13 principles of faith

There is no established formulation of principles of faith that are recognized by all branches of Judaism. Central authority in Judaism is not vested in any one person or group - although the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish religious court, would fulfill this role if it were re-established - but rather in Judaism's sacred
writings, laws, and traditions.

Judaism affirms the existence and uniqueness of God, and stresses performance of deeds or commandments alongside adherence to a strict belief system. In contrast to traditions such as Christianity which demand a more explicit identification of God, faith in Judaism requires one to honour God through a constant struggle with God's instructions (Torah) and the practice of their mitzvot.

Orthodox Judaism stresses a number of core principles in its educational programs, most importantly a belief that there is one single, omniscient, transcendent, non-compound God, who created the universe, and continues to be concerned with its governance. Traditional Judaism maintains that God established a covenant with the Jewish people at Mount Sinai, and revealed his laws and 613 commandments to them in the form of the Written and Oral Torah. In Rabbinic Judaism, the Torah consists of both the written Torah (Pentateuch) and a tradition of oral law, much of it later codified in sacred writings (see: Mishna, Talmud).

Traditionally, the practice of Judaism has been devoted to the study of Torah and observance of its laws and commandments. In normative Judaism, the Torah, and hence Jewish law itself, is unchanging, but interpretation of the law is more open. It is considered a mitzvah (commandment) to study and understand the law.

The proper counterpart for the general English term "faith" - as occurring in the expression "principles of faith" - would be the concept of ''Emunah'' in Judaism. While it is generally translated as ''faith'' or ''trust'' in God, the concept of Emunah can more accurately be described as "an innate conviction, a perception of truth that transcends (...) reason". Emunah can be enhanced through wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and learning of sacred Jewish writings. But Emunah is not simply based on reason, nor can it be understood as the opposite of, or standing in contrast to, reason.

There are a number of basic principles that were formulated by medieval rabbinic authorities. These are put forth as fundamental underpinnings inherent in the "acceptance and practice of Judaism".

Conception of God

Monotheism

Judaism is based on a strict monotheism, and a belief in one single, indivisible, non-compound God. The ''Shema Yisrael'', one of the most important Jewish prayers, encapsulates the monotheistic nature of Judaism: Louis Jacobs, "Chapter 2: The Unity of God" in ''A Jewish Theology'' (1973). Behrman House. "Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God; the Lord is one."

"Judaism emphatically rejects any concept of plurality with respect to God", explicitly rejecting polytheism, dualism, and trinitarianism, which are "incompatible with monotheism as Judaism understands it". The unity of God is stated many times in Jewish tradition. It is the second of Maimonides's 13 principles of faith; Maimonides wrote that, "This God is One, not two or more than two, but One whose unity is different from all other unities that there are. He is not one as a genus, which contains many species, is one. Nor is He one as a body, containing parts and dimensions, is one. But His is a unity that which there is no other anywhere" (''Yad'', ''Yesode Ha-Torah'' 1:7).

In Jewish tradition, dualistic and trinitarian conceptions of God are generally referred to as Shituf ("partnership"), meaning an incorrect, but not an idolatrous, view.

God is the creator of the universe

Most Jews believe that God is creator of the universe. Different sects of Jews view this in different ways. For example, some ultra-Orthodox groups reject the concept of evolution and believe the earth to be only
few thousands years old
Other groups of Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews do not believe in a literal interpretation of the Genesis creation narrative, and according to that view, Judaism is not in contradiction to the scientific model that states that the age of the universe is around 13.77 billion years old. Norbert M. Samuelson writes the "question of dating the universe has never been a problem of Jewish philosophy, ultimately because that philosophy has never taken the literal meaning of the Bible to be its revealed, true meaning".

While the general Jewish attitude has been that God created the world ''ex nihilo'', Rabbi Marc D. Angel writes that historically, "there has been a general reluctance in Jewish tradition to speculate on the metaphysical aspects of creation":

Moses Maimonides wrote that "by virtue of the existence of the Creator, everything exists" and argues in his 12th-century ''Guide for the Perplexed'' (2:13) that "time itself is part of creation" and that therefore, "when God is described as existing before the creation of the universe, the notion of time should not be understood in its normal sense". The 15th-century Jewish philosopher Joseph Albo argued similarly in his '' Ikkarim'' that there are two types of time: "Measured time which depends on motion, and time in the abstract", the second of which has no origin and is "the infinite space of time before the universe was created". Albo argued that "although it is difficult to conceive of God existing in such a duration, it is likewise difficult to imagine God outside space". Other Jewish writers have come to different conclusions, such as 13th-century scholar Bahya ben Asher, 16th-century scholar Moses Almosnino, and the 18th-century Hasidic teacher Nahman of Bratslav, who expressed a view - similar to that expressed by the Christian Neo-Platonic writer Boethius - that God "lives in the eternal present" and transcends or is above all time.

Nature of God

The Jewish view is that God is eternal, with "neither beginning nor end", a principle stated in a number of Biblical passages. The rabbis taught a "quite literally ... down-to-earth" view of the eternalness of God: That "God is eternal, but it is not given to man to explore the full meaning of this idea", and so, "one cannot, therefore, expect to find in the rabbinic literature anything like a detailed examination of what is meant by divine eternity". A famous Mishnah statement on attempts to "pierce the veil" is this: "Whoever reflects on four things it were better for him that he had not come into the world: "what is above? what is beneath? what is before? and what is after?"

