Judaism

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Judaism
Judaism
Category
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Principles of faith · Minyan · Kabbalah
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Tur · Shulchan Aruch · Mishnah Berurah
Ḥumash · Siddur · Piyutim · Zohar · Tanya
Holy cities
Jerusalem · Safed · Hebron · Tiberias
Important figures
Abraham · Isaac · Jacob/Israel
Sarah · Rebecca · Rachel · Leah
Moses · Deborah · Ruth · David · Solomon
Elijah · Hillel · Shammai · Judah the Prince
Saadia Gaon · Rashi · Rif · Ibn Ezra · Tosafists
Rambam · Ramban · Gersonides
Yosef Albo · Yosef Karo · Rabbeinu Asher
Baal Shem Tov · Alter Rebbe · Vilna Gaon
Ovadia Yosef · Moshe Feinstein · Elazar Shach
Lubavitcher Rebbe
Jewish life cycle
Brit · B'nai mitzvah · Shidduch · Marriage
Niddah · Naming · Pidyon HaBen · Bereavement
Religious roles
Rabbi · Rebbe · Hazzan
Kohen/Priest · Mashgiach · Gabbai · Maggid
Mohel · Beth din · Rosh yeshiva
Religious buildings
Synagogue · Mikvah · Holy Temple / Tabernacle
Religious articles
Tallit · Tefillin · Kipa · Sefer Torah
Tzitzit · Mezuzah · Menorah · Shofar
4 Species · Kittel · Gartel · Yad
Jewish prayers
Jewish services · Shema · Amidah · Aleinu
Kol Nidre · Kaddish · Hallel · Ma Tovu · Havdalah
Judaism & other religions
Christianity · Islam · Catholicism · Christian-Jewish reconciliation
Abrahamic religions · Judeo-Paganism · Pluralism
Mormonism · "Judeo-Christian" · Alternative Judaism
Related topics
Criticism of Judaism · Anti-Judaism
Antisemitism · Philo-Semitism · Yeshiva

Judaism is the religious culture of the Jewish people. It is one of the first recorded monotheistic faiths and one of the oldest religious traditions still practiced today. The tenets and history of Judaism are the major part of the foundation of other Abrahamic religions, including Christianity and Islam.

While Judaism is far from monolithic in practice and has no centralized authority or binding dogma, it has remained strongly united around several religious principles, the most important of which is the belief in a single, omniscient, transcendent God that created the universe, and continues to be involved in its governance. According to Jewish thought, this God established a covenant with the Jewish people, then known as the Israelites, and revealed his laws and commandments to them in the form of the Torah. Jewish practice is devoted to the study and observance of these laws and commandments, as they are interpreted according to various ancient and modern authorities.

Judaism does not easily fit into common western categories, such as religion, ethnicity, or culture. Politically, Jews have experienced slavery, anarchic self-government, theocratic self-government, conquest, occupation, and exile. They have been in contact with and were influenced by ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Persian, Hellenic, Christian, and Islamic cultures, as well as modern movements such as the Enlightenment and the rise of nationalism. Thus, Daniel Boyarin has argued that "Jewishness disrupts the very categories of identity, because it is not national, not genealogical, not religious, but all of these, in dialectical tension."

Religious view of Judaism's development

Much of the Hebrew Bible is an account of the Israelites' relationship with God as reflected in their history from the time of Abraham until the building of the Second Temple (ca. 350 B.C.E.).

Abraham is generally seen as the first Jew, although strictly speaking he was also the progenitor of several non-Jewish tribes as well. Rabbinic literature records that he was the first to reject idolatry and preach monotheism. As a result, God promised he would have many children: "Look now toward heaven and count the stars. So shall be your progeny." (Genesis 15:5) Abraham's first child was Ishmael and his second son was Isaac, whom God said would continue Abraham's work and inherit the Land of Israel (then called Canaan), after having been exiled and redeemed. God sent Abraham's grandson, the patriarch Jacob and his children to Egypt, where they later became enslaved. As Jacob was also known as "Israel," his tribe became known as the Israelites.

