Jewish Beliefs and Teachings

Jewish Beliefs and Teachings

1. The Nature of God

   • God is One
     • Jews are monotheists
     • God's name is so sacred in readings
     • God's name is YHWH
     • Holy Mysteries
       • God is Omnipotent
         • All Knowing
       • God is beyond time and space
       • God doesn't have a physical body
       • God is Onipresent
         • He is everywhere
   • God is the Creator
     • Genesis say that God worked for 6 day and rested on the seventh
       • Creating everything
   • God is Law Giver
     • God established moral laws
       • 10 commandments
       • 603 other Mitzvot
     • God's divine law is guidance for life in harmony with God
   • God as Judge
     • At Rosh Hashanah, God judges everyone for their deeds over the year
     • God's role as Judge is strongly associated with death and after life
     • God is loving
       • God as a Judge is not a negative thing
     • God is understanding
       • Judges with fairness and mercy
   • Shekinah
     • God's divine presence among humanity
     • God's intimate presence with mankind with Adam and Eve

2. Covenant

   • God made 3 Covenants with Abraham
     • Promised Land
       • 'Go to the land I will show you'
     • Promised Descendants
       • 'I will make you into a great nation'
     • Promised Blessing
       • 'I will bless you and through you all the families of Earth will be blessed'
   • The 10 Commandments
     • Given to Moses at Mount Sinai
   • Moses also wrote 603 other laws about how Jews should live their lives

3. Messiah

   • Orthodox beliefs about the Messiah
     • A special person who brings an age of peace
     • His arrival signals for the end of the world
   • Reform beliefs about the Messiah
     • A Golden Age that will transform the world
     • Good actions carried out by human beings will help with the transforming and making the world a better place

4. Life on Earth

   • Pikuach Nefesh
     • Sancity of Life
     • Allows organ donations
     • Allows all the Mizvot to be broken in order to save a life
     • 'One who saves a single life is considered as though he has saved the whole world
   • 613 Mitzvot
     • 248 positive commands
       • Number of bones in a human body
     • 365 prohibitions
     • Provides guidance about how to live lives of holiness, justice and kindness
   • Free Will
     • Humanity is made in God's image
       • Has been gifted with choice and free will
     • Yetzer ha tou - the urge to do good things
       • Yetzer ha ra - the urge to do bad things

5. The Afterlife

   • Referred to as Olam Ha Ba in Hebrew
     • The world to come
   • Gan Eden
     • A place of the dead in paradise
   • Gehenna
     • A place of the dead in punishment
   • Sheol
     • A place of the dead awaiting purification