First, we should distinguish between practices, values and belief.

Practices are rituals, special days, rules and regulations that people observe because they have a shared identity. In Judaism, there are 613 commands that govern daily life. Some of them are familiar to us – not eating pork, Sabbath, circumcision, yarmulkas – and some not so familiar. These practices flow from values.

Values are what hold us together even though we might have different practices. I read an article this week that is a good explanation of Jewish values. The author describes six basic Jewish values:

1. Observing the Ten Commandments. These are the basics of not only Jewish culture but of Western culture.
2. Torah. The word means more than the first five books of the Bible. It is all Jewish learning, past and present. It means learning in the greatest sense: that of continuing to study and grow intellectually and spiritually.
3. Tefillah (Prayer). This includes teaching the Shema and the saying of blessings at meals to express gratitude.
4. Tzedakah (righteousness). It is used to describe the giving of charity. It is, in the larger sense, the helping of others.
5. Teshuva (repentance). It is not just during the High Holy days that Jews believe in repentance but year round.
6. Tikkun Olam. It is making the world a better place in which to live. It is the obligation to “repair or perfect the world in the kingdom of God.” It is joining God to protect the creation.

What drives values is beliefs and that is our topic this morning. What are the distinctive Jewish beliefs?

There are no Jewish creeds like the Apostles’ Creed or the Baptist Statement of Faith and Practice. It’s more like our Declaration of Independence that states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” Even then, not all Jews would hold to every one of these beliefs because, like Christians, there is a great deal of diversity within the three general categories – Orthodox, Conservative and Reform. But, these beliefs are as close as we can get to a general statement of beliefs.

These beliefs were formulated in the 12th century by one of the greatest figures in Jewish intellectual and religious history – Maimonides. He was a physician, philosopher, rabbi, scholar and compiler of Jewish Scripture and texts. His 13 points of Jewish belief still stand as the definitive work.

1.  God is. That sounds simple but there are some religions that do not need God. They start with Man and end there. There can be no Judaism without God. Everything begins with God (Genesis 1). In that sense, we do not search for God because He created us. As well, everything in creation speaks of Him. He both creates and chooses. He not only exists but He chose Israel for His special people. “The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples…But it was because God loved you…” Without God there would be no Jews.

2.  He is One. He is not one of many. He is not, like Zeus, the most powerful of the gods. He is not made up of parts. He is One. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (Dt. 6:4-9) He is not our God because we chose Him but because He chose us.

3.  He is invisible and has no form. (Dt. 4:15) “You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire.” There is nothing created that looks like God. Any attempt to create an image to represent God – even as art – is forbidden. He is personal. He has attributes but He has no form.

4.  He is eternal. In a way, this is about more than being beyond time. The word for eternal also means solid and real. It means all that remains when everything else is gone. That is the sense of Dt. 33-27 when it speaks of underneath everything are the “everlasting arms”. Eternity is personal – not just the absence of time. God is permanent and trustworthy.

5.  He alone is to be worshipped. God is not just to be respected or obeyed or admired. He is to be worshipped as God and His will is supreme. We are not fans. We are His.

6.  He speaks through prophets – even now. They do not speak for themselves. They are not pundits. They are not commentators. They speak God’s words.

7.  Moses is the father of all prophets. He was a man with no flaws because God spoke to him and he lived. God spoke to him “mouth to mouth” as He has spoken to no other man. (Numbers 12:8)

8.  The Torah is from Heaven. It is not the wisdom of this world but given to Moses by God. These are holy words and to study them is not just scholarship but an act of worship.

9.  Nothing can be added or taken away from the Torah. It is complete.

10.  God knows the actions of mankind. Jews are not deists who believe God created the world and then withdrew from being engaged. His eyes follow the works of men. Jeremiah 32:19. “Your eyes are open to all the ways of men.”

11.  God gives rewards and punishments. Our behavior is noted and there are consequences. The righteous will be rewarded and the wicked will be punished.

12.  The Messiah will come but we cannot know when. The Messiah is not just for the Jewish people but he will fulfill the promise to Abraham that the Jews will be a blessing to all the world. The promise is not just about a blessing to the Jews but through the Jews to the whole world.

13.  The resurrection of the dead – but only for the righteous.

When you finish reading what Maimonides wrote and what we sometimes associate with Judaism, it is easy to conclude the basis of Judaism is legalism – but it is not. It is the practice of values and beliefs. In some ways, we have gone in the opposite direction. In her book, “Almost Christian” Kenda Cressy Dean argues convincingly that if teenagers don’t have a firm grasp of core Christian doctrines and instead worship at what she calls “the Church of Benign Whatever-ism” – don’t worship at all – it’s because youth pastors and other leaders have watered down the message, she claims. Teenagers in Protestant churches get the idea that they’re supposed to feel good about themselves, but that little is expected of them; Christianity is designed to make them “nice,” but it’s not supposed to form them as disciples. In fact, the new belief of “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” (the idea that religion exists to make me a better person and make me feel good) has so infected Protestantism that there has been an erosion of hope outside of themselves. The reviewer of the book concludes, “I think Dean has raised some excellent questions about the fundamental difference I notice when I go to my church (Church of Latter Day Saints) and when I visit my husband’s wonderful Protestant congregation: I love the services and the community there, but at the end of the day, no one ever makes the teens take out the trash.” Maybe we need a little more legalism?

Finally, it is nothing short of amazing to me that we have a Judeo-Christian culture at all when you consider the fundamental differences in our faiths. Much of what we believe is considered blasphemy by observant Jews – yet we manage to work together instead of killing each other. Our differences with Jews are as deep as our differences with Muslims but we have learned to live with them. For me, the real question is how Jews can tolerate Christians when our beliefs offend their most sacred beliefs.

God is one. We believe God is One but a Trinity.
God is invisible with no form. We believe Jesus is God and took the form of man.
He alone is to be worshipped. We believe Jesus is to be worshipped.
The Messiah has yet to come. We believe he has come in Jesus.
Nothing can be added to the Torah. We have added the New Testament as Scripture.

This is our history as Christians. We cannot separate ourselves from the Jews. We cannot claim to be their replacement. As Paul says in Romans 11:17-18, “If some of the branches have broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.” We should never lose sight of that.