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Hello Students. This is the “Origins of Judaism.”
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Most of what we know about Judaism comes
from the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.
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Jews call these books the Torah and consider
them to be the most sacred writings in their
tradition.
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Christians also respect them as part of the Old
Testament.
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In the Torah, God chose Abraham to be the
“father,” or first, of the followers of Judaism.
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The Torah says that Abraham was a shepherd
who lived in the city of Ur in Mesopotamia.
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The Torah tells that God told Abraham to move
his family and their flocks to Canaan.
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This is believed to be around 2000 B.C.
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The Torah tells of how Abraham and his family
roamed for many years from Mesopotamia to
Canaan to Egypt and back to Canaan.
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All the while God, whose name was Yahweh to
the Hebrew-speaking people, traveled with them.
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Unlike any of the other groups of people around
them, who were polytheists, the Jews were
monotheistic.
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Monotheism, the belief in a single god, comes
from the Greek words “mono” meaning “one” and
“theism” meaning “god-worship”.
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Abraham and his followers believed that Yahweh
had power over not only the Jews, but also all
people everywhere.
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To them, Yahweh was not a physical being, and
no physical images were to be made of him.
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The Jews asked Yahweh for protection from their
enemies, just as other people prayed to their
gods to defend them.
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According to the Torah, Yahweh looked after the
Jews because they promised to obey him. In
return, Yahweh had promised to protect
Abraham and his descendants.
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This mutual promise between Yahweh and the
founder of the Jewish people is known as a
covenant.
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This was the first of many covenants made
between Yahweh and the Jews.
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The Torah says that the Jews migrated to Egypt
because of a drought and threat of a famine.
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Since they refused to worship any human as a
god, the Jews did not honor the Egyptian king
(pharaoh) as a religious figure-especially a god.
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Therefore, the Egyptians enslaved the Jews.
Eventually, the Jews escaped from Egypt.
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They call this event the “Exodus.” The Torah
states that the man who led the Jews out of
slavery was named Moses.
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As the Jews were leaving Egypt, Moses climbed
to the top of a mountain, Mt. Sinai.
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There, the Torah says, Yahweh spoke to Moses.
When Moses returned to the people, he carried
with him two
stone tablets containing the Ten
Commandments.
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The Ten Commandments and the other
teachings of Moses became the basis for the
civil and religious laws of Judaism.
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The Jews believed that these laws formed a new
covenant between Yahweh and the people.
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Other leaders believed that the Ten
Commandments taught that the Jews were
required to worship
Yahweh and live justly with one another. Later,
tribes of Jews united to form a new kingdom:
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Israel. The kingdom of Israel experienced a time
of religious & economic prosperity, but later it
divided and weakened.
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After losing power, Israel and the Jews were
conquered by the Babylonians.
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Despite years of resistance, the Jews, their
kingdom, and their temples were destroyed by
Babylon.
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All that remained was their control of the holy
city of Jerusalem.