BEN KINGSLEY: When we talk of Judaism and of Jews, we first have a problem of definition. Judaism is much more comprehensive than a religion. It has been suggested that Judaism is better described as a civilization. Of course, Jews have a theology and a unique conception of God, but that’s only the first step.

Judaism obligates its followers to a whole way of life, including a code of laws and of practices and a system of ethics. Jewish life includes a broad concept of holiness that embraces a holy people, the Holy Land of Israel, the holy city of Jerusalem, and the holy tongue of Hebrew. Judaism is not to be seen as a parallel term to Christianity or Buddhism, for example.

For most of its history, Judaism has been an all-embracing system of theology, laws, ethics, and customs, all for a special people with a special language and a cherished homeland. Yet in the modern world, the nature of being a Jew is especially complicated. Judaism today has become pluralistic. Much of it corresponds with the traditional meaning of the word religion, but some of it would not be identified as religious in the eyes of many non-Jews.

PROFESSOR PETER J. HAAS (Professor of Jewish Studies, Vanderbilt University): The biblical story is that the Jewish people began, really, with Abraham’s realization that there was only one God and that that God ruled all people and all history, all nations, and that God wanted people to be moral and good, and it was really Abraham’s descendants that gradually grew into the Jewish people.

BEN KINGSLEY: This monotheism was the greatest Jewish contribution to humankind, and it was the founding principle of Judaism. The Bible relates that Abraham made a covenant — a kind of pact or contract — with God.

RABBI RANDALL FALK (The Temple Congregation Ohabai Shalom): It is a promise that his family will multiply as the sand on the seas and that they will live in this land that is controlled by their God.

The Talmud was put in the form that we now have it probably around 550 or 600 of the Common Era. . . . The Talmud is a massive work of some three million words. It is a complete library, comprising a vast and detailed code covering the entire gamut of religious and civil life. Interspersed is lighter narrative material, including anecdotes and legends.

RABBI ZALMAN I. POSNER (Congregation Sherith Israel): This doesn’t seem to have any religious overtones. It’s law school stuff, and what’s it got to do with religion? But it does, because it means that people’s relationships with others are not going to be based on the power that one person has or the other person lacks. Instead they’re going to be based on a principle of what is right and what is wrong as enunciated in the rest of the Bible, all coming roughly under "thou shalt not steal." If it’s not yours, leave it alone.

RANDALL FALK: And it has been through the Torah, through the Talmud, and through our prayer book that the Jewish community, wherever they have been, have managed to survive as a community.

BEN KINGSLEY: Through all of this, the great ideal of Jewish society continued to be study, and the learned man — the scholar and rabbi — was the paragon. The Jews had pioneered a universal education in Temple times, and they always ensured that their sons studied, often at the Talmudic academies that flourished in many communities. Adults also found time each day to pore over the Talmud. Sometimes this intensive study evoked a negative reaction. For example, an 18th-century pietistic movement known as Hasidism rejected the intellectual element of religious life in favor of a more emotional approach.

RANDALL FALK: The Hasidism, led by their founder, the Baal Shem Tov, the master of the good name, . . . wanted to bring back into Judaism the celebration of life and the joy and that which was always characteristic of Jewish life in its singing and dancing, with the Torah, and its feeling of fulfillment in this relationship with God.

BEN KINGSLEY: Following the American and French revolutions, the Jews were no longer seen as inferiors with no rights. Now they became equal citizens. Many Jews began to question traditional teachings and practices. New forms of Judaism emerged. One of the most influential solutions was Reform Judaism.

RANDALL FALK: Reform came along in the early 19th century, and under the impact of modern biblical scholarship, determined that they no longer believed that God gave Torah complete and finally at Sinai, but that Torah was written by many men over several centuries. Therefore, it is not God-given, but God-inspired.

BEN KINGSLEY: Traditional Rabbinic Judaism now was called Orthodox to distinguish it from Reform Judaism. While the Jews always knew what they believe, it took a couple of thousand years for them to organize their theology and creed systematically.

Unlike Christianity, Judaism never had an official dogma laid down by its authorities. It’s true that the Bible is filled with fundamental statements of Jewish belief, but they are scattered. The most crucial sentence appears in the book of Deuteronomy.

ZALMAN POSNER: [speaking Hebrew] "Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one."

BEN KINGSLEY: This sentence affirms both monotheism and the people’s submission to the one God.