages are used as a warning against intermarriage between Jews and Canaanites because the non Jewish husband will cause your child to turn away from Me and they will worship the gods i e idols of others 126 Leviticus 24 says that the son in a marriage between a Hebrew woman and an Egyptian man is of the community of Israel 127 This is complemented by Ezra 10 where Israelites returning from Babylon vow to put aside their gentile wives and their children 128 129 130 A popular theory is that the rape of Jewish women in captivity brought about the law of Jewish identity being inherited through the maternal line although scholars challenge this theory citing the Talmudic establishment of the law from the pre exile period 131 132 Since the anti religious Haskalah movement of the late 18th and 19th centuries halakhic interpretations of Jewish identity have been challenged 133 Jewish demographics Main article Jewish population by country The total number of Jews worldwide is difficult to assess because the definition of who is a Jew is problematic not all Jews identify themselves as Jewish and some who identify as Jewish are not considered so by other Jews According to the Jewish Year Book 1901 the global Jewish population in 1900 was around 11 million The latest available data is from the World Jewish Population Survey of 2002 and the Jewish Year Calendar 2005 In 2002 according to the Jewish Population Survey there were 13 3 million Jews around the world The Jewish Year Calendar cites 14 6 million It is 0 25 of world population 1 Jewish population growth is currently near zero percent with 0 3 growth from 2000 to 2001 The overall growth rate of Jews in Israel is 1 7 annually and is consistently growing through natural population growth and extensive immigration 134 The diaspora countries by contrast have low Jewish birth rates an increasingly elderly age composition high rates of interreligious marriage and a negative balance of people leaving Judaism versus those joining 135 In 2022 the world Jewish population was estimated at 15 2 million the majority live in one of only two countires Israel and the United States 136 About 46 6 of all Jews resided in Israel 6 9 million and another 6 million Jews resided in the United States with most of the remainder living in Europe and other groups spread throughout Canada Latin America Asia Africa and Australia 137 Jewish religious movementsMain article Jewish religious movements Rabbinic Judaism Rabbinic Judaism or in some older sources Rabbinism 138 Hebrew Yahadut Rabanit יהדות רבנית has been the mainstream form of Judaism since the 6th century CE after the codification of the Talmud It is characterised by the belief that the Written Torah Written Law cannot be correctly interpreted without reference to the Oral Torah and the voluminous literature specifying what behavior is sanctioned by the Law 21 22 23 The Jewish Enlightenment of the late 18th century resulted in the division of Western Jewry primarily the Ashkenazi but also western part of Sephardim and Italian rite Jews a k a Italkim and Greek Romaniote Jews both last groups are considered distinct from Ashkenazim and Sephardim into religious movements or denominations especially in North America and Anglophone countries The main denominations today outside Israel where the situation is rather different 139 are Orthodox Conservative and Reform The notion traditional Judaism includes the Orthodox with Conservative 34 or solely the Orthodox Jews 140 1 nbsp Two Haredi Jewish couples at a bus stop in Jerusalem nbsp Hasids at front of Belz Great Synagogue Jerusalem Orthodox Judaism holds that both the Written and Oral Torah were divinely revealed to Moses and that the laws within it are binding and unchanging Orthodox Jews generally consider commentaries on the Shulchan Aruch a condensed codification of halakha that largely favored Sephardic traditions to be the definitive codification of halakha Orthodoxy places a high importance on Maimonides 13 principles as a definition of Jewish faith Orthodoxy is often divided into Haredi Judaism and Modern Orthodox Judaism Haredi is less accommodating to modernity and has less interest in non Jewish disciplines and it may be distinguished from Modern Orthodox Judaism in practice by its styles of dress and more stringent practices Subsets of Haredi Judaism along both ethnic and ideological lines include Hardal Nationalist Haredi within Religious Zionism Hasidic Judaism which is rooted in the Kabbalah and distinguished by reliance on a Rebbe 141 or religious teacher their traditionalist opponents the Misnagdim also known as Lithuanian or Lita im and Sephardic Haredi Judaism which emerged among Sephardic and Mizrahi Asian and North African Jews in Israel 35 36 142 37 38 143 144 Centrist Orthodoxy Joseph B Soloveitchik is sometimes also distinguished 145 nbsp Conservative women rabbis Israel Conservative Judaism known as Masorti Judaism outside North America and Israel is characterized by a commitment to traditional halakha and customs including observance of Shabbat and kashrut a deliberately non fundamentalist teaching of Jewish principles of faith a positive attitude toward modern culture and an acceptance of both traditional rabbinic and modern scholarship when considering Jewish religious texts Conservative Judaism teaches that halakha is not static but has always developed in response to changing conditions It holds that the Torah is a divine document written by prophets inspired by God and reflecting his will but rejects the Orthodox position that it was dictated by God to Moses 39 40 146 41 42 147 148 149 Conservative Judaism holds that the Oral Law is divine and normative but holds that both the Written and Oral Law may be interpreted by the rabbis to reflect modern sensibilities and suit modern conditions Reform Judaism called Liberal or Progressive Judaism in many countries defines Judaism in relatively universalist terms rejects most of the ritual and ceremonial laws of the Torah while observing moral laws and emphasizes the ethical call of the Prophets Reform Judaism has developed an egalitarian prayer service in the vernacular along with Hebrew in many cases and emphasizes personal connection to Jewish tradition 43 44 150 45 46 47 Reconstructionist Judaism like Reform Judaism does not hold that halakha as such requires observance but unlike Reform Reconstructionist thought emphasizes the role of the community in deciding what observances to follow It sometimes recognized as the 4th major stream of Judaism 151 152 153 154 1 155 Jewish Renewal is a recent North American movement which focuses on spirituality and social justice but does not address issues of halakha Men and women participate equally in prayer 156 157 Humanistic Judaism is a small non theistic movement centered in North America and Israel that emphasizes Jewish culture and history as the sources of Jewish identity 29 158 Subbotniks Sabbatarians are a movement of Jews of Russian ethnic origin in the 18th 20th centuries the majority of whom belonged to Rabbinic and Karaite Judaism 159 160 Many settled in the Holy Land as part of the Zionist First Aliyah in order to escape oppression in the Russian Empire and later mostly intermarried with other Jews their descendants included Alexander Zaid Major General Alik Ron 161 and the mother of Ariel Sharon 162 Sephardi and Mizrahi Judaism See also Sephardic Haredim and Sephardic law and customs nbsp El Ghriba synagogue in Djerba Tunisia While traditions and customs vary between discrete communities it can be said that Sephardi Iberian for example most Jews from France and the Netherlands and Mizrahi Oriental Jewish communities do not generally adhere to the movement framework popular in and among Ashkenazi Jewry 163 Historically Sephardi and Mizrahi communities have eschewed denominations in favour of a big tent approach 164 This is particularly the case in contemporary Israel which is home to the largest communities of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in the world However individual Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews or some their communities may be members of or attend synagogues that do adhere to one Ashkenazi inflected movement or another 143 Among the pioneers of Reform Judaism in the 1820s there was the Sephardic congregation Beth Elohim in Charleston South Carolina 165 A part of the European Sephardim were also linked with the Judaic modernization 166 Sephardi and Mizrahi observance of Judaism tends toward the traditional Orthodox and prayer rites are reflective of this with the text of each rite being largely unchanged since their respective inception Observant Sephardim may follow the teachings of a particular rabbi or school of thought for example the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel 143 167 168 Jewish movements in Israel Main article Religion in Israel In Israel as in the West Judaism is also divided into major Orthodox Conservative and Reform traditions 169 170 171 At the same time for statistical and practical purposes a different division of society is used there on the basis of a person s attitude to religion Most Jewish Israelis classify themselves as secular hiloni traditional masorti religious dati or ultra religious haredi 171 172 The term secular is more popular as a self description among Israeli families of western European origin whose Jewish identity may be a very powerful force in their lives but who see it as largely independent of traditional religious belief and practice This portion of the population largely ignores organized religious life be it of the official Israeli rabbinate Orthodox or of the liberal movements common to diaspora Judaism Reform Conservative The term traditional masorti is most common as a self description among Israeli families of eastern origin i e the Middle East Central Asia and North Africa This term as commonly used has nothing to do with Conservative Judaism which also names itself Masorti outside North America Only a few authors like Elliot Nelson Dorff consider the American Conservative masorti movement and Israeli masorti sector to be one and the same 173 There is a great deal of ambiguity in the ways secular and traditional are used in Israel they often overlap and they cover an extremely wide range in terms of worldview and practical religious observance The term Orthodox is not popular in Israeli discourse although the percentage of Jews who come under that category is far greater than in the Jewish diaspora What would be called Orthodox in the diaspora includes what is commonly called dati religious including religious zionist or haredi ultra Orthodox in Israel 171 172 The former term includes what is called religious Zionism or the National Orthodox community as well as what has become known over the past decade or so as haredi leumi nationalist haredi or Hardal which combines a largely haredi lifestyle with nationalist ideology Some people in Yiddish also refer to observant Orthodox Jews as frum as opposed to frei more liberal Jews 174 Karaites and Samaritans Karaite Judaism defines itself as the remnants of the non Rabbinic Jewish sects of the Second Temple period such as the Sadducees The Karaites Scripturalists accept only the Hebrew Bible and what they view as the Peshat simple meaning they do not accept non biblical writings as authoritative Some European Karaites do not see themselves as part of the Jewish community at all although most do 27 The Samaritans a very small community located entirely around Mount Gerizim in the Nablus Shechem region of the West Bank and in Holon near Tel Aviv in Israel regard themselves as the descendants of the Israelites of the Iron Age kingdom of Israel Their religious practices are based on the literal text of the written Torah Five Books of Moses which they view as the only authoritative scripture with a special regard also for the Samaritan Book of Joshua nbsp Beta Israeli Kahen at the Western Wall Haymanot Ethiopian Judaism See also Haymanot and Beta Israel Haymanot meaning religion in Ge ez and Amharic refers the Judaism practiced by Ethiopian Jews This version of Judaism differs substantially from Rabbinic Karaite and Samaritan Judaisms Ethiopian Jews having diverged from their coreligionists earlier Sacred scriptures the Orit are written in Ge ez not Hebrew and dietary laws are based strictly on the text of the Orit without explication from ancillary commentaries Holidays also differ with some Rabbinic holidays not observed in Ethiopian Jewish communities and some additional holidays like Sigd Noahide B nei Noah movement Further information Noahidism Noahidism is a Jewish religious movement based on the Seven Laws of Noah and their traditional interpretations within Rabbinic Judaism According to the halakha non Jews gentiles are not obligated to convert to Judaism but they are required to observe the Seven