Religion arises out of the human need for protection by a superior being. For a very long time, all religions were polytheistic, i.e., worshipping many gods. Judaism was the first monotheistic religion (believing in a single God) to be created, followed by Christianity and Islam. Judaism is the religion and way of life of the Jewish people. Its foundation lies in the collective memory of the reception of the Torah (the Law, Instruction) on Sinai, a memory that has been handed down through the ages, every generation thus perceiving this event as its personal experience. The Torah (in the Pentateuch of Moses) includes 613 commandments, which determine in detail the Jewish manner of life according to faith. Through the centuries, the Jewish people have been scattered all over the world, and differences have arisen in the customs of the individual Jewish communities and their synagogues. Yet the basic rules of Judaism remain the same, even if the manner in which the laws are obeyed differs in the different communities. The main divisions’ Jewish religious communities and their synagogues are Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform.
The Jewish faith is profoundly connected to the community and less to the individual. Common to Jews throughout the world is Judaism as faith, Hebrew as the language of prayer and liturgy, Shabbat as the day of rest, and a calendar according to which the annual cycle of Jewish feasts is held.
