Judaism

Judaism is the first of the world’s three major Abrahamic religious traditions. Its adherents, called Jews, trace the origin of their religion to 6,000 years ago in Mesopotamia. They believe that Abraham was chosen by God to be the forefather of His chosen people. Historically, the beginning of the Jewish tradition goes back to the time of Moses, who wrote the very first Jewish scriptures and led the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt. Judaism is often considered the world’s first monotheistic religion, which means that the Jews were the first people on earth to recognize the existence of a single divine entity, rather than a pantheon of gods. Interestingly, the earliest Jews were actually henotheistic, which means that they believed in the existence of multiple gods, but they only worshipped the “God Most High”, whom they know as Yahweh.

Jewish scripture is often grouped into three groups: books of the law, books of history, and books of the prophets. The earliest scriptures, which were written by Moses, are said to contain the lawful commandments of Yahweh for His people. The historical scriptures tell the story of how the Jewish people rose from a group of wandering nomads to a full-fledged empire. The books of the prophets contain prophetic wisdom that has been recorded by Israel’s sages. Jewish scripture is most commonly known in the west as the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.

Most adherents of Judaism do not have specific beliefs about the afterlife, or about the nature of our reality. Their primary concern is following the law that has been set before them by God, and living in this world as the chosen people of Yahweh.

Judaism is the smallest of the world’s major religions. However, the world’s two largest religions, Christianity and Islam, are essentially continuations of the Abrahamic tradition. Over the next two weeks, we will cover both Christianity and Islam, and how followers of those religions interpret the tradition that is Judaism.