The Encyclopedia of World Religions

Judaism S 245

had certain inalienable rights. As a result, Jews began to be integrated into European society. The first significant “emancipation” of Jews came with the French Revolution in 1789. Emancipation posed two challenges. The first was the issue of what it meant to be Jewish in a secular state. Different responses gave rise to the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform movements ( see J UDAISM IN A MERICA ). At the same time, Jews had to confront the backlash of conservative Euro peans ( see ANTI -S EMITISM ), seen most gruesomely in the H OLOCAUST . One significant response to anti Semitism and the Holocaust was Z IONISM and the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. BELIEFS As a religion, Judaism is much more a way of life than a set of beliefs. The Talmud, for example, concentrates on what one needs to do in order to follow God’s commandments, not on what one ought to believe. Nevertheless, Jews have generally held several beliefs. These include the conviction that there is one, eternal, omniscient, incorporeal God who created the universe, that he alone deserves WOR SHIP , and that he revealed the unchanging Torah to Moses as a guide to life. Jews have generally spoken of God in male terms, but feminine images of the divine are not unknown. Primary examples include God’s creative Wisdom in Proverbs ( see WISDOM LITERATURE ) and God’s Shekinah or mani festation in the mystical writings. PRACTICES The goal of Judaism is to make life holy, to grace the temporal with the eternal and the material with the spiritual. Jews do this by following God’s commandments ( mitzvot ), so far as they can. These commandments are taken as a sign of God’s love and concern. Furthermore, in Judaism God is like a compassionate parent. God forgives people when they sincerely repent of their wrongdoings. The notion common among some Christians that the “God of the Old Testament” is a stern “God of the law” presents a totally misleading picture of Judaism.

elements of his story are clearly legendary. For example, the story of Potiphar’s wife essentially repeats the Egyptian “Tale of Two Brothers.” That tale was told even before the time of Abraham.

Judaism The religion centered on the covenant revealed to M OSES at Mount Sinai and preserved in the T ORAH , the first five books of the Hebrew B IBLE . Judaism is a major religion. In addition, both C HRISTIANITY and I SLAM see themselves as con tinuing the ancient traditions of Judaism. HISTORY The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) preserves the sacred stories of Judaism. It tells the history of the people of Israel from their first ancestors, A BRA HAM and S ARAH (perhaps 18th century B . C . E .) to the attempts to rebuild the kingdom of Judah (now southern Israel) after the Babylonian Exile (ended 539 B . C . E .). Judaism as we know it began when the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in J ERUSA LEM in 70 C . E . After that event, a group of religious scholars known as RABBIS formulated the Jewish way of life on the basis of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible attributed to Moses. The rabbis compiled rules of behavior into a collection known as the Mishnah, then recorded the meanings of those rules in the T ALMUD . From roughly 600 to 1789, Jews developed this way of life in several different directions. Jewish thinkers like Maimonides (1135–1204) and Judah Halevy (before 1075–1141) thought intensely about the relationship between G OD ’s revelation and human reasoning. Other Jews sought to grasp intu itively the ultimate truth beyond all words and lan guage; they developed Jewish mysticism, known as KABBALAH . Beginning in the 18th century, Jews in eastern Europe began to emphasize a religion of the heart as opposed to external observances. They began the movement known as H ASIDISM . Until 1789, Jews, especially those living in Europe, were denied civil rights. But in the 17th and 18th centuries, an intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment taught that all people