什么是犹太教

犹太人的宗教信仰与实践。犹太教是世界三大一神教之一，最初是古代希伯来人的信仰，其神圣文献是希伯来文《圣经》，特别是托拉。犹太教的信仰基础是：以色列人为上帝的选民，他们必须充当其他民族的明灯。上帝与亚伯拉罕立约，然後与以撒、雅各、摩西另立新约。从大卫王的时期开始，耶和华（上帝）的崇拜即集中於耶路撒冷。耶路撒冷圣殿被巴比伦人毁坏（西元前586年），後来犹太人流亡，导致人们期望在一位弥赛亚领导下重建国家。後来，波斯人允许犹太人返乡，但针对罗马统治的不成功叛变造成第二圣殿在西元70年被毁，而犹太人散布於世界各地的海外犹太人区。拉比犹太教崛起，取代了耶路撒冷的圣殿崇拜，同时犹太人藉着学术和严格遵守的手段而传承自己的文化与宗教。大部头的口传法律和评注被托付於塔木德与密西拿的文字。尽管在许多国家受到迫害，犹太教仍然保存下来。中世纪犹太教出现了二个分支：西班牙系犹太人以西班牙为中心，在文化上与巴比伦系犹太人相关；德系犹太人以法国和德国为中心，与巴勒斯坦和罗马的犹太文化相关。神秘主义的要素也出现了，特别是18世纪喀巴拉的神秘文字，该运动称为哈西德主义。18世纪也是犹太启蒙运动（哈斯卡拉运动）的时期。保守派犹太教和犹太教改革派出现於19世纪的德国，试图改变正统派犹太教的严苛。到19世纪末，犹太复国主义成为改革的产物。欧洲犹太教在大屠杀期间有了恐怖的历经，当时数百万人被纳粹党处死，而巴勒斯坦越来越汹涌的犹太移民潮导致1948年以色列国宣布成立。

Judaism

Religious beliefs and practices of the Jews. One of the three great monotheistic world religions, Judaism began as the faith of the ancient Hebrews, and its sacred text is the Hebrew Bible, particularly the Torah. Fundamental to Judaism is the belief that the people of Israel are God's chosen people, who must serve as a light for other nations. God made a covenant first with Abraham, then renewed it with Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. The worship of Yahweh (God) was centered in Jerusalem from the time of David. The destruction of the First Temple of Jerusalem by the Babylonians (586 BC) and the subsequent exile of the Jews led to hopes for national restoration under the leadership of a messiah. The Jews were later allowed to return by the Persians, but an unsuccessful rebellion against Roman rule led to the destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70 and the Jews' dispersal throughout the world in the Jewish Diaspora. Rabbinic Judaism emerged to replace the temple cult at Jerusalem, as the Jews carried on their culture and religion through a tradition of scholarship and strict observance. The great body of oral law and commentaries were committed to writing in the Talmud and Mishna. The religion was maintained despite severe persecutions in many nations. Two branches of Judaism emerged in the Middle Ages: the Sephardi, centered in Spain and culturally linked with the Babylonian Jews; and the Ashkenazi, centered in France and Germany and linked with the Jewish culture of Palestine and Rome. Elements of mysticism also appeared, notably the esoteric writings of the Kabbala and, in the 18th century, the movement known as Hasidism. The 18th century was also the time of the Jewish Enlightenment, or Haskala. Conservative and Reform Judaism emerged in 19th-century Germany as an effort to modify the strictness of Orthodox Judaism. By the end of the 19th century Zionism had appeared as an outgrowth of reform. European Judaism suffered terribly during the Holocaust, when millions were put to death by the Nazis, and the rising flow of Jewish emigrants to Palestine led to declaration of the State of Israel in 1948.