This video is brought to you by Curiosity Stream Get access to my streaming video service Nebula when you sign up for Curiosity Stream using the link in the description Judaism, at 4000 years old is one of the oldest monotheistic religions and the granddaddy of Christianity and Islam. But even though its teachings helped create the world’s two most popular religions many people don’t know what Jews actually believe. What is the Torah? What’s a Covenant? and why don´t people on the Middle East worship mermaid anymore? Well, let’s find out. Judaism developed here in the eastern Mediterranean over the last 4000 years. Today there are about 15 million Jews making it the tenth most popular religion on earth. Right, let’s jump straight into their beliefs. Tanakh is the Hebrew name for the Hebrew Bible, known to most English speakers as the Old Testament. But obviously, they don’t call it that since they don’t recognise any New Testament. The Tanakh is actually a trilogy and the word Tanakh is made up of the names of the 3 sections of the Hebrew Bible. T: for Torah N: for Nevi’im and K: for Ketuvim The first section, the Torah, is the most sacred book of the Jewish People. The Torah consists of the five books shown here and is sometimes called the Five Books of Moses. Let's summarise this very long and very sacred book in a few paragraphs, it should be easy! In the beginning, God creates the world in six days and then has a deserved rest on the seventh. Later on, God starts talking to a guy named Abraham The Hebrew. He tells Abraham to leave his home in Mesopotamia and go to a land called Canaan, which is here. God makes a deal or covenant with Abraham, promising: "I will make of thee a great nation" and offers "the whole land of Canaan" to him and his descendants. To seal this special covenant God said unto Abraham “Every man child among you shall be circumcised.” And Abraham was like: we’re going to do what now! “ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you” Circumcision was a symbol literally “cut into the flesh” of the Jewish People to show their covenant with God. And has been done by every Jewish male for thousands of years The Covenant is extremely important in Judaism. Later Abraham's grandson called Jacob literally wrestles with God or an angel of some sort for an entire night. So from then on, Jacob would be called Israel "one that struggles with God". Jacob/Israel has twelve sons and their descendants would become known as the Children of Israel or Israelites and give their name to the land of Canaan now known as Israel. The Children of Israel would be enslaved in Egypt. But then one of them called Moses would under God's guidance lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses and his people arrive at Mount Sinai. Here God gives Moses the entire Torah which contains 613 Mitzvah or commandments the most famous of which is the 10 Commandments written on two stone tablets. This new Covenant requires Jews to worship only this God and to follow His commandments. In return, God will bless the Jewish people and make them a holy nation living in the Promised Land, which is Israel. The Israelites would eventually form a kingdom and one of their kings, Solomon, builds a Holy Temple in Jerusalem, which houses the Ark of the Covenant and becomes the sacred heart of Jewish worship. Ironically enough Solomon’s kingdom would cut itself in two. Israel, populated by 10 tribes descended from the sons of Jacob in the north and Judah populated by the other 2 tribes, primarily the Judah in the south. In 722 BCE the Assyrians conquered Israel, leaving Judah as the sole surviving Jewish kingdom. Which is this guy, Judah, a random son of Jacob, and not even the one with the dazzling coat of many colours gave the religion of Judaism and the Jews their name. In 586 BCE the Babylonians conquered Judah, demolished the Holy Temple, into exile and slavery in Babylon. The destruction of the Holy Temple and Babylonian exile is a heartbreaking historical event for Jewish people. But then in 539 BCE along came Cyrus with his big Persian army and cool hat. He wrecks the Babylonians, frees the Jews, and rebuilds the Holy Temple. And that concludes our retelling of the Tanakh. It is foundational to all Jewish belief and my summary barely scratches the surface. So you can go and read more by checking out links in the description or just waiting until I make a video just about that. In 70 C.E. the Romans destroyed the Holy Temple ….again, and sent the people into another exile. The Jews moved out across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East forming a diaspora which periodically suffered persecutions, pogroms, and genocides from their neighbours. This 2000ish year exile is considered to have lasted up until 1947 with the partitioning of Palestine and the creation of the modern State of Israel in 1948. Now that was a very brief summary of 2000 years of very complex history, so please bear that in mind. 2. God So Abraham lived in a world that believed in many, many gods. You had your Marduks, your Nergals, you even had Dagans, everyone loves Dagan, look at him the fancy merman. But Abraham believed in One God. An eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing creator of the universe, and the source of all morality. He has no children, he has no rivals, he has no equals. This is known as monotheism and Judaism would spread this concept across the ancient world acting as an origin for both Christianity and Islam. Today, nearly everyone in this region follows a monotheistic religion and merman worship has dropped significantly. The names of God used the most in the Tanach are Elohim and the Tetragrammaton, which is honestly