Judaism: A Story of Faithfulness

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.”

— Deuteronomy 6:5, Hebrew Bible

Known as the Shema, these words are Judaism’s heartbeat. They are whispered at night, taught to children, and spoken at life’s final breath. And they capture the essence of Jewish faith: love directed fully and wholly toward God by the individual. From this starting point flows everything else—rituals, ethics, community life, and the rhythms that turn ordinary time into sacred time.

Grounded in these foundations, Judaism is a faith that, instead of dealing in lofty abstractions, makes devotion a matter of lived practice. From Abraham and Sarah’s first steps into covenant, to Moses leading a people from slavery to freedom, to today’s rhythms of prayer and remembrance, Judaism shows how to embody love of God in community and daily life.

Today, I’d like to trace some of the key moments in the story of Judaism: the covenant and the journeys it inspired, the exiles and returns that shaped Jewish resilience, the way ritual adapted when temples were lost, the dignity granted to every human life, especially through the wisdom of women. Above all, though, we’ll see how when a community is unconditionally united around a shared purpose and a belief in God, they become unbreakable even in the face of the most unimaginable adversity. (As ever, what I offer are purely the personal observations of an admiring outsider to the faith.)

Covenant and Journey

The story of Judaism’s patriarch, Abraham, and that of his wife, Sarah, begins with “Lech lecha” – go forth. This was the command God gave them; they were to leave their homeland of Ur Kasdim and journey into the unknown, where Abraham would become the father of a new, great nation formed of his descendants. It was the unknown not just geographically, but also in the sense that the world Abraham and Sarah had lived in was overwhelmingly polytheistic. Wholehearted commitment to a single God was far from the norm.

Abraham and Sarah’s son Isaac and grandson Jacob upheld this covenant. Jacob’s twelve sons became the ancestors of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. But the defining moment came generations later with the Exodus, during which Moses led the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery. That event is still commemorated each Passover as the journey from bondage to freedom.

On Mount Sinai, Moses received the Torah, containing not just the Ten Commandments we all know, but 613 guidelines for ethical and ritual life. After Moses, Joshua led the people into the Promised Land, fulfilling the ancient promise.

Exile and Transformation

Judaism’s history pulses with the rhythm of exile, return and resilience. In 722 BCE, Assyrians conquered the northern Kingdom of Israel, dispersing ten of the Tribes of Israel. In 587 BCE, Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the First Temple. Yet in 539 BCE, Persian Emperor Cyrus the Great liberated the Jews and funded the Second Temple’s reconstruction, earning himself the rare honour of being called “messiah” by the Judeans.

The most profound transformation, however, came in 70 CE. In that year, the Romans destroyed the Second Temple. This would have surely ended any community whose members were not bound “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.” The entire sacrificial system, the heart of the religion’s practice, vanished overnight, because under the law of the religion, it could only be performed in the temple. But this grave setback did not conquer Judaism. Instead, the dining table replaced the altar, study replaced sacrifice, the home became the holy place. Prayer, study, and acts of charity formed the new foundation.

This adaptation speaks to anyone who’s watched familiar structures crumble. Judaism says: mourn what’s lost, then build something new with what remains. The holiness hasn’t disappeared; it’s relocated.

Equal Dignity and Women’s Wisdom

Genesis declares that humanity was created b’tselem Elohim – that is, in the divine image. This means every person carries inherent dignity and deserves equal respect, a principle that has profoundly influenced Western civilization’s legal and ethical systems.

Judaism holds women in particularly high regard. “Who can find a virtuous woman? Her price is far above rubies,” says Proverbs. The matriarchs – Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah – aren’t background figures but spiritual exemplars and equal partners in preserving tradition. Indeed, mothers play the central role in transmitting values of compassion, justice, and communal responsibility to future generations.

Sarah herself embodies the complexity of women’s experiences. She laughed when told she’d bear a child at ninety, that laughter containing skepticism, amazement, perhaps bitterness. Every woman who’s been surprised by life’s late chapters knows that laugh.

Purpose in Later Life

Moses particularly intrigues me. At eighty, he encountered the burning bush and tried every excuse to avoid his destiny. “I’m not eloquent,” he protested. “Send someone else.” Yet this reluctant, stuttering octogenarian led a revolution. He never entered the Promised Land himself, but he got everyone else there.

There’s a teaching here about late-life purpose. Maybe we won’t see the completion of our work. Maybe our contributions seem small, imperfect, incomplete. Moses teaches that incompleteness doesn’t equal failure. Sometimes we’re meant to be the bridge, not the destination.

Memory as Sacred Act

“Remember” appears at least 150 times in Hebrew scripture, with the exact number depending on the translation and counting method you use. Jews are commanded to tell the Passover story as if they personally left Egypt. This makes the ancient stories personal and immediate. For those of us with decades of stories, this tradition validates our role as memory-keepers. The photos we organize, the family stories we tell, the recipes we preserve – these aren’t trivial occupations but sacred work.

Even in diaspora, Jews maintained connection through memory. “Next year in Jerusalem” captures the enduring hope for return and redemption, a theme that sustained communities through centuries of displacement.

Final Thoughts

Judaism doesn’t promise easy answers. Yet within this realistic framework lives profound hope. The tradition that survived the destruction of two Temples and countless persecutions still insists on choosing life, pursuing justice and repairing the world. And through its emphasis on compassion, justice, and communal responsibility, Judaism has shaped not just its adherents but Western civilization itself, influencing legal systems, philosophical thought, and cultural norms that prioritize human dignity and societal good.

Questions for You

What commitments have anchored you through life's storms, and how do they continue to guide you now? How have you balanced honouring tradition with embracing the need for change in your family? Have you made any symbolic journeys of your own from confinement to freedom? What wisdom from your own struggles of this kind would you want to pass on to future generations?

Published in September 2025