Religion ?Nationality?Culture? Ethnic Group?

Sh'ma Yisra'eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad.Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is

One.

No mandated, official, definitive belief

Judaism does believe in an afterlife, but it is not the primary focus of our religion and there is a lot of room for personal opinion about the nature of the afterlife.

Judaism is more concerned about actions than beliefs

Deed rather than Creed

God formed man (vayyitzer) with two impulses yezter tov (good impulse) and yestzer ra (bad impulse)

Yezter tov—moral consciousYezter ra—difficult to define, many different ideas

(not really desire to do evil, not really Satan/external)

Concept of “sin” is simply straying off courseTeshuva is returningYom Kippur,

day of saying “I’m sorry”, turning back, God seals fate for the next year

Shabbat (Sabbath)Holidays

Rosh Hashanah (Head of the Year)Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)Sukkot (Harvest Festival) Chanukah (Festival of Lights) PurimPesach (Passover)Shavu’ot (Giving of the Torah)

Life CycleChild born pureBaby naming, Brit Milah (Covenant of Circumcision—only males) Bar / Bat Mitzvah 13 years old, age held responsible for ones actionsWeddingFuneral

Rabbi: teacher, scholarPatriarchs

AbrahamOne God two sons Isaac and Ishmael

IsaacJacob

God changed name to Israel, 12 sonsMoses

Exodus from Egypt Greatest prophet, teacher, leader

Tikkun olamRepairing the World

Social JusticeMitzvot (Commandments)EnvironmentPeaceCaring for oppressedCharity, philanthropy

TorahTorah: 5 books Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Number, Deuteronomy Written on parchment scrolls, don’t touch use yod, rules for transcribingTanakh: TORAH (The Law), NEVI'IM (The Prophets), KETHUVIM (The Writings)No “Old/New” testament

Heritage through the mother

Orthodox, Conservative, Reform: different gender roles, levels of observance

Family, important

Education: value to study Torah, to question

Land of Israel central to JudaismA substantial portion of Jewish law is tied to the

land of Israel, and can only be performed thereLiving outside of Israel is viewed as an unnatural

state for a Jew: exile, diaspora Jews were exiled from the land of Israel by the

Romans in 135 C.E, after they defeated the Jews in a three-year war, and Jews did not have any control over the land again until 1948 C.E.

For thousands of years services (Passover, Yom Kippur) end with “Next year in Jerusalem!”

613 Mitzvot (commandments)10 commandments categories for the 613

first tablet, containing the first five declarations, identifies duties regarding our relationship with God,

second tablet, containing the last five declarations, identifies duties regarding our relationship with other people.

Slight differences in translation/ order in Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism