The call of Abraham and the call of Moses

Judaism begins not with a philosophy but with a call — and a response.

• Abraham (Genesis 12). "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you." God promises to make of him a great nation, and that through him "all the families of the earth shall be blessed". Abraham goes — leaving security for a promise. In Genesis 17 the covenant is sealed: he is renamed Abraham, and circumcision becomes its sign for every male descendant. Jews call him Avraham Avinu, "Abraham our father".
• Moses (Exodus 3). An exile tending sheep sees a bush that burns without being consumed. God speaks: "I have observed the misery of my people... I have heard their cry... I have come down to deliver them." Moses objects four times — who am I, who are you, they will not believe me, I cannot speak — and God overrules every objection, giving the name "I AM WHO I AM". Moses returns to Egypt, confronts Pharaoh, leads the people out at Pesach, through the sea, and to Sinai, where the covenant is given in the Torah and the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20).

Notice the pattern: in both calls God takes the initiative, the human being is reluctant or unremarkable, and the promise is for the sake of others ("all the families of the earth"). Election in Judaism is directed outward from the very first sentence.

The covenant — and what it asks

A covenant (brit) is a solemn, binding relationship. God commits himself to the Jewish people; the people commit themselves to God.

• God's side: to be their God, to give the land, to make them a great people, and never to abandon them.
• Their side: to keep the mitzvot (commandments) — to worship no other god, to live justly, to be, in the prophet's phrase, "a light to the nations".
• The signs: circumcision (Abraham) and the Torah given at Sinai (Moses); Shabbat is also described as a sign of the covenant.

"Chosen people" — get this right. In Jewish teaching, being chosen means chosen for responsibility, not privilege: more duties, not fewer; a higher standard, not an exemption from it. Judaism does not teach that only Jews can be righteous — a non-Jew who keeps basic moral laws is regarded as righteous, and Judaism does not seek converts. Any answer that treats chosenness as a claim of superiority has misunderstood the doctrine, and CCEA examiners will say so.

Think it through

Jerusalem and the land of Israel

Jerusalem is the city of David and the site of the Temple — first built by Solomon, rebuilt after the exile in Babylon, and destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. Its destruction transformed Judaism: with no Temple and no sacrifices, the religion was rebuilt around prayer, study and the synagogue, led by rabbis rather than priests.

• The Western Wall (the Kotel), part of the retaining wall of the Temple platform, is the holiest accessible site of Jewish prayer.
• Jews pray facing Jerusalem. The Pesach seder ends with the words "Next year in Jerusalem".
• The land is bound up with the covenant promise to Abraham, and Jews across the world have kept its memory through two millennia of dispersion.

"As interpreted by different traditions" — CCEA's own words. Jews hold a genuine range of views. Many religious Zionists see the modern State of Israel as of profound religious significance. Some strictly Orthodox groups have opposed founding a state before the coming of the Messiah. Historically, parts of the Reform movement stressed that Jews belong fully to the countries in which they live, though Reform Judaism today generally supports Israel. And Jews, like everyone else, disagree about the politics of the region. This is a subject to be handled with precision and respect: describe the religious views, and do not turn a GCSE answer into a political argument.

The Tanakh — Torah, Nevi'im, Ketuvim

The Hebrew Bible is called the Tanakh — an acronym of its three divisions, T-N-K.

• Torah ("teaching" or "instruction") — the five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. It contains the story from creation to the edge of the promised land, and the 613 mitzvot. It has the highest authority: it is read from a handwritten scroll in the synagogue, week by week, until the cycle is finished and begun again.
• Nevi'im ("Prophets") — the historical books and the prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve. Their theme is the demand for justice and the consequences of abandoning the covenant.
• Ketuvim ("Writings") — Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the five scrolls (including Esther and Ruth), Daniel, Chronicles. Poetry, wisdom and prayer, including the Psalms, which remain the backbone of Jewish worship.