God sent Moses to redeem the Israelites from slavery. After the Exodus from Egypt, God led the Jews to Mount Sinai and gave them the Torah, eventually bringing them to the land of Canaan, which they conquered at God's command. God designated the descendants of Aaron, Moses' brother, to be a priestly class within the Israelite community. They first officiated in the Tabernacle (a portable house of worship), and later their descendants were in charge of worship in the Temple in Jerusalem.

Once the Jews had settled in the land of Israel, the tabernacle was established in the city of Shiloh for over 300 years, during which time God provided great men, and occasionally women, to rally the nation against attacking enemies sent by God as a punishment for the sins of the people, who failed to separate themselves from the Canaanites and joined in worshiping the Canaanite gods. This is described in the Book of Joshua and the Book of Judges.

The people of Israel then told Samuel the prophet, who was also the last of the judges, that they had reached the point where they needed to be governed by a permanent king, as were other nations. God acceded to this request and had Samuel appoint Saul to be their King. When Saul and disunited with Samuel and proved to lack zeal in destroying Israel's enemies, God instructed Samuel to appoint David in his stead.

David and Saul struggled with each other for many years, but once David's kingship was established, he told the prophet Nathan that he would like to build a permanent temple. God promised the king that he would allow his son to build the temple and that the throne would never depart from his children. As a result, it was David's son Solomon who built the first permanent temple in Jerusalem, as described in the Books of Kings.

However, Solomon sinned by erecting altars for his foreign wives on hilltops near Jerusalem, and after death, his kingdom was split into the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah. After several hundred years, because of rampant idolatry, God allowed Assyria to conquer Israel and exile its people. The southern Kingdom of Judah, whose capital was Jerusalem, remained under the rulership of the House of David. However, as in the north, idolatry increased to the point that God allowed Babylonia to conquer the kingdom, destroy the Temple which had stood for 410 years, and exile the people of Judah to Babylonia, with the promise that they would be redeemed after 70 years.

The Western Wall in Jerusalem is all that is known to remain of the Second Temple. The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism.

King Cyrus of Persian allowed the Jews to return, and, under the leadership of Ezra, and the Temple was rebuilt, as recorded in the Book of Ezra and the Book of Nehemiah. The Second Temple stood for 420 years, after which it was destroyed by the Roman general (later emperor) Titus. The Jewish temple is to remain in ruins until the Messiah, a descendant of David, arises to restore the glory of Israel and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.

The Torah given on Mount Sinai was summarized in the five books of Moses. Together with the books of the prophets it is called the Written Torah. The details and interpretation of the law, which are called the Oral Torah or oral law were originally unwritten. However as the persecutions of the Jews increased and the details were in danger of being forgotten, rabbinic tradition holds that these oral laws were recorded in the Mishnah and the Talmud, as well as other holy books.

Critical view

In contrast to the Orthodox religious view of the Hebrew Bible, modern scholars suggest that the Torah consists of a variety of inconsistent texts that were edited together in a way that calls attention to divergent accounts (see Documentary hypothesis).

Although monotheism is fundamental to Rabbinic Judaism, the Hebrew Bible also speaks of other gods as really existing, the Hebrew deity Yahweh being the national god of the Israelites. However, Yahweh was worshiped in many placed, not just Jerusalem, and other gods, such as Baal and Ashera, were often honored together with him. Biblical writers of the seventh century B.C.E. and later took a more firmly monotheistic view, urged complete separation from Canaanite culture, insisted that Jerusalem was the only authorized place of sacrifice to Yahweh, and wrote the history of Judah and Israel in such as way that made it appear as if the priestly ideology had always been known to the Israelites, who sinned against God by failing to adhere to it. It was only after the Babylonian exile that this priest religion became predominant. Moreover, it was primarily the tribe of Judah that constituted the people who came to be known as Jews. The religion of the Israelites, therefore, is far from identical with the biblical religion of Judaism.