Laws of Noah to be assured of a place in the World to Come Olam Ha Ba the final reward of the righteous The divinely ordained penalty for violating any of the Laws of Noah is discussed in the Talmud but in practical terms it is subject to the working legal system which is established by the society at large Those who subscribe to the observance of the Noahic Covenant are referred to as B nei Noach Hebrew בני נח Children of Noah or Noahides ˈnoʊ e haɪdɪs Supporting organizations have been established around the world over the past decades by both Noahides and Orthodox Jews 175 Historically the Hebrew term B nei Noach has applied to all non Jews as descendants of Noah However nowadays it s primarily used to refer specifically to those non Jews who observe the Seven Laws of Noah Jewish observancesJewish ethics Main article Jewish ethics Jewish ethics may be guided by halakhic traditions by other moral principles or by central Jewish virtues Jewish ethical practice is typically understood to be marked by values such as justice truth peace loving kindness chesed compassion humility and self respect Specific Jewish ethical practices include practices of charity tzedakah and refraining from negative speech lashon hara Proper ethical practices regarding sexuality and many other issues are subjects of dispute among Jews Prayers Main article Jewish prayer nbsp A Yemenite Jew at morning prayers wearing a kippah skullcap prayer shawl and tefillin Traditionally Jews recite prayers three times daily Shacharit Mincha and Ma ariv with a fourth prayer Mussaf added on Shabbat and holidays At the heart of each service is the Amidah or Shemoneh Esrei Another key prayer in many services is the declaration of faith the Shema Yisrael or Shema The Shema is the recitation of a verse from the Torah Deuteronomy 6 4 Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad Hear O Israel The Lord is our God The Lord is One nbsp An Israeli female soldier prays at the Western Wall Most of the prayers in a traditional Jewish service can be recited in solitary prayer although communal prayer is preferred Communal prayer requires a quorum of ten adult Jews called a minyan In nearly all Orthodox and a few Conservative circles only male Jews are counted toward a minyan most Conservative Jews and members of other Jewish denominations count female Jews as well In addition to prayer services observant traditional Jews recite prayers and benedictions throughout the day when performing various acts Prayers are recited upon waking up in the morning before eating or drinking different foods after eating a meal and so on The approach to prayer varies among the Jewish denominations Differences can include the texts of prayers the frequency of prayer the number of prayers recited at various religious events the use of musical instruments and choral music and whether prayers are recited in the traditional liturgical languages or the vernacular In general Orthodox and Conservative congregations adhere most closely to tradition and Reform and Reconstructionist synagogues are more likely to incorporate translations and contemporary writings in their services Also in most Conservative synagogues and all Reform and Reconstructionist congregations women participate in prayer services on an equal basis with men including roles traditionally filled only by men such as reading from the Torah In addition many Reform temples use musical accompaniment such as organs and mixed choirs Religious clothing nbsp Jewish boys wearing tzitzit and kippot play soccer in Jerusalem nbsp Men wearing tallitot pray at the Western Wall Further information Jewish religious clothing kippah tzitzit and tefillin A kippah Hebrew כ פ ה plural kippot Yiddish יא רמלקע yarmulke is a slightly rounded brimless skullcap worn by many Jews while praying eating reciting blessings or studying Jewish religious texts and at all times by some Jewish men In Orthodox communities only men wear kippot in non Orthodox communities some women also wear kippot Kippot range in size from a small round beanie that covers only the back of the head to a large snug cap that covers the whole crown Tzitzit Hebrew צ יצי ת Ashkenazi pronunciation tzitzis are special knotted fringes or tassels found on the four corners of the tallit Hebrew ט ל ית Ashkenazi pronunciation tallis or prayer shawl The tallit is worn by Jewish men and some Jewish women during the prayer service Customs vary regarding when a Jew begins wearing a tallit In the Sephardi community boys wear a tallit from bar mitzvah age In some Ashkenazi communities it is customary to wear one only after marriage A tallit katan small tallit is a fringed garment worn under the clothing throughout the day In some Orthodox circles the fringes are allowed to hang freely outside the clothing Tefillin Hebrew ת פ ל ין known in English as phylacteries from the Greek word fylakthrion meaning safeguard or amulet are two square leather boxes containing biblical verses attached to the forehead and wound around the left arm by leather straps They are worn during weekday morning prayer by observant Jewish men and some Jewish women 176 A kittel Yiddish קיטל a white knee length overgarment is worn by prayer leaders and some observant traditional Jews on the High Holidays It is traditional for the head of the household to wear a kittel at the Passover seder in some communities and some grooms wear one under the wedding canopy Jewish males are buried in a tallit and sometimes also a kittel which are part of the tachrichim burial garments Jewish holidays Main article Jewish holiday Jewish holidays are special days in the Jewish calendar which celebrate moments in Jewish history as well as central themes in the relationship between God and the world such as creation revelation and redemption Shabbat Main article Shabbat nbsp Two braided Shabbat challot placed under an embroidered challah cover at the start of the Shabbat meal Shabbat the weekly day of rest lasting from shortly before sundown on Friday night to nightfall on Saturday night commemorates God s day of rest after six days of creation It plays a pivotal role in Jewish practice and is governed by a large corpus of religious law At sundown on Friday the woman of the house welcomes the Shabbat by lighting two or more candles and reciting a blessing The evening meal begins with the Kiddush a blessing recited aloud over a cup of wine and the Mohtzi a blessing recited over the bread It is customary to have challah two braided loaves of bread on the table During Shabbat Jews are forbidden to engage in any activity that falls under 39 categories of melakhah translated literally as work In fact the activities banned on the Sabbath are not work in the usual sense They include such actions as lighting a fire writing using money and carrying in the public domain The prohibition of lighting a fire has been extended in the modern era to driving a car which involves burning fuel and using electricity 177 Three pilgrimage festivals Main article Shalosh regalim Jewish holy days chaggim celebrate landmark events in Jewish history such as the Exodus from Egypt and the giving of the Torah and sometimes mark the change of seasons and transitions in the agricultural cycle The three major festivals Sukkot Passover and Shavuot are called regalim derived from the Hebrew word regel or foot On the three regalim it was customary for the Israelites to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices in the Temple nbsp A haggadah used by the Jewish community of Cairo in Arabic Passover Pesach is a week long holiday beginning on the evening of the 14th day of Nisan the first month in the Hebrew calendar that commemorates the Exodus from Egypt Outside Israel Passover is celebrated for eight days In ancient times it coincided with the barley harvest It is the only holiday that centers on home service the Seder Leavened products chametz are removed from the house prior to the holiday and are not consumed throughout the week Homes are thoroughly cleaned to ensure no bread or bread by products remain and a symbolic burning of the last vestiges of chametz is conducted on the morning of the Seder Matzo is eaten instead of bread Shavuot Pentecost or Feast of Weeks celebrates the revelation of the Torah to the Israelites on Mount Sinai Also known as the Festival of Bikurim or first fruits it coincided in biblical times with the wheat harvest Shavuot customs include all night study marathons known as Tikkun Leil Shavuot eating dairy foods cheesecake and blintzes are special favorites reading the Book of Ruth decorating homes and synagogues with greenery and wearing white clothing symbolizing purity nbsp A sukkah Sukkot Tabernacles or The Festival of Booths commemorates the Israelites forty years of wandering through the desert on their way to the Promised Land It is celebrated through the construction of temporary booths called sukkot sing sukkah that represent the temporary shelters of the Israelites during their wandering It coincides with the fruit harvest and marks the end of the agricultural cycle Jews around the world eat in sukkot for seven days and nights Sukkot concludes with Shemini Atzeret where Jews begin to pray for rain and Simchat Torah Rejoicing of the Torah a holiday which marks reaching the end of the Torah reading cycle and beginning all over again The occasion is celebrated with singing and dancing with the Torah scrolls Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are technically considered to be a separate holiday and not a part of Sukkot nbsp Jews in Mumbai break the Yom Kippur fast with roti and samosas High Holy Days Main article High Holidays The High Holidays Yamim Noraim or Days of Awe revolve around judgment and forgiveness Rosh Hashanah also Yom Ha Zikkaron or Day of Remembrance and Yom Teruah or Day of the Sounding of the Shofar Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year literally head of the year although it falls on the first day of the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar Tishri Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the 10 day period of atonement leading up to Yom Kippur during which Jews are commanded to search their souls and make amends for sins committed intentionally or not throughout the year Holiday customs include blowing the shofar or ram s horn in the synagogue eating apples and honey and saying blessings over a variety of symbolic foods such as pomegranates Yom Kippur Day of Atonement is the holiest day of the Jewish year It is a day of communal fasting and praying for forgiveness for one s sins Observant Jews spend the entire day in the synagogue sometimes with a short break in the afternoon reciting prayers from a special holiday prayerbook called a Machzor Many non religious Jews make a point of attending synagogue services and fasting on Yom Kippur On the eve of Yom Kippur before candles are lit a prefast meal the seuda mafseket is eaten Synagogue services on the eve of Yom Kippur begin with the Kol Nidre prayer It is customary to wear white on Yom Kippur especially for Kol Nidre and leather shoes are not worn The following day prayers are held from morning to evening The final prayer service called Ne ilah ends with a long blast of the shofar Purim Main article Purim nbsp Purim street scene in Jerusalem nbsp Jewish personnel of the US Navy light candles on Hanukkah Purim Hebrew פורים Purim lots is a joyous Jewish holiday that commemorates the deliverance of the Persian Jews from the plot of the evil Haman who sought to exterminate them as recorded in the biblical Book of Esther It is characterized by public recitation of the Book of Esther mutual gifts of food and drink charity to the poor and a celebratory meal Esther 9 22 Other customs include drinking wine eating special pastries called hamantashen dressing up in masks and costumes and organizing carnivals and parties Purim has celebrated annually on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Adar which occurs in February or March of the Gregorian calendar Hanukkah Main article Hanukkah Hanukkah Hebrew ח נ כ ה dedication also known as the Festival of Lights is an eight day Jewish holiday that starts on the 25th day of Kislev Hebrew calendar The festival is observed in Jewish homes by the kindling of lights on each of the festival s eight nights one on the first night two on the second night and so on The holiday was called Hanukkah meaning dedication because it marks the re dedication of the Temple after its desecration by Antiochus IV Epiphanes Spiritually Hanukkah commemorates the Miracle of the Oil According to the Talmud at the re dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem following the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire there was only enough consecrated oil to fuel the eternal flame in the Temple for one day Miraculously the oil burned for eight days which