When was jewish founded

British refuse illegal immigrant ship, the Patria , permission to dock in Palestine. The first train of prisoners arrives at Auschwitz-Birkenau. A 2-day strike begins in Amsterdam , in opposition to the anti-Jewish actions being taken by the Nazi occupiers. Palmach , strike force of Haganah , set up. Jewish commando David Raziel is killed by a German bomber while on a mission for the British in Iraq.

Rabbi Stephen S. Wise publicizes Riegner report confirming mass murder of European Jews. Biltmore Conference of American Zionists. Nazi leaders refine the " Final Solutio n" -- genocide of the Jewish people -- at Wannsee Conference. British deport illegal immigrants to Cyprus. Raphael Lemkin, an international lawyer who escaped from Poland to the U. The Rabbis also demanded the creation of a special federal agency tasked with the rescue of European Jewry.

Jewish Brigade formed as part of British forces. For most victims of Nazism, it comes too late. Russians arrive in the Lwow Ghetto, ridding the city of it's German occupiers, only to find the Jewish population liquidated.

International tribunal for war crimes is established at Nuremberg. President Truman asks Britain to allow , Jews into Palestine. Arab League Council decides to boycott goods produced by Zionist firms in Palestine. Member of Jewish underground destroyed a power station and a portion of the Central Jerusalem prison by explosives. Two persons were killed by the police.. Ten persons were injured and one was killed.

Captured papers indicated that the purpose of this raid was to take revenge on the British for their seizure of the refugee ship on January British military authorities in Jerusalem questioned 3, Jews and held in custody.. Jewish underground attacked a British military installation near Tel Aviv. This group which contained a number of young girls, had as its goal the capture of British weapons.

British authorities rounded up 1, suspects.. The Irgun radio "Fighting Zion" wams that three kidnapped British officers are held as hostages for two Irgun members, Josef Simkohn and Issac Ashbel facing execution as well as 31 Irgun members facing trial..

Thirty Irgun members are sentenced by a British military court to 15 years in prison. One, Benjamin Kaplan, was sentenced to life for carrying a firearm.. British military units and police raided Jewish settlements throughout Palestine searching for the leaders of Haganah.

The Jewish Agency for Palestine was occupied and four top official arrested. British officials announced the discovery of a large arms dump hidden underground at Meshek Yagur.

Four were killed and 80 were injured.. Palestine High Commissioner, Lt. Tel Aviv. British officers, Captains K Spencer, C. Warburton and A. Taylor who had been kidnapped by Irgun on June 18 and held as hostages for the lives of Simkohn and Ashbel, were released in Tel Aviv unharmed.

At this time, Irgun issued a declaration of war against the British claiming that they had no alternative but to fight.

The west wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem which housed British Military Headquarters and other governmental offices was destroyed at PM by explosives planted in the cellar by members of the Irgun terrorist gang. By the 26 of July, the casualties were 76 persons killed, 46 injured and 29 still missing in the rubble.

The dead included many British, Arabs and Jews. The British government released a White Paper that accuses the Haganah , Irgun and Stern gangs of "a planned movement of sabotage and violence" under the direction of the Jewish Agency and asserts that the June 29 arrest of Zionist leaders was the cause of the bombing.

The British Palestine Commander, Lt. General Sir Evelyn Barker, banned fraternization by British troops with Palestine Jews whom he stated "cannot be absolved of responsibility for terroristic acts. Tel Aviv is placed under a 22hour-a-day curfew as 20, British troops began a house-to-house sweep for members of the Jewish underground. The city is sealed off and troops are ordered to shoot to kill any curfew violators.

Also, two ships have arrived at Haifa with a total of 3, illegal Jewish immigrants. British military authorities ended the curfew in Tel Aviv after detaining persons for further questioning.. The British Government announced that it will allow no more unscheduled immigration into Palestine and that those seeking entry into that country will be sent to Cyprus and other areas under detention.

Declaring that such immigration threatens a civil war with the Arab population, it charges a "minority of Zionist extremists" with attempting to force an unacceptable solution of the Palestine problem.. Two ships carrying a total of 1, Jewish refugees arrived at Haifa. The port area was isolated on August 11 by British military and naval units.

