Judaism and Jews Essay

Submitted By mar1o
Words: 744
Pages: 3

Judaism

Judaism is an old family religion that dates back 3500 years ago. It is the primeval “Abrahamic” faith of the three which include Christianity and Islam. It’s place of origin is the Middle East. It was formally founded by “The Law,” given by God to Moses which Christians refer to as “The Ten Commandments.” It established a set of rules of conduct that Jews agreed to abide by in order to be examples of righteousness for the world. They were to follow his commandments, be a model people, and in exchange God promised to generationally bless and take care “His People.” As previously stated, Judaism is an “Abrahamic” faith, which means it dates it hereditary origin back to Abraham. Abraham is referred to in the Bible, the Torah, and the Qu’ran as the “Father of Many Nations.” The Torah is the central Jewish holy text, although they have a rich history written works to help govern their customs and ways of thinking. To “Jews” there is only one God with whom they have a covenant. They worship in synagogues and receive teaching about the Torah from “Rabbis.”
Jews are taught to feel that it is their duty, in exchange for all that God had done for his people, to bring holiness in every aspect of their life. This is primarily why Judaism includes an abundance of rituals and practices. However, there are some Jews who feel that perhaps certain rituals and practices aren’t as important, seem outdated, unnecessary, and/or just not as important as the overall objective of Judaism, which is contributing to the overall holiness and peace of the world. After speaking with a Jewish colleague, she informed me that Jew often categorize themselves into three practices, imaginably denominations if u will. These are Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform, Orthodox being the most strict. Some would even categorize the few Jews that avoid assimilation by being the most strictly obedient to the rules as Ultra-Orthodox.
The Jewish view of Jesus is, that he was…….you guessed it! He was a Jew. One could not possibly blame a jewish person for identifying Jesus as a Jew. For starters, his mother was Jew. It is a belief that all children born to a Jewish mother are Jewish, whether or not the child practices the customs or beliefs of Judaism. Additionally, Jesus learned and taught Jewish scripture and codes of conduct. From the Jewish point of view, Jesus was a Jewish leader who placed emphasis on the conduct rather than the rituals. Jews concur that his teachings were indeed valuable and that what gets you to heaven is what you contribute to the overall holiness of the world, but they don’t feel it negates the need for certain rituals and practices. As far as Jesus being the Son of God,