The research question for my topic of beliefs in the Judaism religion was do beliefs define us as people? When looking at the beliefs in Judaism we see how Jews express the belief of having only one god this is called monotheism. Jews believe strongly that god created the world and have an independent and unique relationship with god. ”This relationship is known as a covenant relationship which the Jews thank him for all the deeds he has done”.
The main ways Jews express a covenant relationship is by keeping God’s laws and to bring holiness into everyday activities. They believe that god has chose them to be his chosen suitable people in order to set holiness and righteous conduct throughout the world. Jewish life is very much a community based and they have many ventures for example the Jewish prayer book the Torah. ”In 960-922 BCE the first Temple in Jerusalem was built by King Solomon who was David’s son “The Temple became the centre of Israelite worship. “In 586BCE the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, and the Israelites are deported to Babylon, which is the beginning of the period known as the exile.” The Persians rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem.
This period onwards is known as second temple Judaism. Between 69-70BC there was a Jewish riot against the romans and the temple in Jerusalem was demolished by the roman army. The western and wailing wall remain today. The belief is that the messiah will rebuild the temple. There are three movements in the Jewish religion Orthodox Jew, conservative Movement and Reform Judaism.”Orthodox Jews believe that both the written and oral Torah are of divine origin, and represent the word of god this is a similar view of conservative movement, but the orthodox movement holds that such information is the exact word of god and does not represent any human inspiration or vision through their thoughts” Conservative Jews believe it is important preserve old ways as much as possible but not in the degree of importance as orthodox Jews they acknowledge the importance of carefully chosen adjustments to accommodate the world in which they live in. Reform Jews accept the Torah but is seen more of an open study and seen more as an explanation by individual Jews.
This movement arose in 19th century and experienced remarkable expansion in the United States of America. From looking at the recent research conducted the conclusion is that Jewish people have strong ethical values of their beliefs and this is a factor which contributes to defining them as people.
Bibliography
- BBC 2014(Jewish Faith and God) “Jews believe strongly that god created the world and have an independent and unique relationship with god” www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/beliefs/beliefs_1.shtml
- BBC 2014 “This relationship is known as a covenant relationship which Jews” [online] last modified September 14th 2009 www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/beliefs/beliefs_1.shtml
- BBC 2014 (Jewish Faith and God) “This relationship is known as a covenant relationship which Jews” [online] accessed 2019 www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/beliefs/beliefs_1.shtml
- Burroughs. Jonathan “Judaism Beliefs” RSP4001 Religions and World Religions MIC Thurles, 2019
- Jewish Virtual library, “Orthodox Judaism: background and overview” American-Israel Co-Operative Enterprise, Accessed 30 October 2019 https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/background-and-overview-of-orthodox-judaism