Fast facts
- Began
- Traced to Abraham (PBUH), and to Moses (PBUH) at Sinai; recognisably rabbinic from roughly the 2nd century CE
- Founder / origin
- No single founder — Jews trace the covenant to Abraham (PBUH) and the Law to Moses (PBUH)
- Followers
- About 14–15 million
- Figure from
- Pew Research Center, Global Religious Landscape (2020 estimates)
- Where
- Israel and the United States hold roughly 85% between them; also France, Canada, Britain, Argentina, Russia
- Scriptures
- The Tanakh (Torah, Prophets, Writings) and the rabbinic tradition — Mishnah, Talmud, and later codes such as the Shulchan Aruch
- View of God
- One indivisible God; the four-letter name YHWH is not pronounced, and observant Jews say Hashem or Adonai instead
Core beliefs
Judaism is strictly monotheistic. The central declaration, the Shema, is 'Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one' (Deuteronomy 6:4). God has no body, no partner and no image, and is not to be depicted.
God made a covenant with Abraham (PBUH) and renewed it with the people of Israel at Sinai. That covenant carries obligations rather than privileges: the commandments — traditionally counted as 613 — govern prayer, food, business, marriage, honesty and rest.
Most Jewish thought is far more concerned with right action than with a fixed creed. Maimonides' thirteen principles are widely respected but never functioned as a church-style test of membership.
Scriptures and how they are read
The written Torah is never read alone. Rabbinic Judaism holds that an oral Torah was given alongside it, later written down as the Mishnah (c. 200 CE) and expanded in the Talmud (the Babylonian Talmud completed around 500–600 CE).
This is why a rabbi's answer is usually a chain of argument, not a single verse. Disagreement between authorities is preserved in the text rather than edited out.
Practice
- Shabbat: rest from Friday sunset to Saturday nightfall — no work, no fire, no commerce
- Kashrut: kosher food laws, including no pork, no shellfish, and no mixing meat with dairy
- Circumcision of boys on the eighth day, marking entry into the covenant
- Daily prayer three times, traditionally facing Jerusalem
- Yom Kippur (fasting and repentance), Rosh Hashanah, Passover, Sukkot and Hanukkah
Branches
Orthodox Judaism (including Modern Orthodox and Haredi/Hasidic communities) holds the written and oral Torah to be divinely given and binding. Conservative (Masorti) Judaism accepts historical development within the halakhic system. Reform (Progressive) Judaism treats the Law as ethical guidance that each generation reinterprets. Many Jews identify culturally or ethnically without regular religious practice.
History in brief
The First Temple was destroyed by Babylon in 586 BCE and the Second Temple by Rome in 70 CE. With no Temple and no sacrifice, worship shifted to prayer, study and the synagogue — the shape Judaism has kept ever since.
Centuries of dispersion followed, with flourishing communities in Muslim Spain, Iraq and North Africa, and repeated persecution in Christian Europe culminating in the Holocaust. The modern State of Israel was established in 1948; Jewish opinion on Zionism ranges from central to strongly opposed, including on religious grounds.
The Islamic view
Where it meets Islam, and where it differs
Common ground
- Uncompromising monotheism: one God, no image, no partner, no .
- Prophethood as a real channel of guidance, and a revealed Law covering daily life.
- Shared prophets — Abraham (PBUH), Moses (PBUH), David (PBUH), Solomon (PBUH) — honoured in the Qur'an.
- Circumcision, ritual purity, food law, fasting and prohibition of pork and of interest.
- The Qur'an singles out Jews and Christians as People of the Book, whose food is lawful and whose women a Muslim man may marry.
Where Islam differs
- Prophethood is understood as ending within Israel; Muhammad (SAW) is not accepted, and the Qur'an answers that God chooses His messengers as He wills.
- The Qur'an affirms the Torah as revealed, but holds that what is in hand has suffered alteration and concealment, and that the Qur'an is the criterion over it.
- Judaism awaits a messiah who has not come; Islam affirms Jesus (PBUH) as the Messiah, born of a virgin, and denies he was killed or crucified.
- The covenant in Islam is not tied to lineage. Guidance is open to anyone who accepts it.
Talking points
- Start with the Shema. Agreeing that God is one, with no image and no partner, puts you on ground a Muslim and a Jew genuinely share and a trinitarian Christian does not.
- Ask what they make of the prophets (PBUT) promised in Deuteronomy 18:18 — a prophet 'from among their brothers' — and listen to their answer before offering yours.
- Talk about law as mercy. Someone who keeps Shabbat and kashrut already understands why a Muslim prays five times and avoids pork; that shared instinct opens more than argument does.
- Be honest that Muslims revere Moses (PBUH) and the Torah. Many Jews have never heard that from a Muslim.
Avoid
- Do not confuse Judaism with the politics of Israel, and do not open with politics. Many observant Jews hold views you would not predict.
- Do not quote the Talmud from polemical websites. Out-of-context Talmud quotations are a well-known genre and using them will end the conversation.
- Avoid the word 'Yahweh' when speaking to an observant Jew; the name is deliberately not pronounced.
Sources
- Pew Research Center, The Global Religious Landscape and subsequent projections
- Tanakh: Deuteronomy 6:4, Deuteronomy 18:18
- Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, and the thirteen principles of faith
- Qur'an 2:40–47; 5:44; 5:5; 4:157
This overview describes the tradition as its own followers describe it. The Islamic view is kept in its own section above so the description stays honest.
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