Proper noun

Judaism (countable and uncountable; plural Judaisms)

1. A world religion tracing its origin to the Hebrew people of the ancient Middle-East, as documented in their religious writings, the Torah or Old Testament.

Related terms

• Conservative Judaism
• Jew
• Jewish
• Judaic
• Orthodox Judaism
• Reconstructionist Judaism
• Reform Judaism

Judaism is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people. Judaism, originating in the Hebrew Bible (also known as the Tanakh) and explored in later texts such as the Talmud, is considered by Jews to be the expression of the covenantal relationship God developed with the Children of Israel. According to traditional Rabbinic Judaism, God revealed his laws and commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai in the form of both the Written and Oral Torah. This was historically challenged by the Karaites who maintain that only the Written Torah was revealed, and, in modern times, liberal movements such as Humanistic Judaism may be nontheistic. The Hebrews / Israelites were called (referred to) as Jews, already, as early as in the Book of Esther. The term Jews replaced the title "Children of Israel.".

Judaism claims a historical continuity spanning more than 3000 years. It is one of the oldest monotheistic religions, and the oldest to survive into the present day. Its texts, traditions and values have inspired later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity, Islam and the Baha'i Faith. Many aspects of Judaism have also directly or indirectly influenced secular Western ethics and civil law.

Jews are an ethnoreligious group that includes those born Jewish and converts to Judaism. In 2007, the world Jewish population was estimated at 13 million, of whom about 40% reside in Israel and 40% in the United States. The largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism. A major source of difference between these groups is their approach to Jewish law. Orthodox and Conservative Judaism maintain that Jewish law should be followed, with Conservative Judaism promoting a more "modern" interpretation of its requirements than Orthodox Judaism. Reform Judaism is generally more liberal than these other two movements, and its typical position is that Jewish law should be viewed as a set of general guidelines rather than as a list of restrictions whose literal observance is required of all Jews. Historically, special courts enforced Jewish law; today, these courts still exist but the practice of Judaism is mostly voluntary. Authority on theological and legal matters is not vested in any one person or organization, but in the sacred texts and the many rabbis and scholars who interpret these texts.

Judaism

Judaism is a religion.

Contents

• 1 Sourced
  • 1.1 From "A Book of Jewish Thoughts" ed. J. H. Hertz (Oxford University Press, 1920)
• 2 See also
• 3 External links

Sourced

• The fundamental principle of the Hebraic commonwealth was that there are great moral laws not dependent on the will of monarch, oligarchy, aristocracy or public assembly.
  • Lyman Abbott, Life and Literature of Ancient Hebrews (1910)

• Mankind, East and West, Christian and Muslim, accepted the Jewish conviction that there is only one G-d. Today it is polytheism that is so difficult to understand, that is so unthinkable.
  • T. R. Grover, The Ancient World, p. 186

• It is against their own insoluble problem of being human that the dull and base in humanity are in revolt in anti-Semitism. Judaism, nevertheless, together with Hellenism and Christianity is an inalienable component of our Christian Western civilization, the eternal "call to Sinai" against which humanity again and again rebels.
  • Herman Rauschning, The Beast From the Abyss, pp. 155-56

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Fri Sep 3 07:55:27 2010