Rabbinic Judaism, also called Rabbinism, Rabbinicism, or Rabbanite Judaism, has been the mainstream form of Judaism since the 6th century CE, after the codification of the Babylonian Talmud. Rabbinic Judaism has its roots in the Pharisaic school of Second Temple Judaism, and is based on the belief that Moses at Mount Sinai received both the Written Torah and the Oral Torah from God. The Oral Torah, transmitted orally, explains the Written Torah. At first, it was forbidden to write down the Oral Torah, but after the destruction of the Second Temple, it was decided to write it down in the form of the Talmud and other rabbinic texts for the sake of preservation.
Talmud students
The first page of the Vilna Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot, folio 2a.
Judaism is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion, comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jewish people. Contemporary Judaism having originated as an organized religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age, and evolved from Yahwism, the cultic polytheistic religious movement of ancient Israel and Judah, around the 6th/5th century BCE, and is thus considered to be one of the oldest monotheistic religions. Along with Samaritanism, to which it is closely related, Judaism is one of the two oldest Abrahamic religions.
Collection of Judaica (clockwise from top): Candlesticks for Shabbat, a cup for ritual handwashing, a Chumash and a Tanakh, a Torah pointer, a shofar, and an etrog box.
Maccabees by Wojciech Stattler (1842)
A painting of Moses decorates the Dura-Europos synagogue dating from 244 CE
The Western Wall in Jerusalem is a remnant of the wall encircling the Second Temple. The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism.