Judaism

At the center of Judaism stands monotheism: belief in one universal, spiritual God who is creator and moral governor of the world.[1] This conviction is expressed in the Shema—"Hear, O Israel; the Lord is our God, the Lord is One"—which is traditionally recited three times daily and at the moment of death.[6] Traditional Judaism rejects worship of any angel, star, saint, prophet, ancestor, or other created being, as well as corporeal representations or divisions within the Godhead.[6]

The covenant, or Brit, between God and the Jewish people is also foundational. It is understood as a bond joining Jews to God and to one another across generations while distinguishing the Jewish people from other peoples and faiths.[7] Judaism joins belief to conduct: neither faith without practice nor practice without faith is considered sufficient.[6] Love of God is expressed through the commandments and through conduct that causes others to respect God because of the believer's deeds.[8]

Judaism's ethical ideals include justice, mercy, holiness, truth, and care for poor and vulnerable people. They are grounded in the belief that human beings are created in God's image and possess freedom and moral responsibility.[1] Jewish ethics rejects inherited guilt and holds individuals responsible for their own choices; justice requires not only refraining from wrongdoing but also defending the oppressed and strengthening the weak.[8]

Maimonides (1135–1204) formulated thirteen influential principles concerning God, revelation, prophecy, Torah, divine judgment, the Messiah, and resurrection or immortality.[6] Judaism nevertheless has no universally binding formal creed. Joseph Albo reduced the fundamentals to belief in God, revelation, and retribution, while Isaac Abravanel and David ben Zimra opposed imposing any fixed list.[8]

The term "Judaism," from Greek ioudaismos, appears in 2 Maccabees 2:21, 8:1, and 14:38, passages probably edited during the 140s BCE. Josephus later described Judaism as a distinctive religious life in Jewish Antiquities, probably written in the 90s CE.[9]

Historical periodizations vary, but reference works commonly distinguish biblical, Second Temple, rabbinic, medieval, and modern stages.[2][10] The Second Temple period was marked by monotheism, opposition to idolatry, circumcision, Temple sacrifice, dietary restrictions, Sabbath observance, and festivals. The Maccabean revolt followed the desecration of the Temple and suppression of central Jewish practices.[9]

The Roman destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE was a major turning point. The synagogue became the central place of prayer and worship, the priesthood's role diminished, and rabbis—scholars versed in Jewish law—rose to communal prominence.[11] Rabbinic Judaism developed halakhah, the system of legal and practical observance, together with the concept of an Oral Torah.[2]

The Mishnah was compiled around 200 CE, the Palestinian Talmud was redacted in the early fifth century, and the Babylonian Talmud in the early sixth century. The Babylonian Talmud subsequently became a principal source of study, legal decision, and religious authority for much of world Jewry.[2] Rashi, the Tosafists, and Maimonides later produced foundational commentaries, codes, and philosophical works within a continuing Talmudic tradition.[9]

Early modern developments included responses to the 1492 expulsion from Spain, the return of Spanish and Portuguese conversos to Judaism, the spread of Kabbalah, the codification of Jewish law, the movements associated with Shabbetai Zevi and Jacob Frank, and the emergence of Hasidism.[9]

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Zionism developed around the idea that Jews could find safety and national fulfillment through return to the Land of Israel, and the State of Israel was founded in 1948.[2] The Holocaust—Nazi Germany's attempted genocide of world Jewry in 1941–1945—destroyed major centers of European Jewish life and produced lasting theological and communal consequences.[2]

The Tanakh—Torah, Nevi'im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings)—is Judaism's foundational text.[12] The word Torah means instruction and can refer to the Five Books of Moses, to written and oral traditions together, or more broadly to Jewish religious teaching. Its scope extends beyond legal rules to philosophy, theology, ethics, wisdom, and instruction.[8]

Rabbinic tradition affirms an Oral Torah containing explanations and applications of written precepts, laws attributed to Sinai, rabbinic enactments, institutions, and customs.[6] The Mishnah, compiled around 200 CE, was the first major work of rabbinic literature.[12] The Gemara records later commentary and debate; together, the Mishnah and Gemara form the Talmud, which contains both halakhah (law) and aggadah, including narratives, meditations, prayers, philosophy, and moral sayings.[6]

Other major categories include Midrash, which interprets and elaborates biblical texts; halakhic works offering practical guidance; liturgical texts such as the Siddur and Passover Haggadah; and responsa applying Jewish law to actual cases.[12] Torah study is itself treated as a sacred act: the daily liturgy begins with a blessing for study followed by passages from rabbinic texts.[13] Talmud Torah remains an essential Jewish value that deepens understanding of belief and practice.[14]

