judaism origin summary

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History Cooperative

Origins of Judaism: The History of Judaism and How Old Is Judaism?

The origins of Judaism can be traced back to ancient times and the region of the Middle East known as Canaan (present-day Israel and Palestine). Judaism is considered one of the oldest monotheistic religions, with its roots dating back over 3,000 years.

According to Jewish tradition and biblical accounts, Judaism was founded by the patriarch Abraham around 1800 BCE. However, it is important to note that the historical origins of Judaism are complex and are still subject to research and interpretation.

Table of Contents

What are the Origins of Judaism?

Current studies show that the origins of Judaism lie even further back than the actual religion itself, to Bronze Age civilizations and various ancient, polytheistic Semitic religions. Thus, there is Judaism that began with Abraham and his children. And there is also a precursor to the modern religion that coexisted with various Babylonian religions.

When Was Judaism Founded?

Officially, according to the Torah, Judaism began with Abraham, the first Jew. It is almost impossible to put a date to this man’s life. Nowhere in the holy books is any specific date mentioned and historically such a man may never have lived. It may have been around 1800 BCE, which would make Judaism over 4000 years old. The religion is, in reality, older. It separated from Yahwinism, its precursor, in the 5th or 6th century BCE. However, Jewish people did not really call themselves Jews until about 500 BCE.

What Was the Precursor to Judaism?

At some point in antiquity, Judaism as we know it today broke away from an older faith called Yahwism. The roots of both lie in the Bronze Age religions of the Middle East (also known as the Cradle of Civilization ), specifically Ancient Canaanite polytheism. Yahwism believed in a plethora of gods and goddesses, like most ancient religions. However, the central god was Yahweh, the national god of the Israelite kingdoms of Israel (known then as Samaria) and Judah. These two Iron Age kingdoms first rose up around the 9th century BCE.

READ MORE: Ancient Civilizations Timeline: The Complete List from Aboriginals to Incans

Yahwism gradually began to suppress the worship of the other Canaanite gods. They still believed in the existence of the other gods but they were not considered as important. Yahwism practiced various private and public rituals, including sacrifices and vow-making. All the neighboring Canaanite kingdoms had their own national god and his consort, which was Yahweh and Asherah in the case of Israel and Judah. They ruled over a pantheon of other lesser gods. By the 5th or 6th centuries BCE, however, Yahweh had absorbed all the positive qualities of the other gods and a movement had started to worship Yahweh alone. This was essentially the birth of Judaism as a monotheistic religion.

READ MORE: Pagan Gods from Across the Ancient World

Scholars believe that the reason for this shift may have been the Assyrian conquest. Both Israel and Judah were vassal states of Assyria. When Israel rose up in rebellion and was vanquished, many refugees fled to Judah. There, they brought the belief that Yahweh was not only the most important god but the sole god that should be worshiped. The elite in Judah took up this belief and raised the child-king Josiah, who reigned from 641 to 609 BCE, in opposition to the Assyrian Empire and with loyalty to Yahweh. Under his reign, the belief in the sole god Yahweh became more popular. This view was cemented in the 5th century.

However, other kinds of Judaism also emerged around this time . This includes Hellenistic Judaism and Second Temple Judaism, which has certain similarities with Zoroastrianism. Another religion that broke away from Yahwism is Samaritanism.

Who Was the ‘Founder’ of Judaism?

The Torah says that the first Jew, who is the common ancestor of the Jewish people, is Abraham. He is also the common Hebrew patriarch for the religions of Islam and Christianity. Thus, the reason all three are called Abrahamical faiths. As such, we can say that Abraham was the founder of Judaism as well as the physical and spiritual ancestor of the Jewish people. Jews themselves do not really call Abraham the founder of their religion in the way Christianity regards Christ or Islam regards Prophet Muhammad.

READ MORE: How Did Christianity Spread: Origins, Expansion, and Impact

It is said that the one God revealed himself to Abraham and made a special covenant with him. He and his descendants were the chosen people who would create a great kingdom. They were called upon by God to leave their home and settle in the land of Canaan, the promised land.

Abraham and his wife Sarah had a son called Isaac when Abraham was a hundred years old and Sarah ninety, even though Sarah had been barren all those years. God proclaimed that Abraham’s descendants through Isaac would rule over many lands. This is why his name was changed from the original ‘Abram’ to ‘Abraham,’ meaning ‘father of many nations.’

Isaac married a woman named Rebekah and had twins, Jacob and Esau. Abraham lived to witness their birth. Abraham’s son Isaac and grandson Jacob are also immensely important to ancient Jewish history. Jacob ultimately took on the name Israel and his descendants came to be known as Israelites. He had twelve children with various women, who all went on to head an important family. These were the Twelve Tribes of Israel.

The Ancient Israelites

We cannot speak of Jewish history without referencing the ancient Israelites. Who were the ancient Israelites? They were the people who lived around the area that is modern Israel – also known as the promised land – before 1000 BCE. This area also used to be called the ancient Levant or ancient Canaan. The Israelites believed they were the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But it is more likely that they were simply a cultural and linguistic homogenous group of people.

The story of the Exodus and liberation from Egyptian enslavement is something that binds the Jewish people even closer together. The story goes that ancient Israel was suffering from great droughts. Thus, the ancient Israelites went down to ancient Egypt in search of sustenance. They were a minority in the Egyptian population and were enslaved by the Egyptian pharaohs . However, God intervened through the prophet Moses. He sent down the plagues to trouble the Egyptians and Moses led the Israelites away from Egypt.

The Israelites, being freed from slavery, journeyed through the wildernesses of Egypt and Canaan. Moses led them across the Red Sea and when they reached Mount Sinai, they received divine instruction from God there – the ten commandments. Ultimately, they reached the promised land once again. This was the area where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had resided generations ago.

Whether the Exodus from Egypt actually happened or not, it left the Israelites from 1000 BCE with a powerful feeling of bonding and community. They were personally invested in that history. The story of the liberation from Egypt gave them a powerful feeling of patriotism and it bound them together as one people.

The Golden Period

The ‘Golden Period’ of ancient Israel is the years between 1010 and 931 BCE. This was the era in which King David and King Solomon ruled. The former is believed to have built the city of Jerusalem at the center of ancient Israel. King Solomon is believed to have constructed the first great temple in 957 BCE. It is safe to say that the so-called golden age only lasted for a very short time before the Assyrian Empire conquered them.

Of the twelve tribes, the northern ten tribes made up Israel and the two southern tribes made up the tiny kingdom of Judea. Although the latter survived the conquest of the Assyrian Empire, they received a severe blow when the Empire of Babylon conquered it. This could have been the end of the Jewish religion since the Babylonians were in the habit of destroying the cultures of the places they invaded and conquered. However, many Jews fled to different parts of the Middle East and Egypt. This led to the beginning of the Jewish diaspora.

While the Israelite religion is not exactly the Jewish religion that is practiced in the modern day, it still has many similarities with it. The history of the ancient Jewish people is the story of a small group of people, surrounded by larger and more powerful parties, trying to hold on to their identity despite that. They were a monotheistic people with a very fervent belief in their one God which helped them preserve their identity, culture, and religion in the face of all the polytheistic religions they were surrounded by.

The Persian Empire and Judea

The Babylonian Empire didn’t last long beyond their conquest of Judea. The Babylonians were soon defeated and conquered by the Persians, who had very different policies about the people they conquered. They did not believe in exiling elites and wiping out local cultures. Rather, they wanted to ensure peace by restoring people to their homelands and letting them live by their ancestral laws. They even helped them rebuild their temples.

For this reason, the Persian Emperor Cyrus is extremely important to the Jewish people. He allowed the many Jews who had fled to return to Judea. The Israelites were henceforth known as Judeans (and later Jews) by everyone else. They still refer to themselves as the descendants of Israel however. This period of Persian rule is when the Torah, which had been passed down orally till then, was written down.

After this came the Greeks and the invasion of Alexander. That had a huge impact on the Jews, just as it did on the rest of the ancient world. Many Jews ended up joining his armies and traveling with him to various parts of the world. Everywhere that Alexander established a city (always called Alexandria) he gave people land grants to settle there. Thus, Jews settled all over the Hellenistic Empire.

READ MORE: The Lighthouse of Alexandria: One of the Seven Wonders

Persecution of Jews

Jewish history has been riddled with persecution at the hands of more powerful forces. The ancient Greeks and Romans looked upon the Jews and their worship of a single god with suspicion. But while the Greeks contented themselves with some anti-Jewish writings, this changed with the Roman Conquest. As the Romans began to take away the privileges of the Greek elite, the Greeks began to focus their anger on the Jews instead of on Roman imperialism.

