I have to do a religion project and i was wondering if anybody could help me find out about the religion Judaism. what is their beliefs and how did this religion spread across the world? who is the founder of it?
131028
Judaism IS the Jewish religion.  Technically, nobody started it themselves, but G-d began the process of its beginings through Abraham.  At a young age, Abraham realized the futility of idol worship and himself discovered the idea of a monotheistic God.  Once that happened, God himself came to Abraham and told him (Genesis- 12:1) "Lech Licha MeArtzicha UmiMoladitecha UmiBeit Avicha El HaAretz Asher Areka"- Go for yourself from you land and from your birthplace and from your father's house to the land that I will show you.  Abraham traveled from his homeland, a place out of Israel, biblically called "Ur Kasdim".  He packed up his household and family and all the people he had taught monotheistic ideas too and they sought out on their journey.  God brought them to the Land of C'na'an- which is Israel.  There, God and Abraham made the Brit Bein HaBitarim, the Covenant of God that He will make Abraham into the father of great nations and that his children (the 12 Israelite tribes) will be slaves in a land that isn't theirs (The Jewish Enslavement from Egypt) but that after 400 years, He would redeem them, give them His Torah (5 Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Numbers)and bring them to the Land of Cna'an.  Through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, our fathers, did Judaism begin to rise.  Jacob had 12 sons, the Israelite tribes.  When the other sons saw that Jacob favored Joseph, the oldest son of his most beloved wife Rachel who had passed away, they sold him into slavery where he ended up rising to power and saving Egypt from famine.  During these times, Cna'an experienced a famine and Jacob sent his other sons down to Egypt to get food. Joseph recognized his brothers but they didn't know who he was, other than second to the Pharoah of Egypt, because since his enslavement, he had aged and grown a beard.  After putting his brothers through many trials and tests, he revealed to them who he was.  His father and all his brothers and their families (70 people in total)came to live in the Land of Goshen, which was attached to Egypt.  After the death of all 12 sons, a new Pharoah rose to power and enslaved the Jews.  That's where the story of Moses comes in.  \n\nThose are the basic origins of Judaism, though many details were left out so that it wouldn't get TOO long :)
120374
Don't get me started on this subject. I believe and some historians agree that the only true originals of that area of the world is the Palestinians every Jew is not genetically connect to the original people only religously.\nNotice most of the Jews that came back to "take back their land" came there from European countries. I have no problems with Jews at all but the facts are most Jews of wealth and knowledge were taken away by the Romans in the \ndays of Roman rule  inter-bred wth  the local people and convert some to Judaism.This is over 2000 years!\n The ones that stayed were invaded by others and eventually became Islamic and called themselves Palestinian.\nThe only reason the major countries of the world support Israel is because the Jews control the banking industry of the world.They got the money! I told you not to get me started.
210807
Its called the "Sanhedrin project".  They need two things to get started, ordination and seventy of the best Rabbi's.  They only claim to have the first, and they are working on the second. See their website, it talks all about this.  The've got a few high caliber Rabbis but the rest are place holders.
444373
what is the afterlife going to be like? judaism doesn't have a whole lot to say about the afterlife but if you want to read our strongest speculations about it try here: http://www.jewfaq.org/olamhaba.htm . we don't believe that a person must be a member of the jewish faith in order to get to "heaven". the focus is on being a good person not on your faith\n\nIs there heaven or hell? not really, at least not the cristian idea of either of the terms. read the article above, specifically the parts on Gan Eden and Gehinnom\n\nHow is God viewed? G-d is an absolute unity - a jewish person cannot believe in a trinity G-d, because the oneness of G-d is the most absolute and basic part of the jewish faith. the most recited jewish prayer is "shema yisra'el, adonai elokeinu, adonai echad" - "hear O israel, the L-rd our G-d, the L-rd is One". this is supposed to be the first words a baby hears and the last words of a dying person. G-d in judaism has absolutely no physical manifestation or qualities and never will - this means belief in a human man (jesus) as G-d is completely out. jews believe G-d is merciful, loving, and available to everybody, no matter what their religion.\n\nDo I have to believe in God to be jewish? no. but you have to believe in G-d to CONVERT to judaism. once you are a jew, you're jewish forever, even if you stop believing in G-d\n\nCan I still believe in evolution and be jewish? lots of jews do (i do too). depending on which branch you want to convert into, you will get different views. an orthodox conversion would probably still accept you though, if you could show that your belief in evolution does not contradict your strong belief in the torah as having been literally given by G-d. if you do not believe that the torah was given by G-d, you cannot convert to orthodox. conservative and reform would not care if you believe in evolution. however, most conservatives don't recognize reform converts, and most orthodox don't recognize reform OR conservative converts.\n\nDo I have to take the bible as literal truth? once again, it depends your branch. reform - nope. conservative - nope. orthodox - yes, for the most part. judaism (even orthodox) tends to view many parts of the bible as being highly allegorical and not always saying what it actually means. we believe that the true meaning of the bible is found in the oral torah (G-d's explanation of the torah to moses). you can read about the written torah and the oral torah here: http://www.jewfaq.org/torah.htm\n\nHow do you get into heaven if you are jewish? by being a good person, and if you are a jew, by following the mosaic laws\n\nand Are convert Jews welcome and accepted in synagogs/Jewish community's? \nyes
166390
Hinduism and Judaism looks like they generated around the same time.\nFor more info;\n\nhttp://ask.yahoo.com/20011106.html
30813
Judaism has many aspects: to be Jewish is an identity that is ethnic, national, and religious.\n\nChristians are not Jews. Firstly, Jews themselves do not regard as such, which in and of itself disqualifies us. \n\nSecondly, St. Paul called those of us from a gentile background "gentiles." What he felt he had converted them to did not convert them into Jews, and indeed, he expressed his objection to some Judaizing members of the church, such as the Jerusalem Christians who visited once in a while.\n\nNot even Jews believe that having favour with God requires one to be Jewish. As to our own religion, the early Christians pinned their entire salvific hopes on faith in Christ... that is why St. Paul so famously said, "circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing."\n\nWhile Christians would certainly believe Jesus founded Christianity in the moment he said, "You are Peter, and on this rock I found my church," it is important to note that the word "Christian" would not originate for another ten years or more, in the church at Antioch.
