Judaism

Since there is no word for 'religion' in classical Hebrew, the sacred and secular aspects of Jewish life being considered as one under the sovereignty of God, Judaism may be defined as a set of beliefs and practices followed by Jews centered around a certain concept of God.

Tracing the origins of this concept of God back to Abraham (the founder) and Moses (the law giver), it may be seen as follows:

There is only one God who, although seen as omnipresent in all activities on Earth, stands over, against or above the material world and is not subject to or dependent on creation but controls it. God is the creator of all things and is the active force or influence behind all things. The Jews did not believe that Man discovered God but that God actively revealed himself to Abraham and to his descendants and established a Covenant with them, requiring obedience to

His will and the responsibility of his followers to bear witness of the one true God to the rest of the world.

This transcendent, monotheistic and dynamic image of God includes a belief in the unity and purpose of history. God is active in the world and its history for a purpose.

Almost exclusive to Judaism was its belief in the ethical nature of God. God is seen not as a force or principle but as a free personality having moral attributes. Therefore the supreme task of Man is to understand the divine will and do it. The Ten Commandments given to Moses are the embodiment of these ethical requirements, justice and respect for human life being a central theme.

Judaism was not preoccupied with life after death but saw the focus of God's activity as being on Earth. The results of obedience and faithfulness to the Covenant were seen to be realized in national and personal prosperity. Alternatively, disobedience resulted in national and personal disaster.

Although the first four points above remain virtually unchanged, the last was to undergo rethinking in the light of the Jews' national history.

After the defeat of both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah (721 BC and 586 BC respectively) and the virtual dismantling of any coherent Jewish national existence through exile, the solidly confident belief in material benefits and national prosperity gave way to a more individual emphasis on moral renewal. Only through a radical transformation of Man's inner character could the goal of his beliefs and practices be realized. These ideas were nevertheless bound up with the restoration of the nation centered on Jerusalem, which was to be the city par excellence in which God's purposes were to be fulfilled.

A third phase, which occurred in the third century before Christ, is partly based on the inability of the Jews, restored to their homeland by Cyrus the Great, to realize these hopes. It is characterized by an emphasis on the cataclysmic intervention of God to set things right. This idea carried with it a greater emphasis on life after death, the existence of supernatural beings and the cosmic struggle between the forces of good and evil.

After the exodus from Egypt the center of Jewish worship was the Tabernacle, which moved from place to place as the people of Israel wandered in the wilderness and then settled in Palestine. After David captured Jerusalem from the Jebusites the Tabernacle was situated in that city. During the reign of Solomon a permanent Temple was built, which lasted until the exile of the Jews in 586 BC. The Temple, like the Tabernacle before it, was the venue for the sacrificial system. Although Jews practiced sacrifice in company with other contemporary religions, the emphasis was different.

The appeasement of divine wrath was combined with the portrayal of the seriousness of sin (in the shedding of blood) and required the repentance of the individual who was making the sacrifice. Forgiveness was declared with the command to lead a new life.

During the exile in Babylon, the Jews could not carry out the sacrifices, since they were not in Jerusalem. It is believed that the Synagogue was founded at that time.

Each Sabbath, the exiled Jews would meet in their synagogues to hear the Torah read, listen to its interpretation, discuss its implications and pray and sing psalms. On their restoration to their homeland the Temple was rebuilt but the synagogue tradition remained. After the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, the synagogue became the main center for religious worship and has remained so to this day.

Jews believe that there is only one authority, God, who is eternally the ruler of creation and their Lord. His will is to be discovered through the Torah, usually regarded as the Law of Moses (the first five books of the Old Testament) and the prophets but sometimes extended to include other writings and even the instructions of priests. Alongside the Torah is the Talmud which incorporates the Mishnah (oral teaching) and the Gemara (a collection of discussions on the Mishnah). Groups within Judaism

Even at the beginning of the Christian era there were several groups within Judaism.

The Samaritans were the (often intermarried) remnants of those Jews left behind at the time of the Babylonian exile. They were largely despised by the returning 'orthodox' Jews. The Sadducees were an aristocratic minority who accepted the written Torah only. The Pharisees accepted both the Torah and oral tradition and believed in the immortality of the soul, divine providence and future retribution. The Essenes were a monastic group who held property in common, practiced celibacy and waited for the coming of the Messianic age. In modern Judaism three basic groupings exist: the small 'priestly' group, committed to the re-establishment of the Temple and the sacrificial system; the orthodox group, similar to the early Pharisaic party; and the Reform (or Liberal) group, progressive in ritual and teaching and often leaning in the direction of deistic humanism.

Although the creation of the modern state of Israel (1948) and the Israeli capture of old Jerusalem (1967) allows the possibility of a re-establishment of the Temple and the rituals associated with it, there appears to be no serious intention among other than the most rigorously traditional Jews to do so. In fact not all Jews are committed to Israel and Jerusalem in a specifically devotional sense, preferring the synagogue, though they may give tacit or direct support to the state of Israel and the occupation of Jerusalem as a home for Jews.