Judaism of the 1st century Torah is the source of moral life. Judaism: basic ideas. History of Judaism. Commandments of Judaism. The influence of Judaism on modern culture

One of the main canonical books in Judaism is the Tanakh (Old Testament of the Bible), the most important part of which is the Torah or the Pentateuch of Moshe (Moses). In the 3rd century A.D. e. Jewish theologians wrote commentaries on the Torah, called the Mishnah (repetition of the law). Then another book was compiled - the Gemara, the purpose of which is an in-depth commentary on the Mishnah. The Mishnah and the Gemara together make up the Talmud. The Torah and the Talmud regulate all aspects of the life of a religious Jew, including those that in other religions are usually considered to be related to the sphere of ethics, morality, civil and criminal law. The Talmud distinguishes between halacha and haggadah, which are intertwined with each other. Halacha is a law relating to religious, family, civil life. Haggadah defines the spiritual foundations of Judaism.

Reading the Talmud is revered as a very responsible occupation, allowed only by the Jews themselves. The tractate "Sanhedrin" says: "Not a Jew who studies the Talmud deserves death."

The main feature of Judaism is the doctrine of the special role of the Jewish people. “Jews are more pleasing to God than angels,” “just as a person in the world stands high above animals, so Jews stand high above all peoples in the world,” the Talmud teaches. Election is conceived in Judaism as the right to domination. The rejection of Christ and the expectation of another instead of Him became the spiritual cause of the state-national catastrophe of the Jews - at the beginning of the 2nd century, Jerusalem was destroyed, and the Jews were scattered around the world.

The medieval treatise The Debate of Nachmanides (1263) explains why the Jews did not accept Christ as the Messiah: “It is impossible to believe in his messianism, because the prophet says of the Messiah that he “will rule from sea to sea and from the to the river" (). Yeshu (Jesus) did not have any power at all, because during his lifetime he was persecuted by enemies and hid from them ... And in the haggadah it says: “They will say to the Messiah-ruler:“ Such a state rebelled against you, ”and he will say:“ May the plague of locusts destroy him.” They will say to him: "Such and such a region does not obey you." And he will say: "The invasion of wild animals will destroy it." In the Talmudic treatise "Berakhot" Rabbi Shemuel says: "There is no difference between the present and the messianic, except for the enslavement of peoples" (Quoted from: A. Kuraev. "Early Christianity and the Transmigration of Souls." M. 1996. p. 164.) . The emphasis in Judaism is on achieving goals that are not ideal, but quite earthly, political and economic. The good news about the Kingdom of God, brought by Jesus Christ, could not, of course, satisfy those who expected from the Messiah a visible and politically obvious kingdom on earth, in which all peoples are subjugated to the Jews.

After the dispersion of the Jews, in the II-VI centuries, the formation of Talmudism took place, characterized by a thorough systematization and normative ritualization of the Jewish cult, which from the temple priesthood turned into an all-penetrating system of prescriptions, sometimes scrupulously detailed, up to the requirements of emphasizing one's belonging to the "chosen people of God" with using special details of appearance. So, a believing Jew is ordered to have a beard, let long hair on the temples (eyes), wear a small round hat (kippah), and go through the rite of circumcision. At the same time, such a doctrine was formed in Judaism, as, the main role in which is given to magic and the occult. Many fundamental questions of the Bible are reinterpreted in the Talmud and in the Kabbalah in a completely occult light.

If the Bible is characterized by pronounced personalism, that is, the idea of ​​God and man created by him as personalities, then the Talmud says that man was originally created as a hermaphrodite and only later does the division of the sexes arise, Adam and Eve arise (this is a purely pagan view , completely excluding the understanding of a person as a person).

Pantheistic views are revived in the Talmud, for example, it is said that God created the souls of the Jews from the very divine essence. Those Jews who have not reached perfection in their lives are reincarnated in new bodies for purification - in plants, in animals, in the bodies of non-Jews, and, finally, in the body of a Jew, after which they can deserve eternal bliss.

In the 6th-13th centuries, the role of rabbis (from the Hebrew "rabbi" - my teacher) - interpreters of the law, who led the Jewish communities, increased. The dispersion of Jews across the countries of the Old World (Europe, Asia, Africa), and then the New World (America) led to the formation of a large number of Jewish national-religious communities. In ancient times, the center of the Jewish cult was the Jerusalem Temple, where the daily sacrifice was performed. When the Temple was destroyed, the place of sacrifice was occupied by prayer, for which the Jews began to gather around individual teachers - rabbis. From these gatherings arose Jewish prayer associations called synagogues ("meetings"). In Judaism, a synagogue is a gathering of Jews for prayer and study of the Torah and the Talmud. Such a meeting does not provide for the presence of a special building and can take place in any room.

To perform a public service, the presence of at least ten male Jews who have reached the religious age of majority (from the age of 13) is required. They constitute the primary Jewish community - the minyan (literally, "the number," that is, the quorum necessary for worship). Historically, the right to perform public worship was assigned to rabbis - teachers and interpreters of the Torah. In addition to the rabbi, the staff of the synagogue includes chazan, shamash and gabai. Chazan leads the public prayer and represents the entire community in addressing God. Shamash is a synagogue servant whose duties are to oversee the order and cleanliness in the synagogue and take care of the safety of synagogue property. Gabay decides the administrative and financial issues of the synagogue.

A special place in the Jewish community is occupied by the cohanim (singular - cohen). According to Jewish tradition, persons bearing the surname Cohen (Kogan, Cohen, Cohen, Kon) are descendants (on the paternal side) of the high priest Aaron, i.e. kind of priestly caste.

In the times of the Jerusalem Temple, the cohanim, in addition to fulfilling their main function - conducting services in the temple, were also the spiritual mentors of the people, their judges and teachers. However, over time, the spiritual leadership of the Jewish people passed to the prophets, and then to the sages and rabbis. The activity of the cohanim was limited, mainly, to the service in the temple. After the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. they were deprived of the opportunity to fulfill this duty. At present, the cohanim are required to conduct the rite of redemption of the firstborn and bless the people in the synagogue.

Under conditions of dispersion (diaspora), Judaism played a major role in the self-preservation of the Jews as an ethnic group. The national and religious principles in the soul of a believing Jew coincided, and the departure from Judaism meant the exit from Jewry, which, for the Jews brought up by centuries of corporate life, in turn, meant death. Therefore, excommunication from the synagogue and from the Jews was regarded as the most terrible punishment.

A new period in the history of Jewry and Judaism began at the end of the 18th century. It is characterized by the political emancipation of European Jews as a result of the French Revolution and the subsequent destruction of the medieval isolation of the Jewish communities, which were subject to legal acts of religious freedom.

In parallel with this, a movement arose in the communities themselves for the weakening of the system of ritual prescriptions and prohibitions and the external convergence of Jewish worship with Protestant worship (the so-called "reformed Judaism").

Then, in the 18th century, among the Jews of Poland and Western Ukraine, a new religious trend arose - Hasidism (from the Hebrew word "Hasid" - pious). Hasidism arose as an opposition movement against Orthodox Judaism, in particular against the rabbinate. Instead of rabbis in Hasidic communities, tzaddiks began to enjoy the highest authority (“tzaddik” means “righteous” in Hebrew), allegedly possessing supernatural abilities. Hasidism is characterized by extreme mysticism and religious exaltation.

Since the 19th century, the Jews of Western Europe, and then the United States, have been captured by the processes of secularization and emancipation. The national self-identification of the Jews outside the religious framework has become a fact. Western peoples moved further and further away from Christianity, and Judaism, until that time pushed aside from the spiritual life of European civilization, begins to influence spirituality and culture.

An Assessment of the Modern Jewish Faith

The faith that modern Jews profess is not the one that was given to the Israelites through Moses and the Prophets, and which they professed before the coming of the Messiah, but the one that they themselves invented, deviating from the true spirit of Moses and the Prophets, and which they now hold on to the coming of the promised Messiah, unrecognized by them. The first faith is truly revealed by God and is a preparatory step for Christianity, while the New Jewish faith is the fruit of human inventions.

