113-579: The Jericho synagogue is a Jewish synagogue , located in Jericho , in the State of Palestine . The synagogue was built in the Byzantine Empire -era and is believed to date from the late 6th or early 7th century CE and was discovered in 1936. All that remains from the ancient prayer house is its mosaic floor, which contains an Aramaic inscription presenting thanks to the synagogue donors, and
226-404: A Berakah is said also at evil tidings. Hence, although the experience of God is like none other, the occasions for experiencing Him, for having a consciousness of Him, are manifold, even if we consider only those that call for Berakot. Whereas Jewish philosophers often debate whether God is immanent or transcendent , and whether people have free will or their lives are determined, halakha
339-667: A Canaanite language known as Biblical Hebrew . The language's modern descendant is today the only surviving dialect of the Canaanite languages . Gary Rendsburg argues that some archaic biblical traditions and other circumstantial evidence point to the Israelites emerging from the Shasu and other seminomadic peoples from the desert regions south of the Levant , later settling in the highlands of Canaan. Several theories exist for
452-615: A centralized authority that would dictate an exact religious dogma. Because of this, many different variations on the basic beliefs are considered within the scope of Judaism. Even so, all Jewish religious movements are, to a greater or lesser extent, based on the principles of the Hebrew Bible or various commentaries such as the Talmud and Midrash . Judaism also universally recognizes the Biblical Covenant between God and
565-454: A common ancestry of Samaritan and Jewish patrilineages. Most of the former may be traced back to a common ancestor in what is today identified as the paternally inherited Israelite high priesthood ( Cohanim ), with a common ancestor projected to the time of the Assyrian conquest of the kingdom of Israel ." A 2020 study (by Agranat-Tamr et al.) stated that there was genetic continuity between
678-677: A connection with the biblical Land of Israel . Other groups claim continuity with the Israelites, including Pashtuns , British , Black Hebrew Israelites , Igbos Mormons , and evangelical Christians that subscribe to covenant theology . Some argue that some Palestinians descend from Israelites who were not exiled by the Romans. As of 2024, only one study has directly examined ancient Israelite genetic material. The analysis examined First Temple -era skeletal remains excavated in Abu Ghosh , and showed one male individual belonging to
791-491: A genealogical basis. Other scholars argue that the distinction is based on religion. For example, Troy W. Martin argues that biblical Jewishness is based on adherence to 'covenantal circumcision', regardless of ancestry ( Genesis 17:9–14 ). In Judaism , "Israelite", broadly speaking, refers to a lay member of the Jewish ethnoreligious group, as opposed to the priestly orders of Kohanim and Levites . In legal texts, such as
904-464: A means of experiencing God". Reflecting on the contribution of the Amoraim and Tanaim to contemporary Judaism, Professor Jacob Neusner observed: The rabbi's logical and rational inquiry is not mere logic-chopping. It is a most serious and substantive effort to locate in trivialities the fundamental principles of the revealed will of God to guide and sanctify the most specific and concrete actions in
1017-580: A means to learn the contents of God's revelation, but an end in itself. According to the Talmud: These are the things for which a person enjoys the dividends in this world while the principal remains for the person to enjoy in the world to come; they are: honoring parents, loving deeds of kindness, and making peace between one person and another. But the study of the Torah is equal to them all. (Talmud Shabbat 127a). In Judaism, "the study of Torah can be
1130-523: A parallel oral tradition, illustrating the assumption that the reader is already familiar with the details from other, i.e., oral, sources. Halakha , the rabbinic Jewish way of life, then, is based on a combined reading of the Torah, and the oral tradition—the Mishnah, the halakhic Midrash, the Talmud and its commentaries. The halakha has developed slowly, through a precedent-based system. The literature of questions to rabbis, and their considered answers,
1243-631: A period of nominal independence for the Jewish people under the Hasmonean dynasty (140–37 BCE). Initially operating semi-autonomously within the Seleucid sphere, the Hasmoneans gradually asserted full independence through military conquest and diplomacy, establishing themselves as the final sovereign Jewish rulers before a prolonged hiatus in Jewish sovereignty in the region. Some scholars argue that Jews also engaged in active missionary efforts in
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#17327761500471356-523: A permanent king, and Samuel appointed Saul the king. When the people pressured Saul into going against a command conveyed to him by Samuel, God told Samuel to appoint David in his stead. Rabbinic tradition holds that the details and interpretation of the Law, called the Oral Torah or "Oral Law," were originally unwritten traditions based on the Law given to Moses at Sinai. However, as the persecutions of
1469-555: A positive commandment is to be fulfilled: The ordinary, familiar, everyday things and occurrences we have, constitute occasions for the experience of God. Such things as one's daily sustenance, the very day itself, are felt as manifestations of God's loving-kindness, calling for the Berakhot . Kedushah , holiness, which is nothing else than the imitation of God, is concerned with daily conduct, with being gracious and merciful, with keeping oneself from defilement by idolatry, adultery, and
1582-701: A reward for his act of faith in one God, he was promised that Isaac , his second son, would inherit the Land of Israel (then called Canaan ). Later, the descendants of Isaac's son Jacob were enslaved in Egypt , and God commanded Moses to lead the Exodus from Egypt. The Law was given at Sinai —the Torah , or five books of Moses. These books, together with the Nevi'im and Ketuvim , are known as Torah Shebikhtav , as opposed to
