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The Components of Judaism

Judaism refers to an ethnic religion that the ancient Hebrews developed. It consists of

collective cultural, religious, and legal traditions as well as the civilization of the Jewish people.

The Torah is their religious text and is supplemented by rabbinic traditions in the form of texts

like the Talmud and the Midrash. Judaism is a compound phenomenon of the Jewish' way of life,

guided by laws, theology, and innumerable cultural traditions.

The understanding of Judaism is tied to the belief in a divine presence throughout history.

The claim of having felt the presence of God through manifestations in human events and its

successive development differentiates Jewish thoughts from other religious groups. The belief

that there existed a unique relationship with a divine being affects the Israelites' well-being

throughout the past years. They believed that their response to the presence of the divine was key

for all humankind. They also thought that God had revealed the structure and pattern of an

individual and communal life to people through a specific encounter. By claiming authority over

the people, God had established a covenant, Berit, with them and demanded them to obey his

law, the Torah. The obedience was a way through which the divine presence would manifest, as

expressed by human existence. Therefore, the communal life of a selected community provided

summons to the other groups of mankind so that they could recognize the presence of God, his

purpose, and sovereignty. Moreover, history revealed the purpose of God and the inability of

humankind to live with its accordance (Teugels, 2009). Israel's role in the divine economy and
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their specific liability were dominant themes that sounded against the idea of fulfillment, the

establishment of divine sovereignty, and the divine purpose for all mankind.

The incarnation of God in the Messiah by Christianity is perceived as God taking upon

himself human form and dwelling in his fullness within a physical body. Judaism believes that

God cannot be represented in any human form, unlike Christianity who believes in the existence

of Jesus as God's representative. Judaism is based on the fact that people are created in God's

image and that he is omnipresent. On the other hand, Christianity believes that Jesus is God and

that this aspect never exists in Jewish thoughts, although it is not foreign to historical and

mainstream Judaism. The Torah guides judaism. They believe that it was developed even before

the world; thus, Judaism recognized that the book could rightfully be perceived as a form of

incarnation. Jewish scholars also argue that the Israel nation represents an incarnational process.

Unlike Christianity, Judaism lacks creed or dogma; however, it is based on rabbinic

understandings of theological facts and stating that Jesus is not God incarnate. Judaism partially

rejects the concept of incarnation. An extreme of Jewish regarding incarnation is that the Torah,

which is their bible, provides that God presenting himself in human form proves that he may

have a voice, wings, hands, feet, and face. Christianity perceives the denial of incarnation by

Judaism as denying God His ability and right to exercise sovereignty. Apart from Torah, there

was also the Talmud which consisted commentaries and teachings regarding Jewish law. It

constituted the Mishnah and the Gemara, which had the interpretations of several rabbis as well

as outlining the importance of the commandments stated by the Jewish law.

The Jewish definition of prayer implied two distinct entities; an inferior making requests

to a superior. It implied to pray, beg, implore while making requests to God to provide them with

their daily needs. The Jewish liturgy included many activities that the Jews carried out to invoke
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God. It comprised chanting, singing, reciting texts, wearing ritual clothing, using ritual objects,

reciting blessings,, and performing physical gestures and actions choreographed. The texts

provided a treasured way to understanding the concept of Jewish worship and prayer. The liturgy

was categorized into blessings, prayers, and rituals. Prayers were recited on a day-to-day basis

and had a unique structure. Blessings were recited on specific occasions like when having special

feasts and during the performance of a commandment such as lighting candles prior to sabbath.

Rituals, on the other hand, were specific activities such as redeeming firstborns or Passover

seder. The Jewish liturgy constantly balanced the interaction of utilizing fixed texts and the

creation of meaningful and sincere interaction with God, reflecting the intention of the praying

individual (Muessig, 2007).

Orthodox Judaism is a traditional form of Judaism. The Jews believe that the bible or the

Torah is God's book and represents the communication between Moses and God, which

happened several years ago. They believe that the customs and traditions are based on the Torah

and passed down to generations after being given to Moses. On the other hand, Reform Judaism

is based on modernizing its traditions and religion according to the neighboring culture. It does

not rely on the divinity of the Torah as they believe that they are human creations. They also

devalued the belief that sacred texts are sacrosanct (Chandler, 2011). The difference between

Orthodox and Reform Judaism include:

 In reform Judaism, both men and women are not separated during worship. In contrast, in

Orthodox, they are separated because it is believed that women are impure during

menstruation and that they distract men’s focus on worship.

 Reform Judaism allows for equal participation of women and men in religion, while

Orthodox Judaism does not let women be Rabbis.

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 Reform Judaism is liberal and progressive in its approach, while Orthodox Judaism is

strict and conservative.

 Orthodox Judaism strictly follows the Torah, while Reform Judaism does not believe in

the Torah's divinity.

The development of Israel's nation is on the verge of an identity crisis and is the fundamental

factor in Israel's political instability. The crisis of the nation's identity poses a threat to their

shared future and solidarity despite that Jews constitute a well-defined group of individuals who

are able to work together to promote its goals actively. An effort to decide the conflict identity

while favoring one side is illegitimate. The Jews in Israel require a continuing, tolerant, and open

discourse among people with diverse identities so as to increase understanding.

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Works cited

Chandler, DiMarkco Stephen. “Orthodox vs. Reform Judaism.” SSRN Electronic Journal, 2011,

10.2139/ssrn.1975637.

Muessig, Carolyn A. “Daily Life of the Jews in the Middle Ages.” Journal of Jewish Studies,

vol. 58, no. 1, 1 Apr. 2007, pp. 172–173, 10.18647/2723/jjs-2007.

Teugels, Lieve. “The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 4.” Journal for the Study of

Judaism, vol. 40, no. 3, 2009, pp. 415–418, 10.1163/157006309x443765