Jewish denominations

Over the past two centuries the Jewish community has divided into a number of Jewish denominations. Each of these has a different understanding of what principles of belief a Jew should hold, and how one should live as a Jew.

File:Hasidim.jpg
Hasidic Jews are one part of the Haredi community, the most theologically conservative form of Judaism.
In Reform Judaism, prayer is often conducted in the vernacular and men and women have equal roles in religious observance.
  • Orthodox Judaism holds that the Torah was written by God and dictated to Moses, and that the laws within it are binding and unchanging. Orthodox Jews generally consider a sixteenth century law code, the Shulkhan Arukh, to be the definitive codification of Jewish law. Orthodox Judaism consists of Modern Orthodox Judaism and Haredi Judaism. Hasidic Judaism is a sub-set of Haredi Judaism. Most of Orthodox Judaism holds to one particular form of Jewish theology, based on Maimonides' 13 principles of Jewish faith.
  • Reform Judaism originally formed in Germany in response to the Enlightenment. Reform Judaism holds most of the commandments of the Torah to be no longer binding and initially rejected most Jewish the rituals. It emphasized instead the moral and ethical teachings of the prophets, developed a prayer service in the vernacular, and stress a personal connection to Jewish tradition over specific forms of observance. Reform rabbis are allowed to perform interfaith marriages, and mixed Jewish-Gentile families are welcome in many Reform congregation. However, many Reform congregations have returned to Hebrew prayers and encourage some degree of observance of Jewish laws and customs. Outside of the US Reform Judaism is sometimes known as Progressive Judaism or Liberal Judaism.
  • Conservative Judaism. Conservative Judaism formed in the United States in the late 1800s through the fusion of two distinct groups: former Reform Jews who were alienated by that movement's emphatic rejection of Jewish law, and former Orthodox Jews who had come to question traditional beliefs and favored the critical study of sacred Jewish texts. Conservative Jews generally hold that specific Jewish laws and traditions should be retained unless there is good reason to reject them and emphasize that Jews constitute a nation as well as a religion. Conservative scholars emphasize their identification with the Amoraim, the sages of the Talmud, who embraced open debates over interpretations and developments of Jewish law. Outside of the US Conservative Judaism is known as Masorti (Hebrew for "Traditional") Judaism.
  • Reconstructionist Judaism started as a stream of philosophy within Conservative Judaism, and later became an independent movement emphasizing reinterpreting Judaism for modern times.
  • Secular Judaism. Though not a formal denomination, secular Judaism, also known as cultural Judaism, forms perhaps the largest group of Jews today, who do not adhere to any Jewish sect, rarely attend synagogue, and are not observant of most Jewish customs. While the majority of secular Jews believe in God, some are agnostics or atheists, while continuing to identify themselves as cultural Jews.
  • Humanistic Judaism is small nontheistic movement that emphasizes Jewish culture and history as the sources of Jewish identity. Founded by Rabbi Sherwin Wine, it is centered in North America but has adherents Europe, Latin America, and Israel.

Karaism

Karaite Judaism did not begin as a modern Jewish movement. The Karaites accept only the Hebrew Bible and do not accept non-biblical writings such as the Talmud as authoritative. Some European Karaites do not see themselves as part of the Jewish community, while most do. Its followers sometimes affirm themselves they are the remnant of the non-rabbinic Jewish sects of the Second Temple period. Historically the Karaites can be traced to controversies in the Babylonian Jewish communites during the eighth and ninth centuries.

Jewish philosophy

Main article: Jewish philosophy

Jewish philosophy refers to the conjunction between serious study of philosophy and Jewish theology. Early Jewish philosophy was influenced by the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle, and Islamic philosophy. The key classical Jewish philosophers include Solomon ibn Gabirol, Saadia Gaon, Maimonides, and Gersonides.

Major changes occurred in response to the Enlightenment, leading to the post-Enlightenment and modern Jewish philosophers such as Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, Mordecai Kaplan, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Will Herberg, Emmanuel Levinas, Richard Rubenstein, Emil Fackenheim, and Joseph Soloveitchik.

