This video is brought to you by
Curiosity Stream Get access to my streaming
video service Nebula when you sign up for Curiosity Stream
using the link in the description Judaism, at 4000 years old is one
of the oldest monotheistic religions and the granddaddy of
Christianity and Islam. But even though its teachings
helped create the world’s two most popular
religions many people don’t know what
Jews actually believe. What is the Torah?
What’s a Covenant? and why don´t people on the Middle
East worship mermaid anymore? Well, let’s find out. Judaism developed here in the eastern
Mediterranean over the last 4000 years. Today there are about
15 million Jews making it the tenth most popular
religion on earth. Right, let’s jump straight
into their beliefs. Tanakh is the Hebrew
name for the Hebrew Bible, known to most English
speakers as the Old Testament. But obviously, they don’t call it that since they don’t recognise any New Testament. The Tanakh is actually a
trilogy and the word Tanakh is made up of the names of the
3 sections of the Hebrew Bible. T: for Torah N: for Nevi’im
and K: for Ketuvim The first section, the Torah, is the most
sacred book of the Jewish People. The Torah consists of
the five books shown here and is sometimes called
the Five Books of Moses. Let's summarise this very long and
very sacred book in a few paragraphs, it should be easy! In the beginning,
God creates the world in six days and then has a deserved
rest on the seventh. Later on, God starts talking to a guy
named Abraham The Hebrew. He tells Abraham to leave
his home in Mesopotamia and go to a land called
Canaan, which is here. God makes a deal or covenant
with Abraham, promising: "I will make of thee a great nation" and offers "the whole land of Canaan" to
him and his descendants. To seal this special covenant
God said unto Abraham “Every man child among
you shall be circumcised.” And Abraham was like:
we’re going to do what now! “ye shall circumcise the
flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a token of the
covenant betwixt me and you” Circumcision was a symbol
literally “cut into the flesh” of the Jewish People to
show their covenant with God. And has been done by every Jewish male
for thousands of years The Covenant is extremely
important in Judaism. Later Abraham's grandson called
Jacob literally wrestles with God or an angel of some sort
for an entire night. So from then on, Jacob would be called Israel
"one that struggles with God". Jacob/Israel has twelve
sons and their descendants would become known
as the Children of Israel or Israelites and give their name to the land
of Canaan now known as Israel. The Children of Israel would be
enslaved in Egypt. But then one of them
called Moses would under God's guidance lead the
Israelites out of Egypt. Moses and his people arrive at Mount Sinai.
Here God gives Moses the entire Torah which contains 613 Mitzvah
or commandments the most famous of which is the 10 Commandments
written on two stone tablets. This new Covenant requires Jews
to worship only this God and to follow His commandments. In return, God will bless the Jewish people and make them a holy nation living
in the Promised Land, which is Israel. The Israelites would eventually
form a kingdom and one of their kings, Solomon, builds a Holy Temple
in Jerusalem, which houses the Ark of the Covenant
and becomes the sacred heart of Jewish worship. Ironically enough Solomon’s
kingdom would cut itself in two. Israel, populated by 10 tribes descended
from the sons of Jacob in the north and Judah populated by the other 2 tribes,
primarily the Judah in the south. In 722 BCE the Assyrians
conquered Israel, leaving Judah as the sole
surviving Jewish kingdom. Which is this guy, Judah,
a random son of Jacob, and not even the one with the
dazzling coat of many colours gave the religion of Judaism
and the Jews their name. In 586 BCE the Babylonians conquered Judah, demolished the Holy Temple,
into exile and slavery in Babylon. The destruction of the Holy
Temple and Babylonian exile is a heartbreaking historical
event for Jewish people. But then in 539 BCE along came Cyrus
with his big Persian army and cool hat. He wrecks the Babylonians, frees the Jews,
and rebuilds the Holy Temple. And that concludes our retelling of the Tanakh.
