Aside from the State of Israel, the United States of America has the highest Jewish population in the world. Over 6 million people, that’s 2% of all people in the US, identify as Jewish. Despite such a presence, many people have a very limited understanding of Jewish faith and culture. The following five points should be a nice starting point for those who wish to know more about Judaism and the people who practice it.
1. Let’s start broad. What is Judaism?: The Abridged Version
Judaism, plainly put, is a monotheistic (belief in a single deity )religion dating back to approximately 4000 BCE (before the common era) in the Near and Middle East. Due to the difficulty of record keeping in the ancient world, the origin of the faith is uncertain. Strict adherents of many Abrahamic religions attest to the biblical account of the beginning of Judaism. Secular cultural anthropology has drawn parallels between Judaism and other ancient faiths such as Zoroastrianism in Persia and the short-lived monotheism of Egyptian Pharoah Akhenaton. Judaism is the precursor to other modern religions, namely Christianity and Islam.
2. What is the Torah?
In the simple sense, the Torah is a collection of holy scriptures commonly referred to in Christian theology and modern parlance as The Old Testament. It includes The Five Books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy). In an expanded sense, the Torah also contains a number of supplementary scriptures including Prophets and Writings. The collection of The Five Books (Torah), Prophets (Neviyim), and Writings (Ketuvim) is referred to by the combination of those three Hebrew terms into the single word, Tanakh. In the largest and most philosophical sense, Torah (distinct from the Torah) is the combined teachings of all Jewish thought and writing, and therefore ever-expanding. This includes a series of commentaries and debates from ancient sages referred to as the Talmud (translated roughly as “teachings”), writings from a medieval spiritual philosophy known as Kabbalah (translated roughly as “an entrance”), and many other writings. The Torah is most commonly hand-written in an ornate scroll from which Jewish congregations known as synagogues read on the Jewish sabbath and on other holy occasions. The Torah was originally written in Ancient Hebrew, and it remains so.
3. Hebrew: What Is It?
Hebrew is an ancient semitic language in the same linguistic family as Arabic. It was first spoken by the original Hebrew people around the dawn of civilization. The word “Hebrew” has several possible origins. The actual Hebrew word for “Hebrew” is Ivrit (ee-v’reet). This likely refers to Evehr, a grandson of the biblical figure Noah. It may also relate to an ancient Near-Eastern term, Ibiru and its Egyptian variation Ipiru, which was a general term for a class of nomadic people who lived outside of the first cities but did not raid or actively oppose civic authority. Whatever the true origin of the term, Hebrew first described a distinct nomadic ethnic group in the ancient world that eventually evolved into a sedentary nation called the Israelites. The very term “Jew” comes from the Hebrew word for the practitioners of the religion of the Israelites, Yihudi, which itself refers to the Israelite kingdom of Judah in what is now modern day Israel. The Hebrew language has a unique alphabet that is read from right to left. The language slowly fell out of everyday use upon the expulsion of the Jewish people from the province of Judea by the Roman Empire in approximately 70 CE after a popular revolt, though Hebrew remained in religious practices. Colloquial use of Hebrew saw a rivival in the 19th century due to the Zionist movement to establish a Jewish homeland in the British Mandate of Palestine. Most modern Jews outside of Israel do not speak Hebrew fluently, though most Jewish prayers are still predominantly read and spoken in their original form.
4. What is a Rabbi?
Rabbis are Jewish clergy, analogous to priests for Catholicism or imams for Islam. A rabbi leads day-to-day ritual practices, like observance of Shabbat (the Jewish sabbath) and administering life cycle events like weddings and funerals. Depending on its extent of orthodoxy, a particular sect of Judaism may or may not permit women to become rabbis. Regardless, rabbis are permitted to marry and have children, and are in fact strongly encouraged to do so. Rabbis came to be the spiritual leaders of the Jewish world around the time of destruction of the Second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem during the above-mentioned expulsion of the Jews from Judea by Rome. Because the Jewish faith could no longer focus on the Temple and the guidance of its priests, the people turned to their scholars and community leaders to assume the role of spiritual counsel. The word “Rabbi” comes from a simple Hebrew term, Ravi, meaing “My master” in the sense of a master-apprentice relationship. It was a title conferred to individuals seen as being wise, righteous and respectable. Today, all rabbis are trained in formal seminary programs.
5. Now that we have a bunch of history out of the way, what do Jews actually believe?
There’s an old saying: Two Jews, Three Opinions. Rabbis and sages have debated the specifics of Jewish philosophy for millenia. There are a few core principles, however. First and foremost are the widely-known Ten Commandments, a list of rules believed by adherents to be handed down to the Israelites by divine decree. These ten laws are, in modern terms: Believe in the One God, Worship no other gods, Do not worship idols, Do not invoke your God in wrong-doing, Observe the sabbath, Respect your parents, Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not falsely accuse others, Do not seek to take the home (property) of others, Do not seek to take the wife (or spouse) of another.
It should be noted that the original Hebrew term was not “commandment” but Mitzvah, a term loosely translated as “a willful act of righteousness.” The term Mitzvah goes far beyond the ten rules listed above. It is the central philosophy of Judaism. In the most broad sense, Mitzvah is the belief in fair, just, ethical, compassionate actions. The ultimate goal of living a life of Mitzvah is the Hebrew phrase Tikkun Olam, meaning literally “The Repair of Everything.” In Jewish philosophy, the reponsibility of righting all of life’s wrongs falls squarely on humanity, Jew and non-Jew alike. Of course, it is always up for debate what is truly wrong and in need of repair, which is why Jews study Torah in great depth and are encouraged to participate in other forms of study and discourse.
Judaism has a long and rich history. It is very complex and many spend their whole lives studying it. While it is far from possible to impress 6000 years of history, tradition and thought in such a small space, these five points should lay a decent groundwork for a better understanding of the Jewish faith. Shalom, and may this information find you in good health.
