JUDAISM

The term Jewish refers to religion or belief, tradition and culture of the Jewish people. It is the oldest of the three monotheistic religions spread (along with Christianity, and Islam), also known as "religions of the book" or "Abrahamic," and the least of which the number of faithful. Judaism is broken down, historically, the other two.

Although there is no single body that will systematize and fix the dogmatic content of Judaism, its practice is based on the teachings of the Torah, also called the Pentateuch, comprising, as its name suggests five books. The Torah or Pentateuch, in turn, is one of the three books that comprise the Tanakh (or Old Testament, according to Christianity), which is attributed to divine inspiration.

Founder Abraham
Maximum deity YHWH
Type monotheism, Abrahamic religion
Name and number of Jewish supporters, 13.2 million
Sacred text and the Talmud Torah
Liturgical Hebrew Language
Born in Mesopotamia, the Middle East
Holy Land Jerusalem, Israel, site of Solomon's Temple
Country with greatest number of Jews Israel
Corrientes Orthodox Judaism, Reform Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Reconstructionist Judaism, secular Judaism
Star of David Symbol
Temples Synagogues
Clergy Rabbis
Related religions Christianity and Islam

Also plays an important role in religious practice oral tradition, as beliefs was given to Moses with the Torah and kept from his time and the prophets. Oral tradition governing the interpretation of the biblical text, the encoding and commentary of this tradition has given rise to the Mishnah, the Talmud and a huge body exegetical developed until.

The main feature of the Jewish faith is belief in an omniscient, omnipotent and provident, that would have created the universe and the Jewish people chose to reveal the law contained in the Ten Commandments and the ritual prescriptions of the third and fourth books of Torah. Consequently, the rules resulting from these texts and oral tradition is the guide to Jewish life, but compliance with them varies widely across groups.