Judaism: core beliefs
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Question
What is the covenant in Judaism?
Answer
The agreement Jews hold God made with Abraham, with Moses and with the Jewish people — the Jewish expression of monotheism, and the source of the mitzvot.
Question
What is the Torah, and what is the oral Torah?
Answer
The five books of Moses, held to be revealed. The oral Torah is teaching Jews hold was given to Moses but not written down, later set out in the Mishnah and the Talmud.
Question
What are yetzer ha-ra and yetzer ha-tov?
Answer
The bad and good inclinations. Jews hold that free will is a constant choice between them; the bad inclination is to be directed, not destroyed.
Question
Why is there no original sin in Judaism?
Answer
Because Jews hold that human beings are created in God's image with free will, and remain able to choose throughout life.
Question
What is teshuvah?
Answer
Repentance — literally, turning. Rabbinic teaching adds that a wrong done to another person must be put right with that person; God does not forgive it on their behalf.
Question
What does the guide say about Jewish teaching on the hereafter?
Answer
That Judaism emphasizes observance in this life rather than elaborating on the hereafter, while still expecting a Messianic Age in this world and Olam Ha-Ba, the world to come.
Question
What is tikkun olam?
Answer
Repair of the universe — the thought that human action is part of how the world is put right.
Question
Name the three things the guide says a Jewish life in readiness consists of.
Answer
Being the House of Israel or Chosen People; obeying all the mitzvot of the covenant revealed in the Torah; living according to the Shema.
Question
What is the Shema, and where are its words kept?
Answer
"Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one" — recited morning and evening. Its words are placed in the mezuzah on the doorpost and in tefillin.
Question
How do the Jewish movements differ over the mitzvot?
Answer
Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox: all mitzvot bind. Conservative: halakhah binds but develops. Reform and Liberal: the ethical mitzvot bind, ritual ones may be modified or set aside.
Question
How should "Chosen People" be explained?
Answer
As chosen for responsibility — to keep the covenant — rather than as a claim to superiority. It is also why Judaism does not seek converts.
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