was the length of time it took to press prepare and consecrate new oil Hanukkah is not mentioned in the Bible and was never considered a major holiday in Judaism but it has become much more visible and widely celebrated in modern times mainly because it falls around the same time as Christmas and has national Jewish overtones that have been emphasized since the establishment of the State of Israel Fast days Main articles Tisha B Av Seventeenth of Tamuz 10th of Tevet and Tzom Gedaliah Tisha B Av Hebrew תשעה באב or ט באב the Ninth of Av is a day of mourning and fasting commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples and in later times the expulsion of the Jews from Spain There are three more minor Jewish fast days that commemorate various stages of the destruction of the Temples They are the 17th Tamuz the 10th of Tevet and Tzom Gedaliah the 3rd of Tishrei Israeli holidays Main articles Yom Hashoah Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha atzmaut The modern holidays of Yom Ha shoah Holocaust Remembrance Day Yom Hazikaron Israeli Memorial Day and Yom Ha atzmaut Israeli Independence Day commemorate the horrors of the Holocaust the fallen soldiers of Israel and victims of terrorism and Israeli independence respectively There are some who prefer to commemorate those who were killed in the Holocaust on the 10th of Tevet nbsp A man reads a torah using a yad Torah readings Main article Torah reading The core of festival and Shabbat prayer services is the public reading of the Torah along with connected readings from the other books of the Tanakh called Haftarah Over the course of a year the whole Torah is read with the cycle starting over in the autumn on Simchat Torah Synagogues and religious buildings Main article Synagogue nbsp The Sarajevo Synagogue in Sarajevo Bosnia and Herzegovina nbsp Great Synagogue Jerusalem Synagogues are Jewish houses of prayer and study They usually contain separate rooms for prayer the main sanctuary smaller rooms for study and often an area for community or educational use There is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes and interior designs of synagogues vary greatly The Reform movement mostly refer to their synagogues as temples Some traditional features of a synagogue are nbsp Congregation Emanu El of New York The ark called aron ha kodesh by Ashkenazim and hekhal by Sephardim where the Torah scrolls are kept the ark is often closed with an ornate curtain parochet outside or inside the ark doors The elevated reader s platform called bimah by Ashkenazim and tebah by Sephardim where the Torah is read and services are conducted in Sephardi synagogues The eternal light ner tamid a continually lit lamp or lantern used as a reminder of the constantly lit menorah of the Temple in Jerusalem The pulpit or amud a lectern facing the Ark where the hazzan or prayer leader stands while praying In addition to synagogues other buildings of significance in Judaism include yeshivas or institutions of Jewish learning and mikvahs which are ritual baths Dietary laws kashrut Main article Kashrut The Jewish dietary laws are known as kashrut Food prepared in accordance with them is termed kosher and food that is not kosher is also known as treifah or treif People who observe these laws are colloquially said to be keeping kosher 178 179 Many of the laws apply to animal based foods For example in order to be considered kosher mammals must have split hooves and chew their cud The pig is arguably the most well known example of a non kosher animal 180 Although it has split hooves it does not chew its cud For seafood to be kosher the animal must have fins and scales Certain types of seafood such as shellfish crustaceans and eels are therefore considered non kosher Concerning birds a list of non kosher species is given in the Torah The exact translations of many of the species have not survived and some non kosher birds identities are no longer certain However traditions exist about the kashrut status of a few birds For example both chickens and turkeys are permitted in most communities Other types of animals such as amphibians reptiles and most insects are prohibited altogether 178 In addition to the requirement that the species be considered kosher meat and poultry but not fish must come from a healthy animal slaughtered in a process known as shechitah Without the proper slaughtering practices even an otherwise kosher animal will be rendered treif The slaughtering process is intended to be quick and relatively painless to the animal Forbidden parts of animals include the blood some fats and the area in and around the sciatic nerve 178 Halakha also forbids the consumption of meat and dairy products together The waiting period between eating meat and eating dairy varies by the order in which they are consumed and by community and can extend for up to six hours Based on the Biblical injunction against cooking a kid in its mother s milk this rule is mostly derived from the Oral Torah the Talmud and Rabbinic law Chicken and other kosher birds are considered the same as meat under the laws of kashrut but the prohibition is rabbinic not biblical 181 The use of dishes serving utensils and ovens may make food treif that would otherwise be kosher Utensils that have been used to prepare non kosher food or dishes that have held meat and are now used for dairy products render the food treif under certain conditions 178 Furthermore all Orthodox and some Conservative authorities forbid the consumption of processed grape products made by non Jews due to ancient pagan practices of using wine in rituals Some Conservative authorities permit wine and grape juice made without rabbinic supervision 182 The Torah does not give specific reasons for most of the laws of kashrut However a number of explanations have been offered including maintaining ritual purity teaching impulse control encouraging obedience to God improving health reducing cruelty to animals and preserving the distinctness of the Jewish community 178 The various categories of dietary laws may have developed for different reasons and some may exist for multiple reasons For example people are forbidden from consuming the blood of birds and mammals because according to the Torah this is where animal souls are contained In contrast the Torah forbids Israelites from eating non kosher species because they are unclean 183 The Kabbalah describes sparks of holiness that are released by the act of eating kosher foods but are too tightly bound in non kosher foods to be released by eating 178 Survival concerns supersede all the laws of kashrut as they do for most halakhot 184 185 Laws of ritual purity Main article Tumah The Tanakh describes circumstances in which a person who is tahor or ritually pure may become tamei or ritually impure Some of these circumstances are contact with human corpses or graves seminal flux vaginal flux menstruation and contact with people who have become impure from any of these 186 187 In Rabbinic Judaism Kohanim members of the hereditary caste that served as priests in the time of the Temple are mostly restricted from entering grave sites and touching dead bodies 188 During the Temple period such priests Kohanim were required to eat their bread offering Terumah in a state of ritual purity which laws eventually led to more rigid laws being enacted such as hand washing which became a requisite of all Jews before consuming ordinary bread 189 190 191 Family purity nbsp 18th century circumcision chair Museum of Jewish Art and History Main article Niddah See also Women in Judaism An important subcategory of the ritual purity laws relates to the segregation of menstruating women These laws are also known as niddah literally separation or family purity Vital aspects of halakha for traditionally observant Jews they are not usually followed by Jews in liberal denominations 192 Especially in Orthodox Judaism the Biblical laws are augmented by Rabbinical injunctions For example the Torah mandates that a woman in her normal menstrual period must abstain from sexual intercourse for seven days A woman whose menstruation is prolonged must continue to abstain for seven more days after bleeding has stopped 186 The Rabbis conflated ordinary niddah with this extended menstrual period known in the Torah as zavah and mandated that a woman may not have sexual intercourse with her husband from the time she begins her menstrual flow until seven days after it ends In addition Rabbinical law forbids the husband from touching or sharing a bed with his wife during this period Afterwards purification can occur in a ritual bath called a mikveh 192 Traditional Ethiopian Jews keep menstruating women in separate huts and similar to Karaite practice do not allow menstruating women into their temples because of a temple s special sanctity Emigration to Israel and the influence of other Jewish denominations have led to Ethiopian Jews adopting more normative Jewish practices 193 194 nbsp Two boys wearing tallit at a bar mitzvah The torah is visible in the foreground Life cycle events Life cycle events or rites of passage occur throughout a Jew s life that serves to strengthen Jewish identity and bind him her to the entire community Brit milah Welcoming male babies into the covenant through the rite of circumcision on their eighth day of life The baby boy is also given his Hebrew name in the ceremony A naming ceremony intended as a parallel ritual for girls named zeved habat or brit bat enjoys limited popularity Bar mitzvah and Bat mitzvah This passage from childhood to adulthood takes place when a female Jew is twelve and a male Jew is thirteen years old among Orthodox and some Conservative congregations In the Reform movement both girls and boys have their bat bar mitzvah at age thirteen This is often commemorated by having the new adults male only in the Orthodox tradition lead the congregation in prayer and publicly read a portion of the Torah Marriage Marriage is an extremely important lifecycle event and an ideal human state 195 A wedding takes place under a chuppah or wedding canopy which symbolizes a happy house At the end of the ceremony the groom breaks a glass with his foot symbolizing the continuous mourning for the destruction of the Temple and the scattering of the Jewish people An intermarriage is prohibited except as within Reform Judaism 196 nbsp Le Get The Divorce by Moshe Rynecki c 1930 Divorce Divorce is allowed in accordance with Halakha The divorce ceremony involves the husband giving the short get document written in Aramaic into the hand of the wife in rabbinical court that is all But since the 11th century among the Ashkenazim and many Sephardim a divorce became prohibited against will of a wife than a man had way for polygamy 197 The get contains declaration You are hereby permitted to all men nbsp The Bereavement Yahrtzeit Hasidic tish Bnei Brak Israel Death and Mourning Avelut The Torah requires burial as soon as possible even for executed criminals 198 Judaism has a multi staged mourning practice The first stage is called the shiva literally seven observed for one week during which it is traditional to sit at home and be comforted by friends and family 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 eleven months 199 A cremation within Orthodox Judaism permited only by some leading rabbis in West Europe 200 Community leadershipClassical priesthood nbsp Jewish students with their teacher in Samarkand Uzbekistan c 1910 The role of the priesthood in Judaism has significantly diminished since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE when priests attended to the Temple and sacrifices The priesthood is an inherited position and although priests no longer have any but ceremonial duties they are still honored in many Jewish communities Many Orthodox Jewish communities believe that they will be needed again for a future Third Temple and need to remain in readiness for future duty Kohen priest patrilineal descendant of Aaron brother of Moses In the Temple the kohanim were charged with performing the sacrifices Today a Kohen is the first one called up at the reading of the Torah performs the Priestly Blessing as well as complying with other unique laws and ceremonies including the ceremony of redemption of the first born Levi Levite Patrilineal descendant of Levi the son of Jacob In the Temple in Jerusalem the levites sang Psalms performed construction maintenance janitorial and guard duties assisted the priests and sometimes interpreted the law and Temple ritual to the public Today a Levite is called up second to the reading of the Torah Prayer leaders nbsp Magen David Synagogue in Kolkata India From the time of the Mishnah and Talmud to the present Judaism has required specialists or authorities for the practice of very few rituals or ceremonies A Jew can fulfill most requirements for prayer by himself Some