“Windows To Spirituality”
Neolog Judaism This article covers Neolog Judaism. Neologs (neológ irányzat, “Neolog Faction”) are one of the two large communal organizations among Hungarian Jewry. Socially, the liberal and modernist Neologs had been more inclined toward integration into Hungarian society since the Era of Emancipation in the 19th century. This was their...
Humanistic Judaism Humanistic Judaism (יהדות הומניסטית Yahadut Humanistit) is a Jewish movement that offers a nontheistic alternative in contemporary Jewish life. It defines Judaism as the cultural and historical experience of the Jewish people. It encourages humanistic and secular Jews to celebrate their Jewish identity by participating in Jewish holidays and...
Christian Denomination A Christian denomination is a distinct religious body within Christianity, identified by traits such as a name, organization, leadership and doctrine. The Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, and Oriental Orthodox Churches, meaning the large majority, all self-describe as churches, whereas many Protestant denominations self-describe as congregations or fellowships....
Covenant Theology Covenant theology (also known as covenantalism, federal theology, or federalism) is a conceptual overview and interpretive framework for understanding the overall structure of the Bible. It uses the theological concept of a covenant as an organizing principle for Christian theology. The standard form of covenant theology views the history of God’s...
Islamic Schools And Branches This article summarizes the different Islamic Schools And Branches. The best known split, into Sunni Islam, Shia Islam, and Kharijites, was mainly political at first but eventually acquired theological and jurisprudential dimensions. There are three traditional types of schools in Islam: schools of jurisprudence, Sufi orders and schools of theology. The...
Hasidic Judaism Hasidic Judaism or Hasidism (חסידות, hasidut, originally, “piety”), is a Jewish religious group. It arose as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine during the 18th century, and spread rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most affiliates reside in Israel and the United States. Israel Ben Eliezer, the...
Shabbat Shabbat (שַׁבָּת, “rest” or “cessation”), Shabbos, Ashkenazi Hebrew and Yiddish: שבת), or the Sabbath, is Judaism’s day of rest and seventh day of the week. On this day, religious Jews, Samaritans and certain Christians (such as Seventh-day Adventists, the Church of God (Seventh-Day) and Seventh Day Baptists) remember the biblical creation of the heavens and...
Kashrut Kashrut (also kashruth or kashrus, כַּשְׁרוּת) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jews are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher (כּשר), from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew term kashér (כָּשֵׁר), meaning “fit” (in this context: “fit for...
Orthodox Judaism Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai and faithfully transmitted ever since. Orthodox Judaism, therefore, advocates a strict observance of Jewish Law,...
Shituf Shituf (שִׁתּוּף; also transliterated as shittuf or schituf; literally “association”) is a term used in Jewish sources for the worship of God in a manner which Judaism does not deem to be purely monotheistic. The term connotes a theology that is not outright polytheistic, but also should not be seen as purely monotheistic. The term is primarily used in reference to the...
Oral Torah According to Rabbinic Judaism, the Oral Torah or Oral Law (תורה שבעל פה, Torah she-be-`al peh, lit. “Torah that is on the mouth”) represents those laws, statutes, and legal interpretations that were not recorded in the Five Books of Moses, the “Written Torah” (תורה שבכתב, Torah she-bi-khtav, lit. “Torah that is in writing”), but...
Christianity And Judaism This article covers the relationship between Christianity and Judaism. Christianity is rooted in Second Temple Judaism, but the two religions diverged in the first centuries of the Christian Era. Christianity emphasizes correct belief (or orthodoxy), focusing on the New Covenant as mediated through Jesus Christ, as recorded in the...
Conservative Halakha Conservative Judaism views halakha (Jewish law) as normative and binding. The Conservative movement applies Jewish law to the full range of Jewish belief and practice, including thrice-daily prayer, Shabbat and holidays, marital relations and family purity, conversion, dietary laws (kashrut), and Jewish medical ethics. Institutionally, the Conservative movement rules on Jewish law both through centralized...
Interfaith Marriage In Judaism Interfaith marriage in Judaism (also called mixed marriage or intermarriage) was historically looked upon with very strong disfavour by Jewish leaders, and it remains a controversial issue among them today. In the Talmud and all of resulting Jewish law until the advent of new Jewish movements following the Jewish Enlightenment,...
Conservative Judaism Conservative Judaism (known as Masorti Judaism outside North America) is a major Jewish denomination which regards the authority of Jewish law and tradition as emanating primarily from the assent of the people and the community through the generations, more than from divine revelation. It therefore views Jewish law, or Halakha, as both binding and subject to...
Reconstructionist Judaism Reconstructionist Judaism (יהדות רקונסטרוקציוניסטית, yahadút rekonstruktsyonistit or יהדות מתחדשת yahadút mitkhadéshet) is a modern Jewish movement that views Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization and is based on the conceptions developed by Mordecai Kaplan (1881–1983). The movement originated as a semi-organized stream within Conservative Judaism and developed from the late 1920s to...
Reform Judaism Reform Judaism (also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism) is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of the faith, the superiority of its ethical aspects to the ceremonial ones, and a belief in a continuous revelation, closely intertwined with human reason and intellect, and not centered on the...
What Is Zionism? Zionism (צִיּוֹנוּת Tsiyyonut after Zion) is the nationalist movement of the Jewish people that espouses the re-establishment of and support for a Jewish state in the territory defined as the historic Land of Israel (roughly corresponding to Canaan, the Holy Land, or the region of Palestine). Modern Zionism emerged in the late 19th century in Central and Eastern Europe as a national...
Haredim And Zionism The relationship between Haredim and Zionism became more complex after the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. From the start of political Zionism in the 1890s, Haredi leaders voiced objections to its secular orientation, and before the establishment of the State of Israel, the vast majority of Haredi...
Jewish Science Jewish Science is a Judaic spiritual movement comparable with the New Thought Movement. Many of its members also attend services at conventional synagogues. It is an interpretation of Jewish philosophy that was originally conceived by Rabbi Alfred G. Moses in the early 1900s in response to the growing...
