Discuss about the Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions.
The term covenant is derived from the Latin word con venire meaning assembling together. It is referred to as the formal agreement or alliance of humanity or a religious community with God. This idea is the central to Abrahamic religions. It may be noticed that much of the belief of the Jewish religion revolves round the idea of a covenant who is an intermediator between the Jewish people and the Almighty God. This essay aims to explain the basis of the theory keeping in mind the traditional beliefs of the Jews about the Supreme Being and the bond shared by the mortals and the Almighty.
The oldest Abrahamic religion of the world, Judaism has over 15 million followers all over the world (Silverstein, Stroumsa and Blidstein 2015). The followers of this religion are known as Jews. Judaism is one of the oldest religions that preach the existence of a single God. This religion practices monotheism and bears similarities with both the religions of Islam and Christianity. The religion accepts the belief in the theory of a single God. The followers of the religion abide by the moral teachings of the Old Testament of the Holy Bible that is inclusive of the Torah. Judaism derives its teachings and laws from the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, the Torah and the oral traditions. A number of these were the first traditions that were orally developed and the others were documented in the Talmud, the Mishnah and other works of holy importance. The Torah is considered to be one of the most important holy books of Judaism. Every book included in the Torah are separated into parts known as parshiyot (Robinson 2016).
Judaism is the oldest and the first among the three great monotheistic religious faiths of the world (Leitane 2013). The most important belief of the religion is the existence of only one god. In the opinions of this religion the Supreme Being is considered merciful and just. The followers of the religion are expected to treat all the human beings with respect and dignity as the religion believes that all human beings were created in the model of the Almighty Himself. The Jewish offer their servings to God through their prayers, studies and by following the commandments that are set forth in their holy book Torah. Judaism, unlike other religions, do not believe in the fact that the world faces judgement due to the deeds that people establish and not by their creeds (Mfa.gov.il 2017). Thus, the religious view in discussion is not considered an active missionary religion. The Jewish community accepts converts from other religions based on the decision of the appropriate religious authorities of the community and not only through the process of personal self-identification.
Judaism consider the land of Israel to be the holy land. The Old Testament of the Bible is the principal religious text followed by the Jews. This contains the Torah, the Writings and the Prophets. According to the Jews, there had been an agreement management between the Gods and the early ancestor of the Jews, Abraham (Hattstein and Charlesworth 2013). According to the Holy Bible, the Supreme Being had made a promise to bless Abraham and his successors if they remained faithful and worshipped the Lord. The Almighty is said to have made the same covenant with the son, Isaac, and grandson, Jacob, of Abraham. Jacob was given another name by the Supreme Being, the name of Israel. Thus the descendants of Jacob came to be known as the Israelites or the “Children of Israel”. The Torah is believed to be handed over to the Jews by the Jewish religious leader Moses. There is a belief that states that the whole world was created by the Almighty from a mountain in Jerusalem, Mount Moriah located in the present day Israel (Loewenberg 2013). According to the Jewish belief, the Lord is, at all times, closest to the Israelite land. The belief further goes on to state that God the Almighty had asked the Jews, whom he had chosen, to build the society in the land of Israel and offer their services to the Divine Being. Several commandments in the Torah provide references to the land of Israel as the holy Land.
According to the Holy Bible, the Almighty had chosen the Jews to worship and serve the Gods. They have thus been, at times, deemed as the “Chosen People” (Garroway 2012). According to the Exodus19:6, the covenant of God helped Jews transform into a holy nation and a priestly kingdom (Habisch 2012). According to the Deuteronomy 14:2, the Almighty had chosen the Jews to be a special nation out of all the inhabitants of the earth (Mizrahi 2012). This granted the Jews a special position among all the nations of the world. The Jews thus considered themselves granted with special responsibilities and duties that were commanded by the God. The Jews considered it their responsibility to establish a society that would practice justness. The only aim of this society would be the service of God. According to the Jews the covenant is double-sided. It promises that God would shower his love, blessings and protection on the Jews if they obeyed the laws of the Supreme Being. On the other side, the Jews would have to take responsibility of their ow sins as well. They would be themselves responsible for the consequences that they have to face on disobeying the commands of the Supreme Being.
