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[[File:Menora ja Daavidin tähti.svg|thumb|300px]]
Subpages:
* [[Jewish Life Events]]
* [[Jewish Holidays]]
There are three aspects of '''Judaism''': the religion, the race, and the culture. Note that not all Jews are the same ratio of these. In fact, rarely will any two Jews be the same. [[Jews Love to Argue|Or in agreement about it]].▼
▲There are three aspects of Judaism: the religion, the race, and the culture. Note that not all Jews are the same ratio of these. In fact, rarely will any two Jews be the same. [[Jews Love to Argue|Or in agreement about it]].
First, though, an introduction:
{{quote|'''Mordcha''': Why should I break my head about the outside world? Let them break their own heads.
'''Tevye''': He's right. As the Good Book says, "If you spit in the air, it lands in your face."
'''Perchik''': That's nonsense. You can't close your eyes to what's happening in the world.
'''Tevye''': He's right.
'''Avram''': He's right and he's right? How can they both be right?
'''Tevye''': You know, you're also right.
|''[[Fiddler on the Roof]]''}}
Jews don't really have a central authority of any sort. Even in ancient times they practiced an impressive separation of powers: the king was responsible for the running of the secular side of things; rabbis and judges were in charge of religious decisions that often overruled the king; and priests were in charge of performing rituals in the temple but had no authority over religious doctrine. After the loss of the monarchy, the destruction of the temple, and the dissolution of the Sanhedrin (supreme court), the closest thing to a central authority Jews had once the Diaspora took full force was made up of senior rabbis arguing until they could reach a consensus, or at least a compromise, which would eventually propagate to most Jewish communities by word-of-mouth. And those rabbis ''loved'' to argue. (A saying goes, "Two Jews, three opinions!")
There are people who identify as ethnically Jewish (see below) but do not practice Judaism as a religion, and may be agnostic or atheistic. This makes them no less Jewish, though; see the section on "who is Jewish" below. This is true for all branches of Judaism. Some Jewish atheists may continue to take part in religious customs due to a sense of community and tradition.
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'''Religious Judaism'''
The Jewish religion takes as holy scripture the Tanakh (very generally, the parts of the Christian Bible that Christians call the "Old Testament"; most famous and notable are the first five books, the Torah), plus several thousand years of commentary and Rabbinical interpretation.
The major religious groups or denominations are (in order of strictness):
* ''Orthodox'': Orthodox (''"frum"'') Judaism is somewhat of an umbrella term. In general, Orthodoxy strictly interprets Jewish religious texts such as the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament for all you goyim out there), the [[
** ''Haredim'': Haredim are the most theologically conservative practitioners. If you see a Jewish man wearing a black suit with a black hat, a beard, side curls (payot), and fringes hanging from his shirt (a tallit worn under the clothing), he's probably (but not necessarily) Haredi. The term is generally used in Israel, but can apply to elsewhere as well. Haredim tend to be much more insular than others; they generally keep very tight-knit communities, refuse to consume non-Jewish media of any sort, and will usually work for each other as well.
** ''Hasidim'': Literally "pious", the term is used to describe a set of Orthodoxy which puts higher value on emotion, joy, and mysticism. There are dozens of Hasidic sects (such as Chabad Lubavitch, Ger, Satmar, etc.), most based out of Eastern Europe and named after the city they originated in. Most Hasidim fall under the Haredi banner, though some (especially Lubavitch) attract more modern adherents, and have large outreach organizations. Hasidim usually have one "Rebbe" which they hold in the highest regard, almost like an angel, and some sects (such as Breslev) become so attached to their Rebbe they refuse to appoint a successor after his death. They're the closest thing Judaism has to born-again Christianity, which might be why [[Bob Dylan]] gravitated to Chabad Lubavitch after he became disenchanted with born-again Christianity.
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* ''Reform'': One of the most liberal of the Jewish denominations, tending to stress moral teachings and downplay rituals. Your average American Jew is likely to be of this denomination; Reform is more "loose" with restrictions and how one follows Mitzvot (although Conservative Judaism is, according the [[The Other Wiki]], a close second). Many Reform Jews do not keep kosher or observe the Sabbath, seeing it as more of a suggestion rather than absolute law. There are different levels of Reform, and which (if any) rabbinical restrictions one keeps is usually reliant on the temple.
** The use of the word "temple" for "house of worship" is an almost exclusively Reform practice, though may be used by Conservatives as well. Most other denominations will say "synagogue" or "shul," or an equivalent word in their local language, due to their rejecting the implication that the house of worship can in any way replace the Temple that was destroyed. In the last several decades, however, "temple" has slowly fallen out of favor among Reform Jews as well.