Principles of Jewish faith

While Judaism has always affirmed a number of Jewish principles of faith, no creed, dogma, or fully-binding "catechism," is recognized, an approach to Jewish religious doctrine that dates back at least 2,000 years and that makes generalizations about Jewish theology somewhat difficult.

Nevertheless, in Orthodox tradition, over the centuries, a number of clear formulations of Jewish principles of faith have appeared, many with common elements, though they differ in certain details. Of these formulations, the one most widely considered authoritative by Orthodox Jews is Maimonides' 13 principles of faith:

Artist's conception of Maimonides
  • God is one. This represents a strict unitarian monotheism, in which the eternal creator of the universe is the source of morality.
  • God is all-powerful, as well as all-knowing, and the different [[names of God are ways to express different aspects of God's presence in the world.
  • God is non-physical, non-corporeal, and eternal. All statements in the Hebrew Bible and in rabbinic literature which use anthropomorphism are held to be metaphors.
  • One may offer prayer to God alone. Any belief in an intermediary between man and God, either necessary or optional, has traditionally been considered heretical.
  • The Hebrew Bible, together with the teachings of the Mishnah and Talmud, are held to be the product of divine revelation.
  • The words of the prophets are true.
  • Moses was the chief of all prophets.
  • The Torah (five books of Moses) is the primary text of Judaism.
  • God will reward those who observe His commandments, and punish those who violate them.
  • God chose the Jewish people to be in a unique covenant with Him.
  • There will be a Jewish Messiah, or perhaps a messianic era.
  • The soul is pure at birth, and human beings have free will, with an innate yetzer ha'tov (a tendency to do good), and a yetzer ha'ra (a tendency to do evil).
  • People can atone for sins through words and deeds, without intermediaries, through prayer, repentance, and tzedakah (dutiful giving of charity).

The traditional Jewish bookshelf

A Torah scroll
Am edition of the Babylonian Talmud
Rashi's five-volume midrash (commentary) on the Hebrew Bible
Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, a compendium of halakhic commentary

Jews are often called the "People of the Book," and Judaism has an age-old intellectual tradition focusing on text-based Torah and Talmud study. The following is a basic, structured list of the central works of Jewish practice and thought.

  • The Tanakh (Hebrew Bible)
    • The Torah, or five books of Moses.
    • The Prophets....
    • The Writings, including the Psalms, Wisdom...
  • Works of the Talmudic Era (classic rabbinic literature):
    • The Mishnah and its commentaries.
    • The Tosefta and the minor tractates.
    • The Talmud
  • Midrashic Literature
  • Halakhic literature
    • The Major Codes of Jewish Law and Custom
      • The Mishneh Torah and its commentaries.
      • The Tur and its commentaries.
      • The Shulhan Arukh and its commentaries.
    • Other books on Jewish Law and Custom
    • The Responsa literature of rabbinic rulings
  • Jewish Thought and Ethics
  • The Siddur and Jewish liturgy
  • Piyyut (Classical Jewish poetry)
  • Torah databases (electronic versions of the Traditional Jewish Bookshelf)
  • List of Jewish Prayers and Blessings

Jewish Law and interpretation

Main article: Halakha

The basis of Jewish law is the Torah (the five books of Moses). According to rabbinic tradition there are 613 commandments in the Torah. Many laws were only applicable when the Temple in Jerusalem existed, and fewer than 300 of these commandments are still applicable today.

In addition to these written laws, most Jews have traditionally believed in what they call the Oral Law as well. This law was conveyed together with the Written Law to Moses and Sinai and handed down orally through the prophets and sages, eventually transmitted though the Pharisee sect of ancient Judaism and later recorded in written form.

In the time of Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi (200 C.E.), much of this material was edited together into the Mishnah. Over the next four centuries this law underwent discussion and debate in both of the world's major Jewish communities Palestine and Babylonia. The commentaries on the Mishnah from each of these communities eventually came to be edited together into compilations known as the two Talmuds, the Palestinian and the Babylonia, the latter being the more authoritative today. These in turn have been expounded by commentaries of various Talmudic scholars during the ages.

