Judaism () is an Abrahamic, Monotheism, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews.
Jewish religious doctrine encompasses a wide body of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Among Judaism's core texts is the Torah—the first five books of the Hebrew Bible—and a collection of ancient Hebrew scriptures. The Tanakh, known in English as the Hebrew Bible, has the same books as Protestant Christianity's Old Testament, with some differences in order and content. In addition to the original written scripture, the supplemental Oral Torah is represented by later texts, such as the Midrash and the Talmud. The Hebrew-language word torah can mean "teaching", "law", or "instruction",[Cambridge University Historical Series, An Essay on Western Civilization in Its Economic Aspects, p.40: Hebraism, like Hellenism, has been an all-important factor in the development of Western Civilization; Judaism, as the precursor of Christianity, has indirectly had had much to do with shaping the ideals and morality of western nations since the christian era.]
Within Judaism, there are a variety of religious movements, most of which emerged from Rabbinic Judaism,[Troen, Ilan (April 2016). Secular Judaism in Israel, , Society, Vol. 53, Issue 2.] Today, the largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism (Haredi Judaism and Modern Orthodox), Conservative Judaism, and Reform Judaism. Major sources of difference between these groups are their approaches to halakha (Jewish law), rabbinic authority and tradition, and the significance of the Israel. Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah and Halakha are explicitly divine in origin, eternal and unalterable, and that they should be strictly followed. Conservative and Reform Judaism are more liberal, with Conservative Judaism generally promoting a more traditionalist interpretation of Judaism's requirements than Reform Judaism. A typical Reform position is that Halakha should be viewed as a set of general guidelines rather than as a set of restrictions and obligations whose observance is required of all Jews. Historically, beth din enforced Halakha; today, these courts still exist but the practice of Judaism is mostly voluntary.
Jews are an ethnoreligious group[ "A person born Jewish who refutes Judaism may continue to assert a Jewish identity, and if he or she does not convert to another religion, even religious Jews will recognize the person as a Jew"]
Etymology
The term
Judaism derives from
Iudaismus, a Latinized form of the Ancient Greek
Ioudaismos (, from the verb ἰουδαΐζειν, "to side with or imitate the Judeans").
Its ultimate source was Judah",
which is also the source of the Hebrew term for Judaism, יַהֲדוּת
Yahaḏuṯ. The term
Ἰουδαϊσμός first appears in the
Koine Greek book of 2 Maccabees in the 2nd century BCE (i.e. 2 Maccabees 2:21, 8:1 and 14:38) .
In the context of the age and period it meant "seeking or forming part of a cultural entity".
It resembled its antonym
Hellenismos, a word signifying people's submission to Hellenistic cultural norms. The conflict between
Ioudaismos and
Hellenismos lay behind the
Maccabean Revolt and hence the invention of the term
Ioudaismos.
Shaye J. D. Cohen writes in his book The Beginnings of Jewishness:
Daniel R. Schwartz, however, argues that "Judaism", especially in the context of the Book of Maccabees, refers to the religion, as opposed to the culture and politics of the Judean state. He believes it reflected the ideological divide between the Pharisees and Sadducees and, implicitly, anti-Hasmonean and pro-Hasmonean factions in Judean society.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary the earliest citation in English where the term was used to mean "the profession or practice of the Jewish religion; the religious system or polity of the Jews" is Robert Fabyan's The newe cronycles of Englande and of Fraunce (1516).["He anon renouncyd his Iudaisme or Moysen Lawe, And was cristenyd, and lyued after as a Cristen Man." (Robert Fabian, New Chronicles of England and France, reprint London 1811, p. 334.)] "Judaism" as a direct translation of the Latin Iudaismus first occurred in a 1611 English translation of the Biblical apocrypha (the Deuterocanonical books in the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodoxy), 2 Macc. ii. 21: "Those that behaved themselves manfully to their honour for Iudaisme."
History
Origins
The covenant with Abraham in the book of Genesis
A significant part of the
Hebrew Bible or
Tanakh is an account of the
Israelites' relationship with religion and
God from their earliest history until the building of the
Second Temple ().
Abraham is hailed as the first
Hebrews and the father of the Jewish people. In Genesis, three men, speculated to be God or
, commanded Abraham to
Circumcision himself and his sons as a sign of the covenant, and was promised by the angels that
Isaac, his second son, would inherit the Land of Israel (then called
Canaan) and renamed his Wife from 'Sarai', which meant Mockery, to 'Sarah', which meant Princess, and that she would bear him a son in her old age and his descendants shall also be blessed and keep the covenant.
The Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim
In Exodus, the second book of the bible, the descendants of Isaac's son
Jacob were enslaved in
ancient Egypt, and God commanded
Moses to lead
the Exodus from Egypt in a vision. Rules and commandments were conveyed to Moses at Sinai; accounted in the
Torah, or five books of Moses.
These books, together with the Nevi'im and
Ketuvim, are known as
Torah Shebikhtav, as opposed to the Oral Torah, which refers to the Mishnah and the
Talmud.
The Nevi'im details historical narratives, and prophetic writings, focusing on the Isrelites settlements in Canaan. While the Ketuvim, a diverse collection of books including the
Psalms, Proverbs, and Esther, covers poetic and prose philisophical writings which deviates from the more literalist style of the other books.
The Talmud
Rabbinic tradition holds that the details and interpretation of the Law, called the
Oral Torah or "Oral Law," were originally unwritten traditions based on the Law given to Moses at Sinai. However, as the persecutions of the Jews increased and the details were in danger of being forgotten, these oral laws were recorded by
Judah ha-Nasi in the
Mishnah, redacted . The Talmud was a compilation of the Mishnah and
Gemara, rabbinic commentaries redacted over the next three centuries. The Gemara originated in two major centers of Jewish scholarship, Palestine and Babylonia (Lower Mesopotamia).
Correspondingly, two bodies of analysis developed, and two works of Talmud were created. The older compilation is called the
Jerusalem Talmud. It was compiled sometime during the 4th century in Palestine.
Historical Analysis
According to critical scholars, the Torah consists of inconsistent texts edited together in a way that calls attention to divergent accounts.
Several of these scholars, such as Professor Martin Rose and John Bright, suggest that during the First Temple period the people of Israel believed that each nation had its own version of a god viewed as superior to all other gods.
Some suggest that strict monotheism developed during the Babylonian Exile, perhaps in reaction to
Zoroastrian dualism.
In this view, it was only by the Hellenistic period that most Jews came to believe that their god was the only god and that the notion of a bounded Jewish nation identical with the Jewish religion formed.
John Day argues that the origins of biblical
Yahweh, El,
Asherah, and Ba'al, may be rooted in earlier Canaanite religion, which was centered on a pantheon of gods much like in
Greek mythology.
Antiquity
According to the
Hebrew Bible, a
United Monarchy was established under Saul and continued under
King David and
Solomon with its capital in
Jerusalem. After Solomon's reign, the nation split into two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Israel (in the north) and the Kingdom of Judah (in the south). The Kingdom of Israel was destroyed around 720 BCE, when it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire;
many people were taken captive from the capital Samaria to Media and the Khabur River valley. The Kingdom of Judah continued as an independent state until it was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE. The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the
First Temple, which was at the center of ancient Jewish worship. The Judeans were exiled to Babylon, in what is regarded as the first
Jewish diaspora. Later, many of them returned to their homeland after the subsequent conquest of Babylon by the Persian Achaemenid Empire seventy years later, an event known as the Return to Zion. A
Second Temple was constructed and old religious practices were resumed.
During the early years of the Second Temple, the highest religious authority was a council known as the Great Assembly, led by Ezra. Among other accomplishments of the Great Assembly, the last books of the Bible were written at this time and the canon sealed . Hellenistic Judaism spread to Ptolemaic Egypt from the 3rd century BCE, and its creation sparked widespread controversy in Jewish communities, starting "conflicts within Jewish communities about accommodating the cultures of occupying powers."
During the Great Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE), the Roman Empire sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple. Later, Roman emperor Hadrian built a pagan idol on the Temple Mount and prohibited circumcision; these acts of ethnocide provoked the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132–136 CE), after which the Romans banned the study of the Torah and the celebration of Jewish holidays, and forcibly removed virtually all Jews from Judea. In 200 CE, however, Jews were granted Roman citizenship and Judaism was recognized as a religio licita ("legitimate religion") until the rise of Gnosticism and Early Christianity in the fourth century.
Following the destruction of Jerusalem and the expulsion of the Jews, Jewish worship stopped being centrally organized around the Temple, prayer took the place of sacrifice, and worship was rebuilt around the community (represented by a minimum of ten adult men) and the establishment of the authority of Rabbinic Judaism who acted as teachers and leaders of individual communities.
Judaism in pre-Islamic Arabia goes back to the pre-Christian period, and was concentrated in the northwest and south. In the fourth century, the ruling class of the Himyarite Kingdom of pre-Islamic South Arabia converted to Judaism. This situation lasted until the early sixth century, when the Aksumite invasion of Himyar instigated by the massacre of Najran led to a change into Christian rulership.