one of the coolest words ever. The Tetragrammaton is the letters YHWH. The actual pronunciation YHWH was lost thousands of years ago. Today it is sometimes pronounced as Yahweh. But that was just one theory. Many Orthodox Jews will not actually say the name out loud and ones said HaShem, “the name” or Adonai "My Lord” instead. Many Orthodox Jews won't even write words like God down, as a sign of respect and will use something like G-D instead. The Jewish God also takes an active interest in human affairs and interacts with humans on Earth. Humans can develop a personal relationship with God. God granted humanity freewill and they, like Jacob, can “wrestle with God”, and find and relate to God in their own personal way. The Hebrew Bible barely mentions heaven or hell. Heaven is just where God lives. It doesn´t mentions a place called Sheol, but it’s kind just a vague underworld where souls go after death. Doesn´t give any details. But the Bible does make it certain that the soul lives on after you die. When Abraham dies, for example, the Bible says: "he breathed his last, dying at a good, ripe age, old and content and he was gathered to his people....”. The Bible describes a bunch of different characters being gathered to their people and sinners being cut off from their people. So while the body returns to the earth the human soul goes somewhere to live on with their ancestors. Jews accept that they do not know what the afterlife would be like or what its rewards will be, but they think it will be based on the kind of life they lived on earth. So they try to follow God's path and commandments as closely as possible because even if they don’t know what rewards they´ll receive in the afterlife they know following God´s commandments here on Earth will make this world better. Many Jews try to act with Tzedakah or Justice or charity. Tzedakah comes from the Torah which says “thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field..... neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger". Today many Jews donate 10% of their income to the needy as part of Tzedakah. Many Jews today and in the past have hoped for the coming of a masheach or messiah. Which is prophesied in the Tanakh. The Messiah is a Jewish leader that will bring about the Messianic Era. They will rebuild the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and bring all the Jews back into the Promised Land. Which will bring about the perfection of the world and an end to all hunger, war, and suffering. When the Messiah comes, every Jew who ever lived will be literally resurrected. They will return to Jerusalem to be present when God creates a new heaven on Earth. This is why Jewish law demands that Jews must be buried with any amputated limbs lost in life. Jewish law also forbids cremation. All to keep the physical body intact for when it is resurrected by God after the arrival of the Messiah. For Jews, the Messiah has obviously not yet arrived because there is still suffering and inequality in the world. We already saw at the Tanakh but another book is also extremely important to the Jews. The Talmud. The Talmud is a collection of different books and is over 10 million words long and covers 38 volumes. It is a massive collection of commentary on the Torah and on itself on how the Torah or it’s commandments should be interpreted. It's filled with debate, legal interpretations, history, ethics, philosophy and legends. Within a few lines you can see rabbis that lived centuries apart debating a topic in the Talmud, it’s pretty interesting. It provides the foundation for Jewish law and is a guidebook for Jewish life. So those are some Judaism believes But Judaism is more than a religion. It is also a people, nation, culture, and civilization but not a race. There are black, asian, and white Jews. There are people born Jewish and people convert to Judaism. There are atheist, Agnostic, and a buffet of differing levels of religious Jews. According to Jewish law a Jew is a child born of a Jewish mother or a person who converts to Judaism. Some modern Jewish denominations also now accept descent through the father. Since the Medieval Period, there have been two major groups of the Jewish People. Ashkenazi and Sephardi. The Ashkenazi are the Jewish community that developed in Central and Eastern Europe. They speak Yiddish, a combination of Hebrew and the languages of Central Europe. Yiddish words like bupkis, chutzpah, and klutz are familiar in English speaking pop culture because most Jewish immigrants in the United States were Ashkenazi. The Sephardi Jews are descendants of the Jews of Spain, and those who fled from Spain to other Mediterranean countries and North Africa. They have their own language, Ladino, a combination of Hebrew and Old Spanish. But unfortunately, this language is under serious threat of the extinction There are also communities of Jews who do not fall into these two categories such as the Jews of Iran and Iraq, Yemen, Ethiopia, China, and Georgia along with many, many others. All these different groups make up a diverse range of Jewish beliefs and cultures. What many Americans and Europeans think of as Jewish culture or Jewish food is really Ashkenazi culture and Central and Eastern European food, adapted to Jewish kosher laws. An Ashkenazi will eat Schmaltz herring while a Sephardi will enjoy couscous. An Ashkenazis will celebrate with a glass of schnapps, a Sephardi will go for some Arak. Ashkenazis called Saturday, Shabbos, Sephardis called Shabbat. Before the Second World War about 9 million Jews lived in Europe, 5 million in the Americas, 800,000 in Asia, and 600,000 in Africa. Just above 15 million in total. About six million Jews were