Mike’s Rough Guide to Judaism : What Is Judaism?

Judaism is one of the oldest of the World’s major religions. Jews consider themselves to have been the first monotheists. Judaism began in the Middle East but there are now Jews living in most parts of the world. The greatest numbers of Jews in one area are probably in New York, where about 20% of the population are Jewish.

Jews see themselves as the descendants of the Patriarch, Abraham and the Matriarch, Sarah, of their son, Isaac and his wife, Rebecca and their grandson Jacob and his wives Rachel and Leah. After his fight with the "angel" Jacob was given the name Israel and Jews are often known, to themselves and others, as The Children of Israel.

What do Jews Believe?

Jewish belief holds that there is one deity, independent of space and time, who is the creator of all things. In our daily prayers we say:

"Hear, Oh Israel, The Lord is G-d, The Lord is One".

G-d is understood to be omnipotent, good, just and merciful. He demands obedience but allows free will. G-d gave the Children of Israel a set of rules to live by which are embodied in the Torah given to Moses on Mount Sinai.

Many Jews believe that G-d’s name must never be written or spoken. Instead, a range of epithets are used which have meanings such as "Lord". The most commonly used is ADONAI and even that is not pronounced by many orthodox Jews except in prayer. At other times the word is altered to ADOSHEM (roughly meaning "The Lord’s Name"). Similarly, many Jews will write G-d (as I have done in these pages) rather than the full word and many, particularly Chassidic Jews, when mentioning the Creator during converstaion will refer to Him as Hashem ("the Name").