Judaism

Judaism

Judaism is the oldest religion among the three monotheism in the world, and it is also the life style and belief of the Jewish people. The main commandments and doctrines come from Torah, the first five volumes of the Bible. For Jews, there is only one God, YHWH (the Lord) Hebrew "יוה". Generally speaking, Torah refers to the truth that God has revealed to Israel, and also refers to the teaching and guidance that God has revealed to mankind. In a narrow sense, it refers to the first five volumes of the Old Testament (the Jews are not called the Old Testament), which are called the book of laws or the five books of Moses, namely genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, numbers and Deuteronomy. Judaism, formerly known as Tiaojin religion and blue hat Huihui in ancient China, originated from the Hebrews, a nomadic people in Western Asia around the 20th century BC. The most important doctrine of Judaism is that there is only one God, invisible and eternal, from everlasting to everlasting. He wants all people to be just, just and kind, and show mercy. Because God created people in his image, people should be treated with dignity and respect. Jews serve God by learning and praying, and follow the commandments of the Pentateuch. Unlike other religions in the world, Judaism does not welcome foreign people to believe in Judaism and does not take the initiative to preach among foreign people. The target of their "missionary" is the Jews who have already disobeyed the Jewish rules. These people may live in a place where there are no other Jews and do as the Romans do, or marry people from foreign teachers. Missionaries encouraged them to return to Jewish habits.

Historical origin

As we all know, Mesopotamian civilization is one of the earliest birthplaces of civilization in the world. Mesopotamian culture reached a fairly developed level as early as around the 30th century BC. Around the 20th century BC, when Mesopotamian civilization was declining, a patriarch named Abraham moved from ur, Babylon, Mari and Haran in the south of the two rivers to the place called Canaan (now Palestine), and settled in Beersheba after several rounds. According to the biblical records and descriptions, Abram's migration was guided by God: "God said to Abram, leave your land, your family and your father's house and go to the place I told you. I will make you a great nation, I will bless you, I will magnify your name, and you will bless others. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you. All the peoples of the earth will be blessed by you "(Genesis 12:1-3). When Abram was 99 years old, God made a covenant with him to multiply his descendants and give the land of Canaan as their permanent inheritance (Genesis 17:2-22). After that, Abram was renamed Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob. They are commonly known as the Jewish ancestors and the earliest founders of Judaism. Mesopotamia, Abraham's hometown, believed in polytheism in ancient times, worshipped the sun, moon, stars or deified monarchs, among which the sun was the main God. It is said that Abraham once had a dispute with the people in his hometown, claiming that there is a greater creator than the sun, the moon and the stars, who is worthy of people's worship. For this reason, he was opposed and persecuted by the public, and was put in prison by the then king Mesopotamia. Later, for fear that Abraham's views would bewitch the people, destroy polytheism and threaten his rule, Wang confiscated his property and exiled him to Haran. After Haran moved to Canaan, Abraham gave up polytheism completely and worshipped el, the only God. El is the general name for the Supreme God in Semitic. El has different names, such as El Shaddai, El Elyon, El ROI, El Bethel and El OLAM. Among these titles, "El Shaddai" is the most important because it is considered to be the Abraham family. The name of God used in the past dynasties is the God who instructed Abraham to make a covenant with and bless him in Genesis. Therefore, later generations of the Israelites took El Shaddai as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is worth noting that in the earliest Judaism, many names of God did not mean polytheism. In the eyes of the Jewish ancestors and later Jews, they are just different names of the only God. This shows that Jewish people have worshipped monotheism since their ancestors.