* ''Reconstructionist'': A movement developed in the United States in the 1920s and 30s when a Rabbi named Mordecai Kaplan felt that Judaism must be reconciled with the modern world. Reconstructionist Judaism is ''much'' more liberal than Orthodox Judaism, and many followers of Reconstructionist Judaism are Deists or have a more Kabbalah-style view of God. However, Reconstructionists CAN be more conservative than Reform Jews: often times in Reconstructionism one is supposed to observe Jewish law and custom as much as one possibly can. Reconstructionism is also the origin of concepts like "eko kashrut," wherein traditional Jewish dietary law is modified to take into account issues of environmentalism and social justice.
** Reform and Reconstructionist congregations are occasionally hostile to more conservative (not to be confused with Conservative) Jewish practices. Of course, partially as a result of the fact that [[Jews Love to Argue]], the more conservative Jewish denominations are often also rather hostile to the more liberal ones.
* Some Jews simply call themselves "observant", without committing to a denomination, and some synagogues are unaffiliated with any movement or denomination. Others consider themselves a mix of denominations (such as "Conservadox" or "Reformadox") and pick the bits of each denomination that appeals to them.
* ''Noachides'': Also called Noahides. These are gentiles who follow the universal laws (often called the 'Noachide laws') and are often connected to one of the Hasidic groups who openly teach and welcome this group (such as Chabad Lubavitch and Breslev). This group is very small with few communities outside of the internet.
* ''Cultural'': Jews who don't follow the spiritual aspects of the religion, but identify with the culture and holidays of Judaism.
Israel (the other major center of Jewish population, having just overtaken the United States) has a rather different religious distribution - most people are secular, Mesorati ("traditional", literally - basically a traditional Mizrahi/Sephardi religiosity that doesn't go to the extremes of Orthodoxy), Dati-Leumi ("national religious" - basically the equivalent of the more religious portion within Modern Orthodox) or hard-line Orthodox. The Reform movement is generally regarded, even by secular Jews, as "[[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|not really Jewish]]", while the Conservative movement (under the name Masorti - also meaning "traditional", just with slightly different pronunciation) is trying hard to make inroads, and having moderate success.
'''Religious Aspects'''
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'''Philosophy'''
Jewish philosophy is decidedly averse to [[wikipedia:Asceticism|asceticism]]. In general, Jews believe that God put them on the earth to be a "light unto the nations" - to bring the sacred into the mundane world. To that end, Jews do not believe in celibacy, poverty, or self-flagellation; [[Ethical Hedonism|one should enjoy as much of God's world as possible while being given guidelines as to how to do so]]. Jewish thought emphasizes modesty, humility, generosity, introspection, faith in God, and repentance as important traits to have. It also places an emphasis ''against'' converts.
* This applies to sex as well. Far from considering it taboo, Judaism considers sex to be merely very private - and in fact very holy. There is a ''commandment'' for a husband and wife to have sexual relations as often as possible, and aside from religious restrictions based on the woman's cycle and restrictions on privacy, you're encouraged to be fruitful and multiply (it is in fact the first Mitzvah in the Torah, appearing in the first chapter of Genesis).
'''Reward and Afterlife''': While Jewish thought certainly includes spiritual reward and punishment, an important saying in Tractate Avoth urges its adherents not to do things for the reward, but simply because it's God's will. When looking at the Bible iself, no afterlife is mentioned: the Garden of Eden is a place from which humans were eternally banned. Over the centuries, from the Mishna and the Talmund and on, the ideas of Heaven and Hell started appearing (in correlation with Christian thought). However, the idea of an eternal hell is not included in most Jewish thought; the closest thing to it is "Gehinnom", a sort of temporary Purgatory where the bad aspects of a soul are burned out of it before allowing it to ascend to the Garden of Eden, or Heaven. It should be remarked that over the last few decades (a century at most) Haredi rabbis began incorporating eternal hell into their threat system. There is a character called Ha'Satan (Hebrew for "the Adversary") but he is generally identical to the Evil Inclination - a tempter, not a fallen angel or leader of Hell. In the visualization of Man's Final Judgment, Satan is the prosecuting attorney. He is balanced by the Good Inclination. Note that many rabbis, such as Maimonides, see these as metaphorical for internal struggle rather than actual spiritual beings.
'''People of the Book''': Although you'll always find Jewish leaders and rabbis who shun questions, Jews are unusually questioning of their own religion. Talmud study, a fixture of Orthodox life, revolves around logic, debate, and the attacking of each side of an argument until it falls apart or reveals itself to be worthy. Jews are called the "People of the Book" by others, and even the simplest Jewish library will often have dozens of "must-have" books that form the basis of religious study. Synagogues will generally have full libraries with hundreds or thousands of books, and new ones are coming out all the time! This has become something of a Jewish cultural value as well; even non-religious Jews tend to place a high value on study and intellectual pursuits.