The first deportation ship sailed for Cyprus with Jews on board. Three Jews were killed and seven wounded when British troops were compelled to fire on a crowd of about 1, persons trying to break into the port area of Haifa. Two Royal Navy ships with 1, illegal Jewish immigrants on board sailed for Cyprus. Another ship with illegal immigrants was captured and confined in the Haifa harbor.

British military units searched the coastal villages of Casera and Sadoth Yarn for three Jews who bombed the transport "Empire Rival" last week. Eighty-five persons, including the entire male population of one of the villages were sent to the Rafa detention center.. British military units discovered arms and munitions dumps in the Jewish farming villages of Dorot and Ruhama.

British troops imposed a curfew and arrested Jews and wounded two in a search for saboteurs in Tel Aviv and neighboring Ramat Gan. Irgun took the action against the railways on September 8, as a protest.. Jewish underground members robbed three banks in Jaffa and Tel Aviv, killing three Arabs.

Thirty-six Jews were arrested.. Jewish underground attacks a police station on the coast near Tel Aviv but were driven off by gunfire. British military units and police seized 50 Jews in a Tel Aviv cafe after a Jewish home was blown up. This home belonged to a Jewish woman who had refused to pay extortion money to the Irgun. Two British soldiers were killed when their truck detonated a kind mine outside Jerusalem.

A leading Arab figure was wounded in a similar mine explosion in Jerusalem and more mad mines were found near Government House..

Nazi Party leader Herman Goering committs suicide by ingesting a cyanide capsule the night before he is due to be hung following the Nuremberg Trials. Executions of those convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg Trials. The British Embassy in Rome was damaged by a bomb, believed to have been phased by Jewish underground members.

Irgun took responsibility for the bombing on November Two Jews and two Arabs were killed in clashes between Arabs and a group of Jews attempting to establish a settlement at Lake Hula in northern Palestine. British authorities released the following eight Jewish Agency leaders from the Latrun concentration camp where they had been held since June Moshe Shertok, Dr.

Issac Greenbaum, Dr. A total of 2, Haganah suspects have also been released as well as Jews arrested in the wake of the King David bombing. Railroad traffic was suspended hr 24 hours throughout Palestine following a fourth Irgun attack on railway facilities in two days.

Nineteen persons, eleven British soldiers and policemen and eight Arab constables, were killed in Palestine during this period as Jewish underground members, using land mines and suitcase bombs, increased their attacks on railroad stations, trains and even streetcars.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews condemned Jewish underground groups who threatened to export their attacks to England. Police in Tel Aviv attacked Jews, assaulting many and firing into houses. Twenty Jews were injured in fights with British troops following the death on November 17 of three policemen and an RAF sergeant in a land mine explosion.. Five persons were injured when a bomb exploded in the Jerusalem tax office. Ten persons, including six British soldiers, were killed in bomb and land-mine explosions.

A member of the Stern Gang was killed in an aborted hold-up attempt. These raids signaled an end to a two-week truce during the World Zionist Congress.. Partition of India and Pakistan. Dov Gruner was sentenced to hang by a British military court for taking part in a raid on the Ramat Gan police headquarters in April of Jewish underground staged bombings and machine gun attacks in five cities.

Casualties were low. Pamphlets seized warned that the Irgun had again declared war against the British. British soldiers have been ordered to wear sidearms at all times and were forbidden to enter any cafe or restaurant. Eleven British troops were injured in a hand grenade attack on a train carrying troops to Palestine. The attack took place near Benha, 25 miles from Cairo..

British police arrested 32 persons suspected of being members of the Irgun's "Black Squad" in raids on Rishomel Zion and Rehoboth. One underground member drove a truck filled with high explosives into the central police station and exploded it, killing two British policemen and two Arab constables and injuring others, and escaped.

This action ended a day lull in the violence and the Stern Gang took the credit for it. Yehudi Katz is sentenced to life in prison by a Jerusalem court for robbing a bank in Jaffa in September of to obtain funds for the underground.. Colonial Secretary Arthur Creech Jones informed the House of Commons 73 British subjects were murdered by underground members in and "no culprits have been convicted.