Halakha is thus based on a combined reading of the Torah, and the oral tradition, including the Mishnah, the halakhic Midrash, the Talmud, and its commentaries. The Halakha has developed slowly, through a precedent-based system. The literature of questions to rabbis, and their considered answers, is referred to as responsa. Over time, as practices developed, codes of Jewish law were written based on the responsa. The most important code, the Shulkhan Arukh, largely determines Orthodox Jewish religious practice up to today.

A Jewish bride c. 1876

Who is a Jew?

According to traditional Jewish law, someone is considered to be a Jew if he or she was born of a Jewish mother or converted in accord with Jewish Law. (Recently, the American Reform and Reconstructionist movements have included those born of Jewish fathers and Gentile mothers, if the children are raised as Jews.) However, most forms of Judaism today are open to sincere converts from any background.

Even in Orthodox tradition, a Jew who ceases to practice Judaism is still considered a Jew, as is a Jew who does not accept Jewish principles of faith and becomes an agnostic or an atheist; so too with a Jew who converts to another religion. However, in the latter case, the person loses standing as a member of the Jewish community and may become known as an apostate.

The question of what determines Jewish identity was given new impetus when, in the 1950s, David ben Gurion requested opinions on mihu Yehudi ("who is a Jew") from Jewish religious authorities and intellectuals worldwide. The question is far from settled and occasionally resurfaces in Israeli politics.

Jewish prayer and practice

Prayers

A Yemeni Jew wearing a kippah skullcap prays with a tallit shawl. The prayer boxes strapped to his forehead and arm are tefillin.

In Orthodox Judaism, there are three main daily prayer services. All three include a number of benedictions (18 on the Sabbath and 19 or weekdays) called the Amidah. Another key prayer in many services is the declaration of faith, the Shema. Most of the prayers in a traditional Jewish service can be recited in solitary prayer, but Kaddish and Kedusha require a group of ten adult men (or men and women in some denominations) called a minyan (prayer quorum). There are also prayers and benedictions recited throughout the day, such as those before eating or drinking.

Several religious objects are commonly used in prayer. The tallit is a Jewish prayer shawl. A kippah or yarmulke (skullcap) is a head covering worn during prayer by most Jews, and at all times by more orthodox Jews. Phylacteries or tefillin, boxes containing the portions of the Torah mandating them, are strapped to the forehead and forearm by religious Jews during weekday morning services.

The approach to prayer differs among the various branches of Judaism. Conservative and Orthodox congregations follow are more traditional liturgy, and Reform and Reconstructionist synagogues are more likely to incorporate translations, contemporary writings, and abbreviated services.

Shabbat

Main article: Shabbat

Shabbat (Sabbath) is the weekly, sacred day of rest lasting from Friday night to Saturday night, commemorating God's day of rest upon the completion of creation. It plays an important role in Jewish practice and is the subject of a large body of religious law.

Torah readings

The core of festival and Sabbath prayer services is the public reading of the Torah, along with connected readings from the other books of the Jewish Bible, called Haftarah. During the course of a year, the full Torah is read, and the cycle begins again every autumn during Simhat Torah (“rejoicing in the Torah”).

Jewish holidays

Table setting at a Passover Seder

The Jewish holy days celebrate central themes in the relationship between God and the world, such as creation, revelation, and redemption. Some holidays are also linked to the agricultural cycle.

  • Pesach or Passover celebrates the Exodus from Egypt, and coincides with the barley harvest. It is the only holiday that centers on a formal religious service held in the home, called the Seder.
  • Sukkot, or "The Festival of Booths" is celebrated through the construction of temporary booths that represent the shelters of the people of Israel during their wandering in the wilderness. It coincides with the fruit harvest and marks the end of the agricultural cycle.
  • Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, celebrating the day that the world was created and marking the advance of the Jewish calendar from one year to the next. It is also a holiday of redemption, as it marks the beginning of the period of atonement that ends ten days later with Yom Kippur.
  • Yom Kippur, or The Day of Atonement, is involves fasting and solemn for the redemption of sins committed during the previous year, both individual and collective. Many consider this the most important Jewish holiday.