This was especially true in Egypt, where tensions were brewing between all the different factions that lived there. The Roman conquerors saw the inhabitants of the conquered territories as either Romans or non-Romans. The Greek immigrants in various territories, who had become used to being treated as superior, were enraged at having their ‘rights’ taken away. In Alexandria alone, the Romans compromised that the Greeks and Jews could retain their privileges. In the rural areas, they were classified as foreigners and had all their privileges wiped away.

The Greeks did not think it fair that the Jews should be included in this compromise. They saw them as being lawless and uncivilized. They even accused them of hating God and having secret rituals where they cannibalized other humans. They accused the Romans of taking away privileges from the Greeks and giving them to Jews instead. The local people of Egypt, resentful of all outsiders, also bought into this false narrative and became increasingly anti-Jewish as well.

This ended in the destruction of the Jewish community in Egypt. Attacks, riots, and mobs became more and more common in the Jewish quarter through the first century CE. The Romans took away their land and the entire Jewish population in Egypt was gradually eliminated.

The Breaking Off of Christianity

And then came Christianity. Even though Jesus himself and his teachings and followers were Jewish, his death came at the hands of the Jewish priests in Jerusalem. Believing Jews then refused to see Jesus as a Messiah. How could the Messiah have died? Thus, the movement around Jesus, after his death, was mostly formed of non-Jews or ex-pagans.

Christianity separated from Judaism by claiming Christianity as a replacement for Judaism. The leaders claimed that the Jews were reading their scriptures wrong and the Christians were the true Israelites. They claimed the Jews were blind and ignorant. When the Roman Empire conquered Judea and destroyed the Temple, the Christians took this as further confirmation of their beliefs.

The Christian and Jewish populations of those lands continued to fight for years afterward. As Christianity continued to expand and became the biggest religion in the world, anti-Jewish feelings became more and more common. Medieval Europe, dominated by the Catholic Church as it was, was especially notorious for anti-Jewish violence. They have been seen as the ‘others’ and as outsiders throughout history. This made them a convenient target for political leaders. It wasn’t even about their religion so much as it was the fact that their way of life did not fit in with the rest of society.

Jewish Holy Books

Judaism has several holy books, although the Torah is the most important of them all. The Torah is a part of the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) and that is the sacred text of the Jewish people. The Tanakh is the collection of Hebrew scriptures and the Nevi’im and the Ketuvim as well as the Torah. The stories in the Tanakh are not dissimilar to the Christian Old Testament. The Tanakh contains the history of the Jewish people, poetry, hymns, prophetic and wisdom literature, and mythological allusions.

There are, however, other texts that were written later. In 200 CE, scholars compiled the Mishnah. It was a text that described and explained the Jewish code of law. These had previously been orally passed down through generations. The Talmud was a text that was created even later, containing the Mishnah and another text called Gemara, which examines the Mishnah. It is a collection of the interpretations of hundreds of rabbis. The first version was completed in the 3rd century CE and the second version in the 5th century CE.

The earliest Jewish prayer book can be traced back to the 9th century CE. The Haggadah (the service book for Passover Eve) was originally a part of the prayer book. However, in the 13th century CE, it became a book in its own right. The Haggadah is very often illustrated.

The most important Jewish sacred text, the Torah contains the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. While it contains some of the same stories as the Old Testament, the stories are not in the same order. It has the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

Torah is often used to refer to the totality of teachings relating to Jewish religious beliefs and Jewish life. But essentially, it consists of the origins of the Jewish people: their existence due to the call of God, the difficulties they faced, and their covenant with God. The book is extremely important in Rabbinic traditions as it is believed to contain all the teachings that God gave Moses for the Jewish people.

Traditionally, the words of the Torah are written in Hebrew on a scroll by a scribe. Portions of the Torah are read publicly once in three days in front of a large group of people. Jewish communal life is incomplete without these public readings.

Jewish Temples

King David ruled over Israel and Judea around 1000 BCE. His son, Solomon, was the one who built the first holy Temple in Jerusalem. This was the center of worship for the Jews until the kingdom fell apart because of Assyrian invasions. It was in 587 BCE that the Babylonians destroyed the first temple and sent many of the Jewish people into exile.

A second temple was built after the fall of Babylonia and the return of the Jews under the Persian Empire. However, this too was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. After this, the Jews had no central place to all worship together and began to patronize local synagogues instead.

Rabbinic Judaism

For centuries, the common narrative was that Judaism had come before Christianity and the latter had broken away after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. However, scholars and historians, from the latter half of the 20th century, began to argue that the actual history of the two religions was slightly more complicated than that.

There were many Jewish sects in the 1st century CE, all existing in competition with each other. The most notable of these sects were the Pharisees and the Sadducees, although there were also many smaller sects. Modern scholars argue that the sect that developed into Rabbinical Judaism and the sect that eventually became Early Christianity were just two of these many sects. Thus, it was not an evolution and a separation. Rather, the two religions developed in parallel to each other. Modern Judaism and Christianity as we know it did not yet exist during the 1st century.

The nascent Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity during these times had a great deal of interaction with each other. They were intimately entwined and connected, which is why there are so many similarities in their holy texts, their ways of worship, and their belief systems. It was only after the final codifying and writing down of the laws in the 6th century that the final break between the two religions occurred. Thus ended the foundational era of Rabbinic Judaism and the modern Jewish traditions were firmly established.

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6.2: History of Judaism

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Judaism is the religion, philosophy and way of life of the Jewish people. Judaism is a monotheistic religion originating in the Hebrew Bible (also known as the Tanakh ) and explored in later texts, such as the Talmud . Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the covenantal relationship God established with the Children of Israel.

Judaism claims a historical continuity spanning more than 3,000 years. Judaism has its roots as a structured religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Of the major world religions, Judaism is considered one of the oldest monotheistic religions. The Hebrews / Israelites were already referred to as “Jews” in later books of the Tanakh such as the Book of Esther, with the term Jews replacing the title “Children of Israel”. Judaism’s texts, traditions and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity, Islam and the Baha’i Faith. Many aspects of Judaism have also directly or indirectly influenced secular Western ethics and civil law.

Jews are an ethnoreligious group and include those born Jewish and converts to Judaism. In 2010, the world Jewish population was estimated at 13.4 million, or roughly 0.2&percnt; of the total world population. About 42&percnt; of all Jews reside in Israel and about 42% reside in the United States and Canada, with most of the remainder living in Europe. The largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox, Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism. (35)

At its core, the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) 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 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, Jacob and his children were enslaved in Egypt, and God commanded Moses to lead the Exodus from Egypt.

At Mount Sinai they received the Torah — the five books of Moses . These books, together with Nevi’im and Ketuvim are known as Tanakh, as opposed to the Oral Torah, which refers to the Mishna 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 went on, the spiritual level of the nation declined to the point that God allowed the Philistines to capture the tabernacle. The people of Israel then told the prophet Samuel that they needed to be governed by a permanent king, and Samuel appointed Saul to be their 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.

The 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 conquered by the Assyrian ruler Sargon II in the late 8th century BCE, with many people from the capital Samaria being taken captive to Media and the Khabur River valley.

The Kingdom of Judah continued as an independent state until it was conquered by a Babylonian army in the early 6th century BCE, destroying the First Temple that was at the center of ancient Jewish worship. The Judean elite were exiled to Babylonia and this is regarded as the First Jewish Diaspora . Later many of them returned to their homeland after the subsequent conquest of Babylonia by the Persians seventy years later, a period known as the Babylonian Captivity. A new 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 the Great Assembly, led by Ezra of the Book of Ezra. 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. After the Great Revolt (66–73 CE), the Romans destroyed the Temple. Hadrian built a pagan idol on the Temple grounds 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. This became known as the Second Jewish Diaspora . In 200 CE, however, Jews were granted Roman citizenship and Judaism 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 the establishment of the authority of rabbis who acted as teachers and leaders of individual communities.

Historical Jewish Groupings (to 1700)

Around the 1st century CE there were several small Jewish sects: the Pharisees , Sadducees , Zealots , Essenes , and Christians . After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, these sects vanished.

Christianity survived, but by breaking with Judaism and becoming a separate religion.
The Pharisees survived but in the form of Rabbinic Judaism (today, known simply as “Judaism”).
The Sadducees rejected the divine inspiration of the Prophets and the Writings, relying only on the Torah as divinely inspired. Consequently, a number of other core tenets of the Pharisees’ belief system (which became the basis for modern Judaism), were also dismissed by the Sadducees.
The Samaritans practiced a similar religion, which is traditionally considered separate from Judaism.