1695-530: A seminal role in the formation of Western civilization through its impact as a core background element of Early Christianity . Within Judaism, there are a variety of religious movements , most of which emerged from Rabbinic Judaism , which holds that God revealed his laws and commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai in the form of both the Written and Oral Torah. Historically, all or part of this assertion
1808-592: A series of inscriptions mention the " House of David ". They came from Israel's neighbors. Compared to the United Monarchy, the historicity of the Kingdom of Israel and Judah is widely accepted by historians and archaeologists. Their destruction by the Assyrians and Babylonians respectively is also confirmed by archaeological evidence and extrabiblical sources. Christian Frevel argues that Yahwism
1921-467: A special security force to protect it. At the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada the site became a source of conflict. On the night of 12 October 2000, vandals entered and desecrated the building, damaging the house on top of the ancient mosaic. The Torah scroll stored at the synagogue was rescued from the fire which had been started and was taken to Mevo'ot Yericho . In 2005, the synagogue
2034-476: A well-preserved central medallion with the inscription "Shalom al Israel", meaning "Peace [up]on Israel". This led to the site also being known as Shalom Al Israel Synagogue . The former ancient synagogue was restored as a place of Jewish worship in the early part of the twenty-first century. The synagogue, dating from the Byzantine period, was revealed in excavations conducted in 1936 by Dimitri Baramki of
2147-639: A wide body of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Among Judaism's core texts is the Torah , the first five books of the Hebrew Bible , a collection of ancient Hebrew scriptures. The Tanakh, known in English as the Hebrew Bible, has the same contents as the Old Testament in Christianity . In addition to the original written scripture, the supplemental Oral Torah
2260-483: Is Maimonides ' thirteen principles of faith , developed in the 12th century. According to Maimonides, any Jew who rejects even one of these principles would be considered an apostate and a heretic. Jewish scholars have held points of view diverging in various ways from Maimonides' principles. Thus, within Reform Judaism only the first five principles are endorsed. In Maimonides' time, his list of tenets
2373-477: Is a similar ethnonym but it is usually applied whenever Israelites are economically disadvantaged or migrants. It might also refer to their descent from Eber , the grandson of Noah . During the period of the divided monarchy, "Israelites" referred to the inhabitants of the northern Kingdom of Israel , but eventually, included the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Judah in post-exilic usage. In literature of
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#17327761500472486-487: Is a system through which any Jew acts to bring God into the world. Ethical monotheism is central in all sacred or normative texts of Judaism. However, monotheism has not always been followed in practice. The Hebrew Bible (or Tanakh ) records and repeatedly condemns the widespread worship of other gods in ancient Israel . In the Greco-Roman era, many different interpretations of monotheism existed in Judaism, including
2599-597: Is also the source of the Hebrew term for Judaism, יַהֲדוּת Yahaḏuṯ . The term Ἰουδαϊσμός first appears in the Koine Greek book of 2 Maccabees in the 2nd century BCE (i.e. 2 Maccabees 2:21, 8:1 and 14:38) . In the context of the age and period it meant "seeking or forming part of a cultural entity". It resembled its antonym hellenismos , a word signifying people's submission to Hellenistic cultural norms. The conflict between iudaismos and hellenismos lay behind
2712-592: Is an Abrahamic monotheistic ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jewish people . Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of observing the Mosaic covenant , which was established between God and the Israelites , their ancestors. The religion is considered one of the earliest monotheistic religions in the world. Jewish religious doctrine encompasses
2825-550: Is an esoteric tradition in Judaism in Kabbalah , Rabbinic scholar Max Kadushin has characterized normative Judaism as "normal mysticism", because it involves everyday personal experiences of God through ways or modes that are common to all Jews. This is played out through the observance of the halakha , or Jewish law, and given verbal expression in the Birkat Ha-Mizvot , the short blessings that are spoken every time
2938-684: Is called the Jerusalem Talmud . It was compiled sometime during the 4th century in Palestine. According to critical scholars , the Torah consists of inconsistent texts edited together in a way that calls attention to divergent accounts. Several of these scholars, such as Professor Martin Rose and John Bright , suggest that during the First Temple period the people of Israel believed that each nation had its own god, but that their god
3051-577: Is found in the Merneptah Stele in c. 1209 BCE . The inscription is very brief and says: "Israel is laid waste and his seed is not". The inscription refers to a people , not an individual or nation state , who are located in central Palestine or the highlands of Samaria . Some Egyptologists suggest that Israel appeared in earlier topographical reliefs, dating to the Nineteenth Dynasty (i.e. reign of Ramesses II ) or
3164-463: Is heavily associated with and most often thought of as Orthodox Judaism . 13 Principles of Faith: — Maimonides In the strict sense, in Judaism, unlike Christianity and Islam, there are no fixed universally binding articles of faith, due to their incorporation into the liturgy. Scholars throughout Jewish history have proposed numerous formulations of Judaism's core tenets, all of which have met with criticism. The most popular formulation
3277-726: Is premundane and has no peer or associate; (3) the whole universe is created; (4) God called Moses and the other Prophets of the Biblical canon; (5) the Law of Moses alone is true; (6) to know the language of the Bible is a religious duty; (7) the Temple at Jerusalem is the palace of the world's Ruler; (8) belief in Resurrection contemporaneous with the advent of the Messiah; (9) final judgment; (10) retribution. In modern times, Judaism lacks