There are many minor holidays as well, including Purim, which celebrates the events told in the biblical book of Esther, and Hanukkah, which is which celebrates the successful rebellion by the Maccabees against the Seleucid Empire. Although less important for religious Jews, Hanukkah has become increasingly important in recent centuries among secular Jews as a means for Jewish families to share in the joys of the winter holiday season marked in Christian tradition by Christmas.

Synagogues and Jewish buildings

Interior of the Esnoga synagogue in Amsterdam. The reader’s platform in the foreground, and the ark is in the background.

Synagogues are a Jewish houses of prayer and study, usually containing separate rooms for prayer (the main sanctuary), smaller rooms for study, and often an area for community or educational use. There is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes and interior designs of synagogues vary greatly, so a synagogue may contain any (or none) of these features:

  • an ark where the Torah scrolls are kept
  • an elevated reader's platform where the Torah is read
  • an "Eternal Light" (ner tamid), a continually-lit lamp as a reminder of the constantly lit menorah of the Temple in Jerusalem
  • a pulpit facing the congregation for preaching and/or a small platform facing the ark from which prayers may be led

In addition to synagogues, other buildings of significance in Judaism include religious schools known as yeshivas and ritual baths necessary for carrying various purification rituals. Jewish community centers also represent and important century of Jewish life, attracted non-observant as well as religious Jews.

Dietary laws: Kashrut

Main article: Kashrut

The laws of kashrut ("keeping kosher") are the Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with Jewish law is termed kosher, while other food is termed treifah or treif. Orthodox Jews and some Conservative Jews keep kosher, to varying degrees of strictness, while Reform, Reconstructionist, and secular Jews generally do not.

Family purity

The laws of niddah ("menstruant", often referred to euphemistically as "family purity") and various other laws (such as dress codes) regulating the interaction between men and women are perceived by Orthodox Jews, as vital factors in Jewish life, though they are rarely followed by Reform or Conservative Jews. The laws of niddah dictate that sexual intercourse cannot take place while the woman is having a menstrual flow, and the wife must count seven "clean" days and immerse in a mikvah (ritual bath) before resuming marital relations.

Life-cycle events

Life-cycle events occur throughout a Jew's life that bind him/her to the entire community.

  • Brit milah - Welcoming male babies into the Abrahamic covenant through the rite of circumcision
  • Bar mitzvah and Bat mitzvah - Celebrating a child's reaching the age of religious majority.
  • Marriage
  • Death and Mourning orShiv'ah (mourning) - A multi-staged mourning practice.

Community leadership

Priesthood

Today, Judaism does not have a clergy, in the sense of full-time specialists required for religious services. However, prior to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E., priests were crucial to Jewish worship, since it was they who attended to the required Temple and sacrifices. The priesthood is an inherited position, and although priests no longer have clerical duties, they are still honored in many Orthodox Jewish communities. The priestly orders include the Kohen, a priest descended from Aaron and the Levite, descended of Levi the son of Jacob.

Prayer leaders

Rabbi Praying, by Szymon Buchbinder

The most common professional clergy in a synagogue are:

  • Rabbi of a congregation - A Jewish scholar who is charged with answering the legal questions of a congregation and/or acts as is pastor. A congregation does not necessarily require a rabbi.
  • Hazzan (cantor) - A trained vocalist who leads in the recitation of prayers, chants, or songs.

The following roles may be filled by a rabbi and/or cantor, or by specialists:

  • Shaliach tzibur or Shatz, the congregation's prayer leader.
  • Baal koreh, the "master of the reading," who reads the weekly Torah portion.
  • Gabbai (sexton), who calls people up to the Torah, appoints the shatz for the week if this position is not permanent, and makes certain that the synagogue is kept clean and supplied.