The Mishnah and the Talmud

Jewish tradition holds that at Sinai Moses received the Written Torah and also an Oral Torah — the interpretation that makes the written law liveable. (The Torah says "do no work on the Sabbath"; it does not define work. Something must.)

• The Mishnah — after the Temple was destroyed, the oral tradition was in danger of being lost, so it was edited into writing around 200 CE, traditionally by Judah ha-Nasi. It is organised into six orders covering agriculture, festivals, marriage, damages, holy things and purity.
• The Gemara — generations of rabbis then debated the Mishnah in the academies of the land of Israel and of Babylon. Their discussion is the Gemara.
• The Talmud = Mishnah + Gemara. There are two: the Jerusalem Talmud (c. 400 CE) and the larger, more influential Babylonian Talmud (completed around 500–600 CE).

Why it matters today. The Talmud is not a rulebook: it preserves the arguments, including the minority opinions that lost. Jewish law (halakhah) is worked out from it by rabbis, in every generation, for questions its authors never imagined. Thousands of Jews worldwide study a page a day. Orthodox Jews regard the Oral Torah as divinely revealed and binding; Reform and Liberal Jews value it as an authoritative human record that must be re-read in each age.

Think it through

Writings, worship, or festivals and rites?

Tap a card, then tap the group it belongs to.

Orthodox, Reform and Liberal Judaism

CCEA names three traditions. They differ above all on one question: what happened at Sinai, and how binding is the law that came from it?

Fairness (AO2): each tradition believes it is being faithful. Orthodox Jews argue that a law you may set aside at will is not a divine law at all. Reform and Liberal Jews argue that a Judaism which cannot address the world it actually lives in will not survive. Give both arguments their strongest form.

The nature of God · Torah and mitzvot

The nature of God. Judaism's central declaration is the Shema (Deuteronomy 6: 4): "Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is One." It is recited morning and evening, taught to children, and traditionally the last words a Jew hopes to say.

• One — not one among many, and not divisible. God has no image: the second commandment forbids it, and no statue or picture of God appears in a synagogue.
• Creator, lawgiver, judge — and also merciful, patient and forgiving.
• Transcendent yet personal: beyond the universe, yet addressed in prayer as close. Out of reverence, the divine name is not pronounced; Jews say HaShem ("the Name") or Adonai instead.

Torah and mitzvot. The Torah contains 613 mitzvot — 248 positive ("do") and 365 negative ("do not") in the traditional count. They cover worship, food, farming, business honesty, court procedure, sexual ethics and care for the poor, the widow, the orphan and the stranger. There is no split between "religious" and "everyday": the mitzvot sanctify ordinary life.

How the traditions differ: Orthodox — all 613 that still apply are binding, ritual as well as ethical. Reform — the ethical mitzvot are binding; ritual mitzvot are kept where they deepen Jewish life. Liberal — the individual chooses, seriously and knowledgeably, within the tradition.

Think it through

The synagogue, Shabbat, the Rabbi and the Chazan

The synagogue is three things at once: a house of assembly (beit knesset), a house of prayer (beit tefillah) and a house of study (beit midrash). Its key features:

• Aron Hakodesh — the Ark, a cupboard in the wall facing Jerusalem, holding the handwritten Torah scrolls (each dressed in a mantle, with silver bells and a breastplate).
• Ner Tamid — the eternal light, burning continually above the Ark, recalling the Temple lamp and the enduring presence of God.
• Bimah — the raised platform from which the Torah is read. A yad (pointer) is used so that the scroll is never touched by hand.
• Ten adults (a minyan) are needed for communal prayer — ten men in Orthodox practice, any ten adults in Reform and Liberal. In an Orthodox synagogue men and women sit separately.