activities reading the Torah and haftarah a supplementary portion from the Prophets or Writings the prayer for mourners the blessings for bridegroom and bride the complete grace after meals require a minyan the presence of ten Jews The most common professional clergy in a synagogue are Rabbi of a congregation Jewish scholar who is charged with answering the legal questions of a congregation This role requires ordination by the congregation s preferred authority i e from a respected Orthodox rabbi or if the congregation is Conservative or Reform from academic seminaries A congregation does not necessarily require a rabbi Some congregations have a rabbi but also allow members of the congregation to act as shatz or baal kriyah see below Hassidic Rebbe rabbi who is the head of a Hasidic dynasty Hazzan note the h denotes voiceless pharyngeal fricative cantor a trained vocalist who acts as shatz Chosen for a good voice knowledge of traditional tunes understanding of the meaning of the prayers and sincerity in reciting them A congregation does not need to have a dedicated hazzan Jewish prayer services do involve two specified roles which are sometimes but not always filled by a rabbi or hazzan in many congregations In other congregations these roles are filled on an ad hoc basis by members of the congregation who lead portions of services on a rotating basis Shaliach tzibur or Shatz leader literally agent or representative of the congregation leads those assembled in prayer and sometimes prays on behalf of the community When a shatz recites a prayer on behalf of the congregation he is not acting as an intermediary but rather as a facilitator The entire congregation participates in the recital of such prayers by saying amen at their conclusion it is with this act that the shatz s prayer becomes the prayer of the congregation Any adult capable of reciting the prayers clearly may act as shatz In Orthodox congregations and some Conservative congregations only men can be prayer leaders but all Progressive communities now allow women to serve in this function The Baal kriyah or baal koreh master of the reading reads the weekly Torah portion The requirements for being the baal kriyah are the same as those for the shatz These roles are not mutually exclusive The same person is often qualified to fill more than one role and often does Often there are several people capable of filling these roles and different services or parts of services will be led by each Many congregations especially larger ones also rely on a Gabbai sexton Calls people up to the Torah appoints the shatz for each prayer session if there is no standard shatz and makes certain that the synagogue is kept clean and supplied The three preceding positions are usually voluntary and considered an honor Since the Enlightenment large synagogues have often adopted the practice of hiring rabbis and hazzans to act as shatz and baal kriyah and this is still typically the case in many Conservative and Reform congregations However in most Orthodox synagogues these positions are filled by laypeople on a rotating or ad hoc basis Although most congregations hire one or more Rabbis the use of a professional hazzan is generally declining in American congregations and the use of professionals for other offices is rarer still nbsp A Yemeni sofer writing a torah in the 1930s Specialized religious roles Dayan judge An ordained rabbi with special legal training who belongs to a beth din rabbinical court In Israel religious courts handle marriage and divorce cases conversion and financial disputes in the Jewish community Mohel circumciser An expert in the laws of circumcision who has received training from a previously qualified mohel and performs the brit milah circumcision Shochet ritual slaughterer In order for meat to be kosher it must be slaughtered by a shochet who is an expert in the laws of kashrut and has been trained by another shochet Sofer scribe Torah scrolls tefillin phylacteries mezuzot scrolls put on doorposts and gittin bills of divorce must be written by a sofer who is an expert in Hebrew calligraphy and has undergone rigorous training in the laws of writing sacred texts Rosh yeshiva A Torah scholar who runs a yeshiva Mashgiach Mashgicha of a yeshiva Depending on which yeshiva might either be the person responsible for ensuring attendance and proper conduct or even supervise the emotional and spiritual welfare of the students and give lectures on mussar Jewish ethics Mashgiach Mashgicha Supervises manufacturers of kosher food importers caterers and restaurants to ensure that the food is kosher Must be an expert in the laws of kashrut and trained by a rabbi if not a rabbi himself or herself Historical Jewish groupings to 1700 Around the 1st century CE there were several small Jewish sects the Pharisees Sadducees Zealots Essenes and Christians After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE these sects vanished 22 201 Christianity survived but by breaking with Judaism and becoming a separate religion the Pharisees survived but in the form of Rabbinic Judaism today known simply as Judaism 22 The Sadducees rejected the divine inspiration of the Prophets and the Writings relying only on the Torah as divinely inspired Consequently a number of other core tenets of the Pharisees belief system which became the basis for modern Judaism were also dismissed by the Sadducees The Samaritans practiced a similar religion which is traditionally considered separate from Judaism Like the Sadducees who relied only on the Torah some Jews in the 8th and 9th centuries rejected the authority and divine inspiration of the oral law as recorded in the Mishnah and developed by later rabbis in the two Talmuds relying instead only upon the Tanakh These included the Isunians the Yudganites the Malikites clarification needed and others They soon developed oral traditions of their own which differed from the rabbinic traditions and eventually formed the Karaite sect Karaites exist in small numbers today mostly living in Israel Rabbinical and Karaite Jews each hold that the others are Jews but that the other faith is erroneous Over a long time Jews formed distinct ethnic groups in several different geographic areas amongst others the Ashkenazi Jews of central and Eastern Europe the Sephardi Jews of Spain Portugal and North Africa the Beta Israel of Ethiopia the Yemenite Jews from the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula and the Malabari and Cochin Jews from Kerala Many of these groups have developed differences in their prayers traditions and accepted canons however these distinctions are mainly the result of their being formed at some cultural distance from normative rabbinic Judaism rather than based on any doctrinal dispute Persecutions Main articles Persecution of Jews Antisemitism and History of antisemitism Antisemitism arose during the Middle Ages in the form of persecutions pogroms forced conversions expulsions social restrictions and ghettoization This was different in quality from the repressions of Jews which had occurred in ancient times Ancient repressions were politically motivated and Jews were treated the same as members of other ethnic groups With the rise of the Churches the main motive for attacks on Jews changed from politics to religion and the religious motive for such attacks was specifically derived from Christian views about Jews and Judaism 202 During the Middle Ages Jewish people who lived under Muslim rule generally experienced tolerance and integration 203 but there were occasional outbreaks of violence like Almohad s persecutions 204 Hasidism Main article Hasidic Judaism Hasidic Judaism was founded by Yisroel ben Eliezer 1700 1760 also known as the Ba al Shem Tov or Besht It originated in a time of persecution of the Jewish people when European Jews had turned inward to Talmud study many felt that most expressions of Jewish life had become too academic and that they no longer had any emphasis on spirituality or joy Its adherents favored small and informal gatherings called Shtiebel which in contrast to a traditional synagogue could be used both as a place of worship and for celebrations involving dancing eating and socializing 205 Ba al Shem Tov s disciples attracted many followers they themselves established numerous Hasidic sects across Europe Unlike other religions which typically expanded through word of mouth or by use of print Hasidism spread largely owing to Tzadiks who used their influence to encourage others to follow the movement Hasidism appealed to many Europeans because it was easy to learn did not require full immediate commitment and presented a compelling spectacle 206 Hasidic Judaism eventually became the way of life for many Jews in Eastern Europe Waves of Jewish immigration in the 1880s carried it to the United States The movement itself claims to be nothing new but a refreshment of original Judaism As some have put it they merely re emphasized that which the generations had lost Nevertheless early on there was a serious schism between Hasidic and non Hasidic Jews European Jews who rejected the Hasidic movement were dubbed by the Hasidim as Misnagdim lit opponents Some of the reasons for the rejection of Hasidic Judaism were the exuberance of Hasidic worship its deviation from tradition in ascribing infallibility and miracles to their leaders and the concern that it might become a messianic sect Over time differences between the Hasidim and their opponents have slowly diminished and both groups are now considered part of Haredi Judaism The Enlightenment and new religious movements Main articles Haskalah and Jewish religious movements In the late 18th century CE Europe was swept by a group of intellectual social and political movements known as the Enlightenment The Enlightenment led to reductions in the European laws that prohibited Jews to interact with the wider secular world thus allowing Jews access to secular education and experience A parallel Jewish movement Haskalah or the Jewish Enlightenment began especially in Central Europe and Western Europe in response to both the Enlightenment and these new freedoms It placed an emphasis on integration with secular society and a pursuit of non religious knowledge through reason With the promise of political emancipation many Jews saw no reason to continue to observe halakha and increasing numbers of Jews assimilated into Christian Europe Modern religious movements of Judaism all formed in reaction to this trend In Central Europe followed by Great Britain and the United States Reform or Liberal Judaism developed relaxing legal obligations especially those that limited Jewish relations with non Jews emulating Protestant decorum in prayer and emphasizing the ethical values of Judaism s Prophetic tradition Modern Orthodox Judaism developed in reaction to Reform Judaism by leaders who argued that Jews could participate in public life as citizens equal to Christians while maintaining the observance of halakha Meanwhile in the United States wealthy Reform Jews helped European scholars who were Orthodox in practice but critical and skeptical in their study of the Bible and Talmud to establish a seminary to train rabbis for immigrants from Eastern Europe These left wing Orthodox rabbis were joined by right wing Reform rabbis who felt that halakha should not be entirely abandoned to form the Conservative movement Orthodox Jews who opposed the Haskalah formed Haredi Orthodox Judaism After massive movements of Jews following The Holocaust and the creation of the state of Israel these movements have competed for followers from among traditional Jews in or from other countries Spectrum of observance nbsp Judaism is practiced around the world This is an 1889 siddur published in Hebrew and Marathi for use by the Bene Israel community Jewish religious practice varies widely through all levels of observance According to the 2001 edition of the National Jewish Population Survey in the United States Jewish community the world s second largest 4 3 million Jews out of 5 1 million had some sort of connection to the religion 207 Of that population of connected Jews 80 participated in some sort of Jewish religious observance but only 48 belonged to a congregation and fewer than 16 attend regularly 208 Judaism and other religionsChristianity and Judaism Main article Christianity and Judaism See also Christianity and antisemitism and Christian Jewish reconciliation nbsp The 12th century Synagogue of Santa Maria la Blanca in Toledo Spain was converted to a church shortly after anti Jewish pogroms in 1391 Christianity was originally a sect of Second Temple Judaism but the two religions diverged in the first century The differences between Christianity and Judaism originally centered on whether Jesus was the Jewish Messiah but eventually became irreconcilable Major differences between the two faiths include