Defining characteristics and principles of faith
Unlike other ancient Near Eastern gods, the Hebrew God is portrayed as unitary and solitary; consequently, the Hebrew God's principal relationships are not with other gods, but with the world, and more specifically, with the people he created.
Judaism thus begins with ethical monotheism: the belief that God is one and is concerned with the actions of mankind.
According to the Hebrew Bible, God promised
Abraham to make of his offspring a great nation.
Many generations later, he commanded the nation of
Israelites to love and worship only one God; that is, the Jewish nation is to reciprocate God's concern for the world.
He also commanded the Jewish people to love one another; that is, Jews are to imitate God's love for people.
Thus, although there is an esoteric tradition in Judaism in Kabbalah, Rabbinic scholar Max Kadushin has characterized normative Judaism as "normal mysticism", because it involves everyday personal experiences of God through ways or modes that are common to all Jews.
Whereas Jewish philosophers often debate whether God is Immanence or transcendent, and whether people have free will or their lives are determined, halakha is a system through which any Jew acts to bring God into the world.
Ethical monotheism is central in all sacred or normative texts of Judaism. However, monotheism has not always been followed in practice. The Hebrew Bible (or Tanakh) records and repeatedly condemns the widespread worship of other gods in ancient Israel.
Moreover, some have argued that Judaism is a non-creedal religion that does not require one to believe in God.
In continental Europe, Judaism is heavily associated with and most often thought of as Orthodox Judaism.
Core tenets
In the strict sense, in Judaism, unlike Christianity and Islam, there are no fixed universally binding articles of faith, due to their incorporation into the liturgy.
Scholars throughout
Jewish history have proposed numerous formulations of Judaism's core tenets, all of which have met with criticism.
The most popular formulation is
Maimonides' thirteen principles of faith, developed in the 12th century.
According to Maimonides, any Jew who rejects even one of these principles would be considered an apostate and a heretic.
Jewish scholars have held points of view diverging in various ways from Maimonides' principles.
Thus, within
Reform Judaism only the first five principles are endorsed.
In Maimonides' time, his list of tenets was criticized by Hasdai Crescas and Joseph Albo. Albo and the Raavad argued that Maimonides' principles contained too many items that, while true, were not fundamentals of the faith
Along these lines, the ancient historian Josephus emphasized practices and observances rather than religious beliefs, associating apostasy with a failure to observe halakha and maintaining that the requirements for conversion to Judaism included circumcision and adherence to traditional customs. Maimonides' principles were largely ignored over the next few centuries.
The oldest non-Rabbinic instance of articles of faith were formulated, under Islamic influence, by the 12th century Karaite Judaism figure Judah Hadassi:
In modern times, Judaism lacks a centralized authority that would dictate an exact religious dogma. Because of this, many different variations on the basic beliefs are considered within the scope of Judaism.
Establishing the core tenets of Judaism in the modern era is even more difficult, given the number and diversity of the contemporary Jewish denominations. Even if to restrict the problem to the most influential intellectual trends of the nineteenth and twentieth century, the matter remains complicated. Thus, for instance, Joseph Soloveitchik's (associated with the Modern Orthodox movement) answer to modernity is constituted upon the identification of Judaism with following the halakha whereas its ultimate goal is to bring the holiness down to the world. Mordecai Kaplan, the founder of the Reconstructionist Judaism, abandons the idea of religion for the sake of identifying Judaism with civilization and by means of the latter term and secular translation of the core ideas, he tries to embrace as many Jewish denominations as possible. In turn, Solomon Schechter's Conservative Judaism was identical with the tradition understood as the interpretation of Torah, in itself being the history of the constant updates and adjustment of the Law performed by means of the creative interpretation. Finally, David Philipson draws the outlines of the Reform movement in Judaism by opposing it to the strict and traditional rabbinical approach and thus comes to the conclusions similar to that of the Conservative movement.
Religious texts
The following is a basic, structured list of the central works of Jewish practice and thought:
Legal literature
The basis of
halakha and tradition is the
Torah (also known as the
Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses). According to rabbinic tradition, there are 613 commandments in the Torah. Some of these laws are directed only to men or to women, some only to the ancient priestly groups, the
Kohen and
Levite (members of the tribe of
Levi), some only to farmers within the Land of Israel. Many laws were only applicable when the Temple in Jerusalem existed, and only 369 of these commandments are still applicable today.
While there have been Jewish groups whose beliefs were based on the written text of the Torah alone (e.g., the Sadducees, and the Karaite Judaism), most Jews believe in the oral law. These oral traditions were transmitted by the Pharisees school of thought of ancient Judaism and were later recorded in written form and expanded upon by the rabbis.
According to Rabbinical Jewish tradition, God gave both the Written Law (the Torah) and the Oral Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai. The Oral law is the oral tradition as relayed by God to Moses and from him, transmitted and taught to the sages ( leaders) of each subsequent generation.
For centuries, the Torah appeared only as a written text transmitted in parallel with the oral tradition. Fearing that the oral teachings might be forgotten, Rabbi Judah haNasi undertook the mission of consolidating the various opinions into one body of law which became known as the Mishnah.[Codex Judaica Kantor 2006, p. 146" (as cited on Judah haNasi)]
The Mishnah consists of 63 tractates codifying halakha, which are the basis of the Talmud. According to Abraham ben David, the Mishnah was compiled by Rabbi Judah haNasi after the destruction of Jerusalem, in anno mundi 3949, which corresponds to 189 CE.[Abraham ben David, Seder Ha-Kabbalah Leharavad, Jerusalem 1971, p.16 (Hebrew) (as cited on Judah haNasi)]
Over the next four centuries, the Mishnah underwent discussion and debate in both of the world's major Jewish communities (in Israel and Babylonia). The commentaries from each of these communities were eventually compiled into the two Talmuds, the Jerusalem Talmud ( Talmud Yerushalmi) and the Babylonian Talmud ( Talmud Bavli). These have been further expounded by commentaries of various Torah scholars during the ages.
In the text of the Torah, many words are left undefined, and many procedures are mentioned without explanation or instructions. Such phenomena are sometimes offered to validate the viewpoint that the Written Law has always been transmitted with a parallel oral tradition, illustrating the assumption that the reader is already familiar with the details from other, i.e., oral, sources.
Halakha, the rabbinic Jewish way of life, then, is based on a combined reading of the Torah, and the oral tradition—the Mishnah, the halakhic Midrash, the Talmud and its commentaries. The halakha has developed slowly, through a precedent-based system. The literature of questions to rabbis, and their considered answers, is referred to as responsa (Hebrew ). Over time, as practices develop, codes of halakha are written that are based on the responsa; the most important code, the Shulchan Aruch, largely determines Orthodox religious practice today.
Jewish philosophy
Jewish philosophy refers to the conjunction between serious study of philosophy and Jewish theology. Major Jewish philosophers include
Philo, Solomon ibn Gabirol,
Saadia Gaon,
Judah Halevi,
Maimonides, and
Gersonides. Major changes occurred in response to the Enlightenment (late 18th to early 19th century) leading to the post-Enlightenment Jewish philosophers. Modern Jewish philosophy consists of both Orthodox and non-Orthodox oriented philosophy. Notable among Orthodox Jewish philosophers are Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler, Joseph B. Soloveitchik, and
Yitzchok Hutner. Well-known non-Orthodox Jewish philosophers include
Martin Buber,
Franz Rosenzweig,
Mordecai Kaplan, Abraham Joshua Heschel,
Will Herberg, and Emmanuel Lévinas.
Rabbinic hermeneutics
Orthodox Judaism and many other
Jews do not believe that the revealed
Torah consists solely of its written contents, but of its interpretations as well. The study of
Torah (in its widest sense, to include both poetry, narrative, and law, and both the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud) is in Judaism itself a sacred act of central importance. For the sages of the
Mishnah and Talmud, and for their successors today, the study of Torah was therefore not merely a means to learn the contents of God's revelation, but an end in itself. According to the Talmud:
In Judaism, "the study of Torah can be a means of experiencing God".
To study the Written Torah and the Oral Torah in light of each other is thus also to study how to study the word of God.
In the study of Torah, the sages formulated and followed various and hermeneutics principles. According to David Stern, all Rabbinic hermeneutics rest on two basic axioms:
These two principles make possible a great variety of interpretations. According to the Talmud:
Observant Jews thus view the Torah as dynamic, because it contains within it a host of interpretations.
According to Rabbinic tradition, all valid interpretations of the written Torah were revealed to Moses at Sinai in oral form, and handed down from teacher to pupil (The oral revelation is in effect coextensive with the Talmud itself). When different rabbis forwarded conflicting interpretations, they sometimes appealed to hermeneutic principles to legitimize their arguments; some rabbis claim that these principles were themselves revealed by God to Moses at Sinai.
Thus, Hillel called attention to seven commonly used hermeneutical principles in the interpretation of laws (baraita at the beginning of Sifra); R. Ishmael, thirteen (baraita at the beginning of Sifra; this collection is largely an amplification of that of Hillel).
Jewish identity
Distinction between Jews as a people and Judaism
According to
Daniel Boyarin, the underlying distinction between religion and ethnicity is foreign to Judaism itself, and is one form of the dualism between spirit and flesh that has its origin in
philosophy and that permeated Hellenistic Judaism.