3390-606: Is referred to as responsa (Hebrew Sheelot U-Teshuvot ). Over time, as practices develop, codes of halakha are written that are based on the responsa; the most important code, the Shulchan Aruch , largely determines Orthodox religious practice today. Jewish philosophy refers to the conjunction between serious study of philosophy and Jewish theology. Major Jewish philosophers include Philo of Alexandria , Solomon ibn Gabirol , Saadia Gaon , Judah Halevi , Maimonides , and Gersonides . Major changes occurred in response to
3503-600: Is regarded as the first Jewish diaspora . Later, many of them returned to their homeland after the subsequent conquest of Babylon by the Persian Achaemenid Empire seventy years later, an event known as the Return to Zion . A Second Temple was constructed and old religious practices were resumed. During the early years of the Second Temple, the highest religious authority was a council known as
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3616-808: Is represented by later texts, such as the Midrash and the Talmud . The Hebrew-language word torah can mean "teaching", "law", or "instruction", although "Torah" can also be used as a general term that refers to any Jewish text that expands or elaborates on the original Five Books of Moses . Representing the core of the Jewish spiritual and religious tradition, the Torah is a term and a set of teachings that are explicitly self-positioned as encompassing at least seventy, and potentially infinite, facets and interpretations. Judaism's texts, traditions, and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity and Islam . Hebraism , like Hellenism , played
3729-418: Is that halakha should be viewed as a set of general guidelines rather than as a set of restrictions and obligations whose observance is required of all Jews. Historically, special courts enforced halakha ; today, these courts still exist but the practice of Judaism is mostly voluntary. Authority on theological and legal matters is not vested in any one person or organization, but in the sacred texts and
3842-647: The Bible , the Israelites are the descendants of Jacob , a patriarch who was later renamed as Israel. Following a severe drought in Canaan , Jacob and his twelve sons fled to Egypt, where they eventually formed the Twelve Tribes of Israel . The Israelites were later led out of slavery in Egypt by Moses and conquered Canaan under Joshua 's leadership, who was Moses's successor. Most modern scholars agree that
3955-544: The Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodoxy ), 2 Macc. ii. 21: "Those that behaved themselves manfully to their honour for Iudaisme." At its core, the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh is an account of the Israelites ' relationship with God from their earliest history until the building of the Second Temple ( c. 535 BCE ). Abraham is hailed as the first Hebrew and the father of the Jewish people. As
4068-695: The Department of Antiquities under the British Mandate . The well-off Arab Jerusalemite, Husni Shahwan, who owned the land, built a house on top of the mosaic, careful to preserve it. The mosaic floor incorporates Jewish symbols such as the Ark of the Covenant , the Temple Menorah , a shofar and a lulav . There is also a Hebrew inscription, "Peace [up]on Israel" (שלום על ישראל), after which
4181-589: The Eighteenth Dynasty , but this reading remains controversial. In the Hebrew Bible, Israel first appears in Genesis 32:29 , where an angel gives the name to Jacob after the latter fought with him . The folk etymology given in the text derives Israel from yisra , "to prevail over" or "to struggle with", and El , a Canaanite- Mesopotamian creator god that is tenuously identified with Yahweh. However, modern scholarship interprets El as
4294-716: The Enlightenment (late 18th to early 19th century) leading to the post-Enlightenment Jewish philosophers. Modern Jewish philosophy consists of both Orthodox and non-Orthodox oriented philosophy. Notable among Orthodox Jewish philosophers are Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler , Joseph B. Soloveitchik , and Yitzchok Hutner . Well-known non-Orthodox Jewish philosophers include Martin Buber , Franz Rosenzweig , Mordecai Kaplan , Abraham Joshua Heschel , Will Herberg , and Emmanuel Lévinas . 13 Principles of Hermeneutics: — R. Ishmael Orthodox and many other Jews do not believe that
4407-665: The First Intifada broke out and the Israeli authorities confiscated the mosaic, the house and a small part of the farm around it. They offered compensation to the Shahwan family, but that was rejected. After the 1995 Oslo Accords , control of the site was given to the Palestinian Authority (PA). It was agreed that free access to the site would continue and it would be adequately protected. The PA has deployed
4520-683: The First Temple , marking the kingdom's demise. Subsequently, a segment of the Judahite populace was exiled to Babylon in several waves. Judeans were progenitors of the Jews, who practiced Second Temple Judaism during the Second Temple period . With the fall of Babylon to the rising Achaemenid Persian Empire , king Cyrus the Great issued a proclamation known as the Edict of Cyrus , encouraging
4633-737: The Great Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE), the Romans sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple. Later, Roman emperor Hadrian built a pagan idol on the Temple Mount and prohibited circumcision; these acts of ethnocide provoked the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132–136 CE), after which the Romans banned the study of the Torah and the celebration of Jewish holidays, and forcibly removed virtually all Jews from Judea. In 200 CE, however, Jews were granted Roman citizenship and Judaism
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4746-603: The Greco-Roman world , which led to conversions. Several scholars, such as Scot McKnight and Martin Goodman , reject this view while holding that conversions occasionally occurred. A similar diaspora existed for Samaritans but their existence is poorly documented. In 63 BCE, the Roman Republic conquered the kingdom. In 37 BCE, the Romans appointed Herod the Great as king of a vassal Judea . In 6 CE, Judea
4859-515: The Iron Age . The name of Israel first appears in the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt , dated to about 1200 BCE. Modern scholarship considers that the Israelites emerged from groups of indigenous Canaanites and other peoples. They spoke an archaic form of the Hebrew language , which was a regional variety of the Canaanite languages , known today as Biblical Hebrew . In the Iron Age ,