This new faith is set forth in two books revered by the Jews as divine books, in Kabbalah and the Talmud (Kabbalah, according to the Jews, is a code of philosophical and mystical traditions that complement and explain the Law, and the Talmud is a code of traditions primarily historical, ritual and civil , which serve as an addition and explanation. Information about Kabbalah can be found in Rabbi Frank, and about the Talmud in Drach). In both of these books, along with the truths borrowed from the Bible, there are so many oddities, absurdities, contradictions, that it becomes incredible how people could invent such things, and how others can recognize such ugly concepts as sacred and irrefutable truths without abandoning common sense. These are -

AT theoretical regarding the story:

a) about the daily activities of God (Chr. Reading 1834, 3, 283-309);

b) about the purpose for which the world was created (“God created light solely in order to apply the law of circumcision to the matter.” Heb. Sects in Russia, Grigorieva, p. 95);

c) about the Messiah and the circumstances of His coming (Bukstorf);

d) about the resurrection of the dead (“The resurrection of the dead can only take place in Palestine: therefore, the Lord opens long caves near the graves of the Jews who died in captivity, through which their corpses roll like barrels into the holy land, in order to receive the soul here” Talmud . Jerusalem. Tract. Kiloim.), and so on.

AT moral- are:

a) the basic law on the relationship of a person to his neighbor: “every good that the law of Moses prescribes, and every evil that it forbids to do neighbor, brother, friend, should, explains the Talmud, understand only in relation to the Jews ”(Talmud. Trakt. Bava Metzia);

b) a look at other peoples: calling them unclean and ungodly peoples, with whom Jews not only should not enter into any family ties, the Talmud teaches that a Jew can, without sin, violate oaths given to a non-believer, can deceive him, oppress, persecute and even put to death for his heterodoxy, and that in general all these heterodox peoples, after the coming of the Messiah, will either be completely destroyed, or will be enslaved to the Jews, so that the very kings of the infidels will become servants for the last of the children of Israel (Moses Mendelssohn);

c) the doctrine of the means to justification: the Talmud preaches that both original sin and, in general, all sins can be blotted out and destroyed through the strict observance of all the prescriptions of the ritual law, etc.

As a result, the Jews are exclusively devoted to their rituals. But one must also add how petty, how insignificant this law is in its innumerable prescriptions and regulations! For example, on the basis of one commandment of God: lest you do every work on the Sabbath day(), there are now 949 rabbinic prescriptions, of which one “forbids a Jew even to spit in the air on the Sabbath, because the action is like winnowing unpeeled rye. (Khaie Adam - Avraham Danijg, about the Sabbath decrees). On the basis of God's prohibition not to eat leaven on Passover (), 265 decrees were invented, of which one says that if 10,000 Jews, on the day of Passover, cooked food in water scooped from one well, in which some barley was found shortly after , then all of them are obliged to cook food, along with utensils, to burn or throw into the river. There are more than 3,000 different ordinances about these forbidden foods; about one rite of washing hands - up to a hundred, and about salting meat - up to two hundred; there is even a definition regarding the method of cutting nails ... On the basis of the commandment of Moses, which forbids boiling a goat in its mother's milk (; ), the Talmudists forbade: a) boiling any meat in milk; b) to use even a vessel in which meat food is prepared for the preparation of milk food in it; and c) decided to take dairy food not earlier than six hours after eating meat, and meat after dairy not earlier than one hour. And let the execution of all such trifles be left to the will of everyone; on the contrary, the Talmud elevates all rites to dogmas, and requires the most strict execution of the regulations and rules relating to them.

a religion predominantly practiced by Jews. Arising from the pagan polytheism of the Hebrew tribes, Judaism from the 7th century. BC. becomes a monotheistic religion. Characteristic features: belief in a single god Yahweh and the messiah (savior), the dogma of God's chosen Jews, a lot of ritual prescriptions covering almost all areas of the life of believers. The sources of doctrine are the Old Testament (also recognized by Christians) and the Talmud (a complex system of comments on the Old Testament books). The Jewish Church is a synagogue. Judaism is the state religion of Israel.

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JUDAISM (Yagadut)

The concept of "Judaism" is not only synonymous with the religion of the Jews. It also includes the moral and national traditions of the Jewish people. Initially, this concept referred only to the religious sphere. It was introduced by Jews who lived in areas dominated by Hellenic culture. The word "judaismos" denoted everything that related to the Jewish religion and distinguished it from the religions and rituals of the peoples neighboring the Jews. In the centuries-old opposition to Hellenism, which was the dominant culture in the pagan world, I. survived, and the moral values ​​contained in the Torah * and other books of the Bible became the property of many peoples. The source of I. should be considered primarily the Torah and the books of the Prophets. It is based on the worldview that the sages formulated in the saying: "Adam was created the only one for the sake of peace between people, so that a person would not say to his neighbor: my father is more noble than yours, and so that renegades would not say: there are many deities in the sky." One God created all, and no man will be able to say to his neighbor: my Creator is greater than yours; and each is judged by his deeds, and not by his genealogy. Abraham was chosen only in order "to command his sons and his house after him to keep the path of the Lord, doing good and justice" (Gen. XVIII, 19), and because "Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My testament: My commandments, statutes and doctrines" (Gen. XXVI, 5). And everyone can accept the Torah of the Lord and become one of the sons of Israel: "As one of you, there must be a ger * for you living with you, and love him as yourself" (Lev. XIX, 34). And the Temple that Solomon built was declared open to all nations: "And a stranger who is not from Your people, Israel, but came from a far country for the sake of Your name, because he heard about Your Great Name, and about Your strong hand and outstretched right hand , and come and pray in this Temple, You hear from heaven ... "(I Ts. VIII, 41-43). In all of the above, one can trace the Jewish worldview, which sees as its goal the introduction and dissemination of faith in the One God throughout the world. This idea is expressed by all the prophets, and it has accompanied the Jewish people throughout its history. The highest ideal of the nation is the establishment of peace in the universe: "And at the end of days the mountain of the Temple of the Lord will be lifted up over all the mountains and will rise above the hills, and all nations will flock to it. And many nations will go and say: Let's go and climb the mountain of the Lord, to the house the God of Jacob, [...] for the Torah will come out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and He will judge the nations, [...] and they will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into sickles. The people will not raise the sword against the people and they will no longer learn war "(Is. II, 2-4). I. demands social justice in society. The poor man is not at all the person who is pursued by the gods, as the idolaters claim. The poor need support, and he has the right to receive it. The poor man is not a pariah in the country, and society is obliged to help him with all possible means. R. Simlai from Lod, who lived during the period of the first amoraim *, proposed to formulate the principles of I. He said: six hundred and thirteen commandments (mitzvot) are given Moses * (on Mount Sinai) - three hundred and sixty-five prohibitions and two hundred and forty-eight commandments. King David came and reduced these six hundred and thirteen commandments to eleven, which are the quintessence of the spiritual and moral perfection of man. Their essence is contained in the XVth Psalm : 1) pure in thoughts; 2) does justice; 3) speaks the truth in his soul; 4) does not blaspheme; 5) does not harm another; .) does not offend his neighbor; 7) vile is disgusting to him; 8) honors God-fearing s; 9) does not change the oath, even if it is to the detriment of him; 10) does not give money on interest; 11) does not take bribes. The prophet Yeshayahu came and reduced these eleven to six: 1) righteous; 2) straightforward; 3) covetousness is contrary to him; 4) is not involved in bribery; 5) does not want to hear about bloodshed; .) hates evil. The prophet Micah came and reduced these six to three: "Tell a man what is good and what the Lord requires of you: only do justice, and love good, and be humble with the Lord." The same Yeshayahu reduces perfection to two requirements: administer justice and do justice. The prophets Amos and Havakuk came and reduced everything to one demand: "Turn to Me and you will live" (Amos), and "The righteous will live in their faith" (Havakuk). Thus, r. Simlai defines Judaism as faith in God and moral perfection. The Talmudists did not attempt to establish the norms and formal dogmas of the Jewish religion. However, the Rambam* already formulated the thirteen foundations of faith, which were subsequently accepted as the quintessence of Judaism. In modern times, two main modern trends in Judaism have crystallized. Adherents of the "haskala" ("enlightenment") in Western Europe reduced Judaism to a creed and denied its national aspect. On the contrary, the Jewish masses of Eastern Europe accepted the national and, later, the state aspects of Judaism. They saw in the process of settling Eretz Israel the fulfillment of prophetic vows about the future of the people of Israel and the most important moment in the rebirth of the nation. They saw in the halutzim - the pioneers who devoted themselves to the revival of Eretz Israel - people who make a great contribution to Judaism, and they saw each settlement that appears in the Holy Land as a stronghold that helps protect the moral values ​​​​of Judaism.

