Judaism

Overview

Judaism rests on the covenant between God and the people of Israel, with the Torah at its centre. The religious way of life is governed by halakha and includes:

• Shabbat and holidays.
• Kashrut (dietary laws).
• Prayer and Torah study.
• Commandments between people, such as charity and "love your neighbour as yourself".

Jewish identity is both religious and ethnic-national. That is why many secular Jews keep traditions as culture rather than belief.

Origins and History

According to tradition, Abraham recognised one God, and Moses received the Torah at Mount Sinai after the Exodus from Egypt. Historically, the religion took shape in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah and in the periods that followed:

• The Babylonian exile (586 BCE).
• The Second Temple period: the scriptures reached their final form.
• Rabbinic Judaism: after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the synagogue, prayer and Torah study replaced sacrifice. The Mishnah and Talmud, written in the following centuries, remain the basis of Judaism today.

Development and Branches

Over the generations different movements and traditions developed:

• The Middle Ages: philosophy (Maimonides), Kabbalah and poetry flourished.
• The 18th century: Hasidism emerged.
• The Enlightenment and emancipation: these produced the Reform, Conservative and Modern Orthodox movements.
• Zionism: the Zionist movement arose in the 19th century, largely secular, and led to the founding of the State of Israel in 1948.

How It Spread and Grew

🗺️ Maps of how the five largest religions spread →

Judaism has rarely sought to convert others. Its size depends mainly on natural increase and on preserving identity. In the Hellenistic-Roman period there were many converts, and the Hasmonean kingdom forcibly converted neighbouring peoples. Later, Jews were expelled or migrated all over the world, and despite persecution, expulsions and the Holocaust, in which about six million Jews were murdered, they kept continuous communities.

Influence on the World

• Monotheism: the idea of one, moral God.
• The Sabbath: a weekly day of rest.
• Social justice: ideas of justice and human dignity, for example "in the image of God".
• The Hebrew Bible: the basis of Christianity and Islam.
• Culture and science: Jews have contributed greatly, relative to their numbers, to science, medicine, philosophy and culture.

What Draws Believers (Strengths)

• Strong community and family, and a sense of historical continuity.
• A tradition of learning, debate and asking questions (the Oral Torah).
• A way of life that sanctifies time (Shabbat and holidays).
• Social values of charity, kindness and tikkun olam (repairing the world).

Criticism and Challenges

• Women's status: critics point to the status of women in Orthodox halakha, for example in divorce and the issue of agunot ("chained" women).
• Israel: in Israel there is debate over religious coercion, the Chief Rabbinate's monopoly on marriage and conversion, and the treatment of non-Orthodox movements.
• Insularity: there is internal criticism of separatism and of the attitude to non-Jews in some halakhic texts.

Human Life, War and Peace – What It Teaches

• Value of life: "Whoever saves a single life... it is as if he saved an entire world" (Mishnah, Sanhedrin). Pikuach nefesh: saving a life overrides almost every commandment, including Shabbat.
• Halakha distinguishes between a "commanded war" (including a defensive war) and an "optional war". The sages greatly restricted the legitimacy of war.
• The vision of the end of days: "They shall beat their swords into ploughshares... nation shall not lift up sword against nation" (Isaiah 2).
• The Torah includes the death penalty, but the sages restricted it almost to abolition: "A Sanhedrin that executes once in a septennium (that is, once in seven years) is called destructive" (Mishnah, Makkot 1:10).
• Compared with other religions: Sanctity of Life Across Religions

Religion, Power and Violence

Commands of war and conquest:

• The Bible: it contains stories of conquest and war against the Canaanite nations, and a command to destroy Amalek. Most rabbinic interpretation through the ages neutralised these commands and ruled them inapplicable in practice.
• The Hasmonean period: the Hasmoneans forcibly converted the Idumeans.
• Extremist violence in modern times: there have been cases of extremist Jewish terrorism: the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre (1994), the "Jewish Underground", and the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin (1995) by an assassin who justified his act on religious grounds. Today there is violence by extremist settlers against Palestinians.
• The conflict: the Israeli–Palestinian conflict also has religious elements, for example around the Temple Mount. How much weight religion carries compared with nationalism in the conflict is disputed.

When Jews were the victims: for most of their history Jews were a persecuted minority:

• Expulsions and pogroms.
• Blood libels.
• Genocide in the Holocaust.

The other side: the Jewish tradition stresses values such as "seek peace and pursue it" and the sanctity of life.