Jewish Monolithiic Religion Essay

Judaism is the first monolithic religion to be introduced to the world and today has the smallest number of followers (Stanford,2010). The most important prophet in Judaism is Moses (Stanford,2010). Moses received the word of God while on Mount Sanai and produced the ten commandments (Stanford,2010). Just like many religion, Judaism has multiple sects with varying degrees of strictness. Reformed Jews have woven the modern customs of present day with the teachings and traditions of Judaism (Cassell,Salinas & Winn, 2005). Orthodox Jews have a strict adherence to the teachings and traditions of Judaism (Cassell,Salinas & Winn, 2005). Conservative Judaism falls somewhere between the two (Cassell,Salinas & Winn, 2005). Like the three other Monolithic

The Jewish bible also know as the Hebrew Bible, the Five books of Moses, and to Christians as The Old Testament (The Written Law-Torah). The books with in the Jewish bible are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers and Deuteronomy (The Written Law-Torah). Throughout the Jewish Bible there are written laws every Jew should follow, known as the Torha, and was written around 200 C.E(Stanford,2010). The Siddur is a prayer book (Tabory,1997). There are multiple kinds of Siddurs that range form prayers for a specific occasions to prayers that are more like an anthology of Jewish history (Tabory,1997). The Talmud is an oral explanation of the written laws of the Torah. For example, without the Talmud the Jewish law of an eye for an eye could be taken literally and not figuratively (The Oral Law- Talmud & Mishna). The Talmud was written down in 600 C.E

Once someone has died, a person must be with the body at all times until the deceased is buried, also called as a Shomer. The Shomer will also recite psalms over the body (Cassell,Salinas & Winn, 2005). The acts performed by the Shomer are called Shemirah (Kerrigan,2007). The body is washed in a ritual referred to as Taharah. The group who preforms the Taharah is the Chevra Kadisha, which consist of local members of the community (Kerrigan,2007). It is important to note that the Chevra Kadisha is an honorable group to belong to in a Jewish community (Kerrigan,2007). Once the body is washed it will be wrapped in shrouds or white linen known as Tachrichim (Kerrigan,2007). If the deceased is a male then he is also wrapped in his prayer shawl (Kerrigan,2007). The reasoning behind the act of wrapping a body in shrouds or a tachrichim is all people regardless of status in life are equal in death (Cassell,Salinas & Winn, 2005).Once the dead is wrapped then pottery is placed on their eyes and mouth (Kerrigan,2007). This is done to symbolize the destruction of the temple of Jurselm