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Hello, friends. Are you interested in learning about the oldest religion in the world that has survived to this day? About its principles, foundations, commandments and secrets, about the history of development and stages of formation? Perhaps you want to go to Israel and take a tour of the holy places?

Or maybe you have heard the absurd opinion of the unenlightened that Judaism has common roots with Judas, who betrayed Christ? Or do you have other questions regarding this topic?

If yes, then we will satisfy your curiosity, and after reading this article, everything will become extremely clear.
Judaism is the faith (religion) of the Jewish people. The term "Judaism" or "Jewish religion" is sometimes used. Let's start with a little historical background.

History of Judaism

The very word "Judaism" was formed from the term "the tribe of Judah." What it is? The fact is that the people of Israel “grew up” from the tribes of Israel (tribes) of the descendants of the sons of Patriarch Jacob. And he had them, not a lot, not a few, but twelve! Sons were born from four different women: two wives and two of their maids (yes, this happens). The fourth son was Judas.

According to Scripture, Judah played a special role in the formation of the Israelite people. His name formed the basis of the name of the religion and the entire Jewish people; in Hebrew and other languages, this name sounds like "Jews."

The history of Judaism covers more than three thousand years, this religion is considered the most ancient of those that have survived to this day. Judaism is a monotheistic religion, which means that its adherents believe in one God.

According to the science that studies the religion, philosophy, culture and social development of the Jewish people, Judaism, there are four major stages in the entire history of the development of the Jewish faith:

1) The Biblical period (from the 20th to the 6th century BC).

At that time, there was still no written language and chronology, so all knowledge and religious concepts were passed from mouth to mouth and were rather mythological in nature. Even when the holy book appeared, it was not yet called the Bible. It was the Judaism of priests and prophets.

2) Judaism of the Second Temple or Hellenistic. (from the 6th century BC to the 2nd century AD).

This stage began after the Jewish people returned to Palestine from Babylonia (where most of them were forcibly resettled). They were in Babylonian captivity from 598 to 539 BC.

Among modern religious scholars, the idea is widespread that the Jewish faith is based on the principle of the union of God with the people of Israel, which he concluded on Mount Sinai in the era of Moses. The second stage of Judaism is considered bookish, in contrast to the first. At that time, sacrifices and other ancient rites were still common.

The high priest who wrote down the scriptures was called Ezra (in Islam he is called Uzair). He recreated Jewish statehood on the basis of the law of the Torah (the law of Moses), wrote the holy book of Ezra.

During the time of the Second Temple, so-called Messianic Judaism became widespread. Its postulates are based on the faith of the Jewish people in the Messiah. When Yeshua (Jesus of Nazareth) appeared, tens of hundreds of Jews followed his faith. After Yeshua's death on the cross and his resurrection, this trend also took hold of other peoples, over time gradually transforming into Christianity, which had little in common with Messianic Judaism.

3) Talmudic (rabbinic or rabbinic) Judaism (from the 2nd to the 8th century AD).

After the Second Temple was destroyed, the Talmudic stage in the development of Judaism began. The rites of sacrifice have become obsolete and ceased.

This period was based on the belief that the main sacred text of Judaism - the Written Torah (the Pentateuch of Moses and its Ten Commandments) also contains oral explanations and laws that were not written down and were passed down between generations by word of mouth. They were called by the Jewish people the Oral Torah (or Talmud). The Oral Torah is a kind of addition to the Written Torah (the main sacred scripture of Judaism).

4) Modern Judaism(from 1750 to our time).

The main currents of modern Judaism date back to the days of rabbinism.
At present, there are about fifteen million adherents of Judaism, of which about 45% are Israelis, about 40% live in Canada and the United States of America, the rest mainly in Europe.

The main currents of modern Judaism are Orthodox, Reformists and Conservatives. So that these words do not remain hanging in the air as an empty sound, we will briefly explain the essence of each.

Orthodox Judaism

Halakha is the centerpiece of Orthodox Judaism. So, halacha is a set of laws and rules of Jewish law that regulates the life of Jews in all respects (family, religious, social and cultural). These are the laws that are contained in the Torah and the Talmud and which the representatives of Orthodox Judaism follow strictly and tirelessly. The Halacha also contains legal decisions and the laws of the rabbis, dictating the rules of conduct.

These laws fall into five main groups:

1. these are the laws of the Written Torah, interpreted in accordance with the Oral Torah;
2. laws, the foundations of which are not in the Written Torah, but they were also received by Moses (Moshe) on Mount Sinai;
3. the laws that were derived by the sages on the basis of the analysis of the Written Torah;
4. laws that the sages established in order to protect the Jews from violating the laws of the Written Torah;
5. the prescriptions of the sages, designed to regulate the life of Jewish communities.

The development of the Halacha continues at the present time, it is believed that the Torah contains answers to absolutely all questions that arise before the Jewish people.

Orthodox oppose any innovations in religion.

Reform Judaism (sometimes referred to as Progressive or Modern Judaism)

In contrast to the teachings of the Orthodox direction, representatives of Reform Judaism advocate innovation and renewal. Progressive Judaism arose in the nineteenth century in Germany. Its adherents believe that the old ethical commandments should be preserved, and ritual ones should be abandoned. Which is what was done. The ritual of the divine service underwent a reformation, namely: the service was conducted in German, the shofar (ritual horn) was no longer blown, ritual clothes were not required during prayer, women were recognized as equal to men in all religious matters.

According to the reformists, religion should develop and improve, thus adjusting to the spirit of modernity. Justice, mercy, and respect for one's loved one is the path followed by the movement of Reform Judaism.

Conservative Judaism

Conservative Judaism arose in Europe, or rather Germany, several decades later than reformist Judaism. This is "something in between" (so to speak) between orthodox and reformist views. Its adherents are supporters of the idea of ​​a compromise between traditional religious teachings and modern ones.

The ideas of conservative Judaism, however, are much "softer" than orthodox. For example, members of sexual minorities are allowed to be ordained rabbis. You can even enter into same-sex marriages. That's it, friends! That's conservatives for you!

The main ideas of this trend are the following:

• Halacha is recognized as the main life guide;
• The attitude towards modern culture should be only positive;
• The foundations of the Jewish religion are not given fundamental importance.

Commandments of Judaism

The Torah does not contain ten commandments as in the Bible, but as many as six hundred and thirteen! Of these, two hundred and forty-eight (so many bones and organs in the human body) commandments oblige one or another action, and three hundred and sixty-five commandments (this, you guessed it, the number of days in a year) forbid!

We will not list them all, but we will give the most interesting, unusual and ridiculous (and there are some of them):

• “The husband must remain with his wife during the first year of marriage”, like this, it is apparently not necessary to stay for the second and subsequent years of married life.
• “If you bought a Jewish slave, you must marry her or marry her son.”
• "Buy a Jewish Slave". Paying attention to the previous commandment, it turns out completely without options.
• "Don't settle in Egypt."
• "Don't scratch your body."
• "In the seventh year it is necessary to stop the cultivation of the land."
• "Abandon everything that grows on the earth in the seventh year."
• “If a human corpse is found in the field and it is not known who killed him, it is necessary to break the head of the heifer.” (Just in case, let's explain that the heifer is, apparently, a cow).
• "For those who committed deliberate murder, it is necessary to allocate six cities of refuge."
• In addition, there are others such as: do not shave with a blade, do not tell fortunes, do not guess, do not engage in magic, do not wear women's clothing for men and men's clothing for women, and a number of other commandments.

