Overview

          Judaism has been around for 3,800 years.

Abraham, our forefather, came to the realization that G-d created and maintains the world. As a sign of affection, G-d revealed Himself to Abraham and promised to make his progeny the “Chosen People”. Abraham’s lineage ended up in Egypt where they grew greatly in number and were eventually enslaved. After over two hundred in Egypt, G-d liberated His people through great miracles and brought them to Mount Sinai. All these events were prophetically foretold to Abraham. 

At Mount Sinai G-d revealed Himself to the entire Jewish Nation (approximately 2 to 3 million people by the bible’s account) and gave them a written and oral covenant, “the Torah”’, by which they would enjoy a constant and everlasting relationship with the Almighty. That relationship is Judaism.  

Jews have spent their entire history living that relationship.  You want to find out about that relationship; it has remained constant and unchanged throughout the centuries.

That relationship explains the Jewish peoples’ survival until this day despite continuous attempts throughout history to destroy us. Our survival is an anomaly that has confounded historians and sociologists alike; it is inexplicable within the normal history of nations. How have we survived the onslaughts and what has held us together? And how can one account for such a tiny nation (1/4% of the world’s population) having such a profound effect on world events. There is certainly something extraordinary about the Jews. 

The following quote says it well:

“If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also way out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it.

The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have varnished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains.

What is the secret of his immortality?”

(Mark Twain 1899 ‘Concerning the Jews’)

The Jewish answer is: we are an eternal people with an eternal relationship, whose existence has been promised and assured by G-d in his Torah. There is really no other satisfactory explanation. The Jews are G-d’s chosen people, chosen to fulfill his Torah and to bring its message to the rest of the world.  Therefore the Jews’ history is unique in its defiance of the laws of nature.

Your personal search to discover authentic Judaism should bring you to an awareness of that special relationship between G-d and the Jewish people. It may change your life forever.

          In this book we will give you an orientation on how to go about conducting an intellectually honest and emotionally sincere search for authentic Judaism.