Judaism
Judaism (Hebrew: יהדות, Yahadút) is the world's first monotheistic worldview, and is foremost among the three great monotheistic religions, since from it came Christianity and Islam. The foundation and principles of Judaism are found in the Hebrew scriptures or the Jewish Bible, more widely known as the "old testament", which is part of the Christian Bible, along with its history. A proper name for the Bible of the Hebrews is the "Tanakh" which is an acronym for the different sections of it: the Torah, or the Instruction, the Law, the five books of Moses; the Nevi'im, the Prophets; and the Kethuvim, the Writings. The most revered section is the Torah, which is the foundation for the rest.
The ethnic and religious group of people called Jews originated from within the genetic lines of the ancient Hebrews or Israelites.
Definition
A clear and concise definition of Judaism is difficult to give. But the predominant definition is that it is the religion of the Jews. The Jews, in modern terms, are the people who belong to the nation of Israel. Since the word "Jew" comes from the word "Judah", it was originally used simply for those of the tribe of Judah, one of the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel. But after the first exile of the Israel in Babylon, the remnant who lived in Babylon and those who went back to Israel were generally classed as Jews, although there were remnants of other Israelite tribes among them.
The Oral Law
One issue that has a significant place within Judaism is the role and power of the Oral Law. The Orthodox Jew sees it as an integral part of Torah, the law of Moshe. To them, without it, the writings of scripture are unreadable and cannot be understood properly. It is divine, coming from the Almighty and his judicial institution, namely the sages and rabbis. Their judgements are seen as binding, and their commentary as the most authoritative to the point where the commentary is studied more that the actual written scriptures. The oral law is seen as divine in origin and thus equal to the written law and scriptures. To the orthodox Jew, to reject the oral law is to reject Judaism and become a heretic.
Those who appreciate the Karaite philosophy of scripture sees any commentary as human in origin and only the written scripture themselves as divine. To promote the words of men, either sages or rabbis and even the Karaite Hakhams (wise men), to an equal status with the divine scripture is something tantamount to idolatry. Although a person with the "written scripture only" philosophy can respect the wisdom of commentaries, even those of the rabbis and sages, but tests them in light of the grammatical and historical context of written scripture.
The Place of the Gentile
Judaism has a fundamental universal aspect to it. Since there is only one Deity, and all humans, Jew and non-Jew, were created by Him, everyone is obligated to acknowledge him. Although Israelites were given a special commission, position, and covenant with YHWH (Yahweh), non-Jews are held to the Noahide laws, and can be accepted by God as righteous if they abide by them. Objections to gentiles, in biblical and rabbinical literature, are essentially ethical, as opposed to racial.
According to rabbinic argument, a gentile can also keep as many of the laws of Israel as he is able to, except laws that are specifically prescribed to Israelites alone, such as tzitzit (a thread that is worn on the corner of garments), and a full observance of the feast and the sabbath. With regards to the latter, the feast days and the sabbath, according to rabbinic sources, a gentile can keep the aspects of the day which are universal, but full observance is forbidden.
The question of whether the Noahide laws are of a purely rabbinic nature or can be derived by scripture has been asked by Karaites, some of whom see it as purely part of the oral law, a foreign addition to the written Torah. But that there is an essential truth to the Noahide laws stated by the Orthodox Jews has been observed. Other Karaites note that, even from a strictly biblical standpoint, there was a "natural" moral code extant before the time of Moses, and a universal aspect to laws within the law of Moses, which apply to gentiles today without them needing to convert fully.
A non-Jew does have the option of becoming a Jew through conversion and naturalisation. The main process of this is circumcision of the foreskin for the male with some form of statement of allegiance to the Creator and Israel. A female can also convert, but no form of circumcision is required.
The Ten Commandments
- Main Article: Ten Commandments
Although a good number of Jews and Christians believe that the ten commandments are rules for all of humanity, strictly speaking they are not. There is strong biblical evidence that the Ten Commandments are actually only for the nation of Israel. Firstly, the words "the ten commandments" are not in the Hebrew text of scripture, which would be "asarah hammitwoth" or "asarah hammitvoth" - "asarah" meaning "ten", and "hammitwoth" meaning "the commandments", thus altogether meaning "the ten commandments". The actual words in Hebrew is "the ten statements" or "the ten words" or "the ten matters" ("aseret" meaning "ten" and "haddevariym" meaning "the statements, words, or matters"). There are maybe more than simply ten commandments in it and there are also simple statements, such as "I am YHWH your Deity who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage" or "I am a jealous Deity".
Secondly these ten statements are expressly called "the words of the covenant", namely the covenant between YHWH and Israel in Exodus 34:28.
And thirdly, to further prove the fact that the ten statements are actually the written testimony of the covenant between the Almighty and Israel is the fact that they are called "the testimony" numerous times in scriptures (Exodus 25:16 ; Exodus 31:18 ; Exodus 32:15 ; Exodus 34:27-29 ; Exodus 40:20-21 ; 1Kings 8:9 1Kings 8:21 ).
Although there may be principles in the ten statements, as with many parts of the laws of Israel, that are applicable to all nations, the actual ten statements themselves do appear to be for Israel alone as part of their covenant.
Jews believe that there are 7 commandments in the Bible that apply to non-Jews as well as Jews. See Noahide laws.
Doctrines of Judaism
Deity
Although philosophical proofs can be given concerning the existence of the Creator, and are given by some of the philosophers of Judaism, such as Maimonides, the existence of Deity is taken as axiomatic and the existence of the universe is sufficient proof of the existence of Deity.
