Judaism (Hebrew: יַהֲדוּת, romanized: Yahăḏūṯ) is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of observing the Mosaic covenant, which they believe was established between God and the Jewish people. The religion is considered one of the earliest monotheistic religions.
Judaism as a religion and culture is founded upon a diverse body of texts, traditions, theologies, and worldviews. Among Judaism's core texts are the Torah (Biblical Hebrew: תּוֹרָה, lit. 'Teaching'), the Nevi'im (נְבִיאִים, 'Prophets'), and the Ketuvim (כְּתוּבִים, 'Writings'), which together compose the Hebrew Bible. In Modern Hebrew, the Hebrew Bible is often referred to as the Tanakh (תַּנַ׳׳ךּ, Tanaḵ)—an acronym of its constituent divisions—or the Miqra (מִקְרָא, Miqrāʾ, '[that which is] called out'). With some differences in order and content, what Christianity calls the Old Testament has the same books as the Hebrew Bible.
In addition to scripture, Jewish religious texts include the Oral Torah (תּוֹרָה שֶׁבְּעַל־פֶּה, Tōrā šebbəʿal-pe, 'Torah of the mouth'), comprising the Mishnah, Talmud, Tosefta, and Jewish legal Midrashim (מִדְרָשִׁים, 'Studies' or 'Expositions'); Halakha (הֲלָכָה, 'the Way'), or Jewish law; Aggadah (אָגָּדָה, 'Narrative'); and responsa. The Hebrew word torah can mean "teaching", "law", or "instruction", but "Torah" can also be used as a general term for any Jewish text or teaching that expands or elaborates on the original Five Books of Moses. Representing the core of the Jewish spiritual and religious tradition, the Torah is both a term and a set of teachings that are explicitly self-positioned as encompassing at least seventy—and potentially infinite—facets and interpretations. Judaism's texts, traditions, and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity and Islam. Hebraism, like Hellenism, significantly influenced Western civilization as a key background element in the development of early Christianity.
There are a variety of Jewish religious movements, most of which emerged from Rabbinic Judaism, which holds that God revealed his laws and commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai in both the Written Torah (תּוֹרָה שֶׁבִּכְתָב, Tōrā šebbīḵṯāv) and Oral Torah. Historically, all or part of this assertion was challenged by groups like the Sadducees and practitioners of Hellenistic Judaism during the Second Temple period; the Karaites; and among segments of the modern non-Orthodox denominations. Some modern branches of Judaism, such as Humanistic Judaism, may be considered secular or nontheistic. Today, the largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism (including Haredi and Modern Orthodox Jews), Conservative Judaism, and Reform Judaism. Major sources of difference between these groups are their approaches to Halakha (Jewish law), rabbinic authority, and Rabbinic literature, and the significance of the State of Israel. Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah and Halakha are explicitly divine in origin, eternal, and unalterable, and that they should be strictly followed. Conservative and Reform Judaism are more liberal, with Conservative Judaism generally promoting a more traditionalist interpretation of Judaism's requirements than Reform Judaism. A typical Reform position is that Halakha should be viewed as a set of general guidelines rather than as a set of restrictions and obligations whose observance is required of all Jews. Historically, rabbinical courts known as batei din (בָּתֵּי דִּין, 'houses of judgement'; sing. beit din) enforced Halakha. Batei din are still existent, but the practice of Judaism is mostly voluntary. Authority on theological and legal matters is not vested in any one person or organization but in the Jewish texts and the rabbis and scholars who interpret them.
Jews are an ethnoreligious group including those born Jewish and those who have converted to Judaism. In 2025, the world Jewish population was estimated at 14.8 million, although religious observance varies from strict to non-existent.
Etymology
The term Judaism derives from Iudaismus, a Latinized form of the Ancient Greek Ioudaismos (Koine Greek: Ἰουδαϊσμός, from the verb ἰουδαΐζειν 'to side with or imitate the [Judeans]'). Its ultimate source is the biblical "Yehudah" (יהוּדָה, Yəhūda), the Hebrew name for Judah, son of Jacob, and the namesake of the tribe of Judah, the region of Judah, and the Kingdom of Judah. The term Ioudaismos first appears in the Koine Greek book of 2 Maccabees in the 2nd century BCE (specifically 2 Maccabees 2:21, 8:1 and 14:38). In the context of the age and period, it meant "seeking or forming part of a cultural entity". It resembled its antonym Hellenismos, a word signifying submission to Hellenistic cultural norms. The conflict between Ioudaismos and Hellenismos lay behind the Maccabean Revolt; hence, the term Ioudaismos.
