According to an essay written by Tracey Rich and published online at JewFAQ.org, Jews are a nation but not in the modern sense meaning a territorial and political entity. Jews are a nation in the ancient sense meaning a group of people with a common history. In common use, the word Jew is used to refer to all of the physical and spiritual descendants of Jacob, Abraham and Isaac. The word Judaism refers to the beliefs of Jews. Judaism as a religion is communally-oriented. Prayers are stated in the plural, and Jews are expected to pray in communal groups.
1. Relationship with God and the Torah. The Torah is the primary document of Judaism. Torah, which means "teaching", is God's revealed instructions to the Jewish People. It teaches Jews how to act, think and even feel about life and death. Jews usually belief that all of the following statements are true about their relationship with God:
Prayer must be directed to God alone and to no other
Moses was the greatest of the prophets
The Torah which are the first five books of the Old Testament (the first five books of the Bible) and the Oral Torah now documented in the Talmud and in other writings were given to Moses
God knows the thoughts and deeds of men
God will reward the good and punish the wicked
The true Messiah will come to save the world from sin
The dead will one day be resurrected (Rich, 2005).
2. Old Testament History: The Old Testament is another name for the Hebrew Scriptures. It is the first of the two main divisions of the Bible. The Old Testament contains books written in Hebrew on subjects including law, history, poetry, wisdom and prophecy. All of these books were written before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth who is the focus of the books of the New Testament. The Old Testament begins with the book of Genesis describing the creation of the world and ends with the book of Malachi.
3. Ten Commandments: According to Jewish trad...