s, Judaism is somewhat unique in that it makes room for both atheists and agnostics to remain Jewish. It is often pointed out that there is no positive commandment in the Torah requiring a Jew to believe in God. When it comes to belief, the Torah commands that Jews adhere to the laws of the covenant, which means that idolatry (the belief in many gods) is forbidden. But a person can theoretically live an exemplary Jewish life without a belief in God. Moreover, connection with the Jewish people is determined by birth, not by belief. If a person is born a Jew (or converts to Judaism), he or she is identified as a Jew. There is no question about this. Even the most religious Jew accepts birth (or conversion) as the only criteria for membership in the Jewish people.ORTHODOX JUDAISMReligious Jews today disagree on what Judaism is and what it should be. Orthodox Jews claim to hold the true religion of Judaism. In fact, Orthodoxy only began to organize and solidify its beliefs in the nineteenth century, in direct response to the Reform movement. To this day, there is less agreement among Orthodox Jews about what being Orthodox meansespecially about how particular laws should be followedthan there is disagreement in any of the other modern movements. So, for example, the State of Israel has two chief rabbis to serve the Orthodoxone of them serving the style of Orthodoxy (Ashkenazi) that developed in Europe and the other serving the style of Orthodoxy (Sephardi) that developed in what today are primarily Arab lands. Among Ashkenazi Jews, many of the Orthodox follow the laws of the Torah as explained and expanded in a multi-volume code of Jewish law called the Shulchan Aruch that was written by Rabbi Joseph Karo in the sixteenth century.Generally, all Orthodox Jews believe God gave the entire Torah to Moses at Mount Sinai in two partsthe written Torah that contains the 613 mitzvot and the spoken Torah, the oral traditions and explanations later re...
