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traditions carry the marks of these disruptions and historical interventions. This can be seen in the texts of their Scriptures where layers of re-interpretation and re-application are compounded and recorded, as hopes alternated with national
tragedies.
The Mosaic Religious System of Judaism:
Exile, Liberation and Covenant
The core system of Biblical Judaism first crystallized during the years of the Exodus of the Hebrew tribes from Egypt where they had been enslaved. The history and tales of the formative years of Judaism are said to have been recorded by Moses. Moses was the prophet who facilitated the Jewish liberation from Egypt, led the people through the desert to their promised land, and also presented the people with the words of the covenant from their God. In their original and most basic form, this covenant was a list of laws inscribed on tablets of stone, what we today know as the Ten Commandments. These are the essential moral principles that govern the conduct of personal and social religious life. These moral codes, basic to all religions teach worship of one God and prescribe various rules such as not killing, not stealing, not lying, and not coveting.
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