Symbols, attributes, traditions and holy places

The main attributes of Judaism are:

• shofar (ritual horn, it is blown at worship in the Synagogue - the center of the religious life of the Jewish community);
• poison (the so-called pointer for reading the Torah);
• Tanakh (holy scripture);
• a mug intended for washing hands;
• candlesticks;

Symbols and traditions of the Jewish faith:

• shema - a prayer that consists of four quotations from the Pentateuch;
• observance of Shabbat - in Judaism, this is the seventh day of the week, on which you need to refrain from work;
• kashrut - a set of rules governing the attitude to food and other branches of life;
• wearing a kippah - a Jewish national headdress, a small hat covering the top of the head, it symbolizes humility and admiration for the Lord;
• star of David - the Jewish symbol depicted on the flag of Israel, which is a six-pointed star (two equilateral triangles are superimposed on each other, one angle down, the other up);
• Menorah menorah - a golden lamp, is the oldest symbol of Judaism and the religious emblem of the Jewish people;
• the lion is the symbol of the Jewish tribe.

Holy places:

• At an altitude of seven hundred and seventy-four meters above sea level, the Temple Mount rises above the old city of Jerusalem (this is a quadrangular area, fenced with high walls), and it goes underground for about as much. Active excavations are currently underway there. On the Temple Mount was the First, and then the Second Temple. According to Jewish belief, the Third Temple will be built there in the future. At present, Muslim religious buildings are built there - the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock (these are the third most important Muslim shrines).
• The Wailing Wall (its other names are Western Mountain or A-Kotel) is the main shrine of the Jewish faith. It is located around the surviving western slope of the Temple Mount. According to legend, wishes written on a piece of paper and left in the Wailing Wall will certainly come true. Every year, pilgrims from all over the world leave their innermost wishes with faith and hope, waiting for their fulfillment. So, if you are going to visit Israel, correctly formulate your desires in advance, because they tend to come true!

If, dear readers, this article only fueled your interest in the Jewish religion, ancient customs, shrines.

If you want to know more, delve into history, and possibly trace the connection of Judaism with Christianity and other religions, we advise you to read books that can be ordered easily by simply clicking on the appropriate links:

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Basic principles of the Jewish religion

According to Orthodox Judaism, a Jew is a person who was born from a Jewish mother and did not change his religion or underwent an Orthodox conversion and observes all religious regulations.

In the religious concept, which does not coincide with the ordinary, universal, Jew is not an ethnic concept, but a worldview. For a true Jew, the concepts of national and religious coincide, they must be identical and inseparable.

The basic principles of the Jewish religion were derived by the great Jewish sage of the 12th century, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, known to Jews as Rambam, and to Europeans as Maimonides. These principles are recognized as canonical in classical (orthodox) Judaism.

First principle. God is one, he is one of a kind. God created man in his own image and likeness (the concept of the “god-man”) – the result of which is God’s love for man, God’s desire to help man and confidence in the final victory of Good.

The Jews imagine the only living God, Who on Sinai gave Moses the Torah - the Law. This is the most important commandment: to believe in the omnipresent God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and not only in this world. God is one for all, including, of course, for the pagans. He is alone and there are no other gods. Belief in the almighty God Yahweh forms the basis of Judaism as a religion. In Judaism, for the first time in the history of religions, monotheism was proclaimed as a consistent principle. God, according to the teachings of Judaism, existed before He created everything that exists and will always exist. He is eternal. He is the essence of everything in the world, He is the first and last, alpha and omega. He, and only He, is the Creator, who revealed Himself to the people through Moses, the prophets and His Word. He created the Earth and everything on it and beyond it. God is Spirit, Thought and Word. God is one and he is real. To better understand this, every Jew should read the Shemu prayer daily: “Listen, Israel. The Lord is our God, the Lord is one.”

Second principle. God is perfect. God is absolute Reason, he is omnipotent. God is the source of goodness, love and justice.

Judaism is unique not only because it first invented monotheism. This religion for the first time gives the image of God as a person. God-personality presupposes the presence of a volitional principle in the world. The creation of the world is an act of manifestation of the will of God. The world was created by him because he wanted to create this world.

God is not only an absolute eternal essence, but also an unlimited will. His actions flow from His desire. The exclusively spiritual essence of God distinguishes him from any other essence in the world and makes him the highest authority. The gods of other beliefs are subject to some higher powers. God is not subject to any other power and does not depend on anything but Himself. There is no power in the world higher than Him. God is the absolute ruler of the entire world.

Third principle. The Torah is the holy book for all Jews. The authority of the Torah is infallible and indestructible.

The inspiration of the Old Testament is a dogma for the Jewish religion. The first five books that make up the Torah are sacred, for they were given by God himself. The Torah is not only the Law, it is a science. The Torah is the supreme authority of Judaism, the highest authority for the Israelis. As a science, the Torah contains its main feature - knowledge, and to know means to do. The Torah is not only the Law, it is the revelation of God about Himself. The law also includes the Ten Commandments, expressing the essence of the norms prescribed by God in the relationship of people with each other and with God. But not only that: the Law also includes rules relating to religious and social life, down to the detailed development of hygiene and daily behavior. The law shows what God expects from people.

Fourth principle. Life is a constant dialogue between God and man. Everything that is done by both an individual and a whole nation is evaluated by God, then the Almighty rewards according to his merits, most often during his lifetime.

The Jewish God created the world and man in it and wants the man he created to behave in this world in this way and not otherwise, which emphasizes the presence of the will of God. The Personality of God allows a person to build his relationship with God on an interpersonal level, on the level of "I - you". A person can enter into a direct dialogue with God, talk with him without intermediaries.

According to the Torah, there is a personal relationship between God and man. Man speaks directly to God, and God enters into dialogue directly with man. Turning to God, a person uses expressions that give God human features, since a person does not know any other way of expression. This phenomenon, called anthropomorphism, defines a two-way relationship between God and man and characterizes their relationship as personal, personal. A person's request addressed to God in fear or admiration, a person's prayer, his cry can break through to God only in human language.

The relationship between man and God is central to the Torah. Monotheistic Judaism is based not on thinking about God, but on striving for Him, and this shows a completely new approach to the concept of God. Faith in the One God in the Torah is built on the highest degree of human devotion to God, it requires a person to give fully. Man cannot turn to other gods.

God established not only natural law, but also moral laws. God gives the opportunity to live and be righteous. God watches over man, He is all-good, most holy, just. He is the master of history. Divine power spreads throughout the world, it is in all manifestations of life. God is the helper and friend of people, the father of all mankind. He is the liberator of men and nations; he is a savior who helps people get rid of ignorance, sins and vices: pride, selfishness, hatred and lust.

Fifth principle. Man is priceless because he is a creation of God. Every life is unique. The purpose of a person is service to God - constant comprehensive spiritual improvement.

Even in the first chapters, the Torah gives two contradictory descriptions of a person, reflecting his dual nature, the internal contradiction contained in him. The first chapter of Genesis says: "And the Lord created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female - he created them." The second chapter says the opposite: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.”

Thus, at the heart of the concept of man in Judaism is his characterization as a creation of the psychophysical. He is both the dust of the earth and the image of God. The first emphasizes the physical, biological essence of man. Man acts here as a part of living nature, a "living soul", a material object that obeys the laws of physics and biology. At the same time, man is endowed with something that is not part of nature, something that stands above nature, opposes it, there is a particle of God in him. The Torah does not explain what exactly a person is like God, but only affirms an important anthropological and sociological concept: a person is like God. Being a part of nature, man at the same time stands, as it were, outside of it. This reflects the duality of man - the dust of the earth and the likeness of God.

Man is under the influence of his own biological essence. Unlike Christianity, Judaism does not see anything wrong with the fact that a person is created from the dust of the earth, that he has a body with its physical needs. Such is the nature of man. The fact that man is a physical, material creature only confirms that he is not God. However, man is created in the image of God. This determines its spiritual potential, and this is its value.

Sixth principle. Equality of all people. All people are equal before God. Each person is a son of God, the road to perfection in the direction of unity with God is open to all people, all people are given the means to achieve this destiny - free will and divine help.

God does not classify people by social class, wealth, skin color, or the language they speak. The main thing in a person is his spiritual beginning, and in this all people are equal.

Seventh principle. God's Chosenness of the Jewish People. God imposed a special mission on the Jews - to convey divine truths to humanity and through this help humanity to come closer to God. To realize this task, God made a covenant with the Jewish people and gave them commandments. The Divine Covenant cannot be undone. On the one hand, the Covenant gives the all-round support of God, and on the other hand, it imposes a very high level of responsibility on the Jewish people.

