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Judaism does not easily fit into common Western
categories, such as religion, race, ethnicity, or culture. This is because
Jews understand Judaism in terms of its 4,000-year history. During this
time, Jews have experienced slavery, anarchic self-government, theocratic
self-government, conquest, occupation, and exile; they have been in contact,
and have been influenced by ancient Egyptian,
Babylonian, Persian,
and Hellenic cultures, as well as modern movements such as the Enlightenment and the rise of nationalism.Thus, Daniel Boyarin has argued
that Jewishness disrupts the very categories of identity, because it is not
national, not genealogical, not religious, but all of these, in dialectical
tension." |
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According to Orthodox Judaism and most religious Jews,
the Biblical patriarch Abraham was the first Jew. Rabbinic literature
records that he was the first to reject idolatry and preach monotheism. As a
result, God promised he would have children. His first child was Ishmael and
then he had Isaac, who God said would carry on his work and inherit the Land
of Israel after having been exiled and redeemed. God
sent the patriarch Jacob and his children to
Egypt; after they eventually
became enslaved, God sent Moses to redeem the Israelites from slavery. After
the Exodus from Egypt, God led them to Mount
Sinai and gave them the Torah,
and eventually brought them to the land of Israel. |
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Shabbat, the weekly day of rest lasting from Friday
night to Saturday night, celebrates God's creation as a day of rest that
commemorates God's day of rest upon the completion of creation. It plays
an important role in Jewish practice and is the subject of a large body of
religious law. Some consider it the most important Jewish holiday. |
