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Judaism as a culture, people and religion.

The complexity of the interrelations between a people (or nation), a culture, and a religion, have many nuances and ramifications which both unite and divide Jews throughout the world. At the heart of Jewish culture and the Jewish people is the Torah, the story of the emergence of the people, and itself (along with study of it) the heart and soul of the Jewish religion.

The core of the religion begins with a covenant between Ha'Shem and Abraham. Abraham embraces monotheism and animal sacrifice rather than polytheism and human sacrifice. The people of Israel emerge with Jacob, who is renamed Israel after wrestling with a messenger of Ha'Shem. Jacob's people grow to a large multitude. The religion of Judaism fully forms with the Covenant at Sinai, during the exodus from Egypt. At that point, it becomes a religion of redemption and deliverance, as well as one of revelation and law.

The culture, while growing from these roots, emerges from exile and Diasporalong after Sinai. At this time, the mitzvoth of Torah are codified in the Mishneh; the culture is still largely rooted in religious tradition and practice, but as a result of geographic dispersion it becomes necessary to codify the religious practices.

To maintain a Jewish identity, the exiles held tight to cultural practices as well as religious beliefs. Even with codification, practice and custom varied across distance. Over time, and perhaps more pronounced in recent history since the beginning of the twentieth century, some Jews have moved toward the "secular" world of their surrounding culture, while maintaining a non-religious Jewish identity.

Always there has been a tension between assimilation to surrounding cultures (and religions) and remaining "Jewish." See Hanukkah, elsewhere on this blog, as one example, but also the histories contained in the Writings, the words of the Prophets, the Roman occupation and its rebellions, and on and on. However, even observant Jewish culture has incorporated local customs, especially food (but also music and clothing) from its neighbors during exile. This is particularly apparent with the differing foods and customs of the Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews.

Today, there seems to be an overlapping relationship between the three aspects of the Jewish People, Jewish Culture, and Jewish Religion. Rabbi Jeffrey Wildstein (Temple Israel) used a Venn diagram to show the overlapping, but distinct, relationships between Jewish

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