the nature of the Messiah of atonement and sin the status of God s commandments to Israel and perhaps most significantly of the nature of God himself Due to these differences Judaism traditionally regards Christianity as Shituf or worship of the God of Israel which is not monotheistic Christianity has traditionally regarded Judaism as obsolete with the invention of Christianity and Jews as a people replaced by the Church though a Christian belief in dual covenant theology emerged as a phenomenon following Christian reflection on how their theology influenced the Nazi Holocaust 209 Since the time of the Middle Ages the Catholic Church upheld the Constitutio pro Judaeis Formal Statement on the Jews which stated We decree that no Christian shall use violence to force them to be baptized so long as they are unwilling and refuse Without the judgment of the political authority of the land no Christian shall presume to wound them or kill them or rob them of their money or change the good customs that they have thus far enjoyed in the place where they live 210 Until their emancipation in the late 18th and the 19th century Jews in Christian lands were subject to humiliating legal restrictions and limitations They included provisions requiring Jews to wear specific and identifying clothing such as the Jewish hat and the yellow badge restricting Jews to certain cities and towns or in certain parts of towns ghettos and forbidding Jews to enter certain trades for example selling new clothes in medieval Sweden Disabilities also included special taxes levied on Jews exclusion from public life restraints on the performance of religious ceremonies and linguistic censorship Some countries went even further and completely expelled Jews for example England in 1290 Jews were readmitted in 1655 and Spain in 1492 readmitted in 1868 The first Jewish settlers in North America arrived in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam in 1654 they were forbidden to hold public office open a retail shop or establish a synagogue When the colony was seized by the British in 1664 Jewish rights remained unchanged but by 1671 Asser Levy was the first Jew to serve on a jury in North America 211 In 1791 Revolutionary France was the first country to abolish disabilities altogether followed by Prussia in 1848 Emancipation of the Jews in the United Kingdom was achieved in 1858 after an almost 30 year struggle championed by Isaac Lyon Goldsmid 212 with the ability of Jews to sit in parliament with the passing of the Jews Relief Act 1858 The newly created German Empire in 1871 abolished Jewish disabilities in Germany which were reinstated in the Nuremberg Laws in 1935 Jewish life in Christian lands was marked by frequent blood libels expulsions forced conversions and massacres Religious prejudice was an underlying source against Jews in Europe Christian rhetoric and antipathy towards Jews developed in the early years of Christianity and was reinforced by ever increasing anti Jewish measures over the ensuing centuries The action taken by Christians against Jews included acts of violence and murder culminating in the Holocaust 213 21 214 169 215 These attitudes were reinforced by Christian preaching in art and popular teaching for two millennia which expressed contempt for Jews 216 as well as statutes which were designed to humiliate and stigmatise Jews The Nazi Party was known for its persecution of Christian Churches many of them such as the Protestant Confessing Church and the Catholic Church 217 as well as Quakers and Jehovah s Witnesses aided and rescued Jews who were being targeted by the antireligious regime 218 The attitude of Christians and Christian Churches toward the Jewish people and Judaism have changed in a mostly positive direction since World War II Pope John Paul II and the Catholic Church have upheld the Church s acceptance of the continuing and permanent election of the Jewish people as well as a reaffirmation of the covenant between God and the Jews 219 In December 2015 the Vatican released a 10 000 word document that among other things stated that Catholics should work with Jews to fight antisemitism 220 Islam and Judaism Main article Islam and Judaism nbsp Muslim women in the mellah of Essaouira nbsp The bimah of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo Egypt Both Judaism and Islam track their origins from the patriarch Abraham and they are therefore considered Abrahamic religions In both Jewish and Muslim tradition the Jewish and Arab peoples are descended from the two sons of Abraham Isaac and Ishmael respectively While both religions are monotheistic and share many commonalities they differ based on the fact that Jews do not consider Jesus or Muhammad to be prophets The religions adherents have interacted with each other since the 7th century when Islam originated and spread in the Arabian peninsula Indeed the years 712 to 1066 CE under the Ummayad and the Abbasid rulers have been called the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain Non Muslim monotheists living in these countries including Jews were known as dhimmis Dhimmis were allowed to practice their own religions and administer their own internal affairs but they were subject to certain restrictions that were not imposed on Muslims 221 For example they had to pay the jizya a per capita tax imposed on free adult non Muslim males 221 and they were also forbidden to bear arms or testify in court cases involving Muslims 222 Many of the laws regarding dhimmis were highly symbolic For example dhimmis in some countries were required to wear distinctive clothing a practice not found in either the Qur an or the hadiths but invented in early medieval Baghdad and inconsistently enforced 223 Jews in Muslim countries were not entirely free from persecution for example many were killed exiled or forcibly converted in the 12th century in Persia and by the rulers of the Almohad dynasty in North Africa and Al Andalus 224 as well as by the Zaydi imams of Yemen in the 17th century see Mawza Exile At times Jews were also restricted in their choice of residence in Morocco for example Jews were confined to walled quarters mellahs beginning in the 15th century and increasingly since the early 19th century 225 In the mid 20th century Jews were expelled from nearly all of the Arab countries 226 227 Most have chosen to live in Israel Today antisemitic themes including Holocaust denial have become commonplace in the propaganda of Islamic movements such as Hizbullah and Hamas in the pronouncements of various agencies of the Islamic Republic of Iran and even in the newspapers and other publications of Refah Partisi 228 Syncretic movements incorporating Judaism There are some movements in other religions that include elements of Judaism Among Christianity these are a number of denominations of ancient and contemporary Judaizers The most well known of these is Messianic Judaism a religious movement which arose in the 1960s 229 230 231 232 In this elements of the messianic traditions in Judaism 233 234 are incorporated in and melded with the tenets of Christianity 232 235 236 237 238 The movement generally states that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah that he is one of the Three Divine Persons 239 240 and that salvation is only achieved through acceptance of Jesus as one s savior 241 Some members of Messianic Judaism argue that it is a sect of Judaism 242 Jewish organizations of every denomination reject this stating that Messianic Judaism is a Christian sect because it teaches creeds which are identical to those of Pauline Christianity and because the conditions for Messiah to have come accordingly within traditional Jewish thought have not yet been met 243 244 Another religious movement is the Black Hebrew Israelite group which not to be confused with less syncretic Black Judaism a constellation of movements which depending on their adherence to normative Jewish tradition receive varying degrees of recognition by the broader Jewish community Other examples of syncretism include Semitic neopaganism loosely organized sects which incorporate pagan Goddess movement or Wiccan beliefs with some Jewish religious practices 245 Jewish Buddhists another loosely organized group that incorporates elements of Buddhism and other Asian spirituality in their faith 246 Some Renewal Jews borrow freely and openly from Buddhism Sufism Native American religions and other faiths 156 157 The Kabbalah Centre which employs teachers from multiple religions is a one of New Age Judaism movements 247 that claims to popularize the kabbalah part of the Jewish esoteric tradition 248 CriticismMain article Criticism of Judaism Criticism of Judaism may include those that require revisionism to classical Orthodox Judaism such as that of the modernized denomination of Reconstructionist Judaism as established by American rabbi Mordecai Kaplan who believed that classical Orthodox Judaism is outdated as a religious belief on its own and should represent the Jewish culture as a progressive civilization 249 250 On the other hand proponents of classical Orthodox Judaism such as Neturei Karta and similar groups strongly oppose the growing accommodation to political Zionism by Haredi Jewish groups such as Agudat Yisrael a previously anti Zionist proponent of Orthodox Haredi Judaism whom the Neturei Karta see as betrayal by the Agudat Yisrael against the Orthodoxy in the belief that Judaism should not be conflated with the politics of Zionism 251 252 253 See also nbsp Judaism portal nbsp Religion portal Heaven in Judaism List of 21st century religious leaders Judaism List of religious organizations Jewish organizations Judaism by country Outline of JudaismFootnotes a b c d e f g h Mendes Flohr 2005 Levenson 2012 p 3 Ehrman Bart D 2005 2003 At Polar Ends of the Spectrum Early Christian Ebionites and Marcionites Lost Christianities The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew Oxford Oxford University Press pp 95 112 doi 10 1017 s0009640700110273 ISBN 978 0 19 518249 1 LCCN 2003053097 S2CID 152458823 Retrieved 20 January 2021 Hurtado Larry W 2005 How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God Approaches to Jesus Devotion in Earliest Christianity How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God Historical Questions about Earliest Devotion to Jesus Grand Rapids Michigan and Cambridge UK Wm B Eerdmans pp 13 55 ISBN 978 0 8028 2861 3 Retrieved 20 July 2021 Freeman Charles 2010 Breaking Away The First Christianities A New History of Early Christianity New Haven and London Yale University Press pp 31 46 doi 10 12987 9780300166583 ISBN 978 0 300 12581 8 JSTOR j ctt1nq44w LCCN 2009012009 S2CID 170124789 Retrieved 20 January 2021 Wilken Robert Louis 2013 Beginning in Jerusalem The First Thousand Years A Global History of Christianity New Haven and London Yale University Press pp 6 16 ISBN 978 0 300 11884 1 JSTOR j ctt32bd7m LCCN 2012021755 S2CID 160590164 Retrieved 20 January 2021 Lietaert Peerbolte Bert Jan 2013 How Antichrist Defeated Death The Development of Christian Apocalyptic Eschatology in the Early Church In Krans Jan Lietaert Peerbolte L J Smit Peter Ben Zwiep Arie W eds Paul John and Apocalyptic Eschatology Studies in Honour of Martinus C de Boer Novum Testamentum Supplements Vol 149 Leiden Brill Publishers pp 238 255 doi 10 1163 9789004250369 016 ISBN 978 90 04 25026 0 ISSN 0167 9732 S2CID 191738355 Retrieved 13 February 2021 nbsp This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Kohler Kaufmann 1901 1906 Judaism In Singer Isidore et al eds The Jewish Encyclopedia New York Funk amp Wagnalls Jacobs 2007 p 511 quote Judaism the religion philosophy and way of life of the Jews Schiffman 2003 p 3 History of Judaism until 164 BCE History of Judaism BBC Archived from the original on 13 May 2011 Retrieved 30 March 2013 David P Mindell 2009 The Evolving World Harvard University Press p 224 ISBN 978 0 674 04108 0 Religion amp Ethics Judaism BBC Archived from the original on 23 October 2018 Retrieved 22 August 2010 Religion Three Religions One God Archived 15 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine PBS Knowledge Resources Judaism Berkley Center for Religion Peace and World Affairs Archived from the original on 27 August 2011 Retrieved 22 November 2011 Fried Yerachmiel 18 August 2011 What is Torah Aish Archived from the original on 11 March 2022 Retrieved 11 March 2022 Bamidbar Rabah sefaria org sefaria Archived from the original on 11 March 2022 Retrieved 11 March 2022 Heribert Busse 1998 Islam Judaism and Christianity Theological and Historical Affiliations Markus Wiener Publishers pp 63 112 ISBN 978 1 55876 144 5 Irving M Zeitlin 2007 The Historical Muhammad Polity pp 92 93 ISBN 978 0 7456 3999 4 Cambridge University Historical Series An Essay on Western Civilization in Its Economic Aspects p 40 Hebraism like Hellenism has been an all