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The love of God is perhaps the most essential element in Judaism-but also one of the most confounding. In biblical and rabbinic literature, the obligation to love God appears as a formal commandment. Yet most people today think of love as a feeling.
Bible can identify love and servitude and even use the same Hebrew word ( eved ) to refer to the loving “servant” of God as well as to the miserable “slave.”
JUDAISM (̓Ιουδαϊσμῷ, KJV the Jews’ religion). This Gr. word occurs only twice (Gal 1:13, 14) in the Bible, in reference to the belief and life of the Jews. Judaism may be described as the religion of the Jews in contrast to that of the OT, although recognizing that it is firmly rooted in OT religious attitudes and practices ...
The Bible recognizes that without justice love itself becomes a form of injustice; but in itself justice is not enough. It can only serve as a foundation; the superstructure – the bridge between God and man – is grace.
God is said to be, “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love” (Exodus 34:6), but God is also a vengeful warrior. Unlike the conception of God as perfect, all-knowing, and all-powerful developed by the medieval philosophers, the God of the Bible is conflicted.
The Torah, or Jewish Written Law, consists of the five books of the Hebrew Bible – known more commonly to non-Jews as the “ Old Testament ” – that were given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai and include within them all of the biblical laws of Judaism. The Torah is also known as the Chumash, Pentateuch, or Five Books of Moses.
Most Orthodox Jews believe that dogma is essential to Judaism and that Maimonides’ principles are normative. In addition, some recent scholarship has questioned the liberal/academic assumption that beliefs were not important in biblical and rabbinic Judaism.
