JITDA-HAKADOSII, a famous rabbi in the time of the Emperor Aurelius to whom he was preceptor. He is said to have been the original compiler of the Mischna, or the Talmudical text.
jUDAISM, one of the most important faiths in the world, which Christians, as well as Jews, consider to have been re vealed by God.
Ancient Judaism.—The earliest form of the Jewish faith was patriarchal. On the night of the Israelitish departure from Egypt an essential part of Judaism, in its second or more developed form, was begun by the institution of the passover (Exod. xii., xiii.). At Sinai two tables of stone were given containing the 10 commandments. Subsequently there was revealed to Moses, to be by him com municated to the people, a complicated system of ceremonial observances, inter spersed with judicial enactments. A splendid tabernacle—i. e., a tent—on a divine model, was erected as the 'habita tion of Jehovah, in the journeyings through the wilderness, to be in due time followed by a temple, when the people were permanently settled. A hereditary
priesthood was consecrated, and a theo cratic form of government maintained, the supreme civil ruler, whether law giver, military leafier, judge, or king, being regarded as the vice-gerent of God. Ancient Judaism was the precursor of Christianity and the germ from which it sprang; and Christians generally be lieve that all the ceremonies, sacred per sonages, etc. of the older economy were types and shadows of the life and suffer ings of Jesus Christ (Heb. ix., x., etc.).
itIodern Judaism.—After the Jews lost their independence, and especially after the destruction of Jerusalem, the judicial regulations of the Mosaic law ceased to be observed. In the latter half of the 4th century arose the Jerusalem, and in the Gth the Babylonian Talmud, contain ing the rules, constitutions, precepts, and interpretations intended to supplement those of the Old Testament. See HE BREWS : JEWS.