Talk:Judaism

Opening paragraph

In the opening paragraph it states:

"Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of observing the Mosaic covenant, which they believe was established between God and the Jewish people."

The covenant was not established between God and the Jewish people; it was established between Yahweh and the Jewish people:

"Now it happened that when Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him,

“I am [a]God Almighty; Walk before Me and be [b]blameless, so that I may [c]confirm My covenant between Me and you,

And that I may multiply you exceedingly."

— Legacy Standard Bible (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2017%3A1-2&version=LSB)

"When[a] Abram was ninety-nine years old Yahweh appeared to Abram. And he said to him, “I am El-Shaddai;[b] walk before me and be blameless 2 so that[c] I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you exceedingly.”[d] "

— Lexham English Bible (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2017%3A1-2&version=LEB)

"When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. 2 I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.”"

— World English Bible (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2017%3A1-2&version=WEB)

You can check that it was Yahweh that made this agreement with Abraham on a transliteration of the original Hebrew text: https://biblehub.com/interlinear/genesis/17.htm.

As this is a protected article, I cannot correct it. Please correct this false information. Thank you. ~2026-42068-48 (talk) 10:59, 27 August 2026 (UTC)

No. Bible passages are not reliable sources for what religions believe per WP:PRIMARY. It is especially nonsensical to offer Christian bibles as a source for what religious Jews believe.

Please don’t use LLMs to compose Talk page comments. Mikewem (talk) 12:39, 27 August 2026 (UTC)

"Please don’t use LLMs to compose Talk page comments."

I don't. Please don't make disparaging comments about me contrary to WP:NOPA~2026-42068-48 (talk) 09:38, 26 September 2026 (UTC)

Religious Jews regard Yahweh and God as one and the same entity. For example, every blessing begins with ברוך אתה יהוה אלהינו "Blessed are you, Yahweh our God" (though to avoid blasphemy, יהוה is traditionally abbreviated to יי and the name is replaced consistently in speech with "adonai", "my lord" or even "adoshem", a portmanteau between "adonai" and "shem", which means "name"). Also, as one of the passages you quoted indicates, "El Shaddai" is yet another name of God. Largoplazo (talk) 13:09, 27 August 2026 (UTC)

"Blessed are you, Yahweh our God"

You make my point for me, thank you.

The opening paragraph of the article currently states:

"between God and the Jewish people"

It has not been established as fact that Yahweh is God, but rather, as you also say:

"Religious Jews regard Yahweh and God as one and the same entity"

Again, the primary sources clearly state that it was Yahweh that established the covenant with Abraham, part of which covenant was for Yahweh to become the god of Abraham and his descendants.

So the opening paragraph should actually read "between their god (Yahweh) and the Jewish people". ~2026-42068-48 (talk) 09:51, 26 September 2026 (UTC)

Ideological vs. pragmatic framing

There seems to be disagreement on whether the frame used to present this article is ideological or pragmatic. Many of the commenters use religious texts to support their claim, and the conversation devolves into a citing war, with each selecting passages to support their position. Wikipedia should not be deciding between competing ideological or theological interpretations; the article should reflect how the subject is framed by reliable secondary sources, with viewpoints presented according to their due weight. See WP:NPOV, WP:RS, and WP:UNDUE. WP:PRIMARY / WP:SECONDARY may also be especially relevant here: the question should not be which passages of scripture support a particular interpretation, but how reliable secondary sources characterize the subject. Lexlex (talk) 12:47, 27 August 2026 (UTC)

I think the problem is that most editors of religious articles are followers of the religion themselves, and therefore are not neutral by definition so struggle to write the articles from a neutral point of view: they just end up defending their beliefs.

I wonder if editors should have to declare whether or not they are religious by including a "religious affiliation user template" on their user page (in the same way they can include, say, an English county of origin user template: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:English_county_of_origin_user_templates)? ~2026-42068-48 (talk) 13:45, 26 September 2026 (UTC)

ADDENDUM: An example of confirmation bias in the article is the sentence:

"Interpretations of sections of the Tanakh, such as Deuteronomy 7:1–5, by Jewish sages, are used as a warning against intermarriage between Jews and Canaanites because "[the non-Jewish husband] will cause your child to turn away from Me and they will worship the gods (i.e., idols) of others.""

If you have a look at the primary source (https://biblehub.com/text/deuteronomy/7-4.htm), you will see that it says "elohim" (meaning "gods"), nothing to do with idols. This is confirmed by secondary sources (all English translations of the verse): https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Deuteronomy%207%3A4 ~2026-42068-48 (talk) 14:35, 26 September 2026 (UTC)

Neutral point of view

As it says on WP:NPOV:

"All encyclopedic content on Wikipedia must be written from a neutral point of view (NPOV)"

By assuming that Yahweh is God (the fundamental belief of Judaism) this article has been written from a Judaistic point of view, not a neutral point of view.

All references to "God" in the article should be replaced with "Yahweh" / "their god" / "the Jewish god" / "the Hebrew god" / whatever so that it complies with Wikipedia's fundamental policy.

As this article is semi-protected, I am prevented from bringing it in line with Wikipedia standards myself. ~2026-42068-48 (talk) 12:38, 26 September 2026 (UTC)

Ancestry of the Israelites

In the section "The covenant with Abraham in the book of Genesis", it correctly states that the Book of Genesis presents Abraham as the ancestor of Jacob's descendants:

"Abraham, initially called Abram (אַבְרָם, Avram), is presented as the ancestor of the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob—whose name is changed to Israel (יִשְׂרָאֵל, Yīsrāʾēl) in Genesis 32:29—and thus the Hebrews."

However, the paragraph rather conspicuously omits any reference to Exodus 4:22 in which Yahweh candidly reveals to Moses that Jacob (Israel) was not in fact the son of Isaac (Abraham's son) as presumed, but rather his (Yahweh's) own son — his first-born son:

"And the LORD said to Moses, "When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. And you shall say to Pharaoh, `Thus says the LORD, Israel is my first-born son"

— Exodus 4:21-22 (Revised Standard Version)

As this article is semi-protected, I am prevented from editing it to include this important encyclopaedic information myself. ~2026-42068-48 (talk) 13:16, 26 September 2026 (UTC)