The idea of ​​chosenness is traditionally interpreted by Jews in two ways: on the one hand, it was God who chose the Israelites, and on the other hand, the idea is that the Israelites chose God. Although this choice was collective, it was made freely. The decisive significance of the concept of chosenness is that it creates obligations exclusively for the Jews, and non-Jews received other pacts and other obligations from God.

Eighth principle. An offer to all people and peoples (non-Jews) to accept the necessary minimum of moral obligations imposed by the Torah on all mankind.

While Jews are required to comply with all 613 instructions (mitzvot) extracted from the Pentateuch, a non-Jew who is considered a participant in the covenant God made with Noah is required to comply with only seven laws of Noah's sons. At the same time, Judaism is fundamentally not engaged in missionary work, that is, it does not strive for proselytism (in Hebrew - giyur). However, anyone can accept Judaism by passing a special initiation.

Ninth principle. The principle of complete domination of the spiritual principle over matter. But at the same time, it is necessary to remember the value of the material world as well. God is the unconditional Lord of matter, as its creator, and he gave man dominion over the material world in order to fulfill his ideal purpose through the material body and in the material world.

In Judaism, everything that exists has its own spiritual beginning, and the goal of each person is to comprehend, to recognize this spiritual. For example, it is believed that by reading the Torah or repeating a prayer, a person appeals to this beginning.

tenth principle. Faith in the coming of the Messiah (Mosheach) - the savior.

Mashiach is a king, a direct descendant of King David, and, according to tradition, should be anointed to the kingdom by the prophet Elijah (Eliyahu), who was taken to heaven alive. When he comes, he will reward all the righteous according to their deserts.

The Jews are still waiting for Mosheach to come. The Torah teaches that the Messiah will bring political liberation to the Jews, gather all the Jews in the Israeli lands and establish the correct world order throughout the earth. Then, perhaps, all people will become Jews.

Eleventh principle. The principle of resurrection from the dead at the end of days (eschatology). The belief that at a certain time the dead will be revived in the flesh and will live again on earth.

According to Judaism, the dead will be resurrected in their own bodies and will live on earth in eternal good. But this applies only to the righteous. What happens to the rest is still a matter of debate. Some theologians believe that they will go to a place similar to Christian hell. Others believe that they will simply remain in oblivion.

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Lecture delivered at an underground seminar in Leningrad in 1980.

The human mind has always sought to comprehend the essence of phenomena. Getting acquainted with any major spiritual system, a person tried to separate the essential from the non-essential, the main from the secondary. Eastern thought especially often turned to a laconic aphorism to express the foundations of a particular religious phenomenon. And the Jews, the true sons of the East, have done this from very early times; The wise men of our people, as if competing with each other, expressed the essence of the Jewish religion with one thought, sometimes even with one phrase. Many people know the answer. Hillel the Elder to a Gentile who asked for an explanation of all Jewish doctrine while he was standing on one leg. “Do not do to another what you do not wish for yourself,” says the famous sage, “this is the essence of the Torah. Everything else is just comments on it. Go and study. R. Akiva saw the essence of the Torah, the Jewish Teaching, in the words “love your neighbor as yourself,” which he commented on often and unexpectedly, brilliantly showing their depth and fundamentality.

This tradition was continued by the sages of the Middle Ages. Many of them attempted to condense the essence of the Jewish faith, but all these experiences, both early and late, were overshadowed by the brief compendium of Judaism compiled by the great 12th-century Jewish sage Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, known to Jews as the Rambam ( abbreviation of the words Rabbi-Moshe-ben-Maimon), and to Europeans - as Maimonides. The 13 principles of faith formulated by the Rambam had a profound effect on many generations of Jews. For about 700 years, everywhere - from Spain to Persia - in the old and new centers of Jewry - they were identified with Judaism in general, entered all Jewish prayer books and were repeated by Jews every morning.

It is quite natural, therefore, to construct a lecture on the foundations of our faith in the form of a presentation of the 13 principles of the Rambam with brief explanations that will help the modern intellectual to better understand what was perfectly clear to any Jew 700 years ago.

1. I believe with complete faith that the Creator, blessed be His Name, creates and governs all creation. He alone has done, is doing and will do everything that is being done.

Who is the One Who stands at the origins of Judaism, relations with Whom make up the entire history of our people, its most exalted and blackest pages? Who is He, to Whom every day and every hour the whole being of a Jew turns. To whom does he dedicate his most solemn hymns and most tender zmirot - Saturday songs? Who is He, the formidable God of the Jews, who makes the enemies of Israel tremble and excites rejoicing in the camp of friends, our heavenly Father. King of Kings, Holy One, blessed be He?

It is no coincidence that the first name that the Rambam calls him is the name of the Creator. For the first time, the Lord appears to the world as the Creator of all things and continues to show us His creative essence every day. Not a cheerful host of voluptuous Greek gods co-created the world in which we live, it did not appear as a result of a cruel struggle between good and evil, as the followers of Zoroaster imagine. No. The Almighty Himself, alone created the heavens and the earth, and the heavens, and all their host; He created everything that inhabits the earth: the animal and plant world and man, called to become His junior partner.

Precisely because He is the sole and unique Creator of our entire world. He is also its full-fledged Master and Ruler, managing all creations. The Jews call Him the King of Kings. Everything is subject to Him, and nothing changes without His will. From the movement of stars and galaxies to the movement, emergence and death of the smallest virus, everything is under His control and control. His hidden Presence is felt in every event that occurs. Nearly 4,000 years ago, our forefather Abraham understood and saw this. “Imagine a man,” he said, “who was walking through the forest and saw a palace in flames. Is it possible, such a person would think, that this palace has no owner? Is it possible that no one cares about his fate? Such is our world!”

“A palace engulfed in flames” – this is how our world appeared to the eyes of the great patriarch, and this is how it remains to this day. Abraham not only thought about the existence of the Master, he began to look for Him. And the Owner revealed himself to him, for "The Lord is near to all who call him." And since then, we, the descendants of Abraham, are the eternal evidence of the Presence of the Most High in this world, sometimes the only evidence ...

In the morning prayer we find the following words: “...renewer every day. always the work of the Primal Creation.” The work of Creation is not limited to the first seven days of the existence of the world.

If the Creator did not constantly resume, day after day, the majestic process of creation, our world would return to its original state: everything would turn into Nothing. And what we see every day: sunrise, and snow, and rain, and our work left from the evening, grass, trees and houses are the same as we saw them yesterday - all this is the result of a “small” miracle, which created by the Creator — constant renewal of Creation.

One pagan asked r. Akiva to prove to him the existence of God. R. Akiva answered this with a question: - Tell me, who sewed your dress for you? "Akiva, how are you?" You are a sage. Don't you know that clothes are made by tailors?

“You see,” R. answered him. Akiva, even a simple suit cannot arise by itself. And no one has a creator. You assert that the whole world can arise from chaos and by itself, and do not notice that the splendor of this world every moment glorifies its Creator and testifies to His Existence.

2. I believe with complete faith that the Creator, blessed be His Name, is one and there is no unity like His unity. And He alone was our God, is and will be.

Every unity we think is a composite unity. This concept itself implies the presence of parts connected together. Such is the unity of man and machine, such is the unity of many material numbers, dots that form a pattern, letters that make up words. All elements of Creation are united in our consciousness into a single harmony.

The Creator himself is not like that. Creating all the forces and objects of the world, He remains completely separate, elevated above each of them and above any of their totality. He is the Creator of forces, but He is not the sum of these forces. They do not enter into Him as ingredients. G-d creates every element of the world from Absolute Nothing. This element arises solely due to His Will and therefore does not add anything to the essence of the Creator, does not make any addition to it. This is the meaning of Rambam's words "simple Oneness", a Oneness that we cannot define or feel. "Simple", not composite. A unity that lies beyond the limits of any conceivable combinations and combinations. This is what the main Jewish prayer, read twice a day, “Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is One. It proclaims the most important principle of the Jewish faith: the world is not part of G-d, the world is created by Him, but adds nothing to His perfection. The diversity of Creation does not violate the simple Unity of the Creator!

3 . I believe with complete faith that the Creator, blessed be His Name, is incorporeal, that He cannot be represented in any form, and that He has no likeness at all.