important factor in the development of Western Civilization Judaism as the precursor of Christianity has indirectly had had much to do with shaping the ideals and morality of western nations since the christian era a b c Neusner amp Avery Peck 2003 pp 78 92 a b c d e f Schiffman 2003 a b Rabbinic Judaism Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Archived from the original on 12 June 2020 Retrieved 7 November 2020 What is the oral Torah Torah org Archived from the original on 12 January 2002 Retrieved 22 August 2010 a b Neusner amp Avery Peck 2003 pp 58 77 Sadducee Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Archived from the original on 8 March 2021 Retrieved 7 November 2020 a b c nbsp This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Kohler Kaufmann Harkavy Abraham 1901 1906 Karaites and Karaism In Singer Isidore et al eds The Jewish Encyclopedia New York Funk amp Wagnalls Mendes Flohr Paul 2003 2000 Secular Forms of Jewishness In Neusner Jacob Avery Peck Alan J eds The Blackwell Companion to Judaism Reprint ed Malden Mass Blackwell Publ pp 461 476 ISBN 1 57718 058 5 Archived from the original on 10 July 2023 Retrieved 10 July 2023 a b Karesh amp Hurvitz 2005 p 221 Humanistic Judaism Ackerman Ari May 2010 Eliezer Schweid on the Religious Dimension of a Secular Jewish Renewal Modern Judaism 30 2 209 228 doi 10 1093 mj kjq005 ISSN 0276 1114 JSTOR 40604707 S2CID 143106665 Troen Ilan April 2016 Secular Judaism in Israel Archived 31 July 2023 at the Wayback Machine Society Vol 53 Issue 2 Rudavsky 1979 Raphael 1984 a b c d e Jacobs 2007 a b Rudavsky 1979 pp 218 270 367 402 a b Raphael 1984 pp 125 176 a b Neusner amp Avery Peck 2003 pp 311 333 a b Jacobs 2003 Orthodox Judaism a b Rudavsky 1979 pp 317 346 a b Raphael 1984 pp 79 124 a b Neusner amp Avery Peck 2003 pp 334 353 a b Jacobs 2003 Conservative Judaism a b Rudavsky 1979 pp 156 185 285 316 a b Raphael 1984 pp 1 78 a b Neusner amp Avery Peck 2003 pp 291 310 a b Jacobs 2003 Reform Judaism a b Karesh amp Hurvitz 2005 pp 419 422 Reform Judaism Bet Din Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Archived from the original on 27 April 2015 Retrieved 22 August 2010 See for example Deborah Dash Moore American Jewish Identity Politics University of Michigan Press 2008 p 303 Ewa Morawska Insecure Prosperity Small Town Jews in Industrial America 1890 1940 Princeton University Press 1999 p 217 Peter Y Medding Values interests and identity Jews and politics in a changing world Volume 11 of Studies in contemporary Jewry Oxford University Press 1995 p 64 Ezra Mendelsohn People of the city Jews and the urban challenge Volume 15 of Studies in contemporary Jewry Oxford University Press 1999 p 55 Louis Sandy Maisel Ira N Forman Donald Altschiller Charles Walker Bassett Jews in American politics essays Rowman amp Littlefield 2004 p 158 Seymour Martin Lipset American Exceptionalism A Double Edged Sword W W Norton amp Company 1997 p 169 Dashefsky Arnold Della Pergola Sergio Sheskin Ira eds 2021 World Jewish Population PDF Report Berman Jewish DataBank Archived PDF from the original on 6 September 2023 Retrieved 4 September 2023 Ernest Krausz Gitta Tulea 1997 Jewish Survival The Identity Problem at the Close of the Twentieth Century International Workshop at Bar Ilan University on the 18th and 19th of March 1997 Transaction Publishers pp 90 ISBN 978 1 4128 2689 1 A person born Jewish who refutes Judaism may continue to assert a Jewish identity and if he or she does not convert to another religion even religious Jews will recognize the person as a Jew Jewish Population by Country 2023 worldpopulationreview com Archived from the original on 10 February 2023 Retrieved 24 January 2023 ἰoydaizein Liddell Henry George Scott Robert An Intermediate Greek English Lexicon at the Perseus Project Mason Steve August 2009 Methods and Categories Judaism and Gospel bibleinterp arizona edu Archived from the original on 29 July 2020 Retrieved 19 November 2018 Judaism AskOxford a b Schwartz Daniel R 2021 Judea versus Judaism Between 1 and 2 Maccabees TheTorah com Archived from the original on 16 March 2024 a b Skarsaune Oskar 2002 In the Shadow of the Temple Jewish Influences on Early Christianity InterVarsity Press pp 39ff ISBN 978 0 8308 2670 4 Retrieved 22 August 2010 Shaye J D Cohen 1999 The Beginnings of Jewishness Boundaries Varieties Uncertainties University of California Press 105 106 He anon renouncyd his Iudaisme or Moysen Lawe And was cristenyd and lyued after as a Cristen Man Robert Fabian New Chronicles of England and France reprint London 1811 p 334 The Oxford English Dictionary a b Wilhelm Bacher Talmud Jewish Encyclopedia Archived from the original on 3 May 2019 Retrieved 16 September 2015 Yehezkal Kauffman The Religion of Israel Robert Alter The Art of Biblical Poetry E A Speiser Genesis The Anchor Bible John Bright A History of Israel Martin Noth The History of Israel Ephraim Urbach The Sages Shaye Cohen The beginnings of Jewishness John Day Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan p 68 Broshi Maguen 2001 Bread Wine Walls and Scrolls Bloomsbury Publishing p 174 ISBN 978 1 84127 201 6 Archived from the original on 10 February 2023 Karesh amp Hurvitz 2005 p 507 Sarna Nahum M 1966 Understanding Genesis Schocken Books pp 9 10 14 ISBN 978 0 8052 0253 3 Archived from the original on 10 February 2023 Retrieved 20 October 2020 Neusner Jacob 2003 Defining Judaism In Neusner Jacob Avery Peck Alan eds The Blackwell companion to Judaism Blackwell p 3 ISBN 978 1 57718 059 3 Archived from the original on 10 February 2023 Retrieved 22 August 2010 Gen 17 3 8 Genesis 17 3 8 Abram fell facedown and God said to him As for me this is my covenant with you You will be the father of many nations No longer will you be called Abram your name will be Abraham for I have made you a father of many nations I will make you very fruitful I will make nations of you and kings will come from you I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come to be your God and the God of your descendants after you The whole land of Canaan where you are now an alien I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you and I will be their God Gen 22 17 18 Genesis 22 17 18 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me Exodus 20 3 You shall have no other gods before me Deut 6 5 Deuteronomy 6 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength Lev 19 18 Leviticus 19 18 Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people but love your neighbor as yourself I am the Lord Kadushin Max 1972 The Rabbinic Mind New York Bloch Publishing Company p 194 Kadushin Max 1972 The Rabbinic Mind New York Bloch Publishing Company p 203 The Books of Melachim Kings and Book of Yeshaiahu Isaiah in the Tanakh contain a few of the many Biblical accounts of Israelite kings and segments of ancient Israel s population worshiping other gods For example King Solomon s wives turned away his heart after other gods and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD and went not fully after the LORD elaborated in 1 Melachim 11 4 10 King Ahab went and served Baal and worshiped him And Ahab made the Asherah a pagan place of worship and Ahab did yet more to provoke the LORD the God of Israel than all the kings of Israel that were before him 1 Melachim 16 31 33 the prophet Isaiah condemns the people who prepare a table for the idol Fortune and that offer mingled wine in full measure unto the idol Destiny Yeshaiahu 65 11 12 Translation JPS Jewish Publication Society edition of the Tanakh from 1917 available at Mechon Mamre Archived 12 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine Newman Carey C Davila James R Lewis Gladys S eds 1999 The Jewish roots of Christological monotheism papers from the St Andrews conference on the historical origins of the worship of Jesus Brill ISBN 978 90 04 11361 9 Archived from the original on 18 April 2021 Retrieved 22 August 2010 Maimes Steven January 2013 Is There a Jewish Theology or Not Retrieved 19 November 2018 via ResearchGate Septimus Daniel Must a Jew Believe in God My Jewish Learning 70 Faces Media Archived from the original on 25 April 2019 Retrieved 19 November 2018 Steinberg Milton 1947 Basic Judaism New York Harcourt Brace Jovanovich p 36 Langton 2011 pp 161 4 Queen II Edward L Prothero Stephen R Shattuck Jr Gardiner H 1996 The Encyclopedia of American Religious History Vol 2 New York Proseworks p 485 ISBN 0 8160 3545 8 a b c d e f g nbsp This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Kohler Kaufmann Hirsch Emil G 1901 1906 Articles of Faith In Singer Isidore et al eds The Jewish Encyclopedia New York Funk amp Wagnalls a b Berlin 2011 pp 217 18 Dogma Rabbi S of Montpelier Yad Rama Y Alfacher Rosh Amanah Maimonides 13 Foundations of Judaism Mesora Archived from the original on 23 April 2016 Retrieved 13 April 2009 However if he rejects one of these fundamentals he leaves the nation and is a denier of the fundamentals and is called a heretic a denier etc Rabbi Mordechai Blumenfeld 9 May 2009 Maimonides 13 Principles of Faith Aish HaTorah Archived from the original on 27 September 2019 Retrieved 13 August 2009 According to the Rambam their acceptance defines the minimum requirement necessary for one to relate to the Almighty and His Torah as a member of the People of Israel a b c Daniel Septimus The Thirteen Principles of Faith MyJewishLearning com Archived from the original on 3 April 2015 Retrieved 13 April 2009 Ronald L Eisenberg 2004 The JPS guide to Jewish traditions Jewish Publication Society p 509 ISBN 978 0 8276 0760 6 The concept of dogma is not a basic idea in Judaism Dogma in Medieval Jewish Thought Menachem Kellner The Thirteen Principles of the Jewish Faith Hebrew4Christians Archived from the original on 25 May 2017 Retrieved 22 August 2010 What Do Jews Believe Mechon Mamre Archived from the original on 6 April 2009 Retrieved 13 April 2009 The closest that anyone has ever come to creating a widely accepted list of Jewish beliefs is Maimonides thirteen principles of faith The JPS guide to Jewish traditions p 510 The one that eventually secured almost universal acceptance was the Thirteen Principles of faith Description of Judaism Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance Religioustolerance org Archived from the original on 5 November 2020 Retrieved 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1949 Everyman s Talmud New York E P Dutton amp Co xxiv Strack Hermann 1980 Introduction to the Midrash and Talmud New York Atheneum 95 Cohen Abraham 1949 Everyman s Talmud New York E P Dutton amp Co xxiv Steinsaltz Adin 1976 The Essential Talmud New Yorki Basic Books 222 Strack Hermann 1980 Introduction to the Midrash and Talmud New York Atheneum 95 Strack Hermann 1980 Introduction to the Midrash and Talmud New York Atheneum p 95 סדור רינת ישראל לבני חוײל Jerusalem 1974 pp 38 39 Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks 2006 The Koren Sacks Siddur Hebrew English Prayer Book The Authorized Daily Prayer Book of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth London Harper Collins Publishers pp 54 55 Nosson Scherman 2003 The Complete Artscroll Siddur Third Edition Brooklyn NY Mesorah Publications pp 49 53 Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi Nissen Mangel 2003 Siddur Tehillat Hashem Kehot Publication Society pp 24 25 Boyarin Daniel 1994 Introduction A radical Jew Paul and the politics of identity Berkeley University of California Press pp 13 38 ISBN 978 0 520 08592 3 LCCN 93036269 Archived from the original on 10 February 2023 Retrieved 15 June 2006 Paul was motivated by a Hellenistic desire for the One which among other things produced an ideal of a universal human essence beyond difference and hierarchy This universal humanity however was predicated and still is on the dualism of the flesh and the spirit such that while the body is particular marked through practice as Jew or Greek and through anatomy as male or female the spirit is universal Paul did not however reject the body as did for instance the gnostics but rather promoted a system whereby the body had its place albeit subordinated to the spirit Paul s anthropological dualism was matched by a hermeneutical dualism as well Just as the human being is divided into a fleshy and a spiritual component so also is language itself It is composed of outer material signs and inner spiritual significations When this is applied to 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of enthusiastic young rabbis struggling against the most violent opposition strove to bring about a reconciliation of rabbinism with the modern scientific spirit Deshen Liebman amp Shokeid 2017 Rudavsky 1979 pp 98 115 Jacobs 2003 Rebbe Hasidic Nadler 1997 a b c Zohar 2005 Segal 2008 pp 113 117 Segal 2008 pp 121 123 Gillman 1993 Elazar amp Geffen 2012 Robert Gordis Torah MiSinai Conservative Views A Modern Approach to a Living Halachah Masorti