Like the Sadducees who relied only on the Torah, some Jews in the 8th and 9th centuries rejected the authority and divine inspiration of the oral law as recorded in the Mishnah (and developed by later rabbis in the two Talmuds), relying instead only upon the Tanakh.

Map highlights a rough geographic correspondence to Jewish ethnic divisions. Largest populations of distinct ethnic groups are identified in text.

Over a long time, Jews formed distinct ethnic groups in several different geographic areas — amongst others, the Ashkenazi Jews (of central and Eastern Europe), the Sephardi Jews (of Spain, Portugal, and North Africa), the Beta Israel of Ethiopia , and the Yemenite Jews from the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Many of these groups have developed differences in their prayers, traditions and accepted canons; however these distinctions are mainly the result of their being formed at some cultural distance from normative (rabbinic) Judaism, rather than based on any doctrinal dispute.

Persecutions

Antisemitism arose during the Middle Ages, in the form of persecutions, pogroms, forced conversion, expulsions, social restrictions and ghettoization. This was different in quality to any repressions of Jews in ancient times. Ancient repression was politically motivated and Jews were treated no differently than any other ethnic group would have been. With the rise of the Churches, attacks on Jews became motivated instead by theological considerations specifically deriving from Christian views about Jews and Judaism. (35)

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Judaism. Authored by : Wikipedia for Schools. Located at : en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike

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BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

The origins of judaism.

When did the laws of the Torah become the norm?

Public ritual bath from the Herodian fortress at Masada, and the origins of Judaism. The massive emergence of similar pools across Judea, in accordance with the purity laws of the Torah, corresponds with the origins of Judaism in the mid-second century BCE. Photo by Talmoryair, CC BY 3.0 .

Where can we situate the origins of Judaism? If we were able to travel back in time, would we find ancient Israelites and Judeans following the laws of the Torah during the First Temple period? Almost certainly not, claims Yonatan Adler in his recent scholarly book and a popular article that was just published in the Winter 2022 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review . So, what about during the Babylonian Exile (sixth century BCE), which is when many biblical scholars date the completion of the Torah? In his article “ The Genesis of Judaism ,” Adler asserts that even at this later date, most ordinary Judeans were not yet following the laws of the Torah. What does this mean for the origins of Judaism?

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The Genesis of Judaism

For millennia, Jewish identity has been closely associated with observance of the laws of the Torah . The biblical books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus give numerous prohibitions and commandments that regulate different aspects of Jewish life—from prayers and religious rituals to agriculture to dietary prescriptions and ritual bathing. It stands to reason that the moment when people in ancient Judea recognized these laws as authoritative would mark the origins of Judaism.

As Adler discusses, however, even the Bible itself presents a somewhat different picture:

Ancient Israelite society is never portrayed as keeping the laws of the Torah. The Israelites during the time of the First Temple are never said to refrain from eating pork or shrimp, from doing this or that on the Sabbath, or from wearing mixtures of linen and wool. … Nor is anybody ever said to wear fringes on their clothing, to don tefillin on their arm and head, or to have an inscribed mezuzah on the doorposts of their homes. Whatever it is that the biblical Israelites are doing, they do not seem to be practicing Judaism!

So, when can we date the actual origins of Judaism? Or, as Yonatan Adler puts it: “When did ancient Judeans, as a society, first begin to observe the laws of the Torah in their daily lives?” To answer this question, Adler looks at the archaeological evidence for widespread observance of the laws of the Torah. He suggests that our inquiry begin in the first century CE, where we have plenty of evidence. He then goes backward in time, until he reaches a point when we can no longer see material traces of typical Jewish religious and ritual practices.

The Judean community on Elephantine, in southern Egypt, produced a wealth of documents in Aramaic, including this adoption contract from October 22, 416 BCE. They provide clues also about observance (or not observance) of the laws of the Torah. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of Theodora Wilbour, from the collection of her father, Charles Edwin Wilbour.

In particular, Adler traces archaeological imprints of the biblical laws addressing dietary prohibitions, ritual purity, graven images, tefillin and mezuzot , and Sabbath observance. In every instance, the trail of archaeological evidence ends in the mid-second century BCE—moving the origins of Judaism several centuries later than even the most critical scholars previously thought.

Surprisingly, textual sources from Babylon and Egypt, including this letter from the island of Elephantine, reveal that fifth-century BCE Judeans did not celebrate Passover at a set date, were not aware of a seven-day week or the Sabbath prohibitions, and that they sometimes prayed to deities other than Yahweh.

Widespread observance of the ritual purity laws , as attested through ritual baths (later known as mikva’ot ) and the use chalk vessels, is strong in the first century BCE but gradually disappears as we look further back in time past the late second century BCE.

When it comes to the biblical command against graven images (Deuteronomy 5:8), we can see that during the Persian period even the high priests were issuing coins with depictions of human and animal figures. The pictured silver coin from around 350 BCE bears, on its obverse, a crude depiction of a human head. The reverse features a standing owl with the feathers of the head forming a beaded circle. The Hebrew inscription reads “Hezekiah the governor,” referring to the governor of the Persian province of Yehud (Judea).

Persian-period Yehud coin, from c. 350 BCE. The presence of graven images contradicts the laws of the Torah. Photo by Classical Numismatic Group, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons.

Only a century later, in the Hasmonean and Herodian periods, Judean leaders consciously refrained from using figurative imagery, which they replaced with decorative elements and more extensive texts—apparently adhering to the pentateuchal prohibition against graven images. Instead, the pictured bronze prutah of John Hyrcanus I from the late second century BCE features, on the reverse side, two cornucopias adorned with ribbons, and a pomegranate between them. Its obverse bears a lengthy Old Hebrew inscription inside a wreath that reads, “Yehohanan the High Priest and the Council of the Judeans.”

Hasmonean coin of John Hyrcanus I, from the late second century BCE. The absence of any human or animal figures seems to signal widespread acceptance of the laws of the Torah and to herald the origins of Judaism. Photo in public domain.

In sum, the archaeological evidence for observance of the laws of the Torah in the daily lives of ordinary Judeans seems to situate the origins of Judaism around the middle of the second century BCE.

To delve into the intricacies of the textual and archaeological evidence for widespread observance of the laws of the Torah and the origins of Judaism, read Yonatan Adler’s article “ The Genesis of Judaism ,” published in the Winter 2022 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review .

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10 Responses

David Holland said >>Wondering if the rise of the Pharisaic movement was related to the forces driving the revolt<<

I wasn't alive in those days (contrary to what my kids say), and can only say they were the people's choice and party of the common people at least as early as Alexander Yannai ("Jannæus"). But I do know one thing:

The Pharisees were not happy that after the battles were history, the Khasmonayeem ("Hasmoneans") had both the kingship and the priesthood. Previously there was a balance of power: Kings were of the Davidic line, and priests were descendants of Aharon" {Aaron").

Now the priests, labeled "Sadducees" (derived from the ancient high priest Tzadok) controlled both powerful positions. Clashes were inevitable.

The monotheism of Judaism developed the same way as that of Islam by evolving from a polytheistic belief in many gods. Originally both Yahweh & Allah were only one of many different gods in Canaan & Arabia but eventually Yahweh was selected as the sole god to be worshiped just as Mohammed selected Allah to be the sole god when he formed Islam (using tenets and history from Judaism as a guide). This evolutionary path is glimpsed in the Bible when it had been reduced to one male god and one female goddess, Yahweh and Asherah, before Asherah was eliminated by, IIRC, King Josiah.

Baseless unadulterated nonsense! Allah (Satan) was invented around 600 AD and based on an apparent demonic encounter by Muhammad. The worship of Yahweh (God) dates back to the beginning of creation (albeit under some different name probably), certainly long before the entry of the Israelites into Canaan. As a consequence of Joshua’s conquest not eradicating all the Canaanites along with their idolatry, Asherah along with other Satanic idols were eventually incorporated into the Israelites’ worship, which was naturally followed by God’s judgment, resulting in said idols being eliminated, rightfully leaving only Yahweh left to be worshipped. The Bible blatantly contradicts your evidently false narrative!

Can’t help but think about the Maccabean Revolt when presented that suggested dating. Wondering if the rise of the Pharisaic movement was related to the forces driving the revolt, or perhaps a separate but related response to Hellenistic pressures.

As a believer (of which BAR has no understanding), I will state the obvious as found in the Bible. God does not change, therefore the laws of God were extant even before man was created. Avraham knew and understood the entirety of the statutes, commandments, and law (Gen. 26:5 …and Avraham kept my keeping, my commandments my stautes and my laws.) From that time on the law was observed. Since the commandments, statutes, and law were considered holy, you would not find extra biblical sources relating to it.