Britain's conference on Palestine, boycotted by the Jews, reconvened. Jamal el Husseini, Palestine Arab leader, declared that the Arab world was unalterably opposed to partition as a solution to the problem. The session then adjourned.. It was officially announced that the British Cabinet decided to partition Palestine. Irgun forces released former Maj. Collins, a British banker, who they kidnaped on January 26 from his home. He had been badly beaten.

These men had been taken as hostages for Dov Bela Gruner, an Irgun member under death sentence. The British High Commissioner, Lt. Sir Alan Cunningham, had threatened martial law unless the two men were returned unharmed. General Cunningham ordered the wives and children of all British civilians to leave Palestine at once.

About 2, are involved. This order did not apply to the 5, Americans in the country.. The Palestine Govemment issued a 7-day ultimatum to the Jewish Agency demanding that it state "categorically and at once" whether it and the supreme Jewish Council in Palestine will call on the Jewish community by February 10 for "cooperation with the police and armed forces in bringing to justice the members of the terrorist groups.

Goldie Meyerson, head of the Jewish Agency's political department. British Oistrict Commissioner James Pollock disclosed a plan for military occupation of three sectors of Jerusalem and orders nearly 1, Jews to evacuate the Rehavia, Schneler and German quarters by noon, February 6. British troops removed illegal Jewish immigranS from the schooner "Negev" at Haifa and after a struggle forced them aboard the ferry "Emperor Haywood" for deportation to Cyprus.

The British administration revealed that Lt. Sir Evelyn Barker, retiring British commander in Palestine, had confirmed the death sentences of three Irgun members on February 12 before leaving for England. A fourth, Haim Gorovetzky, received a life sentence because of his youth. MacMillian arrived in Jerusalem on February 13 to succeed Gen.

The Sabbath was the setting for sporadic outbreaks of violence which included the murder of an Arab in Jaffa and of a Jew in B'nai B'rak, the kidnapping of a Jew in Petah Tikvah and the burning of a Jewish club in Haifa.

A Jew, suspected of being an informer, was murdered by Jewish underground members.. The British Army pay corps was dynamited in Jerusalem and one soldier killed. British military units captured most of the Jews whose motor ship "Susanne" ran the British blockade and was beached north of Gaza on this date. A British naval escort brought the "Ben Hecht," the Hebrew Committee of National Liberation's first known immigrant ship, into Haifa, and its passengers were shipped to Cyprus.

The British arrested the crew, which included 18 US. Jewish underground members blew up part of an oil pipeline in Haifa and a section of the rail line near Beer Yakou. British authorities ended marshal law which had kept , Jews under house arrest for 16 days and tied up most economic activity.. A military court sentenced Moshe Barazani to be hanged for possessing a hand grenade. Underground leaflets admitted the murder of Michael Shnell on Mount Carmel as an informer.

British officials announced the arrest of five known underground members, and the discovery near Petah Tikvah of the body of Leon Meshiah, a Jew presumably slain as a suspected informer. The Irgun blew up the Iraq Petroleum Co. A British army officer was killed by Jewish underground membesr when they ambushed a party of horsemen near the Ramle camp. Units of the British Royal Navy, answering an SOS, took the disabled " Moledeth" with 1, illegal Jewish refugees on board under tow some 50 miles outside Palestinian waters.

Jewish underground members dynamited the British-owned Shell-Mex oil tanks in Haifa, starting a fire that destroyed a quarter-mile of the waterfront. The Haganah admitted the bombing. A court in Jerusalem sentenced Daniel Azulai and Meyer Feinstein, members of the Irgun , to death for the October 30 attack on the Jerusalem railroad station.

Jewish undergroud members killed a British constable in revenge for the Cohen death.. Guela Cohen, Stern Gang illegal broadcaster, escaped from a British military hospital.. A British naval unit boarded the refugee ship "Guardian" and seized it along with 2, passengers after a gun battle in which two immigrants were killed and 14 wounded.. Jewish communities were kept under strict curfew for several hours.