4972-620: The J2 Y-DNA haplogroup, a set of closely-related DNA sequences thought to have originated in the Caucasus or Eastern Anatolia, as well as the T1a and H87 mitochondrial DNA haplogroups, the former of which has also been detected among Canaanites, and the latter in Basques, Tunisian Arabs, and Iraqis, suggesting a Mediterranean, Near Eastern, or perhaps Arabian origin. A 2004 study (by Shen et al.) comparing Samaritans to several Jewish populations (including Ashkenazi Jews , Iraqi Jews , Libyan Jews , Moroccan Jews , and Yemenite Jews ) found that "the principal components analysis suggested
5085-413: The Kohanim and Leviyim (members of the tribe of Levi ), some only to farmers within the Land of Israel. Many laws were only applicable when the Temple in Jerusalem existed, and only 369 of these commandments are still applicable today. While there have been Jewish groups whose beliefs were based on the written text of the Torah alone (e.g., the Sadducees , and the Karaites ), most Jews believe in
5198-622: The Maccabean Revolt and hence the invention of the term iudaismos . Shaye J. D. Cohen writes in his book The Beginnings of Jewishness : We are tempted, of course, to translate [ Ioudaïsmós ] as "Judaism," but this translation is too narrow, because in this first occurrence of the term, Ioudaïsmós has not yet been reduced to the designation of a religion. It means rather "the aggregate of all those characteristics that makes Judaeans Judaean (or Jews Jewish)." Among these characteristics, to be sure, are practices and beliefs that we would today call "religious," but these practices and beliefs are not
5311-434: The Mishnah and Gemara , ישראלי ( Yisraeli ), or Israelite, is used to describe Jews instead of יהודי ( Yehudi ), or Jew. In Samaritanism , Samaritans are not Jews יהודים ( Yehudim ). Instead, they are Israelites, which includes their Jewish brethren, or Israelite Samaritans. The history of the Israelite people can be divided into these categories, according to the Hebrew Bible : Efforts to confirm
5424-433: The Oxford English Dictionary the earliest citation in English where the term was used to mean "the profession or practice of the Jewish religion; the religious system or polity of the Jews" is Robert Fabyan's The newe cronycles of Englande and of Fraunce (1516). "Judaism" as a direct translation of the Latin Iudaismus first occurred in a 1611 English translation of the Biblical apocrypha (the Deuterocanonical books in
5537-417: The Patriarch Abraham as well as the additional aspects of the Covenant revealed to Moses , who is considered Judaism's greatest prophet . In the Mishnah , a core text of Rabbinic Judaism , acceptance of the Divine origins of this covenant is considered an essential aspect of Judaism and those who reject the Covenant forfeit their share in the World to Come . Establishing the core tenets of Judaism in
5650-480: The Philistines , who were of Mycenaean Greek origin. As a result, intermarriage with other Semites was common. But what distinguished Israelite circumcision from non-Israelite circumcision was its emphasis on 'correct' timing. Israelite circumcision also served as a mnemonic sign for the circumcised, where their 'unnatural' erect circumcised penis would remind them to behave differently in sexual matters. Yom-Tov Lipmann-Muhlhausen suggests that Israelite identity
5763-472: The Sea Peoples , particularly the Dan(an)u . Nonetheless, they intermingled with the former nomads, due to socioeconomic and military factors. Their interest in Yahwism and its concern for the underprivileged was another factor. Possible allusions to this historical reality in the Hebrew Bible include the aforementioned tribes, except for Issachar and Zebulun, descending from Bilhah and Zilpah , who were viewed as "secondary additions" to Israel. El worship
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#17327761500475876-427: The Second Temple period , "Israel" included the members of the united monarchy, the northern kingdom, and eschatological Israel. " Jew " (or " Judean ") was another popular ethnonym but it might refer to a geographically restricted sub-group or to the inhabitants of the southern kingdom of Judah. In addition, works such as Ezra-Nehemiah pioneered the idea of an "impermeable" distinction between Israel and gentiles, on
5989-433: The Second Temple period . This event marked a cataclysmic moment in Jewish history, prompting a reconfiguration of Jewish identity and practice to ensure continuity. The cessation of Temple worship and disappearance of Temple-based sects facilitated the rise of Rabbinic Judaism , which stemmed from the Pharisaic school of Second Temple Judaism, emphasizing communal synagogue worship and Torah study , eventually becoming
6102-443: The Torah does not provide an authentic account of the Israelites' origins, and instead view it as constituting their national myth . However, it is supposed that there may be a "historical core" to the narrative. The Bible also portrays the kingdoms of Israel and Judah as the successors of an earlier United Kingdom of Israel , though the historicity of the latter is disputed. Jews and Samaritans both trace their ancestry to
6215-416: The Tribe of Levi . Josephus quoting Manetho identifies them with the Hyksos . Other scholars believe that the Exodus narrative was a " collective memory " of several events from the Bronze Age. In addition, it is unlikely that the Israelites overtook the southern Levant by force, according to archaeological evidence. Instead, they branched out of indigenous Canaanite peoples that long inhabited
6328-403: The death penalty was legislated for these 'secret crimes', they functioned as a warning, where offenders would confess out of fear and make appropriate reparations. The historicity of the United Monarchy is heavily debated among archaeologists and biblical scholars: biblical maximalists and centrists ( Kenneth Kitchen , William G. Dever , Amihai Mazar , Baruch Halpern and others) argue that
6441-426: The halakha whereas its ultimate goal is to bring the holiness down to the world. Mordecai Kaplan , the founder of the Reconstructionist Judaism , abandons the idea of religion for the sake of identifying Judaism with civilization and by means of the latter term and secular translation of the core ideas, he tries to embrace as many Jewish denominations as possible. In turn, Solomon Schechter 's Conservative Judaism
