{ "url": "https://workbench-jerusalem-salt.thenewjew.org/sections/foundations.json", "path": "/sections/foundations", "format": "json", "type": "section", "title": "Foundations of Belief", "summary": "God, peoplehood, the soul, and why", "breadcrumbs": [ { "title": "The New Jew", "href": "/index.json" }, { "title": "Foundations of Belief", "href": "/sections/foundations.json" } ], "alternates": { "html": "https://workbench-jerusalem-salt.thenewjew.org/sections/foundations", "json": "https://workbench-jerusalem-salt.thenewjew.org/sections/foundations.json", "xml": "https://workbench-jerusalem-salt.thenewjew.org/sections/foundations.xml" }, "data": { "section": { "id": 15, "slug": "foundations", "title": "Foundations of Belief", "subtitle": "God, peoplehood, the soul, and why", "description": null, "logoStyle": "slab", "fontName": "Newsreader" }, "stories": [ { "articleSlug": "essentials-essential-questions-who-is-a-jew", "title": "Who is a Jew?", "dek": "Jewish identity has both a Halachic definition and a wider self-understanding. The two do not always coincide.", "href": "/articles/essentials-essential-questions-who-is-a-jew.json", "level": "essential", "imageUrl": "https://pub-73c694f3dc3c4d0ea8f98f090d227a0d.r2.dev/article-images/who-is-a-jew-crop-mvqgsl39-67ec40c2-thumb.png", "imageTitle": "Who is a Jew?", "lead": true, "image": true }, { "articleSlug": "essentials-essential-questions-what-does-judaism-teach-about-god", "title": "What Does Judaism Teach About God?", "dek": "Judaism is the world’s founding monotheism. The nature of the One God is a question on which the tradition speaks in many voices.", "href": "/articles/essentials-essential-questions-what-does-judaism-teach-about-god.json", "level": "essential", "imageUrl": "https://pub-73c694f3dc3c4d0ea8f98f090d227a0d.r2.dev/article-images/what-does-judaism-teach-about-sacred-god-sacred-crop-mvox5yb2-53fc9efd-thumb.png", "imageTitle": "What Does Judaism Teach About God?" }, { "articleSlug": "essentials-essential-facts-the-three-pillars-torah-avodah-gemilut-chasadim", "title": "The Three Pillars: Torah, Avodah, Gemilut Chasadim", "dek": "Shimon HaTzaddik: “The world stands on three things: Torah, Avodah (service of God), and acts of loving-kindness.”", "href": "/articles/essentials-essential-facts-the-three-pillars-torah-avodah-gemilut-chasadim.json", "level": "essential", "imageUrl": "https://pub-73c694f3dc3c4d0ea8f98f090d227a0d.r2.dev/article-images/the-three-pillars-torah-avodah-gemilut-chasadim-crop-mvox6w9m-fa7a550d-thumb.png", "imageTitle": "The Three Pillars: Torah, Avodah, Gemilut Chasadim" }, { "articleSlug": "essentials-essential-questions-do-jews-believe-in-an-afterlife", "title": "Do Jews Believe in an Afterlife?", "dek": "Yes—and the tradition speaks of the afterlife with restraint, multiplicity, and a strong focus on this life as primary.", "href": "/articles/essentials-essential-questions-do-jews-believe-in-an-afterlife.json", "level": "essential", "imageUrl": "https://pub-73c694f3dc3c4d0ea8f98f090d227a0d.r2.dev/article-images/do-jews-believe-in-an-afterlife-crop-mvox66r3-ef9e0f4f-thumb.png", "imageTitle": "Do Jews Believe in an Afterlife?" }, { "articleSlug": "essentials-essential-questions-why-do-jews-not-believe-in-jesus", "title": "Why Do Jews Not Believe in Jesus?", "dek": "Jesus does not match the Tanakh’s Messianic criteria and his divinity violates Jewish monotheism. The answer is that simple—and that careful.", "href": "/articles/essentials-essential-questions-why-do-jews-not-believe-in-jesus.json", "level": "essential", "imageUrl": "https://pub-73c694f3dc3c4d0ea8f98f090d227a0d.r2.dev/article-images/why-do-jews-not-believe-in-jesus-crop-mubs3gap-a9cfe8bf-thumb.png", "imageTitle": "Why Do Jews Not Believe in Jesus?" }, { "articleSlug": "going-deeper-deeper-questions-what-is-mussar", "title": "What Is Mussar?", "dek": "The Jewish discipline of character refinement—old as the Talmud, formalized in the 19th century by Rabbi Yisrael Salanter.", "href": "/articles/going-deeper-deeper-questions-what-is-mussar.json", "level": "deeper", "imageUrl": "https://pub-73c694f3dc3c4d0ea8f98f090d227a0d.r2.dev/article-images/what-is-mussar-crop-mvyr3k7f-afaf1c51-thumb.jpg", "imageTitle": "What Is Mussar?" }, { "articleSlug": "going-deeper-deeper-questions-what-is-tikkun-olam", "title": "What Is Tikkun Olam?", "dek": "“Repair of the world.” A term with a deep Kabbalistic origin and a wide contemporary application—both worth knowing.", "href": "/articles/going-deeper-deeper-questions-what-is-tikkun-olam.json", "level": "deeper" }, { "articleSlug": "going-deeper-deeper-questions-hasidism-vs-mitnagdism", "title": "Hasidism vs. Mitnagdism", "dek": "The great 18th-century split that still shapes the contemporary Orthodox world.", "href": "/articles/going-deeper-deeper-questions-hasidism-vs-mitnagdism.json", "level": "deeper" }, { "articleSlug": "going-deeper-deeper-questions-what-is-kabbalah", "title": "What