Judaism is an ancient monotheistic religion and has a clearly defined set of religious beliefs. The religion focuses mainly on actions, but there are also beliefs. The medieval Jewish scholar Rambam, also known as Maimonides, came up with a list of the minimum beliefs involved in the Jewish religion, including belief in God as eternal, the belief in the words of the prophets, the belief in the Torah and Talmud (holy books given to Moses),...
Judaism is an ancient monotheistic religion and has a clearly defined set of religious beliefs. The religion focuses mainly on actions, but there are also beliefs. The medieval Jewish scholar Rambam, also known as Maimonides, came up with a list of the minimum beliefs involved in the Jewish religion, including belief in God as eternal, the belief in the words of the prophets, the belief in the Torah and Talmud (holy books given to Moses), and the idea that the Messiah will come to earth. However, Judaism mainly focuses not on beliefs but actions, as there are 613 laws or commandments that Jews must follow, including laws related to giving to charity and to keeping kosher (following dietary laws).
Many people also regard being Jewish as an ethnicity. For example, many Jews in Israel and the United States are secular, meaning that they do not follow all Jewish religious laws such as keeping kosher, but they regard themselves as Jewish. Many scholars argue that in pre-modern times, Jewish communities lived on their own so that they developed secular as well as religious practices. Therefore, Jewish communities were also ethnic groups, not just religious groups. Others argue that Judaism does not fit neatly into the categories of religion or ethnicity but has elements of both.
No comments:
Post a Comment