JUDAISM

THE BEGINNINGS
• In the sacred texts of Judaism, human history
begins with the creation of the world and of human
beings - the first of the saving deeds of their God,
who they cosidered the Lord of History, called
ADONAI.

• The Hebrew Scriptures are a unique collection of

historical documents, which narrate the encounter
of the people of Israel with ADONAI, a story mainly
of unfaithfulness on their part with inevitable
adverse consequences and of unfailing faithfulness
on the part of ADONAI.
• Judaism, the religious beliefs and practices of the
people of Israel, traces its heritage to the divine
covenant made by Adonai and their ancestor
Abraham, whose family origin migrated from
Mesopatamia nearly four thousand years ago and
ended up setting in Middle East region called
Canaan.

• In this covenant, Adonai promised Abraham in

Genesis 12 several things: a great name, a
numerous descendants, and a land their own.
• The divine covenant was passed on to Abraham’s younger
son Isaac and later on to Isaac’s younger son Jacob who
was renamed Israel. With his wives and two concubines,
Jacob begot twelve sons - foreshadowing the twelve
tribes of Israel.

• The family and descendants of Jacob ended up as

immigrants in the empire of Egypt, because Jacob’s
favourite son, Joseph, had risen from a mere slave to
become vizier of the Pharaoh’s prime minister.
• Moses was empowered by Adonai to ultimately lead the
people of Israel out of Egypt - the Exodus - after a
showdown between Adonai and the deities of Egypt.

• Led into the wilderness, Adonai revealed the Torah to

Moses and made a sacred covenant with the people of
Israel at Mt. Horeb/Sinai.

• This giving of the law to Moses was celebrated yearly

for fifty days after Passover in a harvest festival known
as Shavuot or Weeks.
• Provided with water, a mysterious food called manna, and even quail
meat, the people spent a purifying forty years wandering in the desert
before they were permitted to enter the promised land of Canaan,
under the leadership of Joshua, son of Nun, successor of Moses.

• Under Joshua and later on the tribal judges, the tribes of Israel
overthrew the previous inhabitants and occupied the land of Canaan -
which even today, adherents of Judaism vehemently claim belongs to
them because it was promised of Adonai.
• At the insistent demand of the people, the last judge Samuel,
who was also a recognized prophet of Adonai, anointed Saul,
son of Kish, from the tribe of Benjamin as the first king of Israel.

• Later Saul lost the favor of Adonai, and the prophet Samuel
quietly anointed David, son of Jesse, as Saul’s successor.

• David, a popular warrior leader, conquered the Jebusite fortress

of Jerusalem in the hill country of Judaea, established there a
new capital for his united kingdom.
• In the book of Samuel, Adonai promises David that “your house
and your kingdom will be made secure forever before you, your
throne will be set up forever” (2 Samuel 7:16).

• After a bloody conflict among his own sons and a reign of about 4
decades, David was succecced as the monarch of the united
kingdom of Israel by Solomon, the son of his wife Bethsheba.

• In 950 BCE, Solomon commissioned the construction of a

magnificent temple to Adonai in Jerusalem.
• After the death of Solomon, the kingdom was divided into southern
kingdom (Judah), ruled by descendants of David from Jerusalem, and
a northern kingdom (Israel) ruled from Samaria, which built a rival
temple to Adonai.

• In 722 BCE, the empire of Assyria led by Sennacherib conquered the

northern kingdom of Israel.

• In 586 BCE the Chaldeans/ Neo-Babylonians led by Nebuchadnezzar

II laid waste to the remaining southern kingdom and afterwards razing
the city of Jerusalem with its temple.
 SACRED TEXT

The Torah Moshe

• The Hebrew word Torah means instruction. Broadly understood

Torah is the instruction or teaching of Adonai contained in the
entire collection of Hebrew Scriptures called the Tanakh, as well
as in the orally transmitted interpretations laid down later in the
Talmud. More narrowly, it refers to what is also known as the
Pentateuch.
 The Pentateuch
• The Torah is the collection of the first five books traditionally
attributed to the patriarch Moshe/Moses, known in English as
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
These five books are the central source of Jewish law and
ethics.