Jump to the time of Yeshua and it is clear the rabbinics had removed God from the law. The law was now on equal footing as the rabbinics and was being manipulated by the rabbinics, hence Yeshua’s issue with the Pharisees and the Sadducees. This why you will find extra biblical documents regarding the law just pior to and from this time forth. I think that maybe BAR scholars (as they call themselves) need to wake up a bit.

And that’s why he fornicated with Hagar.

He and Sarai were apparently following a known Babylonian law that called on the sterile wife to provide her husband with a servant to produce a child. The consequences of the situation make it clear it was a terrible idea. But one of the fascinating things about the Bible is that the heroes of the People of God actually make all kinds of mistakes and commit all kinds of infidelities, while God keeps trying to teach them and set them right, and is always faithful.

Interesting article but the Bible is clear that many did not follow the practices laid down by God to the people of Israel. Even kings are recorded as violating Gods laws. While finding graven images is evidence of those who did not follow Judaism, it is not proof that others were not following Judaism or not making graven images for religious reasons. And a lack of written material during this time stating their beliefs is understandably absent since any kind of writing except on clay or stone carvings is almost non-existent. Therefore, finding evidence that these laws were violated is not necessarily evidence that the laws did not exist during that time.

It’s funny that even scholars conveniently ignore the next words of the 10 Commandments. The prohibition against graven images is immediately followed by its rationale: “You shall not bow down to them nor serve them.” Ergo, it does not follow that Jews were prohibited to make coins that had a face carved into them, just as long as they didn’t worship them.

Well said. The Mt Ebal Curse Tablet appears to reinforce the Biblical events referred to in Deuteronomy and Joshua regarding the Israelites worshipping at Ebal, uttering the curses in the Law of Moses. It seems to date from the 1400s BCE (nice knowing ya, Ramesside Exodus theory), mentions Yahweh by name 4 times, written in Proto-Sinaitic script. Michael Shelomo Bar-Ron’s recent translations of the Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions also support the historicity of Exodus-related events.

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Introduction to Judaism

Judaism is a monotheistic religion, believing in one god. It is not a racial group. Individuals may also associate or identify with Judaism primarily through ethnic or cultural characteristics. Jewish communities may differ in belief, practice, politics, geography, language, and autonomy. Learn more about the practices and beliefs of Judaism.

Jews have lived in many different countries around the world through the centuries.

Major events in the history of Judaism include the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, the Holocaust, and the founding of the State of Israel in 1948.

Judaism in the 21st century is very diverse, ranging from very Orthodox to more modern denominations.

Jewish communities before the war

Jewish Life and Religious Practices

There is a wide variety of acceptance and observance of the following practices by denominations and individual Jews.

Jewish life is guided by its annual and life cycle calendars. The annual calendar is a lunar calendar with approximately 354 days in one year on a 12-month cycle, with an extra month (Adar II) added occasionally to compensate for the difference between the lunar and solar calendars.

The Torah is read ritually in synagogue three times a week, on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, following a yearly cycle through the entirety (or a third, depending on community) of the Five Books of Moses. Additionally, on holidays, special sections are read in synagogue that tie to the themes or origin story of the holiday being observed.

Jewish prayer services are conducted in the Hebrew language in the more traditional denominations of Judaism, and include varied levels of English (or the native language of the community’s Jews) in denominations such as Reform, Reconstructionist and Renewal. A rabbi can lead services but is not required. On weekdays, daily prayers are recited three times—morning, afternoon, and evening—with a fourth prayer service added on the Sabbath and holidays. While many prayers can be recited individually, certain prayers and activities, such as the reading of the Torah, the mourner’s prayer (the kaddish ), require a minyan or quorum of ten Jewish adults. As with the distinctions regarding English in the prayer service, some traditional denominations only count male adults in a minyan , while others count all adults.

Other central aspects of Jewish ritual observance include the dietary laws (laws of kashrut ) which forbid consumption of certain foods (like pork or shellfish), prohibit the mixing of milk and meat, and prescribe special rules for the slaughter of meat and poultry. Denominations and individual Jews may or may not follow these dietary laws strictly.

Major life-cycle events in Jewish tradition include the brit milah (ritual circumcision on the eighth day of a Jewish boy’s life), Bnai Mitzvah (a ceremony marking the passage from childhood to adulthood, at 12 years for a girl and 13 for a boy), marriage, and death.

Following the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, the synagogue (derived from a Greek word meaning “assembly”), or Jewish prayer and study house, became the focal point of Jewish life. The role of the priesthood, so central to the Temple service, diminished, and the rabbi (literally, “my master”), or scholar versed in Jewish law, rose to a position of prominence in the community.

After the Holocaust

Before the Nazi takeover of power in 1933, Europe had a vibrant and mature Jewish culture.

European Jewish population distribution, ca. 1933

By 1945, after the Holocaust , most European Jews—two out of every three—had been killed. Most of the surviving remnant of European Jewry decided to leave Europe. Hundreds of thousands established new lives in Israel , the United States , Canada, Australia, Great Britain, South America, and South Africa.

As of 2016, there were approximately 15 million Jews around the world. About 85% of world Jewry lives in Israel or the United States.

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Investigate the wide range of observances and traditions in the Jewish communities before, during, and after the Holocaust.
Learn about the history of the Jewish community in your country.

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A brief history and overview of the core beliefs of the world’s oldest monotheistic faith.

Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people, and is based on the teachings found in the Torah, the Jewish holy book. Jews believe in a single, omnipotent, all-powerful, all-knowing God, who created, sustains, and oversees every aspect of existence.

In Jewish thought, God —who is called a number of different names throughout Jewish literature—created the world for your benefit, meaning and pleasure: the greatest pleasure being a relationship with Him. 1 The Torah is considered the manual—by way of its lengthy narrative sections, as well as its commandments and laws—that teaches you how to develop and deepen that relationship.

Who is the founder of Judaism?

What is the holy book of judaism, a brief history of judaism, is judaism an ethnicity, beliefs of judaism, practices of judaism, judaism & conversion.

According to Jewish tradition, Judaism’s founder is the biblical character Abraham , who is first mentioned in the book of Genesis (11:26). Rabbinical tradition teaches that Abraham rejected the pagan beliefs of his time (middle bronze age, or about 3800 years ago) and embraced the idea of a single, omnipotent, all-powerful deity, which is today considered the foundation of Jewish, as well as other ethical monotheistic beliefs (like Christianity and Islam).

Abraham was a prophet, and his conversations with God—and God’s promises to him—are recorded in the book of Genesis, chapters 12-22. Abraham was married three times—and had at least eight children—although the special pact, or covenant, that God made with him was passed down exclusively through his son Isaac (Genesis 25:5), and grandson Jacob (Genesis 28:4), and not any of his other descendants.

Throughout the Torah, as well as the other books that make up the Bible, the Jewish people are referred to as the “Children of Israel,” which is the name given to Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, in Genesis 32:29. The names of Jacob’s (or Israel’s) 12 sons are also used to refer to the tribal groupings, or clans, as well as the territories they inhabited in the ancient Near East (parts of modern day Israel and Jordan). Over time, the name Judah—meaning both the tribe as well as the territory—came to refer to all Jewish people, and hence the names “Jewish,” and “Jew.” 2

Jews are also sometimes called “Hebrews (עברים)”—that’s also the name of their language (עברית)—which comes from the Hebrew word “to cross over (עבר),” and is a reference to Abraham, who, so to speak, “crossed the river,” and distinguished himself, and his descendants, with his radical, or different beliefs.

Judaism’s holy book is the Torah, also called the “Five Books of Moses,” and consists of the biblical books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The name, “Torah,” means “instructions,” and it’s often referred to as “Torat Chaim,” or “ Instructions for Living .” In addition to the narrative sections that describe the birth and development of the Jewish nation, the Torah also contains the 613 commandments, which are the tools—or instructions—to live a meaningful, spiritual, balanced, and Jewish life.

The Torah is also the first five books of the Tanach (תנ׳ך), which is a Hebrew acronym for the Torah, Prophets, and Writings; otherwise known as the 24 books of the Jewish Bible.

According to Jewish tradition, the Torah’s authority comes from the revelation at Mount Sinai—as chronicled in Exodus, chapters 19 and 20—when the entire Jewish nation, en masse, experienced a group prophecy of the entirety of the Ten Commandments.