Jewish practice traditionally encompasses 613 commandments, or mitzvot, extending religious obligation into ordinary life.[6] The commandments include ethical and ritual duties toward God, other people, and oneself. Traditional teaching rejects the idea that excellence in one category compensates for wrongdoing in another—for example, that worship excuses mistreating a neighbor or that ethical conduct excuses disregarding the Sabbath.[6]

Prayer is described as a "service of the heart" whose value depends on devotion, or kavvanah.[6] The Shema and the Tefillah or Amidah are central elements of daily services, while public worship also includes Torah and prophetic readings. The Torah is read ritually in synagogues on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, generally in a yearly cycle, although some communities complete it over a different interval.[11]

The Sabbath begins at sundown on Friday and ends approximately 25 hours later.[11] It is both a day of rest and a holy day commemorating God as creator. Traditional observance includes abstention from prohibited work, prayer, study, festive meals, lights, Kiddush over wine, Havdalah at its close, and an attitude of joy. It also extends concern for rest to children, servants, strangers, and animals.[6]

The Jewish calendar is lunisolar, with approximately 354 days and an additional month, Adar II, periodically inserted to reconcile lunar and solar cycles.[11] Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot are pilgrimage festivals rooted in Israelite agricultural and Temple traditions. Passover commemorates the Exodus, Shavuot combines the first-fruits harvest with revelation at Sinai, and Sukkot recalls both the harvest and Israel's wilderness journey.[2] A Passover Seder is among the most widely observed Jewish practices.[3]

Rosh Hashanah marks the Jewish New Year, while Yom Kippur centers on fasting, atonement, repentance, and purification.[2] Teshuvah, or repentance, involves contrition, abandonment of wrongdoing, and return to God. Jewish teaching holds that Yom Kippur cannot atone for wrongs against another person until the offender attempts restitution.[8]

Hanukkah and Purim commemorate events after the Torah's period, while Yom Ha-Shoah and Yom Ha-Atzma'ut are twentieth-century additions to the Jewish calendar.[11] Kashrut prohibits foods including pork and shellfish, forbids mixing milk and meat, and prescribes rules for slaughtering meat and poultry.[11] Major lifecycle observances include brit milah on the eighth day of a boy's life, b'nai mitzvah at age 12 for a girl and 13 for a boy, marriage, and death.[11]

The synagogue serves prayer, Torah reading, education, communal administration, charity, and hospitality. It developed as an institution that could exist wherever Jews settled and made Torah public rather than the preserve of a priestly elite.[8] Following the destruction of the Temple, it became the ordinary center of Jewish worship and study.[11]

Judaism contains substantial religious, cultural, philosophical, and communal diversity. Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Judaism are commonly identified as its three major contemporary denominations, alongside Reconstructionism, Hasidism, Jewish Renewal, and other movements.[3] Historical expressions have also included Karaite and Greek Judaism, Kabbalistic movements, secular Zionism, and religious Zionism.[2]

Reform Judaism began in Germany in the second decade of the nineteenth century and rejected the universal binding authority of the Talmud and halakhah. Orthodoxy arose in response to Reform and upheld traditional halakhic authority. Conservative Judaism retained halakhah while permitting controlled historical change. Reconstructionism, founded by Mordecai Kaplan, described Judaism as an "evolving religious civilization" and God as "the power that makes for salvation."[2]

These movements differ over law, revelation, conversion, identity, and modernity, while observance also varies greatly among individuals.[11] Jewish law has generally defined a child of a Jewish mother as Jewish. Reform and Reconstructionist movements also accept certain children of Jewish fathers when raised as Jews, a position not accepted by Orthodox and Conservative authorities.[2] Traditional conversion includes acceptance of Judaism, circumcision for male converts, and ritual immersion for all converts, after which the convert is considered Jewish in every respect.[2]

Five values proposed for Jewish communal continuity are Torah, Am Yisrael (Jewish peoplehood), Klal Yisrael (communal plurality), Brit (covenant), and Kiruv (outreach). This framework describes Jews by birth or choice as links in a chain of tradition extending across generations.[7]

Torah occupies the generative center of Jewish religious life. Traditional Judaism holds that the written and oral Torah were given to Moses at Sinai, while historical-critical scholarship studies the development of Torah, prophecy, and tradition through historical and comparative methods.[8] This disagreement is one of the major theological divides within contemporary Judaism.