'''Literalism''': It is very important to note that simply reading the Bible will not give you a good idea of Jewish laws. Almost nothing in the Bible is taken at face value; for example, the famous line "an eye for an eye" is actually interpreted as paying the ''monetary value'' of an eye after gouging someone's eye out <ref>to be specific, the rabbis said that this passage was talking about compensatory damages for personal injury, and took another segment to be talking about punitive damages, yet another for medical damages, and so on. I kid you not, in the [[The Talmud
* Very importantly, this "nothing taken literally" includes the book of Genesis and the creation story. Although many Jews do believe it occurred exactly as written, there are plenty of mainstream opinions who tinker with it in various ways or even consider it entirely metaphorical. As a result, many Jews, even among the Orthodox, have no problem with a universe billions of years old or with the theory of evolution.
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** Some (non-Orthodox) rabbis do allow Kohanim/Levites to renounce their status, although this also means renouncing it for all their descendants. This is done mostly because Kohanim are forbidden from marrying divorced women, and converts.
'''The Chosen People''': Jews are often referred to as the Chosen People. Though the term doesn't show up often in Jewish texts (they are sometimes referred to as "the treasured people"), like many "select" religious populations (the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, for example) the idea permeates Jewish consciousness. It dates back to the days of Abram and Sarai. Abram agreed to serve God first and foremost, and thus became [[The Chosen One]] by adopting Adonai as ''his'' [[The Chosen One|Chosen One]]. (This is also when Abraham got his [[Meaningful Rename]].) The idea is not necessarily that Jews are somehow intrinsically better than anyone else; after all, if they were, they wouldn't take converts. It's more that Jews, being the favorite people of the Lord, are held up to a higher standard than others, and are expected to act in a holier manner than other, more mundane nations. The surprising tenacity of the Jewish people and religion, to have survived in a healthy manner for so long despite its small numbers and constant oppression, is also often cited as a commentary on their "special" status. An alternative interpretation, popular in more liberal sects of Judaism, is to reverse the meaning of the phrase: the Chosen people are not people who were chosen, but people who chose.
'''The Messiah''': The ''Mashiach'' (literally "Anointed One" as in the anointment of a king) is believed to be a descendant of King David, who will appear at the End of Days, heralded by Elijah the Prophet, to redeem the Jewish people, bring them all back to the Land of Israel, and build the Third Temple. What happens afterwards is the subject of extreme argument, even amongst classic Jewish sources, ranging from "more or less the same, but happier" to "the physical world will cease to be, everything will be spiritual". As for Jesus, most Jews see him as, at best, a great teacher like others before and after him; at worst, nothing more than a fraud. Christianity is considered an idolatrous religion due to the statues of Jesus in churches, and the idea of a physical manifestation or son of God. (Islam is not seen as such, since it does not consider Mohammed as a deity, nor do they worship images of him.) Note that this is not a universal opinion; many medieval scholars did not consider Christianity idolatry, although that may have had something to do with the political climate.
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But the primary Jewish racial stereotype is mostly a function of...
'''Cultural Judaism'''. Here's the whopper. There are two or three major, and (naturally) many minor, cultural traditions in Judaism. Which culture you are can have a great effect on both of the above two categories (Sephardic Jews, for example, have different rules for Passover than Ashkenazic Jews). Graduate theses have been written on all of the different cultures, so let's zoom in on the most recognizable: ''Ashkenazim'', or Eastern European Jews, generally from Poland, Russia, and other countries in that region. Most tropes on this site which discuss Judaism--[[Yiddish
One reason for this, of course, is that most of the Jewish immigrants to America from the late 1800s and up were Ashkenazim. They settled in [[Big Applesauce|New York City]], most notably the Lower East Side, and as they got more affluent, the Upper West Side; by now the idea of New York without Jews is practically impossible. Bagels, corned beef, random Yiddish words, and much more are part of New York's DNA. So, it's not surprising that a lot of television writers have had more exposure to Jews than Americans in other parts of the country or viewers in other parts of the world, leading to the [[Big Applesauce]] trope that [[You Have to Have Jews]].
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''So, what's the stereotype?''