6554-420: The oral law . These oral traditions were transmitted by the Pharisee school of thought of ancient Judaism and were later recorded in written form and expanded upon by the rabbis. According to Rabbinical Jewish tradition, God gave both the Written Law (the Torah ) and the Oral Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai . The Oral law is the oral tradition as relayed by God to Moses and from him, transmitted and taught to
6667-412: The rabbis and scholars who interpret them. Jews are an ethnoreligious group including those born Jewish, in addition to converts to Judaism . In 2021, the world Jewish population was estimated at 15.2 million, or roughly 0.195% of the total world population, although religious observance varies from strict to none. In 2021, about 45.6% of all Jews resided in Israel and another 42.1% resided in
6780-460: The "complexities of the Jewish soul". Names were significant in Israelite culture and indicated one's destiny and inherent character. Thus, a name change indicated a 'divine transformation' in one's 'destines, characters and natures'. These beliefs aligned with the Near Eastern cultural milieu, where names were 'intimately bound up with the very essence of being and inextricably intertwined with personality'. In terms of appearance, rabbis described
6893-407: The "general Southland" (i.e. modern Sinai and the southern parts of Israel and Jordan ), who abandoned their pastoral-nomadic ways. Canaanites who lived outside the central hill country were tenuously identified as Danites, Asherites, Zebulunites, Issacharites, Naphtalites and Gadites. These inhabitants do not have a significant history of migration besides the Danites, who allegedly originate from
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#17327761500477006-431: The Biblical Jews as being "midway between black and white" and having the "color of the boxwood tree". Assuming Yurco 's debated claim that the Israelites are depicted in reliefs from Merneptah 's temple at Karnak is correct, the early Israelites may have wore the same attire and hairstyles as non-Israelite Canaanites. Dissenting from this, Anson Rainey argued that the Israelites in the reliefs looked more similar to
7119-559: The Bronze Age and Iron Age southern Levantines, which included the Israelites and Judahites. They could be "modeled as a mixture of local earlier Neolithic populations and populations from the northeastern part of the Near East (e.g. Zagros Mountains , Caucasians / Armenians and possibly, Hurrians )". Reasons for the continuity include resilience from the Bronze Age collapse , which was mostly true for inland cities such as Tel Megiddo and Tel Abel Beth Maacah . Elsewhere, European -related and East African -related components were added to
7232-415: The Conservative movement. The following is a basic, structured list of the central works of Jewish practice and thought: The basis of halakha and tradition is the Torah (also known as the Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses). According to rabbinic tradition, there are 613 commandments in the Torah. Some of these laws are directed only to men or to women, some only to the ancient priestly groups,
7345-466: The Exodus narrative. Israel's demographics were similar to the demographics of Ammon , Edom , Moab and Phoenicia . Besides their focus on Yahweh worship, Israelite cultural markers were defined by body, food, and time, including male circumcision , avoidance of pork consumption and marking time based on the Exodus, the reigns of Israelite kings , and Sabbath observance . The first two markers were observed by neighboring west Semites besides
7458-433: The Great Assembly, led by Ezra the Scribe . Among other accomplishments of the Great Assembly, the last books of the Bible were written at this time and the canon sealed . Hellenistic Judaism spread to Ptolemaic Egypt from the 3rd century BCE, and its creation sparked widespread controversy in Jewish communities, starting "conflicts within Jewish communities about accommodating the cultures of occupying powers." During
7571-517: The Jews increased and the details were in danger of being forgotten, these oral laws were recorded by Judah ha-Nasi in the Mishnah , redacted c. 200 CE . The Talmud was a compilation of the Mishnah and Gemara , rabbinic commentaries redacted over the next three centuries. The Gemara originated in two major centers of Jewish scholarship, Palestine and Babylonia ( Lower Mesopotamia ). Correspondingly, two bodies of analysis developed, and two works of Talmud were created. The older compilation
7684-439: The Oral Torah, which refers to the Mishnah and the Talmud . Eventually, God led them to the land of Israel where the tabernacle was planted in the city of Shiloh for over 300 years to rally the nation against attacking enemies. As time passed, the nation's spiritual level declined to the point that God allowed the Philistines to capture the tabernacle. The people of Israel then told Samuel that they needed to be governed by
7797-431: The Samaritans identify as "Israel", "B'nai Israel" or "Shamerim/Shomerim" (i.e. "Guardians/Keepers/Watchers"). Towards the end of the same century, the Neo-Babylonian Empire emerged victorious over the Assyrians, leading to Judah's subjugation as a vassal state . In the early 6th century BC, a series of revolts in Judah prompted the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II to lay siege to and destroy Jerusalem along with
7910-545: The Shasu. Based on biblical literature, it is implied that the Israelites distinguished themselves from peoples like the Babylonians and Egyptians by not having long beards and chin tufts. However, these fashion practices were upper class customs. In the 12th century BCE, many Israelite settlements appeared in the central hill country of Canaan, which was formerly an open terrain. These settlements lacked evidence of pork consumption, compared to Philistine settlements, had four-room houses and lived by an egalitarian ethos , which
8023-452: The United States and Canada, with most of the remainder living in Europe, and other groups spread throughout Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Australia. The term Judaism derives from Iudaismus , a Latinized form of the Ancient Greek Ioudaismos ( Koinē Greek : Ἰουδαϊσμός , from the verb ἰουδαΐζειν , "to side with or imitate the [Judeans]"). Its ultimate source was Hebrew : יהודה , romanized : Yehudah Judah ", which