Consequently, in his view, Judaism does not fit easily into conventional Western categories, such as religion, ethnicity, or culture. Boyarin suggests that this in part reflects the fact that much of Judaism's more than 3,000-year history predates the rise of Western culture and occurred outside the West (that is, Europe, particularly medieval and modern Europe). During this time, Jews experienced slavery, anarchic and theocratic self-government, conquest, occupation, and exile. In the Jewish diaspora, they were in contact with, and influenced by, ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Persian, and Hellenic cultures, as well as modern movements such as the Enlightenment (see
Haskalah) and the rise of nationalism, which would bear fruit in the form of a Jewish state in their ancient homeland, the Land of Israel. Thus, Boyarin has argued that "Jewishness disrupts the very categories of identity, because it is not national, not genealogical, not religious, but all of these, in dialectical tension."
In contrast to this point of view, practices such as Humanistic Judaism reject the religious aspects of Judaism, while retaining certain cultural traditions.
Who is a Jew?
According to
Rabbinic Judaism, a Jew is anyone who was either born of a Jewish mother or who converted to Judaism in accordance with
halakha. Reconstructionist Judaism and the larger denominations of worldwide
Reform Judaism (also known as Liberal or Reform Judaism) accept the child as Jewish if one of the parents is Jewish, if the parents raise the child with a Jewish identity, but not the smaller regional branches. All mainstream forms of Judaism today are open to sincere converts, although conversion has traditionally been discouraged since the time of the Talmud. The conversion process is evaluated by an authority, and the convert is examined on his or her sincerity and knowledge.
Converts are called "ben Abraham" or "bat Abraham", (son or daughter of Abraham). Conversions have on occasion been overturned. In 2008, Israel's highest religious court invalidated the conversion of 40,000 Jews, mostly from Russian immigrant families, even though they had been approved by an Orthodox rabbi.
[Samuel G. Freedman, "Strains Grow Between Israel and Many Jews in the U.S." The New York Times, 6 February 2015]
Rabbinical Judaism maintains that a Jew, whether by birth or conversion, is a Jew forever. Thus a Jew who claims to be an atheist or converts to another religion is still considered by traditional Judaism to be Jewish. According to some sources, the Reform movement has maintained that a Jew who has converted to another religion is no longer a Jew,
Karaite Judaism believes that Jewish identity can only be transmitted by patrilineal descent. Although a minority of modern Karaites believe that Jewish identity requires that both parents be Jewish, and not only the father. They argue that only patrilineal descent can transmit Jewish identity on the grounds that all descent in the Torah went according to the male line.
The question of what determines Jewish identity in the State of Israel was given new impetus when, in the 1950s, David Ben-Gurion requested opinions on mihu Yehudi ("Who is a Jew") from Jewish religious authorities and intellectuals worldwide in order to settle citizenship questions. This is still not settled, and occasionally resurfaces in Israeli politics.
Historical definitions of Jewish identity have traditionally been based on halakhic definitions of matrilineal descent, and halakhic conversions. Historical definitions of who is a Jew date back to the codification of the Oral Torah into the Babylonian Talmud, around 200 Common Era. Interpretations of sections of the Tanakh, such as Deuteronomy 7:1–5, by Jewish sages, are used as a warning against intermarriage between Jews and Canaanites because "the will cause your child to turn away from Me and they will worship the gods (i.e., idols) of others."[Dosick (2007), pp. 56–57.]
Jewish demographics
The total number of Jews worldwide is difficult to assess because the definition of "who is a Jew" is problematic; not all Jews identify themselves as Jewish, and some who identify as Jewish are not considered so by other Jews. According to the
Jewish Year Book (1901), the global Jewish population in 1900 was around 11 million. The latest available data is from the World Jewish Population Survey of 2002 and the Jewish Year Calendar (2005). In 2002, according to the Jewish Population Survey, there were 13.3 million Jews around the world. The Jewish Year Calendar cites 14.6 million. It is 0.25% of world population.
Jewish population growth is currently near zero percent, with 0.3% growth from 2000 to 2001. The overall growth rate of Israeli Jews is 1.7% annually, and is consistently growing through natural population growth and extensive immigration.
In 2022, the world Jewish population was estimated at 15.2 million, with the majority living in one of two countries: Israel and the United States.
In Israel, the classification of Jewish observance into categories like Haredi Judaism, Dati, Masortim, and Hiloni was developed by sociologists and researchers studying the religious and cultural landscape of Israeli society. These distinctions emerged from surveys and studies conducted by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics and scholars such as Shmuel Sandler, who explored how religious practices varied among different segments of the Jewish population. The categories were created to better understand the range of religious adherence, from the ultra-Orthodox Haredim to the secular Hilonim, with Dati and Masorti representing intermediary groups.
Jewish religious movements
Rabbinic Judaism
Rabbinic Judaism (or in some older sources, Rabbinism;
Hebrew: "Yahadut Rabanit" – יהדות רבנית) has been the mainstream form of Judaism since the 6th century CE, after the codification of the Talmud. It is characterised by the belief that the
Written Torah (Written Law) cannot be correctly interpreted without reference to the Oral Torah and the voluminous literature specifying what behavior is sanctioned by the Law.
The Jewish Enlightenment of the late 18th century resulted in the division of Western Jewry (primarily, the Ashkenazi Jews, but also western part of Sephardic Jews and Italian Jews, a.k.a. Italkim, and Greek Romaniote Jews—both last groups are considered distinct from Ashkenazim and Sephardim) into religious movements or denominations, especially in North America and Anglophone countries. The main denominations today outside Israel (where the situation is rather different) are Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform. The notion "traditional Judaism" includes the Orthodox with Conservative or solely the Orthodox Jews:
-
Orthodox Judaism holds that both the Written and Oral Torah were divinely revealed to Moses and that the laws within it are binding and unchanging. Orthodox Jews generally consider commentaries on the Shulchan Aruch (a condensed codification of halakha that largely favoured Sephardic traditions) to be the definitive codification of halakha. Orthodoxy places a high importance on Maimonides' 13 principles as a definition of Jewish faith.
- Orthodoxy is often divided into Haredi Judaism and Modern Orthodox Judaism. Haredi is less accommodating to modernity and has less interest in non-Jewish disciplines, and it may be distinguished from Modern Orthodox Judaism in practice by its styles of dress and more stringent practices. Subsets of Haredi Judaism along both ethnic and ideological lines include Hardal ("Nationalist Haredi" within Religious Zionism); Hasidic Judaism, which is rooted in the Kabbalah and distinguished by reliance on a Rebbe or religious teacher; their traditionalist opponents the Misnagdim (also known as Lithuanian or Lita'im); and Sephardic Haredi Judaism, which emerged among Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews (Asian and North African) Jews in Israel. "Centrist" Orthodoxy (Joseph B. Soloveitchik) is sometimes also distinguished.
-
Conservative Judaism (known as Masorti Judaism outside North America and Israel) is characterized by a commitment to traditional halakha and customs, including observance of Shabbat and kashrut, a deliberately non-fundamentalist teaching of Jewish principles of faith, a positive attitude toward modern culture, and an acceptance of both traditional rabbinic and modern scholarship when considering Jewish religious texts. Conservative Judaism teaches that halakha is not static, but has always developed in response to changing conditions. It holds that the Torah is a divine document written by prophets inspired by God and reflecting his will, but rejects the Orthodox position that it was dictated by God to Moses.
-
Reform Judaism, called Liberal or Progressive Judaism in many countries, defines Judaism in relatively universalist terms, rejects most of the ritual and ceremonial laws of the Torah while observing moral laws, and emphasizes the ethical call of the Prophets. Reform Judaism has developed an egalitarian prayer service in the vernacular (along with Hebrew in many cases) and emphasizes personal connection to Jewish tradition.
-
Reconstructionist Judaism, like Reform Judaism, does not hold that halakha, as such, requires observance, but unlike Reform, Reconstructionist thought emphasizes the role of the community in deciding what observances to follow. It is sometimes recognized as the fourth major stream of Judaism.
-
Jewish Renewal is a recent North American movement which focuses on spirituality and social justice but does not address issues of halakha. Men and women participate equally in prayer.
-
Humanistic Judaism is a small non-theistic movement centered in North America and Israel that emphasizes Jewish culture and history as the sources of Jewish identity.
-
Subbotniks (Sabbatarians) are a movement of Jews of Russians ethnic origin in the 18th–20th centuries, the majority of whom belonged to Rabbinic and Karaite Judaism.
Sephardi and Mizrahi Judaism
While
Minhag vary between discrete communities, it can be said that
Sephardi (Iberian, for example, most Jews from France and the Netherlands) and
Mizrahi Jews (Oriental) Jewish communities do not generally adhere to the "movement" framework popular in and among
Ashkenazi Jewry.
Historically, Sephardi and Mizrahi communities have eschewed denominations in favour of a "big tent" approach.
