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Judaism

The religion of the ancient Hebrews and their descendants the Jews, based, according to the Old Testament, on a covenant between God and Abraham about 2000 BC, and the renewal of the covenant with Moses about 1200 BC. Judaism is the oldest monotheistic faith, the forebear of Christianity and Islam. It rests on the concept of one eternal invisible God, whose will is revealed in the Torah and who has a special relationship with the Jewish people. The Torah comprises the first five books of the Hebrew Bible (the Pentateuch), which contains the history, laws, and guide to life for correct behaviour. The Jews were dispersed from Palestine (the diaspora) by the Romans AD 70–135, eventually establishing communities in Europe, North Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Today, Jewish communities exist throughout the world, including large populations in the USA, the former USSR (mostly Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova), the UK and Commonwealth nations. The Jewish state of Israel was proclaimed in 1948. There are approximately 18 million Jews, with about 9 million in the Americas, 5 million in Europe, and 4 million in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific.

Scriptures

As well as the Torah, the Hebrew Bible contains histories, writings of the prophets, and writings such as the Psalms and Proverbs. A further source of authority on Jewish ritual, worship, and practice is the Talmud, combining the Mishnah, rabbinical commentary on the law handed down orally from AD 70 and put in writing about 200; and the Gemara, legal discussions in the schools of Palestine and Babylon from the 3rd and 4th centuries. Material in the Talmud can be generally divided into Halachah (or Halakhah), consisting of legal and ritual matters, and Haggadah (or Aggadah), mainly concerned with ethical and theological matters expounded in narrative form. Another collection of writings is the Midrash, which comprises commentaries on the scriptures written 400–1200, mainly in Palestine.

Observances

The synagogue (in US non-Orthodox usage, temple) is the local building for congregational worship (originally simply the place where the Torah was read and expounded); its characteristic feature is the ark, the enclosure where the Torah scrolls are kept. Rabbis are ordained teachers schooled in the Jewish law and ritual who act as spiritual leaders and pastors of their communities; some devote themselves to study. Religious practices include daily services in Hebrew, observance of the Sabbath (sunset on Friday to sunset Saturday) as a day of rest, and, among Orthodox Jews, strict dietary laws (kosher, or kashrut). Rites of passage include brit milah (circumcision) and bar mitzvah. High holy days include Rosh Hashanah marking the Jewish New Year (first new moon after the autumn equinox) and, a week later, the religious fast Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). Other holidays are celebrated throughout the year to commemorate various events of biblical history. Festivals are calculated according to the correct phase of the moon and always begin at dusk the day before and end at dusk on the last day (a day being considered finished when the sun goes down). Outside Israel festivals often last one day longer, a tradition that stems from the poor communications that existed between the priests of the ancient Temple, who calculated a festival's timing, and distant Jewish communities. People celebrated the beginning of a festival on two consecutive days to ensure the correct date.

Jewish home

Following the final destruction of the Temple in AD 70 by the Romans and the dispersal of the Jews, the home became the focal point for practising the religion. In this way Jewish tradition was able to survive many more exiles from other countries over the following centuries. All the major festivals continue to have formal rituals that are undertaken at home, usually with the extended family. The home is also the place where the Sabbath is welcomed with prayers and ceremony every week.