A Conservative Jewish statement of principles describes Torah as the product of a human-divine encounter and as God's will revealed pre-eminently through Moses, the Prophets, and the Sages.[14] It defines halakhah as the norms governing Jewish life, including biblical laws, rabbinic interpretation, customs, and ethical ideals, and presents it as an ongoing process requiring new applications in each age.[14]

The Oral Torah enabled continuing interpretation and application of written teachings through the Mishnah, Gemara, Midrash, and later legal literature.[6] Revelation has likewise been described as a process rather than a single event, with Moses representing the highest prophetic stage.[8] Torah study is itself a sacred form of Jewish self-expression.[13]

Jewish hope for the future is expressed through the Kingdom of God and the coming of the Messiah. Its universal dimension envisions nations abandoning idolatry, violence, falsehood, and wickedness in favor of divine sovereignty, truth, justice, holiness, and peace. This is distinct from national expectations involving restoration of the Davidic throne and Israel's political independence.[8]

Maimonides' principles include belief in the coming Messiah and revival of the dead.[6] Reform Judaism retained the ideal of a Messianic age while rejecting a personal Messiah and restoration of Temple sacrifices.[8] Jewish interpretations of resurrection have ranged from bodily resurrection to immortality of the soul and modern spiritual reinterpretations.[8]

Judaism cannot be fully understood apart from Jewish peoplehood. Not all Jews practice Judaism as a religion, yet Judaism's history and religious forms remain inseparable from the Jewish people.[2] Jewish identity may be religious, cultural, ideological, national, symbolic, or informal, and communities draw its boundaries differently.[15]

A European study found that 76% of respondents defined their Judaism in more than one way. Among those giving a single answer, religion was the leading definition at 35%, followed by parentage at 23% and culture at 11%.[16] This multidimensional identity complicates demographic measurement because sources variously count religious identification, ethnicity, ancestry, culture, or combinations of them.[17]

The 2024 World Jewish Population report defines its Core Jewish Population as people who identify as Jewish by religion, ethnicity, or cultural criteria and do not profess another monotheistic religion; it also includes converts and some people of Jewish parentage without another religious identity.[4] That report estimated 15,736,800 Core Jews on January 1, 2024, while a separate current estimate gives 15,809,000.[4][5]

Broader categories produce larger totals. The 2024 report estimated 18,755,661 people with at least one Jewish parent, an Enlarged Jewish Population of 21,774,677, and a Law of Return population of 24,735,988. The last is a legal-immigration category extending beyond the Core population to children, grandchildren, and spouses under the applicable statutory rules.[4]

Using a broader definition based on religion, ethnicity, culture, ancestry, or family background, a 2020 estimate counted 7.5 million Jews of all ages in the United States, compared with 5.7 million Americans who identified religiously as Jewish.[17] Globally, the Jewish population rose from about 11 million in 1945 to 15.7 million in 2023, while the proportion living in Israel increased from 5% to 45%.[15]

Judaism's monotheism, covenantal tradition, rule of law, and ethical teachings became influential well beyond the Jewish people.[18] Its affirmation that human beings are created in God's image grounds ideals of dignity, moral freedom, justice, mercy, and responsibility.[1]

Judaism has been described as a developing historical religion—"a continuous process of unfolding and regeneration"—centered on belief in the one holy God and a future kingdom of truth, justice, and peace.[8] Its institutions repeatedly adapted to changing conditions. The synagogue made Torah study and worship possible wherever Jews settled and helped preserve Jewish identity and historical memory.[8] The elevation of study to sacred status further placed learning near the center of Jewish communal life.[13]

The founding of the State of Israel in 1948 created a major modern center of Jewish national, cultural, and religious life.[2] With 45% of world Jewry living in Israel by 2023, compared with 5% in 1945, Israel's relationship with Diaspora communities has become central to contemporary Jewish life.[15]

Traditional Jewish accounts and historical-critical scholarship differ over the origins of Israelite monotheism. One historical-critical framework dates the introduction of the Yahweh cult to approximately 1300–1200 BCE, characterizes early Mosaic religion as monolatrous, and dates strict monotheism no earlier than the prophetic revolution of approximately 800–600 BCE.[18] Traditional accounts instead present monotheism as foundational from Judaism's beginnings.

The Torah's authority is also debated within contemporary Jewish communities. In a 2022 survey of Jewish adults in the United Kingdom, about one in eight regarded the Torah as the actual word of God, about half viewed it as wholly human, and 38% considered it divinely inspired but not literal.[19] Traditional Judaism and historical criticism likewise disagree over whether the written and oral Torah possess a uniform divine origin.[8]

Judaism has no universally accepted creed: Maimonides' principles became influential, but other authorities proposed different lists or rejected fixed articles of faith.[8] Criteria for Jewish identity also differ among demographic researchers, religious movements, and Israeli law, particularly concerning descent, conversion, self-identification, and Law of Return eligibility.[2][15] These definitions produce different population totals and reflect the broader question of how religion, peoplehood, culture, ancestry, and nationality relate within Jewish identity.