Shabbat — from sunset on Friday to nightfall on Saturday. The home is prepared, then two candles are lit; kiddush is said over wine; blessings are made over two loaves of challah; the family eats together. Traditional Jews refrain from the 39 categories of work (which is why observant Jews do not drive, cook, write or switch on electricity on Shabbat). There are synagogue services, rest, study and time with family — and it ends with Havdalah: wine, spices and a plaited candle to mark the boundary between the holy and the ordinary. Shabbat is not deprivation; it is a weekly declaration that you are not a slave.

The Rabbi is a teacher and expert in halakhah — not a priest, and not a mediator; he (or, in Reform and Liberal Judaism, she) teaches, gives rulings, and cares for the community. The Chazan (cantor) leads the sung prayer, and in many congregations the beauty of the chant is central to worship.

Match each item to its meaning

Tap an item on the left, then its meaning on the right.

Think it through

Daily prayer and observance in the home

• Daily prayer — three services: Shacharit (morning), Minchah (afternoon) and Ma'ariv (evening). At their heart stand the Shema and the Amidah, the standing prayer said facing Jerusalem.
• Tefillin — small leather boxes containing scriptural passages, bound on the arm and forehead for weekday morning prayer, taking literally the command to bind these words "as a sign on your hand". Traditionally worn by men; also by many Reform and Liberal women.
• Tallit — the prayer shawl, with fringes (tzitzit) at its corners as a reminder of the commandments. A kippah is worn on the head as a sign that there is Someone above.
• Mezuzah — a small case fixed to the doorposts of the house, containing a tiny scroll with the words of the Shema. Many touch it on entering. The home itself is made holy ground.
• Berakhot — blessings said over food, over wine, on seeing lightning or the sea, on hearing bad news. A traditional Jew may say a hundred a day, so that the whole of life is punctuated by gratitude.

Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Pesach and Sukkot

• Rosh Hashanah — the Jewish New Year and the anniversary of creation. The shofar (ram's horn) is blown as a call to wake up and repent; apples are dipped in honey for a sweet year. It opens the Ten Days of Repentance, in which Jews are expected to put right what they have done to other people — because God forgives sins against God, but wrongs against a neighbour must be settled with the neighbour.
• Yom Kippur — the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the year. A fast of about 25 hours: no food or drink, no washing for pleasure, no leather shoes. The day is spent in synagogue, beginning with Kol Nidrei, in prayer, confession (said in the plural — "we have sinned" — because the community owns its failures together) and teshuvah, turning back to God. It ends with a single long blast of the shofar.
• Pesach (Passover) — the Exodus from Egypt. All leaven (chametz) is cleared from the house. At the seder meal the story is retold from the Haggadah: matzah (unleavened bread of affliction and of haste), maror (bitter herbs — slavery), salt water (tears), four cups of wine, and the four questions asked by the youngest child. Each Jew is to see themselves as though they personally came out of Egypt. It ends: "Next year in Jerusalem."
• Sukkot — the festival of booths. Families build a sukkah — a temporary hut with a roof open enough to see the stars — and eat, and sometimes sleep, in it for a week, recalling the fragile shelters of the wilderness. The four species (including the lulav and etrog) are waved. It is also a harvest thanksgiving — and a deliberate lesson in how little security our walls really give us.