World Archived from the original on 13 July 2007 The Torah is an emanation of God This conception does not mean for us that the process of revelation consisted of dictation by God Conservative Judaism Jewlicious 16 June 2005 Archived from the original on 3 December 2016 Retrieved 13 April 2009 We therefore understand this term as a metaphor to mean that the Torah is divine and that it reflects God s will Meyer 1988 pp 177 194 Rudavsky 1979 pp 347 366 Raphael 1984 pp 177 194 Wertheimer 1993 p 169 Jacobs 2003 Reconstructionism Karesh amp Hurvitz 2005 pp 416 418 Reconstructionist Judaism a b Magid Shaul 2005 Jewish Renewal Movement PDF In Jones Lindsay ed The Encyclopedia of Religion Vol 7 2nd ed Farmington Hills Mi Macmillan Reference USA pp 4868 74 ISBN 0 02 865740 3 Archived from the original on 7 April 2023 Retrieved 19 June 2023 a b Segal 2008 pp 123 129 Cohn Sherbok Dan 2006 Humanistic Judaism In Clarke Peter B ed Encyclopedia of new religious movements London New York Routledge pp 288 289 ISBN 9 78 0 415 26707 6 nbsp This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Rosenthal Herman Hurwitz S 1901 1906 Subbotniki Sabbatarians In Singer Isidore et al eds The Jewish Encyclopedia New York Funk amp Wagnalls Dynner Glenn 2011 Holy Dissent Jewish and Christian Mystics in Eastern Europe Detroit Mi Wayne State University Press pp 358 359 ISBN 978 0 8143 3597 0 Archived from the original on 10 February 2023 Weiss Ruchama Brackman Levi 9 December 2010 Russia s Subbotnik Jews get rabbi Israel Jewish Scene 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In Goldscheider Calvin Neusner Jacob eds Social Foundations of Judaism Reprint ed Eugene Or Wipf and Stock Publ pp 240 258 ISBN 1 59244 943 3 Archived from the original on 24 June 2023 Retrieved 24 June 2023 Deshen Liebman amp Shokeid 2017 Ch 18 Americans in the Israeli Reform and Conservative Denominations a b c Beit Hallahmi Benjamin 2011 Jewish Religious Life in State of Israel In Berlin Adele ed The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion 2nd ed Oxford New York Oxford University Press pp 385 387 ISBN 978 0 19 975927 9 a b Kedem Peri 2017 1995 Demensions of Jewish Religiosity In Deshen Shlomo Liebman Charles S Shokeid Moshe eds Israeli Judaism The Sociology of Religion in Israel Studies of Israeli Society 7 Reprint ed London New York Routledge pp 33 62 ISBN 978 1 56000 178 2 Archived from the original on 7 July 2023 Retrieved 7 July 2023 Berlin 2011 p 350 Deshen Liebman amp Shokeid 2017 Part 4 Nationalist Orthodoxy Feldman Rachel Z August 2018 The Children of Noah Has Messianic Zionism Created a New World Religion PDF Nova Religio The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 22 1 115 128 doi 10 1525 nr 2018 22 1 115 S2CID 149940089 Archived from the original on 26 May 2021 Retrieved 18 December 2020 via Project MUSE Tefillin The Book of Jewish Knowledge Nathan Ausubel Crown Publishers NY 1964 p 458 nbsp This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Hirsch Emil G et al 1901 1906 Sabbath In Singer Isidore et al eds The Jewish Encyclopedia New York Funk amp Wagnalls a b c d e f nbsp This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Schechter Solomon et al 1901 1906 Dietary Laws In Singer Isidore et al eds The Jewish Encyclopedia New York Funk amp Wagnalls Berlin 2011 pp 212 14 Dietary Laws Chaya Shuchat 25 June 2015 The Kosher Pig Archived from the original on 23 March 2010 Retrieved 1 November 2009 It is also the most quintessentially treif of animals with its name being nearly synonymous with non kosher Although far from alone in the litany of non kosher animals the pig seems to stand in a class of its own Shulchan Aruch Yoreh De ah 87 3 Elliot Dorff On the Use of All Wines PDF Archived from the original PDF on 22 December 2009 2 19 MB YD 123 1 1985 pp 11 15 Vayyiqra Leviticus 11 Jewish life in WWII England Archived 2 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine there was a special dispensation that allowed Jews serving in the armed services to eat non kosher when no Jewish food was available that deviation from halacha was allowed in order to save a human life including your own Y Lichtenshtein M A Weekly Pamphlet 805 Bar Ilan University Faculty of Jewish Studies Rabbinical office Archived from the original on 14 May 2011 Retrieved 3 November 2009 certain prohibitions become allowed without a doubt because of lifethreatening circumstances like for example eating non kosher food a b Vayyiqra Leviticus 15 Bamidbar Numbers 19 Avi Kehat Torah tidbits Ou org Archived from the original on 17 March 2007 Retrieved 22 August 2010 Neusner 1993 Fonrobert 2005 Berlin 2011 Purity and Unpurity Ritual a b nbsp This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Bacher Wilhelm Lauterbach Jacob Zallel 1901 1906 Niddah In Singer Isidore et al eds The Jewish Encyclopedia New York Funk amp Wagnalls Karaites Encyclopedia com Archived from the original on 23 May 2010 Retrieved 22 August 2010 Wasserfall Rahel 1999 Women and water menstruation in Jewish life and law Brandeis University Press ISBN 978 0 87451 960 0 Jacobs 2003 Marriage Berlin 2011 pp 381 2 Intermarriage Berlin 2011 pp 216 7 Divorce Deuteronomy 21 23 Berlin 2011 pp 205 6 Death Berlin 2011 pp 193 4 Cremation Sara E Karesh Mitchell M Hurvitz 2005 Encyclopedia of Judaism Infobase Publishing pp 444 ISBN 978 0 8160 6982 8 Archived from the original on 10 February 2023 Retrieved 5 April 2018 The Sadducees disappeared when the second Temple was destroyed in the year 70 C E and Pharisaic Judaism became the preeminent Jewish sect Langmuir Gavin 1993 History religion and antisemitism University of California Press ISBN 978 0 520 07728 7 Cohen Mark R The Neo Lachrymose Conception of Jewish Arab History Tikkun 6 3 1991 Amira K Bennison and Maria Angeles Gallego Jewish Trading in Fes On The Eve of the Almohad Conquest Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine MEAH seccion Hebreo 56 2007 33 51 Stampfer Shaul How and Why Did Hasidism Spread The Hebrew University of Jerusalem pp 205 207 Stampfer Shaul How and Why Did Hasidism Spread The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Jerusalem Israel pp 202 204 National Jewish Population Survey NJPS 2000 01 Archived from the original on 25 May 2017 Retrieved 8 May 2017 Taylor Humphrey 15 October 2003 While Most Americans Believe in God Only 36 Attend a Religious Service Once a Month or More Often PDF HarrisInteractive Archived from the original PDF on 9 January 2011 Retrieved 1 January 2010 R Kendall Soulen The God of Israel and Christian Theology Minneapolis Fortress 1996 ISBN 978 0 8006 2883 3 Baskin Judith R Seeskin Kenneth 2010 The Cambridge Guide to Jewish History Religion and Culture Cambridge University Press p 120 ISBN 978 0 521 86960 7 Burrows Edwin G amp Wallace Mike Gotham A History of New York City to 1898 New York Oxford University Press 1999 pp 60 133 134 Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid 1st Baronet Encyclopaedia Britannica Archived from the original on 27 April 2014 Retrieved 23 June 2022 Richard Harries After the evil Christianity and Judaism in the shadow of the Holocaust Oxford University Press 2003 ISBN 978 0 19 926313 4 Hans Kung On Being a Christian Doubleday Garden City NY 1976 ISBN 978 0 385 02712 0 Lucy Dawidowicz The War Against the Jews 1933 1945 First published 1975 this Bantam edition 1986 p 23 ISBN 0 553 34532 X Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs 5 May 2009 The Origins of Christian Anti Semitism Interview with Pieter van der Horst Archived 26 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine Gill Anton 1994 An Honourable Defeat A History of the German Resistance to Hitler Heinemann Mandarin 1995 paperback ISBN 978 0 434 29276 9 p 57 Gottfried Ted 2001 Heroes of the Holocaust Twenty First Century Books pp 24 25 ISBN 978 0 7613 1717 3 Retrieved 14 January 2017 Some groups that are known to have helped Jews were religious in nature One of these was the Confessing Church a Protestant denomination formed in May 1934 the year after Hitler became chancellor of Germany One of its goals was to repeal the Nazi law which required that the civil service would be purged of all those who were either Jewish or of partly Jewish descent Another was to help those who suffered through repressive laws or violence About 7 000 of the 17 000 Protestant clergy in Germany joined the Confessing Church Much of their work has gone unrecognized but two who will never forget them are Max Krakauer and his wife Sheltered in sixty six houses and helped by more than eighty individuals who belonged to the Confessing Church they owe them their lives German Catholic churches went out of their way to protect Catholics of Jewish ancestry More inclusive was the principled stand taken by Catholic Bishop Clemens Count von Galen of Munster He publicly denounced the Nazi slaughter of Jews and actually succeeded in having the problem halted for a short time Members of the Society of Friends German Quakers working with organizations of Friends from other countries were particularly successful in rescuing Jews Jehovah s Witnesses themselves targeted for concentration camps also provided help to Jews Wigoder Geoffrey 1988 Jewish Christian Relations Since the Second World War Manchester University Press p 87 ISBN 978 0 7190 2639 3 Archived from the original on 10 February 2023 Retrieved 14 January 2017 Vatican issues new document on Christian Jewish dialogue Archived from the original on 13 November 2017 Retrieved 14 January 2017 a b Lewis 1984 pp 10 20 Lewis 1984 pp 9 27 Lewis 1999 p 131 Lewis 1984 pp 17 18 52 94 95 Stillman 1979 pp 27 77 Lewis 1984 p 28 Shumsky Dmitry 12 September 2012 Recognize Jews as refugees from Arab countries Archived 14 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine Haaretz Retrieved on 28 July 2013 Meir Esther 9 October 2012 The truth about the expulsion Archived 11 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine Haaretz Retrieved on 28 July 2013 Bernard Lewis June 1998 Muslim Anti Semitism Middle East Quarterly 43 49 Archived from the original on 25 June 2009 Retrieved 13 August 2009 Feher Shoshanah Passing over Easter Constructing the Boundaries of Messianic Judaism Rowman Altamira 1998 ISBN 978 0 7619 8953 0 p 140 This interest in developing a Jewish ethnic identity may not be surprising when we consider the 1960s when Messianic Judaism arose Ariel Yaakov 2006 Judaism and Christianity Unite The Unique Culture of Messianic Judaism In Gallagher Eugene V Ashcraft W Michael eds Jewish and Christian Traditions Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America Vol 2 Westport CN Greenwood Publishing Group p 191 ISBN 978 0 275 98714 5 LCCN 2006022954 OCLC 315689134 In the late 1960s and 1970s both Jews and Christians in the United States were surprised to see the rise of a vigorous movement of Jewish Christians or Christian Jews Ariel Yaakov 2006 Judaism and Christianity Unite The Unique Culture of Messianic Judaism In Gallagher Eugene V Ashcraft W Michael eds Jewish and Christian Traditions Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America Vol 2 Westport CN Greenwood Publishing Group p 194 ISBN 978 0 275 98714 5 LCCN 2006022954 OCLC 315689134 The Rise of Messianic Judaism In the first phase of the movement during the early and mid 1970s Jewish converts to Christianity established several congregations at their own initiative Unlike the previous communities of Jewish Christians Messianic Jewish congregations were largely independent of control from missionary societies or Christian denominations even though they still wanted the acceptance of the larger evangelical community a b Melton J Gordon ed 2005 Messianic Judaism Encyclopedia of Protestantism Encyclopedia of World Religions New York Facts On File p 373 ISBN 0 8160 5456 8 Messianic Judaism is a Protestant movement that emerged in the last half of the 20th century among believers who were ethnically Jewish but had adopted an Evangelical Christian faith By the 1960s a new effort to create a culturally Jewish Protestant Christianity emerged among individuals who began to call themselves Messianic Jews Vittorio Lanternari it Messianism Its Historical Origin and Morphology Archived 21 April 2021 at the Wayback Machine History of Religions Vol 2 No 1 Summer 1962 pp 52 72 the same messianic complex which originated in Judaism and was confirmed in Christianity p 53 Michael L Morgan Steven Weitzman eds Rethinking the Messianic Idea in Judaism Archived 10 February 2023 at the Wayback Machine Indiana University Press 2014 ISBN 978 0 253 01477 1 p 1 Gershom Scholem considered the messianic dimensions of the Kabbalah and of rabbinic Judaism as a central feature of a Jewish philosophy of history Ariel Yaakov 2006 Judaism and Christianity Unite The Unique Culture of Messianic Judaism In Gallagher Eugene V Ashcraft W Michael eds Jewish and Christian