Judaism

Judaism (יהדות / Yahadut) is the oldest of the three Abrahamic monotheisms and the spiritual ancestor of Christianity and Islam. With approximately 15 million adherents worldwide — concentrated in Israel (~7 million), the United States (~6 million), France, the United Kingdom, Russia and Canada — it is numerically the smallest of the major world religions but historically and culturally one of the most influential.

History and founders

Judaism's foundational narrative begins with Abraham (c. 2000–1800 BCE traditional dating), called from Ur to Canaan, the recipient of God's first covenant. Major historical phases:

Phase	Approx. dates	Key event
Patriarchal	c. 2000–1500 BCE	Abraham, Isaac, Jacob
Egyptian sojourn & Exodus	c. 1300–1200 BCE	Moses; Sinai revelation
Conquest & Judges	c. 1200–1020 BCE	Joshua; tribal confederacy
United monarchy	c. 1020–922 BCE	Saul, David, Solomon
Divided kingdoms	922–586 BCE	Israel (N), Judah (S); fall of Samaria 722 BCE
Babylonian exile	586–538 BCE	First Temple destroyed
Second Temple	515 BCE – 70 CE	Persian, Hellenistic, Roman periods
Rabbinic	70 CE – 700 CE	Temple destroyed 70 CE; Mishnah; Talmud
Medieval	7th–17th c.	Sephardi (Spain), Ashkenazi (Germany)
Modern	18th c. – present	Haskalah; Zionism; State of Israel 1948

Scriptures

The Tanakh

The Hebrew Bible is the Tanakh (תנ"ך), an acronym for its three divisions:

1. Torah (תורה, "Teaching") — the Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
2. Nevi'im (נביאים, "Prophets") — Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve minor prophets.
3. Ketuvim (כתובים, "Writings") — Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, Chronicles.

The Tanakh is identical in content (though differently ordered) to the Protestant Old Testament.

The Talmud

The Talmud (תלמוד) is the encyclopedic record of rabbinic discussion and law, in two recensions:

• Mishnah — codified c. 200 CE by Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi; six "orders" covering agriculture, festivals, women, damages, holy things, purity.
• Gemara — commentary on the Mishnah, in two forms:
  • Jerusalem Talmud (Yerushalmi) — c. 400 CE.
  • Babylonian Talmud (Bavli) — c. 500 CE; the more authoritative.

Other major texts: Midrash (homiletic commentary), the Zohar (kabbalistic, c. 1280), Mishneh Torah of Maimonides (1180), the Shulchan Aruch of Joseph Caro (1565).

Core doctrines

Maimonides' Thirteen Principles of Faith (1168) provide the most cited summary:

1. The existence of God as Creator.
2. God's absolute unity.
3. God's incorporeality.
4. God's eternity.
5. Worship of God alone.
6. The truth of the prophets.
7. The supremacy of Moses among prophets.
8. The divine origin of the Torah.
9. The immutability of the Torah.
10. God's omniscience.
11. Reward and punishment.
12. The coming of the Messiah.
13. Resurrection of the dead.

The single most recited doctrinal statement is the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4):

שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל ה' אֱלֹהֵינוּ ה' אֶחָד Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One."

Sects and denominations

Ancient and medieval

• Pharisees — ancestors of rabbinic Judaism; emphasised oral Torah.
• Sadducees — temple priesthood; rejected oral tradition.
• Essenes — ascetic community (Qumran / Dead Sea Scrolls).
• Karaites — medieval scripturalists rejecting Talmud.
• Hasidim — pietists of 18th-c. Eastern Europe under Baal Shem Tov (1698–1760).
• Mitnagdim — Lithuanian anti-Hasidic tradition; Vilna Gaon.

Modern

Denomination	Origin	Distinctive
Orthodox	Traditional	Full halakhic observance
Conservative (Masorti)	1854 (Frankel)	Halakhic but adaptive
Reform	1810 (Hamburg/Geiger)	Doctrinal liberalism
Reconstructionist	1922 (Kaplan)	Judaism as evolving civilisation
Modern Orthodox	1851 (Hirsch)	Torah + secular education

Festivals

Festival	Hebrew	Occasion
Rosh Hashanah	ראש השנה	New Year (Tishri 1)
Yom Kippur	יום כיפור	Day of Atonement (Tishri 10)
Sukkot	סוכות	Tabernacles (Tishri 15–21)
Pesach (Passover)	פסח	Exodus (Nisan 15–22)
Shavuot	שבועות	Giving of the Torah (Sivan 6)
Hanukkah	חנוכה	Maccabean rededication (Kislev 25–)
Purim	פורים	Esther's deliverance (Adar 14)

The Sabbath (Shabbat) — from Friday sunset to Saturday nightfall — is the weekly day of rest, the fourth commandment of the Decalogue.

Mysticism

Jewish mysticism is Kabbalah (קבלה, "received tradition"), centred on:

• Sefer Yetzirah (3rd–6th c.) — earliest mystical text.
• Zohar (13th c., attributed to Moses de Leon, c. 1280).
• Isaac Luria (1534–1572) — Lurianic Kabbalah at Safed.
• Hasidism — popularised Kabbalah; Baal Shem Tov in Podolia, 18th c.

Jewish history in the modern era

• Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) — late 18th c.; Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786).
• Emancipation — French Revolution 1791 onwards.
• Pogroms in Russia — 1881–82, 1903 (Kishinev), 1905.
• Zionism — founded by Theodor Herzl (Der Judenstaat, 1896); First Zionist Congress, Basel, 1897.
• Balfour Declaration — 2 November 1917.
• The Holocaust (Shoah) — Nazi Germany 1933–45; ~6 million Jews murdered.
• State of Israel — declared 14 May 1948 by David Ben-Gurion.

Contemporary status

Major Jewish communities: Israel (~7 million), the United States (~6 million), France, the UK, Russia/Ukraine, Argentina and Canada. The Holocaust and the founding of Israel define the modern Jewish experience. Internal debates concern Orthodox-Reform relations, the status of the diaspora, Israeli politics, and the application of halakha to bioethics, gender and technology.

Conclusion

Judaism is the smallest of the world religions but the matrix of Christianity and Islam; its scriptures, ethics and historical experience form a continuous strand from the patriarchal age to the contemporary state of Israel. Its central preoccupations — covenant, Torah, exile and return — remain a powerful lens on the religious history of the Western world.