Soon after the deaths were announced, a time bomb was found in the Colonial Office in London but was defused.. Macmillan confirmed death sentences for two more convicted underground members, Meier Ben Feinstein and Moshe Ben Barazani, but reduced Daniel Azulai's sentence to life imprisonment. Irgun's reprisals for the Gruner execution were an attack on a field dressing station near Nethanaya where one sentry was killed, an attack on an armored car in Tel Aviv where one bystander was killed and harmless shots at British troops in Haifa.

A series of bombings by Jewish underground members in retaliation for the hanging of Gruner injured 12 British soldiers.. Meir Feinstein and Moshe Barazani killed themselves in prison a few hours before they were scheduled to be hanged. They blew themselves up with bombs smuggled to them in hollowed-out oranges. A troop train arriving from Cairo was bombed outside Rehovoth with five soldiers and three civilians killed and 39 persons injured.

He blamed contributions from American Jews to the Jewish Palestinians as aiding the underground groups there and cited the toll since August 1, killed, wounded, Jews convicted, 28 sentenced to death, four executed, 33 slain in battles. Viscount Samuel urged increased immigration. The Irgun proclaimed its own "military courts" to "try" British troops and policemen who resisted them.

A Stern Gang squad drove a stolen post office truck loaded with explosives into the Sarona police compound and detonated it, killing five British policemen. The murder of Deputy Police Superintendent A. Conquest climaxed a week of bloodshed. The walls of Acre prison were blasted open by an Irgun bomb squad and Jewish and Arab prisoners escaped after a gun battle in which 15 Jews and 1 Arab were killed, 32 including six British guards were injured and 23 escapists were recaptured.

The Palestine Govemment promised no extra punishment if the escapees still at large will surrender. The Political Action Committee for Palestine ran a series of advertisements in New York newspapers seeking funds to buy parachutes for young European Jews planning to crash the Palestine irnmigration barrier by air. A Jew was ambushed and shot to death by an Arab group near Tel Aviv, and three Jewish owned Tel Aviv shops whose owners refused to contribute money to Jewish underground groups were burned down.

The British authorities announced that Jewish political prisoners were held in Kenya, East Africa, 20 in Latrun and 34 in Bethlehem.. The Stern Gang killed two British lieutenants and injured seven other persons with two derailments and three badge demolitions..

The 1, ton Haganah freighter "Trade Winds" was seized by the Royal Navy off the Lebanon coast and escorted into Haifa, and over 1, illegal immigrants were disembarked pending transfer to Cyprus. The British government protested to the United States government against American fund-raising drives for Jewish underground groups. The ad said, "We are out to raise millions for you. Some 40, Arab and Jewish workers united the same day in a one day strike against all establishments operated by the British War Ministry..

A British naval party boarded the immigrant ship "Mordei Haghettoath" off South Palestine and took control of its 1, passengers. Two British soldiers were convicted in Jerusalem of abandoning a jeep and army mail under attack..

Fawzi el-Kawukji who spent the war years in Germany after leading the Arab revolt in Palestine, told reporters in Damascus that an unfavorable decision by the UN inquiry group would be the signal for war against the Jews in Palestine. Jewish underground members blew up a water main and a shed in the Haifa oil dock areas and made three attacks on railway lines in the Lydda and Haifa areas..

The Haganah ship "Yehuda Halevy" arrived under British naval escort with illegal Jewish immigrants; they were immediately transferred to Cyprus.. The Stern Gang sent letter bombs to high British governmental officials. Eight letter bombs containing powdered explosives were discovered in London. President Truman asked all persons in the US to refrain from helping Jewish underground groups. New York Secretary General of the UN, Trygve Lie has forwarded a request to all countries a request by the British that they guard their fronties against departure of illegal immigrants bound for Palestine.

Haganah disclosed that one of its men was killed by a booby trap which foiled an Irgun plot to blow up British Military Headquartes in Tel Aviv.

The Stern Gang opened fire on British soldiers waiting in line outside a Tel Aviv theater, killing three and wounding two. Another Briton is killed and several wounded in a Haifa hotel. This action was claimed by Jewish underground members to be in retaliation for British brutality and the alleged slaying of a missing 16 year old Jew, Alexander Rubowitz while he was being held in an Army barracks on May 6.