This is particularly the case in contemporary Israel, which is home to the largest communities of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in the world. (However, individual Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews or some their communities may be members of or attend synagogues that do adhere to one Ashkenazi-inflected movement or another.) Among the pioneers of Reform Judaism in the 1820s there was the Sephardic congregation Beth Elohim in Charleston, South Carolina. A part of the European Sephardim were also linked with the Judaic modernization.
Sephardi and Mizrahi observance of Judaism tends toward the traditional (Orthodox) and prayer rites are reflective of this, with the text of each rite being largely unchanged since their respective inception. Observant Sephardim may follow the teachings of a particular rabbi or school of thought; for example, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel.
Jewish movements in Israel
In Israel, as in the West, Judaism is also divided into major Orthodox, Conservative and Reform traditions.
At the same time, for statistical and practical purposes, a different division of society is used there on the basis of a person's attitude to religion.
Most Jewish Israelis classify themselves as "secular" ( hiloni), "traditional" ( masortim), "religious" ( Orthodox Judaism) or "ultra-religious" ( Haredi Judaism).
The term "traditional" ( masorti) is most common as a self-description among Israeli families of "eastern" origin (i.e., the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa). This term, as commonly used, has nothing to do with Conservative Judaism, which also names itself "Masorti" outside North America. Only a few authors, like Elliot Nelson Dorff, consider the American Conservative (masorti) movement and Israeli masorti sector to be one and the same. There is a great deal of ambiguity in the ways "secular" and "traditional" are used in Israel: they often overlap, and they cover an extremely wide range in terms of worldview and practical religious observance. The term "Orthodox" is not popular in Israeli discourse, although the percentage of Jews who come under that category is far greater than in the Jewish diaspora. What would be called "Orthodox" in the diaspora includes what is commonly called dati (religious, including religious zionist) or haredi (ultra-Orthodox) in Israel.
Karaites and Samaritans
Karaite Judaism defines itself as the remnants of the non-Rabbinic Jewish sects of the
Second Temple period, such as the
Sadducees. The Karaites ("Scripturalists") accept only the Hebrew Bible and what they view as the
Peshat ("simple" meaning); they do not accept non-biblical writings as authoritative. Some European Karaites do not see themselves as part of the Jewish community at all, although most do.
The Samaritans, a very small community located entirely around Mount Gerizim in the Nablus/Shechem region of the West Bank and in Holon, near Tel Aviv in Israel, regard themselves as the descendants of the Israelites of the Iron Age kingdom of Israel. Their religious practices are based on the literal text of the written Torah (Five Books of Moses), which they view as the only authoritative scripture (with a special regard also for the Samaritan Book of Joshua).
Haymanot (Ethiopian Judaism)
Haymanot (meaning "religion" in Ge'ez and Amharic) refers the Judaism practiced by Ethiopian Jews. This version of Judaism differs substantially from Rabbinic, Karaite, and Samaritan Judaisms, Ethiopian Jews having diverged from their coreligionists earlier. Sacred scriptures (the Orit) are written in Ge'ez, not Hebrew, and dietary laws are based strictly on the text of the Orit, without explication from ancillary commentaries. Holidays also differ, with some Rabbinic holidays not observed in Ethiopian Jewish communities, and some additional holidays, like
Sigd.
Noahide (B'nei Noah movement)
Noahidism is a Jewish religious movement based on the Seven Laws of Noah and their traditional interpretations within
Rabbinic Judaism. According to the
halakha, non-Jews (
gentiles) are not obligated to convert to Judaism, but they are required to observe the Seven Laws of Noah to be assured of a place in the world to come (olam ha-ba), the final reward of the righteous. The divinely ordained penalty for violating any of the Laws of Noah is discussed in the Talmud, but in practical terms it is subject to the working legal system which is established by the society at large. Those who subscribe to the observance of the Noahide covenant are referred to as (Hebrew: בני נח, 'Children of Noah') or
Noahides (
/ˈnoʊ.ə.haɪds/). Supporting organizations have been established around the world over the past decades by both Noahides and Orthodox Jews.
Historically, the Hebrew term B'nei Noach has applied to all non-Jews as descendants of Noah. However, nowadays it's primarily used to refer specifically to those non-Jews who observe the Seven Laws of Noah.
Jewish observances
Jewish ethics
Jewish ethics may be guided by
Halakha traditions, by
Jewish etiquette, by other moral principles, or by central Jewish virtues. Jewish ethical practice is typically understood to be marked by values such as justice, truth, peace, loving-kindness (
chesed), compassion, humility, and self-respect. Specific Jewish ethical practices include practices of charity (
tzedakah) and refraining from negative speech (
lashon hara). Proper ethical practices regarding sexuality and many other issues are subjects of dispute among Jews.
Prayers
Traditionally, Jews recite prayers three times daily,
Shacharit,
Mincha, and Ma'ariv with a fourth prayer,
Mussaf added on
Shabbat and
Jewish holiday. At the heart of each service is the
Amidah or
Shemoneh Esrei. Another key prayer in many services is the declaration of faith, the
Shema Yisrael (or
Shema). The
Shema is the recitation of a verse from the Torah (
Deuteronomy 6:4):
Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad—"Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God! The Lord is One!"
Most of the prayers in a traditional Jewish service can be recited in solitary prayer, although communal prayer is preferred. Communal prayer requires a quorum of ten adult Jews, called a minyan. In nearly all Orthodox and a few Conservative circles, only male Jews are counted toward a minyan; most Conservative Jews and members of other Jewish denominations count female Jews as well.
In addition to prayer services, observant traditional Jews recite prayers and benedictions throughout the day when performing various acts. Prayers are recited upon Modeh ani, before eating or drinking different foods, Birkat Hamazon, and so on.
The approach to prayer varies among the Jewish denominations. Differences can include the texts of prayers, the frequency of prayer, the number of prayers recited at various religious events, the use of musical instruments and choral music, and whether prayers are recited in the traditional liturgical languages or the vernacular. In general, Orthodox and Conservative congregations adhere most closely to tradition, and Reform and Reconstructionist synagogues are more likely to incorporate translations and contemporary writings in their services. Also, in most Conservative synagogues, and all Reform and Reconstructionist congregations, women participate in prayer services on an Egalitarianism with men, including roles traditionally filled only by men, such as Torah reading. In addition, many Reform temples use musical accompaniment such as organs and mixed choirs.
Religious clothing
A
kippah (Hebrew: כִּפָּה, plural
kippot; Yiddish: יאַרמלקע,
yarmulke) is a slightly rounded brimless skullcap worn by many Jews while praying, eating, reciting blessings, or studying Jewish religious texts, and at all times by some Jewish men. In Orthodox communities, only men wear kippot; in non-Orthodox communities, some women also wear kippot.
Kippot range in size from a small round beanie that covers only the back of the head to a large, snug cap that covers the whole crown.
Tzitzit (Hebrew: צִיציִת) (Ashkenazi Hebrew: tzitzis) are special knotted "fringes" or "tassels" found on the four corners of the tallit (Hebrew: טַלִּית) (Ashkenazi pronunciation: tallis), or prayer shawl. The tallit is worn by Jewish men and some Jewish women during the prayer service. Customs vary regarding when a Jew begins wearing a tallit. In the Sephardi community, boys wear a tallit from bar mitzvah age. In some Ashkenazi communities, it is customary to wear one only after marriage. A tallit katan (small tallit) is a fringed garment worn under the clothing throughout the day. In some Orthodox circles, the fringes are allowed to hang freely outside the clothing.
Tefillin (Hebrew: תְפִלִּין), known in English as phylacteries (from the Greek word φυλακτήριον, meaning safeguard or amulet), are two square leather boxes containing biblical verses, attached to the forehead and wound around the left arm by leather straps. They are worn during weekday morning prayer by observant Jewish men and some Jewish women.
A kittel (Yiddish: קיטל), a white knee-length overgarment, is worn by prayer leaders and some observant traditional Jews on the High Holidays. It is traditional for the head of the household to wear a kittel at the Passover seder in some communities, and some grooms wear one under the wedding canopy. Jewish males are buried in a tallit and sometimes also a kittel which are part of the tachrichim (burial garments).
Jewish holidays
Jewish holidays are special days in the Jewish calendar, which celebrate moments in Jewish history, as well as central themes in the relationship between God and the world, such as
Creation myth,
revelation, and
salvation.
Shabbat
Shabbat, the weekly day of rest lasting from shortly before sundown on Friday night to nightfall on Saturday night, commemorates God's day of rest after six days of creation. It plays a pivotal role in Jewish practice and is governed by a large corpus of religious law. At sundown on Friday, the woman of the house welcomes the Shabbat by lighting two or more candles and reciting a blessing. The evening meal begins with the Kiddush, a blessing recited aloud over a cup of wine, and the Mohtzi, a blessing recited over the bread. It is customary to have
challah, two braided loaves of bread, on the table. During Shabbat, Jews are forbidden to engage in any activity that falls under 39 categories of
melakhah, translated literally as "work". In fact, the activities banned on the Sabbath are not "work" in the usual sense: They include such actions as lighting a fire, writing, using money and carrying in the public domain. The prohibition of lighting a fire has been extended in the modern era to driving a car, which involves burning fuel and using electricity.
