Judaism

What Judaism covers

One of the six Paper 4 options. Ethical monotheism and covenant, revelation in Torah and Talmud, the development of rabbinic Judaism and its modern movements, Zionism and the Holocaust, and questions of pluralism, gender and identity.

The 14 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Ethical MonotheismRecall questions on ethical monotheism, God as creator and sustainer, God's Oneness and the ban on likenesses, reward and punishment, duties to God and to others, Yom Kippur, and Cohn-Sherbok and Robinson on Jewish belief about God.Open →
• Revelation in the Torah and the TalmudRecall questions on chosenness, the Written and Oral Torah, the Talmud, revelation and Jewish identity, Moses and the Ten Commandments, the covenants, Cohen on rabbinic teaching, and Orthodox, Conservative and Reform views of Sinai.Open →
• The Soul, Life After Death and the Purpose of LifeRecall questions on nefesh, ruach and neshamah, Kaplan-Spitz and Weiss on the soul and survival, She'ol and Gehenna, resurrection of the dead, Reform teaching on the afterlife, and Buxbaum on the purpose of life.Open →
• Jewish ValuesRecall questions on the Torah and Jewish values, the Ethics of the Fathers, gemiluth chasadim and tzedakah, the Noahide Code, God's qualities and holiness as values, God as the source of morality, and Kellner on Jewish ethics.Open →
• Tenakh: Torah, Nevi'im and KetuvimRecall questions on Torah, Nevi'im and Ketuvim and their authority, the Tenakh's presentation of God's self-disclosure, its use in worship and study, differing readings, and Cohn-Sherbok and Robinson on these books.Open →
• The Development of Rabbinic JudaismRecall questions on Rashi and his commentary on Torah and Talmud, the tosafists, Judah Halevi on Israel, philosophy, prophecy and the Songs of Zion, and Potok and Halkin on Rashi and Halevi.Open →
• Orthodox JudaismRecall questions on what Orthodox covers, the origin of the Torah and halakhic authority, the range of Orthodox communities, Samson Raphael Hirsch, literal readings, B Brown on Orthodoxy, synagogue practice and daily observance, and Robinson.Open →
• Reform JudaismRecall questions on Reform views of revelation, changes to the synagogue service, observance and gender, the Haskalah, Reform in Germany, America and Israel, and Meyer and D E Kaplan on the movement.Open →
• Diaspora, Secularisation and ScienceRecall questions on the destruction of the Temple, the diaspora and migration, key modern figures, Gafni on the diaspora, secularisation and Kogel's position, Jewish liberationist thinking, and Cantor and Swetlitz on Jewish responses to Darwin.Open →
• ZionismRecall questions on the aims and origins of Zionism, the Haskalah, Herzl, religious, cultural and labour Zionism, the State of Israel after 1948, the covenant and the land, Jewish rejections and critiques, and Gorny and Neusner.Open →
• The Holocaust and Jewish TheologyRecall questions on the theological problem it poses, the responses of Rubenstein, Fackenheim and Wiesel, and the covenant after Auschwitz.Open →
• Maimonides and Moses MendelssohnRecall questions on Maimonides, the Mishneh Torah, the Thirteen Principles and the Guide for the Perplexed, Mendelssohn's translation, immortality and the Haskalah, Hatam Sofer's objection, and Cohn-Sherbok, Robinson and Goodman.Open →
• Religious Pluralism and Jewish IdentityRecall questions on migration and Jewish-Christian dialogue, the Messiah and Jesus, observance in a secular society, exclusivism, inclusivism and Hick's pluralism, Persoff on Anglo-Jewry, and how Jewish identity is defined.Open →
• Gender, Equality and Jewish FeminismRecall questions on same-sex relationships and sexual norms, men's and women's religious duties, women in the home and in education, Kaplan and D D Moore, women's leadership, Regina Jonas and Julia Neuberger, Koltun, Jewish feminism and the agunah problem.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Judaism further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Torah vs Talmud

  Torah: the five books of Moses and the teaching they carry. Talmud: the record of rabbinic discussion elaborating that teaching.

• Mishnah vs Gemara

  Mishnah: the codified oral law compiled around 200 CE. Gemara: the later commentary on it that completes the Talmud.

• Orthodox Judaism vs Reform Judaism

  Orthodox Judaism: the movement holding the law divinely given and binding as traditionally understood. Reform Judaism: the movement treating the law as guidance open to revision.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What does ethical monotheism claim, over and above there being only one God?

   Model answer

   That the single God who made everything is also the source of moral obligation, so belief and conduct cannot be pulled apart. For Jews, worshipping God and dealing justly with other people are two sides of one commitment, and a Judaism of ritual without righteousness would be self-contradictory.

2. 2

   How do Jews describe God's relationship to the world as creator and sustainer?

   Model answer

   God is held to have brought everything into being from nothing, and to hold it in being continuously. Creation is not treated as a finished event God has walked away from: the daily morning liturgy speaks of God renewing the work of creation every day.

3. 3

   Explain what Jews mean when they speak of God's Oneness.

   Model answer

   Not simply that there is one God rather than several, but that God is wholly unified and indivisible, with no parts, no rivals and nothing alongside him. The Shema, said morning and evening, is the classic declaration of it, and tradition places it on the lips of a dying Jew.

4. 4

   Why do Jews refuse any physical likeness of God?

   Model answer

   Because God is held to have no body, no shape and no location, so any image would misrepresent rather than represent him. This is the reasoning behind the ban on graven images, and Maimonides made the denial of divine corporeality one of his fundamental principles. Where the Tenakh speaks of God's arm or God's anger, most Jewish thinkers treat the language as a concession to human understanding rather than a description.

5. 5

   What follows practically from the belief that God alone may be worshipped?

   Model answer

   Worship directed anywhere else, whether to images, to other gods or to a human being, counts as idolatry, which Jewish teaching treats as the gravest category of wrongdoing. It also shapes prayer: Jews address God directly, without going through any intermediary figure.

6. 6

   How does Jewish teaching handle reward and punishment?

   Model answer

   God is understood as a just judge who holds people to account, and the High Holy Days frame the year as a season of judgment and repentance. Beyond that, views differ: some Jews locate reward and punishment in this life, some in the world to come, and many frankly acknowledge that visible fortune does not track desert.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Judaism revision questions

What does Judaism cover in Edexcel A-Level Religious Studies?

14 subtopics: ethical monotheism, revelation in the torah and the talmud, the soul, life after death and the purpose of life, jewish values, tenakh: torah, nevi'im and ketuvim, the development of rabbinic judaism, orthodox judaism, reform judaism, diaspora, secularisation and science, zionism, the holocaust and jewish theology, maimonides and moses mendelssohn, religious pluralism and jewish identity and gender, equality and jewish feminism. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Judaism organised?

By the Edexcel 9RS0 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.