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The Age of Judaism


Question:

How “old” is Judaism?



AskTheRabbi.org answered:

It depends what you mean by “Judaism”. Abraham was the first individual Jew. He converted from paganism to “Judaism” — meaning that he believed in One God who created and rules over all existence.  Therefore he followed the “way of God” — living according to tenets of ethical monotheism. Likewise his wife Sarah was the first individual Jewess. All Jews today are descended from them; even righteous converts are called the “son of Abraham” and “the daughter of Sarah”.

They lived approximately 3,800 years ago. This is the “age of Judaism” for us, looking at Judaism on an individual level.

However, perhaps you mean the age of “Judaism” in a national sense — the age of the “Jewish People”. If so, that age would be counted from the event that turned all the Jewish individuals into one united Jewish nation with a common purpose. That event, of course, was the giving of the Torah to the entire Jewish People at Mount Sinai. This was approximately 400 years later (post-Exodus).

According to either “age” we are the oldest system of belief that still exists and thrives greatly today in the merit of our glorious history and our unique holy purpose as individuals and as a nation.


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