It is foundational to all Jewish belief and my summary barely
scratches the surface. So you can go and read more by checking
out links in the description or just waiting until I make
a video just about that. In 70 C.E. the Romans destroyed
the Holy Temple ….again, and sent the people into another exile. The Jews moved out across Europe, North
Africa, and the Middle East forming a diaspora which periodically suffered persecutions, pogroms,
and genocides from their neighbours. This 2000ish year exile is considered
to have lasted up until 1947 with the partitioning of Palestine and the creation of the modern
State of Israel in 1948. Now that was a very brief summary of 2000
years of very complex history, so please bear that in mind. 2. God So Abraham lived in a world that
believed in many, many gods. You had your Marduks, your
Nergals, you even had Dagans, everyone loves Dagan,
look at him the fancy merman. But Abraham believed
in One God. An eternal, all-powerful,
all-knowing creator of the universe, and the source of all morality. He has no children, he has no rivals,
he has no equals. This is known as monotheism
and Judaism would spread this concept
across the ancient world acting as an origin for both
Christianity and Islam. Today, nearly everyone in this region
follows a monotheistic religion and merman worship
has dropped significantly. The names of God used
the most in the Tanach are Elohim and the
Tetragrammaton, which is honestly one of the
coolest words ever. The Tetragrammaton
is the letters YHWH. The actual pronunciation YHWH
was lost thousands of years ago. Today it is sometimes pronounced as Yahweh. But that was just one theory. Many Orthodox Jews will not actually
say the name out loud and ones said HaShem, “the name”
or Adonai "My Lord” instead. Many Orthodox Jews won't even
write words like God down, as a sign of respect and will
use something like G-D instead. The Jewish God also takes an
active interest in human affairs and interacts with humans on Earth. Humans can develop a personal
relationship with God. God granted humanity freewill and they,
like Jacob, can “wrestle with God”, and find and relate to God
in their own personal way. The Hebrew Bible barely mentions heaven
or hell. Heaven is just where God lives. It doesn´t mentions a place
called Sheol, but it’s kind just a vague underworld
where souls go after death. Doesn´t give any details. But the Bible does make it certain
that the soul lives on after you die. When Abraham dies, for example,
the Bible says: "he breathed his last, dying at a
good, ripe age, old and content and he was gathered to his people....”. The Bible describes a bunch of different characters
being gathered to their people and sinners being cut off from their people. So while the body returns
to the earth the human soul goes somewhere to live on
with their ancestors. Jews accept that they do not know what the afterlife would be like or
what its rewards will be, but they think it will be based on
the kind of life they lived on earth. So they try to follow God's path
and commandments as closely as possible because even if they don’t know
what rewards they´ll receive in the afterlife they know following God´s commandments
here on Earth will make this world better. Many Jews try to act with Tzedakah
or Justice or charity. Tzedakah comes from
the Torah which says “thou shalt not wholly reap
the corners of thy field..... neither shalt thou gather
every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them
for the poor and stranger". Today many Jews donate 10% of their income
to the needy as part of Tzedakah. Many Jews today and in the past have hoped
for the coming of a masheach or messiah. Which is prophesied in the Tanakh. The Messiah is a Jewish leader that
will bring about the Messianic Era. They will rebuild the Holy
Temple in Jerusalem and bring all the Jews back
into the Promised Land. Which will bring about
the perfection of the world and an end to all
hunger, war, and suffering. When the Messiah comes, every Jew
who ever lived will be literally resurrected. They will return to Jerusalem to be present when
God creates a new heaven on Earth. This is why Jewish law
demands that Jews must be buried with any
amputated limbs lost in life. Jewish law also forbids cremation. All to keep the physical body intact
for when it is resurrected by God after the arrival of the Messiah. For Jews, the Messiah has
obviously not yet arrived because there is still suffering
and inequality in the world. We already saw at the Tanakh but another book is also extremely
important to the Jews. The Talmud.
