Judaism is the religious culture of the Jewish people. Beginning with just a small Hebrew nation it has gone through thousands of years of suffering and persecution to get to where it is today. The main Jewish communities today are in Israel and the United States. Judaism is a monotheistic religion, which is they worship only one God. They believe that God has personal attributes and that he makes relationships with people. They express their faith through a profession of faith called the Shema. There are also many nationally recognized holidays. It is a very influential religion and culture.
Judaism is a monotheistic religion. Jewish followers believe in only one God who he has personal attributes. The divine name for their God is YHWH. They believe that the sacred name of God is so holy that they cannot even spell it out. In the Jewish Bible they fill in between the letters with random others to keep from writing it down or accidentally saying it. Also, in early Hebrew writing, there were no vowels. So instead they use the word Adonai, which means Lord. When professing their faith, Jewish people recite the Shema. The Shema says:
“Hear O Israel,
the Lord is your God,
the Lord is one!.” - Dt 6:4
The Shema is said in the morning and also at night as a bedtime prayer. People sometimes close their eyes or cover their face with their hands to concentrate and eliminate distractions. The Tanak, or the Hebrew bible is separated into three sections based on their content. The Torah is the first five books of Moses. These are the laws and instructions he received from God.The second is the Neviim that tells about the prophets. The last section is the Ketuvim, which is majority writing, including books of psalm and proverbs.
In Judaism, they believe that God is a personal God and he likes to make relationships with people. A covenant is a promise and the Jewish believe that God has made several promises with their people. The first covenant was with a man named Noah. God was angry with his people and was going to destroy the earth with a flood. He told Noah to build an Ark to save himself and God’s creatures. When the flood was over God made a covenant with Noah and promised never to destroy the earth by flood again. The second covenant was with Abraham. Abraham was an older man with his wife Sarah who was old and unable to have children. God said to Abraham that he would provide them with a child if they had him circumcised. The covenant from God was that he would provide Abraham with land and descendants if they kept the command to have them circumcised.
The third covenant from God was with Moses. Moses was the man who led the people out of slavery in Egypt and received the Torah from God on the mountain. The torah includes what is called kosher law or a food law. This restricts the Jewish from eating pork, shellfish, or milk. It also requires them to keep holy the Sabbath day and worship only their one God. God promised that as long as people kept the torah, he would be their God. The fourth and last covenant was with David. David is the fulfillment of the covenant from God that said he would provide an eternal kingdom and will dwell in the temple there forever. Jerusalem is the eternal city for Jews, Christians and Muslims.
There are many rituals involved in Judaism. Rituals are things that are reoccurring and in this case yearly. In Judaism there are 6 yearly rituals that Jewish people celebrate. Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year and this year was on September 8. Yom Kippur is the second ritual of the Jewish year also known as “the day of attonement”. This is a ritual when priests offer sacrifice in the Holy of Holies. Sukkot is the third ritual and it is a meal taken place underneath a tent or booth to remind the Jews of when they were fleeing from Egypt and had to stay in tents and rely on God for all that they received to survive. The fourth ritual of the year is Chanukah, or the festival of lights. This is an 8 day festival celebrating when a lamp that had no oil left miraculously burned for 8 days in the temple.
Purim is the next ritual and is similar to Halloween. This ritual celebrates Esther’s triumph over Haimon and is celebrated with cookies, drinks, and costumes. Passover is the second pilgrimage festival and the sixth yearly ritual in the Jewish year. It represents the Passover of the angel of death. Whoever had sacrificed the lamb and put its blood above the door had spared the life of their first-born son. Fifty days after Passover is Shavuot. Shavuot is the first fruit festival and is an agricultural celebration for the late spring harvest. The Jewish year all starts in the fall and cycles around to late spring and summer. Every ritual is celebrated in remembrance of the suffering and persecution but sometimes triumphs of their past. Judaism is a very influential religion and culture.
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