New York. The UN Committee votes to condemn the acts as "flagrant disregard" of the UN appeal for an interim truce as Stern Gang wounded four more Bdtish soldiers on a beach at Herzlia. Major Roy Alexander Farran surrendered voluntarily after his escape from custody in Jerusalem on June He had been arrested in connection with the Rubowitz case. Adem Altman, president of the United Zionist Revisionists, told a party rally in Jerusalem that the Revisionists would settle for nothing less than an unpartitioned free Jewish state in Palestine and Trans-Jordan.

Irgun announced in Jerusalem that two British sergeants kidnaped in Nathanaya are being held in Tel Aviv and have been sentenced to death by Irgun courtmartial. The British imposed mastial law and placed the 15, inhabitants of Netanya under house arrest. They made 68 arrests and sentenced 21 persons to 6 months each in the Latrun detention camp. The Irgun in five mine operations against military traffic to and from Nathanya killed one Briton and injured Steamer Exodus repelled by forces from shores of Palestine, formerly the "President Warfield" was escorted into Haifa by British naval units after a battle, William Bernstein and two immigrants were killed and more than 30 injured.

Rioting, quickly suppressed, broke out among the passengess of the Exodus when they learned they were to be resumed to France.

Before officially admitting that 4, passengers of the Exodus who had been transferred to three British ships, were being sent not to Cyprus but back to France, the Palestine Government took the precaution of first placing Jesusalem's 90, Jews under nightly house arrest.

Haganah sank the British tansport "Empire Lifeguard" in Haifa harbor as it was discharging Jewish immigrants who had officiallyy been admitted to Palestine under quota. Sixty-five immigrants were killed and 40 were wounded. The British were able to refloat the ship..

Jewish underground members blew up the Iraqi Petroleum Co. Carmel radar station.. Two small Haganah ships loaded with 1, Jews from North Africa were intercepted by British naval units off Palestine and brought into Haifa. The illegal immigrants were transshipped aboard British transports and taken to Cyprus.. The British authorities hanged three Irgunists in Acre prison despite appeals from Jewish leaders. The 4, Exodus illegal immigrants who sailed from Sete, France, July 11 for Palestine only to be shipped back by the British aboard three transports, refused to debark as the vessels anchored off Port de Douc, France.

Only a few who were aboard went ashore. The French government informed the refugees that they do not have to debark but will be welcomed if they do. Irgun members announced that they have handed two British sergeants, Marvyn Paice and Clifford Martin, whom they had held as hostages since duly 12, for "crimes against the Jewish community. Two more British soldiers were killed by a land mine near Hadera. British troops attacked the Jewish colony of Pardes Hanna in revenge for the murders..

The bodies of the two murdered Bdtish sergeants were found hanging from eucalyptus trees one and a half miles from Netanya about AM.

A booby trap blew Martin's body to bits when it was cut down. Enraged British troops stormed into Tel Aviv, wrecked shops, attacked pedestrians and sprayed a bus with gunfire killing five Jews: two men, two women and a boy.. Thirty-three Jews are injured in an anti-British riot at Tel Aviv during the funeral procession of five civilians killed by British soldiers on July In Jerusalem a Jewish underground attack on the British security zone in Rehavia was repulsed with one attacker killed and two captured..

The body of an unidentified Jew was found on a road near Tel Aviv. He was believed to have been kidnapped by men in British uniforms two weeks ago.

Total casualties in Palestine since mid-July: 25 persons slain, wounded. The story of Abraham is told in the Book of Genesis the first book of the Hebrew and Christian Bibles in chapters Moses is the leader who freed them from slavery in Egypt. Moses protected the Jews from the wrath of God, and negotiated with God on their behalf.

What is the Symbol of Judaism? The Menorah is one of the oldest symbols of the Jewish faith. It is a candelabrum with seven candle holders displayed in Jewish synagogues. It symbolises the burning bush as seen by Moses on Mount Sinai. The two most common menorahs have seven and nine candle-holders.

The term hanukiah or chanukiah , refers to the nine-candled holder used during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. What is a Mezuzah? A mezuzah is found on doorposts in Jewish homes. It is a little case, containing a tiny scroll. The writing on the scroll is from the bible. It is in Hebrew and is called the Shema. It says that Jewish people should love God and keep his rules.

