Judaism Response Paper

It is hard to define Judaism because people who define themselves as Jewish define Judaism differently. However, the different definitions of Judaism all have common features of basic religions and share the same fundamental religious beliefs; that there is one God who works in and through historical events and has chosen the Jews as an agent. They also follow the same “absolute law” provided by their God, the Ten Commandments, and myths in the Torah. Judaism can also be characterized as a religion by the many common features it shares with basic religions. These features include taboo, sacrifice, myths, rituals and rites of passage. Judaism also provides answers to the fundamental questions of human existence and the reoccurring misfortune in Jewish history.

Judaism is not necessarily an ethnicity because some who practice Judaism are not “ethnically Jewish,” and some who have Jewish parents do not practice Judaism. All those who practice Judaism identify themselves as Jewish, regardless of ethnicity, but those who don’t practice Judaism don’t necessarily identify themselves as Jewish. Because of this, it seems that Judaism is primarily a religion. Although there are arguments about it being an ethnicity, or culture, those ideas could have formed as a result of the stories of this religion and how the Jewish following developed.