• The Nevi’im (Hebrew, “Prophets”) and Ketuvim (Hebrew,

“Writings’) are the books of history, prophecy, poetry and other
sacred writings.
• Nevi’im is the second section of TaNaKh, is a continous historical
narrative about the wavering fidelity of the people of Israel to the
Covenant with Adonai.

• Ketuvim is a collection of eleven books comprising a variety of

material that were most likely compiled by the time of the destruction
of the 2nd temple in Jerusalem by the romans.
 THE CREED
The understanding of God

• Judaism professes faith in one, supreme, personal God, who created the
universe, who has revealed His will through Moses and the other prophets,
and has intervened at key moments in history to save His choses people of
Israel. God is infinite and utterly beyond human understanding and
imagination.

• In sacred text of Judaism, the God of Israel was referred to in a various

ways. Sometimes, God was just “God,” or in Hebrew Elohim. On other
occasion people called him Adonai (Hebrew, “Lord”) or by His personal
name “YHWH” (Yahweh) as revealed to the patriarch Moses in Exodus 3:14.
 BASIC DOCTRINES

13 Articles of Faith by Moses Maimonides

• The great codifier of Torah law and Jewish philosophy, Rabbi Moshe ben
Maimon ("Maimonides" also known as "The Rambam"), compiled what he
refers to as the Shloshah Asar Ikkarim, the "Thirteen Fundamental
Principles" of the Jewish faith, as derived from the Torah. Maimonides
refers to these thirteen principles of faith as "the fundamental truths of our
religion and its very foundations." The Thirteen Principles of Jewish faith
(as recorded in Maimonides' introduction to Perek Chelek) are as follows:
1. God alone is the Creator

2. God is absolutely One.

3. God has no body or bodily shape.

4. God is the Alphat (first) and the Omega (last).

5. God alone deserves worship, obedience, and praise.

6. The words of God’s prophets are true.

7. The prophecy of Moses, the first and greatest prophet and father of all
prophets, is true.
8. God gave the Torah to Moses.

9. The Torah is perfect, not subject to change, and no other will be given.

10. God knows all the thoughts and deeds of human beings.

11. God rewards and punishes according to one’s deeds.

12. God’s Messiah will come at an unexpected time.

13. The dead will be resurected.

 THE COVENANT
God and Abraham

• The covenant between God and the Jewish people is a thread running
throughout the early parts of the Bible, and one of the vital pillars of
Judaism. God asks Abraham to do certain things, in return for which he
will take special care of them. The covenant between God and Jews is the
basis for the idea of the Jews as the chosen people. The first covenant
was between God and Abraham. Jewish men are circumcised as a
symbol of this covenant.

• You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a

sign of the covenant between me and you (Genesis 17).

God promised to make Abraham the father of a great people and

said that Abraham and his descendants must obey God. In return
God would guide them and protect them and give them the land of
Israel. But it wasn’t simply a matter of obeying rules - God didn't
just want the Jews to follow a particular set of laws, but to live their
lives in such a way as to show the world that God actually was the
one and only all-powerful God, whom people should follow and
worship
 COVENANT
Abraham and Isaac

• God ordered Abraham to abandon his way of life and leave his home country to live in
the land of Canaan. Abraham was 99 at the time, so this was a hard thing to ask.

• The LORD said

“Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will
show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name
great, and you will be a blessing” (Genesis 12:1-2).

• This promise that Abraham would become the father of a great nation seemed
impossible, since Abraham was very old, and his wife Sarah (90) had never been able to
have children.

•
• But God did cause Sarah to become pregnant with Isaac.By doing this God
showed that he was in control of even the processes of nature like having
children.

• God also showed that in order to keep his promises to his chosen people
he would intervene in the world and alter it. Later, God tested Abraham’s
obedience by ordering him to kill his much-loved son Isaac as a sacrifice.

• Abraham didn’t argue with God, he kept his side of the covenant and
prepared to sacrifice Isaac. God stopped him from killing his son, but the
story remains as a perfect example of the level of obedience that God
expected.
 CODE

• Mitzvah (Hebrew “commandment”) is the action performed

with heartfelt devotion by an adherent of Judaism in
response to Adonai, with whom he/she is in a covenant-
relationship. By fulfilling mitzvah, a Jew makes manifest the
reality that he/she is at the service of Adonai who rules over
all creation. All of life ideally should be Mitzvah, for the
glory of Adonai.