The Torah is also called the “ Written Law ,” and was originally transmitted together with an oral companion (called the “ Oral Law ”), which contains an in-depth explanation of the Torah’s many details and intricacies, as well as the ethical, philosophical, and mystical ideas embedded within the text of the written law. Over the millennia, the oral law was arranged, organized, and published as various works including:

The Mishna: the basic principles of the Oral Law
The Gemara: a discussion of the ideas contained in the Mishna (also known as the Talmud)
Various collections of Midrashim, or ethical, philosophical, legal, and mystical insights presented as a running commentary that follows the order of verses as written in the Torah and later books of the Bible
Numerous collections of mystical and kabalistic teachings
Legal codes, as well as later collections of rabbinical commentaries and writings

As noted above, Judaism’s founder is the biblical character, Abraham, who’s life—as well as that of his descendants, and including the promises God made to them—is described at length in the book of Genesis.

However, the true dawn of the Jewish people begins in ancient Egypt, where the nascent Jewish nation had descended into slavery, and were oppressed by their Egyptian overlords. As chronicled in the book of Exodus, God—via the great Jewish leader, Moses, as well as through numerous miracles and wonders—freed the Israelites from their captivity, and brought them to Mount Sinai (considered to be near the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, a small land bridge that connects Africa and Asia, and which blocks the Red Sea from flowing into the Mediterranean), where in 1312 BCE they experienced a national prophetic revelation, and received the text of the Ten Commandments and the foundations of ethical monotheism.

In 1272 BCE, the Jewish people began their conquest of the land of Israel and established the first commonwealth, which lasted until 422 BCE with the destruction of the Temple of Solomon, and subsequent Babylonian exile. It was during this period that most of the books of the Bible were written.

In 370 BCE, some Jews returned to Israel from exile , and reestablished a Jewish community in Israel. Their governing body, called the Great Assembly, instituted a number of important changes, including canonizing the Bible, standardizing prayer, composing numerous short supplications and blessings, and establishing many important laws and decrees. This second commonwealth lasted throughout the Greek conquest of Alexander the Great and well into the Roman era, culminating with the destruction of the second Temple in the year 70, and the crushing of the Bar Kochba rebellion in 135.

In about 200 CE, Rabbi Judah the Prince compiled the Mishna , the first great work of rabbinic scholarship, which forms the basis of Jewish law. The Babylonian Talmud was compiled and redacted over a 200 year period, with the final edits made around the year 474. Most of the other important rabbinical works—including multiple collections of Midrashim, as well as the Zohar, the primary text of kabbalah—were written around this time as well.

The subsequent centuries, including the period of the Crusades , saw the development of the Jewish diaspora, with Jews living throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. As Jews began to pick up the languages, tastes, and customs of the nations in which they lived, they began to divide into different groups including, Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi, and other culturally distinct groupings of Jews. The common denominator being their Jewish lineage, heritage, beliefs, scholarship, and commitment to Jewish law and observance. The great codes of Jewish law; and myriad Biblical commentaries, responsa, philosophical works, and liturgical poetry were written during this period as well.

The modern era saw a greater embrace of Judaism’s mystical traditions—especially after the period of the great 16th century Tzfat school —and also the rise of the Hasidic movement, and the beginnings of the modern yeshiva, or house of learning.

It’s complicated . According to Jewish tradition, Jewish people descend from a common ancestor, and throughout the biblical and classical eras were a distinct ethnic group, with, in general, olive-colored skin, and dark eyes and hair. 3 According to the Mishna (Negaim 2:1), which was published around 200 CE, “Jewish people are like boxwood (אשכרוע), and neither black [like Ethiopians] or white [like Germans], but of an intermediate shade.”

But given the last 2,000 years of exile and dispersion, with Jews scattered throughout Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and the new world; along with the subsequent development of Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi, Persian, Yemeni, Ethiopian, and other Jewish communities; as well as a history that includes conversions, intermarriage, and generations of eating different diets and speaking different languages; a single “Jewish” racial or ethnic distinction can no longer be said to exist.

And yet, despite that, Jewish people throughout the world are still considered to be genetically similar , which even includes particular genes indicating members of the priestly class (כהנים).

Jews believe in one, omnipotent, infinite God . God is the creator, sustainer, and supervisor. He created the world, sustains it, and oversees everything that happens throughout the totality of existence. God is all-powerful, as in, the only power, which means that everything that happens, only does so because of God’s direct, intimate, and constant involvement. Nothing exists or happens independent of God’s will. God is the only reality—and the source of all of reality—and He created everything, as in all of existence, for you .

God created the world for your benefit and pleasure, and the greatest pleasure is a relationship with Him. He gave the Torah to the Jewish people, which are the instructions for living . The Torah contains 613 commandments (mitzvot/מצות), and those are the tools to establish and deepen your connection with Him. Judaism is also a religion of personal responsibility, and the strength of your relationship with God is up to you.

Judaism is egalitarian , meaning that since God is infinite, every person is the same distance from God. Every person has the same, equal opportunity to come close to God, and you don’t need a priest, king, or holy man to act as an intermediary, or to facilitate your relationship with Him. You can do it yourself.

Your existence is also purposeful, and inherently meaningful . God is infinite and all-powerful, and yet He chose to create you. Your existence isn’t an accident. You’re here by design.

These ideas have changed the world . The Jewish people taught the world the tenets of ethical monotheism, concepts like the dignity of the individual, the brotherhood of man, equality and justice, the value of education, the centrality of family, social responsibility, respect for human life, and the importance of longing and working for peace. Ideals that nowadays most westerners hold to be “self-evident.”

Jewish practice includes a weekly sabbath (Shabbat/שבת), which is a day chock full of customs, traditions, and laws designed to facilitate spiritual rejuvenation and growth; an annual holiday cycle that includes a new years celebration (Rosh Hashanah/ראש השנה), a day of atonement (Yom Kippur/יום כיפור), Sukkot (סוכות), Passover (פסח), Shavuot (שבועות), and also numerous rabbinical celebrations like Hanukkah (חנוכה) and Purim (פורים), and fasts.

Jewish practice also includes a daily meditation on the idea of God’s infinite unity, called the Shema (שמע), as well as daily prayer, lifecycle events—like circumcision, bar or bat mitzvah when a child turns 13 (for boys) or 12 (for girls), weddings, funerals, and a seven-day mourning period (called shiva/שבע) following the death of a close relative—dietary laws and restrictions, and more.

Jewish law also mandates the daily study of Jewish wisdom, and many communities offer classes, as well as private tutorials, on myriad topics including personal growth, daily Talmud study, analysis of the weekly Torah reading, Kabbalah and mystical teachings, and much more.

A Jew is someone who either a) was born to a Jewish mother, or b) converted to Judaism later in life. A person born to a convert is Jewish, and has the exact same “Jewish status” as any other Jew.

Converting to Judaism includes three steps:

Believing in God and the divinity of Torah, and committing to keeping the Torah's commandments
Immersion in a mikvah, which is a type of ritual bath linked to a reservoir of rain water
For men, getting circumcised

Being a Jew, whether you were born into it or accepted it later in life, means that you are a part of the Jewish people. Your story is the Jewish story, and your mission is the Jewish mission, which means living the values as outlined in the Torah.

Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people, and is based on the teachings found in the Torah. It was founded by the biblical character, Abraham, about 3,800 years ago, and its holy book, the Torah, was given to Moses and the Jewish nation in 1312 BCE at the revelation at Mount Sinai, although the corpus of Jewish literature was compiled over millennia. The Jewish people no longer have distinct ethnic features, even though they are still considered to be genetically similar. Jewish belief is centered around God, who created the world for your benefit and pleasure, and the Torah is your guidebook, or instructions for you to follow. But the ball is in your court: Judaism is a religion of personal responsibility and choice, and how close or connected you feel to God is entirely up to you.

What is the Difference Between Christianity and Judaism?

Although Christianity and Judaism are both monotheistic faiths, and Christianity considers itself, in a sense, a continuation or fulfillment of the covenant, or pact, God made with the Jewish people—even going so far as accepting the Jewish Bible, in toto , and calling it the “original” or “old” testament—the similarities end there. Christianity rejects the “yolk of the commandments” (as in the obligation to observe the Torah’s 613 commandments), the concept of the Jewish people as “God’s chosen people,” the impossibility of God existing in human form, and the idea that prayer can only be directed to God alone and not to an intermediary or proxy. Christianity and Judaism also have very different understandings of concepts like sin, the afterlife, and much more.