8136-573: The ancient Israelites. Jews trace their ancestry to tribes that inhabited the Kingdom of Judah, including Judah , Benjamin and partially Levi , while the Samaritans claim their lineage from the remaining members of Ephraim , Manasseh , and Levi who were not deported in the Assyrian captivity after the fall of Israel. Other groups have also claimed affiliation with the Israelites . Canaan State of Israel (1948–present) The first reference to Israel in non-biblical sources
8249-453: The authority of the rabbinic tradition , and the significance of the State of Israel . Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah and halakha are divine in origin, eternal and unalterable, and that they should be strictly followed. Conservative and Reform Judaism are more liberal, with Conservative Judaism generally promoting a more traditionalist interpretation of Judaism's requirements than Reform Judaism. A typical Reform position
8362-536: The basis of the Talmud. According to Abraham ben David , the Mishnah was compiled by Rabbi Judah haNasi after the destruction of Jerusalem, in anno mundi 3949, which corresponds to 189 CE. Over the next four centuries, the Mishnah underwent discussion and debate in both of the world's major Jewish communities (in Israel and Babylonia ). The commentaries from each of these communities were eventually compiled into
8475-471: The belief that God is one and is concerned with the actions of mankind. According to the Hebrew Bible, God promised Abraham to make of his offspring a great nation. Many generations later, he commanded the nation of Israel to love and worship only one God; that is, the Jewish nation is to reciprocate God's concern for the world. He also commanded the Jewish people to love one another; that is, Jews are to imitate God's love for people. Thus, although there
8588-404: The biblical account is more or less accurate, while biblical minimalists ( Israel Finkelstein , Ze'ev Herzog , Thomas L. Thompson and others) argue that Israel and Judah never split from a singular state. The debate has not been resolved, but recent archaeological discoveries by Eilat Mazar and Yosef Garfinkel show some support for the existence of the United Monarchy. From 850 BCE onwards,
8701-473: The biblical ethnogenesis of Israel through archaeology have largely been abandoned as unproductive. Many scholars see the traditional narratives as national myths with little historical value, but some posit that a small group of exiled Egyptians contributed to the Exodus narrative. William G. Dever cautiously identifies this group with the Tribe of Joseph , while Richard Elliott Friedman identifies it with
8814-430: The disappearance of Israelite tribes from Galilee and Transjordan, it's plausible that many Israelites from Samaria survived and remained in the region. These survivors, contrary to Jewish tradition, are believed to have become the ancestors of the Samaritans, who followed Samaritanism . Research indicates that only a portion of this population intermarried with Mesopotamians settlers. In their native Samaritan Hebrew ,
8927-462: The establishment of the authority of rabbis who acted as teachers and leaders of individual communities. Unlike other ancient Near Eastern gods, the Hebrew God is portrayed as unitary and solitary; consequently, the Hebrew God's principal relationships are not with other gods, but with the world, and more specifically, with the people he created. Judaism thus begins with ethical monotheism :
9040-627: The exiles to return to their homeland after the Persians raised it as an autonomous Jewish-governed province named Yehud . Under the Persians ( c. 539–332 BCE ), the returned Jewish population restored the city and rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem. The Cyrus Cylinder is controversially cited as evidence for Cyrus allowing the Judeans to return. The returnees showed a "heightened sense" of their ethnic identity and shunned exogamy , which
9153-476: The interpretations that gave rise to Christianity. Moreover, some have argued that Judaism is a non-creedal religion that does not require one to believe in God. For some, observance of halakha is more important than belief in God per se . The debate about whether one can speak of authentic or normative Judaism is not only a debate among religious Jews but also among historians. In continental Europe , Judaism
9266-611: The kingdoms of Israel and Judah emerged. The Kingdom of Israel , with its capital at Samaria , fell to the Neo-Assyrian Empire around 720 BCE; while the Kingdom of Judah , with its capital at Jerusalem , was destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE. Some of the Judean population was exiled to Babylon , but returned to Israel after Cyrus the Great conquered the region. According to
9379-504: The modern era is even more difficult, given the number and diversity of the contemporary Jewish denominations . Even if to restrict the problem to the most influential intellectual trends of the nineteenth and twentieth century, the matter remains complicated. Thus, for instance, Joseph Soloveitchik's (associated with the Modern Orthodox movement ) answer to modernity is constituted upon the identification of Judaism with following
9492-409: The months after the war, Moshe Dayan thanked Mohammed, the son of Husni Shahwan, for the way the family had managed to protect the synagogue remains, which counted among the better preserved in the country. Mohammed Shahwan, who had just lost the bank he had owned due to the war, placed a guard over the mosaic floor and started charging a modest admission fee from visitors for the years until 1987, when
9605-485: The mosaic was named. The phrase "Peace on Israel" has been widely used on Jewish and sometimes Samaritan synagogue floors from the Byzantine and, in one known case, Early Muslim period. After the 1967 Six-Day War , the site came under Israeli military control and remained under the responsibility of the owners, the Shahwan family. Tourists began visiting the site, as did religious Jews who came regularly for prayers. In
