Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people, rooted in the covenant that the Hebrew Bible describes between God and the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is among the oldest living monotheistic traditions, and its scripture and history form the ground from which Christianity and Islam later grew.
Origins and covenant
Jewish tradition traces its beginnings to Abraham, who in the biblical account leaves his homeland at God’s call, and to the covenant renewed with Moses at Mount Sinai after the exodus from Egypt. The ancient Israelites formed kingdoms in the land of Canaan, built the First Temple in Jerusalem, and experienced exile in Babylon after the Temple’s destruction in 586 BCE. A Second Temple stood from 516 BCE until the Romans destroyed it in 70 CE.
Scripture and interpretation
The Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh (תנ״ך, from the initials of its three parts), comprises the Torah (תורה, “instruction”), the five books of Moses; the Nevi’im (נביאים, Prophets); and the Ketuvim (כתובים, Writings). After 70 CE, with the Temple gone, rabbinic sages carried Jewish life forward through study, prayer and law. Their teaching was gathered in the Mishnah (משנה, “repetition”) around 200 CE and expanded in the two Talmuds (תלמוד, “study”), completed between the fifth and seventh centuries and written largely in Aramaic.
Practice and the calendar
Jewish life is shaped by halakhah (הלכה, “the way of walking”), the body of religious law, and by a calendar of sacred time.
- Shabbat (שבת, rest), the weekly day of rest from Friday evening to Saturday evening.
- Kashrut, the dietary laws.
- Prayer three times a day, with the Shema (שמע, “hear”) at its heart, and the Kaddish (קדיש, “holy”), a prayer largely in Aramaic that closes sections of the service and is recited by mourners.
- Festivals including Passover, Shavuot, Sukkot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah.
Jewish life today
Around fifteen million Jews live worldwide, most of them in Israel and the United States. Contemporary Jewish life spans Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist movements, alongside many Jews who identify with the tradition culturally more than religiously.
Continue with Sacred Texts, Figures or the Glossary.