Judaism also rejects, completely and totally, the significance or importance of Jesus, or that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. Jews do not accept Jesus as the Messiah because:

Jesus did not fulfill the Messianic prophecies: The Messiah is supposed to do a number of things, including, returning all Jews to the land of Israel, building the third temple, and ushering in an era of peace, which obviously didn't happen.
Jesus did not embody the personal qualifications of the Messiah: The Messiah is a direct descendant of King David on his father's side, which is impossible if the virgin birth is true. He will also lead the nation to observe all the Torah's commandments, which Deuteronomy 13 says are forever, even though Jesus, in the new testament, says are no longer applicable.
Biblical verses referring to Jesus are mistranslations: When read in context—and not cherry picked—the "suffering servant" in Isaiah 53 is referring to the nation of Israel; and the "alma" in Isaiah 7:14 is referring to any young woman, and not specifically a virgin.
Jewish belief is based on national revelation : The basis of Jewish belief is the national experience at Mt Sinai, which has never been superseded or repeated.

What is Hasidic Judaism?

Hasidic Judaism is an Orthodox Jewish movement that was started in the mid-18th century by Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, more commonly known as the Baal Shem Tov. Hasidic Jewry was originally centered in Eastern Europe, and it’s estimated that by the mid-19th century, more than half of the region's Orthodox Jews were Hasidic Jews. The movement placed a strong emphasis on prayer, devotion, and mystical teachings; and modified the traditional Ashkenazi Siddur, or prayer book. Most Hasidic communities also have a leader, or Rebbe, who is often revered for his piety.

Path of the Just , Chapter 1: “Man was created for the sole purpose of rejoicing in God and deriving pleasure from the splendor of His presence; for this is true joy and the greatest pleasure that can be found.”
The term “Jew” is first used in the generic sense—as a catchall for all Jewish people—in Esther 2:5 in reference to Mordecai who is called “Mordecai the Jew ( איש יהודי ),” even though he’s actually from the tribe of Benjamin.
Although there were notable exceptions. In the Bible, Moses’ wife, Zipporah, was said to be dark-skinned or Ethiopian. King David was a redhead. Queen Esther had an olive complexion, and many rabbinical sources note that Sarah, from the Book of Genesis, was particularly fair.

Judaism: Basic Beliefs

Jewish people believe in the Torah, which was the whole of the laws given to the Israelities at Sinai. They believe they must follow God's laws which govern daily life.

How did Judaism begin?

Judaism began about 4000 years ago with the Hebrew people in the Middle East. Abraham, a Hebrew man, is considered the father of the Jewish faith because he promoted the central idea of the Jewish faith: that there is one God. At the time many people in the Middle East worshipped many gods. It is said that Abraham and his wife Sarah, who were old and childless, were told by God that their children would be as plentiful as the stars in the sky and that they would live in a land of their own -- the Promised Land. This gradually came true.

Abraham's son, Isaac had a son, Jacob, also called Israel. In this way the descendants of Abraham came to be known as the Israelites. God promised the Israelites he would care for them as long as they obeyed God's laws. While still traveling, the Hebrews lived in Egypt where they were enslaved. Moses, a Hebrew, was chosen by God to lead the Hebrew people out of Egypt. Moses led the Hebrew people out of the Sinai Desert toward the promised land. At Mt. Sinai, God gave Moses the Law which would guide the Israelites to today. The laws were called the Ten Commandments and form the basis of the Torah, the book of Jewish law.

It took many years for the Israelites to finally get to what they thought was the Promised Land - Canaan. After some fighting the Jews established the Israelite kingdom. After many years, Canaan was conquered by the Assyrians, the Babylonians and then eventually the Romans. The Israelites once again found themselves enslaved, this time by Babylonians. The Israelites were then taken over by Romans who destroyed much of what had been built in Jerusalem by the Israelites. Most of the Jews were scattered all over the region and eventually moved from place to place to avoid persecution which continues to this day. The dispersion of the Jews is called the Diaspora.

The worst persecution of the Jews was during World War II by the Nazis who murdered more than six million Jews or a third of the world's Jewish population. This was called the Holocaust. Beginning in the 1880's Jews began returning to their homeland in growing numbers, this time to avoid persecution where they lived. After World War II, many Jews believed that for the Jewish people and culture to survive, Jews needed to live in their own country where all Jews from anywhere in the world would have the right to live and be citizens. In 1948, Palestine was divided up and a Jewish state of Israel was formed in the land that was once called Canaan, surrounded by countries with predominantly Muslim populations. Since Muslims also claimed rights to the land where the Jews were living, there was conflict, which continues to this day in the Middle East.

Today nearly fourteen million Jewish people live all over the world. Approximately half of them live in the United States, one quarter live in Israel, and a quarter are still scattered around the world in countries in Europe, Russia, South America, Africa, Asia and other North American and Middle Eastern countries. Anyone born to a Jewish mother is considered a Jew.

What do Jewish people believe?

Jewish people believe in the Torah, which was the whole of the laws given to the Israelities at Sinai. They believe they must follow God's laws which govern daily life. Later legal books, written by rabbis, determine the law as it applies to life in each new place and time.

The Ten Commandments, as written in the Torah, are:

Worship no other God but Me.
Do not make images to worship.
Do not misuse the name of God.
Observe the Sabbath Day (Saturday). Keep it Holy.
Honor and respect your father and mother.
Do not murder.
Do not commit adultery.
Do not steal.
Do not accuse anyone falsely. Do not tell lies about other people.
Do not envy other's possessions.

There are three basic groups of Jewish people who have a different understanding of the interpretation of the Torah.

Orthodox Jews believe that all of the practices in the Torah which it is practical to obey must be obeyed without question.

Conservative and Reform Jews believe that the ancient laws and practices have to be interpreted for modern life with inclusion of contemporary sources and with more concern with community practices than with ritual practices.

Reform Jews also allow everyone to sit together, men and women, and both Hebrew and the local language are spoken in services.

What are the sacred texts of the Jewish people?

The Tenakh is the ancient collection of writings that are sacred to the Jews. They were written over almost a thousand years from 1000 to 100 BCE. The word Tenakh comes from the three first letters of the three books included in this text: the Torah, plus the Nev'im (prophets) and the Ki'tuvim (writings, which include histories, prophecies, poems, hymns and sayings).

The Torah is written on scrolls and kept in a special cabinet called the aron hakodish, the holy ark, in synagogues. The Torah is read with a pointer called a yad (hand) to keep it from being spoiled. Each week, one section is read until the entire Torah is completed and the reading begins again.

The Talmud is also an important collection of Jewish writings. Written about 2000 years ago, it is a recording of the rabbis' discussion of the way to follow the Torah at that time. Later texts, the Mishnah Torah and the Shulhan Aruch, are recordings of rabbinic discussions from later periods.

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Summary of Judaism: Origin, History, and Major Beliefs

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Published: Jan 31, 2024

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Introduction, origins of judaism, history of judaism, major beliefs and practices in judaism.

"Judaism 101." JewFAQ.org, www.jewfaq.org/index.shtml. Accessed 22 Sept. 2021.
"A Brief History of Judaism." Jewish Virtual Library, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/a-brief-history-of-judaism. Accessed 22 Sept. 2021.
"Judaism." BBC Religion & Ethics, 27 Jul. 2011, www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/. Accessed 22 Sept. 2021.

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Fractures in the Grand Alliance between Black and Jewish Americans

Devan Schwartz

Civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama alongside Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. William Lovelace/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

Civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama alongside Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.

Close your eyes and you might be able to conjure the iconic image of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, with a white bushy beard, as he marches alongside Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It's 1965 and they're at the front of the delegation from Selma to Mongtomery, Alabama. Everyone wears big Hawaiian leis – given as a symbol of support and solidarity by Reverend Abraham Akaka.

Scholars say this moment enshrines the so-called Grand Alliance, in which Black and Jewish leaders worked together in support of civil rights and voting rights.

After marching that day, Heschel said, "I felt my legs were praying."

And from the steps of the capitol in Montgomery, King said, "The end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience. And that will be a day not of the white man, not of the black man. That will be the day of man as man."

Just a few months later, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 .

So was this a major moment in the ongoing partnership between Black and Jewish leaders — or simply the high-water mark in a relationship that has long since receded?

"Today's Black Jewish relationship is encased in amber from the civil rights era, and I don't think it's properly understood," Jacques Berlinerblau, Professor of Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University, told NPR's Morning Edition . "And until we properly understand it, we might not be able to make sense of current political developments."

Berlinerblau has long studied the relationship between these two communities. He co-authored the book Blacks and Jews: an Invitation to Dialogue with Terrence Johnson, Professor of African American Religious Studies at Harvard Divinity School.

Civil rights demonstrators pass by federal guards as they make their way from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, on the third leg of their famous march. AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Civil rights demonstrators pass by federal guards as they make their way from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, on the third leg of their famous march.

