The Jewish religion is conceived as having originated with the divine call which bade Abraham leave his native land in order to become the father of the nation. Since then; Judaism; the faith in the G-d of Abraham, has undergone many phases, absorbed and resisted many civilizations, and still remains strong and vigorous after 4,000 years of history.

Jewish religious experience is recorded in a series of sacred books, which are more in the nature of a living growth than a finished literary product. First and foremost among them is the Hebrew bible with the Pentateuch (Genesis to Deuteronomy) as its focal point.

From this sprang, a thousand years after the Scriptural canon was established, a large body of Rabbinic tradition (The Talmud), itself the fountain-head of commentaries and codes.

Judaism places the emphasis on practical religion rather than on dogma. The prophets of Israel insisted that only he who showed justice, love, and mercy really knew G-d, and the Pentateuch demands the "doing of all the words of this law" rather than the probing of "secret things which are the Lord's. Right action rather than contemplation has been the central theme of Judaism.

Notwithstanding the fact that contemplation does play a great part in its mystical tradition. It is noteworthy that schisms occurred in Judaism; not so much as a result of divergences in theology but from opposition to rules of conduct regulating the religious life.

The divine commandments, which Judaism prescribes and defines with such loving care, are the true reflection of an uttered and perhaps unutterable theology; they are replete with religious significance made articulate in action rather than in words. The search for their deeper meaning fills the pages of many a philosophical and mystical tract, but what matters most is the religious fervor, which the fulfillment of the divine commandments engendered in the hearts of simple, unsophisticated Jews throughout the ages.

That "G-d is one" -the fundamental affirmation of Jewish monotheism- has no meaning unless it is understood in terms of men's surrender to G-d's sovereign Will. The psalmist prays "Make one my heart that I may fear thy name (Ps. 86:11), knowing that unless the heart is one, unified and wholly committed to G-d, man cannot speak In truth of G-d's oneness. Jewish philosophers and mystics interpreted the unity of G-d in terms of the Neoplatonic One, the absolute beyond "human comprehension", but they did not loose sight of the personal G-d in whom the heart finds unity and repose by imitation of his Goodness.

Evil is much debated in Jewish literature. Rather than endangering the faith in a moral ordering of the world, it served as a challenge to man's own power for good and helped to underline his tasks of "completing the work of creation" by the exercise of his human potential for aiding G-d as it were in the act of salvation and redemption. For the ultimate Jewish answer to the problem of evil and of moral order is the messianic one- that divine justice will manifest itself as the human being fulfills the purpose of his creation to elevate the mundane and physical to the spiritual and the divine.

It would appear that in spite of the considerable inroads which the modern age with its secularizing tendencies has made upon the Jewish way of life, Jews still feel committed to their ancient faith. Dissensions have arisen as to the validity of the traditional pattern of life in a hanging world.

Judaism has been split into a variety of groups, ranging from strict orthodoxy, guardian of the unabridged tradition, to radical Reform.

Zionism has tended to shift the emphasis to the ideal of a renascence of the Hebrew culture in the reborn state of Israel. But underneath it all there remains discernible a passionate affirmation of Judaism as a living faith destined to benefit not only Jews but the whole of the human race.