Transcript Jewish Beliefs

Jewish Beliefs & Texts
Belief in One God
●
Judaism is one of the oldest monotheist
religions (belief of one god)
● The Hebrew name of God is YHWH, which
is never pronounced by Jews because it is
considered too holy a word.
● In ancient times most people worshipped
several gods, so Judaism separated
themselves from other religions.
● The Jews believed they were God’s chosen
people.
Belief in Education
●
●
●
Education and study is
extremely important in
Judaism.
In ancient times, boys
were taught about their
religion by teachers.
Today, all Jewish
children are taught
about their beliefs and
the history of Judaism.
Belief in Justice
& Righteousness
Justice:
- Showing kindness and fairness to everyone
- Give aid to those who need it
- Be fair in business dealings
Righteousness:
- Doing what is right, even if no
one else is.
Belief in Obedience & Law
●
●
●
Moral and religious laws
The Ten Commandments
The Mosaic Laws (named after Moses)
–
Do not eat shellfish or pork
(considered unclean)
–
Only eat meat in which the animal
didn’t suffer when it was slaughtered
(Kosher)
–
–
–
Do not eat milk and meat together, and do not eat
fish and meat together
Do not work on the Sabbath
Belief that God created the world in 6 days and
rested on the seventh (Saturday for Judaism)
Torah
●
The most sacred text of
Judaism
● Includes laws and the
history of the Jews until
the death of Moses.
● The Torah is the central
part of religious services
at the synagogue (Jewish
place of worship)
● Readers of the Torah do
not touch it to show
respect for text. They
use pointers to keep their
spot.
The Hebrew Bible
●
There are three parts of the Hebrew Bible
(Tanach)
– 1st - The Torah
–
–
–
2nd - Hebrew prophets. Prophets are people who
are said to receive messages from God to be
taught to others.
3rd - Eleven books of poetry, song,
stories, lessons, and history.
4th - Proverbs, short expressions
of Hebrew wisdom.
Commentaries
●
●
●
Many of the commentaries are found in
Talmud.
Talmud is a set of commentaries,
stories, and folklore.
Talmud was produced between 200
and 600 A.D.
Dead Sea Scrolls
●
●
●
●
Dead sea scrolls, writing by Jews who
lived about 2,000 year ago.
No one knew about the scrolls until
1947.
Most of the Dead Sea Scrolls were
written between 100 B.C. and 50 A.D.
The scrolls included prayers,
commentaries, letters, and passages
from the Hebrew bible.
Judaism & Other Cultures
●
●
●
Jewish ideas have greatly influenced
other cultures, especially Europe and
America.
The ideas of Judaism helped shape
Christianity, Islam, and other major
religions.
Many people still look to
the Ten Commandments
as a guide on how they
should live.