Judaism Flashcards
12 descriptions of God
One - Judaism is a monotheistic religion. According to Jewish teachings, God does not have multiple parts. God is one.
Omnipotent - God is all-powerful.
Omnibenevolent - God is all-loving.
Omniscient - God is all-knowing.
Omnipresent - God is everywhere at all times.
Transcendent - God is not limited in ways that humans are, eg he is beyond the constraints of time and space.
Immanent - God is present in the world and sustains it.
Eternal - God has always and will always exist. He is without beginning and without end.
The creator - God made everything in the universe.
The lawgiver - God created humans to live in a certain way, and he gave them many spiritual and ethical rules or laws. There are 613 of these laws in the Torah
The judge - God will judge everyone and punish those who disobey his laws.
Merciful - God shows compassion
.
Shekhinah
Shekhinah (also Shekhina or Shechina) is the Hebrew word for ‘presence’, which in Jewish theology explains God’s presence on Earth.
The Shema
is a prayer from the Torah that is used in morning and evening services in synagogues as well as being said at home by Jews to express belief in one God
Yawm ad-Din
According to Jewish belief, the Day of Judgement, or Yawm ad-Din, will occur after the coming of the Messiah. Jews believe that God judges how good or bad people have been in order to decide their destiny in the afterlife. This is often seen as motivation to behave well and obey all of God’s rules.
Heaven and Hell
Sheol
Gehinnom
Many think of Heaven as Gan Eden (the Garden of Eden), which is a place of sunshine where people of all nations will sit and eat together when the peaceful
Messianic Age comes. Others believe that Gan Eden is not necessarily a physical place but instead is a state of consciousness, or a place where the soul feels close to God.
Sheol is a place of waiting where souls are cleansed and purified.
Gehinnom is a place to be punished and a place of torment.
Resurrection
Most Orthodox Jews believe that the physical body will be
resurrected in the Messianic Age, when the good will rise from the dead. For this reason, Orthodox Jews forbid many procedures that they consider to cause damage or destruction of the body after death, and will bury their dead rather than cremate them for this reason.
Qualities of the Messiah
According to the
Torah
, the Messiah will be:
a male descendant of the Jewish King David
human - he will have a human birth and human parents
a perfect teacher of God’s law
a great political leader - inspirational and a good judge
able to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem
ruler over humanity - but he will rule with kindness
the bringer of peace to the world
able to unite humanity
