Juaism

Judaism is one of the oldest religions in the world. Jewish people have suffered persecution through the holocaust, they were left with nothing. No leader or land to call their own as everything was taken from them.

The history of the Jewish faith begins with the Hebrew bible or the Tanankh which has been referred to as the old testament by Christians (Fisher, 2005). The history begins with Moses who led the people according to gods commandments. This includes new teachings and a book called the Talmund. The Jewish people believe that if they obey God’s commands in turn God will deliver on promises he had made to them. The Torah is a set of rules that was given to the Jewish people by Moses. It contains rules for living a moral life, they were put into a book called the Torah.

The Sacred Texts of Judaism are the Torah which are the rules for moral living given to the Jewish people by Moses. The Talmund which is the texts studied by Rabbis, and the Tanankh which contains the writings that Christians consider the Old Testament. The Ten commandments are the foundation of the Jewish faith. The Ten Commandments were given to the Jewish people by Moses as a guide to living a good life. They include, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery, and love they neighbor as thy self. The Ten Commandments were written on stone tablets, they also included “a set of social norms, prescribed religious feasts, and detailed instructions for the construction of a portable tabernacle with a holy ark, the Ark of the Covenant, in which to keep the stone tablets on which God inscribed the commandments” (Fisher, 2005).

The first Jewish temple was built in Jerusalem by King Solomon who was the son of King David. David was a Sheppard who wrote musical psalms. David was often called upon by King Saul to play psalms for him when he was restless or fearful. After King Saul died, David was appointed king. The temple built by King Solomon who also held the Ark of the Covenant. This was where sacrifices were made to God. After the first temple was built the Jewish people were sent to Babylon and after their return 50 years later, a second temple was built. This second temple was where the Torah was established. After a war with the Romans in 132-135 CE the Jewish temple was destroyed and Jewish people were forbidden to practice their faith (Fisher, 2005). Judea was renamed Palestine and the Jewish people no longer had a home.

The nation of Israel was originally a nation of nomadic people who were isolated and oppressed. After the horrific events of the Holocaust some Jewish people made homes in Israel. The people who made their homes came to be known as Israelites. They were given this name because the nation was named after Israel who was originally known as Jacob (Fisher, 2005). The nation of Israel has always been in a state of disorder and confusion, and in 1947 the United Nations gave Israel to the Jewish people who declared it an independent state in 1948. Israel’s Arabic neighbors did not support this decision and war followed. Battles are still being fought today. Tension also exists within the Jewish community in Israel. There have been many Jewish people who have settled in Israel. These settlers have diverse backgrounds. Some are orthodox and some are not which can bring tension. Even with the all the chaos, Israel will always be the religious center for the Jewish people.

As with any religion there are different divisions (sects) of Judaism. There are three sects to Judaism, the first being the Sadducees which were priests, business people and conservatives who made to sure to follow the rules of the Torah to the letter of the law (Fisher, 2005). The second sect were the Pharisees who were more liberal and were from all classes. They also followed the Torah but not to the same strictness as the Sadducees. The third sects were the Essenes who were formed because they wanted to preserve the piety of the priesthood as they believed it had become corrupt. The Essenes leader was “the teacher of righteousness” a priest, reformer and mystic whose name was not spoken and whose writings were found in the dead sea (Fisher, 2005).

For many Jewish people the tragic events of the Holocaust that took place in twentieth century forever changed their lives. During the era of the Holocaust approximately six million Jewish people were murdered because they were viewed as “racially inferior.” During World War II nearly two out of three European Jews as part of the final solution (the Nazi policy to murder the Jews) (ushmm.org, 2008). After Germany’s defeat in World War I Adolf Hitler's popularity grew as well as the popularity of his Nazi regime. Adolf Hitler publicly blamed Jewish people for all of the wrong doing in Germany and stripped them of all human dignity. He encouraged his followers to eliminate the Jewish people for “the sake of racial hygiene” (Fisher, 2005). Because of this Jewish people were gathered and taken to concentration camps were they were starved, beaten, experimented on and put into gas chambers. To this day this has been the worst case of genocide the