ICJudaism: A Teacher’s Guide to Judaism

      Hosted by ICTeachers                                                                Formerly: Mike’s Rough Guide to Judaism

Disclaimer:

The contents of these pages represent the author’s personal views, experience and understanding.
There are bound to be some things here that some Jews would disagree with.

 

Some Basic Ideas

 

Rabbi Hillel, a great sage who lived in the first century BCE, was once asked by a non-Jew to explain Judaism. The man said that he would become a Jew himself if Hillel could teach him all about Torah in the time that he could stand on one leg. Hillel famously replied, "What is hateful to yourself, do not do to your neighbour. That is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary. GO and study." (The story does not tell whether the man did indeed convert).

God and Belief

As in most things, Jews have a wide variety of understandings about the nature of God. The Torah tells us lots about God’s actions (eg. Creation, The Flood, interactions with people eg. Abraham, Jacob, Moses) and gives us God’s instructions, but it doesn’t tell us much about God’s nature. Over time a wide range of understandings and ideas about the Nature of God have been developed. Many Jews would probably agree with the following list:

God is:

Supranatural (outside nature);

Eternal;

Perfect;

Sentient;

Omnipotent;

Unique;

Beyond understanding (because He is so different);

Good;

Just;

Neither male nor female (although God is usually referred to as “He” - somehow, “It” would seem inappropriate).

 

However, there are many other views about what God is and what He is like, including views that understand God to be non-sentient (You can read more here..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_in_Judaism#Properties_attributed_to_God).

Although Judaism begins with the premise that God exists, there is no single set of beliefs, no creed that defines Jewish belief. Indeed Judaism puts much more emphasis on action than on beliefs (Hillel’s answer is a prime example of this).

There are many beliefs that are held by many Jews. Moses Maimonides, a great medieval Jewish scholar (often known as Rambam, which is an acronym for his full name, Rabbi Moses ben Maimon) set out a list of 13 principles of faith but there is hardly one of them that has not been disputed by some Jews at some time.

The actions which are held to be so important are the Torah’s many Mitzvot (commandments) as well as other laws and customs that have developed or been introduced over the long period of Jewish history.

Important Characters

Judaism does not have a central character equivalent in status to, for example, Jesus, Mohamed, Buddha or Zoroaster. Instead, central importance is given to the individual’s membership of the Jewish People. Membership of the people is assured by birth or by conversion (see here).

However, there are a number of key characters in the Jewish story, of whom Moses is, perhaps, the most important. Moses was not the founder of Judaism, nor the person around whom the faith is constructed. Jews think of him as a great leader, a great teacher and the greatest of the prophets (the only prophet to whom God spoke directly.

The most important other characters are the 3 patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their wives, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah.

The Chosen People

Jews consider themselves to be the people chosen by God to be His exemplar nation. The idea of "The Chosen People" has been widely misunderstood over the centuries and has been the cause of much grief. Most Jews have no belief in the idea that they are in some way superior to non-Jews, nor that righteousness is a Jewish preserve. Rather, the understanding is that we have been chosen by God for a particular responsibility - to set an example.

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