Rabbi Shaye J. D. Cohen writes in his book The Beginnings of Jewishness:
We are tempted, of course, to translate [Ioudaïsmós] as "Judaism," but this translation is too narrow, because in this first occurrence of the term, Ioudaïsmós has not yet been reduced to the designation of a religion. It means rather "the aggregate of all those characteristics that makes Judaeans Judaean (or Jews Jewish)." Among these characteristics, to be sure, are practices and beliefs that we would today call "religious," but these practices and beliefs are not the sole content of the term. Thus Ioudaïsmós should be translated not as "Judaism" but as Judaeanness.
Daniel R. Schwartz, however, argues that "Judaism", especially in the context of the books of the Maccabees, refers to the religion, not the culture and politics of the Judean state. He believes it reflected the ideological divide between the Pharisees and Sadducees and, implicitly, anti-Hasmonean and pro-Hasmonean factions in Judean society.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest citation of the term in English was in Robert Fabyan's 1516 book The New Chronicles of England and France, in which "Judaism" is described as "the profession or practice of the Jewish religion; the religious system or polity of the Jews". "Judaism" as a direct translation of the Latin Iudaismus first appears in a Christian 1611 English translation of 2 Maccabees 2:21: "Those that behaved themselves manfully to their honour for Iudaisme."
Biblical and Talmudic narrative
The covenant with Abraham in the book of Genesis
A large portion of the Hebrew Bible recounts the Hebrews' relationship with God from their earliest traditions through the Second Temple period (i.e., until roughly 70 CE, when the Temple was destroyed). Abraham, initially called Abram (אַבְרָם, Avram), is presented as the ancestor of the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob—whose name is changed to Israel (יִשְׂרָאֵל, Yīsrāʾēl) in Genesis 32:29—and thus the Hebrews. In the patriarchal age, God establishes a covenant with Abraham that includes the institution of circumcision (בְּרִית מִילָה, brit milah, 'covenant of circumcision') as a sign of that covenant, established when Abraham was 99 years old; the requirement to circumcise the males of his household is recorded in Genesis 17:10–14. God changes Abram's name to Abraham in Genesis 17:5 and Sarai's (שָׂרָי) name to Sarah (שָׂרָה). Sarah is promised to bear a son in her old age, and that son, Isaac (יִצְחָק, Yīṣḥāq), will be the child of the covenant and Abraham's heir, whose descendants will inherit the land often called Canaan.
The Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim
In the book of Exodus, the second book of the Hebrew Bible, the descendants of Isaac's son Jacob were enslaved in Egypt during a period of harsh oppression. God, appearing to Moses in a divine vision through a burning bush on Mount Horeb, commands him to lead the Hebrews out of bondage. God inflicts ten plagues upon Egypt—such as the Nile turning to blood, swarms of locusts, and the death of the firstborn—to persuade Pharaoh to release the Hebrews. After the final plague, Pharaoh relents, and the Hebrews begin their escape, known as the Exodus. They travel across the desert and arrive at Mount Sinai, where God bestows the commandments, laws, and teachings that will define the moral and spiritual foundation of the Israelite community, as recounted in the subsequent chapters. These books, together with the Nevi'im and Ketuvim, are known as Written Torah, as opposed to the Oral Torah, which refers to the Mishnah, Talmud, and halakhic Midrashim (מִדְרָשִׁים, 'expositions'; sing. Midrash). The Nevi'im consist of historical narratives and prophetic writings, focusing on the Israelites' settlements in Canaan. The Ketuvim, a diverse collection of books including the book of Psalms, book of Proverbs, and book of Esther, covers poetic and prose philosophical writings that deviate from the more literalist style of the other books.
The Talmud
Rabbinic tradition holds that the details and interpretation of the Oral Torah were originally unwritten traditions based on the Law given to Moses at Sinai. However, as the persecution of Jews increased in intensity and frequency and the details of the Oral Torah were in danger of being forgotten, Judah ha-Nasi compiled them into the Mishnah, which was redacted c. 200 CE. The Talmud is a compilation of the Mishnah and Gemara, rabbinic commentaries redacted over the next three centuries. The Gemara originated in two major centers of Jewish scholarship: Palestine and Babylonia (Lower Mesopotamia). Correspondingly, two bodies of analysis developed, and two compilations of the Talmud were created. The older compilation is called the Jerusalem Talmud. It was compiled sometime during the 4th century in Palestine.
History of Judaism
Origins
Iron Age kingdoms
According to the Hebrew Bible, the United Kingdom of Israel was established under Saul the King and continued under King David and Solomon, with its capital being Jerusalem. After Solomon's reign, the nation split into two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judah in the south. The Kingdom of Israel was destroyed around 720 BCE, when it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire; many people were taken captive from the capital Samaria to Media and the Khabur River valley. The Kingdom of Judah continued as an independent state until it was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 586–87 BCE.
