Bible Question:
I was wondering if anyone had any idea what the Israeli's believe. Does anyone know that their "statement of faith" might be? I appreciate any and all comments. |
Bible Answer: The closest that anyone has ever come to creating a widely-accepted list of Jewish beliefs is Rambam's thirteen principles of faith. Rambam's thirteen principles of faith, which he thought were the minimum requirements of Jewish belief, are: G-d exists G-d is one and unique G-d is incorporeal G-d is eternal Prayer is to be directed to G-d alone and to no other The words of the prophets are true Moses's prophecies are true, and Moses was the greatest of the prophets The Written Torah (first 5 books of the Bible) and Oral Torah (teachings now contained in the Talmud and other writings) were given to Moses There will be no other Torah G-d knows the thoughts and deeds of men G-d will reward the good and punish the wicked The Messiah will come The dead will be resurrected As you can see, these are very basic and general principles. Yet as basic as these principles are, the necessity of believing each one of these has been disputed at one time or another, and the liberal movements of Judaism dispute many of these principles. Unlike many other religions, Judaism does not focus much on abstract cosmological concepts. Although Jews have certainly considered the nature of G-d, man, the universe, life and the afterlife at great length (see Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism), there is no mandated, official, definitive belief on these subjects, outside of the very general concepts discussed above. There is substantial room for personal opinion on all of these matters, because as I said before, Judaism is more concerned about actions than beliefs. Part 1 |