The Talmud is a collection of different books and is over 10 million words long
and covers 38 volumes. It is a massive collection of
commentary on the Torah and on itself on how the Torah or
it’s commandments should be interpreted. It's filled with debate,
legal interpretations, history, ethics,
philosophy and legends. Within a few lines you
can see rabbis that lived centuries apart debating
a topic in the Talmud, it’s pretty interesting. It provides the foundation for Jewish law
and is a guidebook for Jewish life. So those are some Judaism believes But Judaism is more
than a religion. It is also a people, nation,
culture, and civilization but not a race.
There are black, asian, and white Jews. There are people born Jewish
and people convert to Judaism. There are atheist, Agnostic, and a buffet of
differing levels of religious Jews. According to Jewish law a Jew
is a child born of a Jewish mother or a person who converts to Judaism. Some modern Jewish denominations also
now accept descent through the father. Since the Medieval Period, there have been
two major groups of the Jewish People. Ashkenazi and Sephardi. The Ashkenazi are the Jewish community
that developed in Central and Eastern Europe. They speak Yiddish, a combination of Hebrew
and the languages of Central Europe. Yiddish words like bupkis, chutzpah, and klutz are
familiar in English speaking pop culture because most Jewish immigrants in the
United States were Ashkenazi. The Sephardi Jews are descendants of the
Jews of Spain, and those who fled from Spain to other
Mediterranean countries and North Africa. They have their own language, Ladino,
a combination of Hebrew and Old Spanish. But unfortunately, this language
is under serious threat of the extinction There are also communities of Jews who do not
fall into these two categories such as the Jews of Iran
and Iraq, Yemen, Ethiopia, China, and Georgia along
with many, many others. All these different groups make up a diverse
range of Jewish beliefs and cultures. What many Americans and Europeans think of
as Jewish culture or Jewish food is really Ashkenazi culture
and Central and Eastern European food, adapted to Jewish kosher laws. An Ashkenazi will eat Schmaltz herring while a Sephardi will enjoy couscous. An Ashkenazis will celebrate
with a glass of schnapps, a Sephardi will go for some Arak. Ashkenazis called Saturday, Shabbos,
Sephardis called Shabbat. Before the Second
World War about 9 million Jews lived in Europe,
5 million in the Americas, 800,000 in Asia, and 600,000 in Africa.
Just above 15 million in total. About six million Jews were systematically
murdered during the Shoah, the Hebrew term for the Holocaust. The emigration, expulsion,
and extermination of Jews from their old heartlands
during the 20th century has made North America and Israel
home to the majority of modern Jews. Today there are many different
denominations of Jews. Ranging from Jewish atheists
to Orthodox Jews. Orthodox Jews believe the
Torah is the direct word of God and they strictly follow it's
words and commandments. The best known Orthodox Jews
are the Hasidic Jews, Jews that are recognisable
and distinct fashion, which has been appropiated by hipsters. There is also Reform, Conservative,
and Reconstructionist Judaism who all cover a wide
range of beliefs. From not believing in a personal
or supernatural God and thinking ritual and ceremony
have no place in the modern world to belief in God and the Torah but changing
their interpretation as society evolves. Shabbat or the Sabbath or Saturday
is the 7th day of the Hebrew week and the most important day for Jews. Since God rested on the seventh day,
Jews do the same. It is a day of physical
and spiritual rejuvenation. Jewish law prohibits
any work on Shabbat. Activities such as doing business,
spending money, shopping, housework, driving, using electricity,
or even using the phone are discouraged. While things like prayer
or reading are encouraged. The laws of Kosher
regulate the Jewish Diet. What is Kosher? Well according to the Torah
and Jewish law. All vegetables, fruits,
grains, and nuts are kosher. When it comes to meat
a kosher animal is one that both chews its cud
and has a cloven hoof. Don't worry I didn't know
what cud was either. Cud is a bit of food that an
animal chews and then swallows and then vomits back into their
mouth and then chews again. Which is why some animals can just
appear to be chewing all the time. Examples of kosher animals
are cattle and sheep. While nonkosher animals include pigs,
dogs, rabbits, and well humans actually. Kosher animals must also be killed
in a certain way called shechita. This method uses a trained
professional with an incredibly sharp knife to deliver