The traditional Jewish view is that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent.Clark M. Williamson, ''A Guest in the House of Israel: Post-Holocaust Church Theology'' (1993). Westminster John Knox Press: pp. 210-215.Louis Jacobs, "Chapter 5: Omnipotence and Omniscience" in ''A Jewish Theology'' (1973). Behrman House: p. 76-77.

Various Jewish thinkers, however, have proposed a "finite God", sometimes in response to the problem of evil and ideas about free will. Louis Jacobs writes that modern Jewish thinkers such as Levi Olan, echoing some classical Jewish writers such as the 14th-century Talmudist Gersonides have "thought of God as limited by His own nature so that while He is infinite in some respects he is finite in others", referencing the idea, present in classical sources, that "there is a primal formless material co-existent with God from all eternity upon which God has to work, and that God only knows the future in a general sense, but not how individual men will exercise their choice". On the topic of omniscience and free will, Jacobs writes that in the medieval period, three views were put forth: Maimonides, who wrote that God had foreknowledge and man is free; Gersonides, who wrote that man is free and consequently God does not have complete knowledge, and Hasdai Crescas, who wrote in ''Or Adonai'' that God has complete foreknowledge and consequently man is not really free.

Several Jewish writers have dealt with the issue of theodicy: whether and how God is all-powerful and all-good, given the existence of evil in the world, particularly the Holocaust. Jon D. Levenson argues that omnipotence doctrine fails to "give due regard to "'the formidability and resilience of the forces counteracting creation" (such as the primordial state of chaos existing before creation) and "leads to a neglect of the role of humanity in forming and stating the world order. Hans Jonas proposed a "tentative myth" that "God 'chose' in the beginning to give God's self 'over to the chance and risk and endless variety of becoming, entering into the adventure of space in time". Jonas expressed the view that "God does not create the world by fiat (although God does create the world), but leads it by beckoning it into novel possibilities of becoming. Jonas, who was influenced by the Holocaust experience, believed that God is omnipresent, but not "in all respects non-temporal, impassible, immutable, and unqualified omnipotent".

Most of classical Judaism views God as a personal god. Rabbi Samuel S. Cohon wrote that, "God as conceived by Judaism is not only the First Cause, the Creative Power, and the World Reason, but also the living and loving Father of Men. He is not only cosmic, but also personal... Jewish monotheism thinks of God in terms of definite character or personality, while pantheism is content with a view of God as impersonal." This is shown in the Jewish liturgy, such as in the Adon Olam hymn, which includes a "confident affirmation" that "He is my God, my living God...Who hears and answers".Samuel S. Cohon. ''What We Jews Believe'' (1931). Union of American Hebrew Congregations. Edward Kessler writes that Hebrew Bible "portrays an encounter with a God who cares passionately and who addresses humanity in the quiet moments of its existence".Edward Kessler, ''What Do Jews Believe?: The Customs and Culture of Modern Judaism'' (2007). Bloomsbury Publishing: pp. 42-44. British chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks suggests that God "is not distant in time or detached, but passionately engaged and present". It is important to note that "the predicate 'personal' as applied to God" does not mean that God is corporeal or anthropomorphic, views which Judaism has always rejected; rather, "personality" refers not to physicality, but to "inner essence, psychical, rational, and moral". Although most Jews believe that "God can be experienced", it is understood that "God cannot be understood" because "God is utterly unlike humankind" (as shown in God's response to Moses when Moses asked for God's name: " I Am that I Am"); all anthropomorphic statements about God "are understood as linguistic metaphors; otherwise, it would be impossible to talk about God at all".

Although the dominant strain in Judaism is that God is personal, there is an "alternate stream of tradition exemplified by ... Maimonides", who, along with several other Jewish philosophers, rejected the idea of a personal God. This reflected his belief in negative theology: that God can only be described by what God is not. Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, who developed Reconstructionist Judaism and taught at the Conservative Jewish Theological Seminary of America, also rejected the idea of a personal God. Kaplan instead thought of God "as a force, like gravity, built into the very structure of the universe", believing that "since the universe is constructed to enable us to gain personal happiness and communal solidarity when we act morally, it follows that there is a moral force in the universe; this force is what the Constructionists mean by God", although some Reconstructionists do believe in a personal God. According to Joseph Telushkin and Morris N. Kertzer, Kaplan's "rationalist rejection of the traditional Jewish understanding of God exerted a powerful influence" on many Conservative and Reform rabbis, influencing many to stop believing in a personal God". According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life's 2008 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, Americans who identify as Jewish by religion are twice as likely to favor ideas of God as "an impersonal force" over the idea that "God is a person with whom people can have a relationship".

To God alone may one offer prayer

Judaism has often emphasized strict monotheism and "exclusivity of the divinity" and prayer directly to God; references to angels or other intermediaries are not typically seen in Jewish liturgy or in siddurs (prayerbooks). Maimonides' fifth principle of faith states that, "I believe with perfect faith that it is only proper to pray to God", and this is often seen as stating that, "One may not pray to anyone or anything else. This principle teaches that God is the only one whom we may serve and praise... It is therefore not proper to serve (angels, stars, or other elements) or make them intermediaries to bring us closer to God." Talmudic literature does show that some evidence that Jewish prayers invoking angels and other intermediaries existed in the 1st century CE, and several examples of post-Talmudic prayers exist, including a familiar '' piyyut'' (liturgical song) entitled "Usherers of Mercy", recited before and after Rosh Hashanah in Selichot (Jewish penitential prayers).

Revelation

Scripture

The Hebrew Bible

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