In speaking with NPR, Johnson defined the Grand Alliance as a group of elite African-American leaders working across racial religious lines to advocate for the masses in terms of voting rights and desegregation. And this sort of leadership went on to work with Jewish leaders with the founding of the NAACP in 1909 and the Urban League a year later."

"In some respects," Johnson continued, "those organizations represented the dream team of black and Jewish leaders, mostly men, unfortunately, but leaders nonetheless, who wanted to in many ways address the lingering problems of racial inequality and religious discrimination."

Johnson and Berlinerblau's book originated from a Georgetown University course they taught for years, engaging students in dialogue about the myriad ways that Black and Jewish Americans related to one another.

"It's an historic alliance because both groups have been demonized by what they can't control–a narrative of otherness," Johnson said. "And remember who was considered human in this country: Anglo-Americans. Jews were corrupted because of their blood and blacks were inferior because we didn't have a soul. And those fundamental issues are what we are haunted by now–what we hear with Black Lives Matter protests and related outcries around anti-Black racism and anti-Semitism."

And this relationship still looms large in the imagination of contemporary movement leaders. "There's no alliance more historic, nor more important, than the alliance between Black Americans and Jewish Americans," said Marc Morial, the president of the National Urban League in 2020.

A TROUBLED GRAND ALLIANCE: THEN & NOW

In a recent NY Times piece , Morial said the Grand Alliance is "being tested" by the Israel-Hamas war, with each group holding diverging views.

Recently, a group of more than 1,000 Black pastors issued a demand that the Biden Administration push Israel to curb its military campaign. In a pressure campaign, the Black pastors say the support of their parishioners, key to Biden's reelection , could be on the line. And with Jewish Americans and Black Americans providing two key constituencies for Biden's reelection bid, this could be a tough needle to thread.

Reverend Leah Daughtry leads the House of the Lord Churches, a network of churches throughout the U.S. She was also CEO of the 2008 and 2016 Democratic National Convention committees. She recently told NPR that "we as faith leaders have to be concerned about the moral toll of this war and what our authority is. And what our responsibility is in ensuring that all people are safe, are able to live their lives in freedom and security, and that all children are able to grow and to live a thriving life."

Going even further, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, a well-known Black institution, recently called for the U.S. to "immediately withdraw all funding and other support from Israel." It goes on to allege that "the United States is supporting this mass genocide."

The Israel-Hamas War clearly represents a pivotal moment — but Johnson and Berlinerblau say diverging interests and perspectives have tested the Grand Alliance from the very beginning.

"The Grand Alliance was more fraught on the ground than is commonly understood," Berlinerblau said. "And it was probably a lot more wobbly than we would generally assume."

For example, their book examines persistent accusations made by some African Americans against Jewish Americans for their alleged involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. They cite historian Seymour Drescher, a noted expert on slavery and anti-slavery movements. In his essay entitled "Jews and New Christians in the Atlantic Slave Trade," Drescher found that "at no point along the continuum of the slave trade were Jews numerous enough, rich enough and powerful enough to affect significantly the structure and flow of the slave trade or to diminish the suffering of its African victims."

Nonetheless, such claims continue to resonate and reverberate, canonized by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan in his 1991 book The Secret Relationship between Blacks and Jews .

"Indeed, the Nation of Islam's worldview has pervaded Blacks and Jews for decades," Johnson and Berlinerblau write.

In fact, distrust between Black Americans and Jewish Americans created a sizable rift just a few years after Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marched together for racial equality and civil rights.

According to Terrence Johnson, the shockwaves of 1967 can be felt even today.

That's the year of the Six-Day War between Israel and a coalition of Arab States. Many Black leaders began embracing the Palestinian and Arab cause, especially with Israel expanding its ties to the Apartheid government of South Africa.

Subsequent conflicts included the purging of white and Jewish members from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War; a teacher strike in New York City and the Crown Heights Riots in Brooklyn, both pitt ing Black and Jewish residents against one another–as well as ongoing disputes over affirmative action.

Many scholars say the partnership between Georgia Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock hearkens back to the Grand Alliance of the 1960s. Win McNamee/Getty Inages hide caption

Many scholars say the partnership between Georgia Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock hearkens back to the Grand Alliance of the 1960s.

With ups and downs between the Black and Jewish communities over the years, and many misconceptions, Johnson and Berlinerblau say they wanted to emphasize discussion and mutual understanding in their teaching and writing.

They set out to co-write their book in part to update the 1995 text by Cornel West and Rabbi Michael Lerner called Jews and Blacks: A dialogue on Race, Religion, and Culture in America.

While assembling their own book, they both saw the rising support for Palestinian rights via the Black Lives Matter movement. They also witnessed a partnership hearkening back to the Grand Alliance — the 2020 victories of Georgia Senators Rafael Warnock and Jon Ossof which demonstrated a partnership between prominent Black and Jewish leaders.

Johnson and Berlinerblau write that this could be seen as "another turning point in the Black-Jewish civil rights coalition." But since they, along with other authors , argue that the Grand Alliance of the 1960s is romanticized and oversimplified, they instead call for new ways to seek mutual understanding and collaboration.

BRIDGING THE BLACK-JEWISH DIVIDE: ART & COLLABORATION

Many scholars and movement leaders find inspiration in the indelible artistic and cultural ties between the Black and Jewish communities.

"So one reason to hope that the relationship finds a new footing or moves forward in some dynamic way," Berlinerblau told NPR, "is the sheer awesome political, artistic, cultural intelligence of these two communities working in concert."

He cites such artistic examples as: Cannonball Adderley's jazz cover of "Fiddler on the Roof," Grace Paley's short story "Zagrowsky Tells," Anna Deavere Smith's performance piece "Fires in the Mirror," Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman , and the Safdie brothers' film, Uncut Gems .

Johnson adds that a shared Old Testament notion of Zion appears frequently in hip hop music, epitomized by Lauryn Hill's song, "To Zion."

This famous Hebrew Bible story involving Moses leading the Israelites from bondage toward freedom shows the Harvard Divinity School professor a possible path forward for reunifying the Black and Jewish communities.

"Exodus and Zion keep recurring in hip hop, so there's something about the use of these stories that are so powerful and so beyond life that captures imagination and it becomes an entry point," Johnson told NPR.

The Selma-to-Montgomery March for voting rights in 1965 featured Black leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., joined by allies including Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. AFP via Getty Images hide caption

The Selma-to-Montgomery March for voting rights in 1965 featured Black leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., joined by allies including Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.

"I was thinking of Abraham Heschel, who described this idea in 1963 of the Exodus is ongoing. And he said it was easier for the children of Israelites to cross the Red Sea than for a Black or Negro to cross the line at a university in the U.S.," Johnson said. "And there's something about this story that allows us to kind of peek into history and then figure out what's missing and whose voices are not there, even though they're very visible...and my sense is that the narratives will in some ways revive a moment that's much bigger than what we can imagine."

Berlinerblau and Johnson say that cultural and legal forces such as redlining and gentrification created physical distance between the Black and Jewish communities that were once more proximate.

"It doesn't mean they loved one another all the time," Berlinerblau said. "But they had a very, very organic, almost daily relationship with one another. And what Terence and I are increasingly seeing is that proximity, that physical proximity between African-Americans and Jewish Americans is kind of missing."

Some organizations doing this work of reconnection include: Rekindle, the Black/Jewish Justice Alliance, the Black Jewish Entertainment Alliance, and the Black and Jewish Leaders of Tomorrow. In many cases, art continues to reemerge as the bridge.

"The (Jewish) Federation in Baltimore recently had a yearlong exhibition around trauma in black and Jewish communities and used art as a way to invite people in to have these conversations," Johnson added. "So I think there are a lot of things happening on the ground. The issue becomes how did that get translated into a kind of political vocabulary that we can actually see structural change?"

Besides organizations and politicians with shared intentions, Johnson and Berlinerblau argue that reimagining Black-Jewish relations could best be accomplished by those who identify as both Black and Jewish.

Certainly, we can think of prominent celebrities such as Drake, Rashida Jones, Daveed Diggs, and Tiffany Haddish. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. In their book, the authors mention famous converts such as Sammy Davis Jr. and Nell Carter.

"We were extremely intrigued by the position of Afro Jews, Jews of color in the United States, of which we believe there may be more than half a million, if not more than that, in the country," Berlinerblau said. "But perhaps one way forward is to let this community, which physically or theologically or spiritually embodies a lot from both communities, maybe to let them lead...and to tell us where we all might move forward together."

