Judaism

The first enduring monotheism — a covenant between one God and a people, lived through law.

c. 1200 BCE → (Second Temple c. 500 BCE) · Levant & diaspora · Abrahamic

Judaism centers on the covenant between the one God and the people of Israel, revealed in the Torah and lived through commandment (mitzvot), study, and the rhythm of Sabbath and festival. Emerging from the Canaanite and wider Near Eastern world, its faith crystallized in the Second Temple period — when scholars note Zoroastrian-influenced ideas of angels, judgment, and resurrection entered Jewish thought. It is the root from which Christianity and Islam grew.

Key figures

• Abraham, Moses
• The prophets
• Rabbinic sages

Texts

• Torah & Tanakh
• Talmud

Beliefs

• One God who made a covenant with a people
• Life ordered by divine law (mitzvot)
• Ethical monotheism and awaited redemption

Rituals

• Shabbat and the festival cycle
• Prayer and Torah study
• Kashrut (dietary law) and circumcision

Grew from

• Canaanite Religion
• Mesopotamian Religion
• Zoroastrianism

Connections in the atlas

• The Aleppo Codex
• The plagues of Egypt and the parting of the sea
• The Sephardic dispersal
• Deborah
• Uman and the grave of Rebbe Nachman
• The word alleluia
• ? Who hid the Dead Sea Scrolls?
• Lilith
• Parallel texts: The tower that reached for heaven
• Tau cross
• Prague Old Town and Josefov
• A tower to heaven