Is Kabbalah?", "dek": "The Jewish mystical tradition—the inner Torah, esoteric and beautiful, central since the 13th century.", "href": "/articles/going-deeper-deeper-questions-what-is-kabbalah.json", "level": "deeper" }, { "articleSlug": "going-deeper-deeper-questions-why-did-god-create-the-world", "title": "Why Did God Create the World?", "dek": "Three classical answers—the rationalist, the kabbalist, and the Hasidic—and why each is illuminating.", "href": "/articles/going-deeper-deeper-questions-why-did-god-create-the-world.json", "level": "deeper", "imageUrl": "https://pub-73c694f3dc3c4d0ea8f98f090d227a0d.r2.dev/article-images/why-did-god-create-the-world-crop-ms8ir1fs-f823b545-thumb.png", "imageTitle": "Why Did God Create the World?" }, { "articleSlug": "grace-and-what-we-have-instead", "title": "Grace, and What We Have Instead", "dek": "[Grace](https://www.etymonline.com/word/grace) is a translation, with a Greek history. It does not exist in the [Torah](/glossary.json#letter-T) in its Christian conception. But \"Jews don't believe in grace,\" is absolutely false. So in answering the question, \"Where is grace in the Torah,\" we need a better answer than simply, \"It doesn't.\"", "href": "/articles/grace-and-what-we-have-instead.json", "level": "deeper" }, { "articleSlug": "divine-names", "title": "The Name We Don't Say", "dek": "On divine names, and the many careful ways Jews decline to write them.", "href": "/articles/divine-names.json", "author": "The Editors", "level": "deeper" }, { "articleSlug": "editors-desk-theology-gods-pronoun", "title": "God's Pronoun", "dek": "What pronoun should we use for God? A meditation drawing on [the Ba'al Shem Tov](/glossary.json#letter-B), [Kabbalah](/glossary.json#letter-K), and [Martin Buber](/glossary.json#letter-M).", "href": "/articles/editors-desk-theology-gods-pronoun.json", "author": "Meir David Ben Avraham", "level": "deeper" }, { "articleSlug": "editors-desk-theology-a-case-for-existence-a-case-for-god", "title": "A Case for Existence, A Case for God", "dek": "The Editor's philosophical argument for existence, for others, and for a higher pattern—written for his children, accessible in the manner of a friendly conversation.", "href": "/articles/editors-desk-theology-a-case-for-existence-a-case-for-god.json", "author": "Meir David Ben Avraham", "level": "deeper" }, { "articleSlug": "editors-desk-comparative-on-redemption", "title": "On Redemption", "dek": "A meditation on the Jewish doctrine of [teshuva](/glossary.json#letter-T), the Jewish Messianic expectation, and what Christianity inherited and what it altered.", "href": "/articles/editors-desk-comparative-on-redemption.json", "author": "Meir David Ben Avraham", "level": "deeper" }, { "articleSlug": "the-problem-of-the-new-testament", "title": "The Problem of the New Testament", "dek": "A close reading of the New Testament's portrayal of the [Pharisees](/glossary.json#letter-P) and Scribes—and why that portrayal cannot be reconciled with what is known of the historical [Sanhedrin](/glossary.json#letter-S).", "href": "/articles/the-problem-of-the-new-testament.json", "author": "Meir David Ben Avraham", "level": "deeper" }, { "articleSlug": "moshe-and-noach-one-soul-two-lives", "title": "Moshe and Noach: One Soul, Two Lives", "dek": "The Arizal's teaching that [Moshe Rabbeinu](/glossary.json#letter-M) was the reincarnation of [Noach](/glossary.json#letter-N)—and how a leader's failure to pray for his generation was repaired centuries later at the foot of Sinai.", "href": "/articles/moshe-and-noach-one-soul-two-lives.json", "level": "deeper" }, { "articleSlug": "editors-desk-treatise-the-journey-of-the-soul-gilgul-neshamot-in-jewish-thought-prologue", "title": "The Journey of the Soul: Gilgul Neshamot in Jewish Thought (Prologue)", "dek": "The prologue of the Editor's full treatise on [gilgul neshamot](/glossary.json#letter-G)—the rationalist and mystical traditions of soul-transmigration in Judaism, with detailed engagement of [DovBer Pinson](/glossary.json#letter-D)'s contemporary synthesis.", "href": "/articles/editors-desk-treatise-the-journey-of-the-soul-gilgul-neshamot-in-jewish-thought-prologue.json", "author": "Meir David Ben Avraham", "level": "deeper" }, { "articleSlug": "gilgul-neshamot-the-journey-of-the-soul", "title": "The Journey of the Soul: Gilgul Neshamot in Jewish Thought", "dek": "A source-based exploration of rationalist and mystical accounts of the soul, reincarnation, and spiritual repair, with a close reading of DovBer Pinson’s Reincarnation and Judaism.", "href": "/articles/gilgul-neshamot-the-journey-of-the-soul.json", "level": "scholarly", "imageUrl": "https://pub-73c694f3dc3c4d0ea8f98f090d227a0d.r2.dev/article-images/do-jews-believe-in-an-afterlife-crop-muxl22x8-ce4661e6-thumb.png", "imageTitle": "Do Jews Believe in an Afterlife?" } ] } }