Babylonian captivity, return, and Second Temple
The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the First Temple, forcing the Israelites into the Babylonian captivity in what is regarded as the first Jewish diaspora. Many of the Israelites returned to their homeland—an event known as the return to Zion—after the fall of Babylon was accomplished by the Persian Achaemenid Empire seventy years later. The Second Temple was constructed, and religious practices were resumed.
During the early years of the Second Temple, the highest religious authority was the Great Assembly, led by Ezra. Among other accomplishments of the Great Assembly, the last books of the Hebrew Bible were written at this time and the canon was sealed. Hellenistic Judaism spread to Ptolemaic Egypt from the 3rd century BCE, and its creation sparked widespread controversy in Jewish communities, starting "conflicts within Jewish communities about accommodating the cultures of occupying powers." Later, during the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), the Romans sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Second Temple.
Post-Temple Judaism
Later, Roman emperor Hadrian built a pagan idol on the Temple Mount and prohibited circumcision. These acts of ethnocide provoked the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136 CE), after which the Romans banned Torah study and the celebration of Jewish holidays and forcibly removed virtually all Jews from Judea. In 200 CE, however, Jews were granted Roman citizenship and Judaism was recognized as a religio licitacode: lat promoted to code: la (lit. 'licit religion' or 'legitimate religion') until the rise of Gnosticism and early Christianity in the fourth century.
Following the destruction of Jerusalem and the expulsion of the Jews, Jewish worship stopped being centrally organized around the Temple; prayer took the place of sacrifice; worship was conducted within the Jewish communities of the diaspora; and the authority of Chazal (pronounced [χaˈzal]; חֲזַ״ל, a Hebrew acronym for חֲכָמֵינוּ זִכְרוֹנָם לִבְרָכָה, Ḥakhaméinu zikhronam livrakhah, 'our Sages, of blessed memory') and rabbis who acted as teachers and leaders of individual communities was established.
Judaism in pre-Islamic Arabia
Judaism in pre-Islamic Arabia goes back to the pre-Christian period, and was concentrated in the northwest and south. In the fourth century, the ruling class of the Himyarite Kingdom of pre-Islamic South Arabia converted to Judaism. This situation lasted until the early sixth century, when the Aksumite invasion of Himyar, instigated by the massacre of Najran, led to a transition to Christian domination.
Defining characteristics and principles of faith
Unlike other ancient Near Eastern gods, the Jewish God is portrayed as unitary and solitary; consequently, the Jewish God's principal relationships are not with other gods, but with the world, and more specifically, with the people he created. Judaism thus begins with ethical monotheism: the belief that God is one (הַשֵּׁם אֶחָד, haššēm ʾeḥād, 'HaShem [is] one'), reflected by religious Jews' twice-daily recitation of Shema Yisrael (שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל ה׳ אֱלֹקֵינוּ ה׳ אֶחָד, šəmaʿ yiśrāʾēl YHWH ʾĕlōhê-nû YHWH ʾeḥād, 'Listen, Yisra'el: HaShem [is] our God; HaShem [is] one'), and concerned with the actions of humankind. According to the Hebrew Bible, God promised Abraham that he would make of his offspring a great nation. Many generations later, he commanded the Israelites to love and worship only one God; that is, the Jewish nation is to reciprocate God's concern for the world. He also commanded the Jewish people to love one another; that is, Jews are to imitate God's love for people.
Thus, although there is an esoteric tradition in Judaism in Kabbalah, Conservative rabbi and scholar Max Kadushin has characterized normative Judaism as "normal mysticism", because it involves everyday personal experiences of God through ways or modes that are common to all Jews. This is played out through the observance of Halakha and given verbal expression in the Birkhot Ha-Mitzvot (בִּרְכוֹת הַמּצְווֹת, 'Blessings [of] the Mitzvot'), the short blessings recited every time a positive commandment is to be fulfilled:
The ordinary, familiar, everyday things and occurrences we have, constitute occasions for the experience of God. Such things as one's daily sustenance, the very day itself, are felt as manifestations of God's loving-kindness, calling for the Berakhot. Kedushah, holiness, which is nothing else than the imitation of God, is concerned with daily conduct, with being gracious and merciful, with keeping oneself from defilement by idolatry, adultery, and the shedding of blood. The Birkat Ha-Mitzwot evokes the consciousness of holiness at a rabbinic rite, but the objects employed in the majority of these rites are non-holy and of general character, while the several holy objects are non-theurgic. And not only do ordinary things and occurrences bring with them the experience of God. Everything that happens to a man evokes that experience, evil as well as good, for a Berakhah is said also at evil tidings. Hence, although the experience of God is like none other, the occasions for experiencing Him, for having a consciousness of Him, are manifold, even if we consider only those that call for Berakot.
