INTRODUCTORY UNIT - RITUALS, CULTURE AND US

2. JUDAISM AS A CULTURE

Use of the term "culture" to describe Judaism is a reference to an all-encompassing way of life that has concretized a series of spiritual insights into the world and what is believed to lie behind it. The Jewish culture is one of the world's great religious cultures, and the insights derived over the generations regarding humankind's relationship with G-d have been woven into a whole way of life that Jews have lived for thousands of years, with variations in time and place.

Jews, like many other people, have a rich series of rituals that mark the transitional life cycle points. These transitional points that mark the passage of life from one stage to another are some of the most important indicators of the values and ideas that define the Jewish culture. But in any examination of the Jewish life cycle, it is important to start with a general consideration of the place of life cycle events and rituals in human culture in general.