Judaism Paradigm

Judaism Paradigm

A. Origin (country): The rabbis of the second century C.E. created Jewish culture by reunifying a fractured Judean community following the period of Israelite religion and the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

B. Founder: Most sources say that Judaism started with Abraham and the covenant God made with Abraham in Genesis 17. There are other branches of Judaism that have been founded by different rabbis but the original covenant is where it started.

C. Concept of God (name and attributes) God is omnipresent, omniscience, omnipotent, eternal, truth, justice, pure, and holy. Jews believe in one all-powerful God. The believe he exists the first line of the Torah says In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth. They don't believe background information is needed because God's existence is a given because he is the creator. God is one is another belief the idea of any other god is heresy to Jews.

D. Concept of Man: Man is born morally pure; Judaism has no concept of original sin so people are born with a tendency to do good and a tendency to do evil. Man has free will and can choose which path to take.

E. Concept of Sin (what constitutes sin): There are two classes of sins in Judaism offenses against other people and offenses against God. Offenses against God may be understood as a violation of a contract which is the covenant between God and the children of Israel. Pretty much any violation against the 10 commandments is viewed as sin.

F. Concept of Salvation (the final goal of man): Salvation is closely related to the idea of redemption, or being saved from circumstances that destroy the Jews as a people, not so much individually. God gives salvation if they honor his commands. It cannot be achieved or obtained through anyone else other than God. The Jewish people do not speak of much of an afterlife as a they speak of repairing the current world they are in. There are varying opinions of the afterlife such as justice will be given. But they do not see it as relevant.

G. Means to Salvation (or way to achieve Salvation) The Jews do not believe in a salvation like Christians they believe if you do good and uphold the Torah then you are righteous in God's eyes and he will reward you for it.

H. Sacred Writings (scriptures): The Jewish sacred text is the Tanakh which is an acronym

of Torah. It is basically the first 5 books of the Christian Old Testament but in a different order and other minor differences. Another important text is the Talmud which is a collection of writings from different rabbis that explain and apply the scriptures from the Torah. Orthodox Jews believe it was revealed to Moses with the Torah and preserved orally until it was written.

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