Leah Donnella, who is Black and Jewish, is senior editor of NPR's Code Switch. And in a recent conversation, she reflected on her own upbringing. "My parents were very intentional about talking about those identities as being intertwined and related–and they did that very much through the lens of justice," Donnella said. "Fighting for justice has always been a tradition for both Black communities and Jewish communities. That's a lot of how both of my parents understood their faiths and their identities."

Outside of her own home, Donnella witnessed a major contrast. "Black people and Jewish people were not in the same spaces. There was not a lot of that overlap," Donnella said. "So that feeling of this identity being very integrated and very cohesive was not the demographic reality in the outside world."

Autumn Rowe, a songwriter and Executive Committee Member of the Black Jewish Entertainment Alliance, bridges the two backgrounds the organization seeks to unite. Black Jewish Entertainment Alliance hide caption

Autumn Rowe, a songwriter and Executive Committee Member of the Black Jewish Entertainment Alliance, bridges the two backgrounds the organization seeks to unite.

While spending time in Jewish spaces, Donnella finds herself being asked to speak on behalf of Black people. And with inflamed passions on all sides since the October 7th attacks by Hamas, and the subsequent Israel-Hamas War, she says the divides aren't necessarily deepening; they're revealing what was already there.

"I think none of the reactions that different communities are having are that surprising to me," Donnella said. "But I think it's easy to feel surprised about some of the different reactions and takes if you are not interacting with a really diverse community of different people, both racially, demographically, and just on the political spectrum."

In terms of the legacy of the Grand Alliance, and the snapshots of Heschel and King, Donnella said it's not about connecting via racial or religious identity–but about shared beliefs, and how they're being pursued.

"For me, it comes back to that childhood thing of justice," Donnella said. "A lot of it is very central to the Jewish identity I was raised with, to be focused on the idea of Tikkun Olam, healing the world. And that's also really central to Black American identity."

But in terms of putting values into action, Donnella said the details are paramount. "It obviously gets tricky when you get really real about what justice means to you," she told NPR. "What does justice look like for everyone? And how do I help make that happen? And then you go from there–and then I think the connections happen organically, because people are after the same thing."

Jewish communities
music and activism
Civil Rights Movement
Black History

What is Good Friday? What the holy day means for Christians around the world

Christians around the world observe Good Friday two days before Easter, but what is it, and why do they commemorate the holy day?

The holiday is part of Holy Week, which leads up to Easter Sunday. Palm Sunday kicks off the series of Christian holy days that commemorate the Crucifixion and celebrate Jesus Christ's resurrection.

"Good Friday has been, for centuries now, the heart of the Christian message because it is through the death of Jesus Christ that Christians believe that we have been forgiven of our sins," Daniel Alvarez, an associate teaching professor of religious studies at Florida International University, told USA TODAY.

What is Holy Saturday? What the day before Easter means for Christians around the world

When is Good Friday?

Good Friday is always the Friday before Easter. It's the second-to-last day of Holy Week.

In 2024, Good Friday will fall on March 29.

What is Good Friday?

Good Friday is the day Christ was sacrificed on the cross. According to Britannica , it is a day for "sorrow, penance, and fasting."

"Good Friday is part of something else," Gabriel Radle, an assistant professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, previously told USA TODAY. "It's its own thing, but it's also part of something bigger."

Are Good Friday and Passover related?

Alvarez says that Good Friday is directly related to the Jewish holiday, Passover.

Passover , or Pesach, is a major Jewish holiday that celebrates the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt.

"The whole Christian idea of atoning for sin, that Jesus is our atonement, is strictly derived from the Jewish Passover tradition," said Alvarez.

How is that possible?

According to the professor, Passover celebrates the day the "Angel of Death" passed over the homes of Israelites who were enslaved by the Egyptians. He said that the Bible states when the exodus happened, families were told to paint their doors with lamb's blood so that God would spare the lives of their firstborn sons.

Alvarez says this is why Christians call Jesus the "lamb of God." He adds that the symbolism of the "blood of the lamb" ties the two stories together and is why Christians believe God sacrificed his firstborn son. Because, through his blood, humanity is protected from the "wrath of a righteous God that cannot tolerate sin."

He adds that the stories of the exodus and the Crucifixion not only further tie the stories together but also emphasize just how powerful the sacrifice of the firstborn and the shedding of blood are in religion.

"Jesus is the firstborn, so the whole idea of the death of the firstborn is crucial," said Alvarez.

He adds that the sacrifice of the firstborn, specifically a firstborn son, comes from an ancient and "primitive" idea that the sacrifice unleashes "tremendous power that is able to fend off any kind of force, including the wrath of God."

Why Is Good Friday so somber?

Alavarez says people might think this holiday is more depressing or sad than others because of how Catholics commemorate the Crucifixion.

"I think [it's] to a level that some people might think is morbid," said Alvarez.

He said Catholics not only meditate on Jesus' death, but primarily focus on the suffering he faced in the events that led up to his Crucifixion. That's what makes it such a mournful day for people.

But, the professor says that Jesus' suffering in crucial to Christianity as a whole.

"The suffering of Christ is central to the four Gospels," said Alvarez. "Everything else is incidental."

According to the professor, statues that use blood to emphasize the way Jesus and Catholic saints suffered is very common in Spanish and Hispanic Countries, but not as prevalent in American churches.

Do you fast on Good Friday?

Father Dustin Dought, the executive director of the Secretariat of Divine Worship of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, previously told USA TODAY that Good Friday and Ash Wednesday are the two days in the year that Roman Catholics are obliged to fast.

"This practice is a way of emptying ourselves so that we can be filled with God," said Dought.

What do you eat on Good Friday?

Many Catholics do not eat meat on any Friday during Lent. Anything with flesh is off-limits. Dought says this practice is to honor the way Jesus sacrificed his flesh on Good Friday.

Meat that is off limits includes:

Instead, many Catholics will eat fish. According to the Marine Stewardship Council , this is allowed because fish is considered to be a different type of flesh.

Contributing: Jordan Mendoza ; USA TODAY

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Final Rule: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles – Phase 3

42 U.S.C. §7401 - 7671q
40 CFR Parts 86, 1036, 1037, 1039, 1054, 1065
EPA-HQ-OAR-2022-0985

On March 29, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a final rule, “Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles – Phase 3,” that sets stronger standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from heavy-duty (HD) vehicles beginning in model year (MY) 2027. The new standards will be applicable to HD vocational vehicles (such as delivery trucks, refuse haulers, public utility trucks, transit, shuttle, school buses, etc.) and tractors (such as day cabs and sleeper cabs on tractor-trailer trucks).

The final “Phase 3” standards build on EPA’s Heavy-Duty Phase 2 program from 2016 and maintain that program’s flexible structure, which is designed to reflect the diverse nature of the heavy-duty vehicle industry. The standards are technology-neutral and performance-based, allowing each manufacturer to choose what set of emissions control technologies is best suited for them and the needs of their customers.

Final Rule: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles -Phase 3 (pdf) (8.5 MB, pre-publication, signed March 2024)
Proposed Rule: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles – Phase 3
Fact Sheet: Final Standards to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Heavy-Duty Vehicles for Model Year 2027 and Beyond (pdf) (185.2 KB, March 2024, EPA-420-F-24-018)
Fact sheet in Spanish: Normas finales para reducir las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero de los vehículos pesados modelos del año 2027 y posteriores (pdf) (191.6 KB, March 2024, EPA-420-F-24-019)
Regulatory Impact Analysis: Control of Air Pollution from New Motor Vehicles: Heavy-Duty Engine and Vehicle Standards Regulatory Impact Analysis (pdf) (14.2 MB, March 2024, EPA-420-R-24-006)
Response to Comments: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles: Phase 3 (pdf) (16 MB, March 2024, EPA-420-R-24-007)
Redline Version of EPA’s Final Regulation for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles: Phase 3 (pdf) (6.5 MB, April 2024)
Regulations for Emissions from Vehicles and Engines Home
Greenhouse Gas

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Final Rule: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles
Para información en español, haga clic aquí.. On March 29, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a final rule, "Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles - Phase 3," that sets stronger standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from heavy-duty (HD) vehicles beginning in model year (MY) 2027.
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Judaism and time

Origins of Judaism: The History of Judaism and How Old Is Judaism?

What are the Origins of Judaism?

When Was Judaism Founded?

What Was the Precursor to Judaism?

Who Was the ‘Founder’ of Judaism?

The Ancient Israelites

The Golden Period

The Persian Empire and Judea

Persecution of Jews

The Breaking Off of Christianity

Jewish Holy Books

Jewish Temples

Rabbinic Judaism

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6.2: History of Judaism

Historical Jewish Groupings (to 1700)

Persecutions

Contributors and Attributions

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The Genesis of Judaism

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