Introduction
Judaism was the very old religion of the Jews. The Old Testament of Bible is the main source of Judaism. Judaism followed a natural pattern of development from fear-ridden worship of nature, through confused polytheism to monotheism. Abraham and Moses wandered in Palestine and Egypt, from place to place like nomads in search of food. The sources of food and water necessary for life were regarded as some hidden powers highly valued or worshipped for their life-giving qualities. Thus the origins of rivers and springs, which are called mountains, were highly accounted for spiritual value. Abraham and Moses adopted Mount Shaddai and Mount Sinai, respectively as their gods. It was the serenity of life in the desert that provided them knowledge. The secret of success in those days was to gain an alliance with a more powerful deity. According to some scholars, Judaism is the combination of two religions, Christianity and Islam.
Judaism originates with Abraham, his son Isaac, Isaac’s son Jacob and Jacob’s son Joseph. There are the patriarchs of founding fathers of the Jews.
Believe of Jews
Jews believe there is one God who created and rules the world. This God is omniscient and omnipresent. God is also just and merciful.
Jews are believed that each person is created in the image of one God. Therefore, all people are created equal.
Furthermore, our likeness to God is in our intellectual ability to understand. Judaism believes that people have freewill and are responsible for the choices made.
Judaism in an ethical religion. When the Israelites accepted the Ten Commandments from God at Mount Sinai, they committed themselves to following a code of law which regulates both how they worship God and how they treat other people.
Other beliefs include the following:
• There is no limit to his power.
• He created the whole of nature, which is controlled by him; he can be seen and experienced in the whole of nature.
• He has no rivals.
• All human activity is controlled by God.
• To submit to this gives the whole of life unity.
• He is not remote from us, for all his power.
• God is SHEHINAH, meaning he is present everywhere.
Holy Books
The Jewish holy books are the Torah, The Talmud and The Siddur.
The Torah
The Torah is the primary document of Judaism. The Torah is the most important book for the Jews. In Judaism, the divine revelations to Israel; specifically, the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. By tradition their authorship has been ascribed to Moses, but biblical scholarship has shown that they were written and compiled at a much later date, probably in the 9th – 5th century B. C, though drawing on much older traditions. The Scroll of the Torah (Sefer Torah) is kept in the Synagogue Ark. Torah
The term Torah (but not Pentateuch) is often applied to the whole Hebrew Scripture (i.e., the later books of the Old Testament), or, even more generally, to that and other Jewish sacred literature and oral tradition.
Jews learn from the Torah how to act, think and even feel about life and death. The stories in the Torah teach about God's relationship with the Jewish People. In addition, the Torah contains 613 commandments from God (mitzvoth). The Ten Commandments are considered the most important commandments of the Torah.
Ten Commandments:
Moses took the Jews out of Egypt. He was very much interested to organize Judaism and to give them a new cod of moral and a new standard of life.
For this purpose the delivered to this people the following Ten Commandments:-
1. I am the Lord, thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, You should have no other gods but Me.
2. Do not make for you image of anything in heaven or on earth.
3. Do not use my name in untrue ways.
4. Observe the Sabbath and keep it holy. On this day you must not do any work
5. Respect your father and mother.
6. Do not commit murder.
7. Do not commit adultery.
8. Do not steal.
9. Do not testify against someone falsely.
10. Do not covet.
The Talmud
The Talmud is the most important book after the Bible. Talmud means `teaching’ and it can be used for reference on social and religious laws. It is made up of the Mishnahm, the oral law as it was written down and the Gemara, a collection of commentaries on these laws. Talmud
The Mishnah was completed around 200 CE. It advises on many subjects such as holy days, temple service, hygiene and farming. There are six orders covering six topic in the Mishnah. The orders are the Shisha Sedarim (Shas); each having several divisions called masekhtot.
The Talmud also contains the Halakhah, which gives instruction on legal matters, and the Hagadah, which deals with moral issues.
