Judaism

• 1. Origins And Covenant History

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  In 1992, a young boy named Benjamin stood atop the Hill of Destiny. This scene from a fictional game is not relevant to Judaism's actual history. The true story begins with Abraham, initially called Abram, who was 99 years old when God established a covenant with him. Genesis 17:5 records that God changed Abram's name to Abraham and Sarai's name to Sarah. Sarah was promised to bear a son in her old age, and that son, Isaac, would be the child of the covenant. The Torah describes how God commanded Abraham to circumcise the males of his household as a sign of that covenant. This event occurred when Abraham was 99 years old, according to Genesis 17:10, 14. Later, the descendants of Isaac's son Jacob were enslaved in Egypt during a period of harsh oppression. God appeared to Moses in a divine vision through a burning bush on Mount Horeb. He commanded Moses to lead the Hebrews out of bondage. God inflicted ten plagues upon Egypt, such as the Nile turning to blood and swarms of locusts, to persuade Pharaoh to release the Hebrews. After the final plague, Pharaoh relented, and the Hebrews began their escape, known as the Exodus. They traveled across the desert and arrived at Mount Sinai, where God bestowed the commandments, laws, and teachings that would define the moral and spiritual foundation of the Israelite community.

• 2. Sacred Texts And Interpretation

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  The Hebrew Bible has the same books as Protestant Christianity's Old Testament, with some differences in order and content. In Modern Hebrew, the Hebrew Bible is often referred to as the Tanakh, an acronym of its constituent divisions. Among Judaism's core texts are the Torah, the Nevi'im, and the Ketuvim. The Torah consists of five books, 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, the Kohanim and Leviyim. Many laws were only applicable when the Temple in Jerusalem existed, and only 369 of these commandments are still applicable today. The Oral Torah comprises the Mishnah, Talmud, Tosefta, and Jewish legal Midrashim. Rabbi Judah haNasi compiled the Mishnah after the destruction of Jerusalem, in anno mundi 3949, which corresponds to 189 CE. Over the next four centuries, the Mishnah was discussed and debated in both the world's major Jewish communities. The commentaries from each of these communities were eventually compiled into two Talmuds: the Jerusalem Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud. These have been further expounded upon by the commentaries of various Torah scholars throughout the ages. In the text of the Torah, many words are left undefined, and many procedures are mentioned without explanation or instructions. Such phenomena support the view that the Written Law has always been transmitted alongside a parallel oral tradition.

• 3. Denominational Evolution And Diversity

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  Today, the largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism, and Reform Judaism. Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah and Halakha are explicitly 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 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, rabbinical courts known as batei din enforced Halakha. Batei din are still existent, 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 Jewish texts and the rabbis and scholars who interpret them. The Jewish Enlightenment of the late 18th century resulted in the division of Western Jewry into religious movements or denominations, especially in North America and Anglophone countries. Subsets of Haredi Judaism along both ethnic and ideological lines include Hardal, Hasidic Judaism, which is rooted in the Kabbalah, and their traditionalist opponents the Misnagdim. Reconstructionist Judaism, like Reform Judaism, does not hold that halakha requires observance, but unlike Reform, it emphasizes the role of the community in deciding what observances to follow.

• 4. Ethics And Halakha Practice

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  Jewish ethical practice is typically understood to be marked by values such as justice, truth, peace, loving-kindness, compassion, humility, and self-respect. Specific Jewish ethical practices include practices of charity and refraining from negative speech. Traditionally, Jews recite prayers three times daily, Shacharit, Mincha, and Ma'ariv with a fourth prayer, Mussaf added on Shabbat and holidays. At the heart of each service is the Amidah or Shemoneh Esrei. Another key prayer in many services is the declaration of faith, the Shema Yisrael. The Shema is the recitation of a verse from the Torah: "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God! The Lord is One!" Communal prayer requires a quorum of ten adult Jews, called a minyan. In nearly all Orthodox and a few Conservative circles, only male Jews are counted toward a minyan; most Conservative Jews and members of other Jewish denominations count female Jews as well. The Jewish dietary laws are known as kashrut. Food prepared in accordance with them is termed kosher, and food that is not kosher is also known as treifah. For seafood to be kosher, the animal must have fins and scales. Certain types of seafood, such as shellfish, crustaceans, and eels, are therefore considered non-kosher. Halakha also forbids the consumption of meat and dairy products together.

• 5. Demographics And Global Identity

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  In 2025, the world Jewish population was estimated at 14.8 million, although religious observance varies from strict to non-existent. According to the Jewish Year Book (1901), the global Jewish population in 1900 was around 11 million. The latest available data is from the World Jewish Population Survey of 2002 and the Jewish Year Calendar (2005). In 2002, according to the Jewish Population Survey, there were 13.3 million Jews around the world. It is 0.25% of world population. Jewish population growth is currently near zero percent, with 0.3% growth from 2000 to 2001. The overall growth rate of Jews in Israel is 1.7% annually, and is consistently growing through natural population growth and extensive immigration. The diaspora countries, by contrast, have low Jewish birth rates, an increasingly elderly age composition, high rates of interreligious marriage and a negative balance of people leaving Judaism versus those joining. In 2022, the world Jewish population was estimated at 15.2 million, with the majority living in one of two countries: Israel and the United States. About 46.6% of all Jews resided in Israel and another 6 million Jews resided in the United States, with most of the remainder living in Europe, and other groups spread throughout Canada, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Australia.

• 6. Historical Persecution And Resilience

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  The Kingdom of Judah continued as an independent state until it was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586, 87 BCE. The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the First Temple, forcing the Israelites into the Babylonian captivity in what is regarded as the first Jewish diaspora. Many of the Israelites returned to their homeland after the fall of Babylon was accomplished by the Persian Achaemenid Empire seventy years later. During the First Jewish, Roman War (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 Torah study 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 was recognized as a religio licita 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; worship was conducted within the Jewish communities of the diaspora.