Think it through

Birth, coming of age, marriage and death

• Brit Milah — a boy is circumcised on the eighth day by a trained mohel, and given his Hebrew name. It is the sign of the covenant with Abraham, kept for nearly four thousand years. Naming of girls: a daughter is named in the synagogue when her father (or, in Reform and Liberal congregations, either parent) is called to the Torah; many families now hold a fuller ceremony of welcome.
• Bar Mitzvah — at 13 a boy becomes "son of the commandment": responsible for keeping the mitzvot himself. He is called up to read from the Torah in the synagogue, and the family celebrates. Bat Mitzvah — a girl becomes "daughter of the commandment" at 12 or 13. In Reform and Liberal synagogues she reads from the Torah exactly as a boy does; Orthodox practice varies, and often marks the day in another way. The point of both is responsibility, not a party: from now on, the commandments are yours.
• Marriage — the couple stand under a chuppah (canopy), open on all sides like Abraham's tent. The ketubah (marriage contract) sets out the husband's obligations to his wife. Seven blessings are recited, and the groom breaks a glass — remembering, even at the height of joy, the destruction of the Temple and the brokenness of the world.
• Divorce — permitted, and treated soberly. A religious divorce requires a document called a get. In Orthodox practice the husband must grant it, which has created the painful problem of the agunah — the "chained" wife whose husband refuses. Rabbis have worked hard on remedies; Reform and Liberal Judaism handle divorce more flexibly.
• Death — the body is never left alone and is washed and prepared by the chevra kaddisha (burial society). Burial is prompt and simple, in a plain shroud. Mourners tear a garment (kriah), then sit shiva for seven days at home, where the community comes to them; a lesser mourning lasts thirty days (shloshim), and for a parent a year. The Kaddish — a prayer that praises God and never mentions death — is said by mourners, and the anniversary (yahrzeit) is marked each year with a candle.

Women, kashrut and dress

• The role and status of women. Jewish traditions differ sharply. In Orthodox Judaism women and men have distinct roles: women are exempt from most time-bound mitzvot (traditionally because of family duties), sit separately in synagogue, do not form part of the minyan, and are not ordained; the home and the transmission of Judaism are regarded as central and honoured responsibilities, and Jewish identity itself passes through the mother. In Reform and Liberal Judaism women count in the minyan, read Torah, and serve as rabbis and cantors. Live debates include the agunah problem, women's Torah scholarship, and prayer at the Western Wall.
• Dietary laws (kashrut). Kosher means "fit"; terefah means forbidden. Permitted land animals must chew the cud and have split hooves (so beef and lamb are kosher; pork is not); fish must have fins and scales (so no shellfish). Animals must be slaughtered by shechitah, by a trained slaughterer, and the blood drained. And meat and milk are never cooked or eaten together — observant homes keep separate utensils, dishes and even sinks, and wait a set time between eating meat and dairy. Packaged food carries a hechsher (kosher certification) symbol.
• Orthodox dress. Men wear a kippah and, under their clothes, a fringed garment (tzitzit). The principle of tzniut (modesty) governs dress for both sexes. Many married Orthodox women cover their hair with a scarf, hat or wig. Haredi communities keep a distinctive traditional dress — a visible, deliberate statement of identity, and one that can attract abuse in the street.

Think it through

Persecution — and Jews who shape society today

Prejudice, discrimination and the Jewish experience of persecution. Antisemitism is one of the longest hatreds in history: expulsions from medieval England and Spain, the murderous "blood libel" myth, ghettos, the pogroms of Eastern Europe, and the Shoah (the Holocaust), in which six million Jews — two out of every three Jews in Europe — were murdered. It is not a closed chapter: antisemitic conspiracy theories, desecration of graves and violence against Jewish people and buildings continue today, which is why synagogues and Jewish schools need security.

Handle this with care and accuracy. The Shoah also raises the hardest theological question in Judaism: where was God? Jewish responses range from Richard Rubenstein's conclusion that traditional belief cannot survive it, through Emil Fackenheim's argument that Jews must survive as Jews so as not to grant Hitler a posthumous victory, to the reply that human free will made it possible and that God was present in every act of rescue and resistance. A GCSE answer that acknowledges the question honestly — rather than tidying it away — is a strong one.

An influential Jew in contemporary society. CCEA asks you to study one example; your teacher may choose a different figure, but a well-documented one is Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (1948–2020), Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013. He was a philosopher and prolific author, a member of the House of Lords, a regular broadcaster, and a leading voice for interfaith understanding and for what he called "the dignity of difference" — the argument that a society flourishes when people hold their own faith firmly and honour others'. He was awarded the Templeton Prize in 2016. Learn what your chosen figure actually did, and be ready to evaluate how far one individual can shape a society.

The big ideas to know

You have covered the whole of CCEA Unit 9. Press Finish to see your score.