220208
Christianity is paganism and has no relation with the original Hebrew religion.\n\nConstantine attempted to invent a universal religion by incorporating Hebrew myths into his pagan religion, but it appears Hebrews would have nothing to do with it.
33388
Check out this information from the Jewish Virtual Library, it should help...\nhttp://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/begin.html
322762
Not true.   The Jewish religion believes that Jesus Christ was a great prophet, but not the Son of God.  The Bible says otherwise.
478149
According to Jewish belief Satan is an angel, he was never thrown out of heaven and is not in competition with "God". According to Judaism Satan does the job assigned to him by "God", has no free will of his own and works for the ultimate benefit of humans by strengthening their faith and fortitude through adversity and temptation. Satan is not a bad guy, according to Judaism. \n\nAnd Judaism should be the authority on the subject.\n\nIf you're interested in a good book on the subject, read "The Devil: A Biography" by Peter Stanford. He describes how Satan went from an angelic messenger of God's to the villainous demon created by the Christian church to scare people to conversion.\n\nIt's incredible to me how ignorant Christians are on the subject of Satan.\n\nFrom the site http://www.faqs.org/faqs/judaism/FAQ/06-Jewish-Thought/section-36.html\n\n<The word satan means challenger. With the leading ha- to make haSatan, it refers to /the/ challenger. This describes Satan as the angel who is the embodiment of man's challenges. Satan works for G-d. His job is to make choosing good over evil enough of a challenge so that it can be a meaningful choice. Contrast this to Christianity, which sees Satan as God's opponent. In Jewish thought, the idea that there exists anything capable of setting itself up as God's opponent would be considered overly polytheistic--you are setting up the devil to be a god or demigod.>
213620
It is more of a culture/religion. Judaism is the religion and Jews are the culture that go with it. They have their own customs as with any other culture or nationality. One thing, you cannot change how you are, but you can worship any way you want.
582713
Judaism. They have been fighting to stay alive for 4,000 years. People are always trying to mess them up.
18564
i am a non-Christian, and would love to help. May i make a suggestion? Please go to the following web site, which has other web sites listed as well. It will teach you a lot about Judaism. I am sure through that web site, you will find someone who would be happy to answer any honest question you may have! Even all the million questions you already have, lol!
582196
do you mean RELIGION?  im jewish - a religion based on morals and learning, not on obey something that was written thousands of years ago!
313077
I have no problem with any religion, I dont agree with all of them, but I dont dis on any of them, God made us belive what he wants us to believe in. The Jews were great people and if you actually talk to one from the Holocaust youll want to cry This guy came to my school when I was a senior, and gave a speech, I went just to get out of class and was so suprised by what I heard, They are amazing people
165095
YEP FOREVER JEW IT IS THE BEST RELIGION. I LOVE BEING JEWISH AND YES ALL JEWISH PEOPLE ARE CLOSELY BONDED. I AGREE WITH YOU ON EVERYTHING YOU JUST STATED
629276
To answer this you need to ask if the root of Catholicism, Judaism was influenced by paganism.  Well if you consider the fact the Old Testament contains stories which were prevalent throughout the Near East regardless of the religion, then yes there is proof that some aspects of paganism were used in founding the religion.  \nThe problem with the pagan argument is that the amount of paganism influencing the creation of the early church rather minimal in comparison to lets say Judaism.  \nFor example, eliminating circumcision is a result of pressure from pagan converts, as it was seen as barbaric (in fact outside the US not many are circumcised.)  The same can be said about kosher laws.\nI suppose to some extent you can say the architecture of pagan temples resulted in the design of Christian churches, although that's probably pushing it.\n\nHolidays such as Christmas are believed to be placed during the time of winter festivals.  Since the pagan celebrations were so popular it would be almost impossible to prevent people from celebrating.  So adding a Christian holiday in place of the former would solve this problem.  However any left over customes incorporated into the christian holiday would be dependent on local customes.  Not everyone had the equivalent of a Christmas tree, infact most our holiday traditions originated in England and Germany and might be rather odd to those outside the cultural influence.  \nAlso there is to some extent the coincidence of christian/pagan traditions.  Eating eggs on easter would come to no surprise since for thousands of years our food was dependent of the season and hens would have just begun to lay during this time.  The concept of only one God is not unheard of outside Judaic religions.  \n\nAnd if the lure of pagan holidays seems odd, then consider how many people; atheists and non-christians celebrate Christmas and Valentines day.  \n\nIf you want to know more about what the early church thought of paganism pick up the book City of God by Saint Augustine.