We distinguish one object of Creation from another by the boundary that separates them. It does not matter whether we are talking about a physical or conceptual object. The very process of Creation consisted in the creation of boundaries between phenomena. Accordingly, the concepts of “body”, “image”, “likeness” are the elements of Creation, since they cannot be divorced from the concept of “boundaries” in any way.

When we talk about God as infinite, we don't mean only physical or mathematical infinity. The infinity of the Creator means He has no limitations in all possible meanings. He creates boundaries, but he is not limited by anything. And if so, such concepts as “body”, “appearance”, “form”, “likeness”, “movement” cannot refer to Him.

This is what the Torah says: "For you saw no image" ( Yards, 4:15).

How then can we understand the numerous anthropomorphisms that are often found in Scripture and usually raise many questions: G-d heard, saw ... And the G-d said ... The hand of the G-d was on him ... etc.?

This is the general explanation. The Torah was given to us so that we would act in accordance with the Will of the Creator set forth in it. Therefore, "Torah speaks the language of people", describing the actions of the Creator in creation, that is, His manifestations in those created by Him borders. In this case, the likening of Divine actions to human ones becomes legitimate, giving us the opportunity to follow the Divine Will in Divine Creation. As our sages said: "As He is merciful, so be merciful; as He is long-suffering, so be you long-suffering."

Once the emperor Hadrian entered into a dispute with the river. Yehoshua about whether G-d, who created both the heavens and the earth, and all their hosts, is really invisible to the human eye and incomprehensible to other senses. "I won't believe what you say," said the emperor, until you show him to me.

When noon came. Joshua took Hadrian out into the sun and said to him, "Look well and you will see Him." “But who can look at the sun?” Adrian was surprised. “You said,” replied R. Yehoshua. “If it is impossible to look at the sun, which is one of the many servants of the G-d, is it possible to see the G-d himself, whose Glory fills the Universe?”

4 .I believe with full faith that the Creator, blessed be His Name, He is the first and He is the last.

At first glance, this provision seems superfluous: since the G-d is One and, moreover, is the Creator of all things, it is clear that He preceded all creations, and will also exist even if the rest of the world disappears. However, there is another possibility, set forth, in particular, in Greek mythology, where the appearance of the Olympus of the gods, headed by the lord Zeus, was preceded by a long struggle of red-handed supernatural principles, elements, ending, finally, with the creation of the earth, people, space. Similar ideas existed among the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, and Persians. And until now, it is difficult for the human mind to “reconcile” with the idea of ​​Creation from nothing, and even completed in a limited six-day period. Much dearer to his soul and mind are the “primordial chaos”, the “ocean of primordial matter”, the battles of gods and titans and Kronos devouring his children. All this is more understandable and satisfies the aesthetic feeling much more completely than the invisible Creator, who creates such a big world from such a small “nothing”.

The 4th principle declares that no entity preceded the Creator, that no cause is required for His existence. But that's not all.

In addition to indicating that only One Almighty preceded Creation, these words also contain another meaning (is there only one?): “God is not only the source of everything, every situation, collision, fact, but also what the whole world aspires to, both as a whole and each of its separate parts. He is the Last in the sense that all situations and relationships are purposeful and find their final resolution in Him.

5 . I believe with full faith that the Creator, may His Name be blessed. He alone should pray and no one else should pray.

The religion of the Jews is very often called strict or pure monotheism. In their severity, in their zeal to protect the purity of monotheism from the temptation of pluralism, they, in the opinion of modern man, much more often than he would like, cross the line that separates solid life principles from fanaticism and obscurantism. Such a humanist does not see anything shameful in being present from time to time, for example, at an Orthodox service, and the fact that this service is celebrated according to some saint killed by the Jews does not in the least cool his ecumenical zeal. Is it possible that he, who considers religion as a dying element of national life, tradition, or, in extreme cases, as a refuge for the weak in spirit, cannot make a grand gesture from the height of his humanistic worldview? Of course, he can and does, and, as a rule, at the end of the road he is convinced (if honesty does not give up) that almost nothing remains of the most solid principles. The Jews are different.

We are a people whose history is made up of encounters with God. Starting from the ancient appearances to the forefathers, from the grandiose Sinai Revelation - these meetings are the essence of the existence of the Jews as a people. The relationship between G-d and His people developed in different ways, but always the people as a whole and its individual representatives drew vitality, firmness of spirit in serving their Creator. The Jews are people who retain the memory of Revelation and who have been able to discover the Divine Presence in the world ever since. It is understandable, therefore, to keep their ministry pure: if you draw water from a spring, it is in your interest to keep that spring pure. The strict focus on serving Gd alone is not a question of the breadth of the soul or the flexibility of the mind - this is a condition on the observance of which the entire life of the Jewish people depends.

This service requires a great strain of religious feeling, and it turned out to be beyond the power of both Christianity and even the religion that is often called monotheistic - Islam. As Christianity spread, pagan gods were fused into its exquisite amalgam in the form of patron saints of cities, remarkable places, and estates. Worship of holy relics, holy objects: pieces of the cross, the shroud, the holy coffin became widespread. Service to the Virgin Mary sometimes crowds out, especially among Catholics, service to the Most High himself. It is no secret that it is to her that the most passionate, most sincere prayers are offered up.

Even in Islam, whose adherents, especially at first, very strictly followed the purity of their faith, the cults of martyrs, saints, the cult of the hidden imam became widespread.

And only the Jews offer their prayers to their heavenly Father alone. Prophets? Well, they were extraordinary people, and the greatest of them, Moshe Rabbeinu, was a giant who did more than a man could do. However, the compilers of the Passover Haggadah specially they did not mention his name, so as not to arouse even the shadow of a desire to pray to him. King David, whose soul was a ringing lyre in the hands of the Creator, was a perfect righteous man, but a Jew worshiping the tomb of David would look at least strange.

It never occurred to anyone to canonize the sages, the righteous, the martyrs, of which there were more than enough. A Jew never bows his head to anyone: in the East, everyone knew this - from the last beggar boy to the Roman emperor, whose person was considered sacred. When the emperor, during a large audience, among dozens of fallen prostrate people, found modestly, but upright people, he knew that they were Jews, and he also knew that he would not force them to bend by any force. Any attempt to erect a statue of the emperor in the Temple led to open rebellion, and the proud Roman legions took off their badges when they entered the Holy City. The "absurd persistence" that has preserved us as a people.

6 .I believe with full faith that the words of the prophets are true.

In the era of the First Temple (X - VI centuries BC), the souls of people were much purer than in our time. The most righteous among them reached a special state when Divine wisdom directly revealed to their souls. Those were the prophets.

Prophecy - the message of the Creator, received in such a direct way, could relate to a variety of subjects: from simple everyday to the most grandiose events that decided the fate of peoples and states. In that glorious time, thousands of prophets wandered along the roads and cities of the Land of Israel, prophesied in the bazaars and squares. But only 55 are mentioned in Tanakh. The truth of their prophecies is what the Rambam means.

How are they different from other thousands? The fact that even if the message that they are called upon to convey concerns very specific people, places, peoples, the content of the prophecy is still immeasurably deeper than its surface shell. It is timeless, it is addressed to all Jews together and to each one individually, no matter where he is and in what era he lived.

Not everything is clear to the contemporaries of the prophet in those words that fly from his lips, and almost always they are unpleasant to them. The mission of a prophet is incredibly difficult. she brings numerous troubles to him, often endangering his life; but, “feeling the hand of the Lord on himself,” the prophet nevertheless goes out to people with a prophecy; even if his soul groans under the yoke of the darkest forebodings.

The eight books of the prophets form part of the Written Torah. To understand the true content of the message that the Almighty sends to us, we can, only bringing together the Written and Oral Torah. Both of these parts of the Whole Torah were received by Moshe Rabbeinu at Sinai (More on this below. in explanation 8th principle of faith.)

This fact deserves repeated repetition, because too often the Scriptures in general, and the books of the Prophets in particular, are misunderstood, guided either by "common sense" or the context of "common human culture." But the truth in this world never lies on the surface. Truth is the Torah, the Whole Torah. Penetration inside requires serious work, rethinking of "immutable" concepts. But this work is grateful, and its result is wonderful!

7 . I believe with full faith that the prophecy of Moses, our Teacher, peace be upon him, was true, and that he was the father of the prophets who preceded him and came after him.