Traditions Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America Vol 2 Westport CN Greenwood Publishing Group p 191 ISBN 978 0 275 98714 5 LCCN 2006022954 OCLC 315689134 While Christianity started in the first century of the Common Era as a Jewish group it quickly separated from Judaism and claimed to replace it ever since the relationship between the two traditions has often been strained But in the twentieth century groups of young Jews claimed that they had overcome the historical differences between the two religions and amalgamated Jewish identity and customs with the Christian faith Ariel Yaakov 2006 Judaism and Christianity Unite The Unique Culture of Messianic Judaism In Gallagher Eugene V Ashcraft W Michael eds Jewish and Christian Traditions Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America Vol 2 Westport CN Greenwood Publishing Group pp 194 195 ISBN 978 0 275 98714 5 LCCN 2006022954 OCLC 315689134 When the term resurfaced in Israel in the 1940s and 1950s it designated all Jews who accepted Christianity in its Protestant evangelical form Missionaries such as the Southern Baptist Robert Lindsey noted that for Israeli Jews the term nozrim Christians in Hebrew meant almost automatically an alien hostile religion Because such a term made it nearly impossible to convince Jews that Christianity was their religion missionaries sought a more neutral term one that did not arouse negative feelings They chose Meshichyim Messianic to overcome the suspicion and antagonism of the term nozrim Meshichyim as a term also had the advantage of emphasizing messianism as a major component of the Christian evangelical belief that the missions and communities of Jewish converts to Christianity propagated It conveyed the sense of a new innovative religion rather that sic an old unfavorable one The term was used in reference to those Jews who accepted Jesus as their personal savior and did not apply to Jews accepting Roman Catholicism who in Israel have called themselves Hebrew Christians The term Messianic Judaism was adopted in the United States in the early 1970s by those converts to evangelical Christianity who advocated a more assertive attitude on the part of converts towards their Jewish roots and heritage Cohn Sherbok Dan 2000 Messianic Jewish mission Messianic Judaism London Continuum International Publishing Group p 179 ISBN 978 0 8264 5458 4 OCLC 42719687 Archived from the original on 10 February 2023 Retrieved 10 August 2010 Evangelism of the Jewish people is thus at the heart of the Messianic movement Ariel Yaakov S 2000 Chapter 20 The Rise of Messianic Judaism Evangelizing the chosen people missions to the Jews in America 1880 2000 Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press p 223 ISBN 978 0 8078 4880 7 OCLC 43708450 Retrieved 10 August 2010 Messianic Judaism although it advocated the idea of an independent movement of Jewish converts remained the offspring of the missionary movement and the ties would never be broken The rise of Messianic Judaism was in many ways a logical outcome of the ideology and rhetoric of the movement to evangelize the Jews as well as its early sponsorship of various forms of Hebrew Christian expressions The missions have promoted the message that Jews who had embraced Christianity were not betraying their heritage or even their faith but were actually fulfilling their true Jewish selves by becoming Christians The missions also promoted the dispensationalist idea that the Church equals the body of the true Christian believers and that Christians were defined by their acceptance of Jesus as their personal Savior and not by their affiliations with specific denominations and particular liturgies or modes of prayer Missions had been using Jewish symbols in their buildings and literature and called their centers by Hebrew names such as Emanuel or Beth Sar Shalom Similarly the missions publications featured Jewish religious symbols and practices such as the lighting of a menorah Although missionaries to the Jews were alarmed when they first confronted the more assertive and independent movement of Messianic Judaism it was they who were responsible for its conception and indirectly for its birth The ideology rhetoric and symbols they had promoted for generations provided the background for the rise of a new movement that missionaries at first rejected as going too far but later accepted and even embraced What are the Standards of the UMJC Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations June 1998 Archived from the original on 20 October 2015 Retrieved 3 May 2015 1 We believe the Bible is the inspired the only infallible authoritative Word of G d 2 We believe that there is one G d eternally existent in three persons Father Son and Holy Spirit 3 We believe in the deity of the L RD Yeshua the Messiah in His virgin birth in His sinless life in His miracles in His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood in His bodily resurrection in His ascension to the right hand of the Father and in His personal return in power and glory Israel b Betzalel 2009 Trinitarianism JerusalemCouncil org Archived from the original on 27 April 2009 Retrieved 3 July 2009 This then is who Yeshua is He is not just a man and as a man he is not from Adam but from God He is the Word of HaShem the Memra the Davar the Righteous One he didn t become righteous he is righteous He is called God s Son he is the agent of HaShem called HaShem and he is HaShem who we interact with and not die Do I need to be Circumcised JerusalemCouncil org 10 February 2009 Archived from the original on 6 August 2010 Retrieved 18 August 2010 To convert to the Jewish sect of HaDerech accepting Yeshua as your King is the first act after one s heart turns toward HaShem and His Torah as one can not obey a commandment of God if they first do not love God and we love God by following his Messiah Without first accepting Yeshua as the King and thus obeying Him then getting circumcised for the purpose of Jewish conversion only gains you access to the Jewish community It means nothing when it comes to inheriting a place in the World to Come Getting circumcised apart from desiring to be obedient to HaShem and apart from accepting Yeshua as your King is nothing but a surgical procedure or worse could lead to you believe that Jewish identity grants you a portion in the World to Come at which point what good is Messiah Yeshua the Word of HaShem to you He would have died for nothing As a convert from the nations part of your obligation in keeping the Covenant if you are a male is to get circumcised in fulfillment of the commandment regarding circumcision Circumcision is not an absolute requirement of being a Covenant member that is being made righteous before HaShem and thus obtaining eternal life but it is a requirement of obedience to God s commandments because circumcision is commanded for those who are of the seed of Abraham whether born into the family adopted or converted If after reading all of this you understand what circumcision is and that is an act of obedience rather than an act of gaining favor before HaShem for the purpose of receiving eternal life then if you are male believer in Yeshua the Messiah for the redemption from death the consequence of your sin of rebellion against Him then pursue circumcision and thus conversion into Judaism as an act of obedience to the Messiah Jewish Conversion Giyur JerusalemCouncil org 2009 Retrieved 5 February 2009 We recognize the desire of people from the nations to convert to Judaism through HaDerech The Way Messianic Judaism a sect of Judaism Moss Aron Can a Jew believe in Jesus Archived from the original on 10 October 2023 Retrieved 22 September 2023 Orthodox Simmons Shraga 9 May 2009 Why Jews Don t Believe in Jesus Aish HaTorah Archived from the original on 27 September 2016 Retrieved 28 July 2010 Jews do not accept Jesus as the messiah because Jesus did not fulfill the messianic prophecies Jesus did not embody the personal qualifications of the Messiah Biblical verses referring to Jesus are mistranslations Jewish belief is based on national revelation Conservative Waxman Jonathan 2006 Messianic Jews Are Not Jews United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism Archived from the original on 28 June 2006 Retrieved 14 February 2007 Hebrew Christian Jewish Christian Jew for Jesus Messianic Jew Fulfilled Jew The name may have changed over the course of time but all of the names reflect the same phenomenon one who asserts that s he is straddling the theological fence between Christianity and Judaism but in truth is firmly on the Christian side we must affirm as did the Israeli Supreme Court in the well known Brother Daniel case that to adopt Christianity is to have crossed the line out of the Jewish community Reform Missionary Impossible Hebrew Union College 9 August 1999 Archived from the original on 28 September 2006 Retrieved 14 February 2007 Missionary Impossible an imaginative video and curriculum guide for teachers educators and rabbis to teach Jewish youth how to recognize and respond to Jews for Jesus Messianic Jews and other Christian proselytizers has been produced by six rabbinic students at Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion s Cincinnati School The students created the video as a tool for teaching why Jewish college and high school youth and Jews in intermarried couples are primary targets of Christian missionaries Reconstructionist Renewal FAQ s About Jewish Renewal Aleph org 2007 Archived from the original on 23 October 2014 Retrieved 20 December 2007 What is ALEPH s position on so called messianic Judaism ALEPH has a policy of respect for other spiritual traditions but objects to deceptive practices and will not collaborate with denominations which actively target Jews for recruitment Our position on so called Messianic Judaism is that it is Christianity and its proponents would be more honest to call it that Raphael Melissa April 1998 Goddess Religion Postmodern Jewish Feminism and the Complexity of Alternative Religious Identities Nova Religio 1 2 198 215 doi 10 1525 nr 1998 1 2 198 Archived from the original on 17 July 2023 Retrieved 17 July 2023 Cohn Sherbok Dan 2010 Jewish Buddhists Judaism Today London New York Continuum pp 98 100 ISBN 978 0 8264 3829 4 Archived from the original on 28 June 2023 Retrieved 17 July 2023 Neusner amp Avery Peck 2003 pp 354 370 New Age Judaism Myers Jody Elizabeth 2007 Kabbalah and the spiritual quest the Kabbalah Centre in America Westport Conn Praeger ISBN 978 0 275 98940 8 Dawkins Richard 11 May 2024 The God delusion Houghton Mifflin Harcourt pp 37 245 ISBN 978 0618680009 Seeman Isadore Reconstructionist Judaism Washington Post Archived from the original on 24 April 2024 Retrieved 23 April 2024 In the 1930s Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan recognized that many Jews were losing interest in religious observance except perhaps for the high holidays As a cogent philosopher and the leader of a congregation in New York Rabbi Kaplan began to evolve a fresh approach to Jewish belief and practice The essence of Reconstructionism is that Judaism is not just a religion but an evolving religious civilization Reconstructionists believe in the importance of music art dance the Hebrew language a dedication to the State of Israel and a sense of Jewish peoplehood Neturei Karta www jewishvirtuallibrary org Retrieved 8 April 2024 Neturei Karta Aramaic Guardians of the City is a group of Orthodox Jews which rejects Zionism and the establishment of the State of Israel They believe that the true Israel can only be reestablished with the coming of the Messiah Harb Ali Anti Zionism is antisemitism US House asserts in dangerous resolution Al Jazeera Retrieved 8 April 2024 In the US Palestinian rights supporters have long rejected conflations of Zionism with Judaism noting that many Jewish Americans identify as anti Zionist Opposing the policies of the government of Israel and Netanyahu s extremism is not antisemitic Speaking up for human rights and a ceasefire to save lives should never be condemned Palestinian American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib said in a social media post on Tuesday explaining her vote against the resolution Santos Fernanda 15 January 2007 New York Rabbi Finds Friends in Iran and Enemies at Home The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved 8 April 2024 Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss spokesman and assistant director of a small anti Zionist group with a foothold in this town in Rockland County home to one of the nation s largest communities of Hasidic Jews we had to let the world know especially the Arab world and the Muslim world that we are not their enemies he said in an interview a Palestinian flag with the phrase A Jew Not a Zionist written in Hebrew English and 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