Whereas Jewish philosophers often debate whether God is immanent or transcendent, and whether people have free will or their lives are determined, Halakha is a system through which Jews act to recognize God in the world. Ethical monotheism is central in all sacred or normative texts of Judaism. However, monotheism has not always been followed in practice. The Hebrew Bible records and repeatedly condemns the widespread worship of other gods in ancient Israel. In the Greco-Roman era, many different interpretations of monotheism existed in Judaism, including the interpretations that gave rise to Christianity.
Moreover, some have argued that Judaism is a non-creedal religion that does not require one to believe in God. For some, observance of Halakha is more important than belief in God per se. The debate about whether one can speak of authentic or normative Judaism is not only a debate among religious Jews but also among historians.
Core tenets
Judaism does not possess fixed, universally binding articles of faith, in the same sense as those instituted by Christianity and Islam, though some are incorporated into the liturgy to a certain extent. Scholars throughout Jewish history have proposed numerous formulations of Judaism's core tenets, all of which have met with criticism. In the 12th century, Maimonides developed his 13 principles of faith, which is the most widely accepted formulation. According to Maimonides, any Jew who rejects even one of these principles would be considered an apostate and a heretic. Jewish scholars have held points of view diverging in various ways from his principles. Thus, within Reform Judaism, only the first five principles are endorsed.
In the time of Maimonides, his list of tenets was criticized by Hasdai Crescas and Joseph Albo. Albo and Abraham ben David argued that his principles contained too many items that, while true, were not fundamentals of the faith. Along these lines, the ancient Jewish historian Josephus emphasized practice and observances rather than theology, associating apostasy with a failure to observe Halakha and maintaining that the requirements for conversion to Judaism included circumcision and adherence to traditional customs. The 13 principles were largely ignored over the next few centuries. Later, two poetic restatements of these principles, Ani Ma'amin (אֲנִי מַאֲמִין, ʾănî maʾămîn, 'I believe') and Yigdal (יִגְדַּל, 'may [God] be magnified'), became integrated into many Jewish liturgies, leading to their eventual near-universal acceptance.
The oldest instance of the Karaite movement's formulation of articles of faith is found in the work of the 12th-century figure Judah Hadassi:
(1) God is the Creator of all created beings; (2) He is premundane and has no peer or associate; (3) the whole universe is created; (4) God called Moses and the other Prophets of the Biblical canon; (5) the Law of Moses alone is true; (6) to know the language of the Bible is a religious duty; (7) the Temple at Jerusalem is the palace of the world's Ruler; (8) belief in Resurrection contemporaneous with the advent of the Messiah; (9) final judgment; (10) retribution.
In modern times, Judaism lacks a centralized authority that dictates orthodoxies. Because of this, many variations on basic beliefs are considered within the scope of Judaism. Even so, all Jewish religious movements are, to a greater or lesser extent, based on the principles of the Hebrew Bible and various commentaries, including the Talmud and Midrash. Judaism also universally recognizes the biblical covenant between God and the patriarch Abraham, as well as the additional aspects of the covenant revealed to Moses, who is considered Judaism's greatest prophet. In the Mishnah, a core text of Rabbinic Judaism, acceptance of the divine origins of this covenant is considered an essential aspect of Judaism, and those who reject the covenant forfeit their share in the world to come.
Establishing the core tenets of Judaism in the modern era is even more challenging, given the numerous and diverse contemporary Jewish religious movements. Even if restricting the problem to the most influential intellectual trends of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the matter remains complicated. Thus, for instance, Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik's (associated with Modern Orthodox Judaism) answer to modernity is constituted upon the identification of Judaism with following the Halakha, whereas its ultimate goal is to bring holiness down to the world. Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, the originator of Reconstructionist Judaism, abandons the idea of religion for the sake of identifying Judaism as a civilization, and by means of the latter term and secular translation of the core ideas, he tries to embrace as many Jewish movements as possible. In turn, Solomon Schechter's Conservative Judaism was identical with the tradition understood as the interpretation of Torah, in itself being the history of the creative interpretation and reinterpretation of the Hebrew Bible and Halakha. Finally, David Philipson draws the outlines of the Reform movement by opposing it to the strict and traditional rabbinical approach and thus comes to conclusions somewhat similar to that of the Conservative movement.
Religious texts
The following is a basic, structured list of the central works of Jewish practice and thought:
Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and Rabbinic literature
Mesorah
Targum
Jewish Biblical exegesis (also see Midrash below)
Works of the Talmudic Era (classic rabbinic literature)
Mishnah and commentaries
Tosefta and the minor tractates
Talmud:
The Babylonian Talmud and commentaries
Jerusalem Talmud and commentaries
Midrashic literature:
Halakhic Midrash
Aggadic Midrash
Halakhic literature
Major codes of Jewish law and custom