Judaism is the oldest monotheistic religion of Abrahamic faiths. The devotees of Judaism are called Jews.
The terms of Judaism and Jew where inferred from the word ‘Judah’ which was the name of the fourth of the twelve sons of Jacob. Jews are also called Hebrews and Israelite. They are called Hebrews because they are descendants of Abraham who was called a Hebrew. They are moreover called Israelites because they are descendants of Jacob who was called Israel. Abraham and Moses are considered the founder of Judaism. It was Abraham that God made a covenant that would define the relationship of Jews with God and it was through Moses that God made his commandments known to the people. The specific rules that God wanted his people to obey for their part of the covenant.
There are other bible and other sacred writings in Judaism which is divided into the primary and the supplementary ones. The primary one are those found in the Hebrew bible, known in Hebrew Bible as the Tanakh which name is actually an acronym of Torah, Nevi’im, and Ketuvim. The supplementary ones are called the Talmud which is a compilation of ancient teachings regarded as sacred and normative by Jews from the time it was compiled until modern times and still so regarded by traditional religious Jews and Midrash which is a mode of biblical interpretation prominent in the Talmudic literature. Another sacred writing in Judaism is the Torah which is the set of laws that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. Next sacred writing is the Nevi’im and Ketuvim. The Nevi’im has a total of 22 book which was named after its respective prophet. The Kethuvim are generally based on human knowledge and experiences. Next is The Talmud, consisting of the Mishnah and Gemara. And last is The Midrash.
The Judaism has its basic doctrines. First is The 613 Mitzvot, it is the rules or commandments that the Jews believes. The Monotheism the Jewish belief in an afterlife is called Olam Ha-Ba, translated as “The World to Come”. The Messianic Age, the Jews believe in the coming of the Messiah and the resurrection of the righteous dead. The Messiah, from the Hebrew word mashiach which kiterally means “theannointed one”, is conceived by some Jews as a human being, not a god or demigod, who will be a great political and military leader.
In the early years, the Jews faced some major challenges: Anti-Semitism, Holocaust, and the Zionism. The Anti-Semitism is a negative attitude towards the Jews. A person who holds such an attitude is called an anti-Semite. Some prejudice led to the persecutions of the Jews. Some of the major persecutions were the following. First is when the Jews were forced to embraced the Greek gods when the Kingdom of Judah or Judea fell under the Seleucid Empire of Babylonia. Second is that thousands of Jews were killed during the series of Crusades: the First Crusade, Second Crusade, and Shepherds’ Crusade. Crusades were military expeditions organized by western Christians to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims and to prevent the spread of Islam but the crusaders killed many in Jews in Jerusalem. Third is that the Jews were blamed for the Black Death Epidemic. It is were suspected of poisoning the wells which caused the disease. Hundreds of Jews were killed because of this. Fourth is were thousands of Jews were massacred during political conflicts and Jews were expelled from their place in Yemen to the arid coastal plain of Tihamah. And lastly the Holocaust were six millions of Jews were killed by a German Nazis during World War II. The Zionism.
Judaism has its rituals and major festivals that they still did upto this day. These are the Daily prayers were Jewish males observe three daily prayers services during the day – in morning, afternoon, and evening. When making their prayers either in their home or synagogue, they must face the direction of the site of the temple in Jerusalem. The Sabbath Day that occurs every sunset on Friday and sunset on Saturday. This is the most sacred week for the Jews, dedicated solely to prayer and rest from the usual everyday activities. The Circumcision and Rite of Passage, it is were the male infants are circumcised on the eight day after their birth. When the boys reach the age of 13, they undergo a rite-of-passage ceremony that marks their entry to adulthood. They called them “bar mitzvah”. In girls, they undergo the same rituals when they reach the age of 12. They called it “bat mitzvah”.
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How Abrahamic Religion Changed History.
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