Divisions

In the late Middle Ages, when Europe and western Asia were divided into Christian and Islamic countries, the Jewish people also found themselves divided into two main groups. Jews in central and eastern Europe, namely in Germany and Poland, were called Ashkenazi. Sephardic Jews can trace their tradition back to the Mediterranean countries, particularly Spain and Portugal under Muslim rule. When they were expelled in 1492, they settled in North Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, the Far East, and northern Europe. The two traditions differ in a number of ritual and cultural ways, but their theology and basic Jewish practice are the same. The Hasidic sects of eastern Europe and some North African and Oriental countries also differ from other groups in their rites but they, too, maintain the concept of divine authority. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a move by some Jewish groups away from traditional or orthodox observances. This trend gave rise to a number of groups within Judaism. Orthodox Jews (see Orthodox Judaism) who form the majority, assert the supreme authority of the Torah and adhere to all the traditions of Judaism, including the strict dietary laws (see kosher) and the segregation of women in the synagogue. Reform Judaism rejects the idea that Jews are the chosen people, has a liberal interpretation of the dietary laws, and takes a questioning attitude towards the Torah. Conservative Judaism is a compromise between Orthodox and Reform in its acceptance of the traditional law, making some allowances for modern conditions, although its services and ceremonies are closer to Orthodox than to Reform. Liberal Judaism, or Reconstructionism, goes further than Reform in attempting to adapt Judaism to the needs of the modern world and to interpret the Torah in the light of current scholarship. In all the groups except Orthodox, women are not segregated in the synagogue, and there are female rabbis in both Reform and Liberal Judaism. Many people who call themselves Jews prefer to identify Judaism with a historical and cultural tradition rather than with strict religious observance, and a contemporary debate (complicated by the history of non-Jewish attitudes towards Jews) centres on the question of how to define a Jew. As in other religions, fundamentalist movements have emerged; for example, Gush Emunim.

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Judaism - events

1800 BC	Sumeria	Abraham, generally recognized as the first historical character in the Bible, leaves the Sumerian city of Ur, where he was born. He and his family may well have sojourned in Egypt, along with other wandering Semites.
458 BC	Palestine, Persian Empire	The Old Testament Book of Ezra tells how the Babylonian priest and scribe Ezra is sent by King Artaxerxes I of Persia to Jerusalem to restore the neglected Jewish laws of the Pentateuch. He is accompanied by a large number of Jewish exiles and carries valuable gifts for the temple, from both Jews and the Persian king himself. After fasting and prayer, he and a chosen committee blacklist those guilty of mixed marriage.
c. 40	Egypt, Greece	The philosopher Philo Judaeus of Alexandria writes works that seek to reconcile the Jewish scriptures and Greek philosophy. His arguments – for example, that the Logos (the word) of Greek thought is identical with divine reason – have a profound influence on the development of Christian theology.
70	Palestine-Roman	During the siege of Jerusalem, the Romans allow the Jewish religious leader Johanan ben Zakkai to leave and later to establish a school at Jamnia (Jabneh). His teaching there will be profoundly important in securing the continuity of Judaism.
73	Roman Empire, Jordan	The Romans destroy the community at Qumran near the Dead Sea. The inhabitants leave behind the Dead Sea Scrolls hidden in nearby caves. The inhabitants of Qumran are either the Essenes or a similar ascetic sect. This Roman destruction, at about the same time as the destruction of Masada, sees the end of all the Jewish ascetic sects that had flourished since the time of the Maccabees in the 2nd century BC.
c. 499	Babylon	The Babylonian version of the Talmud, a collection of rabbinical literature, is completed. Consisting of the Mishnah (the codified Jewish laws) and the Gemara (discussions of those laws), it is completed approximately a hundred years later than the Palestinian version and is more comprehensive.
1660	North America	Asser Levy, whose shop is on Wall Street in New Amsterdam (modern New York City), is the first kosher butcher in the Americas.
1729	North America	Jews in New York City establish the first permanent congregation of the Jewish religion in North America. By the time of the American Revolution, between two and three thousand Jews have settled in the colonies, where they find greater religious freedom than anywhere else.
1909	Palestine, Ottoman Empire	Russian and Polish Jews set up the first kibbutz, Degania, at Lake Kinnaret, Tiberias, in Palestine.
29 March–6 April 1932	Palestine	Jewish athletes from 20 countries participate in the inaugural World Maccabiah Games in Tel Aviv.
June 1972	USA	Sally J Priesand, of Cincinnati, Ohio, becomes the first woman to be ordained a rabbi.
1973	UK	British Judaic scholar Geza Vermes publishes Jesus the Jew.

499 70 Alter, Simha anti-Semitism Bible Jew Jewish ethics Kaplan, Mordecai Lubavitch Orthodox Judaism

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