Judaism: Its Beliefs and Forms

Paper Summary:

This paper is an overview of varied movements and people involved in Judaism and their beliefs, symbols, laws, rituals, and holidays. It provides a brief look at the history of the Jewish people and asks what the religion means today. It questions whether it is a religion, a nationality, or both.

From the Paper:

"The people and movements in Judaism, first of all, are varied. All Jewish dominations today are derived from one, the Pharisees. In the beginning, there were several main Christian thought groups; the Sadducees, the Essenes, the Zealots, and the Pharisees. Pharisaic thought processes are the only ones that survived the destruction of God's original temple. They believed that a written Torah and oral Torah, equally binding, were given to the people by God for interpretation by rabbis. Pharisees were devoted to the Torah and education for all. Today, this school of thought is called Rabbinical Judaism. The first of the modern movements of Judaism, Chasidism, was founded in the eighteenth century by Israel ben Eliezer. This movement emphasized mysticism as a route to God. It was considered radical at the time of its founding, but today it strongly opposes the newer liberal movements, an interesting twist of irony. There are three main modern movements in the United States today. Five million of the world's thirteen million Jews live in the United States to make up the three. One is Reform Judaism, which houses two million American Jews. This movement doesn't believe that the Torah was written by God. It follows no set of commandments. Many non-observant or nominal Jews identify themselves as Reform because it is the most liberal movement. There are eight hundred Reform synagogues in America. Another movement is Orthodox Judaism, which includes one million American members. They believe that the Torah is true and unchanged, and that it was given to Moses at Mount Sinai."

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