According to the Bible, God, in exchange for his faith,
promised Abraham the land of Canaan,
the future land of Israel, and numerous progeny.
Thus begins the history of Judaism,
a religion that brings together nearly thirteen million members today.
The history of the Jews in antiquity begins with their journey from Ur of the Chaldea,
on the shores of the Persian Gulf, to the Promised Land,
where they established from the nineteenth century BC.
Following the Bible,
Abraham's grandson, Jacob, whom God gave a new name, Israel,
moved to Egypt with his sons and their families fleeing the famine.
His descendants were enslaved, until God delivered them and,
led by Moses, left Egypt, an event known as the Exodus.
Upon arrival at Mount Sinai,
the Jews made an everlasting covenant with God,
who gave Moses the Tablets of the Law .
By the year 1200, again in Canaan,
the Israelites are divided into twelve tribes.
The pressure of the arrival of the Philistines and the Ammonites
make the tribes unite around a monarchy, with Saul the first king.
With David, the kingdoms of Judah and Israel join,
and the first Jewish territory expands with new achievements,
including Jerusalem being made the capital.
Solomon, his successor,
will be a monarch valued for his wisdom
and the establishment of relations with distant realms, such as Saba.
On the death of Solomon,
the kingdom was divided into two rival states:
Israel, in the north and Judah in the south.
In 722 BC, Israel will be destroyed by the Assyrians.
The same will happen to Judah in 586 BC,
devastated by Nebuchadnezzar,
who destroyed the great temple of Jerusalem
and deported to Babylon the members of the upper classes.
The next two centuries are under the Persian domination,
an era of some peace.
The peace ended when Alexander the Great conquered Palestine in 333 BC.
His successors continued his policy of Hellenization,
imposing Greek culture in their domains.
However, the infighting will allow entry of Rome from 63 BC.
At first, the Romans ruled a Jewish dynasty and was governed by Herod the Great.
This governor will be responsible for completing the rebuilding
of the great Temple of Jerusalem,
almost doubling its size and adding new and luxurious decoration.
In the early years of the Christian Era,
the Roman governors faced frequent Jewish rebellions,
crushed in blood and fire.
In the fortress of Massada in the year 73 AD,
nearly a thousand men,
women and children committed suicide to avoid surrender to the Roman X Foreign Legion.
Adriano's campaign, six decades later, ended the last resistance.
Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed,
and Jews were forbidden to live in their territory.
Thus began the Jewish Diaspora outside the Promised Land.
Diaspora or dispersion,
continued for centuries,
spread Judaism all over the world, building synagogues and Jewish schools.
In Europe, Jews found accommodation as traders and lenders,
since usury was forbidden to Christians.
Massacres and expulsions were common,
and the Jews were accused of natural disasters,
such as the black death of 1348.
Under Islam, the Jews' situation was also precarious,
although, in times of tolerance,
they flourished as doctors, merchants and scientists.
In Spain, at certain times of the Middle Ages,
the three religions coexisted peacefully.
The Synagogue of Santa María la Blanca in Toledo,
is one of the best examples of Jewish heritage.
Anti-Semitism, hatred of Jews culminated in the Nazi Holocaust.
Between 1941 and 1945,
two thirds of the Jews throughout Europe were killed.
But Jewish aspirations did not end with this unprecedented disaster.
A Jewish movement, Zionism,
advocated the return to their ancient homeland in Palestine.
Finally, in 1948,
their desire crystallized with the establishment in Palestine of the state of Israel.
Unfortunately,
if on one hand that was an end to 1900 years of deprivation of rights to Jews,
on the other, despite repeated attempts to achieve peace,
initiated a conflict not yet resolved between Arabs and Israelis.
The word Judaism defines the set of rules and religious traditions of the Jewish people.
As a religion, Judaism integrates three elements:
God, Torah and Israel.
God, or Yahweh, formed an alliance with a people, the Jews or Israel,
for it to spread their faith.
In exchange for God's concern for Israel,
Jews are required to meet the divine teachings or Torah.
The Torah comprises the first five books of the Bible or the Pentateuch.
They recount stories about the origin of the world,
the ancestors of Israel,
the slavery in Egypt and their liberation,
the receipt of the commandments on Mount Sinai
and their journey through the desert to the Promised Land.
Judaism does not recognize the divinity of Christ,
whom it only supports as a prophet.
Therefore, the Bible is only the Old Testament of the Christians.
The daily life of the population is governed by various religious precepts.
The Sabbath, the weekly rest day is a holiday day
where it is forbidden to conduct any activity other than prayer and rest.
The kosher kitchen is prepared in accordance with religious rules
forbidding the consumption of animals considered impure, like pork.
Circumcision on the eighth day of life,
allows men to enter the Jewish community and participate in their alliance with God.
Religious maturity of the boys is celebrated by the ceremony of bar mitzvah,
where a boy of thirteen reads for the first time an excerpt from the Torah.
The most important family holiday of Passover, which commemorates the Exodus from Egypt,
Is celebrated with a hearty meal ritual, where the Haggadah,
the story of Exodus, is recited.
Also are very important is Yom Kippur,
day of repentance and atonement, and the feast of Hannukah, rededication.
In this last one, the main event is the lighting of the candles from a small lamp
that recalls the seven-branched candelabrum of the Temple of Jerusalem.
Today, the Jewish world is divided into three main movements:
Reformist, Conservative and Orthodox,
quoted from lowest to highest degree of liberalization.
However, despite the existence of internal conflicts and tensions
between Israel and Diaspora communities,
it is possible to conclude that Judaism is as a whole one of the most dynamic
and important religions of today. 00:08:24.367,00:00:00.000