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descended.Thesepeopleareknownasthe
Israelites. ThenamesJudaismandJewsare
derivedfromthetribeofJudah.EXODUS
ThesecondbookoftheTorah,Shemot
(“names”inHebrew,Exodusinthe
Bible),tellsofhowtheIsraeliteslaterbecame
slavesinEgyptforabout 400 years.Godsent
theprophetMoshe(Moses)tofreethemfrom
slaveryandleadthemoutofEgyptandbackto
thePromisedLand.TomaketheEgyptianslet
theIsraelitesgo,Godsent 10 plaguestoEgypt.
MosheledhispeoplethroughtheRedSea–
Godparteditswatersforthem–andmade
campatMountSinai. TheretheJewishpeople
weregiventhe 10 Commandmentsandtherest
ofthe 613 Mitzvot, thelawsGodcommanded
theIsraelitestofollow.
Afterbeinginthedesertfor 40 years,the
IsraelitesreachedthePromisedLand.Forhun-
dredsofyearsthe 12 tribeslivedintheareaand
wereruledbyjudges.Sha’ul(Saul)becamethe
firstkingofIsraelin 1046 BC,unitingthe
12 tribes.AfterSha’uldisobeyedGod,Da’vid
(David)becamethenewking.Hecon-
queredthecityofJerusalemin
1 000BCandmadeitthecapital
oftheIsraelitekingdom.About
40 yearslaterDa’vid’sson
Shlomo(Solomon)builtthe
FirstTemple.DIASPORA
AfterShlomo’sdeathacivilwarbrokeoutbetweenthetribesandthe
nationsplitintotheKingdomofIsraelinthe
northandtheKingdomofJudahinthesouth.
InthesixthcenturyBCtheBabylonianscon-
queredthekingdomsandenslavedtheJews,
takingthemtoBabylon(nowIraq).TheFirst
Templewasdestroyedin 587 BC.
In 539 BCBabylonwasconqueredbythe
Persians,whoagreedtolettheJewsreturnto
Israel.ManyreturnedandbuiltaSecondTem-
ple, whichwascompletedin 516 BC.
TheRomansconqueredtheregionin 63 BC
andIsraelbecamepartoftheRomanprovince
ofJudea.After 100 yearstheJewsbeganto
revoltagainsttheRomans,whothendestroyed
theSecondTemplein 70 ADandtriedtostop
theJewsfrompractisingtheirreligion.In 132 AD
theywereforbiddenfromenteringJerusalem.
ManyJewswerekilledorsoldintoslavery.
Theywerescatteredallovertheworld–an
eventthatisknownasthediaspora.SYNAGOGUES
TheJewishplaceofworshipiscalled
a synagogue.It’salsoa placeofstudy
anda communitycentre.Everysynagogue
hasanark–acupboardwherethe
Torahiskept– anda deskwhere it
canberead.Thewordsyna-
gogueisa Greektranslationof
theHebrewnamebeitknes-
set(“houseofassembly”).
Sincethediaspora,there
aresynagoguesineverycoun-
trytheJewsfledto.J
UDAISMisoneoftheworld’s
oldestmonotheisticreligions
(believinginonlyonegod).Chris-
tianityandIslamarethetwobig-
gestmonotheisticreligions,and
Judaismis thesmallest,with14,7million
Jewsworldwide.It’sthe10thlargestreli-
gionoverall.
The firstJewishcongregationinSouth
Africawasfoundedin 1841 inCape
Town.Todaythereareabout 75000 Jew-
ishpeopleinSA.Let’sfindoutmore.
WHATISJUDAISM?
ThemostimportantbeliefinJudaism
isthatthereisoneeverlastingGod,
knownasYHWHorAdonai, whocreatedthe
universeandcontrolsit.
ThesacredJewishtextiscalledtheTorah
(“instructions”inHebrew).Itmakesupthefirst
fivebooksoftheJewishholybookknownas
theTanakh, aswellasthefirstfivebooksofthe
OldTestamentintheChristianBible.
TheTorahtellsofhowGodmadeacovenant
(agreement)withAvraham(Abraham),thefa-
theroftheJews.GodpromisedAvrahamthat
hisdescendantswouldbeGod’schosenpeople
andcommandedtheyfollowhislaws.
THE COVENANT
The first book of the Torah is called
Bereshit (Hebrew for “in the begin-
ning”, Genesis in the Bible) and says that 4 000
years ago God told Avraham to leave his home
in Mesopotamia and travel to the Promised
Land, which he later found out was in Canaan.
The Promised Land is now known as Israel
after Avraham’s grandson, Ya’akov (Jacob), who
was later given the name Israel. Ya’akov had
12 sons, from whom the 12 tribes of Israel are
Inourthirdarticleonreligions,weexplore
the spiritual beliefs of the Jews
The
Jewish
calendar starts on the
day God made the first
humans, Adam and Eve. We’re
now in the year 5779 ,
according to the Jewish
calendar. The year started on
9 September 2018 and will
end on 29 September
2019.AJewishboyreadingfromth
Torahathisbarmitzvah. A ya
(Torahpointer)isoftenusedto
lowthetextduringtheTorahre
A Torah scroll is a handwritte
Torah used during rituals in the synagogue.
efillin are a set of leather boxes with leather straps that
rthodox (traditional) Jewish men wear on their head and
rm during weekday morning prayer. The boxes contain
ur handwritten texts from the Torah.Judaism
Religions
Part 3
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