Judaism

Judaism is one of the oldest

monotheistic religions.

Tracing their roots to

Abraham, the Jews believe
that God, whom they call
YHWH, has chosen them to
serve as an example of
holiness and ethical behavior.
Judaism is one of the world’s
oldest religions, originating
around 3,500 years ago.

Despite its relatively small

population around the globe
and in the century, it has
influenced Western Civilization.
The two monotheistic religions,
Christianity and Islam, affirm the
Torah of Judaism as God’s
revelation and therefore as good
news for everybody.
Throughout Judaism’s history,
their followers have been called
many names, and these names
are often confused with one
another.
Hebrews- refer to those who
accept Yahweh as their God,
and much of their history is
written in the Hebrew Bible, or
the old testament of the
Christian Bible.
Israelites refer to the
descendants of the Hebrews,
which originated from Abraham.
His grandson, Jacob, had 12
sons, and their descendants
became known as the 12
tribes of Israel.
Later, Israel was established
as nation-state, and
“Israelies” or “Israel Jews”
could also refer to citizens of
the land.
Jews come from Yehudah or
Judah, the Southern Kingdom
of Israel.
Now is used to refer to
someone who practices
Judaism and takes part in
Jewish culture.
ConservativeJudaism-defines
the Jew as being born of a
Jewish mother .

Reform Judaism- traces it to

either a Jewish mother or
father.
The Hebrew Bible, also called
the tanakh , is a collection of
24 books, divided into 3 parts:
1.The Torah( teaching of law)
2.The Nevi’im (Prophets)
3. Ketuvim (Writings)
The Torah contains the early
history of Judaism as well as
the law and teaching “handed
down” to Moses by Yahweh or
God himself.
Genesis, the first book of the
Torah- and of the Hebrew bible
– which tells us the mythic
origin of the entire world.
The first 11 chapters of the genesis
are particularly mythical and must
never be accepted nor understood
literally.

The book begins with the creation

story, how God created the world in
six days and rested on the seventh,
and how he created the human
being in his image and likeness.
Next, it tells us the story of
the “fall of Man” where Adam
and Eve, the first man and
woman, were tempted by the
serpent to disobey god, and
as punishment for this
disobedience, God banished
the human being from the
Garden of Eden.
The last great mythic story is
the Great Flood, where God
only saved Noah and his
family, as well as two of each
living animal, because of the
infidelity of the people.
The Jews view the legendary
figures of Adam, Eve and
Noah as symbolic figures for
their history.

“ The first eleven chapters

are a great allegorical
introduction to the rest of the
Hebrew Bible.”
Even so, some of the central
jewish belief would find their
origin on these first books.

For one, they believe that since

human beings were created in
the image and likeness of God,
they have a special
responsibility to the rest of the
creation.
They were made stewards of
the earth.
There is no agreement about
the specificities of this
special role that the human
being plays, but jews agree
that they have as unique
place in the world.
Another would be the
veneration of the Sabbath Day-
the seventh day- because this
is the day when god rested
after creating the world.
Everyone, even slaves and
animals were to rest on this
day, and so there is no work
during the Sabbath.