quick death to the animal. Finally all blood must be drained from the
animal because blood isn’t kosher. Today kosher food can be
bought from kosher shops or recognised by special
kosher symbols on products. All shellfish, birds of prey like eagles or
owls, and fish without both fins and scales like shark, whale, and porpoise
are not kosher. From the destruction of the Second Temple
in 70 CE until today, the synagogue has been the centre
of Jewish life and worship. In every synagogue, you’ll find
a handwritten Torah Scroll. Which is read aloud
during services. You’ll also find a rabbi. A rabbi is a trained
Jewish scholar and interpreter of Jewish law. They conduct many Jewish
events, such as circumcisions, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs,
weddings, and funerals. While there you may
notice people wearing a kippah also known as
yarmulka on their heads. Judaism originated in
the Middle East, where a sign of respect to
God is a covered one´s head. Orthodox Jews believe they are
always in the presence of God, so they wear a kippah at all times. More liberal Jews wear
a kippah sometimes. You might also notice
that many Orthodox Jew have long curly hair on
the sides of their head. These are called Payot
and Orthdox Jews do not cut this hair because of a
command on the Torah that says “Ye shall not round
the corners of your heads'' You can learn more about
Synagogues, the history of the Jewish people,
and much, much more in the gorgeous documentary series
Sacred Spaces, over on CuriosityStream. CuriosityStream is a
documentary streaming service that will give you access to
thousands of documentaries including some featuring top
names like David Attenborough and Stephen Hawking,
along with exclusive originals. Normally you’d get unlimited
access starting at just $2.99 a month and the
first 30-days completely free if you sign up at
curiositystream.com/cogito and use the promo code “cogito”
during the sign-up process. But during these tough times CuriosityStream
is offering a 40% Off Stay at Home Deal to help you pass time during quarantine. And by signing up to
CuriosityStream you will be helping me and the Youtube
educational community, because CuriosityStream loves independent
creators and wants to help us grow, so they’re offering Cogito
viewers free access to Nebula when you sign up at
CuriosityStream.com/cogito. Nebula is a streaming
video platform I’m helping to build along with lots of other
independent creators like TheLowSpecGamer, MiaMulder, and KnowingBetter
along with a bunch of others. Nebula even hosts original content such as
Tom Scott’s new game show Money. All ad-free and earlier than Youtube.
This video was up on Nebula days ago. So go to curiositystream.com/cogito
and start enjoying amazing content on CuriosityStream and Nebula
while helping to support educational creators
whenever having to sit through ads. So those are the basics of Judaism. It isn't
even close to covering everything. I probably only covered about 1%.
One video simply can't cover everything. Religions are too diverse,
too deep, and mean too many different
things to different people. But you can find all the sources
used in the description. If you liked this video
please subscribe. If you are interested in
supporting the channel, there are links for Patreon and
my t-shirt store also in the description. If you liked this video I think
you’d really enjoy my videos on Hinduism, Sikhism,
and Zoroastrianism. Which you can see on screen
or linked in the description. Thank you so much for watch.
good vid
Great video.
The one thing that I would want to correct, would be that the messianic age involves end of world hunger and war and resurrection of the dead. The resurrection of the dead is after the messianic era. The messianic era, according to most opinions only involves the Jewish people not being subject to the will of others any more.
Here is a citation from the Talmud (which backs up the point in the video about not knowing about what the afterlife is like)
https://www.sefaria.org/Sanhedrin.99a.12?lang=bi
Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba says that Rabbi Yoḥanan says: In their prophecies with regard to redemption and the end of days, all the prophets prophesied only about the messianic era, but with regard to the World-to-Come the reward is not quantifiable, as it states: “No eye has seen it, God, aside from You, Who will do for those who await Him” (Isaiah 64:3). The Gemara notes: And this statement disagrees with the opinion of Shmuel, as Shmuel says: The difference between this world and the messianic era is only with regard to servitude to foreign kingdoms alone, as they will leave Eretz Yisrael.