Principal beliefs and sacred texts of Judaism: HSC Studies of Religion

What this dot point is asking

NESA wants you to outline the principal beliefs of Judaism and show how its sacred texts and writings record and communicate those beliefs. Treat Judaism accurately and respectfully, name the central teachings, and connect each to where it is recorded. This is Preliminary (Year 11) content from the Judaism Religious Tradition Study, not one of the three HSC depth study parts (a significant person or school of thought, ethics, and a significant practice). It is not set as a separate HSC question, but HSC questions reward you for linking a practice or an ethical teaching to the beliefs and texts on this page, so it is the foundation for every Judaism depth study answer.

The answer

The belief in one God

The foundation of Judaism is belief in one God: a single, transcendent, eternal creator who is the source of all that exists. This belief is famously affirmed in the Shema, the declaration that the Lord is one, recited in daily prayer. The oneness of God is the bedrock of the whole tradition.

The covenant

Central to Judaism is the covenant (brit), the binding relationship between God and the Jewish people. The covenant with Abraham and renewed with Moses at Sinai establishes the people as God's people, with the promise of relationship and land, and the responsibility to live according to God's law. The covenant gives Jewish life its sense of identity, calling and history.

The moral law

Through the covenant, God gives the law (Torah), including the Ten Commandments and the wider body of commandments (mitzvot). Living according to the law is the proper response to the covenant: it sanctifies daily life and expresses faithfulness to God. The law covers worship, ethics, justice and the ordering of community.

A divinely created and ordered world

Judaism affirms that the world is created by God, is good, and is ordered toward justice and righteousness. Human beings, made in the image of God, are called to act justly and to participate in caring for and repairing the world.

The attributes of God

The importance of the covenant for the Jewish people

• With Abraham. "I will maintain My covenant between Me and you, and your offspring to come, as an everlasting covenant" (Genesis 17:7), marked by circumcision (17:10).
• At Sinai. The people accept the Torah: "If you will obey Me faithfully and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasured possession" (Exodus 19:5).
• Chosenness as responsibility. "The ETERNAL your God chose you to be the treasured one" (Deuteronomy 7:6), understood as a calling to holiness and to be a light to others, not superiority.
• Signs today. Brit milah, Shabbat ("a covenant for all time", Exodus 31:16), Torah study and festivals that retell the covenant story, such as Passover.
• Identity. The covenant has sustained Jewish identity through exile and diaspora.

The 613 mitzvot and the importance of the Talmud

Rabbi Simlai taught that "there were 613 mitzvot stated to Moses in the Torah, consisting of 365 prohibitions ... and 248 positive mitzvot" (Talmud, Makkot 23b). The Mishnah, compiled by Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi around 200 CE, and the Gemara, completed in the Babylonian Talmud around 500 CE, record how these commandments are interpreted and applied. Later codes (Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, the Shulchan Arukh) organise the law for daily practice. The prophetic vision adds social justice and tikkun olam (repairing the world).

Key extracts from the Hebrew Scriptures

The syllabus asks you to "examine extracts from the Hebrew Scriptures which demonstrate the principal beliefs of Judaism". These are short and reliable to quote (JPS Tanakh, Gender-Sensitive Edition, on Sefaria; older translations render God's name as "the LORD"):

How sacred texts record these beliefs

• The Tanakh. The Hebrew scriptures, comprising the Torah (the five books of Moses), the Nevi'im (Prophets) and the Ketuvim (Writings). The Torah records the covenant, the giving of the law and the foundational narratives of the people, and is the most authoritative scripture.
• The Talmud. The record of generations of rabbinic discussion and interpretation of the law, comprising the Mishnah and the Gemara. It develops how the commandments of the Torah are to be understood and applied in daily life.

These writings preserve and transmit Jewish belief and provide the authoritative basis for practice and ethics.

How the written and oral Torah work together

Judaism distinguishes the Written Torah (the text of the Tanakh) from the Oral Torah, the interpretive tradition believed to have been given alongside it and eventually recorded in the Mishnah and Gemara that make up the Talmud. This relationship is the key to a strong answer: the Written Torah states the covenant and the commandments, while the Oral Torah works out what the commandments require in practice, for example translating the command to keep the Sabbath holy into the detailed laws of Shabbat observance. The variation between Orthodox, Conservative (Masorti) and Progressive (Reform) Judaism turns largely on how binding and how open to reinterpretation this tradition is held to be, which is why naming the texts and the interpretive process demonstrates real depth. In the exam, the discriminator is showing that the Tanakh records the foundational beliefs (the one God, the covenant, the moral order) while the Talmud transmits and applies them, so the two together form a living record that has sustained Jewish identity, ethics and practice across the centuries of the diaspora.

In one sentence

Judaism affirms one God, creator, compassionate and just, who made a covenant with Abraham and with Israel at Sinai and gave a divinely inspired moral law of 613 commandments, beliefs recorded in the Tanakh (Torah, Prophets and Writings) and interpreted and applied through the Oral Torah in the Mishnah and Talmud.

Try this

Q1. Discuss the belief in the one God and the attributes of God. (4 marks)

• What the marker wants. The Shema, several attributes with sources, and how belief shapes practice.

Q2. Identify the importance of the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud. (4 marks)

• What the marker wants. The three parts of the Tanakh, the Written and Oral Torah, the Mishnah and Gemara, and their role in law and life.

Q3. Outline the principal ethical teachings of Judaism. (4 marks)

• What the marker wants. The commandments of the Torah and the prophetic vision (justice, tikkun olam), with sources.