晨詣超師院讀禪經

猶太教(Judaism)

猶太人的宗教信仰與實踐。猶太教是世界三大一神教之一，最初是古代希伯來人的信仰，其神聖文獻是希伯來文《聖經》，特別是托拉。猶太教的信仰基礎是：以色列人為上帝的選民，他們必須充當其他民族的明燈。上帝與亞伯拉罕立約，然後與以撒、雅各、摩西另立新約。從大衛王的時期開始，耶和華（上帝）的崇拜即集中於耶路撒冷。耶路撒冷聖殿被巴比倫人毀壞（西元前586年），後來猶太人流亡，導致人們期望在一位彌賽亞領導下重建國家。後來，波斯人允許猶太人返鄉，但針對羅馬統治的不成功叛變造成第二聖殿在西元70年被毀，而猶太人散佈於世界各地的海外猶太人區。拉比猶太教崛起，取代了耶路撒冷的聖殿崇拜，同時猶太人藉著學術和嚴格遵守的手段而傳承自己的文化與宗教。大部頭的口傳法律和評註被託付於塔木德與密西拿的文字。儘管在許多國家受到迫害，猶太教仍然儲存下來。中世紀猶太教出現了二個分支：西班牙系猶太人以西班牙為中心，在文化上與巴比倫系猶太人相關；德系猶太人以法國和德國為中心，與巴勒斯坦和羅馬的猶太文化相關。神祕主義的要素也出現了，特別是18世紀喀巴拉的神祕文字，該運動稱為哈西德主義。18世紀也是猶太啟蒙運動（哈斯卡拉運動）的時期。保守派猶太教和猶太教改革派出現於19世紀的德國，試圖改變正統派猶太教的嚴苛。到19世紀末，猶太復國主義成為改革的產物。歐洲猶太教在大屠殺期間有了恐怖的歷經，當時數百萬人被納粹黨處死，而巴勒斯坦越來越洶湧的猶太移民潮導致1948年以色列國宣佈成立。

English version：

Judaism

Religious beliefs and practices of the Jews. One of the three great monotheistic world religions,Judaism began as the faith of the ancient Hebrews,and its sacred text is the Hebrew Bible,particularly the Torah. Fundamental to Judaism is the belief that the people of Israel are God's chosen people,who must serve as a light for other nations. God made a covenant first with Abraham,then renewed it with Isaac,Jacob,and Moses. The worship of Yahweh (God) was centered in Jerusalem from the time of David. The destruction of the First Temple of Jerusalem by the Babylonians (586 BC) and the subsequent exile of the Jews led to hopes for national restoration under the leadership of a messiah. The Jews were later allowed to return by the Persians,but an unsuccessful rebellion against Roman rule led to the destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70 and the Jews' dispersal throughout the world in the Jewish Diaspora. Rabbinic Judaism emerged to replace the temple cult at Jerusalem,as the Jews carried on their culture and religion through a tradition of scholarship and strict observance. The great body of oral law and commentaries were committed to writing in the Talmud and Mishna. The religion was maintained despite severe persecutions in many nations. Two branches of Judaism emerged in the Middle Ages: the Sephardi,centered in Spain and culturally linked with the Babylonian Jews; and the Ashkenazi,centered in France and Germany and linked with the Jewish culture of Palestine and Rome. Elements of mysticism also appeared,notably the esoteric writings of the Kabbala and,in the 18th century,the movement known as Hasidism. The 18th century was also the time of the Jewish Enlightenment,or Haskala. Conservative and Reform Judaism emerged in 19th-century Germany as an effort to modify the strictness of Orthodox Judaism. By the end of the 19th century Zionism had appeared as an outgrowth of reform. European Judaism suffered terribly during the Holocaust,when millions were put to death by the Nazis,and the rising flow of Jewish emigrants to Palestine led to declaration of the State of Israel in 1948.