Three pilgrimage festivals
Jewish holy days (
chaggim), celebrate landmark events in Jewish history, such as the Exodus from Egypt and the giving of the Torah, and sometimes mark the change of seasons and transitions in the agricultural cycle. The three major festivals, Sukkot, Passover and Shavuot, are called "regalim" (derived from the Hebrew word "regel", or foot). On the three regalim, it was customary for the Israelites to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices in the Temple:
-
used by the Jewish community of Cairo in Arabic]] Passover ( Pesach) is a week-long holiday beginning on the evening of the 14th day of Nisan (the first month in the Hebrew calendar), that commemorates the Exodus from Egypt. Outside Israel, Passover is celebrated for eight days. In ancient times, it coincided with the barley harvest. It is the only holiday that centers on home-service, the Passover Seder. leavening agent products (chametz) are removed from the house prior to the holiday and are not consumed throughout the week. Homes are thoroughly cleaned to ensure no bread or bread by-products remain, and a symbolic burning of the last vestiges of chametz is conducted on the morning of the Seder. Matzah is eaten instead of bread.
-
Shavuot ("Pentecost" or "Feast of Weeks") celebrates the revelation of the Torah to the on Mount Sinai. Also known as the Festival of Bikurim, or first fruits, it coincided in biblical times with the wheat harvest. Shavuot customs include all-night study marathons known as Tikkun Leil Shavuot, eating dairy foods (cheesecake and blintzes are special favorites), reading the Book of Ruth, decorating homes and synagogues with greenery, and wearing white clothing, symbolizing purity.
-
]] Sukkot ("Tabernacles" or "The Festival of Booths") commemorates the Israelites' forty years of wandering through the desert on their way to the Promised Land. It is celebrated through the construction of temporary booths called sukkot (sing. sukkah) that represent the temporary shelters of the Israelites during their wandering. It coincides with the fruit harvest and marks the end of the agricultural cycle. Jews around the world eat in sukkot for seven days and nights. Sukkot concludes with Shemini Atzeret, where Jews begin to pray for rain and Simchat Torah, "Rejoicing of the Torah", a holiday which marks reaching the end of the Torah reading cycle and beginning all over again. The occasion is celebrated with singing and dancing with the Torah scrolls. Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are technically considered to be a separate holiday and not a part of Sukkot.
High Holy Days
The High Holidays (
Yamim Noraim or "Days of Awe") revolve around judgment and forgiveness:
-
Rosh Hashanah, (also Yom Ha-Zikkaron or "Day of Remembrance", and Yom Teruah, or "Day of the Sounding of the Shofar"). Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year (literally, "head of the year"), although it falls on the first day of the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar, Tishri. Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the 10-day period of atonement leading up to Yom Kippur, during which Jews are commanded to search their souls and make amends for sins committed, intentionally or not, throughout the year. Holiday customs include blowing the shofar, or ram's horn, in the synagogue, eating apples and honey, and saying blessings over a variety of symbolic foods, such as pomegranates.
-
Yom Kippur, ("Day of Atonement") is the holiest day of the Jewish year. It is a day of communal fasting and praying for forgiveness for one's sins. Observant Jews spend the entire day in the synagogue, sometimes with a short break in the afternoon, reciting prayers from a special holiday prayerbook called a "Machzor". Many non-religious Jews make a point of attending synagogue services and fasting on Yom Kippur. On the eve of Yom Kippur, before candles are lit, a prefast meal, the "seuda mafseket", is eaten. Synagogue services on the eve of Yom Kippur begin with the Kol Nidre prayer. It is customary to wear white on Yom Kippur, especially for Kol Nidre, and leather shoes are not worn. The following day, prayers are held from morning to evening. The final prayer service, called "Ne'ilah", ends with a long blast of the shofar.
Purim
Purim (Hebrew: "
Cleromancy") is a joyous Jewish holiday that commemorates the deliverance of the
Persian Jews from the plot of the evil Haman, who sought to
genocide them, as recorded in the biblical Book of Esther. It is characterized by public recitation of the Book of Esther, mutual gifts of food and drink,
Alms to the poor, and a celebratory meal (Esther 9:22). Other customs include drinking wine, eating special pastries called
, dressing up in masks and costumes, and organizing carnivals and parties.
Purim has celebrated annually on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Adar, which occurs in February or March of the Gregorian calendar.
Hanukkah
Hanukkah (, "dedication") also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday that starts on the 25th day of
Kislev (
Hebrew calendar). The festival is observed in Jewish homes by the kindling of lights on each of the festival's eight nights, one on the first night, two on the second night and so on.
The holiday was called Hanukkah (meaning "dedication") because it marks the re-dedication of the Temple after its desecration by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Spiritually, Hanukkah commemorates the "Miracle of the Oil". According to the Talmud, at the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem following the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire, there was only enough consecrated oil to fuel the eternal flame in the Temple for one day. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days—which was the length of time it took to press, prepare and consecrate new oil.
Hanukkah is not mentioned in the Bible and was never considered a major holiday in Judaism, but it has become much more visible and widely celebrated in modern times, mainly because it falls around the same time as Christmas and has national Jewish overtones that have been emphasized since the establishment of the State of Israel.
Fast days
Tisha B'Av ( or ט׳ באב, "the Ninth of Av") is a day of mourning and fasting commemorating the destruction of the
First Temple and
, and in later times, the
Alhambra Decree.
There are three more minor Jewish fast days that commemorate various stages of the destruction of the Temples. They are the 17th Tamuz, the 10th of Tevet and Tzom Gedaliah (the 3rd of Tishrei).
Israeli holidays
The modern holidays of
Yom Ha-shoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day),
Yom Hazikaron (Israeli Memorial Day) and Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) commemorate the horrors of the
Holocaust, the fallen soldiers of Israel and victims of terrorism, and Israeli independence, respectively.
There are some who prefer to commemorate those who were killed in the Holocaust on the 10th of Tevet.
Torah readings
The core of festival and
Shabbat prayer services is the public reading of the
Torah, along with connected readings from the other books of the Tanakh, called
Haftarah. Over the course of a year, the whole Torah is read, with the cycle starting over in the autumn, on
Simchat Torah.
Synagogues and religious buildings
Synagogues are Jewish houses of prayer and study. They usually contain separate rooms for prayer (the main sanctuary), smaller rooms for study, and often an area for community or educational use. There is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes and interior designs of synagogues vary greatly. The Reform movement mostly refer to their synagogues as temples. Some traditional features of a synagogue are:
-
The ark (called aron ha-kodesh by Ashkenazi Jews and hekhal by Sephardi Jews) where the Torah scrolls are kept (the ark is often closed with an ornate curtain ( parochet) outside or inside the ark doors);
-
The elevated reader's platform (called bimah by Ashkenazim and tebah by Sephardim), where the Torah is read (and services are conducted in Sephardi synagogues);
-
The sanctuary lamp ( ner tamid), a continually lit lamp or lantern used as a reminder of the constantly lit menorah of the Temple in Jerusalem
-
The pulpit, or amud, a lectern facing the Ark where the hazzan or prayer leader stands while praying.
In addition to synagogues, other buildings of significance in Judaism include , or institutions of Jewish learning, and , which are ritual baths.
Dietary laws: kashrut
The Jewish dietary laws are known as
kashrut. Food prepared in accordance with them is termed
kosher foods, and food that is not kosher is also known as
treifah or
treif. People who observe these laws are colloquially said to be "keeping kosher".
Many of the laws apply to animal-based foods. For example, in order to be considered kosher, mammals must have split hooves and ruminants. The pig is arguably the most well-known example of a non-kosher animal.
In addition to the requirement that the species be considered kosher, meat and poultry (but not fish) must come from a healthy animal slaughtered in a process known as shechitah. Without the proper Animal slaughter practices even an otherwise kosher animal will be rendered treif. The slaughtering process is intended to be quick and relatively painless to the animal. Forbidden parts of animals include the blood, some , and the area in and around the sciatic nerve.
Halakha also forbids the consumption of meat and dairy products together. The waiting period between eating meat and eating dairy varies by the order in which they are consumed and by community and can extend for up to six hours. Based on the Biblical injunction against cooking a kid in its mother's milk, this rule is mostly derived from the Oral Torah, the Talmud and Rabbinic law. Chicken and other kosher birds are considered the same as meat under the laws of kashrut, but the prohibition is rabbinic, not biblical.
The use of Dishware, serving utensils, and may make food treif that would otherwise be kosher. Utensils that have been used to prepare non-kosher food, or dishes that have held meat and are now used for dairy products, render the food treif under certain conditions.
Furthermore, all Orthodox and some Conservative authorities forbid the consumption of processed grape products made by non-Jews, due to ancient pagan practices of using wine in rituals. Some Conservative authorities permit wine and grape juice made without rabbinic supervision.
The Torah does not give specific reasons for most of the laws of kashrut. However, a number of explanations have been offered, including maintaining ritual purity, teaching impulse control, encouraging obedience to God, improving health, reducing cruelty to animals and preserving the distinctness of the Jewish community.
Survival concerns supersede all the laws of kashrut, as they do for most halakhot.
