Religious beliefs, values and teachings

What you'll learn

• How ethical monotheism is the foundation of Jewish belief, worship and moral life.
• Why Torah, Talmud, covenant and chosenness shape Jewish identity and practice.
• How different Jewish traditions understand the soul, afterlife, judgement and purpose.
• How Jewish values such as love, justice, holiness and loving-kindness come from revelation and apply universally.

This map shows how the main ideas in this topic connect: belief in one God leads into revelation, covenant, obligations, values, community identity and purpose.

1. Ethical monotheism

In Judaism, God is the Creator of all things and the Sustainer of all creation. “Sustainer” means that God does not merely start the universe and leave it alone; existence continues to depend on God. God is also transcendent, meaning beyond the physical world, and immanent, meaning involved with the world and with human history.

The core statement of Jewish monotheism is the Shema: “Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). This teaches the oneness of God. God has no equal, no rival and no physical form.

This is why Judaism strongly rejects idolatry, which means worshipping created things as if they were divine. God alone is worthy of worship. Jewish prayer, festivals and commandments are therefore directed towards the one God, not towards saints, images or lesser divine beings.

God also rewards and punishes. This does not mean every good or bad event is easy to explain. The Hebrew Bible includes texts such as Job, which challenge simplistic views of suffering. However, Judaism generally holds that human actions matter morally and that God is just.

Obligations to God and to other people

Jewish law and ethics often distinguish between two kinds of obligation:

• Bein adam la-Makom: duties “between a person and God”, such as prayer, Shabbat observance and dietary laws.
• Bein adam le-chavero: duties “between a person and another person”, such as honesty, charity, justice and avoiding harmful speech.

Dan Cohn-Sherbok is useful for explaining ethical monotheism as the basis of Jewish belief: Judaism is centred on the one God who creates, commands and enters covenant with Israel. George Robinson is useful for showing that Judaism is often less about abstract creed and more about lived practice: the one God is known through Torah, mitzvot and communal life.

Different Jewish traditions

Different Jewish traditions interpret these beliefs with different emphases:

2. God reveals himself in Torah and Talmud

The Torah can mean the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, but more broadly it means “teaching” or divine instruction. The Talmud is the vast collection of rabbinic discussion made up of the Mishnah and Gemara. It explains, debates and applies Torah to life.

In Orthodox Judaism, the Written Torah and Oral Torah are closely linked with revelation at Sinai. Other traditions may see the Talmud more as inspired human interpretation. Either way, Torah and Talmud are central to Jewish identity because they shape worship, law, family life, festivals, business ethics, food, mourning and community discipline.

Chosen people and covenant

Jews are often described as the chosen people. This should not be understood as simple superiority. It means Israel has a particular vocation: to live according to God’s will and witness to ethical monotheism.

Key covenants include:

Moses has a unique status as the great prophet and lawgiver. The Ten Commandments, or Aseret ha-Dibrot (“Ten Utterances”), are foundational covenant teachings, but they are not the whole of Jewish law.

A. Cohen, especially through his work on the Talmud, is useful for showing how rabbinic Judaism sees the Oral Law as essential to understanding and applying revelation. Robinson helps you explain how Torah and Talmud preserve Jewish identity by turning revelation into daily practice.

3. Life, death and purpose

The nature of the soul

Judaism often treats human beings as embodied persons rather than souls trapped in bodies. Life in this world matters deeply. However, many Jewish traditions also teach that the soul survives death and that God’s justice extends beyond earthly life.

Life after death

Jewish teaching on the afterlife is diverse and less systematised than in some other religions. Important ideas include:

• Resurrection: God raises the dead. Orthodox liturgy strongly affirms this, especially in the Amidah prayer.
• Spiritual survival: the soul continues after bodily death.
• Judgement: God evaluates human life and moral responsibility.
• Olam Ha-Ba: the “World to Come”, often associated with future blessedness.
• Gan Eden: paradise or heavenly reward.
• She’ol: in earlier biblical thought, a shadowy realm of the dead rather than a developed “hell”.
• Gehenna: a place or process of punishment or purification; often not seen as eternal for most people.

E. Kaplan-Spitz and B. L. Weiss are useful for explaining the range of Jewish afterlife beliefs, including the survival of the soul, resurrection and the comfort these beliefs can give. Y. Buxbaum is especially useful for the purpose of life in Jewish spirituality: ordinary actions, prayer and mitzvot can become ways of drawing close to God.

Meaning and purpose of life

Jewish thought usually places strongest emphasis on this life. The purpose of life is to serve God, study Torah, perform mitzvot, build family and community, pursue justice and practise holiness. The afterlife matters, but it is not normally the main motivation for ethical living.

4. Values: Torah, community and universal ethics

Jewish values are rooted in revelation. The Torah does not deal only with “religious” rituals; it covers every aspect of life, including food, money, sexuality, work, rest, courts, family, charity and speech.

A key text here is Pirkei Avot, usually translated Ethics of the Fathers. It is a tractate of the Mishnah, found in the order Nezikin, which deals broadly with damages, courts and civil responsibility. This context matters: Jewish ethics is not detached from law and social order.

Pirkei Avot teaches that the world stands on Torah, worship and acts of loving-kindness. This makes kindness foundational, not optional.

Jewish distinctiveness and universal values

Judaism holds together two ideas:

• Jews have a distinctive covenant identity as the people of the Almighty.
• God’s moral concern extends to all humanity.

The Noahide Code expresses universal values. It is traditionally summarised as seven laws for all humanity: prohibitions of idolatry, blasphemy, murder, theft, sexual immorality and eating flesh from a living animal, plus the requirement to establish courts of justice.

M. Kellner is especially useful here. He argues against the idea that Jews are naturally or metaphysically superior to non-Jews. On his reading, Jewish distinctiveness is a covenantal mission, while moral truth is universal.

Love, justice and holiness

The qualities of God are reflected in Jewish values:

• Love: God’s covenant love calls Jews to love neighbour and stranger.
• Justice: God’s justice requires fair courts, honest business and concern for the vulnerable.
• Holiness: God’s holiness calls Israel to sanctify life: “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2).

God is therefore the source of moral values. But Jewish tradition also insists that moral values must be lived out socially, not merely admired privately.

Robinson helps you show how values are embedded in everyday Jewish practice. Kellner helps you evaluate whether Jewish distinctiveness conflicts with universal ethics; his answer is that it should not, because election means responsibility rather than superiority.

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