Judaism - Beliefs (Paper 2) Flashcards
What does God as One mean?
- God is the only being who should be worshipped
- God is the source of all Jewish morality, beliefs and values
- Everything in this universe has been created by God
What is the Shema?
- An important Jewish prayer
- “The Lord is our God, the Lord alone” which confirms the belief in only one God
Give some beliefs about creation.
- Orthodox believe that the events in Genisis literally happened
- Reformed Jews take it less literally but still believe God is the creator
- Jews also believe that God sustains the world providing all the resources for life to survive
What three things do Jews believe God to be?
Omnipotent : all-powerful
Omniscient : all-knowing
Omnipresent : everywhere at all times
What are Jewish beliefs on evil and free will?
- The existence of evil is a necessary consequence of free will
- Free will makes the act of doing good more significant and in order to excersise free will there must be good and evil
- Jews excersise free will to improve the balance of resources : giving to the less fortunate
How is God shown as lawgiver?
- God gave 613 laws in the Torah known as the mitzvot
- First 10 mitzvot are the Ten Commandments
What are the two main times Jews believe God judges them? (God as Judge)
- During the festival of Rosh Hashanah where God judges the actions of Jews over the past year.
- Judged after death to see how they will spend the afterlife.
What is Shekhinah? Give examples on where you would find this.
- The presence of God on earth.
- The tabernacle considered to house the divine presence of God.
- A pillar of a cloud or fire on the Jews journey to Canaan
How does free will and the Mitzvot interlink with each other?
Good actions lead to a life of fulfilment and the Mitzvot gives guidance to Jews on how to use their free will correctly and to live in a way that pleases God.
What two categories can the mitzvot be divided into?
- Mitzvot between man and god
- Mitzvot between man and man
Mitzvot between man and God
- Mitzvot which tell Jews how they can improve their relationship with God.
- Most important are the first four of the Ten commandments.
- Cover areas such as worship, sacrifice and observance of festivals
Mitzvot between man and man
- Mitzvot that tell Jews how to improve their relationship with people.
- Cover areas such as treatment of workers and how to settle disputes.
- They help Jews live as members of their faith and community in a way that pleases God.
What are Jewish beliefs on the afterlife?
- Jews are not too concerned with the afterlife which is shown as Jewish holy books do not contain much information
- However, many Jews believe if they follow their faith correctly they will go to heaven (Gan Eden)
- Some Jews believe that those who don’t enter heaven go to Sheol, a place of waiting
What is heaven like for a Jew?
No clear teaching ; it is not known if it’s a state of consciousness, or a physical, or spiritual place.
When does judgement happen?
- Some Jews believe they will be judged as soon as they die.(Supported by Ecclesiastes)
- Others believe they will be judged by God on the Day of Judgement.(Supported by Daniel)