Judaism - Beliefs and Teachings

What is it?

The Tenakh (The Jewish scriptures)  teaches about the attributes of God and what they reveal about him. It teaches that :

• God is One - Judaism teaches strict monotheism. The basic teaching of the Torah is the Shema.
• God is the Creator - The very first words of the Torah are 'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.' The Torah teaches that God is the creator of everything that belongs to him so therefore the universe and everything in it is 
• God is the Law-giver - He gave laws to help people look after the Earth in the way he wanted e.g. 613 Mitzvot. This shows that he loves and cares for humans.
• God is a Judge

Importance

SOWA - The Shema starts off as 'Hear, O Isreal, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.'

What is it?

Shekhinah means 'the divine/majestic presence of God.'

The Torah speaks of

• God's presence going with Moses to guide him through the wilderness to the promise land.
• The shekinah as a cloud and smoke of Mount Sinai when God gave the commandments
• Moses' face shining when he came into contact with the divine presence

Importance

• Shows that however close Jews may feel to God, God's presence is so holy and awesome that it must be respected which is why Jews can only use God's name in complete worship.
• The teaching that Moses was surrounded by the shekhinah when he recieved the Torah means that Moses recieved the Mitzvot directly from God.so they are God's words.

SOWA - 'My presence will go with you and I will give you rest.' - Exodus 33.

Different understandings for shekhinah for Jews today

• Some reform Jews base themselves on the teachings of the Maimonides who described the shekhinah as a light created to be a link between God and the world.
• Others regard the shekhinah as an expression for the various ways in which God is related to the world.
• Others believe that the shekhinah is God. God and shekhinah are just interchangeable words.
• In the kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), shekhinah is the gateway to higher consciousness which brings followers into God's presence.

Different understanding of the words shekhinah

• Shekhinah shows that God is far beyond human thought and so there are many ways of understanding his presence.
• Shekhinah allows Judaism to relate God to modern theological debates about whether God is masculine.
• Shekhinah makes it easier for jews and Christians to come together in their search for God.

What is it?

The word Messiah means 'anointed one'. The time that the Messiah will come is known as the Messianic Age or Olam-Ha-Ba. Jews believe that the Messiah is:

• a descendant from king David
• a human, not a divine being
• a man of great piety and close to God

Importance

Jews believe that the Messiah will:

• unite all the peoples of the world
• make all people in the world aware of the presence of God
• bring in the Messianic Age when all will live at peace

SOWA - 'I believe with perfect faith in the coming of Messiah. However long it takes, I will await His coming everyday' - Thirteen Principles No.12.

Messianic Age (Olam-Ha-Ba)

• The whole world will accept God and Judaism
• There will be peace among all nations
• The temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem

Different understanding of the Messiah

• Some Orthodox rebbis taught that the Messiah will not come until all the Jewish people observe all the Mitzvot fully.
• Most Orthodox rabbis believe that they know when the Messiah will arrive (Ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups)
• Most orthodox rabbis have followed the teaching of the Maimonides that no one can know when  the Messiah will come except God himself.
• Many reform Jews no longer believe in an individual Messiah who will make the world perfect. They believe it's up to individual Jewish people to change the world, bringing nations together and establishing justice and peace just as the Tenekh predicts.

What is it?

• God appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai around the time he led people out of captivity in Egypt and then spent 40years wandering in the Sinai wilderness preparing for people to enter and possess the promised land.
• It was an agreement between God and the Jewish people written on two tablets of stone kept in the Ark of the Covenant stored in the tabernacle and later the Temple,
• Stated that if the people kept the 613 laws given to Moses on Sinai (Mitzvot) they would be God's special people.

Importance

• The 613 Mitzvot given by God on Sinai provide the way of life for Jewish poeple and seperate them from the Gentiles
• The tenakh teaches that by keeping the Mosaic Covenant, the Jewish people will fufill their destiny of bringing the whole world together to worship God.

What was it?

Although Moses was given 613 commandments from God, Jews regard the 10 commandments as special as they are commandments to be kept by all Jews. They are found in Exodus 20.