9718-489: The next few centuries. Later, two poetic restatements of these principles (" Ani Ma'amin " and " Yigdal ") became integrated into many Jewish liturgies, leading to their eventual near-universal acceptance. The oldest non-Rabbinic instance of articles of faith were formulated, under Islamic influence, by the 12th century Karaite figure Judah ben Elijah Hadassi : (1) God is the Creator of all created beings; (2) He
9831-469: The norm. In addition, royal inscriptions were scarce, along with imported and decorated pottery. The Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire around 720 BCE . The records of Sargon II of Assyria indicate that he deported part of the population to Assyria. This deportation became the basis for the Jewish idea of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel . Some Israelites migrated to
9944-436: The origins of historical Israelites. Some believe they descended from raiding groups, itinerant nomads such as Habiru and Shasu or impoverished Canaanites, who were forced to leave wealthy urban areas and live in the highlands. The prevailing academic opinion is that the Israelites were a mixture of peoples predominately indigenous to Canaan, with additional input from an Egyptian matrix of peoples, which most likely inspired
10057-595: The predominant expression of Judaism. Concurrently, Christianity began to diverge from Judaism, evolving into a predominantly Gentile religion. Decades later, the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 CE) further diminished the Jewish presence in Judea , leading to a geographical shift of Jewish life to Galilee and Babylonia , with smaller communities scattered across the Mediterranean . Jews and Samaritans share
10170-528: The region, which included Syria , ancient Israel , and the Transjordan region . Their culture was monolatristic , with a primary focus on Yahweh (or El) worship, but after the Babylonian exile, it became monotheistic , with partial influence from Zoroastrianism . The latter decisively separated the Israelites from other Canaanites. The Israelites used the Canaanite script and communicated in
10283-509: The revealed Torah consists solely of its written contents, but of its interpretations as well. The study of Torah (in its widest sense, to include both poetry, narrative, and law, and both the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud) is in Judaism itself a sacred act of central importance. For the sages of the Mishnah and Talmud, and for their successors today, the study of Torah was therefore not merely
10396-431: The sages ( rabbinic leaders) of each subsequent generation. For centuries, the Torah appeared only as a written text transmitted in parallel with the oral tradition. Fearing that the oral teachings might be forgotten, Rabbi Judah haNasi undertook the mission of consolidating the various opinions into one body of law which became known as the Mishnah . The Mishnah consists of 63 tractates codifying halakha , which are
10509-419: The shedding of blood. The Birkat Ha-Mitzwot evokes the consciousness of holiness at a rabbinic rite, but the objects employed in the majority of these rites are non-holy and of general character, while the several holy objects are non-theurgic. And not only do ordinary things and occurrences bring with them the experience of God. Everything that happens to a man evokes that experience, evil as well as good, for
10622-584: The sole content of the term. Thus Ioudaïsmós should be translated not as "Judaism" but as Judaeanness. Daniel R. Schwartz, however, argues that "Judaism", especially in the context of the Book of Maccabees, refers to the religion, as opposed to the culture and politics of the Judean state. He believes it reflected the ideological divide between the Pharisees and Sadducees and, implicitly, anti-Hasmonean and pro-Hasmonean factions in Judean society. According to
10735-537: The southern kingdom of Judah, while those Israelites that remained in Samaria, concentrated mainly around Mount Gerizim , came to be known as Samaritans . Foreign groups were also settled by the Assyrians in the territories of the conquered kingdom. The exiled Israelites from non-Judean regions faced assimilation into the Assyrian population, unlike their counterparts from Judea. While historical records indicate
10848-464: The subject, "El rules/struggles", from sarar ( שָׂרַר ) 'to rule' (cognate with sar ( שַׂר ) 'ruler', Akkadian šarru 'ruler, king' ), which is likely cognate with the similar root sara ( שׂרה ) "fought, strove, contended". Afterwards, Israel referred to the direct descendants of Jacob and gentiles (i.e. resident aliens ) who assimilated in the Israelite community. Hebrew
10961-638: The two Talmuds, the Jerusalem Talmud ( Talmud Yerushalmi ) and the Babylonian Talmud ( Talmud Bavli ). These have been further expounded by commentaries of various Torah scholars during the ages. In the text of the Torah, many words are left undefined, and many procedures are mentioned without explanation or instructions. Such phenomena are sometimes offered to validate the viewpoint that the Written Law has always been transmitted with
11074-593: The workaday world. ... Here is the mystery of Talmudic Judaism: the alien and remote conviction that the intellect is an instrument not of unbelief and desacralization but of sanctification. To study the Written Torah and the Oral Torah in light of each other is thus also to study how to study the word of God. Israelites The Israelites were a Hebrew -speaking ethnoreligious group consisting of tribes that inhabited much of Canaan during
11187-531: Was an independent socio-political entity for most of the 9th century BCE. Avraham Faust argues that there was continued adherence to the 'ethos of egalitarianism and simplicity' in the Iron Age II (10th-6th century BCE). For example, there is minimal evidence of temples and complex tomb burials, despite Israel and Judah being more densely populated than the Late Bronze Age. Four-room houses remained
11300-837: Was based on faith and adherence to sex-appropriate commandments. For men, it was circumcision. For women, it was ritual sacrifice after childbirth ( Leviticus 12:6 ). Genealogy was another ethnic marker. It was a matter of cultural self-identity rather than biological descent. For example, foreign clans could adopt the identity of other clans, which subsequently changed their status from "outsider" to "insider". This applied to Israelites from different tribes and gentiles. Saul Oylan argued that foreigners automatically became Israelite if they lived in their territory, according to Ezekiel 47:21–23 . That said, Israelites used genealogy to engage in narcissism of small differences but also, self-criticism since their ancestors included morally questionable characters such as Jacob. Both these traits represented
