Yom Kippur: A Very Brief History Of Judaism

"I know Weinstein's parents were upset, Superintendent, but I was sure it was a phony excuse. I mean, it sounds so made up: "Yom Kippur." -Principal Skinner, The Simpsons." Yom Kippur is part of Judaism and Judaism is a religion. Religion is the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods. Some people have calculated that there are approximately 4, 200 different religions in existence around the world today. There are nineteen major world religions and Judaism is one of them. There is such an abundant amount of different religions and all religions are in a way different, Judaism is a different and unique religion because Jews have different beliefs, holidays, and history.

Judaism is a different

During the Bronze age in the Middle East Jewish history starts. The beginning of Jewish people and the start of Judaism is presented in the first five books of the Bible. Jews believe that God chose Abraham to be the father of the people who would be special to God, and who would be an example of satisfactory behavior and holiness to the rest of the world. Jewish worship was focussed on the Temple, as it contained the Ark of the Covenant, and was the only place where certain rituals and ceremonies could be preformed. Around 600 BCE the temple was destroyed, and the Jewish leadership was killed. An abundant amount of Jews were commissioned into exile in Babylon. Although the Jews were not long after permitted to come back home, a great number of Jews stayed in exile, beginning the Jewish tradition of the Diaspora - living away from

The armies of the first Crusade attacked Jewish communities on their way to Palestine. When the Crusaders took possession of Jerusalem they killed and enslaved thousands of Jews. The 1100s were a vigorously dreadful period and Jews were pushed from southern Spain by a Berber invasion. Serious anti-Jewish incidents began to occur in Europe. In England Jews were murdered while trying to give gifts to the King at Richard I’s coronation. One hundred and fifty Jews were massacred in York. In 1215 the Catholic Church ordered Jews to live in segregated areas and to wear distinctive clothes. In 1478 the Jews in Spain suffered under the Spanish Inquisition, and in 1492 Jews were expelled from Spain altogether (bbc.co.uk). Towards the end of the 1700s Jews began to suffer persecution in central Europe, and in Russia they began to be restricted to living in a certain area of the country, called The Pale. As the 19th century continued many countries gradually withdrew restrictions on Jews—the UK allowed its Jewish citizens the same rights as others by 1860s. Jewish history of the 1930s and 1940s is mostly filled by the Holocaust. The events of the Holocaust have shaped Jewish thinking, and the thinking of other people about Jewish issues ever