Laws of ritual purity
The Tanakh describes circumstances in which a person who is
tahor or ritually pure may become
tamei or ritually impure. Some of these circumstances are contact with human
corpses or graves, seminal flux, vaginal flux,
menstruation, and contact with people who have become impure from any of these.
In Rabbinic Judaism,
Kohanim, members of the hereditary
caste that served as
priests in the time of the Temple, are mostly restricted from entering grave sites and touching dead bodies.
During the Temple period, such priests (
Kohanim) were required to eat their bread offering (
Terumah) in a state of ritual purity, which laws eventually led to more rigid laws being enacted, such as hand-washing which became a requisite of all Jews before consuming ordinary bread.
Family purity
An important subcategory of the ritual purity laws relates to the segregation of menstruating
women. These laws are also known as
niddah, literally "separation", or family purity. Vital aspects of
halakha for traditionally observant Jews, they are not usually followed by Jews in liberal denominations.
Especially in Orthodox Judaism, the Biblical laws are augmented by Rabbinical injunctions. For example, the Torah mandates that a woman in her normal menstrual period must abstain from sexual intercourse for seven days. A woman whose menstruation is prolonged must continue to abstain for seven more days after bleeding has stopped.
Traditional Ethiopian Jews keep menstruating women in separate huts and, similar to Karaite practice, do not allow menstruating women into their temples because of a temple's special sanctity. Emigration to Israel and the influence of other Jewish denominations have led to Ethiopian Jews adopting more normative Jewish practices.
Life-cycle events
Life-cycle events, or rites of passage, occur throughout a Jew's life that serves to strengthen Jewish identity and bind him/her to the entire community:
-
Brit milah – Welcoming male babies into the covenant through the rite of circumcision on their eighth day of life. The baby boy is also given his Hebrew name in the ceremony. A naming ceremony intended as a parallel ritual for girls, named zeved habat or brit bat, enjoys limited popularity.
-
Bar mitzvah and Bat mitzvah – This passage from childhood to adulthood takes place when a female Jew is twelve and a male Jew is thirteen years old among Orthodox and some Conservative congregations. In the Reform movement, both girls and boys have their bat/bar mitzvah at age thirteen. This is often commemorated by having the new adults, male only in the Orthodox tradition, lead the congregation in prayer and publicly read a "portion" of the Torah.
-
Marriage – Marriage is an extremely important lifecycle event and an ideal human state. A wedding takes place under a chuppah, or wedding canopy, which symbolizes a happy house. At the end of the ceremony, the groom breaks a glass with his foot, symbolizing the continuous mourning for the destruction of the Temple, and the scattering of the Jewish people. An intermarriage is prohibited, except as within Reform Judaism:
-
Divorce – Divorce is allowed in accordance with Halakha. The divorce ceremony involves the husband giving the short get document written in Aramaic into the hand of the wife in rabbinical court, that is all. But, since the 11th century among the Ashkenazim and many Sephardim a divorce became prohibited against will of a wife, than a man had way for polygamy. The get contains declaration: "You are hereby permitted to all men."
-
Death and Mourning (Avelut) – The Torah requires burial as soon as possible, even for executed criminals.
[Deuteronomy 21:23] Judaism has a multi-staged mourning practice. The first stage is called the shiva (literally "seven", observed for one week) during which it is traditional to sit at home and be comforted by friends and family, the second is the shloshim (observed for one month) and for those who have lost one of their parents, there is a third stage, avelut yud bet chodesh, which is observed for eleven months. A cremation within Orthodox Judaism permitted only by some leading rabbis in West Europe.
Community leadership
Classical priesthood
The role of the priesthood in Judaism has significantly diminished since the destruction of the
Second Temple in 70 CE when priests attended to the Temple and sacrifices. The priesthood is an inherited position, and although priests no longer have any but ceremonial duties, they are still honoured in many Jewish communities. Many Orthodox Jewish communities believe that they will be needed again for a future
Third Temple and need to remain in readiness for future duty:
-
Kohen (priest) – patrilineal descendant of Aaron, brother of Moses. In the Temple, the kohanim were charged with performing the sacrifices. Today, a Kohen is the first one called up at the reading of the Torah, performs the Priestly Blessing, as well as complying with other unique laws and ceremonies, including the ceremony of redemption of the first-born.
-
Levi (Levite) – Patrilineal descendant of Levi the son of Jacob. In the Temple in Jerusalem, the levites sang Psalms, performed construction, maintenance, janitorial, and guard duties, assisted the priests, and sometimes interpreted the law and Temple ritual to the public. Today, a Levite is called up second to the reading of the Torah.
Prayer leaders
From the time of the
Mishnah and Talmud to the present, Judaism has required specialists or authorities for the practice of very few rituals or ceremonies. A Jew can fulfill most requirements for prayer by himself. Some activities—reading the
Torah and
haftarah (a supplementary portion from the Prophets or Writings), the prayer for mourners, the blessings for bridegroom and bride, the complete grace after meals—require a
minyan, the presence of ten Jews.
The most common professional clergy in a synagogue are:
-
Rabbi of a congregation – Jewish scholar who is charged with answering the legal questions of a congregation. This role requires ordination by the congregation's preferred authority (i.e., from a respected Orthodox rabbi or, if the congregation is Conservative or Reform, from academic seminaries). A congregation does not necessarily require a rabbi. Some congregations have a rabbi but also allow members of the congregation to act as shatz or baal kriyah (see below).
-
Hazzan (note: the "h" denotes voiceless pharyngeal fricative) (cantor) – a trained vocalist who acts as shatz. Chosen for a good voice, knowledge of traditional tunes, understanding of the meaning of the prayers and sincerity in reciting them. A congregation does not need to have a dedicated hazzan.
Jewish prayer services do involve two specified roles, which are sometimes, but not always, filled by a rabbi or hazzan in many congregations. In other congregations these roles are filled on an ad-hoc basis by members of the congregation who lead portions of services on a rotating basis:
-
Shaliach tzibur or Shatz (leader—literally "agent" or "representative"—of the congregation) leads those assembled in prayer and sometimes prays on behalf of the community. When a shatz recites a prayer on behalf of the congregation, he is not acting as an intermediary but rather as a facilitator. The entire congregation participates in the recital of such prayers by saying amen at their conclusion; it is with this act that the shatz's prayer becomes the prayer of the congregation. Any adult capable of reciting the prayers clearly may act as shatz. In Orthodox congregations and some Conservative congregations, only men can be prayer leaders, but all Progressive communities now allow women to serve in this function.
-
The Baal kriyah or baal koreh (master of the reading) reads the weekly Torah portion. The requirements for being the baal kriyah are the same as those for the shatz. These roles are not mutually exclusive. The same person is often qualified to fill more than one role and often does. Often there are several people capable of filling these roles and different services (or parts of services) will be led by each.
Many congregations, especially larger ones, also rely on a:
-
Gabbai (sexton) – Calls people up to the Torah, appoints the shatz for each prayer session if there is no standard shatz, and makes certain that the synagogue is kept clean and supplied.
The three preceding positions are usually voluntary and considered an honour. Since the Enlightenment large synagogues have often adopted the practice of hiring rabbis and hazzans to act as shatz and baal kriyah, and this is still typically the case in many Conservative and Reform congregations. However, in most Orthodox synagogues these positions are filled by laypeople on a rotating or ad-hoc basis. Although most congregations hire one or more Rabbis, the use of a professional hazzan is generally declining in American congregations, and the use of professionals for other offices is rarer still.
Specialized religious roles
-
Dayan (judge) – An ordained rabbi with special legal training who belongs to a beth din (rabbinical court). In Israel, religious courts handle marriage and divorce cases, conversion and financial disputes in the Jewish community.
-
Mohel (circumciser) – An expert in the laws of circumcision who has received training from a previously qualified mohel and performs the brit milah (circumcision).
-
shechita (ritual slaughterer) – In order for meat to be kosher, it must be slaughtered by a shochet who is an expert in the laws of kashrut and has been trained by another shochet.
-
Sofer (scribe) – Torah scrolls, tefillin (phylacteries), mezuzah (scrolls put on doorposts), and gittin (bills of divorce) must be written by a sofer who is an expert in Hebrew calligraphy and has undergone rigorous training in the laws of writing sacred texts.
-
Rosh yeshiva – A Torah scholar who runs a yeshiva.
-
Mashgiach/Mashgicha of a yeshiva – Depending on which yeshiva, might either be the person responsible for ensuring attendance and proper conduct, or even supervise the emotional and spiritual welfare of the students and give lectures on Mussar movement (Jewish ethics).
-
Mashgiach – Supervises manufacturers of kosher food, importers, caterers and restaurants to ensure that the food is kosher. Must be an expert in the laws of kashrut and trained by a rabbi, if not a rabbi himself or herself.
Historical Jewish groupings (to 1700)
Around the 1st century CE, there were several small Jewish sects: the
Pharisees,
Sadducees,
Zealots,
Essenes, and Christians. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, these sects vanished.
Christianity survived, but by breaking with Judaism and becoming a separate religion; the
Pharisees survived but in the form of
Rabbinic Judaism (today, known simply as "Judaism"). The
Sadducees rejected the
Revelation of the Prophets and the
Ketuvim, relying only on the
Torah as divinely inspired. Consequently, a number of other core tenets of the Pharisees' belief system (which became the basis for modern Judaism), were also dismissed by the Sadducees. (The
Samaritans practiced a similar religion, which is traditionally considered separate from Judaism.)