11413-539: Was centered on a pantheon of gods much like in Greek mythology . According to the Hebrew Bible , a United Monarchy was established under Saul and continued under King David and Solomon with its capital in Jerusalem . After Solomon's reign, the nation split into two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Israel (in the north) and the Kingdom of Judah (in the south). The Kingdom of Israel was destroyed around 720 BCE, when it
11526-552: Was central to early Israelite culture but currently, the number of El worshippers in Israel is unknown. It is more likely that different Israelite locales held different views about El and had 'small-scale' sacred spaces . Himbaza et al. (2012) states that Israelite households were typically ill-equipped to handle conflicts between family members, which may explain the harsh sexual taboos enforced against acts like incest , homosexuality , polygamy etc. in Leviticus 18–20 . Whilst
11639-713: Was challenged by various groups such as the Sadducees and Hellenistic Judaism during the Second Temple period ; the Karaites during the early and later medieval period; and among segments of the modern non-Orthodox denominations. Some modern branches of Judaism such as Humanistic Judaism may be considered secular or nontheistic . Today, the largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism ( Haredi and Modern Orthodox ), Conservative Judaism , and Reform Judaism . Major sources of difference between these groups are their approaches to halakha (Jewish law),
11752-514: Was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire ; many people were taken captive from the capital Samaria to Media and the Khabur River valley. The Kingdom of Judah continued as an independent state until it was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE. The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the First Temple , which was at the center of ancient Jewish worship. The Judeans were exiled to Babylon , in what
11865-599: Was criticized by Hasdai Crescas and Joseph Albo . Albo and the Raavad argued that Maimonides' principles contained too many items that, while true, were not fundamentals of the faith Along these lines, the ancient historian Josephus emphasized practices and observances rather than religious beliefs, associating apostasy with a failure to observe halakha and maintaining that the requirements for conversion to Judaism included circumcision and adherence to traditional customs. Maimonides' principles were largely ignored over
11978-461: Was exemplified by the absence of elaborate tombs, governor's mansions, certain houses being bigger than others etc. They followed a mixed economy , which prioritized self-sufficiency , cultivation of crops , animal husbandry and small-scale craft production . New technologies such as terraced farming , silos for grain storage and cisterns for rainwater collection were simultaneously introduced. These settlements were built by inhabitants of
12091-673: Was fully incorporated into the Roman Empire as the province of Judaea . During this period, the main areas of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel were Judea, Galilee and Perea , while the Samaritans had their demographic center in Samaria . Growing dissatisfaction with Roman rule and civil disturbances eventually led to the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), resulting in the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple, which ended
12204-455: Was identical with the tradition understood as the interpretation of Torah, in itself being the history of the constant updates and adjustment of the Law performed by means of the creative interpretation. Finally, David Philipson draws the outlines of the Reform movement in Judaism by opposing it to the strict and traditional rabbinical approach and thus comes to the conclusions similar to that of
12317-681: Was open to visits, including by Israeli Jews, after the synagogue was restored by the Municipality of Jericho. Such visits, coordinated between the local Palestinian authorities and the Israel Defense Forces , were initially allowed once every month, in order to conduct prayer services. Since July 2007, Jewish prayer services in the Jericho synagogue have been allowed once every week. Judaism Judaism ( Hebrew : יַהֲדוּת , romanized : Yahăḏūṯ )
12430-410: Was recognized as a religio licita ("legitimate religion") until the rise of Gnosticism and Early Christianity in the fourth century. Following the destruction of Jerusalem and the expulsion of the Jews, Jewish worship stopped being centrally organized around the Temple, prayer took the place of sacrifice, and worship was rebuilt around the community (represented by a minimum of ten adult men) and
12543-464: Was rooted in the culture of the Kingdom of Israel, who introduced it to the Kingdom of Judah via Ahab 's expansions and sociopolitical cooperation, which was prompted by Hazael 's conquests. Frevel has also argued that Judah was a 'vassal-like' state to Israel, under the Omrides . This theory has been rejected by other scholars, who argue that the archaeological evidence seems to indicate that Judah
12656-627: Was superior to other gods. Some suggest that strict monotheism developed during the Babylonian Exile, perhaps in reaction to Zoroastrian dualism. In this view, it was only by the Hellenistic period that most Jews came to believe that their god was the only god and that the notion of a bounded Jewish nation identical with the Jewish religion formed. John Day argues that the origins of biblical Yahweh , El , Asherah , and Ba'al , may be rooted in earlier Canaanite religion , which
12769-759: Was treated as a "permissive reality" in Babylon. Circumcision was no longer a significant ethnic marker, with increased emphasis on genealogical descent or faith in Yahweh. In 332 BCE, the Achaemenid Empire fell to Alexander the Great , and the region was later incorporated into the Ptolemaic Kingdom ( c. 301–200 BCE ) and the Seleucid Empire ( c. 200–167 BCE ). The Maccabean Revolt against Seleucid rule ushered in
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