Marriage

Author(s): Natubhai Shah
Publisher: UK Jain Academy

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JEWISH BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS >
Origin
Judaism was founded by Moses, although Jews trace their history back to Abraham. It originated in the Middle East over 3500 years ago. Jewish population is about 13 million in the world, most residing in the USA and Israel and 267,000 in the UK. It has four main sects: Conservative Judaism; Orthodox Judaism; Liberal Judaism; Reform Judaism; and others such as Humanistic Judaism; Modern Orthodoxy; Reconstructionist Judaism.
Beliefs
Judaism is a monotheistic religion that believes in a single God who not only created the universe, but with whom every Jew can have an individual and personal relationship. The Jewish relationship with God is a covenant relationship. In exchange for the many good deeds that God has done and continues to do for the Jewish People, the Jews keep God's laws and bring holiness into every aspect of their lives. Judaism teaches its followers to live an active social life of righteousness, love and kindness for the welfare of society and God's creations. Judaism does not teach asceticism. The basic ethical virtues consist of justice, mercy, righteousness, humility, and holiness.
God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses for the guidance of the children of Israel. They are: "You shall have no other gods except me; You shall not make any graven image; You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; Remember the holiness of the Sabbath day, the seventh day of the week; Honour your father and your mother; You shall not commit murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear a false witness against others; You shall not envy those things, which belong to others".
Judaism believes in the immortality of the soul, and life after death in heaven or hell, in accordance with earthly deeds. Some traditional Jews believe that one day a Messiah will appear on earth to redeem the Jews to make the world full of righteousness and goodness, and release Israel from all its sufferings.
Sacred Texts
The Judaism accepts the Hebrew Bible as one of their sacred text and has developed the Jewish scriptures known as the Tanakh that has three constituents: the teaching (Torah), the prophet (Nevi'im) and the writings (Ketuvim). The Torah consists of the five books of Moses (Genesis,
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