Like the Sadducees who relied only on the Torah, some Jews in the 8th and 9th centuries rejected the authority and divine inspiration of the oral law as recorded in the Mishnah (and developed by later rabbis in the two Talmuds), relying instead only upon the Tanakh. These included the Isunians, the Yudganites, the Malikites, and others. They soon developed oral traditions of their own, which differed from the rabbinic traditions, and eventually formed the Karaism sect. Karaites exist in small numbers today, mostly living in Israel. Rabbinical and Karaite Jews each hold that the others are Jews, but that the other faith is erroneous.
Over a long time, Jews formed distinct ethnic groups in several different geographic areas—amongst others, the Ashkenazi Jews (of Central Europe and Eastern Europe), the Sephardi Jews (of Spain, Portugal, and North Africa), the Beta Israel of Ethiopia, the Yemenite Jews from the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula and the Cochin Jews from Kerala . Many of these groups have developed differences in their prayers, traditions and accepted canons; however, these distinctions are mainly the result of their being formed at some cultural distance from normative (rabbinic) Judaism, rather than based on any doctrinal dispute.
Persecutions
Antisemitism arose during the
Middle Ages, in the form of persecutions,
, forced conversions, expulsions, social restrictions and
.
This was different in quality from the repressions of Jews which had occurred in ancient times. Ancient repressions were politically motivated and Jews were treated the same as members of other ethnic groups. With the rise of the Churches, the main motive for attacks on Jews changed from politics to religion and the religious motive for such attacks was specifically derived from Christian views about Jews and Judaism.[Cohen, Mark R. " The Neo-Lachrymose Conception of Jewish-Arab History." Tikkun 6.3 (1991)] but there were occasional outbreaks of violence like Almohad's persecutions.[Amira K. Bennison and María Ángeles Gallego. " Jewish Trading in Fes On The Eve of the Almohad Conquest ." MEAH, sección Hebreo 56 (2007), 33–51]
Hasidism
Hasidic Judaism was founded by Yisroel ben Eliezer (1700–1760), also known as the
Ba'al Shem Tov (or
Besht). It originated in a time of persecution of the Jewish people when European Jews had turned inward to Talmud study; many felt that most expressions of Jewish life had become too "academic", and that they no longer had any emphasis on spirituality or joy. Its adherents favoured small and informal gatherings called
Shtiebel, which, in contrast to a traditional synagogue, could be used both as a place of worship and for celebrations involving dancing, eating, and socializing.
Ba'al Shem Tov's disciples attracted many followers; they themselves established numerous Hasidic sects across Europe. Unlike other religions, which typically expanded through word of mouth or by use of print, Hasidism spread largely owing to
, who used their influence to encourage others to follow the movement. Hasidism appealed to many Europeans because it was easy to learn, did not require full immediate commitment, and presented a compelling spectacle.
Hasidic Judaism eventually became the way of life for many Jews in Eastern Europe. Waves of Jewish immigration in the 1880s carried it to the United States. The movement itself claims to be nothing new, but a
refreshment of original Judaism. As some have put it:
"they merely re-emphasized that which the generations had lost". Nevertheless, early on there was a serious schism between Hasidic and non-Hasidic Jews. European Jews who rejected the Hasidic movement were dubbed by the Hasidim as
Misnagdim, (). Some of the reasons for the rejection of Hasidic Judaism were the exuberance of Hasidic worship, its deviation from tradition in ascribing infallibility and miracles to their leaders, and the concern that it might become a messianic sect. Over time differences between the Hasidim and their opponents have slowly diminished and both groups are now considered part of Haredi Judaism.
The Enlightenment and new religious movements
In the late 18th century CE, Europe was swept by a group of intellectual, social and political movements known as the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment led to reductions in the European laws that prohibited Jews to interact with the wider secular world, thus allowing Jews access to secular education and experience. A parallel Jewish movement,
Haskalah or the "Jewish Enlightenment", began, especially in Central Europe and Western Europe, in response to both the Enlightenment and these new freedoms. It placed an emphasis on integration with secular society and a pursuit of non-religious knowledge through reason. With the promise of political emancipation, many Jews saw no reason to continue to observe
halakha and increasing numbers of Jews assimilated into Christian Europe. Modern religious movements of Judaism all formed in reaction to this trend.
In Central Europe, followed by Great Britain and the United States, Reform Judaism developed, relaxing legal obligations (especially those that limited Jewish relations with non-Jews), emulating Protestant decorum in prayer, and emphasizing the ethical values of Judaism's Prophetic tradition. Modern Orthodox Judaism developed in reaction to Reform Judaism, by leaders who argued that Jews could participate in public life as citizens equal to Christians while maintaining the observance of halakha. Meanwhile, in the United States, wealthy Reform Jews helped European scholars, who were Orthodox in practice but critical (and skeptical) in their study of the Bible and Talmud, to establish a seminary to train rabbis for immigrants from Eastern Europe. These left-wing Orthodox rabbis were joined by right-wing Reform rabbis who felt that halakha should not be entirely abandoned, to form the Conservative movement. Orthodox Jews who opposed the Haskalah formed Haredi Orthodox Judaism. After massive movements of Jews following The Holocaust and the creation of the state of Israel, these movements have competed for followers from among traditional Jews in or from other countries.
Spectrum of observance
Jewish religious practice varies widely through all levels of observance. According to the 2001 edition of the National Jewish Population Survey, in the United States' Jewish community—the world's second largest—4.3 million Jews out of 5.1 million had some sort of connection to the religion.
Of that population of connected Jews, 80% participated in some sort of Jewish religious observance, but only 48% belonged to a congregation, and fewer than 16% attend regularly.
Judaism and ecology
Ecological concerns are deeply rooted in the Jewish tradition. The natural world plays a central role in Jewish law, literature, liturgy, and other practices. In
Jewish law (
halakhah), ecological concerns are reflected in several instances. These include, the Biblical protection for fruit trees, rules in the
Mishnah against harming the public domain,
debate over noise and smoke damages, and contemporary responsa on agricultural pollution.
[Eva, Nahid,] The rule of
tza'ar ba'alei hayyim is a restriction on cruelty to animals.
[Rabbi David Sears,]
Although the Bible and Rabbinic Judaism tradition have put Judaism on an anthropocentric path, creation-centered or eco-centric interpretations of Judaism can also be found throughout Jewish history.[Rabbi Lawrence Troster,] Many theologians regard the land as a primary partner of Jewish covenant, and Judaism, especially the practices described in the Torah, may be regarded as the expression of a fully indigenous, earth-centered tradition.
Since the 1970s, hundreds of articles and books have been written on the topic of Judaism and environmentalism, and the moral obligation to care for God’s Earth and its creatures. The article "Judaism and the Ecological Crisis”[Katz Eric,] and Dr. Eilon Schwartz’s "Bal Tashchit: A Jewish Environmental Precept" note about the Jewish concept of Bal Tashchit, which prohibits unnecessary waste and encourages the sustainable use of resources.[Eilon Schwartz,] Dr. Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, in a 2001 essay titled “Nature in the Sources of Judaism", notes how a Jewish perspective on nature is rooted in the belief that the universe is the creation of God.[Tirosh-Samuelson, Hava. "Nature in the Sources of Judaism." Daedalus, vol. 130, no. 4, 2001, pp. 99–124.]
Scores of books have been published on Jewish teachings and environmental stewardship. Among them are "Eco Bible: Volume 1: An Ecological Commentary on Genesis and Exodus", and "Eco Bible: Volume 2: An Ecological Commentary on Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy".[Yonatan Neril and Leo Dee,]
Judaism and other religions
Christianity and Judaism
Christianity was originally a sect of Second Temple Judaism, but the two religions diverged in the first century. The differences between Christianity and Judaism originally centered on whether Jesus was the Jewish Messiah but eventually became irreconcilable. Major differences between the two faiths include the nature of the Messiah, of atonement and sin, the status of God's commandments to Israel, and perhaps most significantly of the nature of God himself. Due to these differences, Judaism traditionally regards Christianity as
Shituf or worship of the God of Israel which is not monotheistic. Christianity has traditionally regarded Judaism as obsolete with the invention of Christianity and Jews as a people replaced by the Church, though a Christian belief in dual-covenant theology emerged as a phenomenon following Christian reflection on how their theology influenced the Nazi
The Holocaust.
