Judaism is the religious and cultural tradition of the Jewish people, whose defining act is the covenant at Sinai and whose central prayer is the Shema: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.”
Its sacred texts are the torah (the five books of Moses), the Nevi’im (prophets) and Ketuvim (writings), together forming the Tanakh — and the talmud, the vast record of rabbinic discussion elaborating Jewish law and thought.
Its mystical tradition is Kabbalah; its devotional renewal, hasidism. Its ethical imperative — tikkun-olam, the repair of the world — has shaped centuries of Jewish engagement with justice.