The Jewish people consider it their own job to promote the existence of God and that the Divine Being wishes the residents of the earth to engage themselves in virtuous acts. The Jewish consider it their duty to be a bearer of light for the entire world to follow the path of God (Kaiser Jr 2012). They consider it their responsibility to guide the people of the world in order to transform the world into a better living place. There exists a belief among the Jews stating that they are assigned a special work of repairing the worldly ways. They believe that they have been entrusted with the responsibility of increasing the number of virtuous acts in the world. The goal of getting closer to divinity can be achieved the goal of getting closer to divinity by using the worldly things to increase the amount of righteousness in the world. According to them, this is known as bringing about the repair in the world. The followers of Judaism possess very lofty thoughts about themselves. They consider themselves to be the partners of the Supreme Being in the act of establishing peace in the world. According to their lofty ideas, they have been chosen by the Almighty God to help Him lessen the woes and sufferings of the earthly beings that include all the living creatures on the surface of the earth; to establish respect and peace between the fellow humans and to protect the environment of the earth from being destroyed.
The followers of the Jewish cult do not force or persuade the followers of other religions or cults to convert themselves and accept the religious cult of the Jews. They believe that Almighty God, the Supreme Being has endowed them with the unique duty of preaching about the existence of the Divine Power. They believe that in order to accept the presence of the Almighty God, a person need not shun the religious beliefs that he already follows and covert to the Jewish cult. According to the Jews, anyone can be offering his service to God by following the seven commandments received by Noah (Jacobson 2012). The seven commandments can be found documented in the Book of Jubilees. These seven commandments state the basic laws that a Jew must follow in order to get in a close companionship with the Supreme Being. These rules suggest that there is only one God who should be worshipped. A person should not be cheating on his spouse once the marriage is completed. A person should not be practicing cruelty by consuming meat from an animal that is still alive (Friedell 2014). A person should not commit any act of stealth or murder, he should not harm his fellow beings. the person should pay his respects to the Supreme Being and praise him. An institution of law should be set up in order to maintain peace in the land.
In lieu of the above discussion it may be said that the idea of the covenant between the Supreme Being and the followers of the Jewish beliefs is central to the cult of Judaism. The vocation, witness and mission of the Jewish people determine the faithfulness towards the biblical Covenant. The Jews strongly believe that they were chosen by the Supreme Being in order to aid Him in making the earth peaceful and harmonious to live in. the Jews further believe that the Almighty had chosen them to serve Him and help preach his existence to the whole world. The Jews, according to their beliefs, were appointed by the Almighty to ensure a smooth functioning of the world through the establishment of law and order.
References
Friedell, S.F., 2014. A Jewish Constitution. Rutgers JL & Religion, 16, p.541.
Garroway, J., 2012. Paul’s Gentile-Jews: Neither Jew nor Gentile, but Both. Springer.
Habisch, A., 2012. The broken tables of stone: a decalogue approach to corporate compliance practice. Journal of Management Development, 31(9), pp.912-924.
Hattstein, M. and Charlesworth, C., 2013. World religions. Köneman.
Jacobson, A.J., 2012. Job’s Justice. Cardozo L. Rev., 34, p.983.
Kaiser Jr, W.C., 2012. Mission in the Old Testament: Israel as a Light to the Nations. Baker Books.
Leitane, P.I., 2013. Monotheism. In Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions (pp. 1355-1364). Springer Netherlands.
Loewenberg, F.M., 2013. Did jews abandon the Temple Mount?. Middle East Quarterly, 20(3), p.37.
Mfa.gov.il (2017). [online] Mfa.gov.il. Available at: https://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/aboutisrael/spotlight/pages/about%20the%20jewish%20religion.aspx [Accessed 13 Oct. 2017].
Mizrahi, M., 2012. Jewish Survival, Divine Supervision, and the Existence of God. Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, 30(4), pp.100-112.
Robinson, G., 2016. Essential Judaism: Updated Edition: A Complete Guide to Beliefs, Customs & Rituals. Simon and Schuster.
Silverstein, A.J., Stroumsa, G.G. and Blidstein, M. eds., 2015. The Oxford handbook of the abrahamic religions. Oxford Handbooks in Religion a.
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download