Importance

• Jewish people remind themselves that they worship one God only (first commandment) every time they touch the mezuzah and three times a day in the prayers.
• The second commandment means that Jewish people ban any form of statue from the synagogue and their home and argue about what art is permited in Judaism,
• Third commandment means Jewish people do not use God's name in any form of swearing and say 'the Almighty' or 'Hashem' rather than speaking the word of God.
• The fourth commandment means that Jews do not work of Shabbat which begins at sunset on Friday and ends when the stars appear on Saturday
• The fifth commandment helps Jewish people in their family life and parents in their task of bringing up their children to be good Jews
• The last five commandments are important when making moral desicions e.g. do not kill.

What is it?

• God's side of the covenant was that he promised to make Abraham the Father of many great nations and to guve the land of Canaan to Abraham's descendants as an 'everlasting possession.'
• Abraham's side of the agreement was for Abraham and every male descendant to be circumcised and for Abraham and his family to worship God alone.

Importance 

• Most baby Jewish boys are circumsised usually at eight days old and enter into the covenant of Abraham (Brit Milah)
• The Brit Chayim (covenant of life) ceremony for Jewish baby girls among Reform and Liberal Jews welcomes girls into the Jewish faith and claims them as a heir to the Abrahamic Covenant.

SOWA - God said to Abraham in Genesis, 'This land will be an everlasting possession to you and your descendants and I will be their God.'

What is it?

• Judaism teaches that life is sacred and a gift from God. As God is the author of life, life itself is holy and must be valued and preserved.
• Judaism teaches that people should respect all human life
• God is the Creator of life and so it is up to God alone to say when life will begin or end

Importance

• The importance of life is shown in pikuach nefesh which means saving life and it is the principle in Jewish law that the preversion of human life overrides almost all other commandments. Jewish people are not only advised to save human life at all costs, they are obliged to which means breaking other mitzvot if neccessary.
• Some Jews believe that abortion cannot be allowed because of pikuach nefesh
• Orthodox Judaism does not allow the use of condoms because the Torah teaches that the male seed is sacred, but the Jewish AIDS Trust promotes the use of condoms to prevent HIV transmission.

SOWA - 'Do not do anything that endagers your neighbour's life' - Leveticus

What is it?

Moses recieved 613 Mitzvot on Mount Sinai, however the Mitzvot in the Torah are stated only breifly and need some explanation.

• According to Jewish tradition, God gave this to Moses in the form of 'Oral Torah' which was passed on by priests and later rabbis.
• The oral and written torah made up the halakhah (Jewish law)
• The great rabbi Judah the Prince decided that the Oral Torah should be written down to prevent different forms of the halakhah developing in different areas so he compiled the mishneh (Oral Torah).

Importance

• Jewish people will only keep the Mitzvot if they understand it properly
• Understanding the Mitzvot leads to better relationships between people

SOWA - The Talmud says, 'The Mitzvot were given for the purpose of refining people.'

SOWA - 

Beliefs

• The Torah says that the righteous will be reunited with their loved ones after death, 'being gathered on their people,' that is there will be an afterlife which will involve meeting with dead family
• The rest of the Tenakh says that God will end the world, raise the dead and create a new wor;d by rebuilding Jerusalem and tghe Temple.
• God will decide what happens to people in the afterlife on the basis of how they have lived their lives and what they have believed.

Disagreement on interpretations of these beliefs

• Most Jews belive in ressurection because it is one of the Thirteen Principles of Faith. Some believe that the ressurection will occur during the Messianic era, others believe it will happen after
• Other rabbis have argued for the the immortality of the soul - the idea that the soul lives after death as a spiritual being in the Olam-Ha-Ba.

Different beliefs about the nature of judgement

• Some rabbis have taught that judgement will be based on purely behaviour - the good will go to heaven and the bad will go to Gehinnom (hell)
• Maimonides - taught that all good people will go to heaven even non Jews
• Others have suggested judgement will be based on a combination of belief and behaviour
• Many modern rabbis prefer to concentrate on this life rather than worrying about the details of an afterlife about which no one can be certain

Heaven and hell

• Some rabbis have taught that Gehinnom is more like a Catholic purgatory and that souls are purified through the punishment and fire
• Some rabbis tecah that totally evil souls are eternally damned and so are punished in Gehinnom forever.
• Others teach that the souls of the truly wicked are desrtoyed by God and so cease to exist.