These few lines contain, in fact, a statement of extraordinary capacity and significance. What is the prophecy of Moshe Rabbeinu (our Teacher)? This is, in fact, the whole Torah- Written and Oral: everything that is set forth in the Pentateuch, named after Moshe, and everything that was orally transmitted by them to Joshua bin Nun. Thus, the prophecy of Moses contains a lot of information about the Creation of the Most High World and His reign in the world, about the life of the patriarchs and the promises given to them, about the life of the sons of Israel in Egypt, slavery and an unprecedented Exodus from this slavery, committed by them under by the hand of the Almighty, about the commandments that show the Jewish people the way to realize their mission: serving the invisible Creator, who so clearly manifested and manifests Himself in the world. So, it will be completely fair to say that the Divine revelations that were made to the Jewish people through Moshe Rabbeinu are the basis, that unconditional foundation of the Jewish faith and way of life, to which the prophecies of such giants as Isaiah and Jeremiah, and books like Coelet(Ecclesiastes) and Job, full of deepest and most secret wisdom, are ns more than additions, explanations, footnotes.

The unprecedented importance, fullness and holiness of what was transmitted to the Jews, to the whole world through Moshe, makes him the head of all past and future prophets, the "father of the prophets", in the words of the Rambam. The Torah itself says that "there was no other prophet like Moses in Israel who knew G-d face to face." And the very way in which the Almighty revealed himself to Moshe corresponded to the significance of this Revelation: Moshe was the only prophet to whom G-d appeared not in a dream, not in vague images and vague hints, but in reality - revealing himself in bright fiery manifestations that left no doubt in their nature, character and content.

8 . I believe with complete faith that the entire Torah, which is now in our hands, was given to Moshe - our Teacher, peace be upon him.

The Rambam emphasizes the word "all" here. At what in two different senses.

First, it means that the entire Torah, the entire Teaching, i.e. both the written and oral parts of it were given to the Jews through Moshe. At Sinai, the whole Torah was revealed to him, and he was commanded to write down part of the Torah, and part to transmit in the oral tradition from one person to another. This command Moshe fulfilled. Written Torah, or else Humash, formed the core Tanakh - Jewish Holy Canon. The oral Torah was handed down from teacher to student, from generation to generation until, in one of the difficult moments of Jewish history, when the very existence of our people was in danger, part of it was first written down in the form Mishnah(2nd century), and then in the form of the Talmud (5th century AD).

The written Torah, sometimes called simply the Torah, consists of five books and contains, in addition to many of the basic laws of Jewish life, clear indications of the existence of an oral addition to it. This addition contains both additional commandments and ways of interpreting the Written Torah, allowing to reveal its infinite content.

The Written and Oral Teachings constitute an inseparable unity, and although Jewish history knows several attempts to break this unity and belittle the significance of the Oral Law, all of them have obviously failed.

According to the sages Mishnah, Israel was shown special love by the fact that he was given a jewel, with the help of which the World was created - the Torah. The Torah existed before Creation. She was the very plan according to which the world was created. It is clear that the Talmud does not mean parchment, ink and letters, since they did not exist before Creation, but the spiritual essence of the World, the earthly incarnation of which is the Torah, transmitted to the Jewish people. And so, the second meaning of Rambam's emphasis on the word "all" lies in the assertion of the fact that the entire Torah was transmitted to us without a trace, and not some part of it. Man must become a junior partner of the Creator. Without his efforts, the world will not achieve the desired perfection, so the Almighty gave people the entire Torah - the entire plan of Creation, so that human activity on Earth would gain purpose and meaning.

9. I believe with full faith that this Torah will not be changed and that there will be no other Torah from the Creator, blessed be His Name.

As mentioned above. The Torah is a reflection of the essence of Creation. She is the plan, she is the plan and the way. The plan of the Creation of the world, the purpose and meaning of its existence and the path that a person must follow in order to fulfill the task for which he was created: to serve the Creator. G-d's plan is majestic and complex, and the task entrusted to man is exceedingly difficult. The Jews, whose existence at all times was firmly connected with the Torah, lived with the knowledge that the future of the World depended on their every action. The mystical sense of belonging to the Cause of Creation gave their thoughts a beauty and grandeur that completely eluded the grounded mind. Torah is eternal.

Given to us three and a half thousand years ago, it still remains the source of the spiritual strength of the Jews, the joy of their hearts, a carefully cherished treasure. In the very word TORAH is heard op - light. The sage King Shlomo called it the Light of Israel, illuminating everything around. The famous Rabbi Akiva, in a parable he told, called the Torah the habitat of the Jews, in which they can only live, like fish in water. But in order to keep at the height that the Torah requires from a person, he must make constant efforts. Inclined to compromise, always ready to submit to the "course of events", the human mind hastens to declare the high standards of the Creator "outdated, unnecessary, petty prescriptions", and the entire Torah - "a collection of institutions that were needed in primitive times to curb wild the instincts of our ancestors." Such a modern man is not exclusively a product of our days: a great Jewish thinker spoke about him eight centuries ago. In our people at all times there were people who sought to throw off the heavy burden of being chosen, to abandon what made us a unique people, which is expressed in the eternal Torah - to abandon the Covenant with Gd. But truly, there is nothing new under the sun. And today we are faced with the same tasks that faced the generation of the desert, the generation of David, hundreds of generations of our ancestors - following the path of the Torah, to restore the Temple, to liberate mashiach, approve the Law and sanctify the Name of the Most High among the nations. And today, G-d-pod answers the people of Israel through the mouth of the prophet Micah to the constant dumb question: “Oh, man! It has been told to you what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love works of mercy, and to walk humbly before your God.”

If all Jews spent only two Shabbat as the Almighty asks them, the whole world would be delivered from evil and injustice!

He has done and is doing everything that depends on Him: He brought us out of Egypt, fed us in the wilderness, brought us to Sinai, gave us the Torah, led us to the borders of the Promised Land, and despite all the sins, He does not turn His Face away from us.

He has nothing to change in the eternal and perfect Torah. And there is no need to give another Torah. The queue is behind us!

10 . I believe with full faith that the Creator, blessed be His Name, knows all the deeds of men and all their thoughts, as it is said: “He who creates all their hearts and penetrates all their works!”

II. I believe with full faith that the Creator, blessed be His Name, rewards those who keep His commandments with goodness, and punishes those who transgress His commandments.

I took the liberty of combining the tenth and eleventh principles of the Rambam, as they are closely related.

Among the many names and epithets with which the Jews endowed the Creator, there is one unusual, unlike the way other religions or theological systems imagine G-d. This name - Hai -"Alive". G-d in the Jewish sense is the Living Eternal Essence. He is actively involved in everything that is done on earth. Although He is the Creator of the World, and therefore more than the World, at the same time He is present in the World itself: in every situation, in every process, in every moment of this complex movement.

There is a theology of deism, whose followers (and there are many of them) believe that Gd, having created the World, left it to the mercy of fate, not interfering at all with what happens according to “natural” laws. The god of the deists is the god of philosophers, the god, in a certain sense, “calculated”, involved as a means of resolving logical contradictions that arise in philosophical (theological) worldview systems.

The opposite of deism is pantheism, which also has many supporters. Pantheists deify nature, they identify Nature and G-d and worship nature, that is, they think G-d is completely immersed in the world.

The Jews imagine Gd differently: the Torah begins with a description of the Creation of the Universe by the eternal invisible, having no physical representation of Gd at all. However, the world from the very beginning was not left only to its internal worldly affairs. The Torah describes the constant involvement of the Creator in ongoing events. Everything that happens is the result of the mutual action of man and the Creator. constantly trying to raise His junior partner to the level that he is potentially capable of achieving. The Torah speaks of the flood and the righteous Noah (Noah), the extermination of the sinners of Sodom and Amora (Gomorrah), the efforts of the forefather Abraham to comprehend the paths that a person should follow. A person can establish contact with God, can turn to Him, ask, plead, insist. During the Exodus from Egypt, the entire Jewish people saw the intervention in their fate of the One who Created the World, gave the Promise to the patriarchs; Jews clearly saw also that history. created before their eyes, is the result of both the efforts and the Will of the Creator. That is why the Exodus is the event to which the memory and thought of the Jew returns again and again, which daily nourishes and strengthens his faith, his idea of ​​the One who controls all events, who gives direction and meaning to all actions.