systematically murdered during the Shoah, the Hebrew term for the Holocaust. The emigration, expulsion, and extermination of Jews from their old heartlands during the 20th century has made North America and Israel home to the majority of modern Jews. Today there are many different denominations of Jews. Ranging from Jewish atheists to Orthodox Jews. Orthodox Jews believe the Torah is the direct word of God and they strictly follow it's words and commandments. The best known Orthodox Jews are the Hasidic Jews, Jews that are recognisable and distinct fashion, which has been appropiated by hipsters. There is also Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist Judaism who all cover a wide range of beliefs. From not believing in a personal or supernatural God and thinking ritual and ceremony have no place in the modern world to belief in God and the Torah but changing their interpretation as society evolves. Shabbat or the Sabbath or Saturday is the 7th day of the Hebrew week and the most important day for Jews. Since God rested on the seventh day, Jews do the same. It is a day of physical and spiritual rejuvenation. Jewish law prohibits any work on Shabbat. Activities such as doing business, spending money, shopping, housework, driving, using electricity, or even using the phone are discouraged. While things like prayer or reading are encouraged. The laws of Kosher regulate the Jewish Diet. What is Kosher? Well according to the Torah and Jewish law. All vegetables, fruits, grains, and nuts are kosher. When it comes to meat a kosher animal is one that both chews its cud and has a cloven hoof. Don't worry I didn't know what cud was either. Cud is a bit of food that an animal chews and then swallows and then vomits back into their mouth and then chews again. Which is why some animals can just appear to be chewing all the time. Examples of kosher animals are cattle and sheep. While nonkosher animals include pigs, dogs, rabbits, and well humans actually. Kosher animals must also be killed in a certain way called shechita. This method uses a trained professional with an incredibly sharp knife to deliver quick death to the animal. Finally all blood must be drained from the animal because blood isn’t kosher. Today kosher food can be bought from kosher shops or recognised by special kosher symbols on products. All shellfish, birds of prey like eagles or owls, and fish without both fins and scales like shark, whale, and porpoise are not kosher. From the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE until today, the synagogue has been the centre of Jewish life and worship. In every synagogue, you’ll find a handwritten Torah Scroll. Which is read aloud during services. You’ll also find a rabbi. A rabbi is a trained Jewish scholar and interpreter of Jewish law. They conduct many Jewish events, such as circumcisions, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, weddings, and funerals. While there you may notice people wearing a kippah also known as yarmulka on their heads. Judaism originated in the Middle East, where a sign of respect to God is a covered one´s head. Orthodox Jews believe they are always in the presence of God, so they wear a kippah at all times. More liberal Jews wear a kippah sometimes. You might also notice that many Orthodox Jew have long curly hair on the sides of their head. These are called Payot and Orthdox Jews do not cut this hair because of a command on the Torah that says “Ye shall not round the corners of your heads'' You can learn more about Synagogues, the history of the Jewish people, and much, much more in the gorgeous documentary series Sacred Spaces, over on CuriosityStream. CuriosityStream is a documentary streaming service that will give you access to thousands of documentaries including some featuring top names like David Attenborough and Stephen Hawking, along with exclusive originals. Normally you’d get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month and the first 30-days completely free if you sign up at curiositystream.com/cogito and use the promo code “cogito” during the sign-up process. But during these tough times CuriosityStream is offering a 40% Off Stay at Home Deal to help you pass time during quarantine. And by signing up to CuriosityStream you will be helping me and the Youtube educational community, because CuriosityStream loves independent creators and wants to help us grow, so they’re offering Cogito viewers free access to Nebula when you sign up at CuriosityStream.com/cogito. Nebula is a streaming video platform I’m helping to build along with lots of other independent creators like TheLowSpecGamer, MiaMulder, and KnowingBetter along with a bunch of others. Nebula even hosts original content such as Tom Scott’s new game show Money. All ad-free and earlier than Youtube. This video was up on Nebula days ago. So go to curiositystream.com/cogito and start enjoying amazing content on CuriosityStream and Nebula while helping to support educational creators whenever having to sit through ads. So those are the basics of Judaism. It isn't even close to covering everything. I probably only covered about 1%. One video simply can't cover everything. Religions are too diverse, too deep, and mean too many different things to different people. But you can find all the sources used in the description. If you liked this video please subscribe. If you are interested in supporting the channel, there are links for Patreon and my t-shirt store also in the description. If you liked this video I think you’d really enjoy my videos on Hinduism, Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism. Which you can see on screen or linked in the description. Thank you so much for watch.