Judaism says that Deity is absolutely and indivisibly one, as opposed to the trinity of mainstream Christians, or the partnership (i.e., only the "Father" and the "Son") in some unorthodox sects of Christianity. He cannot be split into parts, and he is alone in his sovereignty and shares his rule, glory, and position with no-one. It is only to him that people should pray and give worship. He alone is Creator of the entire universe. He has no body, no physicality, and thus is called incorporeal, and thus passages of scripture referring to parts of Deity, like his hand, eye or arm, are anthropomorphic, and representing him in a real physical form is considered idolatry. He is unchanging, as opposed to other religions that say he, or part of him, changed into a man at some point in history. He is also omnipresent (everywhere), although separate from his creation, omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), eternal (timeless, without beginning or end), and immortal (cannot die).
He is both just and merciful, and holy and perfect.
Atonement and Forgiveness for Sins
All sects of Judaism, the ones that accept both the oral and the written Torah, and the ones that only accept the written, observe that there are several ways of gaining forgiveness and atonement. It must be noted that biblical forgiveness does not necessarily mean that a punishment or negative consequence will not come in response to a sin committed. It simply means that although there may be consequences for sins, the person receives no more blame for the sin.
- A material offering to the Almighty, normally animal sacrifices and bloodless sacrifices. According to some, this is the lowest level of gaining atonement since it was only good for certain sins, as specified in the early chapters of Leviticus and if a sin was committed defiantly (Heb. with a high hand), there was no offering that could atone for it (Numbers 15:30-31 ). In addition, an offering by itself, without true repentance or true good intention, could not bring about atonement either (Isaiah 1). The offering was not simply given as a means to appease an angry god, as pagans believed. One Hebrew word for offering is "qorban", coming from the root word q-r-b which means to draw near. Thus offerings were more a means of drawing near to Deity.
- Prayer is an effective means of obtaining forgiveness as can be seen in the classic text which states, "if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and I will forgive their sins, and will heal their land." (2Chronicles 7:14 ). Another example of effective prayer can be seen when a king called Menasseh, who lived a life of evil, prayed to the Almighty and received forgiveness. (2Chronicles 33:9 ) An example of powerful prayer can be seen in Psalms 32 .
- Repentance appears to be the most powerful form of gaining forgiveness. Repentance, otherwise known as teshuvah, is an active rejection of sinful actions in one's life and an adherence to the way of righteousness, doing righteous acts and acknowledging the Almighty. It is mentioned in the Torah (Leviticus 26:40-45 ) and is implicit in some of its teachings (e.g. Leviticus 18:5 ). It is given a more extensive clarification in the prophets and the writings, especially in places like Isaiah 1 and Ezekiel 18-33 . Orthodox Jews believe that repentance was powerful enough to overturn the Almighty's decree on a wicked king called Jeconiah that he should remain childless. According to the psalms, such as Psalms 40-51 , the Almighty much prefers repentance and obedience to his word to sacrifice.
Original Sin and Satan
Amongst the sects of Christianity, there is a concept that the sin of Adam has been inherited by all of his descendants, dooming them all to hell unless they accept Jesus, making them a slave to sin. This is called "original sin". This idea is foreign to all sects of Judaism (this is different to the idea of "the original sin" which means that Adam and Eve's sin was the first, and thus original, sin). Everyone has the power and the choice to do good or evil. Although humans do have a tendency to do evil, they also have the power to do good. It is not doing one sin that makes one a sinner, but continual sin that makes one a sinner, since the Jewish scriptures say that men who are called righteous by the Almighty do sin, but are not called sinners (e.g., Genesis 6:9 ; Job 1:1 ; 1Kings 15:5 ; Ecclesiastes 7:20 ). Although humans are not perfect, and cannot be, that does not exclude them from a good relationship with the Creator.
In Judaism, Satan, or more correctly the adversary, is actually an angel of the Almighty who does the bidding of the Almighty. He is the adversary who comes to punish sin and test man. He appears to be the adversary of sin and wickedness rather than the adversary or enemy of man. All in all, he appears to be a servant of Yahweh and a manifestation of his wrath or his character of searching out his human servants. Although Orthodox Judaism does have an elaborate angelology, it is generally held that Deity is in charge of everything and has no viable enemy. There is no dualism of the Almighty being a force of good, and thus needing a counterforce, a force of evil, in the shape of the Devil.
Messiah
According to modern Judaism, the messiah is an anointed king from the seed of David, through his natural father as kingship generally comes through the father, not the mother (Isaiah 7:14-15 ). However the Bible explains that He is yet to come, and is expected to be a righteous king who is a Torah scholar. His reign will bring about such things as the reinstitution of the Levitical priesthood and the sacrifices (Ezekiel 37:26-28 ; and Ezekiel 41-46 ), world peace (Isaiah 2:3 ), and the worldwide knowledge of the Creator (Isaiah 11:9 ). He will even have children (Ezekiel 46:16-17 ) and thus be married. As such things have not occurred, Judaism rejects the claims of others claiming to be the anointed king, such as Simon Bar Kochba, and Jesus of Nazareth.
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Related References
- Zionism 2010, no longer weeping by the river By DAVID BREAKSTONE
- Judaism Conservapedia's article on Judaism.
- Judaism 101
- G-d
- God, from the jewishencyclopedia.com
- Is the Torah Binding on the nations
- Understanding the Ten Commandments
- Does Judaism Believe in Original Sin? What Does the Bible Really Say?
- Does Judaism believe in Satan?
- Satanic verses: Who or what is "Satan" in the Hebrew Scriptures?
- The Oral Law
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 18.11-22
Graphics
- Judaism Wikimedia Commons
See Also
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