Judaism is the Jewish people's religion and the oldest monotheistic religious tradition. There are 14 million Jews worldwide, and most of them currently reside in the United States.
Tradition tells that Judaism arose in the year 2000 a. Ç. and its founder is Abraham, the first patriarch of the people of Israel and also entitled the first Jew.
Judaism is a matriarchal tradition, which determines that a child of a Jewish mother will also be Jewish. The Jew is defined as a member of the tribe of Judah and an Israelite, and they are also called "God's chosen people".
Jewish tradition understands that all Jewish people are direct descendants of the first Jews, who would be Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and are defined today as a ethno-religious group.
Jews follow the teachings of Log and the Hebrew Bible, which correspond to the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The first five books, which the Jews call the Torah, would have been written by God and must never be changed. In Christianity correspond to the books of:
- Genesis;
- Exodus;
- Leviticus;
- Numbers;
- Deuteronomy.
Jewish tradition and philosophy are transmitted through the Talmud, a book that brings together Jewish laws in the form of stories and commentaries.
Jewish belief is divided into different lines of religious tradition. Orthodox Judaism, O Conservative Judaism, O Reform Judaism, O Reconstructionist Judaism it's the Humanist Judaism. Basically, the ways of reading the Torah and the interpretation of Jewish laws differ among them.
In summary, Judaism is based on three pillars of faith and service to God, represented by the following three words in Hebrew:
- Teshuvah, which can be understood as repentance and returning to pure and good origins when you make a mistake.
- Tefila, which means prayer and connection with God.
- Tzedakah, which can be translated as charity, but in the sense of justice, of giving what God has entrusted to you to give to others.
O God is unique and has no image or body. It is the only entity to be praised, being the ultimate authority in the universe. God only communicates with his people through the prophets, as he did with Moses.
All actions that an individual takes are noticed by God, who punishes or rewards depending on the nature of the action.
One of the characteristics of the Jewish people is the sense of community created around not only religion but as a culture.
Jewish festivals follow the solar calendar. The main ones are:
- Passover (Passover) commemorating the liberation of the Jewish people from Egypt;
- Rosh Hashanah which is the Jewish New Year;
- Yom Kippur, the day of forgiveness;
- hanukah which marks the end of the Assyrians' dominion over the land promised to the Jews and the restoration of the temple in Jerusalem;
- Simchat Torah which represents the day God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses.
See too:
- Star of David;
- religious diversity;
- Christianity;
- Exodus;
- Hanukkah;
- Log;
- Yahweh.
Read more about religions like Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism.