Nothing escapes the "gaze" of the Almighty, everything happens under His control and with His participation. He sees and appreciates all people's affairs. He penetrates even thoughts, and only the wicked or the erring can believe that there is something hidden from His sight.

However, seeing and feeling everything, being the Master, Lord of any situation, G-d limits himself. giving man the freedom to choose his path. It is this freedom given to man, his ability to do what he was created for, or to turn away from his mission, his Creator and Friend, that makes it possible for the Creator to reward the righteous and punish those who consciously denies its purpose, the os-mentality of Being and the power of the Almighty.

The King of Kings rules the world with Justice and Mercy. He carefully sees to it that none of these qualities gain preponderance, otherwise the world will either be destroyed or drowned in sin. A person is usually more inclined to trust in the Divine Mercy than to remember His Justice and his duty. Therefore, the “honestly” earned punishment often seems to him undeserved, and the countless favors with which, like a Loving Father, the Almighty showers a person, are “natural” and not worthy of mention or gratitude.

According to Judaism, a person's soul continues to exist even after the death of his body. Ideas about the afterlife exist among very many peoples, not only Jews say "in another world." But all oppose each other the earthly world and the other world, as a rule, considering the earthly world only an unworthy temporary refuge of an immortal soul, something that should be overcome.

The Jews, however, consider these two worlds to be the components of the One World, which are now separated only by a thin partition, and at the End of Days they will clearly appear in their Undoubted Unity for all.

Consequently, both reward and punishment can be given to the soul at any moment of its existence.

This question is often asked. “If the Almighty knows the past and the future, then He also knows how a person will act in a given situation. Doesn't this knowledge limit a person's freedom of choice and thus call into question the justice of God's punishment and reward?

Once this question was asked by the Prussian Tsar to Rav Jonathan Eybeshyutz. He replied: “I will show you clearly by an example that knowledge of the future does not in any way limit the freedom of man. You are planning to visit one of the cities you own. There are two gates in the city wall. I know exactly how you will enter the city. So I write it down on a piece of paper and you seal the envelope with your royal seal. When you enter the city, you will open the envelope and make sure that this knowledge of mine did not limit you in any way at the moment of making a decision.

The king went on his way. Having approached the city wall, he saw two gates: one is large, front, and the other is small. The king directed his horse to the main entrance, but suddenly stopped and began to think. “It's too easy. The Jew knows that there are only two entrances to the city, and, of course, he thinks that I will use the front one. You can't just let him win like that." And the king went to the small gates, but, having reached them, he stopped. “Eh, no. The Jew is smart and, besides, he knows me well. He certainly foresaw the course of my thoughts and indicated in his note the small gate. Thinking so, the king again rode up to the main entrance. And again he was seized with doubt. “It's still too easy. The Jew will guess, and everyone will laugh at my simplicity. We must return to the small entrance. So, doubting, the king and his retinue rushed from one gate to another and did not dare to enter the city. And suddenly it dawned on the king. “Yeah, that's it! The Jew could never have foreseen this!” And he ordered his soldiers to break part of the city wall and drove into this gap with his retinue. Then the servant brought him a letter from Rav Jonathan. The triumphant king broke the seal and read what was written in it: “The king breaks through the fence!”

12 .I believe with full faith in the coming of Mashiach. And despite the fact that he is slow, I will wait for him to come every day.

Coming Mashiach - one of those foundations of the Jewish faith that is difficult to describe rationally. Being torn out of the context of everyday life and the history of the people or separated from the mystical sense of suffering Divinity - The Divine Presence lying in the dust, it seems like a naive dream, a consolation for the eternally persecuted, or, at best, an epic "expression of national ideals." But this is only a small part of the truth. Expectation Mashiach - it is a daily affirmation of the meaning of Being, an expression of a deep faith that Creation had specific goal, the achievement of which primarily depends on the Jews. An important aspect of the goal is universal justice.

Mashiach - The Anointed One is a person from the family of King David, with the advent of which the Kingdom of God will be established on Earth, the Kingdom of Justice, there will be no oppressed and unjustly offended. There will be no unrighteousness and lawlessness. The Torah will shine in all its splendor, and its wisdom will become clear, open to all peoples. The whole world will not only recognize the existence of the Creator and His power, but will also call Him by one Name. As it says in the book of the prophet Zechariah: "On that day the Lord will be One and His Name will be One." Then all the sins of Israel will be atoned for, and the Lord will return all those scattered to the Land, which He gave to our ancestors many thousands of years ago, and from which our people were expelled by Him for grave sins.

With coming mashiach the world will be perfect. But the coming of the day when the horn sounds, and Eliyahu-Anavi - Elijah the prophet - will pass over the whole Earth, urging us to come out and welcome the so desired appearance of the Anointed of God, depends on human deeds, on how pure our thoughts are and whether to God our souls. As the Jewish sages say: “The keys to the dungeon in which the Messiah languishes are in our hands. Each good deed breaks one chain, each sin imposes new fetters on him.

There is an ancient Jewish parable that old people tell to growing boys: “A beggar sits in the mud at the gates of Rome. It - mashiach. He sits and waits.” “Whom?” the boy asks. And he gets the answer: "You-be."

13 . I believe with full faith that there will be a resurrection from the dead at a time when a command will come from the Creator, blessed be His Name, and His memory will endure forever and ever.

The soul of a person precedes his birth and does not disappear with the death of a person. It was created by the Almighty in order to revive the material body, so that, having descended from the higher spiritual worlds to our lower world - the one that you and I can feel with our senses - to fulfill the difficult service - the commandments of the Torah, despite the complete concealment in this lower world of the Divine Presence. The soul is our personality. Her stay in the body is an important but short episode. After the death of a person, the activity of the soul in fulfilling the mission entrusted to it is evaluated by the Supreme Court, and it begins its journey of returning to the Creator. It may happen that her service in the human body will be evaluated so low that, G-d forbid, she will lose the opportunity to return. The Torah speaks of this, that such a soul "will be cut off from his people."

We also know that Creation has a goal, which is called the World to Come, and we achieve this goal through the study of the Torah and the fulfillment of its commandments in this world. Generally speaking, the World to Come is a state of special harmony, justice and purity, in which the previously hidden will be revealed, and each soul will receive the main part of his reward for his labors.

And here Rambam tells us one extraordinary thing here: the World to Come is not a realm of shadows, pure souls who “left their earthly abode”. The coming of the World to Come is preceded by the resurrection of the dead, when the souls of all people who have ever lived will return to their reborn bodies, so that together with them and being in them experience an extraordinary revelation of Divine Truth.

The resurrection of the dead and the advent of the World to Come is a large and complex topic. It is impossible to cover it within the framework of a popular presentation. Deepening requires study. Studying is serious work. However, now it would be time to say the following.

The resurrection from the dead is one of the foundations of Jewish faith. Yes yes exactly faith. Not science - the realm of rational comprehension, not art - the realm of feelings and emotions - faith! Very often it is misunderstood as a support for the human mind, as something temporary, serving us until the mind has fully comprehended certain phenomena. Such an understanding of faith is extremely far from the truth. Faith is the ability of the human soul to discover and recognize the truth, despite the lack of evidence and evidence. Faith is a mighty force that surpasses reason! Everyone is able to feel its effect, you just need to listen to what is happening in your own soul.

A few words in conclusion. Today's short lecture, if it showed you latitude Jewish teaching, its horizon, then, of course, did not show it depths. And the point here is not only that a simple conversation only about the foundations of a mighty ancient teaching will inevitably be flat, weakly reflecting its full note and spiritual power, but that we are talking today about faith in the narrow sense of the word, i.e. about what believes a Jew with all his soul and with all his heart, as he imagines the Creator, the world, history. And they didn't say anything about Jewish image life.

If you listened to a good lecture on the basics of Christian faith or faith Muslims, it would be fair to say that you have learned about entities there are many of these religions. Of course, they are also characterized by the way of life of people, what is sometimes called with dry words “ritual and rituals”; however, in these religions there is a thin but perceptible barrier between the way of thinking and the way of life. It does not exist in Judaism. In it, faith and action are fused into the Inseparable, it is impossible to understand one without the other. Being a Jew means tread just as the Creator commanded us.

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