The Siddu
The Siddur is the Jewish prayer book. It is an order for prayer for use in the synagogue. The Siddur was compiled in the eight century CE by Rabbi Amran of Susa. It brings together spiritual experiences from the time of Abraham onwards.
Although many prayer books have appeared since, they all have the same format: • Morning, afternoon and evening prayer
• The hallel psalms (nos 113-118)
• Prayers for the new moon
• The Kaddish
• The Amidah
• Prayers for holy days.
Prayers
Traditionally a Jew prayers three times a day with a fourth prayer added on Shabbat and holidays. Morning, after-noon and evening. A Yemenite Jew at morning prayers, wearing a kipph skullcap, prayer shawl and tefillin. He was obliged to pray for everything needed in his daily life. He had to pray so that God may grant to him a contrite and an understanding heart. Worship through prayers is a spiritual necessity for the Jew. But a man must pray with true inwardness, with freshness of feeling and regularly.
God in JudaismGod according to Judaism is the source and essence of all strength. He is the creator and ruler of the universe. All that exists is created by Him and all that happens is His achievement. His powers are limited only by His own Will. `His dose what He willeth.’ God is omnipotence and omniscience. He is the all seeing, all hearing and all knowing God. He is eternal and not limited in space and time. Judaism recognizes two distinct types of divine attributes. The one is that God is represented as a transcendental Being who pass our comprehension and the other is His Holiness which invests Him with moral perfection. God becomes the ideal pattern for the loftiest morality. This divine attribute of holiness has a two-fold meaning. The first is one of spiritual eminence transcending everything temporal and sensual. This is the purifying power of God. In the second place it indicates the condescending mercy of God.
Man stands in special relationship to God. This is expressed in `God made man in His own image’. Man is exalted and is recognized as possessing a god-given spirit. This forms a personal relationship with Him. God has provided man with earthly and spiritual qualities and he is asked to participate in fulfilling the purpose of God, both with his physical and spiritual faculties. God created the world and all that is but He has entrusted its development to man. Man has also been entrusted to fulfill both the material and spiritual aspects of life. He is urged to practice all positive virtues with which holiness is associated in the Bible, which finds expression in service and duty, exercise of charity and love of man. To the Jews. The real ideal to strive for is the imitation of God. God is good, righteous, just and merciful. So also man should have all these qualities.
The Thirteen Principles of Faith
The greatest Jewish philosopher of the mediaeval period, Maimonides, drew up in his Commentary on the faith to thirteen articles. These involve in:
1. All creation past, present and future is the work of God.
2. God is one.
3. God dose not have a physical body.
4. God is fast and last.
5. Only God should be prayed to.
6. The worlds of the prophets are true.
7. Moses is the greatest prophet.
8. God gave Moses the Torah
9. The Torah is unchangeable.
10. God knows all things.
11. God will reward those who keep the Commandments; he will punish those who do nor.
12. The Messiah will come one day.
13. The dead will be resurrected.
The Law of Action and Rebirth
Like Hinduism, Judaism also propounds the theory of Karma (action) and Rebirth. If a person performs noble work, he is rewarded, while evil actions bring him deserved punishment. So every individual receives the fruit according to his actions. Man’s primary duty is to work, because work is worship, work is life and work is the way towards salvation. This leads Judaism to believe in rebirth. The analysis of the Judaic theory of action and rebirth leads to the discovery of the nature of soul. It establishes the fact that soul is eternal and indestructible. Its nature must remain unchanged, irrespective of the number of times it may have to be reborn.
Life after death
It is believed that a person survives death and has an after-life. In Biblical times it was believed that the soul entered hell, where the good and the bad lived as shadows. Later it was believed that there where two places called heaven and hell; the dead entered one of these for reward or punishment. A body is needed for the survival of the soul and so the soul is thought to survive in union with the body. This led to the belief that the good and the bad take part in a general resurrection.