The physical aspects are the racial ones: curly dark hair, large noses and ears, dark complexion, occasionally a "swarthy" look, et cetera. Yiddish - basically a dialect of Middle German with huge numbers of words taken from Hebrew and Polish and written using the Hebrew alphabet - that was the main language among Ashkenazim (Ashkenaz refers to Germany), is often [[Yiddish
Traditionally held to be good with money, originally due to Middle Ages laws against charging interest (only applied between Christians or between Jews, but Jews could loan to Christians and so became Europe's bankers), and also holding scholarship and education in high esteem, Jews tend to make sure to give their children better lives than they had. This is where the stereotype of the [[Jewish Mother]] guilting her children into being doctors or lawyers comes from--"I worked, I sacrificed, so you could go to college and then medical school!" Jewish parents take great pride in their children's accomplishments (one-upmanship games between mothers really do happen). As an alternative, being a teacher, especially a college professor, is fantastic; it gives plenty for the mother to ''kvell'' (gloat) about.
Jewish parents are also known/stereotyped for encouraging or guilting their children into dating and marrying within the faith, i.e. "a nice Jewish boy/girl". In more liberal sects this is less common than it used to be (see: assimilation) and is often played for comedy in media, but it's pretty much a given in more conservative sects of Judaism that you date and marry other Jews.
Old Jews have a stereotype of ''kvetching'' (complaining) a lot, especially back pain, and have a reputation for being severe hypochondriacs.
Assimilation is a big topic of debate. Nowadays, especially in America, Jews want to be part of society at large, but don't want to lose their own identities; similarly, right now in America, this balancing act is generally possible. In other countries...it varies.
'''You're Also Jewish?'''
If you go by Jewish TV characters, it would seem that [[You Have to Have Jews|one in every three people is Jewish]]. On ''[[Friends]]'' this is literally true; two out of the six main characters are Jewish. Judaism is usually portrayed as one of three major world religions, along with Christianity and Islam.
'''The [[Arab
Israelis are a whole different creature from American Jews, resulting in the media either portraying the two as exactly the same or portray "Jewish" and "Israeli" as two very different things (usually a bit more serious, and closer to reality). Israelis consist of a mix of Ashkenazic Jews (who form the ethnic plurality) mixed with Sephardic (Iberian) Jews, Mizrachic (Middle-Eastern) Jews, Yemenite Jews, and Falashas (Ethiopian Jews) who each have their own cultures. People do tend to lump Sephardic and Middle-Eastern Jews together, which may or may not be accurate depending on where the specific population came from.
A note on the difference between Sepharadic and Mizrachic: Sepharadi is Hebrew for "Spanish" and refers to the descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jews who fled the Inquisition rather than convert to Christianity. Mizrachi is Hebrew for "Eastern" or "Oriental" and usually refers to Jews from any part of the Middle East and their descendants. There is some overlap between the two, but the term are neither exclusive nor interchangeable. Sepharadic Jews have different liturgy than Ashkenazic; other distinct liturgical traditions belong to Yemenite and Ethiopian Jews.
'''Hebrews, Israelites, Israelis, Jews and all that''': Confusing these terms can lead to a lot of misunderstandings, especially when engaged in any sort of academic debate.
* The ''Israelites'', or ''B'nei Israel'' ("sons of Israel"), were the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and particularly Jacob, after whom they named themselves - Jacob was dubbed ''Israel'' (lit. "striven with God") after an incident involving an angel. The Israelites were the ones who fled Egypt and conquered the land of Canaan, then dubbed the Land of Israel.
* The "Hebrews". The name originally comes from the Hebrew "Ivri", "from the other side (of a river)", used to describe Abraham. In most cases it's synonymous with "Israelites" - though at the time was probably a wartime nickname. After the rule of King Solomon, the rulership of Israel broke apart, resulting in...
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It is considered slightly off-color to call someone "a Jew." Why, exactly, is tricky, and boils down to "it just sounds rude." Maybe it's just that so many have said that with a harsh tone. It has been used as an insult to indicate that negative Jewish stereotypes apply; instead of saying "you are so greedy," some people still say, "you're such a Jew." It might also be that it implies that being Jewish is a choice. It's a bit more common to hear someone described as "Jewish," rather than "a Jew."<ref>This is not limited to Judaism. Calling someone "a Chinese" or "a French" is also a bit tone-deaf with the adjectival use, "a Chinese person" or "a French person" considered more neutrally descriptive.</ref>
The word "Jews," oddly, isn't as bad. You don't have to go crazy with political correctness and replace every occurrence of "Jews" with "the Jewish People," but if referring to a group it'd be better to say "they are all Jewish" instead of "they are all Jews."
There's a bit of [[N
* This has been taken to the extreme in the Russian language. By the early XX century the word "Zhid/Żyd" that means "Jew" in most Slavic languages (just like the English word, it is derived from the Hebrew word "Yehudi") has become so offensive in Russian that it is now used ''exclusively'' as a pejorative, on the same level of offensiveness as "Kike". The PC substitute for "Zhid" is "Yevrey", which means "Hebrew".
{{reflist}}
{{Abrahamic Traditions}}
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[[Category:A Nice Jewish Index]]
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