Judaism

## Overview

Judaism is the totality of beliefs and practices given to the Jews by God through the Torah, Talmud, and Kabbalah.

The story of Judaism begins in Genesis with God creating the world in six days and resting on the seventh. Later, God makes a covenant with Abraham: his descendants would be God's chosen people, a holy nation, whose promised land is now known as Israel. In Exodus, the Jews leave their captivity in Egypt and God gives them the Ten Commandments. After 40yrs of wandering in the wilderness, the Israelites enter the Promised Land and establish a temple in Jerusalem. This temple is eventually destroyed by the Romans and the Jewish people are scattered across the world.

Jews await a fully human Messiah from the Davidic line whose coming will coincide with the restoration of the temple and the reunification of the Jewish people in the promised land. This Messiah will bring political and spiritual redemption to the Jews, establish a government in Israel for Jews and Gentiles, and ultimately bring peace to the earth. Jews do not believe Jesus was the Messiah.

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## Vision of/for Life

A Jew may not only be one whose religions is Judaism, but also in a broader sense of the term, a Jew may be anyone who is descended from the ancient Hebrews of the Old Testament. (Note: There is debate between sects of Judaism surrounding what a "Jew" is. For the purpose of this Wikipedia page it might be helpful to think of Jews as those who follow Judaism and people who are Jewish as those who are descendants of the Israelites). The Torah contains 613 instructions (mitzvahs) for Jewish life--most notably Shabbat, Kosher, Prayer, and Yarmulkes/Kippahs.

The main sects of Judaism are Reformed, Orthodox, and Conservative.

## Who is God?

Jews believe in a perfect, benevolent, eternal, unitarian, omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient creator of the universe who has revealed Himself to humanity primarily through the prophets/scriptures and chosen the Israelites to be His holy nation.

Although belief in God is central to normative Judaism, there are Jews who hold a minority belief that it is better to keep the commands of the Torah and not believe in God than to forsake the Torah and believe in God. For more information, research Secular Humanistic Judaism, an atheistic Jewish movement.

YHWH (often pronounced Yahweh) is the name for the God of the Israelites. This name consists of a sequence of consonants Yod, Heh, Waw, and Heh known as the tetragramatton. Most Jews, however, substitute Yahweh with different names like Adonai (Lord), Elohim (God), because His divine name is regarded as too sacred to be spoken or even written. In fact, many forms of God's name have characters omitted out of reverence for His holiness. e.g. G-d

## Who am I?

### The Imago Dei

Jews believe that humans are created in the "Image of God" in the sense that something in our nature is God-like. That is, our ability to perceive, understand, and discern things apart from using our physical senses.

### Dual Nature

In Genesis 2:7, the Bible states that God formed man. The Hebrew word that is used for man in this passage is vayyitzer. The spelling of this Hebrew word can be broken into two parts: the yetzer ha-tov and the yetzer ha-ra. Rabbis have thus inferred that man was formed with two impulses: a good impulse (yetzer ha-tov) and an evil impulse (yetzer ha-ra).

#### Yetzer ha-tov

This is the moral conscience, the inner voice that speaks up when you are tempted to do something unlawful.

#### Yetzer ha-ra

This is self focused desire. While not evil in and of itself, it is that part of human nature that drives people to fulfill their personal desires (food, shelter, sex, etc.), sometimes without regard to morality.

## Where am I?

Torah is ultimate, prime reality. Jews understand reality through the Torah--like a book of instructions from the Manufacturer. More than that, however, the Torah is not merely an allegorical exposition to give meaning to life, but rather life is an allegory through which we come to understand transcendent and divine wisdom as recorded in the Torah. For example, the Torah addresses certain facts of life such as oxen stumbling into pits. The Torah does not exist to comment on oxen and pits, but rather oxen and pits exist to reveal the Torah.

We live in a "world of illusion," or a "a world of lies." Take for example, a solid three dimensional rectangular object whose shadow is two-dimensional. Although the rectangular shadow reveals the true nature of the solid object, it only affords so much insight into the fullness of the object's complete nature. The world we live in is as a shadow--that which we see now is not inherently false, but is only a part of the absolute truth embodied in the Torah.

## What is the problem?

In Judaism, human beings are not inherently sinful. Rather, sin is "missing the mark," and is a result of the yetzer ha-ra causing someone to stray from God's commandments. Sin is an act of folly in which the soul does something that is contrary to its true desire for goodness. Sin is man's turning away from God, a disruption of connection to Him who is life itself. Sin=death.

## How do I fix it?

Live in accordance with the Torah, repent, and await the coming of the messiah. See Judaism Overview/Origin for more information about the Messiah.

Because Judaism is focused on the present life and how to live it. This life is preparation for Olam Ha-Ba (the world to come). One's place in Olam Ha-Ba is determined on the basis of merit; Jews believe that is possible to be good enough in God's eyes to deserve paradise after a period of purification. The predominant view in Judaism is that the righteous of all nations will be a part of Olam Ha-Ba.

More information about Jewish afterlife

## Resources

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NpmTu77Mqs

https://www.chabad.org/library/article\_cdo/aid/3710122/jewish/What-Is-Judaism.htm#What

https://www.history.com/topics/religion/judaism

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Judaism

https://www.britannica.com/topic/salvation-religion/Judaism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NpmTu77Mqs

https://www.patheos.com/library/judaism/beliefs/human-nature-and-the-purpose-of-existence

Human Nature - Judaism 101 (JewFAQ)

https://aish.com/48942416/

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/about-god-in-judaism/

https://www.chabad.org/library/article\_cdo/aid/2531/jewish/Reality-and-Its-Shadow.htm

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-jewish-view-of-sin/

https://www.jewfaq.org/mashiach

https://www.chabad.org/library/article\_cdo/aid/2830/jewish/What-Is-Sin.htm