Belief in it is an after-life is logical because the eternal God created each person as a living soul, so it is reasonable to assume it will spend eternity with him. Faith and godliness will bring reward from God in the next life.
The Problem of Evil
Evils and sin, according to Judaism are inborn in human nature. God is the sole cause of the universe who is kind, righteous and holy and free from evil. Sin and evil are due to the impurity of human mind. Sin creates a feeling of disunion with God. God does not desire to punish the sinner but he desires the sinner to return to him. The belief that God grant prayer and forgives sinners is founded on a mutual relation between man and God. Divine mercy can be hastened by prayers. It is the prayer and repentance that bridge the wide gulf between the human soul and God.
Jewish Festival Days
Jewish festival days are most important event. Month of September and October (according the Gregorian calendar) are for welcoming the New Year. Everybody is in high spirits and Mood of the festival. Festival celebrations begin with Rosh Hashanah. It means New Year according to Jewish tradition and ends with Yom Kippur. It is celebrated on the tenth day of Thishri and the time between these two days is called Shabbat Shuva.
Good health long life and prosperity for all is the New Year wish of every Jewish. A grand New Year celebration takes place and lot of enthuasim can be seen on the face of all Jewish. It is on the day God recreates fate of his creative. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the tow major festivals ritually preformed during ten days celebrations.
Sects in Judaism
Contemporary Judaism is composed of three branches, viz., the orthodox, Reform and Conservative. The Jewish community in the United States is more or less equally divided. In other parts of the world, the orthodox are more numerous, and they are dominant is Israel. Many of the Orthodox look with disfavor upon what they regard as the religious laxity of the other two groups but no one denies that Orthodox, Reform and Conservative are all truly Jewish.
Orthodox Judaism observes the rituals, liturgical observance, dietary laws, Sabbath regulation, fast and festivals handed down from the ancients and developed over the centuries. These rituals are demanding, numerous, precise which are mainly concerned with the liturgical observances. Thus Orthodox Jews continue their ancient tradition only slightly modified by modern development.
Reform Judaism began in Germany in 19th century and moved to the United States, where it set up independent congregations. It is directed by modern-minded rabbis and lay leaders. The original purpose of the Reform movement was to strip Judaism of what its founders regarded as outmoded practices, a fundamentalist approach to the law and theological obfuscation. Between Reform and Orthodox organization is a group calling itself Conservative.
Conservative Judaism the third branch, originated in Germany around 1845 as a counter Reform. The Jewish Theological Seminary of America has been the center of conservatism in the United States. The founders of Conservation chose a middle path between what they regarded as the inflexibility of Orthodoxy and the compliance of Reform.
Jewish Philosophy
Jewish faith has always presumed the philosophical assertion on moral, legal and deeply religious aspects of life. God is the central point of Judaism. But the question arises whether Israel should confine its worship to one God to the exclusion of other? Monotheism was likely to develop out of the situation. Jewish philosophy has emphasized the moral and religious aspects of life. It prescribes some ethical code of conduct for each individual for his perfection. Justice in the eyes of Judaism is the all inclusive principle of human conduct. Justice that is required is not only in the action but in thought and spirit. Love without justice leads to abuse. Love must be guided by justice or else it would be unworthy.
Conclusion
The Jewish religious history has been characterized by nobility and tragedy especially since the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. certain religious themes running through Jewish thought have profoundly affected the Christian and Muslim spiritual heirs of Biblical Judaism. The greatest of these is the worship of One God and him alone. Jewish monotheism marked a great advance in religious thought. For the Jews, the Almighty was above all, personal who can and dose love.
One great figure paved the way for a new synthesis between Judaism and modern philosophical and scientific thought. Moses interpreted Judaism in terms of the metaphysic of Leibniz. He reduced the essentials of the faith to three main beliefs- in God, in his providence and the immortality of the soul. Jews believe also they are the chosen people of God, with a special role of to play in his purpose.