Jewish artefacts. Jews worship in Synagogues. Men and women usually sit separately in the Synagogues. The Jewish spiritual leaders are called Rabbis. Unlike leaders in many other faiths, a rabbi is not a priest and has no special religious status.

The most holy Jewish book is the Torah the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. Others include Judaism's oral tradition, the written form of which is known as the Talmud. No one is allowed to touch the Torah, so a special pointer called a yad is used to follow words when reading it. Find out more The most important day of the week is the Sabbath Shabbat , which is a day made holy by refraining from weekday work.

The Jewish holy day, or Sabbath, starts at sunset on Friday and continues until sunset on Saturday. During the Sabbath, observant Jews will do nothing that might be counted as work. Among the things that they can't do are driving and cooking.

At the beginning of Shabbat Jewish families share a meal. They eat special bread called hallah. On the Sabbath, Jews attend services at the synagogue, often led by a Rabbi. Kippah a skull cap. On their heads a devout Jew always wears the Kippah to remind him that he is always duty bound to follow the laws of God at all times and in all places.

Tallit a prayer shawl. Before beginning to worship or pray the devout Jew will often put on a tallit. The fringes on the shawl remind him of the many commandments of the Torah. Ancient Jewish Texts. My Jewish Learning. The Jewish Denominations. What is Judaism? Jewish Sacred Texts. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Jewish Population. Judaism But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!

Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. Since , the word has taken on a new and horrible meaning: the ideological and systematic state-sponsored The instability created in Europe by the First World War set the stage for another international conflict—World War II—which broke out two decades later and would prove even more devastating. Rising to power in an economically and politically unstable Germany, Adolf Hitler capitalized on economic woes, popular discontent and political infighting to take absolute power in Germany beginning in Auschwitz, also known as Auschwitz-Birkenau, opened in and was the largest of the Nazi concentration and death camps.

Located in southern Poland, Auschwitz initially served as a detention center for political prisoners. However, it evolved into a network of camps where Zoroastrianism is an ancient Persian religion that may have originated as early as 4, years ago. Zoroastrianism was the state religion of three Persian dynasties, until the Before arriving at the death camp, she had been stuffed into a train car on a seemingly endless journey from Hungary.

Now, she and her twin sister Miriam Today, with about million followers, Hinduism is the third-largest religion behind Christianity and Islam. Usually, the upper floors of the office building at Prinsengracht were silent. But on August 4, , they came to terrible life. Miep Gies never forgot the sounds. The Mosaic god is conceived as the ruler of the Hebrews, so the Mosaic laws also have the status of a ruler. The laws themselves in the Torah were probably written much later, in the eighth or seventh centuries.

It is not unreasonable, however, to conclude that the early Mosaic religion was a law-based religion that imagined Yahweh as the author and enforcer of these laws.

In fact, the early Hebrews seemed to have conceived of Yahweh as a kind of monarch. In addition, Yahweh is more abstract than any previous gods; one injunction to the Hebrews is that no images of Yahweh be made or worshipped.

Finally, there was no afterlife in the Mosaic religion. All human and religious concerns were oriented around this world and Yahweh's purposes in this world. As the Hebrews struggled with this new religion, lapsing frequently into other religions, they were slowly sliding towards their first major religious and ethical crisis: the monarchy. The Yahweh religion would be shaken to its roots by this crisis and would be irrevocably changed.

Wearied from over two centuries of sporadic conflict with indigenous peoples, broken by a ruinous civil war, and constantly threatened on all sides, the disparate Hebrew settlers of Palestine began to long for a unified state under a single monarch. Such a state would provide the organization and the military to fend off the war-like peoples surrounding them. Their desire, however, would provoke the first major crisis in the Hebrew world view: the formation of the Hebrew monarchy. In the Hebrew account of their own history, the children of Israel who settled Palestine between and BC, believed Yahweh to be their king and Yahweh's laws to be their laws whether or not this is historically true is controversial.

In desiring to have a king, the tribes of Israel were committing a grave act of disobedience towards Yahweh, for they were choosing a human being and human laws of Yahweh and Yahweh's laws.

In the account of the formation of the monarchy, in the books of Samuel , the prophet of Yahweh, Samuel, tells the Israelites that they are committing an act of disobedience that they will dearly pay for. Heedless of Samuel's warnings, they push ahead with the monarchy.

