What is Judaism?

1. What is Judaism?

2. Monotheistic • With Islam and Christianity it is part of a monotheistic family. • All three share an active belief that God is creator of the world, existing beyond the world yet active in it. • All three rely on direct revelation

3. Religion? • Unlike most religious systems Judaism is not a fixed adherence to a system of beliefs. • The Thirteen Articles of Jewish faith are as follows: • Belief in the existence of the Creator, be He Blessed, who is perfect in every manner of existence and is the Primary Cause of all that exists. • The belief in G-d's absolute and unparalleled unity. • The belief in G-d's noncorporeality, nor that He will be affected by any physical occurrences, such as movement, or rest, or dwelling. • The belief in G-d's eternity. • The imperative to worship Him exclusively and no foreign false gods. • The belief that G-d communicates with man through prophecy. • The belief that the prophecy of Moses our teacher has priority. • The belief in the divine origin of the Torah. • The belief in the immutability of the Torah. • The belief in divine omniscience and providence. • The belief in divine reward and retribution. • The belief in the arrival of the Messiah and the messianic era. • The belief in the resurrection of the dead.

4. Way of Life • Adherence to such a list does not make one Jewish nor does denying such a list make someone non-Jewish • Jews do not have converts they have proselytes (immigrants) • Shared corporate and individual rituals

5. Not a Race • do not share any universal genetic features • non Jews can become Jews

6. Not a political entity • live in many different political systems

7. Not a shared attachment to land • Land is considered sacred but its sacredness is not contingent on a Jewish national state. • One is not less Jewish for not living in Israel or more Jewish for living there

8. Shared Historical Experience • It is a shared past, a common historic experience of exile and restoration which marks the group as special, distinct and select. • A Judaism is a religion that privileges Scripture’s account of Israel as holy people whose life encompasses the experience of exile and return. Jacob Neusner