[R. Kendall Soulen, The God of Israel and Christian Theology, (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996) ]
Since the time of the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church upheld the Sicut Judaeis (Formal Statement on the Jews), which stated:
Until their emancipation in the late 18th and the 19th century, Jews in Christian lands were subject to humiliating legal restrictions and limitations. They included provisions requiring Jews to wear specific and identifying clothing such as the Jewish hat and the yellow badge, restricting Jews to certain cities and towns or in certain parts of towns (ghettos), and forbidding Jews to enter certain trades (for example selling new clothes in medieval Sweden). Disabilities also included special taxes levied on Jews, exclusion from public life, restraints on the performance of religious ceremonies, and linguistic censorship. Some countries went even further and completely expelled Jews, for example, England in 1290 (Jews were readmitted in 1655) and Spain in 1492 (readmitted in 1868). The first Jewish settlers in North America arrived in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam in 1654; they were forbidden to hold public office, open a retail shop, or establish a synagogue. When the colony was seized by the British in 1664 Jewish rights remained unchanged, but by 1671 Asser Levy was the first Jew to serve on a jury in North America.[Burrows, Edwin G. & Wallace, Mike. . New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. pp. 60, 133–134] In 1791, Revolutionary France was the first country to abolish disabilities altogether, followed by Prussia in 1848. Emancipation of the Jews in the United Kingdom was achieved in 1858 after an almost 30-year struggle championed by Isaac Lyon Goldsmid
Jewish life in Christian lands was marked by frequent , expulsions, forced conversions and . Religious prejudice was an underlying source against Jews in Europe. Christian rhetoric and antipathy towards Jews developed in the Apostolic Age and was reinforced by ever increasing anti-Jewish measures over the ensuing centuries. The action taken by Christians against Jews included acts of violence, and murder culminating in the Holocaust.[Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. 5 May 2009. The Origins of Christian Anti-Semitism: Interview with Pieter van der Horst ] as well as statutes which were designed to humiliate and stigmatise Jews. The Nazi Party was known for its Kirchenkampf; many of them, such as the Protestant Confessing Church and the Catholic Church,[Gill, Anton (1994). An Honourable Defeat; A History of the German Resistance to Hitler. Heinemann Mandarin. 1995 paperback ; p. 57] as well as Quakers and Jehovah's Witnesses, aided and rescued Jews who were being targeted by the antireligious régime.
The attitude of Christians and Christian Churches toward the Jewish people and Judaism have changed in a mostly positive direction since World War II. Pope John Paul II and the Catholic Church have "upheld the Church's acceptance of the continuing and permanent election of the Jewish people" as well as a reaffirmation of the covenant between God and the Jews.
Islam and Judaism
Both Judaism and
Islam track their origins from the patriarch Abraham, and they are therefore considered Abrahamic religions. In both Jewish and
Muslim tradition, the Jewish and
Arab peoples are descended from the two sons of Abraham—
Isaac and
Ishmael, respectively. While both religions are
Monotheism and share many commonalities, they differ based on the fact that Jews do not consider Jesus or
Muhammad to be prophets. The religions' adherents have interacted with each other since the 7th century, when
Islam originated and spread in the Arabian peninsula. The period under the
Ummayad and the
Abbasid caliphates between 712 and 1066 has been called the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain. Non-Muslim monotheists living in these countries, including Jews, were known as
dhimmis. Dhimmis were allowed to practice their own religions and administer their own internal affairs, but they were subject to certain restrictions that were not imposed on Muslims.
For example, they had to pay the
jizya, a per capita tax imposed on free adult non-Muslim males,
and they were also forbidden to bear arms or testify in court cases involving Muslims.
Many of the laws regarding dhimmis were highly symbolic. For example, dhimmis in some countries were required to wear
Yellow badge, a practice not found in either the
Quran or the
hadiths but invented in early medieval
Baghdad and inconsistently enforced.
Jews in Muslim countries were not entirely free from persecution—for example, many were killed, exiled or forcibly converted in the 12th century, in
Persia, and by the rulers of the
Almohad dynasty in North Africa and
Al-Andalus,
as well as by the Zaydi imams of Yemen in the 17th century (see
Mawza Exile). At times, Jews were also restricted in their choice of residence—in
Morocco, for example, Jews were confined to walled quarters (
) beginning in the 15th century and increasingly since the early 19th century.
In the mid-20th century, Jews were expelled from nearly all of the Arab countries.[Shumsky, Dmitry. (12 September 2012) "Recognize Jews as refugees from Arab countries" . Haaretz. Retrieved on 28 July 2013.][Meir, Esther. (9 October 2012) "The truth about the expulsion" . Haaretz. Retrieved on 28 July 2013.] Most have chosen to live in Israel. Today, antisemitic themes including Holocaust denial have become commonplace in the propaganda of Islamic movements such as Hizbullah and Hamas, in the pronouncements of various agencies of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and even in the newspapers and other publications of Refah Partisi.
Syncretic movements incorporating Judaism
There are some movements in other religions that include elements of Judaism. Among Christianity these are a number of denominations of ancient and contemporary
Judaizers. The most well-known of these is Messianic Judaism, a religious movement, which arose in the 1960s,
In this, elements of the messianic traditions in Judaism,
[ 'Messianism: Its Historical Origin and Morphology,' History of Religions Vol. 2, No. 1 (Summer, 1962), pp. 52–72:'the same messianic complex which originated in Judaism and was confirmed in Christianity.' p. 53][Michael L. Morgan, Steven Weitzman, (eds.,) Rethinking the Messianic Idea in Judaism, Indiana University Press 2014 p. 1. Gershom Scholem considered 'the messianic dimensions of the Kabbalah and of rabbinic Judaism as a central feature of a Jewish philosophy of history.'] are incorporated in, and melded with the tenets of Christianity.
The movement generally states that
Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, that he is one of the
Trinity,
and that salvation is only achieved through acceptance of Jesus as one's savior.
Some members of Messianic Judaism argue that it is a sect of Judaism.
Jewish organizations of every denomination reject this, stating that Messianic Judaism is a Christian sect, because it teaches creeds which are identical to those of Pauline Christianity, and because the conditions for Messiah to have come accordingly within traditional Jewish thought have not yet been met.
Another religious movement is the Black Hebrew Israelite group, which not to be confused with less syncretic
Black Judaism (a constellation of movements which, depending on their adherence to normative Jewish tradition, receive varying degrees of recognition by the broader Jewish community).
Other examples of syncretism include Semitic neopaganism, loosely organized sects which incorporate paganism, Goddess movement or beliefs with some Jewish religious practices;
Some Jewish Renewal borrow freely and openly from Buddhism, Sufism, Native American religions, and other faiths.
The Kabbalah Centre, which employs teachers from multiple religions, is a one of "New Age Judaism" movements that claims to popularize the kabbalah, part of the Jewish mysticism.
Criticism
Criticism of Judaism may include those that require revisionism to classical Orthodox Judaism, such as that of the modernized denomination of Reconstructionist Judaism as established by American rabbi
Mordecai Kaplan, who believed that classical Orthodox Judaism is outdated as a religious belief on its own, and should represent the Jewish culture as a progressive civilization.
On the other hand, proponents of classical Orthodox Judaism such as Neturei Karta and similar groups strongly oppose the growing accommodation to political Zionism by Haredi Judaism groups such as Agudat Yisrael; a previously anti-Zionist proponent of Orthodox Haredi Judaism whom the Neturei Karta see as betrayal by the Agudat Yisrael against the Orthodoxy, in the belief that Judaism should never be conflated with the politics of Zionism.
Orthodox Jewish public intellectual and polymath Yeshayahu Leibowitz believed in the separation of church and state,
See also
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Heaven in Judaism
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List of 21st-century religious leaders#Judaism
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List of religious organizations#Jewish organizations
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Judaism by country
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Outline of Judaism
Notes
Footnotes
Bibliography
Selected cited works
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Day, John (2000). Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan. Chippenham: Sheffield Academic Press.
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Dever, William G. (2005). Did God Have a Wife?. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ.
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Finkelstein, Israel (1996). "Ethnicity and Origin of the Iron I Settlers in the Highlands of Canaan: Can the Real Israel Please Stand Up?" The Biblical Archaeologist, 59(4).
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Guttmann, Julius (1964). Trans. by David Silverman, Philosophies of Judaism. Philadelphia, Pa: Jewish Publication Society.
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Holtz, Barry W. (ed.), Back to the Sources: Reading the Classic Jewish Texts. Summit Books.
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Johnson, Paul (1988). A History of the Jews. HarperCollins.
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Khanbaghi, A. (2006). The Fire, the Star and the Cross: Minority Religions in Medieval and Early Modern Iran. IB Tauris.
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Egon Mayer; Kosmin, Barry; Keysar, Ariela. "The American Jewish Identity Survey", a subset of The American Religious Identity Survey, City University of New York Graduate Center. An article on this survey is printed in The New York Jewish Week, 2 November 2001.
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Simon, Reeva; Laskier, Michael; Reguer, Sara (eds.) (2002). The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa In Modern Times, New York: Columbia University Press.
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Online version
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Walsh, J.P.M. (1987). The Mighty from Their Thrones. Eugene, Or: Wipf and Stock Publ.
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Max Weber (1967). Ancient Judaism. Glencoe, Il: The Free Press, .
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Further reading
Encyclopedias
General works
Regional contemporary
External links
General
Orthodox/Haredi
Traditional/Conservadox
Conservative
Reform/Progressive
Reconstructionist
Renewal
Humanistic
Karaite
Jewish religious literature and texts
See also
Torah database for links to more Judaism e-texts.
Wikimedia Torah study projects
Text study projects at Wikisource. In many instances, the Hebrew versions of these projects are more fully developed than the English.
