Reading: Judaism

Judaism

After their Exodus from Egypt in the thirteenth century B.C.E., Jews, a nomadic society, became monotheistic, worshipping only one God. The Jews’ covenant, or promise of a special relationship with Yahweh (God), is an important element of Judaism, and their sacred text is the Torah, which Christians also follow as the first five books of the Bible. Talmud refers to a collection of sacred Jewish oral interpretation of the Torah. Jews emphasize moral behavior and action in this world as opposed to beliefs or personal salvation in the next world.

Key Takeaways

For a primer on Judaism, visit the  Judaism 101 website.


Practice

1. Many stories in the sacred text of Judaism are:
  1. referred to as the Apocrypha
  2. oral traditions only because Judaism has no sacred text
  3. shared by Christianity and Islam
  4. no longer part of the Torah