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Rabbi Harold Kushner (in the opening line of his book To Life) has described Judaism as "a 4000 year old tradition with ideas about what it means to be human and how to make the world a holy place." Judaism is more than just a religion - it is a way of life, it is identity with a particular people with an ancient history. Foremost, Judaism is about living well in this world. Judaism is not concerned with the "hereafter" (most modern Jews don't have well developed beliefs concerning the afterlife). Everyday, in every way, Jews treasure life as a blessing from God. In fact, for just about everything that is done in life: from waking, washing, and eating; to work, study, and personal and professional relationships; to religious duties and rituals - there is a blessing to recite which thanks God for allowing us to live to this point and to do this.
Judaism is considered an "ethnic" religion
- the religion of the Hebrew people. As such, Jews understand Judaism to be what God expects a Jew to do, how a Jew should live. The Jews have been called God's "Chosen people" - chosen for responsibility, the Jew would say, to be a model to all people of righteousness and holiness in this world that God created, to be (as one Hebrew prayer notes) "priests unto all the nations." Jews are expected to live up to a higher standard than that required of other peoples. Being a Jew is not easy; it is a responsibility.
There are, today, barely 15 million Jews in the world. While this does make Judaism the sixth largest religion in the world, in comparison, the four largest religions (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism) have hundreds of millions and even over a billion followers each. There may be relatively few Jews in the world but Judaism is one of the oldest continuously existing religions in the world. This is not to say it has not gone through many changes over the millennia. Any religion that does not change is bound to die out. Despite the many threats to Jewish survival, even the 20th century Holocaust (which destroyed nearly half the world's Jewish population of its day), Judaism has always held on, struggled back, and survived. After all, it is about life (thus the well worn cheer: "To Life!" - LeChiam).
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