The very first monarch, Saul, sets the pattern for the rest; disobedient towards Yahweh's commands, Saul falls out with both Samuel and Yahweh and gradually slips into arbitrary despotism. Whatever the causes, a group of religious leaders during the eighth and seventh centuries BC responded to the crisis created by the institution of the monarchy by reinventing and reorienting the Yahweh religion.

In Hebrew, these religious reformers were called " nivea ," or " prophets. These four, and a number of lesser prophets, are as important to the Hebrew religion as Moses.

The innovations of the prophets can be grouped into three large categories:. Whatever the character of Mosaic religion during the occupation and the early monarchy, the prophets unambiguously made Yahweh the one and only one god of the universe. Earlier, Hebrews acknowledged and even worshipped foreign gods; the prophets, however, asserted that Yahweh ruled the entire universe and all the peoples in it, whether or not they recognized and worshipped Yahweh or not.

The Yahweh religion as a monotheistic religion can really be dated no earlier than the prophetic revolution. While Yahweh is subject to anger, capriciousness, and outright injustice in the earlier Mosaic religion, the Yahweh of the prophets can do nothing but good and right and justice.

Yahweh becomes in the prophetic revolution a "god of righteousness"; historical events, no matter how arbitrary or unjust they may seem, represent the justice of Yahweh. The good and the just are always rewarded, and the evil are always punished. If there is any evil in the world it is through the actions of men and women, not through the actions of Yahweh, that it is committed. While the Mosaic religion was overwhelmingly concerned with the cultic rules to be followed by the Israelites, the prophets re-centered the religion around ethics.

Ritual practices, in fact, become unimportant next to ethical demands that Yahweh imposes on humans: the necessity of doing right, showing mercy, punishing evil, and doing justice. There still, however, is no afterlife of rewards and punishments in the prophets, but a kind of House of Dust, called Sheol , to which all souls go after their death to abide for a time before disappearing from existence forever. There is no salvation, only the injunctions to do justice and right in order to produce a just and harmonious society.

The historical origins of these innovations are important to understand. The monarchy brought with it all the evils of a centralized state: arbitrary power, vast inequality of wealth, poverty in the midst of plenty, heavy taxation, slavery, bribery, and fear. The prophets were specifically addressing these corrupt and fearsome aspects of the Jewish state. They believed, however, that they were addressing these problems by returning to the Mosaic religion; in reality, they created a brand new religion, a monotheistic religion not about cultic practices, but about right and wrong.

The most profound spiritual and cognitive crisis in Hebrew history was the Exile. Defeated by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar in BC, the Judaean population was in part deported to Babylon, mainly the upper classes and craftsmen. In , incensed by Judaeans shifting their loyalty, Nebuchadnezzar returned, lay siege to Jerusalem , and burned it down along with the Temple.

Nothing in the Hebrew world view had prepared them for a tragedy of this magnitude. The Hebrews had been promised the land of Palestine by their god; in addition, the covenant between Yahweh and Abraham promised Yahweh's protection. The destruction of Jerusalem , the Temple , and the deportation of the Judaeans, shook the Hebrew faith to its roots. The literature of the Exile and shortly after betrays the despair and confusion of the population uprooted from its homeland. In Lamentations and various Psalms , we get a profound picture of the sufferings of those left in Judaea, who coped with starvation and massive privation, and the community of Hebrews wandering Babylon.

But Hebrew religion shifted profoundly in the years of Exile. A small group of religious reformers believed that the calamaties suffered by the Jews were due to the corruption of their religion and ethics. These religious reformers reoriented Jewish religion around the Mosaic books; in other words, they believed that the Jews should return to their foundational religion.

While the Mosaic books had been in existence since the seventh or eighth centuries BC, they began to take final shape under the guidance of these reformers shortly after the Exile. Above everything else, the Torah , the five Mosaic books, represented all the law that Hebrews should follow. These laws, mainly centered around cultic practices, should remain pure and unsullied if the Jews wished to return to their homeland and keep it. So the central character of post-Exilic Jewish religion is reform , an attempt to return religious and social practice back to its original character.