Specialized religious roles

Other religious specialists include the following, some of which require rabbinical degrees:

  • Dayan (judge) - An expert in Jewish law who sits on a beth din (rabbinical court) for civil suits and divorce cases.
  • Mohel - The man who performs the brit milah (rite of circumcision).
  • Shochet - A butcher trained in the slaughters all kosher meat.
  • Sofer - A scribe responsible for copying Torah scrolls, tefillin (phylacteries), mezuzahs (scrolls put on doorposts), and gittin (bills of divorce).
  • Rosh yeshivah - The head of a yeshiva, a scholar expert in delving into the depths of the Talmud, and who lectures the highest class in a yeshiva.
  • Mashgiach of a yeshiva - An expert in mussar (ethics) who oversees the spiritual welfare of the students in a yeshiva.
  • Mashgiach over kosher products - An overseer of merchants and manufacturers of kosher food.

Judaism and other religions

Christianity and Judaism

Jews have endured a stormy relationship with Christians ever since the advent of Christianity. A key issue in this dynamic is the supposed Jewish responsibility for the death of Jesus, which resulted in a long-standing tradition of Christian anti-Judaism. From a Jewish viewpoint the the Holocaust represented the culmination of Christian civilization's animosity toward the Jews. Even if Christians themselves were not Nazis—although some Nazi leaders were indeed practicing Christians, Christian culture in Europe was such that only exceptional Christians were willing to take risks to protect the rights of the Jews. Since the Holocuast, Christian-Jewish reconciliation has made important strides as some denominations have officially rejected the doctrine of Jewish collective responsibility for killing Jesus, and the Catholic Church has gone so far as to apologize to the Jews for its history of antisemitism.

Messianic Judaism (sometimes Hebrew Christianity) is the common designation for a number of Christian groups whose membership is largely comprised of Jews and which include varying degrees of Jewish practice. These groups have attracted tens (and perhaps hundreds) of thousands of both Jews and Gentiles to their ranks. Such groups are viewed highly negatively by all Jewish denominations, which typically see them as covert attempts to convert Jews to Christianity, a view Messianic-Jewish groups strongly contest.

Islam and Judaism

During the last 1500 years, Judaism underwent significant develops under Islamic rule, lead to an interplay between the two religions which has been positive as well as negative at times. Jewish communities flourished under Islamic governments in Babylonia, and the later period around 900 to 1200 in Moorish Spain came to be known as the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain. Indeed, for much of its history, Judaism fared much better under Muslim regimes than Christian ones. The twentieth century animosity of Muslim leaders towards Zionism, the political movement of Jewish self-determination centering on the state of Israel, has led mutual suspicion and occasion violence between Muslims and Jews.

See also

Jews and Judaism

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Elazar, Daniel Judah, and Rela M. Geffen. The Conservative Movement in Judaism: Dilemmas and Opportunities. SUNY series in American Jewish society in the 1990s. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000. ISBN 9780791446898
  • Freundel, Barry. Contemporary Orthodox Judaism's Response to Modernity. Jersey City, N.J.: KTAV Pub. House, 2004. ISBN 9780881257786
  • Gotzmann, Andreas, and Christian Wiese. Modern Judaism and Historical Consciousness: Identities, Encounters, Perspectives. Leiden: Brill, 2007. ISBN 9789004152892.
  • Gurock, Jeffrey S. From Fluidity to Rigidity: The Religious Worlds of Conservative and Orthodox Jews in Twentieth Century America. David W. Belin lecture in American Jewish affairs, 7. Ann Arbor: Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, the University of Michigan, 1998. ISBN 9781881759065
  • Hirsch, Ammiel, and Yaakov Yosef Reinman. One People, Two Worlds: An Orthodox Rabbi and a Reform Rabbi Explore the Issues That Divide Them. New York: Schocken Books, 2002. ISBN 9780805211405
  • Levy, Richard N. A Vision of Holiness: The Future of Reform Judaism. New York: URJ Press, 2005. ISBN 9780807409411.

External links

All links retrieved August 26, 2008.

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